Helping mothers at the church

In the church, after people have lunch, there are lots of plates and spoons to do wash-up. People living in different areas are responsible for doing it per month. This november is a turn for people living in Michuranski and Udalchoba, involving my family. I have washed dishes twice in my life, so I am too slow and it would be disturbing rather than helping. I decided to dry dishes with a cloth. Seriously, there were large amounts of plates and spoons which only one person was not able to do it by himself. I, Johnny, Na Kyung and my sister did it together and it made this work much easier to do. Firstly, we just did washing up together and plates pilled up made the the table narrower, so I put things back where they were supposed to be.  Since there were different kinds of plates, I had to set them in different drawers. Indeed, there are two russian women who clean the church, do wash-up and cook. Yesterday, this made me realize how hard work they do and really appreciate what they do.  

1:1 basketball with Mr.Gray

It is about a year that I have been playing basketball, but actually I really rarely did 1:1 match. Indeed, It is right to say I have avoided it. My dribling skill is not really good (I can't dribble without looking at the ball), so it was really hard to score against a person defending me away from scoring. Today, during others were having a short break in badminton club, I played 1:1 basketball match with Mr.Gray. It was 10 points match and I got first 3 points, which made me proud of myself. However, after that, Mr.Gray showed his real ability and as I was getting exhausted, Mr.Gray won. He got 10 points while I got 7. Though I lost, I got some ideas what I need to practise and improve. I need to increase my stemina by a regular exercises not only outside, but also at home. Also, I should get used to dribbling without looking at the ball, so I can possibly develop some skills such as cross over and spin move which are really useful to break through.

Realising how awful I play badminton!

It was the third time that I joined the badminton club. Indeed, I thought that I was not a very bad player on average, but I wasn't. Mr.Gray and the ICT teacher also joined it and they reall made me realize how much I have to improve to be a good player like them. Frequently, I failed to give a low serve and that led big loss of scores, since the ICT teacher was really good at smahshing and knew what to do well in different positions. I feel that the first thing I should reform is serve and controlling power. Mine was often out of the court, which gave the opponents scores, and high serve of mine led the loss of my team. (Felt really sorry for Mr.Gray, who was my team member). However, still I had several nice matches as usual.
 

Making a robot with blocks

I made some stuffs with blocks with young boys. I am not good at making things as my creativity is lack of, but the one I made yesterday was quite fine. Actually, I want to add some more and make more, but those boys used all the blocks to make their robots stronger. Of course, mine was killed by theirs in 10 seconds. It seems a bit childish to make a robot with blocks and post it up on the blog, but I think it also needs creativity to do this

The first picture is a robot with wings, a tail and strong hands.
The last picture is if I overturn a robot, it becomes another form of a robot with four legs.
Awesome! 

The day with 6 kids

Hello

Yesterday my mom's friends were invited to my home. 3 came with 2 kids for each. I and my sister were responsible for taking care of those 6 kids. Fortunately, I knew those kids since I have often seen them in the church. I really love little kids very much and I was glad to see and be given an opportunity to play with them. Firstly, I didn't know what to do with these young kids, but it was not as difficult as I thought. They liked just playing with someone. I played mini football with young boys which made me exhausted and drew some pictures with girls. 5 kids were from 5 years old to 7 years old, but one was only 11 months. He was super cute. Actually, when I saw him in the church, he was crawling, wasn't able to walk and now he can toddle around without relying on something. It's still awkward and he often fell down, but I was somehow proud of him walking without any help. After about 3 hours, I was extremely exhausted and let kids do what they wanted.

Abandoned teddy; He threw away almost everything
at my home after playing with it 

I was a bit upset about mothers chatting. On the other hand, I was actually thanks to my parents and respect them how they could raise me. It was a hard experience to be responsible for 6 juvenile kids and I was a bit annoyed by them who continuously asked me to play with, but still they are cute and it was the day to make me feel many things about my parents!

-  There are numbers of pictures, but I realized I only took pictures of this 11 months baby after they went back.

Performing the guitar in the band for the first time (Talent show)!!!

 On international day, we have a talent show at the last 2 periods which was about 2 hours. I can say this is an opportunity to show what you are good at to people at school. I have never joined in it, but since I became y12, I joined in an amateur band that my friends already made. Indeed the band needed a guitar player since the one who played the second guitar left school. Although I was not really good at playing the guitar, band members accepted me as a member. By the way the name of band is High five, because there are five members in the band :)
 Indeed I could play the guitar little bit, but not really good at it. Therefore I thought joining in the band could help me to improve my guitar skills and collaborate with others to perform a song. The song we planned to perform on talent show is 'Travel to myself' which is a well known Korean band music. We practiced the song every Friday . It was challenging for me to harmonize with other instruments and I often lost tempos. The song itself was not that demanding, but there were some short difficult part that I needed to keep practicing. Although, I often found , it was a really good experience to play instruments with my friends and I practiced a lot not to spoil the performance because of me. On the real stage, I did not make big mistakes, but I was too nervous. Since it was the first time I kept shaking hands and just looked at the guitar while playing. But the performance was quite successful I can say. Our band is now planning to practice more songs and to perform them later on. We have not decided exactly which one, but I am really looking forward to doing it. I think if I get used to performing on the public, I will get less nervous.  

Teaching on International Day

(Making a board for Yoot Nori)

  In my school we have a special school day called International Day. On this day, students from different countries share their traditional food, introduce their cultures (wearing their traditional clothes, showing traditional activities). Usually seniors and teachers organised the day. However, this year seniors (y12 and 13) were solely responsible for this day. Y12 were told to teach their traditional stuffs and y13 were setting up and doing decorations for the day. A Korean group that I was involved in planned to teach Yutnorri, a Korean monopoly

 I am not a good English speaker,so I have never taught something in English.
This was an opportunity for me to take a new challenge, but I was so nervous to do it. A bit of excitement which might come from the fact teaching traditional games in my country was behind overwhelming nervousness.
 Since I am not a good English speaker, I wasn't able to explain the sophisticated rules about the game properly. So before the day, at least I had to do sth, I helped to draw a board and make item cards for the game. However, on the day the activity was quite fine, better than I was worried about. We divided each year groups into two and Na Kyung and I took one of the teams. After Johnny explained the general rules to the all, we helped another group and led them to play the game properly and explained them again to assure if they understood the rules properly. It was unpleasant that at least one of people in each group even didn't play it, but some of them really seemed to enjoy it, which was really glad to see.

Feedback from each year group.
Some of them were really satisfied with our activity
(even some said it was the best activity on the day)
 and
it made me really fulfilled

Teaching our traditional games was awesome experience and  my first teaching (even that was about my country's traditional games) brought me indescribable achievement. I have never taught anything traditional to others, but when I did it via this opportunity, it was really achievable. If we had prepared the explanation of the rules more clearly, it would have been much more enjoyable to them and us.

Ethical issue

On international day, it is a tradition that every nation brings different traditional food and shares it. The most famous Korean food that most foreigners really love is Samgak Kimbob.(Triangles) and I decided to bring triangles. Indeed we usually put meat(pork) for triangles, but we decided to put tuna, because there are some nations, for example Jewish and Islamic nations 

School life!

Last week, we were told to make a video on any theme we want. This was for people who didn't have specific idea for their creativity  and I thought it would really help, since I was one of them. Actually we made a plan to make a music video of Gangnam style like flash mob and made a general plan for each scene. On monday, we individually learnt how to dance Gang nam style and already asked some students at school to join us, but we realized it was impossible to teach them how to dance, take and edit the video professionally within remained 2 days.

We thought about an easy general topic we could take and edit within 2 days and it was school life! We moved around and took any random thing at school and especially focused on our band playing. Since I personally had no experience on editing videos, it was a new challenge for me. In the video there is no professional editing, but we tried to put the scenes which matched with the music. I think it worked quite well!

To evaluate the video ,if we are given another opportunity like this for next time, we really need to make a plausible and realistic plan so we won't change it just before dead line. Also I will try to do some more skillful editions as I have already done one. However, compared to time we spent, it was a satisfied movie :)

First day joining badminton club

It is a quite long time that I haven't played badminton. I  used to play badminton at school in Korea, but I thought I can't in Russia since summer is too short.

 However, I noticed that there was a badminton club after school on Tuesday and last week I joined in it. Though I didn't play so well and we often lost, but it was really fun. I realize that individual ability is  important, but also cooperation with the team mate is important. We often tried to hit a shuttlecock at the same time and it led lose of the team. I found that my weakness is controlling power. I just hit the shuttlecock as powerful as I can and they were mostly out. Since I decide to join it regularly, I hope I and my team will get better.

International Day Plan

International? Global?
Last year was the first time I joined International day and it was enjoyable. However, I also realize whether it's enjoyable or not heavily depends on y12, because they make and lead the activities. Also international day is a really imporatant school event, because it is the day that studnets can experience divese culture, for example traditinal clotes, activities and food. School is 'International', but I find among my friends and other peer groups that we are not really  international. We have many students from different countries, but we do not know each other' culture well and do not take much care about it.  Now, I am y12 who should make everyone at school enjoy this day and show some cultural importance and what 'international' means on wednesday(9/26) we planed what we are going to do.

Plan

My group(Korean group) members are Johnny and Na Kyung.
Firstly, we listed activities that represent Korean and we can do
1. Teach how to dance Gang Nam Style( may be teaching what lyrics actually mean as well)
2. Teaching Korean and testing them( people who get good results will be rewarded with Korean snacks)
3. Traditional games (Yootnoli and Gong gi)
4. Making Kim Bob

We picked number 1 and 3. Because students must be fed up with making  Kim bob, which they do on every international day, and teaching Korean also can make them bored too.
However, teaching Gang Nam Style will be a great activity. There were much more foreign friends who know the music Gang Nam Style( they seem to love it) and when they see Koreans, they ask about what lyrics mean or say 'Oppan Gangnam Style!'. So we think they will be also interested in dancing which is an actual charming point of the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

However, physically and mentally, it must be difficult for us and them to dance Gang Nam Style for whole 40m. So we decide that first 20m will be time for playing traditional games. Gong ggi and yootnoli are what Koreans often play and my favorite traditional games. We divide students coming into two(half). One group will play Gong ggi while another group will be playing yoot noli. After 10m, they swarp the games, so both group can play both games in 2

Problems                                                           

There are some problems to do those.
Basically, we have to master GanNam Style dance; the problem is three of us are horrible dancers. We should keep practising, so become as good as explaining to others. Another problem with dancing is not for us, but students. Some of them(might be more than we think) are quite shy to dance and may be reluctant to do it, so they might be upset to be told to dance, ranther than enjoing it.

Playing Traditional Games have some problems too. It's quite difficult to explain the rules, especially Yootnoli which has a lot to explain. On the other hamd, Gong ggi has much more simple rules, but if you want to enjoy Gong ggi, 10m is not enough. It really needs skills to play it. So what I think is we can still divide groups, but both of them play Yootnoli for 20m. We don't have to explain the rules twice and I think yoot noli is much more interesting to enjoy in short time. but still I have to discuss with my group members.

It is our general plan and it might be possibly changed. We should find ways to deal with our problems, so that the day can be more memoraible and interesting. We didn't tallk about decorations a lot, so we also have to do it as well. I really expect this day is going to be awesommmme!

Basketball

 My favorite sports is basketball. Actually it's the only sports I really enjoy by my heart. I have a basketball court nearby my apartment and sometimes went out and played it alone, for example practicing shooting and dribbling. Sometimes I played with others, but every time I realized how horribly I played basketball. I really have love and passion for this sport and I really want to be a good, or at least  fine basketball player.

 Indeed at school, we have a basketball club running on every Wednesday. From this new year I decided to join it to improve my basketball skills and I see this is an opportunity to become a 'fine' basketball player. Now I am planning to regularly play it throughout my IB and to reflect how I get better as I play more. My big general aim was just to improve my basketball skills, but there were some specific aims that I want to achieve.
> To get used to play in a team. I do not have much experience playing with others in a formal team. (e.g passing, learning some team strategies, one two pass)
> Improve my shooting skills and dribbling.
> To

I am writing this post on the third week that I joined school basketball club.
Last two weeks we played randomly. We made random teams, but on this week, we decided to make a constant team that we will play. My team was red and there were some good and experienced players in my team. This time I got just few scores and I thought it was not that bad compared to the fact that it was the first match for my team. However I found some personal weaknesses that I need to improve.
> I should pass more, since I was not used to playing in a team, I tend to dribble a ball and drive to the goal without concerning where my team members were.
> My shooting accuracy was awful. I need to spend time practicing shooting.
> I should know the right timing when to shoot. I sometimes took a shot even when there were many opponents blocking me.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOniCTI0r1k&feature=g-upl

And I think taking a video is a great method to reflect how I played. I can be aware of my weaknesses and therefore make some plans or strategies to improve them. 

CAS PLAN

It seems to be that I am the only one who has posted nothing on the blog, so today I am writing things which I should have done :)

 So, basically, I should start off my CAS blog with my CAS plan. Many things haven't been specified yet, but I have a general plan what I am going to do.

Active

Basketball(Wednesday-4:00~5:30)/ (Saturday-2:00~4:00)
-I play basketball twice a week, on a quite regular basis, and I play basketball, because simply I love it and not only I can collaborate with others, but also take a challenge by myslef.

Badminton(Tuesday-4:00-5:00)
-I used to play badminton in Korea, but there is no suitable place to play it here. I want to play it at a school and I will certainly, if it's possible( since, I usually go to home from school with others in Y8, so I can't make a fully decision about it)

Creativity

Band(Friday lunch time at school)
- I play the second guitar in a school band and it's been a quite long time that I play the guitar, but I actually don't take it seriously. However, as I am a member of the band, I should keep practising for a band and nowadays, I really want to play the guitar well unlike the past, when I wansn't actually interested in it.

Service

Making an announcement in the church - I am responsible for making an announcement to inform things such as what today worship is about and what things are happening in a church. (but I just receive information from the minister and just inform it). So on every Sunday, I make an announcement and copy as number of people and give them. ( I will take a picture of it later on).

That's all I plan and these are what I can do on a regular basis, but I will certainly do other things apart from these too.

start

at 10:42 in 18th September 2012