June 07, 2018 - 
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Overall Reflection
Overall Reflection:
All in all, seven weeks flew by really quickly and our community service activities with the kids has come to an end. I have always not fancied kids and I feel this module does not change that fact, but I felt that I really did try to put aside my own personal feelings and do my best to reach out and help these kids during the weeks of teaching. I still feel that if I had a choice I would be helping out at an animal shelter, or paint the walls at an old folks home, but I believe everything usually happens for a reason. Maybe this was a chance for me to really push myself out of my comfort zone, to learn more about myself in a way through handling the kids and communicating with them. I have learnt to be patient, understanding and caring- even more so than I have ever been.
Overall, I feel that these kids have the potential to do better but they just do not want to try. I do not know if it was because they were performing in their school and were disappointed because of that. A lot of the kids actually came up to us during the weeks asking if they would be performing in Taylor's or somewhere else. Maybe they just wanted to be seen outside of their school excelling. In a way, I understand them and if I were to be out in their shoes, I would probably be the least excited person in the classroom too. Through this I learnt that one's mindset is really important. It is how one looks at things because if you keep telling yourself it is boring, a waste of time and so on, you will never look at it in a different light where it could potentially be a fun and exciting activity shared among each other. It is frustrating to have people not even try when all you can see in them is potential to do better or the potential to just be better in general. It really is a waste.
I say "teaching is not for me," but that is not exactly true as well since I love teaching dance and do it often. The only difference is, my dance students are people who actually want to be there and have the passion to do so and improve, whereas students in high school are usually forced to take part in something they do not have interest in. If I could have done things differently, I would probably not even resort to choral speaking or jazz chants because again, if I were in their shoes, I would have probably hated the idea as well. In my honest opinion, maybe we should have done something for exciting, something in trend that they would love to engage in, but maybe that is just the 90's kid in me talking. This was probably another reason why I did not enjoy this module as much as I would have liked to, because we did not even get the chance to choose where we would like to spend our hours. I am a person who does not find joy in doing things I do not like and has always been that way even when I was a kid. I've always hated calculations and never excelled in it, but give me an art subject or literature and see me flourish to reach my greatest potential.
I will not say that these past seven weeks has totally been a waste because it has not been. Even on the worst days I can find something good in them be it as simple as completing the session, or having a student thank me and simple words such as "see you next week, sis!" These words make me feel less burdened and tired at the end of the session because it is a simple reminder that maybe, just maybe, I did teach them something that day or that maybe I was being too hard on myself and that maybe, they enjoyed our company after all. Would I do this again? No, I do not think so, but will I remember this as an experience worth remembering? Yes, most probably.
Thank you class 2 Kreatif for tolerating Fufy and I and I hope we did make an impact in the seven weeks together. 👻
Signing off,
Ariel