Pilates Season2 reflection

Activity season 2 was similar to season 1 in terms of the amount of work I had to do and academic stress.

During the weekdays, I did not manage to exercise even though I did stretching quite often. Therefore, as an alternative, I chose to continue to do pilates+ some other exercises on Saturday mornings. I think when one is busy and stressed, it is easy to choose to spend free time sleeping or watching TV or playing games. And I did that in the past. But I recently realized that moving one’s body regularly is not only important for losing weight but also for stabilizing one’s mind and overcoming extreme stress. And therefore, I am proud of myself who planned to do Pilates every week. I have previously learned Pilates back in Korea but at that time, I was having a more regular life routine(e.g slept earlier,  worked out more often) which meant my body was generally stronger and in better condition. But doing pilates this year was different. I had so many pains in my shoulder and back, had irregular sleeping routines writing university essays, and therefore found it harder to follow the movements. However, I was proud of myself who improved little by little in terms of flexibility and endurance. However, I am aware that I still need to strengthen the core which I hope to continue to work on in the future.

 

Piltates season 1 final reflection

I did pilates at least once a week with my mom and my instructor Ana during the first activity season. Because of a lot of tests I had to take in and out of school, I was extremely nervous and always found myself slouching, which I wanted to fix. Pilates seemingly sounds like a stretching exercise, but I realized it requires way more strength than I expected. At times, especially when we were doing core exercises, I struggled to follow the moves and wanted to give up. However, I knew that the struggle I have will help me strengthen my body so I tried my best to do what I can.  I think this positivity I had towards Pilates helped me improve the movements as well as my posture bit by bit as time went by. I am excited to continue working out.

CAS Pilates season1 initial reflection

I started doing the pilates a few days after I finished my stay home notice(Quarantine).

Having been stuck at home made me feel blue and demotivated. SHN has been the best/maybe worse excuse for me to not exercise(even though I occasionally did some stretching). Other than going to the gym, another activity I hope/will continue is pilates. It is not just about being more fit but also about fixing my posture and back pain.

I expect to have a better posture and be able to have a more relaxed mind after doing the pilates.

 

Dance showcase interim reflection

We as a group have done many rehearsals recently as some of our group members were missing during the last few weeks due to stay home notice. We had to change some formations and it took time to teach dances to those people, which took some more time for us as a whole group. I also realized my own weakness, which was finding my position when changing the formation and keeping an equal distance from people next to me. I think it is an important element when doing the team dance. I think I will need to focus on this area from now on till the show.

Yoga with Tampines MINDS season 1 final reflection

During season 1, we had quite a lot of sessions with our partners. I initially thought we could change the yoga program routine ourselves as a student, but it was quite sad that we cannot develop it further. But I think that Ms Veron’s words that our partners may not be able to follow the moves if we change it makes more sense. In some sessions, we did not have our partners coming so we just practiced teaching yoga as a pair. I did this practice with Christine. By doing this practice, we found many mistakes or lack of care we had as a tutor. We did not know how to help another person breathe in and out more easily using bodies. This was initially very challenging for both me and Christine. So we kept on trying different methods(for example, holding shoulders) and some of them worked!! Also, we decided to prepare for the situations where partners cannot do the postures as they are and hence we need to modify the moves for them. This wad my idea, worrying that my partner who was not as flexible as others might find some moves challenging. So for moves in which one had to bend down, we created a modified version in which one goes down with knees bent. I think I should have introduced these modified versions to other service students, but I think it was not needed for other partners. when my partner came next time, I could introduce her to the modified versions. She did not want to do some of them, but she was generally more willing to do moves than before, which I think is a progress.

String ensemble 2019-2020 season 4 final reflection

During lockdown, we recorded ourselves playing our own part&instrument but could not rehearse together and

our concert that was supposed to be in esplanade hall was cancelled. But I tried to practice the cello regularly, especially focusing on improving basic skills which I did not have time for when I had to spend a lot of time going  to school and coming back home before the lockdown. Even though everything has changed and was uncertain, I think I found ways to make most out of the given situation and I think it is the most important lesson I learned during the lockdown that I need to accept the situation and plan how to deal with the changes. Also, by doing the string ensemble, I learned how to play my own instrument while also hearing other sounds. This was initially hard for me as I play a lot of solo songs or pieces by myself, but I think I got used to hearing other’s sound through this experience.

Dance showcase Initial reflection

As a Disney movie lover, Aladdin is one of my favorite movies. When I watched as a young kid, I

really liked the cute personality of Gini despite his giant body. I was so happy when I heard I got into Aladdin dance

team for that reason. On the first rehearsal, we started practicing the dance to the song called “Friends Like ME” By Will Smith which is a very energetic and bright Jazzy song. Dance we learned was not that hard, but some of the moves were quite complicated so I thought I would need to spend much time doing individual practice. From this experience, I would like to develop my skills in dance and collaborate with people who also have passion in dance and performing.

Astronomy club initial reflection

This Thursday was a public holiday called “Chuseok” in my home country, South Korea. Since I was young,

I loved watching the Moon or the stars just because. I still don’t know the exact reason but watching the moon or stars in the night sky made me happy and it kind of healed my mind. As I grew older, I got to wonder the details of the stars and the Moon I was observing. When I was in elementary school, I was part of the school scout and we often went to observatory in the country side. I was so shocked when I learned that the stars that I am watching in the night sky are

already dead. I wanted to discover more interesting facts about what is going on in the universe and as I am studying HL physics in IB, I thought there would be some connections I can make in between as well. In the first session I attended,

one g11 did a presentation on her research and it was really interesting.

 

Pre season touch final reflection

Having been able to be part of pre season touch was very helpful for me. I was always tired and exhausted from tests and new ways of learning and studying in the IB and exercising in the morning made me stop worrying about upcoming test and just focus on touch. Also, developing even small skills made me proud of myself. I also think that I learned a lot from other players who had been playing it for a long time. I learned how to pass well and everything else from them. I realized that I need to keep doing workouts to be able to run faster and without being exhausted.

Project week planning process

Project week has been cancelled, but until we got to know it was cancelled,

we tried our best to be on top of the process. Our group was formed when me and my friend Gwenda met and some other friends talked to us and realised that we all wanted to go to Thailand. Personally, I love teaching young children and that’s why I really wanted to visit mercy center to communicate with children and teach them some useful skills to the students there. I believed that receiving an education that can help one really further develop skills necessary for what one pursues in the future would be so important.As a student coming from Korean local school in Korea, I know how hard and important it is for one to learn proper English in a short period of time and use it to communicate with others for one to lead a succesful career when one grows up. Therefore I and my group members thought teaching English and other languages would be the most meaningful activity. We actually had some difficulty contacting Mercy center as they did not reply to our emails until we sent almost 5 emails in total. However, I and Ami and Yuyu tried our best to contact them by asking for advice to our supervisor so we finally solved that problem. After that, we successfully designed program that we wanted to lead. I was the one who gave many ideas such as teaching languages other than English as well(Japanese korean Chinese) as we had people with all three nationalities in our group. We also found accommodation that was located in safe area, affordable, and close to Mercy center. We did have difficulties following the instructions especially when we had to fill out many different forms(some of our group mates were staying in China in Feb) but other than that, we really enjoyed the process.