Category: Grade 12 Sangfroid

FS 3/3_25/9/15

Parvashi Manish Naik

Fountainhead School 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament

 

An Idea was born…

 

FS 3/3 was a student-led initiative by me and 2 of my friends. All three of us are Passionate Basketball Players, so we thought of organising a Basketball Tournament as our CAS Project work. The reason we named it FS 3/3 (3 on 3) is because FS is our school’s name and 3/3 is different format of a Basketball game and is not very well recognised in Surat. The objective was to promote Surat Basketball as a whole. Implicitly one of our aims was also to spread awareness regarding this game, especially in girls category as there are rarely any tournaments which have women playing 3 on 3 tournament.

 

Giving Idea a life…

 

After having a word with our CAS coordinator, we fixed 25th September as the date of our tournament. We came up with different concepts that made our tournament different from other basketball tournament. one of them is the Most Valuable Player Currency. We then designed the tournament logo similar to the one of our school so, the uniformity and standard is maintained. Also, we designed a logo for MVP currency. After doing the budgeting, we ended up with 1000/- INR per person cost. After asking people to participate, we realised the price was too high and to be on the safer side we had to approach the sponsors. In that, we learnt to negotiate and learnt persuasive skills that would pursue them to sponsor our event. And, finally we ended up with 500/- INR per person. I had organised events in past which helped me to organize this tournament with ease. I learnt how to prepare budget for the event, adjust the costs as per affordability, negotiating for the prices to make the total expense minimal etc. We faced minor problems in trusting people for sponsorship and keeping our own ethics of truth in mind, we overcome the problem by letting it go and compensating that cost from other sponsors or the collected fees. All three of us had decided that no matter what, this tournament will happen in the most appropriate, right and the correct manner. We won’t let any cheating happen and make the tournament success by following all the rules and ethics. It was not so difficult rather it was fun handling that department and finding ways to overcome different challenges. I took the responsibility of handling the Organising committee and other preparations that had to be done and the other two of my friends had taken the responsibility of approaching sponsors and making registrations done. Organising is one of my strength which I had identified and used it here. It was very difficult for us to bring registrations. This was the most difficult part throughout the tournament. As the registrations were less, the order for reversible jerseys that we had planned to ordered got postponed. As the jerseys were sponsored, I designed a rough look of the jersey. After the order was placed, we were informed that the vendor did not have manpower and therefore he could only send the jerseys without. Printing was important for us as the jerseys were sponsored. The jerseys arrived 3-4 days late then the expected date. 3 days before the tournament they had arrived and because of its material, when we sent them for print, they could only print one side of the jersey, the other side had the reflected print of the other side. Things were not going right. But, we then let all the negativity aside and overcome that problem by printing on one side only. I designed posters of the tournament and also the banner using Microsoft Publisher. I also learnt some skills which I did not know before. Converting those documents, editing them etc. My art teacher helped me with the banner. Those posters were put up all around the city so people would register. At the end, we ended up with 22 teams. One of the OC members helped me design uniform for the organising committee. Just a week before the tournament, the weather got worse. It rained a lot and new marking on the court seemed impossible. Arrangements on the court also were not something that we could do. Everything got postponed. We had to fix a tentative date after a week for the tournament, being on the safer side. The school workers had a lot of work and therefore they refused to do all the work assigned. All mattered to us was that the tournament to go success. So then the OC and the tournament directors themselves started to work. We learned how the basketball court is painted and marked. We could feel that how hard it is to clean the whole court in the sun and that was when we came to know that the staff worked so hard just to ensure we don’t  face problems. I am happy to take up CAS because it helped me the world through different eyes, interact people, pursue them to participate, know what problems they faced and tried solving them and asking them to participate. Different mentalities of people brought to light which helped me understand people better. Just before the day there were a lot of changes in the plan due to certain circumstances. So, we tried doing Smart work instead of hard work. We swapped responsibilities to make everybody’s work easier. We had teams from different cities that were going to arrive a day day before, so we had to go fetch them from station as well. OC dinner was planned where I instructed my team with all the work they had to do. I had prepared for folders per team which our work not easier but also organized. We tried giving all the possible facilities and luxuries in the minimum amount possible.

 

The day had arrived…

All the hard work from past months and the commitment was all going to reflect.2 teams did not turn up on the day, so we finally ended up with 20 teams. We faced some difficulties on that day as their were some misunderstandings in the date of event with the sponsor who was going to provide us with the breakfast. But then, utilizing our time efficiently, we started off with matches and then served the breakfast a little late than schedule, but we served it on the court itself. So, the teams that did not have matche could take the breakfast. So the rush would be less and the matches would still go on. I had also designed the whole agenda for the day, agenda for both categories. The format was League, so the agenda was also designed according to the group in the categories. There was a team who suspected who had suspected some other team to be over age. All three of us, the tournament directors had decided that I will be the chief referee in boys category and he other two of them will be in the girl’s category. So, the protest had happened in the boys, so I was responsible to resolve the conflict. I tried my best and managed to resolve the conflict keeping all the rules, regulations, ethics and the protest process in mind. We running out of time, the buses had to be postponed, but we managed take out time well and stayed up to our commitments to some extent. We did justice to nearly all the decisions we took throughout the tournament. I had also participated in the game. I played wit my team. In the first two matches, as we did not play from a lot of time, we had difficulties in coordination between all three of us. But, by the last game, we ended up with a fairly good coordination between each other. I earned 3 MVP coins in the matches as well. Though we lost that match, but we played our best. Not only that, the rules of this format is different. We tried meeting up the criteria as well. Finally, the Finals was over. The most valuable player was declared and it was a pleasant end of the tournament. CAS gave me the opportunity to explore a whole new side of the world. I was happy to know that this made me a lot more mature and responsible. I learnt how to cater to different problems. I will use my experience of FS 3/3 for upcoming events I will organise in. We received a lot of positive feedback from people. We also had a feedback banner where people jotted their comments which helped us know what was good and what needed improvement. A quote that I believe in is the quote I will use to conclude this reflection of my Project work.

 

“Basketball is not about bright lights, packed arenas and highlighted reels. It is the way of life. Its the way of life. Basketball the relationship between you and the ball, you and your team mates. If you love the game, nobody can take that from you.” -Jordan  

 

Keeping academic honesty into mind,

Source for the quote- http://quotesjunk.com/basketball-isnt-just-about-the-bright-lights-packed-arenas-and-highlight-reels-basketball-is-a-way-of-life-basketball-is-a-relationship-between-you-and-the-ball-michael-jordan/

Evidence for the event- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L6_XhDrcOs

 

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Learning Python on Codecademy

Manan Sanjay Shah

Computers have become an integral part of our lives, now we are literally surrounded by it everywhere and that’s why it is important to learn things about computers. One of the major aspects people learn about computers is computer language and programming. So i decided to learn the computer language Python and use it to do programming. This will help me in my future and i will also learn new set of computing skills. From the beginning i was passionate about computers and learning new things about it this also helped me to take this to initiative to learn Python. Using the website codecademy i started learning the language. Initially it seemed pretty easy, doing an exercise daily was not so tough however i as i progressed the language became difficult and the exercises became even tougher. This activity was difficult because i did not have a room for actually clarifying my doubts by a teacher i had to independently search all my doubts on internet and do the exercises. I had the room for cheating while solving exercises by copying programmes from the internet but i didn’t and worked honestly. One more thing was difficult was time management because we had a lot assignments from school sometimes it was hard to manage time and do my exercises, but i made a timetable for myself which helped me organize my activity and kept productivity on top form. After completing 50% of the course i found out that the other half is paid so i was not able to continue. However whatever i learnt helped me with other exercises kept online. This course of programming not only taught me new skill also improved my mathematical and analytical skills. It made me more focused in a way, as when we have a bug in a programme we have to look carefully and find the bug out.

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Karate National Tournament (SGFI)

Manan Sanjay Shah

“No Pain, No gain” the quote suggests that if you do not go under pain you would never gain your goals. This quote holds true for my life. Every year the Indian government organizes the school games tournament, it is a huge tournament publicly supported and run by the government. This year I had the opportunity to participate in the school games tournament in the sports Karate. I have been doing Karate since I was in grade  and I have also received my black belt. But this year I was aiming to achieve something above the belts, I was aiming to achieve to represent my state in the national tournament of Karate. Since July 31st I have been training as hard as possible, trained about 4 hours every day and on the weekends I used to train for 5 hours with some special endurance and stamina building training. I also had to keep control over my weight as I played in a specific weight category of 60-65 Kgs. I also had to make my diet more strict and apt enough to give me strength to survive the training sessions.

With the training received by my coach I cleared the district level. Now was the time when the real challenge came up. Clearing the states is never easy tough and brutal opponents come and I have to face them and overcome my fear. This time, due to rigorous practice I was able to clear the states. It was not easy my opponents were competent and give me quite a challenge. With clearing the states, a lot of responsibility fell on my shoulders of both academics and sports. However, I managed both and balanced such that nothing was compromised. After clearing the states I had to train even harder as Nationals are really really tough. This was my first ever nationals so I was scared. During my first fight, i saw my opponent and was frightened as he was tall broad and muscular where I was quite small in front of him. This fear took control of me, which made me lose my first fight at Nationals and I was knocked out. However, I was not upset because reaching to a stage like this is even a big achievement and I decided to learn from my experience.  

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Naggar ~ Best Trip Ever

Manan Sanjay Shah

As a part of our school’s winter trip we went to the Northern side of India, in the Mystical state of Himachal Pradesh. In Himachal the cities we explored were Manali, Kullu and Nagar. Initially I was not so excited for this trip as treks are challenging in the cold weather with cold breezes. It wasn’t as tiring as I thought it would be, but it was definitely physical exertion and challenging. However the view while trekking was breathtaking and it mesmerized me by its elegance.We were provided with the freedom to sit back and relax when the other went for trekking however I wanted to make the most out of the trip so I pioneered each and every trek. On the second trek I was so motivated that i ended up being the first one to reach the site. After that all the treks I embarked I showed perseverance to complete it and reach the site first, it was challenging as i tested my physical limits. I also learnt the new skill of skiing and it was a great experience.

From the 16 psychological type I was proved to be an introvert however this trip gave me the opportunity to make new friends and open up. Me and my new friends worked collaboratively while trekking and staying together in the rooms.We helped each other while difficult times during trekking, we even divided the work in the room so we were more productive. It was a great collaborative effort and we forged great bonds between me and my friends which would never break! We learnt about the art and culture unique to the villages near Naggar by visiting the Roerich Art Gallery and the homes in the Rumsu village. It was awesome to learn about the villagers lifestyle. We also learnt how the quality of apple farming deteriorated due to rise in temperature. We learnt about how we need to protect nature from the garbage and the littering done and how we need to be careful about our activities as they have a major impact on nature. We also learned that we should preserve such natural beauties for the future generations. This was an ethical concern that we had to take into consideration and also an issue of global significance. This trip was one of the best trips of my life and I hadn’t been on this trip I would have regretted missing it.

 

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Flash mob

Shasvat Vyomesh Solanki

In this activity, I had to make flashcards and the charts on Education for all, Religion and Cast, Girl Child for the team to can way the message to the audience. I am not very good at making charts and me also never liked to make chats also but this is the first time that I made charts for the activity myself. It was not that hard and boring to make charts that  got to know and I thought that it was fun for the first time. The drawing and sketching part I loved the most but I also had to do the writing part.

I identity that making a chart is not so hard that I use to think but I have to work on the handwriting part a little because that took a most of the time to write in good handwriting. Would have been easier and faster to make charts.

I took the challenge of making charts, that also for the mass audience that was going to see my charts, so I had to make big and clear fonts on the charts.

Flash mob was a team effort and in chart making also I had my friend as a partner. Who sometimes gave me ideas was to make charts and also helped me correct my mistakes on the charts. Also being a part of a team I did not only have the job of making charts but while the show was happening I had help, my team with the little things here and there. The activity was successful because of the collaborative work.

Our aim was to make people aware about educating children and this was the issue for global significant. In our team activity, we also had uneducated students, so people can connect to our activity and aim easily.

I only had limited time for making the charts, so therefore, I had to be committed to my work. I proactively submitted my charts to the team. They were happy with my work and accepted the charts.

Participation in this activity made me feel good that I am making some difference in the society for education. The value for the activity for me was that we are getting a stage where we can convey the message of educating children to all. The activity was effective. Many people saw our work and donated money also to the children’s for education. I learned that making small steps to a problem can really make a difference in the society.  

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Subroto cup football

Shasvat Vyomesh Solanki

participating in the football tournament meant lots of practice and hard work. The football competition where it was going to be held was pretty much far from our school, so the travelling part was boring but where the matches were organised means the tournament place was very good. The place was pleasant and the weather was not too hot but when the sun came on top of our heads, we were all sweaty. Participating in this match gave me a great experience. I came across many  new people and their game but the competition was too long, so we had to miss our school. My purpose of coming to this tournament was achieved, that to play a fair and a skilled game.

By doing this activity, I got to know my strengths. That I am good at cutting and I am weak in long passing skill, so I have to develop this new skill.’

The challenge that I took was to learn short passing perfectly and regularly practicing in morning helped me learned this new skill.

Football is a team game and if we don’t work collaboratively we can not win the competition, so in morning we use to play matches to improve our teamwork and I loved playing matches.

Going in morning for football and practicing for football helped me improve my stamina and was committed to my morning camps but waking up in morning was boring.  

The ethical implication was to not wearing watch, cutting nails and not using  abusive words on the field and playing a fair game.   

The value of the activity was high because only 14 people got selected and that also from around 20 to 25 students. It value increases more by getting a chance to the whole team to go in states, if the team wins.

the ethical dilemmas were like not to wear watch in the match. Be in proper dress and with proper equipment’s also. Using proper language to communicating with people, cutting nails and the most important, being on time.  

I feel that the practice helped me increase my skills and stamina. Other then that overall it also helped me to increase my fitness and health. This shows that the activity was valuable.       

If you are committed to your goal, you can achieve anything. Win and loss is a part of game, if this time we have lost, the next time we will come with more practice. always have a positive attitude. That I learned.  

 

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Bal mela

Shasvat Vyomesh Solanki

This activity was quite different from what I expected. I had to manage underprivileged privilege students to make them do the activity of tug of war but the number of students that came was unexpected to me. It was hard to control the situation and make the activity success from all the students. Thanks to the supervisor and the staff team that made the situation controllable. There were students who were deaf and dumb, so communication with them was hard. We use to give them hand signs and gestures to communicate. Sometimes also joined them to make the teams equal and it was fun.

After this activity i got to know that i am go at managing children’s and as i knew Gujarati it was easy to communicate with students because most of the students were comfortable with Gujarati as a language. I think next without any help of staff team i should be able to manage this many students.

By doing this activity I developed the skill of managing students and also I developed the skill of leadership.

I was fully committed to my activity and I was always with my partner and the staff team to make the activity successfully.

As there were too many students coming at a time like 50 students per group or more. I realize that it was getting much easy to manage them with the help of staff team. Before when the  staff team was not there. We were not able to manage our activity, so I learnt that working collaboratively is more efficient.

The ethical part was that to give equal chances to all the students on the field. Also quality activity and time to the students because sometimes due to the time restriction, we were unable to give equal chances to the students.

Participating in this activity made me feel good that I gave service to underprivileged students. The value of this activity for me was not that much but for the underprivileged students it meant a lot from them. They gained a new experience too. The activity was effective because larger number of students got this new experience, so yes it was effective. This activity will be a life changing for me. It conveyed  the message that be happy with what you have and don’t complain for the things you don’t have.

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Adds to add up!

Priyam Manoj Joshi

A literary fest was organized, out of which, one of the activities which I took part in was “Adds to add up”

In this activity, we were given a product and had to design an advertisement for it.

Firstly, I had not planned to take part in this activity, and it was spontaneous which was a very new thing for me as I was completely unprepared and knew that this competition would be a challenge.

Now, this activity required us to use our marketing skills as well as our creativity, I was accompanied by a few BM students and a lot of juniors.

We planned out our advertisement with suggestions from everyone and then I allocated everyone their duties. I realized through this that I was good at taking leadership and this activity helped me identify and improve my skill which has been useful to be in other activities which I have done.

I also made the poster with some help and employed my drawing skills which I had learnt in the past grades. One of the ethical considerations I had to keep in mind was that since i was the oldest member of the group, I had to be extremely careful to be patient with the younger students and not get angry or be rude when they weren’t able to understand my commands.

We had a few stumbles in our presentation, as even though we had planned there was a shortage of time and we weren’t able to communicate effectively throughout.

This activity was a very new experience for me as I am not a business management student but could find relativity between language, art, psychology and sales techniques.

 

 

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Vansda Plantation

Abhishek Janakkumar Shah

This was a short-term activity without any prior planning or preparation to it. When we reached there, I really admired the scenery. The landscaping was made to look natural but at the same time uniform. I felt pleasant and grew a desire to work for the environment which was what we were here for. I was aware of the environmental problems our earth was facing including global warming and I was motivated to contribute to a better environment by planting more trees within the city.

We were divided into two groups which reduced chaos and people had a better idea of their roles. I had a viewpoint that planting trees would be just sowing seeds in the ground but now I knew that hundreds of thousands of saplings were imported, packed in a plastic covering. We had to remove the plastic and sow the plant with the soil into the ground. This required four different activities so we divided ourselves likewise. We struggled but soon got hold of our activity. On seeing that one activity required more people, we transferred some more to that activity. We were working as a team and it was quick. It wouldn’t have been possible at this pace if every single individual did all the four activities. We had specialised in our part and it was more effective and also there was little to none moving from one place to another due to this. I, however, tried all the activities and it was enjoyable. I learnt to plough the soil, embedding saplings in the dug region, managing the soil with the plants to keep them in place, and finally covering them with more soil. If I had done a mistake and the sapling was planted improperly, I would remove it and do it again; I have always chosen to work with quality even if it took more time and efforts.

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I had a very new experience of standing in a open truck while we go up and down the hill to bring a truckload more of plants. It was as amusing as it sounds. I have good strength and I used it to lift 8-9 plants at a time which saved a lot of time. I developed a sort of ignorance to insects and the dirty soil marks, which were on all of my body. I did not mind it that much after a time which seemed disgusting before today.

I was exhausted by working only for 3-4 hours and I recognized the efforts the workers put in when they worked the whole day for months. I developed empathy towards them and honoured the work they were doing. They were also kind to us and explained how the plants have to be planted in the best way. It felt good that we were extending a hand to help them and giving them a break so that they could relax for at least a day. I was tempted to draw away from work and just have fun like many were doing. But I sticked to the plan and what I had come here for, and did my part. I could escape the herd mentality because if I too started wandering around, maybe two to three more would follow and it would keep on increasing. This way we could not meet up with the aim we had in mind. Perhaps, seeing me work dedicatedly might also have encouraged others to work which I wouldn’t know.

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Subroto Football Tournament U-17

Abhishek Janakkumar Shah

I planned to attend the morning football camps specially for this tournament, being very excited and pumped up. For this, I got up 2 hours early than my routine schedule and that too without an alarm, straight for 5 consecutive days.This made me realize I am not lazy at all when it comes to something I am passionate about. I had pretty much zoned out of football due to my IGCSE board exams and it was followed by a month of vacation where I went for a tour. I noticed that I struggled with shooting the ball with accuracy and majorly I had lost quite a lot of stamina. The usual warm up felt exhausting. This got me thinking into the importance of fitness and I adjusted some time in my schedule dedicated to workouts. With each day of football, I could see myself play my original game. The camps proved really helpful as it got me back into shape after a long break. Moreover, I was able to set coordination with new younger players that were brought into the team since some of the players went overage for the tourney. I was glad I made the decision to join the morning camps or I would have made blunders in those important matches

I was confident that we have very good chances of winning and so were my teammates. Our main coach was not coming and one main defender got injured, that upset me a little but the excitement of the game took over. The journey to the ground helped me gel in with some of the new players and I think that was very crucial. We needed that trust between each other which would serve as the basis for our game coordination. The coach that accompanied us was rather criticised by most of the players but I saw how interesting and kind he was. Most of what people found annoying, him speaking endlessly, I found it pretty cool and was impressed by his speaking skill-set. I was inspired and wanted to build my speech like his.

We walked onto the ground and it looked no different than our school ground. The goals were huge and it seemed so easy to score. I saw other teams around and they looked very much amateurs. I maybe was stereotyping by their physique but I knew they were no danger. The coaches were called for the drawing of the chits which would set the fixtures. What the result of it was that we had to face the top 4 teams (excluding us) for the 4 matches we had to get to the trophy. It shook me. How was this even possible? How could our fortune be so poor? I believe it was all made up against us. Even though there was chit picking, I presume there is politics in everything. The organizers were football coaches and the coaches of the two top teams of the tournament were in fact the coaches of the city team, who did selection from the tournaments. Plus, we did not have our main coach who was quite a bit friends with them. It did all make sense. I reflected that contacts are important, not to pull something in our favour or encourage bad happenings but sometimes to stop the bad happening

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We did not repeat the mistake of doing a lot of warm up and then running out of energy during the match. We stood positive and won the first match comfortably 4-1. This did boost our confidence but at the same time, we were nervous to face the former Subroto champion for our next game. Although we won, my partner at centre forward had a terrible game and he started losing belief in himself. I empathized with him and I could see two things after that – his mood was better and he considered me as a better friend. In the break till the next match, I was tempted by Coca Cola but I knew it made my stomach ache when I ran after drinking it. I avoided it. I even avoided milk for the same reason.

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In the next match, The opponents scored within the first 10 seconds of the game and it was paralysing. The very next minute, we lost our main striker – his ligament tore. We already lost in our minds and got under extreme pressure. We could not keep the ball with us. Our game was definitely better than theirs but I noticed how they appeared out of nowhere and took the possession. They were taller than us and stronger than us. We lacked that level of speed and strength. We went 1-0 to halftime where the coach motivated us that we could still make it into the penalties. I could see everybody had lost hope and energy. I kept screaming ‘We are still in the game!’ but I do not know how much of a difference it made but I tried to cheer everyone up and focus. The captain, unlike others, kept going hard and I was amazed by his commitment and I now knew why he was the captain. Honestly, only the three to four of us were actually trying. Others just played their average game, including the best player of our team. He literally walked to an open ball and lost it. No one ever shouted on him because he was a senior and the most respected – our coach made us ponder about it after the match and it was true. We conceded another goal and the game died there and then for us. We returned 2-0 but however, I was not disappointed by my own individual performance. I did not give up till the end and I’m happy that we didn’t lose because I did not give my 100%.

On our way back home, there was no more the cheer. I kept thinking of the things that went wrong and how it could be better the next time, or what could I work on? However, I realised no one is to blame even though they did make mistakes because obviously they weren’t intentional. I recollected one huge point that we always lose under pressure. When we are under pressure, we tend to focus more on scoring and just scoring. We panic. What the coach always told us is to build a game and then gradually go for goals. I proposed to the coach to work on drills for body strength which we would never do. This time a defeat did not hurt too much because now I have been through a lot of them and it makes me feel stronger from the inside.

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