Keeping The Motivation All High

..keeping the motivation all high. One fundamental aspect of motivation that often been overlooked by us all (Faciteam members) is to keep their (student) motivation all high – post-programme. I remember how our Senior members (Senior Berempat) has always stressed the importance of follow-up. They even has coined up the term Touch & Go to such programmes where we fail to establish contact after program. Failure to do so is pitiful. For not always these bright children (like us, the youth of nation) get the chance to meet their brothers & sisters in university motivate themselves – only to be forgotten weeks later (or even days?). Solutions? Few have resort to suggest conducting follow up sessions; either it a onesession sharing moments, iftar, bowling/futsal tournament. The effort is good. But i belief to cater every single school (even some school has twice or more programs per year) for follow-up is just being unrealistic. Besides, such follow-up is indirectly linked to their motivation. By motivation i mean what they get from the program; the mindset, their purpose in life, their aim, their weakneses (and promises). These are the aspect that needed to be kept high, even weeks (or months) after the program. As such i would like to suggest:

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· Suprise Letters – i remember in one of the programs, Faciteam has make out a move to send letters to themselves, maybe after a month post-program. The content? POA & Surat Akur Janji. I like this concept because as time goes by, the student will get letters out of the blue. From whom? Themselves. As a reminder of their own promises and list of things to be accomplished.

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· (Reminder) Cards –

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Malay Millionaire Azizi Ali, when asked about his success, takes out something our from his wallet. Cards. Laminated. Few of them. All were his aims, missions, targets – all written (i would say printed) clearly, with dateline and time frame. Azizi Ali has already proved to us that this is one among his way to be a millionaire, why not we take lesson?

=) Perhaps we could get a piece of cardboard, cut it to fit your wallet (or make it the same size as any common bank cards). Then the student can write to their cards, whatever they wish (they can have more if they wish. Beside some of us even kept unwanted rubbish & unused cards in our wallets) Perhaps and hopefully, as they search their wallet for extra money in the future, they’ll stumble upon one of these cards, and be reminded of things they wrote. =)

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· Class notice board –

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actually i was thinking of using the class notice board to post everybody’s mission/POA. I m not sure of its practicality, and i believe cooperation from everyone (especially the class monitor) is needed. Understandbly, not everyone like their purpose and aim posted for others to read. But actually its a good way so that people can compare ... and also remind each other (e.g. kalau ahmad tulis “Nak jadi rajin, tak nak

tido dalam kelas”..mungkin kawan dia boleh perli dalam kelas “Hai Ahmad, kata nk rajin xnk tido.. cam sama je.. PMR dah dekat”) Perhaps this method is suitable with those with shorter aim & mission (e.g. PMR, SPM).

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· Social Networking – Facebook, Friendster is a good platform to follow-up. Although sometimes things can turn out to be to social... and be reminded also of the time (loss) factor. They need to study. So do we. All these social networking is addictive. Be wise.

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· SmS – some have tried. I don’t recommend much. So far i’ve seen that SMSing student will end up becoming too personal. Sometimes the faci can’t even have the peace of his mind (when the student called for hours nearly every day).

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· Other methods – other classic method include to slip it inside books/Quran, all with the same concept – so that one day they’ll stumble upon the reminder and be reminded to take action subsequently (hopefully)

These are some of suggestions for follow-up. I know it does not get the faci to be involve much. But being practical,i reckoned these method are our best bet, for now.. .