Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Elective

Finally the elective day! I've been waiting this for so long.
We seperated the groups into two. One group made the alphabet, meaning their initials and the other group made rings. I was teaching how to make their alphabet. There were two kids who couldn't make it because there were not enough wires for everyone, which was my fault.
My partner, Gurleen was helping kids with making rings. I taught her how to make it last week, so she didn't have problems with making them or teaching them how to make them.
This is the picture, taken by Gurleen. You can see the text book for beads work on the table at the bottom of the picture. A boy on the right side, he is from China, but he has got an amazing skills for this beads work, but he's too shy to show it to everyone. Unfortunately he broke it on purpose and made something else instead. Awww, such a shame. He made the best initial J I've ever seen... I should have taken the picture of it... next time I will!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Singhala Lesson

I took one hour of Singhala lesson today. Last week I couldn't take it, so I had to push myself a bit. I continued reading the same book I am doing, and I am on page 48 now. Today I read a story book called "Ukkun puta hari hapana". This is the third story book I am reading up to now. This book is about a fox child who was rescued by a tiger when he was drowning. One day a dog comes and say "I'll give you a big gift if you give me the tiger's skin", then the fox tries to save his father with a brilient idea. I still cannot read very fast and some of the words are still unknown and confusing me. But I hope someday I will understand all the meaning of those words. My tutor said I might start on the new book, which is going to be a grammer book. I don't think I'm ready for the grammer yet, because I don't think my Singhala is that good, so it might be too early to start on that...

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Library Service

I worked on putting the bar code inside the books. This job was difficult, because I had to find the exact bar code number as the book number. I took a lot of time to find the right ones. The books were all Japanese books. I still can't believe how many new Japanese books are coming in. I noticed that Japanese books, Korean books and Chinese books were put mixed on the book shelf. Maybe I should tell Ms. Lockwood about that and put them in order.
The jobs are getting interesting. I would like to do this next year, too.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Singhala lesson

I had one hour of Singhala lesson today after the english lesson. I didn't take the class last week, so I had to work a little hard on it. I'm on page 46 of my text book, "Singithi Akuru", which has got 60 pages in total. I'm hoping to finish it soon. I'm taking the lesson only once a week, so I have to try hard on it. However, my brother is also learning it with me, and he started it since January, so he's little weak in Singhala, therefore I have to move slowly with him. Even though he's having a hard time, I can still help him out by reading the text together, so I hope we can both finish the book by the end of the first semester.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Library Service

We helped Ms. Lockwood with sticking the book numbers for the new Japanese books. I was amazed by the numbers of the new books just came in. I'm so excited to read all of them. There were only three people, and I was working with my friend for this.
I just realized today, how long these books take time to be put in the space to be read by people. Next time, I would like to work on organizing the books. Maybe put the returned books back to where it was etc. I hope I can learn the Library techniques through this half semester's service.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Library Service

Today was my first day of Community Service day. I'm doing the Library Service, it's to help Ms. Lockwood with the Library works.
Today we wrote down list of the numbers of the magazines in the library and made new papers to define different types of magazines in different box. I like this service, because the place is quiet and working around the books. It feels quite nice. Though I kind of miss the days I spent in "Prison Babies" last year with those children.
I hope I can help Ms. Lockwood well.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Singhala Lesson


At 3PM, the Singhala lesson started. I'm using a book called "Singithi akuru", which is for the small children to learn the letters. →
I have started this lesson from last yeah, beginning of the 10th grade. I think my skills are improving. Right now I can write and read, but I still cannot read as fast as the Sri Lankan people. When I finish this book, I will be doing more reading, then I will start to write and learn new words to speak.




This is me, reading the text book.

IB Orientation CAS hours

On the first day of the IB Orientation trip from 27th ~ 29th August, we went to "Mama Papa house", to learn about Service. This place is for children who don't have their parents. We stayed and played with them for about 3 hours.

It was sad to see some of them who are not able to speak, but still they always kept on smiling as if they were happy to spend time with us.

I think it'd have been better if I could speak better Singhalese, so that I could have communicated with them more. Communication is a big part of the Service, not just looking after the children and playing with them, because we will get to know what they are feeling, their problems and other things about them.

It was very touching to see them very cheerful. I believe that was because the environment they are in is very good and the most important thing is; they are not alone. Someone will be always there for them when they have any problems.


Friday, September 4, 2009

26th August - First elective day

26th of August was my first day of "Bead and paper" elective. I decided to run this elective with Gurleen, with two superviser/teachers; Ms. Ranasinghe and Ms. Lout. Basically what we do in this elective is; to make goods from the paper, which is known as "Origami" in Japanese and "Folding papers" in English. For beads works, we'll make something from those small beads. I'm thinking to start off with something easy. I have got all the beads from Japan, because I didn't know where I can get the stuffs in Sri Lanka. So, I'm thinking to make Initial letters of the students in my elective.

This elective is for grade 6 to 8, with 10 people. I chose these grades, because I was quite sure that these age group girls and boys like to do Origami. And especially for girls, I thought they'd love to do beads work.

The elective will start off with Origami first. It will continue for a month, and then we will start bead work for the next month, which is in September.

I made the examples of Origami before the elective day, so that kids will understand the shape of the items, and it'll be easy for them to choose which ones they want to make. I have made about 15 items and we made 3 items today; a cup, balloon and ninja star (throwing star). We also made a lily, but we weren't able to complete it, so we will finish it off first for the next elective (9th September). Unfortunately I do not have a picture as an evidence, but I will keep a signature of the superviser in my homework diary as another evidence.

Review;
  • We (Gurleen and I) came to the class late, when all the kids were already there and waiting for us to start. So from next time, I will not be late so that we can start on time.
  • The elective did not go on as smooth as I expected. Gurleen didn't know how to make all the items I made. This is my fault, because I taught her only the easy items so that she needed the books in her hand to teach the kids how to make. So, from next time, before the elective starts, I will first teach her how to make those items, so that the elective will move on smoothly and she can help the kids, without asking me.

Next elective is going to be on 9th September and we will be making initial names of kids in the elective. I have taught Gurleen how to make her initial, G. Also I will make one for myself to show them as examples. After making them, we will make those initials as the key-chains to put it on their bags or pencil case.

Welcome to MY IB CAS BLOG!

This is a blog for my IB CAS.

My goal in these two years (2009-2011) is to get involved in most of the CAS activities and understand the importance of it. Especially this year is my first year to start the CAS, therefore I'm looking forward to enjoy, and hopefully I can learn something from several activities.


CAS stands for;
Creativity;"Arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking"
Action;"Physical exertion contribution to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the Diploma Program"
Service;"An unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected"
(from OSC Creativity Action & Service Handbook 2009-2011)
What I'm going to do for CAS;
For Creativity, I'm going to do; Wednesday electives and learning Singhala with my tutor on Saturdays.
For Action, I'm going to do; sports after school, but this will be from second semester, because I will be busy with the Secondary Musical Production.
For Service, I'm going to do; Thursday Community Service Projects.
In this blog, I will continue to add my;
  • CAS activities
  • Personal experience and challenge
  • Thoughts during the CAS hours
  • Reflections on my activities and learning