As a leader, I felt that urban gardneing has been an extremely successful and rewarding activity this year.
I felt that through this activity, we were able to spread awareness on the benefits of gardening, as well as providing the community with fresh produce. We were able to do so by conducting the potted plants workshop during wellness Wednesdays with G11s. This massively helped spread the cause. Gardening is also an extremely direct service and I have felt that I have really been able to make a difference as a leader, getting my hands dirty every week.
There were ethical considerations in us having to keep the plants alive as much as possible. We were definitely able to do so. Something that we constantly encouraged students in the service to do was to reflect. If something was successful, reflect on why it was successful and how we can replicate it with other plants. If it wasn’t successful and the plants died, reflect on why the plants died and what can be changed next time. This ensured that even if the plants died, we were able to use the death of the plant for an educational purpose and to constantly learn from our mistakes. The plants being alive was also impacted our choices as we felt more connected to them, compared to if they were an inanimate object, and felt more responsibility to make our service a success.
Leading a service at this level was the first time, and I felt that there were both fun and challenging times with the service. One challenging time was presenting the potted plants project to students in our grade. It was a challenge as speaking to a large group of students is always extremely intimidating. However as time went on and we got used to presenting, I felt that I was able to be more comfortable presenting to a large group of people, developing the skill of presentation on the way.
As leaders, we were able to plan the potted plants project well, as well to create a proper aim and direction by the end of the service, something we were struggling during the first half of the year. We also learned the importance of reflecting, using the minutes document and the portfolio to do so.
Urban Gardening has been one of, if not the most rewarding extracurricular activity this year. I have grown an affection towards plants through this service and also have a small mini garden at home now.
LO6-Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
LO7-Recognise and consider the ethics implications of choices and actions.
LO2-Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
LO3-Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.