Category Archives: CAS

CAS Reflection – ITP Percussion (Creativity)

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LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS experiences

Learning how to play the drums in 11th grade was something that was completely new to me, as I had only really had experience in playing the guitar and the bass. I had no idea what it would be like, or how easy/hard it would be for me to adapt to the instrument; I have a history of playing instruments and reading sheet music, so skills such as those definitely made it easier for me in the long run. I think that it was an unfamiliar experience for me that I was able to make familiar with a lot of practice and perseverance; sometimes, it can really feel easy to give up and quit when you can’t really get a song or a certain sequence right, but I think that I showed perseverance, and adapted the drums into my schedule as a regular practice during the day to come out of this experience as a much better drummer and a more well rounded musician. By building on a previous experience of starting to learn instruments and using my knowledge of sheet music, I was able to make various connections between the drums and other instruments that I know of already; I think that it was great I had a foundation to go off of when starting my process. Playing the drums has helped me in other areas as well, such as standing in for the drummer during house band rehearsals if required, or joining the percussion ensemble where I am eager to try new instruments that the drums have given a good foundation to learn and experiment with. I will really be looking forward to continuing the drums in Grade 12 and beyond, and I think that any musical skill is a good skill to have.

CAS Reflection – End of Humanities Magazine (Creativity)

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4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Coming to the end of G11 saw the end of my tenure in the humanities magazine. It was something that I felt very passionate about doing, and thoroughly enjoyed my opportunity to write a double feature for the first magazine of the year. We were able to show commitment and perseverance in the way that we were actively creating material for the magazine while also spending time selling and distributing it to the school public. I think we recognised well the role we had to play as the creators of the magazine, but also those who were distributing the magazines around too. It was perseverance and commitment on our part to spend some of our own time, especially during events such as the 3 way conferences, to sell the magazines to parents and students alike.

7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

Finally, I think the biggest lesson learned was recognising the ethics of choices and actions taken, especially on a public forum like a magazine. I was really able to understand the conditions that are placed on a writer in terms of how they have to be aware of their target audience, while recognising certain sensitivities that might not be as explicitly on the surface as others. There are certain nuances when it comes to sharing one’s perspectives in a magazine, and it was really helpful to understand the different ways in which certain language might evoke different responses from different people.

CAS Quarantine Reflection – Bersama House Band (Creativity)

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LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

During this quarantine period, nothing has been more challenging than for our musical group to come together and meet every Thursday like we could when we were in school. Saying this, we had to take a lot of changes and adjustments in our stride in order to continue working together and still trying to put on as good of a show as we could in whatever we were doing. Saying this, we were able to work on some videos that we collated and put online to use for the Class of 2020’s graduation that is coming soon. This was a challenge for me as I have not been very experienced in recording music and trying to produce something online, but figuring out how to do this through the process was a very beneficial skill that I unearthed which I am sure will come handy in the future in some form or the other.

We realized that at the end of the process, we would need to put all our videos together in order to create the final process; saying this, it was paramount that we communicated between ourselves components such as tempo, key and rhythm so that we could all be on the same page for the final song to sound as natural as possible. I think that the benefits of working together on this, by having calls with each other and taking the time to record and listen to each others’ recordings was really evident in the final product which ended up being really good in my opinion.

 

CAS Final Reflection – Activity (Badminton 19&U A Boys)

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LO 6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

LO 7 Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions

With the season coming to a quick end as a result of COVID-19, I think the most important takeaway from this season was that we had to be responsible in giving up this opportunity to play for the greater good and the greater health of everyone. While we were of course disappointed, we had to recognise that this was a global crisis at hand, and that we could be playing our part by staying home and doing the small part of giving up our time which would not jeopardise our own health.

Realising that we should socially distance as well as take some time off the court and in public social activities was obviously done to the disappointment of many; however, we all took this as an opportunity to instead realise the ethical consequences of the choices and actions that we were taking. Once we deliberated this, I think it was easy to realise what the right thing to do was and we all realised that subsequently as well.

 

CAS Mid-Reflection – Activity (Badminton 19&U A Boys)

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LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS experiences

Towards the midway point of the season, I found that I have come to know the team much better than before and forged friendships between us all to the point where we really help each other a lot, whether it is to get back up on our feet after a hard loss or just as simple as helping each other train. I think that it is important that we all realize the importance of working as a team for what is left of the season.

I have been showing extreme commitment to my trainings, and even though I have had a lot of work to do I make sure that I stay consistent with my attendance to the trainings. I knew that I had to make sure I went to each training because this was important to show that I really cared and to show the team that I was committed to what I had signed up to do as well. We played our first tournament, which had been organized as a result of the other tournaments being cancelled due to COVID-19, and this was where I really had the opportunity to show commitment to my team; I played about 3 matches for the team, both at home and then 3 more away at the next tournament.

 

CAS Initial Reflection – Activity (Badminton 19&U A Boys)

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LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

For me, it was a challenge in itself to try out for the badminton team this year as I have not played badminton in close to two years. For me to get into the A team therefore, was a huge achievement and feeling of success. I challenged myself in trying out for the team this year by practicing with people who have played badminton regularly before the trials, and tried my best to somewhat grasp a good feel of the game before I tried out for the team. So far, I feel that because I took the challenge of trying out for a sport that I have not played in a long time, I have developed new skills such as the perseverance for training 3 days in a week which I already had somewhat done as a result of tennis. Not only that, I developed my skills in the sport as well since I have been playing with some really good players and coaches since the trials as well.

CAS End Reflection – Tennis u19 A Team (Activity)

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LO 1 Identifying own strengths and develop areas for personal growth

LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively

This year, the u19 season with a tinge of disappointment as our SEASAC tournament in Bangkok was cancelled due to the coronavirus. Learning to deal with this disappointment, after weeks of gruelling practice and matches was a skill that I needed to develop in understanding that things will not always go the way that they are planned. Learning to adapt to new situations and looking for alternatives was an area of personal growth that I needed to develop.

I had taken a lot of challenges on during this season, and the biggest one was learning how to play with different and new people that I had never played with before. For example, I believe I have developed on my skill of collaboration and learning how to adapt to working with different people because all the people I played with were not the same type of tennis player. Therefore, being a doubles player it was extremely crucial that I adapt to different match situations and learn how to evolve myself as a player in the process.

At the end of this season, I realised that working together as a team to face challenges that we could not have coped with individually, whether it is something as small as encouraging teammates from the sidelines or facing the disappointment of the cancelled SEASAC together, everyone was able to lift up each other’s spirits in the team environment that we had cultivated between ourselves. While I have always been part of a team environment in school when playing tennis, I do not think it mattered as much as it did when we had to face disappointment in the form of a cancelled SEASAC together.

Kahaani

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LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS experiences

LO 6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

I think the thing that I was most proud about myself for with Kahaani is that I was able to show perseverance in terms of practices and meetings regarding the show with the whole ensemble, regardless of the only two days that I was part of Kahaani as a musician. It took a lot of time to finish other work early and on time just so I could make some more time to stay back till 9pm on school nights to practice for the show, and I think that it paid off because it felt very good to be doing this for a good cause as well. I think that by being on time for each run through, for being ready and organised with everything that I needed and following the cues given to me, commitment and perseverance was shown on my end towards the people who were a part of this show and the people in charge of directing and making sure everything was in order.

Kahaani, all in all, was a show put together to benefit a good cause and working for the Kolkata GC. This was one of the main reasons I was also happy to take part in Kahaani as a musician, knowing that it would be going towards a good cause and that it would be benefitting those who are in need. To understand the real motive of Kahaani was what was really enlightening and interesting to me, and it was great to see how a small school community in Singapore can make a difference, no matter how big or small, in another part of the world. By taking part, I feel that everyone not only wanted to enjoy this memorable experience but understand the bigger cause behind it and take appropriate action; in the form of participation, hard work and dedication, and putting on a great show for everyone who came to watch.

CAS Mid-Year Reflection – Music Soundbeam with Bedok Peacehaven Day Centre (Service)

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LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

LO 7 Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Through approximately half a year of being in this service, it has been easy to recognise and understand challenges that we have faced in planning activities and managing our time, especially. We have been able to develop quite a few new skills through the challenges we have faced, in my opinion. For example, communication between us, especially for the chairs of the service, was improved after we found that we were a bit underprepared for certain sessions and could have used some better planning and prior information before going to the center. In another instance, there was an improvement in our skills of creativity and the confidence of actually putting up ideas to the rest of the group, as well as taking the incentive to create new plans for activities and to be open to criticism from the rest of the group members. We found this was a skill that arose as we grappled with the threat of having too little variety in our sessions, thus losing the interest of the elderly at the centre.

A big lesson that we learned towards the end of the CNY break, was that our actions have consequences; not to interpret this in a bad way, but we realised that especially with the elders we need to be more aware and informative about certain components of their culture that we may not be so familiar with. For example, during our CNY activity of creating cut out lanterns and colouring them, we did not realise that the colour white symbolised something negative in their culture and had to be informed by one of the centre workers. We realised that we need to be culturally ethical and culturally aware the next time that we do get the chance to visit the centre, because there may be parts of the culture we are visiting that we may not understand or may not be familiar with. Therefore, it is always useful to gain some prior knowledge and some awareness before we do try to plan any activities with the elderly from here on out.

 

CAS Reflection 3 – Music Soundbeam with Bedok Peacehaven Day Centre (Service)

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LO 3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively

During this period, we were really tasked with coming up with new ideas for activities to do with the elders at the centre. That is why one major outcome achieved during this first semester period was the ability to initiate and plan a CAS experience. We each have roles within the service, and by working together we were able to incorporate all our ideas into specific plans that catered to each of our responsibilities and put these to use during the time that we were there. For example, this was especially important during Christmas time where we planned to bring in colouring materials for Christmas themed colouring, as well as help set up the tree at the centre for the elders to enjoy throughout the Christmas break as well.

As mentioned before, we really had to work together to get these ideas moving because it would not have happened if we were not coordinating and cooperating well with one another. The benefits of working collaboratively were represented in the ways the elders reacted to us and the activities that we set up for them. They were reacting positively and really were involved in anything we would put on for them. For example, they would clap along every time we brought music and guitars to the centre, and they were actively working together and sharing materials and ideas between themselves during the colouring sessions as well. Working collaboratively meant that we could really come up with some good ideas to use as activities for them, and it showed when we were at the centre that our ideas were met with success.