Yearbook and Battle of the Books

The yearbook meetings seem to be coming less and less frequently, and even when they do happen they're short. I'm hoping it will pick up the pace a bit, but i guess there's really not a lot to do right now. However, we have started page editing and I've realized i'm really self conscious about my editing skills without a theme.When you have a theme, everyone has to kinda follow the basic rules. No, not every page has to look the same, but every page needs to portray the same kind of atmosphere. So, without a theme everyone is left to their own devices and with he makeup of our group i'm worried. Our committee is compromised of two types of people; the creative, fun and more colorful side and the boring, stuck in their ways and lovers of the color beige. With this combination, i think it's inevitable that some people are gonna want to do their pages with cartoon-y shapes and fun colors and others are going to be like "white, red, the end". So, pretty much i don't think the committee is on the same page and even though i'm one of the organizer leader people i don't feel i have enough power to set us on the same page without looking like a whiny little girl. I think the only person who can is Mr. Toms, but it doesn't look like he's going to any time soon. But, yeah, as i was saying with the page designing i'm feeling kind of self conscious because my page has snowflakes all over it and i'm worried it's going to be too juvenile. Many of the people involved in yearbook are grade twelves and i just have a feeling that they're not going to be impressed with my cute little snowflakes. Well, you never know; maybe this week everything will just work out.

Battle of the Books is a new CAS activity of mine. It's being put on by some students in the grade 12 class and basically you get a team of two or three and choose a book and then debate with the other teams. I think this should be a really great and fun experience, plus it's in support of the Literacy Association. I'm not sure what book we're choosing, but the theme of the debate is What book will be likely to become a classic in 100 years.

Yoga

Not a lot to mention about yoga other than i think the instructors are starting to get to know me better. They haven't exactly learned my name yet or anything, but they've started to give me pointers about my poses and stuff. It's really helpful and hopefully it means i'll improve!

Model UN

Model UN is a simulation of the United Nations for students and i'll be participating in it this year! Last year Emily and I had planned on participating because it seemed right up our alley (the combination of debate and international events? heck yeah!). However, the band trip was planned for the same weekend and as far as our band teacher was concerned "band is your top priority, regardless". Alas, neither of us went to Model UN last year, but this year without the obligations of band and with added bonus of getting CAS for it (especially the international minded part) we've hopped on the bandwagon without a second thought. We lucked out actually, last year there were too many people (our school can only take 12) and they resorted to putting speeches together and shortlisting. This year, however, there were exactly 12 people who came to every meeting (Emily and I among them) and we got the 12 spots while everyone else was put on the replacement list in case anyone gets sick or whatever. So, yeah model UN here i come. We haven't started any preparations really other than choosing our preferred countries and committees. I hope we can get started soon, i'm really excited! Well, i'll update whenever we actually get started. So, bye.

CAS Art: Elements

Yeah! CAS art has started up again. I had hoped to do the photography unit, but i didn't get to because you know, life just gets in the way. Physics also gets in the way. Anyway, this Thursday we had our first lesson/class during lunch where we talked about 6 of the 7 elements of art. It was really interesting, like I've always wanted to take an actual art class, but there was always a reason not to; either i had an elective picked out already that prevented me from taking another one or the school decided to not offer the class after i had already enrolled in it. So, long story short i'm really glad to be able to do this. Up until this point I've just done art as a side activity that i do for the sake of doing with no real technique or substance to it. But, with this i can focus on my technique. Even though there's only been one class so far i feel like i've learned a lot. For next week we need to have an idea in what medium we want to work in. Our choices are: acrylic, watercolor or ink/pencil, i think i'm going to go for acrylic. That's all on CAS art for now. i'll you posted.

CAS: A Reflection

Here's a reflection on my CAS progress so far that I have to pass into my CAS supervisor.

The CAS component of IB has been quite an experience and not one I had entirely expected to be so impactful and beneficial. Many of the activities I have participated in are in different subjects and areas that I wasn't familiar with or hadn't considered "my kind of activity". CAS has forced me to push past my boundaries, try things I never would have tried otherwise and push me towards being a well-rounded person.  Since October I have become a writer in the book section of the school newspaper, participated in a worldwide scavenger hunt called GISHWHES, jump-started the yearbook and became co-organizer of the yearbook committee, joined my first dodge ball team and started to take yoga classes.

School Newspaper

I joined the school newspaper "The Rural Reader" as a writer in the book section this past October and since then have written four articles. By doing this activity I had hoped to improve my general writing and organization/deadline skills, to develop journalistic writing skills and to really make a commitment every to the project and attempt to have an article in every issue. I believe that I have accomplished most of these objectives. When looking back on my first articles compared to the most recent it's obvious that my writing skills in general have definitely improved and I've become more comfortable writing short, concise articles. However, along with general writing skills I've developed new journalistic writing skills pertaining especially to writing articles. Writing book reviews is an art that requires a certain language, a certain comprehension of the book and an open mind. Over the past few months I've managed to develop these skills that book reviews require. Despite my growth in the writing area of being a part of the newspaper, my organization and deadline skills have been lacking. I've only missed the deadline once and it was ironically the only time I finished my article well in advance, but I forgot to send it in. Every other time I manage to forget about until the day before or the night that it's due and I end up scrambling to finish it at a decent hour. Even though I've managed to finish the articles in time I need to work on not procrastinating and learning to be a bit more organized. To do this I plan to start using an agenda again and try and stay on top of things. Ultimately I have learned from this experience that being part of a newspaper take time, commitment, creativity and an open mind. Furthermore, I look forward to accomplishing my organization objective and writing my next article.

GISHWHES

During a week in the month of October I, along with the majority of my classmates, participated in the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. The idea is that you register and make a team or get put on a random team (with the proceeds going to a charity) and for one week a list of 100-200 items will be posted on the GISHWHES website. Then, you and your team will have to take a picture or video of whatever is indicated by the item. Each item is worth a certain amount of points depending on difficulty and points will be given for accuracy and presentation creativity of the item. The team with the most points win.  Many of these items were extremely bizarre and problem solving skills were needed to figure out if and how we could complete these items. Teamwork was extremely important in the scavenger hunt also; we had to get together and plan who would do what item and there were group items that we completed. The group items demanded that every member be part of the item and it took some real organization to pull it off. All in all, this activity forced my creativity and problem solving skills to improve.

Yearbook

I've always been interested in yearbook and was part of the committee in junior high. So, when I went to the first yearbook meeting in high school I was immensely disappointed by the lack of creativity I found. We were told that if we wanted to take pictures for the yearbook we weren't allowed to mess around with format or colours and pictures were basically the only thing we could do. My friend and I both left at this point. The best part of yearbook was taking the pictures and making a page to display them and neither of us wanted to be a part of something so restricting. So, this year after having a conversation with our CAS coordinator, my friend and I decided to take over, plan and initiate the yearbook. A proposal was written and sent to the school principal and soon enough we had taken over the yearbook with the help from twp other teachers in the school. Since we started much later in the year than we should have our main objective was to get pictures of things that we missed and the things we were going to miss if we didn't get a move on. Within a few weeks I had already gone to take my first pictures for the yearbook and, despite the cold, it felt great to be taking yearbook pictures. Not too long after this the committee had its first meeting and I was greatly surprised and slightly disappointed. When my friend and I proposed to take over the yearbook we had hoped to put some creativity into, but there were people in the committee who opted against most changes. I had originally and naively thought that everybody would want a cool cover and unique pages and that the only reason it was so boring last year was because there was little student involvement. My perspective has changed however, I now realize that there are many different viewpoints and that it's their yearbook too and they should have a say. I believe that since starting this I've started to have a more open mind and become less selfish and self serving, not just in yearbook, but in the rest of my life too. I hope that I will continue improving in this way for the rest of the year. Right now in yearbook we have members who are taking pictures of various events happening around the school and we just had our first session working on format. All is running smoothly and I hope this will continue for the remainder of the year.  

Dodge Ball

Every year a dodge ball tournament is held and up until now I never had any interest in it whatsoever. It seemed to me that it was mainly just a group of athletic kids hitting each other with balls. However, in hindsight perhaps it was just that I didn't have a team that prevented me from considering this as an activity for me. This year when the tournament came up an IB team was proposed and I jumped on the idea. I'm not a very athletic person, but isn't that a good reason to join a team? I had hoped that not only would I be able to bond with my classmates, get some exercise and have fun, but that I would be able to integrate into the rest of the school. All the IB kids and I have the same classes' everyday with all the same people and our breaks, other than lunch, aren't the same. So, there is little chance to really make new friends or even feel like you're a part of the school. After the tournament I definitely feel closer to the rest of the school and less like there's a difference between the IB kids and everybody else.

Yoga

Yoga is my newest activity and I have only been to three classes so far. I've never tried yoga as I'm not particularly flexible nor am I usually comfortable doing exercises in a large class. AT first I was little wary of it, but after my first class I fell in love. I had assumed I would spend the whole class being self conscious or worrying, but I realized that everybody else was so focused on their own breathing and concentration that I was barely even there. Aside from stretching and sweating, yoga is a great way to de-stress and there is a huge push to focus on breathing. How long, how loud and how deep you breathe is all very important in the classes. In my first class there were certain poses in the standing series that I was unable to do because I had no balance and couldn't stay on one foot for long enough. By my third class I'm still a bit unsteady, but I'm now able do every pose in the standing series without falling over. I hope that I will be able to further improve my balance and flexibility through this class and that the calmness and lack of self consciousness I feel in the classes will spread to my everyday life.

Yoga: A Frame of Mind

Yesterday I went to my fourth yoga class and it was my best one yet I think! Mallory and I arrived at class extra early right off the bus (mostly because it was like -22 Celsius outside) and got to put our mats right in the little alcove surrounded by windows. I really liked how bright and secluded it was and how it added to the "I'm only one in the class" atmosphere that I usually feel when at yoga. Not only did I feel more comfortable at the class, but I was able to do the stretches so much better! At my first few classes I couldn't do any of the balancing ones without falling over, but now I'm able to do them all. I really need to focus on my breathing though and staying in the moment. I tend to get caught up in the stretching and getting it right and then losing my breath. I also have a tendency not to be in the moment and during the Savasana's my mind will drift. Both these things are extremely important so hopefully I'll be able to improve on them! In other yoga news; yoga is expensive, so I'm considering doing the energy exchange program that gives me free unlimited yoga in exchange fro 4 hours of community service in the yoga studio. I just hope I'll be able to fit this into my schedule. For anyone actually reading this here's a link on the benefits of yoga! http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/beginnersguide/yogabenefits.asp

Catching Up

I seem to have forgotten about my CAS blog, but not about CAS! So, here's what's been happening lately. Yearbook: I took some pictures on the last day of school before Christmas break and we're starting the cover contest. Not a lot has happened to be honest. Although, I think I'm getting a little bit better with the group; before now each meeting annoyed me because a lot of the people were hard to get along with and just stuck in the past. However, with some optimism from my amigos Emily and Adrian yearbook seems brighter. I just really hope we can get a move on the fun stuff like page design. Dodgeball: it's been officially over for awhile and we didn't even come close to winning, but it was fun being on a real team and part of a school event for once. Buddy Program: I went the first two days, but haven't been able to go since because it interferes with yearbook. On the first day it was really just logistics and such, but on the second day we actually got to do things. However, my buddy is confined to a wheel chair and is unable to speak so it was difficult to really do anything. We ended up just going to the gym and watching dodgeball. Newspaper: since my first article I've written three other articles. One was just a list of some of the top books named by an organization. another was a review on an anthology I read. This article was probably my best so far because for once I didn't procrastinate and I actually like what I was reading. In fact, when I wrote the anthology review I went way over the word limit and had to cut some stuff out. Also, yesterday I wrote a movie to book review on Les Mis which I unfortunately left to the very last minute again. I really have to work on that. Yoga: So, last Tuesday I went to my first yoga class! I've decided to take up yoga for multiple reasons; IB is stressing me out and I need some relaxation, I have no balance and little flexibility, it's way too cold in Canada (it's hot yoga) and of course I really need some action for CAS of course! One Tuesday I went with Mallory, Sawini and Cassy and yesterday I went with Mallory and Sarah. I enjoyed last nights class far more than the Tuesday class. I think it was because on Tuesday I was nervous about starting something new and I was struggling to keep up or maybe because I grabbed the wrong leggings to wear and ended up wearing ones with a rip in them. Yesterdays class was just so much calmer. It was earlier in the afternoon so it was bright outside and I honestly thought it felt more naturel. Since there was a lot of natural light coming in, it honestly felt like a summers day and not an unnaturally warm night. I was also able to keep up better in the class and actually do the stretches so it seemed to be a lot more beneficial for me. A few things I really love about yoga that I hadn't expected was how relaxing it really is and how non-judgemental it is. Usually in classes, on teams or in gym class I feel really self conscious that I'm not doing it right or not keeping up and that everybody is starring at me. However, in yoga it's really a solitary thing; you focus on what you've done and how well you've done it and it doesn't matter if anyone else is there. In yoga I'm able to let go off all my uncertainties and just live. I hope I will be able to keep improving and hopefully make yoga part of my daily life. That's all for now.... I think!