FTS Meeting 6 Reflection

August 22, 2014. It was Friday afternoon, I am quite nervous that day because of the issue about our field trip. The cancellation of our field trip gives me a feeling of sadness. Our meeting was held on IC laboratory with the presence of Sir Randy. We discussed about our minor field trip to be held on Concentrix Damosa Davao City. We discussed about the time and place, what to wear and what to bring. We also discussed about the room assignments and the changes. Some of our classmates ask why some of us are in the kapsule. And Miss President Iana answered that the kapsule are just limited not all of us can avail the room. And not just that! Sir RSG also confirm and alarm us about what happened to the field trip of Bulacan State University where in seven students died unfortunately. He ask us if we are still willing to continue our trip even if this incident happened. And most of us say "YES!" with conviction. Of course, I also say yes with all my heart. I don't want to cancel our trip. Who would want to? Sir RSG ask us many times if ever we will change our minds. And then meeting adjourned.

My Journey to Inner Space (Interpersonal Skills Seminar Reflection)

                Interpersonal Skills are the life skills we used every day to communicate and interact with other people, individually and in groups.  According to Business Dictionary, interpersonal skill is the set of abilities enabling a person to interact positively and work effective with others.  According to a website specifically, investopedia.com explains interpersonal skills; the term “interpersonal skills” is somewhat of a misnomer, because it refers to character traits by an individual rather than skills that can be taught in a classroom. Within an organization, employees with good interpersonal skills are likely being more productive than those with poor interpersonal skills, because of their propensity to project a positive attitude and look for solutions to problems. Interpersonal skills are measures of how adept you are in interacting with others. Active listening is an interpersonal skill, as knows how to communicate to someone else that you respect him or her. When problems arise you use your interpersonal skills to resolve conflict with others.  People learn interpersonal skills by interacting with family members, going to school, and socializing with their peers. Healthy interpersonal skills reduce stress, resolve conflict, improve communication, enhance intimacy, increase understanding, and promote joy.

                The importance of interpersonal skill is very essential since it is how we deal with others.  Awareness of our own and others’ interpersonal skills can help us enormously in dealing with the work tasks we are responsible for. Since we will be having our field trip this coming September and we’re going to travel with different people coming from different classes, we should have our interpersonal skills seminar and team building activity. It is important for us to go through with this kind of seminar since it can help us to build our friendship and it will help us to get to know more each other. And just last July 21, we had our interpersonal skills seminar and team building activity with the theme of Journey to Inner Space: Key to Effective Interpersonal Relationship. The said seminar help the participants become more effective communicators at school or at work and in their personal lives. The program focuses on speaking, listening, sharing our ideas and experiences, empathy and building relationships. The program was intended for us to develop our interpersonal skills especially our communication skills. Our facilitator with the said event is Mrs. Emily Madrona she is the University of Southeastern Philippines Guidance and Testing Office (UGTO) director. The program should start at exactly 8:00 am but unfortunately we started 8:30 in the morning because of some technical problems.  The program started with an opening prayer and Lupang Hinirang. The emcee of the program was our class President Miss Iana Kristine Yu.  Our class Vice-President officially opened the program by her opening remarks. She said that we will enjoy the seminar and we need to cooperate in order to make the event successful. After her short and brief speech, Ma’am Madrona asked us to group ourselves into five. We count ourselves from one to five then I belong to group one. My group mates are Deannie, Mark, Charles Bryan, John Cedrick also known as JC, April, Joan, Jean and Edward. After grouping ourselves, Ma’am Madrona instructed us to choose a leader and to give a name to our group. After that, she also asked us to share our expectations for the seminar and contributions within the group and share it to the whole class. The name of our group is The Travellers since we will be having a journey within ourselves.  And fortunately, I am the leader of the group so I will be the one to represent our summarized expectations and contributions to the whole class. Our expectations are we will have fun; we will get to know more about each other; we will learn new things; we will build new friendships and we will have a closer bond. While our contributions are we will exert our efforts in any task Ma’am Madrona asks us to do; we will share our happiness, love and experiences and we will cooperate in any activity. After sharing expectations and contributions to the whole class, we post it at the back. After the expectations and contributions, we officially start the session one of the seminar. We remain in our group and Ma’am Madrona give each one us a paper clip. She instructed us to form our paper clips into an object that best describes us and then share it to our group mates. I formed my paper clip into a grass since grass is just in the ground, for me it is a form of humbleness, when the storm comes, it will just remain standing just like me whenever there are problems comes in my way I remain still and trust God. After sharing our formed paper clips, we put it together and formed into another shape or object. Our group decided to make it a bicycle since we are the travellers and we are on a journey. We choose our group mate namely JC to represent it to the whole class. After the session one, we had our break; we eat our snack since it is already ten o’clock in the morning. Fifteen minutes after the break, Ma’am Madrona shows us a Dinner Table. She shares the Dinner Table set-up of her family when she was still younger. After that, she instructed us to make our Dinner Table and share it to two people. I was quite emotional when I throwback my childhood days and draw our Dinner Table set-up. I can still remember the happy memories when I was a child. Jennifer Smith quoted, “Childhood memories were like airplane luggage; no matter how far you were traveling or how long you needed them to last, you were only ever allowed two bags. And while those bags might hold a few hazy recollections—a diner with a jukebox at the table, being pushed on a swing set, the way it felt to be picked up and spun around—it didn’t seem enough to last a whole lifetime.” After drawing our Dinner Table set-up, I share it with my two classmates named Princess and Angel. I cried because our situation today is not like my Dinner Table anymore. In my Dinner Table we are complete and happy family not like today, my father just died last May and we don’t eat meals together anymore. Moving on, father the emotional sharing of our childhood days, Ma’am Madrona asks few of our classmates to share their Dinner Table set-up to the class. Jean, share her Dinner Table set-up emotionally because she was crying while JC share his Dinner Table set-up cheerfully because he has a happy childhood days. After sharing our Dinner Table, Ma’am Madrona continues to share her life when she was still younger. I could really relate to her. She was boyish, rebel and unwanted when she is still younger; she was hooked to her bad influenced friends; she tried smoke, drinking alcohol and even drugs. I could relate to her since when I was in high school I used to be with my “barkadas” or bad influenced friends. I tried smoke and drinking alcohol and realized that it’s not good for me. It will bring no good to me. So when I was in my freshmen year here in this university, I stop doing those stupid things.  After the dinner table session, we had our lunch and we should be back at exactly one fifteen in the afternoon.  My classmates went out of the social hall and grab their lunch while me and my friend—Princess had our lunch at the social hall since we bring our “baon”. At exactly one in the afternoon, my classmates are back and we started our afternoon session which is the team building activities. We officers offered Ma’am Madrona that we are the one who will facilitate for this session since we prepare three games for the afternoon session. Since I am one of the class officers, I already knew what will be the games we will play. And the first game, which was my idea, is what we called Connect Me. The mechanics of the game is to connect the string to our group mates alternatively by entering the straw or plastic twine into our uniforms. The first group to finish connecting their selves by entering the twine into our uniforms will shout “We are Connected”. And they are the winners! It is a super-duper fun game that’s why I joined even though I am the one who prepared it. I just can’t really help myself since I want to experience that game also. The winners of that game is the group of Jai, they are the one who finished it faster than the other groups. Even though we’re not the one who finished it first, we really enjoyed the game and laugh till our stomach aches. (HAHA) The next game we played is what we called The War of the Fishes. Since it just needs six members per group, all of the officers are the facilitators of each group. We need to observe who make the goal first. Since the mechanics of the game is each group should guard their home or base as well as they should let their fish enter the base of their enemy or the other group by just blowing their paper fishes. Whoever finished it earlier will be the winner (Yey!). This game really makes me laugh because of our classmates who really tried their best to blow the fish in order to make the goal. And to think we just had our lunch, I could not imagine what the smell of their breath was (HAHA). Many of my classmates participated in the game make their complaints because of the bad smell of their breaths (LOL). The last game we played is what we called you belong with me. It is quite challenging since the mechanics of the game is each one of us should wear blind fold, we are grouped into five and each group has their own animal sounds. Each member of the group should find their group mates by just saying or speaking their animal sounds. And whoever completes their group first will be the winner. There are five animals in the game; pig, fox, cow, dog and cat. And I belong to the cow group.  It was very crowded since the area is just small and it was so noisy that’s why it becomes more challenging. And luckily our group wins because we have a good sense of hearing (Yey!). These games played a big role for me to familiarize and to get to know more about my classmates. I got the chance to mingle and interact with them. After playing the games, Ma’am Madrona settled us and discussed things about what we did. She said that our games are already team building activities though it was more into fun. After discussing few things about the tasks we did in our team building. We had our pledge of commitment. I promised to start knowing one’s story and listening to them. I promised to continue being approachable and friendly. And I promised to stop judging people and jumping quickly into conclusions. I shared it with Princess and Mark so that they can remind me of my commitments.  We ended our seminar by acknowledging Ma’am Madrona and giving her a Certificate of Appreciation and token. To sum up everything happened that day I could summarize all of my learning into a quote, “Appreciate those who loves you and surrounds you. Help those who need you. Forgive those who hurt you and judge you. Accept those different kinds of personalities of the people around you. Make yourself open to new possibilities, things and people. Do not be afraid of trying new things because learning has to be in a process. Try to take a risk and make mistakes. If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.”