School Service Sessions

Students from government school attended these sessions held at Fountainhead school for about a month and a half. There was an option where we were given various activities to opt from, for conducting with those children. Children were to be taught activities like dancing, art, and craft, football, frisbee, basketball, cooking and etc. so that they get an exposure to different extracurricular activities. Dance is my passion and as I enjoy doing dancing and would have loved to teach the students the same hence I opted for the activity when volunteering form was circulated by the school. My vision was to make these sessions memorable, fun and meaningful for the students. The aim was to keep the dance move as simple as possible yet a little challenging so that they can get an exposure to learning something new.

Challenges faced and how did I overcome them:

  1. Interaction with Children

  2. Collaborating with younger students of my school

  3. Sound management

  • I have previously conducted service session in a slum area of Surat, where I taught kids basic computer. I have also taught dance to children at a government school. Hence this was not the first time I carried out such an activity. However, it was a different experience this time as previously I was allocated a group and had to individually handle them whereas this time the scenario had changed we were allocated a group with which we had to work and collaboration.

  • It was the first day and I had nothing planned in my head, just stepped on the bus to go to school with pure happiness and excitement. I was not even aware about all the team members and this was supposed to be the first time I interacted with almost all the other team members. I understood that I will be required to be understanding, openminded and respectful towards everyone on my team and it was not difficult to carry these attitude out. Though it was not difficult and I could deal with it It was challenging. The majority of group member was from the lower grades and had their own plans for every Saturday which they wanted to carry out. It was difficult to come to a conclusion about which song to teach and how many people will carry out the warm-up and who will prepare the dance.

  • I was the one who interacted with the children form government school the most and I was also the one leading the warm-up along with leading the process of teaching them to dance as I was comfortable with the language they spoke. We mutually used to come to conclusions as to which song to be taught and how by synergizing and giving respect to each other’s ideas.

  • There was always a problem in managing the sound. No one really did that job well as the songs were quite a lot of ties paused where not required and played from the wrong point. I have lost my temper like twice in the entire 6 days but made sure to apologize if in case things were said and done unintentionally. Behaved as a leader in managing by trying to be calm, respectful and open-minded towards everyone.   

  • Though there are times when I do not easily get along with people who are not like-minded and it takes me time to adjust with people and be open-minded this time it was a smooth process. I was understanding everyone around me and hence got the same kind of response back. They were also understanding me and my ways of doing things.  It is important to work collaboratively in a team as when people get together with their respective ideas and opinions which are then discussed and actions are implemented it reaps better results. It is quite possible I might have some idea which is related to another person’s idea on my team and their idea along with mine can be modified to bring in a new and better way to do something and so we should collaborate when in a team.  

Perseverance or commitment:

  • I don’t have school over the weekend so that is the time when I do my extra studies and pursue my extracurricular activities. For service sessions we had to come to school on Saturday afternoon for consecutive 6 Saturdays, this was difficult. I faced problems such as time management and procrastination for like 2 sessions as I was just getting the hang of it. It was initially tiring as directly after my dance session with the children I used to go for my frisbee practice sessions. But, I was was strong headed and knew that service sessions are not something I would miss on for completing my other work. I figured out how to manage my time and balance out my schedule actively. I was proud of myself as I was managing myself well and along with that managing a new group of students every other Saturday. The feeling of pride grew and I gained confident in myself as I was being balanced and multitasking as well as managing my time. Commitment is important in order to gain happiness and achieve goals that we set for oneself as you give no excuses to escape from your tasks.

The most special part of all was when we used to say goodbye to each other. Everyone remembered my name and with smiles waved goodbyes and promised to come again over the next weekend with the same energy. The smiles on their faces made me happy and the feeling is beyond words. It’s the most precious feeling to make others happy with your actions and leave them with joyful memories and learnings. After such a wonderful opportunity I am looking forward to passing on my skills and learnings to many more underprivileged children in my community. A light to do something bigger and better has raised.

 

 

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