Final CAS Reflection

Using The CAS Criteria I will Write My Last CAS Post!

Increased awareness of their own strengths and areas of growth

Increase stamina in football, stamina is my weakness for football. I always had trouble keeping up with training. By the end of every session, I felt my stamina increased but not at significant level of change

Undertaken new challenges

Leadership in Recycling and Sustainability, I was appointed as a leader for this year’s recycling and sustainability CAS session. Managing and Organizing a large group of students and ensuring that every recyclable material is collected from every class on campus was a challenged I undertook

Planned and initiated activities

Creativity for CAS – This year I planned to compose my own music and do video commentaries. This is something I always wanted to do this as a personal project. During my free time, I always play games and make music. I like to talk about my progress is the game and how create the song is created. I have successfully made my own music. It is 8 bit music which is old game music from 1980 -1990 games.

Worked collaboratively with others

Leadership in Recycling and Sustainability, as a leader  in the CAS activity, it is required that I must worked collaboratively with others. This is not just a just requirement but also a duty of a leader and I think I have worked collaboratively with my fellow recyclers.

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

During football session, the only thing that motivated me to continue was to improve at any cost, I treat football as the same as Rugby (which is my preferred sport) I will always give 100% and sometimes more. I push myself to achieve great goals, like have a stamina of 5 to 10 minutes.

Engaged with issues of global importance

Recycling and Sustainability, waste management is one of many global problems that we, as a global community face. In order to tackle this problem, I joined the recycling CAS activity. This activity helps reduce the ecological footprint of OSC. It may be not much on a global importance but we must always take small steps at a time. But in order to increase how recycling effects on global importance is by, raising awareness in the local community and on the internet through blogs.

Considered the ethical implications of their actions

Recycling and Sustainability, as a group we reduce the ecological footprint of OSC. This is done by recycling paper, plastic water bottles, cardboard, glass bottles, printer cartridges and more. Recycling is just one of three easy ways of reducing environmental impact, the other two are, reduce and reuse. (The three R’s)

Developed new skills

Creativity for CAS was one session that I lacked, so I decide to create my onw music. Create music during my free time and I wanted to document it. I created old school 8 bit music. This was the first time that I created 8 bit music.

Exploring 8 Bit Music

For creativity I wanted to make 8 bit music from old 8 bit games like Mario (the sidescroller), Pacman, bomerman, etc. I like 8 bit games because there are hard game to play and music is simple and not annoying to listen over and over again. This was my challenge when I was making my music. It should be simple and not annoying. I used FL Studio 10 to produce my music, it is a music production music which is user friendly. Currently I have already uploaded 3 pieces of 8 bit music. 

1. http://soundcloud.com/notsogreatalex/exploring-8-bit
2. http://soundcloud.com/notsogreatalex/slow-8-bit
3. http://soundcloud.com/notsogreatalex/fun-8-bit

These are the links to my soundcloud account where I have uploaded my Muisc.

Learning to make music seems to be easy when using FL Studios, there is a huge chance that I will produce more music. Not just 8 bit but other genres too.

Each track took about 1 to 2 hours to make. So far I have 6 pieces of 8 bit music. The 3 that I posted was the ones that  I felt comfortable showing. For the other tree, I will have to work more on it. Because I find the pieces annoying after listen for some time.

The next genre for my next music piece would be Spanish Guitar and Grand Piano. 

Videogame Commentry and Making Music

Getting bored during my free time I am going to start doing videogame commentry and start making music!

For videogame commentry, I will be basically talking about the game, how it the gameplay feels and try to place myself in the game. Games that I might do a commentry are God of War 2, Devil May Cry 3, Resident Evil dead aim and Resident evil 4. I will start the commentries soon.

I already started with making music. I'm focusing on a 8bit song, so it will be approximately 1 minute long. I will be using FL Studio to produce the song.

This will be my creatively part for CAS. I will be doing more activities involving creativity. Trying out activities like these will take me out of my comfort zone which will stop me from doing normal and easy creative activities.

IB CAS Goals

Learning outcomes are differentiated from assessment objective because they are not rated on a scale. The completion decision for the school in relation to each student is, simply, “have these outcomes been achieved?” As a result of their CAS experience as a whole, including their reflections, there should be evidence that students have:

· Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

They are able to see themselves as individuals with various skills and abilities, some more developed than others, and understand that they can make choices about how they wish to move forward.

· Undertaken new challenges

A new challenge may be an unfamiliar activity, or an extension to an existing one.

· Planned and initiated activities

Planning and initiation will often be in collaboration with others. It can be shown in activities that are part of larger projects, for example, ongoing school activities in the local community, as well as in small student-led activities.

· Worked collaboratively with others

Collaboration can be shown in many different activities, such as team sports, playing music in a band, or helping in a kindergarten. At least one project involving collaboration and the integration of at least two of creativity, action and services, is required.

· Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

At a minimum, this implies attending regularly and accepting a share of the responsibility for dealing with problems that arise in the course of activities.

· Engaged with issues of global importance

Students may be involved in international projects but there are many global issues that can be acted upon locally or nationally (for example, environmental concerns, caring for the elderly).

· Considered the ethical implications of their actions

Ethical decisions arise in almost any CAS activity (for example, on the sports field, in musical composition, in relationship with others involved in service activities). Evidence of thinking about ethical issues can be shown in various ways, including journal entries and conversations with CAS advisers.

· Developed new skills

As with new challenges, new skills may be shown in activities that the student has not previously undertaken, or in increased expertise in an established area.

All eight outcomes must be present for a student to complete the CAS requirement. Some may be demonstrated many times, in a variety of activities, but completion requires only that there issome evidence for every outcome.

This focus on learning outcomes emphasizes that it is the quality of a CAS activity (its contribution to the student’s development) that is of most importance. The guideline for the minimum amount of CAS activity is approximately the equivalent of half a day per school week (three to four hours per week), or approximately 150 hours in total, with a reasonable balance between creativity, action and service

Football

This year I decided to join football, and I wanted to have something stand out when I'm reflecting back on my first year reflection, so that it doesn't bored people. This year I found that I need to build up my stamina when playing sports.  I was not allowed to travel this year but that didn't stop me from reaching and breaking my limits. I gave my fullest during every football session I attended, I always wanted to improve and thats what motivated me to continue football through out the session. I did gain something from football and that is, it felt good running around. It is the same feeling when I play Rugby. I always give my fullest  no matter if I made the team or not. It's too bad that OSC doesn't have Rugby as one of its SAISA sport.

Recycling, End of The Year Conclusion!

It’s the last of 2011 for OSC and for recycling! Conzi and I have done much throughout the first semester. We have continued to recycle most of the paper and other materials within OSC. We have successfully provided a recycling box to every class in the campus. We are still in hold to raise awareness of recycling but it seems that student and teacher are starting to recycle because all most every session we have someone walk by and ask us about what we do? It’s good to know that people are volunteering to recycling and being forced to. One thing that we have failed to discuss is the distribution of recycling bins throughout school. (These are the plastic/blue bin, paper/green bin or the unrecyclable/ black bin.) As a Senior recycling leader, I must choose someone else from recycling to take over my position as leader. Conzi and I, along with Mr.Lockwood will decide who will be the next two leaders. 

Map making for Extented Esssay

 This is my creative part for CAS. I'm one of few people at OSC who is fimilar with ArcGis. Some of my friends, Karl, Nhyira and Sky wanted help to make GIS maps for their Extended Essays. I was able to do this because I wasn't doing a Extended Essay. Making maps without proper data was a "pain in the neck" switching from window to window to plug-in the data, I hated that. I could have printed the data but I didnt want to waste paper. I challenge I faced was time, all three come to me with their data and ideas at the last moment. This was frustrating because I couldn't make the maps at home and also not have the simple and basic data(Geographic locations of countries and its interior boundaries) for GIS. So I had to "borrow" a copy of ArcGIS and do research/find simple and basic data. The last three days before Extended Essay was due, I had no sleep at all (yes this is true, ask sky) Because I had received feedback(from Mr.Lockwood) on how to improve the map and also making sky's map. I did the necessary adjustments on the first but finishing Sky's make took two full days without sleep. The challenge was that, translating Sky's data to GIS data was nearly impossible or it just took a ridiculous amount of time to finish it. But I figured out a easier and shorter way to finish it.

Karl's Map

Nhyira's Map

Sky's Map

Day one of Recycling at OSC [Grade 12]

The first day was very hectic. I was the only leader, Conzi was sick so she had to go home. There are a few new member in recycling and some of our old members. We had alot of work to do, since there was no recycling done during the summer vaction. There was alot of paper and cardboard to be recycled. We made about 600/=Rs. Some members of recycling are getting bored half way through the session. Conzi and I need to talk to Mr.Lockwood about what can do about this!

Goals for Grade 12

Its another year of school and my last of my schooling years :( Anyways its time to set my goals for the year.
1. Do something Creative for CAS
2. Continue being the leader for Recycling and Sustainability
3. Choose the next leader for Recycling and Sustainability
4. Try to recycle paper in OSC ( for creativity)
5. Spread "AC awareness" or in other word "CLOSE THE DOOR WHEN THE AC IS ON!"
6. Try to provide/sell good stainless steel water bottles and stop the sell of water bottles in the cafeteria

Friday's AfterSchool Football Practice and The Football Season [Grade 11]

Friday's After School Football Practice

During the first season of sport at OSC, after school activities were created. This is the same as doing a sport at school. After School football practice is for student who want to improve there skills in football or if their are students who new to the sport and would like to join the school team, it was highly recommended that they join. Two groups were made from all the students who join the after school activity, so that no time was wasted during the activity. The students only played games and did not train.

The Football Season

Football is during the 3rd season of the school year, 16 students from all the students who joined during the start of the season will be chosen to be the OSC representatives for SISSA. I only joined football for 1 week because during last season girls football one week was taken out from the boys football season. So the first week was the week where the coaches choose who is going to be in the team. It was to early for me so I dropped out. 

Goal's For Creativity Action Service

This year I want to polish up my football skills! I Joined Miss.EWolfe's afterschool football activity which is on Fridays. I also joined Mister Lockwood's recycling and sustainability club, every Thursdays we meet up afterschool behind the canteen. The reason I joined recycling is to know and how to reduce my carbon footprint (A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, organization or state in a given time.) also I would like to become a leader for recycling. One other goal which is an important goal and that is to be a great example towards the younger generation! :] to do this i am going to nominate myself for key club president. Keyclub is a club like the interact, lions club in Sri Lanka. 

IB Orientation

The IB Orientation is a one of the events that is mandatory for a IBDP grade 11 student. The reason is that during the orientation students learn about "what is IB?", University application, etc (everything that a grade 11 student would encounter in his/her DP years. It was also about trusting your friends "I GOT YOUR BACK!!!" Students were set in pairs to perform " I got your back" Its basically when  your parter is standing in front of you and you need to catch him or her falling back. Another trust game was were one student get up on a ledge and a group of students gets ready for the student to fall of the ledge (the genders were slit)

 All the students had to take part in all the events planned for us, events like rock climbing, trust games and ab sailing. The day before the orientation finished, the student was requested to preform an act or a song. Along with 4 other student and I preformed Fly me to the moon by frank Sinatra The goal of this event was to prepare grade 11 DP students for the upcoming years of IB.

Week Without Walls (WWW)

Week Without Walls is a mandatory CAS project where students from grade 6 to grade 11 must attend every year. This is my last week without walls because during week without walls the seniors do their mock IB exams. In total we spent 2 days for traveling, 2 days for service and 1 day for the yala safari trip. For service the students had to refurbish a school constructed after 2004's tsunami struck hambantota (Sri Lanka) the whole grade 11 was divided into two groups. The mural group, the students had to paint pictures on the outer school walls. The painting group, had to repaint the small building. Most of the work was done on the first and on the second day the student performed an old shinhales song called In this tree (translated into English). I was in the painting group, the group and I decided to paint the inter walls of the school and we finished it on the first day its-self. Many students didn't know how to paint and how to mix the paint. Before we left OSC one of the maintainers thoughts us how to mix the paints and on how to paint.

Recycling and Sustainability

Recycling and Sustainability is an OSC service project where students along with a teacher (Mr.Lockwood) meet on every Thursdays to collect recyclable materials and Non recyclable material found in the school premises. After all the materials are collected, students then separates the materials from paper, plastic bottles, metal, etc. Mr.Lockwood who is in charge of recycling and sustainability organized a 4x4 truck so that we can sell our recyclable materials to a recycling place close to OSC. To spread awareness recycling posters are put on trash cans or on recycling boxes and on occasions presentations on recycling and sustainability are presented on Wednesday's assembly. This year (2011) conzi and I were appointed leaders in training so that we become the next leaders for Recycling and Sustainability. Recycling and Sustainability is the only service project that has not being affected by any thing that could cancel the service project for the week.

Click Here to access--->The Recycling and Sustainability Blog

End of the Year CAS Reflection

Beginning of Semester one I was chosen to be the Recycling and Sustainability leader. This is the first time I actually took leadership over something without being lazy. Then Yariq and I started afterschool football practice, again I took responsibility of being the captain/leader of my team. During week without walls I mastered my painting skills and I also improved my interacting skills. For three days during the week I had to interact with small children (I normally don’t do this), this made me move out of my comfort zone. Another event which made me move out of my comfort zone was during the IB Orientation. Borderlands had planned activities for all the Grade 11 students and one of the activities is abseiling down from a very tall water tower. If all things go alright next year I am going to do more activities related to CAS. This is going to be my main goal for CAS next year.