CAS has started!

It was great to meet with so many of you over the past weeks and hear about your amazing ambitions for CAS.  I am really looking forward to hearing more as the IB progresses.  Some experiences that are planned are huge.  Others are not, but are just as worthwhile.  CAS is about learning from doing and that is different for everyone.  Sometimes we make big plans but don't reach our goal.  What is important is the process that we go through and what we learn along the way.

What You Need to do Now

CAS experiences

You all should have started adding CAS experiences to your CAS portfolio on ManageBac by now.  Please make sure that they are completely filled in.  Once all the details are there, I give them an 'approved' status.  You will know that I have done that as a blue thumbs up sign appears next the experience.

Evidence and reflections

Once you have started with a CAS experience you can also upload evidence and reflections.  There is no set amount of times you have to do this, but you should try to ensure that you have demonstrated how you reached the learning outcome(s) that you have selected for the experience. Remember no more than 3 learning outcomes per experience.

Personal Profile and CAS Proposal Forms

Make sure that you have now filled in the electronic versions of these forms and uploaded them onto ManageBac.  You can edit them in anyway you like.  They are your record of where you began CAS. At the end we will  compare that with where you end up.  Please finish these by October 5th.  

CAS Stages

When planning a CAS project or a major long term experience it is good to use the CAS Stages document.  You need to show how you have gone through the investigation, preparation, action, reflection and demonstration stages.  Everyone must follow this process for at least one project that you are involved in as a part of CAS. 

The links to all the documents can be found to the right side of the blog post in the page called 'links to documents'

Volunteering opportunities.  

Don't forget to keep a look out on VoluntärByrån. Some people mentioned wanting to work with animals.  I have added some links for some animal shelters in Stockholm to the page Webpages with ideas and inspiration for CAS - to the right of the blog post.  

Experiences to Inspire you

Here is  selection of the experiences that I heard about this week:

• Creativity club - some students are going to get together to teach and share with each other the creative skills that they have.  Each meeting someone will take charge and show the others how to be creative.  They have plans to include everything from literature analysis to baking to dancing.
• Hiking/trekking  including plans to walk to the South Pole and around Mount Blanc
• Learning/continuing to play an instrument - some with the idea to do a performance for the class or to start a music/cultural evening and invite people in
• Helping elderly people through inviting them for afternoon tea or cleaning their homes
• Environmental project - after the grade 10s participated in the Clean Up Sweden Week last year some are now hoping to spread this message to the rest of the school and make it a much bigger event
• Film making - I am sure we have some future directors amongst us.  People are filming a variety of topics - skiing, football, music
• Blogs - people are blogging about everything imaginable - Stockholm events, fashion, football, training etc.
• Some students have plans to develop a project around Operation Smile and have been inspired by having been in contact with children in countries where this organisation helps children with cleft palette surgery 

Many students are engaged in established groups at the school such as:

• MUN - planning a conference in the school
• Amnesty - look for their installation about 'My Body. My Rights' in the coming weeks
• Rhino Preservation Group - they are joining the Global March4Elephants&Rhinos again this year on the 4th of October - all are welcome to join. Come to the meeting on Thursday at 10.30 in C10 to sign up and get a placard.