Tabitha GC #5, 12th May 2019

ueki65597@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on

Currently, what we are doing in the Tabitha GC, is trying to learn more about the purpose of the GC and the values which it holds. It has been hard to learn about all of Tabitha, so our GC decided to separate into groups, and parts of the group all have a different area to research on. This shows LO4 commitment, which has been displayed over the year because although we were not able to go to Cambodia as we wanted to, we are still willing to learn more about the issue and find about what Tabitha is doing to help those in need. On the next week, we will hopefully learn all about the different areas researched by different teams of the GC on a presentation, which will be held on one of our meetings which we have on every Tuesday on lunch. I will be presenting the cotton industry and how it has helped women in Cambodia work at home, being able to take care of their children but also be able to work and earn some money which they need.

Special Olympics Badminton #5, 12th May 2019

ueki65597@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on

As I have had some time to reflect more about the sessions I have been having in the Special Olympics badminton service, I have learned that this service in particular, really tests out LO4, which is commitment. This is because not only are there a few clashes with other event performances which may occur on the same day. It is really hard to commit to this service because of the timing of the sessions. As I have previously mentioned, I really do think that this service tackles a lot towards the commitment needed in order to be successful. There is a lot I have learned as I spend more time in this service; the first being I have learned how to manage my time on Thursdays quite well. Although at first, it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference to be organized one day of the week, but by being able to stay organized on Thursdays, I have been able to be much more progressive on Thursday, using the times from 3:10 to 4:30 to study and do whatever is due on Friday, and use the rest of the time(4:30 to 7:30) to practice playing music. I think that if I weren’t as committed to this service, I don’t think I would be able to achieve this as I would likely spend a lot of time going home, then possibly arriving late because of the distance between my house and school.

Unplugged 30th October 2018

ueki65597@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on

When participating in unplugged, my initial aim was to learn my part very well and play together with the rest of my band, as time passed my choice had changed because I then thought more about something more challenging for me which was to do some improvisation. This was really hard because I had never done any improvisation. The hard part of improvisation when I am new is that I don’t know how it will turn out until the end when I finish the improvisation. Nevertheless, I have progressed learning more about improvisation and playing the song. As I performed the song, unfortunately, there was one of the strings of my instrument that was untuned and I forgot to tune it, the problem is that most of the improvisation and a large part of the climax of the song is played on that string which had made it hard to play.

I think that I used both LO 1 and 2, I think I had challenged myself quite a lot by trying to play one of the harder pieces of music that I have played until this day. This helped me as I became aware of my learning curve and how I should improve on certain aspects because there were quite a lot of parts of the song we were performing which was really hard to tackle and was something which I have not done before.

On the performance itself, I had found it a strong challenge as the event is held quite intimate as the audience is very close and it is quite obvious when mistakes are made. This made it a very high risk to try to play a hard song in this scenario, one of the larger problems held was that there when I performed, there was something wrong and the tunings of the bass guitar was off making it not possible for me to play the main bass riff which is played commonly across the song as it brings a climax to each verse, unfortunately, because of this, I was unable to play that part and had to stop playing every time it was the end of the first verse. Because of this, the performance was quite a letdown to me but other than that I was still able to realize I was out of tune in time and was able to avoid the whole performance from sounding bad in the event.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/B1SCkLWW8TTd2UpYA

Extended Essay Reflection

ueki65597@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on

After having a meeting with my Extended Essay supervisor, I now have a clear idea of what my extended Essay should be and what are the necessary steps I have to take place in order to be able to continue having progress on the EE. What I need to do in order to continue having progress with my EE is that I have to analyze both books and compare both the similarities and differences between them. My aim for the EE is to compare both books which are classified as self-help books and analyze how the format of the genre has been maintained regardless and how there is a sense of timelessness towards this genre of books, the reason why I picked both these books is because they have both been proven to be highly regarded as very helpful books according to critics and other successful people regardless of the outdated publishes they have.

Project Week reflection 1# 22nd March 2019

ueki65597@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on

As of right now, planning out the project week has been harder then I have imagined, there have been many challenges such as managing the price and also setbacks such as having to change the location which we wanted to go on a project week, and having to plan with another project week group has also been hard to do. My goals for the planning part of project week is to be able to have a set plan about what to do as well as having a plan as to what to do our creativity on. It has been hard to plan out both because we must confirm all that we do with Ms. Toth and because of how busy she is having to support all the other different project week groups, makes it hard to confirm with her and when we are not confirmed we can’t advance to the next stage. Also planning our documentary is one of the hardest aspects of the trip as we are not fully aware of the country and the surroundings. it is also hard because it is a documentary which has a lot of unpredictable aspects, such as the weather, people we are interviewing and the places which will be best to add to the documentary. Our group has been showing a lot of initiative by taking different roles in the process. As I am currently assigned video editor, I have been learning many different skills on editing in order to be able to make the video by placing footage together. And as a group, I have had taken part in the decision making on all of the different tasks needed to do throughout the preparation of the trip.

Special Olympics Badminton #4, 13th March 2019

ueki65597@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on

I have just recently finished another meeting with the athletes and have done one more session with my athlete, Alex. Alex and I have reached some bumps which have made it hard to improve in the game. This is because Alex now has a much better hit and is now able to beat me many times, compared to before when we would only keep passing the shuttle from one of us to another. I think that although it is hard to progress as much as before, I think that this is a great achievement as both of us are now able to play in a more competitive level and are able to challenge ourselves even further than before. This hits LO2 which is challenge, in order to overcome this challenge I think that I will have to start looking into more complicated ways to teach Alex and other more challenging exercises which I will try to have him do, in order to improve his skills as a badminton player.

PSE Gender Bias Reflection

ueki65597@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on

 

In what ways do you see Gender Bias or Gender Privilege in…..

your family?

In my family, there is a low amount of gender bias as both my sister and I are mostly treated equally. Although there is some leniency towards me over my sister from my grandfather as he does have some older stereotypes which he was raised in.

your community?

In my community, there is little to no gender bias or privilege towards any gender as the country which I live in is far more developed than other countries and there is a much better and open community which accepts female equality and have both laws and morals put into place which helps with a decrease of gender bias.

Your World?

In our world, there is a lot of gender bias, mainly towards men, and although there have been actions that attempt to change and decrease gender bias and privilege, there is still a high amount of gender bias which is still present.

During our final activity last week, you were given a role and asked to step forward when answer questions about self-determination, education, safety, etc.

What role did you have? Where did you finish in comparison to others? Why?

I had the role of Female doctor. I ended up quite high in the chain compared to others and I think that this is because of the occupation which I had been given and I don’t think that there is any correlation to my position to the chain which is related with the gender I was assigned in the activity.

In your view, what are the drivers for social mobility in society? In what instances to do gender limit that mobility?

One of the main drivers in social mobility is the gender, this is because there has been a long chain in the past which the main leaders in control were male and some carry on this trend by trying to keep their eldest sons as the one to inherit the family fortune and name. But there have been some changes which have been improving social mobility regardless of gender.

List some personal examples of either experiencing or seeing gender bias or gender privilege.

On my older schools, there were quite a few cases of gender bias in cases where guys would revert to stereotypical jokes and would address the woman in ways that would diminish them and would also have thoughts about lower expectations for women.

What can you do within your community to combat negative gender stereotypes or gender bias?

In my community there already are a really high amount of actions which combat negative gender stereotypes. This makes it easier to support the movement against gender bias by providing support for the actions done and also raising awareness by talking about gender bias.

Tabitha GC #3, 14th February 2019

ueki65597@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on

Recently, our group of the grade 11 Tabitha GC has decided not to go on the project week trip as the trip is going to be very expensive and there are many which are struggling to commit to the service. Because I have a performance coming up of playing the marimba, I have been unable to attend, but have been able to help out with the events when needed, this is because the time clashes together. What I have been having a struggle with especially is the clash between both these CAS activities as they both are very important to me. In order to compensate, I have to keep looking and keep myself updated with what is happening in the Tabitha GC and as the time progresses and soon I will finish the marimba performance and be able to attend the GC meetings as well, facilitating myself with keeping updated.