Friday, November 29, 2013

Log Sheet

Activity
Area
Learning Outcome(s)
Evidence
Wobulenzi project
Creativity, Action & Service
-Work collaboratively with others
-Consider the ethical implications of your actions
-Show perseverance and commitment in your activities
-Engage in issues of global importance
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
Mtn Marathon
Service & Action
-Engage in issues of global importance
-Undertake new challenges
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
IWO Bazar
Service
-Engage in issues of global importance
-Work collaboratively with others
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
House flag design
Creativity & Service
-Increase awareness of your strengths and areas of growth
-Undertake new challenges
-Consider ethical implications of your actions
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
Basketball
Action & Service
-Show perseverance and commitment in your activities
-Work collaboratively with others
-Develop new skills
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
Volleyball as a new sport
Action
-Develop new skills
-Work collaboratively with others
Reflections, supervisor comment
Volleyball for the school Team
Action & Service
-Increase awareness in your strengths and areas of growth
-Show perseverance and commitment in your activities
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
Backstage (Lion & the Jewel)
Creativity & Service
-Show perseverance in and commitment in your activities
-Work collaboratively with others
-Undertake new challenges
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
Backstage (Macbeth)
Creativity & Service
Increase your awareness of your strengths and areas of growth
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
IB option evening
Creativity & Service
-Undertake new challenges
-Plan and initiate activities
Reflections, Supervisor Comment
Student council
Creativity & Service
-Increase your awareness of your strengths and areas of growth
-Show perseverance and commitment in your activities
-Plan and initiate activities
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
Prom (Fundraising and organization)
Creativity & Service
-Plan and initiate activities
-Work collaboratively with others
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment
Toy Distribution
Service
-Undertake new challenges
-Consider the ethical implications of your actions
Reflections, Pictures, Supervisor Comment

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

We did not even make it to finals.

Final Reflection

This is my last reflection regarding the volleyball season of 2013. Of all the sports I have done so far in the school, I think volleyball and basketball are the ones that I have enjoyed the most. From the training in the first term, to the ISSAK league competition in the third term, volleyball was truly an enjoyable experience for me. I was really proud to participate in the first ever volleyball ISSAK league competition. There is nothing much I can say about the sport and the learning outcomes because it is the same as every other sport I have written about in my blog. Although we didn't make it to the finals, I really look forward to playing volleyball. Either this year during my last year of High school or in University. This was definitely not a one time thing. I spent too much time learning this sport! :)


Monday, November 25, 2013

Creative much?

Designing flag


It is always a problem being creative and smart at the same time. When you are a kid, it is easy to draw, it is easy to say what you want to become when you are older without any prior judgement. I remember when I was a kid, I loved drawing but as I advanced through my education, I lost that part of myself. So when I had the opportunity to design a flag for my sports house (Bwindi) I though that it would be a good opportunity to tap into my creative self. These were the achieved learning outcomes:
  • Increased awareness of strengths and areas of growth. As I mentioned earlier, I used to love drawing when I was a kid. So doing this activity, it was an opportunity for me to awake my "creativity." You never know when you might need to be creative in life.
  • Consideration of ethical implications. Making a flag always involves ethics. You have to make sure that nothing put on the flag is seen as an insult towards a society or religion.

The Bwindi Flag

The Tale of Macbeth


Backstage

The Macbeth production was a project that lasted almost one months. The production was divided in two stages. Rehearsals and the final production. Unlike the Lion & the Jewel, this was not a school production. It was meant to show for a whole week at the national theater. What appealed me in this project was the fact that this was not a school production, which meant that I could work with actual professional actors and this was a first for me. Although at first I had signed up to do backstage work just like in the Lion & the Jewel, over time, the director decided to give me a small non-speaker role in the play. Although it was out of my comfort zone, I decided to take up the challenge.

The backstage work involved taking care of the lighting and sound effect. My job was to take care of all the props and operating any backstage machines, like using the smoke machines in some scenes. Overall, I believe that I achieved the learning outcomes I had projected in my proposal form which are:

  • Increase your awareness of your strengths and areas of growths. Since this was not the first time I was doing backstage work for a drama production, I knew what was to be done and the timing was very important. 
  • Work collaboratively with others. Just like a team sport, a drama production is not something which is done by one person but by the efforts of a group of people. The people in the backstage are just as important as the actors acting on stage
  • Show perseverance and commitment in your activities. Although this is one of the most common leaning outcome, it cannot be ignored. During the preparation of this project, we had to work late at night way over time, from 4pm even up to 10pm at night. There were moments when I felt like giving up, but all I had to think about was the final outcome of the project and that would keep me going, and the fact that it would give me community service.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

That one night (PROM)

Fundraising and decoration for prom

There is not a single teenager that does not look forward to prom. Not a single one. Prom is one of those nights that we never forget our entire lives. Sadly in KISU, we attend 3 proms. In year 11, year 12 and year 13. Even though, prom is still a special night. So who organises prom? In KISU it is the year 12 students that organise prom for the year 13 students and we have to make sure that it is a night to remember. The problem is, they just don't hand us money to set up the prom. It is our choice if we want to have the prom or not. So we have to find that money or we would be the most hated class in high school history. So every year, year 12 students brainstorm fundraising ideas for prom that will cover almost all costs for prom, because prom is not free. The year we organised it, we set up basketball games, called the Dream Team event where students play against the basketball coaches and every year, year 12 students get a lot of money because students never win! These were the achieved leaning outcomes:

  • Plan and initiate activities. We had to come up with different ideas to raise money for prom before we landed on the dream team event idea. So this took a lot of planning and initiation in order to make the games happen, because that year coaches did not want to play. So it took a lot of convincing.
  • Work collaboratively with others. Since we only had a few months to organise prom on our own, we had to divide the class into different groups. The fundraising group, marketing and decoration. We needed coordination in order to complete the tasks on time
  • Consider ethical implications of your actions. Since KISU is an international school, basically any parties thrown have to be considered ethical before they happen. Prom is no exception.  


You think you can run 10km? Non-stop?

MTN Run for Clean Water 2013 Marathon

MTN, a mobile network company in Uganda, organises a marathon every year for a charity. This year it was organised to build wells and purification centres in northern Uganda, a region of Uganda hit by desertification. This was probably the first time in my life I run for more than 3km. This had to be a challenge I had to take. We had 3 options. Run the 10km (the people's run), the 21km (the show-offs' run) and finally the main event, the 21km (the pro run). Since this was my first time running more than 3km, I decided to run the 10km, just like most people in Kampala. There were more than 10,000 people running the 10km, which means that there was a human traffic jam. I am proud to say that I finished in the top 1000, trying my best without any prior training. These were the achieved learning outcomes:

  • Engage in issues of global importance. This was the main learning outcome. I find it genius that you can look after your health while at the same time, doing it for the good cause. That is what a charity run is all about. 
  • Undertake new challenges. I had to know if I had it in me to run 10km, that was one of the reasons why I decided to run. On top of the fact that I had to run 10km for the first time in my life, the race started at 7a.m on a sunday. If this is not undertaking new challenges, then I don't know what is!


Aren't we too old to be dressing up for Halloween? No!

Student Council: Organising halloween dance

The Student council is a year long commitment. In my first year of IB1, I volunteered to act as the class representative on the student council. It is not as exciting as in the movies where the student council holds power over the school board, but we are not completely useless. "In KISU, the student council is better known for throwing mediocre parties than in lending a hand to change the vomit looking uniform." Words of a classmate. So since my seat on the student council was extended to 6 more months, I helped in the organisation of the annual Halloween party. These were the targeted learning outcomes:

  • Plan and Initiate activities. Everyone knows that Rome was not built in a day and neither are parties, even school parties if your wandering. First we had to find the decoration. Finding any kinds of theme parties in a country has always been a challenge. That took a whole week. Selling the tickets was another problem. Most teenagers find that it is not cool to attend school parties, so making them buy the tickets was a bit of hustle. Most of them bought the tickets but did not show up.
  • Consider the ethical implications of your activities. One of the many duties I had the night of the party was selecting the music. KISU is an international school of different cultures and ethics. So while choosing the music, I had to make sure that no culture was insulted. 

Mini Steps to adulthood

IB option evening 

The aim of this activity was acting as ambassadors for online courses in school. The Option evening happens every year and it is when students in Year 9 and Year 10 learn about the next steps in their education. In DP1, I was one of the very first students in Kampala International School to do online IB courses. So since I was one of the first people, I was asked to explain to the coming IB students about learning on the internet. These were the targeted learning outcomes:

  • Undertaking new challenges. Once in a while, they encourage us IB students to undertake new challenges and to get out of our comfort zone. Setting up an information board and explaining almost anything necessary about the online course was challenging because I had to be clear and short because I only had limited time. It was like kind of being in court, only your arguments and your proof matters.
  • Plan and Initiate activities. Talking in front of parents and students you barely know really needs preparation. My partner and I had to work on an information board and prepare in advance what we were to talk about during the one hour the activity took place.
I feel like this was a success because the following year, 5 students we talked to decided to take online courses.  

What team? Lions! What Team? Lions! Go KISU Lions!!!

Basketball Team Reflection (Year 1)

Basketball is one of the sports I play for the school team and every year, everything is different. Some things don't change like the fact that I am always looking forward to improve my skills or some of the team members. This year it was different because it was something I could do for CAS. Basketball is always a sport I look forward to every year because it is basically my favourite sport to play and every year, there is always room for improving. Before playing basketball this year, I had targeted the following learning outcomes:
  • Show perseverance and commitment in your activities. When playing for the school team, a person needs to sometimes fully commit to it. Over the years, commitment was not a big issue. This year it was kind of different because of IB. IB is time consuming and sometimes, you have to sacrifice activities in order to complete projects, and it is hard sometimes to attend trainings when I have projects pending. So commitment was a big issue this year.
  • Work collaboratively with others. Basketball is one of those sports where the final outcome fully depends on the team work, on team chemistry. Without working collaboratively with others,  a sure loss is assured.
  • Develop new skills. I have always been told that you never stop learning, even when you live school. Life is a life long education, that no one can escape. So on this matter, no matter how long you have been playing a sport, no matter how good you think you are, there are always new skills to learn and I believe this year I have learnt a lot. From perfecting my shooting stance to ameliorating my long passes.