Swappers Stop was an event that was led by Grade 12 students this year. The event’s sole purpose was to to collect items from students and put them up for other teachers and students to buy at a cheaper price since these items were being thrifted.

My experience as a student was sublime and extremely delightful. This event helped all of us students to put whatever we have learnt through the year to an appraisal. It was just like us doing a job on a smaller scale and in a more comfortable environment, which was in the premises of our school and around our friends and peers.
I was a part of the clothes thrifting stall with 2 of my other friends. All of us set a goal to sell as many clothes as we could during these few hours. At the end of the event, we were very content and jocular with the amount of clothes that we sold. It got even better when our teachers praised our skills, since it takes a lot of effort for our teachers to praise students like us.

The event was success and all of our hard work was noticed and praised by not only our business management teachers, but other teachers and students. That was probably the biggest win I was a part of this year. This is because after the corona virus struck, it took immense effort for all of us to go back to being motivated. However, this event was exactly what we needed to regain our motivational and hard work skills back on track.

The IB learning outcomes this event focus on were :

• LO1: identifying own strengths and develop areas for growth
• LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills
• LO4: commitment to and perseverance
• LO5: Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively
• LO6: engagement with issues of global significance

LO1:

Since we had already learnt how business is done through our fat business management book and our hard working teachers, our knowledge was being put to test in a real life setting, which also meant that we would come across our strengths and weaknesses. My strengths were personally being able to communicate very well with the customers that were coming to our stalls because I am probably the most extroverted person anyone can come across. I never have problems communicating with anyone, not even strangers and that is one of my most well known and addressed skills. However my weaknesses would probably be that I get distracted very easily. I observed myself leaving the setting quite often and going to other venues to meet other friends with a few more friends.

LO2:

Challenges were undertaken in order to develop new skills. As I mentioned earlier, we were performing in a real life setting. Although there were a few controlled variables such as the customers only being school staff and/or students, this was still a new skill being developed of many of us. The new skills we learnt were collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills.

LO4:

Since this was a very time consuming event, it was very important for everyone to maintain their mood swings due to extreme work and exhaustion. This also required a lot of commitment. All of us were expected to make the best out of this event.

LO5:

The event included lots of business students, so we were all expected to work together and maintain peace during working and working collaboratively so that the event turns out successful and hassle free.

LO6:

The event’s sole purpose was to make sure that issues of global significance were addressed. Since all of the items that were put up to be sold were being thrifted, this addressed the issue of reducing, reusing and recycling.