CAS Project: Promoting IB

Started: 4.12.2014
Ended: 4.12.2014

Supervisor: Jukka Valtanen

Learning outcome: Increased your awareness of your own strengths and areas for growth.
Duration: 2 hours. 

In this task I went to my Junior High School to tell about the IB and see if any junior high school student would be interested. Many student in Finland don't know about the IB and thus we do this so called ''promoting''. I took the task because I like IB very much, but I also wanted to improve my presentation and interaction skills. During the task I was able to interact with the junior high students and with my two other IB friends, who came with me to present IB. 

My goal was to present IB as well as I could and learn to behave more naturally in front of a crowd. I knew from previous experience that I'm usually nervous when I give presentations so I tried to control this aspect during the task. Furthermore I think it's crucial to learn how to behave naturally when giving presentations, because this is a skill that I definitely will need in the future. I tried to achieve these goals by being as relaxed as possible during the presentation and thinking the people in the audience as my friends. 

All in all I think the presentation went quite well and it the people in my group, including me, enjoyed giving the presentation. I think the presentation developed my interaction skills, as I've noticed that I'm now more relaxed and more natural in front of an audience. I've noticed also that being relaxed during the presentation also helps me to get better grades from them, so this task has not helped me just only to improve my presentation skills, but also my school grades. 

CAS Project: Night school

Started 7.2.2014

Supervisor: Juha Vänttinen

Learning outcome: Showing perseverance and commitment
Duration: 12 hours. 

Every year our school divides 2nd graders into small groups, in which they have to organized a given event. I was put in a group for the annual 2nd graders' night school. I like to engage myself in these kind of activities, so I took the lead of the group and handled delegation of tasks and making sure that everything was on schedule. The task demanded good communication skills and ability to make decisions. In addition I had to schedule meetings with other members and pull the group together. Therefore this task developed my perseverance and commitment. Moreover I learned that in order to organize an event, even as small as this one, one needs to contact many authorities and inform many people, such as teachers, parents, students, cleaning staff and IT-staff. This was something new to me, since I have never organized this type of event.

I like organizing events and for this reason the task was quite enjoyable for me. It brought 2nd graders together and the 2nd graders got a chance to get to know each other better. The positive feedback that I got from the students and the teachers after the event has made me happy. All in all I think the event was a success and it made the school atmosphere among 2nd graders better.