How CAS impacts or enhances your wellness- physical, mental, spiritual?

I feel that CAS gives me the opportunity to really challenge myself and at the same time achieve the learning outcomes which are also linked to spiritual, mental and physical. For example, doing yoga enchances my physical wellness but also my mwntal wellness as well, Mental wellness not only allows you to seek logic and reasoning in human existence, but it also allows you to appreciate your life experiences for the more finer details. When you achieve logic and understanding in your life experiences,There will be a harmony with the natural world, the sciences and mathematics. But also relating to one's emotions. In simpler terms, mental wellness grants you the ability to determine fact from prejudice but also helps you judge other people's characters.

Physical wellness talks about effect of the world on our bodies, and CAS helps with this. Physical wellness mainly talks about our ability to maintain and coordinate our body in a healthy way combined with the ability to know our limits but also push ourselves relatively hard. This being the spirit of CAS

Photography Season 2 – First 3 stages

Investigation

At first I was hesitant to take a second season of photography, but after experiencing the first I’m glad I did, I found that there was always so much more left to learn and always widen my horizons, after all no work of art is said to ever be complete. Sign-ups were done through the school system. I realised that photography was not that popular among people for 2 seasons but still decided to take it because I aim to finish anything I start to learn.

Preparation

Always being punctual, always having an open mindset to learn and most importantly, always having fun. Being creative in the arts really enriches my IB learning since I am more oriented towards science and mathematics. At the beginning of every lesson Mr. Caleb would ask me what I would like to learn and I would choose a new and interesting aspect to learn. Discussions at the end of class also arose about the learning outcomes of the day.

Action

The action taken was to study the more finer aspects of photography such as:

  • How to ‘Build up’ and image
  • Multiple angular light sources
  • different image sensors along with exotic lenses
  • Light filters, mood and overlaying

and more..

. Above is me with a very heavy portrait zoom lens with a f1.2 aperture

We also talked about taking photos at different location and the implications of taking another person’s photo int he proper way as well as respecting people’s privacy.

Here is some of my final works

More of my outcome work will be in the next post where I will also be discussing, in detail, the learning outcomes and possibly some real-life connections

 

First 3 stages Yoga with Meditation season 2

Investigation

Sign-ups were done from the school system, S1 and S2 commitment was already there hence carried forward. I was also grateful that I had signed up for another season because in all honesty, I don’t think a single season is enough to bring out the full benefits of yoga.

Preparation

In preparation we were told only 2 thing, the first was that Yoga is a big step forward so showing determination by being puntual and always giving it our all was the key, secondly we wrote down our goals and possible reasons for taking the activity/ benefits we might attain by the ens of the activity.

Action

Action was basically pushing ourselves hard, but not too hard! to do Yoga with the best of our abilities and the right mindset.

 

We concentrated on the harmony between out minds and bodies, our breadth and spirit and sought balance. Some of the exercises were tiresome but I felt quite lively and healthy after completing them.

Detailed discussion about the learning outcomes will be in the next post along with possible demonstration/real-world application.

First 3 stages of CAS for PPIS N2 S2

Investigation

Was done through the school system, registration carried forward from the previous season and I was interested to continue.

Planning/Preparation

We have a master planning document (See below) where week by week groups of 2-3 people take charge of planning lout that particular week’s session. It’s always wonderful to work with the kids and the few weeks in which they didn’t visit us had us slightly disappointed. We had an assignment of group roles and responsibilities of which I put myself forward for communications/media officer, other people went for service chair and logistics officer. Majority of the service media is taken by me with some contributions from other students as it is my responsibility as media officer.

Action

As stated before, we worked in groups of 2-3 to plan every week’s session. For example my group (consisting of me and Fayyaz) planned on the theme of “Little Red Riding Hood”Some of the challenges we faced were keeping the children engaged, overcoming language and communication barriers and choosing very appropriate videos and game for our very young audience.

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Later we arranged outdoor activities for the kids…

All of us also contributed in voting on suitable themes for other groups to work on as well, and vice-versa we had people give opinions on the suitability of our theme as well.

Reflections on individual learning outcomes will be in the next post. As well as some demonstrations/real-life connections.

CAS initial interview – 12/11/18

The initial CAS interview was a good chance for me to collect my thoughts and get a taste of my first reflections for all my activities. From this interview I hope that I can learn how to, perhaps improve my planning and reflections for the next time (Intermediate interview)

Here is a recording of my interview. Conducting the interview is my CAS advisor Ms. Parkin.

 

Children are the future – PPIS Reflection 1

The reason why i joined this service in particular is because i believe that children are the future, and i feel that helping nurture children from who come from rough financial backgrounds is an excellent way to make them a vital part of the future society.

First we discussed where our strengths lie, then according to the four ways of service, we went on to formulate questions relating to how we could help the children better, our first few weeks were used to plan and visit the children’s nursery twice. Once to interact more with the kids, and the other to ask important questions to their teachers.

The four ways of service followed were

  1. Media
  2. Interview
  3. Observation
  4. Survey

In groups, we also noted down our relative strengths and weaknesses, below is a link to the working document

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DvYvcNZYklnHOiwq09aB0G6-eDWC19yaCqgYeIO0vpE/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a picture of the centre visited

Visiting the N2 children at the PPIS centre

Also referring back to the working document, we decided upon people who might hold certain roles such as chair, communications officer and logistics officer. I put myself forward for communications officer because my strengths lie in technology and also photography.

We are planning for the arrival of the kids to our campus in the following months. I am looking forward to it

Somehow its a nostalgic feeling seeing those kids, it reminds me of how i might have been at their age. This service shows me how even us, a small group can make a change in these children’s lives. Helping them grow up like normal children despite their financial background.

The activities which we planned will probably be on my next reflection but for i am only talking about the preliminary things/ ideas we have done/learnt.

So firstly this service helped me realise (up till now) my dtrengths which i thought were passive or not useful or i did not even consider it a strength, for example: speaking different languages, having an interest in computers, got at concentrating. Now previously i did not have any large scale experiences with kids so these strengths helped me scout out possible roles that i could do, for example: photograph and record important parts of the activity, technical help, controlling the kids. One thing that has come to light on the contrary is that after meeting the kids i realised that they do not open up at first, and the problem is that i am very inward myself as well, therefore i would like to improve the ways in which i converse and engage them. Honestly I would like to say that my greatest improvement has been in understanding how a service is planned out and how we can make a difference in the kids’ lives, it has also slightly improved my collaborative skills as well, and my knowledge about the development of young children. Over the weeks, i began contributing more ideas to class and group discussions as i became more well versed with the service, also upon the second time visiting the kids, i was more confident in starting and engaging them in conversation, I believe that the above is evidence of my improvement. I struggled/ still struggle in some area mainly because of my lack of expertise in this type of service, i believe my personality also might have something to do with it

Unfortunately there are no photos of the children at the nursery as they were many other children and teachers present there however we/I am able to click as many photos of them when they start coming to our campus for weekly activities in season 2

#LO1

Photos are also art – Photography Reflection 1

`”A single photograph can change the world”, this is the first thing we learnt. The creative aspect in photography is how one can express themselves, and the world differently, compared to how it is normally seen.

The more technical aspects that we learnt were:

  1. Aperture
  2. Shutter speed
  3. Telephoto and wide angle lenses
  4. sensor sensitivity
  5. background
  6. foreground
  7. different angles of taking photographs
  8. how to reflect and block light
  9. how to take portraits in different situations

Acquiring technical skills along the way, certain individual creativity areas were also explored, mainly in pairs, we shared our individual ideas on charts with the following labels;

  1. Reveal
  2. Investigate
  3. change
  4. support

Mainly these were topics with which we could relate to, exploring ways in which these objectives could be achieved in different aspects of school life for example: To reveal the importance of the cleaners and cooks at our school through photos, because without them school life wouldn’t be possible.

 

Out and about, testing different backgrounds, foregrounds, and lens types

I feel that during photography i show many skills, both latent and active such as: perseverance- being patient until getting the correct photo; Personal influence- my photos all have a pinch of my touch, i can recognise them amongst many others, personally I feel it reflects my personality. Along with my friend Armaan, we seek to take the best photos in our own different ways but at the same time, we aim to improve ourselves and constantly give out suggestion and reflect at the end of the session about want went well and didn’t go well so we can improve ourselves and plan out ahead. I would like to say that photography was a casual hobby that i used to do a long time ago and now i have realised that upon re-visiting it, i have again found out why i like it so much- photographs are art and aim to convey emotions rather than what’s actually in the photo, this makes the impact. I undertook photography because it shows my strengths. Each day i go home and aim to give myself a reflection, be it short or long, it is always thoughtful, i feel that there are some things that show my strengths- like the creativity aspect. and others that show my weaknesses- in the area of advanced camera settings.

Always, I aim to actively participate in photography and undertake the challenges, rather than being passive. Every week I enthusiastically engage in activities, and once a week at home I review what i had learnt with my own camera. Sometimes I come up with new ideas to take better photos and thus share that with my peers while we are out and about snapping photos. Also I use logic rather than memorisation of the different aspects of the camera for example the different settings needed to take: telephoto, wide-angle, portrait and motion shots. I aim to challenge myself as shown by the different techniques practised above

#LO1 #LO2

 

Yoga is life – Yoga with meditation reflection 1

My goals for taking this activity:

  1. To live a healthier life and have a daily healthy routine, both for the body and the mind
  2. To be able to manage stress and day to day problems as well as understanding how to relax
  3. To bond with my family over yoga and to spiritually connect with the people closest to me

My aim and reason:

I would like to achieve great techniques in creating a reliable outlet for stress and anxiety, but at the same time have fun and stay healthy! I would like to achieve this because i feel like once i learn such techniques, i can reflect upon my life before and currently and have a reliable comparison of how much more efficient i have become in my day to day work.

——-Subsequent thoughts and outcomes after almost 1 season—–

Here is me in the standard ‘padmasana’ (meditation) drawing energy with my hands

From the young age of 7, I found yoga to be quite relaxing and i also liked it because it helped me connect with my grandfather, to this day we always do some yoga together whenever i visit him in India. So I feel that I have a certain passion/strength in doing yoga however not in the technical standpoint, I realise that I cannot do everything and therefore aim to push myself because it is fun.

I would like to improve some of my skills here, like balance coordination and stamina. Mainly i can see my strengths lie in meditation and concentration because during meditation i find myself in deep focus. And generally in my everyday life, i am a focused person. Yoga has also made me realise that i lack stamina and physical ability hence i strive to use my mind to overcome these challenges and eventually improve my all-round yoga. After 1 season of this activity i have improved a lot in my endurance and coordination as shown in the below image where i am doing a pose known as the “Downward dog”, initially it was hard for me to do it right but since then i have greatly improved to make it perfect/almost perfect

The most challenging part of this activity, in my opinion is the synchronisation .one must achieve with their breath and movements, this is the true meaning of yoga A fusion of the breath/mind and body. Mainly to overcome this, i realised that it would simply take time, so slowly week by week i tried to focus on syncing my breath more and more. my method was that: first i synced my breath for 5 consecutive movements only, then i tried increasing that numbers to 7, 10, 13 and so on. and right now i am getting a hang of it so now i am able to sync my breath for most of the longer flows of motion (routines). The measure of my progress is usually the number of consecutive physically demanding exercises i could do without getting tired and since the beginning of this activity i have upped the number from maybe 1-2 to 5-6 which is a good improvement. Lastly, there is a lesson to be learnt while doing yoga, it is not only for the activity at school but also for daily practice at home to improve one’s life. Although to be honest I don’t practice it everyday, i have a habit (even befor this activity) generally to reflect on my day and clear my mind before i go to bed, this can be considered as meditation hence a part of yoga. Also on weekends I practice the ‘sun seritation’ for 10-15 mins. It is not much but it does have its benefits also

#LO1 #LO2