CAS has been an important aspect of my personal development and learning as it has been imperative in completing the IB DP program. As the name suggests, it has prompted me to combine creative learning, action-based learning, and service-based learning with my own personal academic ventures. Though it has been on my mind quite frequently – which has proved to be somewhat annoying at times, it has also reminded me to continue to do things outside of school. Due to physical activity playing an important and frequent role in my life, I expected CAS to be a walk in the park. Soon enough I learned that playing basketball wouldn’t fill in for each of the learning objectives. This posed as a challenge initially but I decided that I wanted to overcome this challenge by completing at least one post for each learning objective.

This final CAS reflection will not serve as a recap of my experiences throughout the DP, instead it will serve as an appreciation of the opportunities I’ve been given and experiences I’ve had that have aided me in becoming a more holistic student and person. In this final CAS post I will address each learning outcome, providing a summary of a unique experience that correlates to the respective learning outcome.

 

1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

Through the creation of the video below which intends on teaching both English speaking and French speaking people the fundamentals of scoring in basketball accompanied by a few beginner rules, I have been able to identify my own strengths as well as develop areas for growth.

The first strength that I identified was that I have a passion for video editing and also a lot of experience editing sports videos. Even though this video was barely edited, I realized that I would have a lot of fun making it as I have been making sports videos for almost 5 years now. In addition to this, I also identified my strengths within the sport of basketball as I used my offensive strengths in order to teach the viewers the basics on how to score in basketball.

Furthermore, my French vocabulary was both a strength and an area for growth as I was able to make this task more manageable due to my pre existing vocabulary but I was also able to learn some new phrases or vocabulary through a website like ‘Word Reference’ which allowed me to fully convey my message throughout the video.

Lastly, I have never been good at using subtitles in my videos as I would have a hard time putting them in the same place every time and lining them up with the voice over/audio. This time, through trial and error, I developed a new way of creating subtitles which I had never used or even thought of prior to this experience. Instead of individually adding text boxes to the video I decided to add one large text box that covered the entire video. This allowed me to keep the subtitles in the same place on the screen and it also made it easier for me to align the correct subtitles with the corresponding French dialogue.

 

2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

As emphasized numerous times throughout my blog, I do not have great experience baking or cooking. This was my, and my friends’, first time making muffins. We were accompanied by one person who had a lot of experience baking muffins but she gave us the liberty of attempting this task by ourselves. This was a blessing in disguise as it allowed for us to follow a recipe by ourselves and, ultimately, become increasingly comfortable with a foreign kitchen and its respective appliances.

Already at a disadvantage due to the fact that none of us were familiar with the layout of the host’s kitchen, we had to overcome this challenge and independently locate every necessary ingredient and appliance. This not only helped us to develop our skills regarding working effectively in a foreign kitchen, but it also helped us to become more familiar with the different kitchen appliances. Furthermore, due to limited counter space, we had to be very space-conscious so that we didn’t disturb the hosts’ organization of their kitchen and so that we didn’t make anything dirty or break anything.

With all of these challenges thrown at us, we came out victorious. The muffins were supposedly amazing and came out perfectly. The outer layer was crispy and sweet and the inside was soft and warm, working in conjunction with the flavorful chocolate chip pieces.

 

3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

From the 16th to the 30th of October I visited Rotterdam, Paris and Amsterdam. I took advantage of the historical and cultural richness of Rotterdam and decided to embark on an hour long excursion to a nearby world heritage site called Kinderdijk.

I felt as though I demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience very well as I planned this day-trip by myself. Courtesy of my parents, I was tasked with planning what trams to take to the pier and what boats to take to get to the windmills. In addition to this, the idea of visiting these particular windmills was also my idea as I had researched ‘things to do while in Rotterdam’ prior to traveling. Being in a foreign country and coming from Sri Lanka, which lacks safe and organized public transport, the idea of relying solely on public transport slightly intimidated me. Nevertheless, I still executed this plan to perfection as we arrived on time and never missed a boat or tram.

 

4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

On friday, the 4th of December, 2020, our entire theater class engaged in the first ever online ISTA. Amongst the students, we coordinated houses for each day and tried to have the entire class join every day. It lasted roughly 9 hours each day but we had breaks in between to bond and refresh ourselves after intense sessions. The first day we learned about different directors and founders of theater companies and styles. This included different styles of puppet theater, Stanislavski’s theater style and Grotowski’s theater style. On the second day we focused more on realism and being able to express full and accurate emotions respective to our given roles. On the last day we focused on Brecht’s theater style as well as the movement aspect of theater and how it can be impacted by the space we perform in and lastly how minimalism plays a role in theater regarding stages, costumes and actors.

I showed commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences as it was a 3 day experience which was full of creativity and activity. It required a lot of mental stamina as we had to be engaged throughout the entire experience and we also had to constantly take notes, reflect and give feedback to our peers. This is directly related to CAS experiences as both creativity and activity had major roles in this experience.

 

5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

I was in the process of making a documentary for my service group, Gecko Net and this documentary focused on ‘Life in DLP’ from the student’s perspective. As a service group, we planned on making a documentary each quarter or semester depending on how demanding it may be to acquire footage and edit the video.

I showed the ability to demonstrate my skills and also recognize the benefits of working collaboratively. This is evident as all of the interviews from the documentary were obtained by other members. Ms. Jackson made sure to delegate different roles for each of us (Thisath, Max, Andrew, Azan, Olly & I) so that we all had a job to do. In order to better organize ourselves, we made a shared google drive folder where we stored all of the interviews as well as the plan for the documentary.

 

6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

My Father, Grandmother and I all decided to go East to Delaware and walk along the Cape Henlopen state park beach. It was about an hour and a half long drive but was very worth it as we indulged in delicious subs and a tasty lemonade.

But this day trip was not all fun and games. We also brought a long a reusable trash bag in order collect any trash that we see along our walk and hike in the trail behind the sand dunes. We were not entirely successful as the beach was quite clean due to restrictions of bringing outside food. The state park also decided not to provide any trash cans, forcing the visitors to take their trash back home with them.

With this failed attempt at cleaning up the beach, we decided to go back home and try to make an impact on a more local area. At the basketball court I play at (refer to post prior to this one), in Gateway Park, there is a lot of trash scattered around. Even though there are trash cans placed by the entrance of the park, nobody seems to take the liberty of actually disposing of their trash responsibly. I noticed this issue and reached out to my Grandmother. She gave me her trash collecting bag and some gloves and I went to work. I picked up around 15 bottles of Gatorade, 3 lighters, many plastic trays and some other forms of trash. When I got home, I put all of the plastic bottles and trays into the plastic recycling bin and disposed of the rest of the non-recyclable trash.

I demonstrated engagement with issues of global significance as my service was targeted towards reducing the impacts of pollution on the local ecosystem. This service is a baby step towards reducing the amount of habitat loss due to human impact but it also helps children in need as all of the recyclable plastic that we collect is going to be distributed to a local organization that repurposes the plastic into new benches for school kids.

 

7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

I needed an escape from the stress of school but because it was midday, and frankly way too hot, I couldn’t go to my basketball court and play for a couple hours like I usually would in order to destress. Instead, I decided to do something that would benefit not only myself, but my family as well so I decided to give my Dad’s bike its first deep clean in over half a year.

I was also able to recognize and consider the ethics of my choices and my actions through this experience. This was possible as I considered how much my Dad loves to bike in comparison to how much it is washed. I came up with the conclusion that this lack of maintenance would not be sustainable in the near future and decided to take action. Not only did this benefit him physically, but it also helped us to create a deeper bond which is very difficult nowadays as I am always online.

 

These summaries have helped me conclude that I have addressed all the learning outcomes well, proving that I got a lot out of the activities and experiences. Having gone through these last 2 years of school during the COVID-19 pandemic, I am more than proud of myself and my class for adapting to the circumstances that have heavily crippled the ability to complete many types of CAS experiences. Now that I am preparing for the next stage in my life, the experiences documented on this blog will not only stay as constant reminders of the importance of a holistic approach to life, but they will also serve as memories of my time at OSC. I look forward to implementing these CAS learning objectives into my future routines.