Goals for Week Without Walls

In a week my classmates and I will leave for our Week Without Walls trip. I chose to do the Coast to Coast trip to Aragon Bay. We will be doing a mix of biking and driving all the way from Colombo to Aragon Bay. Throughout this trip will be in very unfamiliar environments. We will learn to consider ethical implications. Firstly, at certain times we will be biking through a Muslim communities. Here we have to be very aware of  how dress. We must wear modest clothing in order to avoid offending individuals of the community. Second, we will be biking through areas where people have very little. We must ensure to be respectful of the socio economic differences.

We will be biking a total of 250 km. On average we will be riding about 50 km per day. I have not ridden a bike in many years. I believe that the large amount of biking will help me develop my skills. I also hope that I will become fitter and healthier from this experience. Biking with a large group of people will teach me to collaborate with others. Communication during biking in a group is crucial. If one person fails to communicate, it may cause an accident and many injuries. It is important to be extremely attentive throughout the biking experience.

 I will also develop my teaching skills. Each week with Helping Hands I teach children English. This is extremely rewarding and enjoyable. During week without walls we will visit a school. Here we will both teach the students and learn from the students.

I am very excited for this trip and cannot wait to begin this amazing journey!

RCCI

This week we had our first RCCI meeting of the second semester. The new and old club members worked together to plan activities for the upcoming semester. We thought about which activities the students enjoyed most last semester and incorporated them into our plans for the second semester. When the students came we worked on crafts with them. They drew and traced different shapes. Their drawings may be seen in the following image.

The second image shows OSC students from RCCI interacting with students from the center.

Each week in RCCI we face an issue of global importance; poverty. The students coming from outside OSC have a very different socio-economic background. Through the students going to the center, they are enabling their parents to work. Many parents had chosen to tie these children up or chain them because they were unable to leave them at home alone without negative consequences. For example some kids would attempt to run away.

CAS Goals Semester 2

My first semester in CAS been a great learning experience. I am a participant in RCCI, Helpings Hands, SGA, and the soccer team.

RCCI has been great in teaching me patience and act when out of my comfort zone. During the seconds semester I hope to continue undertaking new challenges. This semester the grade 12 leaders hand over their leading positions to the eligible grade 11 group members. I hope to be chosen as a leader.

Helping Hands has by far been my favorite CAS activity of the semester. I have bonded with both the OSC students and the local students. I will continue to plan and initiate activities. This semester I will try out new activities and try teaching English through a different approach.

I believe that continuing with SGA will help with developing my skills in collaborating with others. Each week I work with other grade representatives to create a better school environment.

This semester I will begin soccer. I have been playing soccer for many years and am very passionate about the sport. I hope to develop new skills and undertake new challenges. I will try playing forward; though my position has always been midfield.

RCCI Christmas Celebration

This week in RCCI the club came together to create a Christmas party for the children. We worked collaboratively to organize food and activity responsibilities. The club decorated the room with balloons to create a Christmas feel for the children. One member of the club dressed up as Santa Clause. The kids were very excited about this!

As a club we increased our awareness of our areas of strength. We learned that we are great at ensuring that each student feels included and welcome. I believe that this skill is extremely important in the success of the club.

This picture was taken during the dance party. I am with two local students enjoying the Christmas spirit!

Helping Hands Christmas Party

This week in Helping Hands we threw a Christmas Party. The local children and OSC children really enjoyed this event. This party took a lot of planning.Firstly, we had to get help in sponsoring this event. We did this through writing and publishing a post about it in our school's newsletter. We had to ensure that there would be enough healthy food for each student. This is the final letter that was sent out in the school's newsletter:

Christmas is approaching and Helping Hands would like to lead a fundraiser for the local students attending the Borella Shelter. 

Helping Hands is the only primary community service group.  Meeting every Monday, this activity provides an opportunity for our students to engage with the children from the shelter through games and activities, teaching the children some English that will be useful to them in their everyday life and giving them the opportunity to use our facilities.  

Please support Helping Hands by donating any of the following items.  It is our hope to raise enough school supplies so that the children can have a better start to their new academic year beginning in January, 2014.

-pencils

-notebooks

-math notebooks (square ruled)

-single rule

-erasers

 
We have already purchased school bags for the children from money remaining from last year’s fundraising. Donated items can be brought to Mrs. Powell's Preschool classroom.

 It would also be greatly appreciated if you could support our Helping Hands Christmas party on Monday, December 6th.  You can support through providing the group of children (about 30 students) with healthy snacks such as apples, yogurt, biscuits, or a drink.  If you are interested, please contact Mrs. Powell via email at jpowell@osc.lk

 

Thank you for supporting Helping Hands!


The students loved their gifts. The smiles on their faces was a great reward for our hard work!

For the event we planned games and activities we would carry out. We chose musical chairs, carols, and a snowflake craft activity. I worked collaboratively with the other leader of the group to ensure that all these activities went smoothly. Overall I would consider this party to have been extremely successful!

SAISA Basketball

We just returned from our six day basketball tournament in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The tournament was hosted by the American International School of Dhaka. On the first day of the tournament we played Dhaka and won 24-14. After that game we were able to increase awareness of  our strengths and areas for growth. As a team we agreed that we needed to foul less and shoot more three pointers. We decided that our strong areas were in fast breaks and rebounding.

 The second game of the day we played Karachi and won 41-5. In this game we considered ethical implications. We took out our strongest players in order to make the game more even. Through doing this we also showed good sportsmanship.

On the second day we played Lincoln. This was a very stressful and close game.In this game I showed perseverance and commitment. I was extremely tired and soar ,however I  continued playing the entire game. The team's hard work payed off, we beat Lincoln 31-17.

Our next game was against Lahore.In this game we worked collaboratively as a team. Each member of the team focused on passing and working together. Often it is easy to be selfish in basketball and make the play that makes you look best as oppose to what is best for the team. We won this game 40-17.

Our final day was by far the most exciting. In the semi finals we re-played Lincoln. We all went in extremely confident because we had already beaten them. In this game I developed my ball stealing and dribbling skills. I stole the ball away from the other team multiple times. In the end we beat them 38-25.

Our championship game was against Dhaka. This game was extremely exciting. Their entire school came to cheer them on. In this game we undertook a new challenge while trying a press defense. This game went into overtime. The whole team was nervous but we put our nerves behind in order to win. We won the game by one point. I was ecstatic and in disbelief in the moment of our win! We celebrated as a team by dancing on the court to our teams song. This was an absolutely amazing tournament and I can't wait for soccer to begin!

Update on Service and Creativity

This week in RCCI we went to the school for children with special needs. The group members planned and initiated activities for the students. The students enjoyed the activity where we all danced together the most. This activity was a great way to get the students active and to create a bond between our two schools.

In this picture Sasha (other RCCI group member) and

 I are teaching the students different fun dance moves.

This week in Student Government I collaborated with other class representatives while brain storming fundraising ideas. We need to raise money for the biggest school event called the Oscars. The group had various ideas such as Waffle Wednesday and Flapjack Friday. Selling food has been the most successful way to raise money at this school so we focused on food based fundraisers.

In  Helping Hands every week we engage with issues of global importance ; poverty and education. The children who come each week to our school have very little. This week we focused on teaching them different numbers and math (education). We played a hopscotch game where the students had to add up the different numbers they landed on. They each had to give full mathematical sentences to display their understanding of the topic.