Creative writing

In our CAS sessions, we are trying to find ways to become more involved in activities that cover the service aspect of CAS and at the moment, we are thinking of sponsoring an animal from the Moscow Zoo.  Reading the articles about the animals at the zoo, Mr. Gray has asked us to write a poem regarding what we've read so here’s mine:

Small, black and hairy

I’m small, black and hairy

With fangs that look kinda scary

Even though I bite

It’s usually when I’m out of sight

I know that’s hard to believe

But trust me, it should be a relief

I’ve got eight hairy legs

With claws that stick to clothes like pegs

But I’m still small, black and hairy

Before you criticize it, please keep in mind i don't write poems.

DoubleD C

Our dance club is still going strong and we are showing signs of improvement when it comes to teaching the dance moves as we are realizing that every member has a dancer inside of them, it’s just a matter of unleashing them.  Every week, we learn a new technique of teaching the moves as not everyone responds to the same teaching style and if they can’t learn a specific move, they know they've tried their best and we try a different approach.

The process of teaching is a working progress and not only do we teach the routines, but they also gives us moves that we can use and sometimes they are better than the ones we've thought of.

Basketball and more Basketball

I've started monitoring my participation in the games we play during basketball club and I’m starting to realize that more input is required from me if we are going to have more successful games.  Also, even though I've been practicing my free throws, I have noticed that I don’t take advantage of the opportunity on the court, which is something I need to work on.

In the next games to come, I’ll be making more of an effort to take more shots and collaborate with my teammates to make the game more structured.

Mission Statement

Last week, Mr. Parker expressed his concern about the IB criticizing the schools mission statement and asked us if we could write our own mission statement which incorporated the IB program and the schools diversity, so here is mine:

Our culturally diverse community of students and teachers, work together like a well-oiled machine to shape every individual who enters our community into becoming the perfect IB student by acquiring the necessary characteristics, so that their potential can be accepted and recognized internationally.

Study Tips

Mr. Giddens asked us if we could help him by providing simple ways that will help students when studying for the exams- which we were more than happy to do.  We each gave a study tip that we thought would be useful and placed them all on one of the boards in the hall so that the students can see the advice whenever they pass the board and use it when they study. Not only do these tips help other students, but we can use them ourselves when we have to study.

International Day =)

Being part of this year's international day proved to be both challenging and interesting as we had to organise the events that would take place in the 30-40 minute sessions.  Since we were divided into countries, Yarubbi and I represented Namibia and decided to give a brief presentation of the country as we noticed how little people knew about our country and its culture.  To make the presentation informative as well interesting , we designed a quiz in the style of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" to test the children's knowledge and gave prizes to the winners.  We also provided them with a taste of what Namibia had to offer when it came to cuisine (Vet Koeks) and most of them seemed to enjoy it.

After our presentation, we asked the children to give us feedback so we could analyse the strengths and weaknesses of our presentation. The problem was that almost all of the feedback was positive which didn't really help us in finding out what we did wrong...but overall the day was enjoyed by most people...myself included =)

Shakin' things up in Dance Club

For the past two-three weeks, we have taught the same dance routine to make sure our members know the dance like the back of their hands. The fact that we were able to do this shows our commitment to teaching them the dance even when some of the moves seemed impossible to teach.  Last week we came up with a new routine, which might be more difficult to teach as it has more technical moves than the previous dance. We plan to involve the members when it comes to adding new moves to the routines.

Hopefully, with perseverance we will be able to successfully teach the moves to the members and if we don't, it will give us a chance to see where we went wrong and improve on our mistakes.

Silent Movie (ssshhh...)

Our CAS task last week, was to produce a silent film with a theme of our choice.  We, as a group (Me, Yarubbi and Pablo), decided to make our movie about drugs, undercover agents and betrayal of friends.  Filming the scenes was not as easy as we anticipated it would be.  In total, we had 37 takes before we got useful footage that could be used in the movie, mainly because we found it difficult to concentrate and so it took longer to get the scenes right.

Not only did the filming prove to be a problem, but the editing took longer than we thought it would as we decided to play different songs for different scenes and editing the music to the video took time and patience.  Producing this film allowed us to overcome certain learning objectives, such as:

• collaborating well with others;
• undertaking new challenges; and
• developing new skills

Below, you can see how the movie turned out. Enjoy =)

Basketball-again!

This week's game of basketball proved to be enjoyable as we were able to work as a team, which made the game for productive as well as competitive.  Mr. Gray has come up with a system of recording the performance of players to show us our strengths and weaknesses, which acts as a guide to helping us improve on our areas of weaknesses.

Plan for International Day

On international day, we plan to do the following:

1) decorate the classroom with banners and flags related to Namibia as well as play music from our country.

2) have a powerpoint presentation giving basic facts about Namibia (tribes, cuisine, traditional attire etc.)

3) teach them the basics of our languages ( how to say "hello", "how are you", "good-bye" etc.)

4) play a game of "Who Want to be a Millionaire" to test how well they have been listening and give the winners a small prize (they will be divided into groups)

5) provide the group with a snack from Namibian cuisine to give them a taste of our culture and what the country has to offer.

What we plan to do on international day will take a lot of organisation as well as preparation, but if it all works out which we plan it will, it will be great fun for everyone.

First Dance...

We had our first dance lesson last week Thursday, and even though the turn out wasn't what we expected, we managed to have a good time and distinguish the strengths and weaknesses of the members by teaching them a simple dance routine.

Some of the moves were difficult to explain and even harder to teach, and so not all of what we tried to explain was understood by the members, which showed us that we needed to work on our communication skills so that the club members understand what we are trying to get them to do.

Basketball Practice

Last week's basketball practice was an enjoyable experience that made me realize how important teamwork really is in order to have a successful game. It's more than dribbling and showing off the skills you have. I realize now, that I need to work on working with my teammates and not against them. With hard work I hope to show significant improvement in the games to come. =)

CAS Action Plan

My CAS action plan will be  my guide as to what i aim to achieve by taking part in the various activities that i have chosen to do for the next two years of the IB course. I know that at times, things might get difficult, and mistakes will be made, but the point is to learn from them and reflect on what we've done so we don't make the same mistakes the next time.