Hi Fellow IBers - How To Use This Website & A Final Farewell

TL;DR (Dec 2020) -  Graduated IB, graduated HKU, doing my MPhil at Cambridge. Stick around this old site for inspiration or find me at SciHisty!

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Hey IBers,

I've decided to post one last time on this blog after my dramatic exit a year or two ago (as of Aug 28, 2019).

Why?

People are still visiting this site! In fact, it looks like I will pass 50,000 total views in the next month or so!

Which is fantastic and I'm flattered, glad that this site is still useful!

However, the past few posts on this site have been.... well completely un IB or CAS related, which kinda defeats the purpose of a blog like this.

So to remedy this and hopefully waste less precious IB'er time (unless you are using this to procrastinating something, in which case at least it's productive procrastination :P) I'm putting this post here to orient people a bit so you can find the information you are actually looking for.
 
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Want examples of CAS reflections? Click the Creative, Action or Service tabs at the top (although I think the service and action ones are better, the action reflections... kinda suck, I'm not athletic in the slightest)

Need ideas for what to do for a specific outcome?  Check out the Learning Outcomes tab for my reflections sorted by outcome!

The Good, Bad and Ugly of CAS? Final CAS reflections / CAS hour tabs, Updates and Blog stats tab respectively.

Having an IB meltdown and need advice? 1. contact a counselor or trusted teacher/friend/family member first as I am in no way qualified. THEN 2. you can contact me and I'll try my best to steer you the right way as an IB survivor who has been there through the highs and lows.

Need general IB advice, past papers/resources or EE or IA help? The folks over at the subreddit IBO  (reddit.com/r/ibo) are wonderful and helped me though a lot (you might even occasionally spot me there under an alias :P)

Memes? (since people have actually messaged me about this) Here. Happy? :P

The forms tab will remain locked as it is where I've kept all my empty and scanned supervisor forms (aka contains tons of personal information and my signature.). If you want to know how that's done on blogger or really basic html stuff, contact me and I'll post a tutorial on my current website.

(although these days you young whipper-snappers have the luxury of ManageBac and other fancy schmancy techno stuff. Back in my day, we had physical PAPER forms and google docs!)

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Again, I can't say this enough, but thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all the support over these few years. Keep at it IB-ers, you can do it!

Feel free to keep commenting below, although be aware it might take me a while to respond.

If you have a CAS blog or resource website that you would like me to link to, please contact me through my current blog's contact page HERE. 

(Please include the words "IB CAS Blog", your name, a link to the blog and where you are from/ a little bit about yourself)

 Let's spread that IB CAS Blog love around! 

If I get enough, I'll create a page dedicated to other IB blogs or invite guest posters here!

 (My new, university blog is " A Pondering Papaya" for the curious. The writing is pretty awful but if you want to know what I'm up to now, check it out)   

Update (Dec 2020): Graduated with my undergrad degree, now at Cambridge IRL and SciHisty.wordpress.com online but still answering questions, emails and comments from people here! Thanks for popping by!

So long and thanks for all the fish!
-Rebecca

Looking to the Future...

Hey! So it has been a while since I have updated my blog with anything, since I have been busy with the wonderful (yet slightly intimidating) world of University.

Edit: Change photo to much more subtle shout out, since the logo one was taken off of wikipedia and this was the best noncopy righted image I could find :P

When I started this blog for IB, it was only intended as a way for me to get organised, given that if had I kept physical papers around, I would have lost about 90% of my CAS evidence by the end of the year (that's not to say I didn't still lose a lot of my supervisor forms, just that I lost less of them since I only had half of the papers to keep track of. :D

Also the blog acted as as a bit of useful procrastination :P Not that I recommended procrastinating for any current IB students (get back to your IAs EEs TOKs CAS or revision!), but considering this was an alternative to being completely unproductive, that resulted in me possible getting into university and on the front page of google for "IB CAS Blog"  (searched in an incognito window to avoid search history influence my results), I'd say it wasn't that bad in the end.

This still completely blows my mind.... Then again, who else makes a CAS blog in their spare time?

Over my two years of IB, I feel as though I have grown quite a bit as a person, I've not only survived the programe (seriously IB is no small feat) but also gone on to:

• get a first aid certificate
• lead a taught a group of students by my myself
• create and plan goals, activities and events
• figure out I suck at golf (like hit the grass more than the ball bad at golf)
• learn how to crochet and code
• become involved with various HK volunteering organisations
• improve my music playing
• master BSing to my achievements and reflections sound more impressive than they are
• etc...

(this is starting to slowly sound like a paid endorsement. It isn't... although IBO, if you are willing to team up on this thing, I'd be happy to be involved :P gotta start paying off college somehow )

My history website is still a work in progress, though will be put on hold for the time being because again, University. I will try to get back on to it when I have the time (probably around Xmas break), but in the mean time, the website's blog will be up and running here

As you can see, like this blog, its work in progress and slowly updated

I will continue to update previous CAS reflections or (finally...) post several drafts of CAS reflections that I didn't get around to do while I was in IB (looking at you Music class reflections and Part 2-4 of my First Aid classes - Sorry for such a delay, they are just a really unpolished.

Instead of posting them here at the end however (which would be confusing what with the dates not lining up and completion of events several months from when they were actually done), I will reschedule them so that they fit the date they were completed on (thank goodness for past me's records)

Not sure how this will effect the email subscription people, so if you suddenly get spammed with a bunch of posts from the "past" in a few days, this is probably why. Apologies in advance!

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I was also thinking about starting another personal blog, given how much this one helped me keep focus toward tasks and acted as a self-reflection, maybe I'll share a link here, or maybe I won't depending on what sort of things I end up posting (haven't decided yet)..

If I do create a blog and chose to share it, it's link will be found in the about me section (like with my History blog site) simply so I can stop cluttering the front page of my blog with "non-CAS" related things.

I have also set up different tabs at the top of the website in order to facilitate the skipping to a specific type of activity (it was under the learning outcomes before, but was a bit annoying to try and keep flipping back to that one page. Now its all conveniently positioned at the top!

Also I just learned how to link up page tabs with blog tags, wanted to test it out and went a bit overboard... 

So yeah! That will be all for now!

• Filling up things I've missed
• Making the website flow better
• Occasional updates in the blog stats section. 

I'll try to migrate my future updates to either the history blog, or a separate personal blog, so that this one can retain its original purpose as a first and for most CAS blog. (not a Rebecca airs her general thoughts on the world bloggy page)

Its been a great journey in IB, and as I move on to the new adventure that is university, I all of you IBer's the best of luck in your academic, extra curricular and university endeavours!

- Rebecca

DUN DUN DUN

Few more hours until IB scores are released... dang this is nerve wracking...

 Good luck IB'ers and hope you get the scores you were hoping for! :)

 -Rebecca

 ps. Haven't been posting as much as I said I would since I am currently working on an IB history resources website (since there doesn't seem to be that many, especially for Asian history, will probably add to this post later about it)

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Update: 38 (A in History EE, 3 in TOK/CAS) !!!  :)

Update 11!

My IB exams are OVER!!! (YAY!)

Going to spend my summer catching up on my reading list (which has become extremely long over the course of IB), watching some movies, preparing for university and updating this blog for my as well as future IB students reference.

(I know you are out, there since over 61% of my views are from outside of Hong Kong, and my blog doesn't track my own views ;) )

BTW, The first few books that I am reading are:

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

 Well, that is all for now!
-Rebecca

Update 10

Hey! It has been a while since I have updated.

I will be finish up the remaining odds and ends after May (including uploading my CAS portfolio for other's future reference).

As you can see by the sidebar countdown, it is T-20 days till the exams *panic*.

To all of the current year 2 IBer's reading this, good luck in all your exams! Hope revision is going well! (this applies to May people only, for November people you still have a few months). May you get high enough scores to get into your first choice university!

Now get back to revision/reviewing and stop procrastinating (says I, while typing this out instead of revising)! :P

To all of the current year 1 IBer's reading this, hope your first year of IB wasn't too bad and you turned in all of your assignments on time. .. well, most of them :)

Keep working hard in the summer to finish off all of the EEs, IAs, TOK essays and presentations, general school work etc. (as well as collecting those CAS hours), don't let these free weeks go to waste (you will regret it like I did at the start of Y13)!

(Feel free to still comment on any general IB related questions (or specific if in HK) , though keep in mind I won't answer them till much later )

Good Luck & Add oil (加油!!)

-Rebecca

Update 9

Currently in CAS limbo, where my all my CAS related forms and activities have been finished off, but before they have been sent off to the IBO.

(I will probably post my portfolio after IB exams in May as reference for future IB-ers and people who go to my school, but won't do so now due to fears of plagiarism accusations etc.)

-Rebecca

Final CAS Reflection

I will be putting my final CAS reflections HERE since it will be a pretty text heavy post that I don't want to have taking over the entire front page of my blog!

(or http://rebecca-ib-cas.blogspot.hk/p/final-cas-reflection.html if the link doesn't work)

-Rebecca

* Edit: 22/1/2016: This is NOT going to be the last post since I still need to update some stuff and have a few activities to finish in this month and the next that I will post! :D 

After that, I will still keep this blog online so that other people can use it as a resource or general guide to IB CAS (feel free to leave a comment if you need some general advice on IB CAS)

*Edit: 11/4/2016: See update 10.

Update 8

So IB year 2, whole lot more stressful than I had originally thought.
 No new events for November... (there was violin but that is a weekly thing)

Here is a quick update:

I might also change the " Activities I have done" tab to an "Organizations involved with", since the activities I have done can be found under the CAS hour tabs.

I have also added a forms page that I will add the signed forms for CAS (when I have the time) , so that I don't have to lug by CAS binder everywhere I go. It is password protected, since it has some personal information about the events I do on it.

Here are some goals for the month of December (which once again will be bit short due to mocks, college apps and the like) :

• Finish off any posts I have been putting off (such as music ones)
• Add more new activities, preferably action 
• Christmas Carnival is coming up!
• Start the year 13 CAS chart

That is all for now!
- Rebecca

Soap Cycling with Hands on Hong Kong

Activity: Soap Cycling with Hands on Hong Kong
Date: Saturday, October 17
Time: 3 hours (10:30 to 1:30)
Type: Group (with friends)
Organization: Soap Cycling (LINK) & HandsOn Hong Kong (LINK)

Hours: 3 hours - Service  

On Saturday, I went with a few of my friends to help out HandsOn Hong Kong with one the several projects they helped organize, Soap Cycling!

What this organization does is simply take used hotel soap from all over Hong Kong (Hong Kong being an international fiance city has a LOT of hotels) and makes them into new bars of soap that get sent out to those in need to improve sanitation.

I was involved in the first step of scraping off the used and dirty parts of the soap (you can check out the whole process HERE!)

And without further delay, here are my reflections for Soap Cycling!

5) Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities
This activity involved a surprising amount of perseverance, despite being much shorter than many of my other activities. At first, I thought the 3 hour session would be very easy. After all, how hard could cleaning soap be?

Shaving soap, trying not to poke through the gloves with the knife

 Well, what I didn't think about was the overwhelming smell that a warehouse full of hotel soap smells like. (We could smell it from the elevator!) 

I wasn't alone, many of the other new volunteers also were overpowered by the smell and were quickly left with runny noses!  Still, I persevered though the entire event and by the end of it, I hardly noticed the smell at all!

6) Engaged with issues of global importance

 It is not every day that the things you do are related issues of global importance. (well, typing this on my electricity consuming laptop is contributing to global warming, but I digress)
Soap cycling however was one of those activites.

Boxes and boxes of soap!

By doing my small part and spending my weekend morning scraping soap, another volunteer could turn it into a new bar of soap, which would packed by another person, loaded in a car or truck, driven to an air port, loaded onto a plane, flown across the world and given to someone in need. 
Not bad for the morning of a teenage girl in Hong Kong!

7) Considered the ethical implications of my actions 
Volunteering with Soap Cycling made me realize how much waste I often produce without realizing it. Not once before did I consider or even think about what happens to the bars of soap left behind at hotels after a trip (usually it just goes in the trash). 

My soap shaving "station"

To see mountain and mountains of boxes each brimming with soap really made me stop and think about how privileged I was to be in a position where I could afford to waste somthing that would be lifesaving somewhere else.

While shaving soap, I came across a mickey mouse soap, clearly from a HK Disneyland Resort hotel ( I didn't take a photo but it looked a bit like this, albeit less new looking)

Credit goes to Missyprisey at Bonanza.com HERE

As I was holding it in my hands, shaving away, I thought of the how the person who originally used the soap probably spend a lot of money on this trip to Disneyland, money that could be spent on other more worthwhile causes and didn't think twice about the waste they were producing.

 But then I remembered, hadn't I, like this mysterious person, gone on trips before just for fun, not for any real necessity or purpose other than for fun? How many times had left a bar of soap behind that would have just been thrown away?

It made me think more deeply about the role soap cycling played in the hospitality industry of HK, as well as the ways little insignificant actions have large consequences when added together. It also reminded me how important it was not only to find ways to prevent waste, but also to help others in the process.
Maybe more places should follow HK's lead and start soap cycling programs? :P
 (Sorry for the insanely long and text heavy post! Also that ending is really profound sounding don't you think?)
- Rebecca
 

Update 7 1/2 (ish...)

This isn't enough for a full update, but look what I got (several weeks ago, meaning this update is super late but yeah)!

My First Aider's certification card! (with all of the personal information, card number, expiration date etc blocked out, of course)

So yeah, I am certified for 3 years in Adult First Aid and CPR! :D

- Rebecca