CAS essay

CAS essay

Being involved in the Creativity, Action, and Service activities in an IB school has vastly contributed in my personal development within these two years. In every activity you have to have sufficient learning outcome. The eight learning outcome are Increasing your awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses,  Undertaken new challenges, Planned and initiated activities, Worked collaboratively with others, shown perseverance and commitment in your activities, Engaged with issues of global importance, Considered the ethical implications of your actions and Developed new skills. Every activity that you do have to have these eight learning outcomes and the activities have to fall under creativity, action and service.

For example I have done two activities in all three areas of CAS activity. I have Photography and art work as my Creativity, basketball and skiing as Action, volunteerism and sports leadership program as a service. All these activities have most of the required learning outcomes. Through this CAS activity we learn to assess ourselves about our strength and weakness and undertake challenges in each activity. We also learn to plan and initiate activities such as organizing games in sports leadership program, work collaboratively with others in basketball game, showed perseverance and commitment when volunteering in the school in Nepal, engaged with issues of global activities in sports leadership, considering the ethical considerations in art work and photography, and develop new skills in skiing and basketball activities.

As being new to the place and understanding the socio-cultural aspects of the surrounding people and areas, things has turned out to be quite different than the place I come from and because of me being new to this system/ place I have faced many challenges such as collaborating with people. Because we have different cultural background I considered many ethical considerations such as use of languages. Most of the activities that I am involved were done here in Switzerland. Because of this there was more complications and hard work I had to do in order to meet the criteria. Not all of the activities meet the eight learning outcome but they all contain at least five to seven outcomes. In each and every activities you are committed to the particular skills that you learn. The whole activities itself has become part of personal development. In  every activity you cover the eight learning outcome and through these eight ;earning outcomes you involve yourself and face the challenges and gain confidence becoming a developed individual. In my case i believe that through these activities i have gain much more than what i have given. It has let me approach to a different circumstances and perceive things differently. These activities really has helped me in my personal development and made be become a genuine person. 

CAS supervisor sheets

CAS supervisor form of skiing

CAS supervisor form of Photography

CAS supervisor form of Sports leadership program

                                        CAS supervisor form of voluntary work

                                   CAS supervisor sheet of a Week in unfamiliar activity

Sports leadership

Reflection on Sports leadership program
Sports leadership program is an activity that covers all the CAS requirements. It covers creativity where we have to come up with a set of games own our own and modify the rules that is acceptable for  the activity, Action where we do the warm up exercise and involve in the games organised by class fellows, and services such as organizing sports day program and teaching games and about fair plays to the junior classes.
A great deal of work and time is used in this activity. You have to meet all the eight learning outcomes. From the learning outcomes of this activity i learned to undertake new challenges such as approaching to the whole class and teach them games, when teaching games and sharing my creativity i learned to assess my own strength and weakness. Most of the times after the session everyone would comment on and give feed back on your lesson. I was also able to planned and initiate activities such as setting up games and planning the lessons, then you also learn to collaborate with others. Sometimes we were made into groups and have to work together to come up with a lesson planing. In every lesson i had to show my commitment and have perseverance to make a good example of sports leaders. I learnt about fair play during this session and also taught about fair play to the junior classes. This directly links to global importance in every sports. You also learn about the ethical considerations and plan lessons according  to the students and the classes. You try to respect their culture and make an exception to students who thinks the lesson has ethical clashes. And finally you learn many skills thorough out the activities you do and gain experiences. All of this has greatly covered the activity and has become a suitable activity for CAS activity.

CAS reflection on my service in SMD

A week of service in Shree Mangal Dvip School, Nepal

Shree Mangal Dvip School(SMD) is a non profit school for the Himalayan kids who are from the northern mountainous part of Nepal. Most of them are from very severe altitude of above 4000m. The kids from the northern part of Nepal lack education opportunity and other basic infrastructures such as health facilities, communication facilities and transportation.
Many student who gets admitted in SMD is provided free education, health services and an opportunity to see the world. SMD school is fully funded through the help from overseas by many sponsors and donations made by people. I personally feel very fortunate to help there during my summer break as a volunteer as i grew up getting same education there in SMD. During my time there i mostly help the students during their evening study time helping them with their home work and the explaining things they they don't understand. After studying in an IB school in another country and then getting back to my own country and helping with the school works there appears very different. Because of the difference in school system and the educational system, you get to know a lot of strengths and weakness in the system and also your own strengths and weakness. You also get into ethical dilemma such as applying different method. Change is seen as different and sometimes different is seen as a wrong.When you try to apply the system that you learn in an IB school in the school in Nepal, you face many challenges such as harder to explain or lack of materials. There is different in the way students learn. It takes time to adjust to new methods and system. When i was helping the students with their studies you learn to improve your teaching skills and communications skills. You then get involve in a certain group and try to share the knowledge that you have learned between the students and friends. During helping the students there i got to understand how much i have improved and progressed. You will learn about your improvements and access yourself. Because i was from the same school and had the same experience, you want to help everyone to understand what you have learn and what you have experienced over the years in overseas. You get the feeling of commitment towards your friends. Every one in the SMD school is like a brother and sisters. You give your full attention and commitment to help them build their future by sharing the experiences that i have personally faced in foreign land.

Week in an unfamiliar activity

Week in unfamiliar: my experience of stay  in         Tsum valley 

This the small village in the northern part of Nepal where i was born. It is located above the altitude of 3500 ft high. This is a very remote place and a very culturally rich place. There are many monuments, stupas and monasteries and shrines located in this region built from since ancient times.
During my summer break i was able to go to my village for almost a month was the best unforgettable moment that i ever had. It took five days for me and my big brother who was accompanying me to reach our home. In total it took us five days to reach our home town. One day by local bus from the city and Four days took on the trails where we had to walk early in the morning till evening time as there is no transportation facility available there. It was a monsoon season and there was irregular rainfall. Because the roads/ trails were not graveled, many trails were swept away by the rain. There were also many landslide cases and minor floods. Some of the bridges were unstable and dangerous to cross especially in this season. 

When i reached the valley, i was able to experience the richness in the natural beauty and the culture that had nearly forgotten about my birth place. As it was monsoon season, the valley was still cold but green and beautiful. During my stay there i experience many changes that my village has gone through since the last time i was there. There were new houses, new bridges and many new people. i was involved in the religious activity there. There was a big prayer ceremony organised for the new temple that was being built. Many people from the villages gathered there and the monks and nuns held the prayer ceremony. It is a big day for the local people to see the consecration of the new temple. People in this region is very religious and has a great devotion towards their religion. There were sponsors(people from the village who contribute for the ceremony such as giving drinks to people or offerings), the organizers and volunteers helping in the ceremony. It is applicable to say that there is very deep relation and respect between people of this region and their deep contribution. I was one of the minor volunteer helping in setting up for the religious activities. My brother was part of the organizer and so i was following my brother with the process. Learning the history behind the ceremony and the deeper understanding g of the religion and tradition was very tough and new experience. I also went on excursion to small deserted monasteries and temples with my brother. My brother has been doing his studying on the history and pilgrimage in the valley. So, i was always with him. Travelling with him and going on a pilgrimage gives you far deeper meaning and understanding of the importance of the pilgrimage and understanding of the history. We saw that many of the monasteries an, temples that we visited were deserted and was in need of great care and renovation because they has great historical importance and religious importance. So, you learn the global importance of these historic monuments and temples.

During my return to the city, i had to go through the same journey, trekking for four days and then one day by bus. 

CAS reflection on Skiing

Reflection on Skiing experience

Skiing is a new sport for me and it is the first time that i got an opportunity to ride on skis.  Skiing is unheard of in a place where i came from. It is a great sport which i personally think requires a good balancing capability  and should be able to take concentration as a regular car drivers always does. I first learned to ski when i was in Austria for the winter break. I was taught about how to ski by a Austrian instructor. I took the lesson for five days and was able to learned basic steps to skiing which i am very proud of. Since then i have gone skiing many times and have gained a great deal of experience over the year. This involves the following criteria:It was a new sport for me and a challenge that i needed to undertake.  Every sports has some difficulties which it is complex to overcome within a day. Every sports needs a proper concentration and have to face the challenges. I had to go through this same situation and am able to ski like normal people. I was able to understand about my strength and weakness regarding this sport. I was able to learned skiing properly in a very short time and was able to do the black runs which is a very difficult one to ski. But the loss of control ability and my speed is a small weakness that i have realize. But i have also overcome my this weakness by reducing my speed and concentrating more on controlling the ski and turnings.    By being aware of my weakness and strength i was able to be aware about my level of skiing and measures to take to develop skill. To begin with, ski itself was a skill to me but i came to realize that it requires more than just a basic training to be able to ski.I needed more experience and a contribution to the sport frequently. This sport also involves skills to polish your critical thinking and capabilities. i was also able to learn about planning even in a sport such as ski. Planning and creativity about where to go, which route to take and where are the lifts and stop points etc everything can be planned before and follow the plan. i was able to do this as well follow my partners plans as well. Finally once you get hang of the sport you will get the excitement and develop a thrill to ski more. So, in order to do this i was able to work quite hard on my own pace and come to get the same level as other friends. you will also get to develop your perseverance power an will make you want to ski more often. 

Me in full ski gear

Basketball

CAS reflection 

Reflection on Basketball game

I was introduced to basketball for the first time by my brother when I was first joined SMD School. Since then I developed keen interest in playing basketball. I used to dribble the ball out of the court near our school garage as I was not ready enough to play in the court. I used to watch our seniors play on the court and I got inspired more and more. We used to have only an hour of play time after school. I never learned the official rules, tactics, techniques and skills form my seniors and teachers. The only way to learn was to learn on my own and whatever I want whether I was doing wrong or not.  

After my secondary school, I got to learn more of basketball and started to explore more about it. Within a year (Gap year) I got to learn quite a bit of techniques and rules of basketball. Since then I have enjoyed it a lot. Without knowing it has become my best sport.

After that, with a scholarship to Inter community school I fortunately I got to play for ICS and explore more about basketball and earn more experience. I felt very privileged to get such an opportunity. 

Getting the opportunity to play in the varsity was not easy. Things got more complicated and confusing in the practise sessions. With the new environment and playing the basketball was different to what I used to play. There were techniques and tactics to every step. I lost in between the games and lost my confidence to play. Many mistakes happened and teammates got mad. But I still continued playing. After a month of confusion, I felt more aware of the games and the training every Monday and Wednesday evening was very helpful. 

From the beginning of the basketball season, I had three personal goals which our coach wants us to have. To improve my skills and learn many new skills, to play fair and square with my team mates and co-operate with them and finally win the game were my goals. And during the session I think I have acquired all the above goals through the whole season.

The practice sessions every Monday and Wednesday evening was very fun session and it is the only time when I get to play basketball with all my heart. The challenges that I had to face were that at the beginning I knew nobody so I have to know the names of my team mates and communicate with them. When the game is on I had to shout very loud in order to let my team mates know where I am and get the pass. I had a lot of personal difficulties on this.  And then I had to learn to shoot jump shot and make a quick lay-up.

I have learned to dribble better and the ball handling skills from my coach. Likewise I also learned about different passing skills from the coach. Example: long pass, shot pass and bounce pass. I also learned some crossover skills personally from the internet and applied them during practise session but was not able to in the actual game.  I played in many important tournaments from friendly matches to national and international level. Travelling out of the city and out of country was very experiencing moment such as in top tournament like SCIS tournament, BIS tournament, Swiss championship, Salzburg tournament etc.

There were some problems with the team members during the game but we managed to get in cooperation and understanding between the games. Even though we lost some important games we didn’t had any argument on that. Our coaches help through all of this and we all the team member had understanding and collaboration and used to say that we will win the next game.  This year team was the best and we had a best record. We came in third place in the Salzburg tournament and won a trophy. We also had a new record in the SGIS tournament and came on fourth place. This was a huge success of the season and for the school.

Throughout the game I was able to know my weakness and strength. Some time I lost the tract of the ball and lose my position on the court. But I helped myself and came to understanding the weakness and make myself confident in the game. Overall I have improved myself a lot with the ball handling, dribbling, defence and offence and shooting as well. The moments that I had in that season was the best of all and developed an unforgettable moment with my team mates. 

Reflection on Art work

CAS Reflection

Reflection on Art class: I have been very interested in learning art from a very young age. Especially sketching and painting scenery with water colors. I never had a good chance to get art lessons when i was in Nepal. We use to have very limited resources for arts. But when i came here, my host mom knew that i like art. So, she introduced me to Bridget wilkin art studio where the lessons are given in English and got to get an access to art resources. Bridget wilkin art studio is located in Egg and the class runs for three hours once a week on Tuesday evening from 6:30 to 9: 30. Through these activities i am able to get these following criteria:

*i undertook new challenges through unfamiliar environment such as getting into western art and learning western technique of art. Learning to paint without theoretical lesson was what we used to do but it is challenging to learn through theoretical after being used to paint without any lesson.
*i was able to increase my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth with the availability of resources and a guardian. I could learn  some of the art material quicker than others.
*i was able to develop new skills on painting, measuring papers and lines, color fusing etc.
*i was able to plan and initiate activities such as initiating what to paint or draw and how to plan  for what to next step by step.
*i was able to show perseverance and commitment in my activities as i am passionate about it. I was also able to paint more than five artwork within my stay here(first year).
* i also had to understand the ethical implications involved in my art work as every art contains some sort off message in them. so, i had to be careful in choosing what to draw and paint.

Till now that i have attended the class four times and those times have been the best art lesson that i ever had. Everything was new and unfamiliar. I got the opportunity to explore through new art material and skills. I also got an opportunity to meet new people and share things. I also have continued on during art when i have time mostly small arts.

*Below are some of my work:

plans for Community Action and Service

My plans for Community Action and Service

Creativity: For creativity i would like to do the following things,

• Take part in  Art class.
• Photography
• Sports leadership

Action: For action i would like to do the following things,

• Basketball
• Skiing 
• Sports leadership

Service:For service i would like to do the following things,

• Would like to give service at SMD the school, Nepal.
• Helping in the International festival at Inter Community School 

CAS reflection on my Photography

Reflection of Buddha in the pond near ICS school, Zurich

Texture of an old weary tree near the Waltikon train station,
 Zurich .

Green and refreshing leaves around the opposite side of
Migros, Zurich

Lead in line picture of a roof of a garage,
near DSC building, ICS, Zurich.

Frame image, DSC hall, ICS, Zurich.

Texture of wooden bench, in front of DSC building, ICS, Zurich.

Buddha Image, opposite to Migros, Zurich.

Depth of field picture, near Waltikon station, Zurich

Depth of field picture of fence, near Waltikon station,
Zurich 

Contrast of light and dark image of two people,
Waltikon station, Zurich 

Tiles of bricks in a lead in line composition,  Waltikon station, Zurich 

Beauteous flowers in front of Migros, Zurich

 Contrast of light and dark image of stationaries,
Inside DSC building, ICS,Zurich. 

Add caption

Stahl & form, infront of Migros, Zurich.

I have a very deep passion in photography and the ways photographs can express the world. Such as natural beauty, portraits and close up pictures. As for my CAS activity i have chosen to do photography for the creativity section. Before coming to Switzerland for scholarship from Nepal, i have only seen people take pictures. I have rarely touched a camera of my own. But during the Christmas celebration here in the year 2012, the family that have hosted me gave me a camera as a present.  They wanted me to follow my passion and put a good use of the camera. Since then i have always taken pictures of whatever i see amazing and interesting. I learned many skills that are needed to learn before handling the camera. I followed guideline book, watched videos regarding the use f camera and skills. As you take more pictures, you learn more and more and accomplish more. It was a challenging when first approaching the photography world. At the beginning you take pictures of whatever you want. But then slowly you learned specific criteria to how to take "Amazing" pictures and then you you want to try taking the same. understanding the skills and tricks used was challenging for me. Slowly you also understand about whether you are suitable to do this or not as per your skills. Then you learn about your strength and weakness. what you are good at and what you need to improve on. The more you like it the more you commit to it and show perseverance to get better results. You learn about what is photography and what are the positive ad negative aspects of photography to the surrounding area you live in. You learn to consider the implications(ethical) of photography. Photography never bores you. The more you explore then more your learn about photography and the more you will love photography.