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Friends
of LOO
HTSE
– My first-hand experience with Primary Schools
Rita Heng is the ‘baby’ of the organization,
having just joined RAS four months ago. As a Mass Communications student,
she seems to have found her niche in working with school-going students.
 A good ten years had passed
since I last stepped into a primary school, and it was a pleasant surprise
to see how schools had changed and improved over the past ten years. Bigger
school compound, lockers for the students and technological gadgets in the
classroom. It was an eye-opener to visit each of the different schools.
However,
my main concern was how receptive the students would be when I speak to
them. Being more than double their age, I was uncertain how I could reach
out and connect with the students. Of course, things were rocky when I
first started giving assembly talks and conducting training sessions.
Having no prior experience in public speaking, I was unable to hold the
students’ attention and control them when they get excited.
But
over the past 3 months, I came to realize that connecting to the students wasn’t as difficult
as I thought. In fact, I am even starting to enjoy speaking to them.
But the most enjoyable part of
my school visits is to speak to the students on a more personal level and
hear them share with me snippets of their lives! Children often just want
to share their views and ideas and by spending a little time chatting with
them, you will be amazed at how creative they can be!
Public
Speaking - Connecting with the audience
Kelly Loh has been with RAS since March 2006. She
is a Mass Communications graduate from the Oklahoma
City University. Kelly loves children, and has been taking care
of RAS’s Happy Toilet
School Education
programme. During the course of her work, she has developed a natural
ability for public speaking.
 As a project executive in RAS,
my job requires me to conduct public talks regularly. From school assembly
talks to training courses and community events, I have realized that public
speaking is indeed a skill that can be groomed as it is essentially, a
confidence-building exercise.
Conducting
school assembly talks was my first experience in speaking to a large
audience of at least 600 students. Being a vocal person with prior stage
experience, I was confident I could handle the job with ease. Despite the
fact that my first assembly talk went relatively well, I learnt that it was
not easy to hold the attention of such a large number of children,
especially when they are easily excited by interesting pictures and varying
tone. Although children mostly participate enthusiastically in the talks,
the trick was to achieve equilibrium between getting the learning points
across without them becoming restless and yet maintaining interaction with
them in a fun and interactive manner.
As
for public speaking to adults, it’s a whole new
ball game. Adults are more likely to have expectations of the speaker and
it is much harder to sustain their interest/attention in a fun manner.
Besides using visual aids, I had made it a point to maintain close distance
with my adult audience as much as possible, so as to ensure that they felt
a part of the programme.
In
the Restroom Specialist Training Course and the JTC corporate talks, I was
required to speak in Mandarin to a mature audience. This proved to be a
challenge as I was unfamiliar with the audience. In my attempt to better
understand them, I listened carefully to how they spoke amongst themselves.
Gradually, I was able to establish a personal connection with them as I
spoke with their lingo. I knew I had accomplished that when they were no
longer a frightening mass of faces. They became individuals - individuals
who were smiling, encouraging me and wanting me to succeed!
Public
speaking is indeed an art, the art of communicating to a group of people
with attitude, skill and knowledge along with positive body language and
voice modulation.
As
a public speaker, I believe in the desire to communicate, in connecting
with my audience creatively and getting my point across in a manner that is
new and fresh, such that they have something memorable to take away with
them.
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