What happens if I don't work on my CAS?

The consequences of forgetting to up-date your CAS portfolio are numerous.  In this holiday edition of the CAS blog, I will list some of the things that could afflict YOU if the little red - new changes - image doesn't appear next to your name over the next month.

1. You will not be able to show that you have participated in CAS for a continuous period of 18 months
2. You will not be able to show that you have met all the learning outcomes
3. You will find it hard to get evidence of having met the learning outcomes
4. Your supervisor will forget who you are and not be able to review your experience
5. You will get really stressed just before your mock exams because you know that you don't have enough on your CAS portfolio to qualify for the Diploma and you might as well throw in the towel
6. You will have to work like crazy just before, during and after the mocks trying to get things up-to-date, leaving you with no time to study...
7. Some of your experiences will get deleted due to lack of action and you will have to do more to make up for the loss..
8. You will find it hard to reflect on something you did 6 months ago and almost impossible to show how you met the learning outcome for that particular experience - an outcome that you do not have for any other so you will end up with one missing outcome.

All of the above are stressful and eventually lead to you not qualifying for the IB Diploma.  Do not put yourself in that position.  You have all worked so hard to get this far.  Most of you need to spend 10 - 15 minutes a week on your portfolio to keep it in shape.   A stitch in time saves nine. 

There is one more consequence that might not impact on the IB Diploma but is pretty scary.  If you do not up-date your CAS portfolio, the CAS coordinator will haunt your dreams for the next 50 years....

Enjoy the break but don't forget to CAS......

There is not much happening here. In general you need more evidence and reflection for all ongoing experiences

Comments on CAS portfolios

This week I have checked every single CAS portfolio.  All except a couple of people have received comments with suggestions about what they should do to keep up with their CAS and be eligible for the IB Diploma.  The most common comment is the title of today's blog.

"There is not much happening here. In general you need more evidence and reflection for all ongoing experiences"

I know that you have all been very busy with your exams and Internal Assessments but it is essential that you spend a little time on your CAS portfolio NOW.  It is hard to find evidence and do reflections at the end of the IB, especially when you are preparing for the real IB exams.  If you are not done in time, you will need to come in during the exam time to work on your portfolio and do your CAS interview.  NO ONE WANTS TO DO THAT!

A few people have not finished off their CAS projects - correction - they have finished the projects but not the 'paper work'.  This must be priority number one.

Another common comment is:

"If a supervisor doesn't respond to a review request, it is your responsibility to contact him/her. In person if necessary"

I have emailed some school supervisors and asked them to check managebac but really this is your responsibility. If they do not respond to emails - go speak to them.  It might be that they don't really know what to say, as they have not had so much contact with you.  Go and talk to them and explain what you have done so that they know what they can write.

A 3rd comment that reoccurs is: 

"I think that some of these experiences might have ended. Please add all the reflection and evidence and then do the CAS questions to finish them off."

This is to let you know that you need to finish it ASAP.  I have said that you have 3 months to get it completed.  Some of you have let experiences that finished last term stay open. If that is the case you might have received the following comment:

"You have an experience that is in danger of deletion if it is not up-dated or completed within the next 2 weeks."

This means you really have to take action to get up-to-date.

You should have a lot of green ticks by now but you must be actively participating in at least one experience.  That means adding evidence, and reflection on a fairly frequent basis.  If you haven't added anything since June, then maybe the experience is no longer valid.

Take the time over the break to up-date.  

OOOPS - I forgot about CAS!!!

I know that you have all been very busy over the past few weeks.  It is easy to let CAS sit on a back burner when you have a lot of other deadlines to meets.  Now that it is starting to settle down again (before starting up again!) take the time to update your CAS portfolio.  Remember that you must show continuous participation in CAS over 18 months.  If you take a long break, you will find yourself having to do CAS right up to the 1st of May - with your final interview in the middle of exams.  If you keep on track - you can finish CAS in March or April.

What you should do now

• Go through each of your current open experiences and add a reflection and some evidence (yes for every single one!)
• If you have experiences that are ended - finish them off - update reflections, evidence and do the CAS questions, before asking for a supervisor request
• Check that your project has a green tick - there should not be any open projects now - if yours is still open, you have probably heard from me.
• Check that you have all the 7 learning outcomes covered.  Even if you have all of them ticked doesn't mean that you have actually reached them - make sure that you can show evidence of how you met each and every one.
• Check that you have round about equal amounts of Creativity, Activity and Service.

What happens now?

Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, I will be absent from school until February.  I will come back just before the sport break and then you have your mock exams.  After the mock exams, I will have the 3rd and final interview with each of you.  At the interview you need to be able to show how you met each one of the 7 learning outcomes. In the past students have had posters, mind-maps,  written documents etc.  You will need to bring this to the interview and discuss it with me.  In order to get COMPLETE for CAS you must be able to demonstrate each of the learning outcomes.

Completing CAS Experiences

Interviews are over for now.  They went well with most people on track to completing their CAS in March or April next year.  The final interviews and reflections will take place in February and March of next year.  Don't let the ball drop now - make sure you take 10 - 15 minutes to update  your CAS portfolio each week.

Completing CAS experiences

Some people are finding it hard to remember how to complete a CAS experience.  Follow these steps:

1.  Make sure you have sufficient evidence to show that you have participated in the experience for the period of time you have selected
2. Check your dates.  Are they accurate? It is easy to make a mistake with the year!
3. Make sure you have adequate reflection.  If you have participated in something for over a year, 1 short reflection is not likely to be considered adequate.  
4. Do the CAS questions - see information below about filling in CAS questions
5. Request a supervisor review.  Make sure your supervisor's details are correct otherwise this will not go to them.  If you do not have a supervisor it comes to me - so make sure that if you are in a sporting team or something like that, you add a supervisor as I will not write reviews for experiences where there is another person who can do it.

Once the supervisor review is done, you will receive a green tick and the experience will lock - you will no longer be able to make changes to it.

Completing CAS questions

You can find them just below your name on the summary sheet.

The CAS questions are a way of checking that you have reached/addressed the learning outcome(s) that you chose for each experience.  The best way to answer the first question is to copy and paste the learning outcomes in and write a comment about each one in turn.  It is not enough to say that you addressed them without specifying how.  See below.

CAS questions: 

Copy and paste the learning outcomes.

You can then address each one by writing about how you achieved it.

Finish off by reflecting on how you could have done the experience differently - what have you learnt? 

What not to do!

This example just names the outcomes but does not say how they were achieved.

Second interviews and some new ideas.

I have now done a week of second interviews and it has good very smoothly.  I am so pleased with the progress that some of you have made and it is good to see that you have really kept up with you  CAS over the summer.  Don't forget that even if you only have one or 2 experiences left that you need to spend a little time every week to make sure your portfolio is in order.

Some people have been looking for something for service to do over the next term.  Here are a few suggestions:

Citizen Science

This is not just about science.  These are projects that involve volunteers from around the world and cover a variety of disciplines from History to Medicine.  Most of the projects can be done from home with a computer and you can choose when and how much time you want to spend on them.

Look here for some interesting topics.

Stockholm Film Festival

If you want to volunteer for this year's festival you can apply via the webpage: http://www.stockholmfilmfestival.se/en/node/2113  You do not need to speak Swedish.  Connor did it last year so you can speak to him if you need some more information.

Uppsala Film Festival 

If you don't mind going to Uppsala there is also a film festival there looking for volunteers. 

See details on here

Stockholm Fringe Festival

They are looking for volunteers for a festival next week.  Apply now if you are interested - here

Do you speak Swedish?

There are a lot of jobs on volontärbyrån - check them out!

CAS interviews and CAS completion

We are now in the last year of your IB programme.  You are going to start to have lots of deadlines to meet.  Make sure you are on top of your CAS so that it doesn't add to your stress levels.   A little attention to the CAS portfolio every week,  will prevent it from eating away at your time in the long term.  Keep up-to-date with reflections and evidence. Be selective about what you keep going and what you finish off.

Finishing off experiences

• Finish off all experiences that you are no longer involved in.
• Plan to finish MOST of your experiences before the end of the term

When you are finished you need to:

• Check that you have adequate evidence 
• Check that you have adequate reflections
• Make sure that you have reflected on the learning outcomes you chose for this experience
• Complete the CAS questions
• Get a supervisor review

18 Months of CAS

• You must have at least one CAS experience that continues until you have reached the end of 18 months.  
• You must have 18 months continuous participation in CAS.If your first experience started in September 1st 2017 and you did CAS in the summer your end date will be March 1st.
• If you did not do CAS in the summer - your end date will be April 1st. 

Interviews

You must do 3 CAS interviews.  We did one last term.

• Second Interview - September 2018
• Third Interview - February/March 2019

Learning Outcomes

There are 7 learning outcomes.

You must have evidence and reflections showing that you have met every one of the learning outcomes.

You will be asked to show this in an illustration or written text.  You will see examples of how to do this. You must bring this to your final interview.  If you do not have it, you will not complete CAS.

February 2019

You should have one or 2 experiences open and everything else should be completed.

If you plan ahead you can take it easy with CAS in 2019 and concentrate on all the other stuff!

CAS interview times

Status Updates and CAS reports

Reports

This week you will receive a CAS report.  It will be sent by email to your parents and you can find it on your CAS portfolio under documents.

CAS experiences

You will also see a a table like this.
It shows your experiences - the strand, the outcomes, number of reflections and status.  An experience only shows as complete when you have uploaded enough evidence and reflection, complete the CAS questions and received a supervisor review.  If you have no supervisor, it will be sent to me to complete.  All on-going experiences should be marked 'approved.'  If they are not, it could be because you have not filled in the details.

Projects

In addition to all the documentation required for normal experiences, a project must have the CAS stages document with evidence for each stage.

Progress

Your overall progress will show with an indicator.  It can be excellent, on track or concern.

• 
  Excellent: CAS project is completed. The student is up-to-date on all experiences with evidence and reflection. Most learning outcomes are covered and the student has experiences for all 3 strands.
• 
  On Track: The CAS project is well underway or nearly completed. The student is up-to-date on most experiences with evidence and reflection. Most learning outcomes are covered and the student has experiences for all 3 strands.

• Concern: Little or no evidence or reflection for experiences or CAS project. Student is not up-to-date on many experiences.

Learning Outcomes

The final section shows the learning outcomes.  Remember that you must cover all 7 to get your IB Diploma.  Where you can see green bars - that means you have reflected or added evidence to support that outcome.  Yellow - means you have not as yet added any evidence or reflection to support the outcome but plan to do so.

If there is no line - that means you have not as yet planned an experience to cover that learning outcome.  Think about how you can do that next term!

You can see in this example that the student hasn't got any plans for learning outcomes 3 and 7.  The student has some evidence/reflection for learning outcomes 1, 4 and 5.  The student has planned to cover learning outcomes 2 and 6.

Summer CAS

Don't forget to contact me if you are thinking about doing some new CAS experience in the summer.  Most of the time I will be checking my emails.

Have a great summer!

Strength and Areas for Growth

Identify own strengths and areas for growth

Learning outcome one is the last one I will explain.  It is about working out what you are good at and the skills which you need to improve.  You might choose this for something like MUN.  Perhaps you are good at planning and organising but not so good at speaking in public.  Or when doing a sport.  You might have good skills in one area, but need to improve in another.  It is important that you explain this when you reflect.  

Remember when you reflect on an experience with this learning outcome that you must mention your strengths and the  areas you are trying to develop more.

Projects

Most projects should be nearing completion by now.  I know that a few of you have projects that will continue into next term - as long as they have started and the CAS stages document is up-to-date that is OK.  You must have a finish date before end of next term and evidence and reflections must be uploaded showing that it is nearly complete if you are to be registered for the IB Diploma.  Students without projects will not be eligible for the full Diploma.

Generation of reports

Next week your interim reports will be generated for CAS.  This will give an outline of what you have planned to do.  Completed outcomes only show if an experience is totally finished - others show as planned.  These will be sent to your parents by email and can be accessed under documents on your CAS portfolios.  At the end of grade 12, you will receive another report, with all your outcomes completed.  This will also include all your supervisor reviews and can be useful for applying for jobs, universities etc.  I spoke to one of our former grade 12s this week and she said that her experience with the school newspaper had helped her to get an internship so even if it feels that CAS is one more thing you have to do - it can be useful later on.

CAS in the summer

Remember it is possible to do CAS in the summer.  You must have evidence, reflections etc to show participation.  Check with me first if you are not sure if something qualifies - you  can send an email.  If you have a supervisor, make sure you get a review from them before finishing the experience.  It doesn't have to be on the CAS completion form - it can just be a letter.  Scan it and add it under reflections and evidence. 

Child Safety

If you are thinking of working with children over the summer (or any other time) please read the following guidelines.  This site also has some ideas about organisations you can contact to do volunteer work.  This is something that really falls under the learning outcome of 'recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions.'

Opportunities

Read more about this here

You can find more volunteer positions at www.volontarbyran.org

The Challenges

Demonstrating that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

Learning outcome 2 is about demonstrating that challenges have been undertaken and developing new skills.  This could be doing something that you have never done before or extending something that you are already doing. 
If you have been learning an instrument - the challenge could be to put on a concert or even do a performance for your class mates.
If you have been playing football - the challenge could be to coach a team.
If you go out running a challenge could be to enter a race/fun run.

Remember when you reflect on an experience with this learning outcome that you must mention the challenges and say how you developed new skills.  You need to do this to meet this learning outcome.

Keep checking - learning outcomes

In last week's post I mentioned the learning outcomes check.  Make sure you have planned to cover all 7.  I can see now that about 20 of you have fewer than 7 learning outcomes planned.  I will be speaking with you after exams to make sure that you have an idea of how you are going to meet all the learning outcomes.  You must be able to show evidence and reflection for every single learning outcome.  If you have checked it for an experience, but cannot show how you met it - that will not count.

Planning and Initiating

Demonstrate how to Plan and Initiate a CAS experience

For learning outcome 3 you need to show the planning that you have done for the experience.  This can be in the form of documents, timelines, emails, bookings etc.  This is not usually a good learning outcome to choose for established groups that you join unless you initiate a smaller activity as part of the group.  For example, you might be in the Nepal group and you decide to make a film about some aspect.  You could be in the Amnesty group and you lead the next campaign.  In this way you can show how you have planned and initiated a CAS experience.

What to check now!

CAS must be on-going for at least 18 months.  Check that you are on track with regular additions to your CAS portfolio and that you will meet the minimum requirements.  

Reflections and evidence

All experiences that are on-going for more than a term should have at least 2 detailed reflections per term,  as well as adequate evidence to show that you are participating.

All other shorter experiences should have reflection and adequate evidence.

Inadequate evidence or reflection can lead to deletion of the experience

Check Your Time lines

You need to have a time line that shows some CAS experience at all times for at least 18 months.  It is possible to have a 'break' in the summer, but make sure that you still have 18 months.  If your first experience started in September 2017, your line needs to go all the way to March 2019.  If you take a break over the summer, it should go to May 2019.  

You can see in this example that the student has nothing planned for after September 2018.   Remember that planning is not enough - you must also do it and have evidence of the participation.  If you say that you have planned to go to the gym between September 2017 and May 2019 but only have evidence for 10 visits in September and October 2018 - your timeline will be incorrect and you could find that be ineligible for the IB Diploma.

Check Your Learning Outcomes

Make sure you have covered each learning outcome and have evidence/reflection that shows how you did that. 

You can see that this student has no experience planned for 'global engagement.'  Now is a good time to look and see which learning outcomes you have not covered and work out what you can do to reach it.  Remember that clicking them is not enough - you must be able to prove that you reached each of the outcomes.

Check the Strands

You all know that  CAS stands for Creativity, Activity and Service.  You should have a balance of experiences across the 3 strands.  Check that you are actually doing what you have planned for each strand.  If you add something like drawing - it looks at if you have a creative experience, but if you never do any drawing you will not get an IB Diploma.

Summer experiences

It is absolutely OK to do experiences in the summer but remember to get evidence and a supervisor review before the end of the summer.  If you are unsure how to do this - send me an email before it is too late!  I will be checking my emails regularly in the summer.

Opportunities

Pride Festival : On the 4th of August , Stockholm has its annual Pride Parade and they need volunteers.   English or Swedish speaking.

They need volunteers between the 31st of July and the 5th of August.  See here for details.  If you need help applying as much of the information is in Swedish, please see me.

Commitment and Perseverance

Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

Learning outcome 4 is about showing that you can start, continue, and follow through on an experience.  This is often suitable for physical activities, sport, exercise, going to the gym.

You need to have evidence to show that you have been regularly involved and active in the experience that you have chosen for this learning outcome. 

Evidence can be:

• attendance statistics from gyms
• class receipts
• minutes from meetings
• apps that record using GPS
• photos
• logs, etc.  

Anything that shows your regular participation.  If you have chosen this learning outcome, make sure that you keep good records for that experience.

Opportunities - for runners and volunteers

For all you runners out there, now is the time to sign up for the various runs in Stockholm.  This is peak season.  It is a good way to give yourself that extra push with your running and a great way to demonstrate your commitment and perseverance.  Many of the runs are also looking for volunteers to help.  Great way to do some service.

Here are just a few of them - see me if you need help to sign up.  Why not get a group of you together?

Park Run

When: Every Saturday at 9.30am

Where: Haga Park 

Distance: 5 km

You can register  at http://www.parkrun.se/haga/.  You only need to register once - then you can turn up every weekend if you like.

Volunteers needed - if you don't want to run but want to get outside and help you can volunteer by at hagahelpers@parkrun.com 

Danderydsloppet

When: 1st May

Where: Danderyd

Distance: Between 5 and 10 km

You can register on the spot. More Information

Stockholm trail run

When:5th May

Where: Lill-Jansskogen

Distance: between 5 and 10 Km 

Register here

Kungsholmen Runt

When: 5th May

Where: Kungsholmen

Distance 10km and longer

Register here

Tough Viking 

When: 12 May and other dates in different locations later on

Where: Starts at Stadium

Distance: Unclear - but over rough terrain

Register here

Volunteers also required - information in English - you get a free ticket for another race 

Stockholm Marathon

When: 2 June

Where: Round the city

Distance: 42 km

Register here

You probably should have started training for this already - if you haven't you can aim for next year and good way to run off your stress after exams. 

These are just some of the ones coming up.  For a whole calendar of runs in 2018 see löparkalender

For biking events see cykellopp

A new idea for fund raising - sugar free!

I read about a class that decide that selling cookies in lots of packaging was bad for the environment.  Instead they decided to sell climate-compensation.  They asked people to buy trees for an organisation that has a foresting project in Panama.  They sold the 'trees' for 100 kr.  Sixty crowns went to buy the trees and 40kr to their collection.  The also sold solar cells in the same manner.  They managed to raise 8000kr for themselves as well as make a positive difference for the climate.  This shows that you do not need to give people something to make money.  Many people were happy to support the project just knowing that a tree would be planted somewhere. Each person who donated received a certificate.  You can read more about this in Swedish in Svenska Dagbladet

Svensk Afghanistankommittén

They are looking for helpers for their flea markets (loppis) at Hornstull on June 9th and Midsommarkransen on the 3rd June.

Working Together

Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively

This week the focus is on working together - learning outcome 5.  This is the learning outcome that you should have for your project as it must be a collaborative experience.  You can of course use it for other experiences where you are collaborating with others.  The important point is that you show evidence of working together and that you reflect on the skills required to do this successfully and the the benefits of collaboration.

Evidence can be:

• planning documents with the different roles each person takes
• pictures
• schedules
• recordings

Reflection can include:

• problems you encountered with others
• ways that you learnt from others
• what you learnt from others
• adjustments you made for the group
• comments on group dynamics

It is important that if you have chosen this outcome for an experience that it is clear there are other people involved and the roles everyone takes.  It should not just be about what you as an individual did but how the group worked.

Check your learning outcomes

Remember that you need to meet all the 7 learning outcomes by the end of the the DP.  You can check how many of them you have planned to cover in your CAS worksheet.  You will see a graphic like this: 

The ones with green numbers are the ones that you have already clicked when you have added evidence and reflections.  The ones with yellow are planned but you have not yet added any evidence or reflection that relates to them.  If you do do have a green or yellow number, it means you do not have any experiences that relate to that leaning outcome.  You must have all 7 covered.  You will be asked to show how you reached them towards the end of grade 12 so make sure that you have evidence and reflection that demonstrates each outcome.

Opportunities

Red Cross Shop

Red Cross is looking for volunteers to work in its shop on Dalagatan (near Odenplan).  If you are interested in this you can ask Sumheda about her experience at Red Cross.  You do not need to speak Swedish.   Ask me if you need help applying.

Help promote a classical music festival

An organisation called O/Modernt is looking for people to help put up posters and give out programmes for a festival to be held in June at Ulriksdal Slott.  

Film Makers

A recycling festival at Hornstull is looking for people to record the event and edit a film to be used on social media.  The festival is on the 27th May.