Badminton

A match against Colombo International School at SSC. I consider them as the best players in International School in Sri Lanka, as their coach is working with the national team. I don't know how many matches we won, because we lost quite badly, but no wonder. My single didn't go well, as usual. My opponent's movement was in cycle, so it must have been easy for me to read the next shot, but it didn't work. I was better at doubles with Yuko, but still, our team work could have been better. One good thing about having matches against other international schools is that we get to know our levels and move on to the next step to improve by knowing where we are. Also we can get more interected with them, so we can deepen our bonds. Our last practice is next Tuesday. I hope I can give my best.

Badminton

Monday badminton practice, in replacement for tomorrow's practice, because there's a three way conference in the school and we will not be able to practice.
Not many participated, and it was disappointing, however, I believe I became good at hitting back the opponent's smash. I practiced with Mr. De Silva, who was on the other side of the court and Yuko and I had our space as doubles. His shuttlecock was unpredictable and I had to be ready for any kind of shuttlecock he is sending to me.
I noticed that my eyes are on the shuttlecock, as well as on opponent's arm, more than their movement. It's a good sign, because then I'm more focused and know where to send the shuttlecock to. Mr. De Silva is good at playing tricks, such as pretends to send the shuttlecock back, but actually intended to give a drop shot. Therefore it's a good practice for me to read opponent's movement and to read their mind, and where and what kind of next shot is coming.
Yuko and I are the playing doubles, but I'm still finding it difficult. I used to play back, but as she stood in the middle most of the time, it was difficult to play, and still hasn't improved. So today, I tried to play in front, which worked better for me, but seems she found it difficult and prefered to play in front. We still need to work a lot. Since the day I hit her head, there seems to be a bit of anxious and fear in between us, which I think is the reason why we are moving like a heavy rocks.

IB CAS Final Reflection

Two years of IB CAS has finally come to an end. When I looked back, I just remembered how diffident I was at the beginning. However, confidence has built up through many activities I was involved and also by becoming a leader of activities, as well as Community Service leader. Being a leader was not always an easy option, because I had to plan beforehand what we had to do for today and for the next day. For the first time I became the leader of the elective of Beads and Papers, I was always clumsy, nervous and did have troubles planning ahead of the time. However, I talked with my partner and the teachers about what we should do for the next time, which was very helpful. Gradually I started getting ideas about how to deal with problems and how to avoid having problems. This was due to the experience and by getting used to it, by making mistakes to learn. When I realized, I was able to plan and initiate activities, and was working collaboratively with others, in the library service, for example. As there were numbers of earthquakes stroked in Japan, I organized a fund raiser to donate to the Japanese Red Cross with one of my Japanese friends. This was an important issue of global importance, which I later realized by doing it. As I am Japanese and my country was affected, I wanted to do something that I can help them, even though I'm living far away from my home country, at least I wanted my message to be sent, by doing a fund raiser. The number of deaths has increased to 10,000, and still more than 6,000 are missing. Natural disaster is something human cannot prevent from, however we can at least take action to allow fast recoveries of the damages.

In most of the activities I have been involved, I was able to show my perseverance and commitments, except for sports, I did miss some of the practice and sessions. Apart from those, I did attend to all the activities. I tried to be on time, as soon as my classes were finished, I tried to be there as soon as possible, without delay. However there were times when I was late, but before that happened, I've always sent e-mails to the supervisors about it.

Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth. My consideration to the ethical implications of my actions were not shown very often in my CAS blog as evidence. However, I do have the record of what I have done on each day. Although I attended to most of the activities, I failed to update my blog all the time. Therefore during the SAISA Girl's Football, I wasn't able to update my blog on it. So I believe, that updating on my blog, or doing so as a daily routine is what I lack and something that I personally need to improve. Through the two years of IB CAS, I'm quite sure that I developed many new skills, by getting involved with numbers of activities. Planning ahead is my new skill, because I used to go according to the time flows, but now I'm seeking and planning ahead. Co-operating with others is also a new skill. I used to work alone, and I was comfortable working by myself, because that way I can do thing on my own. However, now that idea has changed. I feel better and things are done faster when I'm working with others. I believe there were many improvements I have made in these two years. I realized my weakness and strengths, something I needed to develop and continue, etc. In the beginning I was spending my time on CAS for my own record, but from the second year, I realized that CAS is something that is worth doing for my own good, not just for the IB requirement. I also realized that it would be meaningless, if I do it for the IB's sake, because if I do that, I wouldn't understand how valuable this CAS is all about. Doing CAS increased awareness in me, and I strongly believe it had a good affection to me.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund

The earthquake and tsunami is now one of the world's top news. It was the largest earthquake in Japanese history. Nearly 2000 have died, and many are still missing, have no idea if they are alive or not. My family and relatives are in Tokyo and they are safe, but the loss of some Japanese means a lot to me, and it created a hole in my heart. It is not my thing to just sit and pray for a fast recovery.
I have organized a fund raiser called "Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund" with Yuko in grade 11 (also Japanese) from 18th March to 30th March. Japanese Community in Sri Lanka has started a fund rasing from 17th to 31st, therefore I made the deadline of the fund raiser on 30th, so that I can collect the money at the end of the 30th and give it to the Japanese Community by 31st. The money that is collected is going to the Japanese Red Cross and will be used for the people. An account is already created in the Business Office, and got a permission from the principle. Unfortunately I failed to put this on the school news letter, as it took me two days to collect the information and finally done this action.
The money that is earned from the Food and Fun Fair is also going to Japan. My family is calling me from Japan, letting me know the situations. They are horrible and I feel very sorry for them for having difficult time. I really do hope that this fund raiser is going to help some people, at least one person in Japan, who's affected from this earthquake and tsunami.

Badminton

My third practice today. I saw most of the members for the first time. We started off with stretch, then warming up (running), then paired up to just hitting the shuttlecock up high.
I had a great opportunity to have a match with Uthpala, but I started off the game with 11 points, then he had 5 points, so obviously I had some advantages. I managed to pick up some of his smashes, which was great! I was also able to trick him once or twice, and he complimented me, which is another 'great'! For some reason I wasn't tired at all, and I felt like keep playing until I can feel the tireness, but I had to stop...
I was chosen to play single (ww... so much pressure!), and today was the last practice before the match on Friday at British School from 3.30, so I guess I really have to do everything I can to prepare for it. I don't feel like loosing.
I learned that doubles is harder to play, when I played with someone I have never paired up with before. However, I played doubles with Yuko first, and then with Uthpala afterwards, and I felt really comfortable with pairing with both of them. So if I could play a doubles with Yuko, I would love to, except she's in MUN, so I guess I won't... I think this was a good lesson for me to learn about the trust and to know each other well to show a really good performance.

Badminton

Second practice day, but as SAISA middle school basketball was taking place in the gym, we worked on physical activity today, out on the field near the score board. It was tough. A very, very tough works. We had to do some skipping ropes, swinging racket with a cover, sprint, etc. I've found swinging quite tough from the others, because the racket gets really heavy with the cover. Also I had to swing by using my whole arm, my muscle is having a real pain at the moment.
I believe this will help me later on during the badminton match. I hope I can get more stamina before the match starts.

Library Service

We had a new member joining today. Therefore our work started to get finished quite fast.
We've done bookshelves organizing today, we spreaded the groups into three as usual. One for Fiction, non-fiction and mother tongue section. I needed to teach them how to organize in different sections, therefore I put different people for different section from last CAS.
At the end of the CAS, we've discussed about an event we're organizing during the Food and Fun Fair that's coming up next month. We've organized the Read-a-thon, so we'll be in charge of that for few minutes for each person.