Yoga – Reflection for LO4

LO4: Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences.

While I could go (before getting hurt), I made sure to go to the activity every week. Additionally, I made sure to try all of the moves and activities we were assigned to do, no matter how hard they were, to the best of my abilities. I really enjoyed pushing my boundaries and testing my limits, even if sometimes I had to accept that I couldn’t to it.

Yoga – Reflection for LO1

LO1: Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth.

Whilst I wasn’t able to complete this experience, it has made me aware of how fit I was and where my areas for development were. I realised that I needed to work on my flexibility more as that was the area I struggled most in when doing the exercises. This activity was the ideal place for me to do that as Yoga involves building up flexibility (at least, before I hurt myself). I was, however, happy with my ability to withstand the core and strength activities.

Since I got hurt, I couldn’t finish the activity. However, I think that it would’ve been a great way to work on areas of my strength and flexibility.

AMK MINDS – Service – Final Reflection

All in all, this service has been a really fun experience to be a part of. I learned different ways of interacting with people when we can’t see them face to face, and how to organise these interactions.

Whilst this was a service that I had already done in the past, it was really interesting to experience it from another perspective, with COVID-19 being involved and learning how to adapt to these changes.

Furthermore, I learned a bit about how the pandemic has affected different communities, especially this particular community of people with disabilities, who don’t get many opportunities to interact with people in normal times, and even less so in COVID times.

I really enjoyed this experience and it is definitely going to be one that I remember as being a positive one.

Knee Recovery – Third reflection – LO4

Learning Outcome 4: Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences.

I think that through this whole experience, I had moments where I thought about living with the pain in my knee. I was getting really frustrated with all of the procedures being done and all of the unknowns. However, throughout this time, I tried to commit to CAS by trying out different experiences and trying to participate in them the best I could, even if some of them were unsuccessful. I tried softball, pilates and yoga.

Knee Recovery – Second Reflection – LO5

Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

This whole experience has been very rough for me. I had to deal with a lot of disappointment and frustration of my recovery taking so long. What did help, was speaking to the people that were helping me get better and working collaboratively with them to make sure my knee gets better and doesn’t get even more hurt in the process.

For example, I needed to work collaboratively with my doctor, and communicate effectively. This is something I didn’t do when I didn’t disclose to him straight away that I was still feeling some discomfort in my knee after my initial surgery. After that, I made sure, to be honest with him and work with him to allow me to get better.

Another example is my pilates instructor. She and I spent a session testing out different movements and combinations of exercises to understand which of them hurt and which of them didn’t. We then came up with a plan together on what we were going to incorporate in the sessions in order to strengthen my knee injured leg amongst the other things I wanted to achieve in pilates.

Lastly, it was important that I work collaboratively with my parents in this process as it was frustrating for all of us that I wasn’t able to do many things. I needed to let them know what I needed from them and they helped me the best they can.

Knee Recovery – First Reflection – LO1

Learning Outcome 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

During my three-year knee recovery process, two involved with CAS, I was limited in the ways I could do some physical activity. Therefore, this meant I had to find ways that I could do some activity without being hurt, and that I really enjoyed. This forced me to identify what my strengths were.

For example, I discovered that I was good at cycling and that I really enjoyed it. I was unable to go for runs but I still wanted to practice some endurance and I was recommended cycling, as it doesn’t have any significant impact on my knee when I cycle. I grew to really enjoy it and started incorporating it into my daily routine while paying special attention to not hurt myself.

While cycling wasn’t present in my everyday life before my injury, I had already tried it before. This experience has allowed me to discover other things like pilates and yoga; things that I wouldn’t have otherwise tried on my own.

Knee Recovery – Explanation of the situation

I have many plans for my CAS journey, including completing the activities section of the requirements. However, I have a knee injury that I sustained while skiing during the winter holiday in grade 10 (Dec 2019- Jan 2020). Since then, I’ve had numerous treatments done including acupuncture and plasma injections to try to easy or even remove the pain but so far these solutions have been temporary.

In late December of 2020, I decided to change doctors to get another opinion as all of the temporary solutions never took away the pain. This new doctor informed me that I have a detached meniscus, therefore needing surgery.

My surgery was in January of 2021 and the recovery period was estimated to be about a month and a half – two months. The doctor recommended AGAINST physio as in this case, it would affect my recovery.

Unfortunately, once the expected recovery time had passed, something still felt wrong with my knee, and I was still having a lot of pain, possibly worse than before. Therefore, this made it difficult for me to participate in athletic activities.

In grade 11 I tried joining the softball preseason team. however, since I was just fresh out of my first surgery, I didn’t get to do much more than passing drills and I wasn’t allowed to participate in games. This really discouraged me so I ended up turning away from the softball team.

For the months following my first surgery, I spent a lot of time cycling, as it seemed to be the least painful physical activity I could do.

Near the end of 2021, I was introduced to pilates, and my instructor was kind enough to adapt my sessions in order to not hurt my knee. Along with pilates, I participated in the yoga activity offered at school.

However, just as I was starting these activities and gaining experiences from them, I decided to go back to see the doctor and tell him that my knee was still hurting. In January of 2022, he informed me that I have a Plica in my knee. A plica is a fold in the membrane that protects your knee joint. This needed to be surgically removed and I got the surgery in February of 2022.

Whilst other aspects of my CAS experience went smoothly, this knee injury has had a big impact on the activity portion of it. However, this has been an experience in itself, in which I’ve grown in different ways.

CAS Project – Creating videos for AMK MINDS

Investigation – Initial sign-up and investigation of the activity

When Signing up for the activity, I wasn’t expecting to have to create videos for our partners. I had already taken part in the service previously and I was used to coming up with activities for face to face participation with them. Therefore, when we understood that we couldn’t meet with them face to face, we needed to decide whether we wanted to organise Zoom calls with them with planned sessions, or film videos with the activities. In the end, we decided to film the videos, as it gave us more time to prepare and carefully plan every video.

Preparation – Planning the experiences

For each video we had to film, we separated into groups. Each group included at least one person of an older grade. Since I was in the higher grade, I was in charge of ensuring that the group stayed on track and I had to lead the planning process.

To plan, we gathered in our groups and used whiteboards to organise our ideas. Each person gave suggestions on possible activities we could do. This could be somewhat of a challenge as we needed to be careful in planning activities that our partners would be able to do, therefore, not making them too challenging for them. The most common activities that we used were walking around with high knees, walking around while swinging arms, as well as a series of stretches.

Action – Ongoing experiences – doing them!

Getting the videos done is a thoroughly enjoyable process. However, it does require a lot of discipline to stay on task. During the process, I am in charge of keeping the group on task, and not allowing our attention to waver away from filming good quality videos for our partners. During the filming, we sometimes came up with new ideas that we could incorporate (with full group consensus).

Here is a link to show an example of a snippet from a video

Reflection – Reflect on the overall process

Looking back on this experience, I can say that it felt like a very productive way to have a bit of fun, as well as felt very gratifying to be able to share that fun with our service partners. Furthermore, being able to take somewhat of a leadership role in the process was a way of proving to myself that when I need to, I am more than capable of leading a group within an activity.

Demonstration- Consolidate your understanding and growth

Here is a link to a full video that we sent to our partners

English ELP – 30/08/21

How do we decide in our own lives who belongs and who doesn’t?

I don’t think we get to decide for others. I think, first of all, we decided if we belong in a place ourselves. Belonging somewhere means feeling comfortable wherever one is. Somewhere that tends to a person’s needs and comfort. Therefore, I think that when a new person comes into a group, a place, a country, the good thing to do is accept them and make them feel like they belong.

How do cliques operate?

Cliques are groups of people that are very close together and don’t usually let other people join them. I think a clique is formed when there is a common interest in something/things and the people become friends. When it comes to letting other people in, they are more hesitant as they feel they are comfortable enough and don’t want any disruptions.

What potential violence is there in drawing lines between who belongs and who doesn’t?

I think the violence would be that it would make people angry, more so the people who are labelled as “not belonging”. There are then some ways that people protests in order to get their voices heard and get them to be considered as to “belong”

More broadly, who constitutes “we,” especially when it’s so difficult to arrive at and locate a common voice, stance, or attitude on a given issue?

I think that the word “we” is a way to generalise a group of people that includes us or it can mean the world as a whole. I also think that it can be a way to speak metaphorically. “If WE do this then WE can achieve this…”

How are different viewpoints expressed on the same subject?

How does language use vary amongst text types and amongst literary forms?

Each text type has a slightly different tone to it. It also depends on the narrative the writer is choosing to have on the readers. In the instance of Piers Morgan’s Daily Mail article, Don’t let these women wedded to terror come home – they made their ISIS husbands’ beds, now let them rot in hell in them, his tone and language are informal. He is speaking from quite a personal perspective and isn’t considering any other perspectives. His tone is angry and his slightly derogatory language suggests just that.

In the Washington Post article, the language is a lot more professional, as you would expect a journalist to be. Their points are less biased than Piers Morgan’s, as they consider several perspectives in relation to this topic. They don’t think that Shamima Begum should be forgiven for what she has done and that she should face consequences for her actions, but they still present arguments for why she should be accepted back into the UK.

 

In what ways can diverse texts share points of similarity?

The Piers Morgan article and the Washington Post article are different in the way that they are written; tone, language, and they share slightly different viewpoints on what should be done with ISIS brides. However, they share similarities in the way that they present their points with evidence behind them.