CAS Year 2010-11 Reflection

When thinking back to the goals that I set at the beginning of the year, I think I did well in completing them.
Sunflower Village is one activity that I participated in throughout the whole year and with that I completed multiple things from the CAS criteria. I undertook new challenges, because even though I have been swimming for a long time, I've never helped other people learn how to swim. Also, I have worked collaboratively with others because apart from me, there are few more students with who I work together. I have participated in planned and initiated activities because before the kids come we always have a plan for what we are going to do, which is: swim for 30-40 minutes then spend some time having fun, playing waterpolo or something else.
For the other activities like football and wall climbing, my goal was to fulfill my time with something interesting and keep my body in a good shape. With participating in these activities I have worked collaboratively with others, because football is a team sport and it requires working as a unity, and for wall climbing, there should be at least one more person that you have to work with, which is again, working collaboratively. I also participated in planned and initiated activity while playing football, because before the matches we always have a team talk regarding our strategy and way of playing.
With Pinhole Photography and SAISA Art, I have completed my creativity part of CAS and I have developed my skills and undertaken new challenges because while working during SAISA I tried different methods that I haven't used before, and Pinhole Photography is a totaly new thing for me, so it's obvious that I have undertaken new challenges.

Sunflower Project, Second Semester

A couple of weeks ago the Sunflower Project continued to take place. I couldn't come the first time, because of being sick I think, I don't really remember. But apart from that I participated every Thursday.
Anyway, we continued what we were doing in the first semester, which is teaching the kids how to swim, while also having fun.
As usual, for the first 40 minutes we work hard and in the end we play some water polo, or some of the kids that don't want to play continue swimming. The good thing this semester is that our group of OSC students got bigger, and we have a better chance on concentrating on deviding the group of kids equally and working in smaller groups.
With participating in Sunflower Project I have planned and initiated activities and worked collaboratively with others, because it's a project that needs team work, with the other students from OSC and with the kids from the local school. Also, I have shown perservance and commitment in my activities because I have attended every time except the first day, because I wasn't informed that the kids are coming, therefore I didn't take my swimming stuff to school.

Me and Yariq discussing something

SAISA Football

The match against Dhaka, I'm #15

In February 2011, the SAISA Football tournament took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh. OSC participated in it among 9 other schools from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal. I was on the team that traveled to Dhaka, with 11 other players and our 2 coaches Mr. Shipley and Mr. Campbell. Before the tournament we had lots of plactices and friendly games with other schools from Colombo and with the professional football club Colombo Lions too.

In Dhaka we played 6 matches, 2 matches per day and these are the results we got: 2 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses and in the end we came at 8th place out of 10. Looking at this from your perspective is a bad result, but taken the fact that we had only 12 players (one of them got injured halfway) and that we played 2 matches per day on a really high temperature, we didn't do too bad.

With participating in SAISA Football I increased my awareness of my own strenghts and areas of growth. I was aware of my technical abilities and team work, but I lacked stamina, which was essential because we played 2 matches per day. I also participated in planed and initiated activities and I worked collaboratively with others because before every match we talked about our tactics and the way we're going to play. Also, because football is a team sport, it includes working collaboratively with others.

Overal, this was another good experience for me.

Me against one of Dhaka's players



Week Without Walls

In January, two weeks after the start of the school year, Grade 11 went down south to Hambantota for 5 days. The first and the last day we were just having fun around the hotel and in the rooms, but duriung the 3 days in between, two groups of us went to two different schools in two different villages in the area of Hambantota. There, we participated in an activity of painting the walls in those schools, which were built by OSC after the Tsunami.
I did work on a murial on one of the walls, and also helped with the painting of the walls, the doors and the windows around the whole place.
With this, I have undertaken new challenges, because I haven't participated in this kind of activities before, and I haven't painted walls nor windows and doors. Also, I have done something like murials in art, but I've never done it on a wall.
Apart from this, we planned and initiated our activities, because before we started, even before the trip while we were still in school we made plans about who is going to work on what, so we don't waste too much time when we're there. And because I was in the murial group, we came up with a theme and we came up with the whole design before the trip.
During the painting, I worked collaboratively with others while painting, which is normal because this is a group activity.
I also showed perseverance and commitment in my activities, because apart from doing the murals, which was the only thing I was supposed to do, I also helped people with other stuff, like painting the windows and the other walls, as well as moving things around and cleaning the equipment.
With participating in this activity, I was engaged with issues of global importance, because we are helping people that are dealing with poverty and education, and I have contributed to the children having more convinient facilities while in school.
With the whole activity, I have developed new skills, because as I mentioned for the first time I painted walls.

This is me painting the background of the murial

SAISA Art

From 2nd to 6th December 7 people from OSC went to Kathmandu, Nepal in order to participate in SAISA Art 2010 together with students from many other schools. Our flight was scheduled for early morning on Thursday, and on the way to Kathmandu we stop in Delhi where we had an hour free time. After the arrival in Kathmandu, we went to our host families and we spent the first couple of days there, and we spent the last night in a hotel. During that time I made 2 pieces of work, one of which with acrylic colours, charcoal and a marker and the other one with charcoal, ink and marker. On the first piece I worked collaboratively with other students which helped me improve my collaborative skills. And with participating in everything that was happening I also showed perseverance and commitment in my activities. On the second piece I worked individually and experimented with different kind of paper and different medias. With this I undertook new challenges, because I haven't tried working like this before. Also , I've increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth because I saw that I am good in working with charcoal but not as skillful in working with acrylic colours.


Overall, it was a good experience and I had a nice time.

 OSC SAISA Art group 2010

SAISA Art students in Bakhtrapur, 2010

Pinhole Photography

For an after school activity in block 2 I have chosen Pinhole Photography. My goal is to cover some more time in the Creativity part of CAS.
So far I've learned how to create photographs using a pinhole camera, and I've created couple of examples from which this one is the best.
First, I need a can with a very small hole on it (about 2-3mm) and a black cover for the hole. Also, the inside of the can where the photo paper is put should be black. Then, I put the camera on the place that I want to take picture of, and open the hole for a minute or two, dependable of the amount of light in the room, and how big the hole is.
Apart from taking pictures, we have learned how to develop our photographs. In the dark room I put the photo paper in 3 different chemicals until it's developed. After that the photography is left drying.
Yesterday also, we went to the Computer Lab and scanned and photoshoped our photographs, inverted it, flip it and change the contrast. In the end they came out to look very good, regarding the fact that this is the first time I've done this.
With this I have undertaken new challenges and developed new skills, because these are things that I haven't done before.

Picture of me with a Pinhole camera

Wall Climbing Trip

On the 8th of October, the Wall Climbing group with guidance from Mr. Lockwood, Mr. Simms and Mr. Smith, went to Thulhiriya where we had opportunity to do real rock climbing, b-laying, ab sailing and climbing up the giant ladder. I have already done that before, on the IB trip which was on the same place, but still it was a good experience because now I had more practice before the trip on the Wall in the gym.
We started off at 7 A.M. from OSC, and from the beginning we could see that the weather is going to be a problem, it looked like every second it was about to rain. And it eventually did. We spent around 2 hours on the way to there, and as soon as we arrived, we had a short snack and we were ready to go. First we did the rock climbing and it was really challenging because it was raining and the rocks were really wet and slippery. I was b-laying first, which was little challenging for the arm muscles, but apart from that it wasn't hard. Then the time came when I was supposed to climb up the rock and I think I did good. I got to the point which we considered to be the top, because the rain didn't allow us to go further up.
After that we went ab sailing, and I was little scared at the beginning, but I did good but I got out of it with bruised fingers from the rope. And finally I climbed up to the top of the Giant Ladder with another student, and it was challenging because as we went further up the difference between the steps got longer and longer.
It was a good experience because I developed my skills and tested my strength. Also, I worked collaboratively with other people, like in b-laying and the climbing on the giant ladder which took place in pairs. The activity was a good one, and it had a big role in my action part of CAS. This trip, and the whole Wall Climbing course made me think about continuing to do this sport, as I will be looking forward to doing it next year too.

 Me on the Giant ladder

Me b-laying

Pictures taken by Mr. Lockwood, October 2010