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!