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.


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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.

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.