INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 20/4/13
Reflection
Summary of Activity
In this project the student guild aimed to organize an event that has already been held in school once, an International Fair. Being an international school the community consists of various different nationalities, each with their independent culture and traditions. This event would then be an opportunity for people from the same country to come together and celebrate their cultures, by decorating tent, typical artistic presentations, food and games. I, as secretary of the student guild was responsible for planning and organizing the general aspects of the event (renting tents, money, logistics, trophies, food, tickets, drinks, football tournament, etc.), as well as represent Greece (my descendent country) by decorating the tent and performing the typical dance. The money would then be directed to the social project of the Irmãs Passionistas, which takes care of the elderly and provides training for unemployed women to get the skills for a job.
Did I achieve my goal?
Our goal was to create an event where the school community (teachers, students, parents and staff) would get together and share their cultures in order to celebrate origins and increase cultural awareness. By doing this people learn more as well as enhance their interest, and prejudice and ignorance is significantly decreased. Judging by the very enthusiastic participation of all the community, the event had an amazing dynamic to it and all the extensively positive feedback we received from everyone; we succeeded the expectations and achieved our goal.
What would I have done differently?
I would definitely had started to plan the event earlier, so that the last minute issues we encountered would not happen. For example the tents and individual countries would not establish their needs and requirements on how many chairs and tables would be required. This caused immense chaos during the event when students where getting tables and chairs from the cafeteria and bringing them into their tents. We were told off by the administration for this, and with earlier planning such concern would be avoided. Another thing I should have done differently was acquiring the leadership of the Greek stand earlier. I left it for a long time under my brother, but he was not really interested in going through with it, so I took over a couple of weeks before the event, which made everything a lot more rushed.
How did my awareness of my strengths and weaknesses increase?
I learnt that I have a natural leap for being in charge, and often work best when I am leading a group since I envision each ones abilities and am able to engage people in it. I also confirmed my overwhelmed feeling during big events like this one. I get a rush and run around trying to solve small issues, and rarely am calm enough to have good thinking process. On the other hand I can work very effectively under pressure, and make quick decisions, and I simply love being pushed by the circumstances and constantly having what do to.
Have I undertake new challenges?
This even was by far the larges event and the most consuming responsibility I have ever undertaken. The magnitude of this event involved every single member of the community, at various different levels, and to be responsible for its success (together with the other officers of the Student Guild) was very challenging. There were so many people to organize and so much to go after and get ready that working around all of these obstacles was exhausting. But since I was part of the Student Guild in the first time the event was held, I new what I was putting myself through and I chose to do it besides all the issues/adversities I knew I would face.
Did I plan and organize activities?
This entire project was planed and organized by the Student Guild officers. Everything from the date, people involved, amount of food, tent rent, performances, etc. was overseen and developed by us. Being involved with the Greek stand I had to oversee decorations, food, historical timeline and organize the performance (together with my cousin).
How did any previous skills help me pursue my goal?
The skills acquired in the Talent Show, all the discussions and issues we had working collaboratively, allowed us for better team work skills and made the entire organizing process a lot smoother and successful.
Did I work collaboratively?
I was constantly and mainly working with Thiago and Pedro (the officers of the student guild), but I also had the Greek stand, so I had to work with other students in order to organize the stand.
Did I show perseverance and commitment?
This project became incredibly overwhelming and I would often mix this pressure with personal life issues. All the adversities encountered in the planning of this event affected me personally, and I was constantly afraid we would have to withdraw and give up like the past guilds in the school did. But the team was extremely motivated and the will to push through something big and with an ambitious goal, was amazing, and all the commitments I had extra were put aside for some time in order to be fully successful in this project.
Was I engaged in issues of global importance?
Cultural awareness is an issue of global importance, and during this project I realized that racism and prejudice are actually caused by the different cultures and races, but with an increase in knowledge from various ethnicities, this social problems can be significantly diminished.
Were the ethical implications?
The question of what countries to include in the event was delicate, and we had to think about how to plan it out so that we were the most inclusive as possible, because if we were going to promote cultural awareness we ought to include as many variations of cultures as we could. On the other hand we had to make sure the stands were going to be well made and that there would be enough people working in it so that it was successful. So we decided to have a variation among the continents and do this balance with the amount of students and teachers to represent that country.
Did I develop new skills?
I developed new dancing skills, since I put together the choreography of the Greek presentation (together with my cousin), I learnt new steps from my favorite dance xassapiko and during the event my uncle thought me how to play some rhythms on the Greek guitar the buzuki. Regarding planning skills, I definitely enhanced my communication skills, being always aware with my tone, trying not to sound too loud or too bossy, but actually getting the necessary information across in an effective way. Also improved my planning skills, where I settles daily tasks and slowly got my share of tasks completed successfully.
How did this activity build characteristics of the learner profile?
This task tested me on all different mental states, forcing me to think critically about every decision, so definitely thinker. To accept and undertake this responsibility was definitely a risk it was often the case where I would be regretting it, but the outcome made everything worth it, which meant I went through all the stages of taking risks.
Summary of Activity
In this project the student guild aimed to organize an event that has already been held in school once, an International Fair. Being an international school the community consists of various different nationalities, each with their independent culture and traditions. This event would then be an opportunity for people from the same country to come together and celebrate their cultures, by decorating tent, typical artistic presentations, food and games. I, as secretary of the student guild was responsible for planning and organizing the general aspects of the event (renting tents, money, logistics, trophies, food, tickets, drinks, football tournament, etc.), as well as represent Greece (my descendent country) by decorating the tent and performing the typical dance. The money would then be directed to the social project of the Irmãs Passionistas, which takes care of the elderly and provides training for unemployed women to get the skills for a job.
Did I achieve my goal?
Our goal was to create an event where the school community (teachers, students, parents and staff) would get together and share their cultures in order to celebrate origins and increase cultural awareness. By doing this people learn more as well as enhance their interest, and prejudice and ignorance is significantly decreased. Judging by the very enthusiastic participation of all the community, the event had an amazing dynamic to it and all the extensively positive feedback we received from everyone; we succeeded the expectations and achieved our goal.
What would I have done differently?
I would definitely had started to plan the event earlier, so that the last minute issues we encountered would not happen. For example the tents and individual countries would not establish their needs and requirements on how many chairs and tables would be required. This caused immense chaos during the event when students where getting tables and chairs from the cafeteria and bringing them into their tents. We were told off by the administration for this, and with earlier planning such concern would be avoided. Another thing I should have done differently was acquiring the leadership of the Greek stand earlier. I left it for a long time under my brother, but he was not really interested in going through with it, so I took over a couple of weeks before the event, which made everything a lot more rushed.
How did my awareness of my strengths and weaknesses increase?
I learnt that I have a natural leap for being in charge, and often work best when I am leading a group since I envision each ones abilities and am able to engage people in it. I also confirmed my overwhelmed feeling during big events like this one. I get a rush and run around trying to solve small issues, and rarely am calm enough to have good thinking process. On the other hand I can work very effectively under pressure, and make quick decisions, and I simply love being pushed by the circumstances and constantly having what do to.
Have I undertake new challenges?
This even was by far the larges event and the most consuming responsibility I have ever undertaken. The magnitude of this event involved every single member of the community, at various different levels, and to be responsible for its success (together with the other officers of the Student Guild) was very challenging. There were so many people to organize and so much to go after and get ready that working around all of these obstacles was exhausting. But since I was part of the Student Guild in the first time the event was held, I new what I was putting myself through and I chose to do it besides all the issues/adversities I knew I would face.
Did I plan and organize activities?
This entire project was planed and organized by the Student Guild officers. Everything from the date, people involved, amount of food, tent rent, performances, etc. was overseen and developed by us. Being involved with the Greek stand I had to oversee decorations, food, historical timeline and organize the performance (together with my cousin).
How did any previous skills help me pursue my goal?
The skills acquired in the Talent Show, all the discussions and issues we had working collaboratively, allowed us for better team work skills and made the entire organizing process a lot smoother and successful.
Did I work collaboratively?
I was constantly and mainly working with Thiago and Pedro (the officers of the student guild), but I also had the Greek stand, so I had to work with other students in order to organize the stand.
Did I show perseverance and commitment?
This project became incredibly overwhelming and I would often mix this pressure with personal life issues. All the adversities encountered in the planning of this event affected me personally, and I was constantly afraid we would have to withdraw and give up like the past guilds in the school did. But the team was extremely motivated and the will to push through something big and with an ambitious goal, was amazing, and all the commitments I had extra were put aside for some time in order to be fully successful in this project.
Was I engaged in issues of global importance?
Cultural awareness is an issue of global importance, and during this project I realized that racism and prejudice are actually caused by the different cultures and races, but with an increase in knowledge from various ethnicities, this social problems can be significantly diminished.
Were the ethical implications?
The question of what countries to include in the event was delicate, and we had to think about how to plan it out so that we were the most inclusive as possible, because if we were going to promote cultural awareness we ought to include as many variations of cultures as we could. On the other hand we had to make sure the stands were going to be well made and that there would be enough people working in it so that it was successful. So we decided to have a variation among the continents and do this balance with the amount of students and teachers to represent that country.
Did I develop new skills?
I developed new dancing skills, since I put together the choreography of the Greek presentation (together with my cousin), I learnt new steps from my favorite dance xassapiko and during the event my uncle thought me how to play some rhythms on the Greek guitar the buzuki. Regarding planning skills, I definitely enhanced my communication skills, being always aware with my tone, trying not to sound too loud or too bossy, but actually getting the necessary information across in an effective way. Also improved my planning skills, where I settles daily tasks and slowly got my share of tasks completed successfully.
How did this activity build characteristics of the learner profile?
This task tested me on all different mental states, forcing me to think critically about every decision, so definitely thinker. To accept and undertake this responsibility was definitely a risk it was often the case where I would be regretting it, but the outcome made everything worth it, which meant I went through all the stages of taking risks.