Hi everyone,
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
This is my last post on the Butterfly Effect website. I’m very grateful to be apart of this community as I have learned so much from my peers and truly pushed myself to explore my own passion and interests. Thank you Pamoja!
In this post, I will reflect on my action project. At the beginning of the year, I started to lead a couple of clubs at school, and I chose to reflect on my experiences. I’ve previously done a few inquiry projects on this site, so choosing to do an action project truly made me step out of my comfort zone. Even so, it was an unforgettable experience to reflect on, and I’ve learned so much on my journey. Without further ado… welcome to my Metamorphosis!
What challenges did you overcome throughout this action project? How did you go about overcoming these challenges?
I’ve faced many challenges during my action project. For one, I faced some problems when it came to planning events. For example, some problems that were with time. For our first bake sale, we couldn’t successfully create enough posters to promote the event. Our club was the first to have a fundraise this year, but despite this, we were creative with our marketing and it was our most successful sale of all time! Moreover, there were some technical problems with our machines that we used in our events. For example, there was the challenge of handling the coffee maker. In one of our sales, we didn’t know fully how to work it and one of the urns was acting up. Fortunately, we got some help from our teacher sponsor, and everything worked out.
Finally, the most difficult challenge I faced was the abrupt end of our school year. Without being present in a classroom or with my peers, it became difficult to keep the clubs running and to continue connecting with my peers. Miracle Movement, specifically, wasn’t able to continue with our end of the year event or any of our sales. However, because the club has a group chat for us to connect on, we were able to maintain our social connections and have check-ins to see if everyone is doing well. Another one of my clubs that I run is called Social Club. As you can tell by the name, Social Club focuses completely on wellbeing and social connections. For me, it was important to keep connecting with my peers, and since we were no longer able to continue with our meetings, I felt that it was important to continue connecting. As a result, I overcame this hurdle by creating optional video call meetings online, so people can chat together. Furthermore, I also created a Teams page for us to share our ideas on group activities and to send out reminders. We also have our teacher sponsor checking in at times. Nonetheless, as many of my peers know, all of our schooling is now done on Teams, so Teams was the best application for us to continue our meetings as it should be easily accessible to everyone. A person can access from their phone or computer, unlike other apps such as Snapchat.
How did this action change the way you think?
This inquiry changed the way I thought to overcome challenges. As I mentioned, I faced a lot of time, technical issues and as well as keeping the club running. I learned how to overcome challenges in creative ways and how to deal with the technological world once school closed. I developed my problem-solving skills. Furthermore, this inquiry helped me develop my leadership skills, my communication skills, my planning and my mindset. At the beginning of my project, I wasn’t familiar with how to set up events or schedule bake sales. I learned how to maneuver during packed schedules and problems. I also wasn’t familiar with planning out meetings and figuring what should be discussed. However, with the collaboration with my peers, I was able to grow.
How did this investigation impact your future decisions?
This action impacted my future decisions in a positive way. I learned so much from my peers and grew so much socially. Working with other people has allowed to continue exploring my passions and interests. I want to work as a teacher or as a pediatric nurse in the future, and those are jobs where you have to be able to take leadership and be socially aware. Furthermore, I learned how to be efficient in an online community and how to maintain social connections, even when you are behind a screen. In the next year, I’m going to be studying at university. Since all of my courses will be online due to the pandemic, it will be a challenge for me to keep socially connected and adapt to online learning. However, this action has forced me to adapt and overcome these challenges.
What impact will this investigation have on others locally and/or globally?
I hope that my action will inspire others to take on challenges and to step out of their comfort zones, especially those in the younger grades. Putting the pandemic into perspective, many of us were taking going to school for granted. Once we stopped going to school, many of us realized how much we missed seeing our teachers and friends. Learning online is a completely different experience because you aren’t able to see people face to face. During most of my courses, it’s only the teacher that talks. Sometimes, there are presentations, but there isn’t back and forth conversations. For me, it’s my last year in secondary school, and I wish we could have ended in a different note. As a result, I hope many people are able to take away the importance of keeping social connections and to try new things. Perhaps next year, you can start your own club like how I did. All you need are some friends and a teacher sponsor. Perhaps you can join some new clubs. Perhaps you can start volunteering or find a job. My project is about sharing my new experiences, challenges and successes to inspire others to take that leap of courage.
Thank you for reading,
Alison