Medsoc – Becoming a chair

                                     An example of what the chairing common response questions looked like


The overall scores for each category as well as the overall ranking for charing. The other chairing applicants names were blurred out for privacy reasons. 

Learning Objective- 2 CHALLENGE (Undertaken new challenges)/NEW SKILLS (Developing new skills)

Learning Objective -3 INITIATIVE (Planning and initiated activities)

SUNDAC – Scavenger Hunt

 

 

  • What activities did I plan?
    This week in Sundac, I planned the activity for today. My partner, Anna, and I decided to create a short scavenger hunt for the clients. We first took them to the hawker for a tasty lunch and to get them energised. After that, we brought them back to take part in the scavenger hunt. We split the clients up into groups of 1 client to 2 students to go through the things in the hunt.
  •  What was the outcome of my planning? How do I know?
    It was very successful. We got them interacting with the wider community and it seemed to really make them happy. The interactions between the clients and other members of the public warmed my heart. Due to our effective planning and pro-activeness, it was a huge success and the partners even asked to do another similar scavenger hunt later on in the year. 
  •  How did my plans change as the activity progressed? Why?
    As the activity progressed, we saw some groups begin to form so we easily changed the group ratio and made it 2 clients to 5 students to get through the scavenger hunt at a faster rate. 
  •  What difficulties did I face in executing my plan? How did I overcome these challenges?
    We realised towards the end of the activity, the clients became very tired so on the spot, we came up with the idea to go to the library to color as a way of cooling down. We were able to overcome these challenges by quickly adapting the plan as well as coming up with effective solutions as soon as they were needed. 
  •  How did I respond to changes in plans? Would I respond the same way in future? Why/why not?
    Yes. I would like to have some spontaneity in plans more than sticking 100% to my original plan. Although it is great to have a solid original plan, it is also nice to be able to adapt as the activity progresses depending on the response. 

Learning Objective 3 – INITIATIVE (Planning and initiated activities)

SUNDAC Local Service – My Group’s Session

This week, my group of 4 was in charge of the activities to do with the Sundac partners this week. We planned to originally play 3 games and have lunch.

We had planned to start with the hula hoop game for about 5-7 minutes as an energiser. Then we planned to head off for lunch then create 2 stations, one with bowling and the other with throwing beanbags through a hula hoop. Finally ending with a small ball passing session.

The planning prepared us well as we had a variety of different equipment which could be adapted to be used in other activities if we have extra time or if an activity does not go as planned. This is exactly what happened. We ended up eating lunch first as the clients were hungry causing our entire timeline to be changed. Lunch was also faster than anticipated and we had to come up with the stations faster than assumed. As the activities progressed, some clients were enjoying while others were not, we had to adapt to their needs in order to keep them interested throughout. We ended up adding a follow the action game, a name + action game as well as another ball game to fill time and to ensure that some of them do not get distracted/bored.

We faced a few difficulties. One of the clients at my activity had a melt down. She reacted very negatively by smashing a basket into the ground and sitting down on the floor in the plaza in frustration. I had to quickly adapt our plans and try to involve the client in a more positive activity. This is when we introduced the name and action game to involve her as well as hopefully dial her temper down. By reacting straight away and changing the cause of her frustration helped our group overcome the challenge smoothly as well as without making too much fuss. I believe that I reacted very maturely. I asked the Sundac staff to help with handling her as I did not want to get involved which could have caused a commotion. I think I will continue to react like this in the future because getting involved doesn’t ensure that the problem will be solved; it is more important that we adapt ourselves for the clients. In the end we are doing service for them and I understand that they have special needs that would require immediate care. As I am unaware of the disability the client had, I believe the best thing for me to do was stay out of it. I adapted whatever I could which was the activity.

A photo of us doing the improvised hula hoop game but backwards. We had to adapt the game as the clients were finding it so easy and getting board. We decided to make everyone go through the hula hoop without looking at each other.

A photo of me eating with one of the clients. She was very excited to take a photo with me while we ate our lunch.

Overall, I believe that our group’s planing and initiated activities were a success. Although it didn’t go entirely according to our plan we still managed to have the clients leave with smiles on their faces and a warm range of goodbyes, thank yous and see you laters!

This is a video of me leading an activity during the session.

Learning Objective 3 – INITIATIVE (Planning and initiated activities)

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