Cystic Fibrosis Update (4)
Monday, 29 February 2016 • awareness, cystic fibrosis, presentation, project, service, update, year12
In order to raise awareness for our project, we decided to give presentations to Middle School, Upper School and Sixth Form. In the presentation we gave a clear description of what the disease is and how others can get involved.
Surprisingly, the whole process is not as easy as it seems. It involved a lot of preparation and contacting the Heads of each department. Initially, we approached Mr Burns, who is the Head of Middle School, followed by Mr Burns, the Head of Upper School, and then the Head of Sixth Form. Although all three agreed for us to conduct the presentations, we weren't able to get them all in the same week.
Over the half term break, we made the presentation online using Office-Online so that we could collaborate and share what we had done easily with each other. When making the presentation, we had to take into account the different ages of the students we'd be presenting to, who ranged from Year 7 to Year 13. Therefore, we didn't include language that was too difficult or complicated to understand. While making the presentation we were able to review our knowledge about Cystic Fibrosis and also learn some new things that will help us raise awareness.
Here is a short account of each individual presentation:
Monday: Presenting to Middle School
Today, I presented along with Ellie, Cami and Celine. The presentation was a great success, especially as all the students were fully focused on what we were saying - there was complete silence in the room (except for us). I thought that it would be more difficult to explain the disease simply to this age group, but generally it went very smoothly.
Tuesday (following week): Presenting to Upper School
This time around we didn't have as much time to present as the teachers also wanted to update the Year 10 and 11s about the usual things, but nevertheless it went very well. We also got some great pictures:
Friday (following week): Presenting to Sixth Form
Luckily, this one was not me. I wasn't actually even there on that day - I had a date with the doctor all day, but I was supporting it just as much as if I had been there in person.
Surprisingly, the whole process is not as easy as it seems. It involved a lot of preparation and contacting the Heads of each department. Initially, we approached Mr Burns, who is the Head of Middle School, followed by Mr Burns, the Head of Upper School, and then the Head of Sixth Form. Although all three agreed for us to conduct the presentations, we weren't able to get them all in the same week.
Over the half term break, we made the presentation online using Office-Online so that we could collaborate and share what we had done easily with each other. When making the presentation, we had to take into account the different ages of the students we'd be presenting to, who ranged from Year 7 to Year 13. Therefore, we didn't include language that was too difficult or complicated to understand. While making the presentation we were able to review our knowledge about Cystic Fibrosis and also learn some new things that will help us raise awareness.
Here is a short account of each individual presentation:
Monday: Presenting to Middle School
Today, I presented along with Ellie, Cami and Celine. The presentation was a great success, especially as all the students were fully focused on what we were saying - there was complete silence in the room (except for us). I thought that it would be more difficult to explain the disease simply to this age group, but generally it went very smoothly.
Tuesday (following week): Presenting to Upper School
This time around we didn't have as much time to present as the teachers also wanted to update the Year 10 and 11s about the usual things, but nevertheless it went very well. We also got some great pictures:
Friday (following week): Presenting to Sixth Form
Luckily, this one was not me. I wasn't actually even there on that day - I had a date with the doctor all day, but I was supporting it just as much as if I had been there in person.
Learning Objectives Reflection (1)
• learning outcomes, lo1, lo2, lo3, lo4, lo5, lo6, lo7, reflection, update, year12
I've managed to achieve nearly every single learning outcome at least once! I was not expecting that I'd manage it so quickly. Obviously, that doesn't mean I will stop here, but I'm still really proud. (I'd like to thank everyone for my very first CAS Award).
LO 1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth:
LO 1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth:
I have met this goal with most of the activities I have been doing, as the majority of them were things that I had never done before, but it is most evident with running club and improving my piano skills. In both I have seen huge progress, which is fairly easy to see and it motivates me to continue.
LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process:
To achieve this second learning outcome, I thought it would be fairly easy, but it surprised me that many of my activities lies within my comfort zone and that I didn't take as many challenges as I could have. Luckily, this was not true for everything I did though. For example, helping out in lower school clubs really challenged me as I had to develop an understanding of how to interact with the children and how to help them in a way that was easy enough to understand.
To achieve this second learning outcome, I thought it would be fairly easy, but it surprised me that many of my activities lies within my comfort zone and that I didn't take as many challenges as I could have. Luckily, this was not true for everything I did though. For example, helping out in lower school clubs really challenged me as I had to develop an understanding of how to interact with the children and how to help them in a way that was easy enough to understand.
LO 3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience:
I thought that achieving this learning outcome would be the most difficult of all, but I've actually managed to initiate and plan more than one CAS experience. The first is the start of our Cystic Fibrosis Fundraising and Awareness Project, which I did not initiate, but I helped a lot with the planning process. We came up with various ideas of ways in which we could achieve money to put towards the charity and also discussed how to carry them out. The second is the photography blog I set up in collaboration with another IB Student. We developed the idea of starting this site from our shared love of taking pictures and it has resulted in a huge success.
I thought that achieving this learning outcome would be the most difficult of all, but I've actually managed to initiate and plan more than one CAS experience. The first is the start of our Cystic Fibrosis Fundraising and Awareness Project, which I did not initiate, but I helped a lot with the planning process. We came up with various ideas of ways in which we could achieve money to put towards the charity and also discussed how to carry them out. The second is the photography blog I set up in collaboration with another IB Student. We developed the idea of starting this site from our shared love of taking pictures and it has resulted in a huge success.
LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences:
This learning outcome has been one of the easiest to meet. Most of the activities that I participate in as part of CAS are ones that I do every week. These include: playing piano, attending running club, helping in lower school clubs, posting on my photography blog and doing yoga practices. I also have a post on my regular weekly activities.
LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively:
I've managed to achieve this learning outcome with the Cystic Fibrosis Project and with the photography blog. For the Cystic Fibrosis project, I worked together with Ellie, Anna, Doreen, Cami, Liv and Celine, whereas for the photography blog I set it up collaboratively with Cailin.
I've managed to achieve this learning outcome with the Cystic Fibrosis Project and with the photography blog. For the Cystic Fibrosis project, I worked together with Ellie, Anna, Doreen, Cami, Liv and Celine, whereas for the photography blog I set it up collaboratively with Cailin.
LO 6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance:
The Cystic Fibrosis Project has allowed me to engage with issues of global significance as this disease affects people worldwide and although the organisation is based in Cologne (Bonn), it helps people all over the world with Cystic Fibrosis. It is a very satisfying feeling to know that I am able to contribute to something so important from only (somewhat small) city in Germany,
As I've already mentioned earlier, helping with lower school clubs has forced me to make decisions about how best to 'treat' the children I'm working with. Often there have been times where they have brought me to the point where I am tempted to shout at them, but instead I explain it to them (calmly enough). The Cystic Fibrosis project also enables me to consider the ethics of my own choices and actions. I belive that it is not only ethically correct to raise awareness and gain support for such an amazing organisation, but more people should be involved in such things.
Cystic Fibrosis Update: Project Video (3)
Friday, 26 February 2016 • creativity, cystic fibrosis, project, service, year12
I was initially going to include this with another CF Update post, but I think that it deserves it's own. All the credits for the video editing magic go to Doreen. I'm so impressed by how it turned out.
We recorded the video back in December when we did our waffle and christmas card sale, which I'd like to remind you was a huge success. We had planned to make a video to document what we had achieved that day and combine it with all of our other projects in the future. The video was completed so that we could put it into our Cystic Fibrosis presentation that we were giving to the school in order to raise awareness and give others ideas of ways that they can get involved, which you can read about in my next update.
Here is the video:
We recorded the video back in December when we did our waffle and christmas card sale, which I'd like to remind you was a huge success. We had planned to make a video to document what we had achieved that day and combine it with all of our other projects in the future. The video was completed so that we could put it into our Cystic Fibrosis presentation that we were giving to the school in order to raise awareness and give others ideas of ways that they can get involved, which you can read about in my next update.
Here is the video:
Photography: First Impressions
Saturday, 20 February 2016 • blog, creativity, photography, plan, reflection, service, update
Now that it's officially been 20 days since the launch of my collaborative photography blog with Cailin, another IB student and photographer, I already feel the need to do an update due to the site's success(es).
Obviously, I enjoy doing it very much and although the main reason we decided to create this site is for the purpose of CAS, for me it doesn't feel like a responsibility or a chore. I love taking pictures and searching for quotes and coming up with the titles. This method of sharing out pictures not only provides us with an easy way of spreading it with people all over the world, but is also a creative outlet and we can make it as customisable as we want. Personally, I absolutely loved editing the layout and tweaking the HTML to get it exactly how we wanted, although there are still a few small adjustments I'd like to make. For example, there is a phrase in the top Navigation Bar, which should not be there and I have not yet found how to move it.
Alongside our pictures, we have also already featured out very first guest author: Hans. This is a somewhat big step towards how we envision the page to look in the future, as although we do aim to be the main contributing photographers, we would like it to be a platform that a wider variety of people can add to. These guest posters do not necessarily have to be IB Students looking for a way of gaining some creativity, but anyone with a passion for using a camera and an interest in sharing their pictures. If anyone would be interested in being a guest author, we are open to anybody and hope to make an easy way for people to submit their photographs.
I'm completely shocked by the incredible response we've already received, which the number of page views having gone up to nearly 1000 (991 to be exact) in less than a month. This is absolutely incredible! The platform we are using to host the blog allows us to view a more detailed analysis of who has been viewing our blog and from where, which is particularly interesting. We're able to see where in the world most of our views are coming from. Aside from Germany, the most dedicated countries are: United States, South Africa, United Kingdom and Denmark. I've gotten into the habit of checking on the stats every day or two, and it never fails to impress me. We do have certain days that are better or worse, but overall I can't complain at all.
Collaborating and working with Cailin has been all that I expected and more! She is an amazing person to work with and the whole experience has been only positive. To add to that, I'm always amazed by her photographs and they inspire me to experiment with my own. Our styles are very different and I can definitely learn a thing or two from her photographs - it also gives our readers/viewers a larger variety.
Although I am very happy with everything related to out photography blog, there are a few improvements I'd like to make in the somewhat near future. These are both aesthetic changes and additions. Firstly in terms of design changes, as I mentioned above I would like to remove the words from the navigation bar to give the page a more clean and professional feel and potentially update the footer to add some more features. Secondly, there are some non-design-related changes that I would like to make. The first thing that we would like to do, it set up a way for people who would like to be guest authors to contact us and contribute their photographs. We thought about giving our emails or setting up a new one that they could send their pictures to, with the option of choosing a title and quote or leaving that up to us.
If you haven't already, check out our photographs here.
Obviously, I enjoy doing it very much and although the main reason we decided to create this site is for the purpose of CAS, for me it doesn't feel like a responsibility or a chore. I love taking pictures and searching for quotes and coming up with the titles. This method of sharing out pictures not only provides us with an easy way of spreading it with people all over the world, but is also a creative outlet and we can make it as customisable as we want. Personally, I absolutely loved editing the layout and tweaking the HTML to get it exactly how we wanted, although there are still a few small adjustments I'd like to make. For example, there is a phrase in the top Navigation Bar, which should not be there and I have not yet found how to move it.
Alongside our pictures, we have also already featured out very first guest author: Hans. This is a somewhat big step towards how we envision the page to look in the future, as although we do aim to be the main contributing photographers, we would like it to be a platform that a wider variety of people can add to. These guest posters do not necessarily have to be IB Students looking for a way of gaining some creativity, but anyone with a passion for using a camera and an interest in sharing their pictures. If anyone would be interested in being a guest author, we are open to anybody and hope to make an easy way for people to submit their photographs.
I'm completely shocked by the incredible response we've already received, which the number of page views having gone up to nearly 1000 (991 to be exact) in less than a month. This is absolutely incredible! The platform we are using to host the blog allows us to view a more detailed analysis of who has been viewing our blog and from where, which is particularly interesting. We're able to see where in the world most of our views are coming from. Aside from Germany, the most dedicated countries are: United States, South Africa, United Kingdom and Denmark. I've gotten into the habit of checking on the stats every day or two, and it never fails to impress me. We do have certain days that are better or worse, but overall I can't complain at all.
Collaborating and working with Cailin has been all that I expected and more! She is an amazing person to work with and the whole experience has been only positive. To add to that, I'm always amazed by her photographs and they inspire me to experiment with my own. Our styles are very different and I can definitely learn a thing or two from her photographs - it also gives our readers/viewers a larger variety.
Although I am very happy with everything related to out photography blog, there are a few improvements I'd like to make in the somewhat near future. These are both aesthetic changes and additions. Firstly in terms of design changes, as I mentioned above I would like to remove the words from the navigation bar to give the page a more clean and professional feel and potentially update the footer to add some more features. Secondly, there are some non-design-related changes that I would like to make. The first thing that we would like to do, it set up a way for people who would like to be guest authors to contact us and contribute their photographs. We thought about giving our emails or setting up a new one that they could send their pictures to, with the option of choosing a title and quote or leaving that up to us.
If you haven't already, check out our photographs here.
Weekly Activities (1)
Wednesday, 17 February 2016 • activity, clubs, creativity, piano, running, service, update, weekly, yoga
This post is long overdue, but luckily not too much has changed since the time I started doing CAS back in September. These are all the activities that I've been doing every single week.
Running club
I'm not exactly sure if this on counts as a weekly activity or not, but for most of the year I've been attending running club every Monday. It's probably the best way to end the worst day of the week. I can't say that I loved it when I started, but I do now. I look forward to sweating and trying to beat the previous distances. The reason why I mentioned that I'm not sure if it counts is because I did take a fairly long break (one and a half months) during winter when it was much too cold outside to run. I did a reflection post just before that. Whether or not it counts as a weekly activity, I've definitely seen progress and I can't wait to further improve.
Yoga practices
I've actually been practicing yoga for around a year now, but it was more based on when I was in the mood for it that committing to doing it in a regular way. At the beginning of the school year, I decided that CAS would finally be my motivation to start doing yoga sessions regularly and possibly actually seeing results. At the start, I set myself some goals that I wanted to work towards including stretching my splits (and finally achieving all three: left, right and middle) and to achieve crow pose. When it comes to achieving them, I'm not seeing as much improvement as with running which annoys me. I knew that it would be more difficult to stretch out muscles which I haven't done in a long time than to improve my stamina, but it feels very demotivating at time. The only thing that keeps me going and coming back to the mat each week or two is that I genuinely love doing it.
Piano lessons and daily practice
I've always loved music and as a young child, I attended choir (religiously) and took guitar lessons. I had to give both of these up a few years ago and after a longer break, I didn't go back. Instead, I decided to try playing piano and I've never looked back. I absolutely love learning new pieces, no matter how difficult they are, and even practicing simple scales. I've learned so much in the past few months that I've been attending regular lessons and I have seen huge improvements. The biggest is in my ability to sight read sheet music. While I used to sit in front of a piece and take around 2 minutes to work out each note, now I am able to read them almost instantly. (Emphasis on the word 'almost'.) I still struggle with naming each note quickly (C, D, E...), but going straight from paper to the keys is increasingly easy. Despite this, seeing the improvement honestly feels incredible. I always find myself longing to play to perfect each measure and correct the intonations.
Helping with homework club
Helping lower school children (Year 3 to Year 6) with their homework has been the biggest surprise that I've encountered on my CAS journey. I though it would be fairly easy to teach and explain simply concepts to young children, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only is their knowledge (obviously) limited, but so is their attention span. Many of the pupils give up very quickly when they do not understand how to solve a problem and have no intention of returning to it. My favourite thing about the whole experience, other than the moments when I can actually teach the kids something, is that they treat me like a teacher. It still surprises me every time they refer to me as 'Miss' or 'Miss Aleksandra'. It has also made me understand how difficult the job of a teacher is, especially when one has to deal with such children everyday. Despite the challenges, I have enjoyed going to homework club every week since September.
More detailed posts about each activity are coming soon...
Running club
I'm not exactly sure if this on counts as a weekly activity or not, but for most of the year I've been attending running club every Monday. It's probably the best way to end the worst day of the week. I can't say that I loved it when I started, but I do now. I look forward to sweating and trying to beat the previous distances. The reason why I mentioned that I'm not sure if it counts is because I did take a fairly long break (one and a half months) during winter when it was much too cold outside to run. I did a reflection post just before that. Whether or not it counts as a weekly activity, I've definitely seen progress and I can't wait to further improve.
Yoga practices
I've actually been practicing yoga for around a year now, but it was more based on when I was in the mood for it that committing to doing it in a regular way. At the beginning of the school year, I decided that CAS would finally be my motivation to start doing yoga sessions regularly and possibly actually seeing results. At the start, I set myself some goals that I wanted to work towards including stretching my splits (and finally achieving all three: left, right and middle) and to achieve crow pose. When it comes to achieving them, I'm not seeing as much improvement as with running which annoys me. I knew that it would be more difficult to stretch out muscles which I haven't done in a long time than to improve my stamina, but it feels very demotivating at time. The only thing that keeps me going and coming back to the mat each week or two is that I genuinely love doing it.
Piano lessons and daily practice
I've always loved music and as a young child, I attended choir (religiously) and took guitar lessons. I had to give both of these up a few years ago and after a longer break, I didn't go back. Instead, I decided to try playing piano and I've never looked back. I absolutely love learning new pieces, no matter how difficult they are, and even practicing simple scales. I've learned so much in the past few months that I've been attending regular lessons and I have seen huge improvements. The biggest is in my ability to sight read sheet music. While I used to sit in front of a piece and take around 2 minutes to work out each note, now I am able to read them almost instantly. (Emphasis on the word 'almost'.) I still struggle with naming each note quickly (C, D, E...), but going straight from paper to the keys is increasingly easy. Despite this, seeing the improvement honestly feels incredible. I always find myself longing to play to perfect each measure and correct the intonations.
Helping with homework club
Helping lower school children (Year 3 to Year 6) with their homework has been the biggest surprise that I've encountered on my CAS journey. I though it would be fairly easy to teach and explain simply concepts to young children, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only is their knowledge (obviously) limited, but so is their attention span. Many of the pupils give up very quickly when they do not understand how to solve a problem and have no intention of returning to it. My favourite thing about the whole experience, other than the moments when I can actually teach the kids something, is that they treat me like a teacher. It still surprises me every time they refer to me as 'Miss' or 'Miss Aleksandra'. It has also made me understand how difficult the job of a teacher is, especially when one has to deal with such children everyday. Despite the challenges, I have enjoyed going to homework club every week since September.
More detailed posts about each activity are coming soon...
Photography
Thursday, 11 February 2016 • collab, creativity, photography, year12
I'm going to start this post on an honest note. Last year, after the end of summer, I decided to spend less time on photography even though it had been one of my main hobbies for years. I found that it was taking up way too much of my time (including scouring the internet for camera settings and cheaper lens for my DSLR) and I stopped enjoying it. So I gave up. Looking back, I don't regret my decision no matter how stupid it was.
But... I've started taking pictures more often again. This time around, I don't spend hours on end researching it on the internet, I just take my camera with me when I go out and snap some unique shots. My love for capturing the moment has resurfaced and so why not make it part of my CAS.
Together with Cailin, we have joined forces and set up a blog dedicated to sharing out photographs and love of the hobby. We haven't posted much yet, but you can expect to see posts not only from us on a regular basis, but also guest posts from other photographers.
I'm also able to use my lasting passion for web design and programming to help setting up a layout for the blog, just like I have with this one.
Here is a link, if you want to check it out: Photography
But... I've started taking pictures more often again. This time around, I don't spend hours on end researching it on the internet, I just take my camera with me when I go out and snap some unique shots. My love for capturing the moment has resurfaced and so why not make it part of my CAS.
Together with Cailin, we have joined forces and set up a blog dedicated to sharing out photographs and love of the hobby. We haven't posted much yet, but you can expect to see posts not only from us on a regular basis, but also guest posts from other photographers.
I'm also able to use my lasting passion for web design and programming to help setting up a layout for the blog, just like I have with this one.
Here is a link, if you want to check it out: Photography
Bloglovin'
Tuesday, 9 February 2016
As I've probably mentioned somewhere on this blog, art is one of my biggest passions ever since I've been young. It was never something I took seriously until a few years ago, when I fell in love with drawing in pencil. I focused on portraits, which I still love drawing (obviously due to the pictures below), and simple objects that were easy to copy.
Doing IGCSE Art last year, both motivated me and discouraged me from doing my own artwork. I loved the fact that I was 'forced' to draw and paint for homework (best homework ever??), but at the same time I was annoyed by the fact that I could never create what I wanted. I am ever grateful for the experience, as it made me develop my skills and discover new media. Without it I never would have discovered my love for painting in acrylics (although pencil is still number one). That is what I want to work on as part of my CAS.
Finally, after much to long without drawing (and completing anything), I got out my pencils and finished a new piece of work that wasn't merely doodles on my homework. I decided that instead of doing an extravagant creative piece, I'd stick to drawing a detailed portrait of Cara Delevingne to get back into drawing. I plan on sticking to it on a regular basis from now on. Hopefully writing that down, will motivate me to do the thing I love more often.
Doing IGCSE Art last year, both motivated me and discouraged me from doing my own artwork. I loved the fact that I was 'forced' to draw and paint for homework (best homework ever??), but at the same time I was annoyed by the fact that I could never create what I wanted. I am ever grateful for the experience, as it made me develop my skills and discover new media. Without it I never would have discovered my love for painting in acrylics (although pencil is still number one). That is what I want to work on as part of my CAS.
Finally, after much to long without drawing (and completing anything), I got out my pencils and finished a new piece of work that wasn't merely doodles on my homework. I decided that instead of doing an extravagant creative piece, I'd stick to drawing a detailed portrait of Cara Delevingne to get back into drawing. I plan on sticking to it on a regular basis from now on. Hopefully writing that down, will motivate me to do the thing I love more often.
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