The CAS program requires students to experience different stages of learning through their projects or experiences. These stages are research, preparation, action, reflection and demonstration. In this article, 12th grader Tristan Gamboa Porier tells about what he learned and accomplished through all the stages.
CAS requires us as students to be explicit about the learning outcomes achieved during our experiences or projects. The learning outcomes I developed throughout this project are:
- Identify own strengths and develop areas of growth
- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
- Show commitment to, and perseverance, in CAS experiences
The way these learning outcomes were achieved and developed throughout the project are shown in the reflection underneath.
My Little Journey as a Club Teacher
Hi, my name is Tristan Gamboa. I am a twelfth-grade student and this is my reflection for my 2019 CAS project. What was my project? Well, my project was really simple and had really simple goals. You see I made a connection, I had two things in mind “What is something I like to do?” and “What is something I’ve never done before?” so then after some reflection I concluded “I like parkour, and I’ve never been a teacher of any kind before” And that is how my parkour club was born.
So then my project was born out of a combination of a strength and an area of personal growth. I used to be pretty good at the sport but teaching is something that had scared me and I personally would have never imagined myself doing it, so it for sure was a risk for me to set myself up to becoming a teacher. But taking this risk finally paid off, and not because the club went great (because on some occasions it didn’t) but because by the end of the club my perspective towards teaching completely changed. So I will take you on a short journey so that you can have an idea of how this process of “I will never be a teacher” to “I want to continue this club after I’m done with the project”.
Monday 3 of September of 2019 was the first class I gave and I decided for this class to be an introduction to the sport and an introduction to how I had planned for the club to carry out as much for me to get to know them. And well, I got to know them. The first thing I realized was that the kids had different attitudes towards this class, some of them were there because they wanted to be there and some seemed to be there because their parents told them to. And well this was something I didn’t expect but ended up being my biggest problem as a teacher.
As the classes kept going my first realization became a consistent issue (the kids who were there only because they had to). But along the way, I realized positive things too. Such as the fact that the homeroom teacher of my most enthusiastic kids told me that they looked forward to my club every Monday and every time I asked them for feedback at the end of the class to know how well I was doing as a teacher and they would always say that they enjoyed the class which I was always glad to hear. One particular day which really moved me was a day I was in a bad mood, and the kids asked me “why aren’t you smiling like always” and then as the class continued they kept trying to find out what was wrong and were doing their best to cheer me up which ultimately did work and left that class with a big smile on my face, all because of the kids.
With the progress of the class both of us, the kids and I, were learning a lot. They were really learning the tricks and moves that I was teaching them and I was learning how to keep their attention and how to make the activities in which they learned more fun for them. I was suddenly not working alone but in a team, kids themselves were helping their partners and helping me with the class which was teamwork that I never saw coming but I was glad to take advantage of.
A particular thing as a teacher was finding the balance between a fun class and a focused class. Every class I would work really hard to achieve that balance I would usually achieve it to a certain extent until one day when the kids were completely out of control and I thought to myself “How did my favorite teachers deal with my class when we would get out of control?”. So then that is exactly what I did, for the first time I spoke to the kids with complete seriousness and with clear intentions with my words and told them that those who were not being obedient, would no longer come to the class since they weren’t allowing their peers to learn what they came to learn. And with that, I regained their attention and for the rest of the class, they remained completely obedient but gladly not in a bad mood but just happy to be there.
The two examples I provided really summarise the ups and downs of my journey as a club teacher. In the beginning, I was afraid I could be a bad teacher and by the end, I realized that I really enjoyed teaching. Although the kids were very energetic and could become uncontrollable I had gained their respect and they had gained my love. And just like that, I had gained much more from that experience than what they could have gotten. Yes they learned a couple of tricks and one of them really fell in love with the sport which I’m proud of but I got to experience the frustration and the joy of being a teacher.
