Author: Anvita
What aspects of CAS are you looking forward to? How might you plan your year of CAS?
Reflection with Ella
First week of Activities and Service
The first week of activities was really enjoyable. Below is a picture of the rooftop garden where we work during Urban Gardening the service which I participate in as well as a picture of some of my friends who are in the service. I am happy that I have some people that I already know in this service (Eddie and Isabel) and I am excited to get to know my other peers.
As for my other activities: Meditation was very calming and helped clear my head for the rest of the day, it was incredibly refreshing and we hope to be able to spread this throughout the school. It is an initiative that we will look into and collaborate as an activity to create. It will take a lot of work, time, and commitment but it could be an interesting project. #LO5 #LO4 #LO3
MUN was also incredibly exciting. I was pretty nervous as know I have moved up into the advanced training group which happens to be the highest one. I was nervous about speaking in front of my peers who are incredibly skilled and talented at public speaking but I pushed myself to give a speech within the first lesson. I am glad I did because now it doesn’t feel as scary and I will definitely try to actively participate. #LO2
I had my first NeuroSoc activity. I got to meet the people who signed up and I am incredibly grateful for the students who signed up. Though I can tell we are all interested after a long Monday it will be a challenge for everyone to stay engaged. I think the first lesson was good in terms of that but we could definitely do better. I think I managed to show my leadership skills and initiative. #LO2 #LO3
Devdas Notes
Are some types of knowledge more useful than others?
Are some types of knowledge more useful than others?- This is the question prompt of my choice.
This relates to my Indian clothes and my encyclopedia as they both represent knowledge of different types. Clothes can represent culture and identity whereas the encyclopedia could tell us about other aspects of knowledge like facts, general knowledge, and culture. I think that both objects present useful information which varies on the time and the person who is receiving it. A person who wants to learn more general things about a specific topic like India might find the encyclopedia useful as it contains information regarding land size, languages spoken, and other measurable facts. Whereas the clothes could speak to the identity of the person wearing it and could share more intimate information, for example how the person feels when they wear it.
Emotional Intelligence: Thoughts and Goal Setting
From the article linked below, which listed 18 qualities regarding emotional intelligence I found that I have strengths and weaknesses in them/. I think that one of my strengths is that I embrace change and I know my strengths and weaknesses. I am very aware of my feelings and I work hard to think about how my actions impact others. I think one of my weaknesses lies around negative self-talk and approval from others. I feel that I can get in my head and sometimes create destructive thoughts which can put me in a bad mood. I think this is something I should work on improving by stopping negative thoughts as soon as I notice them. One way that I am trying to do this is by meditation and mindfulness. I also will try to work on trying to get approval from others, I like to make the people around me happy sometimes overthinking other peoples actions. My goal to work on that is to surround my self with many people and put myself in social situations to distract and work on creating positive conversations.
https://time.com/3838524/emotional-intelligence-signs/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook
Little Red Riding Hood Concept Map
CAS pre activity reflections: NeuroSoc
Neuroscience Society, Pre- Activity reflection, and Goals.
#LO2( Challenge)- Starting a new activity is a challenge, to put this into motion we started planning activities and other administrative requirements during the summer holidays. Now that this activity is about to start I am sure we will face and overcome many challenges. I hope to approach all of these challenges with a positive attitude and an open mind and to view them all as learning objectives.
#LO3 (Initiative)- Shreya and I have planned about six weeks’ worth of activities for NeuroSoc. After receiving confirmation that the activity will start this season we have continued looking for activities as well as improving the ones we already have. For example, in our Slideshow of activities, we chose to add a creative art activity to aid the memorization of certain important anatomy that everyone in the activity will need to learn. We did this because we thought combining art and science will make the activity more interesting and will help make the knowledge visual and easier to remember. The change in plan was rather than just showing a diagram of the brain and labeling the different areas we should draw it and make it a poster.
#LO4 (Commitment)- I think Commitment in this activity is about keeping this activity engaging and motivating for the participants. I think that this requires planning and motivation. There is also a commitment on my behalf to work hard to keep this activity interesting. I have to be committed to managing my time and plan activities properly to ensure that this activity is impactful and continues to thrive even after I graduate.
#LO5 (Collaboration)- NeuroSoc is an activity that my friend Shreya and I have started together. It requires strong and effective collaboration skills to run a successful activity. I feel that working with Shreya is not going to be a huge challenge as we have worked together on other projects like our Global Perspective Project last year. I do think that there will be times when our ideas don’t necessarily align as we have different approaches to learning. I think I value creativity and experimentation more than memorization and learning things like anatomy. I feel that both are important and we will be able to find a balance. More than anything I am excited to see how we handle these new challenges and experiences.
#LO7 (Ethics)- In NeuroSoc we have plans to explore the ethics of Neuroscience including the method of gaining information and how and what information is spread. As neither of us are experts, I am excited to explore these issues and understand the ethical real-world implications that occur.
CAS pre activity reflections: Meditation
Meditation –
#LO1 (Awareness)- Meditation is something I have had experience with before, Mr. Suarez the activity coordinator was my IGCSE mentor and gave us many meditation opportunities. I feel like meditation gives me the opportunity to clear my find and focus. I hope that learning to meditate with has other positive effects on my life like better concentration and emotional management. I feel that meditation has the power to help you reflect on your thoughts and action in a more calm way which is important in all parts of your life. Meditation is known to help reduce stress, control anxiety, improve emotional health and awareness, lengthen attention spans, reduce memory loss, and improve sleep, all of which are important for a healthier lifestyle and an enjoyable IB experience
#LO2( Challenge)- One challenge that I have previously had during meditations is the ability to concentrate throughout them. This is something I hope I get better at, I also hope that I learn how to meditate without guidance.
CAS pre activity reflections: Urban Gardening
Service-
#LO1 (Awareness)- Urban Gardening propagation is an activity that I have participated in since Grade 9. During those 2 years, I have learned a lot about pronating plants and how to use urban spaces to benefit the community. I really enjoyed my previous experiences with this activity and am grateful that I have once again got the opportunity to participate in it. My goal for this year is to take a more leadership-oriented role and make my experience useful to others.
#LO3(Initiative)- With my previous experiences in this activity whether or not I am given a leadership role I hope to take initiative. My goals for this activity are to record and share our learnings, advice, and experiences with our community. I also hope that we will be able to track the plants we grow and understand the impact that it has on the campus. I feel understanding the value and impact of our actions can help us improve the service.
#LO4 (Commitment)- As this has been an activity I have been involved in for the past 2 years I think that my commitment towards this activity is clear.
#LO6 (Global Value)- As the world is becoming more urban and large land area of rainforest and farms are decreasing, using urban gardening as a solution to achieving global goals like food security and environmental responsibility is important. I hope that we are able to learn and teach the community about the benefits of urban gardening and what it could mean for Singapore and the rest of the world.