Dog-walking

The very first dog-walking of this winter vacation with my doggie. Her name is "Maru" (マル in Japanese letters). I couldn't look at her at first when I came back, because she lost her weight too much! I mean, I was able to touch her bones... (tears) Anyway, I'm trying hard to make her gain weight again...
I went with my brother to our walking spot; today was option A. Well, perhaps I'll explain our options.
Option A, which is called "The Airplane Park". The name sounds funny, I know.
Option B is another park that is a bit further from spot A, which is called "Bomboo Shoot Park". Another weird one, I know. This is how Japanese people are... don't argue with me, please. Option C is "Kodaira Cemetry", with beautiful nature.
Option D is temple
and finally Option E is "Random area".
Anyway, I won't be remembering which spot is which option.

Singhala Lesson

My brother was sick so I was the only one who took the lesson today. I didn't work on the writing part, because I had to keep the pace with my brother. So today I read the previous book. My tutor is quite pleased with my speed of reading. I think it's still slow, but hopefully I can improve it and get better at reading. I still get confused with some of the letters, but it will be fine soon.
Hopefully I can work on the writing for next week.

Library Service

I worked on finishing the poster from last week. While I was working on it, my friend came and helped me out. Thanks to her, I managed to finish it on time. Phew...
I haven't touched the books for two weeks now in Library Service, and hopefully i can start working on something new from next week.

30th November ~ 5th December ---> Book week!
"The more you read, the more you know!"

Singhala Lesson

I started working on the new book, which is the writing part. It's about grade 2 level. Just like Japanese and English, writing in Singhala is quite different from speaking. I find it quite difficult, but the only good thing is that I can write. However, there are some letters that has got similar sound with the others, so I usually get confused which one to use... Sometimes if I use the different letter for writing, even though it has got similar pronounciation, a word becomes tortally different meaning, so I have to be carefull with writing. It's a lot harder than speaking and reading. First I need to be able to know what is the sound of the letter when I'm writing. One D sound has got something like "Dah", but then other D sound pronouce it as "Duh". So I have to listen carefully if I were to copy down what people are saying...

Library Service

Today we were making the posters for the coming up "Book Week" on the 30th November to 5th of December.
We were making our own individual + original posters. I decided to write the OSC-book-slogan, which is "The more you read, the more you know". I decided to use the magazine pictures to make some collage. Others were drawing the manga or using the computer to create them. Mine was not finished, so I have to work on it again next week. It's about 70% finished and all I need to do is to paste the pictures and then do some degining then I'll be done.

Elective

Finally the elective! We haven't been seen each other for almost 2~3 weeks!?
Our aim for today was to finish making the elephants. Most of the class has went half way through, so they were able to finish them. The climax of the elephant was quite difficult, but then I could hear the excitement in their voice as the object started to look like an elephant.
I made 4 elephants before the elective, and showed them how it's going to look like. They were quite excited when they saw them.
Three people were doing did not start on making the elephants last time, so they were quite behind from others. Since they had to start from the beginning, I let them watch the video and start making the elephants. Although the video was easier than the written instruction, it was still difficult for them to make it, so I had to go to both sides, so it was quite difficult for me to do the elective today.
Anyway, at the end, eveyone finished making their own elephant, except for one girl. She wasn's happy with making elephant and she found it very boring, so I gave her my elephant. Because these elephants are going to be on the front page of the Yearbook for this year, they all have to have their own elephants.
Some of them said that they want to make the geckoes, but they are way too difficult and complicated. Although I can do the Origami, when tried to make one by watching the video, it was too complicated and I had to give up after feeling so dizzy...
We have to come up with another plan for the next time. There's only few electives left, so I hope I can find something fun, because most of them find this elective very boring. I have to decide whether I will do beads or Origami.

Library Service

I was alone for today's library service. Grade 12s didn't show up, but anyway, I was doing my given work, as usual. I was told to arrange the books in order on the bookshelf. This was my second time. The last time I did this was when I was in the Primary Library, but at that time I was sitting on a chair, so it was ok. However, this time, the bookshelf had quite a height, therefore my arms got tired. Well, it's obvious I'm short and the rest of the Library service members are way taller than me... :( Anyway, I couldn't finish a lot.
Next time when I'm told to do this again, I will try to do it with speed.

Singhala Lesson

I haven't started working on the new book today, since my brother had to cancel the lesson, so I wrote down the Singhala alphabet. They are actually hard to write, because of the balance, style, and the writing changes with different pronounceation. Unlike Japanese letters, Singhalese use the same letter for one particular sound, and combine small bits with the first letter. a, e, i, o, u are the same, but the writing will be different. For example, a K sound. They write Ka, and then Kaa, which is the long sound. In the first Ka, they put a curve line right next to the letter. What they put are different depend on the letters, so it was still difficult for me to write. It's easy for me to read the letter, but not the writing part, so I must practice on that. I still have to improve!

Library Service

I worked on the posters with May today, because we have to hand in the poster to Ms Shamira tomorrow. We had to come up with;

• Our aims
• What we do during the Library Service
• What we gain from Library Service

To be honest, I never thought of gaining something from this CAS, so at first it took time for me to come up with ideas of these three. Today was the day I realized that from working in the library, I can find new things and find other side of myself. I guess I should try to notice things around while I'm doing the CAS. We also took pictures of the group and us working in the library. I should have taken more pictures before... Anyway, the poster will be handed in tomorrow. Hopefully we will have a good one, gain more knowledge and continue to work on our CAS.

Elective

We divided the class into two today and one group did Origami, and anoher group continued beads work where they left off last time. Origami group started making elephant, which is going to be on the front page of the Year Book for 2009 to 2010. Ms. Lilani has kindly found a tutorial video on YouTube, and I downloaded it last night, and we have watched the video and made the elephant todayl. Elephant is a high level origami. For some students it was too hard and we had to play the video again and again. I have tried to make it previous night, but when I got half way through, I could not move my hands. We still have got to make geckoes, too, but when I watched another tutorial video of "how to make lizzard", it was extremely complecated and difficult. I am not sure if we can actually make it.
We went half way through with elephant, so we are not finished yet. I'm hoping to finish it off for next lesson and move on to another topic, which we are still not sure if we are doing beads work or oriagami.

Singhala Lesson

Today, I finished my first Singhala book. I'm so glad, but I still have to read from the beginning to be able to read perfectly. Well, I'll be starting the new book from the next lesson, which is going to be grade 2 level. What I've been working on is the grade 1 level book. Well, I think it was harder than that.
The next level is going to be more about writing. It's just same as English and Japanese, writing will be different from speaking, so I bet it is going to be extremely difficult.
This is just exactly the same feeling as when I learned English for the first time. I'm struggling and sometimes I get irritated because I don't get some of them. I think I mentioned it before, but I'm moving without knowing many words. I wonder if I can do it and I don't know how I'm going to learn Singhala literature, because the only thing I can do is reading and writing, but I don't understand the meaning of those words. Will I really be ok with moving on like this?

Singhala Lesson

I am now on page 53, and I've got three more pages to read to finish the book, yahoo! My tutor is sure that I can finish this book for the next lesson. Well, if that is going to happen, then it means one of my goal is achieved, which is: finish the book before December break.
My reading skills are improving. I haven't done quite a lot of writing lately, so maybe I should work on that as well. I finished three stories for reading, and I have confident now, in reading. I still have to learn how to write a bit quickly, just like when I first learned English. I was always trying to write every letters neatly. That was one of the reason why I was so slow with note taking at that time but...
Nowadays I'm trying to read whatever they are saying on the signboard on the way to school or back to home. Sometimes the dirver drives too fast that I can't read a word on it, but when the school bus stops for a while, I try to read. And my tutor is happy that I'm trying.

Library Service

Today I worked in the primary library, putting the books in order with the right numbers and putting the "what-kind-of-this-book-is" paper on the new Japanese books just came in. Well, basically I have to write PL/JAP on top and then FIC in the middle and the authors first name in three capital letters. PL, obviously stands for Primary Library, and JAP, how can you not guess, it's Japanese. FIC stands for fiction, well, so far that's the only right words I came up with.
I'm getting used to these kinds of works, and I quite like the works too. I bet I can do this for the second semester or next year. Anyway, there's not much BIG work coming up now, so I think I'm doing good here.
Oh, there's something surprise here today. While I was organizing the new Japanese books, I found the books that I really wanted to read for all these years! It's really amazing. The last time I read was when I was in 6th grade in elementary school in Japan. Well, this story has got up to 7 or 8 chapters, but I never had a chance to finish them all. And all the sudden they're here, with all the chapters! I was so happy, well, I still am. I wish these books were on the list of my Self Taught. I've got to read these! But it's a sad thing, I can't borrow them right away, because these books have to have a cover on them. I can't wait, but I still have time and they won't run away, will they?

Singala Lesson

I've finished reading up to page 50. Now I have got 6 more pages to read. My tutor has bought me a new book to learn, but it looks quite difficult and I'm not sure if I can do it.
It's not for the first time I noticed, but while I was learning "B" letter, baby in Singhala is "Baba", but in Japanese it's a impolite way of saying "old waman", or a "hag". I think it's good to learn the differences of using words in different languages, so that I will be careful of using them when I'm with people from different nationalities.

Library Service

Today's work in library was quite simple, but still hard. I had to put the Time Magazines in order from year 2007 to 2009. Seems like people have been putting the magazines in any different order, so it was difficult to find the right dates, months and years. It took all my after-school-time to finish it. While I was doing the work, I have found few magazines that might help me with geography and other subjects. Not only the subjects, but some of them had articles that I am interested in. When I have a time during the lunch time or wherever, I would surely like to go and read few articles. If I find any articles that I might need for something, I can always photo copy them.
Oh yeah, I didn't see any 12th graders coming in today. I wonder where they were....

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!

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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