Sunflower Project: Final Evaluation

The last session of Sunflower Project for us seniors have finished this Thursday. We began by telling them to swim the width of the pool a few times with support when needed and did some practice on breast stroke. Then we moved onto diving practice. With the help of Mr. Stanley, the children were gradually getting better at diving and I hope that they will become confident in diving with a few more sessions of practice.

Since this is the last post on Sunflower Project, I’d like to make a reflection of this community service project and our accomplishment by linking to the 8 CAS criteria.

I confidently feel that I have found some of my strengths through this service project. One of them is the leadership. Community service is a student-led program and thus leadership is one of the keys to run the service project smoothly. As time has passed I became aware of my good leadership within this project to ensure that everything is running smoothly. This has contributed to my leadership in other activities as well, such as in badminton after school activities and so on. At the beginning I was aware that teaching the swimming skills to new swimmers was one area for growth. However, as I got to spend more time teaching I now feel is one of the strengths which I’ve grown, and I’m now confident to teach non-swimmers the fundamentals to swimming.

As a vice-leader it was a challenge for me to lead this community service project where students lead the service. However I was able to cope with this challenge and didn’t face any serious conflicts. Another challenge was the language barrier. The children don’t speak English and therefore it was very difficult to communicate. However, with the help of the service members who can speak Sinhalese, I was able to teach them swimming. This was an unfamiliar situation which I’ve faced but I feel that I’ve done a good job in this area.

Planning and initiating this activity was a challenging, yet an exciting part of this service. With Avin, who is the leader, we communicated and collaborated together to initiate and plan what we’d do in each session, and this is one of the factors which played a role in running this service project smoothly. This was specially evident when we couldn’t swim due to the weather and changed to teaching computers and playing cricket. Because we had planned earlier what to do we didn’t have to face any problem.

Collaboration was the key to success in this activity. Although we only have 5 members, we each collaborated together to teach group of children how to swim, and also doing other activities such as teaching them about computers and organizing a cricket match.

Perseverance and commitment was clearly shown throughout the semester from everybody. I attended EVERY session and I was always committed and excited to teach them about swimming and doing other activities. One reason that this activity is running smoothly even with 5 members  is because everybody is committed and attending every session.

Through this service project I was engaging with the issue of global importance. Swimming doesn’t sound like an important skill one should have, but I personally feel that it is a crucial skill to have regardless of the regions in the world because in some cases it could be life-risking if one doesn’t have the swimming skills. Therefore by teaching the non-swimmers how to swim, we were involved in an issue of global importance. We also expanded our engagement with this aspect by bringing in the computer teaching sessions. In the modern world, acquiring knowledge about technology is very crucial and thus by providing the children an opportunity to learn something about computers, we were engaging in an issue of global importance. Another point where we were engaging in this aspect was when we gave them the notebooks that they can use in their school. Education is an essential aspect that everybody in the world needs, and by supporting with them by providing educational materials, we were able to engage in a global issue.

The ethical implication which I considered was that other children from the same school (or even from other school for that matter) cannot get an opportunity to learn how to swim, and it is only the specific children that come every week who can learn about swimming and about computers. I always felt that this is unfair and raises an ethical question. Also even when we gave them the school notebooks, it was those specific children and nobody else, thus while the children didn’t have to pay to buy notebooks, other children would have paid to get them, which creates an unfair condition. Perhaps we could teach new group of children every 1-2 months so that many children are able to get an opportunity.

This service project led me to develop many skills. To name some, there were: leadership skills, skills to teach non-swimmers, skills to be able to plan and initiate project, skill to collaborate, skill to cope with language barrier, etc. Overall this was a very meaningful service project for me and I feel that I have gained a sort of experience which cannot easily be learned. I hope that this service project will continue with the remaining members and keep up the good work that we’ve been doing!

SAISA Basketball Final Evaluation

The exciting weekend of SAISA Basketball has finished and overall our Gecko team finished 2nd, after losing a very close final game against Lincoln School.

There were so many different things that I’ve learned and grasped through the SAISA Basketball. I have challenged myself by dedicating my time to SAISA Basketball for the first time, despite at the very important time for the academics. It was rather hard to fit in the team at the beginning because it was the first time I’ve been exposed to the SAISA training and the pressure, but as I came for more practices the pressure was gone and I was able to really push myself as hard as I possibly could.
Through the practices I became aware of my strengths and areas for improvement. This became evident specially during the early practice matches against other international schools in Colombo. I was able to improve my weak skills and further develop my strengths before the SAISA tournament, which certainly helped me to perform well during the tournament. I also developed my leadership and sportsmanship skills during the tournament and this is another accomplishment to be proud of. I believe that my leadership from other activities, such as community service and being the captain of badminton team etc helped me in this aspect. These are important qualities that one needs to be successful in the future, and therefore this is one aspect of SAISA that made it a very valuable experience for me.
Throughout the SAISA season including the tournament, we collaborated as a team to challenge any obstacles before us and push ourselves to the highest level possible. I believe that the team collaboration was what really brought us to be one of the strongest teams in this tournament.
I was able to show my perseverance and commitment in this tournament by coming to EVERY practice. This was definitely a huge accomplishment for me, specially at this time of the year when there is a lot of workload.
I was able to achieve the goal of becoming the starting point guard. For the first few weeks, I was the backup and didn’t get to play as much as other starting players played, but as I pushed myself harder to improve my skills, I’ve managed to earn this really valuable position. This is a clear evidence that I’ve developed my basketball skills specially as a guard. This is definitely something that I’m very proud of!!!

Overall, the SAISA Basketball was a very enjoyable experience. I’ve managed to achieve my goals, and even more than that by communicating with other SAISA athletes from other schools who have different backgrounds and so on. I strongly feel that I’ve developed myself as an athlete, which will definitely help me in the future when doing other team sports!

Origami: Senba Zuru Final Evaluation

Last week I have finished making senba zuru. Instead of putting 100 cranes together, I’ve made 4 sets of 25 cranes.

This little project was indeed a challenge to me because I’m not particularly good at something that requires a lot of precision and concentration to make it. However,  throughout the time I realized that I’m improving in this skill of making cranes with more efficiency. This is evident from the fact that I can now make a crane in about 3 minutes which is a lot shorter than the time it took me to make one at the very beginning, which was about 5 minutes. Through this experience, I was also able to grow and expand my strength and see myself with more skills and abilities. I’ve shown a perseverance and commitment in this project as I consistently made about 4-5 cranes everyday regardless of the schedule. This also gave me a moment of relaxation from the school work. 
The only goal I was unable to achieve was to make a video of how to make Senba Zuru and upload it to Youtube. This was because I couldn’t find time to take videos and put them together due to the tight academic work. However, if I ever have an opportunity to do this again, I hope to make a video! 

Overall, making Senba Zuru was an exciting experience through which I was able to develop new skills and challenge myself to something completely new. I hope that the skills I’ve developed through this creativity will come to be useful at some point in the future.

SAISA Basketball Week 6

During this week, we concentrated on aspects which were areas for improvement, such as physical strengths, layups with powers and some of the offensive motions. These areas were clearly our weaknesses as we have seen from the tournament last week. We also played our final game against British School of Colombo, in which we managed to win by 37-30 (or something close to that). I feel that our weaknesses have improved a bit, but still not quite there yet, so I hope that we can improve as much as we can in the remaining 2 practices. 

Sunflower Project 2nd semester update 5

As planned, this week we spent the whole session in the swimming pool.

At first we started off with just swimming from one side to the other and get them used to the water. We then moved onto free style, checking each and everybody’s form and whether they are doing the right movement or not.

Today we thought them a new swimming stroke, the breast stroke. We believed that now many of the children are at a level to advance to the next step. Breast stroke is little harder than free style in terms of the movement, therefore it was very challenging for us to teach them. Some of them have gotten the movement and seemed to be doing pretty good, but more than half of them are still not getting the movements right, and this is an area that we, as a group, need to collaborate together to help them improve their breast strokes.

Later on, some of them said they wanted to try diving, and therefore we gave them an opportunity to dive, even though we thought it could be dangerous as they cannot reach the bottom of the pool at the deep end. However, all of them were really enjoying it and it looked to me that they didn’t have a fear of not being able to reach the bottom. This was a clear evidence that their swimming skills are improving. Compared to the very first session of this year when the children were all scared to come into water, this is an amazing improvement and something that we and they should be proud of!

Next week will be an IT session followed by cricket.

SAISA Basketball Week 5

This week was full of games. On Tuesday we played against one of the international schools in Colombo, and on Friday and Saturday there was a small tournament organized by Mr. Shipley between 4 schools, Colombo International School, Asia International School, Gateway College and our school. So in total we got to play 6 matches this week.

This week was a really good opportunity for us to test what we have been practicing for about a month. We were definitely faced with challenges, specially on Friday and Saturday where we played 2 games and 3 games respectively. However, we really collaborated as a team and showed commitment and perseverance by playing to the best of our ability at all time on the court. These games made our strengths and areas for growth evident. As for the team strength, I believe it was adapting and quickly changing to different types of offense and defense, depending on the opponent’s tactics. Fast breaks were also seen to be our strength as well. As for the team weaknesses, they were probably the lack of communication, the judgments to pass or to shoot.  Guards cutting into the key was also seen less, and this is something that guards will need to work on.

On a personal level, my strengths were driving, handling and running the tactics that we were supposed to run. I was always aware of my positions on the court and also told others to adjust their position when they were out of position. As a point guard, I have also shown a leadership in the offense by telling other players to get opened and make passes. My weaknesses were driving layups and the judgement in terms of the passes that I made. I also realized that as a senior, I need to show a better leadership on and off the court to maintain the sportsmanship as well as to keep the team together as one. 

It was clear that we were playing better as we played more games. For example, the Saturday’s games were a lot better played compared to Friday’s. Each member has definitely developed or improved skills and also realized the strengths and weaknesses, which we can strive to improve in the remaining weeks until the SAISA tournament. 

Origami: Senba Zuru Update 2

I have been making about 4-5 cranes everyday consistently for about 2 weeks, and today I have reached 50 out of the 100. If I continue at this rate, I should be able to make 100 in about 2 weeks’ time.

For the last 2 weeks, I have been consistently making them everyday, and I feel that this takes a lot of perseverance and commitment.  This has really taught me about the challenges that arise when continuing everyday, such as making cranes even though there are academic work and other important priorities. However, at the same time when I’m making cranes I feel relaxed and thus I believe that this gives me an opportunity to have a balance between relaxation and studies, which is an integral part of IB.

I feel that I’ve been improving my skills to make cranes. One of the evidences is shown in the time it takes to make one. At the beginning, it took me about 5-6 minutes to make one crane, but now I can make one in about 3-4 (sometimes 5) minutes. This is certainly a proof that I’m getting better at this, and thus I’ve increased an awareness of my increasing strength. I hope that this continues to improve as I make more and more. 

Sunflower Project 2nd semester update 4

This week, we were planning to teach them swimming, but due to the unfavorable weather conditions, we changed our plan and we went to the IT lab to give them some computer lessons.

Since we couldn’t give them computer lessons last week, it was a good opportunity to have the session this week. We used a software that teaches the fundamentals to typing so that they could practice. Last semester, we didn’t fully make the use of this because they were simply typing without knowing which fingers to type with and so on, so this time we looked after each and everybody, teaching them about which letter to type with which finger. This is the most basic to the typing and although this is tough at the beginning for them as well as for us, we hope that through more practices they will improve. This requires a lot of perseverance and thus is a challenge but we hope to make commitments to help them as this will help them in the future, which is the purpose of this IT teaching lessons.

After about 30 minutes of typing practices, we took them to the gym, where we played some basketball and volleyball with them. There is less educational aspect in playing sports with them, but we believe that this is compensated by giving them a better environment and equipment to really enjoy what they like, which they don’t often get to experience in their local schools. 

Next week, we will be spending the entire time in the swimming pool.

SAISA Basketball Week 4

This week the main focus was working on different types of offense and defense. As for offense, we have worked on the different movements that each player could do and methods to create spaces which the offense can exploit. As for defense, we have worked on 2-3 zone, 1-3-1 zone, man to man and full court press defense. This week was mainly increasing our types of offense and defense that we could use so that we can play against teams which use many different types of offense and defense. And on Saturday, we had a match against Royal Institute at our OSC gym. The score was 41-50 and we were unable to beat them, however, overall I’m very happy with our performances.

Since it was the second match of this season, I was less nervous compared to last time, but it was still a challenge to face a team whom we don’t know what kind of basketball they play. However, we collaborated together to minimize their performance and maximizing our chance to make the baskets. In the first two quarters, we were just getting used to their basketball, but in the 3rd and the 4th quarter, we performed really well in defense and we were also scoring points by exploiting the open spaces, which is something we have been working on in practices. Although we lost the match, overall our performance was much better than last time

Hopefully next week we will also get to play a game against another school so that we can really learn our strengths and weaknesses, and adjust anything that is needed so that we can play at our best in the SAISA tournament.

Sunflower Project: 2nd semester update 3

The plan for this week’s session was to spend about 20-30 minutes in the IT lab to teach them about the typing fundamentals, but since we were unable to book any of the labs after school, we decided to play cricket today.

This was the first time to play cricket in this service project and although all of were unsure whether this would be successful or not, overall I’m very happy with the way that this proceeded. It was very clear that the children were really enjoying, and of course it was very enjoyable for us to play with them too. Sports is one area where communication plays a key role, and as I have difficulty in communicating with them due to the language barrier it was bit of a challenge that I had to take, but this is all part of the experiential learning and something very meaningful. All of us worked and collaborated together to make this happen, and as it was successful I feel that we have made another method of interacting with them as well as taking a step to a higher level of achievement.

Unexpectedly, the RCCI service project has joined us today to play cricket as well (Rehabilitation Center for the Communication Impaired, the children have communication disorders and other mental problems). As cricket is an integral part of the Sri Lankan culture, it is no surprise that everybody wants to join! It was a great opportunity to demonstrate a unity within a community, which is something of global importance.  Sports is one area where anybody can interact with each other regardless of the background and this lead me to think about some of the ethical implications. Whether some are disabled or not, the essence lies in the fact that there is something very valuable to get out which can be learned from this service project, which will benefit us in the future. We are more than welcome to play cricket with the RCCI children again the next time we play cricket.

RCCI children