Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Winter Day (EXTRA)

Creativity

This is a minor post, with a video being the main purpose, but nevertheless an evidence of CAS.
 This will show a better understanding of the kind of activity I have been involved on the Winter day. This video I have edited myself which compared with last time took less time. I felt that is an improvement form last time because this time I had a better understanding of what I am doing and what I wanted to achieve - which is a compilation of my perception of the winter day :D

http://youtu.be/I29RWP6bycs

Paper Rose!

Creativity

Today I decide to make an origami rose.Through this activity I want to develop my skills in origami, consistence and patient.
 This is a revisit to my old skills because I have made them in the past. The process of making one is not that difficult I should say, but it is sure time consuming! It normally take up to 20 minutes to make one if I want to make nice and neat. 
 This particular time I have not encountered any major problems others than the time consumption. In the grand scheme it went successful and here is how it looks like:

I felt that I successfully made a origami rose and achieved my goal.
 Next time perhaps I can use a colour paper to make the rose look more realistic or even a paper stem to support the rose. 
 I also learnt that my patient and concentration are rather good when I am doing something personally challenging. Furthermore, this can be applied in future challenges when those exact qualities will be required such as in group work, where people may disagree and possibly distract one's working process. 
 Finally, origami skills can be useful when I will be asked to entertain younger children , then origami will be my saving grace! 
 Overall, origami is a fun way to spent my spare time, besides I can learn every new origami like a new skill which is why this is good activity for CAS.

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Winter Day Reflection

Action + Service

On this friday there was a "Snow Day" which was organised by year 13 and some year 12. Unfortunately I wasn't involved at overall planning but I join my classmate in one of their activities which was called "Capture the Pole" ( this is what I would call it). I proactively put the pole when ever it was needed: before every game and between each segments.

 In order to be more efficient I made a little snow passage for easier access to the playing field. Since the snow was really deep this little trick really help me and my classmate put the pole without delay the games, which could be considered as being aware of the possible weaknesses and problems and improving upon them.
 The communication between our team was also really important. Every time one of my teammates organised students against the wall in order to start the activity, I would ask them how many students there are. This way I could set up poles that is one less that the number of participant there were to make the game more competitive.
 After two rounds of this activity we would start the next segment which involved us to throw little plastic toys into the snow field and the task was find them in a relay format: one-by-one.
 Oh I forgot to mention we always split the students into to teams and reward the team which wins the most with chocolates bars.

I develop some organisation skills and more efficient communication with others which is useful in any team working activity.

I felt that I have achieved work collaboratively by doing my part of the activity well and communication with teammates to make the games run successfully. Furthermore, I organised the poles into one pile after every group of students which could be easily accessed when needed. This way I have showed my commitment to the activity and some planning even though I didn't came up with the activity.

Overall, I felt that Snow Day went not as well as last year's one due to little incident with a teacher getting hurt because of the chaotic activity we had after lunch. This maybe indicates the lack of organisational skills from year 13 and 12 but at same time not much help from the school and teachers. If I had to make the Snow day next year I would make a pseudo plan 2 weeks before the day in order to solve possible problem and make plan B if necessary. People who are making the activities must inform the CAS coordinator for necessary equipment beforehand not on the day.
Finally, we must warm everyone to wear warm clothing in order to make the day fun for everyone.