Learning is an essential aspect of everyone’s life and it is our fundamental right to learn, whether it is in academics or sports. As a part of community service in school, I decided to teach underprivileged children, coming from several local schools in my city, Frisbee. In several parts of the world, frisbee is a sport that is relatively unheard of and so in order to increase awareness of this sport as well as to teach those children, I undertook this experience. The children taking part would not only learn a new sport but also enjoy their time spent at our campus.
LO1 (Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth)
While I was teaching Frisbee to children I came across that I was good at making them understand basic techniques in frisbee such as some basic throws. This is because I was able to converse in their language and was able to make them understand. The majority of the children that had come did not understand both Hindi and English and spoke in Gujarati. Fortunately, I very well knew how to speak Gujarati and was able to converse with them fluently without any misunderstanding. On the contrary, I also faced some challenges that acted as weaknesses in my experience. In frisbee, I personally was struggling with forehand throw which impacted my teaching. So in order to overcome this challenge, I took help from my friends who knew this type of throw well so that they can teach those children.
LO4 (Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences)
This experience required commitment and perseverance from my end because teaching is a slow process that demands time and patience. Making children learn frisbee acted as a challenge and required perseverance so that effective knowledge regarding the sport is conveyed to the learner. So in order to make those children gain information effectively, 6 sessions of community service were done wherein there were 2 sessions in a week on a weekend (Saturday and Sunday) starting from 23rd July 2022 to 7th August 2022. I ensured that I attend each and every session and also made sure that whatever knowledge I delivered was comprehensible and easily understandable to the learners in order to make them completely aware of the sport at the end of these sessions.
LO5 (Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively)
This experience also required me to demonstrate social and collaborative skills with my peers as well as those children. Usually, when we taught the children, we were often divided into groups of three or four to teach the children. This was because the batch contained a lot of children so we had to make groups so that we can teach more of them. Teamwork was important in this experience since some drills that we taught required the work of more than one person. Thus effective communication and collaboration between me and my peers resulted in a smooth flow of delivering knowledge to children. While conducting drills, I faced no challenge in terms of collaboration and everyone participate equally. The children that were learning were also disciplined and well behaved which eased our teaching process and benefited us in maintaining a steady pace. Me and my peers helped each other so that we do not miss out on anything.
LO6 (Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance)
Quality education as well as good health and well-being is a fundamental right to each and everyone living on this planet. Physical education such as frisbee can grant these children a way to be fit and happy in their lives. Learning sports can teach them lessons about collaboration and the importance of remaining healthy. Quality education such as academics or sports can be beneficial for them and can enhance their way of living. It can divert them in the right direction and make them aware of what’s correct and wrong. Good health developed through sports can increase their standard of living and as well as their mental and social well-being.
LO7 (Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions)
Ethics in sports education is an essential aspect that needed to be taught to children. Those children were made aware of the code of conduct in sports, especially in frisbee. Ethics in sports is important so that there is fairness and equality. By teaching four key virtues of fairness, integrity, responsibility, and respect, we were able to invoke the spirit of sportsmanship in each and every one of those children learning frisbee. In the first and second sessions, the children were not obeying the rules of the game and were not playing with proper spirit, however as time passed they slowly gained an understanding of the rules of the game and the ethics involved.
In conclusion, this experience helped me develop my collaboration and communication skills. I also develop my learner profile of being caring and a communicator throughout this experience. This community service gave me an opportunity to teach and have fun with other children coming from different backgrounds and walks of life.
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