Today was a surprising day for me...why do I say that?? Well, it is because I heard from my friend, Jason that Pei Li is not teaching today...so I was like OMG!!! (Oh my god!!!)...At that moment, I was thinking "Is she sick??" or "She must be busy..." or "Something bad must had happened..."~~Those questions kept playing in my mind until I saw an unfamiliar face of a lecturer came into the class...When I first saw him, I got puzzled for a moment...I have no idea at all of who he is...oh dear~~Not long after that, I saw Pei Li entered the class and sat at the back..."Phew", that's my first reaction...I felt a huge sigh of relief after seeing her entering the class.
So, the lecturer who is teaching today introduced himself...to my surprise, he's Mr. Eric and he's actually the Peer Support Group (PSG) advisor!!! I met him last week at the meeting and now I have totally forgotten about it...Sigh~~How forgetful am I?? It took me quite some time before I am able to recall about seeing him last week...His teaching style is pretty different though and that is the time where I miss the moment of saying "You are awesome!!" to the people sitting beside me...Instead, he allows us to slap each other's face whenever anyone is dozin off during the lecture...Furthermore, he said that we must move around more..So, I was expecting tons of activities to be done in the class today...
Well, basically he taught about "Values" today...The word sounds somewhat easy but deep inside, it contains alot of meanings to our life...He shown everyone a video clip after the brief introduction and it got me dumbfounded on the spot~~Well, I was in total blurness of the video clip contents at first but after watching the whole clip; I started to recall about the contents once I saw the questions on the slides...It got me thinking although I did not tell Mr. Eric of my opinions...As usual, I was afraid...I always felt quite awkward to speak up about my opinions...I know that my self-confidence is still low but at least I dare to tell my friends this time around...Thus, I hope I can build on the weakness gradually from now on...
Besides, I did an activity with a group consisting of 6 people including myself...I was pretty sad at first because I wasted quite some time to find a good group...somehow, I managed to get a group and we started a bit late on the activity...Basically, we all are required to arrange the pictures given in our own sequence...Actually, it was a really funny experience though...first, we all struggled to get into a group...then, we all argued where the religion part should be put on...I still remember at one point, Grace said "we must put religion at first because it's really important to us"...Haha~~However, lots of objections came though and we end up putting it at the 6th priority...
Overall, it is a great experience as I finally understand the true values that I really have when I am doing the activity...not to say I understand all the values I have but at least I have gained insight of myself about the values that I have never realized all the while...it was a simple yet meaningful activity...today's lesson is really important as it awakened me of the hidden meanings of "Values"...It's not really hidden meanings but it's the underlying fact behind the words "V.A.L.U.E.S"...
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
~Third Week of Class~
After two exciting weeks of attending this module, I could not deny the fact that I'm hunger for more of classes like those. Although I did not really like the module at first, but now I truly love it and eager for more. I felt like I am getting more anticipated for the next class to come by. Throughout this three weeks of classes, I can feel the change of myself in the class already. Now, I tend to have more fun and tried to be as active as possible in the class. Well, it is something really weird because I do not behave this way in any of my classes to date.
Today, I've learnt alot about myself after doing the activity to determine our personality style. The outcome of the activity is fabulous!!! Well, if it is not because of this activity; I would not have gain insight of myself as much as I expected. Basically, she gave us a questionnaire that consists of 20 questions. However, she does not give the questionnaire in a written form. She put it into slides and shows it to us one by one which is a creative way of getting the students feel motivated to answer them. I felt my curiosity level has been increasing as the questions roll on. Number by number gone and I wrote my answers down one by one. It was a really tensed but fun moment to me as I am very eager to find out what is the whole activity about. Initially, I got stucked at question No. 7 and it took me quite a while to think of it. Pei Li said that we should just answer what comes first in our mind but somehow that question gets me cracking my head. Whatsoever, I still managed to jot down my final answer for that and here goes the time to calculate the scores.
Well, I found out that I have 4 D's, 5 I's, 8 S's and 1 C after calculating the scores. Straight after that, I took a quick glance at the people sitting beside me, Angeline and Grace. I looked at their scores and I found out 3 of us have very contrasting scores. Angeline has the most different scores as mine and Grace are quite similar, just that both of us have a big difference on the D and I part. Alright, NOW is the time to plot the grid. First, we we were instructed to minus off the D's with the I's (D-I) and the S's with the C's (S-C). Then, we put the answers we got from (D-I) on the 'X' axis and (S-C) on the 'Y' axis. That is the moment I found out that 3 of us ends up in different quartron. My coordination was at the top left quartron, Grace's one was at the top right and Angeline's one was at the bottom right.
After that, we were all divided into groups where I end up in the group A1!! At first, I thought there is only a small group of people in the group 'A' but to my surprise, there are quite a huge number of people around in that group. So, we splitted into two groups in order to get our work done easier. Pei Li gave us a mahjong paper and asked us to draw our group's ideal university and we were given marker pens for that. Initially, most of group A1 people hesitated to split into 2 groups and get work done. Surprisingly, I actually tried to split them into 2 groups which I do not usually do in the past. In the past, I never take initiative to organize such things so I am really proud of myself, at least for once ^^ So, there we are in 2 groups drawing our own 'IDEAL' university. Haha...it was funny though as my group was so quiet while other groups are busy discussing what to draw and so on. By the way, only group B is outside with group A that time. We did not have much discussion going on but somehow we got our work done.
After the whole activity, Pei Li starts explaining about the personality styles and she gave me a very satisfying answer. I can say that this activity is really effective as most of us found where our true personality lies in. From this activity, I have learnt more about the hidden side of my personality. I get the know more about my weaknesses and strengths.
Earlier before the activity, Pei Li taught about listing out the possible options and planning and putting it into action. I was feeling quite upset about it because I left my notes at home and Angeline had the same misfortune. So, I could not write down much of the information but thanks to Grace, at least I managed to fill in the information needed at home. I had tried to think about my plans in 10 years, 5 years or so as she said. Besides, I also thought about my future career options. I did not write down anything yet in the spaces given but roughly I got all my ideas about those information in my mind. I will write it down when I am free, hopefully by the next few days.
Today, I've learnt alot about myself after doing the activity to determine our personality style. The outcome of the activity is fabulous!!! Well, if it is not because of this activity; I would not have gain insight of myself as much as I expected. Basically, she gave us a questionnaire that consists of 20 questions. However, she does not give the questionnaire in a written form. She put it into slides and shows it to us one by one which is a creative way of getting the students feel motivated to answer them. I felt my curiosity level has been increasing as the questions roll on. Number by number gone and I wrote my answers down one by one. It was a really tensed but fun moment to me as I am very eager to find out what is the whole activity about. Initially, I got stucked at question No. 7 and it took me quite a while to think of it. Pei Li said that we should just answer what comes first in our mind but somehow that question gets me cracking my head. Whatsoever, I still managed to jot down my final answer for that and here goes the time to calculate the scores.
Well, I found out that I have 4 D's, 5 I's, 8 S's and 1 C after calculating the scores. Straight after that, I took a quick glance at the people sitting beside me, Angeline and Grace. I looked at their scores and I found out 3 of us have very contrasting scores. Angeline has the most different scores as mine and Grace are quite similar, just that both of us have a big difference on the D and I part. Alright, NOW is the time to plot the grid. First, we we were instructed to minus off the D's with the I's (D-I) and the S's with the C's (S-C). Then, we put the answers we got from (D-I) on the 'X' axis and (S-C) on the 'Y' axis. That is the moment I found out that 3 of us ends up in different quartron. My coordination was at the top left quartron, Grace's one was at the top right and Angeline's one was at the bottom right.
After that, we were all divided into groups where I end up in the group A1!! At first, I thought there is only a small group of people in the group 'A' but to my surprise, there are quite a huge number of people around in that group. So, we splitted into two groups in order to get our work done easier. Pei Li gave us a mahjong paper and asked us to draw our group's ideal university and we were given marker pens for that. Initially, most of group A1 people hesitated to split into 2 groups and get work done. Surprisingly, I actually tried to split them into 2 groups which I do not usually do in the past. In the past, I never take initiative to organize such things so I am really proud of myself, at least for once ^^ So, there we are in 2 groups drawing our own 'IDEAL' university. Haha...it was funny though as my group was so quiet while other groups are busy discussing what to draw and so on. By the way, only group B is outside with group A that time. We did not have much discussion going on but somehow we got our work done.
After the whole activity, Pei Li starts explaining about the personality styles and she gave me a very satisfying answer. I can say that this activity is really effective as most of us found where our true personality lies in. From this activity, I have learnt more about the hidden side of my personality. I get the know more about my weaknesses and strengths.
Earlier before the activity, Pei Li taught about listing out the possible options and planning and putting it into action. I was feeling quite upset about it because I left my notes at home and Angeline had the same misfortune. So, I could not write down much of the information but thanks to Grace, at least I managed to fill in the information needed at home. I had tried to think about my plans in 10 years, 5 years or so as she said. Besides, I also thought about my future career options. I did not write down anything yet in the spaces given but roughly I got all my ideas about those information in my mind. I will write it down when I am free, hopefully by the next few days.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
~Second Week of Class~
So there goes the first week of the Career Guidance class. And here I am having changed my mindset from assuming Career Guidance as a DUMB and USELESS module to a FUN and EXCITING module which brings in whole lot of new experiences and knowledge. I know there are more to come~~Hehe...anyway, to signal the fresh start of this week; I would say that I'm not that blur and confused about all the subjects as I have read most of the course outline. Hence, I could not deny that the workloads on assignments are way higher than any other courses around. Even my friends and lecturers from other departments said that. They said that psychology course has the toughest and hardest assignments and examinations. Well, for now I only feel the pressure and stress about assignments, not sure about examinations yet. Hopefully I really can cope with all these ongoing workloads.
Alright, I learnt much more about myself in this week's class. As what she mentioned in the first class, this module is directing towards our self-assessment which is pretty much like what I said in my first post about 'discovering and exploring ourselves within'. Besides that, there is a brave student named Jeevi that I would reckon because like me, she has stage fright. To see a brave soul who has successfully overcame the weakness is truly one of the greatest inspiration to me. Even with the weakness she had (and she admitted it, I like her honesty ^^), she never fail to deliver a smooth flowing speech in front of an almost packed class. I guess it takes up lots of courage to do that. In the past, I had spoken before on the stage but only very few occasions back in my secondary school years. However, I have yet to overcome one of my major weaknesses which is stage fright. After listening to her nicely spoken speech, I am feeling alot more confident to speak now. Even if I don't, I will still give my very best and try not to let myself down by all means.
Next, I would really want to reflect on the questions of what she thought in the lesson. Basically, I was taught about determining my real identity, my future paths and the ways to achieve it. Before this, I never knew there is such thing as H.E.L.P model which can assist our career planning. At the first part, I really like the part when Pei Li asked everyone to note down their own skills, interest, dreams, values and so on respectively. Best of all, she reminded me of natural abilities. Well, all these while I never even thought of it. Until now, I am still unsure of my natural abilities though. I have seen people with abilities like singing, music instruments plays, charitable as in one who can talks alot and many more. I have never known where my natural abilities lie in. I have no problem filling the other parts such as interests, dreams, personality and etc. But when it comes to natural abilities, I felt totally stunned and bewildered. The only obvious ability I can find in me for now is that I can get close to people really FAST. I have no idea if that is clarified as a natural ability but I am sure that is true about me. It is proven as my friends said that too. Usually, people take about months or even years to build up a strong friendship but I could get close to people within weeks, sometimes months. That is how my 2 best friends from this college came along to enlighten my life. For your information, I am an introvert so it is really weird considering how I can get close to people in such rate.
Moreover, after completing the activity: Assessing My Interest; I felt a huge relief and satisfaction in me. It is because I actually found my interests can lead me to more than just being a normal counselor, which is the path I have chosen before taking up the degree course. Now, I know there are a few more areas that I can work in so there is less worries about the limitation of the jobs available for me in the future. Besides, we must learn to be flexible and versatility too, right?
Last but not least, I would like to talk about the workshop Pei Li had conducted. At first, I have no idea of what those alphabets represent. I thought it was just a game or an activity for fun and pleasure. However, after going through the whole workshop; I found out that it doesn't only help me to highlight the important areas in my future career but also gives me more alternatives than just being in the same field for years. As expected, my top priority lies in Social area without doubt. This pretty much explains that I have made the right choice in deciding my future path and career although it is not finalized as yet.
Alright, I learnt much more about myself in this week's class. As what she mentioned in the first class, this module is directing towards our self-assessment which is pretty much like what I said in my first post about 'discovering and exploring ourselves within'. Besides that, there is a brave student named Jeevi that I would reckon because like me, she has stage fright. To see a brave soul who has successfully overcame the weakness is truly one of the greatest inspiration to me. Even with the weakness she had (and she admitted it, I like her honesty ^^), she never fail to deliver a smooth flowing speech in front of an almost packed class. I guess it takes up lots of courage to do that. In the past, I had spoken before on the stage but only very few occasions back in my secondary school years. However, I have yet to overcome one of my major weaknesses which is stage fright. After listening to her nicely spoken speech, I am feeling alot more confident to speak now. Even if I don't, I will still give my very best and try not to let myself down by all means.
Next, I would really want to reflect on the questions of what she thought in the lesson. Basically, I was taught about determining my real identity, my future paths and the ways to achieve it. Before this, I never knew there is such thing as H.E.L.P model which can assist our career planning. At the first part, I really like the part when Pei Li asked everyone to note down their own skills, interest, dreams, values and so on respectively. Best of all, she reminded me of natural abilities. Well, all these while I never even thought of it. Until now, I am still unsure of my natural abilities though. I have seen people with abilities like singing, music instruments plays, charitable as in one who can talks alot and many more. I have never known where my natural abilities lie in. I have no problem filling the other parts such as interests, dreams, personality and etc. But when it comes to natural abilities, I felt totally stunned and bewildered. The only obvious ability I can find in me for now is that I can get close to people really FAST. I have no idea if that is clarified as a natural ability but I am sure that is true about me. It is proven as my friends said that too. Usually, people take about months or even years to build up a strong friendship but I could get close to people within weeks, sometimes months. That is how my 2 best friends from this college came along to enlighten my life. For your information, I am an introvert so it is really weird considering how I can get close to people in such rate.
Moreover, after completing the activity: Assessing My Interest; I felt a huge relief and satisfaction in me. It is because I actually found my interests can lead me to more than just being a normal counselor, which is the path I have chosen before taking up the degree course. Now, I know there are a few more areas that I can work in so there is less worries about the limitation of the jobs available for me in the future. Besides, we must learn to be flexible and versatility too, right?
Last but not least, I would like to talk about the workshop Pei Li had conducted. At first, I have no idea of what those alphabets represent. I thought it was just a game or an activity for fun and pleasure. However, after going through the whole workshop; I found out that it doesn't only help me to highlight the important areas in my future career but also gives me more alternatives than just being in the same field for years. As expected, my top priority lies in Social area without doubt. This pretty much explains that I have made the right choice in deciding my future path and career although it is not finalized as yet.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
~First Week of Class~
So, it's the first day of class and also the first day of my undergraduate degree. To start it off, I had this subject called Career Guidance 1. At first, I was totally blur and confused of what I can learn from this subject. I started to think, "Is it something like career counselling or just some plain boring advices about building up a successful career?" From that point, I seriously thought of skipping the next few classes of this subject or just sleep in the classes.
However, I really felt amused by the first activity conducted by the lecturer, Ms. Yeo Pei Li. Usually everyone will introduce themselves one by one as instructed by lecturers. But, she used a very different approach and I really liked it so much. She encouraged everyone to walk around and introduce ourselves freely and spontaneously. At the very beginning, I was very afraid to speak to other people as I am more of an introvert and hardly break the ice. Despite that, I managed to get to meet a few new friends after a staggering for a moment. I guess it is mainly because I felt more confident to speak up when I see my existing friends from my foundation did it.
Besides that, Pei Li also explained about the objectives of the module which pretty much change my whole idea about this module. Since then, I never think of this subject as a boring and useless one. I view it more as a guide or path to successful career and life too. The statements from her slides that she has shown to everyone in the class really make my mind working the whole time. The most significant statement to me is "choose a job you love - you will never have to work anymore"! Well, it is true because once we enjoy the job, it will not be considered as work. At least that's what I am thinking even if there are people objecting it. I never really thought of my career in the long run but once I saw that statement, I wondered around about my career in the future. That is also the time where I felt regretful for being so playful all the time. I tend to pour cold water on the idea of my career whenever I am questioned by any of my family members or lecturers. Now that I have seen and read the statement, I wouldn't mind telling people about my future expectations and career.
Overall, I found out that this module is not to provide guidance for our career solely but also to ensure ourselves to understand the importance of career while learning how to bring out the best out of ourselves. This led to self-discovery as how she expected us to do throughout the 7 weeks of classes. Thus, I am looking forward to discover more hidden talents or potential in myself (if there are) as I attend the classes. After all, I felt more relaxed and excited about the upcoming classes already as Pei Li was not the kind of boring lecturer as I would have expected. I knew I could learn alot from this module although it is a short module. But well, quality is always better than quantity which sums up what I really expected from the module. I really want to discover the real self because I know I still don't understand myself as much as I wanted to. I know there are more hidden and unique qualities or abilities in me. It is all up to me to discover and bring them out.
Lastly, I am so happy to be able to try out the Vienna Test on Friday, 12 September 2008. I always wanted to seek out my possible careers that are waiting for me. Best of all, this test is FREE as I didn't want to take it last time when I was in foundation because I must pay for it that time. I am very sure this test will enable me to explore most, if not all the alternatives that I have in my life and career. Although I have set my sight on becoming a counselling psychologist, but I might never know what are the alternatives available for me and whether I am really suitable for the job. Well, that's about it for the first week of lecture class.
However, I really felt amused by the first activity conducted by the lecturer, Ms. Yeo Pei Li. Usually everyone will introduce themselves one by one as instructed by lecturers. But, she used a very different approach and I really liked it so much. She encouraged everyone to walk around and introduce ourselves freely and spontaneously. At the very beginning, I was very afraid to speak to other people as I am more of an introvert and hardly break the ice. Despite that, I managed to get to meet a few new friends after a staggering for a moment. I guess it is mainly because I felt more confident to speak up when I see my existing friends from my foundation did it.
Besides that, Pei Li also explained about the objectives of the module which pretty much change my whole idea about this module. Since then, I never think of this subject as a boring and useless one. I view it more as a guide or path to successful career and life too. The statements from her slides that she has shown to everyone in the class really make my mind working the whole time. The most significant statement to me is "choose a job you love - you will never have to work anymore"! Well, it is true because once we enjoy the job, it will not be considered as work. At least that's what I am thinking even if there are people objecting it. I never really thought of my career in the long run but once I saw that statement, I wondered around about my career in the future. That is also the time where I felt regretful for being so playful all the time. I tend to pour cold water on the idea of my career whenever I am questioned by any of my family members or lecturers. Now that I have seen and read the statement, I wouldn't mind telling people about my future expectations and career.
Overall, I found out that this module is not to provide guidance for our career solely but also to ensure ourselves to understand the importance of career while learning how to bring out the best out of ourselves. This led to self-discovery as how she expected us to do throughout the 7 weeks of classes. Thus, I am looking forward to discover more hidden talents or potential in myself (if there are) as I attend the classes. After all, I felt more relaxed and excited about the upcoming classes already as Pei Li was not the kind of boring lecturer as I would have expected. I knew I could learn alot from this module although it is a short module. But well, quality is always better than quantity which sums up what I really expected from the module. I really want to discover the real self because I know I still don't understand myself as much as I wanted to. I know there are more hidden and unique qualities or abilities in me. It is all up to me to discover and bring them out.
Lastly, I am so happy to be able to try out the Vienna Test on Friday, 12 September 2008. I always wanted to seek out my possible careers that are waiting for me. Best of all, this test is FREE as I didn't want to take it last time when I was in foundation because I must pay for it that time. I am very sure this test will enable me to explore most, if not all the alternatives that I have in my life and career. Although I have set my sight on becoming a counselling psychologist, but I might never know what are the alternatives available for me and whether I am really suitable for the job. Well, that's about it for the first week of lecture class.
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