Please reflect...

Reflection and  evidence  form an important part of your CAS portfolio.  It is these that will be used to measure if you have met the 7 learning outcomes.  It is important that you think about the learning outcomes that you chose for your experience when reflecting.  If you chose 'engaging with issues of global significance,' make sure that your reflection and evidence show how you met this outcome.

Reflections should not just be about how fantastic you are and what you achieved.  They should also be about what you could differently, what you did wrong, what impact your experience had on you and others etc.  The following is an excerpt from the CAS guide.

Elements of a Reflection

•       Describe what happened.  Memorable moments, obstacles, difficulties, successes.
•       Expressing feelings.  Show how you felt about your experiences.
•       Generating ideas. Rethinking or re-examining choices.
•       Asking questions. Questions about people, processes or issues

     Remember to relate to the learning outcome as much as possible.  These are the questions that appear on  Managebac the first time you reflect on an experience:

      To guide your reflection, you may consider the following at different stages of an activity (prior to starting, during, and after completion):

• What do you perceive and notice?
• How you feel being involved?
• What do you think and feel about the activity itself?
• What does the activity mean to you?
• What value does the activity have?
• What did you learn from this activity, and how might you extrapolate from this to apply any lesson to your life more generally?

   

    

    Your reflection could be a series of questions that you ask yourself about what you did and how it impacts (or doesn't) on the community.  You do not need to praise your experience but to be critical of it.

   Deadlines

   Please see the previous post for important deadlines regarding evidence and reflection.   

Progress Indicators Reset

This term, everyone begins without a progress indicator.  In order to get you green flag back, you will need to do the following:

• Start adding reflections and evidence - there are some people with NO reflections or evidence.  These people have until January 29th to get going on this.  If you still have nothing on that date, your parents will  be contacted.
• CAS questions must be completed for all experiences that were finished last term.  If this is not done by the sports break, you risk having the experience deleted!!!!!
• You must have at least one experience for each of the C.A.S - that is creativity, activity and service.
• You must have started a CAS project using the CAS stages of Investigation, Preparation, Action, Reflection and Demonstration.  All students are expected to have completed/participated in a CAS project during the first year of the IB  
• All experiences must be approved - they will not be unless the goals and descriptions are clear.

What's happening this term?

During advisory, I will work with you on doing reflections as well as planning CAS projects.  I will also start interviewing again around the middle of the term.  At this interview we will see if you are on track and what you need to do to make sure that you qualify for the IB Diploma.  If I have concerns, I will call you to an extra meeting with your parents.  It is important that you do not leave your CAS until the 2nd year of the IB.  You will have lots of other things that take you time in the 3rd and 4th terms.  You must still be doing CAS but you should have done most of it by then. It is possible to work in CAS experiences over the summer, but not advisable to leave it all to that time.