(this is a service which lasts for 3 consecutive weekends, the volunteers have to select an activity- I choose dance- and spend 2 hours every saturday, sunday for 3 weekends to teach underprivileged children. Through this activity, I have covered C- creativity, when me and my team members choreographed our dance, A- activity as the activity selected by me was dance which requires a lot of physical movement, S- service as I was providing back to my community and helping the underprivileged.)
As an IB learner, the significance of community service cannot be overstated. IB is not just about academic excellence but also focuses on nurturing individuals with a sense of responsibility towards their community. By participating as a volunteer for community service, we do not just return to the community but also learn how to appreciate whatever you have. This provides the opportunity to step into the shoes of the underprivileged and understand their struggles. This fosters a profound sense of empathy and compassion. Additionally, this cultivates a sense of global citizenship as it encourages us to consider ourselves a members of an interconnected world. Moreover, community service encourages teamwork and collaboration. As I worked with my 3 team members to choreograph the dance and other 20+ volunteers to teach the 300+ kids. All in all, community service offers a very effective way to develop our character.
| LO 3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience |
Even though, this was not an event that I initiated (our school has been doing this for past few years), but as one of the four leaders of the “dance” activity I have planned this experience. Usually, I am an organized person who can manage all the tasks and provide sufficient time to all of them, however, things in DP has changed. In 11th, we have so many tasks, assignments, IA’s and SA’s to take care of that managing and organising myself became difficult. Me and my team members initially thought of having a online meet once in a week (since we have the community service for 3 consecutive weekends) however, it was difficult for all of us to come together on the same time. This made choreography (planning) a lot harder. But what I discovered in this process is that I am good at working in a group. When it became difficult to manage time at home, what I suggested was to personally prepare a part of the choreography at our own pace and then to meet in school breaks to fix the choreo. This worked incredibly and we were able to make the service a success. Now that I got the experience, planning in the future is going to be easy. This is because I can now analyse my strengths and weakness and work accordingly. I believe that it is very important to know how to plan and initiate activities. This is because life provides with a lot of opportunities to hold events and it can be anything as small as gathering people for a book read-aloud session and as large as a college fest. But planning and initiating such activities help us to analyse our strengths and weakness and also learn how to work with a group of people.
| LO 4- Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences |
Community service lasted for three weekends, where the volunteers were expected to show up every saturday and sunday for about 2 hours to teach dance to the less fortunate kids. For students, the weekend is a great deal. This is a mini-vacation from our work loaded days and in this time we can complete a lot of our assignments and also enjoy some of the time. However, this required a lot of dedication. At times I had so much of homework that I felt like not going, but I managed to show up every weekend which demonstrates my commitment. Furthermore, it is not easy to teach 300+ kids when you are just 4 on the stage and 20 with them. Majority of the children would not even listen to us and cry, become irritated or refuse to cooperate. But to understand that they are young and ensure that they leave with some learning, it took a lot of patience. Us students do not have the experience of teaching children and we are not habitual to being very calm, at times we would wish we could just shout to get the pin-drop silence we wanted however, we understood the responsibility that we hold and instead we would make them do some fun dances. Additionally, we had the language barrier. We could not converse in English with them and their language is the one that I am not so fluent in. So this was another challenge for me. Moving on, it is not so easy for me to commit to things, I often get bored or even if there is one instance of my dislike I would like to leave the work and I would often question myself why so? But it is just how I have always have been. However this experience was different, even though I had to wake up early, manage my time, be calm and patient, what I noticed was how all of the other volunteers would always show up, how the children were always so excited to interact and that is when I committed fully to this experience.
Perseverance helps us show progress even when times are tough. It is very important that we develop both, perseverance and commitment at our young age. When in the future, we would set our goals, we are always going to have obstacles in our way but if we commit to it and show persevere then we will make progress and learn the skill.
| LO 5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively |
Working in group is generally easy for me but that is so because I would usually take the initative to complete the task due to my lack of trust on the other team members. I usually just believed that the others would not submit the task with full dedication and on time which is why I would take the lead and complete the task. But this is not what being “collaborative” actually is. Being collaborative means to divide tasks and engage everyone in the activity. And so I had to change my mindset to actually respect everyone and work in a group.
During this service of mine, it was difficult for me to work with the other leaders because we would not be able to meet on the same time and then everybody would just have their own choregraphies. We would often debate on which one are we going to choose since everybody wanted to take the leadership. But in the end, we would just adjust everybody’s choreo together which would make the perfect sync. Sometimes, we would decide to completely chuck of some parts of my choreography, which was completely fine because while working in a group you have to respect everyone’s opinions and just trust them.
Furthermore, after us, the 4 leaders would decide on a final choreography, we had to pass it on to the 20 volunteers. This was another difficulty because the other 20’s had their contrasting views. But we all would discuss patiently about why they feel which step is not fitting and then change accordingly.
It is highly important to be able to work collaboratively with the others. This is because we live in an interconnected world. There will never be a moment where you can completely rule all of the individuals. We are always going to have teams and if we do not learn how to respect others opinions and trust them, then we could be the root cause of arguments. Collaboration improves the way we work in a team. It improves productivity and allows us to consider new possibilities.
Teamwork and leadership played a major role in my activity. If we did not work as a team, there was no way we could manage 300 kids and teach them. Our main goal was not just to teach them the dance but to interact with them, know them and build some memories. It would not have been possible if we would just fight amongst ourselves, however working in a team, us, the leaders being ready with the choreography, teaching the children at a slow pace all of it turned out to be a success.
| LO 7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions |
While I was demonstrating the dance for the children, I had to make ethical choices about my words and actions. It was very important that we, as the voice of the school and an responsible individual, do not speak or do anything such that would make them feel embarrassed or inferior to us. This would affect me indirectly and directly both. Directly because when I see that these smiling faces have turned upside down, I would question my own self and feel guilty of the words that I have said/actions that I have performed. Even though, after a certain point, the children would become all irritated and would cry and not listen to us, we had to remain calm. This made me feel irritated as well and sometimes frustrated but knowing that they have come here, to our school, will all the trust that we will be taking proper care of them, I could and never would say anything/do anything to make them feel uncomfortable and unwelcomed. Even before, the activity I have always respected the unprivileged children, however through this activity I got more mindful of the words/actions I say/do.
The learner profile characteristics that I developed through this activity are-
- communicator- while communicating with the other volunteers in order to tell them the flow of the day, the choreography but at the same time even considering their perspectives. And also, while interacting with the children as I had to often switch to their mother tongue and use actions to portray what I was meaning.
- balanced- since this activity was during our weekends, I had to balance my studies and the service
- reflective- after the service, reflecting on the mistakes made throughout and analysing what could be improved.
- creative thinker- as I had a part in choreographing the dance.
This activity did not just benefit me with development of skills but also others. The small children that were here to learn got some long-lasting memories. We interacted to such an extent that they even took our contact numbers by the end of the session. More than that, there were children who did not even know how to dance, it was their first time dancing and yet they learned 5 new choreographies which they could perform anywhere they wanted.
What shows our success is the small faces filled with huge smiles. Each and everyday there was not one student who would not show up. All of them came up all excited and greeted us with hugs. They were so happy to be guided by us. Our bond felt just like a family. One highlight of this experience for me was “friendship day”. Friendship day came between one of our sessions, and guess what the children did? They all bought friendship bands for us, volunteers. We all had our hands filled with bands. I was so overwhelmed by this experience. All of this showed how we did not limit ourselves to just teach them, everyday we would go to them, they would share us their opinions and we would interact. This showed me how you can learn so much from the less fortunate as well. When I used to come, sometimes I was all sleepy and like why did I even come today? But that was because I was way too comfortable at my house sleeping in the AC and if I had stayed maybe I would wake up late. But those kids, they were always so enthusiastic, no matter how tired they were, no matter the amount of efforts they put at their home, and the fact that even when they go back they can not just lay in the AC and be like relaxed. I learnt that we always should step out of our comfort zones, we should challenge our own selves and be grateful for what we already have.
