Month: October 2019

Reflection 1 – October 18th, 2019

Active Lifestyles is a recent activity that has been introduced to the school. The idea of it is to bring an opportunity for students to do some form of physical exercise during their free blocks, as PE is not something that IB students do.  Active Lifestyles allows students to independently work on their own fitness, which is something that I really enjoy.

I’ve been focusing a lot on my cardiovascular ability because I feel that it has a lot of benefits for me in multiple aspects of my life. For one, I’ve recently learned that my family has a history of heart problems, so being able to improve the condition of my heart will be a good step towards combatting the issue when the time arises. Furthermore, being able to efficiently transport oxygen to my brain and to my muscles allows me to stay focused while I play competitive video games which is my passion and hobby. I always strive to improve my mechanical ability when playing these games and being able to be healthy will make it much better. It’s because of this that I am really looking forward to continuing my physical activity.

#CAS #LO3 #Perspectives #Lookingforward

Reflection 2 – November 6th, 2019

After a few weeks of doing this activity, I got motivated to continue working on my health. So far I’ve also started working on my posture. I recently got a new chair at home that fits me more and allows me to comfortably position myself well, and I’ve started taking more notes on my posture and paying more attention to when my posture is bad.

Within the activity itself I’ve really started to enjoy independence. I’m not pressured to work more than I need to and I can start slow and allow my body to get used to the increased intensity.

I’ve definitely started to feel better emotionally as well because of worrying less about my health now that I’ve started to actively work to improve it. I hope that this can continue and I can further improve my health.

#CAS #LO3 #Perspectives #Lookingforward

Reflection 3 – January 24th, 2020

The December break disrupted the rhythm I had created for doing Active Lifestyles. I noticed after the December break it was much harder to motivate myself similarly to how it was at the beginning of the year. On top of having many assignments recently, it’s been very tempting to spend the time working on my assignments rather than being active.

I forgot about paying attention to my posture, so that’s something that I’m going to have to work on again to make sure that I actively pay attention to it.

As of now I’m still working to maintain my health, and I’m not currently putting any effort to drastically improve it, but perhaps that can be a goal for the future. Hopefully, the motivation will return soon.

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

Reflection 4 – February 25th, 2020

One of the ways that I’ve been able to keep up my motivation is exploring different ways of working out. I found that just running all the time for my cardio was quite mundane and boring, which caused me to lose some motivation. However, I remember that during GCSE one of the things I really enjoyed doing was boxing, and I specifically remember how good it was for cardio. I decided to do some research and figure out some routines related to boxing, and I found it to be a really good alternative to the mundane running exercises.

Hopefully, this is one of the steps that I am taking towards improving my health further.

#CAS #LO4 #commitment #justkeepswimming

Reflection 5 – May 4th, 2020

The circuit breaker has once again disrupted the rhythm that I had created for doing Active Lifestyles. Staying indoors all day and having no real reason to go outside has created an environment where I don’t feel very motivated to work out.

I will need to look into finding time to go outside, or even just to look for time to do some exercise in my own home, especially considering how remote learning has caused the amount of physical exertion per day to decrease.

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

Reflection 1 – October 11th, 2019

I’ve always enjoyed doing Jazz Band because I’ve always been interested and passionate about music. I hope that by taking Jazz Band again this year that I am able to further develop my skills as a musician, and build a deeper understanding of how to represent the music as a part of a bigger band.

This year of Jazz Band has definitely started harder than the rest of the years which I enjoy because I always like to be challenged in a musical context. I’ve definitely started struggling because it’s hard to pick up a difficult piece of music and understand it well enough quickly, but this can easily be solved by taking a bit of time at home to look at the music and explore it. Although I, unfortunately, missed a session due to being sick, I think that I’ve been able to catch up. So far I’ve been doing a pretty good job of contributing to the piece with the rest of the band while not taking attention away from the lead roles or making it too cluttered. I’ve learned about how to do things years ago, but I’m able to use those skills now when the music is complicated and make it sound more pleasant.

One of the challenges with Jazz Band is its position in the day. Any afterschool activity for me is unpleasant because at the end of the school day I’m already tired and I want to go home, and the thought of having to stay an extra hour and a half can be dreadful sometimes. Although I do enjoy the time spent during the activity, actually showing up is the hardest part. I think the best way to work around this is to try and get a bit more sleep so that I have enough energy in the day to want to show up.

#CAS #LO1 #awareness #improvingskills

#CAS #LO4 #commitment #justkeepswimming

Reflection 2 – November 5th, 2019

I’ve been feeling pretty bored of Jazz Band right now because of the current pieces we’re doing. I feel like there’s nothing more to me to learn about the piece and it’s currently just us rehearsing for the performance. This has made it more difficult to be motivated about coming, but despite this, I have been showing up to each session.

The activity being after school has been a problem and it still is. I still need to work on getting more sleep so that I will feel like I have enough energy to be motivated to show up.

After Wavelengths, we’ll be moving on to new pieces that I will be excited about.

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

Reflection 3 – January 24th, 2020

Now that the performance has ended, we’ve moved on to new pieces in preparation for our performance in March in Esplanade. We’ve never performed outside of school with exception to performing at the Grade 12 graduation dinner at the Shangri-La hotel.

We’re learning three new pieces, one of which is one of my all-time favourite jazz pieces. This is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good because I get to play a piece that I enjoy but it’s bad because I feel I will be too critical of the band’s performance not living up to the exceptional performance of the original recording because of the amount of respect I have for the piece. This means that if every little detail isn’t the same as the recording I may feel that we wouldn’t be doing the piece justice, but that’s something that I need to get over and realise that we are just a highschool jazz band.

Another good thing is that I will feel more motivated to come to every session. In fact, these past few weeks I’ve been looking forward to coming each week. Although I haven’t fixed my sleep patterns, I still feel really energized and motivated to come. I should be aware that this isn’t a solution, and that fixing my sleep patterns will have a wider and more effective benefit to my health and to my energy levels.

#CAS #LO3 #Perspectives #Lookingforward

Reflection 4 – February 5th, 2020

Unfortunately, our performance at Esplanade has been postponed due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak. Thankfully, it wasn’t canceled because the school decided to change the order of some performances in order to work around the policy set by the government.

In Jazz Band itself, we have started to pay more attention to smaller details, such as how to balance the rhythm section well. There can be up to four of us playing the same chords at the same times, which can cause things to be too cluttered, so it’s important that we talk and decide who is playing at what times, as well as what other people can be doing at that time so that we are able to properly highlight eachother during a performance.

It’s been interesting and challenging, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

#CAS #LO5 #Collaboration #Teamworkmakesthedreamwork

Reflection 5 – May 4th, 2020

The circuit breaker has canceled Jazz Band rehearsals. This is unfortunate because rehearsals have been canceled at a time where I have been feeling excited to attend them.

We took an interesting approach to a “performance”. We decided to take one of our pieces and record our individual parts and send them in to be compiled into a video. This was a little tedious, however I do think it was pretty interesting.

One of the new skills that I have especially been able to develop has been understanding more of the jazz theory. As a result of this I have been learning the piano a lot more and so therefore I have been able to develop my skills. Especially during the quarantine, I have been practicing more compared to before due to having more free time, which has allowed me to further develop my skills.

I hope that we still get to play our other pieces after circuit breaker ends and we get back to school.

Section M-P

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

#CAS #LO3 #Perspectives #Lookingforward

#CAS #LO5 #Collaboration #Teamworkmakesthedreamwork

Reflection 1 – October 8th, 2019

On Monday, October 7, we got to experience first hand what it was like to work with the people at MINDS Tampines. We were going to do a dance session where essentially we encourage them to dance by dancing ourselves. The people at MINDS Tampines have a range of intellectual disabilities such as Down Syndrome or Autism, and therefore they tend to pay a lot of attention to body language. It was important that we paid a lot of attention to our actions because we didn’t want to accidentally encourage any behavior that, while it looks normal to most people as what is just a playful action, might be interpreted as an action that can be done whenever in general by the people at MINDS Tampines.

The activity itself started out quite awkward because dancing to music that you don’t feel like dancing feels a bit strange. It’s because of this that the activity had quite a slow start, but once people started to accept and embrace the awkwardness the activity was able to get some momentum. It’s likely that the next time we do this we will feel more comfortable and just accept off the start that we need to do what we need to do.

Personally, I found it quite uncomfortable because although I wanted to try and encourage individual people to dance by working with them independently, and this was the biggest challenge so far in CAS. I was cautious of potentially making them be too attached to me. Generally, I don’t like it when people are really attached to me because I enjoy my personal space a lot. I was worried that if I worked independently with an individual, they would start to be more physical which I didn’t want to experience. At the same time, I didn’t want them to be left alone because I feel like some of the people need direct interaction to participate rather than getting the general feel of the vibe of the room and having that influence them to participate. It’s possible that they wouldn’t do if I made it clear to them that they shouldn’t do things like hug or kick which would allow me to safely and comfortably work independently with individuals.

The next time we are having another experience with MINDS Tampines is in roughly a month. I’m interested to see how things will change.

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

#CAS #LO7 #ethicalconsiderations

Reflection 2 – November 5th, 2019

Back from the break, we had another opportunity to work with MINDS Tampines. I could immediately tell that everyone had started to feel more comfortable trying to be energetic to encourage our clients to be energetic too. This session went a little bit differently. The speakers that we normally use to play music didn’t work, so we were unable to play music loud enough for the activities that we were going to do.

We also took a new approach. Instead of focusing on working one on one with other clients, we set up a game of musical chairs to play with them. Still, we didn’t have music so we had to improvise by taking our energy up a notch to encourage all of our clients to participate. This was definitely a challenge because we had to take our energy much higher than it was before in our second session with them. I would say that I was more comfortable doing this musical chairs activity because it was not a one on one interaction. I say this because before we played musical chairs, as we were trying to fix the speakers, one client wanted to hold hands with me and start dancing before the music started playing.

In my mind, I thought it would be a good opportunity to push out of my comfort zone and start working one on one with other clients. I mentioned in my first reflection that I don’t like it when people get attached to me because I enjoy my personal space a lot and that I was worried that if I worked independently with an individual client that they would start to be more physical which I didn’t want to experience. I was optimistic that this wouldn’t happen or that I would feel comfortable doing it. I started to work with this client but felt that I wanted to wait until the music started, so after about a minute or two I stopped. After half a minute or so the same client wanted to dance again. I realised that the client was starting to get attached which wasn’t what I wanted. However, this wasn’t only happening to me, this same client also did the same thing to one of my friends.

One of the things that creates a lot of my discomfort is my concern for my health. I don’t know how well the clients’ health are taken care of. Part of what gave me this concern was one client who seemed to have some sort of cold. Perhaps this is something that I can talk about with my service leaders to try and get more insight into how these clients are taken care of to remove this layer of discomfort.

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

#CAS #LO7 #ethicalconsiderations

Reflection 3 – January 24th, 2020

We’ve had more sessions with MINDS Tampines, and I’ve started to feel more and more comfortable. It helps that we’ve been setting up games of musical chairs with them because it takes off a lot of the pressure to tend to every person, and it is a lot easier to create a general vibe.

It also guarantees that clients don’t get super attached to you which helps for comfort. I think it’s good if the clients enjoy your interactions but I think there’s a point where it starts to turn into a negative interaction. The owner of MINDS Tampines had mentioned close to the beginning of the year that we shouldn’t let them be super attached to us.

In general, I have started to feel more comfortable working, and I’ve also started to worry less about my health and just made sure I washed my hands well afterward which is what we should be doing anyway. I think I’ve been making good development along with my peers, and hopefully, this development can continue.

One problem that is faced all around the world by people with intellectual disabilities is that they don’t have access to the same tools and resources as those without intellectual disabilities. The organisation that this service works with aims to provide access for those resources, and we are playing the part of improving their well-being and giving them something to look forward to every week.

#CAS #LO3 #Perspectives #Lookingforward

#CAS #LO6 #service #changemakers

Reflection 4 – February 25th, 2020

With the new COVID-19 virus going around we are no longer allowed to work with our clients because of the risk of infection and the school wanting to limit any potential entry of the virus. Although it’s unfortunate, there are still things that we can do to prepare to ensure that our future sessions make up for the missed sessions.

We had a meeting with Mr. Hannah about potential next steps, and we came up with a little plan about what we could do. We sorted our actions into three sections: Indirect, Advocacy and Research.

For indirect, we didn’t really think about much that could be done because the most important aspect of our service is hands-on work. Because our clients have intellectual disabilities, it’s important that we work hands-on during our service as trying to create a general vibe isn’t going to be effective.

For advocacy, it’s possible that we could make some posters and work on our blog, in order to educate our community about these intellectual disabilities as well as to share our experiences.

For research, we wanted to look into different activities that we could do with them, because as of now, each session has always been the same. This doesn’t mean that it’s becoming ineffective, but if it’s possible to further enhance our sessions with them then it’s something that we will want to look into.

I look forward to how we overcome this challenge.

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

#CAS #LO3 #Perspectives #Lookingforward

#CAS #LO6 #service #changemakers

Reflection 5 – May 4th, 2020

For the most part, nothing has really been happening. We had discussed potential next steps but as of now it seems as if nothing is happening.

I think one of the biggest challenges that we will have to face as a result of circuit breaker is getting back into the rhythm of things. I feel that as a group, circuit breaker may have affected our comfort with our clients, such that once we arrive back and get started again we will have to get a feel for things again.

In terms of developing my strengths, I think one of my biggest strengths in the past has been being able to adapt to new environments. I think the service was a good place where I was able to practice and develop this skill because I was put into a new environment. Although working with other people that I usually don’t work with is technically a new environment, they are people that I have been aware of and can therefore was able to easily adapt to as opposed to being put in a completely new environment working with the intellectually disabled.

#CAS #LO1 #awareness #improvingskills

#CAS #LO2 #Challenges #climbingmountains

I’m looking forward to the activity aspect of CAS. I normally don’t do any activities in school because I am not interested in signing up to do sports because of how much time they take out of your week. I very much prefer an independent way of physical activity because I don’t feel pressured to do certain things meaning that I can do what I feel like I need to do to maintain good health. In order to maintain balance this year, I’m only doing one activity for each aspect of CAS. For my creativity, I am doing ‘Jazz Band’ which is something I have been doing for 2 years already, so it won’t be too difficult to adjust to. For my activity, I am doing an ‘Active Lifestyles’ activity which is focused around giving students an opportunity to do some physical exercise for an hour or so every week. For my service, I am doing ‘MINDS Tampines’ which is a service where you work with those who have disabilities. Although it isn’t many activities, I think its good to not overdo myself and only do how much I think I am able to handle. I am passionate about music, which allows me to merge my Jazz Band with my creativity, and I also have a large motivation to improve my health which merges with my activity. The biggest challenge so far is my activity and service because it’s after school. Although I have been doing Jazz Band for 2 years already, I enjoy it but by the end of the school day, I’m already pretty tired and I usually feel unmotivated to continue doing any work, so it makes doing it or even doing my service harder than it should be. I could improve this by getting more sleep so that I have enough energy to last for the full day including my activities.

#cas