Description of the activity:
I am keen towards cooking and I was always curious as to how to make new dishes but did not have the time to join a cooking class at home, hence I chose it as my Arts Special activity. I will learn how to cook new dishes and improve upon the ones I already know. This can help me in the future when I go to college as I will have to cook on my own and eating outside everyday is not suitable so to maintain a healthy lifestyle my cooking skills will help me.
Why I chose this activity:
- It can help me when I go to college
- I am interested in developing my cooking skills
- I do not have to be dependent on others
- Doing something apart from academics will help me release stress
Learning outcomes I met were:
L1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
The weaknesses that I identified were that I could not make round rotis and Indian Subzis. The strengths I have is that while making the food on gas I know how many spices to add to the food and while chopping I can cut the vegetables into minute pieces. Knowing my strengths and weaknesses is one of the key part of becoming better at cooking. Being aware of my weaknesses would help me reflect and try to improve upon them and turn them into my strengths while cooking again. Doing this would help me excel at what I was not good. It can lead to personal growth because if I knew my strengths during cooking I could use that to my benefit and do what I was good at while my friends could do what they were good at. For example, if I could not make round rotis but made good subzis. I realised if I practiced again and again could excel at that too. So during the cooking class I took the responsibility of making rotis and I also practiced at home. All this hard working helped me to achieve what I aimed for.
L2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
While working on my weaknesses and enhancing my strengths there were a few difficulties that I faced. Achieving what I wanted in a short period of time would be really difficult. I had to practice when I was at home along with my studies which was really stressful and I wanted to avoid it every time, however, I knew that if I keep myself dedicated and try harder I would be able to achieve my goal. This helped me improve my time management skills, I reduced going out with my friends and watching movies, I made a study schedule to make sure I did not lack behind in my academics. I had a habit of sleeping late and waking up on my normal school time if I wanted to practice and keep up with my studies I would have to find a way to sleep on time and wake up early for studying so I could cook in the evening. At first, I was not that consistent at waking up early so I had to miss a few days however I pushed myself to wake up early as my sleep was a sacrifice I was willing to make so that I could work on my cooking skills. This helped me as when I was at home alone sometimes I could make subzis and roti together.
L5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Working with others is generally easy for me as I also play basketball hence I have to work with my team so while cooking I have no problem while making food with others. However, if I am given a certain task like chopping and I have to do it on my own then I do not like others interfering in my work. There were a lot of people in cooking and sometimes people would get left out because some people used to always cook this was a problem. Then to solve this I asked the teacher to keep turns, so that one day if I am chopping the next day I would work on the gas so all of our duties would change every class. It is important to work together as our slot is only 50 minutes long and to cook and learn new dishes alone is difficult hence we knew if we worked together then we would learn more items. Teamwork and leadership is important as if we don’t work together then sometimes it may happen that people chop more vegetables than required and the quantity of food is also too much hence there would be a lot of wastage so working collaboratively benefits everyone and is crucial.
Learner profile attributes I developed during this activity:
Knowledgeable – I was able to learn a bunch of management skills from Khyati Ma’am and learn the process of making food for many people.
Open-minded- There are many people in the class and all of them have a different way of chopping, cleaning and cooking hence I would have to be open minded and adapt the way which is the most efficient.
Communicator – To cook with my friends I would need communication skills to let them know if they are going wrong or which part of the kitchen they will handle.
Balanced- To practice what I learnt in the class I would have to cook at home. For that I would have to balance my academics and extracurriculars.
Overall, this CAS experience has taught me a lot of things aside from just getting better at cooking. I have experienced challenges and have enhanced my skills. This experience has made me a more dedicated person. It has helped me get better at managing time, working in a team and also achieving what I aimed for. I also became a reflective thinker when I identified my strengths and weaknesses so that I could use them to my benefit. Using this experience as a reflection, I think I can achieve a lot of things with the same amount of dedication and hard work. 
