Service: Habitat for Humanity - Fundraising

            Today, Jennifer, Chika and myself, again found time to work on finalizing the proposal. We were mostly reworking out the schedule of when we are selling the products, and the budgeting, as we had to change some of the products that we are selling (regarding food products), after we received feed back from the school.

Service: Habitat for Humanity - Fundraising

            Recently, my friend Jennifer proposed getting together a group of friends and fundraising for Habitat for Humanity, for one of our CAS service activities. As we are planning to fundraise largely at school over a relatively long period of time, ranging a few months, we will need to present a proposal the school in order to gain permission to sell products at school for the fundraising program.

            Today, Jennifer, Chika (another friend who working on this project), and myself worked on creating the proposal. This includes writing our introduction, and very importantly, creating a schedule concerning what products we are selling, when we are selling it, as well as a budget. If we want to raise enough money for the building of one house through Habitat for Humanity, we need to raise 30 million rupiah. It is quite a high target, as we need to find time to prepare the products that we are selling, sell the products, and do this in the midst of our busy school schedule. Regardless of how much money we manage to fundraise, we will donate this money to Habitat for Humanity and so help to provide housing for the less fortunate in this country.

Creativity: Debate Club

            Today was the last day of debate club for the year. During this opportunity, we evaluated debate club, taking into account the possibility that next year, as seniors, we will be given the chance to be the teachers of debate club, if we choose to do so. We mostly used today as a chance to reflect upon debate club so far.

            Debate club has been an interesting and educative experience. I am glad that I learned the skill of debating, though I feel that debating for debating’s sake can be quite empty, especially once you have joined a debate competition that is many rounds long that is draining on your energy. I feel that though debating is a useful skill, there are a number of things we can do differently for debate club next year. Firstly, we talked today about the idea of an English Club rather than a debate club, so that people’s interests will be more piqued. Though I don’t know yet if I will be helping out with the club next year, I think that doing other topics, other than debate is a good idea, as with only a debate club, you soon find a sort of monotonousness in simply practicing motion after motion, especially if you are no longer preparing for anything, such as an upcoming competition. This I feel may also help to keep people interests up later in the year, as this year, we started to have less and less participants as the academic year progressed.

            All in all, debate has been an experience that has managed to teach me useful skills and helped me to think about my views of the world.

Creativity: Piano Lessons

       At today’s lesson, I again played “River Flows in You”, which my teacher would like me to memorize. I also played again the Mozart’s sonata in C major, which is a piece taken out of the Sonatina book that I own. I have started playing the second part of the sonata which is slower as it is played in andante, and so I do better on this second part of the sonata compared to the first. I also played a piece from a book called Piano Pieces for Children (PPC) called “Humoreske”. Aside from this, I also played another song from the sonatina book which is Bach’s prelude in C major.

Creativity: Piano Lessons

        Playing the piano is something that I have been doing since very young, when I was still in kindergarten, ever since I started taking piano lessons. Throughout my DP experience thus far, I have continued to take piano lessons, though I have just now decided to count these piano lessons as part of my CAS activities.
Today, I had my piano lesson as usual, where I played the song “River Flows in You” by Yiruma. The song mostly repeats the same sequences over and over, though as the song progresses, there are more notes slipped in between the main notes of the melody. It is these slipped in notes that sometimes cause me to mess up in playing the song. From today’s lesson the comments I received were that I can play the song more smoothly and also with more feeling. I also placed Mozart’s sonata in C major. The song has a difficult trill sections where I have difficultly synchronising my left and right hand. I need to work on playing these parts of the song as well as work on my overall dynamics and keeping a constant tempo.

The body of my CAS proposal for this activity.

Creativity: Debate Club

            So far this semester, we have had four debate club meetings and I have attended them all except the first. During the second meeting, which is the first one that I attended, we watched a debate between South Africa and England from the World Schools Debating Championship, in which South Africa won. They were debating on whether racial profiling should be used. South Africa’s position was in support of this motion, while England’s was against it. Of course this competition is world class for high school level debaters and watching them debate was a really good learning experience. First of all, they had a lot of research and evidence that helped to support their views, and I find that one of the things lacking in our debates so far, is good quality research. Something else that is very important is to present the idea in such a way that makes the audience believe in what you are saying, so confidence is important. Part of confidence is the body gesture and movements that help present whether you really believe in what you say. For example, if you cross your arms, it is like you are closing off your self, which shows insecurity. Also, to stand more firmly and with less of a ‘bounce’ helps to make you be taken more seriously. Other things I learned include the importance of communicating your point well, that is in such a way that is interesting, and that project’s your view as the correct one. Aside from this you should also never try to repeat evidence or arguments, as the English team sometimes did, whereas the South African team, even when they were revisiting a point or restating something previously said, they presented the same argument in a new light so that the their arguments were always interesting to listen too. Aside from this, it is important to speak in an engaging way that captures your audience’s attention, as this will ensure that they listen more to the arguments that you put forth. Something else that South Africa did is that for the majority of the speakers, they ended with a strong remark that leaves you with an impression, and I think this can help to seal your argument. Manner wise, the South African team was somewhat aggressive and I’m not sure whether this is a good or bad thing, though it does show their passion. I did feel that though practicing debating is important especially when you are going to join competitions, it also helps to watch others who are far better at debating to debate, because you can learn a lot from them.

            During the third meeting, we were split into two teams and started case building for the motion “THBT (this house believes that) the media should be prevented by law from intruding the lives of public figures.” My group was assigned the position of opposition. We managed to come up with a number of arguments that opposes the motion, taking into account some possible arguments that the other team will make. Aside from this, we also watched another debate from the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC), this time between Singapore and Pakistan, on the idea that the commercial sale of human organs should be legalized. From this debate something else that I learned, other than things I learned from the previous debate I watched, is the importance of being careful in choosing the words that you say and in defining the motion as the affirmative team. In this case, Pakistan as the affirmative team that supports the commercialization of the sale of human organs should that the debate was more ‘theoretical’ so to speak, which makes it easier for the Singapore team to attack them because it means that they don’t have a strong mechanism and such, so it is harder for them to justify their arguments.

            During the fourth meeting, which took place today, we went back into our groups to further prepare our arguments on the motion given the previous week, which will be debated next week. We looked at the arguments that we had and began to see their flaws as well as come up with new counter arguments to the possible things that the opposition could say. We also did a little research to provide more concrete evidence for the things that we say in our arguments.

            Of all the things that we have done in the past three weeks, the first video we watched from the WSDC has left the greatest impression on me as watching it I felt that they were actually debating for a cause not just the sake of the debate. The ideas that were presented, both in support and opposition of the motion opens your eyes to the possible views that can be taken on the subject and broadens the way in which you look at the issue. I feel that the debate, or more of the ways in which the motion was discussed, is the way that a debate should turn out, so that you do not only fight for your side to win, but moreover to present the views of your side so that the audience can see the views of both side. Previously I had felt that the debates I have been a part of, especially during the competition that I joined were more to see which side could win, without any actual cause. However, in the video we watched, you feel that there could be a possible application of the views brought up on the issue debated and that there was some actual significance. This is something that I hope to be able to see and do in further debates otherwise I honestly do not I feel that I should debate.

Creativity: Debate Club

           Over the last first semester of the academic year 2013-2014, the CAS activity that I have participated in is for the Creativity portion of CAS. The activity that I have taken up is joining the debate club. I have not though, formally started the activity, in terms of filling in a formal CAS log. This was due to the fact that I submitted by proposal late and kept forgetting to get the proposal signed by my activity supervisor. I have however, finally got my proposal approved, and when we come back to school in January, will formally start to fill in my CAS log. I have however, got a letter signed that validates that I have been present at debate club meetings ranging 1 hour and 30 minutes on the dates written in the letter.

Above is my signed CAS proposal form

Above is the letter, noting the dates when I was present at debate club meeting

            The proposal shows what I planned on doing and the learning outcomes that I felt I would achieve from the CAS activity. So far, I feel that I have done what I planned and are achieving the learning outcomes that I set. What I have found to be different then my thoughts before I joined the debate club is the overall format of debates. At first, I thought that you simply had two different groups in opposition to each other, but I did not have any idea about the formal format of a debate, such as is used in competitions. I learned that there are motions, and opposition and affirmative sides. I did know that there are teams, but I did not know about the exact number of speakers nor the overall format of the process of a debate, with rebuttals, arguments, and reply speakers. The style that is mostly used in my country is Asian parliamentary, which was also something new, as I did not know there were different formats. I also learned that you have to do a lot of research prior to a debate, as I first thought that it was more on the spot. You also need to rely on your team mates a lot more than I previously thought. I think that it helps to teach you to do your best in your part and to trust the people that you are teamed up with. I think that all who join the club have learned more about creating good arguments for a solid debate. For myself, I am becoming better at understanding how to look at a motion and build a strong case around it, whether I am on the affirmative or opposition side.

            My experiences throughout one semester of joining the debate club has changed my perception about debate as I now don’t see a debate as simply a debate, even in a competition, but more how you would use the term debate day to day, where you actually argue about something’s that can be important. Of course it does depend on the motion and the side that you are assigned, which directs what you have to defend that I sometimes don’t really agree with, however it does show you the different points of view that can be taken to support either side of the motion. You also learn to look closely and examine the case that you build to get rid of holes that can cause you to lose the debate. It has been an informative activity to take part in.

            Something that I enjoyed about debate club is when you have built a really strong case with good supporting evidence, as you can’t wait to use the arguments that you have come up with. I feel that it can be a draining activity sometimes, but once you understand how it works you can start to like it. Joining the debate club has overall been an interesting activity for me.