Final Reflection

April 10th, 2015:

My final days of DP are coming to a close as I complete high school and with that, my entire CAS experience. These past two years, the CAS program has impacted my life in terms of being involved in a variety of activities and allowed me to take on new roles and challenges that I never had done in my life before. 

Creativity

Over the past two years, my creativity aspects were always concerned with the arts. Whether it was drawing club, printmaking, or being involved in a theatre production, my creativity was derived from the arts. This was because the arts allowed me to express my creative ideas in my own way. For example, my sketches in drawing club were evidence of how I expressed my ideas and visuals that came to mind. Printmaking took my creativity a step further and allowed me to print and create images through new and abstract methods. Lighting for the Gala concert was also another major creative component I was a part of as I was able to choose which lights I wanted to place on stage.

        Action          

The sports I've tried out over my DP years were basketball, football, and volleyball. Trying out these different activities have given me an awareness to these sports and helped learn and develop various skills that I haven't known before. These skills were especially undertaken when trying out for SAISA teams as the training was taken at a more serious level and required more requirement. For example, I first played basketball during the 'Fun Basketball' activity but then continued pursuing it in SAISA where I learned about new skills I haven't known about basketball before.    
 

              Service                  

A sign of my commitment and perseverance to activities is definitely shown through my participation in service as I have been a part of the 'Hope for Kids' activity for both DP school years. My experience in this service has given me a global awareness of the disease of cancer and how it affects the lives of children. Our group was able to do this by interviewing the patients at the hospital we visit as well as their parents to find out about their background and families. Visiting the hospital at least once a month to entertain these children with numerous activities such as playing instruments, crafting decorations, boardgames etc., all helped develop my collaboration with others as well as learning new skills. 

Overall, the CAS program has really opened me to challenging myself by trying out activities I didn't know about and taught me about and developing skills will be useful for me as a person and will benefit me in the years to come.   

            

SAISA Basketball and Hope for Kids

March 25th, 2015:

I have continued to progress in my basketball skills through SAISA training with all the different layups, cuts, screens, defensive and offensive tactics we practised. Our team was able to test what we've learnt through the matches we played with different schools every Friday such as Gateway and a school from the Maldives. The positions I usually play on the court are the two wings or posts. I definitely have improved in terms of tactics during games when it comes to passing or cutting inside the key to retrieve the ball or getting the rebound. 

In Hope for Kids we have recently been connecting beads with the children, which is an activity they have been enjoying a lot recently. I personally think this activity was a great idea since it gives the chance for the children to use their creativity in an easy way. 

The activity helped both us and the children to be equally engaged as we taught them how to make the beads and they were able to show what they had learnt afterwards.  
           

Print Making Progress

March 9th, 2015:

I am well into my second piece I am going to create in printmaking arts. I enjoy this art style because it does give me the opportunity to produce creative and unique images. Here is a step by step to show how create my printing pieces:

Here is the logo for 'DC Shoes' which is my second image I will attempt to print. I chose this image because I like the design of the logo and I think it would be interesting for the image to be printed in a different colour (e.g. red) to appear more appealing and abstract.



The next step is to place tracing paper over the original image and use an etching utensil to trace out the shape of the image. The etching utensil has a sharp and pointed blade which is used to carefully trace and cut through the tracing paper. As you can see from the picture to the left, I have traced the outer shape of the 'DC Shoes' logo.


Here is a picture of the traced out part of the logo, but the actual piece of tracing that will be used is the original piece of tracing paper that has the shape of the selected image traced out (second picture). This is because a selected paint colour can easily be go through the traced out shape of the image and be printed on to a piece pressed against the other side of the tracing paper.    

Here is a picture of my first completed printed image, Levi from the anime 'Attack on Titan'. I've so far had fun with printmaking as it doesn't require any advanced sketching art skills to portray and represent an image. I've learnt that it is an activity that anyone is able to do. It's even given me a new perspective of what one can do and create with art. 


   

Print Making, Basketball, and Hope for Kids

February 16th, 2015:

My first piece I have decided to focus on print making was on the character, Levi, in the anime 'Attack on Titan'. I am currently still in the initial step of the printmaking process, the tracing, as it is the most important and difficult step in my opinion. This is because I had the challenge of tracing the lines in the image. Some of my peers in the activity were able to complete the entire print making process in just one session because they were tracing more simpler designs with less lines. I probably should have started with a more simple design as well since it would help progress my learning to start with the basics of printmaking and later on move on to more advanced designs. 

Throughout the fours session of training I've had in basketball training so far, I have acquired new techniques to develop my skills in dribbling, shooting, and layups. Unlike the 'Fun Basketball' activity, SAISA Basketball sessions have helped me train and develop my basketball skills that needed improvement. I've also learnt unique teamwork manoeuvres and guarding positions that helped improve and give a better understanding on playing in both defence and offence. 

My Hope for Kids group has recently been selling wristbands as a way of raising money for the service. A new activity we have planned for our next visit to the hospital is doing a sock puppet show. We would first make the puppets out of socks and other materials and present a mini show for the children at the hospital. We might even teach the children how to make their own sock puppets afterwards.   

DP2 Semester 2 Begins

January 20th, 2015:

As the new semester rolls in, I will be taking part in new activities for CAS:

Creativity: I will be a part of print making arts this semester for creativity. The activity will be supervised by Mr. McTavish, similar to drawing club, except printmaking is a different art style. Printmaking involves tracing over an image with clear tracing paper and placing ink through the traces. The tracing with the ink will then be placed in the print maker where it will be pressured against a piece of paper to print the image. The image can be printed as much times as wanted, which is one of the beauties of this abstract art style. I am really looking forward to learning this art style, since its a new practice to me and a more advanced technique than simply sketching images as I did in drawing club.

Action: I will trying for the SAISA Basketball team for action, since it is my most played sport and one I've had previous experiences in. I've already been a part of the fun basketball activity last semester so I do feel prepared entering SAISA training this semester. I'm looking forward to practicing more of the various aspects of basketball (dribbling, passing, shooting), as I wasn't able to gain much practice from Fun Basketball where our group would only play half court games. So overall, I expect to learn and come and my SAISA training with more knowledge and outcomes on basketball.

Service: I will still be a part of Hope for Kids for service as I have been for a year and a half now. I hope to plan activities for the kids in the caner hospital in which they could learn how to understand more words in English. One of the activities our group planned is to read short English stories to the children as well as continue to play songs in English and Sinhala for them.      

Gala Concert Lighting

December 6th, 2014:

I volunteered to be lighting technician for the Gale Concert because I already have previously gained experience this role during the Living with Lady Macbeth production back in November. Since I was already involved in lighting for a previous event, I felt comfortable filling in this role for the concert. However, lighting designing a concert was much more different from lighting a theatre production since a production only involved cued slow lighting transitions. A concert had more varied lighting sets as one musical act could only require a single lighting arrangement for the entire performance while another could require multiple moving and flashing lights. Here's a picture of me at the lighting desk:

 I felt that this was quite a unique and exciting experience, which was why I volunteered to try it a second time after lighting the school production. Here is a picture of one of the lighting sets that I arranged:

The main reason I found lighting designing enjoyable was because of the control I had to set the tone or mood of a scene/musical act. I was able to do this through the colours I choose to 'wash' the stage with or which transitions I would use. I've even noticed my growth in stage lighting experience from basic lighting transitions to setting more advanced transitions, using more types of lights and colours. These challenges I had to overcome in strengthening my lighting skills were a part of what made it such an enjoyable and memorable experience.   

Future Plans in Service and Creativity

November 20th, 2014:

Service:

In today's 'Hope for Kids' meeting, my service group and I discussed our future plans for what we'll be doing at the cancer hospital. We recently had a milkshake drive during one the lunchtimes at school to raise some money and were able to get 10,000 rupees. Since the December is coming soon, my service group is planning on spending the money raised on a Christmas-type event at the the hospital. Last year, we had a teacher dress up as santa and give away presents to each of the cancer patients, as well as dry rations. (rice, dhal etc.) We'll probably repeat this same plan this year along with more Christmas-themed activities to do with kids. One activity our group has in mind is cutting out paper decorations and hanging them on a Christmas tree, which we will bring into the play area of the hospital. 

Creativity:
While I am still continuing the drawing club activity, another creative act I will be taking on is the lighting for the Gale concert in the first week of December. I already have some experience in lighting as I am currently working on lights for the senior production, 'Living with Lady Macbeth'. I have decided to take this opportunity because I wanted to take notice of my lighting experience on my CAS blog but was not able to that with the senior production as it is a class requirement for theatre and would not be considered 'creative'. I am however, able to take notice of my lighting for this Gala concert on my blog since it is an extra-curricular job and not a class requirement.     

   

Teamwork in Basketball

November 7th, 2014:

I have continued 'Fun Basketball' for the second block of after-school activities and there are actually more students that have joined this time. Much of my peers from my grade have joined the activity so it really does make the whole experience more engaging and intensifying. With my older age group joined in, the speed of the games flow much faster which puts a lot of my focus on my dribbling skills. The game plans used have also become more advanced as there are more people on court. Different techniques have been brought into the games such as walls in which a person from one team stands next to or behind an opposing team member so that their team partner can have a clearer path to dribble the ball and get to the basket. I am glad that these faster-paced matched we are having in this activity are giving me the opportunity to improve on my basketball skills and could help me when trying out for the SAISA basketball team next semester. Here is a short clip of a game we had:  

Continuation of Drawing Club

October 18th, 2014:

As I have continued the Drawing club after school activity this semester, I really want to explore into new ideas and areas in my drawing. I continue to find images for inspiration through the internet and then sketch on a blank piece of paper to mimic the image. In the past I would always sketch images of characters from TV shows that I watch but this semester I have expanded from that area and started sketching album covers and shirt designs. Exploring more of a variety of images to sketch, really made me enjoy drawing club even more and inspired me to continue improving on my drawing skills. Here are two sketches that I have already drawn during the sessions I've had so far:

The first drawing is my sketch of the 'FireBird' logo, which is a clothing brand. I decided to sketch this logo because I was determined to draw any sleek-looking design during one drawing club session and the logo on the T-shirt I was wearing that day was just perfect. The second drawing is my sketch of an album cover by 'Carnifex', which is one of my favourite metal bands. I was actually most passionate in completing this sketch than any other one I've done in drawing club before. This is because I find music and art to have a very strong link to each other, especially since I listen to music with my earphones while I sketch. So I discovered that opening my mind to sketching my favourite band album covers, while listening to their music, made me feel most comfortable and satisfied. There definitely will be more album cover sketches to come from me in the future, which is why I will also be continuing drawing club as my creativity in the second block of after-school activities.       

Fun Basketball

September 26th, 2014:

I was unable to make it into the final SAISA Volleyball team, because only 11 athletes were allowed to enter. So my new action activity is 'Fun Basketball' which I do every Friday. I really do enjoy this activity because basketball is one of my favorite sports along with volleyball. I am also planning on trying out for SAISA Basketball soon in the coming seasons, so being in the 'Fun Basketball' activity does give some good training until then. The age group of kids that are also in the activity are around grades 8 to 12, so we're a well-rounded group in terms of age diversity. When making teams, we would always mix up the ages so each team has a few older people and a few younger, making the game more fair. So me being one of the older kids, also gives me opportunities and responsibilities of being a leader at times.      

Service This Year

September 15th, 2014:

My Hope for Kids service group continues to visit the same cancer hospital as we did last year. Although the whole building has been renovated now and does look cleaner and more suitable for the children to play and learn as well. Our group even had to move to a new playroom to meet the kids, which looked much more colorful and was a better learning environment in comparison to last year's playroom.

Last year

This year  

As you can see from the images above, the playroom this year is much brightly lit and has more tables for the children to draw and play board games on. These improved facilities to the hospital were really helpful and made the entire service experience a little more different to me.

Start of DP2 Semester 1

August 27th, 2014:

Creativity: My creativity activity for this semester will be Drawing Club, which is an activity I was in the previous year in DP1. I continued this activity because I really enjoyed it in grade 11, since I felt drawing was a great way to let a person's creative ideas be shown. Drawing club also gives me the chance to work independently as each session I have a blank piece of paper, and I have the freedom to just draw or sketch any visual that comes to mind. This freedom makes me feel comfortable and lets express my creativity in the best way.

Action: SAISA's season 1 starts out with volleyball, which is the action activity I am in. This is actually the second time I'm trying out for the volleyball team as I also tried out last year but didn't make it into the final team. Trying out a second time gives me more experience going into the first couple of sessions as I would know what to expect. Entering into the final volleyball team has also felt less competitive for me as I am now a high school senior and in the oldest age group. So I do hope to make it into the final team this year as there is a more likely chance for me. 

Service: I am continuing with the 'Hope for Kids' activity once again as my service component this semester. I decided to return to this service because I felt I did contribute a great part last year in playing instruments and entertaining the kids at the cancer hospital. This service is also a feel-good activity as making the children happy, made me feel like a better person.     

DP2 Semester 1 Goals

August 12th, 2014

Creativity:

• Have a leadership role in an activity, since I didn't try that opportunity last year 
• Bring in new and creative ideas to the activities I enroll in

Action:

• Be in a SAISA team as I have not experienced it before
• Try out a sports activity that I am unfamiliar to 

Service:

• Have a role in a service activity that I didn't do in the past 

Drawing Club

May 26th, 2014

Creativity: The pictures below are the sketches that I have made so far in drawing club:

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 3:

Week 4:

I really did find this activity interesting because i found myself being inspired to draw something new in each weekly session we had. As you can see from the sketches, most of my art was inspired from anime shows such as 'Pokemon' and 'Attack on Titan'. I also do feel as if my drawing skills were improving by each session I had. Drawing club is different from the other creativity activities that I've done because with this activity; I can express my emotion and imagination in art. And that...is real creativity.  

Final Quarter of DP1

April 28th, 2014

Creativity: Since I have now finished my performances with the theatre production, my new creativity activity for this final quarter is drawing club. I already feel quite comfortable being in this after school activity because a few of my friends are also taking the activity, so I do feel I'm in a comfortable working environment. 

Action: My new action activity for this quarter is after school 3 on 3 basketball. Basketball is one of my most favorite sports and I actually wanted to try out for SAISA basketball last quarter, but was not able to because it was on the same day of my theatre production rehearsals. So I am pleased to now be able to play basketball as an action activity. 

Service: The 'Hope for Kids' service is now almost ending for this scholastic year, and our group is now planning ahead for one final visit to the cancer hospital for this school year. We will soon be making paper lanterns for the patients at the cancer hospital since the Vesak Poya day is in about 2 weeks. I am in charge of retrieving the stationary (items) our service group needs for the hospital visit.      

The Theatre Production - Final Performances

April 14th, 2014

Creativity: I have now finished my work with the theatre production, 'Yerma' as we had the final performances the week before April break, and it was a great success. I was definitely proud of the job I had done in the production, as I did receive positive comments from various teachers and students after the performance was finished. I was especially relieved to have finally been done with performances, because I believe I have never put as much effort into a production before, as much as I have for this one. I thought that the entire cast did an amazing job and all of the rehearsals we had were worth it, because we all did give quite an entertaining performance in the end. 
Here are some pictures of the final performances:

Three of the main characters having a
conversation. Characters from left to right: Juan (Me)
Yerma (Ixana) and Victor (Yannis) 

The death scene of Juan

Final scene of the play

The final scene between Yerma and Juan

Photo of the full cast

          

Development on the Theatre Production

March 29th, 2014

Creatvity:

The theatre production is now almost in the final stages of wrapping up this whole play and getting everything prepared (lights, costumes, sounds, props, and stage set) for the final performance. I am now at the point of already knowing all the lines for my character, Juan, but I now have to perfect the movements, emotions, and expressions that come with the words. It is a challenging task to complete but I think I will be able to pull it off and be ready for the first performance on the 9th of April. I now have practice rehearsals three times a week, which are on Tuesdays, Friday, and Saturday mornings. These extended practice sessions are what did help me improve my overall acting of Juan much faster. I have now also gotten to know the rest of the cast much better as I barely knew them at first and we are now all collaborating quite well with each other. I am also showing up on time more often as punctuality was actually an issue I had with previous rehearsals. So this increased number of rehearsals per week have also helped me with my organization skills.        

New Collaborations and Roles

February 28th, 2014

Creativity: 

I have already received my role in the theatre production, 'Yerma', a while back and have started rehearsals. My character is Juan, who's meant to be a mean and abusive husband to his wife Yerma, the main character of the play. So I basically play the as the main villain of the story, which is a role I have not taken on until now. I know that a difficult task in completing this production would be remembering all my lines and performing all the movements with those lines correctly, since I have not had a role as big as the main villain in a play before. One perk that comes with being involved in this production is that it lets me collaborate with new people that I haven't worked with before. When the full cast was revealed, I actually haven't even met or even talked to most of them before so I am looking forward to see how my collaboration skills with new people goes.

Action:

Me on the badminton court

There is currently a tournament going on in badminton to see where all of the players rank. Out of the five matches I played in this week's session, I only lost one of them so I think I'm in a decent position for now. This tournament has made the badminton activity much more interesting since there is now something worth winning matches for. When first starting this activity, I would only have matches against my friends that I already knew, but this tournament has lead me to play against players that I haven't had a match with before. So this is another activity that gave me the opportunity to collaborate with new people.        

Service:

A new activity our Hope for Kids group has started to entertain the cancer patient kids at the hospital sing Sinhalese songs to them while playing instruments. Before we would just play the instruments while someone else would be singing for us, as shown in one of the previous posts, but now we have to learn and sing the songs ourselves. The instrument I play along to the songs now is the tambourine, which is actually a new role for me as before I was playing the drum.    

Week Without Walls (WWW) 2014

February 5th, 2014

Eco lodge's main lounge hut

Eco lodge river

The previous week was when I had my final WWW trip and as I have already explained and stated my goals for the trip in the last post, not all of them were fulfilled but I still definitely did enjoy the journey. Our first stop of the trip was at the 'Back of Beyond' Eco-lodge guest house where we were going to be staying for the first two nights. This rest house really was Eco-friendly as most of its rooms were huts which had floors made out of dry mud and roofs made out of straw. During the trip, we also each had our own WWW journals where we would reflect on each of the days and even jot down the different plant and animal species that we find. Our activities on the first day were searching through the dry forest right outside the Eco lodge for different animal species, having a wash in the Eco lodge river, and finally searching for the rare slender loris animal in a night forest walk.

Ritigala ruins- stone and sand pathway

The second day was when our group got the oppurtunity to discover more about Sri Lanka's ancient culture as we went to the kingdom ruins of Ritigala. We were able to observe how plants have actually intergrated into the ruins as time has passed and so it was more difficult to identify what the numerous sculptures could have been. Our group was able to make fun of the visit to the ruins by creating an activity to only step on stones to move and not on any of the sand. This made the whole stay more entertaining and engaging for the group. 

Buddhist ruins of Medirigiriya

The third day was when we would move to Trincomalee, but first stopped at Medirigiriya to observe a few Buddhist ruins. We met the 'Art on Wheels' WWW at the ruins who were sketching some of the statues that were there. We then took off for Trincomalee and visited a Hindu temple as soon as we got there. I learned some new things about meditation as the temple had signs that would be in Tamil and English. So this did help our whole group to understand this religion better. One quote I remember seeing in a sign was "The heart is a wasteland without meditation". We explored Trinco even further around the villages and some students even purchased souvenirs. Unfortunately we were not able to have our service component in cleaning trash off the streets in the area as we did not have enough time. Our group was also not able to visit Pigeon Island and snorkel in the ocean since we were advised not to go during the rainy monsoon, which did disappoint me a bit. Although I felt better about the trip later on when we were able to stay at the Chaaya Blu resort for the night.

Group photo outside of Hindu temple

Outside of hut in second Eco lodge 

The fourth day was quite an off day for me as I woke up sick from food poisoning and was limited from participating in the activities we had on the day. We went to the beach of the resort and decided to explore it more. As we walked further, we started finding numerous trash items that have been dumped on this beach. There were even different types of dead fish that have been dried up on the shore. Seeing all this trash on the beach was worth taking notice of the environmental damage that exists in Sri Lanka. Our group eventually left the resort and headed to visit another ruin area except I was physically limited from walking around because of the lack of energy I had from my sickness, so I stayed in the bus this time. We then arrived to our second Eco lodge in Pidruangala, where we would stay for the final night. The owners of this Eco lodge were partners with 'Back of Beyond' so this lodge was environmentally friendly as well. In fact, huts we stayed in this time were even closer to the environment than the previous huts since they were actually placed right in the middle of a forest. The last Eco lodge had a more open area to move around, but this one was more closed in with large trees and plants everywhere. Later in the night, the entire went out to gaze at the stars and have a group discussion reflecting on the trip so far and what we have learned. It was a great activity to really bond and have a better understanding of my group.

Statue of sleeping Buddha

We started the final day off by climbing up a huge rock, placed next to Sigiriya rock. I was feeling much better today from my sickness than yesterday so I was able to at least participate in this final physical activity. I recognized the rock we were climbing when we saw a brick statue of the sleeping Buddha that's placed on the way to the top of the rock. That was when I realized I have climbed this rock in my 8th grade WWW trip where we also were learning about Sri Lanka's ancient culture. There was a breath-taking view at the very top of the rock of Sigiriya, as well as the whole forest we were surround in.What's ironic about this trip is that it was called the dry zone WWW, when it was the rainy monsoon so more places were actually wet than dry. Even though there wasn't really a service component involved, I did end up getting to express my ideas and thoughts about the trip in a journal for creativity, and have different climbs through rocks for action. As well as some education about Sri Lanka's ancient history and meditation. It was a fun and memorable trip for my final WWW.

Group photo on top of rock (I'm the one crouching down wearing the blue jacket) 

(WWW) Week Without Walls Goals

January 24th, 2014

From January 27th to 31st, we are going on our week without walls trip to the dry zones. These areas will be Trincomalee and Pigeon Island where our www group would be able to learn about the marine and ecological aspects of the areas. Here is a list of goals that I have going into the trip: 

• Discover more about the Ancient culture and ecological plants of the mountains we climb
• Create a map of the area
• Find out more about my friends' strengths and weaknesses 
• Have an action component in hiking and swimming
• Have a service component in helping to clean trash off the streets of Trincomalee
• Have a creativity component in using journalling and photography as a tool to understand the ancient culture and ecological environment