So this year, Fountainhead School had decided to start service sessions in the school where students from government school select the one thing they want to learn and come to Fountainhead and we teach the students the activity they select. This session was for 6 weeks on every Saturday. I had opted to teach basketball to the government school students with a few other friends of mine. At first, we had thought the students coming would be near the age group of 14 and so we had a mindset that we would be able to teach them easily but the students came and they from an age group of near 9-14, this was a tough part. Then too we gave our best and were happy with our efforts.
Learning Outcomes achieved-
Lo2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process-
As mentioned earlier that the students were not from the age group expected, for once I was really taken aback because I had never taught basketball to anyone and I have to teach young chaps. But then once we started, everything went in the flow. Another challenge our group faced was the language barrier, I was the only one in my group who knew Gujarati, and the student who came to learn only understood Gujarati so we were unaware of this instance, whenever my friends individually went to correct them, they used to do something different then what was instructed because they didn’t understand Hindi, so then I told my friends that whenever they want to correct them, call me I will translate it for them in Gujarati.
Lo3- Demonstrate how to Initiate and plan a CAS experience-
As this was a session for 6 weeks every Saturday, a plan was definitely required. As soon as I had selected basketball, after a few days the school had given us a plan to follow, so on the first day, we followed the plan and it worked. But when the plan for the second session, I was doubtful as the plan included some experienced skills and the students were really new to the game of basketball and so the second session did not go as per the plan, then I myself made a plan as to how to take the sessions as the plans given by the school were a bit difficult for beginners, I informed my group as to what to do per session and they followed. The students coming were really learning and the joy on their face was visible and satisficing.
Lo4- Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experience-
As the service session dates came, the first session’s date was the same date that I had to visit Mumbai, I was going to Mumbai but just the day before leaving, it got cancelled and so without making any excuses, I had gone to the service session even though I had a valid reason if I would have missed the session, but I didn’t miss the session. I also remember that there was another sports tournament which had clashed with one of the service session dates, so we had the permission to miss the session, but I had gone to the organiser and had a word with him saying to keep our match later as we would be attending the service sessions, it was really kind of them and appreciating my dedication, he did shift the match later.
Lo5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively-
As we were a group, it was really easy for us to divide the work and perform the task easily. We first introduced them to the agenda for each session and then started with the normal training, once they started to learn basic skills, we then moved on with some advanced skills and for that individual attention to them was required and so each one of us took one to two students and taught them separately and worked on their positions and the perfections of the drills. Dividing the students made the work really effective.
Lo6- Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance-
The global issue related to this activity was Hygiene. Hygiene, as we know a lot of diseases spread due to being unhygienic and the students being from a government school, were not aware of this in detail. After the sessions were over, they use to drink water from their dusty hands(as they played basketball, the hands gets dusty and dirty). So in the very next sessions, I used to inform them to first clean their hands with soap and then drink water or eat something. This stops a lot of diseases to occur and makes them stay healthy.
Lo7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choice and actions-
as mentioned earlier about the incident of me going to Mumbai which got cancelled and I had then attended the session, it was my dedication and dignity to work assigned to me. Also on the very last day, we had to make them play a match. After a few minutes, I saw that students from our school were playing and the government school students were roaming or seeing them, I went to them and informed them that this type of behaviour is not accepted and they need to find their assigned students and make them play. They did as informed. This was my honesty to my work.
My takeaways-
- I improved my communication skills as I had to talk to a lot of students in Gujarati(to most of them) and Hindi(to some of them)
- This was like a social cause where we work without any vested interest and benefit others. Here, the kids got to learn new skills which are not taught to them in their school.
- I was really happy to see the joy that was on their face when they learned something new, and even when they performed a skill correctly, this made me feel happy.
- 1 thing that I would like to change is the plan and will like to make the plan more simple so that the students can learn a few skills, but with perfection.
Evidence-
My Certificate of participation- 
My teammate teaching a student- 