October-November

Having finished my extended essay is a great relief for me as now I can concentrate on other things. The first weekend (7^th-9^th October) was the Saisa girls’ volleyball tournament. Obviously we brought the house down as we supported our team through loud vocal support; however I also helped in the organization of the event. The Friday of the 7^th was the Social. My friend Bharat and I helped set up the auditorium for the night. We had to arrange the table tennis tables and make sure that the sound system was working. We were also responsible for the music and the general supervision of the night’s proceedings.

Making sure the music kept flowing :)

On the match day’s I also helped by being the ball boy in different games.

U.N Day

U.N day means two things: 1) a chance to represent your country 2) food :) This U.N day the school held interactive activities with the students to discuss some of the common themes that come up during U.N discussions and resolutions. I was asked by Ms. Snyder to help supervise the students and demonstrate my leadership skills. During the discussions i took part in the debates regarding the question of child marriage. This was a good chance for me to interact with an issue of global importance knowing that i had to take into account the ethical implications of the standpoint i was taking. The session ran quite smoothly and i didn't need to assert myself at all. Afterwards i tried food from nearly every part of the globe: That is why we should all live together peacefully :)

Germany, France, Finland and Ethiopia

Community Service

As I mentioned earlier, my service group had been planning the charity fundraiser called “the battle of the bands”. The purpose of this event is to help fund the operations of those infants with the cleft lip and palate disease. I mentioned earlier that i had visited some of these children in hospital and really seeing their suffering first hand helped re-affirm my motivation to do something about this global issue. We planned our concert for the 26th of November and organized an audition for the 21st of October. Planning such an event requires great organization and commitment. We set about creating a Facebook page inviting bands to come, some of us contacted people we knew from other schools to come perform. There were also logistical issues such as the amount of tickets to be printed, the posters, the prize for the winners and the food etc. On the 21st of October 8 bands showed up from different local schools. We checked them for their quality and also had a chance to pick out some faults and issues that would arise for us on the concert dates in terms of logistics in the auditorium.

Football 

The new season had begun! A new team and a new motivation to finally become the first OSC football team to win the SAISA tournament. We are still figuring out the general shape and direction of where the team is headed in terms of our style of play but i hope to build on my skill and demonstrate my leadership skills as captain througout the season.

Warmup

15th September - 5th October

This month was by far the most hectic month in the diploma program. We had major tests and deadlines such as lab reports and essays. We also had the king of all essays due at the end of September: the Extended Essay. Despite this heavy schedule, i managed to squeeze in a few hours of CAS.

Football


I continued to take part in the football training that takes place on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Being the captain, its is important for my that i demonstrate leadership and set an example for the younger players.

Warming up

Stretching 

Few of us have now been playing together for more than a month and we have a few nice moments during each training, which is a good sign as Saisa draws closer. Saisa training, for the tournament that takes place in Dhaka in December, is set to begin next Monday, 10th September.I am really looking forward to playing competitive football soon. I have been working on my long distance shooting since a while, trying to improve my skill. Even though the shots skied against the shots on target ratio is still 8:1, I have started to hit the back of the net with some good shots and i am starting to find the right ratio between accuracy and power.

Refereeing


Like last year, Mr. Shipley requested me to referee a football match on Saturday. I therefore came in and refereed a match between the U-14 girls of OSC vs U-14 girls from the British school. This experience helps me in seeing the game of football from a different angle and is also fun as i am on the field and don't have to run around.

Community Service

We have a few busy months ahead of us in terms of Community Service. Our concert is planned for november with an audition planned on the UN day next friday. Last thursday we went to visit the hospital where the kids with the Cleft lip and Palate disease are kept. We were able to see first hand the children we are helping. As they lay in their cots, so small and helpless, i really empathized with them and feel really pleased i am trying to help them through this service program.

5th-15th September

These last 2 weeks have been action packed for me:I participated in the sports day, playing for the green house and also atteneded the football training that takes places on Tuesday's, Friday's and Saturday's.

Sports Day
Sports day gave everybody a chance to get some action. Teams of 6, 3 boys and 3 girls participated in games of football, volleyball, basketball and kickball. There was also a swim event at the end. I partcicpated in football, volleyball and kickball. In football our team won 2 of their 3 matches. I scored 2 goals in the game against the yellow house, scoring with my left foot and right foot.

 In volleyball i helped get the volleyball over the net to the best of my ability :)

In kickball i could not contribute much because my right toe was stubbed, so i had to use my left foot instead.

Football Practice
We continued our practice. It was really rainy on all the days, but we still played, getting wet from top to bottom. The previous week was more about having fun and we really enjoyed it.

Community service
I intended the first group meeting. We discussed our main aim for this year. Our group is going to hold a battle of the bands, in which 2 bands from different schools will come and perform at our school to determine the best band. We plan to raise enough money through sponsors and ticket sales to help in the operation of kids suffering from the cleft lip and palette disease. We discussed our plan to organize this event. There is advertisement, organization and collaboration that have to be dealt with. During the concert i will be responsible for the supervision of the auditorium. We have also planned visists to the hospitals where we will meet the infants with the disease. It will help us get closer to our cause and experience first hand, the effects of this disease.

23rd August - 05 September

     The start of the school year has been hectic, with many assignments due. Service officially started last week, however i was unable to attend because i was down with a bad fever. However i managed to rebound from that by Saturday and was able to play in a "friendly" match of football against our favorite opposition Colombo International School. We won 4:1 with our exclusive "Robben", Bharat, scoring a hat-trick! It was a good games in-terms of trying out new things as we had an experimental lineup. It allowed us, the senior members of the team to display our Leadership skills. It was also good action.

     As mentioned before i started working on my guitar skills. So far i have been self-teaching myself using a simple book i received as a gift. I practiced simple strumming and finger positioning for 5 hours yesterday. My fingers are hurting all over and my progress in-terms of skill was very slow, however i am confident that if i continue i will soon be able to play a little better. Next i will start learning the very basic major chords.

     I also got the opportunity to take some more photos of different flowers i could find around me in order to keep up my creative quest. I made a simple collage out of them. I also managed to spot an interesting type of  fruit, i have no idea what it is but it sure looks interesting!

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.