LEARNING JOURNAL

I learnt that Education is for everybody regardless of their age, gender, races, religion and ability. But most important of all is that those with the knowledge must be willing to share their knowledge with others, especially to those who are in need. Through education we are developing the whole person to be a better person in life with a better understanding of life. Through education also we can have a Lifelong learning which has no limitation as long you have the desire and needs to learn and wanting to know something new. In everyday of our life, we will be learning something new every single day. It’s either intentionally or unintentionally.

We will go through different stages of learning as we grow. The Maturation and Readiness stages is where you as a person will reach your maturity age and ready to face the real world. In other words, you can differentiate between the good and bad in life. So decision making will be made base on your or other’s experiences. But most important of all, you must be willing to face the consequences on your own decision or mistakes.

In order to create interest to our learner we need to motivate them in order to teach and generate the interest of learning and wanting to know something new. Through the interest generated we are indirectly creating their participation. Therefore it would be wise to evaluate our activities to create participation. Without participation, there won’t be any activities, and with less participation your activities will not give a big impact on the objectives.

There are many things that constitute to learning process which could be vital in our teaching process. First we must have the right environment of teaching. With good environmentand surrounding we could also generate the interest of our learner.

Both the Success and failure of our learner and ourselves has a close connection between each other. We have to understand this because through our understanding, we will be able to go through and face failure in order to be successful. Therefore a failure person does not means that it’s the end of the world. In fact we tend to understand and learn better from our own failure. Through failure we can be successful in life. With this also we will have beliefs, which is another important tools for every human being to have in them. Through beliefs we can have improve self-confidence and faith. In decision making, it is important to have beliefs when making it, so that you can achieve your target guided by your beliefs.

Some people do tend to use their perception. This is something which needs to be used carefully as perception could be good when used wisely. Sometime people tend to make the wrong perception without even investigating before making the conclusion. With the right attitude you can make the right perception in anything that you do. But don’t let your perception take control of your life instead you must be in control before making any perception in your life.

With all this we would be able to discover something new or to discover that you made a mistake is part of learning. To learn something in life, its either you have to go through mistake to experience it or you can discover it from your other people’s experience.

WORK ATTACHMENT PROJECT (WAP)

ORGANIZING A TENNIS TOURNAMENT 2008

INTRODUCTION

I just recently finished organizing our bi-annual International Tennis Tournament which draws a total of 130 players from all over the continents around the world. It is an under 18 International Tennis Tournament Circuit where it is divided into 2 seasons – Summer and Autumn. Winner from every round will get points which will constitute to their world ranking position. The event was divided into 2 groups – boys and girls. I have been organizing such event since 1992 till recently. Every tournament organized there is always a learning process involved, especially in educating the younger generation either the players or the organizers, into how the tournament should be run according to the International standard. I delegating my knowledge to the youngsters and it will be up to them to decide whether they needed the knowledge or not. The tournament did not have any officiating (umpires) except for semifinal and final matches. The whole idea of the tournament without umpires was to educate the players the spirit of fair play and honesty, before they proceed to the next stage of their tournament career which is the adult event or Men’s or Ladies event. Meanwhile for the organizer point of learning, this tournament will help them to be more independent on their task and responsibility on how they could manage all the organizer and players needs.

PLANNING PROCESS

A committee management (association members) meeting was held four months before the event, to discuss on the vision of the proposed event which was submitted by the Secretary General, whether it is worthwhile or not to host it. Besides the vision, the committee management also discussed on the budgeting or expenses of the event and how the source of financial will come from. Then the proposed date of the event will then be discussed either it is suitable for our own players and organization to have it. Once the proposed date is confirmed then the tentative dates will also be discussed incase the event needs rescheduling due to unavoidable circumstances.
Prior to the approval of the event and its date, the committee management then appointed a Tournament Director, in which is normally myself as the Secretary General of the association. As a Tournament Director it is my responsibility to produce an operational plan and to manage the overall organization of the event which includes appointing the organizing committee which include recruiting volunteers (especially the youth or ex-junior tennis players), for available positions in the event structure and also to do the projected event expenses together with the Treasurer. In order to save cost in organizing the event, I have to source for my network whom I could use to get all the logistics support in which is the costly part of the organization. Through the network support I managed to negotiate on the usage of government facilities such as Tennis Venue, Accommodation, Transport and Medical staff. So herewith I have achieved the committee management main criteria to save cost on organizing the event.

Then the event structure or organizing committee which was constructed by the Tournament Director which consists of Treasurer (existing), Tournament Referee and Volunteers which consist of the Chief of Umpires and Ball kids, Head of Court Facilities, Head of Technical, Head of Hospitality and Public Relation. Treasurer will be responsible to control all expenses of the event in order to save cost on organizing it. The Tournament Referee will be to foresee all matches are being run according to the schedule. The duty of the Chief of Umpires and Ball kids will be to select successful candidates to be umpire and ball kids during the tournament and at the same time to conduct courses and training respectively for those successful candidates. Head of Court facilities will be responsible to make sure that all match courts are well equip as required according to tournament rules. As for the Head of Technical, he or she will be responsible to make sure that all electronic equipment such as PA System, Electronic Scoreboard and etc are available and in usable condition. Head of Hospitality will make sure that accommodation, meals and transport are prepared and available for the participants. Public Relation will take charge of all media and tournament exposures are done accordingly which includes Special Function such as Welcoming Dinner and Prize Presentation. All the relevant organizing committee was part of the planning process of the tournament.
The first organizing committee meeting was held three months before the event, to call in all the volunteers where the main topic of discussion will be the selection and appointment of the right person or candidate for their respective position base on the organizing committee structure. The meeting was chaired by the Tournament Director without the presence of association’s committee management. After the appointment then everybody were briefed on their roles and responsibilities, besides providing all the information needed on where and how they could achieve their assignment target including the time frame given to achieve it.
Meetings were arranged on weekly basis so that everybody could report back on their progress and if they needed assistance, we will decide on who should assist them. After every organizing committee meeting, the Tournament Director together with the Treasurer will then arranged for a meeting with the association’s committee management in order to report back on the progress of the organizing committee.

IMPLEMENTATION

During the tournament period, a daily morning briefing were conducted with a limited time frame of half an hour before the start of the match where everybody in the organizing committee would present a brief report on the day before and put up any issues or problems that needed mending or solving. By doing this it would help to minimize errors on a daily basis. All activities and problems were recorded during the briefing and distributed within one hour after the daily briefing to everybody by the Tournament Director which includes all the suggestion on how to mend any issues or problems. During the daily morning briefing every individuals were be congratulated either they did a good job or not the day before but most important of all, everybody deserved it and everybody is in a learning stage including myself. We can never be perfect in anything we do in life as we are all human being which are prone to make mistakes. As long we don’t do the same mistakes again and again.

CONCLUSION

Every individuals will be congratulate either they did a good job or not the day before but most important of everybody is in a learning stage including myself. We can never be perfect in anything we do in life as we are all human being which are prone to make mistakes. As long we don’t do the same mistakes again and again. As a whole the tournament main objectives is to educate the youngster to interact among each other within the tennis fraternity, either players and coaches or officials. Through this process of communication and interaction, it would help the youngsters to be more independent in managing their own playing career. This process of education is really important as the younger tennis player would have to manage their own tennis life career when they reached the adult stage. As for the volunteer organizer, they would need this learning process to enable them to be more independent in making their own decision in regard to assisting all the needs of the players and main organizing committee. There was a holistic learning process going on throughout the tournament, either it was a peaceful learning process or a painful learning process. But most of all, everybody is learning.

Beliefs: Beliefs is very important for every human being to have it in them. Through beliefs we can have improve self-confidence and faith. In decision making, it is important to have beliefs when making it, so that you can achieve your target guided by your beliefs. "Anything is POSSIBLE"

This clearly shows that different person will have different way of learning. From the look of this person, he doesn't seem to enjoy what he is listening too. Good example of "Force Learning" where the outcome would be "NOTHING" - nothing to learn.........

This group is waiting for their turn to be trained as a successful Geisha! Remember training is part of learning too!!!!!