Chocolate Letter to my dad :)

11th of November is the pepero day in Korea and at the same time it was the day that my father was coming back from Korea. Therefore, I wanted to make the day special and went to a supermarket. However, I could not find pepero in the supermarket so I went to the other supermarket but still could not find it. In the end, I decided to buy chocolate instead of pepero. And as soon as I got back home. I started to make a special letter for him. I wrote a letter under the chocolate so that he would see the letter after eating them all. He liked it and I was satisfied.

Developing new skills
Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth

Poster in front of the psychology room

 

In psychology class, we have studied about research methodology. After finishing this chapter, Mr Giddens asked us to make a poster so that he can put it on the wall in front of the psychology room. This poster focused on interviews and reflexivity. We, at first, read the text book and made a lay out. And secondly, we wrote the title and the information. Finally drew speech bubbles around the information. However, we couldn't finish the poster in one lesson. So, it took 2 psychology lessons to finish the poster. In the second lesson, to finish quicker, we only wrote the important information for variables in interviews and recording the interview but more detail for reflexivity. Then we started to decorate the poster. We have drawn speech bubbles for side information. So we wanted to draw differently in the middle. Then we came up with the idea of drawing a ribbon around the variables in interviews. So I drew a ribbon around the variables. However, it was not enough for us because of the under part. We almost ran out of time but in the end Sabina and Aina suggested to draw the tail of the ribbon. So we decided to draw the tail and finished the poster. We were all satisfied about the output that we have made.

As a result,

I have worked collaboratively with others

Developed new skills

Undertook a new challenge

Carbonara

I practiced making cream spaghetti many times to my family and there were a lot of mistakes and dissatisfaction. But at this time, I have made another Carbonara and I heard from my family that this one is the best one ever I have made so far. Moreover, I was also satisfied from what I made. From this experience I have realized some know-hows such as boiling cream much more after putting the noodle than I had done before, put the yolk of an egg to make the cream more sweeter. But still I thought that there should be more improvements. I thought that the bacon should have been softer. Next time I will be more careful to choose the bacon. I even promised that I will make it to my classmates when they come to my house. So I will practice more so that they will be satisfied as well.

As a result,

Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
Developed new skills

Jumping Rope

On every Friday, for my exhausted body during the week days, I do jumping ropes for every friday. Since I don't have PE lessons, I felt that I am getting weaker and weaker. When I started jumping rope, it was hard to do more than 150 times of jumps as my legs were getting heavier and my heart races so fast. I usually did around 100 at once. But now I more easily do 150 times and try to do 200 at once. However still it is a challenge for me. As I improved, I believe that if I give an enough effort to improve, I can achieve my goal again.

• Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth

• I learned that if I try my best towards something that I want to achieve, I can achieve the things quicker and in a satisfied way. Moreover when I understood that I really have improved from the past, the feeling was awesome. I think it will have a positive effect on my next goal.

• Planned and initiated activities

• I am planning my goal to achieve next goal because if I don't have my own goal, I am not likely to be motivated when I jumping rope

• Developing new skills
• Now I can jump faster and better. I don't usually get stuck by the rope and do nearly 150 times without getting stuck and having breaks.

Chicken Doria

When I was in Korea, I went to a spaghetti restaurant and for the first time in my life, I tried a doria with a chicken. It later became an opportunity to try to make a chicken doria at home when I came back to Moscow. I looked for the recipe and for the first time, made my own chicken doria. Since I am in Moscow and cannot visit the restaurant, the output was satisfied me.

In order to make a chicken doria,

1. Season chicken with salt and black pepper
2. Cook the chicken and put some vegetables ( I put onions and mushrooms)
3. Put cooked rice
4. Put spaghetti sauce or ketchup and evenly roast
5. Take the rice to a container for ovens.
6. Put mozzarella cheese on the rice
7. Warm up the oven with 180 degrees C
8. Put the container to the oven and wait until the cheese melts down
9. Take out the container from the oven after 7-8 minutes

• Undertaking new a challenge
• I cooked one that I really liked. So it was a big success to me after I tried it. It was a new challenge for me but as the result was quite successful I was proud of myself as well. However, as it was the first time cooking it, the taste was not very good. I will try to make it several times more so that I can cook better.
• Developing new skills
• I have developed my new skills of cooking. I could feel that I have learned a different skills while I was cooking this. For example, I learned how to season chickens.

Painting fence for national park

   On 29th of September, I went to a city called Dankin. There was a national park called the Prioksko-Terrasny National Park and on that day, my father's company had decided to go there and helped them as it was their Clean-Up Day. At the park, there were several activities that I could have taken. Transferring timbers to another place, painting fence and etc. My family went there and my mom and I went to paint the fence but my d ad went to transfer timbers.

   I and others who volunteered for painting the fence got a basket of green paint and a brush for each. It was my first time painting fences so at first, it came to me as a hard work. But as I was working more and more, I had a know-how to paint fences. The time went so fast and after I and others finished the work, it was already 4 hours past since we started painting. After I finished the work, I was confident that I took part in the Clean-Up day in Proksko-Terrasny National Park. Few days later, I also got a certificate which confirms that I actually spent 4 hours of volunteering works in the park.

• Developing new skills
• I developed my painting skills which I had never had before. As I already mentioned, it also allow me to obtain a know-how of painting.
• Working collaboratively with others
• I worked with other my father's acquaintances and their family. To finish the work faster everyone who attended for the work should have worked collaboratively with others and it also made us work easily since painting was not as easy as it was seen.
• Undertaking new challenges
• It was my first time that I took part in a national park's work and painting fence was also the first opportunity in my life. I, at first, thought that it would be interesting and easy but it was not as easy as I thought but I thought that I would be easier if I have another chance that I can actually take part in painting work.
• Showing perseverance and commitment
• I almost worked for 4 hours to finish the work that I and others were given. I couldn't have a rest while everyone was working. So I needed to bear the pains that I have until everyone decided to have a rest.

Skeching

I was always interested in sketching so I thought that it would be a good idea if I draw some sketch over the summer holidays and so on. I at first focused on the landscape and then focused on a backside of a ballerina. When I was doing IGCSE art, I always had problems to draw a person realistically. Therefore my desire to focus on a person was really high. I had completed two pieces of art works which are not focused on face yet. I was satisfied with my works so I decided to focus more on face next time.

• Developing new skills
• I felt that I have developed my skill through the these works. I looked up the internet so as that I can understand my problems and develop my new skills.
• Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
• I have also increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth through this activity. I want to work on more drawing so that I can increase more strengths of art.
• Showing perseverance and commitment
• While I was completing these works, I spent about 1 hour to 2 hours. Moreover, I needed to erase a lot so that I could make satisfied works

Tabloid Newspaper Front Page

   In Mr Parker's English class, we have deconstructed the tabloid newspaper. The tabloid's general features were red top with its name of the newspaper, some ears which are represented shortly about news, bold title so that it can easily catch the attention of the audience. Tabloid newspaper's average reading age is said to be around 7 thus the news titles are usually all simple or catchy.

   I spent time to think about the name of the newspaper and I eventually got 'Bracing news' which may remind of 'breaking news'. Moreover, for the contents of the newspaper, I tried to find sensational articles from BBC and also from the other newspaper web page. Those articles are mostly from the UK except the woman - 'Paris Hilton' who are from the USA. I put the article about her so that the newspaper can be more international.

   However, Mr Parker has recommended me that I can develop this front page by abashing the number of words for the titles of news articles. He said that tabloid newspaper article does not really have 'verb' in their articles and also said that the actual article will not appear on the front page rather the journalist would like to say 'see pg 11' or 'continued pg 11'. Therefore I decided to develop the weaknesses that I have it now so that I can be satisfied myself and also develop my skills.

From this activity..

• Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
• It was the first time that I heard that there are two main types of newspaper - tabloid newspaper and broad sheet newspaper. From this activity, I realised the differences between two types of newspapers and singularly, it was a chance to learn about the stucture of a tabloid newspaper in detail.
• Developing new skills
• During making the front page, I used photoshop for layout and putting pictures that I needed. From this activity, I learned to delete the background of a picture like shown for the summary of the article about Paris hilton.
• Planned and initiated activities
• In order to make a front page, I needed to make sure what kind of articles should go and where they have to be located. So it was a planned activity.
• Undertaking new challenges
• It was the first time that I attempted to make a newspaper front page therefore, I was also hard to me to figure out the general structure of the tabloid newspaper. But I googled a lot about the tabloid front page and it helped to get a satisfied result even though it was a new challenge.

Library

When I was in Korea, I went to a library in Sungnam sometimes for studying but also for helping out the library. I went there for service 3 times and most of my work was cleaning the books on the table and putting in the right place. This activity took place in children's department so It was busy to put all the book on the table that children forgot to put them back to the bookshelves. While rearranging the books, I needed to sort out the genre of the books and put them on a right place so I should have well aware of the place of bookshelves so that I could finish the work faster and easier.

From this activity,

• Developing new skills

I have never tried to arrange the books in the bookshelves so from this activity I have developed my new skills how to arrange the books correctly and neatly.

• Undertaking new challenges

It was the first time I actually went to a library for service. It was a new experience for me to stay in library not for studying or reading but for helping out people there for several hours.

• Showing perseverance and commitment

I went to the library once a week so totally 3 times. I attended to the service regularly and stayed there minimum 3 hours per once.

School 4 Fair

On friday, 15th of June, all yr 12 students planned an activity to provide it for younger students in School 4. My group (Matanat,Aina) decided to do face painting to students. I bought face paints for the fair and I practiced it at home. I also borrowed one for Aina so that she can practice.
However, before the day for fair, it was informed that school 4 will provide us the paints and all kind of stuffs that we need for the face paint.

On that day, at 12 o'clock, students walked to school 4 for about 15 minutes then in school 4, we had about 20 minutes to prepare for the activity. There was a plenty of paints,brushes and designs. We met our supervisor and started to set up. It was 3 coupons to do and many little kids came for face painting. At first it was hard to draw on their face but as time passes, I got the knowhow and it was fun and proud when I see that the kids seemed happy. Time passed so fast that I did not even realise that I was hungry and was time to pack up my stuffs.
When we all arrived to school back, we had a game with Mr Grey and we all had a great fun :) From this activity,

• I haver undertaken new challenges because it was the first time I tried to do face painting to young kids.
• I worked with Aina and Matanat to provide fun to kids so is working collaboratively with others.
• Also, this activity was planned and initiated by Aina, Matanat and me. We practiced at home and looked for more stuffs in the art room as Sophia said that there will be some face paint resources which she bought them for the last international day. Unfortunately, we couldn't but as the materials were provided from school 4, it was okay.
• I showed my perseverence and commitment in my activity as well. I had to sit down and should have concentrated on the work for a long time.

Jumping rope

I started to do jumping rope after I get back from school on every friday for about 200 times. It is good for health and it also releases stress which have put for a week days. I do it in front of my house and after jumping rope, it increases my appetite as well. I am planning to increase the number of jumping rope so that I can exercise more efficiently. As I started jumping rope, I ...

• have shown perserverance and commitment in my activity because it should be done on every friday.
  
• And everytime I finished my exercise, I am developing my skills of jumping rope as well. I began to practice some special skills for jumping rope too.
  

Istra Trip

From 4th of June to 8th of June, yr12 was planned to go to Istra for group 4. All students had to be at school until 8:50 and as soon as students all arrived to school, we helped move equipments and bags to the school bus. Afterwards, students rode on the bus and it took about 2 hours to get Istra.

At Istra, firstly, we arranged our stuffs to an allocated room. My roommate was Aina. We unpacked stuffs then when we got downstairs, we were told to find some flags in the forest. It was the first time we got into the forest at Istra so it was confused where to go. There were so many mosquitos in the forest. I felt that I won't see this many mosquitos in the rest of my life. My group, the girls, found 5 flags and after Mr Oconnor checked the pictures of the flags, we went to eat lunch. After lunch time, students were introduced the conference room where we would work and meet for the rest of Istra trip. Moreover, at Istra, students needed to draw the map of the forest and biology and ESS students were also needed to find 9 different leaves at Istra. After we finished drawing the map and collecting leaves, we went back up to the conference room and figured out the name of the species and features of the leaves.

I also did water tesing on Nitrate with Sang Hoon and Thibaut. The 2 places of the pond had been chosen and collected water. The Nitrate level did not have much different in two areas. Then we went to reservoir and again, selected 2 places. The result was that the Nitrate level seems to appear higher in the deep water.
Additionally, I had learned how to do quadrats in school. And at Istra, I did elevation and quadrat. It was hard to set up the places and to count the species. Both activities took long time to finish and when we were done, our group went up to the conference room and learned how to draw a graph for the elevation and quadrat.

On Thursday, all students had to do their own experiment. I decided to do the detail of the quadrat that I did the day before. I generated 12 random numbers and with quadrat, I counted the number of the dandelions, soil moisture, temperature of the soil at the same depth and more over, for more cocised pH level test, I collected some soil and put those into the sample bags. Before BBQ, I dried the soil out and took the soil test kit with me to finish the experiment on not only pH but also nitrate, phosphorus and potassium.

We had Barbeque for dinner and we all had a great time and the food tasted good. Students played with a ball and also played football in the football court near the BBQ. Later, we played a game with a torch. I don't exactly remember the name of the game but students had to run and hide from people who had the torch. If the students were enlightened by the torch and were called their name, they could not run anymore and got caught. However, if the people with the torch did not call the name of the person wrong, the person could still run without being caught. While we were playing this game it started to rain heavily and it made the people with the torch hard to recognise the people. For example, Mr Oconnor could not recognise me even though I was running in the field where there was not even a tree.:D It was fun and everyone seemed felt the same as me.

On friday we should pack up our stuffs and get ready to leave the Istra.

• It was worthy to be there because I did a lot of experiment which I had not done before.So I have undertaken new challenges.
• It was collaborative work with other students becuase besides the individual experiment, I needed to work with my team. 
• My individual work was initiated and planned activity. 
• Moreover, after BBQ, all students cleaned up the mess so it is also considering the ethical implications of my actions. 
• Through this trip, I developed my new skills as well such as Simpson's diversity Index.
  

Cleaning up a park

There was a BBQ in a park near the metro station 'Проспект Вернадского' and I was invited to the BBQ on Sunday and I was willing to go there. Basically the food was all provided by Peter and Shaun. Everyone there had fun and ate sausages and chicken. After we had finished eating and all agreed to go back home, we began to clean up the park's mess. All the plastics bottles, dishes, forks and leftover were stored in a plastic bags and It was carried to the entrance of the park where the bins were.

Moreover, I constantly go to a park near my house to clean up the mess near a pond. Yesterday, I also went there with my family for a walk and we had a picnic. My mom had made a Kimbab and we ate it on the bench while talking. Afterwards, I picked up some trashes. The whether was nice and many people came to the park for a walk. My family also helped my cleaning up the mess and
From this activity, 

• I cleaned up the park with my friends and also with my family. Each one have different work to complete the whole work so I have worked collaboratively with others.  

• I also considered the ethical implications of my actions as I cleaned up all the mess that we made and moreover, some other trashes in the park.

Donating Clothes

I decided to donate clothes which became small for me so I don't wear anymore and also I found some books and accessories in my house. At first I wanted to donate them into an orphanage but I realised that there is a small school next to my house. Eventually I decided to visit there and donated my clothes, books and accesories. The books were in English so I thought that it will be good for kids so as to study English. I went there with my Russian teacher and explained that I wanted to donate clothes, books and accessories and the school was happy to get them. I hoped that I want them to be suit for the kids. I made up my mind to visit the school when I also have something to help.  

From this activity,

• I have undertaken a new challenge 
  It was a new experience for me to donate things in foreign country and I think I felt more proud than I did in Korea.
• I considered the ethical implications of my actions. 
  I also tried to organise my stuffs to suit for them. For example, I made an effort to put what the kids may like and be helped such as English books.

Pop-up card

It is not long ago that I knew about pop-up cards. I knew it from my Korean friend when she uploaded some photos of her piece of work. I learned how to make pop-up card from her. When I first got the idea of pop-up card, it seemed hard but when I knew the principles of it, I realised that it was easier than I thought. I decided to make these cards to yr 13 students who were leaving after the IB exams.  I started with an easy one which is the picture above. At first, I needed a template so I searched on the internet to find one. Secondly, the template should have been printed out and then put on a piece of color paper to cut as drawn on the template. When it's cut, the color paper should fold up to make it 3 dimensional. I watched a tutorial to complete the rest parts after cut the template.
From this activity,

•  I have undertaken a new challenge because I made pop-up card for the first time.
•  I have also shown perseverance and commitment in my activities as I should have worked on it for a long time to complete. Cutting the template and paste papers each other were the most time consuming work while making one. 
• It also associates with developing new skills. I had found an amazing piece of pop-up card which also seems hard to make. I want to practice more and hopefully, I want to make the card in the end.

CAS Plan 3

Creativity
- Making a pop-up card
- Cross stitch


Actions
- Yoga
- Jumping rope


Service
- Cleaning a park
- Donating clothes to the orphanage

Jogging

   On every Saturday, when I feel like I need some exercises to reduce stress on me, I usually go outside and jog for about 30 minutes. I like jogging because after I jogged, I always feel good even though the whether condition is bad. However, as the weather changes a lot and snow are covered everywhere, I need to be careful while I'm jogging. I sometimes go jogging with my sister and it actually provides me a chance to talk to her more than at home. I have shown perserverance and commitment in my activity because I jog on every Saturday. Moreover, in some way, I also increased my awareness of my areas of growth as while I'm jogging now, I feel more comfortable than the first time that I started to jog.

   I'm planning to increase the jogging time to 40 minutes if the snow has gone and spring comes because I thought that I will make me more healtier and stronger than now. The jogging time will be increasing gradually untill it becomes 1 hour. I also think that I will be a good idea if I find a friend to jog with me then it will be easier to jog as we encourage each other even if the jogging time increases.

Weather Club

  I have been doing weather club since I started year 12. I have given an opportunity to investigate the weather of Moscow this winter. In the beginning of the winter, it wasn't snowing much. However, as time passed, the weather got colder and snow started to be covered with snow. I worked collaboratively with others because I always worked with my partners to measure the current temperature, air pressure, the maximum and minimum temperature of the day and the cloud cover. Also, I have shown perseverance and commitment in our activities as I went outside in every break if our turns comes despite the fact that the weather was really cold and so much snow covered outside that made us hard to walk. Mostly, weather club is an engaged with issues of global importance. I sometimes also drew the weather club graph which consists of the information that weather club students found out on every break time and it allowed me to see the difference in detail between the average temperature of Moscow and the real temperature that we measured. To conclude, this activity is also an planned and initiated activity because we have a schedule for the club.

Winter Activity Day

   On 13th of March, our school had a winter activity day. Thus, IB students were divided into groups of 2 or 3 in order to provide young people some winter activities. I , Nasha and Matanat decided to provide them a snowmen making activities. We brought some decorations such as scarves and carrots moreover, we also took some stuffs which had left after jumble sale from CAS room in BIS3. On that day, we had 4 groups untill we finish the school. We had year 9 and 7 students and we gave them some decorations so that they can enjoying decorating snowmen. I also helped kids making snowmen with sprays. There were a lot of ideas which was not based on the basic snowmen with a carrot and a hat. Especially, yr 10 was really passionated in making a snowman for their houses. One of them was a mouse and the other one was a face scrupture. After students have done making a snowman for their group, they were graded and some students had a photo time with their fellows.

   I undertaken a new challenge because I have never made a snowman in a big size before as it is not snowing much in Korea. Also, it is a new challenge to provide kids a snow activity. This snowmen activity was a planned and initiated activities as well. Our group prepared some decorations and planned what we will act when kids come to us for the activity. As we haven't got many decorations we could not let them choose what they want. We gave them about 3 to 5 decorations per each group. I worked collaboratively with others as I had 2 members - Nasha and Matanat. When we needed to get some stuffs from school, one stayed outside managing kids and others went to get the stuffs that we needed. I developed new skills which were getting well with young students and making snowmen well.

Valentine's Day

  By 14th of February, our school organised a disco for Valentine's day. One week before we had the disco, I made 2 kinds of posters to inform younger students that we would organise a Valentine disco. There were a letter box for students who wanted to send a card to someone who they like. It costed 30 rubles to send one card. There were a lot of students who sent cards and I also got 2 from my friends. Some students brought their cup cakes to sell them to others. I also tasted some and it was good. We raised money in this kind of way to donate for an organisation called 'Moscow dogs'.

  On the day, the disco began from 4 pm to 7 pm. Before the disco starts, we decorated the hall with some decorations which we all needed to bring in. During the disco, young students came in and seemed they enjoyed the disco. However the most pitifullest fact that I thought was there weren't enough songs and familiar songs for young students so I thought it might have caused an unexpected boredom. Younger students would have liked the disco if there were much more familiar songs that they could sing out loud. Thus, it came to my mind as the way how we can improve the disco next time. Additionally, at the disco we provided students a snack bar so that they can buy some snacks and some other students sold sandwiches with different ingredients in the next room. Sandwiches tasted good and evantually yr 12 and yr 13 earned huge amount of money for donation.

- Undertaken a New Challenge as it was my first time organising a disco.
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Considered the ethical implications of our actions
- Organising a Disco was an initiated activity

Running An Art Club

  I and Matanat had decided to run an art club on Wednesday lunch time. We talked with Mr Giddens and I suggested an activity of making a trophy for house competition. Mr Giddens gave an idea of paper mache which is a substance made from paper pulp that can be molded when wet and painted when dry. Yet we are making up the basic structure for the trophy but I think that on this wednesday we can almost finish structuring the trophy. 4 boxes are used for the base of the trophy, the big piece for chess which is not necessary anymore is used for the pane and for the top of the trophy, we decided to use wire to make a hemisphere.

  On the one hand, I was quite worried to do it at first because I have never done paper mache before. On the other hand, I was also excited to do paper mache. It doesn't look really hard to do and I was quite proud of myself making house competition trophy. Thus I wanted to do as well. I am really looking forward to seeing the completed trophy.

• Undertaken new challenge
• Planned and initiated activity
• Shown perseverance and commitment in the activity

Playing the piano

    Since I came to Moscow, I started to have more free time. And these days I often spend my free time on playing the piano. I usually play new age musik and sometimes K-pop. As I started playing the piano again in Moscow, my piano skill has improved. Also, I actually didn't like playing the piano when I was in Korea. However, I became aware of my interest in piano and so piano is the one of my favourite hobbies today. I play an hour a day and the piece that I am practicing is Wedding dress from Korean singer. 

  After I finish playing this score, I am planning to play other K-pop songs and new age songs from Yiruma who is my favourite Korean pianist. To improve my piano skills more, I will try to read notes faster so that I can play a score faster as well and as my hands are small that I cannot usually play clearly if there are lots of octaves, I need to figure how to play clearer without ruining the songs like pushing unnecessary note while playing.

• Increased awareness of own strengths
• Shown perseverance and commitment

CAS Plan 2

Creativity

• Baking a chocolate cake
• Practicing playing piano
• Making a homemade cocktail
• Continuing cooking food

Action

• Badminton club
• Jumping rope
  

Service

• Running an art club on Wednesday lunch time
• Try to visit any charity to help outdoor people who need my help
• Probably helping decorating school for Valentine Disco

Cooking Cream Spaghetti 'Carbonara'

  Rather than cooking Korean food which I can access easily at home, I tried to cook an italian spaghetti called Pasta alla carbonara.
  As it is a cream based spaghetti, the most important ingredient was cream and the sub-ingredients were bacon, egg, mushrooms and some of onions. Actually when I cook a food, my mother always supervised me next to me but this time I all did it by myself when my parents went outside for an appointment.
  At first I needed to boil noodles for 10 mimutes and at the same time, I needed to parch vegatables and some of becon that I already chopped up. Then I poured cream into the pan and boiled for some minutes.10 minutes later I took out the noodles and washed with cold water. After that, I put noodles into the pan where cream and other ingredients were and blended together.


- Undertaken new challenge
- Shown perseverance and commitment
- Developed new skills

Christmas Poster

  As I needed to leave school early I missed the school event, christmas disco. Thus, I thought how I could help the school event and It came to my mind to make a poster for christmas disco. I made the poster for 4 hours. I planned to draw and thought about the material that I could use for it. I came to a decision of using 2 A4 papers and paints. I decided to include silhouette of reindeers and houses and in the middle, the title - 'Christmas Disco',date and time.

  I thought that I should join more activities to make posters for other school events so that more students can be attracted to the school event in order to motivate younger students.

- Undertaken new challenge
- Planned and initiated activities
- Shown perseverance and commitment