Year 7s Coaching (Final CAS Project)

Basically this activity was supervised by Mr. Larkin. In order to realize my CAS Project Mr. Larkin gave me an opportunity to organize my own group of Year 7 students and coach them.

Every Thursday I had discussion about activities and exercises that we are going to organize during training in order to make activity more enjoyable and effective for children. During this discussion Mr. Larkin showed me some videos in order to make clearer for me what am I going to do next day. There is one important thing as a IB student we all should be caring to children and Mr. Larkin sometimes explains us how and what to do; it is amazing to work with children but also it is very difficult. And as an IB student we should be knowledgeable and understand, consider some psychological aspects.

During the day of main activity I chose my own group of students. I organized different exercises in order to develop and improve their footballer skills. After which during the last twenty minutes  they were playing football. During match they may got a little injuries and they were crying and sometimes it is so funny. But we all are well prepared and we know how act in that kind of situations. They are very sensitive and every word can harm them, so I always needed to be very careful with them.

Basically this project was fantastic. This is because I was doing so many things, this is not just training children. The parents of these children were paying 2000BHT every 5 week and then this money is collected by Mr. Larkin and all money goes to charity. This is amazing.
For me it was a big pleasure to work with children. Before this activity I didn’t realize that how difficult and the same time how amazing is working with children.

How does my CAS project relate with CAS?

First of all I’d like to say that this is one of the activites which has very big and strong connection with CAS. It relates to every single aspect of CAS: Creativity, Action and Service

Why it is an Action?
I coach children and sometimes play with them to show new skills, and other things. Also I talk to them to correct mistakes that they made. So basically that’s it takes a lot of energy from me to train them.

 

Why it is a Service
It is a Service as I mentioned above the all money collected from parents goes to charity. Basically we are helping younger children to improve their football skills, and at the same time we are raising money for charity. Those both reasons above are great example of service work.

Why it is a Creativity
As I mentioned above it is creativity as every Thursday we are discussing how effective train children. We are also learning different psychological aspects in order to train and treat to them correctly.

What were my goals?

• To communicate with children and develop new skills that how effective to train them
• To raise money for charity.
• I wanted to help improve the children’s ability in football, and teach them new tricks which they could use in the future.
• Gain of confidence in coaching

• On Thursdays, to learn more training methods and to use them during training.

What did I achieve so far?

•  I am pretty sure my confidence has increased as now I am more relaxed when helping and coaching these kids.
• Children were enjoying trainings very much, they were enjoying the last part of training especially, because it was the part when they were playing football
• I am pretty sure we have done this, as so far we have raised 80,000 baht which I think is something that all the coaches should be very proud of as this money will help the Disabled school a lot.
• Just enjoy trainings and make them smile J

CHEMISTRY AND MATH’S REVISION CLASSES FOR IGCSE & IB STUDENTS

All of the IB students, at the end of Year 13 should present their final CAS project. As the IGCSE and IB examinations are approaching I decided to organize something special, which will help students in their academic achievements. I offered my fellow student (both us are from higher level Math’s and Chemistry Class) MIkayel, to organize IGCSE and IB Chemistry and Math’s Revision classes. Mikayel, accepted my offer, and we had discussion with our supervisor Mr. Lazanberry, about the methods and techniques which would help us to make lessons more effective. We planned to organize lessons during the weekends on Sundays and Saturdays, 2 hours each day. Afterwards we made a poster; the purpose of this poster was to announce about the upcoming lessons, so we would have more students attending.

What I hoped to achieve during this activity?

• To gain confidence in communicating, this is very important because I think this is one of the most necessary and important things for our entire life.
• To gain new skills in explain others different theories. This is very important to have good skills in explain others.
• Gain teaching skills; this includes using different methods and techniques which gives an opportunity other easily understand different concepts.
  

The actual activity started in 28^th January 2012. The first day of teaching, was one of the important and unforgettable experience of my life. It was wonderful, to have students coming and asking you question. It made me to feel that I am a good member of our wonderful community. After gaining some experience in first day, me and Mikayel started to think about the methods that we could use in order to improve the efficiency of lessons, because in the first day there’s kind of muddle in the room, because everyone was asking different questions, which sometimes mad me and Mikayel a little bit confused. That’s why we carried out a little survey among the students, who attended our revision classes in order to discover the specific topics that they want particularly to revise. The results were outstanding, because we discovered that the majority of students wanted to revise specific topics.

Afterwards during the rest of revision classes me and Mikayel focused and explained them the topics that they wanted to revise. The results were outstanding. Morevoer, in order to improve their exam techniques, we gave them past paper questions which they ought to solve in real exam conditions and timing. Most of the students appreciated that, and ensured that those activities would definitely help them to obtain higher grades in their examinations.

What I have achieved?

• First of all, I gained a good communications skills because after these activity I understood that I need to communicate with different individuals in different ways, because each of us is an individual and we have our own preferences
• I gained some teaching skills. After this activity I know how to use some methods and techniques in order to make the theories and different concepts more simple so it will be easily understood.
• Also this revision classes helped me to revise some basic comments, which I forgot. This is very helpful for me because my examinations are not too far.

The Connection with IB Learner Profile.

• Knowledgeable- during the activity when some students asked to axplain different theories, me and Mikayel always tried to explore and conspets, ideas which would give explanations and it would be easily understood by IGCSE students.
• Communicators- this is one of the IB Learner profile features which has been developed crucially during this activity. I understood the questions asked by students and confidently, creatively expressed the ideas which answered their questions.
• Caring- during the activity I saw some students, who had academic difficulties and felt themselves stressed as their examinations were approaching. And I considered it my responsibility to notice their needs and feelings in order to help them. So, I had a personal commitment to service, and act to make them confident in their academic studies.
• Reflective- After this activity me and Mikayle had a discussion about our learning and experience. We were discussing our weaknesses and the improvements for future activities. Also we were discussing our strengths and I really enjoyed those moments!

To conclude, this was an amazing activity which will be always in my mind, as a good experience from childhood.

Performing Armenian National Dance (“Tower”)

The International Day 2012 was the best festival that I have ever seen at Regent’s. The International Day 2012 has been done successfully thanks to hard work of every individual that has been involved. There were amazing international rooms designed by each country in order to show their own culture and international kitchens. The important part of International day was the “Country Performances”, where each country showed their culture, religion through dancing or singing.

As this is my last year at Regent’s School, me and my fellow Armenians decided to organize and show a performance, which will show Armenia’s culture in some way. Our country leader Gagul, decided to perform an Armenian national dance “Berd”, which translates in English as “Tower”.

 

This is considered to be one of the ancient dance performances, which is the most popular and famous Armenian dance. This dance is unique and actually it is very difficult to perform. Firstly, we watched some videos in order to gain overall information about the dance. The difficulty of this dance is that it consists of two floors; 5 people are standing on the shoulders of 5 people who are in the bottom. Actually this is very difficult to keep balance.

We have practiced more that 5 days for 2 hours. We weren’t satisfied from the results of first two days, because we sometimes ended up of 5 people falling from the 2 floor, because the guys in the first floor couldn’t keep the balance as it is very difficult to keep someone on your shoulders.

On the last day the results were outstanding, because no one fell and we were sure that on the day of performance we will perform very well.  
And our expectations came true, as we understood it from the amazing reaction of audience.

What I hoped to achieve?

• Gain dancing skills (especially national), because I am going to continue my higher education not in my foreign country and as a I am committed to internationalism I will always show the culture of my home country to the others.
• Gain communication skills, as it is very important during the preparation of this performance, because if we didn’t communicate effectively the tower would definitely collapse
• Try to put my best in the team working, as this is very important for my entire life

What did I achieve?

• Now, I know for sure how to dance Armenian national dance “Berd”, and this is very important as I can organize same dance in my university years to show my culture to the others.
• Now, I know how to communicate effectively. I understood that it is more about listening not talking. Because I have always been listening others, as they were explaining me the details of the dance.

The Connection with IB Learner Profile

Communicator- I gained communicator’s skills, which was very important during this activity. We were communicating very effectively, because if we didn’t then the tower would collapse for sure.

Risk Taker- As I was in the second floor of the tower, it was very dangerous, because when I fell from the second floor I could get serious injuries. But as a risk taker I accepted and took over the challenge.

Caring- During the Practice, every single of us had to show care to the others; sometimes, everyone us felt disappointed as the tower was collapsing consistently.

International Day 2012

The Regent’s School is one of the unique “Round Square” schools, which organizes festivals which raise awareness of issues and at the same time help some communities.  That kind on festival is the International day, which is being organizes on yearly basis.

The “International Day 2012” was my first amazing and huge festival that I have ever seen at Regent’s as it was my first year there. I was chosen as a Assistant of a Country Leader in order to help him to organize.

On the day, we woke up early in the morning in order to dress up (we were all wearing orange colour shirts with the Armenian symbol on it, the colour was chosen as it’s one of the colours of the Armenian flag).

First of all we needed to design the room. I knew that I am going to be involved in International Day 2011, that’s why I brought some stuff from Armenia during the Christmas break.  Also I brought with me some Armenian food such as cheese, basturma and lavash. Then we set the food on the table and get all the music playing to welcome our visitors. Our room gained popularity immediately, as most of the school knew how awesome Armenian sweets, cheese, bread and meat products are. We run out of food pretty quickly as people were not only trying, but also having their breakfast inside the room

The design of our room was amazing, and as a result we had the most number of guests. I have been pleasingly presented them our culture and food. It is amazing to talk about your culture with others.

What I hoped to achieve?

• First of all I hoped to gain some designing skills, because it is very important for me. So as a independent person, I could easily design my room.
• To gain communication skills as  during the designing process we needed to communicate effectively, in order to make our best.
  Moreover I needed to communicate very well with foreign people, in order to explain them the key concepts of my country

What did I achieve?

• By cooperating with my country leader I gained some designing skills (he is pretty good designer). Now, I know what combination of colours and effects to use in order to let huge impression in people.
• Moreover, as during the International day I was in the country room, I was telling people about the Armenia, teaching the Armenian I gained communication skills.

Painting Father Ray’s Children Village

As a “Round Square” member, the Regent’s school hosted the “Round Square – We Walk Together” conference in 2010. The pre-conference activities included various service projects, such as the “Painting the Father Ray’s Children Village.” But unfortunately, because of the lack of time, they didn’t manage to paint the walls fully.

So we decided to finish that project. As a Global Connect student I volunteered to participate in that project. More than 20 students volunteered, which is amazing. On the day of the project, we assembled at the school, after which we went there by school bus.  At the moment we arrived there, I felt that I am in the place, where a lot of children need our hope. The Father Ray’s Children Village is founded in order to help children who have disabilities.

First of all, I tried to communicate with the children. This was a little bit difficult  due to language barriers, however I overcame that, and we started to effectively communicate. Afterwards we started to realize our main process; finish off the painting as soon as possible.

 

 

Unfortunately, the whether conditions were horrible; the heavy rain didn’t let us to work. However we overcame that problem. Besides of that the working conditions weren’t good as well as for getting water we had to walk long way.

As I already mentioned the walls weren’t painted fully, and as you know it is difficult to continue someone else’s work. First of all I needed to decide the colour combinations, for that I consulted with my supervisor in order to make sure that the result will be fantastic.
And finally we started painting; the progress of our work was encouraging. One thing, which inspired me greatly, was the fact that we were painting the children village, and that they are very likely to enjoy it. During our painting process, the children from the village came to have a look at paintings of fences. They were quite amused and excited, some of them even came to take some part in painting (unfortunately for them they were not allowed because they were too small). That was an indescribable and wonderful feeling, when I realised that I am doing something enjoyable for little children.

What I hoped to achieve:

• First of all I wanted to finish the painting, which last Year 13s didn’t manage to do
• Gain some painting skills, as this is very important, because every time we might need it.
• Improve my communication skills, particularly with children who have the need.

What I have achieved?

• Now, I know how to use the right combination of colours in order to get the best painting ever
• Now, I can effectively communicate with thai children, as during the communication with them I learned some words and phrases which are very useful for everyday life.
• And finally we managed to paint all the walls, and our mission to Father Ray’s Children Village was accomplished successfully. 

Swimming Challenge

When I was in Year 12, I understood that how important it is to pay attention to my physical education, as the Year 13 should have been a busy year mostly focused on academic education.
I have always been interested in swimming; I decided to challenge myself. In order to make my trainings more effective, I decided to take an advice from my supervisor Mr. Scott.
Afterwards we decided to set some goals and try to achieve them.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday I was training in the swimming pool under the supervision of Mr. Scott.

During the first training days, Mr. Scott explained me some techniques which are essential during the training and would make them easier and effective.
The Table below shows the action plan that me and Mr. Scott set.

Training	Meters	Time	Status
1st	150	1hour	Done
2nd	150	1hour	Done
3rd	150	1.5hours	Done
4th	200	1hour	Done
5th	200	1hour	Done
6th	200	1hour	Done
7th	300	1hour	Done
8th	300	1.5hours	Done
9th	300	1hour	Done
10th	400	1hour	Not Done (300)
11th	400	1.5hours	Done
12th	400	1hour	Not Done (300)
13th	500	1.5hours	Not Done (350)
14th	500	1hour	Done
15th	500	1hour	Done
16th	650	1.5hours	Done
17th	650	1hour	Not Done (500)
18th	700	1hour	Not Done (600)
19th	700	1.5hours	Done
20th	800	1hour	Done
21th	800	1.5hours	Done
22th	900	1hour	Done

 

These Table shows that mostly I overcame the challenge and achieved the goals set by me. But the important thing is not the meters, the important thing is that I learnt a lot of techniques and different forms of swimming.

After this activity I felt more confident to myself, and I could overcome the fear towards the water. Now I feel confident to myself swimming alone in the swimming pool or sea.

This one of the my Action activities, which has a strong connection with IB Learner Profile:

• Communicator- As I already mentioned Mr. Scott gave me a lot of instructions in order to help me.  All the time we were communicating with each other in order to find the solutions for problems. These activity has developed my communicator skills, as now I really know how to explain others about the difficulties that I have and easily understand what do others want to advice.
• Risk Taker- Before this activity I didn’t really know that “Am I capable of doing this?”. But I decided to take challenge; take a risk. And after this activity when I overcame the challenge I understood that how important it is to take risks. If I didn’t  take the risk, I still wouldn’t know how to swim. And this makes me to be proud of myself.
• Balanced- After this activity I understood that how important it is to be balanced in academic and physical education, and it is the only way to achieve personnel well being.

What I hoped to achieve?

• Take challenge, and meet the targets shown in the Table.
•  Learn different forms of swimming

What I have achieved?

• I mostly met the goals and completed the distance that I needed to swim.
• I learnt two different forms of swimming

Overall this activity was a wonderful experience.

Visit to Pattaya Orphanage

At the beginning of the school year (2010-2011) our boarding staff decided to visit Paattaya Orphanage. I had no idea that what’s it about, because it was my first year at Regent’s school and also that was my first CAS project during IB Diploma program. I was a little bit confused but then I understood that it was real opportunity for me to identify my strength and areas of growth.
Before visiting Pattaya Orphanage we were discussing about things that we had to do in orphanage. Also we decided to do a little charity for them. We raised amount of money and bought some tools for workers working in orphanage. After that we were discussing things such as: what activities organize there in order to activate communication between students and kids. And we make a list of questions in that we had to ask them in Thai. When everything was decided we were ready to visit orphanage.

On 10 September we leaved Regents School in order to visit Pattaya orphanage. The day before visit I was a little bit scared because I hadn’t opportunity ever to communicate with kids and orphanage. But the visit’s day I was sure that I can do my best. They were about 30 kids and it was amazing to see all fo them running over. And some children run to me and they were asking me questions even though I couldn’t answer them as they were only speaking in Thai. I was trying to communicate them but it was a little bit challenge. But the baby-sitters helped me to counteract with them as they were speaking English very good. Also as I mentioned above we had some questions to ask them. This was amazing and I was asking them questions in Thai and they understood most of them. This gave me opportunity to make them feel them more convenient and freer with me.

Then my objective was to make them as much happier as possible. I did it through organizing some wonderful activities such as playing football, drawing singing, dancing and etc. Later I decided that it is extremely worthwhile to spend some time just on chatting, which would help us to overcome the language barriers to some extent. As I mentioned above they couldn’t speak English and that’s why I decided to teach them some phrases in English. And after that it was unbelievable but they started to teach me some word in Thai. I was quite surprised but that was amazing.

What did I achieve after this activity?

First of all as I mentioned above this was my first CAS project during IB diploma program. And after this activity I understood some aspects that I need to consider in Service. Also I developed my communicator skills.

As I said already there were some language barriers between me and children, but to overcome it taught them basic English words. In the end some of them are already talking a little bit English, they were saying words such hello, how are you, bye, and etc.

As I said we I was in group with two other people, we need to come up with an idea of game or activity which will entertain children. We were thinking about that activity in the way to orphanage and finally we came up with an idea about what I am going to tell you in the next paragraph.

That day was wonderful and unforgettable, I spend it in collaboration with children with great pleasure, and in my opinion they enjoyed as much as I did.

Starting a New Business

This was one of my favorite activities as I want to apply for business administration. This activity was basically preparing us for starting new business. As we know there are many problems that start ups can face. There are involved 8-10 people in this activity and this gave us opportunity to work in small groups. This was very effective as working collaboratively with others always had its good result. This activity was organized and controlled by Mr. Chermside.

As we all know starting a new business is a risky project as the owner or investors are taking a step into the unknown. Most of the businesses fail, mainly due to mismanagement of the business. And there we were learning some important aspects that we need to consider before starting a new business. Mr. Chermside also showed us some videos and great examples of some well-known companies such as Coca-Cola or McDonalds. Also we were playing games such as Monopoly in order to increase our awareness about action that need to be dome during managing our own business. This was very interesting and enjoyable.

THE COONECTION BETWEEN THIS ACTIVITY AND IB LEARNER’S PROFILE

Risk taker- During this activity we learned by some great examples of some businesses that during controlling and managing business we should always be knowledgeable. Our actions should always be well accounted and prepared. But also we learned that sometimes we should approach situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought. For making it clearer I’ll bring an example: such as doing investment in one project by being not confident is the investment going to be successful, but during the same time we should be sensible.

Caring- During this activity we also learned that business is not only making money for own benefits. We also should care about others who need it. We learned that we always should be corporate-socially responsible to our workers to our environment. During this activity we learned that we should have compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. We should be responsible for and to our environment and to workers.

Thinkers– We also learned that when managing our own business we always need to be knowledgeable and apply thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.

What were my goals?

• I wanted to gain new skills generally in business studies as IB student one of my Higher Level subject is Business & Management, which will help me to score higher grades in my exam
• Also I am planning in the future to open my new business, because I think it is good to have your own business. And I was confident that this activity would give me a lot and I’d learn and understand some key concepts connected with business start-ups

What did I achieve so far?

• One of the my achievements that I think is obvious is that as I mentioned above I am doing Business and Management as a Higher Level subject and I feel that I started to do better in that subject. This can be proved as I have a big progress in my tests
• Now I have good understanding about problems that can be caused before and after starting new business. When I read articles in newspapers before this activity, there were some concepts that I didn’t understand well. But now when I read articles I understand some sophisticated concepts well. This is amazing and I am surprised and happy to. J

Now I am sure in my success in my own business in the near future. J

Regent’s podcast

This is one of the activities which gave me opportunity to increase my creativity skills. This activity basically is about making podcast and putting them in our Official website (I’ll talk about it later on). This is done in order to inform Regents school students and teachers about amazing events going on at our school. Also we had interviews with people who have big impact in our school.

First when I came to this activity I haven’t idea that what is it. In our group were 5-6 pupils and this was supervised by Mrs. Jenkins. In our first activity we were discussing that what we want to do. That time I have no what idea that what is podcast. Then Mrs. Jenkins explained us the nature of podcast. Then one of the guys called Nathan who had experience in media offered to open Regent’s Podcast official website, where we should upload our podcasts. You can visit our website.

When all technical operations were done we started to think about whom we are going to interview. And Mrs. Jenkins asked that who wants to do our first podcast. It was big challenge for everyone to be first and I was a little bit braver: I offered my candidature and everyone accepted that. After that we decided the person who was going to be interviewed: after long discussion we decided to interview head boy Hike Mazmanyan. It was challenge for me because I haven’t journalist experience and I didn’t know what questions ask Hike. But me and Mrs. Jenkins were confident that I was up to challenge.
I have prepared questions and then showed it to Mrs. Jenkins. She told me that they were amazing. After that I interviewed Hike.

After Interview with Hike other guys informed to students and teachers about school events through podcast. This was amazing cause everyone knew about our podcast and I feel me proud that we did that kind of great job.

Why this activity is considered to be creativity?
This is creativity because I gained some skills in journalism. I need for interviews prepare professional and interesting questions and for that I did some research, which surely developed my skills.
Besides of that I have also developed my skills in working collaboratively with others in order to achieve our targets. I have also gained experience in IT such as opening new website.

What I hope to achieve before this activity

• To gain new skills in working with others.
• To have initial information that what is podcast
• Develop my skills in working with others and achieve targeted goals

What I have achieved so far?

• I have some experience in journalism and media I feel that as now I can easily write an article for journal. Besides of that I had to interview someone for my extended essay and that time I felt how my skills in journalism has been developed as I asked more specific and interesting questions. I am surprised and the same time vey very happyJ
• I also gained some experience in working collaboratively with others and achieve settled targets. This is very important as working in groups in order to achieve targets has developed my skills in that. Now I feel that how easy it became for me to work effectively with other. During simple class activities I can show now my skills, as teachers mentioned it also I started to work better in groups.This is amazing.

Olds People Home

I am very happy that I had opportunity to experience this activity. This activity was organized and supervised by Regents School teachers. Every week on Mondays we went to Olds people home in Pattaya. Before going to olds people home we had meetings for discussing what things we were going to do. And here we all showed our communicator skills: we should communicate and discus things (such as what kind of games and activities are we going to organize) in order to make our best. Our objective was to make that people happier and make them feel that have very big importance in our lives. We were organizing different games and I felt that they started to become happier. Most of the time we played Bingo game with old people, we had difficulties to plant vegetables in their center and last Monday we have decided to grow vegetables at school. We have a territory where we can grow chili, tomatoes, pumpkin, eggplant etc. .After this activity I understood that we should be caring to people who had been caring to us once before.

During our final visit to olds people home we organized a little concert. On 29th of November we had a trip to their home and this time with Primary Kids who were singing New Year and Christmas songs. Lot of people joined and as far as I understood old people really liked. Students from secondary school, me and my colleagues joined primary kids choir and sang songsHere different talented students sang and danced. Here all we show that how balanced are Regents Students: they all are good in their academic achievements and extracurricular activities.

 

When this activity was finished believe me I wanted to go there every Monday. We always should help old people because they need a care as children. It is true than a human is growing than he starts become childish again to. It is the way that live is! At the end of final visit I saw tears in their eyes and I understood how big importance has the small thing which we did for them.
So lets help them whenever they need, cause the day will come and we will need the help of younger people than us!

What were my goals?

• Try to develop new skills and techniques in helping people who need it
• Try to do my best in order to make that people happier
• Interact with them by playing interesting and fun games
• Improve my basic Thai and my communication skills

What did I achieve so far?

• I have seen their accommodations and asked my friends to ask old people about their lifestyle, generally they had good living conditions. We as a group decided to help them to grow vegetables and fruits so that they maintain healthy diet and stay healthy.
•  I have learnt that even minor help can actually make a big difference, every Monday that we visited there I enjoyed it, as I could see smiles on their faces, people were happy that we came there, that we went there to entertain and help them.
• I have learnt that even minor help can actually make a big difference, every Monday that we visited there I enjoyed it, as I could see smiles on their faces, people were happy that we came there, that we went there to entertain and help them.