Finishing up Chinese chat in grade 11 has really left some impactful experiences on me. Being able to watch my mentees progress throughout the year in the Chinese abilities with the aid of my teaching and their school learnings has made me feel a sense of accomplishment. It was gratifying to know that my planning towards each lesson was effective yet enjoyable for the students, this ability has also translated into other areas of my life where it was important for me to have a good plan for self-management. This shows learning outcome 3 where I had created a plan for my CAS experience, being Chinese chat, each lesson, I had to carefully plan how I was going to approach the lesson and what subjects and areas I had to cover in order to ensure the learning of the students. Moreover, with each subsequent lesson, I was able to show growth as I had become more accustomed to the teaching role as compared to being a student. Throughout the duration of the activity, I became more aware of what attitude I should be approaching the students with and how I could have the most enjoyable lesson without it getting too boring for the student, seeing as they are kids in middle school, planning out break times or rest times for the to just relax was something important that I found since they couldn’t concentrate for very long. Only after a few sessions of doing this was I able to get the right balance between rest and study which kept the student engaged during our study time but also relaxed enough so that he wasn’t stressed during this lesson. This shows growth because, in the beginning, I was very unsure about how to approach and teach the students, but as time went on and more sessions passed, I become more aware and learned more about the intricacies of teaching and was able to grow into a better mentor for the students.
#lo4
Piano reflection 2
Piano this season has really helped demonstrate my commitment and perseverance because with all my other academic and activity commitments, I have made time during lunches and after school to practice during school and after school. I have since had to have given up time with my friends to go and eat lunch but instead, I went down to the music rooms to practice my songs. I feel like doing this had made me a more organized person as it has allowed me to realize just how much time I can make available for my studies and activities if I am really focused on them. This has also made me realize my ability to commit to something as now I can dedicate a lot of time to something I enjoy, which in turn, can make more a better student as I can dedicate more time to studying. This has also proved to be a development of learning outcome 3 because finding the balance between academics, swimming and piano were difficult. Having to plan for each piano session and time for practices by myself was difficult but after a few weeks of experimenting, I was able to come up with a schedule that allowed me to practice piano, maintain my academic and swimming commitments.
Service reflection 2
This image is showing my confidence levels over time since the start of the service, it has helped to show my perseverance in being able to continue doing the service and help build up my confidence in working with people who have intellectual disabilities. Also working with other people during the activity has helped improve my confidence as it allowed me to express myself better.
After visiting the Minds care centre for the first time, I had a bit of a drop in confidence as the next time we were going to see our service partners, it was going to be the first time we were going to have a session that we planned ourselves. This brings me to learning outcome 3, where we had to initiate and plan a CAS experience. Planning the first session was nerve-wracking as it the first time I had to plan something for people with intellectual disabilities as I didn’t know what activities they would enjoy and engage with and what they wouldn’t. After the first session, my confidence had a bit of a fall as some of the activities that we had planned to do didn’t work out to great, seeing as the clients didn’t engage too well with them, therefore, we were forced to reflect on the session and see what sort of activities they would enjoy. It turned out simple games or activities worked best as they were the ones our clients enjoyed most so after the second session, my confidence had started to rise again because the new activities that we planned were a lot more engaging and the clients were interacting a lot more with the activities.
Piano
This is an example of me demonstrating learning outcomes 1 and 4. I am not a very confident person so performing in front of an audience of people, no matter how big, is always nerve-racking for me and I always get very freaked out, so with this piano recital, I was very nervous to make mistakes, even in front of my own parents. However, I feel after performing, the fear has slightly diminished as I realized, no one was there to judge me and it helped me become more confident. This piano recital has made me more committed because of the amount of practise I needed for certain parts of the songs, even though I messed up a part, I had to put a lot of practise into it. Some parts of the song I struggled with came out quite nicely because, at lunchtime, I had to come in and practice, but I feel in the end, it paid off quite nicely.
Video
https://www.facebook.com/qyyang2004/videos/10217538113468711/?t=7