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1) Relieved & rewarded.

2) I felt like this was a very interesting and eye-opening experience.
Initially, i was really worried as i didn't have a smooth experience with special need students previously, but things turned out better than expected this time round, and i felt that the reason why was because we were able to syncronise and think on our feet. There were many times where there were small minor hiccups during the training program, but we covered it up well without the trainees noticing and disrupting the programme. Hence, this really reminded me of how important being aware of your environment is.

I had fun interacting with the students, although we were supposed to be the trainers teaching them something, i felt that they taught me something too. They were very easily contented & appreciative especially when we gave them the small presents we prepared. This allowed me to take a step back and appreciate the small things in my life

3) Since time management was a major issue for our group on that day as many of our activities over-ran so one thing i would do differently would be to have an actual dry run to work on our transition. Furthermore, I would also research more on capturing attention as i felt that calming them down and getting their attention was actually one of the harder thing to do, which prolonged the transition from one activity to another.

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1) Contented and fulfilled.

2) I have never interacted with students with special needs before, and it was a really good experience where i got to talk to them and teach them! They were really sweet and i realized that they can actually be pretty smart, especially if they put their mind to work on the tasks given to them. A few of the students were even able to think of good solutions to the problems we gave to them. I had a lot of fun during the workshop and I feel really touched when i saw how they responded to us and they too, had fun.

3) I would practise running through the whole workshop to ensure smooth transitions, in order to be able to better deliver it, because it was a bit choppy. I would also encourage them further, telling that they really did a good job and that i believed in them! They really have the potential to do well in life, and I could tell most of them are really hardworking. I would be more sensitive towards them, paying more attention not just to what they say, but the meaning behind the words they say. Their EQ may not be as high as us, but their intelligence is there.

Overall, very thankful I went through this DSS workshop!

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1) Warm and satisfied

2) It has been a great first experience conducting a workshop for special needs students. I had so much fun preparing the proposal and slides. It warms my heart to see them appreciating and being happy over the little and simplest things in life - something most of us tend to overlook. Honestly, I thought that our lesson plan would be too lame and childish for them but I'm extremely glad that they enjoyed the activities as much as I do. Even though they may not have normal IQ level as most people do, their EQ level is above and beyond most of us. This experience gave me a new perspective and I think I know what my career path would lead to.

3) If I had one thing I would do differently would be the way I conducted the mini lecture. I felt that I was going through too fast because my group was running out of time. I wished I had gone through the lecture slower and gave them time to write instead of multitasking (talking while they were writing)

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1. I feel happy and fulfilled that the training is over as there’s a lot of planning to do to ensure that the training will run smoothly.

2. My takeaway from this experience is not to belittle someone for what they are known not to be able to do. Although the students are supposed to be slower in terms of academic, majority of them exceeded our expectation. Originally, our group was worried that our slides/content might be too difficult to understand. However, during the training, majority of the students find it easy to understand & quickly pick up on the content we teach. From that, I can see that they work hard & strives for achievement through their actions (volunteering to answer questions to receive the stamp
3. Timing was a crucial issue for us as we drifted from our timeline, exceeding several activity time limit, resulting in a rush to complete the training on time. So I feel that we should have been more “punctual”

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1.       I feel accomplished and encouraged

2.       1 takeaway that I gained from this experience is that students with special needs are able to do anything if they put their mind to it. I had always felt that students with special needs would lag behind normal students and were limited in their capabilities. However, the students that I had trained went beyond my expectations. They made me realize that they might not learn as fast as normal students, but could do anything they would want to achieve. They work twice as hard as us to catch up and we should learn from their determination and diligence.

3.       1 thing that I would do differently if I were to do it again is to conduct more run throughs for the presentation with my teammates so that the transitions were smoother.

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1) Heart-warming & happy

2) I was really glad to see how the students enjoyed themselves even though the activities were very simple. The students may not be academically smart as compared to many other people of the same age, but they are not lacking in anything else – what they have is happiness and simplicity. It was very touching to see them being so innocent and getting happy over little things like getting a stamp on their scorecard, or even getting them in front of the class to share their challenges for the “Monitors’ Challenge” activity. They have really pure hearts and I can feel their kindness throughout the training. For example, when we asked if they can slap their friends if they made them angry, all of them said no and laughed heartily. It was honestly very cute to see them as kids and having child-like minds. Their lives might not be smooth due to people looking down on them and teasing them, but they definitely have a more fulfilling and happier lives than most of us.

3) I would say my group and I weren’t 100% ready for this training as we have other commitments and busy with other work, hence not able to meet up and practice for the presentation/ training. Moreover, we didn’t really put in much buffer time as the students’ writing speed were slower than what we expected. For this, we should have given them a time limit for copying down notes from our slides since our schedule were delayed as we didn’t rush them to copy down. We should have also spent more time with them during their break but we didn’t as we were busy discussing on the process of the training after their break.

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1) Contentment and sense of ease

2) This experience gave me the opportunity to have a direct interaction with special needs student and this is when I realized that I do not really know much about them. Although these students are of the same age as us, but they are different in terms of their learning abilities. I learnt that they are more sensitive to words and actions as compared to us. While some people like us may not feel that words of encouragement means a lot, it means the world to the students at DSS. Encouraging them would enable them to stand on their feet quickly and move on. Initially, I do not know how to communicate with them but as the workshop goes on, I gradually learnt how to interact better with them.

3) If I had the opportunity to do it again, I would open up to them much faster than this time. From the experience I had gained, as well as the research that I would do, I believe that I would be better able to communicate with them. At the start of the workshop, I was very overwhelmed with what I am experiencing and thus this did not allow me to quickly bond with them, which I felt was actually crucial in them accepting and welcoming us. Knowing more about them now would allow me to be more confident when approaching them and allow me to take the first step in communicating with people whom I meet for the first time.

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1)I feel very happy that I was able to conduct a workshop but at the same time feel that there are still rooms for improvement :)

2) I've learnt that no matter how detailed you've planned the workshop, things are always bound to change when executing it hence i should always be ever ready in facing unpredictable events. It is always good to come out with a backup plan while you are executing the workshop. As a trainer, I always feel that we must come out with an improvisation on our feet in case something happened not according to plan.

3) I would probably have a few buffer time so that i will not rush for time during the workshop. with that, i will be able to pace myself and delivery what is needed in detail so that nothing will not be missed out. I realised when we rush for time, some of the trainee may not get out instruction clearly and my not fully take in the information that we are trying to teach.

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1) I feel contented and rewarded.

2)Through this experience working with special needs students, it really make me have a new perspective on this community. The interaction with them was an amazing opportunity for me to  understand them and know more about them. Not many people will have this chance of interaction with the students and i am so glad that i took up this project , and made me realize how we can help them  to further improve and integrate into society so they don't feel left out.

3) If i were to do it again, I would have like to do more research on them, and how to handle tough situations where the students will get too excited. Because sometimes the students will get too eager and will cut off other students response in class, and I was not mentally prepared on how to handle it. But luckily my team mates manage to calm them down.

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1) I feel rewarded and glad that the students were focused and engaged in the lessons and activities :')))

2) We were told that the DSS students have an intellectual level of around upper pri to lower sec.

However, as I know that their actual age is actually older, I had to be very cautious when interacting with them in order to not make them feel like I am belittling them, and at the same time, ensure that the workshop is easy for them to understand and follow along with.

I have worked with students with Mild intellectual disability (from grace orchard school) before, where we managed a game booth together. I was able to talk to them as if they are my same-aged friends. But I realised that conducting a workshop is an entirely different thing, because we have to take into account many things, such as the speed of the lesson, the content, how to engage them etc. It is different from just talking to them.

When planning and conducting this workshop, it made me realise that I have too little knowledge about such students, which prevented us from being able to create a workshop that is suitable for them in all areas. For example, we used words like "siblings", which we thought the students would understand, but some students actually do not know the meaning of the word. With more experience now, I hope that in the future I will be able to conduct an even better workshop for the students, and for others.

3) One thing I would do differently is to talk to the students more especially when they are writing down things that makes them feel angry, and be their listening ear for their problems. This is because I think that it is really important for them to be able to share their problems with someone, and not keep their problems in their heart, and I am not sure if all of them have someone that they can confide in about problems that they are facing. However, because of time constraint, I was only able to listen detailedly to one student's problems.

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1) Happy and fulfilled

2) One takeaway from this workshop would probably be the way I present and facilitate an activity. This is the first time i was going to conduct a game (ice breaker) all by myself and i was a little bit nervous, but it actually went better than expected. I was able to speak with confidence and carry out the ice breaker without exactly feeling nervous. Hence, through this experience, i gained a little more confidence in myself and learnt how to interact with people i do not know better.

3) The one thing i would do differently is to change the ice breaker game. I asked one of the student and he said the ice breaker game was boring. That is why I wish I could have changed the game to a more fun and engaging activity which would require more teamwork.

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1) Relieved & accomplished

2) It is my first time teaching other children and I realised the difficulty of a teacher. I am personally not good at interacting with people younger than me, so there were awkward moments when I am conducting the workshop. As a teacher, I have to hype up the class, which is difficult because most of the time they don't react. Thus, I realised that being a teacher, especially for special needs students, is a tough job.

3) I have to be more patient, perhaps speak slower and continuously check their understanding. I can be more confident when I am interacting with them, even though it is not my forte and I feel awkward and kind of helpless sometimes.

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1) Relieved & Touched

2) 1 of the student is actually part of my volunteer group from an external organisation, and i remember how our leader have to communicate to her in a 'special way' whenever we go for volunteering service, and that was when i realise that it is not easy for people to take care of special needs children, and this is also what interested me to pick up DSS workshop.

And as expected, this workshop was very fulfilling, seeing how the students there are so easily pleased and happy.

I feel that i have learnt a lot from this workshop, not just in terms of  learning to be more appreciative of the things that i already have, but also in terms gaining confidence to speak infront of a group of people, because of the energy that the students gave us.

I hope that in the future, more opportunities will be provided for the special needs students, for them to truly be integrated in our society.

3) I hope that i would be more confident and try to be able to do things a bit of 'impromptu' to ensure that the students can have more fun.

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1) I feel fulfilled and accomplished after completing the workshop and seeing that all the student monitors had learnt something and are leaving happily.

2) It is really a great experience to be able to conduct a workshop for the students. I am very glad that i had chosen DSS for my LD project because i feel that if we are able to conduct workshop for special needs people, we are able to conduct it for the normal people. As planning the training for them, we had to consider many factors and be very careful with every ideas that we have. We need to be very detailed to be able to plan out a proper workshop for them without offending them or being sensitive in anywhere. This will greatly help us in planning other events or workshops in the future to be more mindful of the learners' feelings and emotional well-being. But however, no matter how well we had planned for the workshop, there are still things that are beyond control. Hence, another key takeaway is improvisation to solve any issues on the spot. Because the students' behavior and feelings are something that we can't control and foresee, hence when some of them were a little bit too rough or excited during the workshop, we had to improvise and ensure that everybody will be able to enjoy the workshop.

3) I have to be honest that our team didn't have a chance to do a dry run before the actual day. So if we were to do it again, i will ensure we will have at least once dry run before the actual day. So that everything will be more of under our control and we won't be so panic and messy on the actual day. And to be more prepared on the whole presentation so that we have more time to allow the students to play and enjoy the activities.

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1) Accomplished & satisfied

2)  The workshop made me realise how important being adaptable was. We had prepared scripts and ran through our workshop several times, but on the day itself, we had to make some adjustments on the spot to help the workshop flow smoothly.

I have learned that while it is important to be prepared, we also need to adjust to situations and act accordingly. Based on the students' reactions, their attention, their understanding of what we taught and the time limit, we had to change the way we taught them and the time we allocated for different activities.

3) When we had some extra time left before the lunch break and were unable to play the filler videos we had prepared, we recapped the lesson content with our respective groups and also had casual conversations with the students.

I think it would have been more fun for the students if we had thought beforehand on interesting ways to recap the lesson with our groups instead of going through the content again, which felt like we were conducting the lesson once more.

However, I have realised that the students learned better with repetition so that was helpful for them, and we were also able to get the students to open up, share their stories with us and got to understand them better during the extra time we had before the break.

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1)

Fulfilled and touched

2)

I personally have a friend who has a younger brother with down syndrome. She always tells me how her family communicates with him and how he does in school. I have personally met him a few times but have never really interacted with him that much.

I have always wondered how it was to interact with people who have special needs. I have a few friends who did not want to choose the DSS workshop as they were afraid that they could not handle/did not know how to teach the students.

This workshop gave me an opportunity to understand how people with special needs students work and think. It also gave me a chance to learn more about myself and understand how to interact with them.

During the lesson while I was facilitating, I have talked to many of the students. They were really understanding and kind which made me really touched.

I got to know more about them and their interests and it made me realise how similar they are to us. I hope that in the future, they would be more included in the society.

3)

I would have tried to conduct the lesson with a calmer mind without thinking about the "script" that I wanted to follow. I was a little nervous about not following the order of my script during the workshop, but I realised at the end that I should have loosen myself up a little. This way I cold have conducted the workshop without feeling stressed. However as the workshop progressed, I did learn to go with the flow, had fun and enjoyed it overall.

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1) Satisfied and thankful.

2) I have work with kids that are intellectually disabled before but this was my first time conducting a formal lesson to them. Also, as the age group is older for this workshop, I was sceptical when making plans and I had a lot of reservations as to how the workshop should be conducted. I was afraid that our lessons will be too childish for them and they might not want to take part in it. However, things were much better than expected. The students were very enthusiastic and their high energy level provided me with a lot of confidence when conducting the workshop.

Even though I didn't manage to follow my "script" exactly and there were many impromptus, it made me realise that things don't always go as I planned. Nonetheless, this is where the learning experience comes in. Overall, the workshop was definitely better than I've expected and I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to conduct the workshop for the DSS students. It was tiring, yet fun.

3) One thing I would do differently is to talk slower and check on the progress of the students more often. As there were lots of content to be covered, I overlooked on the fact that the students would not be able to understand lessons as easy as we do and they will need more time to digest the lesson content.