Overview:

This years dynamic to service learning was completely different to the ones of the previous years. We were all used to working together face to face as well (F2F) as being able to communicate F2F with the RCCI children. This semester we weren’t able to communicate with the RCCI children in any method so most of our service times were spent planning for when we are able to meet them. Prior to the end of the semester we started planning for a potential sensory deprivation room for the students at RCCI. This was something that the teachers at RCCI were planning to hopefully have in the future. The main purpose of the sensory deprivation room at RCCI is to “relax” the students before going into class. We looked at the advantages and disadvantages of creating this room, and whether we have enough of a budget to spend on this room. We also looked into some activities we could do if we were to communicate with the students over zoom. We brainstormed different ideas (figure 1) ranging from sing alongs, movies and just colouring. We finally came to a conclusion that we could hold an art contest between the kids at RCCI. This art competition will be held to decide the t-shirt designs for the RCCI Service group/(school). We will pick the best art design, and create t-shirts for the children. Initially to hold the art contest, I also had to send an email to one of the lead teachers at RCCI (figure 2) talking about the times and days they are able to speak to our service group as the RCCI school has different teaching hours.

Reflection:

Over the last semester, I think we got through everything that we needed to go through for the planning process. We looked at alternative projects we could do (sensory deprivation) and also extensively planned the 12 session we would have with the students if we had them F2F. We also planned the art competition as I mentioned above. Compared to the last time I was at this service group about 3 years ago, we’ve made significant improvements in terms of planning. The previous years, we planned everything on the spot, and most of the sessions were in the gym playing ball, we lacked variety. This year, with the planning we made sure to have a variety of indoor activities and outdoor activities to stimulate their communication skills. As well as, this semester we seemed more focus on the betterment of the service group, where at the end of each session we would write down notes on what we did that lesson. This would then help us in the following session to remind us of what we did the previous session and what we had left to do. Overall I think that compared to the previous years in this service, we are doing a much better job at planning and running this service this year, and hopefully we can continue this to when we are able to meet the RCCI students.

There were many learning outcomes that we accomplished during this process, to state it shortly they were, LO2 which is demonstrating that I have undertaken challenges. Some of these challenges were planning out all 12 lessons with the rest of my peers over zoom and also planning the art competition. But also planning the podcast. Another learning outcome that I used was LO3 and LO4 which is demonstrating how to initiate and plan a CAS experience and showing commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences. I would like to think that planning out the lessons and the art competition is a CAS experience as it involves many of the learning outcomes but also helps you with many of the real world circumstances like planning. I think also another learning outcome that we accomplished was LO5 demonstrating the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively as essentially the whole planning process was done with other peers, and especially doing it over zoom really made it harder to work together. Lastly and most importantly LO6 was seen everywhere during this process as this learning outcome is, demonstrating engagement with issues of global significance. The idea of disabilities and spreading awareness about them is on global significance and planning art contest/lessons about these ideas is demonstrating engagement with issues of global significance.