When we were small, we were always told that what we do is what will return to us aka karma. So, sometimes I imagine, what if I were to do some good task not because we are afraid that doing bad will come back to haunt us but do good just for the sake of it. I mean, when the action is returning to us it always has a ripple effect on many people on the way. What if, I did some good and even if I didn’t come back at least it would help someone out on the way. With this in mind, when I saw the form to join for a community service with some not so polite demands but worthwhile happiness on others, I didn’t hold back. (You could say I am an altruistic person)
Being kind to someone is something that I try not to shy away from. If given opportunities, I will always try and help others if they need me in any way or form. Hence, my choice and I don’t say I regret my decision. While having to wake up early on Saturday and Sunday morning did make me irritable regarding the community service I pushed through and had a great time. 10/10, would definitely recommend it to others.
Finally there were a few things that I liked to achieve whilst performing the activity. The first one was developing my dedication and tenacity skills. The second one was the skill of patience as children sometimes take time to learn new concepts or simply don’t want to learn/listen. The third was my ability to work in a team to get the best course of action for the children out of us.
LO2 – [Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills]
The first challenge that needed to be addressed was regarding the children who we were tutoring knowing next to nothing about computers. This was a challenge as it’s difficult to teach someone about something without them even understanding the basics of the concept. Hence, we had to put in our creativity and quick pace skills in order to teach the important and useful bits to the children whilst also staying true to the schedule. Due to this, I learnt an extremely valuable skill where we focus on one child for 30-60 seconds and then not focus on the child for the next 10 minutes. This leaves the child with guidance necessary for development but also allows them to slowly explore the concept allowing them to deepen their understanding.
The second challenge that was experienced was more personal. Waking up early and regularly is something that I fail at horribly. This is a huge challenge that I needed to take care of as it was one of the nagging factors that always lingered and asked me to skip this experience. While I wasn’t able to develop a permanent solution to my predicament, I was able to find a temporary shelter by setting my alarm to 6:00 am as it allowed me to wake due to the time at which I would go to sleep.
LO3 – [Initiate and plan a CAS experience]
One thing that comes to people’s mind when they hear that a person has participated in community service is that the person simply followed along a guide, taught the people and came back. However, they couldn’t be more wrong about it this time. While we did have a list of objectives, we weren’t able to follow through and with great detail prepare new and appropriate content for the children to ensure that the most and the best skills and information are related to them in the shortest time possible with hints of enjoyable activities to keep them engaged. Moreover, with many improvements and dumbing down of objectives, we had to stay somewhat true to the guidelines afterall, we taught them everything from opening and operating the Chrome OS to surfing the internet and making files. All of this needed to be done over a period of 6 days to people who didn’t have any idea regarding technology. This way I learned how to plan my CAS experience as it allowed me to develop and help others in a more effective way.
I hope that this development of skill to initiate and plan will come in handy in my further activities to keep things on track and organized. Allowing me to predict things that may or will go wrong with certain plans and how we can avoid them.
LO4 – [Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience]
“Always get up and keep moving forward… It may be slow but it is still progress”
— Diana Morrow
This is one of the activities where I needed to show my absolute tenacity and keep on it without quitting. The activity required us to come to school at 7 am and then leave at 11 pm. This meant that we were in school even on our weekends earlier than morning. Due to this, for the entire CAS experience we never got a holiday and were working harder than everyone else. There were times where it felt like quitting but I stayed at it and persisted for the sake of pushing India forward.
Normally it is extremely difficult for me to persist at things and I often find myself procrastinating on many objectives and assignments. However, due to this trip I was able to develop my tenacity skill and I can see the effects of it when I find myself completed with almost all my homework.
LO5 – [Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively]
Working with others is something that comes naturally to me, especially when surrounded by friends. However, working in a team where each member focuses on their individual task and pace with only brief meetings regarding the progress was something that was new to me. While it looks similar to a group project it differs on the point that each of us had a different ending. However, due to us still being a team we were able to sometimes exchange students temporarily to teach them concepts that other members weren’t able to teach.
This allowed each of us to cover more topics in shorter time spans. Furthermore, by working in a team we were able to keep all our progress in personalized teaching in a particular track with the other members allowing each of the children to gain exactly the same amount of knowledge but at different paces and according to their prior knowledge.
LO6 – [Engagement with issues of global significance]
“Even the smallest things can make a big difference”
— Unknown
Teaching a few children about computers may not seem like it would have much of an impact on the world but I would beg to differ. While I may not have sent shockwaves around the world with my actions I bought happiness and knowledge to the ones in need. Someday these very people who we taught the computer may develop an interest or simply use the devices for the better of the world. This way they would still have an impact on the world and make my teaching a part of the global significance.
Knowing all of this made my experience that much more exciting. It also sometimes helped me push forward when I felt down or felt like giving up. Not many words can truly describe my feeling which felt great and truly made me feel like I am going to be part of something big or be at the start of something tremendous and big.
Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/N4zcSuKLLjitioyx7
