Salsa Weeeekk!!

 

For the past year, we have taught and danced to hip-hop and house, which is why we decided to learn something different.  We plan to teach basic salsa by formulating a routine of our own, which incorporates the basic steps.  As this will be something new for both Yarubbi and I, we will be learning a new skill in the process.  To ensure the best turn out possible, we plan to make posters that will be hung around school as well as go to the different year groups to inform them of Salsa Week.

International Day!!

It would seem international Day, as a whole was a great success, especially the concert.  Pablo and I were in charge of handling the PA system, which meant we had to ensure the right music was played at the right times and that the microphones were fully functional.  Although we had a few technical difficulties with one of the performances, the event was quite successful.  

The food was also organised by the year 13's, which also proved to be successful as we did not have the same problem of running out of food like last year.  However, it would seem that the activities planned and organised by the year 12's were not as successful as most groups were done with their activities earlier than anticipated, which left the children with nothing to do.

Listed below are the learning outcomes that were achieved organizing this event:

• undertaking new challenges;
• working collaboratively with others; 
• planned and initiated activities; and
• increased awareness of strength and areas for growth

Planning of the International Day Concert

Instead of organizing the activities for this year's International Day, we (Benny, Michal, Pablo, Yarubbi and I) are organizing the concert. Progress has been made in organizing the event as we have put up a sign up sheet for people to participate and showcase their talent.  So far, we only have a few people who are willing to perform, but Mr. Russell, who is assisting in organizing the event, is also getting his music students to participate.  Apart from that, we also have to order the PA system in advance, to ensure there are no complications on the actual day.

CAS Project!

In order to develop new skills in a more creative way, I've decided to learn a new song on the piano.  The song i plan to learn is "Alejate de mi" by Camila and to make sure I persevere in this new challenge, i have set myself a deadline of January.  Listed below are the various learning outcomes i plan to have achieved after learning the song:

• developing new skills;
• undertaking new challenges; and
• planned and initiated activities

Charity event turnout...

The African Charity Bazaar turned out to be a great success as they were able to raise more 30 000Rb for the children (some of whom we were lucky enough to meet). As the event was attended by a lot of Russians, it gave me the opportunity to practice my russian skills, which was helpful because I do not study the language anymore.

Academic Dishonesty!

Mr. Gray asked us to produce a film depicting academic honesty in a creative way.  Although the process of making the movie proved to be more difficult than anticipated as everyone had different ideas of the way the movie should be, we compromised and collaborated with one another to produce a movie we thought would portray academic honesty in a creative way.

Our film was called the domino effect (of cheating), which tried to show and exaggerated yet plausible scenario of what could happen if one decided to be academically dishonest.  Although the movie turned out quite well, we failed to read the requirements of the video and ended up violating some of the regulations.  Not only has making this movie developed my skills in collaborating with others, it has also made me aware of my strengths and weaknesses and one of the weaknesses include the fact that i can not act :(

Anyways, here is our film on academic honesty, i hope you enjoy :)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYQZNCVI29E

Hockey Club!!

Going to hockey club on a regular basis has helped improved my abilities and working together and communicating with the other members of our team has made it easier to play as a team.  Even though all the members do not come regularly we make the best of the situation and each week we are able to learn and develop skills regardless of the amount of people who show up.  I plan to take pictures during the next session in order to show evidence of what we do.

African Charity Bazaar

It has come to my attention that an African charity bazaar will be held on 18 May to help raise money for African-Russian orphans who lead a hard life as their parents abandoned them when they were babies; not to mention the fact that they have to suffer from discrimination.  Yarubbi and I have offered our assistance at this event by selling food as well as raffle tickets for the entire day.  Although the work may seem small, we hope that the day might generate enough money to help the children. Not only that, but taking part and trying to help, will help cover the service portion of CAS.

Dance club...:)

Even though we do not have many members in our dance club, it’s still going strong with just Yarubbi and I.  We have finished creating the music for our dance medley, so all that is left to do is record the routine and show you what we have done.  Just so you have an idea of what to expect, this is the music we plan to dance to. :) 

School 4 science fair!

School 4 had a science fair and asked if we were willing to go and share our passion for science with the little ones and the day couldn't have gone better.

In the beginning, it proved quite difficult to choose an experiment that would teach the children something new as well as easily interest them.  We decided we would teach them about composite materials that came with an experiment that would be fun for them to do.  The experiment included making a bridge strong enough to hold 'wild animals' (toy animals) out of nothing but marshmallows and spaghetti and to make it more interesting we provided the groups with money and a prize (Fererro Rocher) to be won by the group with the best bridge.

The money was given for groups that wanted to buy more materials for their bridge, but they were informed that they would be penalised in the overall ruling of the bridges.  In the end most of the bridges were disasters and only one bridge was able to build a bridge strong enough to hold the weight of the animals.  Teaching the children proved to be less challenging than we had anticipated as they were a younger year group, so they were well behaved, and collaborating with my partner (Yarubbi) made what we were doing easier and more organised.

This teaching experience helped us in planning and initiating activities, because even though we were unsure of which experiment to do until about two days before the fair we managed to plan exactly what we were going to do and how we planned to do in the thirty minute lesson.  All in all, we had a great time with the children and would be more than happy to do it again. (pictures of the day are still with School 4)

Winter Activities Day!!

Although this years winter activities day was not the most successful, it was enjoyed by most of the students and teachers and gave us the opportunity to offer our services to the year 13s where they needed it and in the process, achieve some of the CAS outcomes such as the increased awareness of strengths and weaknesses as well as planned and initiated activities. Planning and following through with our activity made us realize that not everything goes according to plan and that it is important to consider all the variables that might affect the activity.

As we were four organizing the activity (Yarubbi, Pablo, Julien and I), the initial plan was to split the group and put them in two separate classes so that two of us would receive a group, but we later decided against it as we felt it would be more fun for the children if they were in the same room.  Even though this was the case, it was quite difficult to control them and made us realize we should have gone with the initial plan. The benefit of realizing this is that we can plan better for the future.

CAS project and activities plan