Final Reflection

Participating in the Overseas School of Colombo's Creativity, Action, and Service activities has been an extremely rewarding experience. Each activity taught me lessons in the areas of cooperation, leadership, and world issues. Below I will reflect on how each individual has aided my skill and personal development.

Rehabilitation Center for the Communication Impaired

Leading this activity allowed me to increase my awareness of my areas of strength and areas for growth. I learned that I was a responsible and respectful leader. I was always sensitive towards the children's disabilities and ensured that all group members were treated with care and respect through sessions. I learned that I could still improve as a leader by becoming more patient with fellow students. The following image is my favorite from the past two years with RCCI. It is a picture from when we danced with the children to Michael Jackson music!

Community Concern Society

Being a part of Community Concern Society has by far been one of my greatest accomplishments in Sri Lanka. As a member of this organization I dealt with an issue of global importance : poverty. I aided women, struggling to support and feed their families. I created a special connection with both the women and their children. This experience will forever be a part of me. I showed perseverance and my commitment to this service group by creating my own project and bringing it to my school.
I educated the OSC students on Community Concern's goals and objectives. I later raised about 100 kilograms of rice and 60 kilograms of dahl .The picture below is of my favorite child from the program.

 Helping Hands

Each week in this activity I planned and initiated English lessons. While leading this activity I developed a variety of new skills. I believe that the most important skill I learned was how to be a confident leader. During my first few sessions I felt shy speaking in front of all the students; however, by the final session I was extremely comfortable leading a group. On multiple occasions I planned activities which required me to sing and dance in front of the class. I believe this skill of being a confident leader will aid me throughout life as I lead classes and hopefully one day a business.The following image is from a Helping Hands session in which the students had to create their own version of head-shoulders-knees-and-toes. This specific moment, dancing and singing with the children is one of the happiest I have had in Sri Lanka.

SAISA Soccer and Basketball

As an Overseas School of Colombo student and athlete, I participated in both soccer and basketball SAISA tournaments. In year 11, I traveled to Bangladesh for basketball and Nepal for soccer. In year 12, OSC hosted the basketball tournament. Each team taught me to work collaboratively with others and to undertake new challenges. The OSC basketball team won the tournament both years in a row. In grade 12 I undertook the challenge of playing the entire final game. Due to the heat and high intensity of the game, it was extremely difficult to force myself to continue playing for the entire game; however, I persevered. The picture below was taken at half time at the championship game against Dhaka.


s



Overall, I believe that I achieved all the goals I had set at the beginning of my CAS experience. I have participated in each activity which I hoped to be a part of. But more importantly, I have developed into a well rounded global citizen and formed memories which I will forever cherish.

Helping Hands

This week in Helping Hands we introduced the children to our new student leaders. Elizabeth and Sasha, responsible 11th grade students, will be the official new student leaders in a few weeks when I begin my exams. This week they simply served as spectators, as they began to learn the ropes of being a helping hands teacher.

I planned and initiated a lesson which continued the topic of animals. I taught the class the song  Old Mcdonald Had A Farm. It was a challenge at first to get the kids to sing along and learn the lyrics, but eventually it came together. The following is a picture of Sasha sitting with some of the children.

Later, the class did a relay race to solidify their understanding of animals. The kids were asked to run to the end of the field and yell out the names of each animal picture. This activity was beneficial in the development of speaking skills. The following is a picture of the children running in the relay race with big smiles across their faces!

Helping Hands- Animals

This week in Helping Hands,  I planned and initiated lessons based on the theme of animals. We covered the topic of animals last year, however I felt it was important to refresh some of last years content. First, I demonstrated the spelling and pronunciation of each animal name. Then the children went around in a circle and stated their names and favorite animals. To make this activity more enjoyable, after each student stated the name of their favorite animal, the rest of the class had to pretend to be the animal mentioned! The following picture is from when the children pretended to be elephants!

Later, we sang different animal songs together! The first song we sang was called " Baby Shark". The kids loved singing this song and had huge smiles across their faced throughout this activity. The second song we sang was the "Alligator Song". Singing with the kids helped in developing my confidence in front of groups. Helping Hands has been a crucial aid in the development of my leadership skills! The following picture is of the children as they were learning the lyrics of the songs.

Helping Hands- Get To Know You Games

This week in Helping Hands we received a few new local students. The OSC kids were very excited to have new group members. Alexandra and I encouraged the new kids to get to know the group. We planned and initiated a "get to know you" game, in which the kids had to state their name and age. The student next to them then had to repeat the previous child's information and then state their own. This activity aided in the development of speaking skills and the children's general confidence . Later, as a fun way to let out energy, the kids played Simon says. This was a good exercise for the local kids as they were forced to apply their listening skills!

Finally, each OSC child paired up with a local student and they worked together to read books! This was a great way for the children to create a special bond with the local students and encouraged the development of friendship!

The following pictures exemplify this activity!

SAISA Basketball Champions

This year we were the CHAMPIONS!!!!!!! The tournament was an extremely fun event filled with collaboration and joy! The OSC team was undefeated. Throughout the tournament our team played well, making accurate passes and shots. The following picture is from our second game against Lincoln School of Nepal. We won this game 42-12! It was a great start to the tournament.

Throughout the course of the tournament, the team and I developed our skills greatly. My greatest strength as a player was stealing the ball. On the other hand I believe that my greatest weakness was shooting. Though shooting began as a weakness, I feel that throughout the tournament my shooting skills developed greatly. As a team our greatest strength was our defense. We communicated very well and were all aggressive players. We were the tallest team in the tournament, and this further strengthened our defense. The following picture shows our 1-2-2 defense.

Our best game as a team was by far the game we played against Karachi. This was the third game we played in the SAISA tournament. We won this game 35-8. Our defense was really strong on this game and we all played our hardest. The following is a picture of our point guard Kalila and myself running down the court.

The championship game was by far the most exciting moment of the season! We played our rivals from Dhaka. We went in with high hopes however within 5 minutes, we were losing to the 

Tigers 6-0. We struggled and we fought until we took the title. We ended up winning the game 36-12! The following is a picture of the team, moments  before the win!

Helping Hands Planning

Helping Hands is currently on a two week break. In the meantime, Alex and I have been reflecting on our past semester of work. The past semester has been extremely productive. I have developed the skill of leading a group with confidence. I am now able to effectively plan and initiate lessons each week. The kids have developed their English skills. Most importantly, the OSC and local children have continued to develop their friendship!The following is a picture of three local boys whom are part of the Helping Hands group!

I have learned to work collaboratively with my fellow leader Alexandra. As we are both seniors, we must now consider whom we will choose to take over our roles in April. We have already chosen one leader and have begun to train him. He will begin coming to our weekly sessions after the break has ended. First he will simply spectate, however after a few session we will have him actively take on a leadership role!

Basketball

This week is the final training week before we begin the SAISA tournament! We have been working for weeks in preparation for the upcoming tournament which we will be hosting at our school!The following is a picture of me warming up before practice.

Through collaboration, the level of play has increased immensely. We now are able to play and communicate in an effective manner. As the weeks have past, we have developed a variety of new skills and plays. For example, about a two weeks ago we were introduced to the triangle play. Now, two weeks later, we are able to use this play in our practice games! We have each shown both perseverance and commitment throughout the season. Participating in a SAISA athletic activity is a great time commitment and requires a great passion for sports.