WWW: Week Without Walls goals

We are going to the east coast on mid January for a weeks stay where we will be riding bikes and helping out a unprivileged school situated around that area. The Goals I would like to achieve during this trip are:

• Undertake new challenges and give my best in each of them, such as establishing good communication with the children; this should be particularly hard because I am not very good at talking to children below my age group and also because most of the kids there speak Tamil while I can only speak English and Sinhala fluently. 
• Plan and initiate academic activities to do with the children while we are at that school. Plan these activities in a way they are both fun and would also help them later on during their lives. After the plans, undertake these activities with complete focus and dedication so that it would be as productive as possible. 
• Work collaboratively with my group to help make a difference to the kids at the school, provide them with what they need to make their lives better i.e education and equipment.  
• Since I ride my bike everyday, I usually only ride for 1-2 hours. However during the trip, I would try to ride for much longer thereby not really undertaking a new challenge but rather develop the skills I already have. A new challenge however, would be riding my bike at an unfamiliar area and possibly, at a different terrain. 

Tennis: The matches

Me playing a backhand shot during the warm up session
(Photo credits: Inuri Liyanage)

Today in tennis, we first started off with a regular warm up session where our coach made us play forehand shots (this is the shot played while your front faces the ball), then backhand shots (this shot is played with your back towards the ball and is usually played with both hands holding the racket) and finally volleys (shots played very close to the net before the ball bounces). We then followed by playing rallies (this is consecutively hitting the ball back and forth each other without actually trying make the other person miss the ball), I paired up with an assistant coach and played for about 20 minutes. The rest of the 1 and a half hours were spent doing something much more fun and challenging; matches!

We first started out by playing doubles matches (this is two people per side). This was my opportunity to work collaboratively with other. I paired up with Ali; who is a decent player and is great at volleys, I am usually bad at returning the ball using a volley so I thought he was the ideal teammate. This soon turned out to be true.

Me during the singles match playing a forehand shot
(Photo credits: Inuri Liyanage)

Of the three matches we played, we won two and tied the last one. Each match consisted of 4 games (this is scoring in the form 15, 30, 40 and game, if both teams have 40-40 also known as a deuce; a team must obtain two more consecutive points in the form advantage and game). Ali and I won the first game 3-1, the second 4-0 and finally the third 2-2. We had the best scores of the day and so because of that, Our coach let us play a singles match with each other. This was a tough challenge and it was the best match I played the whole day. I am usually strong with my forehand and I have good placement when playing this shot, so I decided to try and play like this as much as can and since Ali was particularly good with his volleys, he tried to play as much of those shots as he can. Finally, I was able to win with a score of 3-1, I lost the second game but I was able to easily win the other three. In my opinion, I definitely showed a lot of perseverance and commitment to the match, and also I was able to increase my awareness of strengths and areas for growth and improvement.  

Tennis: lessons start!

I finally started going back to tennis practice at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. My coach's name in Chandaka and there are also two more instructors called Thilan and Sarath. The SSC consists of only clay courts and so this means that should it rain on any day; the courts are unusable, therefore our coach will hold the lessons at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo which consists of two hard courts.

So first day back and I'll be honest, I was really scared. I hadn't played tennis in over 8 months because I had stopped going to practice for my IGCSE exams and mock exams that spanned from April to May, then followed by the summer vacation. I thought for sure that I will not be able to play a single shot over the net because it felt almost unreal holding my tennis racket after such a long time. But, I was mistaken. Well sure, the first few shots went all over the place but soon I got a rhythm going and it felt like I never stopped playing at all! Most of my shots made it over the net and many of them were pretty good strokes.

After we warmed up with some knocks, we played a match. There are three more people in the class and so were were able to play a doubles match. We were tied at 3-3 but unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the match because another student came and I decided to step out and let him play the remainder of the game (he was younger than me and less experienced). I went to rally with Thilan for rest of the session.

Overall, it was a good day especially when I realized that I didn't have to go back to the basics and learn everything fresh! This now gave me the opportunity to undertake new challenges in the lessons to follow. I was able to apply the skills that I knew to this lesson without having much trouble. However, this was mainly due to the fact that I really showed great deals of perseverance and commitment, in order to make sure played the basic shots properly. I'm really glad that I did finally go back to practice because I really did miss the game and the thrill :)

Drum lessons

Today was my 7th drum lessons since I started it last month on the 8th of October. Here are a few details about my lessons: I have a lesson every Monday for 30 minutes, my teacher's name is Roshan and I am still just a beginner to drums.

So up until the last lesson, I have only been doing some practice exercises that were done in order for me to be comfortable with the drum set in general and to keep a steady tempo going for a given period of time. Last lesson however, I was told to undertake a new challenge, which was playing a proper beat. Last lesson, I was taught how to do the 4/4 beat which is essentially a simple beat with a 4/4 time signature (1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4...). I was able to play this beat easily after a few minutes of practice and a countless amount of failed attempts. So today, I was asked to undertake another new challenge. Roshan taught me how to do the another basic drum beat, famously known as the 'waltz'.

The waltz drum pattern consists of a 3/4 time signature (1 2 3, 1 2 3...). This beat was an even easier beat to learn and play successfully than the 4/4 beat as I was able to play it in a few minutes without making many mistakes :) . He also taught me how to incorporate a 'drum roll' to the beat as well; this is a quick drum pattern where we basically beat all the drums in succession starting from the snare drum to the floor tom-tom and finally ending with a sharp hit to the clash symbol. By the end of the lesson I can certainly say I have developed new skills since I now know how to do two different drum beats.

What I learned: 

• I am now more confident with playing the drums and hopefully I would be able to easily pick up on the beats that I am to learn in the coming months.
• Confidence is key to playing an instrument and this is true for many other things as well, not just musical instruments. I have gained more confidence in this process to be much more "free" when playing the drums and simply letting the beats just come out as you play without having to think too much about it.

Recycling and Sustainability

On the 1st of November, we had our community and service activity as usual. We collected paper and cardboard from all the classrooms of our school and took them down to the recycling room where we then put all the cardboard and paper into large plastic containers. These containers were then put in the van which would take them to the recycling center situated near to the school. On that day however, I had the opportunity of going there myself along with Mr Lockwood (our activity teacher) and a few other students to see the place. So this was my opportunity to undertake a new challenge. It was not a very large area/shop but there was enough paper, cardboard and metal to fill up a car. We placed all the paper and cardboard on the weighing scale to calculate how much money we would get from that haul.

Me (in white) helping to put the paper in the weighing scale
on the back
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

What I learned:

• I was directly able to engage with an issue of global importance that is waste management, because I was able to visit the recycling site in person and help out there. It was very nice to see that there was a large amount of paper in the room as this suggests that people are indeed recycling and doing their bit for the environment. However, we may be able to encourage more people to recycle by organizing various awareness programs which we could do in the coming months.
• I was able to consider the ethical implications of my trip there because, I really enjoyed the trip to the recycling center and giving the paper to the man who owns the shop, we know that this paper in very important for this man and it was good to know that we were helping him.

IB Orientation trip to Borderlands- Day 3

So this was day three and the also the final day of our trip to Borderlands. On that day, the only plan was to go Canyoning. This was another chance for me to undertake a new challenge. What is Canyoning? well this is basically going to the top of a hill where a canyon is located and we jump through the water using the rocks until we get to the main river body. This may sound simple enough but doing it is a whole other story, out of all the activities we did so far, for me this was the most frightening of all. It was another rainy day and so the rocks we were standing on weren't so safe, an experienced camp guide taught us how to move around these rocks safely and other techniques to stay out of danger; such as, tapping our helmets twice to indicate that we are alright. We jumped through several rocks, gradually making our way down to the river. Unfortunately, due to the heavy downpour we could canyon all the way to the river, so we had to get off half way down the canyon and trek back to the river bank where we would float and move downriver all the way back to camp. This part of the activity didn't take much effort and so due to the lack of movement our bodies started to get very cold. But thankfully, our life jackets ensured that we were able to preserve our body heat as well and so, things started to get much more relaxing.

What I learned that day:

• Personally, that activity was very scary to me, I think I almost lost my glasses during one jump as well! However, I did show perseverance and commitment throughout the challenge. I'm really glad and proud of my self that I accomplished it and it also made me much confident to take more risks in life. 
• Team work is again, essential for successful canyoning and for any other activity that you could never really finish on your own. I learned to trust my colleagues more and to provide them with all the support I can give when they need it as well. 

IB Orientation trip to Borderlands- Day 2

Day 2 of Orientation camp:

(Inside the Beli Lena cave and ruins)
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

On the 27th of August our class came to the Borderlands River Camp using rafts. On day 2, our activities for the day were to hike to the Beli Lena cave where we had our TOK lesson in the beautiful ruins situated on top of the mountain while having a look at the famous Beli Lena Cave. After that we hiked down and up to another mountain where a waterfall awaited for us to abseil on. To do this our class was divided in to 2 large groups, one group went to Abseil and the others including me went for the Hike. The cave, the ruins and the waterfall too was an incredible view, even the hard pouring rain and the freezing temperature did not take this opinion from my mind.

Person in green- Mr DeSilva (TOK-math)  In white and
wearing cap- Me
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

We had our TOK lesson in which our teachers Mr DeSilva, Ms Snyder and Mr Mctavish gave us a few activities to do that tested our logical part of the mind. This gave us the opportunity to work collaboratively with others because it involved partnering up with someone else.I can proudly say, I was successfully able to complete 1 out of 4 of the activities that were assigned to us, of course with help from Erandhi whom I was partnered with. Two of these activities are math based and the other two looked in to our creative and artistic side (I completed one of the math ones). Out of all 4 of these activities I would say my favourite was the second creativity based activity where we were divided in to groups of 4 and had to make what ever piece of art we could using only the material we could find from around that Cave. This was a chance for me to plan and initiate in an activity as well as to work collaboratively with others. My group made a brilliant mini-cave using rocks, leaves and bits of twigs! Shown on the left is us about to start our first activity. Through out this session, I showed perseverance and commitment in order to complete the challenges that were given to us.

During our lesson, the rain continued to pour, So when we hiked up to our abseiling activity, we were unable to take part in it because unfortunately, the rain had made the water level rise to an uncontrollable amount and our guides told us that it would very unwise to even attempt to abseil on the waterfall. I was slightly disappointed by this but I knew what the guides were saying was true and so we accepted it and went down to our bus. But like I said before, the beauty of this area stayed despite the rain and cold and so I tried to take as much of in, before we reached our bus.

What I learnt that day:

• A challenge may look very difficult and even impossible to do, but if we thought outside of the box and try several times to achieve it, you will eventually find the solution. I found this out when during our math/logical activities, out of which I achieved one. 
• We cant always achieve what we planned to do but we should not feel bad about this, accept it and hope to try again another day. The incomplete abseiling activity thought me this and I will try to do one day.
• Honestly, I was not really looking forward to Hiking the whole day but when I finished the day, I was really glad I did. I was able to see some amazing sights and it certainly made me healthier! All you need is to give a little appreciation to what you do and anything can become fun. 

IB Orientation trip to Borderlands- Day 1

On August 27th, our class left to the Borderlands River Camp in Kithulgalla where we were to stay for two nights. However, we did not get there only on our buses. We used a much more unorthodox method:

Left: Sid  Center: Shwetank  Right: Me!
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

After we reached the Kithulgalla River we got off our buses and went down to the river (after we had a few refreshments). In the river, five rafts we waiting for us along with the Camp leader- Wade and four other guides. I was able to undertake a new challenge here since I have never been rafting before. We got in to the rafts, I was in Wade's Raft along with Ms Snyder and four other people. We were given instructions on how to hold and use the paddle and then we were off! 2 hours of rafting, passing through around 6 rapids; these are places in the river where there are many rocks and the water is very shallow, due to this the current is very strong here and will literally make your raft bounce up and down this area. Half way to the camp, we stopped and had our lunch on top of some very slippery rocks under a bridge (those sandwiches were amazing by the way!). When we finally reached our camp we dried off  and were given books where we had to write our reflections of the day. These reflections helped me increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and hopefully apply these to the days to come.

The picture on the left shows us before we embarked on this journey where Yohan (a camp guide) was giving us instructions on rafting. We also did some trust activities and got used to the cold water in to which we may have fallen in while we were rafting.

What I learned that day and what I took from it:

• On that day, I learned that team work was essential in order to achieve the task of rafting to camp and also in our survival had anything gone wrong. I was able to work collaboratively with others to get that raft to the finish line. 
• You must always be careful, but you should never pass on anything just because there is a chance of injury. If you use your mind correctly you will be able to overcome it and still have a lot of fun.

Recycling and Sustainability

What the 'Recycling and Sustainability' Service activity is about:

(In red):Satyanshu- activity co-leader.
(In white):Jenn- activity co-leader.
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

In this activity, students are completely dedicated to collecting used paper and cardboard from the school campus and selling them to a nearby recycling center. We are directly engaging with an issue of global importance, which is waste management. We encourage both teachers and students to separate the paper/cardboard from the usual garbage and place them in a recycling box (which our group provides to every classroom) for collection later during our activity session. Recycling in general; is very important because it does not just reduce the amount of paper and cardboard made everyday, but it also reduces the raw wastage produced in total that is dumped everyday on garbage dumping sites located through out Colombo. This in turn greatly improves the hygiene conditions in Colombo and also reduces the spread of disease among people as well. What we also try to do in Recycling is that we make sure our school takes part in this cause as well. The collecting process is done in pairs so this gives me the opportunity to work collaboratively with others during each session. 

The large haul!:

On Thursday the 27th, we had our 4th Recycling and Sustainability Service session. On that day; as we had done on the previous days as well, our service group divided in to separate sub groups each consisting of two people each and we scouted around the entire school campus looking and collecting paper and cardboard from every classroom. My partner and I was in charge of collecting from the secondary library, primary library and the secondary office which in total consisted of about five 'recycling bin' hauls.

Left: me!    Right: Jenn
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

You might say this was just an ordinary day as always. However, this day had something more than what we usually have on a regular session and that was the sheer amount of paper we collected! We collected so much scrap that it did not even completely fit in to vehicle shown on the right.

This shows that we had saved a large amount of paper and cardboard from ending up with a raw sewage dump for just ONE day's time! Imagine what this means for a yearly basis.

I hope to work harder towards separating and collecting as much paper as we can in one day in order to save Colombo of unnecessary waste being added in to their dumping sites from OSC. On Thursday, I definitely showed a lot of perseverance and commitment due to the fact that we collected a lot of paper that day. Being a school, large amounts of paper will be wasted everyday and so reducing that is near impossible. Therefore I hope to do what we can do to work around this and still save recyclable material from being mixed together with usual garbage.

Drums- What it consists:

(Source: http://goo.gl/G3Lm5)

Shown on the right is what makes up a basic drum kit, it contains:

• A bass drum or foot bass, this is the largest drum in the kit and is operated by a pedal.
• cymbals; usually a crash, a ride cymbal, and a hi-hat cymbal, however more cymbals can be added on to produce more drum patterns. the hi-hat is opened and closed using a pedal.
• tom-toms; which includes the regular tom-toms placed on top of the bass drum and the floor tom. 
• and lastly, the seat!

Why I chose Drums for my creativity in CAS:

The megadeth drum kit supported using a drum rack
(Source: http://goo.gl/PF0kF)

I feel that the drum kit is one of the best intruments ever made by man! It is probably the only musical instrument that requires the use of all four limbs and it's various sounds make up the core of every song made regardless of whether it is a rock song or a modern hip-hop/pop song (the single beat of the bass drum is digitally inputed in to a computer to make it sound deeper and louder). I feel that by learning how to play this instrument, I will literally be in control of the songs if I play in a band consisting of other intruments and therefore, such a intrument MUST be mastered. 

My CAS Goals for Grade 11

Creativity:

• Show that I am able to learn and successfully play a total of 10 different beats in Drums.

• Prove that I can compose a range of my own beats without the help of my teacher.

• Play at a few concerts/shows by the end of two years of drumming and reflect on my experience.

Action:

• Continue practice as before and reflect on the first lesson back to practice (I had stopped for summer and IGCSE exams).

• Show that I can achieve greater skills in tennis and apply them consistently in every class that follows.

• Take part in a competition, in (group) class or in competitions organized outside class and compare the change in my skill and winning percentages.

• Obtain a first, second or third place position in any of the competitions taken part in and reflect on my 2 years of tennis and the changes that took place in my skills.

  Service:

• Prove that I can follow the examples of the leaders in Recycling and achieve tasks with my best effort put in to it and then reflect upon that.

• Justify that my taking part in the this service has changed me as a person and my view of the world, then compare my views from before and after.