In the audio clip below, I have discussed the following questions:
In the audio below, I have discussed the following questions:
In the audio below, I discussed the following questions:
Here are a few of the workshops I have attended so far:
Here is our planning so far:
Here is the discussion of the learning outcome:
Questions answered:
Here is the final draft of the second article:
Above is the final video from the Light plot.
Below is the discussion of the learning outcomes:
Questions answered:
A couple of sessions ago, we did an activity called the Jahs and Kays, where we were sorted into 2 different groups (countries) with varying financial conditions. I was in the group with the worse condition. We had to collaborate with other members of the group to create a monument for a national event when the other group came in and demanded to help us. Wary of their help we entered into discussions to ensure that they would not take any undue advantage of us. This helped me develop my communication and negotiation skills as I was one of the 3 members sent to the other groups to explain our beliefs and situation.
In the explanation to my team members, I realised that I wanted the other group to help our country as soon as possible. However, the other people in my group wanted to ensure that they had fully scrutinised every aspect of the other group’s plan to help us before agreeing. I wanted to present my own opinion to the other group as I was one of the chosen delegates to speak to them. However, my principles were against this decision. I believe that the wishes of the majority must be respected. So, my moral principles affected my decision to not go against my group and present my own opinion. However, this decision backfired as we were left without help by the end of the discussion. Thus, I think the interference of my morals did not help. As a result, I believe I have become less principled and more willing to go against my morals.
The first few sessions of IFP went quite well. After the session on conflict, its nature, its domain and its types, I can sufficiently say that I understand a lot more about it more about it now. I used to think that all types of conflicts were very similar in nature in that they arose from disagreement and could be physical or emotional. Now I think that conflict is a multifaceted concept that has different domains and can even be psychological. In this session we also learnt about the different types of conflict like regional, global, international, community, etc…
I showed my commitment, resilience and perseverance for this activity by attending every session so far and engaging with the content. Alongside showing my commitment this has been very rewarding for me personally as I have gotten the chance to learn about topics such as conflict, in depth.I continued to maintain my motivation for this activity by thinking of the invaluable knowledge that I would gain by being a part of such an activity. Although MY commitment didn’t make the activity “successful”, I truly believe that it helped my knowledge of topics related to peace building, which added to the activity’s aim of teaching students to be successful peace builders. One of the activities that we did was drawing each other’s portraits.
Here is the portrait I drew:
Here is my portrait:
In the last few sessions of Humanities magazine, I finished the article that I had started writing. During this process, I re-discovered my strength of finishing my work on time as I was done with my article a long time before it was due. A challenge that I faced was writing “creatively” since most of my pieces are usually styled like an essay. I overcame this challenge by asking my peers to give me feedback and suggestions on how to make the piece a more captivating read. A risk that I took was in the name of the title. I am not accustomed to creating eye-catching titles as essays mostly have titles that are more factual than interesting. I think that this risk paid off because my peers and the teachers were quite happy with it.
A skill that I developed because of this activity is definitely being efficient with time. I discovered that I was able to write the article in a short amount of time and the editing did not take up a very long time. Later, when my editor suggested some changes that I could make to the piece, I did that quite quickly. Lastly, I hope to continue developing my time-management skills alongside writing more creatively as the year progresses and we start working on our second article. In addition to that, below is the second piece that I have started working on.
In Kahaani, we have started to teach our choreography. For the first few sessions I split the main group into 2 separate groups. Then my partner and I taught each group one of the dances. We taught it progressively. So, for the first session, I taught them (my group) the first half of the dance that only they would be learning. Then for the next session, I taught them the second half of that dance. The third session was spent on understanding the formations that the dance was meant to have and performing according to it. After that, I ensured that they practiced in that formation for a week. That week was majorly spent on trying to perfect the movements in addition to ensuring that everyone was in sync and in formation.Thus, I can successfully say that I have shown initiative and planning in the entire process since I split them up in two separate groups while ensuring that there would be no conflict between the members of the dance so that the dance is not affected and the dancers are able to perform to the best of their abilities. For example: Ensuing that everybody got a group they would feel comfortable and safe in.In the future, I will continue to focus on planning and initiative as there are more formations that have to be created, movements taught and the lighting sorted out.
I also had to consider the ethical implications of my actions while creating the formations. This took a lot of consideration and planning since the ethics of each decision had to be considered. I was caught between the idea of ensuring that everybody filled a place according to their merit and the idea of ensuring that everybody had a chance to be at the front of the formation.This was a very hard decision for me as above all it was the complex idea of equal opportunity for all and merit based opportunities. Thus, it was quite difficult to come upon a decision. I also had to simultaneously keep in mind that conflicts could arise regarding the positions they were given. Thus, this process involved a bit of ethical decision. I finally arrived on the idea of equal opportunity for all as that is what my moral values dictated. So, I completely based my decision on my values in a way. I was also in conflict with my partner due to this decision as her moral values were for merit based opportunity. We solved this through asking a neutral party who voted for equal opportunity.
Before beginning official rehearsals for kahaani , I took initiative and planned what I would be teaching the other members of my dance group in the first session. The outcome of my planning was having the choreography done to some section of the final music, which I could teach for the first few lessons. My plans changed as the activity progressed because I was planning to have all members of the dance on stage for the whole length of the music. However, restrictions dictated that only 15 members could be on stage at one time, so this plan had to be changed.
A difficulty that I faced while executing this plan was the lack of time to think it through as the first session was coming up soon. I overcame this challenge by efficient communication with my partner and managing my time well. Due to this, I was able to come up with the idea of splitting the dancers into 2 groups who would be performing in different segments of the piece. I think I would respond in the same way if faced with this challenge in the future since I believe that time management is a skill I have acquired from these experiences.
The first few sessions of Humanities magazine went quite well as I began exploring potential topics that I could write about. Something that I found difficult was choosing a topic since there was a plethora of topics to choose from. A risk that I took was deciding to explore a new area of economics which I do not know much about. This has become another challenge for me. An action that I had taken to overcome the challenge of too many choices was to choose a topic that had potential to be engaging and that I didn’t have much previous exposure to. However, I haven’t yet overcome the challenge of writing about a new topic since I haven’t had much time to research and then gather my thoughts.While approaching a challenge like this in the future, I would be careful to ensure that I keep a significant amount of time towards researching about the issue.
In this activity, I have developed the skill of writing articles as opposed to writing essays and managing my time effectively. I measured my improvement by comparing this piece to my previous pieces. The skill of time management was easier to develop since that was something I had been doing for a long time now. The skills that I have developed are very useful for this activity as I will have to use time efficiently while writing articles and the skill of writing articles as supposed to essays is important because I am writing for a magazine. I can definitely use the skill of time management in other areas of my life and the skill of writing articles may be important when I write such a piece for my english work or if I choose to pursue a journalism course in the future.
The first IFP sessions went quite well. We completed an activity wherein we had to build a lego structure with specific goals in mind which we couldn’t tell anybody else about. While striving to accomplish our goals there came a point where we were inevitably against the goals of someone else. The fact that we couldn’t verbally communicate made it very hard for us to explain to each other that we were not trying to sabotage their goals but just accomplish ours. This was a great exercise for enhancing our communication skills as we realised how important they were quiet soon. After the activity was over, we sat down together and reflected on what we could have potentially done better. The unanimous idea was that we needed to be more patient and understanding towards each other.
Through IFP, I hope to show commitment and resilience. This is because attending IFP sessions every week from 4.30-6.00 commitment and perseverance. It is especially important to remain committed to the activity for the final outcome to be successful. I maintained my motivation for this activity by thinking of the final outcome (learning about peace building and putting it into application). Others helped me maintain my commitment levels by encouraging me to push forward when I was tired or tried to motivate me by reminding me of the wonderful opportunity that this is.
Something that affected my commitment levels a lot was that I had a lot of deadlines/tests surrounding the days of the sessions so it was quite difficult for me to remain motivated to attend all the sessions. However, I did attend all sessions by utilising my time from 3-4.30 to complete all pending tasks. This also taught me self management.
