Volunteering

      I am going to volunteer in a few non government organizations. I have wrote to :

• AMUR - Endangered Leopards
  Phone: (495) 925-43-82 or 768-80-65
  Email: ekaterina_newman@hotmail.com
  Web: http://www.amur.org.uk/home.shtml
  Amur is an Anglo-Russian charity that works in partnership with the Russian authorities, scientists and other conservation organizations to ensure that the Amur tiger and the Amur leopards are saved from extinction. Contact: Katya Newman
• Moscow Animals
  Phone: (495) 916 4556
  Email: info@moscowanimals.org
  Web: www.moscowanimals.org
  Assists local animal shelters. Needs volunteers to make donations or volunteering time such as by photographing animals, caring for them, documenting them, etc. Contact: Katya

    And as well I am going to contact   http://www.bitsevskipark.ru/ which is an organization that helps to clean the park which is located next to our school. 

International Day

    Not so long ago we had an International day. It's a day where all the students from the school have a chance to show off their country by dressing in their countries' colours and aswell bring their traditional food. As an IB student, it's not as easy for me because I am in charge of running the activities and helping set up the rooms required. The activity that I organized was International anthem quiz - basically we played ~15 different anthems and the other students had to guess what country it is, and the winning team receives house points. This was definitely a new challenge that I undertook. For this activity to happen I had to plan and initiate activities, work collaboratively and show perseverance and commitment. We still managed to engage with issues of global importance (this being and international day/quiz) and also consider the ethical implications of my actions and in the end I developed new skills as well.
    After the activities were done the International buffet started. IB students had to serve younger students, parents and teachers and sadly got to eat the last, but the food was delicious.
At the end of the day there was a talent show in the gymnasium were we could see talents from dancing to beat-box.

Teaching IB

    Yes teaching, not learning. This Tuesday (20th September) Year 12 had made several presentations about IB that we presented to Years 10 and 11. Each topic was provided by a different house. The topics included:
    - The learners profile
    - The six subject groups
    - TOK (Theory of Knowledge) and EE (Extended Essay)
    - CAS
   My house and me got the honors to do TOK and EE. Because these are two different groups we split up into two groups - one that will do TOK and other - EE. I did a presentation about EE. For this we had to plan and initiate activities, work collaboratively and of course show perseverance and commitment. We also engaged with issues of global importance hence IB diploma is an international programme. We also had to consider the ethical implications of my actions (as Year 12s we have big influence over our schools younger students - we are role-models for them, therefore we need to act accordingly).
    This was not just an oppurtunity for Years 10 and 11 to learn about IB but also a benefit or us Year 12s because I got to learn some things I didnt know, especially about EE because we weren't told much about it. I think we did a good job presenting the IB to future IB students and at least for me it was the first time speaking to a big audience and I have to say I quite enjoyed it and that definitely undertook a new challenge, increased my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth, but I still developed new presentation skills.

My CAS Plan

Creativity:

    - I am going to take part in planning the upcoming school discos and other events
    - Learn how to cook (will be useful in university, when I live alone)
    - Take 'proffesional' photographs

Action:

    - I am currently part of one of our schools basketball teams (basketball games each Wednesday)
    - I am going to basketball training (basketball training each Monday)
    - I am going to go to gym 2 times a week

Service:

    - I am going to help clean Bitsevskiy (or any other) park
    - Recycle the collected rubbish

Basketball Club

    I've mentioned it before but now I can say it officially that I got accepted into the team and I will be part of our schools basketball community :) Basketball club is each Wednesday after school, throughout the whole year. As I said there are 3 different teams with ~7 players:
    Red - (Red Bulls)
    Blue - (Blue Baboons)
    Green - (Green Peace) - My team
    I don't know if these will be the official names because some of them sound funny. The basketball club will be a great way to train physically and of course play basketball :) Since I haven't played in a while I increased my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and basketball being a team sport I worked collaboratively. Throughout the year I will show perseverance and commitment, and hopefully develop new skills.

Moscow International Peace Marathon (10km)

    Actually it's 10.7km of pure sweat and pain. Yes it was pretty hard and I've got to realise how out of shape I am.
    The marathon took place last Sunday (18th September) not far from Red Square. As I've heard, there were about 5000 people running the marathon, however only about half of them were registered, though it's good to know that so many people of various age come and participate in these kind of events. There were two marathons going on at the same time - the 10km (the one that I ran) and the 42km (for crazy people only). Even though it was only 10km I still showed perseverance and commitment (I had to push myself to finish the marathon because it was really tough).
    The marathon begun at exactly 12 o'clock and the whole street was flooded with people. It was really hard because I didn't prepare for this physically and I really struggled but lets admit, 10km is quite a long distance and surprisingly I finished it in 1:00:47 which is a pretty decent result and I WILL improve that in the other upcoming marathons.
Overall this marathon was a lot of fun, a great way to test myself, I definitely undertook a new challenge,   increased my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and lastly I engaged with issues of global importance (It was international peace marathon with few thousand people from all around the world). I hope of doing it again and improving my personal best.

  

Sports Day

    Last Thursday (15th September) we had sports day. It's a day when all of the school participate and compete in various physical activities. The way it works is the whole school is divided into four teams:
    - Pushkin (Red)
    - Tolstoy (Yellow)
    - Gogol (Blue)
    - Checkov (Green)
    I am in Pushkin. We did all kinds of different activities like dodgeball, basketball, football, sprints and relays, voleyball...
All of the teams compete in all of the activities and if they win they get points which go to their total house points. Those points are accumulated not just from sports day but all throughout the year. Through these activities I increased my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and of course worked collaboratively.
    As Year 12 we were put in charge to organize our teams - each year had to sign up with what sport they're gonna play. We also had to choose our teams mascot, song and celebration dance. To help us do that, each team had a captain and a vice-captain which delegated some work to other Year 12s.
    When the sports day was finished and all the points were summed up, it turned out that my house (Pushkin) was winning :)

Sports, sports and more sports

    Today I joined the school's basketball club. First 2 weeks (which was today and next wednesday) there will be tryouts for the team. There will be 3 teams in total.
    The tryouts lasted ~1h 30min. I've realized that my stamina is not that good when it comes to running back and forth for about an hour. Well there's my first goal of the school year - get my stamina stronger and of course increase my basketball skills, if I get accepted to the team of course :) The way tryouts work, is simply we divide ourselves into 3 teams and play while the teachers observe and decide who should play in the team and who still needs to work on their skills. The total number of people will be ~21 because it is planned for each team to have 7 players. Through this activity I increased my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and of course worked collaboratively (Sports is all about teamwork).
     So here goes my first ACTIVITY points for CAS and believe me I am not doing this just for points (or hours) but for fun and because I simply love basketball. Actually in Lithuania it is said that basketball is our second religion and I will follow it :)

September 1st - Beggining of IB... And CAS

    September 1st, first day of school, first day of IB and CAS. The first taste of CAS was team building activities. Year 13 has prepared us (Year 12) a few challenges which encourage to work collaboratively. The challenges were fun and it was a good way of getting to know the new students in our Year. The class was split up into a few groups of 4-5 people. The challenges were: Charades, a game where we have to keep the balloons in the air for as long as we can (working as a team of course), a task to build as high as possible structure out of paper, straws and tape. Not as easy as it sounds. Next challenge was to protect an egg from ~4m fall using nothing but 2 plastic cups, paper, and lots of tape. And the last challenge was to make 2 different shapes, a circle and a square, out of a long rope. Blindfolded. This was all fun and I undertook a lot of new challenges and developed new skills.
    I had a really good time participating in these activities and I have to say that they were really well designed. However the day is not over and we move onto another activity which is.. Yes, you guessed it - kite making. I was really interested because I've never flown a kite before, nor I've ever made one. We had to make it out of 2 sticks, trash bag and lots of rope in groups of 3-4 people. It did involve quite a lot of planning before we even took the scissors. It ended up looking pretty nice but we still had a question - will it fly? Apparently no. Well it was touching the ground either so it was still in the air, even though it was no more than 50cm. We blamed it all on wind, because there was very weak one. Despite that I really enjoyed making and flying the kite because it was something new for me and I would be glad to try it again.
    Team building activity day was surely providing us with lots of collaborate working and thinking and a few new things I've never tried before.

Back to school...

    Summer's over and we have to get back to school. Unfortunately I'm starting Year 12 which means - the start of the IB programme. Unfortunately because I think it will be quite difficult. As well as that, Year 12 brings another programme which is CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) and that's what this blog is for. Vaguely speaking here will be a summary of my school and regular days which include me in participating in CAS. CAS has 8 learning outcomes which I will try to follow and achieve:

1. Increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth
2. Undertake new challenges
3. Plan and initiate activities
4. Work collaboratively
5. Show perseverance and commitment
6. Engage with issues of global importance
7. Consider the ethical implications of my actions
8. Develop new skills