Fitness Club at BIS3

From my CAS plan for this term you know that I am regularly attend gym as my action activity. Today I have decided to stay for one of the fitness club sessions held at our school by Mrs Gray and Ms Konovalova. During an hour after school we have been working out to a aerobics video. 

I genuinely enjoyed attending this club because it was a very unusual experience for me to  work out in the school’s dinning hall and the video itself was fun and energizing. This also gave me an opportunity to try something new and different from my usual cardio at the gym. Despite the fact that Mrs Gray assured us that the video that we trained to was the easiest one of all, some of exercises were very challenging for me. Another obstacle was the an absence of rest time in the video - the trainer and a group of smiling girls around him seemed unstoppable whilst I was gasping for a gulp of water. Nonetheless it was fun to work out with Alyona - much better than with strangers at the gym.

Unfortunately I do not always get a chance to stay late after school because of my after school classes but I will do whatever is in my power to commit to this variation of fitness and become a regular attender of the club. 

By attending today’s fitness club I have:

• undertaken a new challenge 
• worked collaboratively with others
• developed new skills 

Visiting “The Call of the Wild”

A part of the fund that was raised on 14th of February in BIS 3 was spent on purchasing food and medicine for dogs at the shelter. Along with Polina Semochkina I went to Metro Cash&Carry and bought:

40kg of dry food
16kg of conserved dog food 
27l of bottled water. 

Later we headed to a pet shop nearby our apartment block and purchased:

40 ampules of flea treatment 
10 rolls of bandages 
8 bottles of antiseptic
3 large tubes of wound healing cream.  

Today, with all of that in the trunk of our car, we went to “The Call of the Wild” shelter to pass all items to it. Let me just say that hearing people talk about the horrors of shelter conditions is completely different from actually seeing it in real life. 

The information that I have provided about “over 200 dogs” being kept in the shelter was outdated. There are 460 now, 4-8 of them in each 4x4 aviary. They are fed with porridge, rarely with real dog food which comes from volunteers. And all of them desperately want to find home. 

It was emotionally stressful experience for me as seeing dogs looking up to you with their kind eyes and hearing them whine quietly as you leave was heart breaking. What we have managed to provide for them was very little but still something and I am nothing but grateful that we had an opportunity to collect money for that cause. 

In the future, as an IB student, I will try to organize as many fundraiser in BIS as I possibly can to keep supporting “The Call of the Wild”. Shelter keepers have huge hearts and great patience and their work should be rewarded. 

If you are reading this post and feel inspired to help, do not hesitate to contact the shelter directly. All of the information can be found here:

http://www.zovpredkov.ru/index.php?option=com_contact&catid=4&Itemid=58

By being directly involved in supporting “The Call of the Wild” dog shelter I:

• planed and initiated fundraising activities
• worked collaboratively with others
• engaged with issues of global importance
• considered ethical implications of my actions

Gifting Celebration

As mentioned in my previous post, I along with Alyona Sukhova and Polina Semochkina were responsible for the fund that we have raised during Valentine’s Day in BIS 3. Half of it was allocated to sponsor “Podari Prazdnik” (“Gift Celebration”) program. 

On Monday my sister and I went shopping for the items that children have requested. It was a real pleasure for me to do that and not because I love shopping so much (although I do). While walking around stores in search for a perfect pair of flats for Marina or sneakers for Alyona, I felt like I was doing something worthy in life, even by helping someone who I know nothing about. In addition to what was requested we also invested a small sum of our own pocket money to buy books for each child. 

Right now I am on my way from the organization’s main office. I gave away wrapped up presents and spend a little bit of time purely chatting to programs representatives. I found out about other possible volunteering opportunities, asked about life in orphanages and left my phone number to keep in contact. I also told them about our school and the fundraisers that we organize and was promised a written thank you letter to be sent to the school and a mention on their website. 

As much as I loved today’s experience, if I was to do it again there will be some things that I would do to make it even better. Firstly, I would take a group of people with me because I felt like by communicating with the organization’s representatives, I have learnt a lot about their sphere of work and the ways that people may help without investing a penny (kopeika?) in. This is definitely something that a lot of IB students could benefit from and get inspiration to do some real service. Secondly, next time I would try to actually join a group of volunteers and go with them to visit children at orphanages because I would get a chance to talk and play with them, share the warmth of my heart so to speak. 

By participating in the fundraiser and directly handing the presents to the responsible organization I:

• planned and initiated activities 
• considered ethical implications of my actions
• engaged with issues of global importance 

• proved to be a reflective, communicative, open-minded and caring IB learner 

Charity Work Plan

On 14th of February in BIS there was a number of fundraising activities held including Valentine’s dicso, non-school uniform day and themed bake sale. Approximately 20’000 rubles was collected in profit and I along with with Alyona Sukhova and Polina Semochkina were trusted to send with money to charities. 

Two charities that we decided to sponsor were “Kto esli ne ya?” (“Who if not me?”) organization and “The Call of the Wild” dog shelter. 

“Kto esli ne ya?” is an official organization that helps the children of Moscow’s orphanages by uniting volunteers and giving them various opportunities to do charity work. The program that we chose to directly contribute towards is called “Podari Prazdnik” (“Gift celebration”) and it involves volunteers buying presents for children. On the organization’s website there is a list of children from different orphanages with their birthdays in closest months and their present requests. It really staggered me how little do those children want. Something so simple and ordinary like a pair of sneakers is desired by 14 year old Elena V. We intend to give that to her as well as: 

• A board game for Alexandr (24.03.1999)
• Flats for Alyona (30.03.1998)
• Summer flat shoes and a manicure kit for Marina (31.03.1999)

After this we will wrap those items up and send them to the organization’s main office. From there packages will be distributed to orphanages by a group of volunteers responsible for that. 

“The Call of the Wild” is a dog shelter in Odintsovo region, 20km from Moscow to the East. It counts over 200 dogs in need and welcomes any sort of help that is offered. On their Facebook page they have posted a list of things that are in great necessity. Those include warm clothing and blankets, conserved dog food and basic medicine. 

During the last week before holiday Polina Semochkina and I have asked all the students of BIS to bring in warm blankets that their families will not need. Apparently, a vast majority of students needed ALL of the blankets that they had. We have only received a donation from Van der Meer siblings, an anon who chose to simply drop his blankets at Mr. Carruther’s room and Sofia Chelombieva who made a flat donation of 500 rubles. 

Nevertheless most of BIS students contributed towards raising substantial finance by coming without school uniform. 

Capital raised will be spent on dry and conserved dog food as well as antiseptics, bandages and healing creams. We then intend to pay a visit to the shelter to pass items to it’s director - Elena, whom I have already contacted about the details of our arrival.

Science Day in BIS4

Today I along with several other yr12 students visited The British International School #4, a primary school. The science co-ordinator of the school, Mr. Paul Wilkinson, was running a Science day for kids to have an opportunity to learn about the world around them. However he feared that younger students could be demotivated to learn and thought that it could be a good idea to invite older students to teach science. That is what we did.

Dina Ivanova and I planned to talk about tornadoes mainly because it is a major natural disaster that everyone should know about. To be perfectly honest choosing a topic wasn't my main concern at the first stages of organization. Initially, we were not given any information about the event except the date and the theme thus I took an initiative of contacting Mr. Wilkinson directly though the school's secretary. This is the email that I have sent to the school: 

My email was quickly answered by Mr. Wilkinson himself and I had an opportunity to get replies to my of my questions concerning the timetable, meal, year groups involved and technical issues. 

I have also made sure that the experiment that we used in our presentation was working smoothly by testing it in the lab a couple of days prior. This is the video that I filmed to then show it to my partner Dina: 

The actual experience was amazing. I absolutely LOVED the response of 6 year olds that we got, their learning enthusiasm was unexpectedly big! We have presented them with a short presentation as well as a BBC animation and a demonstration (as that in the video above). The especially enjoyed the latter as they got an opportunity to switch on the swirler to created their own tornadoes in a beaker.

I think that for the future we could have employed some of resources that the children would find appealing - possibly, reading the tornado extract from the Wizard of Oz or dressing up as amusing scientists to make the presentation more of an act that the children could sit back and observe. 

CAS Objectives: 

- undertaking a new challenge of teaching younger students

- planning and initiating our activity

- working collaboratively with Dina, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Gray and Mr. Mace

- developing new skills of communicating with younger students and presenting to them 

Valentine's Day

The Valentine's Day had been a big event in BISM 3 and I was not only taking part in it's organization but also witnessed the whole process of it at it's different stages. In this post I will reflect on this experience.

For me the school day of 14th of February started off by money collection during registration time. Alyona and I went around classed to collect 100 rubles from each student that chose not to wear school uniform on this day. Unfortunately, 10 minutes wasn't enough to complete that and I could not be late for my first period but Alyona agreed to finish the work off. I think that her being late for class was not something acceptable and for the future we need to remember today's experience and maybe ask tutors to collect the money and pass them over to us. I think that non-school uniform day as such is a very good idea in BIS as it enables IB students to satisfy the service aspect of their CAS and the majority of younger students to contribute towards raising finance for a good cause.

Later in the day I contributed towards distributing valentine cards to year 9 students specifically and setting up for the disco that took place after school and that I personally was responsible for promoting (as I mentioned in my previous post ). Speaking of the disco, in addition to promoting it I also decided to support all of the yr12 and 13 students that were directly involved in actual running of the dicso by staying after school too and helping with "small tasks" such as entertaining the crowd by dancing with them and talking people into dancing if they werent feeling like it and making milk shakes.

I think that the disco itself was a great success because people looked like they were genuinely enjoying it. The music was something that felt went really well (thanks to yr13 boys). Although I know that there were some technical difficulties with setting up the acoustic system for Dj and this is something that could be planned better in the future. A major highlight of the disco was also the game planned and initiated by Dina and the King and the Queen nomination. Call me overly emotional, but I was thrilled to be the one handing the crown to one of the winners!

During the lunchtime Alyona, Polina and I along with yr 13 girls organized a Valentine's themed bake sale. As always, beautifully decorated treats were sold to students as a fund raiser. The demand for muffins and biscuits was huge - most of the treats were swept away in the first 10 minutes of lunch. I have noticed that low-value bakings (anything under 100 rub) were sold the first and I will keep that in mind for the next time. Another thing to consider when setting prices is the availability of change. During Valentine's day bake sale we were faced with a major problem of not being able to give change to customers as we ran out of coins very quickly.

Overall, by eagerly participating in organization of Valentine's Day I: 
- increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth (evaluative points mentioned)
- undertaken new challenges (organization of such major event)
- planned and initiated activities (baking sale)
- worked collaboratively with others (all stages of preparation for the day)
- shown perseverance and commitment to cookery
- considered ethical implications of my actions (fundraising)
- developed new skills (milk shake making)

BIS Winter Day 2013

After several times that it has been postponed, the BIS Winter/Snow Day 2013 has finally taken place today. I enjoyed every minute of running my activity but overall the day left me with mixed feelings and I will explain why.

I have mentioned in one of my previous posts my intention to work collaboratively with Dina and Francesco (I had them linked in that previous post) to initiate story telling activity. Unfortunately, my fears weren't false - we did not have enough time to plan this activity to bits. By nature I'm a real plan-B person so without wasting another minute I sat down and made a quiz presentation that we ended up using today.

I have tried to make the quiz interesting and educative and this is why the questions were challenging at times. We found our way around that. The quiz involved two groups competing with each other on who will get the closest to the precise answer to the question. The fact that it was now a competition really motivated participants to get their brain juices swirling and even the youngest yr7s made very intellectual guesses. To reward them for that, last night I have baked no less than 70 sugar cookies to serve after completion of the quiz. 

In addition to that I made a playlist of songs to be played during the activity:

Elder children managed to answer questions much quicker in comparison to younger kids so we had to improvise on the spot and entertain them in the remaining time. To deal with that, we have introduced a game that involved participants to draw winter themed objects with their eyes covered. Children's reaction was nothing but positive - we always had volunteers to go first. 

Overall, we got very pleasing respond to our activity from our audiences. I often got complimented on the cookies that I have baked and this is exactly what my group mates and I needed to be motivated to enthusiastically initiate our quiz until today's lunch. 

 Winter's Day went down the hill after lunch. According to the timetable we did not have to initiate our activity after 1pm and frankly, I did not have any idea of what was I supposed to do after lunch. I later learned that I was not the only one in the same situation.

In the end of lunch we were all asked to come outside and wait for the instructions of yr13s. Meanwhile younger students started a massive snowball fight with teachers and I must admit it was a terrifying spectacle. Not that I am against having fun in the snow, I am actually a big supporter of that but what was happening at that time was a complete disarray. Shortly after Yr13s asked yr7-8-9 to go down to the football cage to play with snow(?) and yr10 and us to make our way to the obstacle course. I was genuinely excited to take part in the obstacle course race so when our year group was asked to decide on 6 volunteers to participate in the race I did not hesitate to step forward. The race has begun and I was already on the mark when Mr Giddens (Deputy Head Teacher at BIS3) called for our attention. He ordered the whole school to go to their tutor rooms immediately. There we were given an opportunity to evaluate today's event.

I later learned that while we were having fun around the obstacle course, younger children proceeded with their chaotic snowballing at the football pitch. As far as I am concerned, one teacher got severely injured and this was the main reason for terminating the activity. This was indeed a bit of a disappointment for me because until this point I quite enjoyed the day and I don't want to blame it on anyone. I'm just going to say that from this year's winter day I have learned how crucial it is to plan and organize events before hand and very precisely.

During Winter Day 2013 I have achieved the following CAS outcomes:

- increasing awareness of strengths and areas for growth

- undertaking new challenges 

- planning and initiating activities 

- working collaboratively with others

- shown perseverance and commitment to cookery

- developed new skills 

- proved to be a reflective, communicative, knowledgeable IB learner 

Preparation for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is soon and it will be celebrated in BIS 3 with a themed bake sale on lunchtime and a disco after school.

Personally, I am directly participating in the bake sale starting from baking the treats and decorating them, continuing with selling them and finishing with investing the profit from the bake sale into buying presents for children in several orphanages whose birthdays are in March. I will be working collaboratively with Polina Semochkina who I would like to credit for finding out about the birthday presents program and Alyona Sukhova, my usual cookery buddy.
In addition to that I am currently promoting the Disco by creating posters and hanging them around school as well as distributing music request sheets.

By being involved in organization on St Valentine's day at BISM I:

- contribute towards creativity and service aspect of CAS

- develop new skills of Word document editing 

- plan future activities 

- show commitment to cookery 

- consider ethical implications of my actions 

- engage with issues of global importance 

Preparation for Winter Day

February is predicted to be a busy month for IB students like myself with no less than three events taking place in BIS. One of the major events planned is Winter/Snow day on 8th February. 

Initially, the day was supposed to be organized my year 13 students only but a little bit of negotiation led to me getting a chance to take a direct part in organizing one of the activities. Before Christmas holidays my year group was in process of planning a Winter day but at that time the management of our school did not give us their final permission to organize it. 

I have grouped up with Dina Ivanova and Francesco Guerrisi and together we have decided to use one of our previous ideas for pre-Christmas event - story telling. In general, it would involve participants saying something that would continue what was said by a previous person to collaboratively create a story. At this point I can see how this is going to work but I still fear that we do not have too much time to plan such complex activity. 

In addition to that I am taking part in co-organization of another event initiated my my classmates - the outside games in the snow. Again, the clock is ticking and I feel the pressure of the deadline. 

A couple of days ago all of Yr12s directly involved in organization of Winter Day got together to make a rough plan of our activities. In conclusion we have broken down organizational points so that each person was responsible for a certain aspect of their activity. 

Below you can see my personal notes that I have made in preparation for today's meeting.

During the process of preparation for Winter Day, I:

- planned an activity 

- worked collaboratively with others

- developed my communicative and organizational skills