Hello, hello.
I thought I'd start my 'little' CAS Journey with a plan of what will be following over the next 18 months (more or less). By the end of my IB years, I should have successfully completed 150 hours of Creativity, Action and Service (CAS). Right now, a portion of these activities will have started already, another portion in the process of organizing and planning and some already completed. In case you were wondering how I decided and picked each of these activities, I have done so over the last few months (especially over summer!) Most of the school related things, I've been sure I wanted to be a part of for some time now but other more self-motivated plans I jotted down in a notebook over the summer. Mechanics and specific planning still needs to be put in place but once everything gets going, I feel confident that everything will run fairly smoothly because I made sure that these are all activities that I WANT to do. Without that, CAS would be completely meaningless, a simple tally of hours completed without any learning experiences gained. ANYWAY! I have been babbling much like I usually do so now I'll just plunge straight into what I am hoping to achieve in the future:
First, the long-term projects.
1. After-school Arts & Crafts for the Students at Ranelagh
Creativity, Action or Service? Creativity.
Status: Early stages of planning and development.
This is something I'm eager to get going because it combines two of my favourite things: Children and Art. I am a HL Art student and when I was younger, I would love to spend some time creating things to show off or give as presents so I want to give the kids at Ranelagh extra time to do so. I want the class to be available for 8 to 10 children and I am hoping to find 2 or 3 other people from Grade 11 to help me. They must be good with kids and willing to spend a substantial amount of time planning and developing the program because I would like to organise a final Children's Vernissage by the end of the year.
2. SOS Help Hotline
Creativity, Action or Service? Service.
Status: Idle
I have contacted the service which runs a help hotline for English-speakers. You need to go through various stages of training with professionals and do shifts monthly which last 4 hours. I thought this would be a great experience considering how much I like to help people. I am not yet 100% sure this project will be able to follow through, as I haven't heard from the administrators for a while. It is still something I am interested in doing but here, I will keep updated the status of what is happening. I believe there's a breifing in January, but has not yet been confirmed.
3. Help with English Speaking
Creativity, Action or Service? Service.
Status: Researching Possibilies
Although, it is a possibility to help those in school, I wanted to go outside this realm and see how I could help others trying to learn english in Paris. It is a subject which I am very comfortable in and feel like my skills could be helpful to others. Also, my aunt has a PhD in English and has promised to help me if I need it. She has also written an English exercise book which I can use as a guide. This could help me gain important skills which could be applied in other subjects and be a long-term commitment I'd be happy to make.
Secondly, the ongoing projects:
1. Piano Lessons (weekly)
Creativity, Action or Service? Creativity.
Status: Started.
I have weekly Piano lessons with Bonnie Brown, a concert pianist from Australia. Piano is something that is widely appreciated in my family. I learnt it as a young child, but recently decided to try learning it again. This was like starting as a beginner because I had never properly learnt theory or how to read notes. I plan on taking part in the concerts and the Annual Music Soiree at ISP.
2. Football
Creativity, Action or Service? Action.
Status: Started.
Every Monday, I train with the ISP Senior Girls football team. This is an important part of my CAS program because I don't have the option to take P.E. anymore. I will go to every practice without fail even when it gets cold! (Which is a great sacrifice from me! HAHAHA!) It is a means of keeping fit since I don't have the two P.E. lessons per week I've had in previous years.
3. Photographer for School
Creativity, Action or Service? Creativity/Service.
Status: Started.
Basically, this will be an ongoing project which will document what other schoolmates are doing for CAS as well as advertise what ASAs are going on around school. These will go up on the CAS Noticeboard and will include photographs and a short article about the activity or person. I have just completed one about the Knitting Club run by Louisa Borressen, which I will eventually display here.
4. Yearbook
Creativity, Action or Service? Creativity.
Status: Started.
I am Yearbook editor (one of the four) this year! And it will take a lot of organisation and patience but I think ultimately it will teach me how to work with others - a valuable asset for use in the future.
5. Blind Collection
Creativity, Action or Service? Service.
Status: Started.
Unfortunately, I was not able to make the actual days of collection on the weekend of October 2nd to 3rd, 2010 so I have decided to help with the work that follows - counting the money collected.
& finally, future projects which are in development (and are still unsure):
1. Doing labour work, such as building houses for the underpriveleged in the Philippines during the summer. This would classify under Action.
2. Helping students prepare for the CAS Trip which I have previously been a part of. I would help with the research and development of their presentation. It is still unsure, whether or not this trip will be taking place this year. This would classify under Service.
3. I've been thinking a long time about creating a box where old and used items can be collected to be repackaged as Christmas presents for a given charity. I believe Vicky Metzger (11th Grade) is willling to help me with this. This would classify under Service.
Also, this summer I spent four hours helping a company redesign their website intended for use by people my age. I will write an entire blogpost about this soon.
I hope this makes clearer my intentions and what I hope to achieve through completing the CAS Program at the end of my IB Years. These will be developed and expanded on over time, always being documented on this website! I hope this proves useful and feel free to comment on anything that could be changed, improved or if you have any ideas or would like to be a part of some of the projects on my CAS Program.
Isabella Borgers
