February 28

CAS#6

100 days in 100 words

100 days is fast, but only a small tributary in the river of time. However, when I try to recall things happened in these 100 days, I find that they are abundant. Culturama was well received, a circus show performed by students and Blue Dragon kids was loved by the audience, the drama team conducted 6 perfect performances with the support from everyone……With the end of the performances, the second season was over. Precious memories don’t fade, the knowledge and skills learned are forever, and the friends you make are still around… these are all quite delightful.

Category: LO 1 Awareness | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 28

CAS#4

In the drama production – The Heart of Robin Hood, we have been working as a team for several months. During these months, I collaborate with the director, people play different roles, costume designer, behind-the-scenes worker…… It is enjoyable to work as a team since everyone works towards the same goal: to make this show perfect. In the beginning, we hardly know each other. I couldn’t do very well because it’s difficult to act close relationship without knowing each other. However, the problem has been solved since we became more familiar with each other. This is an amazing experience to have so many people cooperating together, and I learned how to be an effective team player.

Category: LO 5 Collaboration | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 28

CAS#7

In the Equality focus group, we aim to increase students’ knowledge and awareness of the LGBTQ+ community. Since I learned a lot through the discussion in class, I tried to increase awareness of my friends. I taught my friends in my country many things about this community, for example, the symbolism of the colors of the rainbow flag, pronouns… I hope my actions can actually help people who think they are alone.

 

Category: LO 6 Global Value | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 4

PROJECT WEEK

LO2  Challenge

We planned to do circus and cooking during our project week, and cooking is a new skill for me. During the project week, we are going to visit Cambodia, and I have never been to this country before. All of this would be so interesting but also challenging. I am going to learn collaboration since we always work as a team so far in the planning section. I am glad and excited to meet new people and see novel things, so I am looking forward to this amazing trip.

LO3  Initiative Planning & initiating activities

Since Cambodia is a new place for most of our group members, we have to be well prepared when we get there. We did a lot of planning, most of them are to ensure our safety. For example, we did a very detailed schedule of our whereabouts, very specific personal information, researches about the places we are going to travel…… The only problem is that we have limited time for a different phase of planning and sometimes there wasn’t enough time to finish stuff. However, we still got almost everything done on time because everyone in the team is very active and reliable.

Investigation
I used to study drama for a year and I became very fascinated with this subject. I like the feeling of being totally immersed in another world, to feel the emotions of the character, and experience another life. Drama is challenging, performers need to control facial expressions, voice, movements, and so on, and it is challenging to hold full control of body movements. Therefore, with enthusiasm for drama and excitement for challenges, I signed up for the audition and was qualified for the show. At that time, I was very glad to participate in this event and was well aware that I had to take my responsibility and do my best to make this show perfect.

Preparation
A complete drama production must be contributed by many people: director, props managers, costume designers, performers, and so on. I was double cast so I acted both Sarah Summers and Ensemble. As a performer, my responsibility is to carefully analyze my character, hone my dramatic skills, and maintain good attendance.

Action
During the six-month preparation process, I learned to collaborate and gained confidence in standing in front of people. It was hard to perform close relationships with people you don’t know, so I talked to people I worked with, and the problem was solved when we became familiar with each other. In the beginning, I was too nervous to perform well in front of many people. But over time, we practiced again and again, and I gradually overcome this problem. Even when I was facing a larger amount of audience in the actual performances, I was not overly nervous.

Reflection
This was my first attempt at a big acting event, and I was actually a little nervous. At first, I was worried that my mistakes would drag down the team. However, through the warm-up activities organized by Ms. Bye, I felt more adapted to the team and became more relaxed, so I was able to cooperate with others better. When I had questions about my role I would ask Ms. Bye so that I could play my role better. Also, I never miss rehearsals because I want to keep up with the team as best as I can. Through this series of preparation, I was more confident that I could perform at my best in the final performance.

At the end of each performance, everyone would leave the stage singing loudly. Every time to this moment, I will be particularly excited and emotion, and a sense of collective pride springs up. I had a great time!

Demonstration
This project really touched me, and changed some of my habits. In the drama production, I learned the importance of teamwork, which I had never truly realized. In the rehearsals, Ms Bye constantly emphasized that each actor, no matter what role, has its own meaning and story, and everyone is important in the team. Every action of us will be watched by the audience and may bring positive or negative influence to the whole team, so we need to take not only own responsibility but also the responsibility of the team. Which means that we need to care and help others while doing our job well.

In fact, I felt a strong sense of honor and pride that I had never experienced in an individual performance in the final curtain call, as I realized the significance of the team.

Category: LO 1 Awareness, LO 2 Challenge, LO 3 Initiative, LO 4 Commitment, LO 5 Collaboration, Reflection | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 3

Reflection for Ethics – The Trolley Problem

Assuming that you are standing beside a lever, a train is coming but there’re 5 people on its track. They can’t escape and the only way to save them was to use the lever and lead the train to another track, however, there’s also a person on another track. This is an ethical experiment called the trolley problem. 

Here are your two choices:

  1. You turn a blind eye to what is happening, and the train killed 5 people. You didn’t change anything or killed anybody, because this is a natural result.
  2. You change the direction of the train and it killed a completely innocent person; however, the 5 people are safe and you are considered as a murderer.

Utilitarianism would choose A since they seek interest for most of the people; people hold deontological ethics have their own judgment and insistence about the standards of right and wrong, so they might choose B. These differences based on the perspectives that are built by different knowledge and experience. 

For example, if I found that the person on the second track is the president of a country, I wouldn’t do anything to the track because I know that this person is highly valued. I has been taught that a leader of a country is very important, and my knowledge suggests that “An army without a general will not move; a snake without a head will not move.” At this moment, knowledge influences my thinking, my stereotypes of the identities make this problem bigger than moral consideration. Likewise, I would hesitate if the person is wearing doctors’ suits or dresses for pregnant women.

All in all, I think many factors are involved in an ethical decision. Your knowledge, experience, culture, intuition or even your personality can influence your mind. However, the trolley problem is not common in real life; and we normally have more choices in reality. The right and wrong standard of morality is ambiguous, and everyone has a different point of view, so make decisions when you feel right.

 

 

Category: TOK | LEAVE A COMMENT