Final Post

The two years of the IB diploma have pushed me to the best of my abilities. i have tried things that i probably would have never attempted and i have learned a lot. I attended many different CAS projects and many different activities outside of school time. i expressed all my abilities and set goals through out the years.

I started with the Cleft lip & Palate Service led by Rithvik. I started with this project half way through the year and when i came in I tried my best to engage in the group activities. applying new skills i faced a global issue that is also face here in Sri Lanka. i didn't know much of the situation nor the disease but when i entered i made a difference. I took charge of the situation and gave ideas in order to make the difference. I gave an idea and developed it in the group in order to raise money for the situation. I kept changing community service projects in order to gain new skill and start setting new goals. The other Community service project which i applied a lot of my time and effort in trying to help the project. In Alzheimer's we had a walk to raise awareness of the disease so the people of a lower class, people that would other wise not be aware. i took initiative to give out brochures to every single passer by. we also gave money to join to raise money to help the foundation.

Other than services i also joined Sporting events. I was part of the Basketball team for 3 years in a row. the SAISA basketball team is where i applied my skill the most and tried to develop. the change and development was seen through out the years as a player and for the people playing with me. i went from being bench in grade 10 to started in grade 11 to captain in grade 12. this is one of my greatest achievements and my greatest application of commitment. A surprising Achievement and goal i set was to make the Track and Field team for SAISA. Representing the school for those events was very unusual as i am not used to any of these sorts of activities but with determination i achieved my goal in making the team and traveling to represent the school. i even won a medal for placing in the discuss throw.

All the activities required for me to work with others but the activities that i feel that required me to work most with others is the initiation of a new school band. Playing the drums has opened many doors before but nothing quite like this. Mr. Smith, the tech teacher at OSC had asked me to play for him and his band. It was a very nerve racking experience because it has been a long time since i last played and the people i would be playing with have played their instruments for much longer than i have. this was a challenge i was willing to undertake. working collaboratively with the new band i was able to improve my skill. i showed initiative in every practice and put full effort in every performance.


the two years of my IB program were full of activities and have really pushed me to the limits but it has allowed me to develop new skills that will help me later on in the future. engaging in small issues brought up by the school has allowed me to see the issues of a more global scale.

Complicating things

The band was finally named Las Paginas and we started practicing again. Interacting with Mr. smith and Mr. Reihm became easier because we got more ecomfortable around each other. this allowed me to surpass any pressure and push myself to try new things on the drums. this risk taking has allowed me to improve my skill in playing and improvisation.

We are now practicing for a much tougher performance. there is a music concert being held in april at this school. In this performance we are playing songs that push us to the limit of our abilities. this is a great chance to improve my skill and confidence on the drums. this performance will encourage the interest in music amongst the students at osc

Performing

Performing for the school for the first time required a lot of risk taking. we planned everything before hand, like where to stand and the song list to make it most interesting. We performed at the Food and Fun Fair that included all ages so it was hard to pic songs that would be enjoyed by a wide verity of people.

The difficult thing in the beginning was to overcome the fear of perfoming infront of a big group of people where most people where strangers to me. once that fear was over come the challange was to keep the same tempo as i got tired and keep grip on the sticks as my hands got sweaty. i can definitely say i have developed new skills, the performance was very long and allowed me to reflect on each of my actions. i immediately gained comfort.

The goal i set at the beginning of this project to play with Mr.Reim and Mr. Smith was met as i was able to learn all 8 songs with no mistake. I only messed up once but i have developed enough understanding and skill on the songs that i was able to regain the beat and get back perfectlly in the song, you could really see the commitment we put in practice and the perseverance that we were putting in the performance.

The Band

Mr. Smith, Mr Reim and I have formed a band. they needed a drummer therefore i joined, the reason i got picked was because of the choice of music i am interested in that correlated with the music they listen to and were interested in playing. the challenges of this band is that they are very good at their instruments and have a lot of experience since they have been playing for a long time so its hard to keep up to their standards, but hopefully this will allow me to develop my skill on the drums. to improve and in order to have the songs nailed down by the time we perform, we will have to show high levels of commitment and practice everyday.

My goal is to learn all the songs that we are aiming to learn for our two upcoming performances. we are going to play for entertainment at the food and fun fair. My goal is to gain full familiarity with the music, the difficulty is that this was the first time i ever herd the songs im learning how to play for them.

the solution to this is listening to the songs continuously and imagine the motion so that im more familiar when it comes to actually getting on the drums.

hopefully our goal is achieved and we make a great performance

SGA

For the first time in my life i started taking part in the Student Government Association. this was because of some misfortunate events which led to our class representative to drop out and I decided to volunteer to become the SGA class representative.

I felt like I took a lot of responsibility undertaking this role so i set some goals to actually get some of the ideas on the shelf and speak for my class for any improvement. I already started getting busy by giving out the valentines cards and attending one meeting, this is the first time i have worked collaboratively with people towards change in this school. i also shared some ideas for valentines which i picked up from my old schools which i thought would be fun for valentines day.

I aim to make myself useful and be helpful to the SGA by also attending and helping in the school events.

Alzheimer's walk

On the 5th February I participated in the Alzheimer's walk to raise awareness. this walk was symbolic not only as a fund raiser for the Alzheimer's foundation but also to raise awareness in areas of colombo where people were not aware of this dementia.

my goal for the walk was to make as many people as possible aware of the dementia by handing out brochures that surprisingly people read. whole i was handing out the information papers i saw that some were already reading them, the people that weren't were so interested that came up to me and asked for a couple to bring to their families. people even stopped their cars to get informed of what was going on.

The walk was done in the poorest part of colombo were awareness of this dementia was very low (almost none). This was a symbolic walk as well as a fund raising walk. the fund raising was 1000Rp per entry. there were people walking and some running. we were very visible as a group since we were all wearing red & white and had balloons and flyers that attracted attention.

SAISA Basketball

Finally the tournament we were all looking forward to arrived. We were all very excited and couldn't wait to start playing our first game. our goal was to show who we were and frighten our opponent. this was probably the hardest goal to achieve since we were playing AES first (who ended up coming first) and we knew they were going to be a tough team to beat but we were ready for it.

when we arrived we went to this mall where we would eat lunch and mess around until it was time to meet our hosts since we arrived at 8am and our hosts would come pick us up at 3:30pm. at the mall we played in this arcade where every time we would beat a record it would give us a lot of tickets that we could use to win a prise. the mall was filled with less fortunate kids and so we decided to give all the tickets to this group of kids who would enjoy the stuffed toy a lot more than us. we also saw a small group of poor children trying to buy an ice cream but barely had enough money for one so we just gave them the money to buy each one an ice cream.

on the second day there was the opening ceremony where they introduced all the teams. we then had our first game. we were the opening game and we had to play AES the toughest team. we needed to work collaboratively as a team as much as possible. moving the ball around and working together and collaboratively like we practiced through out basketball season.

the tournament did not go as planned. we lost the first game with AES and our goal after that was to go to the finals. though we won 4 games and lost 2 we lost the crucial games that put us down to 5th place. we were not sad at all with that position because we were announced second in the win - loss ratio after AES who won all 6 games.

as a team we developed a lot of skill together in these few days. we were always there for each other and we were ready for anything even though not being familiar with our surroundings. we all bonded with each other and with other teams. this a great experience and our loss did not affect us much.

Playing Amal

For the second time we played the same time Amal. this school beat us in the past 30-74 which was very embarrassing but we didn't have a lot of practice as a team and David and I were missing. our goal for this second time around with our improved skill was to increase our score against them, played better as a unified team and hopefully beat them. the match was intense and it really made us push to the peak of our ability. though we missed a lot of shots we still managed to reach our goal to score 46 points and closing the gap from 44 points to 30 which is great seeing how they also had the time to practice. These games have allowed us to improve our team skills and also our individual skill. pushing us harder to achieve greater. hopefully all this practice will allow us to exceed in SAISA and hopefully WIN!

Alzheimer's sale

for my CAS i had to sell pens for 100rp and cards for 400rp outside of the auditorium on the day of the seussical. this was to raise money for my CAS so that any plans for the future would be made possible. we made quite a bit of money from the parents that came to watch their kids at the seussical. it was a very smart decision to sell there as there was a art exhibition happening before the show so parents came in early giving them plenty of time to pas by our desk and help the Alzheimer's foundation. Saba helped out with the selling and we made very good salesmen, people got attracted by our amazing advertising skills and we made a very successful sale that night.

British School Tournament

Nothing improves a team better than playing other teams that are completely unknown. The Geckos joined the british school basketball tournament where we had to play three games and win 2 out of the three in order to succeed to the next round (quarter finals) We first played Lyceum Nugegoda which we knew were the best team we would ever play. we didn't think much about how good they are but decided that we would give it our best. being our first game obviously our goal was to win but we were not prepare as a team so we lost. it was a terrible loss and we deserved it as we didn't play as a team but just became a fast break game. we talked it over and went to win our second game after a bit of practice. we started playing as a team and won by 20. the third game went very well, we played as a team and set our goals straight, we were all determined to win. unfortunately we lost by 4 points. we gave up half way through because we got tired and so they caught up. we played well though so there is nothing to complain. as a team we are all improving and making more shots and playing better as a unit. my goal as captain of the team is to lead the Geckos to a victory in SAISA

SAISA Basketball

we had a whole week of basketball and it was very tough. we ran a lot and worked on fundamentals because there were people in the team that have never played basketball before. it was nice to go back and practice the things you take for granted.

we made the first cut to the team last Friday where we chose 12 out of the 16 trying out. there will be another cut where we choose the travelling team of 10. I was chose captain and so i had a meeting with the coach to decide who to chose for the team. this was very tough because i felt like i was in no position to choose. I suggested some ideas and the team was chosen.

practice is getting tougher and skills are improving. we are playing more games and working on more detail rather than only fundamentals. i hope to further develop my basketball skills and my goal is to bring the team together to come first in the SAISA tournament.

Alzheimer's Foundation

The people that have founded the Alzheimer's project came in to give us an understanding of what we were dealing with. we all gained a deeper understanding of the dementia.

i learned how to prevent it and what are the first signs of the dementia. i realized that my grandfather has the early signs. the dementia comes in three different stages. my grandpa seems to be in early stage one.

they taught us how we can help and they gave us a deeper insight on the project and where all the money is going to.

Basketball

My goal for this year is to make the SAISA basketball team. i keep playing on Saturdays with other students and people from other teams and my skill are improving hopefully to later on use them on the SAISA team.

SAISA practice/try outs will Begin next week and will go for 4 times a week until the 2nd December to then travel on the 3rd to Chennai. There are about 15 people trying out so far so 5 will have to get cut out.

the only thing that is keeping me from making the team is the decision of my parents which will be based by how my grades are doing so far. hopefully they will be good enough to let me travel

Alzheimers foundation

The first day of my CAS (Alzheimer's)we were handed the raffle tickets to distribute, we were given about 3 booklets of 10 tickets each. I was able to sell only one booklet because people were always making excuses not to buy them.

we were briefed of the projects that we would do over the term that we attend this CAS. The Alzheimer's walk was last weekend but unfortunately I was not able to attend dew to theatre arts practice. We didn't have any other meetings but we have planned another one on Thursday.

Making a Band

Adrien, Young-jun, Camille and I came together to form a band. this is a temporary band for a UN day performance and for the Christmas assembly to set the school off to a good holiday! Adrien is the guitarist, young-jun is the bassist, Camille is the singer and im the drummer and hopefully together we are able to rock our brains out.

for UN day we will perform only one song but this song will be sung by many different people in many different languages. the song is wavin' flag by K'naan which is a song about flags and representing your country so people will represent by singing a small verse in their own language. Adrien, Young-jun and I will be responsible for the instrumentals of the song.

for the Christmas assembly We have come up with 4 different songs. the reason why we chose such a far date to perform is because being in grade 12 is very hard to find time to practice so to make it more flexible we are picking our rehearsals date at random when ever we have a free day after school. the songs we are planning to play are: the great escape by Boys like Girls, Scar tissue by Red Hot Chili peppers, Sitting waiting wishing by Jack Johnson and a Rock version of umbrella by Rhianna. the list of songs might change if we find that either its too hard or not suitable for the singer.

my goal for this is to be able to memorize all the songs on the drums and play them clear so that it doesn't only sound like noise to the audience. i will try my pest to push my skill and learn 4 songs in contemporary.

My new Community Service - Alzheimers Foundation

Since my planned CAS which was the tie dying and then selling the shirts to raise money for a foreign issue will start in November i decided to join something else in the mean time.

I decided to join Alzheimer's Foundation service. In this service we will raise money to support the founding of a hospital that is being built. This seems like A good service to join because it is manageable for this year and still very helpful.

The first project we are doing is a walk down galle road with banners and other things for this project so that we raise money. my duty as a member of this service is to help sell raffle tickets for the raffle that will take place in the walk. I will be helped my a friend of mine and hopefully we will be able to sell a lot and get many people involved.

my goal for this service is to have a successful part in the service and to make my presence is valuable and helpful.

My Goals for this year

This year i want to try something different than what I did the past year. though my action i think will be the same with the basketball and wakeboarding but i would like to help a foreign promblem.

my goal for this year is to imporve my basketball skills so that our SAISA team will be able to come first! I will joint the after school basketball activity and the Saturday practices. I am thinking of joining the SAISA basketball team but it will all depend on how my grades go. My goal for wakeboardin is to land a backflip! which will be very hard because the wake of the boat (which is what you use to jump) is very small so it is hard to elevate enough to get a full rotation.

my favorite thing to do is dance! and this year Bryce and I will start a small dance crew and anyone is free to join, this will not be dancing lessons like i did last year but it will be a dance crew and while we devise a dance routine i will teach the people who joined the moves so they improve and at the end we all perform!

Saba Rewald is starting a community service programme that include raising money for a well in a village in ethiopia. the money will be raised with the selling of shirts that we tie dye. i hope to achieve the goal of raising enough money to build the well!!

Summary of Grade 11

Last year i have accomplished and took part in lots of different activities. from a good time to a hard time it all seemed to pay up at the end. the year was filled with not only community work but it was pretty action filled as well.

for my action I was involved in different sports not only for SAISA but Saturdays after school and completely outside of school on Sundays. I joined SAISA basketball which was a brand new experience. The mixture of pure stress and adrenaline made it very hard to concentrate on the plays and pull my mind together for the game, the crowd cheering was what i remember the most. Talk about SAISA I also joined Track and Field which was the most action filled days of the whole of last year. this allowed me to achieve my goal of finally make the SAISA track and field team. in grade 10 I wanted to make it in the team but wasn't able to. this was the last year that i was able to join since in grade 12 the work load is too much to even think about SAISA track and field. I wasn't only involved in school activities when it came to sports. I joined basketball after every Saturday with Mr. Gresham as a coach to improve our skills for next year's SAISA!!!!

Why on my April break I got a permit to teach how to wakeboard. I came back to Sri Lanka and and took my friends out wakeboarding. I taught David Gresham how to wakebaord and now he is almost better than me! Wakeboarding is a very difficult sport and requires a lot of physical strength and coordination. I will continue teacheing people how to wakeboard and achieve my goal to land a backflip!

i have helped in other Community service programs like the DAWG sterilization programme and teaching kids how to play football even though I myself didn't even know how to kick a ball. My main community and service programme was the Palate and cleft lip project where we helped people with a palate disorder. we have though of a lot of fund raisers. the last one which is still not devised fully is the one in process right now which is the movie making. we will make a movie that will be a parody of other movies all mixed together and only the people that are part of the community and service programme will take part so we will keep switching roles.

I feel like i have achieved a Lot this year! undertaking tough projects like organization of the SAISA girls basketball and the sum o other simple things here and there.

DAWG

Long ago when the DAWG sterilization program ran i volunteered to be part of it. Paul (the leader of the program) told me to go at a certain time. luckily for me it was right after the whole sterilization process was done so i didn't have to see any of it happening. i had to fan a dog for a while so it would have an easier time recovering from the drowsiness of the operation. one dog had a real problem getting up and it was bleeding a lot so they had to take it back to fix her up. i didn't stay long but i still felt like i contributed. i have to give it to the people that remained there for the rest whole day it was a terrible heat.

MOVIE MAKING!!!!

For the palate disorder CAS that I am in. after school today we got together to think of another very effective way to raise money. After a lot of thinking and brainstorming of ideas we all concluded and agreed to the idea that we should make a movie where every one in the CAS would be an actor. The thing is that this movie is not like any ordinary one. We are taking 6 different movies and making one long movie interlocking all six of the movies. This will be a parody of the movies as I would play rose when it comes to titanic. We hope that people will enjoy it and that we can raise money off this idea. I’m really looking forward to doing it and I think we will all have so much fun in the making