Month: May 2020

Though my activity was cut short due to the Coronavirus, I was beginning to enjoy my sessions in Archery, and had finished the Basic training course recently (though any hope of continuing with the Intermediate course has been cut off due to the lockdown).

LO1 – Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth was demonstrated during my time learning Archery as I had to confront my lack of stamina in staying through 2+ hour long sessions of training under the sun. However, I have begin to get better at this through the weekly sessions and was beginning to very much enjoy the long training times before they were completely cancelled by the pandemic.

My choice of sport to fulfil the Activity part of CAS is to start learning Archery.

I have signed up for Basic classes and plan to follow them up with Intermediate classes at the Archery Club of Singapore.

The relevant Learning Objectives that I have identified for this choice of activity so far are LO1, LO2.

LO1 – Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth is relevant as sport in general has never been my greatest strength and I will have to be willing to recognise my particular weaknesses if I hope to do well in learning Archery. It will certainly be difficult to confront my own failings, but it is necessary for me to do to try and improve.

LO2 – Undertaken new challenges and developed new skills is relevant as Archery is for me a new skill to develop. I am yet unsure as to what particular challenges I will face, but there will certainly be many to tackle moving forward. I will have to put a lot of focus on being willing to try new things and challenge myself if I want to do well at this.

The biggest challenge this Season was in trying to keep our Hackathon a meaningful event through the Coronavirus. As many other events were being cancelled, we strived to try and keep some semblance of the event running. This involved more planning fulfilling LO3 as last time, but the biggest LO I want to talk about this time is

LO7 – Considering the Ethical Implication of Actions, which was demonstrated by all of the measures we implemented to try and make sure the event was as safe as possible. This meant forgoing a larger event size, having to take away outside guests and in general removing many aspects of our event that could not be safely run during a pandemic. By considering how we could run our event ethically, we were able to keep everyone safe and healthy, making our event successful even in the midst of a global pandemic.

In addition to Coding for Good, another service I have worked on this season was the Blue Dragon Global Concern’s podcast initiative. Whilst this has been in the works in previous seasons, I only begin to talk about it now as it starts taking off.

LO6 – Demonstrate engagement with Issues of Global Significance is the biggest LO involved with this initiative, as much of my responsibility in being a host requires me to conduct in depth research into the harsh realities of human trafficking both throughout the world and in Vietnam in particular (in accordance with my GC’s area of focus). I’ve had to read many heart breaking case studies of people trapped in terrible trafficking situations as well as face some sobering statistics regarding how often human trafficking takes place in the world. It is my hope that the podcast will help others see that this is an issue of great concern.

I have continued to lead Coding for Good as part of my CAS Service, with much of this season’s work being focused on preparing for the upcoming Hackathon our service was to run.

LO3 – Planning and initiating activities was demonstrated through all of the logistics work I had to manage to prepare for the Hackathon – including managing multiple email chains, communicating through multiple groups (e.g. coordinating Service and Sodexo to try and provide sustainable food options at the Hackathon) and submitting logistics forms to try and book venues for the Hackathon.

Moving into Season 3 of SEAMC, the elephant in the room was dealing with student’s disappointments as they were not able to participate in their SEAMC rounds. The biggest challenge was that many of them were beginning to lose motivation in the training course as rounds were being cancelled due to the Coronavirus.

LO4 – Showing perseverance, resilience was demonstrated as I tried to help students maintain their motivation even without any further rounds simply through the enjoyment of the mathematics explored. Even though some were beginning to quit the program or simply be absent from training sessions, those that stayed still needed me to run the sessions and did get something out of them due to my perseverance.

I have continued on with SEAMC after the qualification round in a teaching role, teaching students in the grade level below mine in preparation for their participation in their own SEAMC rounds.

LO2 – Undertaken new challenges and developed new skills was demonstrated as I planned and prepared for not just lessons but an overall syllabus. In the past, I have only been asked to prepare for single classes, but now I was asked to try and plan for an entire course requiring me to think more about what students needed.