An Update on Art Room Community Service 4

Last week, I wrote the Student CAS Proposal Form to make this an official Community Service Project at OSC. The following is what I’ve written for the proposal:

“We are planning to create a Community Service Activity as OSC that is aimed to organize and clean the art room and make it a better environment for the students. In organizing the materials in good condition, we are indirectly saving our community money that, instead of purchasing new art equipments, could be used for improving other areas of school.

The things we are planning to do in improving the art room and making it better environment for the students are;

• File papers, colored papers, paper-boards and card-boards in the correct place.
• Organize the room where most of the tools are kept. Label the boxes and sort the tools in each box, so that tools are not in any random boxes, and students can easily access the tools.
• Categorize the brushes according to the different sizes, separate the usable brushes and unusable brushes.
• Sharpen pencils and sort each pencil according to the type, darkness, and size.
• Organize the place where the paints are kept. Categorize the paints which are new and used. Replace the paints when the tube is empty.
• Organize grade 12′s Art Room.
• Use the database (created by a student last year) to make a record of the number of pencils, paints, colors and other specific materials and tools.
• Tidy up where all the color pencils, erasers, scissors and other commonly used tools are kept.

Through this community service project, we hope to achieve some of the 8 criteria, which are the objectives of CAS. As for everybody who will be involved in this activity, this will be something new and everybody will undertake new challenge. To confront this challenge, everybody will need to work collaboratively with others, and show perseverance and commitment in this activity. Through this activity, we hope that this will contribute to better environment in the art room and the students involved are also able to develop new skills, such as working in a systematic manner accomplish tasks in the most efficient way. This engages with some issues of community money being wasted. As I’ve mentioned earlier, we believe that this project will indirectly save our community money, which could be used for something else. As for Mo and myself, we will need to plan and initiate this activity so that there’s no confusion as to what the tasks are and end up wasting time.

The art teacher, Ms. Jane Barnett, has agreed to be the supervisor of this Community Service and we’re hoping to have this every Thursday afterschool from 2:40 p.m to 3:30 p.m. We are looking for about 8 students from grades 10 through 12.

In order to keep the record of this progress, every week, I will give a brief summary of what we did each week and the progress with some pictures. These updates will be available at https://ttamura12.wordpress.com/.”

I gave this to Mr. Lockwood and he said that with this proposal, this activity will be an official one (but after discussing with Ms. Shameela).

In the next semester, I’ll talk to Mr. Lockwood and find out if this Community Service Project has been approved as an official activity.

An update on Sunflower Project

Since the next week’s Community Service got cancelled, this was actually the last meeting this semester.

Since today was the last day, we mostly spent the training time letting the children swim the width of the pool back and forth, using either free-style or just kicking. We clearly observed that they’ve improved a lot since the beginning of this year. Now most of them have gained the fundamentals of swimming and it’s just a matter of practicing and gaining more experience.

For the last half an hour, we played Water-Polo as usual. We had a lot of fun, especially because this was the last meeting this semester. If the Art Room Community Service doesn’t become official, I’m more than willing to do this Sunflower Project again next semester, if other community service projects are all full.

After School Badminton: Sixth Week!

This monday (6th of December) was the sixth week of the after school badminton. We’ve finished the doubles tournament in the first 10 minutes, and moved onto the singles tournament.

For the singles tournament, we decided to split the people into 2 groups, then play against everybody in each group and the top winner from each group will play the final to decide the champion. There are still some more matches to be played before the final, but we will finish this singles tournament next week, which is the last week of this after school activity.

An Update on Art Room Community Service 3

This week, Mo and I went to the art room to ask Ms. Barnett things we can improve. Below is a list of the things we said could be improved:

• File papers, colored papers, paper-boards and card-boards in the correct place.
• Organize the room where most of the tools are kept. Label the boxes and sort the tools in each box, so that tools are not in any random boxes, and students can easily access the tools.
• Categorize the brushes according to the different sizes, separate the usable brushes and unusable brushes.
• Sharpen pencils and sort each pencil according to the type, darkness, and size.
• Organize the place where the paints are kept. Categorize the paints which are new and used. Replace the paints when the tube is empty.
• Organize grade 12’s Art Room.
• Use the database (created by a student last year) to make a record of the number of pencils, paints, colors and other specific materials and tools.
• Tidy up where all the color pencils, erasers, scissors and other commonly used tools are kept.

We agreed that we will have this Community Service (if it becomes official) on Thursday after school, from 2:40 p.m to 3:30 p.m. We will be looking for about 8 students from grade 10 to grade 12.

I then went to talk to the CAS coordinator, Mr. Lockwood, to let him know what we have so far, and I’ve got a Student CAS Proposal Form. Now what I need to do is fill this proposal form, write about the aim, etc and submit to Mr. Lockwood. I will do this over the weekend and show it to him next week. I will post another update on this after I get a feedback from Mr. Lockwood next week.

An update on Sunflower Project

Last week, the same group of children came and as usual, we taught them the fundamentals of swimming. It is coming close towards the end of this semester and it is now a lot more clear that many of them have really improved compared to where they started about 3 months ago.

Today, we mainly told them to swim the width of the pool back and forth so that they get used to swimming a long length without stopping. While letting them swim, we also observed the things they were doing wrong and each time, we gave them advice on how to swim properly and ways in which those problems can be fixed. After about half an hour of training, we played Water Polo. There were several children who wanted to continue swimming without playing Water Polo, therefore we also organized some races, where they had to swim a width and the first person to reach the other end was the winner.

Since this Community Service Project is coming close to the end (for this semester), I’d like to reflect on some of the goals which I’ve set at the beginning of this year, and also the criteria which I’ve achieved from doing this Sun Flower Project.

One of the goals was to teach them swimming and the other goal was to get to know and become friends with the children. The first goal is already achieved, as I always teach children swimming every time they visit us. The second goal was not something very easy to achieve, especially because of the language barrier. Most of them can only speak little English or not at all and at first, it was very difficult to get to know them and become friends. However, as time passed, I got to know their names and I often called their names to gain some attention, when teaching and when playing Water Polo. After about 3 or 4 times, this goal was achieved and I made number of friends. Playing time was the best time to get to know many more and I tried to communicate with them frequently so that we can become friends. Now I have more than 5 friends and they call me “Teru”! It’s certainly a lot more enjoyable to teach and play, when we know each other’s names and know each other!

The criteria which I’ve achieved from this Community Service are;

• Undertaken new challenge
• Plan and initiate activities
• Work collaboratively with others
• Show perseverance and commitment in the activities
• Increase the awareness of own strengths and areas for growth
• Develop a new skill

Although this Sun Flower Project wasn’t the first time I’ve done it, the new challenge in this was that we were planning and initiating the activity. From this, I’ve achieved the first two criteria listed above. However, this wasn’t something which I could achieve, if not for collaborating with others. Every time, we got together for a few minutes and discussed what we were going to do etc, and this collaboration was very helpful in organizing the plan and how we were going to use the time effectively. I’ve also achieved the 4th criterion, which is to show perseverance and commitment in the activity. Despite the language barrier, I’ve shown my perseverance and somehow communicated with the children, sometimes using body language and sometimes asking other Sri Lankans from our school to translate. I’ve also shown my commitment in teaching the children how to swim by attending the activity every week with some planning on what to teach. Like managing the scoreboard and teaching badminton, I felt that teaching people how to swim is one of the areas for growth and as I gain more experience, it will certainly become my strength. Lastly, I believe that I developed the skill of teaching non-swimmers how to swim. At first, this didn’t go smoothly but now I know what to start off with, how to teach the children to swim properly etc and I feel that I’ve increased an expertise in this area.

There are 2 more weeks left until the end of this semester and I hope to have enjoyable time with the children and teach them more about swimming.

An Update on Art Room Community Service 2

This Thursday Mo and I went up to the Art Room to ask Ms. Barnett whether she’d like to have a Community Service Project that can make the Art Room more organized and be a better environment. The answer was…YES! She’s been having hard time finding the tools, as students don’t return them back to where they came from, etc and basically stressed that it could really help her if there was a such Community Service Project.

Because she had to leave for SAISA Art, we’ll visit again next week to write down the things that we can do to improve the Art Room. At the same time, we’ll ask the CAS coordinator and discuss if this could be an official Community Service Activity from the second semester.

Managing the Score Board 3

Last week Friday, there was a basketball match between OSC and British School, and on saturday there was a basketball match between OSC and Amal International School. For both matches, I was in charge of noting down the scores with the help of Ravin. Since I’ve done this a few times already, I was a lot more confident than last time and everything worked smoothly without a problem. This was my last chance of managing the scoreboard, since the boys basketball team has left yesterday to Chennai. I’d like to reflect on some of the criteria I’ve covered from managing the scoreboard.
The criteria I’ve achieved are;

• Undertaken new challenge
• Increased the awareness of strengths and areas for growth
• Shown perseverance and commitment in the activities
• Worked collaboratively with others
• Developed a new skill

The first criterion was definitely something which is relevant because this was my first experience managing the scoreboard. By managing the scoreboard number of times, I’ve certainly felt that this is something that I liked to do and be aware of the fact that I can improve and at the same time, enjoy more, as I get more experience. I’ve also achieved the third criterion stated above. Although I was little nervous and wasn’t really sure what to do as I was inexperienced, I showed my perseverance and commitment in trying to do this better each time. Each time, I always worked collaboratively with Ravin, who was my assistant. This was very essential because sometimes one could miss who took a shot, fouled etc and those times, we had to rely and collaborate. And lastly, I’ve definitely developed a new skill. Now that I’ve done 4 times, I’m very confident with how to manage the scoreboard and if I get a chance to do this for the SAISA girls basketball, I’ll definitely do it again!

Picture of myself writing down the scores

After School Badminton: Fifth Week!

This monday (29th of November) was the fifth week of the after school badminton. As we’d planned, we played doubles tournament. Because some people didn’t turn up, we had to adjust the pairs little but other than that, everything worked smoothly. We can definitely finish this doubles tournament in the next week and once this is finished, we’re planning to do the singles tournament.

As this activity is coming towards the end, I’d like to recall some of the goals which I’ve set for this activity. They were:

• plan and initiate activities
• work collaboratively with others
• undertake new challenges
• show perseverance and commitment in the activity
• develop a new skill

I believe that by now, I’ve already achieved the criteria shown above. For the first criterion, I’ve clearly set a plan for what to do for each week and took the initiative in teaching the students. I achieved this with the help from Mr. De Silva and Mo and by doing this, I’ve achieved the second criterion, which is working collaboratively with others. For the third criterion, this whole idea of teaching people something was a new challenge to me and by doing this, I’ve clearly covered this as well. I’ve also achieved the fourth criterion. I was always in the gym first, waiting for others to arrive and taking the attendance. At times, some students were not listening to our instructions but I managed to deal with this problem. And I’ve achieved the last one, which is developing a new skill.  After several times, I certainly felt that I got better at teaching and learned what is the best way to teach badminton. One other criterion, which I didn’t state in the goal, but achieved was increasing the awareness of my strength and areas for growth. From leading this activity, I thought that my strength was keeping the students under a control, and planning and initiating the activity. However, I believe that these areas can still be strengthened as I get more chance to initiate these kind of activities.

There are 2 more weeks left until the end of this activity and I’m fully committed to give all my effort in order to make this an enjoyable activity for the students who are taking part.