CAS Journal Entry No.4: Anti-Bullying Session

          As part of our CAS program, we conducted an anti-bullying session for the fifth graders in our school. Each of us made a presentation about one of the following topics of bullying, bad language, and stealing. For eighty minutes, our class presented the topics to the junior class in an engaging manner. Going into the presentation, I did not expect it to turn out so well. Having stage fright, I was very nervous about talking in front of a crowd and it took me  a good deal of preparation to be a little sure of myself. The other problem which we faced before presenting these issues was how to connect with the audience.

As senior students, there is a certain distance which most students of the junior school maintain in our school. Our first task was to break this unseen barrier and the approach we took to deal this problem was to include child-friendly cartoons and animations in the slides. We also used a bright color pattern of blue and yellow, to help catch their attention. Although we were well prepared for the presentation, the nervousness when they came into the room was a different experience. While we were presenting out topics, the juniors asked a lot of questions about various situations and what to do if they happened. While most of the situations seemed possible and we tried to answer as best as we could, after a while it got a bit out of hand and we had to quiet them down.

            After the presentation, we sat down and talked about what had just happened and we all agreed that it was a refreshing experience because we had, for most of our student lives, been spectators who were content to simply sit back and absorb everything that was being thrown at us. For the first time, we were actually participating in creating and teaching children. Given a chance I would like to repeat such an experience, and I definitely think that these types of opportunities are a learning activity that will enrich us far more than a simple session of a much more mundane session. A learning opportunity is unmatched in terms of enlightenment, and now I understand why teachers are so happy with their jobs.