For the past couple of weeks, I have been volunteering in the Sinhala classroom for MYP with Ms Dilini Silva. Sinhala is a fairly new and foreign subject for the kids at OSC so the MYP Sinhala department has decided to conduct a Sinhala story-telling session where you teach the kids a simple story in both Sinhala and English. Through this, the kids catch up a few Sinhala words each lesson.  So when myself and Anouk, from DP2, started to volunteer in this story-telling we decided it would be better to start off with simple stories.

On the first day, we did the story about the hare and tortoise.  First, we showed them a video of the story in Sinhala. Then Anouk recited the story in English and I repeated in Sinhala. Once the story was finished we asked them to tell us the Sinhala names for certain words and vice versa. The kids were very interactive and eager to answer all our questions. I was amazed by how quick they were to learn entirely new words. The following week we did the story on the crow and the cheese. It also followed the same procedure but myself and Anouk shifted the table around so I told the story in English and her in Sinhala. It was very enjoying to work with the small kids. Up to now, we’ve completed about 4 simple stories and hope to do one more before the school year ends.

I am very glad I signed up for this and would like to thank Ms Dilini for her great support extended. It’s sad to realize that this would only last a couple of lessons more but nonetheless, I’m grateful for this opportunity. I am looking forward to the next class to hear the little kids unmute themselves all at once and scream around answers.

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Myself and Anouk discussed together, the story we are going to do each class and the approach to be taken. When doing so we have to consider the age of the kids and their capacity. We also have to make sure it’s interesting for the kids and that it contains a moral.

• Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

The Sinhala story-telling is usually scheduled for Thursdays from 10.30 to 11.00 am. It falls between the first and second blocks so I make sure that I manage my time accordingly.

• Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

As I mentioned above, when selecting a story we always consider whether it is suitable for their age and that they enjoy it. We also make sure not to include any kinds of discriminations of anyone or anything.

Dp1 is almost over leaving behind lots of beautiful memories. During the past 2 semesters at OSC, service has been an important part of my life. I signed up the service group ‘Grils For Girls’ mainly because of the issue they were addressing. Sexual harassment is increasing around the globe but not the actions taking against them. So as a group we work with groups of girls from Emerge Center Lanka to help them ease their minds and rehabilitate them. It’s a lot of fun and we always exchange a lot of things among ourselves; may it be how to cook, weave bracelets, make smoothies or even play cricket.

The girls participated in Wall climbing.
P.c: Savindi Jayasuriya

The girls helped us with making tacos. P.c: Savindi Jayasuriya

During the past year, we did a lot of activities with them like playing cricket, volleyball, wall climbing, making smoothies, making tacos, singing songs and many more. All of these activities brought unique experiences to all of us. I personally learnt a lot about working collaboratively. All of the girls were a family. They were so cooperative with each other to the extent that I was surprised. They are also very skilled with household work and I was very impressed by their artistry in cooking. The group consisted of singers, dancers, painters, skilled sportsmen and it was a great experience working with them. However, with the current situation, the Emerge Center has decided to close down its compartment for a year and we are definitely going to miss working with such lovely girls.

Each service day is reserved for different individuals. This way each of us gets to plan out an activity for the girls and conduct it. I believe this is really good as it improves your planning skills. When you are planning an activity for them have to take into consideration many things. For example, it cannot be something that might remind them of a past incident etc. And also conducting the activity can be challenging too. The girls are not very fluent English speakers so there was always an issue with language. Me being a Sinhala speaker, I found it helpful to communicate with the girls easily and also to aid the other OSC members with talking to them.

So I think service has always been fun and productive. All the girls from OSC work really hard in all service projects and I am really proud to work alongside such a team.  With the Emerge Center being closed next year we wish to conduct some other activities to work for the empowerment of women. I hope to extend my complete to support for all the future endeavours of the service group. Even though with the Covid-19 situation we haven’t been able to engage in any practical events with the girls I believe our aspiration stands strong.

At the girls graduation ceremony.
P.c: Mrs. D

“What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.” Ellen Burstyn

With starting the second semester of DP1 in January 2020, I spent a lot of time on my school work, submitting assignments and keeping up with the content. I also participated in a lot of extra-curricular activities at school and outside school which only left me at home for a couple of hours each day.  This made me spend very little time with my family and especially my siblings. And I did miss fighting with them over the simplest matters and making fun of them and annoying them. Nonetheless, this quarantine period left me with plenty of opportunities to spend time with them.

So during this time, I helped them with their schoolwork, watched movies, did some cooking and played board games. It is pretty hard to cope with 3 kids of different ages at the same time because they seem to have very different tastes in everything. However, my mother was really happy about me working with them as they were off her trail even for some time.

I helped my brother with math and I helped my sister with note-taking and studying techniques for her upcoming exam. We also watched some horror movies together- one of the things that all of us love to do. It was nice to forget about the assignments due and just concentrate on whether there’s a ghost under your chair.

Overall, it was good to spend time with my siblings and it helped me to bond with them more. At the same time, I’m glad I could help my mother in a way.

Learning Outcomes:

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

This was of the few things I learnt the most when working with my siblings. At first, there was a lot of fights with picking a movie or who’s in charge of what. But once I realized that the best way was to go for something everyone preferred and do something everyone loved it helped to reduce the disagreements between them. Since everyone was sharing their ideas I also got the opportunity to understand their preferences.

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

Working with my siblings was a challenge firsthand. They liked different things so I had to listen to all of them, especially my younger brothers before deciding on anything to do with them. This helped with my patience as there were plenty of times when I got annoyed because of them. Also, I learnt to plan out things that all my siblings would enjoy doing together.