Opera Singing Courses REFLECTION #1

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LO 1 Identifying own strengths and develop areas for personal growth

Singing has always been one of my favourite hobbies. I have been singing since grade 6, in my previous school, Miras International School, where I joined the “Singing Club”. Singing allows me to express myself through the beautiful melodies of the songs, to which I try to add a little bit of my own uniqueness. Yet, I have never tried Opera singing and since this is a skill I wanted to gain, when I moved to Singapore my parents helped me to find for a teacher that specialized in this type of vocal performance. In the first lesson with Ms.Novicova, I realized that Opera singing would take quite a lot of time, however, since I enjoy the learning process and the result I was keen to begin this course.

I have been practicing singing over the course of several months now, gradually widening the scope of the songs I practice. One of the songs I really enjoy practising, is “O cessate di Piagarmi”, by Alessandro Scarlatti, an Italian Baroque composer. Being a song about unrequited love, it conveys the feelings of a loving man in a very dramatic way, expressing his sufferings. This mood that the lover carries is what I attempt to express through my singing, by adopting the right Opera vocal techniques.

At the start, it was quite difficult for me to adapt to the Opera-way of singing, since before, most of the songs I performed were either modern pop or 20th-century classics. I had to accustom to a number of techniques, such as stomach breathing, chin positioning and other voice-specific skills. My vocal teacher, Ms.Novicova really helped to improve my skills, by offering incredibly valuable advice on how to develop the right voice for singing Opera, such as Baroque. Every time, before I start practising singing the compositions, I begin with a “voice warm up”, which helps to properly set up my voice. Often these can be challenging, since every note has to be as “pure” as you are capable to make it sound. Yet, this “warm-up” is one of the crucial elements of my singing practice, since, without them, I wouldn’t be able to understand how to sing Opera compositions, lacking practice on more rudimentary melodies. Yet, step by step, I managed to slowly, but surely understand and feel how my voice had to sound, by practising and listening to other professional Opera singers, like Renato Bruson. 

I have to admit, that sometimes, even though I knew I was making progress it felt that the way I sang was barely changing, however, I still managed to persevere and after a while, I could see the results more clearly. I learned that persevering, no matter what, was the key to seeing pleasant and satisfying outcomes. I also realized how important it is to move forward, progress, by taking even fifteen minutes a day to practice singing, because every one of those little steps contribute to the overall amount of practice and refine my existing skills.

Overall, for these first few months I truly relished the art of Opera singing, and I am grateful that I have this extra-curricular education opportunity. It is known that “the more skills you learn, the more interesting your life is.”

Yoga with Meditation Activity REFLECTION #1

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LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

This week I joined the Yoga with Meditation Activity to form part of my CAS profile, and I was very surprised by how interesting Yoga could actually be. There is a certain preconception that I had from my friends, that Yoga was boring and somewhat “dull”. It was gratifying to find out the opposite. I found Yoga exercises to be quite hard, actually, and therefore engaging, since I had to keep my body balanced, what created an aim for me to work better and therefore motivated me. Our Yoga supervisor, Ms.Cole, taught us a relaxation method – a special kind of breathing technique – that helped release anxiety and bring calmness and tranquillity. I think this is a very useful technique to have, given the pressure of IB, therefore I’m sure I will be using it numerous times throughout the rest of the year and next year, as well.

The Island Foundation Reflection #5

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LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively 

LO 7 Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Implementation was always the most important stage in the learning process for me. Obviously, planning is where all the ideas are devised and where the event forms. Yet, when those plans are put into action, you enter a truly special phase. A phase of an extremely valuable learning experience. When the event is in action, you take on responsibilities and aim to perform your duties with the maximum degree of excellence and effort. This phase of implementation is something I felt while I was supervising the game stall, put together by “The Island Foundation” Global Concern for the Family Festival event.

The job Jean and I had seemed to be quite simple, but, surprisingly, it was at times challenging to maintain it. We had to supervise the “Sponge-throwing” game, which was quite popular amongst the children. From time to time, either Jean or I went to refill the water container and collect the sponges that were thrown around. During the first half-an-hour of the game, I commented that the paint on the sponges, that came from the colored board could be potentially dangerous for the children, since it could get into their eyes and mouths. Neither of us knew whether this paint was “safe” for the children, therefore I decided to tell the children that they had to keep their mouths closed while sponges where thrown at them, to avoid a potential safety issue. I felt good on reacting in such a way, and even though this didn’t remove potential danger by one-hundred percent, it still helped to improve it.

And while it appeared that we would only have these two tasks, besides making sure no one was to get hurt, the game stall soon turned quite chaotic. The children got bored of the convention of the sponge-throwing and “adapted” the game to their own interests, which was simply running around under the tent and throwing sponges at each other. The situation seemed relatively safe to us, however, this caused us to concentrate on the game more than we initially did, in order to maintain a degree of safety. This task was harder, yet with enough attention and effort, we managed to accomplish it.

Nevertheless, it is important to note the shortcomings of my involvement as well, since, through them, I can learn how to improve next time. At first, when the children “took over” the gaming stall I wasn’t quite sure what to do. This confusion and unpreparedness led to a lack of concentration on each of the children, which could have potentially led to someone injuring themselves by slipping, etc. Therefore, this particular experience of maintaining and managing the gaming stall was really useful for me, since now if similar situations arise I will be more capable at managing them effectively, with as much attentiveness as possible. Overall, I am glad to have contributed to Family Festival, serving my part in providing entertainment for the parents and children, and representing UWCSEA East.

Rainforest Restoration Project Reflection #7

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LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS experiences

LO 6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

This Saturday was very exciting for me, since I took part in Family Festival 2018. I didn’t take part in last year’s Family Festival and perhaps that’s why I was so amazed by all the liveness of this event. The plaza was crowded with tents that offered various activities. Upstairs, the GC stalls were also quite nicely arranged. This produced a very positive first impression on me and added to my enthusiasm to contribute to this event.

The Rainforest Restoration stall at plaza had a variety of plants that we grow in the tree nursery, and by seeing the volume of our involvement, I was fully ready to take on the responsibilities I had. Ms.Mireille explained the process of a game I had to play with the children or parents that approached the RRP stall, which had the purpose of introducing the different species we were growing as a part of our service. We hoped that, even with an exposure so little, we could spread awareness about the Singaporean plant species and the goals our service pursues. My time slot was limited to one hour, since I also had to help supervise the game stall for The Island Foundation GC, therefore I wanted to make full use of the time I had.

However, in the first half an hour, we weren’t approached by that many people, as I had expected, and to be honest, this had quite a frustrating effect on me. Fortunately, in the second half hour, I finally had an opportunity to interact with a few middle-school students for the “RRP species game” activity. First, I explained what they had to do, in order to identify each species. While speaking I tried to be as coherent and succinct as possible, so that I wouldn’t lose their attention and concentration. In my opinion, I accomplished this task quite well, since the students seemed to be interested in the processes they had to go through.

My next step was to supervise them through the game, and help out if they had any problems. The game was quite straightforward because all the categories of leaves and other plant characteristics were printed on paper, and the students just had to check off each category, before concluding what plant they thought it was. From my point of view, the middle-school students enjoyed this process and also enjoyed the sense of accomplishment after correctly identifying all the species. I did my best to encourage them along the way and also congratulated them for their correct answers.

The way I understood it, my job was to make the process entertaining for them so that they could understand the purpose of our Service and also become a little more knowledgeable about the environment around them. I was proud of achieving my task and shared my experience with Feven, who would have to go through the same process of explaining and supervising the “RRP species game”. In addition, being the Communications representative for the Service I took a couple of pictures in order to make sure that this event and our achievements can be recorded properly.

Overall, even though my involvement in the RRP section of the event was relatively short, I gained experience and a practical understanding of how to communicate with middle-school-aged students, in a way that would be entertaining and engaging for them. This communication method is crucial to spreading even a small portion of awareness about the Rainforest Restoration Service and the Singaporean and Global environment in general. I am glad that, once again, I managed to contribute to this tremendously important goal.

THE ISLAND FOUNDATION GLOBAL CONCERN (event planning) MINI-REFLECTION #4

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LO 3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

These past few weeks, in “The Island Foundation” Global Concern we have been discussing the sort of products we want to sell in the upcoming festivals. After the success of the products sold at the family festival, mentioned in my previous reflection (wooden sharks, seahorses, stars, turtles, etc.) we thought that it would be a wise idea, to say the least, to order more of these products to Ban Nati. Also, we discussed new products that we could introduce, such as Christmas-themed wood carvings. Also, Mr.Steele pitched the idea of introducing special games, similar to the ones, one can find at a carnival, where participants would pay for a certain amount of trials, and stand a chance to win a prize. This approach occurred to me as quite interesting and effective, however, the TIF GC needs to correlate that with the Service Department in order to ensure that this sort of activity falls into the “allowed” category. After having a few sessions to discuss, I feel like my skill of brainstorming and searching for ideas improved, and, overall, these discussion sessions had a very positive effect on me.

THE ISLAND FOUNDATION GLOBAL CONCERN REFLECTION #3

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LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

As a TIF GC member, this week I underwent quite an important event in the process of my second “service” contribution. After several discussions and planning sessions for the “Swim for Life” Event, we were finally ready for implementation of our plan. Each person was allocated a schedule based on their available timeslot. My job was to set-up the TIF venue (there were multiple GC’s involved in the Swim for Life event), along with Shereen, with whom I had the pleasure to study in FIB and with whom we were able to coherently and swiftly collaborate to successfully set up the venue.

Another task I had to undertake, was also initially selling the food, such as chips and chocolate sticks, along with soft drinks. We were quite quick to store the soft drinks into the cupboard trolley, however, since we wanted to keep them cool – we needed ice. This was where the problem showed up. One of the service managers, Joy, was busy during the venue set-up and most of the first selling section, therefore we were unable to cool the soft drinks which, I think, slightly affected our morale. However, with the help of, name, I filled the cupboard trolley with ice and along with Yiru and Claudia, was able to sell the products in full readiness.

We didn’t make much money during the first selling section, as there were only a few children around in the pool and the event hadn’t really begun at that point in time. Therefore, I didn’t meet an obstacle in organizing the money and keeping track of our selling records.

Overall, I think I managed everything quite well during the two sections of the “Swim for Life event” and also, beneficially, gained some experience in setting up a venue together with the products, as well as selling a few products. Something I would want to improve on  – is critical time management. I had a limited amount of time to figure out how to get the ice and then to do fill the trolley cupboard with the ice, and I think, if I were to focus more on the situation, I could possibly cut the time for this small task and then utilize it to help the products.

This, however, was a very interesting experience – the first time I took part in such an event, and I would really want to continue building my skills in this area, with future involvement in these sort of contributions to charity. I enjoyed collaborating since I realized its benefits, such as a higher level of productivity.

THE ISLAND FOUNDATION GLOBAL CONCERN REFLECTION #2

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LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

LO 3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS experiences

This week TIF took part in one of the most important festivals of the year – Family Festival. With all the planning done, and timeslots allocated, each person was assigned a task, each of them – vital to the successful participation of The Island Foundation in the event. The time slot I selected, was from 3 PM to 4:30 PM after school, which was quite convenient for me, since I knew I was going to be occupied during the weekend. Therefore, my job together with Akanshka – was to set up the TIF venue, so it would be ready for the Taiyo and Khasa in the morning. I was glad that the responsibility of preparation fell on me, since it meant that this was an opportunity to improve my management skills. As soon as the last block ended, I eagerly met up with Akanshka in C-block ready to undertake the task. Akanshka and I were given the price list for the wooden carvings TIF was planning to sell. We then had to create a one poster per each item, that clearly outlined the price of the product as well as the product itself in the format of a picture. Even though we both thought that this would be prepared before, and that our main objective was to physically “set-up” the TIF venue, we were still willing to take on this task. While Akanshka was setting up her Macbook to create the posters, I went to get the products.

I must say, that out of the 1:30 we had in our time-slot, we, unfortunately, spent 60% of that time, trying to produce the posters. Taking pictures of the wooden products and then inserting them into the Word Document were easy steps, and I consider them to be our success, since we collaborated quite coherently and efficiently to achieve them. However, formatting the posters, due to some strange errors took quite a lot of time. But the main issue was the fact that the printer couldn’t print the posters we created correctly. In short word, we had a blue background for all of the posters to match the color of TIF, however, the printer or the Word document didn’t show that blue color on the preview. Even after going to the IT, we didn’t manage to solve this problem. I was beginning to feel quite worried about this problem and the situation turned slightly hectic due to the time limit, both I and Akanshka had. This error, that, unfortunately, did not depend on us, but rather on the technology involved, was what caused us to abandon our main task – setting up the venue. Both Akanshka and I were occupied after 5 PM, so we had to leave for the bus at 4:30 PM. This disadvantage along with the Word document and printer error was what affected our responsibility. While evaluating this shortcoming, I can’t say that this was a problem related to either of us, however, as an improvement for next time, I could suggest that both us cancel any activities in the Friday time period, since that would leave us time to accomplish the task in a complete manner.

Our inability to accomplish this task, unfortunately, put Taiyo and Khasa at a disadvantage, since they had to set up the venue themselves and also figure out the problem with the printer. I’ve explained the issue to Taiyo and apologized on behalf of both Akanshka and me, so he wouldn’t get the impression that we were unconcerned about the success level of TIF at the family festival. He didn’t have a problem with our partial failure, so I was able to calm myself down, despite having let down the TIF group.

Moving forward, I would want to improve on my reaction when encountering a difficult situation, such as tone one described, because feeling worried doesn’t help to work on a task in any way, and as a matter of fact, substantially hinders the process of problem-solving. Having a positive attitude – is the key goal I will keep in mind as I progress further in this GC.

RAINFOREST RESTORATION PROJECT REFLECTION #6

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LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Throughout the last couple of week, after the MacRitchie walk, leading up to Chinese New Year, I have been busy with the general RRP Service work, which has now become a kind of habit, which I feel quite confident in doing. In one of the sessions we had, we also, collectively, planted new seedlings, after the re-organization of the tree nursery. The process of planting new seedlings was an extremely collaborative experience where we worked together efficiently. It really amazed me how our work turned into a flow of tasks that combined with each other to produce the required result. One part of the group was filling the “planting bags” with soiled, while I was making holes in the bags with the soil, and then helping Zihan and Kaibo carefully plant the seedlings. It seems that with time, we have grown together as a small community that is ready to support each other and effectively and efficiently work together. What proves this statement, is the relatively short amount of time it took to accomplish this task, what then gave us a longer opportunity to discuss the so-far progress of our goals. This is certainly a working process that I will remember due to its coherence.

That being said, I also want to reflect and comment on the goal implementation that Zihan and I carried out in the past week, as the RRP Communications Representatives – signposting the nursery. Obviously, this was only a portion of the signposting we have to do, however, it was a pleasant and productive start to this goal implementation. Zihan and I produced two small signposts:

  • YaleNUSUniversity + Rainforest Restoration Project logos with a sign saying “Experimental Study” to label the tables specifically with the experimental study plants. Also to make sure these plants remained untouched we attached a sign on the bottom, saying “Please do not disturb.” With Ms.Mireille’s suggestions, these were considered to be effective enough.
  • “Decomposed soil” sign to stick on the carts with decomposed soil

After accomplishing these, rather easy tasks, I nevertheless, to be honest, felt pretty good and motivated to contribute even more to the RRP Service, due to this sense of accomplishment. I still have a lot to contribute, both as the RRP Service member and specifically as the Communications Representative, and I will work hard to stay focused and determined on my next tasks.

RAINFOREST RESTORATION PROJECT REFLECTION #5

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LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS experiences

This week our RRP Service group along with the Dover group visited the MacRitchie trail, which turned out to be a very interesting a knowledge-increasing experience. I regretted not being able to participate in EarthFest, an event which could really allow me to show my knowledge about the different species and how to plant them. So I decided that I would definitely participate in the MacRitchie walk, as an off-campus activity, so I could gain some benefit from it. I must say that it really turned out to be worth my time and I left it with a lot more, than I had prior to it. Our lecturer, name, stunned me on the amount of awareness he possessed and possesses still. He was able to walk us through almost every plant and tree we encountered along the way. The walk was quite long but not at all tiring, since there were tons of opportunities for me to learn something new. For example, some of the things I now know are: the appearance of the rubber tree, the function of bugs in the ecosystem of the rainforest, and even the fact that Tampines was named after a tree!

I really enjoyed this learning experience, which, although wasn’t directly related to what we were doing in the RRP Service, however, certainly gave an overall understanding of the importance of the Singapore MacRitchie rainforest and the value behind the flora and fauna (monkeys, snakes, spiders, birds, etc.) It would make quite a long reflection if I were to list all the things I learned from this off-campus Service “session”. I am really grateful for the opportunity UWCSEA East provided us with, since it proved to be very useful to me as an RRP Service member. This really made me overlook my view on the rainforest ecosystem, and I realized that my knowledge was quite limited beforehand, even though I thought I knew enough. The MacRitchie trail walk is one of the steps in my Service learning, that is as crucial as the others to my view on the nature of the Singapore, and perhaps beyond, – the rainforest ecosystem.

During the walk, I also kept my Communications position in mind, by taking various photos, that Zihan and I could later integrate with the other information the educational posters which we plan to make in the nearby future.

Also, to note. during the past couple of weeks, Zihan and I also had some time to discuss and brainstorm ideas for our main mission as the RRP Communications representatives: “Turning the tree nursery into an educational center”. Since one of the ways we will achieve it is through producing educational posters with educational materials about the UWCSEA East RRP nursery species, we began drafting out the way we were going to make them. During our discussion, Zihan even suggested we create a website, that students and UWCSEA East guests could access during the tour, through special barcodes, that we would attach to the different tables. This seemed like an interesting concept to me, but at the end of our discussion, we concluded that this idea wasn’t too convenient and posters would be more practical for learning more about the nursery. However, as an important part of this creative process, it is important to keep “tabs open”, and perhaps, the “website” idea can come into use in the future. I think this brainstorming process was a very fruitful experience for me, since I was really concentrated on the task and put my assessment and decision-making skills to use.

Something I would really want to improve on in the future, and what I consider to be my weakness, is a higher level of focus on a given task, and the ability to persevere and aspire to overcome a challenge, especially when it’s not the easiest. Hopefully, this is a skill that I can gradually gain over the course of the two service year at RRP.

RAINFOREST RESTORATION PROJECT REFLECTION #4

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LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS experiences

LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

For the past few sessions we, as the RRP group have been collecting data on our trees, as an expected follow-up from our Dover session. Since the various plants we keep in the school nursery have a key importance in Global warming by providing oxygen for our planet, we thought it was important to keep a database of them, where we could track their growth process.

As mentioned in my initial reflection, the overarching goal of this service is to restore rainforests in order to work towards saving our environment. Inputting our measurements into the database was not an action that would lead me to achieve it, however, it was a vital step in the line of the process. Again, just as before, seeing my classmates unified and collaborative in this aim that stretched over a couple of weeks was very gratifying and reassuring.

Since, my first reflection on RRP Service, those actions that initially seemed to be quite overwhelming, I now accomplish with confidence and ease. To focus in on specifically the measuring process – it went quite well for me. Well, what do I mean by this? What was the process even like? There were three components to measurement we took on as a group. Each group was assigned to different species, but the points to cover were exactly the same:

  1. Counting the leaves
  2. Measuring the base of the tree
  3. Counting the branches
  4. Measuring the crone width of the tree

For most of these parts, I had to use a special measuring tool, which I was competent enough at handling, saving the time to use it in action. And, overall, the process of collecting and inserting the data into the database, was quite simple, especially when working with a partner. My partner was Lita and I absolutely have to note that we collaborated really well, which, without say, speeded up our task process significantly. Now, that I am reflecting on this, I don’t recall any difficulties I’ve met, since, as I mentioned, the task was quite simple, even though it took a rather long period of time to accomplish it.

Another important task element that I took on with my RRP “colleagues” was labelling the different species. Since we, as a local service, want to keep everything organized, it was crucial for us that every species is accounted for. The labelling process was also, quite simple and straightforward, however, sometimes, identifying the plants and making sure to match them with the correct label was a little tiring and confusing. However, at the end of the day, this proved to be extremely useful, since with all plants fresh labelled, keeping track of everyone in the correct amount of detail will become sufficiently easier.

It is also vital to note, that because of the two processes: measurement and labelling, my ability to identify one plant species from the other got better, as well as my knowledge about the structure of the nursery. Realizing more, even marginally, about each species through my process, occurred very interesting to me, and I was quite glad that I acquired yet another skill, even though the learning wasn’t particularly intended.

Since the measurement process will be a recurring task for the RRP service at certain periods of time, the skills I acquired will be beneficial for me in the next round of measures. The same conclusion can be applied to the labelling because there is still some more work to do on that task in the future sessions. Overall, I feel that I am gradually becoming a real member of the service and that my contributions are valuable, as I see the positive result they bring.