#casweek

Throughout CAS week, I had many responsibilities and tasks. We had a set budget and had to buy a lot of new equipment and toys for the children, to overcome this we needed to make sure we did not overspend, but still bought enough materials for the children. We were able to do this successfully. We also needed to work together to clean out the playroom and clean it completely, and then redesign it. (LO5) 

Within our budget we created ‘health packs’, as we needed to address the issue of the lack of basic hygiene prevalent in the Philippines. Many of the illnesses the children had were as a result of a lack of hygiene, and these health packs were given inorder for them to learn new health practices remember the tips we had given them, so they would hopefully not return to hospital. (LO6)

Link to my CAS week video for Groups J & K:

At the beginning of cas week, we were asked to cook a 3 course meal in groups for one of our teachers. My group was assigned to Mr. Jones and we asked him whether he had any allergies or dietary requirements. 

I was in charge of making the dessert, and chose this as I had always been more skilled in the dessert section. We ended up making an oreo pie and it turned out quite well. The one thing I struggled with was that we had to bring all of our own equipment and I had forgotten some utensils however I was able to improvise and this issue was resolved. 

I18th-21st May 2016

18th May - CAS week officially began on the 18th of May, however it was more of an admin day for my group, to get all the last touches complete. We spent the day shopping for utensils for the Unang Hakbang foundation. The group split up into 2, with me, Emma, Adam, and Ceara, shopping for the sports toys/games that we would use throughout the week with the kids and donate to them. After gathering all the toys and games, we headed to SM supermarket to buy the snacks and drinks to provide the kids throughout the week. This proved to be a challenge as we couldn’t really decide on the proper snacks to buy for the kids, so we ended up purchasing a variety of snacks that would hopefully please all the kids. After we finished our shop, we headed to school to plan the last touches of our lessons. We split into pairs and practised our own respective activities that we would be initiating with the kids. Me and Anita were in charge of teaching them new english words, which we tried to make interesting by planning a game of pictionary. 

19th May - Our first day of CAS week has officially begun! We met at school and then took our van to the Unang Hakbang Foundation in Mandaluyong, where we were met with our first obstacle: the children were ‘missing’. We had a miscommunication with the lady in charge of the foundation, and it turned out that we had arrived an hour earlier than the children were to arrive. In the end, this turned out to be beneficial because it gave us some more time for some last minute planning! The kids arrived and we all introduced ourselves to them. They were all a little shy at first, due to the language barrier, but as the day progressed they became more comfortable with us. We conducted our activities with them which all ran smoothly, and they all found them really entertaining. After lunch, we spent the rest of the day playing outside with the kids and the new activities and toys we bought them. At this point, we were solely left in charge of the kids which proved to be a little difficult, as some of the children were a little reckless and hard to control and i found it hard to put my foot down because i didn’t want to stop them from having fun, but i understood that they were in our hands and so i had to manage that. The day was a huge success and by the end of the day the kids were so friendly with us and were hugging us and didn’t want us to leave!

20th May - Today was the day that the kids came to BSM for the day! Half of my group stayed at school to set everything up, while the rest of us went to pick up all the children from the foundation to bring them back to BSM. Picking them up was surprisingly easy, and they all complied, which we were not expecting! We arrived back at BSM and started the day with flashcard making. We split the kids into 4 groups, and then a pair of us were in charge of each mini group. After the flashcard making we played a game of pictionary, which all the kids found really funny. The day didn’t really go to plan, but it was okay because it still worked out well. Instead of watching a movie, we felt that letting the kids play outside would be funner, so we opted for that instead. We spent an hour outside playing football and other activities, which exhausted the kids! This worked out well as we served them lunch right after to re-energise them. Interestingly enough, they all wanted to watch Harry Potter, and so we did just that until the end of the day!

21st May - Today was my favourite day of the whole experience! We picked up the kids from Unang Hakbang at 9am in the bus and headed for Enchanted Kingdom! When we arrived there we briefed the children on what we would be doing for the day, and split up into the 4 groups from yesterday. Me and Ceara first took our group to a ride that they all wanted to go on, which they all loved. By this point the kids were all hungry so we had lunch in one of the restaurants which ran surprisingly smoothly. The kids all ate their meals and seemed super delighted. After lunch me and Ceara decided it would be best to not go on a high intensity ride, and so we took the kids on the ferris wheel instead. They were all really braved and loved it! After the ferris wheel we went on a water raft ride (which was the kids’ favourite). As we had finished a little earlier than anticipated, me and Ceara decided to buy souvenirs for our group! We allowed them to each pick out an enchanted kingdom hat which they were all very excited and grateful about. After this, we met up with the other groups and hopped back on the bus to go back to the foundation. My favourite part of the day was when one of the little girls, named Flaire, held my hand and looked up at me and told me she was ‘so very happy’. I will never forget that moment because it made so happy so realise that we were actually making a difference for these kids, even if it was just for one day. Noticing that we were giving them joy made me so happy, because that was my main goal i had in mind for CAS week. We dropped the children back off at the foundation and said a long goodbye filled with hugs and giggles.

REFLECTION

CAS week was an absolutely amazing experience. Not only did it run a lot smoother than expected, it was so much fun. Seeing the kids happy made me so excited and they were all extremely grateful. All the months of planning we put into these 4 days payed off!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ACHIEVED

LO1 - Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth I was able to realise my strengths of connecting with the children and became really close with them and through this, enhanced my experience. I also noticed that i perhaps should be more assertive when managing a group of children, and throughout the week i tried to improve on this.

LO2 - Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process Some challenges were presented throughout the week, like arguments between our group on what activity we should do, but we all developed our communication and collaborative skills and managed to sort out each issue!

LO3 - Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience Our months of planning proved to work as our CAS week ran very smoothly! Having the extra day on the 18th to plan and make last minute amendments to the schedule was really beneficial. Our idea of taking the kids to enchanted kingdom was a unique idea that we presented and it turned out to be really favourable for not only the kids, but also us! 

LO5 - Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively As we combined 2 CAS groups, it naturally presented some more arguments and challenges. We often clashed heads and had different ideas, but every time, we were able to reach a halfway point which significantly increased our collaborative skills. Being in a larger group also had its benefits, as we were able to get more done and take on bigger challenges, and take more control over a larger group of kids.

LO6 - Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance My CAS group focused on the issue of inequality, which i believe is the biggest issue in our society today, on a global scale. Specifically, we focused on socio-economic inequality. The Unang Hakbang foundation helps underprivileged children, and so working with them allowed us to see this issue first hand. I realised that even if we were helping a very small portion of victims of inequality, we still made a change, and ultimately, this is important.