CREATIVITY, ACTIVITY, and SERVICE (combined)
Activity and Goal:
The activity was to initiate PLA(peer learning assistance). Younger students who face trouble in understanding the MYP concepts; to help them out with the sustainable goal of quality education in mind.
Each child has different pursuits and interests and when learning is connected through those interests it becomes easy for the child to grasp that knowledge. Thus, the main goal for me was to understand the core interests of the child, to connect the MYP concepts with the same, and make learning easier for the child.
Creativity-different pedological styles of teaching
Activity-Tests to track their progress + tests designed considering the wow factor of each student
Service-helping students learn
LO1
Did you identify your strengths and weaknesses?
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| -Creative ideation | -lack of patience(getting irritated by silly doubts ) |
| -good delivery | -Sometimes make use of informal diction |
| -coherence and logical flow to the teaching |
How do you feel now that you’re aware of it?
I feel like I must work on each of my weaknesses by devising an action plan to help me better help the students.
Why is it important for us to know our strengths? Or weaknesses?
It is important to know both of them, for us to know where we truly stand. If we know our weaknesses, we know the areas we need to put in the extra effort to achieve perfection and if we know our strengths, we can make sure we use all of them to put our best foot forward.
Did you work/ or would like to on your weakness
I did work on my weaknesses. For informal diction, I started thinking first before speaking. For the patience issue, I tried to work on my communication skills with the students and thought about all the times I went to my teachers with my silly doubts and how they were cool as cucumbers.
Relate one area where overcoming this weakness would have benefited you
It benefits me to grow as a teacher. I have always secretly thought of becoming a professor and I think my CAS project is in a similar direction. Also working on my patience helps me grow overall to become a more mature and composed student.
LO2
What was so challenging and why?
For the 4 children that opted in for the help, all of them had various and different interests. With some concepts I was able to relate to their hobbies and interests, but it was not possible to do that all the time. It was challenging to connect the concept to each child’s interest area.
Have you done anything similar before?
Usually, I help out my friends before their exams; so I know how to deliver the information and connect it to their interests.
How did you overcome this challenge?
I overcame this challenge by scheduling separate meetings. Since there were only 4 children, I scheduled separate meetings with them to cater to each of their doubts. It made more sense that way and then for each of their doubts, I tried to connect with them and their interests.
How do you feel about having undertaken this challenge? Why is it important for you to undertake new challenges?
I feel happy having undertaken this challenge since it helped me see the other part of me as a teacher. It is important to undertake new challenges as being in the comfort zone wouldn’t enhance my growth.
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?
As mentioned above, I discovered the skills of enhancing my delivery when teaching, increasing my patience, and the ability to connect with those that I am teaching. These skills can help me if I choose to pursue becoming a teacher or a professor, nevertheless, increased patience and ability to explain concepts makes me a better student. These skills make me more confident about my own learning concepts and it is important to learn new skills to grow overall as a person.
LO3
How did you organize yourself?
By planning deadlines for myself in my diary.
Are you usually an organized person?
Not really, I just make a to-do list for every single day, since long-term goals sometimes scare me. So I break it down into an everyday list, to end up achieving the long-term goal.
What was difficult? Planning or the initiating? Why?
Planning was easy but then initiating with all students combined in one session was tough, due to the range of interests of the different students. When I chose to take each child’s session separately, over there too initiating was tough since I had to invest more time overall.
Did you discover any skills you hadn’t known or learned yet that you had to use for the planning and initiating of this activity?
Patience and tolerance, since factors out of my control, were taking up more time than they should have according to my plan. For instance, I had planned to finish a particular topic in a week but as per the child’s receptivity, it took a week and a half. So I learned to always keep extra time in my plan for factors out of my control, such that it doesn’t hamper my overall deadline. Thus, overall, I worked on accurately estimating the time and effort required to complete a task.
Do you think planning or initiating anything in the future will be easier now?
To a certain extent, yes, since I will keep extra time allocated in my schedule for factors out of my control.
Why is it important to know how to plan and initiate activities?
Planning ensures a framework and helps you stay in check with the deadlines. Initiating the plan helps you in the execution towards the goal in mind.
LO4
What made this activity difficult where perseverance or commitment was necessary? How did that make you feel?
When I had to reteach the concepts to the child; because of lack of clarity or lack of attention. That annoyed me and tested my commitment towards the child and his learning. It made me want to quit the task at first, but I committed myself towards the main goal in mind.
What commitment was required to complete this activity?
Commitment towards the goal in mind. The goal towards the end was to make learning interesting and easy for the child by providing good quality education.
Is it easy for you to commit to things? To be persistent? Why or why not? Why is showing perseverance and commitment important?
Being humans, it is not easy for us to commit to things and be persistent all the time. We lose energy, or sometimes out of stress, we tend to lose interest and lose our commitment. But at those points of time, it is important to show our perseverance and commitment, since we must push ourselves to achieve something we truly passionately want.
LO5
Is working with others generally easy or difficult for you? Why?
It is moderate as it totally depends on the person/people I am working with. When the people I work with procrastinate a lot, sometimes it is a bit difficult and annoying, since I have to give them the push and keep motivating them. If the person is active and interested in the task, then it is relatively easy. As such I don’t mind working with other people since usually, the burden is distributed equally.
So, based on your answer to the above question, during this particular activity, was it easy or difficult for you to work with others? Did you have to work with anyone difficult? How did you handle it?
It was a bit difficult since the learners kept procrastinating again and again. At one point, it made me run out of time and motivation, so to a greater extent, it was difficult to work with them, but then when I pushed them and saw progress in terms of their overall grade, it made the difficulty seem worth it. I handled it by motivating them and showing them their finish line to ignite the student in them.
Why is it important to be able to work collaboratively with others?
It helps improve productivity, helps take off the burden, and with more brains working, produces a better output/product/
What was the importance of teamwork or leadership in your activity?
It was important for me to take leadership since it is my project and I had to take all the initiatives; in order to achieve my goals. Teamwork, since I had to understand the student and their interests, to work with them better and help them with their learning.
LO6
What were the issues?
The global issue that I focused on was quality education. Textbook knowledge is needed but so is the ability to connect that knowledge with the real world. Via the way I taught, I connected the most basic concepts with the real world, such that the child gets quality education and can actually make use of it in their field. For instance, a child was interested in shot put. So I explained the angle, trigonometry, and air resistance with the shot put examples.
Why are they important globally? How? Where? How did you know?
Globally quality education is a must. I know this because of the current situation in India. Most of the Indian engineers or qualified students have textbook knowledge however, they lack the skills, due to which they are in crisis to find a job. I know this because of the stats and because of how the government currently emphasizes on quality education rather than just providing education to the child.
How does knowing about global issues contribute to your personal growth? 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 contributes to my personal growth as I ponder about it and take action on the same, in the mode most appropriate for me. It makes me feel motivated, to make a change, in a manner that supports my voice and personality. My work makes me feel proud that through my actions, I was able to address the global issue in some manner.
LO7
What ethical issues were involved in this activity? Explain
I was the one teaching the concepts and I am not a professional certified teacher. I was teaching the concepts on the bus and catering to their doubts and since I myself am also a student, it is to some extent unethical.
Did the ethical issues affect you directly or indirectly?
It did affect me directly since I was extra cautious about whatever information I shared with the students and it always lingered on my mind when I took the sessions.
How did the issue make you feel? What was your opinion on this issue before this activity? Has it changed or stayed the same after this activity?
It made me feel unqualified for the job at first, however, as I took more sessions my opinion changed.
Even our current teachers sometimes make mistakes in teaching the concept or are unable to resolve our doubts at first. I only catered to the doubts I was confident about and the same with the subjects, remembering about my experience with my teachers as mentioned above, helped me feel a bit more sorted regarding my ethical dilemma.
In conclusion,
I was able to demonstrate these LP’s when:
Communicator: to communicate concepts with the students
Thinker: to think about how to connect their interests with the study related concepts
Open-minded: when re-teaching the sub-topics, or catering to silly doubts not letting my personal bias getting in the way
It is linked to my subjects math, chem, and physics; since I am exploring my creativity in terms of teaching the same concepts in a different/engaging manner. It benefits those who attend it since it gives them a new perspective on the concepts they are learning. The highlight of this experience was being able to communicate my thoughts and sharing my insights to the MYP children to help them perform better in their subjects. To a greater extent, my perspectives or values were not altered. But ethically, it was slightly changed as aforementioned. This learning can help my community understand the importance of quality education rather than just education. I achieved success since I was able to communicate the concepts to the students as reflected in their grades which filled me with zest and enthusiasm. I learned to let go of the fears while working and to add time to the original plan for factors out of my control. It is applicable for any tasks that I do in my life.
