Reflection on Grade 12 semester 1 and reviewing of the Goals (part 3)

Service

My first goal for the service is about achieving all tasks given by my service leaders.

Prove that I can follow the examples of the leaders in SOS Orphanage and achieve tasks with my best effort applied to them. Then, reflect on my experiences and of all the self accomplishments in the service sessions.

I feel that I have certainly achieved this goal for semester 1 and I will continue to do so for semester 2 as well. Our basic tasks in SOS Orphanage are to teach the kids some English and Maths, then teach them about a country via a PowerPoint presentation and then finally head down to pool and teach them swimming. I have been able to do 2 out of 3 of these tasks, I have still to give a presentation about a country. This is something I hope to do soon before the end of the interim. Nevertheless, throughout the semester, we have planned and initiated our activities whilst working collaboratively with each other in order to give the SOS children a fun learning experience here at OSC. My biggest accomplishment this semester was probably helping a kid who was very scared of the water, to move away from the sides of the pool and swim a complete lap (width). It took some time but in the end, it was rewarding to see him overcome his fears of the water.

My second and third goals are based on taking part in my own service activity as a leader.

Formulate my own service activity either in school or outside, or take up a leadership role in an already existing service activity.

When the second goal has been accomplished; reflect on my first days' work as a leader as well as prove that I am capable enough to continue my leadership role.

Though I was not able to obtain a leadership role in a service activity, I have however been able to obtain a leadership role in Cricket, which is regarded as a Creative and Action activity. Shwetank, Shubanshu and I became leaders of the After School Activity (ASA) Cricket, which is an activity where students from grades 6 and up can come to play cricket with us whilst learning some cricket skills as well. This was one of my favorite activities I did this year because of my love for Cricket. Since the beginning of the year, my co-leaders and I worked collaboratively and show perseverance and commitment in to being good leaders of this sport at OSC. We got good feedback from the kids in our ASA and I could see their improvement from the beginning of the semester to end of it.

My final goal is:

Reflect on my overall experience of service work by the end of this year and show how I have grown as a service volunteer as well as how it has affected me.

Since this year hasn't ended yet, I have yet to accomplish this goal completely. However, I have had a great experience so far in CAS and I can see that I have changed in terms of my perspective of CAS and its global importance especially in the Service aspect.

Reflection on Grade 12 semester 1 and reviewing of the Goals (part 2)

Action

My first goal for Action is to compare the improvement of my tennis skills over the course of two years.

Compare and reflect on the my skills at tennis by the end of this year with the skills I had when I started out the diploma programme. 

When I first started out the Diploma Programme at OSC, I was not new to tennis. I have mentioned this before as well. I had stopped for a while to focus on exams so I had some warming up to do in order to get back my momentum of the sport. I feel that I have been able to both do this, as well as significantly improve my skills over the past two years. This is mainly due to me showing more perseverance and commitment to tennis since the beginning of IBDP.

My second goal is about taking part in tennis competitions.

Take part in more competitions this year which include contenders with high amounts of skill. The previous year I completed my goal of taking part in a competition organized outside class where my doubles partner (Hemeka) and I made it to the quarter-finals. This year, I hope to take part in that same tournament-which is an annual event. I hope to reflect on my experience as well as evaluate my skills in Tennis and in all the competitions.

I have been able to partially achieve this goal. I did take part in another competition however it was not the same SSC open tennis tournament I played last time. This was a tennis tournament for everyone in my class, along with the more experiences adult students who go for coaching from my teacher as well. The adults proved to be my biggest challenge, but Hemeka and I were able to win quite a few games by the end of the tournament. I was able to work collaboratively with my partner during this tournament and to make an effective team.  

My final goal is about winning in a tennis competition(s).

Obtain a place in the podium by the end of a tournament and then by the end of the year, reflect on my overall experience that I had in Tennis during the course of two years and show the transition from how I stood last year and how I will stand by the end of this year.

This was a goal I made to last to the end of the two years of CAS. However, in that last tournament I played which included everyone in my tennis class, Hemeka and I were able to work collaboratively in order to obtain a third place position by the end of the tournament. This was a points based tournament as opposed to the SSC open knock-out based tournament. I'm proud that I was able to do this and I feel I have increased awareness of my strengths and areas for growth.