Reflective Journal 4

29th April 2014

         Today was my fourth week attending the PACE workshop. I was excited to see my mentee showed up for the class. There were three activities prepared for the mentees such as revision booklet, multiplication table competition, and complete equations without symbols. The objective today was to improve and help mentees to build up interest on mathematics.

         Multiplication table contest was first activity to be conducted. Three volunteers among the mentees were required to write out full multiplication table and the numbers were given randomly by mentors. I was happy to see the mentees were excited and vigorous in the competition. Meanwhile, I also tried to stimulate my mentee to participate in the competition but she was too shy to even rise up her hand. Thus, I asked my mentee to write down the multiplication table when others are competing in front in order to assure that she is able to complete it. It was a great activity as this was an opportunity that allows mentees to learn in an interesting way and mentees will be more focus on memorising multiplication table throughout the game.  The next activity was to fill up the symbols given the solved math equations. My mentee was lazy at first and not willing to copy the equations so I copied it down and encourage her to do it. My mentee was concentrate to complete it after I copied down for her. I am glad that she was willing to try  and putting effort on the activities although she made some small mistakes.

    “Each mistake teaches you something new about yourself. There is no failure, remember, except in no longer trying. It is the courage to continue that counts.” By Chris Bradford, The Way of the Sword. Today was fun interacting with our mentees and was amused to see them enjoying the learning games. I have learnt that I will be accomplished my goal as long as I am willing to try harder and not afraid of failure because failure taught us to grow up. This same goes to my mentee, she will be able to learn more if she is willing to try. “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear” by Gandhi. It is important to overcome our fear so we will pursue for better future.“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough” by Elon Musk. We must keep going and look for lessons when we are facing our failures so that we will not taking it personally which we will adapt and change that lead us to success in our career next time.