Summative Reflection

LO1- Evidence of identification of strengths and areas for personal growth and LO2: Evidence of undertaking new challenges and developing new skills in the process

I approached these concepts of CAS by doing activities that helped me become a more full rounded person. Additionally, I have also carried out creative tasks which helped me become better at certain tasks and grow as a person. For example, I decided to do the Online Graduation, reading, helping out with movie night , cooking, and programming. Further on, the activities I did to target these LOs were playing football, visiting foodbank, boxing, judo, 30 pushups a day, horse riding. The online graduation taught me how to lead well and make sure to lead by example, while reading helped me develop my language skills, helping out with movie night helped me be able to communicate with kids better, cooking allowed me to develop a life skill that I will need for university, finally, programming helped me develop a hobby and become even better at it.

LO3: Evidence of initiating and planning a CAS experience 

Personally, I learned how important planning is for any activity that I want to go successfully. This helped me ensure that I am on task, and reach my goals. Which highlights another vital element of any activity/project I am working on which is setting measurable goals. Finally, if I am to lead a project it will benefit others if I am on time and know what I am doing. I demonstrated this in the online graduation, judo, football , helping out with movie night, walking.

LO4: Evidence of commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences 

This learning objective helped me understand the importance of persistence and doing something for a long time everyday. Further on, it helped me understand that it is often about persistence and hard work. Also, by sticking to an activity it gives other people motivation and inspiration therefore, it also helps people in my community when they see me put in an effort to make a change. An example of this , is when I was at the foodbank where, I spent the entire day working and sweating and packing food. My attention span had to be high to ensure the right amounts were packed into the right boxes and it was tough but, the rewarding feeling of giving back to the community let me push through. 

LO5: Evidence of demonstrating the skills and recognizing the benefits of working collaboratively

Working collaboratively was very interesting in this journey. Firstly, I learned to appreciate each team member's strengths and use others' to fill  a void left by a weakness of another teammate. Further on, the experience was beneficial as it allowed me to benefit my communication skills. It also helped others to learn how to communicate well in teams. Additionally, it was very satisfying to see all the hard work put into something collaboratively to work out. An example of that in my CAS portfolio was talent show,  school carnival, learning to drive, football, online graduation. 

LO6: Evidence of engagement with issues of global significance

This learning objective was very interesting for me and fun to try to tackle. Firstly, I learned a lot about different cultures and I helped in global issues such as health, and education which was very rewarding due to the feeling of being part of something bigger. Additionally, it helped me understand problems faced by our society right now and contribute to a solution. I tackled this learning objective through activities such as: online graduation, reading, judo, playing freerice.com. 

LO7: Evidence of recognising and considering the ethics of choices and actions

Finally, this learning objective was one of the most important in my opinion. This allowed me to realise that it is vital to consider my impact of my decisions on other people and my local community. This helped me become more mature and understanding of people. Furthermore, it was a great change in my life as it allowed me to find joy in helping out and benefiting others. I believe this learning object is essential as it allowed me to explore things I usually wouldn't have done. As for the impact on my community, I believe that it has benefited as I would keep in mind the effects of my decisions on them thus, not stepping over anyone. Examples of targeting this LO was: visiting the foodbank, playing freerice.com, tutoring my little sister, joining the green team, and helping out with movie night. 

Tutoring my little sister(Creativity, Service)

Description and Goals

By tutoring my little sister, I can pass on the knowledge from my education and additionally, it will help me learn how to communicate better and make my points more comprehensible. Furtheron, the responsibility of planning the lessons beforehand will help me become more disciplined and responsible. 

April 21, 2020 1:29 AM Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Initiative & Planning Strength & Growth

First of all, I planned the lesson for my little sister. I decided to break up the lesson in 3 parts. Firstly, a starter to get her intrigued and interested. Then, the main lesson and a game to finish off and check if she completely understood. I realized that I need to work on my speed of teaching as sometimes, I found that I tend to speed up the teaching process sometimes out of frustration, which in turn, means that my sister won't understand. Additionally, I have been rather patient with her and answered all her questions. However, to further improve the process, I decided to allow for time to ask questions at the end of explaining each point. By helping my little sister, I will save my parents time and allow them to enjoy their time at home away from work more and therefore, make them happier. I learned that communication and working together (teacher and student) in tutoring is vital as it allows for the student to gain the most amount of knowledge. It is vital to create a safe environment in which my sister(student) feels encouraged to ask questions no matter how dumb they might seem.

April 21, 2020 2:36 AM Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Initiative & Planning Strength & Growth

This lesson with my little sister was a lot better. I realized that she focused more when I used more pictures and visual elements and references. Therefore, I planned this lesson to include more visual elements to make sure my sister understood more. Additionally, I decided to consistently ask her how she was feeling with the tempo of the class and how much information she was actually retaining. Also, I decided to be patient and hear all of her questions when she asked them rather than allocate time for questions because it is just one person being tutored so it would be more effective that way. Also, I wanted to genuinely see her prosper and benefit from the tutoring so I did not take any money from my parents (who offered) because I wanted to see her improve and not make money off it. Also, we both decided to write down what we covered in the lesson at the end and we compared it. This is to make me see how much she actually retained. 

Talent Show(Service)

Description and Goals

I helped out with the organization of the annual school talent show that helps people display talents they have and can not present it on a regular basis. Additionally, it was a good opportunity to inspire people and I wanted to be apart of that. Furthermore, I tend to not contribute to school activities and events and I pushed my boundaries by volunteering to aid in the event although, I was aware that it would be difficult to control and organize the children involved in the event. Moreover, I had to communicate with fellow students in the organisation and it helped my team work skills improve. 

October 17, 2019 1:23 AM Challenge & Skills Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Strength & Growth

Most of the contenders were in year 7 and 8 which made them very loud and talkative. I did not believe that was an issue however, apparently the noise was far too loud and it was reaching the audience therefore, we were recruited to help keep them quiet which was a very difficult task. Firstly, a lot of them were being immature and did not respond to simple requests therefore, we had to  constantly monitor and tell them to keep it down. At the same time, I tried not to be too strict to ensure that they enjoy their time as well as not disrupt others. Alongside, 3 other volunteers , we split up tasks accordingly and it made the process so much easier.  Despite me getting frustrated multiple times, I stayed on the helping team fulltime and managed to control the situation which allowed for a better performance environment for contenders . I believe in this activity I managed to work well in  a team however, I did not keep my cool at all times which is something I have to work on. Working with younger kids was a challenge but it is an experience  I can learn from and moving forward, I believe I am much better at organising events for younger people and crowd control than I was before stepping up to this task.

Learning how to drive(Service)

Description and Goals

I am learning how to drive for many reasons. Firstly, it is an essential skill of the 21st century and it is integral part of living in this century. Additionally, I would like to be able to drive my little sister to her sports classes when the pandemic is over. This will free up more time for my mum to continue her studies and help out my family. Also, I need to work closely with the driving instructor (who is also the driver for our family thus, not violating the quarantine) to make sure that I learn correctly and not risk hitting anyone on the street.

April 21, 2020 12:10 AM Challenge & Skills Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Strength & Growth

My first lesson for driving went smoothly. I was told that I need to work on nerves and stay focused as I tend to let the car drift away from me while driving which is very dangerous. However, despite almost crashing I kept on working and improved majorly by the end of the hour. However, to make sure I didn't hit anyone I started driving on streets without many people and drove slowly and stuck to the right side to allow for people behind me to pass and not slow down people. The instructor would occasionally stop me to give me some pointers and I realized how important it was to listen to him as what he was saying was very helpful.

April 21, 2020 12:33 AM Challenge & Skills Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Strength & Growth

This time around, I started off with a basis which I improved upon. Firstly, I realized that the car wasn't drifting from me as much. However, this time we introduced speed bumps to the drive route which introduced the problem of me not slowing down. I still need to work on that and make sure that I do manage to slow down so that I can safely pass the speed bumps. Also, I tend to quickly stop without giving the driver behind me time to see me come to a stop which could be dangerous and could result in a crash.  Again, I took the advice from the instructor and I improved by the end of the session.

I played http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1370 for an hour straight(Service)

Description and Goals

Since I personally do not have any source of income that can be used to donate to charities and I do not have much time outside of school to go to local charities and help out due to the many activities I have going on, I decided to harness an hour of free time I had to research ways of helping the less fortunate virtually. After some research, I recognized that this website was a reliable, effective, and quick way to raise funds to purchase food for the less fortunate. In addition, I played it at hard level which allowed me to add more words to my vocabulary.

June 11, 2019 9:21 AM Challenge & Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Global Engagement Strength & Growth

I found this reliable website that donates rice to children across the world in need as a source of food by me playing a game that tests my terminology which  is very effective because it helps me grow as a person and at the same time helps people in need. Furthermore, I came to the realization that if more people played we can help more people therefore, I will attempt to convince some of my friends to play the game therefore, helping more people.

October 17, 2019 12:50 AM Challenge & Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Global Engagement Strength & Growth

So far, by using this website, I have gained new vocab and improved my communication skills while helping feed people in need. Unfortunately a disadvantage to this experience is that there is no real way for me to see the effect my activities have on people. However, knowing that I have made a difference is a feeling I would not trade with anything in the world. 

At times, it got very boring and repetitive but , I decided to turn on some music and switch the environment I was working in. Further on, I have convinced a few of my classmates to take on this activity and explained to them how it works.

April 22, 2020 2:17 AM Challenge & Skills Commitment & Perseverance Ethics of Choices & Actions Global Engagement Strength & Growth

My final hour of playing freerice was a lot more rewarding than the other sessions because I could feel the difference I was making due to the effort I put in. I wish I was a little bit more productive during the hours I played. Although, I do feel like I was productive, I also feel like if I had wasted less time playing around with the music, I could've helped out more people. However, that did help me stay on target and finish the hours in game. Further on, I was very careful to make sure that I spent at least an hour per session and not do any less (sometimes played for longer). The experience has been very rewarding due to the feeling of being useful for global issues (No poverty, and zero hunger). The feeling is amazing and I will definitely be doing this in my free time now because I feel like I am actually making a difference despite not seeing the outcome. Moreover, I will be inviting a lot of my friends to do so too.

Helping out at the annual school carnival (Service)

Description and Goals

The school needed the help of students to run the carnival which aimed to raise funds to help clean the river Nile. My goals for this experience is to:
Learn more about the River Nile pollution, Help raise funds for the cause, Ensure other people learn more about the issue and convince them to help out. 

November 1, 2019 5:32 PM Collaborative Skills Ethics of Choices & Actions Global Engagement Strength & Growth

Water pollution is a huge issue faced internationally today, and I was really glad the school was trying to help fix this issue. Initially, the plan was for me to cover one shift from 11AM till 12PM however, I was having a lot of fun learning about the issues and how the company we were raising funds for were planning to tackle them that, I decided to stay a few more hours. My job was to sell water bottles to people to raise money for the cause. However, I decided to also help convince people to sign up to actually go and clean up the Nile themselves too and signed up myself as well. Throughout the day, I became better at convincing people to join and make sales and encourage them to make a change in their daily life. In addition, I worked with a team of about 4 people who were all enthusiastic so it was very easy to communicate and work well together.