After-school activities

I have joined the after school activity of football. We play on Tuesday's, Friday's and Saturday's. We are still very rusty from our Summer break, but all of us have realized; to do well at Saisa we will need to get into shape from now. In the first few training's, people ranging from 8-12 have showed up. Since these aren't many, we usually end up playing with the lower grades. However this helps develop our game as we learn to collaborate with other's and develop the finer aspects of our game as we can't use our physicality against little kids. As mentioned in my aims, i m am looking to create a create a great team spirit in our team, so that when we play other's our communication will be telepathic!
I will update with a few pictures soon.  

Aims for the Final Year

It's finally arrived!! i am a senior!! This year is going to be be a tough one in-terms of studies. I have however set myself specific CAS goals to accomplish as well.

I felt that i managed to fulfill the goals i had set for 11 grade: http://karlgcas.blogspot.com/2010/09/aims-and-objectives-2010.html. This year however i aim to elaborate on some of those and work on those areas i didn't cover as well as i would have like to.

 I am going to try to involve myself more with Service as it was one of my weak links last year. I am continuing with Cleft lip and Palate, this year we aim to concentrate a bit more on working with the community and interacting more with the kids. I will also try and work with DAWG on the side. I think stray dogs are a big problem in Sri Lanka. Their welfare and sterilization is helpful to both the community and the dogs themselves. I am therefore looking forward to contributing to the cause.

I am also looking to continue my leadership role with the football team as the captain. This year i aim to work on those skills and hopefully help my team achieve more this year; in this i also aim to collaborate with the others to create a greater team spirit . Last year was a dissapointment for us in terms of Saisa Football. This year we have high hopes for the team and we will hopefully win a lot !!!

In terms of action i also aim to participate in other sports activities. I am going to try and participate in the Saisa Basketball season. It is a totally new skill for me and i aim to work on it a bit. My aim is to at least practice, even though i may be no good.

Last year i managed to fulfill my creative goals. This year however i have set the bar a bit higher. I gave up early on Guitar last year. This year my guitar has been brought back out of the attic for a renewed attempt. I aim to at least be able to play the guitar fluently without sounding like an absolute begginner. I am looking forward to this new challenge.As mentioned before, i also aim to continue my creative drawing. This year i will also continue with a hobby i began during my summer breaks, capturing different types of flowers in Colombo. I will also expand this to: capturing any interesting moment.

Finally the most important thing: Have fun and try to enjoy my final year ( if that is even possible)!!
I aim to persevere in all the activities i undertake namely football, Service, art, guitar and Photography.

The 8 learning outcomes which i will aim to follow are listed below.

• 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.

Summer 2011

The summer was a quiet time for me in terms of CAS. I did not have any opportunity to get involved in service and since my leg was still recovering from the injury i had sustained earlier in March, i was still unable to fully commit to action.

 I did however join a fitness center and start training my leg to ease it back into action. I went to this fitness center for a whole month.

 It helped me a lot because not only was the training different from the usual, "pick up the weights and build your muscles type", the instructor was also very knowledgeable. Along with the training i learnt many aspects of how the body functions and which muscles are responsible for certain actions.

I also tried to do some work on creativity. Photography is a new skill to me. While i was in Pakistan, i went for a lot of hiking. The beautiful scenery inspired me to take many pictures.

Some of them can be viewed here: ttps://picasaweb.google.com/116545303236107333219/Pakistan?authkey=Gv1sRgCOi_layMnozjOA

I did however set myself one specific goal while taking these pictures. I aimed to take photos of every different type of flower i could find. 

Of the many different places i hiked, these were some of the flowers i photographed, i have put them together in a collage

I aim to continue this for all types of different flowers i see in Colombo.