Block 3 After School Activity Badminton Last Week

This Monday the 21st was the last week of the Block 3 after school activity badminton. Unlike last semester’s after school activity badminton, this time we focused a lot more on playing badminton for enjoyments, mostly because the participants were from lower grades and many of them wished to play for the fun of it and relaxation, without learning much about badminton.

Although we taught them the fundamentals of badminton, such as the singles and doubles court, some easy footwork, serving etc, I personally thought that we should have taught them more things, such as lobbing, drop shot and so on. It raised some questions in my mind, such as “is it ethical to just let them play without knowing the proper rules?“, “will letting them play without knowing the rules going to help them when they play badminton again?” and so on. For me, this was a good chance to think about the ethical implications of the actions and decisions. Although majority just wanted to play, I still think that we could have at least taught them some skills of badminton.

Through this after school badminton, I’ve covered some of the criteria. I’ve worked collaboratively with Ms. Lockwood and Rasmus to plan and initiate what we were going to do for each week. Although we didn’t teach the participants much, planning was still necessary and this was the key to running this activity smoothly without a confusion. I’ve shown commitment by attending this activity every week (except for 1 time when I had to go home early) and I’ve also shown my perseverance by dealing with my personal problem, that is, I should have taught them more. This led me to considering the ethical implications of the actions and decisions, as mentioned earlier.

Going back to the initial goals, they were;

• To help the students develop their badminton skills (if they want to learn, that is)
• To develop my badminton skills while also teaching the students
• To develop a leadership
• To further develop my teaching of badminton (this is the area for growth)
• To plan and initiate what we’ll do every week
• To work collaboratively with Rasmus, Ms. Lockwood and everybody else
• To show perseverance and commitment in this activity.

It was pretty hard for me to develop my badminton skills because the students I’ve played with were from lower grades and as they didn’t have much skills, it was unethical to play and keep smashing. Therefore this goal wasn’t achieved. Developing the leadership was something I’ve built and also developed. This also came from being the caption of the badminton team training. (accomplishments of other goals have been mentioned earlier).

Overall, this block’s after school activity badminton has been a quite different and new experience for me. Although it didn’t fully run as I’d expected to, I believe that sometimes people need to be flexible and this is something I’ve learned from leading this activity. I hope to lead this activity in the future if I get a chance again 🙂

Fund Raise for Key Club!

On the 18th of March, there was a secondary production at OSC auditorium, called “The Curious Savage”. In this occasion, the Key Club has decided to do a bake sale and raise some funds.

This was organized with the collaboration of the PTA, Key Club and the Prison Babies. The money was split 50-50 to the Key Club and the Prison Babies. We managed to raise about Rs. 8000 and all of this will go into the Key Club account in the school, which will be created shortly.

As a treasurer, my job is to make sure that money goes to the Key Club account and make a record of it. Next week, I’ll go to the business office and create the accounts for the Key Club, so that money can be safely placed.

Badminton Team Training Update 2

Today the official badminton team training has ended. During the 6 weeks of this team training, I feel that I’ve learned a lot about badminton as well as developed some good leadership.

Usually Tuesday and Friday were the training sessions and we had matches on Saturday. On the 12th of March, we had matches with the OSC parents, on the 18th of March, we had matches with Alethea International School and on the 25th of March (today), we had matches with Colombo International School. Every time there was a match with other schools, I felt that I’m getting used to the environment of competition. As Mr. De Silva said, we only start learning and noticing many things once we have real matches, and I really think that this is true. I played with many players whose playing style is very different and each time I felt that I’m gaining good experience and learning more about badminton.

Reflecting on the criteria of the CAS, I’ve realized that I’ve covered many aspects without noticing them myself. In terms of leadership, I definitely feel that it is one of my strengths. Despite being the captain of the first badminton team ever and undertaking a challenge that I’m not fully familiar with, I was committed in every aspect of the team training, I’ve shown perseverance even when things didn’t go as I’d expected, and I was responsible and made sure that planning and initiating is well-organized and everybody is informed etc with the collaboration with Mr. De Silva and Mo.  As a leader, it was indeed a challenge for me to make sure that everything is ok and running smoothly, but as I have had some leadership from leading Art Project, badminton after school activity etc, those things helped me a lot and I feel that I’ve increased expertise in the leadership.

In terms of badminton skills, I feel that I’ve developed many skills over the course of 6 weeks of team training, however I also feel that I’m still inexperienced and have a lot of room for improvement. Sports is not something that one can be an expert in within a few weeks and as I’m willing to develop my skills further, I’ll continue to show commitment and perseverance in badminton. This may be through participating in the badminton after school activity, joining the badminton team again next year etc.

Overall this badminton team training has been very beneficial for me in many different ways and despite this interfered with my school work (is it ethical to commit in sports at the expense of school work?), I believe that this wasn’t a waste and I’ve gained a lot of  valuable experiences. Hopefully there will be a team training next year too, and if so, I hope to join again and show my spirit and represent OSC.

Practice picture

Alethea International School: Match

Alethea International School: Match 2

OSC Parents: the match umpire

Art Project Update 2

This week, because some people were absent and some weren’t able to come, it was just Savinda, Philipp and myself. Since there were only three people, all of us were involved in organizing and cleaning the room where all the tools are kept. We made a good progress todayand I’m hoping that in another 2 weeks time, we can finish organizing this room.

Today, we achieved one of the goals of this project, which is:

• 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.

After being the leader of not only the Art Project but also badminton team training and after school badminton activity, I feel that my strength is that I know what needs to be done and also to instruct people what to do, what needs to be done, etc. Although this is a new community service project, not only myself but everybody is confronting the new challenges well by working collaboratively with each other. Although many people say that this community service is easy and there’s not much job to do, I certainly don’t agree with them. In fact, the amount of things that need to be done in the art room to achieve our main goal of this project is tremendous and I believe that everything we do require quite an effort as well as commitment and perseverance, and what our service is certainly helping Ms. Barnett as well as the students.

One things that I probably should do is to plan what to do for each week before hand, so that we’re not only doing one thing but we’re doing many things simultaneously. This is one of my areas for growth in order to achieve many goals as well as for the art students to notice the difference and the contribution this project is giving to their environment.

When organizing the materials, tools and so on, we often discuss the ethical implications of our action on the negative side. For example, if we place the tools somewhere completely different, the students who’s been using it may not be able to find it, thus creating problems for them. However, to make sure this is prevented, whenever we organize the materials and tools, we’re labelling each box and writing what is in it, so that students don’t have to look all over the place.

So far, I believe that Art Project is doing a great job and by continuing to strive to achieve our goals, it will make everything easier for Ms. Barnett and the students.

Organizing...

Labeled boxes

Badminton Team Training Update 1

On Friday the 4th of March, we went to the British School of Colombo to play badminton. Although we have 7 boys and 6 girls on the team, due to some people who were involved in the MUN and some people being absent, we only had 4 boys and 5 girls (however we somehow managed to play all the games which were planned).

We had 3 boys singles, 2 boys doubles, 3 girls singles, 2 girls doubles and 2 mixed doubles. For boys, we unfortunately lost all the matches, however for girls, we won 2 singles, both doubles, and we won 1 mixed doubles.

This was the first time we played badminton with people outside the school as a team (and first time I played badminton with people from other school) and it was indeed a great experience for me.

As we represented OSC, I made sure that everybody is behaving well and not acting on their own and creating a disorder. This was a challenge that I had undertaken as a leader. Unlike playing at our school, I felt that I had a lot more responsibilities. In addition, to make sure that everybody knows what they should be doing, I worked collaboratively, not only with Mr. De Silva and Mo, but with everybody else, informing what’s coming up next, what they should be doing etc.

Although we lost all the boys matches, I was fully committed to encourage the others as well as myself not to give up. After finishing all the matches, I felt that we have to show perseverance when playing matches with other schools (and when we lose), but at the same time, also be fully committed. This is our first badminton team at OSC and although we faced lots of difficulties, we had well undertaken the challenge with perseverance and commitment and we will continue to do so.

I hope that our team continues to develop as we practice more and play matches with other schools, the parents and the community.

Team photo

Boys Doubles

Boys Doubles 2

Boys Doubles 3

Block 3 After School Activity Badminton Week 4

This week was the 4th week of after school badminton. Unlike last semester, we have many students from the lower grades and they don’t seem to want to learn much, so we’re decided that we’re going to just show them the very basics of badminton, such as the courts in singles and doubles, the positions, the movements on the court etc.

This week, I showed them the court used in singles and doubles as well as the serving. After completing this task, I let everybody play freely.

Next week, I and Rasmus will teach them the positions and movements on the court.