Semester Reflection

I have performed exceptionally well in the aspects of service, creativity, and action. First, I am the student leader of Helping Hands this activity, an activity in which I teach English to local lower class students. My participation in this club shows that I am a strong leader and teacher. Leading this club has by far been my favorite part of attending OSC. I have developed my teaching and leadership skills. This club has made me more socially and culturally sensitive. Second, I am the student leader of RCCI activity, an activity in which I plan and initiate activities for special needs young adults. This activity reveals my leadership skills and my commitment to service. I have greatly improved with communicating and being patient. This activity has overall been a wonderful learning experience. Third, I am very involved with Community Concern Society; I have worked with two sections within this organization: the baby clinic and salvage. I have planned school drives, created presentations, designed new products, made business connections, and given lectures. Fourth, I am a starter on the Basketball team. This activity has developed my physical fitness and stamina! Finally, in the area of creativity, I am the editor of the school magazine. This activity manifests my creativity and writing skills. Through this activity I have learned how to think outside of the box and now have a better understanding on the process of creating a magazine.

First Basketball Game

Today was the team's first basketball game! This was a perfect opportunity to work collaboratively with my teammates and develop our shooting, dribbling, and passing skills! After playing this game, I realized that my biggest strengths were in dribbling and passing. I am extremely confident in these areas and believe that my confidence is what has helped me excel. On the other hand, I believe an I am a weak shooter. I hope that after a few more practice games I will have more accurate shots! Though we were down about ten points for the majority of the game, we won the game in the end! My team was very excited about this win. It served as the perfect start to what I hope will be an extraordinary season!

Helping Hands

This week in Helping Hands we began a new unit! I planned and initiated activities to teach the children about the weather. We started off with an activity that caused the kids to collaborate in order to reach their goal. The activity I created was one in which each student was given a card with either an image or a word. These words and images were all associated with weather. The following is a picture of the cards I created.

 

After each child received a card, I timed how quickly they could find their match. This was a fun and active game which served as an introduction to learning the new vocabulary! Later, I explain the different weather terminology. Next, the students created a song and motion for the different weather terms. Finally, we went outdoors and played a fun vocab game. For this game I used terms both from this unit and past units such as animals and body parts. The children ran in a circle and I yelled out different vocab terms. They had to react quickly and pretend to be whichever word I yelled. The kids absolutely loved this game and had large smiles on their faces throughout the game. The following is a picture of them pretending to be snakes and running around the court!

Overall I believe that this activity has greatly developed my creativity skills. Each week I have to think of a new and fun way to mix learning and fun!

Developing Back Flexibility Through Yoga

Yoga has grown to be one of my favorite activities. It is incredibly helpful in maintaining a healthy body and mind! This week during yoga we focused on the flexibility of the back. I had previously identified this area as one of my strengths as I am able to do many poses that the rest of the class finds difficult. The following is a picture of me doing the bridge pose. This pose has helped me develop my upper body strengths as well as back flexibility!

I undertook a new challenge when completing a two part motion. In the first motion, I complete the candle stick (shown in the image below). After holding those pose for about a minute and a half, I bring my legs down so that my knees are beside my head and my feet touching the floor. This pose takes a great amount of back flexibility and is very difficult. During my first classes I was unable to complete this pose; however, through committing to yoga and practicing this pose at home, I can now easily roll into this pose!

Helping Hands

This was a very productive and successful week in Helping Hands. We received an entire new group of OSC primary school volunteers. Over the past few weeks we have focused on learning the body parts. This week I put the children’s ability to test! The kids were put in ground and asked to trace a group member’s body on a large piece of paper as shown in the following images.

 After doing so, the children labeled and creatively colored their drawing. Once the drawing was completed, the children presented their work to the class. This activity tested their skills on both writing and speaking. The following is a picture of the students presenting their work!

I was happy to see the OSC and local students working collaboratively! One OSC volunteer led each group in order to help the local students with spelling and pronunciation. This was also done to encourage interaction between the different students. During the first few lessons, the children often feel uncomfortable and shy; therefore, it is important to encourage interaction! In Helping Hands we deal was an issue of global importance: inequality in income distribution. This inequality has contributed a great deal to the increased crime rates and hostile feelings between the upper and lower class. Helping Hands breaks the barrier between the two classes and teaches students from a young age that everyone is the same no matter their socio-economic background!

The Basketball Season Begins

Today I had my very first basketball practice of the season! I have revealed my commitment to the sport through being a part of my school's team for the 6th year in a row! The first practice went very smoothly. Though as a team we have a lot of space for improvement, I believe we have a chance at winning SAISA as we did last year! After the first practice I was able to identify my greatest strengths and weaknesses as a player. My biggest strength is working collaboratively with my teammates; I am in no way a selfish player. At this point the most important goal is developing the less experienced players into better players. This means that instead of always taking the shot, its important to pass to the newer players and allow them the chance to improve their skills. My biggest weakness would be my lack of fitness. For the past few months I have only been doing yoga was exercise. Though this activity is wonderful for flexibility and mental health, it has not helped me keep up my strength and endurance.

Helping Hands

In Helping Hands we just began the unit on body parts. I began by presenting a basic overview of the main body parts with the explanation of their purpose and spelling. Next, the class sang the song head, shoulders, knees, and toes as a way to practice their familiarity. After this song, I taught more difficult body parts such as lips, wrists, and fingers. The students then were split into two groups and asked to create a song using all the different body parts they had learned. This activity was extremely fun! The kids were laughing and smiling the entire time. I learned that one of my strengths as a teacher is finding creative ways to make learning fun! The kids are more likely to absorb the information if they are having fun while learning! The following are pictures of the kids presenting their songs and dances.

Overall, I believe that this activity has been great in developing my leadership skills. I believe confidence in talking in front of a group of people is the most important skill of a leader. If a leader is not confidence, especially while teaching, they lose control of their group. 

Drive for Dahl and Rice

This week, students have begun making donations for dahl and rice! Last week I gave a presentation to my school about my work over the summer with community concern society. This presentation revealed my commitment and passion towards this project! I asked the students and teachers to begin bringing in rice and dahl donations. I have exchanged emails with teachers and the head of secondary school to encourage students and teachers to bring in rice and dahl. This drive has developed my leadership skills in terms of taking initiative, communication, and organization.

The following is an example of one of the many emails exchanged between myself and faculty in order to plan this event:

I also created posters that I posted around the school to serve as a reminder for the students to donate! The response by the students so far has not been great as we have had very few donations;however, I hope that these last few days with the reminders from their teachers and they will remember to donate!

In total we ended up raising 60kg of dahl and 110 kg of rice! When I delivered the food that we raised, the leaders of Community Concern Society were thrilled! They said that we had raised such a large amount of food that they would save our donation for the week of Christmas and give the rice and dahl to the women for the holiday! This was great to hear as it meant that mine and my school's efforts had payed off and made a difference in this community! 

Community Concern Society

This week I went to Community Concern’s Baby Clinic. At this clinic I helped distribute food items to mothers and children in need. I planned and initiated a talk on fire safety and the importance of washing hands. In the section on washing hands I spoke about how to properly wash hands, when to wash hands, and diseases that could be spread through hand contact.

When talking about fire safety I spoke about ways to prevent in home fires and taught the women the Stop, Drop, and Roll. I demonstrated the Stop, Drop, and Roll and then asked the children to come to the front of the room and demonstrate their understanding of this procedure. Through this activity I developed my public speaking skills.  I learned to speak clearly and confidently!The following are pictures of this event:

Helping Hands

I planned and initiated  a lesson plan which focused on writing and speaking skills related to introducing oneself. The students wrote their name, their age, and their favorite activities on a sheet of colored paper. They were all very excited about this activity and put great care into creating an organized and neat paper. The following are pictures of the class working on this activity.

Later the students stood in front of the class and presented their work. I ensured that they all spoke clearly and loudly. I can see them slowly becoming more comfortable with their English speaking skills. This week I identified my strengths and weaknesses as a leader. I realized that my confidence and people skills aid my leadership; however, I still have room to develop my skills with time management. 

YOGA

My yoga session this week was extremely relaxing. As each week passes, I find my skills in flexibility and strength to be developing. This week we focused on flexibility within the hips.  I undertook new challenges as I executed each new position. The following is a picture of me before yoga:

I find yoga to be a wonderful way to relieve stress and stay calm throughout the heavy work week. While at my yoga class, the stress of the outside world and school are unimportant. A yoga pose which I have been working on perfecting is the backward prayer hands pose. The following is an image of what this pose looks like:

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Though this pose may look simple, it takes a lot of flexibility within the arms and shoulders to be correctly done. This pose is practiced every class and I can see myself  getting closer to properly executing the pose!

RCCI

Today was our first RCCI meeting. I have shown commitment within this activity as this will be my second year as a member of RCCI. Our focus of this session was physical fitness and hand-eye coordination  skills. We planned and initiated different activities for each individual young adult as each is at a different skill level. While some may shoot and make baskets, others are still working on the skill of catching a ball.  The following are some pictures from the first session:

This year I will continue to develop my leadership skills within this group. This year will be especially difficult because very few people signed up for this activity. We have about 5 OSC students and 13 local students from the center. 

Gecko Zine

This year I will be involved in a new club called Gecko Zine. My position within this club is the editor. This will be a new challenge for me as I have never been in a writing club before. This club works together to create a school magazine. We hope that this magazine will display the wonderful students and different activities held at OSC! At our meeting we discussed ways in which we could make the magazine more popular and effective. Additionally, we decided to publish posts every week about diversity.I believe this club will be a great way for me to identify my writing strengths and weaknesses. 

The following is the post I made this week for Facebook to display our school's diversity:

Max came to our school three years ago and is now a 12th grader 

at OSC. He is 50 percent Italian and 50 percent Australian. Max is fluent in English,

 Italian, and French.

Helping Hands

Today was our first official helping hands session! I was extremely excited to be back with the kids as I enjoy this club greatly. I planned and initiated a variety of “get to know you” activities. These included a game in which the students had to state their name, age, and favorite food in front of the class. They later had to toss a board eraser to another student and repeat the other person’s information. This activity improved the children’s confidence in speaking English in front of a group and also helped them get to know each other. The following are pictures of this activity:

In the next activity the student were asked to organize themselves in alphabetical name order. I planned this activity in hopes that it would improve speaking skills, memorization of the English alphabet, and help the kids remember each other’s names. 

Finally, I took pictures of the kids that they will use next week to make name tags. Overall, this was a productive and fun first session. Helping Hands has greatly helped in developing my leadership and teaching skills! I took on a new challenge when joining this club last year as it was my first experience with teaching younger children.

CAS GOALS

Last year was an extremely productive year for me in the fields of creativity, action, and service. Due to the many opportunities that OSC has given me, I have managed to thrive in all three. However, I was especially involved in service. This year I will continue to show commitment with all three of my service activities. I hope to be a inspirational and productive leader in RCCI. Additionally, I hope to develop my teaching skills ad continue to help with community through my leadership role in Helping Hands. I will plan and initiate a set of new lessons each week! Over the summer I was extremely busy volunteering with an out of school service group called Salvage. This group focuses on helping the lower-socioeconomic class community in Sri Lanka. In specific they focus on finding employment for war widows. I engaged in a variety of different projects. Every Wednesday, I went to a feeding center where we provided food for the mothers and their young children. I also gave a talk at one of these meetings about fire safety, food sanitation, and child safety within the home. This upcoming year I hope to lead a variety of food and dental care product drives in order to provide these families with essentials.

The following is a picture of me weighing a child at the feeding center.

The following is a picture of my brother measuring the height of a child at the feeding center.

This year I will be extremely busy with school work and college applications, however I hope to still set aside time for action. I will be participating in the soccer and basketball SAISAS. I am very passionate about these sports and would like to continue developing my skills and continue to work collaboratively with my teammates. Additionally, I may attend workout sessions with the OSC volleyball team in order to stay fit!

Final CAS Reflection

This year I have been very active in a variety of extra curricular activities. I have fulfilled more than the necessary hours for creativity, service, and action.

Under the category of creativity, I chose to be a part of the student government. By taking on this role, I was undertaking a new challenge. I had never before been a part of the student government. This experience was very new for me.Here I developed new skills in organization and in planning different events. By far the most successful event was the Oscars. A large number of people came and everyone really enjoyed the event. The following is a picture of the Oscars.

Under the category of action, this year I have been a very active member of the soccer and basketball team. I greatly enjoyed both of these activities. They allowed me to identify my strengths and weaknesses as an athlete. I realized that my strengths were in fitness and speed, while my weaknesses were in power and strength. In these sports activities I also learned how to work collaboratively with others. A team must work as a whole in order to succeed, and I believe that this held true during our seasons. I showed both commitment and perseverance, as even after the soccer season was finished, I continued going to extra practices to help develop my playing skills. The following are team photos from both the basketball and soccer seasons.

                                         This was my soccer team before our first game!

This picture is of my basketball team after our first win!

 

In the category of service, I was a part of RCCI, Helping Hands, and Salvage. I was a leader in Helping Hands and RCCI. Each week I planned and initiated activities for both of these clubs. I had to be creative and ensure that the children enjoyed themselves and learned during each session. Additionally, I had to take into consideration ethical implications. In this group we were dealing with an issue of global importance: poverty. The local children in these groups had very little in comparison to OSC students. I had to ensure that the young OSC children in Helping Hands were always sensitive to this difference. The following are my favorite pictures of my favorite service sessions.

 

This was one of the first RCCI sessions.

 

 

This picture is from the Helping Hands Christmas party!

 

Helping Hands

 

In todays session I planned and initiated an activity focused on learning foods and the different meals. First, we used plastic toy food to learn the name, color, and pronunciation of each food. Once that skill has been mastered, the children learned the different meals. They then were asked to classify different foods into each meal category in order to gain familiarity with the words. This was especially interesting as culture differences influenced their categorization. I am western and would therefore consider foods such as corn, rice, and curry to be lunch or dinner foods. However, the local students considered them to be breakfast foods. This was a great experience as I learned more about the Sri Lankan culture! After learning the names of the foods and each meal, the children were asked to make cards with the name, picture, and price of their assigned foods.

 

 

 

 

We then had them paste these cards onto either a breakfast, lunch , or dinner poster. This activity was used to ensure that they had understood the lesson which had been taught.

 At the end of the lesson, the local students were asked to present the poster and what they had learned to the OSC students.

Through conducting this activity I was able to increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for improvement. I learned that I do well in organizing these activities and ensuring that they play out smoothly. However, I need to learn to plan activities in which the OSC and local children may create a closer bond. It is important that the OSC children also gain something from this experience.

Scrimmage Against the Boys Team

 

This week in practice, we had a scrimmage against the middle school boys team from OSC. Though they were much smaller than us, they had many ball handling skills that we lacked. This was not only great for fitness but also for learning. Watching different plays from the boys team, enabled us to develop new skills as we were able to incorporate what we saw into our playing. Their quick touches enabled them to get the ball around quickly and pass our players. Next week we plan to do drills that will help us learn these quick touches.

 

 

 

The key in this scrimmage was working collaboratively with my other teammates. It was essential to communicate. This is an area of weakness on the OSC girls team. We do not speak on the field as much as we should. Our lack of communication created many sloppy plays and lost us the ball multiple times.

Learning Numbers and Shapes with Helping Hands

This week in Helping Hands we focused on numbers and shapes. The children already had some basic knowledge in these areas ; however, there was still room for great improvement. I planned and initiated two different activities. In the first activity the students used the ipad to play different games which taught them how to pronounce and identify each number. Once they mastered this skill, they moved onto addition and subtraction games.

Prior to this experience, the kids had never been exposed to an ipad. This was a very special experience for them. However, we had to consider ethical implications. We had to ensure that we did not seem showy by using this advanced and expensive technology. The local kids are not as fortunate as those from OSC. The money spent on an ipad could go a long way in their families, therefore we had to ensure to keep that in mind. The following is a picture of the children during this activity.

 

After the numbers activity, we moved onto an activity focused on shapes. We used blocks to show the different shapes and teach the children how to pronounce the different shapes. It was enjoyable to watch the children develop these new skills. They had the most trouble pronouncing the word rectangle. However, by the end of the lesson they had greatly improved in their pronunciation.

Soccer

Each week I can see the OSC soccer team improving. We have weekly practices in order to stay in shape for next season and for an upcoming tournament. This week we focused on passing and corner kicks. In todays practice, I not only saw myself developing new skills, but also undertaking new challenges. In the corner kick drills I had usually been near the goal in a shooting position. However, in this practice the coaches changed my position to the player taking the corner kick. This is a big challenge as one must learn exactly at what height they must kick the ball and have perfect placement. If the ball is not kicked high enough, it may easily be intercepted by the other team. However, if kicked too high it may be a useless play. I increased my awareness of my strengths and weaknesses as a player while doing this drill. I realized that I am good at placing the ball in the correct position. My weakness is my lack of power. My legs are not as strong as those of a few other players, and this causes my power when kicking the ball to be less.

Picture of me after soccer practice

 

The OSC soccer team takes our practices very seriously. However, we always ensure that we are also having fun while we practice. In order for a team to succeed ,the players must first bond and get to know each other!

SGA

This week the SGA undertook a new challenge. We decided to run the food stand at the SAISA tournament. Because this is an important responsibility, the PTA is usually in charge of selling food. However, the SGA saw this as a wonderful opportunity to earn revenue for the student government.

We worked collaboratively to assign different roles to the class representatives. Our goal was to think of healthy snacks that would still be appealing to the athletes. I chose to bring blueberry muffins as they are a tasty carb filled treat that would give the athletes energy. The following is a picture of the muffins I baked for the tournament.

In order to help create excitement for the tournament, we made this week spirit week. The four spirit days we decided on were hippie, spots and stripes, blue and white(the school colors) , and inside out day. Our school lacks spirit, therefore it was my role as a student government member to encourage people to show their school spirit and participate in each dress up day. I showed my commitment to the SGA through wearing crazy outfits everyday that fit the theme. The following is a picture of me and my friend on stripes and spots day.

Helpings Hands

This week I planned and initiated a very exciting activity for Helpings Hands. New Year is a important part of the Sri Lankan culture. It is celebrated in April as opposed to January as it is in the West. During this time of the year families save their money for gifts which they distribute to each family member. Therefore, this is a time when money is tight for many families. I decided to gather different food products for the families of the Helpings Hands local students. In this bag I included flour , dhal, rice, and other basic ingredients. In order to gather enough products, I published a statement in the weekly school newsletter asking students to bring these different food items. Each students was asked to bring these items to their homeroom teachers. Once I gathered all the products, I put them together in red bags made from recycled materials.During this session I distributed these bags. The following is a picture of the bags.

We also had the children complete an activity to practice their knowledge of the names of the different body parts. The activity was a relay race. The students were put into teams and told to sing head should knees and toes at the course. I worked collaboratively with the other student leader to ensure that the activity was carried out effectively.  The following is a picture of this relay race.

RCCI

This week in RCCI the students came together and watched a Disney film. The local students greatly enjoyed this animated film and attentively watched throughout the entire session. In this session we indirectly were dealing with an issue of global importance; poverty. The local students are less fortunate and unable to afford items such as televisions. Therefore, this experience was one that was unique for them as they do not often have the opportunity to use electronics such as these.

This activity also exposed the students to English. Hearing the Disney characters speak could teach them new basic English vocabulary. The students currently have a very limited vocabulary in English.

I undertook a new challenge this session, as it was my first week being the official student leader of RCCI. The local group arrived 30 minutes late. This created difficulties as many kids decided to leave to their homes. Due to this, along with a small group of other students I had to ensure that the activity was carried out correctly. After watching the movie, we gathered the students to eat snack. The following is a picture of the students eating their snacks.

Food and Fun Fair

The SGA organized the Food and Fun Fair. This took place over the past weekend. It was a fair filled with a variety of fun family activities. As an SGA member we had to ensure that everything went smoothly and as planned. Each grade had their own activity. Grade eleven was in charge of the slip and slide. Kids absolutely loved this activity and paid to go up to twelve times.

The SGA was in charge of selling beverages. We had to work collaboratively when picking shifts, picking prices, and selling the drinks. Selling the drinks was an extremely stressful process because many people did not show up on time or at all for their shifts. Because of this, many of us had to work multiple shifts. The lines of people were very long. There had been a difficulty in communicating that we accepted cash only as opposed to fair tickets. This miscommunication wasted a lot of time. During this time I increased my awareness of my personal strengths and weaknesses. My strength in this situation was that I was able to work quickly and manage money well. However , my weakness was my frustration. When people did not show up for their shifts or I had to man the table by myself, I became extremely frustrated.

Soccer

During SAISA the OSC soccer team was not very successful. We placed second to last. Because of this , we have decided as a team to participate in a local tournament and continue having weekly practices. We believe that through doing this we will be able to identify our strengths and weaknesses both individually and as a team. This will allow us to be more successful in next years SAISA tournament.

 The team worked collaboratively to pick dates which work well for all of us to practice. I was surprised by the large amount of people who continued to come to practice. We have only had one practice so far but I already have seen the development of new skills in multiple players. The skill I recently developed was the ability to correctly place my corner kicks. I must kick the ball in the perfect position so that it travels directly to the strikers.