Service: Teaching English Club

            Today, we went to the homerooms that we were assigned as planned. We basically gave them an introduction to the units that we are holding, and explained to them that they can sign-up for just the units that they are interested. Overall, I think it went quite well, though I think that in some respects it could have gone better, and we could have presented it in a way that would make it more exciting.

            During lunch time, we met up again to further discuss and plan the News Casting and Writing unit. We decided to open with a clip to help grab the attention of those coming to the meeting and as a good way to introduce them to what happens behind the scenes in order for a news cast to take place. Aside from the video, we will also verbally explain to them some of the main roles (or people) behind a news cast. We want them to learn not only about the job of the anchor, the person who actually presents the news, but also the other jobs that go into producing a news cast such as having an executive producer, a script writer, field reporters, cameraman, etc.

            After this, we will split them up into the groups that they will be preparing the news casting videos with. The following two meetings will be used mostly as work time for the groups to work on their news casting videos, as we don’t want this news casting unit to be to much of an extra burden for them that adds to the amount of school work that they have to accomplish. Then, at the final meeting, we will share the created news casting videos and we also plan to invite some people from outside of the English Club to watch these news casting videos and see what we have accomplished over the weeks. Miss Debbie will be helping with this part, that is, with inviting people to watch the final products.

Creativity: Piano Lessons

       I played the seventh piece from Bach after playing the 8^th and 9^th piece today. I also played the rondo from the sonatina by Dussek. I also played Heller’s 11^th piece today, as I have managed to play the first three pieces. I admit that this 11^th piece I find more difficult than the first three pieces, that I was able to play quite quickly.

Service: Teaching English Club

            Following the tradition that was started by the seniors of last year, as the seniors of this year, we will be taking over as the teachers of this year’s Debate Club. After evaluation of last year’s Debate Club during the previous academic year, we discussed the idea of an English Club instead. What we found in our discussion is that it with the passing of time, the number of people coming to the Debate club meetings decreased, and towards the end of February, only a few people were present, and many had lost interest in Debate Club. Part of the reason for this, we felt, is that after there were no longer any competitions for us to prepare for and attend, it felt that the meetings began to lose some of their purpose, especially as the process of practicing by researching to prepare to oppose or support motions is time consuming, and many of us found that we had others things that needed attending such as our school work, and preparing the motions took time away from that. We then came up with the help of Ms. Debbie, the idea of an English Club, instead, which can be a place where people come to learn something that they have interest in or would like to develop, that is English or language related, and would hopefully tailor to their needs more.

            Today, we had our first meeting this academic year, where we started to plan English Club in more detail. We have come up with a number of units, including News Casting and Writing, Creative Writing, Debating, Paper Presentation, Speech, and Storytelling. These units are more flexible, and it is possible for us in the future to merge a number of units together or replace them with something else. With this new units system, we decided that students will be allowed to attend only the units that they are interested in attending, and we hope that this will keep students interested in English Club. This means that now, someone can sign-up for all the units, but at the same time, they are allowed to sign-up to just one unit. Aside from this, each unit will only be roughly 4 meetings long (at 1 meeting per week), and we hope that this will further keep them interested in English Club. Between ourselves, we split the jobs in terms of who in particular from the seniors will be specifically in charge of a unit. I will be the PIC for the News Casting and Writing unit, along with Jennifer and Febe, and I will be helping with the Creative Writing and Debating unit, and possibly the Speech unit. I will also try to attend the meetings for the other units.

           During this first meeting, we also discussed how we are going to promote English Club and emphasised our discussion around the News Casting and Writing unit, as this would be our first unit. In terms of promoting English club, aside from sending e-mails and placing information in the school’s weekly news web page, we decided to go to homerooms to promote English Club. We will be going on Thursday, August 28, to various homerooms. I will be going with my friend Febe to the homerooms of Grade 11.1 and 11.2. In terms of the News Casting and Writing unit itself, we talked about some general things regarding the topic, such as the main framework of what we will do during the four meetings that we have. The first meeting will be an introduction, and we will be splitting them up to work in groups, where each group will be asked to create a news casting video, which we will play during the fourth and final meeting.

Creativity: Piano Lessons

       I played the same pieces this week as I did in the previous week. I am now ready to work on the 8^th and 9^th piece from the Bach book.

Creativity: Piano Lessons

       At today’s lesson I played the first and second piece from Bach that I have been practicing and now need to learn the third and seventh piece. I also played the third piece from the Heller booklet today, that I need to work on the tempo on and the dynamics for. For the rondo section of the sonatina by Dussek, I need to work on accuracy and speed.

Service: Habitat for Humanity - Fundraising

            Aside from the creation of the bracelets themselves, something else that we have come to consider is how exactly we are going to sell the bracelets. We have decided to package the bracelets, to enhance the appeal of the bracelets. Kelvin and Calvin, have been kind enough to provide the packaging material for the bracelets, consisting of a long relatively narrow plastic envelope, and a slip of colored paper that slips into the plastic envelope, for the background on which the bracelet will be displayed.

            I have been assigned to do most of the packaging of the bracelets, not only the ones that I have personally made, but also a number of the bracelets that my friends have made, because before the bracelets are packaged, we have decided to first join the two ends of the bracelets with a knot that functions as a clasp. By pulling on the ends of the bracelet, he wearer of the bracelet can then position the placement of the knot on the bracelet, and thus adjust the size of the bracelet. We have decided to do this as it results in a more professional looking bracelet, that buyers can easily slip on and off their wrists and adjust to their wrist size, compared to a bracelet that the wearer must manually tie the ends together of every time it is worn. I will therefore do most of the packaging of the bracelets, because I will be making these knots to make the bracelets circular and adjustable.

            Once the bracelets have been shaped into a loop, based upon the size of the bracelets, slits will be made into the piece of colored paper that is part of the bracelets’ “packaging” that we have devised. The bracelet in question is then inserted into the slits. Then the bracelet that has been placed within the slits of the colored paper, are together placed inside the plastic envelope. I really think that this packaging of the bracelets makes them look far more professional, greatly increasing their aesthetic value and so making the prices that we are selling them at seem more affordable and appropriate.

            Today, on the fourth of August, 2014, near the time that we will come back to school for the new academic year, I am working on packaging the bracelets, including joining the two ends of the bracelets with the loose adjustable knot mentioned above.