For this CAS experience, our school gave us an opportunity in the form of Bal Mela wherein more than 1500 unprivileged students across Surat came. I volunteered in teaching them basketball wherein I taught them basic basketball shooting and drills such as passing which improved their basketball skills and more importantly brought a smile on their faces. This CAS experience also led me to contributing to the SDG 4 (i.e quality education).
LO1 (Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth) – My strength in this case was my basketball skills which I wanted to impart into these children and by doing so I improved my teaching, communication, and non-verbal communication skills as well.
LO2 (Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills) – Challenges in this case were in terms of the language barrier, the children only understood Gujarati which I was not very proficient in, therefore I had to sometimes communicate with them in actions. Also, to manage them was also a task as they were small kids therefore I even developed my management skills.
LO3 (Initiate and plan a CAS experience) – For teaching the children basketball, I and my teammates were required to plan what all we will teach the children so that we could improve their overall performance. Therefore we decided to integrate both, shooting and passing therefore they could improve in that area and they would have fun as well.
LO4 (Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience) – I was committed towards this CAS experience because my primary goal was not to complete this CAS experience however to teach basketball to these children for which I had undergone challenges as mentioned above and showcased interest as well.
LO6 (Engagement with issues of global significance) – As mentioned above, I worked with a team because managing these many children cannot be done by a single person. The benefits were in terms of management, creative ideas for teaching, more fun and we became more efficient with our task.
In conclusion, this CAS experience of buddy coaching unprivileged children made me more open-minded towards the benefits I have gotten being in an international board school. Additionally, it has developed learner profiles such as reflective, caring, and communicator because I reflected my knowledge of basketball, by being open-minded I developed a caring attitude towards them, and used communication skills to teach them the sport.
Evidence:
