January 12

LO5 Collaboration (Working Together To Achieve An Outcome)

Throughout my entire CAS experience, I have been constantly communicating and collaborating with my peers to achieve a successful outcome. The most prominent area in which I collaborated was most definitely in basketball. This is simply because to wins games there is an abundance of moving parts within the team which need to all essentially line up and work like a well-oiled machine to achieve success. Therefore, communicating with my teammates on a constant basis allowed us to build chemistry with one another, enabling us to understand our strengths and tendencies as players so that we can facilitate each other in order to get the most productive results from everyone. Collaboration was also vital in-service group (SGM Murni) where I took on an unofficial leadership role as our group needed to work together in order to create a cohesive and effective learning environment. Everything was pre-planned and thus, communicating and collaborating to understand each of our roles was necessary to create the best possible learning experience for the children. Finally, in boys Sonos it was necessary to communicate as we all had to coordinate our movements and vocals thus, lots of practice and constructive criticism was needed to ensure that our performance was as coherent as possible.

Category: CAS | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 4

Project Week Reflection

The process of planning out the entirety of the project week was an interesting and important activity that truly aided me in planning and budgeting which are necessary life skills. Even though project week ultimately got cancelled it gave me the opportunity to experience what it’s like to tackle challenges and bumps along the road as well as make compromises with my team to come to the best solution to these issues. Firstly, the major challenge was deciding the group members, there was consistency for a few members within the group, however, there was a persistent conflict between some of the members and thus, having a solidified group by the deadline was proving to be continually difficult. However, over time we were able to solve the conflict between the group members and come to a consensus on who will leave and stay in the group whilst avoiding grudges and such and therefore, I along with my other team members were able to problem solve and deal with social quarrels in order to progress in the planning process of project week. Once this issue was solved, another arose. Our plan for project week revolved around commuting to the Biosphere centre in the Bali Barat national park and learning about wildlife as well as indulging in activities as well. However, through discussions with this group, there were not allowing us to stay anywhere us but inside the complex and made it mandatory to be there 24/7 which impeded our plan of exploring and learning about Bali. Moreover, certain activities that were major reasons for us choosing this location were cancelled. Although we communicated our thoughts with the organisation we were unable to come to a consensus and ultimately project week got cancelled. Although project week did eventually get cancelled we learnt many useful skills that came along with its planning process that we wouldn’t have been able to learn anyways such as planning flights, contacting and negotiating with organizations, budgeting and more which are all valuable life skills to possess, therefore, it was still extremely useful at the end of the day

Category: CAS | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 14

How does Atwood reflect the nature and power of the Gileadean regime in this section of the novel? 

 

Throughout the entirety of the fifth chapter, we see that Offred juxtaposes her past and present life using interior narrative. She directly compares the power structures of both periods, along with the amount of freedom that she possessed. Atwood shows readers two extremes. The first being in pre-Gilead, a more liberal and equal America has caused women to be free and independent; however, due to this freeness, there has been a subsequent increase of sexual predation on women. The second being post-Gilead where women were under draconian control, being extremely safeguarded but ‘protected’ from sexual attack. However, Gilead is operating under the facade of protecting women; they are exploiting them. The idea of protection is what Gilead is trying to instil to its people, to make them feel protected from external dangers rather than being imprisoned for demeaning uses. 

 

Offred again juxtaposes her past and present life with the word ‘undone’ regarding women’s clothes, thus, bringing upon the idea of revealing types of clothing. This alludes to ‘undone women’ a term created in the 17th century which are women considered to be ‘whores’ due to having sex outside of marriage, ergo, being promiscuous. This demonstrates how the Gileadean regime sees the sexuality of women to be dangerous and that they must be fully covered to negate the possibility of being ‘undone’. We see that the only reminisce of power that Offred attains is when she can attract the Guardian with her sexuality as she is deprived of everything else. Offred is devoid of power and possessions, and thus when she says “my own clothes, my own soap, my own money” the repetition of the word ‘own’ portrays how she does not have anything to associate herself with, she is stripped of everything including her own identity, and this power is taken away from her by the regime. 

 

The regime continually embeds itself into everyday life, trying to creep into the minds of the population. The quote “The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you.” is a direct parody of when Jesus says “The Kingdom is within you (Luke 17:21)”. This demonstrates how the regime misinterprets a spiritual idea with a political doctrine. The quote by Jesus suggests that the kingdom is within a man’s heart, being apart of something greater. This is Juxtaposed by the Gileadean interpretation, which suggests that everything is controlled. Gilead is not just a place where one resides; however, it becomes apart of one’s identity and that the individuals do not have choices as the government makes it for them.

 

As Aunt Lydia said “Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” Lydia insinuates that the time when women were free where the ‘days of anarchy’, suggesting that freedom causes chaos. She wishes that the Handmaids view protection to be more valuable than freedom and that although being protected negates women to be autonomous, it keeps them safe from the dangers of the world.

 

Finally, Atwood introduces a motif in the form of the double. Double refers to an alter ego who bears uncanny or partial resemblance to an individual which reveals aspects of themselves that have been repressed. Therefore, this motif is used to both draw parallels between Offred’s past and present lives. Offred has fragmented memories of her past (pre-Gilead) and this in itself is a form of resistance showing that she is not fully consumed (indoctrinated) by the regime and she still has the freedom to think about her past life, giving her control.

Category: English Language and Literature HL | LEAVE A COMMENT
September 26

How have maintained your motivation with CAS?

Basketball:

This has been something that has been apart of my life from a young age and being exposed to the competitive world of basketball. I was inspired as a young kid to play the sport and I still have that same drive today. I think the main reason I have the motivation to continue to practice and play is that I just truly love the sport. It is something that I do when I feel overwhelmed and stressed and hence, it has become a sort of coping mechanism for me as it keeps me calmed whilst also helping me think. Therefore, its not like I play basketball for the sake of CAS, it is something that I truly love and am passionate about, that’s my motivation to continue.

 

Category: CAS | LEAVE A COMMENT