Officially concluding CAS.

Personally, I think that CAS has been the aspect of the IB diploma that has allowed for most the individual and personal growth. It was there to ensure that we got that essential balance between our academics and extra-curriculars. I feel that I have learnt a lot, be it through engaging in the Alzheimer's Community Service as a co-leader, or having weekly tennis lessons.
I sincerely feel that the CAS requirement broadened my high-school experience. Personally, I connected most with the Service aspect, because this was truly what took us beyond just school work, to expose us to the real world.

I have attached below, my CAS reflection form, which presents my learning against each criterion.

Concluding tennis lessons.

As IB exams are fast approaching, we are now winding up our CAS requirements. Last Monday, I had my final tennis lesson for this semester. Since I have grown to quite like tennis, I will be starting lesson again in June, after the exams.

This lesson was quite intense, and fun at the same time, because our coach made it into an obstacle course. This tested our memory, concentration, stamina as well as our speed and accuracy.
We were required to hit the ball, which would come from any direction, twice: once at the base line and one at the service line, then hit a volley, then navigate our way through a rope ladder laid on the floor, and then around 10 cones, to come back and start again.

I had never done something like this for tennis before, so it was a new challenge.

Below are some pictures from my last tennis lesson. Please kindly ignore the retarded facial expressions :)

Yearbook

We had our latest yearbook session today, on Saturday, which is not the usual day for the activity. This was done because some pages were in urgent need to be completed. I think the fact that nearly all our team turned up showed our commitment to the activity, and our teamwork.

I managed to finish several individual picture pages, and also start on the Community Service pages.

Alzheimer's Visit to the centre

Today's visit to the Alzheimer's centre was of particular significance, because we got to have a lengthy session with one of the patients, Mrs. Sheila.

This was a great opportunity in terms of learning and considering the ethical implications of our actions, because during the interaction it was important to be kind, considerate and take care not to offend or intimidate the patients.

Mrs. Sheila is in a very late stage of the disease; stage 3-4. During our session, the volunteers at the centre told her that we had come for a English class with her, as she was previously a English teacher and teaching is what she loved to do.
The first issue that arises here is however, whether it is okay to lie to old people, just to keep them happy. This is a significant aspect in terms of considering the ethical implications of our actions.

The second thing that most of our group were concerned about was the fact that, when Mrs. Sheila's driver came to pick her up, after only around 10 minutes of interaction with us, the volunteers told her that it was time to go home, and that she'd already finished the class. She seemed quite confused about the fact the class had lasted such a short time, and this is of quite significant concern, since this kind of thing can make someone in a condition such as hers more insecure.

After the visit we discussed this issue during our meeting, and felt that in a situation like this there really wasn't any right answer, because there are 2 sides to the argument. On the one hand, it is important to keep the patient happy, and also to ensure that she goes back home on time, but on the other hand, it is questionable whether lying is the best method to ensure this.

Overall, this was a good learning experience for us, and made us consider global issues in a wider way.

Update on Creativity, Action Aspects

Recent posts on this blog has mostly been about the Service project I am involved, so I decided to update with a post on my Creativity and Action aspects, that is Yearbook and Tennis.

Yearbook has been commencing as usual every week on Wednesdays. I am now helping out with miscellaneous pages instead of particular ones, and this week I start editing the Week Without Walls pages of Grades 6-11.

Tennis lessons have also continued, though a bit more irregularly than usual due to Mock Exams, assignments, etc. However, practices have been going on with the general focus being on improvement of skills and practicing for match-like situations.

In another creativity aspect, I have been doing art pieces comprising mostly of life-study paintings/sketches. This is something habitual that I have always engaged in, as I find art almost meditative. Even though I do not take the subject in school, I have not stopped doing random pieces at home, so I will be putting up some of them up on this blog soon :)

Alzheimer's goals for Semester 2

This semester will demand a lot of commitment and organization from Heesoo and I as there are several things to be taken care of before handing over leadership.
Related to this aspect, we will be observing potential leaders by testing various skills and engagement with the group.

We plan to make the transition as smooth as possible, and would like to give them both advise and experience. Since leadership involves communicating with the centre, announcements in assembly, as well as general engagement with everyone in the group, it is quite an extensive procedure.

In addition to this, we are also focusing on spreading awareness to the Primary School children and parents about the disease. To do this, we have come up with the idea of holding a drawing competition, where the task will be to draw a picture of their favourite memory. We would have to be careful while going about this activity because we have to make sure to inform the younger students without scaring them.
The pictures that the students draw will be selected and the best one from each grade
will be given a prize. This is done to further encourage the students to take part.
The best pictures from each grade will be given to the centre to put up.

Furthermore, during the Food and Fun Fair that is coming up, we plan to sell more cards and pens in order to raise money.

Final visit to the Alzheimer's center for this year.

Yesterday the Alzheimer's Group made a very special visit to the Alzheimer's center to round up the year of 2011.

This visit was different to others because of 2 main reasons:
- The purpose of the visit was to drop off the dry food items that our school community had donated during the past few weeks. This is the first fund raising activity that was planned, organized and initiated completely by ourselves, without any help from the foundation it self. By the end of it we managed to collect around 10kg of rice, 10kg of flour, 5kg of milk powder, 5kg of dhal and several jars of Sri Lankan style pickled chutney.

- In addition to this, we also got to actually meet and interact with the patients yesterday! This was a great experience, and our group members instantly engaged with them. We look forward to making more frequent visits to the center next year to ensure this happens more often.