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.