Secondary 1 RSP orientation

14th January 2009

Today was a special day for the secondary one students who had joined RSP(Regional Studies Programme). The secondary two RSP students had prepared a rather exciting and eventful orientation for the rather priviledged secondary one students, as we as the pioneer badge were not so lucky as to have one.

first up we divided the sec 1s' into groups and then assigned each group leader to each group, and from the corner of my eye I could see several rather discontented faces probably because they were not grouped with their friends. I hope the sec 1s' understand that we had our reasons for doing so, as we want them to make new friends and stuff like that.We then gave a little tour around the RSP room and our little garden in the balcony and also explained to them RSP related things.

A picture of the sec 1s' listening to our introduction about the orientation

I was the station leader for the garden and showed them the different plants in the garden. As they would be tested in our little 'suprise' later, i introduced most of the plants and then gave them a preparation test so that the 'surprise' test later would be a breeze. It was rather easy and most of the groups managed to tell me the names of five plants after just 1 round of introduction to the plants.

Group after group came, and when I found out that one of the groups were pretty 'dead', I decided to do something rather unimaginable to lift their spirits and be more enthusiastic about learning about the plants.I told them that if they could name five plants, their seniors will pole dance for you.They immediately became enthusiastic about the plants and were all able to name five plants. I was quite happy, that is, until I realised that I had to do a pole dance, well at least some of the other seniors were doing it with me. It was pretty hilarious, and I was quite sad that there were no pictures to show them to you people on this blog.(Hope Ms Shyamira and 'Ibu' Leo do not find out about this as pole dancing has absolutely nothing to do with RSP)

A picture of the sec 1s' naming and looking at the various plants

After the tour around the RSP room and the garden, it was time for the amazing race, as you would probably know, contestants are to complete various stations and go to the next one, and finally reach the final destination. The only difference was that no team was eliminated even if they were in last place.All the groups were so fast that one of the groups only took about 10 seconds and probably shorter to finish my station. We then ended by singing Bangawan Solo with Daniel Kong and Lok playing their musical instuments and then invited the teachers to sing it too, with Ze Xuan the lead singer with the microphone, it was so funny!

All the way Ze Xuan!!We support you( I think!)

All in all, it was a great experience for both secondary two and one RSP students and I wish the secondary one students all the best in the learning of South East Asia and their third language, Bahasa Indonesia.