Preseason Basketball 2018-2019

To begin with,

The 2018-2019 season started with a new change in UWCSEA East Dragons Basketball. Instead of having 16B, 16A, 19B, 19A teams, we would change to a similar style as SAS (Singapore American School) with a 16A (equivalent to Freshman), 19C (stronger Freshmen, Sophomores and juniors), 19B (Junior Varsity which is the 2nd strongest team compared to last year where 16A was the 2nd strongest) and 19A (Varsity). Additionally, there would also be a change in the coaching staff as the phenomenal Kevin Breslin had left to go back to the US and Jerel “Rel” Chavis would go to pursue a more professional career. In return, 2 new external Fastbreak coaches would replace them. Coach Alex and Coach Dominic would take on the JV team (Coach Alex) and 19C (Coach Dominic).

The Preseason would start with early morning sessions on Tuesdays which started at 6:15 am and Thursday nights which started at 6 pm. Early on there would be tryouts which would make the first draft of potential Varsity players to play in the Fastbreak Men’s League. After many rounds of cuts, I was quite lucky to make the Men’s League Team.

The Men’s League was quite an eye-opening experience at first as I was expecting to be playing against men who were not very well rounded at the sport, however, I was wrong. The men in the league were more experienced, athletic, taller, stronger and older than me. And these were men who were coming straight from work just to play some ball! The team consisted of 12 players and had 2 different coaches at times which were Coach Mescke and Coach Alex. I had some games where I lacked performance (scoring/assists/steals) and playing time but there were also times where I had contributed/played to the team and had good minutes. After playing 7 games with a total of 102 minutes, I had the stats of 15 minutes per game, 2 ppg, .182 3p%, 1.3 rebounds per game, 1 assist per game. The Men’s League was quite a learning experience.

Soon came the actual tryouts which I ended up making the 19B (JV) team, the team is looking pretty well rounded and the potential of the team is very high. We will be playing in the ACSIS 19U D2 against many other teams and will be playing good teams such as SAS and AIS. The prediction of this team is making the Semi-Final and possibly the Final. #GoDragons #GreenRunsDeep.

 

Have your say – Jason Teo

 

Do you get enough sleep?

  1. Honestly, I believe that I get enough sleep. Perhaps six hours of sleep may not seem enough compared to results found by Scientists saying that eight hours of sleep is minimum. For me personally, If I have six-seven hours of sleep I will be able to function and be active in school…If I have eight hours of sleep then I will be quite energetic in school.
  2. I don’t enjoy taking naps. I would probably not need regular naps then.
  3. My school might support napping as it will increase the student’s productivity in school which will obviously lead to better work being produced.
  4. My ability to learn does improve when I have a good number of hours of sleep.
  5. I do get enough sleep in general.

Which lessons from ‘gaming culture’ could be used in a Global Perspectives unit?

Gaming Culture has developed over time and has made an impact on many peoples lives in the 21st Century.  Gaming Culture can be used in a Global Perspective unit. For example, “do video game stereotypes hurt men” could be researched in. Video game stereotypes could be researched as men are portrayed as “strong” and the “protector” this might make men feel certain about a way that they act. Additionally, this can be controversial as why can’t the women be the protector? Furthermore, men in video games are quite muscular and tough which is making men feel insecure about their body image. 10-15% of people who suffer from anorexia and bulimia are men and sadly this is on the rise. As discussed before in Digital Perspectives, “does videos game make humans smarter” is also a widely discussed question. This could be used possibly in the Faith-Ethics-Ideology unit as it might grow discussion and be a valid example.

If some people still don’t agree with this then they can do some research and listen to different podcasts which discuss this topic. Lastly, if this topic was discussed more and given more consideration then there would definitely be a growth of this and possible outcome.

G9 Jason Teo – Personal Statement

 

Over my lifetime of 15 years, I have lived in multiple countries such as the United States, England, Hong Kong and now Singapore. I believe that after living in many different countries, I have a better understanding of the world and understand many different perspectives. Additionally, living in many different countries has given me many skills and taught me many important lessons. I believe that some strengths/skills of mine are: collaboration, communication, leadership, problem solving and resilience. I have gained these skills through different ways for example, I have gained resilience and collaboration in my extracurricular activity (U16A Basketball) where I had to learn how to be a teamplayer and how to work as a unit. I learnt communication through school-group projects as if you want to be more efficient that comes with being good communicators and to avoid conflict. Some of my goals for next year is to on top of my work (be organised) and use a growth mindset to broaden my knowledge (self motivation and confidence) in school. Additionally, I hope to do MUN again next year or join a committee. Furthermore, I would like to participate in more external competitions next year (UKMT). Beyond the classroom, a goal of mine next year is to either make SEASAC Basketball or win the ACSIS championship with U16. I would also like to possibly tryout for Track and Field.

 

Firstly, sometimes during this year, I felt that I left tasks to the last minute or had too many tasks to do. I also felt that if I was on top of my work and more meticulous I could clear space to do other things. Secondly, this year my U16 team lost in a close game in the finals to Dover. I feel that next year, our team has a high chance of winning the championship and beating Dover.

 

I hope to next year be more prepared for tests/mocks and always try to finish any tasks early. Similarly, I would like to be a even better team player and make others around me better.

 

I feel excited and keen to take on these goals. I believe if I really focus and get through all the roadblocks along the way then I can achieve my goals and reach my full potential.

The Story of my Still Perspective (DPERs)

After reading multiple articles, listening to multiple people, watching a debate and playing video games. My perspective hasn’t changed that much. I have heard many good arguments for and against why UWC should make game study compulsory/whether video games will make us smarter.

Some for arguments that were interesting to hear was that video games help create the learning of empathy as there are a lot of emotions in some video games.  Also, video games can help take stress off the student school work and relieve their stress. A very important argument that I heard from one of my classmates was that video games can help you create decisions (decision making in the video game) and can be connected to narrative writing as video games in comparison to stories need to have a plot, climax, resolution etc. Also, video games can help descriptive writing as in the game it can be quite descriptive and fruitful.

There were also several against arguments. Some common ones that I heard was that: video games are a waste of time, video games will make people less physically active, video games can be a bad influence (shooter games), various video games are unrealistic and can only help you with specific tasks. Some video games might be irrelevant for certain people. Video games in the past have been the cause of accidents which backs up the arguments.

In conclusion, my opinion on video games hasn’t changed too much as I play video games and haven’t been affected in a good or bad way in any shape or form.

 

U16A Basketball Postseason

This year, the U16A Basketball team was very strong. We worked very hard in the preseason and had a lot of talent on the team. We were led by Coach Kevin Breslin and with his motivation, we pushed through everything.

From dagger three-point shots to physical layups we were a very efficient basketball team. Results show this by winning all of the regular season games and losing one game to a very strong Dover team.

We had a walkover win in the first round of the playoffs and unfortunately lost to a rematch against Dover in the finals.

Overall it was a great season and was a lot of fun.

Shattered dreams: time to end child marriage.

By Jason Teo

Worldwide, a girl under 18 is married every two seconds. One-third of girls in the developing world are married before the age of eighteen and one in nine is married before the age of fifteen. If present trends continue, 150 million girls will be married before their 18th birthday over the next decade. That is an average of fifteen million girls each year. In the world we live in, child marriage is becoming an increasing grave but under scrutinized issue affecting humanity.

In general, women who reside in the developed world live a relatively good life – they have the opportunities and freedom to receive an education, pursue a career, live their dreams and achieve their life goals. Women in developing countries pale in comparison. What makes things considerably worse is that in some developing countries such as Bangladesh and Ethiopia, many young girls are forced into child marriage because of poverty or lack of opportunity. As a result of being married as children, these women are often socially isolated within the husband’s family, leaving them disempowered and deprived. Their typical daily routine is reduced to semi-slavery, doing manual work and household chores.

The life of a child is unimaginable. How would a young girl feel to be silenced and not able to reach her dreams as a child? All these young married girls are missing out on things that we in the developed world take for granted: going to school, getting a job, playing sports, having friends and most importantly having a good time.

Young married girls in Ethiopia utilized cameras to tell their story (source: http://www.robynehayes.com).

 

Not only does child marriage affect the women’s mental state but it also affects their physical state. Child marriage is one of the leading causes of pregnancy during adolescence. As the child bride gets married at an early age, they then become pressured by the community to give birth and subsequently become a mother. This is something that a young girl is never prepared for. Once they become pregnant, there is a high risk of mortality to the mother and the child. To give an insight, babies of child brides are 60% more likely to die in the first year of life than those born to mothers older than 19 years. Furthermore, child brides often face a higher risk of contracting HIV because they often marry an older man with more sexual experience. In addition, early marriage is one of the most common reasons given to drop out of school leaving young girls to take on family responsibilities and domestic work. What is more important is that school dropout leads them to become uneducated and unskilled. For example, in Mozambique, 60 percent of girls with no education are married by the age of 18 years, compared to 10 percent of girls with secondary schooling and less than one percent of girls with higher education.

There has been a counter-argument to this: although those affected by child marriage are mostly female, boys are affected too. Boys might not want to get married but are forced because of the traditions held over generations. And the roles between women and men within the household of child marriage are balanced and equal unlike the conventional child rights activities think. I feel that regardless of the viewpoints at stake, we should eliminate structural inequality and gender discrimination. Child marriage is a very complex issue that needs to be addressed through various actions at local, national and global levels.

Currently, there are many NGOs and people working towards curtailing child marriage customs and practices. One of them is Robyne Hayes, albeit not known by everyone, who is hoping to make a significant impact on changes in child marriage practice. Robyne Hayes is a trained researcher but currently also works as a social justice photographer. She has worked for the International Center for Research on Women, and as a research consultant for CARE International. In fact, Robyne has recently completed projects in Bangladesh and Ethiopia to study and eliminate child marriage. Both her projects included her favorite tool which is photography. She used photography to allow the girls who went through child marriage to express themselves and record their daily lives by teaching them how to use a camera. Through this exercise, she conducted a field research and interviewed girls on how change can be made. After communicating with men involved as part of Robyne’s project, these girls stated that they had seen a change and that there had been a difference after interventions.

(source: http://www.robynehayes.com)

Above is a Robyne’s favorite picture. When asked why this was her favorite picture, Robyne said she “wants every girl to be like this: every girl has the freedom and opportunity to reach their goals.” Robyne’s project clearly shows that through will and determination, there is a possibility that the misery of child marriage can be stopped. I believe that in this world, we can make a change through collective actions and concerted efforts. As global citizens, we will need work together to improve education and public awareness to empower young girls to fight against gender biases and existing social norms. Child marriage is a trap for young girls. It is time to free them.

Bibliography

International Centre for Research for Women, [https://www.icrw.org/]
CARE: Fighting Poverty and World Hunger, [http://www.care.org/]
Girls Not Brides, [https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/]
Woden Q, Tavares P, Fiala O et al (2017). Ending Child Marriage: child marriage laws and their limitations, World Bank.

Divi

The Design Basics

Proximity: All about using visual space to show relationships in your content.All relevant items are together and non-relevant aren’t grouped together.

White Space: It is negative space, spaces between contents, between lines and outer margins. White space helps you define and separate different sections.

Alignment: Arranged, making sure that the alignment of the content is consistent, this way it will be more organized.

Contrast: One item is different to another, this can catch the readers eye, making an emphasis of something or call attention to something important.

Repetition: Reinforcing your design, making everything look consistent.

Rough Draft
Thinking about the client
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We want our logo to show a general idea of Writers Fortnight is. Like in the empathy map, we hope that the logo shows that Writers Fortnight is an interesting and relatable experience. Additionally, we hope that it can engage the listeners and be fun. Overall it should allow the viewer to take something away.

  1. The entire process of using Adobe Illustrator requires the person to be a problem solver, as it is mostly new to everyone and it will take time to understand the tools. As well as when mistakes are made, you would need to be a problem solver to fix it. The keys to dealing with frustration and persisting through the confusion is that you need to remain Cool, Calm and Collected. After you have the three C’s everything will go smoothly.
  2. I found myself to be using the “Curiosity” from the adaptable mind. As Adobe Illustrator is new to me, I was quite curious about all the different tools and what I could make with the software.
  3. With the ATL tasks, I felt that I didn’t really need to use it that much as the work wasn’t too difficult and was quite straight forward.

 

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How is social media helping with disasters?

After reading the following articles: 

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/6-ways-social-media-is-changing-the-world/

https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/06/digital-media-can-enhance-family-life-says-lse-study?__twitter_impression=true

doing the idea bracket (8 teams single Elimination) and the discussions. 

I have came up with the idea that Social Media can help respond to disasters. How? 

For example, Facebook’s Safety Check allows users in disaster zones to mark themselves as safe. This was very important during hurricane Irma and hurricane Harvey. And will be important for disasters in the future. Additionally, ‘digital humanitarians’ can log on online when a disaster occurs to help with technical problems, donate and sign up to volunteer for help. An example some people help is by the #PrayFor____. These digital humanitarians are very important in the world we live in today and can help create connections. Not only does social media help with disasters but with movements. 

I think this is quite relevant as many disasters have occurred. Since a lot of people currently in 2018 have social media, they do have the opportunity to help others and cause change. 

 

 I thought this picture ultimately sums up today’s reflection. As everything discussed was practically connected with supporting others and making connections.