Having joined Voice near the end of last school year, Mr.Kim our supervisor has organized the schedule so that the group particles every Thursday lunches. This excites me as I love singing and being in a choir, having had multiple musical experiences. Since there is no musical this year I thought this was the perfect opportunity to join. As it’s my last school year 2025 is the year I graduate Mr. Kim has assigned all the seniors with solo parts in the concert mine is a song called Broken Vessels I am confident in my singing skills and with Mr.Kim to guide me I believe this will be just like Gecko Factor. Besides coming in every Thursday lunchtime I have had one other session up until now where I was practising breathing techniques. Breath is something I struggle with in singing, so I did some exercises such as squeezing the abdomen and holding a plank position. I will be providing further updates till the performance date!
As the performance date approaches we continue to practice, as more musical pieces are introduced the pressure grows, in one previous rehearsal we discussed adding choreography to a piece sung by another senior (Sofia) the link attached shows the planning process we went through. It was a lot of fun deciding on what worked and what did not and I am stocked to see the outcomes.
Gecko Factor – 2023
Gecko Factor is an X-Factor for students to perform their musical and vocal talent which is precisely what I wanted to do so I signed up with some of my friends. The audience was confused since Mr. Kim the music teacher gave me a list of possible songs that would suit my vocal range and overall voice. He suggested singing a popular song by SZA called Kill Bill as he thinks her voice suited mine. When leaving the audition I thought about singing the song but I was a bit unsure of myself being able to perform it then I stumbled upon this song by an artist called Beabadoobee and Laufey who sang this song called A Night To Remember a beautiful song that I fell in love with so I decided to give it a go. My part-time time was limited to just the daily showers I took, I would sing the song and blast it as I was washing my hair and my sister would get annoyed as she would hear the music from her bathroom as well. It was difficult getting input on how well I was singing since I’ve never had any musical experience or vocal lessons not counting the musicals I have been part of. So learning the song was solely based on previous experience and recording myself hoping I sounded the same as the singers did.
Practice
Naomi
A week or so before the performance a lot of singers and participants dropped out of the competition due to school work which left me feeling kind of alone and nervous as I was the only DP1 student participating in it now and didn’t have any close friends to ask for feedback from. Luckily Naomi from grade 10 a friend whom I got close with due to WWW and Little Shop of Horrors was performing as well so I was less nervous, the day before the performance we did a sound check and a lighting check, and I chose an aquamarine and warm yellow lighting to compliment my song.
Performance Day
The performance day came around and I was excited yet nervous to perform solo in front of an audience, it was not the first time I’ve had to sing a solo since I played Morticia for The Addams Family Play where I had solos but other actors where always on stage with me so I signed up for this to push my boundaries and try something new. As I was waiting my turn behind the stage I was getting more and more nervous luily Naomi who is a great singer and very experienced gave me some tips on how to stay calm and reassured me it would be alright. After my performance, I felt relieved and heard from Noami that I did very well but all I could care about at that moment was her singing as well since I enjoyed her song and voice. I cheered her on from the sidelines as she performed and we were super great. Then after the performances we got called onto stage and the winners were announced, I placed 3d!
Gecko Gear – Service
Gecko Gear is a service where we create and design Merch for the OSC community. We gather input and feedback from the students for every item we make encouraging students to come and support the school during SIASAs and representation.
Instagram post updates our community on what we are selling and planning on doing in the future. I set up Instagram as a platform for teenagers and parents to be aware of what is going on with the merch. As a popular platform, it’s easy to spread this type of information, which is why we set it up.
Currently, we are selling Supporter T-shirts for the upcoming SIASA Volleyball for boys. This will show great school spirit and will encourage teams to play their best! We hope that with the profit we make, we can continue to provide merch for the school as well as donate to outside communities that support a cause.
Daily Bulletin
Gecko Merch Retro Sale Posters
We plan to create more merch for all SIASAS and to sell old OSC sports as a Retro Sale! This will help us gain more income and will clear our inventory which will help us gather a better idea of what designs the community enjoys and what we need to do to create better designs. This will also hype up people for the volleyball tournament in November.
The Gecko Gear team selling supporter shirts for the November Boys Volleyball tournament.
Gecko Gear Team
On the 6th of October 2023, I experienced UD day at OSC it was a day where my group and I consisted of two other people (Aniq and Sofia) who were assigned to plan a lesson plan for PYP5. After having a session of planning the Wednesday before we created a slideshow where we would base all our activities on.
Sofia and Hadiya representing Bulgaria and China
Overall the experience was great I loved how the community contributed activities and foods from different cultures. It was great, I had a lot of fun and got to teach PYP5 about the SDG and the one we focus on this year (17). The kids loved the activities we did, they consisted of drawing, debating, and making connections to their current unit “Perspectives”.
Sofia with the Bulgarian flag
On the day of the walk, I represented Bulgaria with Sofia as Romania was not represented and my little sister Sarah was already representing The Netherlands. I figured I would walk with the Bulgarian flag since it’s another Balkan nation. The walk towards the gym was amazing as seeing so many countries represented in the OSC community was wonderful
SDG Slideshow Presentation
first night, we went to watch a traditional Vietnamese water puppetry performance, which by far was my favourite performance. It told such a wonderful story of the Vietnamese countryside and the interactions between communities and animals, it was not just the first time I saw this show but it was a reminder of how pleasant Vietnamese culture is.