Being an IB student, in grade 10 we had to create an e-portfolio. Which included a drama performance on the elements of nature. I worked on it for like 6-7 months to create the best piece possible. In those 6-7 months I studied various forms of drama and explored various famous acts done throughout the world for inspiration. Now that I am in grade 11, I was invited to take a guest session for grade 9 students as they had a unit in language and literature on writing monologues and scripts for plays. I was asked to explain to them the entire process of writing a script and presenting it with what mannerisms, etc details related to drama and language. It was a 1-hour long session which included my drama performance – 5 mins and the explanation/interaction with the students. Guiding these students was a pleasure for me as I could help them with their summative assessments and upcoming e-portfolio. I was able to challenge myself by public speaking as I haven’t done any such guest sessions ever. 

This CAS experience covered creativity and activity both aspects of CAS. For creativity, I showcased my learning – the drama performance to the students which motivated them to give their best in their summative assessment. It helped me work on my personal growth – public speaking. Even though I am a drama student I have trouble speaking or interacting with people face-to-face and this entire session helped me work on myself. For the activity, because I was public speaking and performing in front of them I needed a lot of memorization skills, physical ability to perform with energy and continuously converse so that I don’t lose interest in the students. 

I had a lot to learn from this entire experience be it physically or mentally. As learning outcome 2 states how one works upon their challenges and develops new skills. I feel like this was an experience that helped me overcome one of my weaknesses – public speaking which is quite hard for me since the lockdown. I had practised and rehearsed a lot for my drama performance so I was confident with that but the conversation with students made me extremely anxious and nervous. Since grade 9 students are notorious and tend to lose interest pretty quickly, I was terrified of how I would conduct the session, although the entire session was extremely fruitful and resulted in my being a judge for their drama competition which was held after my session. The students had such a great time and all of them loved to learn about the entire process and performance. Through this experience, I discovered that I am pretty good with kids and can handle a certain amount of crowds quite smoothly. I discovered that I was capable of taking sessions like this and giving talks like these without losing confidence. That was the best part of the entire experience for me. 

Learning outcome 4 states showing perseverance and commitment in the CAS experience which was extremely important for this experience since handling grade 9 students is difficult. When I started my guest session I did not receive good responses from the students and that made me a little nervous but because I was persistent and wanted the session to be a good experience for the students, I kept on going and tried various ways which included finding the answers to their questions by themselves. I wanted them to derive solutions by themselves so that they can easily implement them. This made them more intrigued and I was able to gain their interest gradually. Which was a huge achievement for me. Being persistent and committed to something is extremely important when there’s someone else included because the other party is dependent on you and your results. It is difficult to be persistent since it is difficult to keep on trying as it’s tiring although it is fun to me as it helps me to keep going on and stay on the correct path. Hence, it is quite important to be persistent and committed to whatever you do otherwise you won’t see the results you desire

To conclude, this entire session was such an amazing experience because it helped me in multiple ways and it did help the students as well which was the best part for me. I saw the results of my teaching when I went to judge their competition and I kinda feel proud of myself that I was able to teach these kids what I wasn’t able to learn when I was in grade 9. It was a successful experience and it makes me feel extremely grateful for the opportunity presented to me. 

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