CAS Project: Student Council

Started: 10.10.2012

Will end after Christmas Holiday on third year of High School.

Supervisor: Sanna Vierimaa
Learning outcome: Showing perseverance and commitment

Hours done so far: 30 hours

I applied last year for being a member of the Student Council and i was accepted in. I felt this was and it is a great way to affect your community (in this case the school community). We have had many meetings last year, but I will record  CAS hours only during my actual IB years.

This year we have organized so called ''Election panel'' to our school. We have also organized flea market for recycling old school books. During meetings we have talked about what how we should deal with certain school things (soda drink machines, recycling, raising awareness of Student Council and etc.).

So far I have learned how to work in a group and to take responsibility of your actions. Every decision we make in Student Council meetings affect the school community. I have also learned how to organize events and how to inform about them. I think these skills will become extremely useful in future.  

CAS Project: Math tutoring

Started 18.10.2012
Will end when High School ends.

Supervisor: Päivi Karhu and Ollijuhani Kärki
Learning outcome: Planned and initiated activities
Hours done so far: 15 hours

I hadn't originally planned to do this project, but since many of my friends asked maths tutoring from me, I decided to help them.

I have mainly taught students from our school's mathematical studies group. They are doing statistics right now and since my group already had it last spring, I had knowledge to help them.

I have noticed that even though some calculations may seems to so simple, for others, it can be the most complex thing ever and vice versa. This has taught me to be really patience and go slowly step by step. I've also come to understand that now everyone sees the same thing in the same way as you do.

In the spring I took under my wing one eight grader from our school. We had maths lesson once in a week and before these lessons I would discuss with his teacher and plan what kind of topics I need to cover during the tutoring lessons. Now in the autumn I've started tutoring my friend for the Math Studies finals and I've planned these lessons carefully, so we'll have time to go through all the topics that my friend needs help with.

I've learned that being a teacher is not an easy task. It takes a lot of free time to plan all the studies and handouts that you will give. Also planning what topics and how will the topics be covered takes a lot of time. I've come to appreciate my teacher's work so much more.

CAS Project: Digi tutoring

Started 12.9.2012

End: 27.9.2012

Supervisor: Katriina Vartiainen

Learning outcome: Working collaboratively with others

Hours done: 30 hours

I signed for this project, simply because I like helping others. I had had two years of IT lessons in my Junior High School so this was a great chance for me to use my personal skills to help others develop their own skills in this area. Nowadays many students know how to use their computers quite well, but now that some students need to do their studies with computer, request have been coming. I have mostly taught them how to use word processing programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and so on.

This task clearly demonstrates collaboration with others. It has developed my social skills, but what is more I got to meet new students and teachers through this task. 

CAS Project: Losing weight

Started 10.9.2012

Will end when normal weight reached.

Supervisor: Vilma Alcenius

Learning outcome: Increased your awareness of your own strengths and areas for growth.
Hours done so far: 50 hours. 

Losing weight has been one of my dreams since Junior High School. I have never managed to do this because lack of self-control. There are temptations everywhere: sweets, soda drinks and fast foods.

Now I have decided to take this challenge seriously: It's not only losing weight, but changing my everyday habits. I don't wish to lose weight, because I would feel bad about the way I look, but I do this merely for my myself: To live longer and to have better health. 

For now I have been jogging and going GYM couple of times. Jogging seems to be the right sport to me: I like doing long runs, get some fresh air and sort out my thoughts. Now that the weather is getting colder, I will be using my exercise bicycle.

I have started to feel my physical endurance going in better direction. I haven't lost any weight yet, but that doesn't matter that much. I like being able to run some distances now without running out of breath and it does help me to catch my bus to school. I can also do more physically demanding sports with my friends now.

After a year since the start of the project, I've lost 15 kilograms. During summer I biked to my workplace almost every day, which means I got up to 100km of biking each week. In addition I did tons of physical work in the garden and I've also started to eat in a much more healthy manner. As results I've lost a lot of weight and nowadays I feel absolutely great. My body looks better and I can do so much more without running out of breath. I also like my body much more and thus gotten a better self-esteem and a boost in confident.

CAS Project: Collecting money for Red Cross (Hunger day)

13.9.2012

Learning outcome: Engaged with issues of global importance
Duration: 2 hours

I have every year donated money for Red Cross during Hunger Day, because I have seen poverty in my home country, and I feel that people don't always remember to think others who have worse life conditions than they have.

This year I was offered an opportunity to actually be a collector so I took it. We headed with my friend to my town's marketplace and collected money from passersby. I was gladly surprised how many people donated: Nowadays many seem to only focus on their own problems. We got a lot of money collected and even though it was a really windy and cold day, but the idea of people who are in need getting this help warmed our mind. I will certainty do this again next year!

Detailed CAS Plan

In this post, I will give detailed explanation of my CAS plan. It can be seen from this that I will have at least 150 CAS hours by the end of IB and the CAS hours are gathered during two years and not all at once.

Ongoing projects:

1. Creativity projects:
•  Arts diploma: This project will start in the third period and will last till third year of my High School studies. Every course have approximately over 30 hours and I will be taking 5 courses altogether. This will then provide me with at least 150 CAS for creativity.
2. Action projects:
• Losing weight: This project is for me the hardest and it's in a way ''on-of'f-project'', because I'm not always able to do this. What i try to do is bicycling and/or jogging at least 3 hours one week. This will end when i reach the weight I'm aiming to (aka. normal weight).
3. Service projects:
• Math tutoring: For this project I have planned to tutor anyone that needs any kind of help with their mathematical studies. This project will end when high school ends.
• Digi tutoring: This is a ongoing project. For this project I have planned to tutor anyone that needs any kind of help with technical machines. This project will also end when high school ends.
• Student council: For this project, I get CAS hours by attending the meetings and doing activities, which relate to student council. This project will end after the Christmas holiday in my third High School year.

For long term projects, I will be recording more than one hour sessions for each entry. This is because I feel I won't be learning anything from just one hour (e.g. drawing for one hour).

This following link is to my CAS diary:
http://www.yourworldoftext.com/kallecasdiary