CAS Goals

Creativity, Action and Service are some of the pillars of the IB Curriculum. A student needs a passing grade in CAS to graduate and to do this, they need to do activities related to each subject, as well as set and achieve goals. These goals are what drive you to balance your life inside and outside of school, as well as ensure your progression in the IB. I hope not only to achieve my goals for CAS, but to exceed them.

Creativity

I signed up for this year’s production of Oliver! in hopes to practice and improve my skills as a performer and to expand my experience in theatre. Upon the introduction of CAS, I have found this opportunity perfect to improve upon my abilities in the performing arts.

1. I have performed hundreds of pieces to my peers, teachers and larger audiences. I found that in many of them, I was selected to play either characters with a tendency to be angry, malicious or physical. Once again, I have been assigned the role of a very brutish, evil character – Bill Sikes, the main villain in Oliver! My goal is to be able to learn to portray characters like him effectively and successfully so that I can apply this knowledge in the future. I will do this primarily by researching how other actors prepared for this role, however I will also experiment with my own techniques and using knowledge I gained from ISTA to properly practice them.
2. My second goal for the production is to be able to memorize my lines with less stress and more technique. In last years production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I found that I struggled to learn my lines and was still using a script when blocking. This year, I will implement techniques I learned at ISTA as well as some I gained from other classes to memorize them well. I will also apply these skills in my other classes – Biology (vocabulary terms and definitions), History (dates, locations and names) and Spanish (vocabulary, translations and definitions).

Activity

I am not the most physically active person, and with the removal of PE in the DP, I feel that one big source of exercise in my life has been removed. While I do not plan on going to the gym more than necessary to remain in shape, I will  participate in SAISA Basketball. I will do this to help balance my life and maintain a healthy lifestyle. I also hope to hone my basketball skills to the point where I am proficient or at least capable.

1. I tried out for Basketball at OSC a couple times throughout my MYP Years, only making it once in 10th Grade. Since then, I have stopped practicing the sport and my skills have gotten significantly worse. My goal is to practice and better myself enough to get back to where I was before and hopefully grow even more. To do this, I will practice during breaks and lunches, at home during my own time, participate in the coach’s Wednesday body conditioning sessions, attend early morning and late night practices, the Saturday sessions and, most importantly, the regular Tuesday and Friday practices.

Service

During DP 1, I will remain in the Housing and Habitat service group I was in during 10th grade. I felt I really enjoyed what we did during my time there and that I still had more I could give and do to help the service achieve its goals. This year, we will continue to take apart palettes and make chairs for children in need, but some of us (not me, as this takes place during Week Without Walls and I am going on the highlands trip) will build a train track in a primary school for the children.

1. This year in Housing and Habitat, I plan to run for service leader at the end of the year. While I can benefit from being a service leader in DP 2, I think that by meeting the qualifications for a service leader, I will have improved in many other aspects of service. I will do more to help solve problems like sourcing materials, I will learn from the current leaders in how things should be done, I will try to bond with the other students in my service to understand what they think could be done better, I will improve my work ethic and ultimately, I hope I will be a better member of the service group entirely.