Over the two years of creativity, service and action I have learn new skills, discovered new skills about me and have  overcome obstacles independently and working with people. It's been fantastic throughout because I have got the chance to work with local people in Sri Lanka along with my friends, teachers to help underprivileged people. With proud I can say that we all have been able to be fair with one another treating equally and sharing new branches of life. From useful opportunities I have experienced wonderful things and have been able to understand real life problems and ways of solving them to some extent. Problems that should be addressed to younger children like us in order to have our world rest in a better place. 

Learning how to increase awareness and under taking challenges, planning new challenges, working with various people together, being committed and engaging in global importance issues and considering ethical implications of our action with having to learn new skills was just amazing.  

Beginning of the year I contributed some of my designs to a French brand called Lanvin in Paris.  In this occasion I simply learnt according to what bases garments are designed and how themes are made and used in all dresses during any seasonal collection. I loved making my own designs and learning the rules of designing. With this experience I am hoping to contribute more designs for my personal growth and learn further more in fashion. (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=853891248015858512#editor/target=post;postID=9089701966470633224)

One trip that I would cherish the most which also involves CAS would be week without walls. This is because every student in our grade got the chance to build and paint schools, some times with kids who are underprivileged  in Hambantota. I thought the experience was valuable because ever since then I learnt how to appreciate the education, school and people that I have in my life. Going all the way to Hambantota and changing many student's lives in terms of having a good place to study really made me feel that I have done a good deed. In WWW there was action, service and creativity combined together. As a whole grade all of us got to know each other very well. Which I really liked. (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=853891248015858512#editor/target=post;postID=4614585923569708381)

While putting a lot of effort into school work I have also participated in Alzheimer’s community and Snesha orphanage. During my time in Alzheimer’s I was a member to raise awareness in Sri Lanka and funds for treatments. In this process I was able to enhanced my knowledge  in diseases, especially in terms of how to treat those patients, symptoms and ways to prevent. The whole program was interesting and fun in some ways because we were able to meet patients who has Alzheimer’s and spend some quality time with them doing certain activities they love. (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=853891248015858512#editor/target=post;postID=6507204364246090302)

Snesha orphanage will always be special for me. This is because with the experiences I had doing community service I was strong and determined to take a risk and have myself volunteer to be a co- leader for Snesha orphanage.  Snesha orphanage is a home for children for those who are under the age of 6. Planning children’s activities with my supervisor, learning more about themselves by talking to them, having to know their likes and dislikes really made me feel good about myself because I was spending my time to make a bunch of kids really happy. Making them smile and having seeing them enjoying the activities we planned for each day really motivated me to do better for them. while learning more about these children I also learn that orphans are known as a global issue. It has been an invisible issue because orphans are usually treated less than kids who have their parents. Therefore kids with no parents are not treated equally and fairly. These information really shocked me because these important global issues are not addressed as much as they should. I think it should be addressed and these children should get help to have a higher education and be a part of this world with importance as much as we are. (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=853891248015858512#editor/target=post;postID=2941229790515176832)

For 2013 New year my partner and I are planning to some cultural activities with the children at Snesha Orphanage. This is because we believe they will have an insight to what kind of activities Sri Lankans do during the new year’s. We are hoping to do several activities. Such as paint clay pots, put an eye on an elephant having each kid blind folded and serve them with traditional Sri Lankan food such as Kottu. We hope these times will add to their good memories that they cherish. 

For action and creativity I have taken part is many school events. I have performed during school assemblies and MUN closing conference  two years at a row. In these events I have learnt a lot new dance steps which has helped to choreograph my own dance on the long run. Dancing in front of more than 500 students and teachers was exciting and something to cherish. (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=853891248015858512#editor/target=post;postID=3821290122462990358)  

Working for the MUN committee for the UN day introducing and explaining the importance of Unity in Diversity I was able to share my knowledge and research and hear different opinions. Therefore it was something I was interested in doing and lehttp://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=853891248015858512#editor/target=post;postID=735040272261720666arning more about the topic. (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=853891248015858512#editor/target=post;postID=1674034506419246552)

 

14/03/2013 Sneha orphanage.

Today we went to the Children's home. Instead of interacting for full one hour with the children we learn' t a lot about their past. The lady in charge was not present therefore we were not allowed to do our planned activities. However we played some children games with the kids. We took a group and inside the center we played some nursery games which they usually plan in the center. It was amusing for me because these games I last played so many years back. I felt good because some of my old memories of  being a 5 year old rushed back. We all had free fun time together. I guess this was the first time we felt free and way comfortable with the children. Simply because they are now familiar with us and we know most of them well. I think this whole part shows my commitment, perseverance and working collaboratively.   

For me the most highlighting part of the day was when I got to know how orphans play a big role in our society. On this day I learnt in all means how orphans are related  to current global issues. It was devastating to learn by which means these innocent children became apart of the Sneha orphanage. We heard lots of stories and that there are parents who are well off but  want their kids to be in an orphanage and parents come see their kids once month for 10 mintues. I felt terrible when I heard that some kids write about the hatred they have towards the society and their unknown parents.

The above pictures show the good times we had with the children. We played and had lots of fun together. 

                          All the stories about the children in the orphanage was said by the lady next to me.

06/03/2013 MUN

Model United Nations conference took place 3 days back. On the last moment I was asked to perform a Bollywood dance. The secretary general wanted me to dance for Sheila ki Jawani song. The song has a fast beat to it and it is definitely catchy. I performed a dance for the same song a year back for school assembly. Therefore I just had to recall my steps and practice. In the beginning I was not prepared because it was a last moment call. However it was going to be my last MUN. Hence I took the chance to perform. I think I was showing my perseverance  and dedication for MUN in general. This is because even there was a problem of practice I still  managed to be a risk taker and do a good job for the closing ceremony for MUN.MUN is an international project where students from Sri Lankan schools and International schools come and participate to debate on real life issues. Which means I became a part of the celebration in engaging in Global importance. To make sure my some of my dance steps were appropriate I had to research some new moves from other songs and add those steps to my MUN song. In this way I have automatically developed some new skills in this process. As always the experience was good. Also to be an entertainer was fun!

February 01-12/ 2013 (Creativity)

For my assembly dance during these days I have choreographed the steps by looking at various video clips. I have tried many steps and I have chosen and finalized my act.  Now it is a matter of putting the steps, practicing it and having the music edited the way I want.

Planning,

To edit my song I have been thinking of smooth transitions. It has been difficult because the song should last too long and in between I must have the main beats of the song. However to find a solution I worked with one my friends on this and by next week we’ll be coming up with a shorter song.

Goal,

My goal is to find time practicing these steps. For dancing it takes a lot of dedication and it consumes a lot of time, therefore my main goal is to find time along with all the other in order to achieve my goal and have myself dancing soon.  

 

January 01 - Feb 14, 2013,


During the one and half months for Action have been going for the gym 3 times a week. Whenever I work out I do it for at least an hour on those days. The exercises I do have helped me to keep myself healthy and do well in my studies. It is so because I don't become easily tired and I feel fresh and a clean, cool and calm mind to do my school work.

 Each time I go to the gym my main goal is to strength my knee muscles so my knees are stronger and I can do well in my dancing without any physical interference. The exercises also help me to be balanced as an individual.

 Exercises have helped me to do well in my creativity because I can dance with lots of energy and for longer period of time. Therefore my main goal is been achieved.

 

December 16/2012,  (Service)

On this day we visited the orphanage once again. This time we did something different. As usual we did some drawings with the children and we played with the kids in the playgrounds of orphanage premises. Playing with the kids was definitely a risk for us and a new activity. Having the kids to play in the playground was a risk because had to be extra responsible and aware of our and the children's action. We didn't have to prepare any playful activities because the playground consisted all the necessary equipment’s for the children to have fun. Our main goal was to be with them have them play safe with lots of fun.

During this activity our goal was not sophisticated at all. It was to have the kids have fun on their own terms and for us to be aware of their actions and give directions if they wanted to do something different in drawings. For example some kids wanted to draw specific shapes and we helped them to do so. In the playground our goal was to have them playing safe and for every child to get a chance to use each equipment of the playground. This worked for us very well because Ashwini and I had two groups. In our planning we had one group to try a set of equipment’s and another group to play with some other set of equipment’s. This worked out very well. Since all the children had chance to participate equally and have their own.

There were some complications. Because it was very difficult to handle the kids. In the beginning everyone was calm but after a while they all became very energetic. Since we had difficulties Ashwini and I divided the children into two groups. to overcome this problem This was a good solution because we both were equally responsible.

Since we enjoyed and our risk  taking planned out quite well. We' ll be playing we the kids more often.

 

Action.

I am planning to perform in two months time during a school assembly. I would be dancing to a song from Halkat Jawani. In this performance I will performing a solo dance. The movements for this dance will be mostly taken from it's original video. My first pratices will be next week.

13/11/2012

Sneha Orphanage

On Sunday we visited the orphanage with new learning activities for the children and for ourselves. Our main goal was to spend  quality time with the kids and get to know  the orphanage more. For starters we provided the children some milk packets and we thought this would be the best choice for them because most kids like milk. Then we started on our activities and our main objective was ‘how can we become creative.’ We basically separated the nursery kids and the little kids into groups. For the nursery kids we gave blank paper, glue and magazine papers to make collages and for the little kids we gave blank papers to get them busy drawing whatever that came into their minds. This activity was a big success because most of kids learnt how to draw new pictures and everyone loved drawing, this means we provided them with an activity they love. This shows we are thoughtful at initiating activities. Towards the end we gave the nursery kids play dough. Reflecting back, play dough activity was a success because the kids loved it. Therefore we decided to do the same activity again. The excitement in their eyes was amazing.

 

            During this activity we learnt anger management. Since the kids loved the activities they were hyper throughout. it was hard for us to control them. To overcome with problem Ashwini and I helped each other by taking care of the kids. For example if Ashwini couldn’t handle then I would be strict with the kids by being strict. Ashwini would show the kids how to draw new pictures. This kept them silent and more observed.

 

20/10/2012
Sneha Orphanage

It was our first day at the children's orphange. In the beignning we were quite confident about what we were going to do. Probably because we planned a lot of activites to keep us doing well when we meet the children. When we went inside all the kids were expecting us. As a small friendly surprise we got the kids some fruits. The orphange supervisor was very helpful and supportive. Therefore we started the activities without any hesitation. Our first goal was to get toknow the children. So we desgined the pillow passing game. Ashwini (my partner) provided the music and we all started to pass the a teddy bear instead of a pillow. Whenever the music is stopped and whoever has the teddy bear gets to intrroduce themselevs. It was a fun acitivity because the children loved the concept because everybody got to play a role. It was amazing the game actually helped to achieve one of our goals which is to work collaboratively.

Once we introduced the game the children helped one another to keep the game going fun. For starters this game really worked out well because as one group we all engaged and the children learnt a new game that they might be able to do at their spare time. Later to have the children do somet creative we took two colors of playdo. We thought this would be the best option for them to learn how to be creative and engaged and to have fun at the same time. Aswhini and on the first day had a great time with the kids. I think we all learnt how to interact and to take responsiblity for our action. I must say we were pretty good risk takers because we got a long well with the kids on the first day and they seem to like us more because they requested to come see them again!

 

12/ 10/2012

UN Day

The theme of the UN day was 'unity in diversity' our school mission. On this day my goal was to represent myself as a former MUN delegate to help the grades from 7 to 8 to understand the concept of Unity in Diversity. To further interpret the concept myself and my partner did some acitivites with the students.

Firstly we showed some a video clip about how  students in OSC defines Unity in Diversity. Then we questioned the class about their ideas on the same note. Then we switched into a different acitvity. I printed some pictures on Unity in Diversity and with the help of my partner we divided the class into two groups to identify and describe Unity in Diversity present on the picture. Later on took over the class introducing a ToK question. We debated on ' should the world use a common language to communicate' The points as a class was brillant. So many good points was spoken out and the whole class interacted very well throughout the whole session.

This was a big win for us because as students we were able take responsible on the acitivites that we introduced and the students. For this was risk taking because handling a group of intelligent students and planning appropriate work is really tough and I got through with the collabration skills I had to work with my partner. Throughout the whole planning system I was commited and well dedicated because I used the work I do in 12th grade ToK class to make a very interesting session for the 7-8th graders.Throughout the whole planning system I learnt how to be organized and exhanging ideas by engaging myself with the whole MUN committee.

These are some pictures showing my dedication, introducing different activities and being responsible

 

 

 

04/10/2012

My Goal for the Founder's day was to perform a style solo dance. This is because I love dancing and it is part of creativity and action. It is creativity because dancing is a form of expressing emotions using body language. Dance is also action because it takes a lot of energy and practice in order to remember and do the steps. To create the dance I took exactly a week. I blended a bit of contemporary and bollywood form of dance to giving a good performance. To help me build my skills I watched some videos so I can learn new steps and imrpove more on my skills.

 

When I looked at the audience there were more than 500 students watching me. I was feeling nervous , motivated since I know I'm a risk taker and good at what I'm doing. When i started dancing the support from the audience was amazing. The cheers just made me energize the dance even more. It was  a proud moment for me. The dance was  a success because everybody loved the performance!

 

The dance made me feel that i'm confident enough to performance regardless the number of audience in front of me. Dancing on the founder's day made me believe I'm a risk taker, learner and a determined person to acheive any goals in dancing! overall I had a great experience as well.

 

 

For action, I started going to the gym. It is important for me to do exercises because my knee cap dislocates.  In order to prevent dislocation I have to strength my muscles and therefore I do several types of exercises. This also helps keeping my body fit and healthy. 

 

I aim to exercise at least 3 times a week because  so I can be fit to perform in the future. I'm acheiving this goal  by going the the gym on Monday, Tuesday and Thurseday after schools.

 

When I do exercises I learn a lot about how to keep myself healthy and which exercises are suitable for my age. Communicating with the instructors help me acheive my goals.

 

I exercise at least for 1hr and 30 mins a day. I think this time is enough to make me balance to be healthy and to go home and be awake to do my work without being extremly tired.

 

 

 

17/09/2012

For this year my friend and I have started to service an orphanage. The kids in the orphanage are under 5 years old and there are roughly 15 kids. To start our first service, last week we met with our supervisor and planned some activities that would help us to get to know kids.  For example one of activities is so play passing the pillow. In this game whoever gets the pillow introduces them. while planning we realized completing our tasks is not easy. Planning was a huge challenge to me because i was not aware of suitable games or how we can interact with the kids ordinary because at all times we wanted to make sure the activities suits both boys and girl  and in a way the orphanage will be pleased without breaking any rules. Since we will be dealing with very small kids we also decided to meet with one of our primary teachers in school and find out more activities that would help us achieve our overall goals.

For after school activities I’m also the student leader for baller dancing. In this program I’m hoping to learn some basics of baller by helping the students to get the steps correct.  I love dancing and learning a new form of a dance would really help me to build on my confidence towards international form of dance and to learn more graceful form of dance steps. We are hoping to get the students trained for a performance during assembly. To achieve our  goal from this week we will be working hard on firming the dance steps and making sure the students dance well.

Recently we had the Model United Nation conference for 3 days. My experience at this conference was simply amazing and it's because I worked productively and made new friends. Each Conference lasted for nearly 10hours per day. My duty was to take in charge of one of the committees and at the same time be in charge of the photocopies for resolutions. As an OSC student I was very helpful because the conference was held in OSC and I knew what’s needed to be done. On the last day of the conference I performed a Bollywood dance. I dance in front of 453 students from 16 different schools. And everyone simply loved it. The dance last for 3 minutes having 3 songs mixing together.  According to the students and teachers my performance was the big hit of the day and I’m glad I was able to entertain the audience.  My dance expressed pain, happiness and attitude. This way I was able to show the audience how versatile I am and of course my confidence.  

Week Without Walls

Reflection 1

Today as a grade we all visited both schools that’s going to be renovated. Our first reaction was how are we going to put our plan together and doing what first we are going to begin our work.  Taking a good check around the schools gave us idea about a productive plan. Since I’m one the leader’s doing games I had to plan out what kinds of games I’m going to come up with to my partner and how its going to work in these schools.

Goals to achieve during the game

·         Bring the children together

·         Engage the kids with our grade by interacting and having loads of fun

·         To make sure kids learn some new games to play after we leave the schools

Goals for the second day

·         Become friendly with the kids

·         Organize the games

·         Make the kids understand out ideas

·         Have fun with everyone (in the grade)

·         Educate the children in a way it will be useful for them.

Day 2

When we went to the schools the children were ready holding flowers on their hands to give us and welcome us to their schools. I thought it was very thoughtful, sweet and kind of them to do so. When I saw the kids I realized how small they are and how are they going to relate our ideas in order to do games.  To make my life easy as a leader, I explained the game to the teacher so she helps me make the kids understand the game. The first game started off pretty well. Some kids were able to grasp the concept of the game easily, which made it easier for rest of the kids to follow and play the game. My goal of bringing the kids together worked partially. There were few kids that were extremely frightened and crying. Probably that’s because we were total strangers for them. After some time the same kids joined the group of other kids that were playing and was able to enjoy themselves, despite they were still reluctant to have loads of fun.  Our class helped the kids to understand the game and also have some interaction to get to know the kids much better.

After games we all started to paint. We were taught a method to paint so the desks look nice. It was easy for me to paint knowing what I’m doing because from last year’s week without wall we were taught how to paint desks and tables. We painted roughly for 3 hours and then I played the role of a translator. Teachers from our school wanted to know what the kind of equipment’s and other important things the school wants to have. To have these thoughts approach the local teachers I helped by translating English into school so we know exactly what both teachers are talking about and what exact things they need for the school. Being a translator really gave me an opportunity to help resolve problems and clarify information In order for our school to work productively. One of the greatest challenges was to take the paint out of the brushes and also paint the walls nicely. I had to be extremely careful painting the walls because sometimes the brushes were too thick that the paint was everywhere. Having the paint off the brushes was kind of difficult because sometimes we put the yellow brush into the green paint which turned out to be a different color while painting. Basically we had to be careful with everything we did and also we had to be aware about my surroundings.

Goals for next day

·         Workout the treasure hunt

·         Helping In communication

·         Exactly know what the school need from us in order to help them.

Reflection 3

Today we started our work off very much organized. As soon as we entered the children were ready to do some work.  So I as the leader took all the drawing book and crayon distributed to everyone to start drawing. The kids looked like they were having fun and enjoying themselves doing some creativity work. The teachers and our school students were amazed to see some amazing drawings that were done by the kids there. Afterward we took them to the playground and started playing with them. Each student was doing some activity with students from our OSC. Most of the time I job was to translate the teacher’s expectations and make sure I convey the messages of help and other information from the local teachers to have school teachers.  Other than panting desk and tables I started painting windows and cleaning up everything. Later in the afternoon we had the talent show which was done all students. The students we visited gave us a thank you speech and showed some of their beautiful talents, such as singing. It was quite special to see them up on stage because they were doing it for us. We too performed some of our talents to the school. We sang some kindergarten songs  with some nice dance performance.

Overall we ended our community and service, the way we wanted in the bases of getting our goals done. We wished we had some more time to do any other extra changes that were quite possible. I think in week without walls I have worked and had fun with few students that I didn’t used to be with. I think WWW really made our 11^th grade as a team strong and very friendly.

For Lanvin fashion house I finished on my first research question. My first research question was what are different price lines and how are they distributed to the Market. researching this question really gave me an idea about the range of price sellings. I got to know how expensive and cheap their clothes are selling in the market. When i showed to Mr, Dinesh he said that the powerpoint on the research question is very catchy except i have to be extremly careful about the prices. In between i have also being praticing to drawing some good figures in order to get my hand good in drawing clothes. This task is extremly hard because it takes a long time to get use to the method of drawing  and alot of pratice to get the shape of the figure right.

For Model United Nations, we already had 2 pratice debates and throughout the conference i was helpful with everything. Since this is my second year as a admin for MUN the administrater gave me couple of more responsibilites to take care of. I was the senior admin hence I had to play a major role helping other admins to do what they are offered. So far the pratice conference has been great because I was able to contribute quite often comparing to last year!  the pratice debates lasted for 10 hours each day for 2 days. most probably i will be performing a dance for the opening ceremony of MUN 2012. If the auditions go well i think it will be a good chance for me to show my talent out of the school community.

On the 13^th of January I started a 3 month course in fashion. Our task is to think hypothetically that we are working for the Lanvin brand in paris in order to do the winter Fashion 2012. Our goal is to make 20 collections to catch the essence of Lanvin. During the first month there will be group working. For group work we are working in pairs to put together presentation about the history of Lanvin.  At this point I’m really excited for this opportunity because it was given by one of Sri Lanka’s best designers. Mr. Dinesh Chandresena has helped me before to give feedback for my persona project and now he is teaching me how to become a designer and what the main aspects I should look into in order to design clothes. I’m really glad that I’m getting to work with a great designer and to be creative and show my interest in the fashion. However my aim is to experiment how well I could expand myself in fashion during the first 3 months and how well I can be creative and do something unusual to me. 

The feedback that I will be getting from this course s given by the Lanvin brand from Paris. After hearing this I was really happy because my designs will be shown to an international and of the most famous countries for fashion. I hope this will give me a new break through to explore about the idea in fashion.

Community and Service.

For week without wall 2012 the 11th grade is visiting Hambantota children schools to help make a difference. The grade is broken down to small groups to be responsible for different activities. I’m involved with the games group. Each group has 2 leaders and for this group I’m one of the leaders. My goal is come up with appropriate and different games for the children in Hambantota schools to play and have fun with us. Since the children are smaller than us as a group we are thinking of games which are simple and that has easy communication.  

Recently I performed a dance form of belly and bollywood style  for the school assembly. The name of the song i performed was Sheila Ki Jawani for  3 mintues on stage. At the beginning i was feeling nervous because it was the first performance i gave after my knee injury. to start of i didn't pratice at all because i was sacred not knowing what will happen to my leg. since i have praticed the dance to this song few months back the choregraphy was stored in my head. the day before the dance i took a risk to pratice once and know how my leg is doing, luckily my knee was stronger because of the exercises i do. i was feeling really happy for the fact that i can bring myself on stage once again without any fear.

The dance went quite well. the cheer and the motivation from the audience was incrediable. emotionally i was feeling better.

the dance moves for the performance was taken from the music video of sheila ki jawani. Most of the dance moves was taken from the music video. Here and there i added some of my own moves so i can be careful with my leg and not do anything that might cause pressure to my knee.

after the performance i was requested to help in other projects in dancing. By Ms. Wolf, i was asked take student leadership in belly dancing for next semester. i thought this can be a good chance to spread to other students what i know about belly dancing and help them perform a good dance. for next semester i will be one of the students leaders in belly dancing as for an program in elective.

For Community in Service

For the past two weeks as a group we did some productive things in order to help the dimentia patients. We collected food for 3 months for the dimentia center, where all the patients are going to stay. I think we did a really good job helping them because to get money for the food is a hard process. i was happy the fact that the school students and teachers really supported us throughout the whole process of collecting food.

For next semester we have planned to have session where we all will give a way something special to us, so we can bury it underground and open it in 2030. I'm thinking this will be a good idea for something to rememeber that we liked ages back when we open in 2030.