Recycling - February 2013 - A new group... but the same commitment!

The Recycling and Sustainability service programme commenced in the second school semester. While me and Jenn will continue as co-leaders under the supervision of Mr. Ian Lockwood, this semester the OSC Recycling and Sustainability service group will welcome many new members. As the service group will be starting afresh, it will be important to build a team spirit and establish good communication in order to accomplish our service goals. These goals in general include continuing the recycling material collection within the school campus in an efficient manner, increase the environmental sustainability of our school community by recycling used (and non-reusable) paper, cardboard, plastic and some metals, and finally, help develop a responsible and caring attitude towards use of resources within the school community by setting up trays for reusable paper in all rooms and thoroughly filtering recycling materials obtained for reusable items. We may add glass to the items we recycle in order to increase our school's eco-logical footprint.

The following students will be taking part in Recycling and Sustainability for Semester 2:

Anaath Jacob

Anna Schosser

Arnont Singsathitsuk

David Tchoumak

Januda Muthugama

Malaika Salman

Nisala Saheed

Nitika Singh

Sarocha Vitthayakrai

Varun Menon

The first session was held on 7^th of February. On the day, a previously planned introduction and many organized ice-breakers were carried out to start the activity in order to promote group bonding and community service spirit. Recycling material collection was initiated at 3:10 pm. There was also a small  reflection session in the end. By the end of the day, I developed new skills of addressing students with a formal introductory speech by overcoming the challenge of speaking in front of a group as a leader, and guiding the students by leading as a role model. However, I also realised that as the eldest students in the group other than myself and Jenn are 7th graders, it will be difficult to look for future recycling service leaders. Thus, this will be one of the challenges me, Jenn and Mr. Lockwood will be working towards.

Recycling sessions have been going well since and I am happy with the active participation of our current team. While new types of challenges have been coming up, we have tackled and overcome them efficiently in collaboration and they have not caused any hindrance to our weekly sessions.

Some photos of one of our sessions this month are given below:

Helping in packing recycling material before it is sent to the recycling center.

Some primary school children enjoyed learning about our service.

Ready to go!

This month was packed with service based action for me as well. As a leader, I (along with my co-leader) have been challenged both physically and mentally. Regular sessions are planned differently according to special requests or different scenarios. Thus, spontaneous planning, organization, and teams and task distribution test me mentally as a leader. At the same time, actively keeping track of all students, keeping records of collection before, during and after sessions, as well as participating in collection and cleaning tasks myself test me physically as a leader. All these tasks have enabled me to develop a very useful set of skills as a leader which will be useful to me in the distant future as well.

Now, I look forward to the final lap and hope it will be as exciting as this month!

Semester 2 - Goals

CAS Goals for the second semester

The senior year has entered its last phase and I have just completed my IB trial exams. After this short 'break', now I plan to continue my involvement in the IB DP CAS programme. Thus, before jumping into the CAS schedule, here I will develop my goals for the semester. My goals for the second semester will be modified from the goals I set in the first semester as I have identified specific areas of improvement from my experiences and report card feedback.

Guitar (Creativity): 

I have not been able to practice guitar during the past three weeks due to academic engagements. I feel that I have successfully learnt and understood the basics of guitar. Now, I will continue improving my guitar skills using primary resources such as my teacher, brother or friends who are experienced and fluent guitarists, and secondary resources such as the Internet.

My goals for guitar this semester are:

• Attend classes regularly and punctually.
• Practice properly and participate actively in class.
• Play guitar for at least 2 hours every week with minimum 30 minutes duration practice sessions. (Independent of class time)
• Learn and video at least 1 song every month.
• Be creative with my learning, i.e. attempt to vary the types of songs I learn and practice different techniques. 
• Recording and reflecting on my experiences regularly on my CAS blog.

Recycling (Creativity and Service): 

While me and Jenn will continue as co-leaders under the supervision of Mr. Ian Lockwood, this semester the OSC Recycling and Sustainability service group will welcome many new members. As the service group will be starting afresh, it will be important to build a team spirit and establish good communication in order to accomplish our service goals. These goals in general include continuing the recycling material collection within the school campus in an efficient manner, increase the environmental sustainability of our school community by recycling used (and non-reusable) paper, cardboard, plastic and some metals, and finally, help develop a responsible and caring attitude towards use of resources within the school community by setting up trays for reusable paper in all rooms and thoroughly filtering recycling materials obtained for reusable items.

My goals for recycling this semester are:

• As a leader, it will be most important for me to lead all my team members by setting up an example.
• I will improve my communication skills
• I will improve my team leading skills by planning tasks in collaboration with my co-leader Jenn and supervisor Mr. Lockwood.
• Participate enthusiastically, commitedely and actively.
• Successfully transfer the co-leader positions to two team members in order to complete my and the service group's transition from the IB CAS programme.
• Regularly reflect about my experiences on my CAS blog.
  

 Badminton (Action):

I will continue to take part in Badminton sessions at the D.S. Senanayake twice every weekend. This activity has enabled me to improve my stamina and challenge my body physically. These sessions are good for physical fitness and also for mental relaxation. Thus, its aptly said that "a healthy mind resides in a healthy body". In addition, these sessions will enable me to improve my badminton skills and become a better player and sportsperson. The timings for these badminton sessions will be:

• Saturday - 7 am to 8 am
• Sunday - 7 am to 9 am

My goals for Badminton this semester are:

• Be punctual and attend sessions regularly.
• Spend some time doing warm-up exercises and jogging.
• Take minimum breaks.
• Participate enthusiastically, commitedely and actively.
• Regularly reflect about my experiences on my CAS blog.

 ---

While working towards achieving these goals, I will keep in mind all 8 critical learning outcomes in the OSC CAS handbook. These learning outcomes are:

• Increasing awareness of my own strengths and areas of growth
• Undertaking new challenges
• Planning and initiating activities
• Working collaboratively with others
• Showing perseverance and commitment in my activities
• Engaging with issues of global importance
• Considering the ethical implications of my actions
• Developing new skills

These aspects will always be incorporated in my actions and in my reflections and therefore, I will do my best to ensure I take great learning experiences and skills from the last semester of my school life.

Semester 1 - Reflection

It was the first day of school today. This week is officially the last week of Semester 1 and thus, I will now reflect upon my experiences in my CAS activities during the past 4-5 months. I have been able to adhere to my personal CAS goals and participate in all my planned CAS activities in a successful manner. I have also regularly maintained my reflection blog and thus, succeeded in becoming a reflective IB student.

I have worked hard in the Creativity aspect of the CAS programme this semester. I had my last guitar class for this semester this Saturday. Now, I have completed basics, and learnt and understood many beginner guitar skills. Thus, I have completed the basics of guitar and am moving towards the moderate level. I have been able to tackle this challenge successfully. I adhered to my CAS goals and have been successful in achieving my goals. It has been an exciting semester for me and I really enjoyed developing new guitar skills. On the other hand, I took on the role as a leader in the OSC Recycling and Sustainability group and have learnt and identified a lot of new skills from my experiences in this short times. Meetings with the co-leader Jenn and activity supervisor Mr. Lockwood taught me the importance of planning, communicating and collaborating with students in the team during activities taught me about responsibility, leadership and setting an example as a leader, while many other events made me realize the importance of teamwork, the global importance and meaning of a small scale activity such as this in the real 'big' world, and the ethical implications of actions towards creating a more environmentally sustainable environment in OSC to the school community and to the host country. The teachings from this activity helped me to engage in both the Creativity and Service aspects of the CAS programme. I will continue to take part in the recycling group as a perseverant and commited leader next semester in order to develop new skills, continue to learn and improve from reflecting upon my own strengths and areas of growth, and to gain such special and one-of-a-kind experiences.

My Action activities this semester, both Badminton as well as Swimming, have been successful. I have been able to develop new skills, work collaboratively with others, and achieve my goals of improving my physical stamina and becoming a more tactical badminton player while enjoying the sport. I also recognized that while my badminton skills had developed and increased, my personal areas of growth that I will continue to target next semester are stamina, strength, agility and game tactics.

I will to continue to engage in all the aspects of the CAS programme in the next semester as well. I will cherish the experiences from the first semester. Now, I am looking forward to a CAS filled last semester of my school life starting next week.

Service - November - Recycling continues

Recycling was really successful this month. The Recycling and Sustainability group was able to collect recycling materials from all rooms and the collected materials were transported to the recycling centers every session. The team worked committedly and collaboratively to finish all tasks in a organized and timely manner. This month, me and Jenn as leaders implemented a new method of making teams and setting tasks. From our experience in the last two months, we knew that all students have become acquainted with each other. However, some specific student combinations are able to work more efficiently relative to other group combinations. Thus, we planned and initiated a group programme that specified student groups that would be sent to specific buildings for collection. This new plan was helpful as it reduced the time required for students to get organized into teams every session and it also helped students to become familiar with the buildings they visited. Hence, we used our earlier reflection on areas of growth to develop this new scheme which has made our teams' work more efficient.

I feel that this month has been one of the busiest and successful in terms of meeting our aim as a community service group. We were happy that there was no hindrance due to the weather this month and hope that the work continues in the same positive manner next month as well.

Below are photographs of our visit to our two main recycling centers. The initial photos have been taken at the recycling center on Pannipitiya road.

Unloading the collected recycling materials from the pickup truck.

Weighing a bin with paper.

Weighing another bin with paper.

Jenn and Hyung Suk wait while the paper and cardboard are weighed.

Photo of some of the cardboard outside the recycling center.

Jenn unloading cardboard.

Weighing cardboard.

Receiving money for sold paper and cardboard.

 The photographs below were taken at the Narahenpita Road recycling center.

Akila looks on as the recycling material is weighed.

Me standing next to bins full of paper for recycling.

I am now looking forward to recycling next month!

Recycling - October - Rainy sessions, soggy cardboard!

Recycling has been really busy this month. With challenges posed by the rainy weather, the group worked in a committed manner. The weather was also a hindrance as lots of cardboard left outside the recycling room got wet even though I personally took initiative to move the cardboard into the room during school lunch times. In addition, we were only able to visit the scrap dealers to sell collected recycling materials once out of four sessions due to the rainy weather. To resolve issues of cardboard loss due to rain, I am deciding of implementing a new plan (starting this November) which involves maintenance of materials left outside the room by the students in the Recycling and Sustainability group outside the service sessions held after school on Thursdays. This will require collaboration within the team and more perseverance from some regularly late or absent students.

 

Grade 10 and grade 11 students taking initiative at service.

A photograph from the sole visit to the scrap dealer this month.

 

I also developed a new and important skill of writing an article on the subject of "Recycling awareness for a sustainable OSC community" addressed to the school community. Due to the importance of the topic of recycling awareness, I am reiterating it below:

 

Recycling @ OSC

            Have you ever wondered what happens to the objects you dispose? Well, the useless and discarded waste is turned into a fresh and dynamic product! In this rapidly changing world, new discoveries and inventions in the field of science and technology have done the undoable. The three step technique called ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ is the rule that governs a new business of reincarnation – the reincarnation of non-biodegradable waste!

The Recycling and Sustainability Group @ The Overseas School of Colombo is a service group in the school’s Community Service program that collects and sorts used paper, cardboard, plastics and several metals into their respective material groups during weekly sessions held afterschool on Thursdays. These items are then sold to scrap dealers in the Battaramulla region. They, in turn, supply these to recycling agencies located in Sri Lanka, India and China.

             Often times, recycling of used materials is thought to be the only step towards creating an environmentally-friendly cyclic waste management system. Consequently, the rates of consumption of many items continue to increase. Thus, the OSC Recycling and Sustainability service group aims to raise communal awareness regarding the importance of reducing consumption of non-biodegradable materials and promoting their reuse wherever possible in order to avoid wastage. For this purpose, cardboard trays made from cartons have been distributed to all rooms in the school for the purpose of collecting ‘reusable’ paper. Similarly, in order to increase efficiency in recycling of non-biodegradable waste in the school, the OSC Maintenance Department has initiated a new program to better waste segregation on the campus. In accordance with the school’s strategic plan for 2010-2015 aimed at creating a green environment, separate sets of bins have been allocated for ‘Plastic’, ‘Paper’ and ‘Food’ waste collection.

The success of this initiative to promote sustainability and an eco-friendly waste management system in the school relies on the response of the OSC community. It is important that all members of the community make efforts to scrupulously follow the new waste disposal system. In addition, independent actions such as minimizing avoidable consumption at home, refraining from printing as far as possible and using electronic means instead, and selling old newspapers and other discarded items to scrap dealers for recycling would surely reduce the community’s ecological footprint.

Dhyani Ywahoo rightly said that “You can tell how high a society is by how much of its garbage is recycled.” Hence, it is vital for everyone in the community to play their part. So, the next time you are disposing a waste item, be ‘waste wise’ and remember ‘3 R’s for waste avatars.’

Other such articles can be accessed on the Recycling and Sustainability blog.

 

Some photographs of the recycling group at work can be accessed from the facebook page maintained by the OSC CAS student news service.

 

I am now looking forward to a less rainy November so that the service can proceed without any hindrance.

Service - Recycling commences :)

The Recycling and Sustainability service programme at OSC has been quite successful in its initiation. Jennifer Andersson (http://jennand94cas.blogspot.com/) and I were chosen as co-leaders for this activity and we have been working under the supervision of Mr. Ian Lockwood for this first month, i.e. September. 

The following students will be taking part in Recycling and Sustainability for Semester 1:

Aagney Menon

Akila Liyanage

Amrit Dayanand

Greta Rocchi

Hyung Suk Cho

Ji-Yul Ha

Malaika Salman

Nathan Omprasadham

Patrick Hofbauer

Shikhir Sapra

Yoon Jae Hwang

Ysobella Grieve-Darcy

The first session was held on 6^th of September. On the day, a previously planned introduction and many organized ice-breakers were carried out to start the activity in order to promote group bonding and community service spirit. No recycling material was collected that day, and in its place, an inventory of recycling boxes was conducted in the whole school. Thus, groups were created based on random chits picked out of a basket. 5 pairs and 1 group of three were formed such that the co-leaders would alternately participate in the collection of paper. The other co-leader would maintain the recycling room and organize collected recycling material for transport to the recycling center. By the end of the day, I developed new skills of addressing students with a formal introductory speech by overcoming the challenge of speaking in front of a group as a leader, and guiding the students by leading as a role model.

Many changes such as adding a lock to the recycling room and attaching a rule sheet describing the aim of the service and the recyclable materials to the room differentiate this activity from last year, and ensure an organized and systematic system of functioning.

In the most recent session on 27^th of September, Jenn and I visited the recycling center together for the first time this semester and sold approximately 122 Kg of paper and 30 Kg of cardboard that had been collected over the duration of a few weeks. We earned a total of SL Rs. 910. Visiting the center has echoed the local and global importance of the activity to me. The service not only helps to implement and encourage the ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ system within the school community, however, on a local level it benefits the recycling centers which act as middlemen between the consumers, i.e. the disposers, and the recyclers, i.e. the processing and recycling companies. On a global level, the whole cycle is not only eco-friendly; however, it is the simplest solution to resource depletion related problems. David Morris aptly said that “The case for recycling is strong. The bottom line is clear. Recycling requires a trivial amount of our time. Recycling saves money and reduces pollution. Recycling creates more jobs than landfilling or incineration. And a largely ignored but very important consideration, recycling reduces our need to dump our garbage in someone else’s backyard.” Furthermore, on a personal level, I have been inspired by the ethical implications of this activity to see the usefulness of so called waste. As a result, I have decided to contribute old newspapers and other recyclable materials from my house to the school service instead of disposing them as waste.

By planning our weekly sessions meticulously and meeting at least once before every session, I feel that we, i.e. the co-leaders and Mr. Lockwood, have collaborated very well to pace the activity and completely set it on track for achievement of major goals through the year-long journey to come. The students enrolled in the service this year are active and diligent participants, and with their collaboration, Recycling and Sustainability can be successful in achieving its long-term goals while also spreading the message of eco-friendly and sustainable living to the school and local community.

Readers, you can follow Recycling and Sustainability @ OSC on http://recycling1011.wordpress.com/.

Given below are a few photographs from the recycling service sessions of this month. (Photographs by Mr. Ian Lockwood.)

The hard-working recycling group! (Some members diligently at work are not seen in photograph.)

Preparations for the first trip to the recycling center.

Me addressing the recycling group.

My introductory speech on the 6 September, the first recycling session.

Commencing the ice-breakers.

The recycling group students at work.

I am now looking forward to replicate, and where possible, improve, the work we have done till date for the coming future. :)

Grade 12 - CAS goals

Major objectives for the year and goals for the 1st Semester

 
This post marks the beginning of the CAS programme for my final IB Diploma year. Returning from a refreshing summer break, I now plan to broaden the horizon for co-curricular activities by taking the previous year’s activities one step further.

 

Creativity:       

My main goal is to further develop my Guitar skills through continued lessons, learn new techniques to enhance and develop my music playing range, and increase my performance experience. 

Thus, I am going to continue learning to play the Guitar by attending hourly classes every weekend with my teacher Mr. Netaji and practicing on a regular basis. In this, I will:

• Be punctual - Attend classes regularly.
• Practice regularly.
• Enjoy the learning process!

To become a confident player, I will start recording some of the music I learn to play. For the first semester, I will upload at least 5 such videos onto my CAS blog. In addition, I will take part in at least two performances, either inside or outside (or both) of school. Both these tasks will be new challenges and shall help me to achieve my main objective.

Action:
The main goal I aim to achieve is improving my physical fitness level by increasing my stamina and improving my physique through Badminton, swimming, and regular exercises at home.
  

Hence, I am going to continue to attend Badminton sessions at the D.S. Senanayake twice every weekend. This activity has helped me to improve as a player as well as a sportsperson. Thus, I wish to continue these sessions as they provide a nice exercise environment between busy school days. They will also help me to fulfill my ‘Action’ criteria comfortably. By attending these sessions, I will become a more tactical and physically capable 'skilled' badminton player. The timings for these badminton sessions will be:

• Saturday – 7:00 am to 8:00 am
• Sunday – 7:00 am to 9:00 am 

For this activity, I will:

• Be punctual - attend class regularly.
• Utilize free time to do light exercises.
• Participate actively.
• Learn more and enjoy.

In addition, I will take part in at least one competition inside or outside school or attempt to represent my school in SAISA badminton.

Also, I plan to attend hourly sessions at the Thurstan College Swimming Complex at least twice every month. This program will continue to help me to improve my swimming as well as achieve my goal, i.e. to improve my physical fitness. I will always:

• Be focused.
• Be active.
• Raise the bar, i.e. try to do better every time.
• Work hard and have fun!

Service:        

My main objective for this domain of the CAS programme is to be well-involved with a particular service program at OSC and give my best efforts. I will achieve this by initially understanding the ethical implications and global importance of my actions, and subsequently taking responsibility, helping my peers, and planning and initiating activities in collaboration with them. 

Therefore, I will take part in the school’s Recycling service activity supervised by Mr. Ian Lockwood. The following tasks must be accomplished in order to succeed in accomplishing my goals:

• Be punctual and committed.
• Be focused.
• Participate actively.
• Help my peers.
• Take up new tasks and challenges.
• Learn and develop new skills.
• Enjoy!

In addition to these tasks, I will post monthly reflections with constant updates about my CAS related activities.

I look forward to a busy final year with lots of new experiences!

Service (May, 2012) - Library Service - *The End*

Library Service has been a fun and rigorous service activity for me this year. Many feel that stacking books and arranging them properly is an easy task. However, my feeling is that such thoughts cannot be changed unless the people experience the activity themselves, i.e. you don't know until you do it yourself. It should be known to all that correctly organizing and arranging all the books in the Secondary Learning Resource Center (SLRC) is a team task requiring both focus as well as physical stamina.

This service program has been a fun and useful period during which me and my peers have contributed to the school community. This is a matter of global importance with positive ethical implications as a Library plays a key role in providing knowledge from all spheres to students as well as non-students in the community. Thus, the maintainance of a library, i.e. the role of a 'Guardian of the Library', is taken very seriously by me.

I have attended all activity sessions punctually and am very happy with the progress that our group made. As a co-leader this month, I have been able to take responsibility for completing specific tasks planned by me and my partner Humza, and thus, guide the group towards helping each other after completing their individual tasks. I also happily maintained the new school Library Service blog that I had created with the first OSC library gmail account. Thus, by undertaking new challenges and taking responsibility, I have planned and initiated the service sessions and have collaborated with my team. Also, with perseverance and commitment, I have developed new leadership skills such as rewarding hardwork, motivating team-spirit and most importantly, leading by example. I am also happy with the whole team as most students were present in the sessions and prepared to work.

I thank my team, Humza, and Mrs. Lockwood for wonderful service sessions this semester.

I hope to take all these useful skills and nice memories of 'Library Service' as I step into a new service activity next year.

Library Service - April, 2012

Library Service at OSC now has two new leaders, i.e. me and Humza. We have begun leading the group and will be in this position till the summer break (and hopefully next year). In the first session, we had a small introduction session which was followed by implementation of a new plan. It was decided that from now onwards, the newly returned books will be shelved by all collectively, and later, everyone will return to work on and maintain their assigned shelves (including us leaders). Thus, by leading by example, me and Humza explained this to everyone and started work.

Till now, the group has been working diligently, sometimes taking long breaks in between though, and has been maintaining the book shelves properly. We all have worked as a team and collaborated well. However, both me and Humza, were at times challenged to keep the group at work, and therefore we developed new skills of diplomatically handling such situations by planning the activities in a creative manner in order to keep everyone at task and hence managing to get the work done with a few breaks.

I have also created a new blog for the service with its own g-mail id, as the previous blog was controlled by the previous leaders' personal mail. Thus, http://libraryserviceatosc.blogspot.com/, i.e. the new blog, will be updated at regular intervals to keep the world updated about our accomplishments as guardians of the library.

Hope everything continues fine next month, i.e. the final month for this school year, as well. :)

Service - Library Service: Leadership time - coming soon!!! (March, 2012)

Its been another busy month in Library Service. However, it has been very useful and as well as interesting. By attending the service punctually and working commitedly, me and my "non-fiction" team partner Humza have been chosen to be the next leaders of the service group. I am really happy as leading a community service group is a great privilege and also a big responsibility. 

I had earlier blogged that:

"Library Service is an activity that enables us students to recognize the role of the Library in every student’s life. We, the Library Service members, act as the "Guardians of the Library" by keeping it organized for the convenience of all the Library users, including students, parents, teachers, as well as visitors (Ethical implications of my actions). I believe that this Service program is very crucial as it not only allows us to be a part of the group in charge of maintaining the library, but it also enables us to respect the purpose of the Library." 

  
(Thursday, September 15, 2011)

I feel that while planning activities and tasks for the team, and also when implementing them, this should be kept in mind as a memo. I am also excited as my partner Humza is a hard-worker who adds a motivating fun touch to the service environment.

Other than that, this months service continued as usual. All of us placed the returned books in their designated shelves and spent remaining time tidying and stacking unorganized books in the correct order (i.e. both numerical and alphabetical).

Me and Humza will be starting our leadership from next month. We will be supervised by Ms. Lockwood, and will be in charge of all tasks carried out by the students enrolling in this service. Initially we both will work on creating a detailed plans of tasks for each student. We will also keep the library service blog up to date about activities carried out in the service. Later, programmes such as awareness campaigns and fundraisers will also be planned.

I am looking forward to this new challenge next month!

Service - Library Service (January - February, 2012)

Library Service continued after the winter vacation with the same amount of thrill and enthusiasm about tidying the library and helping the community! The participants in the third quarter of the year supervised by the OSC Head Librarian Ms. Raina Lockwood are:

• Skylor Knoll (12.A) - CAS leader
• Charity Dowers (12.1M) - CAS leader
• Philipp Hofbauer (12.1A) - CAS Blog Manager
• Onkar Ashish (11.2LE)
• Satyanshu Sapra (11.2L)
• Humza Usmani (11.2L)
• Constantine Hempel (10.1R)
• Greta Rocchi (9.2S)
• Christiane Amare (8.2H)
• Tulika Khosla (8.1G)
• Alo Lenk-Walker (8.1G)
• Beda Bellugue O’Leary (7.2R)
• Sejuti Sarkar (8.1G) 

The hourly after school service session took place as usual on every Thursday. I attended all the sessions punctually and worked till the end with complete dedication. Lots of returned books had to be placed in the designated spots on the correct shelves. I worked with my "non-fiction" team members to complete this task. Later, we worked on properly arranging the books in disorganized and distorted stacks. 

I felt that the leaders had not allotted the number of workers for the respective fiction and non-fiction sections properly. As majority of the students in the service were MYP students, the small fiction area was much well organized and maintained. However, as only 4 people (including me) worked in the large non-fiction area, only a small share of the books were maintained regularly and stacked correctly.

Thus, I have suggested to the leaders that more children be moved to the "non-fiction" team in order to properly maintain the books by next month. I hope to see some new peers as a part of our team in March. 

I am also looking forward to more such busy library service sessions in March which are useful for the OSC community directly as well as indirectly!

Week Without Walls (23 January - 27 January) : A complete reflection

This Week Without Walls (WWW) was my grade's final school trip. Hence, it included a variety of activities which helped us to develop and grow in various aspects such as personality development, community service, collaboration and communication, creativity and ingenuity, tackling physical and mental challenges, planning activities, and leadership. The WWW program also included a variety of leisure trips such as trekking on the Situlpahuwa rock and visiting the Yala National Park.

Every day in the WWW was unique, and on each day, I was able to grow by developing and enhancing my personality by engaging in activities involving Creativity, Action and Service.

DAY 1 - MONDAY

The programme for the first day was to visit the schools and conduct a recce in order to create plans for the major tasks that needed to be accomplished in order to renovate the school. The day began with a 5 hour bus journey via the new Southern Expressway. However, the work for the day began in the afternoon after arrival when both the sections of Grade 11 visited both the schools that we were going to attempt to help by providing different kinds of physical labour. The schools were vacant today and hence, both the grades were able to plan properly.

My class was able to plan efficiently as we had already used information from the teachers' recce trip and divided ourselves into working groups such as the mural group, the construction group, the painting group and others. Me and my peers Humza and Uvin were responsible for landscaping work. All the groups were responsible for completing their individual tasks firstly, however, were free to join other groups after completing the specified tasks.

During the recce trip, I was responsible for talking to the construction group leader Sonny and arranging the different tools that me and my landscaping team would require to work. This enabled me to collaborate with my peers in order to plan and initiate an activity.

After arriving back at the hotel, all of us reflected on the recce. We set specific goals for our tasks in order to be able to accomplish our goals. My goals briefly were to:

• Work with full commitment. Complete all tasks that have been initiated. (Show commitment and perseverance.)
• Learn new landscaping skills and use them to make the pre-school playground area a more child friendly zone. (Develop new skills.)
• Consult my landscaping team and collaborate with them to complete the tasks. Also, I will help my class peers and always boost their morale. (Collaborate with peers.)
• Be respectful to pre-school community and to the purpose of the task. Always work whole-heartedly, responsibly and with complete focus as the tasks that we will be carrying out will directly impact the lives of the pre-school community as well as the students' futures. (Engaging in issues of global importance and understanding the ethical implications of my tasks.)
• Be a risk taker and open-minded learner. (Undertake new challenges and increase my awareness of my strengths and areas of growth.)

After dinner, both the sections of the grade separately planned the performances that we would carry out in the afternoon on Wednesday after completing our work in the pre-schools. This performance would take place in front of the whole pre-school community, including the students, teachers and parents. My class finalized that we would perform one English song as a whole group, while two Sinhala songs would be sung by the Sri Lankan students. The English song we will all song in chorus is 'Stand By Me' by Ben. E King.

It was a fun and exciting day for me.

Below are a few photographs taken during the day:

Me (inside the van) helping to load the baggage. Photograph by: Dharshana.

Mr. Lockwood addressing our class. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

The condition of the merry-go-round and the pyramid before our work as seen on Day 1. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

DAY 2 - TUESDAY

Tuesday was a very successful day. All of us were initially welcomed by the children with flowers. It was a very nice moment. In the beginning, everyone interacted and played with the children. The playing session included games such as "duck-duck-goose" and treasure hunt. These games were not a 100% successful as the language barrier, lack of planning on the part of the games team, and poor organization led to poor understanding of the games and hence a poor success in introduction and communication. However, the improvised idea of having a drawing session solved this problem and enabled all of us to make new friends. I made many new friends such as Janith, Shashun and Udina. I played with the children on the see-saw and also helped them to swing on a tyre swing that had been placed by the construction team in the playing time. While interacting with the children, I found it difficult to communicate with them. Hence, I developed a new skill of speaking some key Sinhala terms to appreciate, to say thank you and even to maintain an order by saying words and phrases meaning 'next' and 'his turn'. I enjoyed playing with the children.

After playing with the children, I began work with my landscaping team. We decided to use the rake to clear all the small rocks in the playground and later to use the hoe to take out the obtruding sharp rocks from the ground. I used a rake and hoe for the first time in my life. Hence, I was able to develop a new labour skill that will be useful to me in my future too. In the process, I also helped my peer Uvinconsidered its ethical implications on the pre-school community.

By the end of the work session, me and my team had been able to clean and clear more than half of the playground and also remove a majority of the obtruding rocks.

Later, after dinner at the hotel, me and my peers collaborated together and rehearsed for the performance that would take place on the next day. It was a fun time as everyone sang and practiced happily.

Below are a few photographs taken during the day:

Receiving 'the flower' - A mesmerising welcome. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Children playing "Duck-duck-goose". Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Me working at the playground and clearing the small rocks. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY

It was the final day for the pre-school work today. In the beginning, we were welcomed by the school children with flowers. We began the day by directly starting the interaction time. I was able to familiarize myself with my new friends Janith and Shashun. Both of them enjoyed my company a lot and also liked to get launched on the see-saw and the tyre swing while I made rocket-like sound effects to entertain them. I played with them and many other excited children for a long time. I enjoyed this a lot and had fun communicating with them using my little Sinhala knowledge and many sign language gestures.

Afterwards, I worked towards completing the landscaping with my team. We were able to accomplish our goal in approximately one hour. I was very satisfied and the children were happy too. After completing my work, I collaborated with my peers and helped in digging a 2 feet deep and 2 feet wide hole, painting the fence, sandpapering the swing and the see-saw, painting the hollow cylinder, and completely painting two tyres in a four-tyre obstacle course.

At the end of the work, all the groups had successfully completed their works. The pre-school teachers were all happy with the work, and the children were very excited to see their renovated playground and painted classroom.

The day at the school concluded with dance performances by the children and then the song performance by our class. I felt that I had been able to engage in an issue of global importance by serving and working at the school, and contributing as much as possible on a personal level (even though it was small on a global scale).

Below are a few photographs taken during the day:

The hollow cylinder painted by me and Uvin. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

The two background tyres were painted by me. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Me helping Janik to paint the fence. The fence will play an important role in keeping the children safe from the exterior barbed wire fence! Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

Me and Humza levering an obtruding large rock from underneath the swings. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Our class after completing the work. Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

The completed mural at the school wall. Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

DAY 4 - THURSDAY

The 4th day of the trip was full of fun and experiential learning. First, the whole grade 11 visited the Tissa Dagoba. Then, we trekked at the Situlpahuwa rock, the place where 3000 monks meditated to attain enlightenment. Finally, we enjoyed the flora and fauna at the Yala National Park during a 4 hour safari.

A few photographs from the trips:

The beach meets the forest at Yala. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Peacock dance. Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

A langer sits and enjoys the cool breeze. Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

Friends Forever. Photograph by: Mr. Ian Lockwood.

Enjoying trekking at Situlpahuwa. Photograph by: Mr. Ian Lockwood.

The Tissa Dagoba. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Leopards playing. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

The mouth of this river meets the sea. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

A large water body in Yala. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Alerted leopard. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

The leopard departs. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Spotting the leopard :) Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

The ocean borders the Yala National Park. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

An elephant. Photograph by: Mr. Ian Lockwood.

It was an extraordinary day for me today as the programme was a complete fun-package.

DAY 5 - FRIDAY

It was a very joyous as well as sad day today. I felt very happy because the purpose of the trip had been accomplished and I was going to be returning home. However, on the other hand, I did not want to leave as the company of my friends had been very special for me and the whole trip was a memorable experience. Our collaboration had resulted in an excellent improvement at the pre-school and I felt that this would bring a positive change to the school's educational and playing environment.

Other than the work, I felt that I was able to learn more about Sri Lanka. Meeting a Sri Lankan community, exploring the Yala National Park and trekking at Situlpahuwa were all great experiences which enabled me to share happy times with the country's jolly and friendly people, see the richness and diversity of its flora and fauna, become a part of mother nature, and also be amazed by the country's carefully preserved antique and unique cultures and traditions.

While departing, I reflected about this trip and with complete contentment decided to happily cherish these days forever.

Below are a few photographs taken during the day:

The natural paradise - Hambantota. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

It was a memorable and amazing experience. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.