Final CAS Reflection

Increased awareness of their own strengths and areas of growth – Through my actions, yoga and personal fitness, I was able to have a greater understanding of my own personal strengths and weaknesses. Also to be able to see areas I needed to improve on and others that need to still be met.

 (http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/04/yoga-friday-afternoons.html, http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2014/12/personal-fitness.html)

Undertaken new challenges – I was able to engaged with issues of global importance with my service group the Pursuit of Happiness where I spent the year working together with another service group at school to promote the work they do and help create awareness about their global issue. I have also takne new challenges in action when I joined yoga which allowed me to learn and try new things that I found interesting.

(http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/04/yoga-friday-afternoons.html)

Planned and initiated activities – In the Pursuit of Happiness I have been able to plan and initiate activities with the service group I was working with including a center visit and as a whole service group to do a presentation to show others what we have accomplished this year. 

(http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/02/spreading-awareness.html)

Worked collaboratively with others – This year my service group had spent the time helping and working collaboratively to promote awareness about the subject and issues that they are addressing within their own services.

(http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/02/spreading-awareness.html)

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities – I have shown perseverance and commitment to my activities through regular attendance and having evidence available to support my activities most often.

(http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/02/spreading-awareness.html, http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/04/yoga-friday-afternoons.html)

Engaged with issues of global importance – I was able to engaged with issues of global importance with my service group the Pursuit of Happiness where I spent the year 12 working with the Alzheimer’s groups at school who correspond with local Alzheimer’s center. I have be able to learn and share my experience with other and help to create awareness of the global issue of Alzheimer’s in my community.

(http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/02/spreading-awareness.html, http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-pursuit-of-happiness-project.html)

Considered the ethical implications of their actions - I had to deal at lot with ethics in the service groups because of the sometimes-sensitive subject we were dealing with. The first instance was because our service use photojournalism was that we had to have consent for the photos that we took and we also had to be adaptable to the wishes of the people we were working with about the content that we posted and shared with others. Second instance was for me personally as I went to visit the Lanka Alzheimer’s center and had interviews with the people who visited the center and with the member of the service group in school. This was mainly focusing on the use of certain words and how I phrased questions. But after working with the member I was able to learn the right way to ask question or the follow the rules that were set in place.
(http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/02/spreading-awareness.html, http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-pursuit-of-happiness-project.html)

Developed new skills – I was able to engaged with issues of global importance with my service group the Pursuit of Happiness were I learnt photography skills with the help from the other members as a part of our photo journalism. I have also learnt new skills from doing yoga afterschool and have increased my knowledge of the area of yoga. I have also learnt many new skill from my areas of creativity were I have leant about surface and embellishment and improved my art skills.

(http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2015/04/yoga-friday-afternoons.html, http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2014/08/drawing-clubgraphic-novel.html, http://ysobellagdcas.blogspot.com/2014/03/surface-and-embellishment-final-product.html)

The Pursuit of Happiness Project

My service this semester is The Pursuit of Happiness. This service is inspired by the Humans of New York which is famous worldwide for sharing the stories of every day people. The services was founded by a fellow peer Hasith this year.

Our Mission: Our aspiration is to spread awareness about people and places in need, through the medium of visual biography. We hope to connect ‘you’ with seemingly far away realities thereby providing opportunities to make a difference.

This service allows it's participants to engaged with issues of global importance because we are addressing issues and groups that are in need or committed to helping the community. Some of the groups we interview are connected with helping people with disability or educating children. We are able to develop new skills because we work on developing photography skills. Looking at different lenses and how lighting affects the quality of the photographs. Another area that service has allowed me to improve on is working collaboratively with others, I have been allowed to working with people in my service and other services and this has made the service more enjoyable and worthwhile.

Link to our Facebook page were we share our work: https://www.facebook.com/tphserviceproject

Year 12 CAS Goals

This is my final year in IB and Sri Lanka and I want to make the best of this year with all its possibilities.

Creativity: For creativity this year I am participating in Drawing Club/Graphic Novel. My goal for this is to expand my art skills. I want to focus on learning and improving skills like, water colour painting, sketching and etching. These are skills that I have learnt previously and hope to improve this year to be more Knowledgeable . I will also be touching on creativity in my service group as we use photojournalism.

Action: For action this year I am on a Tuesday afternoon working out with a classmate in the gym area in the school. My goal for action is to become more healthy and fit so that I may lead a better healthy lifestyle. This action will go for 45 minutes every session and during the session I will have made a ready plan of what I will be doing that day.I want to live a more Balanced lifestyle.

Service: For service this year I have changed from my service group last year, The Forgotten Children, due to conflicting interests and an inability to complete any real service to the community. There was also a language barrier that prevent me and others in my group from creating meaningful connection that were very needed. The delicate nature of the subject that I was trying to create awareness about was also hindering the service group. 


This year my service is The Pursuit of Happiness Project, this project is inspired by the famous Humans of New York. In the project our aim is to spread awareness about the less fortunate (financially or health wise) through the medium of photojournalism . My goal for this service is to at the best of my ability spread awareness and people and places stories that might help give aid to these people. I want to be Open-minded about all issues and be a Caring person.

Drawing Club/Graphic Novel

This year I once again joined Drawing Club/Graphic Novel. I have done this after school activity over the last two years and have found a lot of enjoyment and knowledge gained from this activity has made me positively enjoy this to the fullest. Last year I focused on sketching mainly flowers or objects. This year I able working with water colours and paint, my new interest is in space.

Surface and Embellishment

 For creativity this semester I am in Surface and Embellishment, which is  after school activity focused on learning new ways in creating in designs for pattern or clothing. The final goal of this class is make a t-shirt design by incorporating in the skills and ideas that we learnt in class.
we have learnt of to make design/stencils out of vegetables and with paper.

This was some of the designs I made with paper stencils.

Stencils 

Lines moving from light to dark

Arrow pattern

Stencil of the sun

We have also learnt how to do some basic stitching, we learnt how to hem fabric and how to do a chain stitching. I found this a lot of fun because I have previously learnt sewing at my old school in Home Ec class and I found it easy to do and enjoyed learning some different ways  of stitching.

Hem stitching Front 

Chain Stitching 

Hem Stitching Back

IB Diploma Orientation

IB Diploma Orientation 

On the 4th of September till the 6th of September the DYP1 group went on IB Orientation to Boardlands, in Kitulgala. The trip was for the class to get to know each other and learn new skills and experience fun and adventure together.

Activities

Day 1: After being in the van for almost three hours we arrived at the beginning point for White Water Rafting, which was our first activity. After Tea and snacks we made our way down to the river and split off into groups and begun to make our way down the river, I really enjoyed rafting thankfully my raft did not flip. We stopped for lunch half way to boraderlands and after that we went for a hike to up to do canyoning. Once we got back to the river we floated the rest of the way to camp. When we got to boarderland we went and had a nice cold shower and changed. We then met in the Long House and had a debrief and afterwards dinner. I unfortunately had managed to hurt my ankle, while canyoning. We then all went to bed for rest for the eventful next day.

Day 2: Waking up in the morning at 6:30 how fun!! Today we were going to go hike up to caves in the mountain and the go Abseiling on a waterfall. My ankle was still playing up so I kinda took it easy. We took the buses part of the way then walked to rest. Once we were at the cave we were told to use our sense perception. We did an activity in the cave were we partnered up and had were given a picture that we had to describe to our blindfolded partner. The cave was interesting and I liked the activity. After stopping for a lunch of sandwiches the started to make their way up to the waterfall, I took the car with Wade the owner of Boarderlands and Mrs. Williams our Head of school because my ankle was still hurting. At the top of the of the waterfall it was really beautiful. And then it started to rain, really heavily so we were all huddled together for warmth. I did not abseil that time because of my ankle but I have been before so I didn't mind that much. When we were back at camp we had hot soup and showered and changed and settled for a rainy night.

Day 3: Waking up and going for a run (or a hobble in my case) at 6:30 YAY!!! Today we were going to interview the people of the community, my group had the Justice of the Peace. after a short car ride we made it to the Justice of the Peace's house conduct out interview. I found him interesting and the family was very welcoming. Back at the camp we had lunch and finished packing up out belongings and paying are bar bill, we said goodbye to boardlands and hopped in the bus for a 3 hour journey back to school. The ride was uneventful, we played 20 questions and eat lots of food. we arrived at school on time and after a quick stop to McDonalds I went home to sleep in my wonderful bed.