This year, the entire CAS project has been wonderful. There was so much to gain from the activities, especially the experiences.
Creativity:
- SGA (Student Government Association)
i gained experience of being a class representative. It is very easy to make promises about making changes in school, but it is truly difficult to carry out those promises that have been made to the school students. I believe that SGA is just a (smaller/simpler/easier/nice) version of real politics in our countries. The concept of candidates, awareness, elections and class representatives are very much similar to what happens in real politics. SGA provides such exposure which gives a general idea of how things work out in administration. I feel that i know how things work and that it is generally not easy to carry out such jobs. SGA this year has been fantastic, especially with the achievements which we have accomplished. The Welcome Back Mingler, House Competitions, SAISA Events, Spirit Days, OSCARS etc, were spectacular and well appreciated by the student body. The new changes which were made this year have brought some positive remarks within the students and have started to assist SGA. We have not only strived to bring changes within the school, but also encouraged extra-culicular activities. However, studies has and will always be a major part of SGA decissions and something with which we will never compromise. This year, claimed by many, SGA has been extremely good and that credit goes to the team effort which everyone had put in. I surely learnt a lot about leadership and hoping i get this similar chance to my new school i am going into.
-Chess :Surprisingly, Chess worked out very well. Being the elective leader, i knew that this second semester elective may not be as much as popular amongst the other choices. We started of with 6 members and by the end of the school year, we had 12 members. This success was truly remarkable as students in our school had once again started to show interest in chess. Chess is a tactical and hard game which i am very much fond of. Having played numerous times with my father, i grew interest into this game and thought of starting this elective. I learnt a alot from this elective, especially how to organize lessons. Each lesson would be designated to tasks, Mr.Pradeep would teach us different opening/closing/attacking/defending tactics and me and Raj would plan lesson in which each and every member uses the learning to his/her benefit. Not to mention, it took incredible amount of time to draw attention towards this new elective as people always have a pre-concieved idea about Chess and relating it to a 'boring activity'. By the end of the year, we had students who belonged to other electives joining Chess and playing. I believe that Chess was wonderful and leading it was very helpful.
-Graphics Core : The popularity of the website gradually decreased. There were certain changes which were made in the website and also the bandwidth was not enough to host the amount of images which were being uploaded. However, it provided tons of tutorials and helpful materials on GFX tricks and methods. GC is affliated with DeviantArt and other big GFX sites which are far more advanced than us. Being the root administrator (creator), the burden of running online forums/website with more than 200 members was hectic especially with my studies. I learnt a lot of new stuff about managing websites, especially how to handle spamming trolls. Managing forums, checking if the discussions taking place were appropriate, holding competions, propoganda, affliations; i learnt a lot of stuff about it. I believe that this experience was very helpful as it encouraged my hobby of graphics designing and provided me an oppurtunity to go out of the box and take a big step of running my own site. Having more than 9000 views, i feel that i have accomplished a lot. The end of this website does not mean that there is an end to my GFX work, i will still continue to learn and make art work on DeviantArt.
URL: http://twsigs.forumotion.net/ [the domain name of graphicscore was taken away as i ran out of money :( ]
-Dance/Theatre: I have performed a lot for my school along with my other dancers. Choreographing dances were fun but hard as well. Managing time, gathering everyone, finding a place for practice, learning new moves and teaching them; all of this was not easy especially if you are doing IB. Although it was hectic, i learnt a lot from this. Handling a dance group is not easy and more than that, maintaining order was essential otherwise we would never succeed in creating dance routines in time. I always enjoyed dancing and in this school, i was provided with an oppurtunity to show my talent and with other students, spread awareness about Bollywood dancing. I believe that this year i have really performed well and have enjoyed each one of the performances. List:
UN Day Dance / WWW- Concert / HCI Diwali Function / HCI Republic Day Performance
They were time consuming, but payed off in the end and i am looking forward to continue with choreographing more dances in future.
Crucible: Even though i wasnt really keen about performing, i believe that Crucible exposed me further more into stage performances. I had never planned or wanted to do a theater, mainly because it was time consuming and in the beginning of my IB years, i didnt want to put my studies in jeapardy. However, the play went on pretty well as their was a nice outcome and the spectators really appreciate the play. My role of Giles Corey wasnt major but it wasnt minor either and my stage presence was consistent. After school practice and coming to school in weekends, all of it payed of. I was always exposed to stage performances as i did many dance performances and some small skits, but now that i have done a proper school theatre, i have much more experience and may look forward for more theater work. -Gym:
Action:
-Gym: I have been going to the gym everyday since the beginning of grade 11. I feel a drastic change within myself and the image below can portray the change within me properly:
Gym is not only benefited to reshape my body but has also kept me fit. My schedule would be divided into 2 programs; cardiology and abs work out. I was not only determined to see the outcome of my work out but was also encouraged to keep my body fit. Thanks to the constant support from my gym trainers and my time management, i could see the effects within my body. That did not only increase my moral but also encouraged me to continue with my gym. I felt that going to gym increased my fitness level incredibly. I even started to regularly use the treadmill for jogging/running. I had started out with 66kg and by June of 2010, my weight is 58kg, total difference of 8kg. I never focused on weights, however, i made it a must to do push-ups as i wanted to keep my muscles warmed up. Gym has now become my habit and has become a part of my schedule and i will try to continue it in Tunisia as well.
Cricket: Cricket has been a very interesting for me this year. It actually became one of my habits and i saw significant improvements in my cricket playing skills. Playing everday after school with my friends helped me a lot as i saw some rapid improvements in my playing style. I actually started to take cricket seriously and it worked out well for me as participating in a sport is important for physical activity. Unfortunately, i don't think that people in Tunisia play cricket.
Track & Field: I tried out for track not for the purpose of joining the team, but for merely testing myself if i had improved since the last time i tried out for track, and the answer was, that yes i had. Gym had not only helped me to loose weight but also improve my flexibility and cardiology. I actually managed to do all the running exercises. However, i quit after some 7 practices due to timing problems with my gym schedule and track, i felt that there was a drastic improvement within me.
Service:
Mama Papa Home:
During the IB orientation, we did a service project in an orphanage for 'special' children at Mama Papa Home. We went there and played with the children, giving them coloring books, crayons, writing materials and some toys. I thought that this was wonderful as we got to spend sometime with the local kids who dont have any privileges like us and are living in a far worse condition than what we can imagine. It was sad to see the condition of their orphanage as they weren't getting much donations from the people.
Hambantota Service Project: The service project for the Grade 11 WWW was incredibly fun. Repainting the entire school and organizing a concert for the locals was a thrilling experience. It was fun to participate in all the activities and re-pain their school.
Prison Babies: PB was one of my most regular activities throughout the year and certainly the most enjoyable one as well. I really dedicated myself to this activity and learned a lot as well. Organization played a major role as we would have to organize activities for the children and make sure that they were engaged in them.
The children should not be punished for what ever crime has been committed by their parents, and this was the motive of our CAS Project. It was evident that the children were not getting freedom in the imprisoned environment, hence we decided to bring them out to our school and parks. We would also show them cartoon movies which they seemed to enjoy a lot and play with them as much as we could. I have achieved a lot from being a part of Prison Babies and will miss not being part of this activity again next year.
