Quarter 2 Extracurricular Activities

This quarter I planned to continue with my creativity and service activities of piano lessons and the Checkmates service group (Showing perseverance and commitment), while changing tracks for activity from volleyball to basketball as the previous season ended, like I did last year and the year before. However, my plans were thrown for a loop when I discovered that the SAISA tournament and the mock exams are only a few days apart, as well as the fact that the badminton season would occur at the same time but on different days of the week.

Originally I wanted to not take part in any SAISA to focus on my academics, but ultimately decided that since the tournament takes place only after the mock exams instead of before, then it was okay to take part in a SAISA sport one last time. This year I decided on trying out for the badminton team for multiple reasons, but mostly to try something new (Undertaking new challenges). This new activity would also allow me to develop new skills, gain increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth, and work collaboratively with others.

SAISA Volleyball 2015

The SAISA Volleyball tournament this year kicked off with a huge opening ceremony, since both the boys' and the girls' tournaments were held at our school because of political problems preventing them being held where they were supposed to be originally. This was new and exciting because we were able to personally watch and support the matches of our team’s counterpart, as well as having a slight home court advantage over the other schools. 

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

A huge benefit of the joint tournament was that all the teams had some sort of support and cheering system during matches. The picture below shows the girls' volleyball team watching the boys’ first match.

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

We started off with high hopes and expectations that were carried over from our undefeated win in last year’s tournament. Although we fought and played hard in our matches and practices, honing our individual and teamwork skills as much as possible, we unfortunately came in 6th place of an overall 8 girls’ teams.

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

This year was my last year playing my favourite sport in high school, and although I am sad that we did not get a higher place in the tournament, I am extremely happy to have been able to play and have fun with my team, and get coached by some of the best coaches I have ever had for any sport.

OSC SAISA Volleyball Team 2015

Monthly Update #1

Action: Volleyball

The volleyball season this year started off well enough, but the absence of last year’s seniors was pretty obvious. Our captain last year, Greta, who was an amazing player who we relied on almost a little too much, and one of our main setters and solid servers, Athena, were integral parts of our team, and their leaving greatly affected the team dynamics. Not only did we have to prepare for the arrival of new players we also had to shift from old positions.

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

Elizabeth and Prerna stepped up into leadership roles beautifully, and I am trying to become a solid power hitter and overhand server to make up for the loss of Greta’s and Athena’s skills in these areas. Last year I was a semi-reliable hitter and solid underhand server, but this year I was able to improve the power behind my spikes as well as their manoeuvrability and I recently upgraded from under- to overhand serves, although they are harder for me to aim than the underhand (Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth and Develop new skills).

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

This year’s team does not include any outstanding volleyball skills, so our main focus was to work on teamwork to make up for each other’s faults (Worked collaboratively with others). While this is a good strategy, it was hard to put into practice because of the lack of communication as well as the weak grasp of the basic skills such as receiving and serving. Communication in volleyball is key, as the cooperation between team members is dependent on whether or not they know what the others are doing, and the lack of it is probably to do with the new players being reserved about playing aggressively.

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

Greta’s strategy for bringing out aggressiveness in her players was to get into their space and try to make them mad. Sometimes she would run to the other side of the court shouting for the ball to prove this point. While this strategy helped me realize that the only way I would be able to get the ball was by communicating (loudly) what I was doing, it can be limited by the players reacting differently and becoming completely complacent and overly dependent on Greta playing the ball (which was the case for us when we realized how much her absence affected the team this year).

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

This focus on teamwork was tested during our practice matches against local schools, who were very reliant on a single star player like we were last year. We were also able to play against a team who normally plays professionally, and we learnt a lot during that match, such as how we need to work on properly covering the blockers and hitters to easily receive loose balls.

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

SAISA this year was initially supposed to take place in Dhaka, but because of security reasons it will be held here in Colombo. This is a huge advantage for us as we were practically scrambling for players that could get a travel visa for Bangladesh, and now we are able to play with a full team, which includes our power server Anna who was not allowed to travel. Playing as last year’s undefeated champions on our home turf is a little daunting, but I am confident that we will give our opponents a run for their money (Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities).

(Credit: Andre Joubert)

Service: Checkmates

Service this semester started off with the Service fair, where students could talk to the leaders of each service group to get a better idea of the different options available to them before choosing their group for the semester. After deciding last year that I would like to join a different group from Alzheimer’s (Undertaken new challenges), I settled on a new group called the Checkmates.

(Credit: Mr Lockwood)

The Checkmates’ general purpose is to teach chess skills to students from an underprivileged school so that they can have a better chance at winning a chess scholarship, which are very highly coveted and sought after in Sri Lanka (Engaged with issues of global importance and Considered the ethical implications of their actions).

The first few sessions involved getting to know each other and our service leaders, Arnold and Nela, and our supervisor, Mr Canizalez, as well as brushing up on our chess skills (Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth and Develop new skills). In recent sessions we began planning what we would do for the rest of the year, and making a presentation about chess for the students we would be teaching (Planned and initiated activities and Worked collaboratively with others).

 (Credit: Sho)

In the last session we were visited by students from Nalanda School who play chess extremely well, so that we can learn a bit more about the game to pass it on to the other school’s students.

Creativity: Piano lessons

My progress in achieving my goals for Creativity are slow going compared to Service and Action. While I am still developing my piano skills, I am still struggling with playing an entire piece perfectly, and my practice time is hampered by academics and other work (Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth).

The first step I need to take to complete my goal is to choose a particular piece to become fluent in, as opposed to what I was doing previously by trying to only adequately play a bunch of pieces (Planned and initiated activities). In regards to my goal of learning how to instinctively read sheet music, that can only be achieved through lots of practice (Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities).

My Goals V2.0

Creativity

• Art Club: Last year I implemented this activity (which was then called the Drawing Club) into my CAS program before it was cancelled near the end of the year. Since I am no longer a part of the SGA, my focus on my art and drawing skills in the club will increase, and instead of using it as a non-stressful place to develop my art skills, I intend to set myself a few small goals or project and consciously improve myself. This could be making my own short comic book, learning more about different drawing styles like realism, and so on. This mind set for the Art Club incorporates the learning outcomes of: Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth, Undertaken new challenges, Planned and initiated activities, Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities, and Develop new skills.
• Piano Lessons: I have taken these lessons since Gr 10 but failed to mention it in last year's goals list. What I would most like to achieve by the end of the year with this, is to completely master a complicated music piece and play it flawlessly. The same learning outcomes apply for both creativity activities.

Action

• Volleyball, basketball & football: These are the same SAISA teams I have been in for the last couple years and I really like the sports and team dynamics that come from playing them. Unfortunately, this year will require me to focus more on academics, so it is unlikely that I will participate in basketball, and even more so in football as these two seasons are closer to the mocks and the actual exams. Luckily volleyball (my favourite sport) takes place early in the year, so I can participate in SAISA without worrying too much about my school work. These SAISA sports incorporate the learning outcomes of: Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth, Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities, Worked collaboratively with others, and Develop new skills

Service

• Service: This year for service I intend to participate in a different one than Alzheimer’s. Hopefully something that works with children as I have realized (from WWW) that I really enjoy working with them as opposed to elderly people. Learning outcomes that are used for this are: Undertaken new challenges, Worked collaboratively with others, Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities, Engaged with issues of global importance, Considered the ethical implications of their actions, and Develop new skills.

DP1 Final CAS Reflection

Increased their awareness of their own strengths of areas for growth
This outcome was one of the harder ones to achieve, as I had to make an objective judgement about myself, and how I have grown by identifying my strengths and fixing my weaknesses. Awareness of myself mostly had to do with the Activities section of CAS as I had to consciously work on my weaknesses and perfect my strengths through training and practice for SAISA.

Undertaken new challenges
Joining the Alzheimer’s Awareness Service Group was a bit of a challenge as I had never really interacted with patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease before and am nervous by default around new people. Another new activity that I undertook was piano lessons. I had always wanted to play the piano when I was younger but became more disinterested as I became older, so learning to play was a challenge in and of itself, as well as sticking with it.

Planned and initiated activities
Though I did not take any major leadership roles in any of my CAS projects, I was still included in some of the decision making processes and event planning processes involved in Alzheimer’s and the Student Government Association.

Worked collaboratively with others
Collaboration was immensely important in the sports teams that I was a part of. Teamwork is an integral part of basketball, football and volleyball as they are team sports. Collaboration was also used a lot in the SGA, not just in the group but also with the SCN (School Connection Network), the school staff and other groups to plan and create an event.

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
Commitment applied to all of my CAS projects, as dedication is very important to the different activities. I tried to attend all the sessions that I could because being present is just as important as collaboration and participation. Perseverance was a bit of a challenge for me with regards to piano lessons as I was not as interested in it as I was when I was younger.

Engaged with issues of global importance
This learning outcome was mainly applied to my work in the Alzheimer’s service group as the disease is an occurrence worldwide and raising awareness for it and caring for the people suffering from it is equally important around the world.

Considered the ethical implications of their actions
Questions of ethics came up a lot during sessions in Alzheimer’s. For example, was our continued visitation of the Alzheimer’s centre beneficial to the patients? Were we unwittingly causing further damage or causing the patients to feel bad about their disease? Was the entire process done to help the patients or to make ourselves feel better?

Developed new skills
When undertaking any new activity, a new set of skills need to be developed to meet the challenge. For example, in SGA I needed to learn about advertising and marketing events and how to take minutes in a meeting.

Next year for the DP2 I hope to make as much time for CAS as I did this year, but this is unlikely as I will be focusing more on my studies near the end of the year. Hopefully next year I will also focus more on reflecting and updating my blog more than I did this year. Though I did not complete all of my goals, I am still satisfied with my CAS work this year, and hope to do just as well in the following year.

Quarter 2 Reflection - Action

(Photo credit: @gecko.athletics Instagram)

Action this quarter was all about basketball – I was picked for the SAISA Girls’ U19 Basketball team, primarily as a post guard (stays closer to the baskets to defend and attack – usually for tall players). Like volleyball, I was on the team last year and focused on getting back on track to my fitness and skill level from last year (since I had forgotten almost all the rules and plays).

Something that I needed to work on a lot was being quicker on my feet because I couldn’t rely solely on my height to defend against someone trying to take a shot. On the plus side, my shots had improved from last year, where last time I had trouble getting enough power into a shot from the free throw line to even reach the basket, but this year (with a TON of practice) I was able to make shots anywhere inside and around the outside of the key.

In terms of teamwork, I think we really bonded and worked well as a team, especially with such a strong captain (Soraya). We were able to come up and apply a lot of plays, most of which had the triangle at the core. A triangle just means three players positioned in a triangle, usually with maximum two of them connected to the key. As part of our traditional team bonding party before every SAISA, the team created a ton of posters which we hung up around the school and gym, and handed out to people so they could show they’re support.

(Photo credit: @gecko.athletics Instagram)

This year our school hosted the tournament and this put a lot of pressure on the team, especially the players from last year. Last year the tournament was hosted at AISD (American International School of Dhaka) and we were able to make it to the finals against the Dhaka team. It was a tough match but we won by one point in the overtime, which was incredibly stressful and nerve-wracking. Now this time Dhaka promised that they would be the ones to beat us on our home turf and we were a bit nervous.

The tournament was incredibly fun, especially since we practically cruised through all the matches, coming out undefeated by a large margin in all of them. We made our way to the finals and we were once again facing Dhaka for the trophy. We were all a bit nervous and jittery, what with the cheers from one side of the gym where a lot of the students, parents and teachers came to support us, and the death glares from the Dhaka tiers on the other side.

The beginning of the match was slow and we made a lot of stupid mistakes because of our nerves, but I think we picked up steam pretty quickly after I made a buzzer-beater basket that helped lift the nerves off of the team. The game progressed with Kalila and Soraya making some pretty amazing baskets, as well as Jaz with her unbelievable three-pointers, Nela’s hilarious steals, and Vanessa’s blasé attitude when she made an impressive steal or shot. I think the only reason I pulled through the match without throwing up from nerves was by revelling in the team’s achievements.

In the end, we also won the entire tournament undefeated like volleyball. Thankfully we ended the match with minimal injuries on either side (although all the injuries I caused were purely accidental), despite Dhaka’s obvious fake falls to get a free throw. It was incredible to win twice in a row, as well as volleyball, and I really hope we can keep this up for football and the year to come (even though I’m pretty sure that we’ve made Dhaka our permanent archenemies rivals now).

(Photo credit: Nela)

One of my teammates made an awesome video of the tournament as well:

(Photo credit: Nela)

Week Without Walls - Jaffna

Week Without Walls is a week-long school trip to somewhere on the island and – in the Diploma Programme – has a focus on one or more aspects of CAS. My trip was on the Jaffna Narratives, with the focus mainly on Service, where we get to learn more about our host island and its people, culture and history.

Jaffna is in the North of Sri Lanka and was subject to most of the Sri Lankan Civil War, which we learned a bit about as we explored the north in the aftermath of a vicious war. As we learned more and more about Sri Lanka’s history, we recorded our findings and our feelings on our findings through tweet posts. This is a map I made of the Jaffna peninsula and it highlights all the important places we visited:

Our trip was from the 26th to the 30th January 2015, and it started with an early flight to the Jaffna Airport (map position 1) up north. The first day we went to many places, including: the deepest body of water (or well) in Sri Lanka, a spiritual spring/bathhouse, Point Pedro (map position 2) – where we walked down the street near the beach and got to see the locals fishing as well as some graves from different religions – and Jaffna Fort (which was very significant in the war) near our hotel (map position 3).

Tweet of the day: “It was kind of harrowing to walk on the line between the calm sea and the site of such conflict in Jaffna Fort.”

Boarding the airplane - it was really small (Photo credit: Nisala)

The well. The locals have a story that an Indian god was travelling from India to Sri Lanka when he got thirsty, so he struck the ground with a lightning bolt and created this well. This mixture of Indian and Sri Lankan is very prominent up north (Photo credit: me)

This was the sign outside the bathhouse. I found it interesting that the warning in Tamil was shown first on the left, the Sinhalese, then English. In Colombo - the capital - the street signs usually show English first, then Sinhala, then Tamil. (Photo credit: me)

This is inside the girls' section of the bathhouse. It was really peaceful and the water came directly from the ocean, so there were fishes swimming around, and it was very relaxing. The bathrooms left a little to be desired, though (Photo credit: me)

Point Pedro! (Photo credit: me)

A Christian gravesite near the beach (Photo credit: me)

Locals fishing (or gearing up to fish -  I'm not sure) (Photo credit: me)

Into the fort! (Photo credit: me)

A crumbling wall inside the fort where people have scratched their names onto the walls. That's Nisala (Photo credit: me)

That's the walkway between the fort and the ocean that I talked about in my tweet (Photo credit: me)

A close up of the map on Jaffna Town. The star on the left is Jaffna Fort and the one on the right is our hotel.

On the second day wewent on a boat trip to Nagadeepa on one of the islands around the peninsula (map position 4). We went on boat to the Buddhist religious site first then walked to the end of the street to the Kovil (a Hindu temple) and left from that jetty. The Buddhist section was very tourism centred, with an information desk and a bird cage. There also used to be a giant statue of President Rajapaksa, but it was taken down after he was replaced a few weeks before we got there. There were also very few people.

However, the Kovil was almost entirely filled up. It was very colourful inside and out, with millions of patterns and paintings (Though we weren't aloud to take pictures inside). On the wall inside there was one painting set that showed the Sri Lankan Army destroying Tamil temples and religious artefacts. Ms. Lenk later told us that it was actually the Portugese who had done that and that the painting was depicted as such for propaganda purposes.

Tweet of the day: “It’s weird how religion was used both as a weapon and a comfort in the war.”

This was the boat we went on (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

Inside the boat (It was really cramped) (Photo credit: me)

Outside the boat (Photo credit: me)

The Kovil (It was MASSIVE) (Photo credit: Nela)

Then we went to ice cream afterwards. Shakthi almost threw up. Good times (Photo credit: Nela)

The third day of the trip was probably my favourite. On the third day we went to visit the children at the SOS Village in Jaffna. The SOS Village is a place for children without a home or guardians due mostly due to the war. At first it was a bit awkward, especially with the age and language gaps (the majority of them were between the ages of 5 and 13, and they could only speak Tamil with a few words in English). But eventually we all relaxed and had fun together.

We originally had a set schedule for the day, but that was thrown out the window almost immediately as we let the kids decide what they wanted to do. From learning each others' names (and repeatedly making fun of mine and my pronunciation of theirs), to makeovers that started with a thorough lice check, to swinging around kids one after another until I was so dizzy that I fell down and they dog piled me, to playing netball for the first time in years (which was really incredible since it's my favourite sport), I really really enjoyed it (I might join the SOS Village service group at school next year).

Tweet of the day: “It was awesome interacting and playing with the kids despite language and age barriers”

Group photo! (Unfortunantely I forgot to take pictures that day, which I'm kind of mad about) (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

The fourth day we started traveling down to Trincomalee. On the way we passed many sites and memorials that were significant to the war. The most important was probably the Elephant's Pass (map position: 5), which was the site of many horrific battles, mostly because it was one of the only strips of land that connected the peninsula to the main land.

Tweet of the day (relating to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE weapons museum we visited): “Why does war always motivate people to create amazing things but with destructive purposes?”

Memorial on the Tamil side of Elephant's Pass (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

Elephant's Pass (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

Memorial on the Sri Lankan side of Elephant's Pass. It's dedicated to a soldier who jumped with a grenade into a Tamil tank and died in the explosion. That's the tank that he jumped into on the right (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

 This is at a LTTE weapons museum. These were some cages that people were kept in. Not sure of they were for prisoners-of-war or regular civilians but it's still pretty horrific (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

The entrance of the LTTE museum. All the weapons and vehicles were hand-made at home by the LTTE which is kind of amazing if you don't think about what these things were used for (Photo credit: Nela)

This is a water tank that fell over after an explosion (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

This is a photo of a house that suffered from bullet and shrapnel holes. It makes you wonder what happened to the occupants (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

This is a super deep pool made by the LTTE to practice diving in, presumably to put bombs on the bottom of ships. The sign explaining this was kind of hard to read as every second word was either "terrorist" or "evil" (Photo credit: Nela)

On the fifth day we traveled from Trinco for 6 hours straight back to Colombo. The whole trip was fun but all the things we learned about Sri Lanka were kind of awful and interesting at the same time. I hope I get to do something like it again in the future.

Group photo (Photo credit: Nisala - taken by one of the teachers)

Goals for Week Without Walls

Week Without Walls is next week and I am going on the Jaffna trip. The point of this trip is to explore Jaffna and Tamil culture by visiting historical and cultural sites and talking to the people as well as visit a school to interact with the kids there, and to show or display our findings in different media.

My goal for this trip is to learn as much as I can of the Tamil culture up north and how it was affected by the war; to learn more about my host country and its history. The war that affected this culture is an issue of global importance because of how the end of the war was handled. The post-conflict recovery of the region is what we will mainly be focusing on, through a grass roots level of investigaion, to better understand how the people were affected personally.

A secondary goal for the trip is to learn and use more forms of media to document our findings. By becoming more familiar with different forms of media, it will be easier to complete other assignments that require the use of them.