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

Locker Labeling and Lock Replacing (part 2)

See part one of my reflections HERE

5) Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities
The task took two days (note the change in shirt color) , which shows my commitment to the activity, as I was only one of two people who returned on the second day to work on the locker keys.

On that day, my job was to check that each locker had a master key, ticking the locker number and student name off of the list.

One page of the master book of keys

Since about 40 or so lockers were being moved from the fourth floor to the third floor (lots of Year 10 and 11's this school year since they were born in the year 2000, which was also the year of the dragon), I had to make sure that the keys had the new 3000 locker number and not the old 4000 locker number so that all of the students would have a key

Checking with the master key list

Taking out wrongly labeled keys from the master book

Then we moved onto the student keys, with my classmate reading out the numbers on the loose keys and me double checking the keys with the ones in the book.

After that, we had to put the keys on the metal loop in order of number (for example 4030-4039 on one loop in order etc) for all of the student keys, double checking that we had a key for each locker for all four floors.

Just some of the student keys for the 2nd floor...

After 2 days and several hours of hard work, we finished with all of the keys! And every student had a locker for on the first day of school!

(well there were about 10 that didn't work, but 10 out of the several hundred isn't bad! Plus it is better than not having keys for the first week of school, which is what happened last year :P)

-Rebecca

Locker Labeling and Lock Replacing (part 1)

Activity: KCCIS Locker Labeling and Lock Replacing
Date: August 26 - 27
Time: 2 days (10 am - 5pm)
Type: School Activity
Organization: School

Hours: 10 hours - Service  

A few days before the start of the school year, I helped out with getting the lockers ready for the new school year.

This involved 2 days of work replacing the locks for lockers where the previous owner lost or didn't return their keys, matching new and loose keys to the locker number, labeling the keys, making sure each locker had one key in the master book and one for the student (this took the longest time, since we had to make sure the keys matched each other and the locker we assigned it to), ordering the keys by number and homerooms and finally making sure that each student had a key on the right floor with the rest of their classmates.

Suffice to say there was quite a bit of work involved! And without further delay, here are my reflections for the day!

2) Undertaken new challenges or an extension of an existing one

This was my first time working the locks on the locker, so it took some practice to get the hang of changing the locks quickly but accurately. 

On the day, we were giving 2 keys (a red key and a blue one) a box full of new locks and a pen. A white label was stuck on all of the lockers that needed their lock changed. To do that, we needed to use the two keys

The keys + a new lock

Red Key:  Tumbler replacing key. This one was the key that took out the tumbler portion of the lock, so a new one could be put in its place. 
 Blue Key: Master Key. We used the blue key to unlock all the lockers to remove anything inside and so we could then use the red key to take the tumbler of the lock out.

Then after we switched the locks,we would take the white label off and stick it with the keys for the new lock.

Here is me in action!

See the row of white labels in the back? Yup, lots of people lost their keys...

 
Here is the box of locks after just one floor:

4) Worked collaboratively with others

After we replaced the locks (and labels to the lockers that would be moved to a different floor or whose old label was falling off), we moved to labeling the master and student key for all them!

In order to speed the process along, I worked collaboratively with my class mates, with each person taking over a different part in the locker key sorting process.

Laughing due to our IB coordinator's attempt to hide from view :D

 These steps included:
1) Printing the locker numbers using the label maker.
2) Sticking the labels on to the matching set of keys. (my job for most of the day)
3) Checking the keys for duplicates and making sure the two newly labeled keys are for the same locker.
4) Attaching a keyring and tag to the keys.
5) Putting the keys on to the metal loop

One half of the process

Every so often, we would switch roles so that everyone could try their hand at a different role.

But that still wasn't the end of the task at hand...

I'm cutting off this post here since this one is getting long. See the work I did on the second day HERE! (< link to other post when I am done with it)

- Rebecca

Update 7

First day of Y13 today!
Still a bit behind on some of my reflections (specifically the music ones), though hopefully I will be able to catch up (in the middle of all the craziness that goes along with the second year of IB. 4000 word Extended Essay in History, I'm looking at you)

• I have enough action hours now due to first aid, though I might want get more since there are a lot less than the Service and Creative hours.
• I need to get a form signed for prefect duty, since I had so many hours of it last year, but it didn't count due to the form not being signed.
• My main priority this month (since I am trying to ease myself into school work) is to get the old music updates and reflections uploaded and posted.)

- Rebecca 

Update (17/9/15):
I forgot to mention that I will not be getting Flute hours for a while since my flute teacher has graduated college and is getting an internship, so won't be able to teach me, thus there might be fewer if any hours for flute as I look for a new teacher.  I'm still practicing flute by myself at home though! (maybe now I will finally get around to posting the reflection for music in May...)

RISE conference

Activity: RISE Conference
Date: July 31st-August 1st
Time: 14 hours (7 am - 12 pm / 7:30am - 2:30pm )
Type: Registration team
Organization: RISE (LINK) @ HKCEC (LINK)

Hours: 14 Hours - Service 

Over the summer I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Rise conference at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

I worked in registration, so arrived early on both days.

HKCEC in the early morning!

In my volunteer t-shirt, ready to work!

Here are my reflections for the event!

2) Undertaken new challenges or an extension of an existing one
This was the first time I have volunteered for a large conference, so I undertook many new challenges with the registration system. For example, there were many people who bought their tickets late, so I had to learn on the spot how to add the names of people who weren't entered into the system yet.
I also learned how to use the QR code e-ticket system on the ipad to print out the information for the name badges.

Another challenge involved making sure the people were in the correct line for their ticket. I was one of the 5 people in charge of the Alpha line, which was for people that had exhibits and stalls in the convention.

Entrance to the Rise conference

3) Planned and Initiated Activities
During the event, I was involved with the planning of different parts of the registration team, from teaching the later shifts how to use the ipad registration system, the e tickets and how to enter in the names of late comers or change their details in the system.

I also arrived slightly earlier than some of the people on the other days, so was involved with the set up of some of the stalls by finding the supplies the presenters needed or pointing them in the direction of the help desk.

Throughout the day, as number of people registering in the Alpha line got fewer, I also helped with the general admissions(which is what the pink wristbands are for). Many of the people attending the conference had trouble with the app or logging into the wifi, which I helped them with or sent them to one of the group leaders who could sort out their problems.

4) Worked collaboratively with others

I worked together with my registration team, lead by Grace in helping out with registration on the 2 days of the convention.

As mentioned earlier, I also helped teach some of the newer volunteers how to use the system and worked together with the other groups when they needed help, such as when the volunteers in charge of the general admissions needed more people to help speed their lines along.

On the convention floor during my break

- Rebecca

Crochet (Project 2) - Part 1

Activity: Crochet class
Date: May - July
Time:2 hours per lesson
Type: Individual
Organization: 編愛毛 (The Heart Knitting Company Tel. 2811 2287)

Hours:  16 hours - Creative

Like I mentioned before, I will group all of the lessons for a project together into one post and give a final CAS reflection for this at the end of IB, like with music, just so you don't have to see the same reflections over and over again :D

Here are some photos of my newest crochet project:

The pattern:

When starting the project, I used 4 different colors instead of the recomended one color, since I thought it would look nicer. Later I found out after making the project that the different layers needed different amounts of yarn (for example the black layer needed much more yarn than the white one), so for some parts I needed to improvise with other yarn. Still the final product looked really good !

Layer one (white centers):

Layer 2 (light blue circle):

Layer 3 (dark blue square)

Layer 4 ( connecting the squares with black yarn):

There is more to this project, but there might be too many photos in it for this post to load properly, so I am splitting this project up into 2 parts!

Look for that soon!

-Rebecca

St. John Ambulance - First Aid Course (Part 1)

Activity: St. John Ambulance - First Aid Course
Date: July 21st-24th
Time: 4 days (9 am - 5:30pm )
Type: First Aid course
Organization: St. John Ambulance (LINK)

Hours: 10 hours - Creative
             20 hours - Action     

I just took the St. John Ambulance First Aid Course last week, and will be taking the certification test Friday next week (August 7th) which will involve :

•  A multiple choice test about different situations a First Aider might encounter (basically the non hands on stuff in the First Aid Manual
• A test on diagnosing and bandaging different fractures, sprains and bleeding from a hypothetical scenario
• Cardio - Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for an Adult with a Resusci Anne manikin

Wish me luck! :D

Now on to what our class and I did on during the course! ( I should also mention at this time that I didn't take any photos during the class, since it would be a bit weird and rude to do, thus this will mostly be just a textual, journal - like post), with a few photos from after the event

Day 1 - July 21
On the first day, we met with our first aid instructor, Melissa and I received all of my bandaging supplies (4 triangular bandages, a 2 inch roller bandage,  a 3 inch roller bandage and gauze) first aid book and CPR face shields.

We first learned the principles of first aid using the 3P's:
Preserve life
Prevent further injury
Promote recovery

Followed by the Primary Survey of the person at the scene using the acronym DR. ABC:

D - Danger - Check the area for any hazards (ie glass, chemicals, fire etc) first before going to help or you could be hurt as well.

R - Response - See if they respond to your voice when asking "Are you okay?". (If not, shake them by their shoulders and see if they respond). If not, assume they are unconscious and move quickly to the following steps.

. - Stay  - This isn't an official step, but one our instructor added. Ask someone nearby to stay closeby, just in case you need extra help or need someone to run off to get something or call 999 while you are busy (with performing CPR, bandaging, giving others directions etc)

A - Airway - Is their airway open and clear? If not, open their airway by lifting their chin and tilting their head if unconscious or remove the thing blocking their airway if conscious. Only move on to the next step when airway is clear.
B - Breathing - Are they breathing normally? (look, listen and feel to check) If not and unconscious, call 999 move straight to CPR. If yes, move to the next step.
C - Circulation - Are there any signs of severe bleeding? If yes, control the bleeding and call 999. If not, the person has no serious life treating injuries and you can move on to the Secondary Survey.

I am not going to type out the secondary survey here, since it is basically asking the person what happened to get a better idea of what first aid needs to be administered, this post has gotten very wordy and the people at St. John's have already done a much better job explaining it one their website HERE.

We then learned about the reef knot,which is a knot that is easy to tie quickly and tightens very easily when pulled on, but can come apart quickly if pulled a certain way, making it a very useful in First Aid.

We then started off with some basic slings and bandaging, which I will explain more of in the next post!

- Rebecca

KCCIS International Flim Festival

Activity: KCCIS International Film Festival
Date: July 2nd
Time: 9 am - 3:30pm
Type: School event
Organization: School

Hours:  7 hours - Service  

During this event, I was responsible for two showings of the Saudi Arabia film "Wadjda" ( وجدة ) which was written and directed by Haifaa al-Mansour ( هيفاء المنصور‎ ) and has the distiction of being the first full length film made by a female Saudi director.



After the film, I engaged in a conversation about what happened in the film and the challenges the director and other women in Saudi Arabia still face today.
              
3) Planned and Initiated Activities 
While the overall event was initiated by our school's Film Studies teacher and Film Studies class (which I am not in, I take a second science (Biology) instead), the running of the event and discussion afterward was planned and initiated by me and a few other classmates.

When it turned out we had extra time at the end of the movie and discussion (since our movie was one of the shorter ones compared to some of the other movies being shown), our group decided to have the students draw storyboards for their own movie ideas.

6) Engaged with issues of global importance 
There where many interesting topics we discussed as a group, including how different the men and women are treated in Saudi society and how many of the freedoms we take for granted aren't aforded to everyone in the world.

Many concepts such as women not being able to drive themselves, young children being married off and women being forced to cover their hair when outside are concepts that many of the younger years found unusual, and it lead to an in depth conversation on how women are treated differently or are expected to do different things by society than men all over the world, including here in Hong Kong and other countries abroad.
 

- Rebecca

CAS Project (Planning + event)

Activity: KCCIS CAS Project (Planning + event)
Date: Some days in May + June 26th
Time:15 hours across all of the days
Type: School event
Organization: School

Hours: 5 hours - Creative
             5 hours - Action  
             5 hours - Service        

The CAS project is a school wide event where the Y12s teach the younger years about IB CAS and plan events that are related to a broader topic such as the environment or inequality. In our case, the topic chosen was Freedom.

3. Planned and initiated activities
This whole activity was made and organized by all the students in Y12 and was our first taste at teaching the younger students for a whole day by ourselves, without the help of the teachers. 

I was in charge of one of the four groups, and planned everything from how the activity would work, running the game as the narrator. Our groups activity was based on the game Mafia, in order to explore how freedom of speech can be effected by external threats, such as secret police.

Besides the activities, we also needed to prepare a powerpoint presentation about what CAS is and a short introduction about each of the activities, presented by a few people from each group.

4.Worked collaboratively with others
I worked together with all of the Y12 students, as we had to plan the whole project from start to finish, by ourselves. I was in charge of one group and needed to work together with everyone in my own group, as well as other groups, so that were were able to have the event run smoothly.

I also taught several groups of younger students about the game and rules that went with it, which involved collaboration between the students and I. Timing was also a key issue on the day, as the groups were at 3 different places throughout the day (in the hall, the foyer and the indoor gym) so we had to send messengers to the other groups and have people at each location to lead the students to the correct place.

Part of my group!

5.Shown perseverance and commitment on your activities

This activity was streatched over several months, so everything needed to be planed and scheduled weeks ahead of time, which involved lots of cooperation between the groups (and another color coded schedule by me, albeit less flashy and complicated than the Art's evening one :P)

While there were still a few hiccups on the day despite the plan (one group was brought to the wrong place and another group was accidentally split up), for the most part the day went very smoothly!

The day also involved lots of perseverance, as our group didn't have microphones, so by the end of the first group, I had already lost my voice! However, we all still had a great (but exhausting) time!

- Rebecca

Update 6

I am once again very behind with my IB CAS reflections....

Let's just say between doing a Chemistry Group 4 project, some of my IA's, practicing for the SAT reasoning test (June 6th - ahhhh!!), History EE etc I haven't had the time to update this blog...

Most of the posts are nearly done, just editing spelling, adding a few photos etc, so expect to see those soon (just realized that this is almost word for word what I said in my last update....)

Here are some things I plan to do in the next few months (turns out I have been numbering these "terms" wrong, it is supposed to be 3 months per term. Oh well...)

• I have once again signed up for the first aid course at St. John's for the end of July or start of August, though I haven't gotten confirmation if I got in. I got in (for the end of July one)! :D
• More flute and violin (need photos and videos..).
• CAS project is something that is continuous (school event that IB students organize), so I will continue to be doing that in June
• Will see if I can help out for the Y10 end of school year dance
• I need to see if prefect counts as CAS, it probably does for like service 
• Due to exams, there won't be NEARLY as many activities or updates for June and July, just a heads up.
• NEED ACTION HOURS!

That's all for now!
-Rebecca

KCCIS Arts evening 2015

Activity: KCCIS Arts Evening 2015 ~ Backstage Crew
Date:  April 22 (Final performance date, there was practice before)
Time:15 hours across all of the days
Type: School event
Organization: School

Hours:  12 hours - Service
              3 hours - Action

Here are my CAS reflections for the event!

2) Undertaken new challenges or an extension of an existing one 
This was the first time I was involved with our schools Arts evening with the backstage crew, instead of being a performer or helping serve refreshments.  I undertook new challenges by deciding to help the back stage crew despite never doing it before.

During the few days, I had a crash course in everything from how to mix sound to how to use the amps, which was a brand new experience for me. I also arrived early on many of the days to sort our the cords and mics from each other.

Me on one of the many, many practice days

Soo many dials and sliders! ( it looks more confusing than it actually is)

3) Planned and Initiated Activities 
Since I was one of the older students helping out with the backstage crew this year, I had lots of responsibility planning and sorting out the running order for the evening. Luckily all of the students and teachers were very patient with us while we set up everything, mixed the sound worked on the running order etc.

After loads of trial and error sorting out which acts needed what at what time, I was able to create a three page color coded "Arts Evening Official Rundown and Duty Roster". 

(posted below in case you wanted to know all the work that goes unnoticed back stage by the crew members)  

 
4) Worked collaboratively with others

Arts evening wouldn't be possible without all of the students and teachers tirelessly working together. On the first few rehearsals, we had trouble figuring out which mic lead led to which mic. Eventually, one of the students sorted it out by tying different color ribbon at the ends of each of the mics and their corresponding lead, which you can see underneath the duty roster.

The whole event wouldn't have been possible without the collaboration of all of the performers, teachers and students involved all working together, coming to practice after school (and on Saturday)!

On the actual evening, everything went as planned (well, almost everything... there was still a bit of amp trouble and and a "selfie" moment was completely unplanned ).

All the hard work paid off on the day and we even got to see some performers dramatically lip sync behind the curtains before they went on stage, while everyone tried desperately not to laugh! Overall, this year's Arts Evening performance was unforgettable, and I'm glad to have been a part of it!"

-Rebecca