One of the biggest challenges of doing service in the COVID situation that we are in is that we were unable to see the members of our service, and forced to resort to online planning instead. Therefore, we decided to organize an online session for RCCI.

Preperation

Our plan was to host an opportunity for us to work with the RCCI members virtually, and embark on some activities that we would usually be doing in person weekly. We decided that an activity we could do with them online would be an art day. We emailed them in advanced to not only set up a date, but to ensure that everyone involved had access to paper, pens, and other basic stationary. I sent one of the last emails, which confirmed the virtual session timing. Setting up a time was a bit of a challenge, as we had a service day cancelled due to school 3 way conferences. However, we ensured that none of us had conferences at the specific time, and decided to do it on the day. We set up a 3:30 meeting, which is our usual service start time.

Below is the initial email that we sent to the head of the RCCI group.

Dear Ms. Tanusha,

The service leaders from the Overseas School of Colombo would be interested in re-starting the service sessions with the RCCI cohort, online. We have been looking forward to resuming our activities and was wondering if your school is willing to participate in an online learning experience. While there will be major changes to the manner in which we operate and the activities that are possible, my fellow RCCI service members and I are working to develop a structure for online sessions that allows the students to improve their social and communication skills in a fun and interactive environment. Some of our activities from our brainstorming sessions include hosting an art contest virtually and to select designs for our t-shirts, teaching them online-based communication and participating in a sing-a-long. However, the timing of the sessions might have to change from the traditional Thursday afterschool as the RCCI students are only available between 9:30 – 12 while OSC students are only able to run the sessions at 3:30. We are very happy to continue our engagement with your school and look forward to hearing back from you.

Warm regards,

OSC RCCI Service Team

LO3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

THe session

We each had separate roles in the meeting, and the first thing was a few slides to introduce the meeting. These were mostly directed at the teachers over at RCCI, to show them what we were doing, what plans we have for the future, and what we would be doing with them in the meeting. One of the other roles was a translator, as most of the people involved with RCCI are not fluent English speakers. We also had people assigned to take pictures of what was going on.

LO5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

After the introduction was completed, we specified what the activity we were doing would involve. We allocated around 15 minutes of time for everyone to draw something of their choice, and after that time was completed everyone would share their art pieces with the rest of the group.

Many of the RCCI members are extremely talented and produced some extremely good drawings. It was a good experience for both parties to experience this session, and we hope to do some similar sessions, maybe with different activities, in the future. Even though we are now back in school, outsiders are still unfortunately not allowed in. Hopefully we are able to conduct another online session soon.