Month: October 2016

On the teacher’s day, I along with other students of my grade volunteered to take classes in younger grades, so that the teachers could take a break for that day. We dressed up as teachers and then proceeded to organize fun learning interactive activities in grade 7. We designed one activity to test the math skills of the students, we divided the class and then conducted a quiz, the other activity was designed to test creativity and sales techniques. We asked to students to design an advertisement for a vacation in Maldives. After this, we organized a khokho and kabbadi game for the students.

Through this activity, I was exposed to multiple situations where I had to manage young students, I also had to think creatively to come up with activities which would keep the students interested but also, provided them a learning experience. I identified that while creative thinking for games and activities was a strength of mine, but I realized, that management skills could be something I could work on. I felt good about my creativity as the students told us that they really enjoyed the activities, but at certain times I felt helpless as I could not manage and pay attention to every student at the same time. Maybe if I had better management skills, it would’ve been an even more fluent and enjoyable experience.

This activity was a new challenge for me as I am not used to taking care of children and don’t spend a lot of time around children as I do not have a lot of cousins either. The experience wasn’t as terrifying as I had expected it to be as I had already asked a few of my friends ( who had done this before ) about how I should prepare and behave with the students, which made it easy to overcome this challenge. Through this challenge, I also learnt teamwork and creative thinking, as I had to work with 2 of my other friends prior to the activity to plan out the schedule and activity of the kids. I also learnt how to be open to ideas, as we had a lot of different ideas for the activities and to be patient with younger students. These skills will help me when I will repeat this activity or go to NGO schools to teach children or plan activities for other events.

I am usually comfortable with working with others as long as they have the same thinking patterns as I do, but it was not the case this time, which developed me to be more open minded which will help me when I am planning other activities, I also felt good that I could be patient and listen, but I still have a long way to go.

There were various ethical issues that I had to keep in mind, I had to be careful that I was behaving patiently and appropriately with the students, I also had to make sure that I was making the most efficient use of their time as well as ours which made us plan fun – LEARNING activities, I also had to be open minded so that there were no major verbal disagreements among the people who were planning the activities and to pay proper attention and heed to the instructions of the organizers. These issues made me feel like I was turning into a more patient person.

Overall, I had a fun new experience, which tested my creativity and social skills.

I belong to a family which absolutely LOVES travelling, so I had been on a lot of treks and trips in the north before I took this trip with my classmates. And just like I expected, this trip was also an amazing, spectacular and beautiful one.

As a part of our grade trip, we had decided to go to a beautiful place called ‘Naggar’ near Manali, as soon as I came to know about this, I was very excited as I had been to Naggar before and knew that it was an amazing town.

Even though it was my second time going to Naggar, this trip was one of the best treks I’d been to. We got involved in walks, activities, rides, sunsets and so on.

One of the challenges I faced in the trip was the immense walking and physical exertion. Especially, during our long trek to Rumsu village, I noticed myself getting very sick and exhausted. Since I am not a very athletic person and dont work out daily, I had some difficulty in maintaining my strength throughout the day. However, out of fear of missing out ( 😛 ) I still continued every single day despite my legs aching badly. I realised that I needed to work on my fitness. Luckily, we were taught yoga and exercises almost every evening, so I could incorporate those in my daily routine once I got back to surat.

One of the best things about the trip was the kindness of the local people, I had so much fun talking to them and knowing about the history of Rumsu, it showed me that despite having little resources, these people made the best of what they had and were very contended with it. They respected themselves, everyone around them, nature and especially their cultural values. We even saw the house and works of a very famous artist, we saw paintings, their rooms, the architecture, their books etc. And as someone who loves knowing about art and history, this was one of the highlights of my trip.

We also indulged in adventure activities, like skiing and tubing, as I am not a very adventurous person, this was a bit of a challenge for me, but since I had friends who were motivating me, I tried it anyway and had a LOT of fun! Turns out, we shouldn’t say no unless we have tried it.

Since, we were on a school trip to the himalayas, we had to be ethical and judicial when we were using our resources, we had to be careful that we did not waste too much food or supplies and kept everything clean.We tried not to use plastic bags and bottles, and to not waste too much electricity. Further on, we also had to make sure we did not litter as it would spoil our natural resources.

Since we were on a grade trip, it was important that we adjust as group members and not become very demanding, we had to cooperate with each other and share what we had for the common good. Also, all of us were happy to do that as this trip gave us a much needed break among the hustle of submissions and deadlines.

I was a new student, so this trip was very special to me as I made a lot of new friends, and memories which I am going to cherish for a life time, there were some conflicts among our classmates, but all of us resolved them with ease and understanding. I got to know a lot of people in my class in a way which I wouldn’t have in school, we heard horror stories, danced, celebrated new years, laughed, played cards and as someone who shys away from making new friends, this experience was truly eye opening for me.

Overall, this trip was a very memorable experience filled with adventure, historic knowledge, horror stories, yoga and fun! 

Books are a man’s best friend. Ever since I was little, I’ve been an avid reader and imagining a world without books is next to impossible. On a recent visit to a government school, I was shocked to find that a school where hundreds of underprivileged kids studied had a shortage of books.

I was highly motivated to do something about this, so I decided to get involved in  a book drive…but then I thought, why not do something close to home? I decided to organise my own book drive in my neighborhood. At first, I was really scared and lost as I didn’t know the process of how to collect books or where to donate the books I got. I asked a few people about book drives and prepared myself for this new challenge. I and a few of my friends planned carefully about how to approach people, which kind of books would be beneficial to the kids, which houses to visit, how to organize the books etc.

The next step was to find an NGO which would take our books, through some contact we found an NGO called “Yuva Unstoppable” who were ready to take our donations.

We decided to make posters and talk to people to spread awareness about how there is a very dire lack of resources for kids in our city.We made colorful, eye catching, bright posters with slogans about books and the necessity of reading in everyone’s life, including the ones less privileged. While researching and preparing for what to say, I was able to increase my awareness about resources, NGOs, the kind of resources needed according to the target population etc.

When we did go around to people’s houses, I found that people weren’t as open-minded as I thought they would be, it took a lot of convincing for people to even give us books they weren’t using, they would rather give it to the ‘pastiwala’. This was a little disappointing for us, and also increased our work load as we had to go to a lot more houses than we had planned as we did not get enough books at first. I realized that maybe I had to work on my convincing and public speaking skills, and I also realized that I should have a backup plans. However, as we had a group of people working together, we eventually managed to collect some books.

We continued this task for a month, this was a little difficult as all of us had time scarcities due to daily work and studies. But, we were committed to making this book drive happen as we had given our word, so with utmost perseverance we collected books whenever we had little time here and then.

Our next task was to segregate all the books according to genres, languages etc. We had to plan very carefully about this, and we, as group members had a lot of conflicts about this but finally we segregated it and sorted it out.

We finally donated all these books to an organization called “yuva unstoppable” and it was an amazing experience to contribute a little to make their lives more knowledgeable and interesting.

This activity made me realize a very important skill which I needed to develop – my communication skills within a team. I was not able to correctly portray what I expected from my friends and thus there were problems in our planning which led to last minute hassles. Further on, when there were conflicts about making any decisions like how to approach people, making posters or other forms of advertising etc, I was not able to make quick decisions. I observed that this area is something I needed to work on.

One of the ethical considerations I had to keep in mind was that, since I had committed to this cause, I could not fall back as I had given my word to the NGO, I also had to make sure that the books were of decent quality as they were to be given to other people to use and could not just be of bad quality.

Also, as a leader of a team, it was important that I stay rational and calm, and make smart decisions while respecting my teammates and their ideas.

 

Despite shortcomings and hurdles in our plan, I genuinely felt good doing this activity. I had lots of fun making posters, and felt proud when we collected a large number of books. Though it was a very small scale activity, I learnt important lessons on team work and Books impart knowledge in a way media never can, it improves language, stretches our imagination and implants new ideas in young minds. It is a necessity and the lack of available resources for underprivileged is a global problem and this small scale activity made me realize what a great problem this is and that we should all take steps to bring solutions to it.