Piano Piece (Agitation)

I have been taking piano lessons in the "Konservatorium Stadt Zürich" for more than three months now. I have learnt new skills concerning how to be more fluent while playing (doing exercises for my fingers to improve their reflex while moving on the keyboard) and I have started to learn new songs. The last one that I have learnt and I enjoyed has been this song that I posted on the left. This song is called agitation and it helped me to learn how to move faster on the keyboard and as there were many dynamics it helped me to master the exact strength to apply on the keys to make the right sound. 

Cas Evalutation Sheets

Here are the four different Cas Evalutation Sheets for the activity I have done till now:

Creativity: Piano lessons (every Monday)

Action: Volleyball (every Monday and Wednesday)

Service: Set and Design (every Thursday afternoon), wareness Committee (every Thursday lunch time and Pink Walk)

I have just joined the health and events committee, and Badminton I will soon write a reflection when I will have more details about my engagement with them.

Set & Design

Joining Set & Design I am helping the drama department to organize the BITE show that will take place at the beginning of December. I am going to these meetings every Thursday and I am working with a group of other students from my grade and the one above to organize the setting of the scenes for the play. It is essential that communication works well between all the helpers so to know what has already been done and what still needs to be done.  This is essential to make sure of making good use of the time we have been given. By doing this we are developing communication and time management skills which are always needed. Not only in this situation but also in the everyday life and in school. It is a really nice experience that helps to share your own ideas and make them stand out, cooperate with others and getting organized so that everything can be more and more efficient every time. It was great to notice how everyone in the team managed initiate a new activity to complete the work and how our initial planning was aced at the end of the day. At the moment we are working to advertise the play making posters and then placing them in different parts of the school and we are also creating more scenarios for the final performance.Many aspects concerning the real life world can also be learnt doing this activity. While creating the background for the show, we are getting to know better the play script. In fact it deals with the Vietnam war and three women that are struggling to make sense out of it. This really helped me to understand facts and issues of global importance such as the above mentioned Vietnam war. 

(in the picture you can see some friends and I painting boxed for some of the scenes)

Volleyball

The volleyball season ended a week ago and I believe that I learnt a lot during the three months in which I carried this activity through. First and most important thing I believe I have learnt is cooperation between my team members and coaches. I improved my communication with the team because I had the chance to give my opinion and explain my uncertainties if something looked wrong or had to be improved. This year I also found it easier to communicate with my coaches as they asked us a lot about our impressions; this gave me the possibility to express my ideas and show some leadership sometimes. Tournaments gave me the chance to meet new friends, give help if needed and receive some when in need. I met new friends while practicing in between the different matches; we started to talk and to share our different views on volleyball and on own different cultural backgrounds. Many people during the tournament got injured (me included) it was really nice to see how students and players from the other schools were always there to help and cheer you up. I also saw an Italian girl that sprained her ankle and I went there to talk to her, it was incredible how a simple conversation in ones mother tongue made her feel better. This year I have also greatly improved my volleyball skills as I learnt how to better move in the court and how to better place the ball when setting it up for my teammates. I have been really proud of being nominated captain of the setters to give them advices on how to improve their skills. I am really looking forward to restart the season as I really enjoyed this last one. 

(In the picture you can see whole volleyball team in the last tournament in Leysin)

Bakesale

This is a picture of the muffins I made for the "bake sale"for the breast cancer. All the money we will raise will go to charity. On the first day of the bake sale we raised 300 CHF and the second one looks like it is going to be another success as well. (11 october 2012)

The Pink Walk

Picture from the "Pink Walk" of the 30th of Semptember.
The "Breast Cancer Committee" met at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich. The whole group joined the walk we sponsored (50 to 100 CHF each). As soon as the walk started we were ready to run our 4 Km with the Pink hat and t-shirt. It has been a great day!

Piano Lessons

Here is a picture I took during one of my piano lessons in Zurich. I was waiting for my teacher that went photocopying a new score for me to play. In the background you can actually see the reflex of his empty chair.

The Outcomes of CAS

Undertake new challenges:
This year I joined the “awareness group” for breast cancer. This activity will give me new challenges to overcome for example explaining to young children the problem, organizing events, and fundraising for this specific cause. Helping for the “IB play” will be another challenge because I will have to work with a group of other students and plan the setting for the play, which this year is going to be really challenging as we will have to incorporate the audience with the stage. Another challenging activity will be piano lessons because it has been a long time since I last had a proper lesson, plus this year my lessons will be in German so I will have to challenge myself even more.

Plan and initiate activities:The awareness group is a perfect example of how this year I am starting to plan and initiate activities. With a group of students I have to organize a presentation for the students in the school, write the speech and then practice the whole thing for a good final result. Plus we organized a bake sale and we prepared a plan to raise money and send them to charity. Also helping in the school play will challenge me on planning and organization because the set will need a lot of collaboration with others, talk and organization.

Show persistence & commitment in your activities:Piano lesson will be a prof of persistence in the activity I decided to attend for the next few years: exercise, commitment, and especially enjoying what I will do. I have lesson every week for one our plus I have to practice at home for a better outcome in the end.

Engage with issues of global importance:The awareness group will help me deal with an issue, which has global importance. In fact breast cancer is an issue spread all over the world and I saw that a big city as Zurich organized a charity walk for the cause. This means that the problem is spread and that it touches many people.

Develop new skills:Being in the volleyball team will help me to develop new skills that will help me improve as player and then as well improve the level of the team. This year we changed one of the coaches so now we are learning new and different techniques to incorporate to the one I learn last year. Almost the same thing is happening with piano lessons, I have in fact started to study with a teacher that has a completely different method of teaching than my old one. Now I am starting to develop skills that before I never looked at.

Plan for the semester

My plan for this first semester of school for my CAS program is devided in this way for the three different areas:

• Creativity: piano lesson on monday, guitar lessons on tuesday.
• Action: volleyball team
• Service: school guidebook for new students next year, the big sleep, help in school.

Presentation Activity

Yesterday at school we have been given new information about CAS, an activity we will follow for our next two years of school in the IB.

Here are some picture of the Creativity Project we carried out during the school day. It's title is: "What is Beauty in Zumikon?"