On the weekend of January 11th and 12th, our TA, WorkLearn, and Volunteering students gathered bright and early at the CK Choi Building to kickstart a new term of working. Our TAs and WorkLearns got to team build as well as further sharpen their skills in facilitation and leadership through workshops that were prepared by teachers and students.
Day 1 – TA/WL Training
January 11th was the first day of training. An important aspect of the training session was building self-leadership and developing personal awareness. Our TAs led the way by providing personal testimony on their own experiences to their peers on the troubles and challenges that arose in their line of work and provided their own advice on how to make the best out of every situation.
Hsiang-ning Wang introduced skills and approaches to problem-solving and how to be active listeners in the workplace.
Yinghua Tsai and Anyi Lee helped our TA and WL’s developed strategies to facilitate oral practices as well as how to mentor our Oral Practice volunteers. Since oral practice is a crucial aspect of our program, TAs and WL’s responsibilities in each role were stressed clearly. Through some interesting problem scenarios, TAs and WLs were able to put in the knowledge learned into practice.
Day 2 – Volunteer Training
Day two of training on January 12th was where our TAs and WLs took on the leadership role and practiced their own facilitating skills. TAs and WLs went through problem scenarios as well as provided fun simulations to demonstrate what would happen during Oral Practice sessions with our Chinese Language students. Organized by our TA team, the volunteers engaged in games and interactive icebreakers that helped in building cohesion within our language learning enrichment team.
Pihua Lin and Lijung Lee helped our volunteers identify learning objectives for both our Heritage and Non-Heritage students. The most important aspect stressed by both instructors was the connection between language learning and peer support. Without these volunteer language partners, our language students would be missing out on crucial authentic language practice.
Our Event and Media TAs also gathered and introduced our volunteers to the many events that the program hosts throughout the year. Volunteers are an instrumental part of each and every event we host as a department and we are so thankful that we have such excellent volunteers that readily put their hands up to help out in any way they can.
All in all, these two days serve as the bedrock for the rest of the term and we are so excited to have onboard all these amazing TAs and WLs, as well as fabulous Volunteers. Everywhere, there was laughter to be heard! We hope to continue growing and cultivating student leadership through our very own students!