Sunflower Project Update 8

On the 14th of December, we had the end of semester party with the children. Yariq has funded us with the money to buy chicken basket from the near KFC, and we also got some drinks. It was a good opportunity for us to talk and interact with them outside the swimming pool. We also asked and reflected about how they feel about their improvement and the confidence level in swimming and so on.

We’ve decided to give them the notebooks, which they need for their school. Avin and I ordered those particular notebooks in advance, and we gave them to each children on the 16th of December after school. Education is an issue of global importance, and I feel that we’ve made this activity more meaningful to us as well as the children by doing more than just teaching swimming. Since we have the money for these purposes in our account, we hope to use it for other meaningful purposes in the next semester as well. At the same time, there is an ethical aspect to consider because there are many more children at their school, but only the few that were with us for this semester could get the notebooks. But we hope to help more as new group of children come in future.

Community Basketball Update 2

On the 10th of December, we had the final session of this activity this semester, and we played a tournament. I was in Group 6, The Jingles, and overall we came 2nd in the tournament.

The following were the goals set at the start of this activity:

• To increase awareness of my strengths and areas for growth in basketball
• To undertake new challenges
• To work collaboratively with others, especially those from outside school
• To show commitment by attending as many sessions as possible (even though participation is optional)
• To develop new and further enhance my basketball skills
• To make friendship with people from outside school through this activity

In terms of the 1st goal, it became clear to me what my strengths were and the areas for growth. As mentioned in the previous post, I believe that my strongest skill is handling, and next to that is probably the jump shots. However, there’s yet more to improve and I believe that with more practices, I can improve them further. In terms of the areas for growth, they are defense and also inside shot. These are mainly due to my short height, and in order to improve I need to have more physical strengths, which should also improve with more practices.

The 2nd goal was very successful in that I was able to play with many great players. Although most of them were better than me and it was a challenge to play with them, I was able to fit in the game and play together without being isolated.

The 3rd goal was fully achieved because I was almost always playing with players from outside school. It is not easy to play with players whom I don’t know well because each player has his own style, but with collaboration and communication, I believe I was able to overcome that boundary and perform well together.

The 4th goal wasn’t fully achieved because I missed several sessions. However, I believe that I’ve shown a sufficient commitment given the amount of school workload at this time of the year. In order to come to more sessions, I’ll need to make a better plan of how to use my time for academics and outside activity.

In terms of the 5th goal, I believe that I’ve improved my overall basketball skills. However, in order to improve more, I need to have more awareness of my weaknesses and try to improve on that through games.

6th goal was fully achieved because after a few sessions, I got to know quite many people from British School, Lyceum School and Asia International School. This activity was a very good means to get to know people who have something in common, and I hope to keep in touch with them.

Overall, the Community Basketball was very enjoyable and meaningful activity to allow myself to focus on something other than the academics, and I hope to take part in this again if this activity continues in the 2nd semester.

 

Badminton After School Activity Update 2

This Monday was the last session for this block’s after school badminton. It has been a very exciting and meaningful time for me, and I got to improve my skills, specially through scrimmage matches with Uthpala and Uvin. These sessions were also valuable because I was able to notice what aspects of badminton skills that had dropped from my previous levels, and what stayed the same and so on. I realized that my drop shot skill and my stamina have dropped, and they’re the areas for growth in the future, whereas skills such as smashing, overhead clear shot etc were relatively the same. My biggest strength that I think was the strongest was the net play, and I feel that I’ve improved that even further with the practices. Overall, these sessions were very good opportunities for me to be aware of my strengths, what I need to improve, as well as to develop skills further to the next level.

In terms of collaboration, I believe that I have sufficiently shown that through sharing of courts with other students (it would be unethical not to share courts with other students and leave them out) and playing doubles, which requires a lot of collaboration. Although I was unable to attend all the sessions, I’ve shown my commitment and perseverance by attending majority of the sessions, which I think is an achievement considering the amount of school work what I had this semester. And most of all, I’ve certainly enjoyed playing badminton! I was able to achieve all the goals that were set at the beginning, and this is another aspect to be proud of!

If there is badminton after school activity in the next block, and I can find time to attend all the sessions, I’m more than willing to try again and play badminton!

 

Sunflower Project Update 7

Today was the last session for the actual teaching for this semester. As our usual routine, we gave them directions on what to do, and they swam across the width of the pool up and down. Mr. Stanley was also assisting in teaching the children, and today’s session was mainly to get them to improve any aspects that they were not very strong at. For the last 15 minutes, we let the children do whatever they wanted to do, since this was the last session for them to get into the pool.

The initial goals set at the beginning of this semester were:

• To teach the children the fundamental swimming skills with the assistance of Mr. Stanley
•  To ensure that by the end of the year, everybody is capable of helping themselves in the pool without our assistance
• To teach some fundamental IT skills

In terms of the first goal, our members did a fantastic job. It was not easy to teach a non-swimmer how to swim, and at times we were struggling, but we managed to pull through with the assistance of Mr. Stanley, and we were able to teach them the fundamental swimming stills.

The second goal wasn’t fully achieved because there were 2 children who were still struggling to swim after many sessions of training. That said, they were able to swim for about 5 meters without any assistance, and they only needed assistance to swim further. The majority were able to swim adequately, therefore even though this goal wasn’t fully achieved, this goal was achieved to a good level.

The third goal was partially achieved, and we found it tough to teach them about computers, mainly because this was the first time we taught children about the fundamental IT skills. We were able to get them to learn about the fundamental typing, the finger positions and so on, but it was very difficult to plan what to teach them, in what order and so on, therefore this goal was the least achieved one out of the three goals. Children were getting bored towards the end, and this is one of the issues that we need to improve to enhance this project and make it more meaningful to the children as well as to ourselves.

Other goals were:

1. To undertake the challenge of teaching non-swimmers how to swim
2. To undertake the challenge of teaching children who are not familiar with computers
3. To plan and initiate activities and work collaboratively with Avin (the leader), Ms. Abeyawardene and Ms. Bertus (supervisors) for each session
4. To show perseverance and commitment in this project by attending sessions every week and ensuring that others are attending each session as well
5. To realize the significant and the implication of the activity on the children
6. To develop a skill to teach non-swimmers how to swim
7. To interact with the children and get to know them well, despite the language barrier

In terms of the first goal, as I’ve been mentioning, we all did a great job in undertaking the challenge. It is never easy to teach anything from the very beginning, but we all did it until the very end without giving up, and I’m proud of what I have been doing for the past few months.

As for the second goal, this was a bigger challenge than the first because we never taught children about computers. Although this wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped, we still tried to do what we can and took the challenge.

Regarding the third goal, we successfully achieved this one. We always discussed what we’d do in each session, and there were hardly times when we were unsure of what we should do. Our initiation and collaboration was very good and we maintained this throughout the course of this semester.

For the fourth goal, everybody and I have achieved this goal. Everybody had attended almost all the sessions and the perseverance and commitment was clearly shown. Additionally, in teaching swimming and computers, everybody showed perseverance and commitment, despite the challenge of teaching the beginners. Our collaboration was the key to achieving this goal, and I’m happy with the way our members were behaving throughout this semester.

As for the fifth goal, this was rather building a self-awareness. For me, I was enthusiastic about teaching the children about swimming and about computers, even though it was challenging, because teaching these things will benefit them in the long run. This was strongly shown at the beginning where we planned to teach them about computers as well, because we are surrounded by technologies and knowing the fundamentals can help at some point in life. I hope that what they’ve gained from these sessions will help them in the future.

In terms of the sixth goal, this is something that everybody had gotten better at. Through series of sessions, we became more comfortable with teaching and the methods of teaching etc. I feel that I was able to further improve the skill of teaching swimming through this project. I believe that this will help me in the next semester when we get another group of non-swimmers.

The seventh goal was the hardest challenge for me because of the language barrier. However, now I’m comfortable with interacting with them because I feel that I’ve got to know them better through many interactions, during the teaching time and during the playing time (water-polo). Other members (Yariq, Avin and Ravin) have helped me to translate into Sinhalese, so this was one of the reasons for being able to interact and get to know them well.

Overall, Sunflower Project has been a successful one this semester. I was able to achieve almost all the goals that I’ve set at the beginning, and it was certainly a very valuable experience and time which will become useful at some point in the future. There are several weaknesses that we have discovered, and these are the things that we hope to improve in the next semester. I’m looking forward to the next semester when we get a new group of non-swimmers and teach them about swimming and technology!

Community Basketball Update 1

Due to my tight schedule, it it very challenging to find time to come for Community Basketball, and I have missed two sessions. However, I personally think that I’m showing commitment and perseverance by attending some of the sessions despite the amount of workload. Since the next week (10th) is the last session for this semester, I hope to go again and enjoy as much as possible.

Compared to the beginning of this activity, I feel that I have improved in overall skills of basketball. But ones that I think I’ve improved the most are the choices that I make, quality of the shots and handling. Defense is an area for growth however… Playing with players who are better than me is not an easy task and it is a great challenge. However, I always try to play to the best of my performance in collaboration with the team members and improve my skills at the same time. Many of the players are from other schools and I have been very successful in becoming friends with many of them. It is a very great opportunity to play with people from outside school and build friendship in the process.

Next week is the final session and I hope to give my best performance and most of all, enjoy basketball!!!

Sunflower Project Update 6

The recent sessions have been going very successful and in terms of the children’s swimming ability, it has improved dramatically compared to the beginning of this semester. We have been mainly giving them more and more practice, and giving them little tips and advice when we find something that they’re doing wrong, or can improve if they change something.

Teaching a non-swimmer to swim is a challenge, but so far, our group has done a great job, and so have the children. All of us are showing perseverance and commitment in this project by attending each week, and giving hands to help the children to improve their swimming skills. It is not just Avin and I, who initiate and plan what we do each session, but the rest of the group also make suggestions on what we can do. There is a great collaboration within our group and we’re facing and accomplishing challenges together. Through many sessions, I believe all of us have developed our strength in teaching and this skill can certainly be used at some point in life.

In terms of teaching the fundamental computer skills, it hasn’t been going as successful as we have hoped. We have been mainly concentrating on typing using a typing software, but some of the children are getting bored and want to spend more time swimming rather than learning about computers. This teaching computer fundamentals to the children was a new idea that we have decided to add, but since this is our first time, it hasn’t been very well-organized, and this is an area that we need to improve for the next semester’s group of children.

That said, the most important element of this project is teaching non-swimmers how to swim, and this has been successful without a doubt. There are two children who still are struggling to swim, but the rest can now swim well enough to go from one side of the pool to the other (the width). I hope to give my maximum effort until this semester’s last session and help the children to gain the maximum out of this project.

Badminton After School Activity Update

The sessions have been very exciting for the past couple of weeks. Every time, I have been playing together with Uthpala from my grade and Uvin from grade 11. Since I haven’t had a chance to play badminton for a while, my skills have dropped, but now that I’m playing, I am noticing my improvements in badminton. At times, I also play with smaller children and teach them some fundamental skills, such as a proper way of serving, overhead clear shots and so on. This is an area that I’m good at (teaching the fundamentals) because last year I was doing a similar things in this activity, and I hope to do this until the end of this block, so that the smaller children can also gain something, rather than just enjoying.

In terms of commitment and perseverance, I feel that I’m doing a fine job in this area. So far, I have missed only 1 session, and I have been able to show my perseverance and commitment in the “outside of school” activity despite the amount of school work there is to work on. I am also collaborating with others, specially those whom I don’t know very much, when I play doubles in the game. 

There are two more sessions left before this block’s activity ends, and I hope to attend both sessions and enjoy and gain something out of this as much as I can!