SERVICE LEARNING

JOURNAL
LARA ZIMMERN
PROJECT
WHAT - Creating an online forum for the students of west Island school which are in need of an outlet from stressful
situations, whether that be related to school or the current coronavirus epidemic.

WHERE - We are using social media platforms such as an instagram account as well as a website to spread our
project as well as an idea of our website appearing on the west island school facebook account of the wis bulletin.

WHEN - We are planning on releasing our website after half term as during half term there should be a message of
a screen free period and is thought that half term might not be the time as students might not feel the need to de
stress through meditation but more so through leisure. So therefor releasing the website during school time aka after
half term would be the most effective time.

HOW - Through the use of meditation videos, which we will put on the website, we hope to give students a way of
relaxing and helping destress, and the drawing as a calming and fun exercise more approachable for the younger
audiences.

WHY - Because mental health is extremely important and we have all been impacted by it in different ways.
OUR INITIAL IDEAS
TEAM RULES
- Listen to each other’s ideas
- Be open-minded in the process
- Fair share of work
- Stick to allocated work + deadlines
- Stay focused and have fun!
Having rules and roles in a group is
something I value as it allows you to
equally and fairly create something as a
team; trying to avoid arguments.
Especially with the boys doing BTEC
business and Eliza and I doing BTEC
Art we wanted to make sure we all
contributed our specialities whilst
making our project. Creating mandalas
would allow us to express our creativity
whilst helping others.
TEAM ROLES
ELIZA - Art director (Making mandalas and art activities for the website )

LARA - Art director (Making mandalas and art activities for the website )

KAJ - business director (advertising for our website)

WILMER - business director (advertising for our website)

LAURENT - business director (advertising for our website)

FIVE THEMES OF PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Personal development: forms the basis for self-reflection and explores the skills required to organize and manage time, make
decisions and manage change.
When working in a group I think it's important to consider having a equal share in tasks etc. Yet that requires everyone in the group to
have some sense of personal management and leadership skills in case other members fall behind etc. I have a sports leadership
course so have developed a variety of communication skills which can be applied to this project when getting our project across etc.

Intercultural understanding: the exploration of cultures and cultural perspectives, including one’s own, enables students to be
effective in diverse settings.
Our project being aimed at West Island School students, with WIS being a community I think it allows to grow that community even
further by making it not only academic but having implications of topics such as art that some students may not participate in, along
with well-being benefiting and relaxing our busy minds.
 Effective communication: focuses on interpersonal communication, writing, presentation and IT skills.
With most things being done online and our students spending a majority of their time on social media especially during COVID. Using
the social media platforms in a beneficial way to get across important matters such as well-being; Making it so accessible that way.
Website + Instagram account uploaded onto bulletin

Thinking processes: explores the topics of ethical thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, problem-solving and lateral
thinking.

Applied ethics: the IB’s commitment to principled action requires students to take responsibility for their actions and
consequences and act with integrity and honesty.
PROBLEMS FACED AS A TEAM

COMMUNICATION

- As a group there were sometimes that we were not able to agree on certain areas, this was clear when the group was
split into three groups, one group wanted to do the website, another wanted to do an instagram page and the other
wanted to do a vlog/podcast approach to the issue of mental illness.

SENSITIVITY TO ISSUE

- The issue of mental illness is a very sensitive topic so how we approached it needed to be done carefully. Especially
during this hard and stressful time with a tragic incident happening in a HK school recently; this highlighted the
importance to address well-being and how vital it is to take time for yourself.

FOCUS

- With all members in the group already being very good friends, staying focus on our project during lessons was a
hurdle with other conversations happening being a distraction.
REFLECTION
We planned to complete and
launch our website during half
term as it would be the perfect
time to focus on your well-being.

Although, due to constantly being

on our laptops during school we
all found ourselves avoiding
screen time during half term and
focusing on other activities. This
lead us to rush our website when
returning from school, meaning
the quality of the website wasn’t
as strong as we hoped.
 MANDALA
DEVELOPMENT
Our hand-drawn mandalas, allowing us to
express our creativity for a good cause.
 MANDALAS
We stumbled upon the issue of our mandalas not being downloadable when we uploaded it onto the
website, we couldn’t figure out how to solve this issue. We tried to solve this by finding a site that supplied
downloadable mandalas and uploaded the link so that if screenshotting mandalas was not an option, or
you used all this was an alternative.
Although, we found after feedback
that when screenshotting the
mandalas they came out as
pixelated meaning the only
accessible mandalas were on the
link we added. This took away a
sense of authenticity to our
website, also wasting the time Eliza
and I spent drawing and editing our
mandalas.
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

On our website we have a

selection of pages in order to try
appeal to a variety and allow
the users to decide what’s most
effective for them.

We uploaded meditation videos

for users to use. We decided to
use videos made by
professionals as we felt it they
would be most beneficial.
RELEASE
We were given the
great opportunity to
realise our website to
year 7s, we felt we had
a responsibility then to
make sure our website
was suited to that age
group and had different
elements they would
enjoy. Also stressing
that well-being is
important at any and all
ages, developing that
knowledge for when
studies get more
stressful etc.
FEEDBACK

Mrs Hannaford and Mrs Darling looked at our website and they found that it would not be effective
or useful in a classroom setting for the students we had aimed to show. This was due to our lack of
time commitment on the actual website itself, leading our website to not be presented or released,
so the only users would be those accessing it through our instagram bio. Although this means that
the website will not have been used with a broad audience it will still hopefully be used.
THE LEARNING OUTCOMES
LO 1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
LO 2 Demonstrate participation with service learning experiences
LO3 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
LO 4 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
LO 5 Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
ACHIEVEMENTS
WEBSITE

- Although the website was not as successful as we would have liked it to be, it still allowed me to develop my
technology skills and the very useful knowledge of how to create a website which I can apply to other areas of study.

FRIENDSHIP

- Although the aim of the Service Project was not to develop friendships, with this being the last year of school I really
appreciated having quality time creating something as a group and making memories.

BUILDING SKILLS

- Personally, I felt this project allowed me to develop and widen my skill set. As I usually wouldn’t approach a service
learning project in the form of a website as I’m not very tech-savvy yet my group opening me up to create one gave
me a great opportunity to gain those skills such as communication, research and being open-minded.