Project Acknowledgement: Behind the Scenes

From 22 August to 5 September 2013, our Saints Advocates have organised various events to engage the students in appreciating the Non-teaching staff (NTS) in our school. With the theme “Behind the scene” and catchphrase “Catch them in Action”, we hoped that the student population would realise the paramount importance of the NTS’ job even if we may not see them frequently.

Project Acknowledgement task-force

I felt that Project Acknowledgement had been a really eye opening and unforgettable experience.  I felt that I’ve learned so much from this project. Before this, I thought this project was rather small scale as it was conducted in school, however after this experience; I’ve learned that it was a really important project! The success of whether the NTS got acknowledged or not, lay in our hands. So I really wanted our project to be different but yet delivered the same message as the previous years.

I feel that our project had some pretty strong points. Such as that we came up with our project’s theme, and what tasks we were gonna carry out on our very first meeting, and basically the whole outline of the project was already formed. Thus, we were able to draft a proposal. We also had a lot of time to search for ways to encourage the student body to interact and acknowledge the NTS.

Our Project Acknowledgement poster! :)

We also faced many difficulties during this journey. One, we could not get many Saints to participate in the photo competition. In the end, our fellow advocates had to help us out instead. Due to the lack of participation, our team proposed a plan to help encourage more Saints to take pictures. We made foam flowers for the NTS and encouraged Saints to give the flower to a certain EAS and at the same time, we would take a photo! This thus helped increase the number of photos we had significantly. The NTS were also very happy with the flowers they received even though it was such a small gift. Second,  our box of post-its went missing on the third day of collection and it contained about half of the school’s contribution of the post-it notes. We didn’t expect the box to disappear and had to spend a lot of time finding for the box. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to find it so we had to act fast and find an alternative way. We learned that we should not leave such important materials left unattended. We should have collected the post-it notes at the end of each day.

We found it easier and more effective to ask Saints to write notes to the NTS on the spot as we were able to get the notes almost immediately and need not spend time to constantly remind them to hand in their notes. Some also choose to ignore and this made communicating with them really hard. I’ve also learned that we need to prepare for unforeseen circumstances. I felt we did not really plan well enough and planned for situations in which there was little participation. Thus this needs to be taken into account for any of my future projects. Communication is also very important to ensure that everyone does their assigned tasks.

We also need to learn to adapt our plans to different situations and the most important thing is to be prepared! Have extra materials ready and be ready for any changes along the way. We also need to have good time management as our deadlines for some of our things were not met. And this caused us to rush into some of it. We must always plan ahead and ensure that we are always ready to accomplish our tasks.

Foam flowers specially made for the NTS

It was a very enriching experience and I’ve learned to communicate with the NTS of the school and learned many skills that I can use for my future projects.

-Rebecca Nicole David, 4th Saints Advocate

Project Acknowledgement 2012

In August 2012, the 3rd Saints Advocate Project Acknowledgement task force initiated their project in school to acknowledge the hard work of the non-teaching staff - janitors, canteen staff, lab technicians and security guards - and to say a big 'Thank You' to them. The task force created heart montages for each group of our Unsung Heroes, from pieces of jigsaw that the students wrote on and designed. Beside expressing our gratitude to the staff who work hard behind the scenes, it was also a warm reminder to be grateful for the people in our lives.

Project acknowledgement was a great learning experience for me as it taught me how important it is to show appreciation for and recognize the hard work of others; every “thank you" that we can easily say would go a long way in touching the life of another.

Words of thanks from the entire student body to our Unsung Heroes

Due to its timing, we had to find a balance between studying for our upcoming exams and managing this project, and it was not always easy. We faced a few setbacks (such as missing puzzle pieces etc.) and many challenges that required time and effort, which we managed to overcome as a team and with the help of other advocates.

In this project I realized that sometimes, we tend to overlook the hard work that others put in to makes our lives more comfortable, as much as we overlook the significance of our response to their work. Whether we look at them, give them a smile, or greet them in the corridor, it shows if we really care. It shows whether we think of them and their work as less than us, less than a teacher or principal that we greet (even this is on the decline).

Poster put up around the school to remind people just to SMILE (:

Hence, I feel that carrying out this project has enlightened me about what it means to show gratitude, and how important and valuable it is to be grateful. The time and effort we invested in this project was well spent, and although I can't say that I enjoyed every minute of it, it was certainly an enriching experience that I would gladly go through again. All in all, I feel that we have succeeded in expressing our gratitude to the janitors, security guards, and non-teaching staff, and in encouraging the student body to do the same.

The security guard "caught" reading the 'Thank You' card

Like Mother Teresa once said, being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. We should always remember to give our thanks and show our concern to the people around us. That would make the lives of others better, as well as our own.

-Si Ling, 3rd Saints Advocate

Our milestones of 2010: Project Acknowledgement

Project Acknowledgement

Project Acknowledgement was an idea that was brought up by members of Saints Advocate during our service learning camp in 2010 when we were given the time to brainstorm about possible service learning projects that we could carry out in SAJC.

The purpose of this project was to acknowledge the non-teaching staff for the efforts and contributions they have put in to maintain our school and to provide us with a comfortable and conducive learning environment.

However, their efforts are often neglected by the students. Saints Advocate [Task force: Phuong(I/C), Brenda(AI/C), Miao Li, Dong Hoon and Theodore] felt that their contributions deserve recognition; hence sought to convey to them the importance of the non-teaching staff to SAJC, through a video using the analogy of traffic lights to depict the non-teaching staff.

We had hoped that this project could provide students with a platform to learn more about the non-teaching staff as well as to express their gratitude towards their contributions.

During the course of Project Acknowledgement, we had managed to come up with five different insect cards [Appreciation Boards] for the five different Houses. Students of each House were in charge of appreciation notes to different non-teaching staffs such as the AVA assistants, librarians, cleaners etc. During our publicity week in late August to early September, we had also come up with an exhibition featuring write-ups about the various ways the non-teaching staff had contributed to maintain SAJC as well as to let the students know more about their job scope and about them.

Project Acknowledgment was a success because although this project was held during the Promos and JC2 prelims period, most SAJC students still made a conscious effort to take some time to write notes of appreciation and decorate the cards their class were issued.

Through this project, students had also managed to learn more about what the non-teaching staff does and the contributions they have made towards our school.

Without them, we would not enjoy a conducive environment to study in. Hence, we hope that this project could be sustained by the future Saints Advocate members in years to come.