Volunteering at Guardian Angels' Charity again

Last year I have been a volunteer in Dom Aniołów Stróżów (Guardian Angels' Charity) - a place where kids and teenagers with troubles can receive help. They can come there after school, eat a dinner, tell others about their problems and try to solve them.

I have decided to volunteer there also in this year. I am supposed to spend there one hour every Friday, helping children with their homework, with learning and revising for tests. As for now I have spent there only 6 hours since September - it was due to several projects I had to do for school, which took part at the same time. I was there on 17.10, 7.11, 14.11, 21.11, 28.11 and 5.12.2014.

During first few visits I have noticed that several kids, when asked to do certain tasks, often say that they don't know how or that they can't do them. But later it turned out that they needed only a small guidance and that they could do their homework practically on their own. The only thing they lacked was self-confidence. It made me think how often people are capable of doing something, but they don't try to do it because they don't believe in themselves. I wonder how many have missed opportunities of a lifetime because they lacked self-confidence - and the only person they could blame for it was themselves. It shouldn't happen to anyone. We should leave our comfort zones and take our chances. Of course there are other factors that can affect our fate but we can't take our opportunities away from ourselves when we still have them.
Kids at Guardian Angels' Charity are insecure about their skills while doing homework, but this insecurity can show up someday and make them hesitate in the important moment of their life. Next time when I will notice kid not being confident about what he/she is doing I will try to encourage him/her to think, to try solve problems on his/her own at the first place, and then look for help, not the other way. 

First tennis trainings in the new year

I am taking part in tennis trainings as a part of my CAS activities. I had started to play tennis in the previous year. I have decided to continue attending these classes also in this school year. I have attended 5 trainings since September - on 6.10, 20.10, 27.10, 3.11 and 10.11. 

The first training after summer holidays showed that I had lost part of skills I have developed in the last year. Once again my shots were mainly not on target or even did not pass the net. It was difficult for me to adjust the power to properly hit the ball. Sometimes my shots were too weak, sometimes too strong, just like at the very beginning of my trainings. Also I noticed that I felt quite tired after the 1-hour training though it was not demanding at all. But I did not give in, I knew that it was my first training after a very long break. I hoped that with every following training I would get better and better.

Next classes were slightly better than the previous one. I started to recall the proper moves I had learnt in the last year of trainings. But that did not mean that I used things I recalled - I have discovered my major weakness about tennis - I do not focus enough on each shot. There were only few times when I hit the ball with the proper strength, I worked properly with my legs, and I did the full move without stopping the tennis racket. Most of the time I do not do at least one of them. As soon as I realised it I focused on the next shot and tried to do it in the right way. Of course it was better then my usual shots. Most of the time it is difficult for me to do all of these things at once. I cannot do them automatically yet - it is a thing I am willing to improve.

Edit:
Since last post I have been attending trainings on 24.11 and 1.12.2014.

At this point I don't see many improvements, mostly due to the fact that I had done something with my ankle on a PE lesson. During these two trainings I haven't been moving much because I was afraid I would worsen the state of my ankle and that I wouldn't be able to run at all. I excercised only using my hands - it affected the quality of my shots, they were even worse than before.

On the next training after Christmas I will be able to move properly, so I will excercise in a proper way. 

Learning outcomes achieved:
- Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth