Service: Mother Teresa Home & Umoja
The EVENT is HERE :)
16/02/17
- In total the "Twiga Trivia" event helped us raise Tsh 240,000 which was not our goal however it was nice to see teams come and help us raise money
- Our group worked significantly hard in giving countless ideas (posters and video)
- There was great organization in the group
- The activity tends to be very heavily run by leaders and not delegated within the TAT group. If the responsibilities were split between the members, they would have been able to witness the involvement within an event.
- Very short time in planning and preparing everything which made it quite difficult for everyone in the school to be involved.
New KIDS!
07/02/17
After the break, we had our first interaction with the new batch of kids which we were really excited for. Being able to see the progress with the kids that we had the last time was pleasing especially when they slowly began to understand what we were saying without any additional help. However, with these kids we could initially see their struggle in opening up to us and understanding the language. Hence, the first activity we did to help them open up was games like Bing Bang and the murderer. If they were eliminated from the game, they were going to say their name and what they like so that as leaders and learning coordinators, we are able to establish what games to implement in our other sessions that frames around some of their interests and passions.
In being able to understand them and what they would like to do in the upcoming weeks, we established that they really like to:
The circuit involves:
1. Pictionary (in this activity the girls will be able to explore their artistic skills)
2. Dodgeball (Since doing football can be hard with integrating it to an activity, we thought of playing dodgeball where the person in the jail will be asked a question (english related) and if they are successful at it, they can go back to their team and play. This provides the incentive for people to participate which can be a great way to improve their English.
Both of these activities will last around 30 minutes which can allow both interests to converge in a day.
After the break, we had our first interaction with the new batch of kids which we were really excited for. Being able to see the progress with the kids that we had the last time was pleasing especially when they slowly began to understand what we were saying without any additional help. However, with these kids we could initially see their struggle in opening up to us and understanding the language. Hence, the first activity we did to help them open up was games like Bing Bang and the murderer. If they were eliminated from the game, they were going to say their name and what they like so that as leaders and learning coordinators, we are able to establish what games to implement in our other sessions that frames around some of their interests and passions.
In being able to understand them and what they would like to do in the upcoming weeks, we established that they really like to:
- play football (the boys)
- enjoy learning science
- they like to draw and color
- some like to read
The circuit involves:
1. Pictionary (in this activity the girls will be able to explore their artistic skills)
2. Dodgeball (Since doing football can be hard with integrating it to an activity, we thought of playing dodgeball where the person in the jail will be asked a question (english related) and if they are successful at it, they can go back to their team and play. This provides the incentive for people to participate which can be a great way to improve their English.
Both of these activities will last around 30 minutes which can allow both interests to converge in a day.
Twiga Trivia preparations:
20/01/17
After the break, we began to significantly focus on the event that we were preparing for all this time which is "Twiga Trivia" which an extremely unique activity that we've started in our TAT. Usually, we tend to organize sports as our main events, however, this time we thought of something unique that IST may want to try that may be more interesting and fun. Hence, this game is a spin off of the "Family Fued" game. Hence, the highest poll from the audience means the higher number of points you get. In order to make this a successful event, the direct and the indirect group both worked hand in hand today for registration, posters and questions of the game. There were 3 groups which each had 3-4 people each and we delegated them responsibilities of what to do within the group. For instance,I was in the registration team and our plan was to make a form that requires the necessary information for different teams to participate. This included the team name, contact numbers, the names of the members in the team. Additionally, we had to write a post for the daily bulletin on our event so that people heard about it and signed up via this link. It was also encouraged that people in the TAT group were telling and spreading information about this event. Hence, each person brought in a team from their grade which added a ton of diversity amongst age group making it a fun and interesting event. Additionally, in order to lure more participants into the game, we initiated a contest online where people were able to get a free entry to play the game which allowed everyone to get an understanding of the game and lure them in for participating in the event. The best thing about this event was that since it was all in school there were no costs for this event. Additionally, the prices for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams received a price which was all sponsored. For instance the team in the 1st place receive a dinner in Great Wall worth 200,000 Tsh and the other 2 teams received a price of watching any movie for free in the Oysterbay movie center. It was a great way in which we were all able to tie in the event with the least costs possible so that the profits received can help us buy books for the school. |
Seeing the Reactions! 22/11/16
Seeing the reactions of the games and how much they enjoyed was an indicator on whether they were actually learning or not. The biggest challenge was certainly exposing them to a game that was much western and explaining its concepts due to the language barrier and the fluency between us. At certain times if they were completely confused of the objective of the game, we made sure that we explained them with a mix of kiswahili and english so that they would not lose their fluency for the time they were there.
During the time that we explained the instructions, we broke them off into groups of different genders so that they also had the abiity of interacting with newer people that they were less familiar with. In addition, since the students in our TAT group created these questions, they were only responsible for providing hints of the answers for the questions to these students when it became necessary. This allowed us to ensure that the students were having a constant exposure to English by both the leaders and the IST students. However, the game was a major challenge for them particularly because it extended their knowledge further than their course. While this may be good or bad depending on the level of its importance, we decided on quizzing the kids from time to time of the concept that they just learnt to ensure that the knowledge is instilled in their minds. At the end of the lesson, we asked the students whether or not they enjoyed the games; most of them really enjoyed this particularly because it was something that they were newly introduced to than their traditional teaching methods in the public school where they ratio of teachers is greater than an average school. Hence, being able to do something that is unique and can pass on to their friends and family is a great oppurtunity in spreading education of these topics at a macro level.
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Mini CAS Reflection (Progress/achievements): 16/11/16
cas_audio_reflection.m4a | |
File Size: | 2580 kb |
File Type: | m4a |
Interactive games that aid in learning different subjects:
15/11/16
As learning coordinators of Umoja, we wanted to change the ways in which the Take-Action Tuesday ran when the Oysterbay students arrived. When they were not there last week, we decided that we were going to make it more interactive and enjoyable. Since these students come after school and are exhausted with all the content they are being taught, we made sure that when they arrive, they can enjoy the activities and also learn something out of the activities that we plan.
Hence, the day that the Oysterbay students did not arrive, we decided to plan on the various ways in which we can make service more interesting. We decided on a several different ideas:
As learning coordinators of Umoja, we wanted to change the ways in which the Take-Action Tuesday ran when the Oysterbay students arrived. When they were not there last week, we decided that we were going to make it more interactive and enjoyable. Since these students come after school and are exhausted with all the content they are being taught, we made sure that when they arrive, they can enjoy the activities and also learn something out of the activities that we plan.
Hence, the day that the Oysterbay students did not arrive, we decided to plan on the various ways in which we can make service more interesting. We decided on a several different ideas:
- Bing bang (the player that get OUT of the game will be told to answer a question)
- Jeopardy
- Murderer (the loser will answer a question)
- A sentence maker game- the words will be jumbled and through those words, the students will have to construct a phrase by using correct grammar, prepositions and conjunctions.
- Tanzania's History
- Tanzania's Geography
- Grammar
- Spelling
- Sciences
Interacting with the Oysterbay Primary School Kids for the First Time Everr
It was the first time this year, I have been involved in the direct group and seeing the kids for the first time. I realized that some students knew a good amount of English than the others and I was quite amazed that it was true. It truly allowed me to step away from the stereotypical ideologies and see that it is not necessarily true that education provided by governments lack quality. In fact, they do quite well in their education. When interacting with the kids on the first time, they were quite shy because their skills with speaking in English is quite limited which makes it difficult to connect sometimes. Hence, when asking everyone what they did to make them feel comfortable and understand what we were saying, some people used hand gesture to amplify what they were trying to say so that it makes it easier for them to understand and therefore understand their interests and what they want to do in the future.
In the first session with them, we decided to play games with them, so that we can learn their names and begin to form a relationship with them. We played bing bang and a twist that we added to each game was after a person was out everyone will guess their name and there are three warnings if you miss the name. If they get 3 strikes, they are also out. This forces everyone to remember each other's names with the prospect of staying in the game. During the introduction session, we also planned at knowing more about the students specifically what they enjoyed doing in their free time, their aspirations and subjects they enjoyed the most.
Through this, all of us can create a consensus of the most popular interests in learning and utilize it for them to learn more than they know. This will allow us to complete our goal and improve their learning and skills that they acquire. Hence, in the next session we planned that the greater focus will be on the indirect group as we are hosting our very first event this year for volleyball and hence we will need extensive planning for the event to ensure that everything is well prepared and that we get the maximum amount of participants.
When we asked the children, I was going around and listening what they enjoyed in their lives and they mostly said:
Their aspirations were:
In the first session with them, we decided to play games with them, so that we can learn their names and begin to form a relationship with them. We played bing bang and a twist that we added to each game was after a person was out everyone will guess their name and there are three warnings if you miss the name. If they get 3 strikes, they are also out. This forces everyone to remember each other's names with the prospect of staying in the game. During the introduction session, we also planned at knowing more about the students specifically what they enjoyed doing in their free time, their aspirations and subjects they enjoyed the most.
Through this, all of us can create a consensus of the most popular interests in learning and utilize it for them to learn more than they know. This will allow us to complete our goal and improve their learning and skills that they acquire. Hence, in the next session we planned that the greater focus will be on the indirect group as we are hosting our very first event this year for volleyball and hence we will need extensive planning for the event to ensure that everything is well prepared and that we get the maximum amount of participants.
When we asked the children, I was going around and listening what they enjoyed in their lives and they mostly said:
- Studying math
- Writing stories
- Playing football
- Doing geography
- Learning about computer programs
Their aspirations were:
- being doctors
- lawyers
- Pilots
- engineers
bing_bang__intro_game_.mp4 | |
File Size: | 1289 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
Umoja 2016
23rd August 2016
This year our plan is to really strengthen our TAT by making it more student initiated as opposed to leader oriented. We has a meeting to discuss our future plans and what we envision to see in our CAS across the next 6 weeks. We also decided that we do not require many leaders, hence we removed some leadership positions to make the CAS experience less dependent on each other and rather one person be responsible for delegating all the responsibilities in their designated groups.
Hence from now on, we decided that we will only have two co-presidents (Mohammed and Payal), one vice president (Anmol) and one secretary (Brook). This way we are all involved but we will be less dependent on each other knowing that jobs or things are being done amongst the CAS. In the TAT fair, it was a great start in seeing new people and some of our old participants who were happy to see what we would be doing next. When we asked the old participants, they all said that they were extremely excited to host another football or sports based event. It was evident that they really enjoyed that component of our TAT last year. We also asked new students of what they were mostly looking forward to in this new service group and they all talked about the tournaments as well.
Looking at the direct aspects of the group, there were a few criticisms of how they thought about it last year and gave us advice on how we can make it better because the kids from the Oysterbay school and tired, hence making them do more worksheets may not really allow them to have fun. After the brainstorm, we came up with a few things that would help them be more engaged in learning English. We decided that we would;
This year our plan is to really strengthen our TAT by making it more student initiated as opposed to leader oriented. We has a meeting to discuss our future plans and what we envision to see in our CAS across the next 6 weeks. We also decided that we do not require many leaders, hence we removed some leadership positions to make the CAS experience less dependent on each other and rather one person be responsible for delegating all the responsibilities in their designated groups.
Hence from now on, we decided that we will only have two co-presidents (Mohammed and Payal), one vice president (Anmol) and one secretary (Brook). This way we are all involved but we will be less dependent on each other knowing that jobs or things are being done amongst the CAS. In the TAT fair, it was a great start in seeing new people and some of our old participants who were happy to see what we would be doing next. When we asked the old participants, they all said that they were extremely excited to host another football or sports based event. It was evident that they really enjoyed that component of our TAT last year. We also asked new students of what they were mostly looking forward to in this new service group and they all talked about the tournaments as well.
Looking at the direct aspects of the group, there were a few criticisms of how they thought about it last year and gave us advice on how we can make it better because the kids from the Oysterbay school and tired, hence making them do more worksheets may not really allow them to have fun. After the brainstorm, we came up with a few things that would help them be more engaged in learning English. We decided that we would;
- initiate games (bing bang)
- If they were to be out, they would say a sentence in English which would make it engaging while learning at the same time
- Quizlet (flashcards)
- Activities like flashcards will help them remain engaged and also improve their oral skills
- Worksheets
- Simple worksheets that would improve their grammar
- Theatre
- Creating a play made in collaboration with the IST students and the Oysterbay students which can also provide them with the confidence in their oral skills.
- Payal's CAS project
- Integrating Payal's CAS project which is to write short stories by each Oysterbay and IST student and publishing a book that includes their stories. This way they will be able to engage in both their grammar and oral skills when interacting with each other.
The day is finally here! 2/05/16
Week 1:
This was a rough start as one of the main leaders were not able to make it, who initially made the fixtures for the team. Some leaders also did not arrive on time and it created huge difficulties with the group as we were not aware of the teams. The lack of communication in this case is a major cause of problems that we faced on the day. It gave us a major lesson that we should be able to communicate more efficiently not only to one leader but to all leaders so that there isn't a delay in the games. Furthermore, many teams did not firstly arrive, however we immediately solved this by playing the games that needed to be played and thus the other games will be played next week when the other teams arrive. It was important that we kept communicating with the teams to ensure that they were present on the day. However, overall it was a success as many teams enjoyed playing with other competitive teams which made it all worthwhile. Week 2: Week 2 was certainly more planned the previous one. During the TAT session, we discussed the issues and immediately came up with solutions and this was very well reflected onto the games. Many indirect people showed up in the tournament to help out which allowed them to be more involved into the activities. The only drawback were the fixtures that were not planned well enough causing us to delay in time. However, overall it was a much better improvement from the previous week. Week 3: Week 3 was the best in terms of the planning and the improvements that we made throughout the entire process. However, an issue did arise whereby trophies did not come in time, so we immediately found an alternative by asking people for trophies for the photos, and when the trophies did arrive, we sent it to the winning team and the best player including the vouchers. Furthermore, we received great feedback from the players of the tournament, which certainly has motivated us to continue to trend in the future. |
Planning Process 24/04/16
The planning process involved the making of google form and posters that were delegated between the members of the indirect service to ensure that all the necessary details were being completed. I was in charge of completing the form with Anania. I realized that some of the leaders were overpowering the members as they gave them specific requirements of what to add and I also realized that I was doing that at times and so I thought it was very important for us leaders to have a meeting and establish better ways of how we can exhibit ourselves to be a better leader and not dictate our ideas to the students
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UMOJA VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT 18/04/16
As a group, we decided that before school was over it was important that we have a last event that would make a mark in the school in order for our next events to be known, so that fundraising is more successful. As a collective, we decided that we should have a volleyball tournament to have this event as our mark in the school like the other TAT groups like Fund a Child who are known for the amazing race. The fundraising was to provide the children with other necessities that we thought were essential;
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Finding another service group:
22/2/16
UMOJA GROUP!
I have joined a new CAS group called UMOJA who have done some interesting activities recently such as the football tournament and the free dress day. This CAS group is built around the oyster bay school which aims to better the conditions in the school by providing school materials like textbooks, better toilets and better school conditions (roofs, tables, boards etc.). It is something very similar like Mother Teresa that revolves on bettering the shelter of the next generation. On my first visit to the school, I was on the indirect group that focuses on the fundraising aspect of the activity to provide the funds and as being the treasurer, it is exciting of playing the role that dictates where these funds can be used. This new group is definitely very different in the way in which the operate and the way they conduct their sessions. There are certainly many leaders for a small group which make it difficult for a CAS to run as efficiently. In addition, there is a majority of 6th graders which make it difficult to effectively communicate and keep the session focused. In addition, during the visit, as we were planning for fundraising ideas, a student from 6th grade came up with an interesting idea that could bring us a lot of funds with a movie night.
I also had conducted a reflection session with some of the indirect students and we discussed how the project was going for them. Many of the students had many positives with the way the activity challenged their communication skills in the local language. However, they also mentioned how they are not really as involved as they would like to be. Thus, as leaders it is important to make sure that the information and the work distribution is spread in the group so that they feel more interested in the project and more involved. In addition, they mentioned how many plans are being talked about however are not being fully implemented. One student said that the leaders do not seem to be as committed as the questionnaire has lagged behind the date that we were initially planning the event, and therefore it is essential that as leader we are dedicated and fully responsive to other people in terms of completing the questionnaire and setting a firm deadline in order to ensure that things are being done.
This reflection session has really given me an insight as a new leader to ensure that these things are being met for the students and that they feel more included in the session as opposed to the leaders doing most of the activities and overpowering the ideas that they have in mind. Thus, the leadership skills that I used in the Mother Teresa Home on how to be a leader that can improve people's ideas as opposed to bringing them down. For this, I think it is essential to hold a meeting to discuss the ways in which we can be good leaders. I feel personally that due to the overwhelming percentage of leadership roles we have in comparison to the ratio of the population, it makes things very difficult for both the leaders and the students, and therefore discussing this aspect of the group is important in order to ensure that the service group will be effective in the long term.
UMOJA GROUP!
I have joined a new CAS group called UMOJA who have done some interesting activities recently such as the football tournament and the free dress day. This CAS group is built around the oyster bay school which aims to better the conditions in the school by providing school materials like textbooks, better toilets and better school conditions (roofs, tables, boards etc.). It is something very similar like Mother Teresa that revolves on bettering the shelter of the next generation. On my first visit to the school, I was on the indirect group that focuses on the fundraising aspect of the activity to provide the funds and as being the treasurer, it is exciting of playing the role that dictates where these funds can be used. This new group is definitely very different in the way in which the operate and the way they conduct their sessions. There are certainly many leaders for a small group which make it difficult for a CAS to run as efficiently. In addition, there is a majority of 6th graders which make it difficult to effectively communicate and keep the session focused. In addition, during the visit, as we were planning for fundraising ideas, a student from 6th grade came up with an interesting idea that could bring us a lot of funds with a movie night.
- this movie night will mainly target on the 6-8th grade population
- it will be cheaper than a normal movie ticket
- people with tickets will receive a small snack from sponsors like 10 to 10
I also had conducted a reflection session with some of the indirect students and we discussed how the project was going for them. Many of the students had many positives with the way the activity challenged their communication skills in the local language. However, they also mentioned how they are not really as involved as they would like to be. Thus, as leaders it is important to make sure that the information and the work distribution is spread in the group so that they feel more interested in the project and more involved. In addition, they mentioned how many plans are being talked about however are not being fully implemented. One student said that the leaders do not seem to be as committed as the questionnaire has lagged behind the date that we were initially planning the event, and therefore it is essential that as leader we are dedicated and fully responsive to other people in terms of completing the questionnaire and setting a firm deadline in order to ensure that things are being done.
This reflection session has really given me an insight as a new leader to ensure that these things are being met for the students and that they feel more included in the session as opposed to the leaders doing most of the activities and overpowering the ideas that they have in mind. Thus, the leadership skills that I used in the Mother Teresa Home on how to be a leader that can improve people's ideas as opposed to bringing them down. For this, I think it is essential to hold a meeting to discuss the ways in which we can be good leaders. I feel personally that due to the overwhelming percentage of leadership roles we have in comparison to the ratio of the population, it makes things very difficult for both the leaders and the students, and therefore discussing this aspect of the group is important in order to ensure that the service group will be effective in the long term.
Disappointment AGAIN!
16/02/16
After the plan we made on what to about the GISS conference, we talked to Sister Jocelyn to ask for permission however she told us that all the children were given to the SOS organization, thus no visitors were allowed. However, we still asked her if we could just talk to the elderly, but she still said that she does not want any volunteers or any activity talking place in the home. Now that this happened, we had to cancel our project and any other ongoing projects that were being initiated. As a result, we had to cancel our TAT :( It was extremely upsetting because I have always loved the project and the people in the home. I started to know some of the people in the home that we became extremely close to and wanted to do something for them. We still will be in contact with Ms. Isabelle as she is in contact with various other organizations such as the Poaching project in the North of Tanzania where they would love people who could raise awareness of this issue in the city. |
New Semester! New Goals!
Plan of GISS Project: |
9/02/16
Today we met with all our new members and some who wanted to return again because of their passion with the activity. We conducted a short introduction of what our project was and also introduced the GISS plan for the GISS summit to Dar-Es-Salaam. For the GISS summit we plan to do "Humans of Mother Teresa" similar to the Humans of New York facebook page. However, instead of a social outlet, this will only be presented in the closing ceremony of the GISS summit. The reason that it cannot be a social outlet is because Mother Teresa Home have strict policies with showing the faces of the children who live there thus it is going to be just in our community. This will be done through the main kiswahili speakers that we have in our group like Jeremiah, Jawahir and Khadija. These people will translate the stories that will be said through the very own people in the home. There will be people taking short clips and taking pictures of the people by who these stories have been told by. Lastly there will be scribes that will take notes of their story incase they just take a photo. The main cause of introducing the people of Mother Teresa Home is to show people in our IST community what Mother Teresa Home is and what it does since the project is quite anonymous because of such policies. By doing this, it will provide the community with an insight of the children that have been there since they were infants and will also tell many of the stories of the elderly of the way they got there and how they feel about being in the home. This will hopefully attract many people to be involved with the home and provide them with a better living. The main hope is to give the citizens of the Mother Teresa home a recognition as it is quite a secluded project and does is not known in the IST community. During the closing ceremony, many of the people who attend the GISS conference will know of the people in Mother Teresa and it will create a chain of people passing this information across different countries which will allow more people to know about the home. During the rest of the time, we planned to visit the home so that the members that come up with what they would like to do in order to make the home better. As leaders, we had promised all the members that we will initiate projects that everyone will be interested in, thus the previous projects that we planned to complete with other members were mentioned however we did not force any of them to choose it, unless it focused on what they thought about it when they visited the home. |
Results from the BAKE SALE:
From the bake sale, we did not receive as much money as we hoped to make, however it was a great kick start on fundraising for the mats. In total we made about 162,000 tsh with the bake sales.
From the bake sale, the reasons I feel as to why we did not receive so much money is because:
- People already had dinner prior to the play which made it quite difficult for us to sell out the food
- Did not have a person who could potentially captivate the customers
From the bake sale, the reasons I feel as to why we did not receive so much money is because:
- People already had dinner prior to the play which made it quite difficult for us to sell out the food
- Did not have a person who could potentially captivate the customers
Quite Disappointed... (CAS PROJECT)
As we have been heavily working with the kids to make these toys for the MTH, it was quite disappointing when we found out that the children can only play with plastic toys as they usually die from the cloth toys. We heard that 10 babies died in one month because the cloth toys have material inside that is hazardous for the babies. Instead of donating it to the home where they usually donate these toys to other orphan children, we decided not to do that because it is unethical. The children using these toys will face the same issues that the children of the MTH and so we decided not to do that and think of the safety of these infants. So after that, despite our disappointment, it was time to take action and think of the major events that were happening in school to raise money and buy the mats for the children. Immediately, we chose to do the bake sale during the HS play which could potentially give us a start to buying the mats. We decided to do it on the 2 days that were happening where Shivam would facilitate it on Thursday with the half the group and I would facilitate it on Friday with the rest of the group. It was quite hasty but it was important that we initiate something before the December break as these kids would leave in the first semester.
We also thought of the other events before the end of the semester where we can sell these toys using the raffles and get benefits from making these toys and also conduct various activities like guessing the number of the candy in a jar and whoever being the closest would win all the candy in the jar. This event would take place on January with the Eco-warriors CAS group. |
Lisa's Mom teaching the basics of sowing (CAS PROJECT):
Our CAS member Lisa's mom came to our CAS session to give the other members a tutorial of basic stitching methods in order to help us make the toys for the children. There were some children who got the hang of the stitching methods easily while the others were struggling. As leaders when we saw that people who did not understand it as well diverged into other things, we came up with other better plans so we can help the two different kinds of groups actively engage in what they love to do. The table below shows the people bringing these materials so that we can build these various toys. Since we are going to make these various toys with recycling materials we decided that we will allocate a number of people in different groups based on their interests. Since this group is extremely based on creativity, they will enjoy the activities that we will place for them next week.
In addition, the girls (Lisa, Samiya and Amani) will demonstrate how we will be making the DIY plastic footballs that they came up with when they were in 5th grade for the final exhibition. Perpetua, the tailor will also be coming in so that we can tell her the toys we needed for her to make to get an estimate of the money needed to make this project a success and start initiating various fundraisers in order to get the money for these projects.
In addition, the girls (Lisa, Samiya and Amani) will demonstrate how we will be making the DIY plastic footballs that they came up with when they were in 5th grade for the final exhibition. Perpetua, the tailor will also be coming in so that we can tell her the toys we needed for her to make to get an estimate of the money needed to make this project a success and start initiating various fundraisers in order to get the money for these projects.
Visit in MTH for the measurement of mats! (CAS PROJECT)
Creativity in Service (CAS PROJECT)!
Lately we have been designing toys for the infants and children in the Mother Teresa home that are easy and fun to play with and will also activate the sensory components in the children. Our goal is to "provide the children with sustainable toys that can be created in bulk and activate the 7 senses in the children." We created designs with our CAS group that allowed us to effectively plan and make these toys. Our first struggle was the planning the paddle ball. The thing that was so complicated about this toy was the materials that we needed to make it. In particular it was the amount of material that we needed that made it very complicated to create these toys. Then we realized an easier method which was to create the shape of the paddle ball board with MDF (lighter wood) that Brito (DT Teacher) would cut these stencils and our group would attach the string and ball. In addition we made many other designs such as the chimes for the children that would be made out of wood and metal wiring around the chimes to hang this above the cribs. For this we brainstormed that the chimes would be the alphabet letter to actively engage their "see" sense.
Group Reflection
As a group we have had issues in the way that we had been very disorganized and as leaders we approached the other members in the group so that these mistakes do not occur again and so that we can function as an effective group and have our tasks done in the timeline that we made in the group. We readdressed this issue since it then limits us do less tasks than achieving a lot more in the year. So as a group we made sure that everyone puts in the effort when it comes to visiting the home. This will hopefully improve our communication in the group and the effective planning in our service group.
Payal, Nayla and Tania CAS Reflection
Plan for NEXT CAS SESSION 29/09/15
The next CAS Session we planned to separate the two leader (me and Samana) and decided that we would take a group of people where I would go to measure the area of the place at which we need the mats for, while Samana and her group will be deciding on the final toys that we need to make an order for with the tailor Perpetua.
Timeline for the 10 CAS Sessions:
Planning of things needed in the home--> Visit to MTH
During the visit to the Mother Teresa Orphanage, many people found many things that could be improved for the home and we distinctly looked at the infants and the children's rooms for the focus of our projects. We thought of many ideas which included:
Then we came up with what as a collective was the most important to the orphanage and voted on the things we will take up for the year or perhaps the semester if things are going as planned.
Everyone had agreed that they wanted to specifically focus on the childhood section where much work was thought to be done.
Everyone had agreed that they wanted to specifically focus on the childhood section where much work was thought to be done.
- Teach them DIY footballs to have a toy that is sustainable through the use of plastic bags (votes: 0)
- Ensuring playground safety (votes: 0)
- Making toys and providing mats (votes: 4)
- Mattreses and couches (votes: 0)
- Donating educational necessities (notebooks/stationary) (votes: 2)
08/09/15
Planning the session:
Since Ms. Isabelle was not here, Me and my fellow CAS leader Samana decided that we would both do a introduction session where we would try and know everyone’s names well to create the unity within our CAS. This certainly helped us as leaders know each of them properly and understood everyone’s strengths and how they would contribute to the CAS. We also delegated responsibilities to everyone so that all the participate throughout the semester.
We played many games like
* Bing bang
* Stomp the foot (to learn everyone’s names and know what people are looking forward to for this semester)
Planning the session:
Since Ms. Isabelle was not here, Me and my fellow CAS leader Samana decided that we would both do a introduction session where we would try and know everyone’s names well to create the unity within our CAS. This certainly helped us as leaders know each of them properly and understood everyone’s strengths and how they would contribute to the CAS. We also delegated responsibilities to everyone so that all the participate throughout the semester.
We played many games like
* Bing bang
* Stomp the foot (to learn everyone’s names and know what people are looking forward to for this semester)
25/08/15
As being the leader of this CAS program, it was incredibly exciting to introduce the Mother Teresa Home to everyone and share some of the exciting ideas we had as leaders and brainstorming many more as a group. First of we started to get acquainted with one another to get an idea of who they were and some of the positions they could take up in the semester in order to have this year be smooth and so that work load is evenly distributed. Our CAS this year has planned to be very project based and has a heavy concentration on the infants, children and the elderly. This experience highlights the “demonstrating how to initiate and plan a CAS experience” component of the CAS experience as we brainstormed possible ideas of what to do in the coming weeks. We began to plan and delegate responsibilities to each of the members so that everything is fairly distributed in the group. Secondly, we made everyone feel welcomed to the group and that brought out many ideas that students have done in the past in their old schools or previous projects. There were many students in 6th grade that had done Mother Teresa as their service learning project and they pitched in the many ideas that brought creativity to the table. One in particular was a DIY project of making a football out of plastic bags wrapped around each other tightly so that children can use them to play without harming themselves. Not only is that a great way to make toys for the children but it is a sustainable project that helps the environment by recycling the plastic bags.
As being the leader of this CAS program, it was incredibly exciting to introduce the Mother Teresa Home to everyone and share some of the exciting ideas we had as leaders and brainstorming many more as a group. First of we started to get acquainted with one another to get an idea of who they were and some of the positions they could take up in the semester in order to have this year be smooth and so that work load is evenly distributed. Our CAS this year has planned to be very project based and has a heavy concentration on the infants, children and the elderly. This experience highlights the “demonstrating how to initiate and plan a CAS experience” component of the CAS experience as we brainstormed possible ideas of what to do in the coming weeks. We began to plan and delegate responsibilities to each of the members so that everything is fairly distributed in the group. Secondly, we made everyone feel welcomed to the group and that brought out many ideas that students have done in the past in their old schools or previous projects. There were many students in 6th grade that had done Mother Teresa as their service learning project and they pitched in the many ideas that brought creativity to the table. One in particular was a DIY project of making a football out of plastic bags wrapped around each other tightly so that children can use them to play without harming themselves. Not only is that a great way to make toys for the children but it is a sustainable project that helps the environment by recycling the plastic bags.
Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love