One of the many things that I’m grateful for is education. I find myself blessed to have the the means to study and become educated, even during a global pandemic, a time when so many underprivileged students lost this opportunity because they did not have the necessary resources for an online education. Akash, the nine year old son of the service providers in my home, went to a government school, that totally shut down because of the covid breakout. He did not have a laptop or a smartphone for alternative means to educate himself and so I decided to help him. I used my free time to teach him basic necessities like reading and writing in english and introducing numbers and counting.
Learning outcomes achieved: LO2, LO3, LO4 and LO6
LO-2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
Balancing this with my own studies was definitely a challenge since it was a long term experience. Hence, I worked on my time management skill over the duration of this experience. I had to ensure that my sessions were fruitful and that he made valuable progress with each class. Trying to explain a new language and meanings of different words along with fluent translation unquestionably helped me polish up my communication skills. Another challenge I faced was to reach out to someone who had a language barrier with me. However, I was lucky to have a student who was genuinely excited and interested to learn something new which encouraged me to give my best.
LO-3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a cas experience
Since I conducted these classes every alternate day, I had to keep in mind the time duration spent and the progress being made. It was important for me to schedule it properly and take regular tests. I used videos, books and pictures to ensure that the sessions were interesting. All of this required beforehand planning.
LO-4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Since I had taken it on my hands to ensure that he received quality education, even though it was starting from basics, I had to be invested with the time I spent on teaching him. Taking out time from my daily routine and managing academics was a task. I had to conduct regular sessions, give oral and written practise and test him every other class. All of this required commitment and perseverance.
LO-6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
This experience helped me work towards a global cause of quality education. Teaching someone one-on-one, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, assessing what works for them and then conducting sessions accordingly was one way I was engaged to try my best at providing a better education.
Put in a nutshell, I think this experience made me realise how fortunate I was. It was like a wake up call to not take things for granted. I developed a number of skills throughout the process. The learner profile attributes I could associate with this experience were ‘caring’ and ‘communicator’.
Evidence:
