A 'module' to remember..

I can still remember the day when Sheau Shiuh and I nervously walked into the classroom, asking for Ms. Lim's permission to let us join the class. Thank god, Ms. Lim agreed and we are accepted into Tutorial Group 5. I am sure my experience would be different if I am placed in another tutorial group. The journey of ES2007S is not easy but it is definitely a fun and fruitful one. From this module, I learnt how to communicate effectively in conversation, presentation and writing.

Through blogging, I have learnt to pen down my feelings and thoughts. Knowing that classmates are going to read my blog, gives me the urge to share my viewpoints on a certain topics with them. Blogging is good for exchanging of thoughts between writer and readers. Besides, I am now confident to write professionally in business letters, emails or resume. This is an essential skill to show my professionalism to coworkers or superiors in the form of writing.

This module provides a learning ground for me to improve my oral presentation skills. Comments from classmates and Ms. Lim helped me to realize my weaknesses so that I can work on those weaknesses. While my oral presentation might not be the most interesting and impactful ones, I have made tremendous effort to improve my presentation performance. I do hope, in the future, I can speak confidently in front of people, with an addition of a sense of humor to make my presentation more interesting. 

Mock job interview and face-to-face discussion gave us the sense of the real scenario. It is good for us to practice our body language and verbal skills under a stressful situation. I am sure most of us become more self-aware, hence will take note of our own facial expression, hand gestures or standing postures when we are facing people. 

Besides, I also gained invaluable experience in developing interpersonal relationship between team members. Team work requires a good balance of contributing and accepting thoughts from each and every team member. Peer teaching and proposal assignment allow me to work with different team members and experience different working styles.

Time really flies!! I could not believe 13 weeks have passed and now is the time to say goodbye to everyone. I want to thank everyone for the wonderful memories and thank Ms. Lim for tutoring such informative yet interactive class. I will miss the time we spent together. =)

p.s: Let's meet up after our exam!! yay....

My Reflections on Oral Presentation

Monday, 8^th November 2010 was the day when I have to face my biggest fear again: speaking in front of people. To be honest, I am very disappointed with my performance during peer teaching session and I feel bad whenever I think about that. I do not want my presentation to affect our group presentation as a whole because we have put in a lot of effort to it. Therefore, I decided that I will try my best to improve on my presentation skills.

 As our topic is academic related and not suitable to include too many visual images, I used different techniques to make it easier to follow. To emphasize on each objective of the team, I did contrast effects on the words. For instance, the main point is shown in solid color while the other points are shown in very light colors. Besides, I used flow chart to introduce the working procedure of RIPE. By referring to the slides during presentation, I am able to elaborate on all the important points that I want to share. I have learnt to present ideas by elaborating on the key words in presentation slides but not memorizing speech like what I did during peer teaching.

I realized I speak very fast when I am nervous. So, during my presentation, I tried to control my pace in talking. I spoke slower and used a suggestive tone in presenting our group’s proposed idea. Our proposed idea will not be convincing if I appear to be lack of confidence. I remember towards the end of my presentation, I lost my words and could not continue on talking. Luckily, I calmed myself and said: “Let me rephrase….” This allows me a few seconds to structure the sentence that I wanted to say.

For this oral presentation, I am lucky to have two excellent team members: Berwyn and Jun Xiong. We managed to prepare our presentation slides one week ahead of the actual day. I have more time to practice my speech and have rehearsal with them. After every rehearsal, they gave me very suggestive comments and pointed out my mistakes so that I can work on it. Besides my team mates, I have to thank Sheau Shiuh for being my audience on the night before oral presentation day. She helped me by simulating the nervous effect that I will get when I stand in front of people. Practice really helps!!

I did not give a perfect presentation but I am happy with my improvement as compared to the previous peer teaching.