25th October-15th November

I have not had many things to do so far in the second block of after school activities. Apart from helping the girls football team there has not been much to do. I have continued with recycling as my after school activity. The previous activity i collected recycling material from one block of the school i hadn't been to yet. That was the art room. No wonder we have so much recycling material! Me and Alex had to go up twice to the art room to get 4 full boxes of recycling! The primary principal now regularly leaves at least 1 paper in his recycling basket lest we should send him another threat note!
I also started drawing at home as a way to do something creative. I was convinced by my little brother that i am not that bad in art and i should continue to draw. So i sat down in front of my table and started to draw. I remembered some of the techniques that my old art teacher had taught me and started. first I drew in my little rough book for a start.

I then started drawing on a bigger scale on bigger pieces of paper. It's not something great but it's a start and  i hope to improve at it. This gives me a chance to be creative especially since i do not take any arts.

Activity block 2

Mr. Shipley asked me and some of my class mates if we could help him in training the saisa girl’s football team. On Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s we started helping in their training. In the beginning their lack of cohesion as a team was pretty apparent. Five people chasing after the same ball, misplaced passes, disastrous defending. But after some weeks the whole team started clicking as a unit. We made them do countless passing and dribbling drills. It made me realize how hard it actually is to coach, since you have to make sure everybody is listening to what you are saying and doing what you want them to!

Now Saisa season is just around the corner and the team is playing as an amazing unit. They have beaten almost every opponent they have played so far and there is a strong feeling that this could be their year!!!

This coaching really taught me patience; you have to perceiver to get things done. It was also good for me because I felt happy that I had passed on some skills to other people.

UN day

The UN day on the 15^th of October was the best place to release patriotic feelings. I dressed up in the typically German Lederhosen and Trachten. It was interesting seeing all the national dresses of so many countries, I was amazed at the amount of different nationalities present in the school, especially since we all assembled in the Gym. The best part however was the food at the end! That is the advantage of having so many nationalities, more countries, more different types of food!

The UN day really helped in spreading a sense of unity among the students. It was a great message of how so many nationalities can live and work together as one.

Refereeing

On the 2^nd of October, I made my switch from playing football to refereeing it! Mr. Shipley asked me if I would be available to oversee a middle school football match. The experience was quite enjoyable since I was able to slip into the shoes of the very people who I found so annoying when playing football myself! I didn’t blow for many fouls and the game was quite free flowing. The only remarkable error I made was when a player handled the ball right in front of me. I was so engrossed in watching them play that I forgot I was the referee!

This experience taught me something new. You can blame the referee for not seeing fouls but you must not forget that the referee is also human! It was also an enjoyable experience exerting my authority on smaller kids. It also helped me in being more neutral and objective towards both teams and even when I myself played.

Sports gala

The secondary sports Gala took place on the 16^th of September. I, dressed in the colours of the green house, took part in it despite having a slight flu. I participated in football, basketball and another game in which you kick the ball and run around bases as if you are playing baseball. The sports gala was won by the blue house but green house managed to come second !!!

Recycling

I signed up and took part in recycling every Thursday. The aim of recycling is to make sure that the paper that is not used in classrooms is collected and brought to the recycling depot so that it is not wasted. We created and decorated many recycling boxes that we placed in classrooms that did not already have recycling boxes. Of-course 50 % of the paper is wasted anyway because people just chuck it into the waste basket, but our job is to spread some awareness for recycling at- least. One particular person, the primary principle, never seemed to have recycling paper in his basket. After a long letter threatening to turn the recycling community against him, he finally left one piece of blue A-4 paper in the basket for us to collect!!!

Every Thursday we went in groups to every classroom in the school collecting the recycle material. The recycling material would then be taken to the recycling room in our school and put into big blue trash cans. Those in turn would be transported to the recycling depot. I visited the recycling depot one Thursday. It is a small place near our school that collects cardboard and paper paying a small amount for them. This is the type of place that has a small face value, but its service to the community is huge.

Recycling every Thursday really helps me feel like I am doing something useful. It makes me feel as if I am putting something back into the community, also I am helping the environment in my own way by recycling. In the end it is the contribution of every individual that make a big difference.

I did participate to participate in the saisa swim team training. How that must go down as one of my failures this year. I only managed to attend one swim training after which I was so exhausted I did not think about the pool for another 2-3 weeks, by the time saisa swim season was already over

Football

Football has always been my passion and Friday’s afterschool football practice was the perfect place to exhibit it. Luckily we had a big group of people so we could really get a good game with complete players going. We played on half the field and Mr. Pickett supervised. We played a dirty game with no rules, some lives were lost and some of us got badly hurt. This wasn’t just football, this was war. Every week we played with the same teams and we had our little rivalry going. Annoyingly though my team always lost by that one odd goal. Even when on the last practice, the other team had a player missing and I switched sides, we still lost.

I also became aware of the fact that there was community football on Saturdays from 3:30 to 6:00. A different bunch of kids from OSC and the British school participated leading to fantastic free flowing games at the end of training. The most memorable was an 8-7 victory in which I scored 2 and assisted 2 more. I also persuaded many of my classmates to come and attend on Saturday.

On the 25^th of September, our school Saisa team of which I am a part, played against the Colombo lions, a local football club in Colombo. The first half was a half to forget, we went 6:0 down but did manage to pull one goal before the break. The second half was much better as we scored 3 goals. The final score read 6-4, we had lost the match, but the result hardly mattered as we had gained considerable experience playing against a team of players twice our size and age. In the second half we had also learnt to put a considerable amount of trust in our teammates and it was this trust that helped us overcome the opponents, at least in the second half.

These activities helped me work on some of my aims for the year. It helped me develop new skills as every practice I tried something new while playing. It also helped me collaborate with others, since the people I played with on Saturday’s are not people I usually play with.

Guitar class

Learning how to play the guitar was one of the things i mentioned in my aims for the year. So I went for my guitar class every Monday. First of all we learnt how to tune our guitar ourselves since having a well-tuned guitar means that the guitar sounds better. Then we started learning how to play the chords. I learnt how to play the D major, G major and C major chords. The successful transition from one chord to the other meant that I could now play a basic blue’s tune. We then learnt how to play other chords such as the E major, B major and F major chords. This was also the time I snapped my first guitar! I feel that this class was good in enhancing my music abilities. I feel that I now have a general idea of music and I feel very happy since I have worked towards fulfilling one of my goals. I am also proud of myself to have done something that was totally new to me.

The 8 learning outcomes
The IB developed a list of 8 critical outcomes to act as a criteria of sort for the CAS program. Any aspect of CAS that you interact with has to connect to one of these learning outcomes. By doing this the IB allows you to reflect on why you do what you do in the CAS program, rather than just doing CAS to accumulate hours and be done of it. Below are the 8 critical learning outcomes:
• 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 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 service, 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 relationships 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.
• Develop 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.

Aims and objectives 2010

The CAS programme at osc helps students gain experience outside their classroom, whether working with the community or working on improving their own personal skills. This could involve doing something they are already good at or challenging themselves by learning new skills. This blog will help me keep track with all my CAS endeavours throughout my IBDP.I have set myself some personal goals that i would like to achieve during this year which are:
1. Undertake new challenges:
We recently went for our IB orientation to the institute of management and technology near Kandy. There we did activities such as climbing up a 100ft tower on a swinging ladder and then abseiling from the tower. Now this may not be hard for many people, but I had a huge fear of heights. I say ‘had’ because these activities certainly helped curb my fear of heights, to such an extent that I wanted to go right back up and do it all over again. I realized that just going for something you are not totally comfortable with helps a lot to get you over the fear involved in it. Next on my agenda is the 20m spring board at a swimhall.
2. Develop new skills:
This year as mentioned above, I am looking forward to taking part in many extra-curricular activities. I have had a guitar for 4 years without knowing how to play it and this year I have finally decided to learn and hence signed up for guitar classes on Monday’s. I will also look to participate in sports such as table-tennis, basketball and track& field that are not activities that I usually do or am good at.i would also like to learn surfing while I am in Srilanka.
3. Work and learn about the community:
The service part of CAS is very important since it helps us gain more information about the country we live in, Sri Lanka. I would also like to give something back to the community even if it is just 1hr a week of service. I would like to learn more about srilanka and am looking forward to travel to parts of Sri Lanka this year.
4. Help my football team get a respectable position at saisa this year:
Last year I was not able to travel with the SAISA team because my visa didn’t get approved in time. I was pretty frustrated when I heard that our team lost 7:0 to LS and subsequently finished 7th. I don’t know if my presence would have made any difference but this year I would really like to help my team achieve a higher position. I am regualrly going to the gym and swimming to improve my fitness for the SAISA footbal season so that I, together with my teammates can win something this year, which brings me to my next point:
5. Working collaboratively with others:
Like in football collaborating with others in life is essential to success. I am looking forward to spending a great 2 years with my friends and also to get-to know more new people.
6. Be creative:
Since I am not taking drama or art this year, this will be one of the hardest aspects for me to accomplish. I will try to get roles in any upcoming school plays. Apart from that I have decided to write and post satirical articals about things related to football such as players, matches and teams.
7. Have fun:
THE most important aim is to have fun during my time at OSC. I aim to balance my studies, schoolwork and other activities with doing things I enjoy such as hanging out with friends, so that I may have an enjoyable 2 years at OSC.