by curri58987@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg | Jan 27, 2022 | CAS, CAS Highlights, Creativity (CAS)
As IFP is an activity primarily for Grade 11 students and the final weeks after the Grade 5 workshop were spent on my CAS project, I would just like to write quickly to reflect on the experience as a whole. I was able to collaborate with many new people in this activity, as well as face challenges with them as we communicated and persevered through the pandemic, planning projects together and delegating tasks and discussing. Although sometimes we had disagreements, we all realised that we had similar morals in wanting to create a respectful, tolerant and open-minded environment regardless of our views.
We also had many amazing workshops from some great speakers about listening, paraphrasing and other important skills which translate not only to presentation and facilitation skills, but also in daily friendships and interactions. These understandings underpinned every activity we did afterwards. Furthermore, as we planned through the pandemic it became increasingly important to be accountable for any issues that were encountered safety-wise in our workshops, especially as there were some activities that could have risked injury, as well as activities in-person where we had to be aware of health regulations. If we did not heed these restrictions, it would have a detrimental effect on the future (similar) events hosted by future IFP teams, and therefore I think that we all felt morally obliged to adhere to restrictions.
I also learned about the difference in the facilitation of discussions to learn about global issues versus actually learning about the global issue. Although it is very helpful in understanding systematically the issue at hand (using many conflict analysis tools such as Galtung’s conflict triangle) it is not always necessary in order to be a good facilitator. Good facilitators enable understanding by encouraging students to take initiative to think critically and develop their own, unique ideas about an issue rather than telling them what to think. Therefore, I aimed to align myself with this definition of a facilitator (learned through IFP) throughout the year and further into my future in my career choices.
I had an amazing experience with IFP even though we weren’t able to run workshops overseas (as is the usual protocol) due to the pandemic, and I am thankful for the opportunity to connect with new people and learn so much about the fundamental principles that underpin how humans can successfully and peacefully interact with each other.
by curri58987@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg | Oct 25, 2020 | CAS, Creativity (CAS)
Watch the reflection here!
by curri58987@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg | Oct 25, 2020 | CAS, Creativity (CAS)
The Lego activity (building a structure in silence while each person had an assigned individual agenda to complete) complicated collaboration attempts because of how each individual was focused on their own task, rather than paying attention to other people’s tasks and how they might interfere with others. My own assigned role (the leader, to help ensure everyone completed their tasks, which felt like a daunting task for me) helped me figure out halfway into the game that we needed to pay attention to others’ tasks to succeed. If one person was consistently changing the bottom four layers of the structure, everyone else needed to leave that part of the structure alone and adapt. We needed to note this without talking, showing the importance of awareness of others and consistently thinking about the greater good, especially within collaboration. It was because we didn’t do this that the goal wasn’t achieved in the end.
The discussion we had after the activity when we all revealed our roles helped us figure out these truths, and we started to see how each of our individual roles would influence other tasks. When reflecting, we each took turns to share our roles and our feelings about them, and I actually feel like the discussion helped to strengthen relationships between us as we listened to each other and saw the activity from their perspective.
This activity revealed a lot about the nature of collaboration, and that everyone always has their own individual agenda, however, the key to collaboration is awareness of others’ agenda and then adapting your own to fit theirs in order to achieve a greater good. Compromise, assuming positive intentions (the other people usually only interfere with your activities to achieve their own agenda, never out of malicious intent for you) and awareness of self and others proved the key to succeeding, so in the future, these are the things that I would like to focus on in order to become a more effective team player.
by curri58987@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg | Oct 25, 2020 | CAS, CAS Highlights, Creativity (CAS), Music Journal, Music Journal Highlights, TOK
You can visit this link to watch the performance and hear a little bit about the piece, it’s context, and how the author’s circumstances might influence the way we perceive art.
Video Transcript:
This piece is called ‘Sicilian Blues’ and was composed by Hiromi Uehara, who is a Japanese jazz composer and pianist.
Why did you choose this piece?
I chose to play this piece because I think it really exemplifies how understanding the cultural and social context behind a composer can really enrich a piece. Uehara, as a woman and in the world of jazz outside of America represents how the jazz movement has spread. The genre of jazz was born in the black community in New Orleans in the early 20th century, with roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and it rose up as a cultural force against oppression and racism. As a counterculture movement, it’s really powerful and beautiful, despite the complexity of jazz music theory.
More on the Jazz movement
Ironically, though, the music theory world and the jazz world are pretty elitist. It’s hard to get in there, it can be quite cold and unforgiving. I think, though, that it’s a testament to the universality of music that a piece such as Sicilian Blues can be considered beautiful despite all this. And, of course, there are still people that discriminate and look down upon the Jazz movement for its history, no matter how wonderful the music is. I think that really goes to show how culture and social values really impact the way a piece is viewed.
Music Theory, and the Universality of Music
I think it’s obvious to all of us that music is much more than notes on a page. People who understand music theory might see the artistic value, they’re able to do almost like an autopsy on a piece to figure out why it’s so beautiful, but you don’t need a deep understanding of music theory to appreciate a piece. That also relates to how you don’t need a social context to appreciate a piece either. This is why music is universal. However, music theory and social context can really enrich a piece in terms of experience, despite the fact that it’s not necessary to know. I think that this complex universality is a key part of all art and all life, and is what makes Music such a fulfilling art.
by curri58987@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg | Sep 21, 2020 | Activities (CAS), CAS, CAS Highlights, Creativity (CAS), Service (CAS)
Hello!
I’m Teia, I’m 16 and currently in Grade 11, and I’m going to outline my CAS plans this year.
In terms of Creativity, I’m planning to take my Grade 8 ABRSM Piano Exam in July, and therefore will be taking private piano lessons (ITP) at school throughout the year. Through this, I would like to increase my already existing skills in Piano as well as challenging myself and broadening my repertoire of pieces (playing pieces from womxn/ethnic composers, for example). Grade 8 is a challenge, and with all my other activities this year, I feel that the stress could pile on, but I have developed a practice schedule outlining total 3 hours of practice each week at specific times (Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday) to establish a routine in which I can maintain my practice. I would like to prioritise my piano playing over my classical guitar classes (which I am also taking weekly on Sundays) due to the pressure of my Grade 8 Exam. To challenge myself further, I would also like to try to overcome performance stress through performing in school music exhibitions such as ‘Unplugged’.
When it comes to Activities, over the past few years Dance has become an outlet for me to build confidence in my body and sweat out the stress of academics. I attend dance classes almost twice a week at Studio De S in Singapore, sometimes learning entire choreographies with formations which requires careful coordination and collaboration with lots of new people (from lots of different age groups and ethnicities). Now, I would like to bring my love for Dance into my activities at school through Culturama and Kahaani. If I have time, I would also perhaps consider auditioning for the Dance Showcase! I would like to attempt harder and harder choreographies, as well as improve my own coordination and technique to build confidence in myself!
Lastly, when it comes to Service, I would very much like to continue being the Chair of Ladakh GC (a student group that focuses on giving underprivileged children in the Northern Indian community of Ladakh a quality education), and I am very much looking forward to being the Head of Communications for the Service and Sustainable Development Executive Committee. I have had many leadership roles in the past, but I believe that my nervousness still gets the best of me sometimes, and I would like to learn more about different leadership styles and how I can best encourage effective collaboration within the teams that I lead. I would like to be seen as a compassionate, empathetic and adaptable leader! I would also like to go to Ladakh for Project Week (if it happens this year) and engage with the community that I have been fundraising for for the past 2 years in an even more personal manner. And within my CAS projects, I would like to put emphasis on the idea that the decisions I make are based on the needs of the community, rather than for my own skill gain or advantage. I want to raise awareness about tokenism and how it can be so incredibly destructive for CAS experiences.
Over the course of the next year, I’m really looking forward to meeting my future self, and truly introspecting on how my extracurriculars are going to change me as an individual.
Thank you for reading!
by curri58987@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg | Sep 2, 2020 | CAS, Composition, Creativity (CAS), Exploring, Exploring Art, Music Journal, Performance
We spent the first few weeks of the year in Music experimenting and playing with the opportunities that the Music department holds here. We played Happy Together as a class to start refamiliarising ourselves with playing music, our instruments, as well as playing in an ensemble (something many of us haven’t experienced in many months because of the pandemic). We also started to look at the basic building blocks of music such as melody, and revisiting old concepts such as structure, variation, melodic contour and sequence.
We also split off into smaller groups to start thinking about arrangements, and how we can take a piece of music and infuse it with our own originality and flair. We created bluesy versions of Twinke Twinkle Little Star to continue thinking about playing in an ensemble and to get our Music minds rolling.
Important links:
Padlet 1
Padlet 2
Padlet 3
