Author: huang54693@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
Project Week
Our project week took place in the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. We did service with a local school and worked with children in middle school. During our time there we had to be more cautious in the way we acted as there are cultural taboos that we are not usually exposed too. We also had to watch the way we interacted with the children to make sure that nobody got offended in our time there, this includes the activities we did and especially when we were teaching the children English. We spent a day experiencing the city and the traditional culture participating in a local cooking class as well as an art class where we did a local form of cloth dyeing. We also went to the local historical attractions were we got a brief introduction and explanation in the history of the city. For our final day we choose to experience the daily lives of the locals by going around the city we also went to local museums and aquariums .
#lo7
Creativity Dance #2
Before the dance showcase I have never really participated in any activity or project where I would have to perform on stage. I never participated because I am quite shy and also have a little bit of stage freight however After participating in the dance rehearsal I realised that I was not as anxious as I thought I would be. I learned new skills in order to be a spotter as I had to catch the girl being thrown in the air. I also learned to do a cartwheel which seemed pretty basic at first but was different in practice. As I went to more practice sessions we became much more consistent with the dance counts as well as the timing, even though we had a couple stumbles where the throw or the catch wasn’t perfect but in the end we managed to maintain a consistent throw and catch.
#lo2
Creativity Dance #1
Towards the end of grade twelve, a group of friends participating in the dance showcase requested me for help. They were short a person in their production, which was a serious issue for them, as without that missing person they wouldn’t be able to do vital parts of their dance. My friends were trying to recreate a dance based on the movie “Bring it on”, and the it was a dance which was trying to present a cheerleading showcase. They wanted me to be a spotter, as a friend of mine in the dance was planning to be thrown up into the air, and would have to be caught on the way down. I would start practicing at lunchtimes and after school, and three days before the event, my group and I started practicing in the mornings at school and also practiced in rehearsal sessions, which meant we were practicing around 4 – 6 hours a day.
Some challenges that we faced were timing issues, as not everyone was there, making it harder to practice together as a group. We also couldn’t practice all the time due to safety reasons, as we needed to book the right facilities such as the gymnastics halls. To overcome this, we prioritised better planning, which allowed us to find more practice sessions together and more sessions where we could practice in the gymnastics hall.
#lo5
Creativity Marimba #2
Overtime in marimba, as we became a more cohesive ensemble, we were told to start preparing to perform at service workshops for epic arts. Knowing it was an important event that could significantly help a service in our school, we decided to start practicing two different songs to play. Since we were still working on our cohesion, the practice sessions were difficult, as it was quite common to be out of sync or to make errors trying to play certain parts of the song. To solve this challenge, we as a group decided to create smaller workshop groups where we could practice specific parts of the song, and then after doing this, would perform together. This helped improve the quality of marimba practice, and also improved our collaboration skills, as it made us more confident to work with each other.
#lo1
Creativity Marimba #1
During the start of the year, I wanted to try something new in terms of a creative activity, so a few friends and I decided to sign for marimba. I have played multiple instruments before, so I am quite experienced when it comes to learning new instruments. However, marimba was a larger challenge, as I had to get used to very disciplined rhythm and monotones sounds. To overcome this, I made sure to practice much harder and check more with my activity supervisor as to what I could improve. Overtime, I started to notice I was getting used to the rhythm of marimbas, and was able to perform better in group practices.
#lo5
Activity #3
Towards the end of the year, looking back at my experience in swimming, I can say that I am quite proud of my achievements. While I have done many races before, this year, I was able to come 4th place in Singapore nationals for 50 meters back. I was also the best boy in SEASAC in grade 11, and also runners up for best boy at feeding frenzy. I have noticed that I excel in swimming sprints, and my best stroke is backstroke. I find backstroke easier as I have practiced it for longer and am more confident with my technique, compared to my freestyle, which still has a few flaws that slow me down. Swimming overall has made me more aware about caring for my own body by providing myself physical exercise, which is a notable part of my life to be mindful about.
#lo2
Activity #2
As the year progressed and the workload of IB began to pile on I had challenges managing myself properly to accommodate all of the activities which I usually do. I began having trouble keeping up with the workload while still maintaining a good training regime so I dropped a few sessions and began to train around six to seven times a week to give myself enough sleep and rest. I also noticed that I started feeling burnt out from swimming, which concerned me as I still want to maintain my competitiveness in swimming events. I understand that burning out by overtraining is not good, as it will make me swim worse, which is why I made the decision to start gymming as a supplementary activity to swimming. Not only did it help me reduce stress from overtraining, but it also indirectly helped my training, as the strength building which I planned will give me more power in races.
#lo3
Activity #1
As the new season began I rejoined the swim team to continue my competitive swimming. Swimming has always been the sport I have done competitively and have been very committed to since middle school. I originally started swimming because I liked being in the water but as I began progressing in the competitive scene I started to take the sport more seriously. I trained an average of 9 times and 3 land training sessions a week for one season and then dropped off to seven before the racing season. My goal is to maintain my training routine and try to get new personal bests to qualify for nationals as well as make the SEASAC team for another year. I will commit to swimming fully until exam season because I might take time off to study, until then I intend to train hard and consistently.
#lo4
Service #4
Throughout the in my service activity, it was important that we maintained consistent planning to ensure that activities we did with the kids at school were enjoyable for them. About 6 months in, I decided to take initiative with some planning of the activities that we would do with the kids. I decided to plan a dance based activity where I would teach the kids how to do a certain dance. The outcome of my planning was me producing a video with a few other members in my group, in which we demonstrated how to do the dance. It was difficult to an extent, as being able to find a time to record this video with other members was hard. However, we resolved this by recording the video during service time, which all the members in the video were available for.
#lo6