Category: CAS

Basketball, 2nd reflection

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Through the past few months, I played basketball with the school coaches in the U19 basketball team. Below are my reflections on the learning objectives I set myself at the beginning of the year.

#LO2 Challenge: I constantly challenge my boundaries through the last few months’ training. In my recent training, I asked my coach how far I have made since the beginning of the year, he said: “You progressed a lot, although some techniques and forms still need to be improved, well done.” I always challenge myself through actively pairing up with people that have more experience than me during group games.

#LO4 Commitment: Basketball is a sport that I am passionate about and I have committed to this sport since middle school. During the past months, I have participated in every training available, as well as playing basketball with my friends casually outside of training times. And I believe that casual basketball games are times when I can use the skills I learned during training to develop them further as well as putting them into practice.

#LO5 Collaboration: Basketball exercised my collaboration skills. During training, I realized I have been communicating and collaborating more with my teammates. Basketball is a team sport that needs a lot of communication and collaboration. During our attacks and defences, I began to use hand signals as well as verbal expressions to inform my teammates/trick opponents to the direction I am passing the ball to. Recently, I realized my passes, receives, attacks, and defences have been much smoother than what they used to be.

Surfaid Global Concern – 2nd reflection

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For the past months, although we cannot conduct fundraisers physically, our group came a long way in terms of merchandise design and moving our future plans forward. We created a few more merchandise this year: except for our Surfaid stickers, this year, we have implemented masks and swimming caps designed for our swimming team. Below is my reflection on the goals I set myself at the beginning of the year.

#LO6 Global Value: Surfaid, being a global organization, takes global value very seriously. As the enterprise officer, when helping the chair to create and develop new ideas for merchandise, I always conduct research and discuss with the service office on whether the supplier has unethical practices or practices that hurt our kept global value. We have then narrowed the suppliers down, in which we are contacting them for further information.

#LO7 Ethics: As mentioned above, we take ethical decisions very seriously as a group. Since we cannot do fundraising events in the school for the past months, we have shifted our focus into developing merchandise. “Merchandise is dangerous,” says staff from the service department, as they say, that every piece of good that we sell has to be ethical, and that might be hard in this modern, industrialized world of manufacturing. But fortunately, after research and meeting with the Surfaid headquarters, we have found companies that are school-approved and ethical.

I look forward to our new merchandise, and hopefully, we can host fundraising events in the next few months!

Lions Befrienders Local Service 2nd Reflection

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It has been almost 4 months since Lions Befrienders began this year, and I truly believe that we have accomplished a lot over the four months. Every member of the group learned something during these four months.

In the beginning, we did not know much about the situation. Due to COVID-19, we cannot directly visit the Lions Befrienders Center. Thus, we are forced to move online. For the first few weeks, when things were still getting settled, we asked Coach Sul from the activities department to come to our session and introduce some movements/exercises and we could potentially do with the elderlies. Afterwards, we discussed and decided on a routine in which we will conduct the exercises.

For the following weeks, we recorded videos of the exercises in a group during our sessions and sent the videos off to the centre for them to watch, as the service department was negotiating with the partner regarding live sessions. We also did a Christmas special video when we dressed up with Christmas decorations and did the exercises, “it was very entertaining”, the elderlies feedbacked. Recently, we were permitted to conduct live ZOOM sessions with our service partner, we did so, and all the group members enjoyed interacting with the elderlies, I believe the elderlies enjoyed it too. In my September reflection, I have set myself some goals, below, I will reflect on those goals and perhaps plan how I can move forward:

#LO1 Awareness: Since this is my third year in the Lions Befrienders Service group, I have a good understanding of what our service group needs to do moving forward. Additionally, we have a lot of new members joining us this year, being an experienced member, I can quickly settle the new members into our service group’s mission and vision, which made their transitions easier.

#LO3 Initiative: As Lions Befrienders is one of the few local service groups that tackle the global problem of an ageing population, we are trying to take initiatives to be the role model for other similar service/focus groups and global concern groups. During the past few months, as we are not able to visit their service centre directly, we took the initiative of video calling them instead of just recording videos for elderlies to watch, as we feel live sessions will be more exciting and engaging for both the elderlies and us. Also, we have a very reflective group, every time when some parts of the session go off-track, members will often come up with a solution right away, which I am really happy about, without the wonderful members, our service would not come so far.

#LO4 Commitment: All the group members are committing to this service, everyone has been incredibly passionate, and excited everyone when we see the elderlies, despite virtually. We will keep the passion and power through the rest of the school year.

#LO6 Global Value: Our service group tackles the global problem of an ageing population, we help them to actively age and live a health livestyle. Additionally, we are still working to better enhance their experience and interaction with us. We are also working towards teaching them the importance of an active lifestyle on health and mind.

#LO7 Ethics: When creating our exercise routine, our group was faced with some ethical decisions: we have to take elderlies that are unable to move well into account. Therefore, for every exercise that we are designing, we have another variation that can be performed by elderlies that are not able to stand up (on wheelchairs). Which effectively tackled the problem, when we conducted the live ZOOM session, we found out that there are physical inconvenient elderlies who found the alternation of the exercise very helpful, their reactions gratified everyone.

I look forward to our future sessions with our service partner!

Surfaid – Global Concern

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Surfaid International is an international organization that focuses on the wellbeing of villages and communities in remote islands in Indonesia.

#LO6 Global Value: As mentioned, Surfaid is an international organization, and our activity in Singapore does contribute to actions and projects happening in those villages in Indonesia. Thus, we need to have a sense of global value and connection in order to maximize our learning outcome.

#LO7 Ethics: Since this is a global organization and our Global Concern group is a part of it, we have to think some ways to fundraise in order to help with Surfaid’s projects in Indonesia. During those fundraisers, a lot of our income generated is by selling Surfaid merchandises. This is where ethics often come in. It’s because there are a lot of companies nowadays uses unsustainable material and labour. Thus, we have to check the production and materials they use in products before actually ordering them. The decisions we make will have a negative impact on the environment and workers’ wellbeing if we are not careful. Thus, we always check with the product manufacturer and verify before ordering any merchandise.

I really look forward to this year’s Surfaid and I am interested in how it will go! We have many members joining this year and I look forward to working with them as well!

 

Lions Befrienders – Local Service – Connecting Seniors, Enriching Lives

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Today, 14 September 2020, I have started committing to Lions Befrienders – again!

I have been in Lions Befrienders since I joined the school in Grade 9. And I was nominated for the chair of the service since then.  I look forward to this year’s local service experience as we have new members joining. The mission is to provide friendship and care for seniors to age in place with community participation and enabling them to enjoy meaningful and enriching lives.

#LO1 Awareness: As mentioned above, I have been in Lions Befrienders since Grade 9. Thus, I know what is needed further in this service group. I had led the group for years, thus I understand what needs to be done to make this service better for our partners, as well as reflecting what went well and the way going forward.

#LO3 Initiative: This service was an initiative. As we do not have a lot of these care centres around the world focusing on the wellbeing of elderlies. This Social Service Agency was formed in 1995 by the Lions Clubs of Singapore and Lions District Project. Our service group regularly plan for new activities to enjoy with the elderlies and reflect often on the progress. If there are changes to the plan suddenly, we often adjust to the new plan as fast and as effective as possible.

#LO4 Commitment: I have been participating in this service group two years ago when I joined the school. I have always been motivated to do this service, it’s because I feel a connection to the elderlies every time they smile at us, I also know how important it is for seniors to actively age. It’s that which motivates me to continue to contribute and lead this service group.

#LO6 Global Value: Our service group addresses the problem of the ageing population. This is a problem across many countries. It is significant because many seniors have mental implications due to lack of support from their families/friends. This is why we need organizations such as Lions Befrienders to help them actively age and provide them with physical and mental support.

#LO7 Ethics: This service group often tackles learning object seven which is ethics. We have to make ethical decisions every time we have to come up with new game/activity ideas that we plan to do with the elderlies. Every member of us have to participate and interact with elderlies, additionally, we have to make sure that every senior is feeling comfortable playing with us. Sometimes we have to adapt to what they prefer, which helps me and the whole service group to learn.

I look forward to this year’s local service sessions and I look forward to working with new and old members!

Musical Showcase, Beginning

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This year, I have signed up for the musical showcase. I auditioned, and got in the casting team!

#LO1 Awareness: I am aware that musicals are different from singing. Singing is one of my strengths. However, musicals also involve acting, as well as dancing. It also involves me to collaborate and communicate productively with other people, which are things that I aim to work towards and to improve in rehearsals.

#LO2 Challenge: This is the first time I am participating in a musical showcase. Thus, there will be a certain level of challenge as I do not have a lot of experience or knowledge in musicals. I need to learn how to act/dance while singing at the same time, more importantly, I have to learn to work with everyone else collaboratively. I believe my self-management and collaboration skills will allow me to overcome these challenges!

#LO3 Initiative: I have watched many musicals in the past, I am in the school choir Bersama, however, I have not yet performed in any musicals! This year is a perfect opportunity for me to explore this area of the performing arts (which I have always liked). This is an initiative I have chosen because I have never experienced in this field. Nevertheless, I have very excited and I look forward to collaborating with everyone who is involved!

#LO5 Collaboration: Musical requires a lot of collaboration because there have to be enough communications in order to express the sense of connection between characters. Thus, collaboration is a key element in it. I am confident that I will collaborate well with everyone else, I have always been open-minded and I really enjoy working with people!

I really look forward to this year’s musical production. And I can’t wait to perform!

Basketball U&19 Pre-season, Beginning

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Today, 2 September 2020, is the first session of my basketball U&19 Pre-season training.

This post is going to plan for my learning outcomes for the 1st season activities – Basketball.

#LO2 Challenge: First of all, basketball can challenge me. Although I have played basketball for several years now. My skills are still not perfect, in fact, no one can be perfect in any sports. There are always skills to be learned. Thus, this sport can challenge me in many aspects, both physically and mentally, and I look forward to those challenges.

#LO5 Collaboration: Secondly, basketball can exercise my collaboration skills. It’s because basketball is a team sport that needs a lot of communication and collaboration. For example, when someone is defending you, you might want to “call a screen” (a strategy where one of the team members come forward to block the opponent’s path, in order for the attacker to reach the hoop), that requires collaboration and communication. Thus basketball as a team sport can truly exercise one’s collaboration skills.

#LO4 Commitment: Additionally, basketball is a sport that I have committed to for years. In fact, I started playing basketball since middle school. I was always interested in this sport. And in recent years, I have brought this sport up to the competition level. I wish to commit to this sport in the future.

I look forward to this seasons basketball training! And I hope that I will be able to achieve all of my learning outcomes at the end! I am really excited!