Charity

   The school have provided me an opportunity of charity which relates to CAS service plan. I was hard to find what to do for service but as my school offered me the chance, I tried to contact 3 of non government organisations. However, as my Russian speaking is bad, I should choose the organisations with English written on their websites.

   First of all, I looked though the printouts giving some of non government organisations and the contacts of them. I chose three organisations which attracted me most - Russian Orphan Opportunity Fund (ROOF), Moscow Animals and Operation Smile Russia, Moscow.

   ROOF was an orphanage graduates in Moscow and beyond. I visited this website and I was impressed by a phase 'Less than $1 a day helps one of Russia's forgotten children. How many can you help?'. I think that this phase made me more responsible as a person who has everything needed.

   Moscow Animals is the organisation which aim was  to help find new homes for DOGS and CATS that have been rescued from the streets of or elsewhere in Moscow and to support a small number of shelters through donations. As I am one who loves animals, I would like to support the organisation.

   Finally, I visited the website of Operation Smile Russia, Moscow and I found that the organisation described donation as a phase of 'Your gifts transform lives'. It attracted me a lot and I also liked the name of the organisation with smile.

   As I visited each website, I donated some money to those organisations. It was my first experience of donations, thus it was quite unfamiliar for me. But after donations, I thought if I have more time and more money, I would like to spend on donations again to help other people.

- Undertaken New Challenges
- Considered the ethical implications of actions

Weather Club

   This weather club has been taken place since last year. The members divided into a group of 2 or 3 and I was with Nasha and Aina. Nasha and Aina did perticipate weather club last year, so they help me to measure the maximum and minimum temperature, current temperature and air pressure. The datas all end up to a graph and it contains the average temperature in Moscow and we will mark on the graph the actual temperatures.

   Therefore, it is a chance to get the idea of global warming. In addition, it is an oppotunity to learn how to deal the equipments and I learned some for more accurate data.


- Development in new skills
- Engaged global important issues

House Museum of Tolstoy

   On October 20th 2011, I went to house museum of Tolstoy in a small city called Tula. The city was quite far away from Moscow. The travel took about 3 hours to reach the destination. While I was on the car, I heard some stories about Tolstoy. For example, how he lived and what kind of books he wrote and sometimes the summary of them. It was very impressive that even though Tolstoy was rich and high in position, he was against other nobles and their wealth. Morever, I was surprised that Tolstoy had effects on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

   When I arrived at the house, I bought a ticket to enter and to listen to the guide. Unfortunately, the guide could not speak in English so I hardly understood her speech. I saw Tolstoy's chair and his small library and they were impressive because it helped me thinking of his life. After I finished looking around Tolstoy's house, my party went to see his grave. I walked for 15 minutes and I saw his grave. I couldn't understand why he made his grave so small without any splendours. But immediately, I realised that Tolstoy was a person against wealth and remained in his will that he didn't want to have a slendourous grave.

   I learned a lot about Tolstoy as I went to his real house. Before I visite his house I did not know about Tolstoy this much. I only knew that he was a famous writer and he wrote many things about truthful lives. Additionally, I planned for this activity in a way of invastigating about him thus I could understand easier when I get the place. The learning outcomes are :

- Increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth.

- Planned and Initiated New Activities

International Day

   The international day was special for me in this year because I needed to provide an international activity with other yr 12 students to please young students. I thought the activity should entertain them and also should make them feel more unified each other. So I and other Koreans in yr 12 decided to offer Kimbab making programme. We thought that this activity would entertain the students and they will get an experience of how to make korean food. Thus this activity is related to international day.


    During the period of planning this activity, we also had a lot of things to know. For example, we needed to know what kind of ingredients are included and how to roll kimbab well. We decided who would bring some specific ingredients and equipments. On international day, we were free in the first period so we used the time to set up all the materials we needed. We were sometimes not sure about the name of equipment so we just put some koreans on the board so they could even learn some Koreans. In the second period, yr 11 students who were in the house of Gogol and Pushkin came to our class. We gave them the ingredients and they tried to make Kimbab according to the example of which we performed in front of the class at the beginning of the period. The class didn't go as we planned. Students made two Kimbabs per each team and there was nothing to do after that. At last we felt sorry for them. Therefore, we decided not to save the ingredients thus they could enjoy the period more. As soon as the third period started, yr 10 Gogol and Pushkin students came into our room. This period went much better than the second period so that we were even proud of ourselves. I'm sure that the students also had fun in our class.

   On international day, I learned lots of things such as how to make Kimbab. The most impressive part of the day for me was when I talked to students how to make Kimbab then they succeeded in making Kimbab. I was so proud of them and also myself. International day in this year also provided me a new challenge because until last year I was one of the students who take the activities however, in this year, I was one of IB students who should provide other students a funny international activity. To offer them a good activity, we, all Koreans, planned and prepared a lot. As we did that, it was also an event that we could be closer to each other and we now can understand more than before. 

- Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth.

- Undertaken New Challenges

- Planned and Initiated New Activities

- Worked Collaboratively With Others

My First Baking

      I decided to bake a cake because my parents can bake bread so I thought that it would be good to learn how to bake a cake from my parents. It was my first time baking thus, I just tried to make this cake called 'chiffon cake' without decorations. While I was baking, my mother helped me baking a lot and I found interests during baking. First of all, I prepared the ingredients which are following :

 

white sugar

cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

corn powder

1/2 cup vegetable oil

6 egg yolks

6 egg whites

I combined baking powder with cake flour and I divided suger into 2 cups because there are two times which need to put suger. And I needed to separate the eggs into yolks and whites then put them in different places. 

 Firstly, I put 6 egg whites into a bowl and put it int the fridge to make it cold. A few minutes later, I took out the bowl and used electric beater to beat the egg whites until it became stiff. While I beat the egg whites, I gradually put some sugers. Secondly, in another bowl, I put egg yolks and beat them until smooth and light. After I beat the egg yolks, I put the vegetable oil and a little bit of water into it and beat them again. Cake flour and baking powder were poured into the bowl later and I mixed the contents.

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 Then, I mixed the contents of two bowls using a rubber spatula until the contents perfectly mixed and when it was done, it meant that I finished making batter!

I poured the batter into angel food tube pan.

And then, I preheated oven to 160 degrees C.

5 minutes later, I put the angel food tube pan into the oven.

I took the pan out of the oven after 50 minutes and cooled it. Then, I pulled out the cake from the pan. 

     As it was the first time of baking, it was not perfect. I hope next time I will be able to bake better so that I can make a decorated cake. It was  also collaboration with my mother. She gave me some advices such as I need to beat fast not to lose the foam. I learned lots of skills about baking. I felt I could bake a cake alone next time without my mother's help. In conclusion, the learning outcomes of this challenge - baking 'chiffon cake' are :

- Undertaken new challenges

- Worked collaboratively with others

- Developed new skills

Presentation about IB diploma programme.

     This presentation was prepared for 5 days and it was tended to introduce IB diploma programme to yr 10 and 11 students. My team, Gogol, had to explain about 6 subjects which end up 42 points in IB. I decided to explain about group 6 - the arts and electives. I tried to introduce all of subjects in group 6 which are visual art, computer science, psychology, chemistry and economics and hoped that my information would help yr 10 and 11 students who will have IB diploma programme either 1 or 2 years later. On Tuesday, the 20th of September, yr 12 students all gathered in Mrs gray's room after period 1 and 2. I had a rehearsal before the real presentation during the period 3 and 4 then yr 12 students had each team's own presentation in front of yr 10 and 11 students in the hall. I think it went well. Everyone did well and I was also satisfied with my result after presentation.

   It was the first time that I presented in front of people in English so I was really worried about my presentation. However, I believe that it made me more prepared to my presentation and that was why it was a new huge challenge for me. After the presentation, I was proud of myself as well. Moreover, the fact that I presented to other students actually grew my own knowledge about IB diploma programme. Thus, I increased my awareness of my own strengths. My presentation was prepared for 5 days. It was planned and initiated new activities. In addition, I worked collaboratively with other members of my house - Gogol. In the end, I felt that I developed my presentation skills because I had not get used to presenting anything to others.

10km Fun Run

     Moscow international peace marathon was held on 9th of September, I arrived behind the Basils cathedral to meet Mr o'connor. I got my number card from him and I also got some information about the marathon such as the course. After 30minutes, students and some teachers stood behind the start line and as soon as the  marathon started, I ran. But not so fast. I accompanied with Nasha however, as she had got some pains on her foot, I and she stopped  running after a few minutes and started to walk. We were walking when Mr o'connor came to us and suggested us to run. We ran again. I could feel that Mr o'connor was encouraging us to run so that we could get the finish line in 2 hours. I mostly walked with Nasha but at last, I ran about 600m with Mr o'connor and reached the finish point in 1hour 55minutes.

     It was my first marathon experience in my life. It was also a new big challenge for me. Moreover, as I accompanied with Nasha who had pains on her foot, I kept the same pace with her and sometimes I tried to go forward so that I could cheer her up because she might have walked a little bit faster to catch me up. I suppose this action can be seen as a collaboration. Also, I needed to walk or sometime run to the final point which was 10km far away from the start point thus I should have been perseverant not to give up during the marathon. Surprisingly, my legs did not hurt as much as before, the period after the sports day on 15th of September. I believe my legs have got stronger than before as I ran continually since sports day.

CAS Plan

2011 CAS PLAN


Creativity

• Baking a cake with some decorations.
• Creating a simple piece of piano score.
• Cooking Korean traditional food for international day.
• Learning some artistic techniques from

Action

• Participating badminton club on Tuesdays.
• Jogging around my house for about 20 minutes on Saturdays.
• Learning how to play golf from my father.
• Yoga

Service

• Cleaning up rubbish in a park.
• Blood donation.
• Presenting about IB diploma programme to IGCSE students.
• Visiting an orphanage.
• Helping school events and activities

Sports Day

    On Thursday, our school had sports day. Every student in BIS3 was involved in each one of houses - Pushkin, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Gogol. My house was Gogol and I wore a blue top as my team color was blue.

     At first, in the morning, yr 12 and yr 13 students all gathered outside of school building to play dodgeball. It was sort of different from dodgeball that I have known and played in Korea. Unfortunately, my team, Gogol, did not get much points from dodgeball. As the next game, we had football, basketball, running to the gym and coming back to the start point, volleyball, Mr Tome's game and relay after lunch time. I played dodgeball and Mr Tome's game, running with Mr Weever and relay. I have not run for a long time so my legs hurt so much after I ran. The most impressive scene was when yr 12 and 13 students were holding others' hands and finished the line all together. I was clapping when I saw them running together.

     After the sports day was over, I was aware that my strengths has increased. I could feel that  right after I ran around the school. My house members worked together to get house score. The relay and all the sports are the examples. I learned that even if there are good players, if we do not communicate and not co-operate, it's hard to win the game. In addition, as I mentioned before, the best part of the collaboration was finishing relay all together. Yr 12 and 13 students had that idea and we planned to finish all together. Some yr 13 students persuaded the last runners regarding the idea. I was really proud of people who finished the final line because there was no one who did break the plan. I felt yr 12 and 13 students were so united. Furthermore, by misfortune, I did not have many opportunities to play sports as I am not good at playing sports so indeed it became hard to say that I developd my sports skills. I hope that there will be more chances of playing sports. Yet to achieve it, I am supposed to develop my sports skills by myself.

Badminton [13th of Sep.]

    I had decided to stay after school on every Tuesday to join the badminton club because participating the sport club is a good example of an action activity for CAS. Furthermore, I had also thought that I did not have time to play any sports after I finished IGCSE. Actually, when I was yr 10 or 11, I had PE classes in school so I had opportunities to play sports. However, there is no PE classes  from yr 12 so badminton was a good choice because normally, badminton doesn't need difficult skills such as basketball or football. Thus, it seemed to be a perfect activity for me.

     I cannot remember when was the last time that I played badminton so, at first, I was quite worried to play games as a team of two. I was not sure about my badminton skills. But as time went, I began to get how to play. There were 6 people in the club and we divided into 3 teams of 2 and we played a game with each team. After we matched up with all the other teams, we changed the partner and played again in the same way we did.

    I learned the rules of badminton which are, for example, I should swap the position with my partner when I get point and I should serve a shuttlecock over a limited line. In addition, it was the first time for me that played badminton in a team with serious rules. I could feel that I was having a new challenge from the matches. Playing games in a team actually hepled me to be close to everyone who was in the club and it was a good experience of collaboration because I and my partner worked together to hit the shuttlecock. I learned more skills about badminton. For instance,  I would better to use the power of my wrist in order to hit the shuttlecock strongly.

The First Day of Yr12 [IB Induction Day]

     On the first day of September, I went back to school after a long summer holiday. I was very excited because of the fact that I actually start IB diploma programme. At first we had an assembly in the gym and after the assembly, yr12 and yr13 students stayed in the gym. Yr12 students were divided into some groups and had some activities such as building a highest structure in a limited time, wrapping an egg so as to keep the egg safe after we drop from a higher position and making a circle with blindling eyes.

      After break time, all of yr12 and 13 students gathered in the hall. We were again divided into some groups of 4 and we were taught how to make a kite with a big black plastic bag and wooden sticks. Even though we learned how to make it, we also needed to think about the details of kite ourselves. We went to a park to fly the kites. Students were running to fly their kite. Only a few of kite flew and most of them could not fly because the wind was actually weak. However despite flying kite was not really successful, it was true that I liked the activity much.

     Overall I enjoyed the activities a lot and it was a chance to improve my communication skills and cooperation skills as we worked in a group of 3 and 4. I felt that I became closer with my classmates than before I did these activities. During the period of making kites, I was able to get some new techniques. Especially when I had to think about the details of the kite. My group was also not really successful in flying kite but apart from wind, I could also learn from this failure that tapes should not have used much because the tape made the kite not able to fly well. In the end these activties were new exciting experience and challenges to me.