Sengkang West Bursary Education Awards 2019 - written by In Tiam

Sengkang West Bursary Education Awards 2019

Outstanding school students were recognized for their success at this year’s Education Awards Ceremony, which took place at the Anchorvale CC on 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th January.

Anchorvale Toastmasters Club members Alice Ow, Pang In Tiam and Norman Tan represented the club as the emcees to host and facilitate this grand event with Dr. Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State for Health & Transport, Grassroots Adviser to Sengkang West GROs. 

The ceremony saw school students from the Sengkang West receive their certificates and cheque for their achievements in academy results.  This year saw record numbers of awardee, more than 3,000 awardees across more than 30 sessions of the ceremony.Sengkang West Zone A, B, C, D, E, K, and L Bursary Education Awards was held on 12 and 13 January 2019.  Sengkang West Zone F, M, J, N, AVNC, FVNC and EMA (Zone A - N RC) Bursary Education Awards was held on next weekend 19 and 20 January 2019.

Our emcees had given a very strong, effective and high energy opening to kick start the event. Followed by a keynote was delivered by Dr. Lam and highlighted Sengkang West has the most awardee compare with other area and various efforts to grow our talents. 

Our emcees then warmed up the crowd and invited all awardee to give a big hug and thank you to their parents.  They continued to engage the awardee and interviewed them.

‘Without support from my parent, I won’t be able to achieve so much.  I want to tell them how much I love them’, said one of the awardee. 

Besides the award presentation and photo session, our emcee also collaborated with Sengkang West RCs and Anchorvale Youth Executive Community (YEC) members and share a lot of events which are happening now.  Awardee and family also actively visit YEC booth to find out more details.

It was wonderful 4 days for our emcees to step up and host the event for 9 hours continuously every day.  It always seems impossible until it is done.  Yes, they did it and entire ceremony was conducted successfully. We would like to take this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to Alice Ow, Pang In Tiam and Norman Tan....and to Anchorvale TM club!

-In Tiam

My Experience being an Emcee! Thanks to TM!- by TM Dinesh

I joined the Anchorvale Toastmasters club with one objective in my mind

“To develop confidence good enough to be able to walk onto a stage anytime, and to be able to speak as well engross the crowd.”

I attended a few toastmaster’s meetings and presented few speeches, however I always wanted to try hosting the meeting or an event. I was always eager to take up the ‘Toastmaster of the day’ (TMOD) role, but before I could do that, a better opportunity shook my door.

One day our Club’s President Chee Sian during his opening address, announced that Sengkang West Zone L Resident Committee (RC) needs an Emcee for their Halloween event. I did not blink my eyes and raised my hands of the opportunity at hand.

It was as if half of the battle was won, however varied thoughts started running in my mind and I started having doubts and fear about my decision of agreeing to be the Emcee. The event date was 27^th October and President told me that RC would contact me. Few weeks passed by, however no one contacted me, so I thought I was out of the event. But to my surprise on 22^nd October, I got an email from Mr. Ivan telling that the event was on and I would be required to host the event.

I got only few days to prepare however, I told myself not to take that as an excuse to opt out. I called Chee Sian and asked him for few tips. He referred me to one of our Senior Members of the club Muthu Ganesh. I spoke with Muthu and he gave me some valuable tips. I prepared the script for the event and sent to RC for review.

I asked my son to accompany me for moral support during the event. I dressed up comfortably with an aim to be decently formal at the same time have a hint of party look. I reached the venue one hour early, had a good discussion with the organizer about the setup, games and overall timings for each event, which really helped me to be prepared. At sharp 6:30 PM, I took over the mic and started welcoming the guests. I welcomed the Guest of Honor (GOH) with gusto. I started quite well, voice was clear and I could see a good response from the audience and noticed that they were able to follow my instructions.

I felt that my involvement with the crowd was appreciable and I could manage the crowd well during the games. I felt my lessons from toastmasters coming alive at the event.

My son’s presence helped me a lot. He was encouraging me, helping me as and when needed and took pictures for me.

After the event I felt satisfied with my accomplishment, however there were few areas which I felt could have been better. I felt I could have rehearsed a bit more and I could have been more engaging by asking more questions and cracking more jokes.  I do realize that it was my first emceeing experience and I can use this experience and learnings from toastmasters to do even better next time.

All in all, it was a great experience, a baby step towards the big milestone of becoming a great speaker. I am thankful to our Anchorvale toastmasters club and RC for the wonderful opportunity and here is my small piece of advice for all the club members:

“Whenever you get an opportunity to implement and showcase lessons from toastmasters’ meetings, do grab the opportunity, it will indeed be a very enriching experience for sure!”

-TM Dinesh Aggrawal

Kids Public Speaking Workshop on 21st December 2014

Our first ever public speaking workshop catered for kids was the brain child of Sengkang West Zone ‘D’ RC in collaboration with Anchorvale CC TMC.

Roger Yap and Alice Ow were the esteemed trainers for this unique workshop, where believe it or not, we had 16 fabulously enthusiastic kids coming on a Sunday morning to learn some skills.

Alice, the child care extraordinaire, kick started the morning with an enjoyable ice breaking session where each of the kids bravely introduced themselves at the front using an animal puppet. We had some hilarious and creative answers.

Alice, the Puppet Master

Then, Alice organized a game of charades with a Christmas Theme and the children were incredibly vibrant as they animatedly acted out the words. It was so entertaining to watch them perform, I couldn’t believe one hour passed by so fast. That’s how much fun we had!

Seeing Alice communicate to the kids was truly a privilege. She has a way with them, the love she showed was boundless.

Next up, was the skillful Roger who was training kids for the very first time! He conducted a fun session where he explained the importance of speaking in short sentences, voice control, and body gestures. Explaining such things to kids in a simple and fun way is no easy task. Roger did it like an experienced professional with a clear explanation at the beginning, and then getting the kids to participate and speak.

Roger showed different cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Doraemon, and asked the kids to speak using the voices of those characters. He asked simple questions and asked for short answers in reply, all the while encouraging them to have some useful movements.

Roger showing some actions

And finally, he trained the kids in the dreadfully frightening but oh so fun, Table Topics. He gave simple topics like, ‘My School, My Mother, My Best Friend,’ where the kids worked in their groups and prepared to speak about the topic, using all the skills they acquired during the workshop.

The teams in hyper mode

Even better, we gave an immediate evaluation to the participants. The parenting skills of Sathya and Riz were so delightfully shown here, as they praised the children on their efforts, and gently told them where they could improve. 

Sathya giving his evaluation

Giving evaluation to adults is easy peasy. Giving it to children, phew boy!!

The day ended with a McDonalds lunch from the RC, much to the delight of everyone.

To the parents who trusted in this workshop and brought their kids here, thank you so much! Alice and Roger were so utterly brilliant and joyful as they trained children in public speaking. Riz and I who were team leaders had a wonderful time mingling with them, and bringing out our inner child.

Sathya, the supremely dedicated President came straight from the airport after arriving from India to support this workshop. To the children who came, I am sure they will go very far. The level of enthusiasm and eagerness to learn was incredible. Big thanks to the Sengkang West Zone 'D' RC for organizing this. 

It was a marvelous Sunday morning indeed! 

Written By: Salma Begum

Another fun shot

Anchorvale's first Speech Craft for 2014

Greetings!!

Guess what folks? 

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club has big plans to end this term with a bang. In light with Toastmasters tradition, we organized our first Speech Craft session on the 23^rd of February in collaboration with Sengkang West Zone D RC. 

This was the first in a series of workshops that Anchorvale will be organizing. The Speech Craft program allows experienced Toastmasters to present the fundamentals of public speaking to the general public and club members.

For this session, we had two outstanding Toastmasters to learn from. First up, was our inspiring and enthusiastic club President, Roger Yap, CC, CL. He described the foundations of speech delivery, gestures and movements. His demonstrations were so useful, I felt myself nodding vigorously to his words, and at certain points, having light bulbs go off in my head, with the “ahah, yes I should incorporate that in my speech!”

Our next speaker, hailing from Toastmaster Club of Singapore is a seasoned communicator, Toastmaster Shishir Choudhary, CC CL. Shishir graciously agreed to speak at our first Speech Craft session and my oh my, was it a privilege. He shared his secret for communicating well, with regards to self-awareness. His presentation was so motivating, I didn't just receive secrets of communicating well, I felt much better about myself too.

It was indeed, a fruitful day and we hope that our next three Speech Craft sessions, to be conducted in May will match or be better than our first one.

More information will be posted closer to the dates!

Till next time, adios amigos!

By: Salma Begum