For the sixth experience,I decided to teach my maid’s child a little bit of english.Teaching is something I am interested in but I don’t want to pursue it as my profession in the future and so I thought to do it as one of my CAS experiences.My maid’s child studies in a government school and the only language she can speak,read and write is in Gujarati and a little bit of Hindi.I am privileged to study in an IB school and so it is my responsibility to share my learnings and knowledge with the ones who are underprivileged.This will not only help me realize my responsibility towards my community but also provide a stream of benefits to my maid’s child.
Learning Outcome 1
1.Did you identify your strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths Weakness
Approaches and methodologies Communicating
Doubt resolving Speed Enthusiastic Patience Adaptable
2.How do you feel now that you’re aware of it?
Now that I am aware of it I feel like improving upon my weaknesses by implementing the required actions which will help myself convert these weaknesses into strengths.I feel like I have to sincerely implement those actions in order to be a better teacher.
3.Why is it important for us to know our strengths? Or weaknesses?
It is important for us to know our strengths and weaknesses in order to know where do we stand which will further help us to improve ourselves at our best levels.Being aware of our weaknesses will help us know on which aspects we have to improve upon and being aware of our strengths will help us realize our real potential and encourage ourselves leading to achieve everything at its best.
4.Did you work/or would like to work on your weakness? Relate one area where overcoming this weakness would have benefited you.
I did worked on my weaknesses by implementing all those actions which were required to work on my weakness .For example for speed,I set a 10 minute timer for each alphabet so that I can teach her all the alphabets that I had to teach in one session.Also,I made sure that I am not rushing by repeatedly asking my student whether she is clear with concepts or not.
Learning Outcome 2
1.What was so challenging and why?
The challenging part was improving upon one of my weakness which is communicating.Being a Marwari I don’t know how to speak Gujarati and my maid’s child could only understand Gujarati and a little bit of Hindi.While conversing with her there were many situations where in I was not able to speak Gujarati but my mother helped me a lot to overcome those difficulties by speaking behalf of me.
2.Have you done anything similar before?
Yes I have done something similar before in a community service event conducted in my school.In grade 7 we had to volunteer for a community service and so I had volunteered to teach art and craft to some underprivileged children who lived in a village near Surat.
3.How did you overcome this challenge?
I overcame this challenge by taking help from my mother and asking her to speak Gujarati behalf of me whenever I used to face any difficulties.
4.How do you feel about having undertaken this challenge? Why is it important for you to undertake new challenges?
I feel satisfied having undertaken this challenge since it helped my maid’s child understand and learn effectively.It is important for me to undertake new challenges in order to witness my own personal growth which can further help me achieve my targets,goals and aims in the future.
5.Did you discover any skills you hadn’t known or learned yet? How could this skill be useful to you in the future? How does having this new skill make you feel about yourself? Why is it important to learn new skills?
Yes I did discovered several skills I hadn’t known or learned yet like being interactive,engaging and enthusiastic while teaching.Also,I learned how to be patient and listen to what your student has to say to you.These skills can be useful to me in the future when I will teach someone something again.It is important to learn new skills as it helps us gain new knowledge-based perspectives and new experiences which further trains our brain to handle a wide range of complexities and challenges leading us to achieve our ultimate goals.
Learning Outcome 5
1.Is working with others generally easy or difficult for you?Why?It depends on the person or the people I am working with.When it is easy for me to communicate with a particular person or a group of people I tend to work at my maximum potential and when it is not so easy I am not able to give all of my efforts and inputs.
2.So, based on your answer to the above question, during this particular activity, was it easy or difficult for you to work with others? Eighty percent it was easy for me to work with my maid’s child because she was attentively listening to what I was saying and it felt like that she really wanted to learn how to read,write and speak in English.The rest twenty percent was hard because of the language barrier which made it difficult for me to communicate with her.
3.Did you have to work with anyone difficult? How did you handle it?No,I did not have to work with anyone difficult because my maid child was cooperating with me by attentively listening and I strongly believe that she tried as hard as she could to learn English.
4.Why is it important to be able to work collaboratively with others?It is important to be able to work collaboratively with others because it helps us improves the way we work to resolve a particular problem which leads to a more efficient result.
5.What was the importance of teamwork or leadership in your activity?It was important for me to take leadership as this activity was part of my CAS experience and so I had to do everything on my own.From teaching to making sure whether she is clear with the concepts or not was my responsibility as I was the one who took the imitative to teach underprivileged children.
Learning Outcome 6
1.What were the issues?This CAS experience focuses on Quality education,Reducing inequalities and Gender equality.
2.Why are they important globally? How? Where? How did you know? I believe that education should be considered as a necessity more than a right as it builds our knowledge and skills and develops our personality and attitude which further helps us improve our interpretation and understanding of the world around us.Throughout the globe there so many different types of people who don’t have an access to education which makes it important globally.According to my research I found out that South Sudan,Afghanistan,Burkina Faso are considered as some of the most illiterate countries with a illiteracy rate of 60 percent.One of the most prominent reasons for a very high illiteracy rate is income disparities and also ideologies who support that females should not be educated.
3.How does knowing about global issues contribute to your personal growth? If I am aware about a global issue which is happening in my surroundings such as in my community or in my environment I would take an initiative and do whatever I can at my own personal level to resolve that particular problem which will teach me new skills and help me gain new experiences.These new skills and experiences will help me encounter a wide variety of challenges arising in the future which will contribute to my personal growth.
4.How does it make you feel now that you are aware of this global issue?How does your work in this CAS activity make you feel about that global issue? It makes me feel so privileged now that I am aware of these global issues and I have realized all the responsibilities I have towards my community and environment.
Final take away
What learner profile characteristics have you developed in this activity?
Reflective:I gave thoughtful considerations to my own learnings and experiences and I was able to assess my strengths and limitations while teaching English which in a way supported my personal development.
Communicator:I expressed ideas and information clearly and confidently in more than one language (Gujarati,Hindi,English) and in a variety of modes of communication (Reading,Writing,Speaking.Also,I willingly worked in collaboration with my student who was my maid’s child.
Open minded:I accepted different culture and personal histories and I was open to the perspectives,values and traditions of other individuals.
Caring:I showed empathy,compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of my student.I had a personal commitment to service and acted in a way which made a positive difference.
Yes there is a link between the subject “English” and this CAS experience and this activity has benefited others.The highlight of this experience for me was when my maid’s child was able to write a short description about herself in English and this particular incident really made me happy.My perspectives or values were challenged and altered because I understood how crucial it is for an individual to fulfill it’s responsibilities and also to be empathetic and compassionate towards individuals,communities and our society as a whole.Now that my maid’s child can speak,write and read a little of bit English she can educate herself even more by taking an admission into a government school.I achieved success as my maid could speak basic English now but anyways this activity did bought a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment to me and my maid.From this CAS experience I learned how to fulfill responsibilities and be empathetic and compassionate towards my society.If I did this activity again I would for sure like to teach more number of people.As such I have not learned anything technical but only realized the responsibilities I have towards my society.This time I focused on only one global issue which was “Education” and so next time I will focus on another global issues and like this slowly I would like to focus on each and every issue prevalent in our society.One way I can contribute to the society is by spreading as much information as I can about the significance of education so that we,the humans,can at least meet our basic necessities in order to survive in this world.
Evidence
