I am still working towards the goal of achieving an ARSM diploma, however, it is delayed due to the intensity of the school work and other circumstances. I haven’t had much time for practice nowadays, however everytime I tried to improve upon the weaker parts of the piece, or improve on certain smaller techniques.

After half term, I am getting more comfortable with our clients at the service, and starting to know more of their personalities and their preferences. I used to always limit myself to the drawing activity because it is not really active, however this term I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and engaged myself with different clients that I didn’t dare to approach before. I started playing ball games and lego with them, and from my teacher supervisor I learnt that there are certain ways that you can communicate with them in order to make your communication more effective, such as: when they do not want to share their toys with the others, tell them “you need to share”, and most of the times they will understand and do so.

This service has become an enriching experience for me and as well as for the clients. I hope that I would push myself more and really get to know them for the rest of the term. This also strongly connects to the Learning Outcome 2 as I am able to undertake challenges and develop new skills in the process.

After half term, I have gained a much more thorough understanding of my job and is more able to facilitate the communication between the three parties involved in this GC.

We have been through our major event of the year, which is the Chinese New Year GC event. It was a test of the effectiveness of our leadership team, and after the events, we also reflected on the activities conducted and the merchandise sold at the event, to improve the event for next year. We have also encountered minor problems regarding finance. The service department thought that we were selling Starbucks vouchers, which is unethical and directly making the profit although it is for an NGO. It is proven to be a misunderstanding between the two as we used the Starbucks vouchers as prices for a chopstick marble game for the participants. However, I and the co-chair solved this problem in collaboration with the service department, and they also have given us advise on how we could improve our presentation of the GC goals at events.

I think my CAS experience links to the Learning Outcome 4, as I am able to show perseverance and commitment this CAS activity, and also LO7 because we are also considering the actions of our choices and actions on both sides while helping the others. It also links to LO2 because I am able to develop better communications skills in the process.

Here is an example of our meeting notes:

I have completed several smaller paintings since the last reflection, and my teacher suggested that we can move onto bigger scaled paintings as this will challenge my composition skills and it will also allow me to demonstrate the details in the painting.

In this painting, I plan to use mixed media, such as pencil, acrylic and oil painting. I have just planned out my composition and laid out my entire canvas. The canvas will approximately be 1.2 meters.

This experience links to LO3, 4 as I am initiating a new CAS experience while extending it from the older ones that I have done before, and it also links to LO2 because I am challenging my self by moving on to produce art pieces on a bigger canvas.

This term I have continued to join the circuit training for Healthy Girls For Life, and it has proven to be a valuable experience for me. During this semester, we have explored other types of exercises such as Yoga, HIIT, weights, etc. A combination like this gives me more self-esteem, as I can undertake new challenges and work through them with the help of my supervisor during this activity. These different activities require different techniques, for example for yoga one needs to be stretchy, and for HIIT is a very intensive training that exercises the major muscles. I think a combination of things is beneficial regarding being more active at the end of a Monday, and shaking off the sleepiness of the weekends. Now I feel like I am more stretchy, and developed a bit more of stamina.

Healthy Girls for life links to Learning Outcome 2 as I have undertaken new challenges and have demonstrated that I have developed new skills in the process. Overall I feel like this is a beneficial activity that I will definitely signup in the future again if I have time to do so.

I have passed my grading successfully for yellow belt in December and is working towards yellow black/ green. However, when one reaches yellow belt, karate becomes very technique based and one really needs to practise and learn the techniques precisely if one wants to achieve a good grade. In the next grading on April 29th, I would have to remember all the katas and leg katas since white, orange and blue-black, whilst also remembering how to do the new katas- eg. yantsu,  perfectly. From yellow belt on, the techniques are increasingly harder. I have decided to dedicate my every Wednesday after school to this activity.

I personally need to practise more, and also be more resilience when I am in combat and doing practices. my goal is not to feel tired even after the warmups in order to increase my stamina.

This links to Learning Outcome 1 and 2, as I am able to reflect upon my personal strengths and weaknesses in regards to the activity, and strive to be better at it. I hope the next time I do a reflection on karate I will already be green belt.

Link to Yantsu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYFP3vZK_jc

On Lian He Zao Bao during grading:

We have been doing some presentations for the East Historical Society, and we could choose any historical period and decide the issue to present. We may want to focus on essential individuals that are less recognised, and we may also show history about countries that we tend to focus less on, such as Myanmar. One group chose to do the historical accuracy of the film Wonder Woman.

What my group choose to do is the historical aspect of anime series, such as the grave of fireflies. The film took place after the second world war and showed the struggling of Japanese people after the war. What we tried to do is to link the historical context of the film to the actual history, as the film shows little about the political aspect of the war. We want to argue that the how war is responsible for the suffering of individuals in the society, and how the film is useful to depict that the war is impactful in a micro point of view. However, we also investigate the biases in the movie, as most Japanese films tend to depict themselves as innocent while in reality, Japanese played a very cruel part inside this war. Some other anime also masks the justification of chauvinism and jingoism under its surface, thus it is really crucial to explore these issues too.

This links to Learning Outcome 3 because this CAS experience is self-initiated, and we strived to make it a thought-provoking presentation. This also relates to Learning Outcome 6, as the topic of war is on a global significance, and everyone should be aware of the after-effects of war, so we would minimise conflict and solve things diplomatically.

Here is an example of our presentation.