CAS PLAN

Activities Description of the activity Components (C/A/S) Duration with start date and end date Goals Learning Outcomes
Khel Mahakumbh Participate in an open category basketball tournament. Activity 4/2/2016 To participate in an open tournament and try to win the tournament, while maintaining sportsman spirit. LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
LO7: Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Tree Plantation Drive – Nature Club An opportunity to serve mother nature and protect the environment by planting trees. Activity, Service 3 July 2016 To consciously work towards saving the environment as a volunteer. LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Maker’s Space(CAS PROJECT) Work on ‘making’ different creative things throughout the year. Creativity, Activity 7/7/2015 to 6/2/16 To create different projects with the help of advisors, colloborating with classmates. LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
Tree Plantation-Vansda Tree Plantation in Janki Van(Short Term) Service, Activity 18-Jul-2015 To plant trees in an upcoming artificial forest developed by the government. Help the labourers working there in plantation work. LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
LO7: Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Basketball Tournament 3 on 3 Organising an open tournament. Different schools to be invited.(Long Term) Activity, Creativity, Service 17 Jul 2015 and 26 Sep 2015 To conduct a successful basketball tournament in our school without any loop holes. Take an active part in organising the tournament as I am willing to perform the role of OC Head(Transport) responsibly. LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
LO7: Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions
School Games Basketball Competition Participation in an inter school tournament(Short Term) Activity 30-Jul-2015 To gain experience from fellow players and learn about gameplay and rules while integrating the learnings in my play. LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
LO7: Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Strength Training Go to the school gym regularly in order to nurture body muscles.(Long Term) Activity 2 Sep 2015- 22 Jan 2016 To gain muscle strength and improve the fundamentals of my figure in order to have a more composed body shape/structure. LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Pep Talk Give a pep talk to the current G10. Service, Creativity 9/2/2015 To impart and share my study and time management techniques with them so they could get better grades in their boards. Also, improve my public speaking skills. LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
LO7: Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions

 

Teacher’s Day’16

Like every year even this year teacher’s day celebration was organised by our grade. Because this is our last year in school we wanted to celebrate this day in a way that was unforgettable. To make this day a memorable one for all our teachers we did a few things that we thought would make this day special for them. Firstly, we made a video that was a complilation of all the times we’d spend together followed by a dance performace. My friend (Unnati) and I were given the responsibility of choreographing the dance. The whole idea behind the dance performance was to express our feelings and love for our teachers.

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We had planned for a drama cum dance where we had one of our friends become the HOS. We had to organise a lot of meetings to choreograph the dance. During those meetings is when I identified my strength of choreographing a dance. Apart from identifying my strengths I got to learn a lot more things which helped me enrich my knowledge about this particular activity.

What came up as challenge for me during the preparation of this event was to manage my studies simultaneously with the workload of this event. Studying for the exams and at the same time being fair towards my other responsibilities was being really difficult for me. Due to the tight schedule and limited time at first I thought I wouldn’t be able to do justice to both the responsibilities, however towards the end I did smart work and  was able to manage my time effectively.

For an event to be successful working together as a team is extremely important. Unnati and i did the same. In fact, all the members in our grade worked collaboratively to make this event a huge success. Coordinating with all the classmates during the preparation and execution stage of this event is where my team spirit as an individual and my inputs to the event comes into picture.

Overall, this was one of the activities that I’ll always remember because I had real fun with my classmates and teachers and especially because I have a lot of good memories of this day.

 

 

Hindi Assembly

I volunteered for Hindi Assembly which was organised by 2 of my classmates, and was held in our school. I was assigned a task to conduct an activity called: 7 min ka Jalwa. In this activity grade 11 and 12 were given 10 dares, which they had to complete in 7 minutes. The dare’s were different for both the grades. It was a challenge for me to conduct the activity as I have stage fear and I face a lot of trouble when it comes to facing the audience. However my determination to make this event a success helped me overcome my fears and conduct the activity successfully and with confidence.

I was committed toward my work as I had to decide the criteria based on which the participant will be judged with my partner, and we had to meet several times to discuss and plan during the initial stages. I cooperated and coordinated well with my partner and other volunteers during the planning and executing of the activity, by making sure that all the resources needed for the activity were in place. In addition, I helped other volunteers who were facing problems while coming up with an activity which was entertaining and possible to do. In my activity among those 10 dares a few dares demanded the participants to mimic our teachers. During this we had to make sure that the participant knows the limits and that they do not hurt the feelings of any teacher, which would have been unethical.

I personally enjoyed conducting the activity and the audience liked it as well. I feel that it was a challenge for me but I learned how to engage the audience and make sure that they were not bored, and also to be confident I am looking forward to initiating an assembly like this again if time permits.

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“Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing.” ~Warren Bennis

logo2-13This was the second time that a MUN was happening in the school. After listening to the experiences from my fellow friends regarding the first MUN, I was keen to participate in the second MUN ‘FSMUN 2.0′. I was really excited, however, I have stage fear, therefore public speaking was never my cup of tea. I decided to be a part of the organizing committee. My role in the FSMUN organization committee was that of the head of the logistics and the finance department. In both the departments I had partners to share my workload and hence I was able to give justice to all my duties, hence, have a balanced plan.

My goal was to understand the process of how the departments run and by the end of the event acquire knowledge about technical details. In the finance department I was responsible for keeping a record of the payments made by the delegates (cash inflow) and to coordinate with screen-shot-2016-12-05-at-12-05-14-pmother departments and to make the payments of all the expenses done (cash outflow). In the logistics department I had to ensure that, on the day of the event everything is working smoothly and had to monitor the work done by the other team members. Working with people, being a manager, taking responsibility, making other people work is something that I can do, hence, I applied for the head position of the logistics department. After interview and the completion of the whole process, we were allotted our duties. I was quite satisfied with what was given to me. But there was not much scope to explore in that department. Later, due to some issues, they needed someone to take over the finance department, I was offered to do so, and I accepted it. I being passionate to learn something new and explore how the way things work at a major level, was very curious. To some level I love math and management both, therefore finance department was an appropriate option for me. I had to learn the how the account system works, because out of city delegates made tscreen-shot-2016-12-05-at-12-04-52-pmheir payments through bank transfers, keeping the tally of each payment, contacting each delegate was a challenge for me. Simultaneously, I also had to keep a track of the cheque payments (submit those cheques) and handle the cash payments of the in city delegates. It was chaotic and tiring, because a lot of delegates had queries regarding the payment method and they used to even call at night. I ad to cater to each call. I took a little time to understand the process and the working already happening, because I joined this department halfway through and had to first understand the work already done. But the people with whom I was working were really cooperative, they gave me time and made me understood everything. The earlier finance department head was also very helpful, she forwarded me all the mails a and provided me with all the necessary information. Effective communication skills is something that I developed through this learning process. I had to do all the logistics work on the day of the event. I also won the best OC award for this. Overall, I was an amazing experience.

 

Eye-checkup camp

My friend and I volunteered for an eye checkup of under privileged children. This camp was conducted by Rotary Club of Udhana in Navnirman school where there were hundreds of unprivileged students. Out of these children a lot of them had vision problems, but couldn’t do anything because of financial problems, lack of resources and lack of education. To help them with their vision Rotary Club had set up this camp where children who had vision problems were provided with spectacles.

What came up as a challenge for me during this activity was speaking in Gujarati and conversing in sign language. Gujarati was the only language that the children understood and because I do not know how to speak in Gujarati conversing with the children became really difficult. Few of the students could not even understand Gujarati, in that case we had to use sign language in order to converse with them which again was a challenge for me. Understanding each other was a problem initially, however after sometime both of us (the children and I) were quite comfortable with each other and the conversations were going smooth.

When I volunteered for this activity I was not at all excited because there wasn’t much that I could have done other than helping. The reason I had volunteered for this activity was because I had done only a few activities that could have been categorised under the service component. Initially, I wasn’t talking a lot to those kids all the instructions were given by my friend because I wasn’t feeling comfortable around them. But when we started helping the club members in checkup I found myself actually enjoying the company of those kids. After the checkup was over my friend and I had a lot of fun. We played a lot of games. On our way back to home while reflecting upon our experience with those kids I realised that after getting out my comfort zone I had real fun. It felt really good. I am glad that I was part of this activity

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“Do anything, but let it produce joy.” ― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Garba Fest

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Garba and Dandiya are the popular traditional dance forms that are performed during the festival of Navratri. By taking an advantage of the festival time, a dance competition was arranged. It was condimg_4270ucted to raise funds for charity.  To contribute to overcome with one of the significant globe issue, ‘POVERTY’. I have a keen interest in math and accounting. I was the head of the finance department for the event, where my goal was to make maximum profit, so that more money is donated. I took this opportunity because I thought it is a good platform for me to demonstrate my leadership and management skills, also this was a good opportunity to work for a good cause. This event helped me learn the technicals of finance and I also gained an experience of finance management for a big event like this.

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It was for the first time that I was handling finance department for an event. I was very nervous, because not only did I had to handle the payments of the participants and stalls, but I also had to plan and take care of the budgeting with keeping tally of the cash flow and thereby also managing the expenses of all the other departments. Maintaining the coordination between all the departments was essential. I faced challenges during the process regarding the budget allotment. As the number img_4261of participants were changing and we were unable to predict the accurate participants the budget allotment process was getting delayed and I had to redo it many times. It was tiring as well as time consuming, but success comes with sweat. The heads of the other departments were patient and cooperative, ence, making the whole process work smoothly. At the end due to time constraints and with fluctuations we had to rush to get the things done, but it was possible with everyone’s support (including the school, teachers, support staff, etc.). On the day of the event, there were instant participants and therefore I also had to take care of their payment. Also ensuring that were was no one in the event who has not made the payment, as it will be unfair to the other participants. Ethics had to be maintained. Taking attendance by tallying each individual was a tedious task.  

I learnt a lot of things from this event, mainly how to manage with unexpected issues and to deal with last minute crisis. I also learnt a lot regarding the practical process of budgeting, payments and cash-flow. I think this has added a new column in my learning sheet and has helps me grow a lot as a person, this as well has given a satisfaction of positively contributing to the society.

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Profile -“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ― Dr. Seuss

CAS PROFILE – HETVI SHAH

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My real name is Hetvi Ladhani, but after shifting to Surat, Gujarat, the family name has been changed to ‘Shah’.  We basically belong to Rajasthan and therefore I know the cultural language ‘Marwari’. I am brought up in this city of diamonds, ‘Surat’ and after spending years over here, I have developed a fluency in the local language ‘Gujarati’ too. In the city of Mumbai, on 15th of July, 1999 (last year of the 19th century), I was brought into this world. I consider myself lucky enough to have had the chance of witnessing both the 19th and the 20th century.

Who am I? Well, that’s a secret I’ll never tell. However, I will always want to be a person my parents want me to be. I believe that nobody is an open book, because even the books have some hidden messages that we may not be able to decode, and after all, nobody is like a clear water reflecting a face, the remains of the small pores can be skipped by a human eye. My debris speak a lot about me, they are the hints to the world about me. In my perspective, we all are magicians. Don’t we manipulate things for our benefit? The echo of the phrase ‘work out of your comfort zone to gain success’ remains in the back of our minds. I oppose this popular advice, as for me, working in my comfort zone motivates me to work harder, it provides me the atmosphere that suits me and allows me to be in my space. I just need to push myself, and not behave like I am on a Hawaiian beach. People who know me well, say I am always on my power saving mode. But folks, “Laziness is the first step towards efficiency”, says Patrick Bennett. One of my weaknesses are ‘hygiene factors’, their under maintenance affect me a lot, and I get irritated at the speed of light, like, if they are not maintained to an extent, it will make me feel really uncomfortable.  

I hate majority of the people I meet. I just don’t like meeting strangers, I don’t feel comfortable around the people who don’t know me well. Surprisingly, I have good coordination with the all my batch mates. On the surface, I may seem like a boring person to many, however, I feel that my pals cherish the time they spend with me. Family is very important to me and friends too.  “Be yourself, but always your better self” said by Karl G. Maeser, is a motto that my friends and I wish to follow. I don’t give myself too much liberty to judge people, however it is a human tendency to make judgments, and therefore before making an eye contact with a person, I always make a shoe contact. I have a weird habit of judging people based on their footwear.

Water is the substance that I adore the most. Its qualities personally teach me a lot, and may be therefore, I connect a lot to water. I want to be like water, people have no expectations from water, its existence reveals its importance. Why don’t we flow without any burden? Like in water the heavy substances settle down and it keeps flowing. Why are our shoulders so heavy? I am afraid of all the rides in the amusement/theme parks, but water rides attract me towards them. A few years back, I went to a water safari and that experience is something that I’ll never ever forget. I only felt the pressure of water pouring down from the waterfall on my shoulders, I heard the loud thundering of water and I stood there while the water coated my body, it was serene.

photo-1I have a penchant for knowing things, especially the details of situations and stories. I like travelling, watching movies/tv shows, reading, which has developed my little spark for writing. One day I will be an author, I claim! Hahahaha! My areas of focus are Math and Business management. Leadership and management skills are something that I have developed over the years. Since childhood I am involved in doing social work by taking part in various events. I am rigid, as well as emotional. Whenever I see a living creature suffering, my emotional ability overpowers my analytical ability. But as Mahatma Gandhi says, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” I have tried to help a number of people in various ways, however, a selfish reason for doing so has always been in existence. My part time favorite activity is drawing (doodling). Time management has become a barrier of my life, but studies have always been my priority. Prioritizing my work has always helped me in achieving the goals I aimed for. I would like to end with a quote which reads “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself”, by George Bernard Shaw.

P.S. I like quotes.

CAS Profile

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Me, my talents and my interests

Hi! My name is Aashna, and I’m 17 years old (well, I will be, by the time I finish CAS). People say I am particularly good at reaching things on shelves that are high up, reading pretentious books, and explaining things to people, (which is ironic, because they also say that I’m one of the most impatient people to have walked on this planet).

My greatest pleasure in life is travelling. And I am no lightweight traveller; I become super-immersed in the culture, beauty and history of the places I travel to. You could say that my in-built nerdiness follows me even when I am on vacation. I also enjoy laughing. By that, I mean, I enjoy seeing stand-up comedy, comic TV shows and reading books that tickle my tummy.

My outlook on life

I strongly believe that it is of utmost importance to live a balanced life. However, this is easier said than done when you’re in DP. That is why, when I find myself out in the rain transplanting trees a day before a Business Management test, or sitting quietly and colouring in the portrait of a flamenco dancer right before my EE submission, I feel extremely thankful to CAS for making it mandatory  to live a little.

Having said that, I believe that I still have a very long way to go to achieve the balance that I so idealistically preach about. Therefore, I believe I would like to be more involved with sports and service based activities in the future, and improve my skills in these avenues. My endurance, for example, has taken a nose-dive ever since I joined that DP, and I believe that the remedy for that will be investing more time into practicing sports that I enjoy – like tennis, and football. Moreover, through the medium of CAS, I have been able to take up visual arts, which I have found to be extremely therapeutic and calming. I’m sure if I improve my fine motor skills, I’ll find the arts even more calming as that sense of resignation that I associated with my artistic abilities will be mitigated.

My goals, and my dreams

I feel really strongly about education for all. Therefore I would like to go beyond just ‘feeling strongly’ and become more involved in making the world a better place in this aspect. However, I believe that when it comes to taking baby steps to solve an issue of global significance, it is important that my actions are as effective as possible, and therefore I would like to learn about the teaching methods and techniques that I can employ to effectively teach students who don’t have access to adequate education.

I am a history geek, and therefore I really want to try to increase appreciation for Surat’s heritage in its people. It is my dream that the beautiful, priceless Dutch, English and Armenian cemeteries in Surat’s old cities are preserved and well taken care of in a manner that people are able to appreciate the great history of our city.

CAS Profile

Hi everyone, I am Avina and I love warm hugs! The one thing that life has taught me is- Everyone has a different journey in life, which is beautiful in its own ways!

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There are a lot of things that I enjoy, few of which include… watching movies, listening to music, talking to people, visiting places, travelling, doing adventures sports/activities, reading romantic-cliché novels, doing crafty things, dancing, trying different cuisines, receiving gifts, swimming… and listing things like this :P. Thanks to all these things that I enjoy, there are a few skills and talents that I have acquired and developed throughout these years, which I believe includes being creative, patient enough to listen to people as they pour their heart out and to cook delicious food. However, this journey still remains incomplete; there are a lot of things I would like to do, a lot of skills that I would like to acquire, a lot of moments that I would love to cherish. I would love to learn different languages and learn to read people’s hearts. I not only want to learn new things but I also want to improve a few skills that I believe are essential in one’s life. One thing that I find the most difficult is with language (see what I mean!) and that to send my messages sharp and clear. Additionally, I want to improve my management skills that I feel are significant after being an IB student.

The biggest concern in my life is seeing things that hurt people so much that they start to lose interest in life, and take decisions that are life threatening; which is why I want two things to stay constant in my life. First, to always stay happy and second, to never let the child in me disappear. So, at least once before I die, I want to get involved in things that spread happiness around and create a difference either in someone’s life or in the society itself.  Lastly, the one dream that I want to fulfill is to take the world tour checking things out off my bucket list and visit all my relatives before I die.

 

 

Organizing the Garba Fest <3

Never in my life had I organized an event, nor did I ever imagine that I could. Garba Fest is an event that I am absolutely proud of; not only because of its success but because of the thrill that it gave people as well as the help it did to the society. It included Creativity as we had to be creative to have decorated the assembly and service as it was a fund raiser.

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This plan just started as an idea of a fundraising event, but as we advanced with the plan the motive was not only fund raising but also give the students of fountainhead school an opportunity to celebrate a much loved event along with all their friends and teachers. The first thing that we had to do was to choose the departmental heads which was hard as we could not give our friends priority, so we went along with the method of interviews keeping the ethical concerns in mind(not being biased). Initially we did not have a really detailed plan when we appointed departmental heads; however when we started having meetings and started taking into consideration other’s ideas and opinions we eventually came up with quite a well detailed plan. This taught me the importance of collaborating with the team members we had. During the rigorous planning  stage of 2 months I discovered my areas of weakness which were effective communication and negotiation which I worked upon during those 2 months.

 

Everything was very chaotic at the beginning and it was becoming harder to follow through the plan however when we started sticking to the plan religiously for the whole month, things took a positive turn. I learned that organizing any event is hard work however the fruit is always rewarding; in this case our reward was the huge amount of money that we collected for donation.

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