#6 Reflection on learning

Before the semester commenced, Tanisha called me up one day to discuss about the modules we would be taking for that semester. She was particularly interested in ES2007S. She told me that her friend had taken the course in the previous semester and had learnt many interesting communicative skills. I immediately cultivated an interest to take up this module. Besides I thought that it would be fun to take up a module with my best friend.

Only when I started attending classes did I realise that fun was just an understatement. The class was tremendously engaging and exciting. Brad and the entire class made my entire semester very colourful and vibrant. I looked forward to class because this is probably one of the first classes in NUS that I attended where I could express myself freely.

I learnt something very important from my peer teaching session. Tanisha and I were very excited to present during our peer teaching session. This was because we had put in alot of hardwork to prepare for it. We also hoped that we would be able to deliver confidently and impress Brad and the class. This was especially difficult given that we wanted to take up Brad’s challenge of not using PowerPoint slides at all during the peer teaching session. We substituted PowerPoint slides with games, drawings and videos.

Unfortunately our peer teaching session was affected by a technical glitch. The videos did not produce sound and since there were no subtitles explaining the videos, the class could not comprehend our presentation. Therefore it was not surprising that the class gradually started losing their interest. I found Tanisha and myself losing our confidence due to the fact that the class was getting restless. However we continued to try to engage the audience.

Perhaps it came as a relief when Brad told us that there was insufficient time and that we had to continue presenting the next week. We were extremely devastated that we did not perform as we hoped we would. However our ever kind Brad told us not to worry too much, to cheer up and that things would be much better if we fixed the technical glitch.

At the next lesson, we replayed our videos (with sound thankfully!!!) and we sensed that the audience was more engaging this time round. I felt very happy and was extremely grateful to Brad for having believed in us. The encouragement and advice he gave helped us to perform hundred folds better at the second part of our peer teaching.

Through this incident, I learnt that during a presentation, the smallest fault can affect the audience, in terms of their response, enthusiasm and participation. Therefore we must always ensure that we have back-up plans lest technology does not work on the big day of the final presentation.

Lastly, I would like to thank the Ariele, Xi Min, Zi Hao, Pamela, Gladys, Jian Min, Mercia, Tanisha, Joel, Kristyn for giving me critical comments to help me  improve on my mistakes. I would also like to thank my dearest group TeamTitus, Titus, Jacky and Eileen for supporting me throughout this semester and being there for me when I needed you guys the most. Last but not least, I would like to thank Brad Franklin Blackstone for his unceasing encouragement and for just being a dear old man who cared sincerely for all of us. The lessons that Brad taught me will be difficult to forget because he infused practicality and fun together with life’s important elements. I will definitely miss you allJ

#5 Reflection on Oral Presentation

I felt very excited to present during TeamTitus’s oral presentation. I felt prepared and confident to deliver and hoped that I would live up to mine and my group’s expectations. We were the first group to present and naturally we were all feeling extremely nervous. I kept telling myself that there was no point feeling nervous because it might show off that I am not confident about my presentation.

Though I kept telling myself that I should feel nervous, I actually I felt like my heart would burst out of my body when it was my turn to present. 

My main goal was to convey my points clearly and concisely to the audience. This is because I kept in mind that Brad told my group that we should always aim to explain the crux of our proposal.

I thought that I would feel better when I started to present. However I took the presentation very seriously and regarded all of you in the class as actual deans and vice-deans of the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Social Sciences. When I presented, I tried to calm myself down and speak clearly and fluently. After the presentation, I felt that I could have done better as I believe that there is always room for improvement. How do you guys think I did?

One of the things that I was proud of was my team’s slides. I thought that our slides were well-designed and aptly structured. However after the presentation, during the debrief, my group and I learnt that our slides were too content-rich. I really appreciate the honest comments of Brad and all of you because I have learnt that slides should never be too wordy. This is due to the fact that the audience can easily read the information off the slide and does not have to listen to the speaker at all.

I felt lucky to have learnt of this before my individual presentation in another module: GE3223 because for that module’s oral presentation slides, I used only pictures and explained the crux of my project. After that presentation when my peers congratulated me on having presented an interesting slideshow, I felt that I had to attribute the well wishes that I received to Brad and to the rest of you in class who commented on TeamTitus’s slides, therefore helping me and my group to improve on our other presentations outside of ES2007S.