Tag Archives: reflection

CAS

Project Week CAS Reflection

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For project week, me and a group of four other students planned to go to Cambodia to work with the Green Umbrella organization, as well as take part in a cycling activity from north to south Cambodia. Our first steps included communicating with the chairs of the Global Concern, to make sure we carried out the goals that they associated with the organization. This was a fairly simple process as two of my group members were co-chairs of the GC, therefore we had all the information necessary to make a successful visit to the organization. 

My job was to communicate directly with the head of the organization in Cambodia and express our interest in collaborating with them in order to develop their teaching program. I feel as though it took a lot of perseverance and diligence as I was the main point of contact between the organization and our group. Over the course of a few weeks, emails were exchanged in order to organize a detailed itinerary, discussing the daily activities we would participate in. 

As a group, one of our main concerns was to make sure that our visit to the organization would be effective. In addition to directly taking action for this cause, we also kept in mind the importance of being respectful and forming meaningful relationships with the students and volunteers at the organization. In order to do this, we carried out research and spoke to individuals who had experience with the organization and Cambodian culture in general, in order to better understand how to be self-aware during the trip.  

Although we did not get the opportunity to go on the trip, I feel as though I grew a lot as a person and developed my understanding of perspective. Not only did I challenge myself through volunteering to have a main communicative role, I also feel as though I had a personal responsibility to make realistic plans – in order to benefit both the organization and my group members. I feel as though I had to be principled throughout, and keep an open mind in situations so that I could promote a constructive environment within my group. I think that these are skills that I can carry forward through my higher education and in general when forming connections with new people. 

Overall, I feel as though the project week planning experience was influential on my group as we all experienced a new side of responsibility, and sometimes were pushed out of our comfort zone. Although I am slightly disappointed that I wasn’t able to physically go on the trip, I feel as though it was a positive learning experience. 

 

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

English EOY Reflection

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I think the most memorable pieces of work that I will take with me are Cyrano de Bergerac and The Great Gatsby. In both these pieces, the authors present interesting conflicts between the male characters and show how the course of their lives is ultimately dependent on women and the decisions that men make for them. In addition, these pieces are so memorable because, through the lens of the global issues of culture, identity, and community, the author characterises the males as egotistical and arrogant, when in fact they seem to be not in control over their own lives.

The biggest takeaway from poetry tasks has been the importance of showing not only what a poet chooses to and the effect it may have but also to question why exactly they chose to do so, and their intended meaning. By taking this factor into account, I have been able to elevate my analysis by exploring the literary techniques in more depth.

CAS

Kahaani CAS Reflection 1

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LO4 – Commitment 

  • How did I show perseverance, resilience, and commitment in this activity?
  • How did I help others or how did others help me to stay committed to this activity?

Since I am not a dancer, participating in this activity definitely began as a challenge. With the quick and complex dance routines I initially found it difficult to perfect the moves and become comfortable with them. However, our dance group is extremely collaborative, perhaps because we are all familiar with each other, which further aids in the success of this activity. In addition, it is a very comfortable environment and thus I was not shy to ask questions and get help in order to improve my dance skills. Moreover, the dance group environment is very stress-free and understanding, which not only made me feel more comfortable dancing but also made me excited to attend every rehearsal and ensure that I was a committed member of the dance group. Furthermore, this type of environment allowed me to begin assisting others and especially working with my dance partner to make sure that we were performing the dance moves correctly and with proper form.

  • What impact did my commitment have on the success of the activity?

By consistently staying committed to this activity, by attending every rehearsal during school and the holidays, I have improved my dance skills to another level and become much more comfortable in the dance group. As a result, I have been more successful in the dance routines as I am able to correctly perform the moves and ensure that the dances look clean and rehearsed. Thus, my commitment has aided in the success of the activity as we progress through rehearsals, leading up to the final performance in a months time.

  • What things affected my commitment levels?

The initial challenges I faced did make it harder for me to stay motivated during rehearsals, as lots of time and energy was required. However, the fun and excitement of dancing and interacting with familiar friends made me very motivated to attend every rehearsal and ensure that I was putting my maximum potential effort into each dance, as I also wanted to improve my dance skills and appear properly rehearsed on stage.

Rehearsal Video 1 Rehearsal Video 2

Academic, English Learner Profile (ELP)

Paper 1 Reflection

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Something I did well:

  • Pay attention to the isolated line, and how it is used as a turning point
  • Deep insights

Something I would like to do better:

  • Properly differentiating between “the speaker,” “the poet,” “persona,” and “his.”
  • Giving convincing arguments for lineation and the intention of the poet (e.g. enjambment)
  • More careful attention to small details
    • e.g. quoting correctly and therefore interpreting a metaphor correctly
  • More variation in terms of vocabulary
  • Better presentation of ideas in general.

 

CAS

U19 Touch Rugby CAS Reflection

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LO4 – Commitment

  • How did I show my perseverance, resilience, and commitment in this activity?
  • How did I maintain my motivation for this activity?
  • How did I help others or how did others help me to stay committed to this activity?

Throughout the season, I was consistently committed to both training sessions and games, because I wanted my team to be successful and I wanted to learn and improve and to prove to myself and everybody that touch rugby is something that I am passionate about and something that I want to strive in. I think that this goal helped me to maintain my motivation for this activity and to keep supporting my team players. After games that we lost, we made sure that we would work on our skills during training in order to be more successful in the future. I believe that this drive is what helped us to ultimately come together as a team and play well together, knowing each of our strengths and weaknesses. I think that as a team, we all wanted to have success so this helped us to stay motivated and committed to achieving this goal and improving our general skills. For some of the team, their experience with touch rugby was minimal, so it was important that we were committed to training, in order to support each other and work as a team on the field.

LO1 – Awareness

  • What previous experience have I had with an activity like this?

I have been playing touch rugby since I was around 11 years old, so I have been playing in multiple teams during middle and high school. I also participate in an outside club, so I have been able to expose myself to similar team experiences. Although I was not the team captain, I was able to give advice to the other players, as I was the oldest on the team and had years of experience. As a result, I enjoyed playing this season as I also had chances to play in the A-team in certain tournaments, where I was more challenged and I could learn more from the older players.

  • What am I good at? What are my strengths?

In some circumstances, I find myself being a natural leader as I enjoy helping others improve their skills. Since I have been playing this sport for a while, I tend to know the game well and which moves work, so I was able to coach the others as well. I also find that some of my other strengths include learning from my past experiences. Especially in touch rugby, I acknowledge areas where I can improve and advice I have received, and I tend to implement this constantly and also inform others to help them improve.

  • Have I improved and in what areas? 

Throughout this season something that I have definitely improved in, is my communication and collaboration. I feel that I have become more patient and in general better at listening to others and cooperating consistently in order to be successful in our games.

  • What have I struggled in some areas?

Since I was hoping to make the A team, I was initially discouraged when I was playing with the B team because I felt that I had worked really hard to earn a place in the top team. Consequently, I was not as motivated to play and put effort in. However, I became more comfortable in my team as I was able to both learn and collaborate with others, especially from our coach who is a very experienced touch player. I think that something significant I learned from this experience was that it is important to put your all into every experience because I know that I have a passion for this sport, so I must use this to help myself and others grow in this area.

CAS

Culturama 2019 CAS Reflection

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LO 2 – Challenge

What did I find challenging?

Since I had never participated in a dance show in a very long time, I initially found the choreography challenging as although the leaders taught it step by step, there was a lot to learn and perfect. Although since most members of our group were not people who dance regularly, the environment was very comfortable as it was easy to help each other out and not feel intimidated. I also made sure to practice regularly in order to keep up with everyone else.

What risks have I taken?

Although I am not a dancer, I was very eager to get out of my comfort zone by placing myself at the front row for example or helping others. I was able to do this by practicing the choreography consistently and making sure that I was completely comfortable with the entire dance, as I knew that it would make the performance easier for myself and for others as well. I think that by taking such risks I have been able to discover a newfound interest for large school shows and performances which I haven’t had since primary school. I have enjoyed being apart of a process where I can get to know new people and develop my individual skills.

What new skills have I developed?

Culturama has taught me a lot of different skills of not only the actual dancing we did but also through the challenged we faced and how we overcame them. Apart from the dance skills I gained, I also improved the skill of perfecting movements and routines in a set period of time. I am more used to developing my skills in sports or academics so learning skills in the arts was very interesting and is something that I plan on continuing in the future. However, although I learnt skills in the arts, I feel that I would still be able to apply them in different areas of knowledge. For example, from now on I think that I would be more committed to learning our moves in Touch Rugby or even developing a certain skill in maths. Since Culturama had a set time period I was able to become more organised and set clear goals for when I wanted to achieve a certain move or step, which made the entire process a lot easier for myself.

How did I measure my improvement?

Our rehearsals were recorded regularly, so by watching those I could see how my movements were and where I needed to improve. Since one of the dances was with a partner, I was able to tell if we improved by our coordination and ability to move around the stage smoothly.

LO 5 – Collaboration

Who did I collaborate with?

For Culturama 2019, I was apart of the Spain dance group, which included mixed gender Grade 10, 11 and 12 students. This was my first time participating in this event, and although dance skills were not required, I was still relatively nervous at the beginning of the rehearsal process.

What made it easy or difficult to work together?

In our group there were definitely people who knew each and had friends with them, but I still think that we all collaborated with each other. Since the dances are student-run, it was initially difficult for everyone to pay attention and learn the choreography as some might have felt more ‘relaxed’ as teachers were not present. Despite that, as a few weeks past, we managed to work more effectively. Although I did not know many people in my dance, I found that I was still able to ask questions to others to clarify choreography and also to help them. I think what made it eventually easy to work together was the fact that we all shared the same goal of having a successful outcome and performance for the show. I believe that this is why leading up to the show we were more determined and motivated to make the weeks rehearsing worthwhile, by cleaning up the dance and turning it into a real performance.

What challenges did we face when working together and how did we overcome them?

Throughout the weeks leading up to the show, some of the challenged we faced were that there were a lot of absences during the practices as a lot of people were committed to other activities and hence could not make it to every rehearsal. This made it more challenging towards the end as it was hard to organise formations without the presence of every group member.

How important was collaboration to achieving the outcome?

Collaboration was key in achieving the outcome as the show required team work in order to make sure that the dance was successful. Although the group consisted of people who might not have known everyone closely, it was vital that we interacted with everyone to ensure that our movements on the stage were coordinated.

Rehearsal Video 1

Rehearsal Video 2

 

CAS

AMK Minds Progress Reflection 2

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LO1 – Awareness

What previous experiences have I had with an activity like this?

Throughout the course of my time at UWC, I have partaken in several services, working with local people in Singapore. However, I have only worked with either small children or the elderly. This is the first time that I have worked with those that have mental disabilities.

What are my strengths and what would I like to improve?

Although I was slightly uncomfortable at the start as I had never had one on one experience with this type of group, I think that as the sessions have gone on, I have become more familiar with the style of interaction between them and us students and the best possible ways that we can entertain them and keep them active. I think that I have become stronger in areas where I can take initiative in the planning of the activities as I am able to reflect on previous sessions in order to decide whether something worked or didn’t. This enabled more effective and productive sessions afterwards. Something that I would like to improve on is still feeling almost 100% comfortable around the client as sometimes I have found myself afraid to upset them or anger them, especially more those that are more excited and energetic. I have also been frustrated at times which is something that I would like to control as I need to remember that the people cannot perform the same activities as us with the same speed and hence I must approach with more understanding and patience.

LO3 –  Initiative

What activities did we plan, and how did they progress?

For the first couple of sessions we used information from the previous year and advice from the organisation’s leaders, in order to plan around three different activities. We had a parachute activity, a simple throwing and catching activity, and a small set of bowling pins. The advice we got was to make sure that the group isn’t sitting down too much as they need to be active, and also make it slightly challenging so that we could improve their skills. As the weeks progressed, we added and removed different activities in order to not only ensure that they were not getting bored, but also to enhance all their different movements and instil some muscle memory. The client leaders also showed us some activities that we could try, which helped a lot and also allowed us to use some more creative activities.

What difficulties did we face in executing our plan? Why?

For a few sessions we had a different set of people so it meant that we had to keep on having an introductory section at the start which left little time for activities. We also found it hard to come up with activities that kept the clients active and engaged throughout, especially those who were very excited, as it was hard to keep everyone together and focused. At the start, it took us a while to delegate different roles to everyone, however as the weeks went on, we were all familiar with what we each of us had to do in order to run an efficient session. Since we are a group of students from different grades, some which have not worked together ever, it was initially difficult to communicate effectively.

How did we overcome these challenges?

The chairs delegated roles to everyone and set up a means of communication in order to make sure that we were fully prepared before each session. We also spent a couple of sessions at the start to plan and express our goals for this year. Furthermore, a few people in our group communicated directly to the organisers every week to fill in on the progress and to receive feedback on how we could improve as a group and our interactions to the clients.

 

 

CAS

AMK Minds Progress Reflection

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The local service that I am currently apart of is called AMK Minds. It is an organisation that works with mentally disabled people from ages 18 and above in order to not only support them but to also improve their long-term wellbeing.

LO6 Global Value

I chose to be apart of this service as I have not worked with people with mental illnesses before and I felt that by taking part in this service, I would have the opportunity to challenge myself in regards to my interaction with others and how I might choose to go about doing that. I am aware of the challenges that many come in this service as I think that no matter who you work with, it is important to cater our actions based on their needs. However, although we may hope to make a long-term significant impact, small changes and improvements in their daily lives would be a much more sustainable and successful goal.

LO7 Ethics

Throughout the course of my participation in this service, I hope to gain insightful knowledge about working with others and how I can critically think to generate activities that would be suit the client. Although our involvement in this service should be a rather selfless act, I do hope to gain some sense of fulfilment by the end, as knowing that I have made others feel slightly better even just for a day, does in fact make me feel somewhat contented.

The season has just begun and so we have actually not met with our service yet, as we are currently in the planning and preparation stage. However, we did meet with a couple of the organisation’s leaders in order to ask questions and learn about how we should approach the clients and any challenges that we could face. Our main aim is to get the clients engaged and active for the hour that they spend with us, and to ensure they are having fun and feel satisfied by the end of the session. In order to achieve this, we have planned several activities that we could run in order to keep them active but also to encourage interaction between both us, the service group, and them.