FINAL CAS REFLECTION

Below are the goals I set for myself during DP 1,  and i will reflect on them for the end of the DP 2 year.  

| For the DP1 year (11th grade), I signed up for Deaf Hearing Exchange (DHE), however this is not the only Service/Action i will be participating in. Below are goals that I will try to achieve for the year. This includes Sports, Service and other extra-curricular activities.

My overall goals (broad) are to support and participate in an activity (specified below) and have a satisfactory experience. This experience will have to leave an impression in me, and this will affect me in some sort of way (emotionally or physically).

CAS breaks up into Creativity, Action and Service. I will start with my Goals for Service.

ServiceDHE

• I hope to grow more aware about myself and my community. I will do this by trying to be the team leader when my service does group activities with the Deaf Hearing School that we visit.
• I plan to be close friends with one of the students at the Deaf Hearing school because this way, i get to explore his community and way of life – at the same time observe the way i interact with his community.
• Be fluent in Sri Lankan sign language (countries have different sign languages). This will allow me to communicate to people who are hearing impaired, which can be useful to me in the future. |

Above were the goals I set for myself in terms of Service. During the IB course, I moved to CheckMates service, which also has a creative element, and my goals changed from learning sign language to being able to effectively teach chess to students who do not speak the same language as me, thus developing new communication methods. 

| I have to be Open-Minded, Reflective, and Caring in order to succeed in this Service.

“Do not set goals for yourself, otherwise you might be disappointed” 

-Tissa, the local firewood seller

The above quote is a indirect translation of a local firewood seller back in Kitugala during the Orientation trip (Read previous post)

ActionSAISA/Sports

For this year as of now, I know i am and will be participating in Body Conditioning, SAISA Football, Thursday Football and Wednesday ASA Football. As you can guess, I am a footballer.

SAISA-Thursday-ASA Football

• Make the SAISA Team:
  • Football Practice on Wednesdays and Thursdays (Technique)
  • Compare myself to the best footballers (Confidence)
  • Play a full game of 90 minutes without being subbed off. This has happened to me last year, however i want to keep this going. Being subbed off from a match either means I got fatigued or coach doesn’t think i am playing up to standards.
• Teach others football techniques. There are people who participate in Wednesday football who play to learn and have a fun experience. I can help them learn how to play football and be a leader in this activity.
• Thursday Football:
  • Score a Hat-trick every match we play (3 goals) OR provide 4 assists. These are stats of a versatile player, however i only score about 1 or 2, and maybe 2 or 3 assists each thursday.
• Reflect on my actions on the Pitch.
  • Analyse reactions and behaviours from team members so i can see how i perform (from their reaction). | 

 

All my action goals were achieved, and have no changed since the start of DP 1. We came 2nd place in the SAISA Football U-19 competition, which is a major accomplish considering drastic shifts in the team. 

Creativity 

• Learn sign language (DP 1)
• Playing & Teaching Chess

 

 

 

 

Service – 3rd & 10th March Sessions

The last 2 weeks sessions were the normal interactions with the children from the SOS service, but also seeking new members for the Service for the upcoming years, not only leaders.

A lot of the senior members have to leave service for exam studies during the April and May, thus the service will be losing 6 members, including the 2 leaders. The 11th graders are now getting used to the leadership role, where they have to organise and find new members for the service.

The children who take part in the service have become comfortable and close to the service members, making the past few sessions more fun. Furthermore, now that they know how to play chess, its no longer about teaching every lesson but by actually playing games with them.

SAISA Football Tournament – 2nd Place

We arrived back to colombo from the SAISA Football Tournament in Chennai with silver medals. Highly unfortunate to not bring back the gold, it was still a memorable, new experience for myself and the traveling 15. Due to foreign conflict, 9 original teams were reduced to 6 teams, thus the tournament

Glimpse of the Events

We lost our first game to Bombay 1-0, and then proceeded to win the next two games against Chennai and Oman 3-0 and 2-1 respectively. Due to the round robin tournament structure, we were really lucky to end up in the finals due to a collection of fortunate matches between other matches. We were in the finals against Dhaka and lost 1-0 due to an unfortunate own goal. We had really pushed ourselves for the game, and by the end, truly understood the importance of determination, grit, teamwork and ultimately the passion for the sport.

Learning Outcomes

We were constantly told by our coaches that the trophy will not be served on silver platter at our door step. We would have to work hard to earn the trophy again, and this thought daunted us over the tournament because we had seemed very confident.

Global Importance in Chess

Since September 8th 2015, The Checkmates has developed into a self sustaining service with good intentions. Having met two schools while learning and teaching, the service has accomplished its initial goals of teaching chess and making friends with the local community.

The students involved in the service have broadened their view on how truly important chess not only to themselves, but also to the children we are teaching.

“Teaching chess to children involves more than just playing the game. Chess training has the advantage of being an art, a science, and a sport.”

Wojcio, 1990

While teaching children chess, we are aware of the possible benefits that we can give them. As for myself, I believe that chess is not just a basic tactical board game, but instead an intricately crafted, complex systems of patterns and movements that can dictate the outcome of the game.

Knowing that the children that take part in our service are new to chess, the early stages of learning the game can be the most fun and brain challenging as new concepts and ideas come into play.

“Pattern recognition, calculation, abstract reasoning, concentration, intuition, deduction, visual imagery, analysis and evaluation are factors widely recognized as attributes of intelligence.”

(Drummond, 2000)

Link to global importance:

Chess is a form of education that dwells into ones ability to perceive tasks and challenges within reality with a new approach, which differs the normal school-based education. One may argue that chess may teach values mentioned above more than the normal school could. The important connection between the world and chess is education.

Chess can help develop children to become more intellectual individuals who can perceive their world through pattern recognition, concentration and evaluation of actions they take.

 

 

Goal! OSC 4-0 British School

On Friday we played against British School. This match was played in 20 minutes thirds, so we had less time to showcase our team ability and to get a win, since we would usually play 30 minutes thirds.

The game showed true promise for the younger players from MYP. We showcased elements of effective teamwork, collaboration and personal skills.

Subbed off during the 2/3 of the match. Left to right: Yaman Ibrahim, Cameron Richardson, Hassan Zacky Samsudeen and Me. (Credit: Hana Sklenarova)

Taking part in an Ariel duel for the ball. 

The teams were chosen the week after, so our performance during the match to show improvement and skill on and off the ball was vital to impressing the coaches.

Over the course of the football season, I have improved several aspects since last year, such as clinical one touch finishing, strategic positioning defensively and offensively, alongside

GOAL! OSC 5 – 2 Gateway

We were nervous when we heard that Gateway won the TISSL competition, which was the football competition played at a national level against schools all over Sri Lanka. Knowing this, we were preparing to face an experienced football team for Friday.

Our second game resulted in a 5-2 win for OSC. We in cooperated new tactics that were developed in our training session 3 days prior, where we focused on the importance of teamwork, coordination and quick action. We built our individual skills such as passing and dribbling into a team action, further developing our technical skills. Furthermore, our mental aspect of the game also changed as we focused on getting the ball wider on the pitch, rather than keeping it focused in the centre field.

 

Sam Parkin and I duelling for a football (Courtesy of Hana Hettiaratchi Sklenarova)

Learning Outcome

Confidence/Focus: Due to our high confidence level leading into the second portion of the game by scoring 2 goals prior, we may have been losing focus. Our passing had less quality, and the advancement from attack to defence (and vice versa) was not up to par, and a penalty was conceded.  Despite scoring in this third as well, we played the first one better. I learn that it is important to keep focus and to not let over confidence take over because it can hinder the values of team work and collaboration.

Falling back into position after an attacking attempt. 

(Courtesy of Hana Hettiaratchi Sklenarova)

Importance of Teamwork (and similar values): 

We faced a heavy loss last week because of our lack of team discipline and tactics. This time around, it was changed because of the higher level of collaboration, partnerships and communication.  These are all important as the combination of those create a better game of football. These concepts are developed on the training ground.

The Checkmates – Teaching children

3 weeks ago, children from the SOS orphanage came and learnt some chess. Our service members divided ourselves into pairs and teamed up with pairs of children. There were a few problems that we encountered, most noticeably the language gap. Effective teaching can only be achieved through thorough communication, which we tried to achieve during this session.

Communication:

We had a translator speak to the children when we introduced our service and our purpose. The benefits of teaching chess is that auditory aid can be assisted by physical actions, so I got to show them moves and techniques instead of talking and confusing them.

This was surprisingly more fun than i had thought. Teaching kids and letting them have a new experience was enlightening. The 1 hour session flew by as i taught my partner how each chess piece moved, how to open up a game, how to develop pieces and eventually had him play a game with his friend.

As this was more of a teaching experience rather than a learning experience, I appreciate the values that go into teaching the education , especially for those who are under privileged.

 

Saisa Football – Action

The football season started 2 weeks ago. Due to the heavy rains and unfortunate weather, we had to train indoors. These conditions meant that we had less space, flatter ground, more reactive footballs and lack of sprinting. At first, this seemed to be quite counter productive compared to our common practice outdoors, however playing indoors has given me insight on different techniques and strategies our team have overlooked on the pitch.

Quick Passing:

The tight space meant that defender can close down players with the ball. Because of this, we had to quickly distribute the ball in order to keep possession. The small space improved our responsive reaction time, and developed our passing skills as well.

Strategic Passing and Possession:

Other than just passing quickly, we also had to keep possession. This meant that we passed in triangles as we couldn’t stay in the same position for a long time. This developed my sense of space and pitch awareness as i had to make efficient runs and passes in order to keep possession in such a tight space.

Taking Chances:

The quick nature of indoor football meant that we had to capitalise on opponent errors and try and score through the most effective means as chances were limited. This meant we had to be aware and come up with a easy method to scoring, thus developing our sense of team work and unity.

How can I use this knowledge on main Football Pitch?

The quick clever passing will be useful when trying to keep possession. Transferring the fast paced possession game indoors to the outdoors will be greatly beneficial as it not only develops our game as a team, but also as individuals.

Gecko Event Crew | SAISA Volleyball – OUT SICK

While preparing for the oncoming SAISA volleyball tournament, we were all nervous while organising the event. For the first time in 10 years, OSC is hosting two volleyball competitions in a given time span – boys and girls tournaments simultaneously. Thats approximately 170+ people into the campus, thus organising housing and team rooms were top priority for the majority of the time.

Being part of the organising process, i learnt several aspects of event organising, including the importance of being organised and efficient during meetings and planning sessions.

Giving Jobs: 

People were given jobs as to what their role was during the course of the planning stage and the tournament itself. For me, I was supposed to be in a team of three people managing the Live Stream service. Other roles including housing manager, Photography, Linesman etc.

During the course of the planning stage, I was working with a colleague in setting up the physical aspects of the opening ceremony. This included the study on how teams would enter, where the audience would sit, where the podium will be set up on so forth.

The set up after discussing and testing alternate ideas for the opening ceremony

Global Relevance:

In a world with a booming population and surge of new industries, aspects such as efficiency, effective leadership and organised structural planning is essential in getting things done with short notice and with high demand.

Setting up roles and implementing goals is clinical for the future world and the development of society. Its important to understand how events come to be, and the processes taken prior to something.

For me, this was an insight as to how groups/organisations plan events, more specifically sport but can also be reflected through other forms of organisational work.

Unfortunately, despite being present during the planning stages, I caught the flu and was absent during the course of the 3-day tournament.