Monsoon Musings was a student-led event, this event was conducted because to appreciate all kinds of artwork and add glamour to literature. In this event students from grade 7 to 12 can participate and also senior school teachers, so if they would like to participate they should recite a poem, or a short story, or a tiny tale.

Also, students can participate by selling their artwork or by displaying it on art stalls. For people who participate and the audience, we had organised seva cafe, where students and teacher could grab some snacks and fill their stomach.

This event was a non- profit event, so the money people gave us had to given for donation.

LO 1- Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

I was the project coordinator for Monsoon Musings, I organized the event. This was a student-led event.

I am good with working with the team and this is my strength. I have organized family events in past and because of this, I identified my strength. I respect all my friends’ ideas and because of this reason I get along with everyone and this is how this became my strength.

My weakness during this CAS experience was that I sometimes forget to take an update from someone, to who I have assigned any kind of task. This issue could also be a communication gap and whenever this issue occurred, the work would be incomplete and the work would slowly be done. There is so much work to be completed and because of this communication gap occurs.

It is important to know our strengths and weaknesses because we get to know ourselves better and we can help other people as we have experience in that and we are better than others in that particular task.

I would like to work on my weakness by writing down my tasks, as then I will not forget any of my tasks that need to be completed. I will also have a record of how many things I completed.

LO 2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

In the group, all the group members were assigned tasks but some people did not complete their tasks on time, and because of that, I lost confidence at times. I keep updating my group members for completing their tasks. Some arguments were also created between team members regarding completing tasks.

I being the project coordinator cannot do all the work, but help people to complete their tasks, and this was challenging to make people work.

This was a new experience for me and never did something like before. I overcame this challenge by talking to them and making them understand the importance of the event, and after one to one consultation, this helped me to overcome this challenge as people started completing their work on time.

This challenge made me extrovert because before this CAS experience I was introvert, I now do not feel shy to talk to anyone and this challenge gave me more confidence to face people. Taking up new challenges make more confident in doing any kind of tasks with perfection. I became open-minded because before I was shy to talk to people.

This skill can be used in the future as this skill is very important in life and can be applied even in my career life. It is very important to learn new skills as then you will succeed in life.

LO 3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

I was very organized in this CAS experience, as I completed all my tasks. Planning was more difficult than initiating. Planning involves the flow of the event, decorations, how the food should be cooked, and many more things. Planning was given a lot of time as everyone suggests different things and it was difficult because we had many ideas.

Initiating was easier because we had done planning, during initiating we did not consider the practical part, that means the atmosphere was warm, many people felt hot. It was compulsory for grade 11 to participate and because of this number of volunteers were more and they made noise which was disturbing during the event.

Planning and initiating would be easier in the future, as now I have experience of how to plan any kind of event. Planning is important for life as life needs planning to. Initiating is also an important aspect of life, we can’t only talk but we need to be active.

LO 4- Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

A commitment was necessary for conducting such a huge event. We the organizing team had to come early on many days to decide the plan and the flow of the event. I also had many submissions during the preparing days for the event and I still came for the meetings.

Sometimes it was difficult to come for the meeting because, as I then have to leave studying for a while. I then managed my time well and this made me feel more responsible.

I have committed also in completing my tasks which were assigned to me. As I was the project coordinator, I also had to make everyone complete their tasks which were assigned to them. I also like organizing events, for me for it was easy to commit things and I manage my time well.

LO 5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Working collaboratively was easy for me during this event because our tasks were assigned to us and if someone does not do their tasks, then I had to help them complete their tasks and sometimes my friends also asked helped for completing the tasks which were difficult to them to do the particular task. Working with others was easy for me as our team understood their responsibilities well.

Working together that means some disputes would be created but they were minor and together we had to put up a great event. It was easy to handle everyone.

It is important to work collaboratively because we would understand each other better and our knowledge would also improve as we would share different ideas with each and other. It would also be better for our career life and it would also be a life learning experience.

Teamwork and leadership both were important because I was the project coordinator of the event that means for some decision I had to take it myself and major were discussed during the team meeting. Our team was very understanding and we valued each and everyone’s perspectives.

LO 7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions   

People had to come to the event and recite their poems or short stories or tiny tales and some poems were not ethical as they were on sensitive topics.  Our school students could also sell their art pieces and some art pieces could have similar ideas from older art pieces which were inspiring for us and these kinds of ethical issues were involved.

I think these issues were nothing major and can be accepted by the larger audience. Sensitive topics should not be discussed with many people. Art pieces can be inspired by older and famous art pieces.

In all this event was fun. I had fun planning, organizing and implementing the event. This event had made me a better and stronger person, who can speak in a large unknown public and also handle any last minute problems. I understood people and now work collaboratively efficiently.

Learner Profiles I developed- Inquirer, Communicator, Balanced, Thinkers, Caring and Reflective – after the event, we analyzed our performance.