‘Whakanui’, meaning a ‘Royal Wedding’ or ‘Celebration’ in Maori, was a literary event held at our school. Being part of our Language curriculum, the entire grade was divided into 7 teams, each with a different continent/region. Our team was assigned ‘India’ and I was the team leader, making this a CAS project for me. We took up the Jodhpur Royal Family in Rajasthan and worked upon creating various types of texts (Invitation Cards, Menus, Photos etc.). After this, we divided text types among ourselves according to our strengths, properly analysed the content while relating it to our learning and successfully completed the task.
LO1-Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
While I have always worked well under leadership, I am not too familiar with the concept of leading a group to accomplish a new task at hand. I had opted to become a team leader knowing the risk of failure it carried with the mantle and still persevered. While researching and analysis may have been a strong suit of mine, I was not too comfortable with the process of delegation of tasks according to my team member’s strengths and weaknesses. In jobs requiring a good authority figure, even the slightest mistake could have proven to be constantly and thus an identification of errors and mistakes was of paramount importance. In the end, I managed to not only find my areas of weakness but also work upon them to ensure we run a smooth show during the actual event itself.
LO2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
The main challenge, as mentioned before, was the part of leadership. I had to be a committed leader for my team as well as myself and I also had to successfully finish my task as well. Alongside this, I had to mentor my team mates when they were in the process of analyzing texts and also had to ensure that we never deviated from the task at hand. All of this seemed daunting initially, however, we managed to overcome this seemingly difficult challenges. For me personally, undertaking arduous problems was a good chance for me to develop new skills which would prove to be beneficial later in life. This is also why it is important to come out of one’s comfort zone and fight against obstacles.
LO3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
This particular CAS experience required me to apply for the position of team leader. Like a job application, one was required to firstly complete a written assessment and then the best applicants were selected to opt for the position of either Event Coordinator or Team Leader. I was not too keen to handle the immense responsibilities which came with the title of Event Coordinator and therefore settled for Team Leader. While the planning of the entire event was done beforehand, the execution was a difficult task. This was because while we had the liberty to choose any royal family from India as we saw fit, we had to make sure that the central idea of our plan revolved around the learning outcomes in English Language & Literature. Overall, it was a hefty but satisfactory task to finish.
LO4- Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Perseverance and tenacity was the name of the game as this was a long, firm journey. As mentioned before, the entire concept of planning a royal wedding was not just an alien concept for me but also my group members. However, we could not permit failure. Thus, I came up with the idea of dividing the group as based on separate text types and made sure to count on the strengths and help prevail over the weaknesses of my team members and me. For me, it is generally a moderate task to stay committed; while I rarely falter, a single mistake can set me back tremendously.
LO5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
The very idea of dividing teams into separate continents and regions was a good puzzle for us to come out ahead by the help of teamwork and collaboration. While I did not have a problem with working with anybody in my team, there certainly were tensions at several points of time during our work. This was because of shallow animosity between some members which was gradually buried. This ensured that all of us worked together to help give a brilliant team effort on the day of the event.
LO6- Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
The idea of multiculturalism is a prominent one in today’s world. It is currently important for everybody around the globe to understand, connect with and respect the cultures and traditions of different groups of people, or nations. The idea of acceptance was thus deeply rooted within our entire event and I feel that our entire group came to a realization of the sheer beauty of our traditions. We came to respect the idea of a royal wedding planned in India and this was all thanks to Whakanui.
LO7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.
Ethical issues such as citation, plagiarism and inaccuracy of information were prevalent threats to not just ours, but the entire grade’s research. This was because of the fact that many students were not too familiar with the idea of bibliographical evidence. However, everybody made sure to help each other in solving the dilemmas of others and confidently cross the bridge together. The issue of the ignorance of one’s culture was also one which was rampant. This was probably because many people do not value the culture of their own nation and blindly pass judgement. Our group is unashamed in pointing towards the fact that many of our members lacked sufficient knowledge on an Indian royal wedding. However, the best part was that we come together to understand and value the beauty of an Indian royal wedding.
To conclude, the entire event was one of hard work but also of happiness. Learner profiles such as ‘Knowledgeable’, ‘Communicators’, ‘Reflective’ and ‘Open-Minded’ were found in us and we learned a lot about not just our culture but also about the cultures of different nations.
