Tag: LO2

U19A Basketball – Final reflection

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As my final basketball season ended there was a sense that it wasn’t really over. Throughout the season we only played two games, both against teams that we had been playing against for the past two years as they were the only ones we could play. Yet additionally, there was a sense of finality. Our final game was against a team that we rarely beat, the last time I remember beating them was in my last game in middle school. There was a sense of nostalgia beating the team that we always tried to beat with the same girls that I started this journey with in grade 7. Although it was not the same, and along the way I have improved my skills through all the training we take I have also learned so much more. Basketball has taught me to hone my leadership and communication skills. Although they are not quantitative skills such as shooting percentage or minutes played, all the skills I have learnt have greatly affected me as a player, student and person. It has made me aware of the things that I had to change and how to change them with the help of my coaches. I hope in the future I still get to play basketball and build connections like the ones I have made at this school.

Here is a photo of me at my last basketball game.

U19A Basketball – First reflection

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After last years disappointment with not being able to play in season, and having to play solely in my club, in this season I want to establish a sense of community within the team. I believe this to be necessary as I am a part of the last four from the original team who knew all of the plays and the way things ran pre-COVID. Collaboration between the seniors and the younger players will be integral to this process. Additionally, staying motivated and persevere through the harder times. As a result of COVID, basketball has become decreasingly popular in my school, especially with the girls. I know that these next few sessions will be hard but hopefully at the end of the season it will all be worth it and I can enjoy my fourth and final season on this team.

Coaching basketball – growth

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Previously I had never coached or helped coach a team, and typically when I helped referee it was teams who knew the rules and just needed someone to squash their arguments rather than tell them that they can’t do something or that they did something wrong. I find coaching a lot different to refereeing as you build a relationship with lots of the players even if you only see them once a week for an hour and a half. I struggled with finding my voice when speaking to the entire group, this was hard for me to understand as typically in my own practices I am quite vocal. Through my involvement in coaching it has made me become more aware that I need to be confident in my skills and my knowledge in the sport and that it was OK to ask my coach for help when needed if the girls were not listening or needed further clarification.

As I progressed through this season I was given more responsibilities from doing warm ups, demonstrating ball handles or telling them what activity they were going to do next. I found this challenging at first as I didn’t see myself as an authority figure to them as I am only 5 years older than them and we go to the same school. To the end I found my voice more and became more comfortable with giving instructions and trying to make the sessions enjoyable for the girls. I measured my improvement through verbal feedback with my coach and the reception I received when giving advice/hints to them during activities.

AMK Minds – Second reflection

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Due to COVID-19 there have been many issues in our outreach to our service partners, the most prominent one being that we were not and are still not able to meet them face to face meaning that instead of doing live sessions we had to figure out a way to provide the same service from afar. A risk we faced was that my co-chair and I would come up with a way of providing them with information and it would be invaluable to them. We overcame this by making sure that we called the partners multiple times before we started to plan and produce videos that we would then send to them.

Although we were able to overcome our internal issues, for me it raised the question of how ethical is it to make videos on rotation every 3 weeks which could be causing more harm than good? Because of this moral issue we tried to produce many videos of high quality making sure there is a clear plan for each video and that they get approved by both the two chairs and the head of local service before sending it off to our partners for them to show the clients.

Kahaani – 3rd reflection

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After all the rehearsals, light plots, dress-rehearsals and then some more lunch-time rehearsals this activity is finally over. It pushed me to explore a side of me I never originally got to understand, trying to be more creative through the form of dance. Originally, I signed up because I knew I had to do a performance of some kind in school, normally that would’ve been a drama performance as this was something that I was more comfortable with yet I decided to try something new. As I knew the dance leaders it was an easier process, yet I was not totally comfortable dancing in front of the people in the studio, let alone in front of the audience. Still every Thursday lunch time I showed up trying to become better at our dance, and I would like to think that I wasn’t terrible at it.

As this was a totally new experience for me I had to gain new skills as well as understand where I my strengths and weaknesses were. When I was younger I used to dance and ice skate so I found that actually learning and remembering choreography was relatively easy compared to others. But during the process I still found my self unconfident when dancing, especially when it was in smaller groups. I overcame this by practicing outside of rehearsals ensuring that I was confident with the moves and how they felt. Although I wasn’t perfect in practice, we weren’t aiming for perfection but rather cohesiveness with everyone. Despite the fact that I was very nervous to do the dance I genuinely wanted to do it. This plan was unfortunately not able to happen as a result of unforeseen circumstances from COVID.

Kahaani – 2nd reflection

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After a few rehearsals I have found my strengths and weaknesses within the dance. My previous experiences in dancing when I was younger lead to me being able to understand the choreography fast. Additionally, I feel as though I have been able to contribute to the atmosphere of rehearsals, being able to have fun whilst also learning from the leaders Shreya and Aru.

Something that I would like to improve on is my confidence within myself when doing the dance. This is because as this is a new skill to me I am unsure in if the moves are right. To overcome this issue I will carve out time to rehearse the dance by myself, watch the videos of rehearsals and also asking questions to my dance leaders for correction

s in rehearsal.

Kahaani

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Kahaani is a dance showcase to raise money and awareness for a global concern (Kolkata) within the school for people who have vision impairments in India. I was originally very worried about doing this as although when I was younger I did dance, doing an Indian dance was out of my comfort zone and something that I had never done before. The reason I chose do this is because not only will I get to further learn about a culture that I am not from but also it will be a great way to further enhance my experience as an IB student.

I am looking forward to learning the dance and being able to perform it in front of people in the school. As this is a new challenge for me I want to be committed to showing up to rehearsals on time and being attentive in the limited time that we have before the showcase.

Coaching Basketball

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Since grade 5 I have played basketball so during CAS I though that I would further challenge myself and transition from a player to assist coaching the younger girls. I did this because not only do I get to work with my coach who has pushed me to be the player today but also help build a greater community for girls basketball with integrating the older and younger girls.

From this experience I not only want to build a relationship with the girls and learn my strengths and weaknesses as a coach and how to overcome them but also being organised and effective in actually working with them whilst having the ability to modify on the spot.

Once I’ve finished this experience I would like to be able to plan and run an entire session with them and identify what needs working on to build my skills as a coach.

#LO2 #LO3

Initiative for Peace

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I chose to join initiative for peace (IFP) because I have heard about the experience through friends in older grades. The thing that intrigued me the most to join was the way that my friends talked about how they talk about topics of controversy in IFP and that people from different backgrounds, religions and races could all come together and talk through how they felt without judgement. I think that I’ll learn more about other people’s perspectives and how they view the world which is important to do as I believe you should always listen to other people especially when talking about global issues.

With starting a new activity there will be challenges that could arise as in IFP we talk issues that not everyone will agree on that could personally affect people. This will hopefully also give me a chance of learning more about myself and my values

From joining IFP I would like to become more open-minded towards other people and their views and try and understand from different perspectives. Although there is no true way of measuring my improvement of skills I think that there will be a difference in how discussions start versus ending.

#LO2 #LO6