Ambidextrous level 1

Creativity+Action

After a week of practicing my left hand is now more or less able to write the english alphabet and some easy words.
As you can see on the left of the page there are some of the practices that I have been doing so far. Fun fact- in the sentence"The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog" every letter in the alphabet has been used. This makes it a good sentence to practice because all of the letters must be written out.
It is clear that some of the letters are still a bit wiggly and not up to standard, but at least now it is recognisable which means a successful progress!
I will try to post more about my progress and my next goal is to write a small paragraph of text about myself.


In ambidextrous training I have achieved:
-undertaking new challenge
-be aware of my strengths and weaknesses
-develop new skills (one day my left will substitute my right)
-showing perseverance and commitment to the activity  

Did I tell that my group won an award?

Creativity+Service

It's a bit late but nevertheless my group won an AWARD!!(alongside other group)
As I mentioned before there was a challenge for us to make a mission statement for our school linking with IB learner profile. Two of my friends and I have composed a mission statement which has been recognised by the school's committee of teachers and has been chosen as one of the best.
 From this activity I found out that collaborating with others is really fun and surprisingly progressive. I would never come up with such a good piece of work by myself and I truly thank them for this matter.
 I would like to participant in more of those challenges to show my potentials as an IB student. I also delivered a little acceptance speech when my group was receiving the awards. It has been a good practice for me on public speeches and it is clear, that I have many things to improve on. Nevertheless it was a good day of my semester.

Here is my certificate!

Basketball Week 13!

Action

This week we are back to normal full court games which is awesome. However less people came this week which cause us to split into three teams which was fine for everyone. The games were pretty dynamic after few weeks of half court drilling sessions.
 I felt that I played much better than few weeks ago. The movement and passing awareness has improved but still a bit lacking on shooting accuracy and re-bounce timings. Those are the things I will be working on and hope next session I will be a better teammate and a player :D
Like always here is the video:

 Thanks to the film recording person <3

Possible outcomes achieved:
-awareness of strength and weaknesses
-worked collaboratively with my teammates
-showed perseverance and commitment to basketball
-developing new skills

One hand is good, but two hands is better!

Creativity 

 From the beginning of this week I started my ambidextrous training( such a fancy name :D )This is an awesome skill to have and I take this challenge. This means I will start to do actions with my left hand in order to strengthen it till the level, when my right hand is tired I could use my left.

 Maybe because I am possibly a lefty when I was small, but the school and parents forced me into using my right hand. This caused some communication issues back then but now it's better. So this means I do half of my work with my left hand since I feel that it is my stronger hand but not sure if it is dominant or not.

 The writing part was really hard first few days because of the uncomfortable position and strange feelings when writing.

 My current result is pretty good. I can write the whole alphabet without too much effort but writing whole sentences is a bit of struggle. 

 I will try to ask some lefties for some tips and will continue my path to ambidexterity. My current goal is to able to write nice circular and straight lines when writing alphabet and numbers.Fighting!   

Basketball Week 12

This week I finally felt some major improvement in my play. Now I got the hang of the movement and how to always open up for a successful pass and a good teamwork.
 From Mr. Gray I got some valuable feedback which consist of positive factors and places that I could improve.
 Positive:
    -my movement was much superior than from when I just started.
    -I am aware where my teammates are located and almost always ready for a pass
    -overall performance was better than last time
 Improvements:
    -I lost many rebounds due to the fact that I can't get the right timing since my height isn't the issue. I would need to work on that next time and hope I will improve on the timings and direction of the falling ball.
 Suggestion:
    -I could have tried to shot from a close range when I wasn't blocked by defenders instead of passing. My mid-short range shots have high percentage of scoring but this could be a personal choice under various conditions.
 In conclusion, I want to say that this session was great because I scored many baskets and finally our team won. YES!!!! Sorry for lack of video due to the fact every person participate in game so there is no one who could record :( 

How do you make a paper boat?

Creativity

Today I decided to make another origami post since I just happen to have the moods to make something creative. This origami is pretty simple and here is how to make one:

A you can see there are only 8 steps to it but the most difficult part is the 7th picture. It seems to be very easy but if real life the paper can easily rip and this makes the move much harder. I have make one myself and it only took me few minutes so maybe I will teach someone else in future for my service part :D

The boat!

Basketball Week 11

From last session we started to play half court games in order to drill on our passing skills. This way will able to collaborate more efficient such as better passes, open up to receive a pass and create better shooting opportunities for ourselves and team mates.
 So this week I felt that our team played better than last one, at least on the passing and shooting. Last time we heavily depended on one player which caused us few games. This time our coordination is far better and I found out how to move which in offence. I will keep improving my shooting skills and movements so I can help our team to earn another basket.
 Hope we start to play normal full court games soon, but current games can be a basement of our future skills. I want my team win next time and I will prove I am stronger than I think I am. GO red bulls!!! XD 

Mission statement for our school

Creativity + Service

For our CAS session we have been honoured to be participate in a challenge to write a mission statement for our school. This activity was challenging since our teacher has already written an example and it was like 8 out 10. We had to change it to fit the CAS outcomes and IB profile at the same time not losing the strength of the original statement.
 Two of my classmates and I have composed a mission statement which we think is pretty, at least we have put a lot of thoughts into it. I hope our group can win because it is such an honour to have your work at your school main website. :D

Help! Maybe this will work :)

Service

Today is a good Sunday when I decided to check if I have done all of my homeworks. One of my classmate has struggled on writing a speech for our English written task. It happens that I just finish mine so I would give him some tips and tricks. I outline the structure of the style of this type of text and maybe goals that need to be achieved. I felt that I could gave him more tips and help but I didn't know his particular speech. However, from his feedback I can feel that it has removed a blockage and he was ready to continue his work. 

 This all happened through Skype chat but I feel this is a mean of communication which doesn't limit its efficiency for a nice service.

 Next time I will try to help them when ever I am free and now it's time for me to more knowledgeable in order help others in future.

 

Basketball~!!!

Action

 Here is finally a post with a video! Today's basketball session was pretty good but i felt that I didn't perform as well as I wanted. The main problems were lack of stamina and not knowing how to open up for passes. I scored 2 baskets but missed few more.
 Next time I will try to move around more and possibly make better shots and open up as much as I can. I collaborated with my teammates but there is still room for improvement for better communication and passing the ball.
 Finally here is the video, we also improved of subs on off system where subs are change efficiently without stopping the game.

Basketball for the win!

Action! 

 Last wednesday was another good session, or should I say a better session because I felt that I have improved since last time. This time the teams were almost the same as last time but some of my teammates didn't show up which cause be playing all the time. However, I think this was a challenge to me so I welcomed it with heart full of passion.:D
 The first few games didn't go well because on the yellow team was a semi-pro player for year 13 who dominated the court but in the third game me and my teammates were fully committed and show the yellow team who are the bosses here. Basically, we improved on fast accurate passing and I made few trick shots and jump shots which were huge improvement compare to past me. My accuracy was 50% but this is already not bad me because it will just get better and better as time goes by. I scored 5 in total which was ok and there a lot of room for improvement.
 Finally, tomorrow I will try to maintain my stats and try to improve them. The only thing I am really lacking is stamina but on of the teacher taught me a way to fill the that gap in short without jogging. My aims are: better and more accurate passes, better movements and finally - score as much as I can!!!
P.S. no video this week, I promise I will record tomorrow ^_^

Push ups and stuff~

Action

So from yesterday I decided to start to do push ups and sit ups at home whenever I am free but must be dome on daily basis. I started with a low number because the chin-touching push ups are more difficult than normal ones. Today I already felt that I can do the same number of push ups as yesterday but using less energy.

In future I should do in sets of 10~15 and try out different types of push ups and sit ups but for now I will try to increase the number of push ups to its limits. When I feel I can do adequate number under a time trial I will make a video!(but it will be in future)

Those exercises clearly shows my strengths and weakness and allows me to improve.Every new day will be a new challenge because every few days I will rise the number of push ups. Finally, my goal is 50 push ups with ease maybe in 2 month maybe, but if I start doing now, it feels like I am half way there already.

Finally...Origami post!

Creativity

This would be my first origami post because before I couldn't find time to properly learn a new origami. So this I made a 3D paper cube which is very easy to make. There were no major problems since I have played around with origami in past and now is time when I improve upon my old skills.Here is how to make it:

How to make a paper cube

See its not that difficult, the only thing is that the first step requires a pre made fold which as a beginner you may not know to make that. The only issue was that the cube wasn't a perfect cube and the sides were not as straight as I intended. Overall, it was a treat, It takes only few minutes and after few week you would able to call yourself an origami pro.(it's what I am aiming for :P)

 \(^0^)/

I made this one!

I would post more origami post in future so be ready :D

Cas outcomes achieved

-Undertake new challenges 

-Develop new skills (new origami= new skill)

-Increase awareness of strengths and areas for growth

-Show perseverance and commitment

International Day ~~~

Creativity + Action + Service 

On Friday our year group have participated in organizing and running one of the most important events in our school - The International Day. We were separated into group of 3 and we had to come up with some activities that were related to our own nations. I have mention the games in one of my older post so lets cut to the real event. I have been in BIS for 5 years and every year international day was a really exciting day when students participate in different games from around the world and learn interesting facts about different countries.
 This year I felt different because I had to teach other year groups instead of playing myself. My teammates were really organised on bringing necessary resources such as a 250 sheets of colour paper even though we don't need that much but there is never too much because the class sizes varied from 12 to 14 people. To run the activity smoothly I had to strongly collaborate with my teammates e.g. taking turns in explaining and separate ourselves to help multiple people at the same time.
 There was little issues in the beginning because one of my teammates forgot to bring chopsticks which was necessary to split students into two teams. So we have improvised by cutting our existing paper into little pieces and marking them with crosses and circles. There was also another problem with our origami - it was too thin and this affected functionality of the ddakji (the origami) so we decided to make it smaller ,but it didn't improve much. However, after the break we have finally solved the problem by double the thickness of the paper by giving students 4 papers instead of 2 which our extra supply was used efficiently.
 The whole event was pretty good overall, I can proudly say that every person walked into our activity have successfully made a ddakji which shows our ability to explain and communicate which meets some of the characteristics from the IB learner profile. My teammates and I have committed to the activity and have planed it out carefully even though this was a new challenge for me because this is the first time I had the chance to plan an activity with others and I really enjoyed the process and looking forward to do similar activities in future.
 After a hard working morning we had the rare opportunity to taste dishes from around the world and I really enjoyed it and this was like a reward for our commitment which has motivated me to participate in similar events.
  P.S. here is what I ate :D

Another Basketball Session~

(Action + Service)

Yesterday I had a really good basketball session. The reason for that because last week one of my teachers told me the position which suits my height and ability - it's under the basket from the left side because my left arm is my stronger arm. So I put theory into action and it worked like a champ. I scored around 4 shots but also misses few which Mr Gray (our CAS coordinator) has an account of.

This week I felt that I improved my movements on the court and opened up more often which helped us to pass the ball around and give our team better position to score a basket.

I bet you wondering: how does service link with basketball? The answer is easy, for most of the games Mr Gray was writing down personal scoring and stats so there was no one writing down the score. So every time I was off, I kept the time with my phone and wrote the scores for both teams. It was fairly easy task which require punctual timing because when it was 15 seconds and 10 seconds left I had to warn Mr Gray so he would end the game on time.

Next time I will try to keep my position and move around more often so the ball. My aim is to score 5~6 baskets next session. Fighting~~ :D

The score sheet

One of the games

International Day Planning

So we have been divided into group of three to create little events in different rooms in school and were separated my continent. This was the chance to show our nation and what traditions each one of us has inherited.

Games

Me and my classmates have decided to do two korean traditional games since they know the rules very well and able to supply with needed goods. Of the games is basically test ones ability to flip a coin just by taping around it. This is a really fun and quick games which mean we have another similar games, but instead of flipping coins, the participants will make their own original item and will try to flip someone else's. We decided to make an mini tournament and for the winner we will give chinese and korean food.

CAS outcomes

It will take some organisation and having right things on the right place. We also have considered extreme situation so we would bring extra equipment just in case. This activity teaches us how to collaborate with others through communication and shows what weaknesses each has so others would be able to help 

and overtake them.

Teaching even more chinese~~~

So I was a marker and an empty board so I decided to write some chinese symbols on them just for fun, As I was starting to write one of my classmates got interested in it so I thought why not teach him some chinese. I taught him how to write the word "hello" in chiense (nihao), verry good (henhao) and how to write his name. It was pretty interesting for me to teach someone else and I would like to do that in future. When I taught him, I tried to write as clear as possible since in chinese we can write really fast but nobody would understand. So next time I could bring a textbook or book so they could learn the words that they want to learn.

IB learner profile for Russian B

I should have posted this a week ago but I had some difficulties with my internet so that's why I posting it now. So our russian class did a IB learner profile board and everyone did their parts. All the letters are handmade which took a lot of effort but it was worth it. I helped with painting the letters and holding the paint so no one would get the paint on there clothes or books. This activity taught me the importance of collaborating with others and communicating in order to get the things right from the beginning. Next if similar event happens I will try to participate more in activities and help other if needed.
Here is how it looks like:

Jogging Weekends

Sorry for not posting for so long, I had some difficulties with my computer but that is not important because I found another CAS activity which I did this weekends. I have been jogging with my uncles in the morning before we ate anything. First was pretty tough since I wasn't use to this kind of routine and felt pain in my legs after a small session. The second was a little bit better than the first one but there was still problem with my breathing rhythm. The third and final day I finally figured out how to breath correctly so I had enough oxygen to make sure I don't feel tired after few minutes. My body got used to the speed and rhythm and you maybe think jogging is easy but its is difficult to for a beginner to master the skill, even for jogging. I feel that I developed new skill of breathing in certain way which improved my weakness of low stamina. I found jogging really good since it is fundamental for all sport and I will try to jog more in future, but winter is coming soon and it's getting colder so maybe next year in spring.

My CAS activities

 As you know CAS is an abbreviation of three words: Creativity, Action and Service.

 Right to the point, My Creativity part would be making origami frequently and sometime play some piano(keyboard) because it was my hobby probably few months ago but too much things have happen since and I decided to extend my skill and bring it to a new level.

 The CAS outcomes from those activities would be developing new skills, taking new challenges since I will try to learn new origami every week and learn a new song om piano, I would say till Christmas.Those two activities also takes some planning because I need to find both clean sheets and the music sheet and organise them together. Finally I will try to practice as much as I can everyday but practicing piano, I admit is a pretty boring thing but reward is worth the time spent. 

 My Action activity would be playing basketball after school and maybe in future I will have some private practices. Basketball is one of the longest hobby I have and it's a very good CAS activity.

 By playing basketball I would guaranteed to work in am team, which means I will have to learn to collaborate with others and improve my weaknesses by learning from them. I will be aware of my strengths and weaknesses which I will improve during playing basketball and maybe learn some new basketball tricks.

 Last but not least, the service part. I would offer to my classmates or anyone who would like some help in mathematics or any other subjects which I capable at.

Teaching in general is a good CAS activity and I don't want limit down the possibilities of things that I can teach others.Maybe a conversation with my classmate in foreign language will help both of us improve speaking level.

 The CAS outcomes could be considering ethical implication because by teaching some it will be my duty not to pass down bad habits or any ethical issues. The finally - aware of global importance. By practicing foreign languages I will try to cut out some articles from newspaper and talk about it with my classmates. In that way we would be able to read the news and discuss them.

 This is just a plan, there will be some variations from time to time but this is mostly what I will do throughout 2 years of IB and I hope I will become a person who has all characteristic from the IB profile. 

Teaching a little bit of chinese

Today I have attempted to teach chinese to my friend Julien and it was really fun. I taught him how to write his name in chinese which probably was a bit fascinating for since it's something he never done before. It was really easy to teach him but probably next time I can teach him or somebody else some useful phrases which then they can use it in real life. Its probably really hard for someone who is not chinese to learn it because chinese is an unique language which hundred thousands symbols. That's why I used chinese phonetics to help him pronouncing those symbols. He had a really strong french accent which was really new to me. Next time I would probably teach chinese to group of people since International Day is coming up and there would be an opportunity for me to represent my country, but before that I need to revise some chinese knowledge, because I already forgotten some :P
Here is a picture of our private lesson :

Basketball Week 2

This weeks basketball club was good as usual. In the first few games I didn't play as well as I could because of bad communication between teammates. I was really confused where to stand when our team is attacking that's why I couldn't help our team to pass the ball around and created chances to score. However after few games I watched how other people "open up" every time their teammate get the ball which suddenly increases their chance to score. I saw something that I was struggling with and this was the answer. In following game I increased my movement while in offence which led me score 4 points from two-foot jump shots.

Next time I will keep this new skill and try to improve it so there will be a better communication between my teammates and I.

AND here is the video :D

P.S. I scored two here, yeah! Credits to the girl who recorded (sorry forgot her name :/ )

Decoration of our Physics room

Today we have been asked to help our physics teacher to put up the relevant pictures for each of the IB learner profiles. We had to find out which pictures goes with which profile and after that one student should stand on a chair and staple the picture on the wall. The only thing that we could improve on is plan the layout first because we had some issues with shortage of space. The solution was cutting little stripes of paper and link the profile to the picture. Here is how it looks like: 

Next time my classmates and I could make a better layout and make it look prettier. Overall we finished the task and it looks reasonably good.

First CAS activity

Today was the first day of my CAS program! If you ask me what I did, I will answer BASKETBALL!! Basketball is my favourite sport since 3-4 years ago and it's a very good sport to learn how to collaborate with others and together achieve goals. From time to time I learned new tricks and strategies which is one of main focused of CAS- be reflective and learn from your mistakes and become better individual.
So today was really exciting because everybody played their best so did I, but I still have some issues with shortage of stamina and good shots. However I score around 8 to 10 points and I wish to improve from that but basketball is not about scoring, it's about collaborating with teammates which meets the CAS outcomes.
Next time I will try to pass more and move around more so my team could get a better chance to score, but of course I will try to score more. 

Here is a video!!

Here is some photos of our A.F.B.C (After school basketball club :D ) 

Intense Dribbling 

Nice shot,Shun!