Final Reflection

Wooow what a journey, the last two years have been crazy. From all the zoom calls, to yellow masks, to literally swimming in hand sanitizer, DP has been a memorable time for all of us. I could not tell you the last time I genuinely had a normal class. Not sure if that makes it more exciting, or kinda sad. CAS was always a way for me to make sure that I stayed active, creative, and inserted into my community. This is a recap of the learning outcomes I’ve experience within all three aspects; creativity, action and service.

 

Creativity

(LO#1) Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

(LO#2) Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

(LO#4) Working collaboratively with others

(LO#6) Global engagement

As an art student, I always found it fun and calming to engage in creative work. I started DP1 off being included in COMUN and senior voice. These two activities that were held after school helped me stay creative in terms of debating; which also helped my overall study life since I was constantly learning about countries, policies and laws. Learning outcome #2 was seen during COMUN, as I had to challenge myself in terms of public speaking and developing my research skills to have factual information on what I was speaking about. I had previously done COMUN in my previous school, where I enjoyed having lively debates on researched topics. Senior voice was a lunch time activity that required engagement as well as working with others to harmonize or just help each other get the right pitches etc (learning outcome #24. In senior voice, I developed in terms of my personal goals (learning outcome #1) of learning more about music notes reading, which I was able to understand better after having joined this group.

Donations made from the COMUN group.

I then went on a trip to Mumbai for SAISA Art with a group from OSC. This was a huge opportunity to work on learning outcome #6, which includes demonstration of global issues. During SAISA Art, we went around Mumbai visiting museums. The artworks I saw didn’t necessarily inspire my final artwork I created during the trip, but rather the environmental issues that rose whilst I strolled the streets of Mumbai. Environmental concerns can be seen in my artwork; as I chose to paint the background grey exemplifying the air pollution I experienced, that contrasts with the blue ocean at the bottom of my artwork that shows how everything is hidden; and there is still so much beauty that can be found in the city.

 

The whole SAISA Art group.

During lockdown and online school, it was tougher for me to explore creative aspects in my life. I resulted in looking at new ways to do so. Since January 1st, I have kept an app full of 1 second videos of every single day; this inspired me to capture moments with friends, family or my surroundings that I usually wouldn’t have appreciated or taken a moment to stop for. With this, I did “quarantine photography” of different series; some being of funky things I would see around Colombo such as staircases and others of sunsets and views. I wanted my photography to be a memory I would be able to look back on in the future, and remember situations I was in whilst the photos were taken.

 

Service

(LO#3) Initiative and planning 

(LO#4) Working collaboratively with others

(LO#5) Showing perseverance and commitment

(LO#6) Global engagement

(LO#7) Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

In terms of service, I was one of the RCCI leaders throughout the two DP years. RCCI is a Rehabilitation Center for the Communication Impaired; OSC has worked with them for a while now, and has always provided this service group with activities every Thursday either on campus or at their institution. The last two years, the leaders have been able to plan a multitude of fun sessions, including gym days, art days and movie days. Here is a recap of each of these activities.

MOVIES – This process takes time to plan as we would need to have the space ready, the movie on the screen and then the snacks that we provided afterwards. A multitude of aspects needed to be accounted for which everyone was able to step up and help with. For example, the movie choice had to be appropriate and easily understandable for the whole group as well as entertaining. There was also having to remember dietary issues, such as one student being vegetarian; and ensuring that there were no choking hazards, and choosing right beverages that wouldn’t have too much sugar or include too many chemicals (LO#7).


ART – These two images are from the art sessions we held at the center. We all worked collaboratively to create artworks, as we were split in groups with OSC and RCCI members painting together (LO#4).


GYM – We have different activities that we hold during gym sessions, this includes spending time on the playground, using the rainbow parachute cloth that we are all able to enjoy and playing dodgeball, football, basketball with foam balls to ensure safety. The second image in particular emphasizes collaborative work as we had to work together from all sides of the cloth to lift it up.

 

For the rest of the year during lockdown and online school, we met every week amongst service leader, supervisor and members to speak of an action plan for when school would start again and we were able to receive members on campus (LO#3). This ensured that we would be ready for any circumstance of school start soon. We then realized that it would take some time for RCCI to be on campus, so proceeded with organizing an online zoom session. We felt committed to continue our collaboration with RCCI (LO#5), because we knew that Thursday sessions was a huge benefit for their social interactions and enhancing their communication skills. It was extremely successful, and both members and students were able to collaborate and work together to create personal artworks.

 

Activity

(LO#1) Strength and growth

(LO#2) Challenge and skills

(LO#3) Initiative and planning 

(LO#5) Showing perseverance and commitment

In terms of activity, I spent the first semester of DP1 training with the SAISA volleyball team. It was important to strengthen my skills; in terms of techniques and with my team to work as a group and listen to feedback from other peers and coaches. I challenged myself to a new sport that I had never tried before, which was important to grow in terms of different skill sets.

During lockdown and online school, it became more difficult to stay active. Gyms and pools were closed, so I resulted in spending time in my apartment complex playing football and volleyball for fun and to stay active daily with family members. A friend and I proceeded to follow a youtube channel that created monthly workout programs; it included cardio, muscle gain and stretching: “Chloe Ting” . This emphasizes the fifth learning outcome, which showed perseverance to continue staying active through a global pandemic. I was able to create daily routines and plan out my days to fit school work, staying active, finding time for myself and with my family.

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