Learning Guitar

Criteria of CAS – Creativity

Time - 8 hours

Venue – D Y Patil International School, Nagpur

Activity Started: 16 August 2014

Activity Ended:  30 October 2014

"My guitar is not a thing. It is an extension of myself. It is who I am." - Joan Jett

First week: I always wanted to learn guitar. I will develop a new skill, playing guitar. I was very excited for my first class, Sir started with explaining me parts of guitar. 

Then he taught me finger exercises. Our index finger is 1, middle one is 2, ring is 3 and little finger is 4. These should be kept on 1, 2, 3, 4 frets and thumb should be used for support.  He gave a sheet of paper in which there were 11 exercises which he asked me to play and practice for the whole week. After I learned every exercise he asked me to play it to him twice. First time with eyes open and then second time with eyes closed. This week I attended 5 classes, 1 hour class everyday, except weekends.

Second week: Last week completed the finger exercises. This week we started with 'C' major scale, 5 shape, 3rd string root, one octave scale. This had 10 exercises with very long notes. He gave me the notes with marking of A1, B3, C*4, E1, F2, G4, C1 and D3. a, b, c, d represents notes and 1,2,3,4 represent fingers which should be kept on notes. This week completed 5 exercises. This week I attended 5 classes, 1 hour each.

Third week: This week i completed the rest of the exercises. And now have become very much comfortable with my guitar. There is a note, that always tap your feet with playing. This week I attended 5 classes, 1 hour each.

Forth week: This I did learned notes value. First is a Full-note, where you play C (or any note) and tap your feet. And tap it more tree times but don't play the note, it is called blank note. Second is Half-note, where you play C then a blank note then D then another blank note. Third is 3/4-note, where you play C then 2 blank notes then D. Forth is Quater-note where you play C, D, E, F and tap your feet with each note. Fifth is Eighth-note where you play 2 notes in 1 tap for eg CD, EF, GA, BC. Sixth is Sixteenth-note, where you play 4 notes in 1 tap for eg CDEF, GABC, CBAG, FEDC. With help of these Sir taught me Notation study. Notation is the name given to ways of writing music. I practiced all the exercises this week. This week I attended 5 classes, 1 hour each.

Fifth week: This week I learned short songs containing minor and major notes. Those songs where Happy Birthday, Twinkle-twinkle, London bridge, Jingle bell and Papa loves mama. I also learned a great composer's composition, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's C major composition. This week I attended 5 classes, 1 hour each. From next week I will start Hindi songs.

Abhyodaya Global Village School Visit

Activity Date – 9 October 2014

Approximate Time - 6 hour

Criteria of CAS – Creativity, Action and Services

From one week we were planning for this activity. I was very excited because this is very different from my daily routine and I also had an opportunity to help those students and that school. Bhagyashree Gandhi’s father started this school 2-3 years back. He had a dream that the children of villagers can become future entrepreneurs. Miss Bhagyashree Gandhi is trying to fulfill his father’s dream by managing the school. She is getting help by the teachers and some other schools.

I was given the responsibility of Grade 3. I was very excited and happy, because I was given the opportunity to help them. I also knew I was undertaking new challenges. Opportunity is a gift which is given to everyone but the thing which matter is do you seize it or not. I never say no whenever somebody ask for help or there is chance to help anyone. I planned activities which I was going to do there. I started thinking what I can teach them. The first thing came to my mind was greetings so used internet and I made some data with pictures from which they can understand. Second thing was nutrition habits, as they are very small they should know what to eat. Eating nutritious food is very important so wanted to make them understand this clearly. I also took prints of drawing which they can paint or color. In today’s world a child should know how to protect himself and be safe, I thought I will teach them that too.

9^th October morning we left school at 8:30 am and after 1 and a half hour journey we reached there. They welcomed us with flower bouquets and introduced us with the students then we attended their assembly. After that Bhagyashree ma’am showed as presentation on their school, it was very inspiring. We went to respective classes of which we were given responsibility of. I started with introducing myself and getting comfortable with my class. As per my plan I started with greetings. They just knew Good Morning and Good Afternoon. I taught them the others and made them understand when to say those. To make them clearly understand I made them do it with in pairs. They took interest in this activity and I was very happy looking at their smiley faces.

After that I taught them Nutrition habits, they knew about washing hands but no other things like when to eat and how much to eat, how many glass of water they should they drink in a day and what are nutritious foods. They listened to everything attentively, to check everybody understood I asked questions everyone, some answered some didn't so who didn’t understood I again taught them.

To fresh up their minds I gave them coloring sheets and they started coloring and also they helped each other in that by giving each other colors. Nowadays we can see this helping nature in kids only because they have a pure heart and soul.

Then I taught them how to be safe and what to do in dangerous situations. I was shocked by that they understood importance of this lesson and actively also asked question about it.

It was lunch time, we had lunch and after that I taught them football and learned it very quickly and started playing, though I love playing football I was unfortunately the referee. Still I loved it because watching those kids play with such joy was amazing.

This activity ended and we said bye. I learned a lot from this activity. I think I showed perseverance and commitment towards those children.

Teaching Football

 “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” ― Phil Collins

Activity Started – 23 September 2014

Activity Ended – 07 October 2014

Approximate Time - 8 hours

Criteria of CAS – Action

As I and my fellow classmate Jaidev Pahade learned football from our coach Mr. Joy Jackson in grade 9 and 10, I thought I should share my knowledge with my juniors and the future of this world. Who knows one of them has talent to become the next Cristiano Ronaldo.

Planning:

When we introduced this activity to our CAS coordinator miss Vijaylaxmi Kanate, she told us to make a proper plan of this activity example which classes would participate and which periods we will take. So we decided that we will take students from Grade 1 to 5 and we will teach them two days a week Tuesday (3 period) and Thursday (3 period). The other issue was volunteers because I and jaidev wouldn’t be able to handle these many kids. Our classmates Kaustubh Murmare and Rucha Verma volunteered, they both had knowledge of football as they also learned it in their respective schools.

I suggested that we should divide them into groups. So it would be easy to handle them.

So we divided students and us into groups –

Group 1 – Shafqat Syed

Group 2 – Jaidev Pahade

Group 3 – Kaustubh Murmare and Rucha Verma

Our main aim was to teach them skills of football like passing, dribbling, ball control and shooting. To make this more interesting we decided that in the last class of the session we will have a match, the ideas was to divide all the students into three teams and have a matches which they would enjoy.

Day 1 (1 hour)

Now everything was decided and now it was time to get the equipment. I and Jaidev Pahade went to get 6 footballs and some cones. Teaching football to kids was a great and new challenge because to manage these so small children is very difficult, it would have been turned into a disaster but by luck and god’s grace it didn’t happened. We worked collaboratively to divide the children into lines and taking them to the ground. It was a tough job because they were running everywhere. This activity was about increasing awareness about their own strength. Playing football will be very beneficial for the children because they will learn new activity and this will also maintain their physical fitness.

On ground we did some stretching and started training. Today I taught them passing, passing the ball is the key part in playing football. There are two types of passing one is short pass and the other one is long pass. In short pass you have to use inside part of your foot, this increases your accuracy and in passing accuracy is very important because sometime your player might be taking turn or moving forward. In long pass you hit the ball with more power and keep the ball in 30 degrees and swing your foot, you can use arms for balance. 

Day 2 (1 hour)

Now I was familiar to all my students and I know their understanding level and capability. Today also we did some stretching and warm up. I took practice of what I taught them in last class as this was the plan first teach them then practice it for one more class.

Day 3 (1 hour)

Today also we started with some stretching and warm up and then started training. Today I taught them dribbling, it is about speed and agility. In dribbling you push the ball with the lace part of your shoe. It was very difficult to make them understand that they have to push the ball with the lace part not the toe. Hitting the ball with toe is very dangerous because their bones are not that tough. I placed 2 cones with some distance and taught them to dribble from one side to the other. Children from the higher grades understood easily but the tiny tots (little children) took time but I never left my spirit, I think it is my love for football which keeps me going.

Day 4 (1 hour)

Today started with warm up then I took their practice of dribbling in different situations. I also taught them sprint running. In that process I thought that was the best time to teach them dogging and tackle. Slide tackle would have been very difficult and dangerous for them so I taught them standing tackle.

Day 5 (1 hour)

Our P. E. teacher suggested that we should teach them some exercises also which will help them become a better athlete and increase their stamina. So we arrangements then did all those activities. My students got so tired after that I didn’t want to teach them I wanted them to relax but what I saw was amazing those little kids still had hunger for knowledge, that moment I realized football is now made its place in their hearts like it did in me. I taught them ball control as it is easy to learn and takes less time, in this you have to use different parts of your body e.g. chest, thigh, calf etc and control the ball.

Day 6 (1 hour)

Today I taught them shooting which is very important thing because after all the thing which matters is goals. They understood easily how to give directions but power was their problem and as being their teacher it was my responsibility to make master at this.

Day 7 (1 hour)

As the match was near I wanted my players to be ready. So I taught them things about match like foals, offside, cards, throw-ins and corners. They listened to everything carefully, asked questions and understood everything well.

Day 8 (1 hour)

Today was the last day, we had some problems some things were out of the plan. Some students were absent and some didn’t carried their sport shoes. So we decided we will divide them in to 2 equal teams. As Jaidev, Kaustubh and Rucha didn’t knew much about the rules and regulations of the match I became the referee and I made Jaidev and Kaustubh managers of both the teams. I gave them 5 minutes to discuss strategy and positions. We started the match it was fun and competitive. Jaidev’s team won with 2-1. I was very happy that the players whom I taught perform excellently.

I enjoyed this activity and learned many things from it. I increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth.