This CAS reflection will be for the Creativity, Activity and Service strands. The school had offered us a chance to serve underprivileged kids, where they were being taught various things like: Frisbee, Football, ICT, Dance, Art and Craft etc. from us. I taught them the sport Ultimate Frisbee, and I was incharge of the same. I also played with the children and had designed some new drills to make it easy to introduce the sport to them. It was a 3-weekend, 6 days event, with each session spanning 2 hours. Each weekend they came and learnt about the sport and after, they practice drills for a week. After each practice session, the kids were given snacks and lemonade from the school’s side. At the end of the 6-session program, the students were clear with the fundamentals and basics of the sport. One challenge we faced was, students not regularly showing up. Very few students showed up for all the sessions, which made it difficult for us to track their progress. From the second weekend itself, we had to run two different batches with some new students showing up. Another challenge was language barrier; children weren’t familiar with English and some other mentors weren’t familiar with their native language.
LO1- The sport Ultimate Frisbee is my strength as I am playing and practicing the sport from 5 to 6 years. The sport has influenced my life to an extent, made me more committed to other things, motivated me to stay fit etc. The area for development is the teaching factor. Even though I am good at the sport, I can still improve when it comes to teaching other kids right from the basics of the sport.
LO2- The challenges were addition of new kids every weekend and language barrier. We had created 2 batches from the second weekend, one with the kids who already knew the sport and other for the new kids. Language barrier was overcomed by dividing mentors who knew the native language in which the kids spoke, giving the instruction in multiple languages like HIndi and Gujrati.
LO5- For this particular experience, working with others effectively helped in overcoming the challenges. We had to handle 30+ kids at the same time as well as give instructions to them in multiple native languages. I, being the leader of the activity, had to assign work to each of the mentors and supervise if they were doing their job appropriately.
LO7- I had to ensure that no children / mentors cheat during practicing or playing the sport, and follow the rules of the game.
