It occurred to me, as we were participating in the learning journey, that it would be a potentially dangerous exercise to conduct with a secondary school class, given how we were wandering about touristy areas vocalising our thoughts on Singaporean identity, etc., especially when three police officers came up behind us at the last station. It would have been very easy, with a politically-less-sensitive class, for certain off-the-cuff comments to have been recorded and/or spread out of context, and the teacher would have (inevitably) been found responsible. Depending on the socio-political climate of the day, this may or may not be a fairly real concern, paranoia aside.
More usefully, I think my group learnt that we have to be very careful when using ICT, such as making sure that any links we send out are accessible by the group. I also found it difficult to engage with the poems in-depth given the short amount of time allocated to the reading of each poem before we were asked to respond to it, and the environmental distractions (e.g. having people walk past/ traffic noise/ general auditory distractions)associated with being outdoors, compared to being in the classroom, to which students are better adapted for focusing purposes.
Altogether I don't think a busy touristy area is ideal for on-the-spot deep reflection; instead, it might be more helpful to use a learning journey of this sort to spark off new ideas or make new connections between existing ideas, which can then be further explored in class.
Today's learning journey convinced me that this is an experience worth bringing to my students. Prior to attending the learning journey I equated it with an "excursion" -- but there were notable differences. Chiefly, the latter was a more passive experience, from what I can recall of my school days. We were taken to historical or technological sites, and though it was often interesting, one either likes it or does not, and often need not engage with the presented material too critically.
To me, therefore, the strength of the learning journey is in putting students in places that evoke reflection. I think of the last station, for example, where we were exchanging views on the symbolism of the places around (MBS, Esplanade). Some were sharing about their memories (directly experienced or received from parents) of what was there before. In contrast, I had no problems accepting the site of the Esplanade as is, having not known of the place at all before its construction. It is being in the very place discussed itself that draws out these memories and thoughts so powerfully -- adding to this was the fact that our discussion of Singapore literature was closely tied to places and what they signify, thus sharpening the sense of symbolic identification.
I felt that a mix of activity and discussion stations was necessary. At the start it may be more helpful to have activity based stations, to get students into a more engaged mood. These activities can also be used to give input indirectly, as when Sam was explaining about the "belly" of the River outside Maybank, and their group showed pictures of that part of the river in the past to reinforce what Sam was saying. With these forms of input, later stations can build on what students have received through their participation in earlier stations, bringing this material to the discussions at later stations.
I do feel, however, that handouts should be minimised as far as possible. While today's handouts were kept very brief, and were directly relevant to the station, I registered my participative mood dip when I held on to a piece of paper and had to stare at it. Perhaps this is also because the weather today was quite lovely, and I was often distracted by the spaces around, by the flow of the river (quite a slow current), the growth of the trees (did anyone notice that the trees were a lot more emaciated than at other places, even though they seem to have enough room to grow?) I would like to design stations/activities that incorporate the surroundings, that use these surroundings to draw out elements of (Singaporean) literature for discussion. In my poem for the Esplanade, for example, I worked with the image of the building among the palm trees, which I never noticed until that moment.
As far as possible I think learning journeys should be conducted one class at a time. Our group was already fairly small, yet at times I wondered if we were drawing too much attention, or being a potential obstruction. If I were leading a class, each student wearing school attire, I would not want any cause for complain by the public.
Lastly, given the immense thirst that some of us experienced towards the end, I would say keeping students hydrated is of course very important. Happily, these ones of us had our thirst very well satisfied at the end.
My comments will take two perspectives, first as the main tour guide of G.W.K. Travels and the second as a participant of the Learning Journey.
Initially, when I was chosen to be the main tour guide of the Learning Journey, I was very reluctant. Besides the unwillingness to do more work, the challenge was how do I tie in all the activities that all four groups have planned into one main narrative. So, the week before the Learning Journey, I actually looked at the map given to us by Dr. Suzanne Choo, the lesson plans of all the different groups and really pondered over the main theme. Finally, I decided upon the shape-shifting identity of Singapore as the main theme.
As we started the Learning Journey, I asked fellow classmates to think about the ever-changing Singapore identity as the main theme of all the activities. Interestingly, as the different groups got he class to participate in their activities, the activities actually exemplify this main theme.
My experience as a tour guide made me realize the importance of the teacher' role in preparing students for a Learning Journey. If Learning Journeys do not have a main theme or learning objective, students will just treat it as a time outside of school and then decide not to pay attention. If teachers are to apply such a model, they have to have prepare students to learn at least one thing from the Learning Journey.
Second, as a participant, I thought that Samuel and Xin Hui's groups did very well in how both conducted their activity. I was captivated how both groups actually use the physical space around them to think about the poems. This allows Literature to be applied to real-world context and also allow us to consider the political climate of our nation.
Overall, the Learning Journey was an interesting experience, but I might consider other locations instead of the Singapore River.
It was an interesting variety of activities that my fellow classmates came up with for today’s learning journey. Every station had an element of difference to it – the first one incorporated visual production, the second had a strong ICT flavour, the third was performance-based (we had a lot of fun [and anxiety] coming up with the tableau required of us), and the last one pulled place and poetry closely together. Though a fair number of the texts given to us for use in this field trip were poems, the myriad ways thought up by us to re-present and re-envision it as a learning journey for our students (ourselves, in this case) is laudable.
Like what Mel and Damien have earlier said, the immediate effect of a learning journey is to evoke contemplative thoughts – brief and fleeting as some of these may be – when one is placed in an actual space imbued with historical nuances and reflected back at us in a poetic text (albeit warped through the passage of time – always already past). This visceral experience is something that is unable to be replicated in a classroom, and that is what is most valuable about the concept of a learning journey, I think.
I remember the last station as the one where I could most closely engage with the poem given to us. (Okay, perhaps because it was quite literally printed out and handed to us.) We were given a specific amount of time to read the poem through though, because the task was set upon us – the allocation of 5 minutes (was it?) to read through the poem was important, because in that span of time, that was your one task and you could focus on it and it alone. (On a side note, my group could have set a little too many activities for the class at one time… perhaps a segregation of time for each task could have made the overall activity we planned a more focused, structured one. Or maybe I just cannot multitask.) The task set by the fourth group (to write “a reflective prose or poem”) also reinforced the relationship between space/place and textual (space) reality. As aforementioned, the value of a learning journey is to create the sort of experiential encounter between the student and a specific space/place, where one’s thoughts are startled by the closeness and immediacy of the site of learning.
However, as students’ attention spans are ever fleeting, one would need to come up with a variety of interesting, meaningful, and focused activities to sustain the students’ concentration on your plans/ the place. I feel that today’s learning journey threw up plenty of good ideas that we might be able to implement for possible future trips. Of course, one can plan to the littlest detail for activities, but if the weather does not favour us (unlike today, which was absolutely lovely; cloudy and breezy), it would be fairly difficult/ tedious to execute the learning journey! Hence, the necessity to always have a back-up plan…
The first thing that struck me, and that I mentioned to Damien very early on in the learning journey (and which he also mentioned in his reflection) is the use of handouts on the journey. On journeys such as these, I had almost zero interest in reading the chunks of text on worksheets and I am sure very few students will share that interest. As an alternative, my belief is that such handouts should only contain information that would aid students in their appreciation of the area around them. When students are out, they are inevitably excited, and responding to all the stimuli around them. If they do end up working on worksheets diligently, that may take away from the learning journey. As I also mentioned some point in the trip, what can be done in the classroom should be done in the classroom - and this includes things like comparing poems and writing differences or even, on reflection, my group's merlion-pose activity.
As an alternative to that, therefore, (since we are all very into assessment and ensuring students have deliverables) I would think that it is a better idea to get students to quickly jot down thoughts and sights they see, and then going back to class or going home to consolidate their thoughts. I do not really believe that students will produce great poems or very deep thoughts while given 5-10 minutes on the journey. ICT makes that to be a lot easier, allowing students to just take a photos, record videos, tweet etc. Students can do all these, and then go back to review them before being made to produce deliverables such as writing a poem or reflections.
Lastly, for the Twitter assignment, I would suggest creating an exclusive class Twitter account, and giving students the password and handle before class so that they can get the account configured on their smartphones. This ensures that all their tweets work and appear on the stream of the hashtag, unlike today when only my tweets appear (everyone's were locked because their accounts are private).
The activities planned by every group for the learning journey made the experience fun and interactive, which is important as Damien has mentioned, to make it an “active” experience for the participants. In terms of the depth of discussion and analysis, I agree with Melissa that the time allocated to the reading and analysis of each poem was rather short and assuming that we would probably be working with a class of about forty students if we carried it out in our schools, the various factors are less than ideal for deep analysis and reflections. However, I guess it boils down to the purpose of the learning journey. If the intention was to delve deep into particular issues (e.g. identity), perhaps it would work better to have a pre- learning journey session where students get to discuss and deliberate over the thematic concerns first or given some essential questions to consider so that they will have a better understanding of the issues to grapple with prior to the trip itself. In doing so, it would also provide an anchoring point or enduring understanding for the teacher to refer back to throughout the learning journey. Though the activities were really engaging, I was wondering if there could be a better way for students to consolidate their learning from each station onto one particular platform by using ICT apps such as Evernote. For example, at the first station, students were asked to draw 3 elements of the text and explain their significance. If the school has the capacity to provide students with IPads, then perhaps the drawing can be done on it instead. Subsequently at each station, students can collect all the artifacts created, whether they are pictures or written pieces of work or video recording of the tableau, and consolidate it in a format where they can easily bring back to share with their fellow classmates or even their parents.
One thing I really enjoyed about the Learning Journey was the immersive experience that brought out another dimension of the poem. Whilst Damien and Ed noted that they had zero interest in referring to the handouts, I felt differently. I felt that all groups had chosen poems/prose that were suitable for the journey and reading them in situ made me think about the writings through the author's eyes - something I feel is harder to achieve in the classroom.
Two things that I would keep in mind if I brought students on LJs would be the use of technology and the class size.
My group had some problems because the google docs was not pre-set to allow everyone to see it - an overlook on my part. I think it's useful to incorporate technology because besides being green, it's makes it easier to record one's thoughts by typing rather than writing on a soft surface. But the Twitter part, especially, made me think about the technological gaps that we might experience with our students. Despite our best intentions to be hip and use Twitter, none of us in the group had a Twitter account and so didn't anticipate the problems we faced such as not being able to see everyone's tweets despite the hash tag used.
Class-size-wise, I think that a class of 20 would be ideal. Not just because a bigger class would need more teachers to manage, but also because in an open space, it is easy to lose one's attention because one's voice becomes a lot softer. I would imagine that in a similar set-up, i.e. with different groups of students taking charge of different parts of the journey, our students' voice projection could be a problem and some might inevitably be excluded.
The learning journey was quite different from those that we had in the past. I remember going to museums and roaming around the place for a good hour or so before heading back to school. However, yesterday's learning journey, with the inclusion of activities makes it more interesting and meaningful. Although some of my classmates feel disinterested when given the handouts, I feel that they helped me to be more focused on the task at hand. I think that for secondary school students, handouts (preferably with instructions) would be useful because students tend to be easily distracted by their surroundings or friends and might not have been paying attention to the teacher while he/she was talking about the task.
Another issue would be that of the class size. I agree with Kit that a class of 20 would be ideal; any more students and we might have crowd-control issues at hand (unless the students are mature and really well-behaved). Location-wise, I think the different areas that we visited were appropriate for the local poems and tasks and were meaningful to the theme. Perhaps the learning journey could be done at an earlier timing in order to avoid throngs of tourists detouring around the group.
I think most of the poems for each station were well-chosen and appropriate for the tasks. I quite liked the first activity as it allowed us to interact with both poems, and give written and creative responses to those poems. I feel that the time given for all stations could be lengthened so that students can have more time to engage with the texts and give a more in-depth responses. For example, the last station/poem seemed to elicit more personal responses and critique, and I thought that a little bit more time could have been given for the students to discuss their opinions as well.
Going through the learning journey was an interesting experience. As already mentioned by Ed and Damien, I am still a little uneasy about the use of worksheets during the journey but at the same time, I also see the value of it as students and learners would be better guided by the instructions provided. Perhaps one way to overcome this issue might be to restrict the activities not to worksheets but instruction sheets instead. In place of written reflections, perhaps as Samuel's group did, we could rely on the use of ICT such as twitter or photographs and recordings during the journey.
A consolidation of learning could take place in the classroom when students return from the learning journey. The various artifacts that students have collected (recordings, photos, notes etc) could then be collated and consolidated into a Glogster project for example or another group activity.
I do agree that at times it felt as though the group size was a little too weighty (this despite our relatively small class). So one way might be for students to be divided into smaller groups and sent off to work on different parts of the learning journey. For example a rotating system where groups of ten or less students move from station to station with other groups doing the same.
Timewise this would be tedious as the material would have to be continually repeated by the facilitators but it would perhaps create more opportunities for reflection and learning due to the smaller group sizes. If given the chance, I would definitely want to take students out for learning journeys because not only would it prompt diversity in their classroom learning but it would also put them into unfamiliar territory which would in turn learn to heightened awareness and greater contact and immersion with the texts being studied.
Personally, although I really enjoyed the learning journey, I felt that there were quite a few areas that could have been improved on.
First of all, I felt that for most of the activities, I did not have much time to engage properly with the text. As was suggested in one of the readings (I apologize for my laziness to figure out which one it was), I suppose it is really important to dedicate some class time to prep work before we set out for this learning journey (in a secondary class context of course, I'm not talking about us) because, even though some groups did specifically remind/assign us to read a few texts, I am ashamed to admit that I really didn't have the time to do so. This just goes to prove that, no matter how highly motivated or high-ability the students are (like us), prep work, when assigned as homework, could be easily forfeited if the students are busy with other work (like us). Hence, we must be prepared to sacrifice some time to either go through the pieces in class or dedicate some time of the learning journey for students to read them while trying to complete the tasks at the same time.
Secondly, I agree with Melissa that the busy touristy vibe of the areas might not be the most conducive. I did notice quite a few distractions/distracted classmates along the way although I guess a bit of drifting off is inevitable for any learning journey since the entire atmosphere is a lot more casual and exciting as compared to a classroom. On this respect, I think Maz is right to say that the handouts with instructions are pretty useful in keeping us (or rather, me) on task. Even though I really have to apologize to Group 1 (especially Tiying) because I forgot to read the instructions on their handout.
Lastly, I have to say that in the planning/facilitating aspect, we really have to be very clear on what we are setting out to achieve. It was pointed out yesterday that we cannot assume that everyone feels alienated from the Esplanade and I must again clarify that this really wasn't our assumption. I guess the mistake we made, and hence our learning point, is that we were too one-sided when introducing our task (and our instructions), and next time we really have to disclaim that we are not trying to advocate just one point of view but rather, it was the poet's viewpoint that the new structures/buildings in Singapore can be alienating etc. Perhaps we could include another poem/prose with a differing viewpoint as well to make it more inclusive. But I really have to thank everyone for participating in the poetry/prose-writing reflection task even though I have to admit I probably can't come up with a poem in 10-minutes either, especially not when I'm already pointed a direction to write. Kudos to Weekiat for sharing his poem! (:
Learning journeys are a really new thing for me as they didn't exist during my school days. I wasn't quite sure what to expect and how they actually worked so Suzanne's precursor prep day was actually very useful for me. I learned the format of the learning journey and how it can be organized.
At the learning journey itself, I had a fun time and actually had quite a good time working out the activities for my station near Cavenagh bridge. I also felt that it was a very good way to introduce Singaporean literature to students especially as it encourages a reflective experience of literature and how it directly relates to them, their culture and their history. As such, interdisciplinary potential is quite high especially with the History department as alot of our colonial history has been written about in local literary works.
However, in terms of its drawbacks, I agree with Damien that the problem with handouts is quite a real one. It can be distracting and it did not engage my attention like it was designed to do. The ICT issues, while a good replacement for handouts, were also problematic especially for my group. They have to definitely be very clearly and carefully planned before it can truly work.
One question about such trips though - the colonial district is, in my opinion, a really obvious choice and while relevant and poignant, probably done to death. It will be interesting to see where else we can take our students on literature journeys that are out of the box? I'm thinking there might be some potential in the heartland neighbourhoods?
I thought that the learning journey was an interesting experience that could possibly replicated in a school setting. The use of technology (QR code and Twitter) in activities was a fascinating idea, and I think that students will warm up to such activities. I also thought that the tableau and the incorporation of writing prose/poetry during the learning journey was fun and engaging, allowing us to be creative in our interpretation.
However, I thought that there were a few points that could be taken into consideration as well. My group's activity was held at ACM, and we made the mistake of not emphasizing the need to read the instructions given in the handout. As a result, some groups were surprised when we reminded them that they had to draw two drawings and link it back to the extracts in the booklet. This will most likely be an issue with a real class, where students would want to get on with the activity without reading the instructions. Hence there should be verbal emphasis on the steps that the students should take before getting them to tart in their activities.
A few classmates have also pointed out their reluctance to refer to the handouts. I think that this sentiment would be reflected in students as well. Perhaps what could be done is to get students to do a pre-reading and then participate in the planned activity, just like the tableau activity at the Merlion.
One last point that I thought would be worth mentioning is the incorporation of writing prose/poetry in the activity. While I thought that the activity was fun, I also think that it could be potentially dangerous because students could talk about or write about anything that could be offensive or politically subversive, and the responsibility would be ours. While I do not have a better solution except to suggest certain suggestions on what not to include in their sharings, I think that this is still not a satisfactory suggestion as it may end up stifling the students. Hence I think that this issue needs to be thought about more.
I quite enjoyed the learning journey yesterday because it was refreshing to go out and read poems in situ. Reading the poems and looking around at the surroundings made it even more vivid and added a new layer of meaning for me.
However, I agree with Damien that there is an inherent tension between the personal introspective angle and the group's goals. For example, I wanted to dwell longer at the Cavenagh Bridge station because it was such an evocative space with the river and tourist boats and sculpture. However, as a group we had to achieve certain goals (e.g. tweet, answer questions etc.) before being moved off. I wonder how we can strike a balance between giving students the space to respond individually to an activity and having everyone reach the same 'learning objective' that the teacher had determined beforehand. Yet there are also potential safety concerns if students wander off in deep thought especially if the group is large and there is only one teacher.
I also agree with some of my other classmates who expressed that it could be hard to keep everyone's attention focused on the task at hand. At the Esplanade station I was personally distracted by the mosquitoes flying about and the sight of a Falungong (?) member sitting under the bridge. My reflection point is that instructions on a LJ have to be clear and short and sweet, because students' attention spans are even shorter outside the classroom.
As for engagement with the texts, I think that a LJ isn't really the best place to do an in-depth study of the poems. Rather, I see an LJ as an opportunity to spark off more ideas and connections that students may not otherwise have thought of when they were analysing the poem in class. This also means that questions have to be phrased differently. Instead of asking close-reading type of questions, there should be more questions/activities that extended the students' understanding of the poem in relation to the space around them.
Finally, although the intended objective of this LJ was to adopt a historical view of Singapore Literature, I felt that perhaps a geographical emphasis might be easier to grasp. Personally I found it difficult to imagine what Singapore might have looked like in the 1920s, especially since when I looked around me I saw so many stark reminders of what Singapore looks like now. This LJ would work better if students already possessed a rich historical imagination and had a lot more background knowledge of Singapore history. However, as a layperson who last did History in Sec 2, I found the geographical angle easier to access. It was easier for me to see the differences between the Singapore described in the poems and the urban Singapore I saw around me. Tapping into the spatial-geographical angle was what made the LJ truly meaningful for me.
I felt it was a tad unfortunate that a discussion of our notions of the Singaporean identity came at the end of our learning journey. It made me wonder what it was that triggered the confessions that many of us did identify with this modern landscape: was it the poem selected, the task that was set, the fact that it was our final stop, or was it the location itself? Was it the relative privacy we had there (didn’t have to shout over tourists)? Perhaps it was the cumulative experiences at various locations? (Or the appeal of Harry’s?)
Personally, I would vote for the location itself being . After talking to Ed, Xinhui and the rest of my group, I realized that if, forty years from now, some statutory board were to demolish the Esplanade, the sense of loss would really be palpable. We might talk of memories of hanging out at the riverside bars with friends. We might even talk of that learning journey as bright-eyed teachers-to-be. Nostalgia is relative, so we have to bear in mind that our students might find it difficult to relate to the sense of nostalgia voiced in some of the poems.
On the logistics of the LJ itself: I found the use of QR codes pretty creative! I did, however, find that reading huge chunks of text (small font!) from my phone was abit troublesome. Perhaps we could have been tasked to do the reading beforehand?
I agree with the others who mentioned that there wasn't a deep level of engagement with texts during the LJ. Yes, it would be useful to have a pre-Journey discussion on themes of identity, so as to surface some questions for students to think about throughout their Journey. Perhaps students could be tasked to consider 3-4 essential questions - about national identity, heritage and place etc - throughout the journey; I think this would give the whole experience sharper focus and give students a stronger sense of purpose.
I felt that the greatest flaw of this LJ was the fact that it tried to do too much within such a short time span. There were too many sites to visit (with a lot of time spent on travelling from point to point, but that simply can’t be helped), too many activities to participate in, and not enough time to really think and reflect on all that we’ve experienced during the trip. After a while, I found that I had stopped thinking about the significance of the sites and ended up just focusing on completing the activities. I’m not quite sure how everyone else felt at the last station (since I was part of the group that was conducting the activities at the Esplanade station), but I felt that I had ended off the LJ without knowing much more about Singapore, its heritage, and its landscape, than I had before embarking on this LJ.
Perhaps this problem resulted from the fact that each station’s activities were planned by separate groups of people, resulting in too many activities and a lack of an overarching essential question that served to help us organise our thoughts and take-aways from the LJ. Then again, I recognise that splitting the entire itinerary into stations and delegating each station to each group was probably the only way that this LJ could have been realised in such a short amount of time (half a week to plan, prep, and execute!). I must commend everyone for doing such a good job in so short a time, preparing awesome materials (especially the group with the tweets and the QR codes -- I was really impressed by the idea!) and planning such interesting and fun activities.
The one thing that I took away from this LJ, then, is that perhaps we should either delegate more time for the entire trip, or cover less ground, or plan for less activities -- some sites could have just been done in succession with instruction its historical significance, with activities kept to a maximum of three, and carried out at strategic sites. That way, the students will have more time, as they walk from point to point, to process all the information that they've gained, before being asked to apply them in the activities that follow.
I feel that while we are taking students out on a learning journey, it is important to have time to notice details, explore and be immersed in the environment. One main challenge of having a learning journey is to plan activities as well as come up with a way to measure or demonstrate student engagement with the task at hand. This can prove to be difficult as the attention will be shifted away from our surroundings and towards the task that we are to complete. Perhaps like what shu may pointed out, a more visual-kinesthetic activities can be planned to make use of the space and draw their attention to details in the landscape that student would not have noticed otherwise. For example, Samuel gave a short but interesting information about the area surrounding cavenaugh bridge as the belly of the river, and i felt nuggets of relevant information provided at important points on the journey would add value to students' perspective of the area that we have chosen for them to survey.
Another potential challenge as mentioned by a few others above is the depth and breadth of discussion. With a large group of 40 students being taken on a learning journey at one time, it might be difficult to maintain focus or dig deeper into certain issues immediately on site, much less hold an insightful discussion with the entire class. Perhaps a student to teacher ratio of 1:10 (alright perhaps too idealistic >.<) or 1:20 at most would be suitable for the teacher to engage and elicit personal reflections and responses. A smaller group size would also make it less intimidating for the quieter students to speak up and share.
Finally, one learning takeaway is the need to make our instructions more straight forward, and perhaps do away with the worksheets. Giving clear and succinct verbal instructions might have been a better bet, although it would be wise to remember to project one's voice better in order to get instructions across in an open area, with other sights and sunds competing for our students' attention.
I thought that the tasks designed are all very interesting and demonstrates the theme of a budding national identity very well.
The twitter activity is a good way of getting students to express the gist of any ideas, reflections and inspirations that they might have after comparing the poem to the actual view of the Singapore river. Since it is a Learning Journey conducted and we obviously cannot write an essay outdoors, restricting students' musings to 140 characters is a very manageable task. From a logistics' point of view, there is not even any need to consolidate students' responses, since everything is there by searching the hashtag #sgriversurgery. And, ed's "not what the doctor ordered" is super funny!
Another task that got me thinking was the prose/poem response by xinhui's group. It raises questions about the Singapore identity, and it is interesting to hear the different responses about the Esplanade and how much (or not) of a national icon it has become for Singaporeans of different backgrounds.
Last bit of reflection: I had fun on this journey - more fun than I thought I would have in the beginning (I blame the essays) - and we should probably have a drinking session before Prac. HEH!
It occurred to me, as we were participating in the learning journey, that it would be a potentially dangerous exercise to conduct with a secondary school class, given how we were wandering about touristy areas vocalising our thoughts on Singaporean identity, etc., especially when three police officers came up behind us at the last station. It would have been very easy, with a politically-less-sensitive class, for certain off-the-cuff comments to have been recorded and/or spread out of context, and the teacher would have (inevitably) been found responsible. Depending on the socio-political climate of the day, this may or may not be a fairly real concern, paranoia aside.
ReplyDeleteMore usefully, I think my group learnt that we have to be very careful when using ICT, such as making sure that any links we send out are accessible by the group. I also found it difficult to engage with the poems in-depth given the short amount of time allocated to the reading of each poem before we were asked to respond to it, and the environmental distractions (e.g. having people walk past/ traffic noise/ general auditory distractions)associated with being outdoors, compared to being in the classroom, to which students are better adapted for focusing purposes.
Altogether I don't think a busy touristy area is ideal for on-the-spot deep reflection; instead, it might be more helpful to use a learning journey of this sort to spark off new ideas or make new connections between existing ideas, which can then be further explored in class.
Today's learning journey convinced me that this is an experience worth bringing to my students. Prior to attending the learning journey I equated it with an "excursion" -- but there were notable differences. Chiefly, the latter was a more passive experience, from what I can recall of my school days. We were taken to historical or technological sites, and though it was often interesting, one either likes it or does not, and often need not engage with the presented material too critically.
ReplyDeleteTo me, therefore, the strength of the learning journey is in putting students in places that evoke reflection. I think of the last station, for example, where we were exchanging views on the symbolism of the places around (MBS, Esplanade). Some were sharing about their memories (directly experienced or received from parents) of what was there before. In contrast, I had no problems accepting the site of the Esplanade as is, having not known of the place at all before its construction. It is being in the very place discussed itself that draws out these memories and thoughts so powerfully -- adding to this was the fact that our discussion of Singapore literature was closely tied to places and what they signify, thus sharpening the sense of symbolic identification.
I felt that a mix of activity and discussion stations was necessary. At the start it may be more helpful to have activity based stations, to get students into a more engaged mood. These activities can also be used to give input indirectly, as when Sam was explaining about the "belly" of the River outside Maybank, and their group showed pictures of that part of the river in the past to reinforce what Sam was saying. With these forms of input, later stations can build on what students have received through their participation in earlier stations, bringing this material to the discussions at later stations.
I do feel, however, that handouts should be minimised as far as possible. While today's handouts were kept very brief, and were directly relevant to the station, I registered my participative mood dip when I held on to a piece of paper and had to stare at it. Perhaps this is also because the weather today was quite lovely, and I was often distracted by the spaces around, by the flow of the river (quite a slow current), the growth of the trees (did anyone notice that the trees were a lot more emaciated than at other places, even though they seem to have enough room to grow?) I would like to design stations/activities that incorporate the surroundings, that use these surroundings to draw out elements of (Singaporean) literature for discussion. In my poem for the Esplanade, for example, I worked with the image of the building among the palm trees, which I never noticed until that moment.
As far as possible I think learning journeys should be conducted one class at a time. Our group was already fairly small, yet at times I wondered if we were drawing too much attention, or being a potential obstruction. If I were leading a class, each student wearing school attire, I would not want any cause for complain by the public.
Lastly, given the immense thirst that some of us experienced towards the end, I would say keeping students hydrated is of course very important. Happily, these ones of us had our thirst very well satisfied at the end.
My comments will take two perspectives, first as the main tour guide of G.W.K. Travels and the second as a participant of the Learning Journey.
ReplyDeleteInitially, when I was chosen to be the main tour guide of the Learning Journey, I was very reluctant. Besides the unwillingness to do more work, the challenge was how do I tie in all the activities that all four groups have planned into one main narrative. So, the week before the Learning Journey, I actually looked at the map given to us by Dr. Suzanne Choo, the lesson plans of all the different groups and really pondered over the main theme. Finally, I decided upon the shape-shifting identity of Singapore as the main theme.
As we started the Learning Journey, I asked fellow classmates to think about the ever-changing Singapore identity as the main theme of all the activities. Interestingly, as the different groups got he class to participate in their activities, the activities actually exemplify this main theme.
My experience as a tour guide made me realize the importance of the teacher' role in preparing students for a Learning Journey. If Learning Journeys do not have a main theme or learning objective, students will just treat it as a time outside of school and then decide not to pay attention. If teachers are to apply such a model, they have to have prepare students to learn at least one thing from the Learning Journey.
Second, as a participant, I thought that Samuel and Xin Hui's groups did very well in how both conducted their activity. I was captivated how both groups actually use the physical space around them to think about the poems. This allows Literature to be applied to real-world context and also allow us to consider the political climate of our nation.
Overall, the Learning Journey was an interesting experience, but I might consider other locations instead of the Singapore River.
It was an interesting variety of activities that my fellow classmates came up with for today’s learning journey. Every station had an element of difference to it – the first one incorporated visual production, the second had a strong ICT flavour, the third was performance-based (we had a lot of fun [and anxiety] coming up with the tableau required of us), and the last one pulled place and poetry closely together. Though a fair number of the texts given to us for use in this field trip were poems, the myriad ways thought up by us to re-present and re-envision it as a learning journey for our students (ourselves, in this case) is laudable.
ReplyDeleteLike what Mel and Damien have earlier said, the immediate effect of a learning journey is to evoke contemplative thoughts – brief and fleeting as some of these may be – when one is placed in an actual space imbued with historical nuances and reflected back at us in a poetic text (albeit warped through the passage of time – always already past). This visceral experience is something that is unable to be replicated in a classroom, and that is what is most valuable about the concept of a learning journey, I think.
I remember the last station as the one where I could most closely engage with the poem given to us. (Okay, perhaps because it was quite literally printed out and handed to us.) We were given a specific amount of time to read the poem through though, because the task was set upon us – the allocation of 5 minutes (was it?) to read through the poem was important, because in that span of time, that was your one task and you could focus on it and it alone. (On a side note, my group could have set a little too many activities for the class at one time… perhaps a segregation of time for each task could have made the overall activity we planned a more focused, structured one. Or maybe I just cannot multitask.) The task set by the fourth group (to write “a reflective prose or poem”) also reinforced the relationship between space/place and textual (space) reality. As aforementioned, the value of a learning journey is to create the sort of experiential encounter between the student and a specific space/place, where one’s thoughts are startled by the closeness and immediacy of the site of learning.
However, as students’ attention spans are ever fleeting, one would need to come up with a variety of interesting, meaningful, and focused activities to sustain the students’ concentration on your plans/ the place. I feel that today’s learning journey threw up plenty of good ideas that we might be able to implement for possible future trips. Of course, one can plan to the littlest detail for activities, but if the weather does not favour us (unlike today, which was absolutely lovely; cloudy and breezy), it would be fairly difficult/ tedious to execute the learning journey! Hence, the necessity to always have a back-up plan…
The first thing that struck me, and that I mentioned to Damien very early on in the learning journey (and which he also mentioned in his reflection) is the use of handouts on the journey. On journeys such as these, I had almost zero interest in reading the chunks of text on worksheets and I am sure very few students will share that interest. As an alternative, my belief is that such handouts should only contain information that would aid students in their appreciation of the area around them. When students are out, they are inevitably excited, and responding to all the stimuli around them. If they do end up working on worksheets diligently, that may take away from the learning journey. As I also mentioned some point in the trip, what can be done in the classroom should be done in the classroom - and this includes things like comparing poems and writing differences or even, on reflection, my group's merlion-pose activity.
ReplyDeleteAs an alternative to that, therefore, (since we are all very into assessment and ensuring students have deliverables) I would think that it is a better idea to get students to quickly jot down thoughts and sights they see, and then going back to class or going home to consolidate their thoughts. I do not really believe that students will produce great poems or very deep thoughts while given 5-10 minutes on the journey. ICT makes that to be a lot easier, allowing students to just take a photos, record videos, tweet etc. Students can do all these, and then go back to review them before being made to produce deliverables such as writing a poem or reflections.
Lastly, for the Twitter assignment, I would suggest creating an exclusive class Twitter account, and giving students the password and handle before class so that they can get the account configured on their smartphones. This ensures that all their tweets work and appear on the stream of the hashtag, unlike today when only my tweets appear (everyone's were locked because their accounts are private).
The activities planned by every group for the learning journey made the experience fun and interactive, which is important as Damien has mentioned, to make it an “active” experience for the participants. In terms of the depth of discussion and analysis, I agree with Melissa that the time allocated to the reading and analysis of each poem was rather short and assuming that we would probably be working with a class of about forty students if we carried it out in our schools, the various factors are less than ideal for deep analysis and reflections. However, I guess it boils down to the purpose of the learning journey. If the intention was to delve deep into particular issues (e.g. identity), perhaps it would work better to have a pre- learning journey session where students get to discuss and deliberate over the thematic concerns first or given some essential questions to consider so that they will have a better understanding of the issues to grapple with prior to the trip itself. In doing so, it would also provide an anchoring point or enduring understanding for the teacher to refer back to throughout the learning journey.
ReplyDeleteThough the activities were really engaging, I was wondering if there could be a better way for students to consolidate their learning from each station onto one particular platform by using ICT apps such as Evernote. For example, at the first station, students were asked to draw 3 elements of the text and explain their significance. If the school has the capacity to provide students with IPads, then perhaps the drawing can be done on it instead. Subsequently at each station, students can collect all the artifacts created, whether they are pictures or written pieces of work or video recording of the tableau, and consolidate it in a format where they can easily bring back to share with their fellow classmates or even their parents.
One thing I really enjoyed about the Learning Journey was the immersive experience that brought out another dimension of the poem. Whilst Damien and Ed noted that they had zero interest in referring to the handouts, I felt differently. I felt that all groups had chosen poems/prose that were suitable for the journey and reading them in situ made me think about the writings through the author's eyes - something I feel is harder to achieve in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteTwo things that I would keep in mind if I brought students on LJs would be the use of technology and the class size.
My group had some problems because the google docs was not pre-set to allow everyone to see it - an overlook on my part. I think it's useful to incorporate technology because besides being green, it's makes it easier to record one's thoughts by typing rather than writing on a soft surface. But the Twitter part, especially, made me think about the technological gaps that we might experience with our students. Despite our best intentions to be hip and use Twitter, none of us in the group had a Twitter account and so didn't anticipate the problems we faced such as not being able to see everyone's tweets despite the hash tag used.
Class-size-wise, I think that a class of 20 would be ideal. Not just because a bigger class would need more teachers to manage, but also because in an open space, it is easy to lose one's attention because one's voice becomes a lot softer. I would imagine that in a similar set-up, i.e. with different groups of students taking charge of different parts of the journey, our students' voice projection could be a problem and some might inevitably be excluded.
The learning journey was quite different from those that we had in the past. I remember going to museums and roaming around the place for a good hour or so before heading back to school. However, yesterday's learning journey, with the inclusion of activities makes it more interesting and meaningful. Although some of my classmates feel disinterested when given the handouts, I feel that they helped me to be more focused on the task at hand. I think that for secondary school students, handouts (preferably with instructions) would be useful because students tend to be easily distracted by their surroundings or friends and might not have been paying attention to the teacher while he/she was talking about the task.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue would be that of the class size. I agree with Kit that a class of 20 would be ideal; any more students and we might have crowd-control issues at hand (unless the students are mature and really well-behaved). Location-wise, I think the different areas that we visited were appropriate for the local poems and tasks and were meaningful to the theme. Perhaps the learning journey could be done at an earlier timing in order to avoid throngs of tourists detouring around the group.
I think most of the poems for each station were well-chosen and appropriate for the tasks. I quite liked the first activity as it allowed us to interact with both poems, and give written and creative responses to those poems. I feel that the time given for all stations could be lengthened so that students can have more time to engage with the texts and give a more in-depth responses. For example, the last station/poem seemed to elicit more personal responses and critique, and I thought that a little bit more time could have been given for the students to discuss their opinions as well.
Going through the learning journey was an interesting experience. As already mentioned by Ed and Damien, I am still a little uneasy about the use of worksheets during the journey but at the same time, I also see the value of it as students and learners would be better guided by the instructions provided. Perhaps one way to overcome this issue might be to restrict the activities not to worksheets but instruction sheets instead. In place of written reflections, perhaps as Samuel's group did, we could rely on the use of ICT such as twitter or photographs and recordings during the journey.
ReplyDeleteA consolidation of learning could take place in the classroom when students return from the learning journey. The various artifacts that students have collected (recordings, photos, notes etc) could then be collated and consolidated into a Glogster project for example or another group activity.
I do agree that at times it felt as though the group size was a little too weighty (this despite our relatively small class). So one way might be for students to be divided into smaller groups and sent off to work on different parts of the learning journey. For example a rotating system where groups of ten or less students move from station to station with other groups doing the same.
Timewise this would be tedious as the material would have to be continually repeated by the facilitators but it would perhaps create more opportunities for reflection and learning due to the smaller group sizes. If given the chance, I would definitely want to take students out for learning journeys because not only would it prompt diversity in their classroom learning but it would also put them into unfamiliar territory which would in turn learn to heightened awareness and greater contact and immersion with the texts being studied.
Personally, although I really enjoyed the learning journey, I felt that there were quite a few areas that could have been improved on.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I felt that for most of the activities, I did not have much time to engage properly with the text. As was suggested in one of the readings (I apologize for my laziness to figure out which one it was), I suppose it is really important to dedicate some class time to prep work before we set out for this learning journey (in a secondary class context of course, I'm not talking about us) because, even though some groups did specifically remind/assign us to read a few texts, I am ashamed to admit that I really didn't have the time to do so. This just goes to prove that, no matter how highly motivated or high-ability the students are (like us), prep work, when assigned as homework, could be easily forfeited if the students are busy with other work (like us). Hence, we must be prepared to sacrifice some time to either go through the pieces in class or dedicate some time of the learning journey for students to read them while trying to complete the tasks at the same time.
Secondly, I agree with Melissa that the busy touristy vibe of the areas might not be the most conducive. I did notice quite a few distractions/distracted classmates along the way although I guess a bit of drifting off is inevitable for any learning journey since the entire atmosphere is a lot more casual and exciting as compared to a classroom. On this respect, I think Maz is right to say that the handouts with instructions are pretty useful in keeping us (or rather, me) on task. Even though I really have to apologize to Group 1 (especially Tiying) because I forgot to read the instructions on their handout.
Lastly, I have to say that in the planning/facilitating aspect, we really have to be very clear on what we are setting out to achieve. It was pointed out yesterday that we cannot assume that everyone feels alienated from the Esplanade and I must again clarify that this really wasn't our assumption. I guess the mistake we made, and hence our learning point, is that we were too one-sided when introducing our task (and our instructions), and next time we really have to disclaim that we are not trying to advocate just one point of view but rather, it was the poet's viewpoint that the new structures/buildings in Singapore can be alienating etc. Perhaps we could include another poem/prose with a differing viewpoint as well to make it more inclusive. But I really have to thank everyone for participating in the poetry/prose-writing reflection task even though I have to admit I probably can't come up with a poem in 10-minutes either, especially not when I'm already pointed a direction to write. Kudos to Weekiat for sharing his poem! (:
Learning journeys are a really new thing for me as they didn't exist during my school days. I wasn't quite sure what to expect and how they actually worked so Suzanne's precursor prep day was actually very useful for me. I learned the format of the learning journey and how it can be organized.
ReplyDeleteAt the learning journey itself, I had a fun time and actually had quite a good time working out the activities for my station near Cavenagh bridge. I also felt that it was a very good way to introduce Singaporean literature to students especially as it encourages a reflective experience of literature and how it directly relates to them, their culture and their history. As such, interdisciplinary potential is quite high especially with the History department as alot of our colonial history has been written about in local literary works.
However, in terms of its drawbacks, I agree with Damien that the problem with handouts is quite a real one. It can be distracting and it did not engage my attention like it was designed to do. The ICT issues, while a good replacement for handouts, were also problematic especially for my group. They have to definitely be very clearly and carefully planned before it can truly work.
One question about such trips though - the colonial district is, in my opinion, a really obvious choice and while relevant and poignant, probably done to death. It will be interesting to see where else we can take our students on literature journeys that are out of the box? I'm thinking there might be some potential in the heartland neighbourhoods?
I thought that the learning journey was an interesting experience that could possibly replicated in a school setting. The use of technology (QR code and Twitter) in activities was a fascinating idea, and I think that students will warm up to such activities. I also thought that the tableau and the incorporation of writing prose/poetry during the learning journey was fun and engaging, allowing us to be creative in our interpretation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I thought that there were a few points that could be taken into consideration as well. My group's activity was held at ACM, and we made the mistake of not emphasizing the need to read the instructions given in the handout. As a result, some groups were surprised when we reminded them that they had to draw two drawings and link it back to the extracts in the booklet. This will most likely be an issue with a real class, where students would want to get on with the activity without reading the instructions. Hence there should be verbal emphasis on the steps that the students should take before getting them to tart in their activities.
A few classmates have also pointed out their reluctance to refer to the handouts. I think that this sentiment would be reflected in students as well. Perhaps what could be done is to get students to do a pre-reading and then participate in the planned activity, just like the tableau activity at the Merlion.
One last point that I thought would be worth mentioning is the incorporation of writing prose/poetry in the activity. While I thought that the activity was fun, I also think that it could be potentially dangerous because students could talk about or write about anything that could be offensive or politically subversive, and the responsibility would be ours. While I do not have a better solution except to suggest certain suggestions on what not to include in their sharings, I think that this is still not a satisfactory suggestion as it may end up stifling the students. Hence I think that this issue needs to be thought about more.
I quite enjoyed the learning journey yesterday because it was refreshing to go out and read poems in situ. Reading the poems and looking around at the surroundings made it even more vivid and added a new layer of meaning for me.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I agree with Damien that there is an inherent tension between the personal introspective angle and the group's goals. For example, I wanted to dwell longer at the Cavenagh Bridge station because it was such an evocative space with the river and tourist boats and sculpture. However, as a group we had to achieve certain goals (e.g. tweet, answer questions etc.) before being moved off. I wonder how we can strike a balance between giving students the space to respond individually to an activity and having everyone reach the same 'learning objective' that the teacher had determined beforehand. Yet there are also potential safety concerns if students wander off in deep thought especially if the group is large and there is only one teacher.
I also agree with some of my other classmates who expressed that it could be hard to keep everyone's attention focused on the task at hand. At the Esplanade station I was personally distracted by the mosquitoes flying about and the sight of a Falungong (?) member sitting under the bridge. My reflection point is that instructions on a LJ have to be clear and short and sweet, because students' attention spans are even shorter outside the classroom.
As for engagement with the texts, I think that a LJ isn't really the best place to do an in-depth study of the poems. Rather, I see an LJ as an opportunity to spark off more ideas and connections that students may not otherwise have thought of when they were analysing the poem in class. This also means that questions have to be phrased differently. Instead of asking close-reading type of questions, there should be more questions/activities that extended the students' understanding of the poem in relation to the space around them.
Finally, although the intended objective of this LJ was to adopt a historical view of Singapore Literature, I felt that perhaps a geographical emphasis might be easier to grasp. Personally I found it difficult to imagine what Singapore might have looked like in the 1920s, especially since when I looked around me I saw so many stark reminders of what Singapore looks like now. This LJ would work better if students already possessed a rich historical imagination and had a lot more background knowledge of Singapore history. However, as a layperson who last did History in Sec 2, I found the geographical angle easier to access. It was easier for me to see the differences between the Singapore described in the poems and the urban Singapore I saw around me. Tapping into the spatial-geographical angle was what made the LJ truly meaningful for me.
I felt it was a tad unfortunate that a discussion of our notions of the Singaporean identity came at the end of our learning journey. It made me wonder what it was that triggered the confessions that many of us did identify with this modern landscape: was it the poem selected, the task that was set, the fact that it was our final stop, or was it the location itself? Was it the relative privacy we had there (didn’t have to shout over tourists)? Perhaps it was the cumulative experiences at various locations? (Or the appeal of Harry’s?)
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would vote for the location itself being . After talking to Ed, Xinhui and the rest of my group, I realized that if, forty years from now, some statutory board were to demolish the Esplanade, the sense of loss would really be palpable. We might talk of memories of hanging out at the riverside bars with friends. We might even talk of that learning journey as bright-eyed teachers-to-be. Nostalgia is relative, so we have to bear in mind that our students might find it difficult to relate to the sense of nostalgia voiced in some of the poems.
On the logistics of the LJ itself: I found the use of QR codes pretty creative! I did, however, find that reading huge chunks of text (small font!) from my phone was abit troublesome. Perhaps we could have been tasked to do the reading beforehand?
I agree with the others who mentioned that there wasn't a deep level of engagement with texts during the LJ. Yes, it would be useful to have a pre-Journey discussion on themes of identity, so as to surface some questions for students to think about throughout their Journey. Perhaps students could be tasked to consider 3-4 essential questions - about national identity, heritage and place etc - throughout the journey; I think this would give the whole experience sharper focus and give students a stronger sense of purpose.
I felt that the greatest flaw of this LJ was the fact that it tried to do too much within such a short time span. There were too many sites to visit (with a lot of time spent on travelling from point to point, but that simply can’t be helped), too many activities to participate in, and not enough time to really think and reflect on all that we’ve experienced during the trip. After a while, I found that I had stopped thinking about the significance of the sites and ended up just focusing on completing the activities. I’m not quite sure how everyone else felt at the last station (since I was part of the group that was conducting the activities at the Esplanade station), but I felt that I had ended off the LJ without knowing much more about Singapore, its heritage, and its landscape, than I had before embarking on this LJ.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this problem resulted from the fact that each station’s activities were planned by separate groups of people, resulting in too many activities and a lack of an overarching essential question that served to help us organise our thoughts and take-aways from the LJ. Then again, I recognise that splitting the entire itinerary into stations and delegating each station to each group was probably the only way that this LJ could have been realised in such a short amount of time (half a week to plan, prep, and execute!). I must commend everyone for doing such a good job in so short a time, preparing awesome materials (especially the group with the tweets and the QR codes -- I was really impressed by the idea!) and planning such interesting and fun activities.
The one thing that I took away from this LJ, then, is that perhaps we should either delegate more time for the entire trip, or cover less ground, or plan for less activities -- some sites could have just been done in succession with instruction its historical significance, with activities kept to a maximum of three, and carried out at strategic sites. That way, the students will have more time, as they walk from point to point, to process all the information that they've gained, before being asked to apply them in the activities that follow.
I feel that while we are taking students out on a learning journey, it is important to have time to notice details, explore and be immersed in the environment. One main challenge of having a learning journey is to plan activities as well as come up with a way to measure or demonstrate student engagement with the task at hand. This can prove to be difficult as the attention will be shifted away from our surroundings and towards the task that we are to complete. Perhaps like what shu may pointed out, a more visual-kinesthetic activities can be planned to make use of the space and draw their attention to details in the landscape that student would not have noticed otherwise. For example, Samuel gave a short but interesting information about the area surrounding cavenaugh bridge as the belly of the river, and i felt nuggets of relevant information provided at important points on the journey would add value to students' perspective of the area that we have chosen for them to survey.
ReplyDeleteAnother potential challenge as mentioned by a few others above is the depth and breadth of discussion. With a large group of 40 students being taken on a learning journey at one time, it might be difficult to maintain focus or dig deeper into certain issues immediately on site, much less hold an insightful discussion with the entire class. Perhaps a student to teacher ratio of 1:10 (alright perhaps too idealistic >.<) or 1:20 at most would be suitable for the teacher to engage and elicit personal reflections and responses. A smaller group size would also make it less intimidating for the quieter students to speak up and share.
Finally, one learning takeaway is the need to make our instructions more straight forward, and perhaps do away with the worksheets. Giving clear and succinct verbal instructions might have been a better bet, although it would be wise to remember to project one's voice better in order to get instructions across in an open area, with other sights and sunds competing for our students' attention.
I thought that the tasks designed are all very interesting and demonstrates the theme of a budding national identity very well.
ReplyDeleteThe twitter activity is a good way of getting students to express the gist of any ideas, reflections and inspirations that they might have after comparing the poem to the actual view of the Singapore river. Since it is a Learning Journey conducted and we obviously cannot write an essay outdoors, restricting students' musings to 140 characters is a very manageable task. From a logistics' point of view, there is not even any need to consolidate students' responses, since everything is there by searching the hashtag #sgriversurgery. And, ed's "not what the doctor ordered" is super funny!
Another task that got me thinking was the prose/poem response by xinhui's group. It raises questions about the Singapore identity, and it is interesting to hear the different responses about the Esplanade and how much (or not) of a national icon it has become for Singaporeans of different backgrounds.
Last bit of reflection: I had fun on this journey - more fun than I thought I would have in the beginning (I blame the essays) - and we should probably have a drinking session before Prac. HEH!