Category: Activities

LO1-Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth.

LO6-Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

As we get closer to the end of the year, nearing graduation for us grade 12’s, I can definitely say I have experienced something different and meaningful throughout my one and half years in student voice. My participation in Student Voice as an activity was something that was rather unintentional but I definitely do not regret taking this and I hope to continue to participate in a similar activity like this one in my university life. Although I wasn’t in any major leadership role in the activity, I feel like by just participating and contributing some ideas throughout the meetings/sessions in this activity, I was able to learn a lot about what it takes behind the scenes to plan and execute events. As someone who hasn’t experienced participating in an activity that proactively plans for school events, it was a new experience to feel more integrated and be a core part of our community by listening to the voices of the students and enacting changes to better our school.

In addition, I feel like the activity also allowed me to push myself a bit outside my conform zone. I generally find myself to be good at communicating ideas with others and hence, I feel like that’s how I have been contributing to this activity. However, I am not really used to taking upon some form of leadership and responsibility in my activities and services. Yet, in student voice, as someone who represents my mentor, I was required to relay the information over to my mentor peers and even sometimes prepare some activities. That being said, it was quite a fun experience, knowing some of the things happening in school before others but also carrying that responsibility to inform others.

Lastly, I think one big take away I had in this activity was the overall influence we as students can have if we voice ourselves and collaborate together. Although some of the things we do in the activity might be “quality of life” changes to our school, we did end up planning and deploying significant changes to our school: the most memorable one being adapting/reforming the PSE sessions content. I definitely felt a different level of impact during this phase as we were dealing with issues that are globally significant as we planned how to make the topic of “sexual harassment” and “rape” more available and informative so that students become more aware and take the issue with more significance. I have already mentioned this but the giving tree event was also another major event we helped organize, helping those organizations that were impacted significantly by COVID-19 and communities that are less fortunate than us in singapore.

 

 

 

 

LO5-Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively

With more experience in utilizing the basic mechanics of the mixer, we spent the majority of the sessions just trying out different combinations of songs, even bringing in our own selected songs rather than the default ones given in the app. This was by far the hardest skill, and a skill that just seemed to be based off from instinct. It wasn’t really something quantitative, a skill that we can work towards with steps, the ability and sense required to transition form 1 song to another smoothly felt like it just required “that feeling” in the moment of mixing, a feeling that was hard to describe. However, one thing we found useful along the way was helping each other listen to what exactly we were mixing. This sounds kind of contradicting if you think about how the DJ should be able to hear his own mix, but something I found, and a lot of us “noobs” found, was that it was hard to hear exactly how well the song transitioned over. This probably had to do with how our headphones and the loud speakers were playing different songs ( this is required in order to mix ) and as a result, sometimes deafens our ability to hear the two songs properly mix when transitioned. So in order to overcome this, we would simply just help point out to each if the songs in the first place match well together or in general try and help give the timing for the mixes. We would also make sure to attempt the mix alternately amongst each other so that we can properly hear the mix when you are not the one “DJ-ing”.

Upon looking back, I have realized I really needed to work more on my lower body strength. This is particularly so that I can achieve a higher contact point when doing a smash next to the net. Since I am not that tall, this will allow more room for flexibility when aiming as I am mid-air. As of now, I am pretty much only barely hitting it down onto the court, and the majority of my shots end up going off the court as I keep hitting it too high up rather than hitting the ball down. Hence, moving forward, I think I need to work on my leg strength, particulary my quads and calf if I want to achieve a higher jump. This also brings me into thinking I need more hip strength as that will not only assist me in jumping higher but also achieve more stability with overall movement around the court as I do find myself sometimes off balance and having to lean on my stronger right leg.

LO1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

My DJ club experience so far has been more than enjoyable. It is honestly upsetting that it is only available once a week. For the past few weeks, during the sessions, I have practiced the basic skills of transitioning using the main slider. I have also gotten used to matching and syncing different tracks together; this was something I wasn’t familiar with or lacked in experience beforehand. I have also tried getting my own music and attempt jamming them together. It felt quite “good” to mix songs and make satisfying transitions with songs you know. I have recently learned about the loop mechanic which is something I think I might want to start practicing. Being able to pick a specific part of a song and loop it has always in my head being a “DJ” kind of thing. When you think about DJ, one of the first things that come to mind is the idea of the build-up that is looped that gets faster and faster until it leads to the base drop. I definitely think I want to explore this new skill that I have learned. I also think I might want to play around manipulating the volumes of each track separately as I feel like I am already quite good at using the main slider; this slider adjusts the volume of both songs simultaneously. I always thought the deck itself had too many buttons and quite overwhelming, however, by taking it step by step, I actually found it quite simple and I liked the development/progress I make with each new button function I learn. It feels like almost a game, where different buttons have different difficulty levels and you slowly pick one by one to practice and master.

LO2  Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

My first impression of the DJ club is that it is actually not that overwhelming as I thought it would be. I always felt kind of intimidated by the number of buttons and just things on the deck – the equipment DJ’s use to mix songs. However, there are really only a few buttons that are useful for basic functionality. Below is the diagram of a deck, the same model we use in school. It seems quite complicated but I have only used about 3-4 buttons on it and I can basically do what a DJ does, mix songs. The rest is rather a fancy extra to enhance and add a “flavour” to your mixing but this is something I can’t really start yet as I have just started.

My first few sessions so far have been great. I have spent some time practising in the activity to mix songs. One of the many challenges is definitely getting used to the timing and getting a smooth transition between 2 songs. This is going to be the skill that I am going to develop and hopefully master in the time spent in this activity.

LO4 Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

Playing volleyball and training for it has always been fun for me. Learning and practicing different skills so that I can apply them in actual games is part of the motivation and fun I get from this sport. There is even that short adrenaline you get when you pull off something you have practiced for or make an unexpected play. However, the process can be quite hard at time. One of the first things I remember when playing this sport and still does affect me at a time till now is the occasional irritation or pain you get on your arms for having too much impact with the ball in the same place. By practicing more and more, you learn that the proper technique was needed to not overly damage your forearms, to not use just your arms but your knees too when receiving a ball. Especially after long breaks and holidays, sometimes your body forgets how to do things and that’s when the occasional pain can come back again. It is a process that requires repetition and a bit of dedication.

One of the other areas I dedicate my practice to is serving. Serving has always been my weakness in this sport and thus, I like to push myself to become consistent in being able to throw good serves. After spending 2 seasons practicing, serving itself is actually not that hard, it just requires concentration. Some days, I will feel right in the zone and my serves will be perfect. But some, the ball doesn’t projectile just quite right. Also, my palms start to hurt after hitting it more than 10-15 times. This kind of sport is actually my first time experiencing direct pain as a result of training. I have always being used to muscles getting numb and feeling fatigued, but the pain was another whole feeling. That being said, the pain was something I was able to get over through training. Weirdly enough, after some time, you wouldn’t even realize the pain was gone. I plan on continuing to work of my serve but as well as my smashes. I have started incorporating jumps into my serves as a way to practice smashing. That is my next goal and I hope to be able to achieve a smash I am satisfied with before the season ends.

LO1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

After spending an entire season in volleyball, I have definitely gotten more used to the sport and I have definitely felt some progress. As an activity itself, we started to practice more practical game scenarios and often experience more of a competitive aspect of the game. With this, committing twice a week, I definitely feel like I have gone through some rapid growth.

Looking back, I have always felt like my serves or my smashes were rather unpolished. However through many training and games played, I feel like I have not only gotten more consistent with these skills but also just better and effective for the practical game uses. In games,  I felt like I was able to apply these skills I have improved on and as an individual player, make more of an impact on the outcome of the game. Another aspect of the sport I felt like I improved in was unexpectedly the main basics of the game; the bumps and sets. This wasn’t something I really considered or was concerned about as I felt like these skills were my strength, the ability to consistently get the ball up and pass effectively to my teammates. But over time, I felt like more basics became more refined and this was because these skills because rather more “effortless” for me. It is quite hard to explain this feeling but whether it was during training or in games, I just became more confident.

LO2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

At the start of the year in grade 11, I decided to partake in the sports of volleyball. It is still ongoing and it lasts for 2 seasons. The reason why I chose this sport is that I particularly enjoy the concept of keeping the ball up on your side whilst aiming to land the ball on the opponents court. There is this indescribable thrill and adrenaline to it that I enjoyed since the small experiences of playing volleyball that I have had during PE. Though this year, I am very glad I am able to participate in this sport seriously for 2 sessions of 1 hour 30 min a week.

All being said, I am quite the novice when it comes to the understanding of the rules of the sport as well as my literal mechanical skill in the game.  Despite this, I was still quite confident in my basics and my overall ability of the sport, thus I considered myself above average. Though, one thing I learnt immediately was that the past PE volleyball is quite different from the present afterschool volleyball sessions. My immediate challenge was getting used to the hard balls that were flying across the court. The balls didn’t seem to have that much air time and I could feel the impact of the bump’s – a technique in volleyball where you receive a ball using your arms – much clearer as it hit harder. Even in normal basics training sessions, I would come to realise the inconsistencies that I have in terms of my control of the ball when “setting” – another technique in volleyball – or “bumping”. And thus, the first weeks were spent on refining my basic skills. As we progressed, we started learning some new techniques and without surprise, I found myself struggling in a few of them.

One of them was the overhand serve. At first, it looked easy when the coaches and people around me were doing it. But as I challenged myself to do it, I on average, probably got about 1 out of 3 balls to the other side of the court. I was bad at my serves. The other one was smashing. I don’t consider myself that tall so jumping became a crucial skill to the technique. I then also quickly realised, jumping high enough wasn’t the only problem but the timing of jumping as well as the timing of when to swing my arms.

And this is where I am up to for now, and I plan on posting another one soon later. My goal is to continue to work on not only refining my basics of the game but also working towards improving harder skills such as smashing and overheard serving. In order to do so, I plan to push myself and continue to challenge myself. I am also considering practising volleyball outside of school with some of my teammates as that will serve for some perfect practising opportunity as well as for some fun.