Interview Week and starting your experiences

This week I will start interviewing all grade 11 students.  Interviews should be finished before we go on our break next week.  Please check the previous post or managebac for what you need to bring to the interview.  Interview times are up in the pink notice board.  Make sure you have ticked your time if it works for you or that you see me if you need to change.

First experience and continuous participation

Hopefully all of you have started or planned to start you first experience for CAS.  On Friday I showed you how to add an experience to ManageBac.  If you can add one before our meeting that would be great.  Don't worry if you are not sure what to do - we will look at it in the interview.  You need to get started with CAS experiences as you must participate in CAS for at least 18 months.  That means if you start now you will be able to finish around the end of February next year.  You have up until the end of April to complete all your CAS.  It is important that your participation in CAS is continuous - that is you are always participating in a CAS experience throughout the 18 months. 

CAS stages

For some of your CAS experiences you will need to plan using the CAS stages.  I hope to explain them more in Advisory after the September break.

Some CAS ideas

The Stockholm  Film Festival is still looking for volunteers.  http://www.stockholmfilmfestival.se/en/about-us/work-volunteer  It is rather intensive but is a fun way to get to meet more people around Stockholm and participate it a great festival.  

Refugees You cannot have missed all the talk about the refugee crises in Europe over the last few weeks.  Many organisations have started collections - money and goods.  If you are interested in working with this issue come and see me and I can tell you about the opportunities available.

Volontörbyran - don't forget there are many opportunities in Stockholm listed at this site - even more if you try the Swedish version.  At the moment they are still seeking helpers for the Halloween Festival and people to illustrate articles about human rights in Africa amongst other things.

Kindergarten Assistants: If you are interested in helping out in the kindergarten this term please see me and I can see if there are times that work out for you.  You need to be available at some time during the school day - that is when you have a study period.

Firsts

First Experience

I am hoping that many of you have started on your first 'experience' by now.  On Friday, during advisory lesson, I will show you how to add experiences to your ManageBac profile.  You should also have your personal profile filled in and ready to present to me at your interviews next week.

First Interviews

Starting on Monday, I will be conducting interviews with students in grade 11.   You must bring your 'personal profile' form with you and you can also start filling in your 'CAS proposal' form - also included in the handbook.  Please bring your handbook as well.We will discuss what all of these an d hopefully make a plan to cover some of the next 18 months.  If you do not have these items that interview will have to be postponed meaning that you will have less time to get going with your CAS.

Checklist for interview:

• personal profile form - filled in
• CAS proposal form - filled in
• CAS student handbook
• computer

Most interviews will be held in room C10 unless there is class in there at the time.  When that happens we will go to a nearby room.

What's happening in CAS?

The School Newspaper is starting to publish - see http://thequirkyquibbler.com/ Attend the meetings on Mondays at 15.30 if you are interested in publishing your writing.

The Amnesty Group is meeting on on Tuesdays at 10.30 in C10

Rhino Preservation group is meeting on Thursdays at 10.30 in C10 - we are planning to join the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos on October 3rd.

Do you have CAS ideas that you want me to include here?  Let me know.  Having trouble coming up with ideas?  I need some people to help me as part of a CAS committee.  You could be involved in posting on the blog, up-dating the pages and researching ideas.  If that interests you, come an let me know.

Some ideas for 'experiences' you could get involved in from VolontärByrån.  The first one is great for any talented artists amongst you.  The last is in Swedish.  For more opportunities and details see http://www.volontarbyran.org/

 Illustrate articles about human rights in Africa!  (Distance Job)

Description of the volunteering opportunity: 
UNTOLD STORIES:

Ethiopia is one of the worst cases of human rights abusers in the world, but due to government harassment of truth tellers, many stories of repression remain untold. No one is better telling these stories than those who have experienced the violations themselves. 

Untold Stories is new project. It will be a website where people who have personal experiences about human rights abuses can tell their stories. Through personal in-depth-interviews, art, videos and articles, the viewer will be told how government repression can complicate, affect and completely change the lives of exiled journalists, jailed bloggers, struggling activists and others. The purpose of this project is not only to spread awareness and knowledge and giving people cause to care, but just as importantly it is to support the struggles of the persecuted. 
Untold Stories will tell stories about all kinds of human rights abuses, but with a focus on freedom of expression and press freedom in Ethiopia. The human rights situation in other African countries will also be discussed. 

THE VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY:
Art has the ability of touching and moving, and we believe that art and creativity is one of the best ways to spread a message. The content of Untold Stories will be creative and diverse, and art will be an important part of the site. The interviews and articles will be illustrated by drawings. 
We are looking for illustrators who are skilled at drawing in digital or traditional media. You should be able to draw a picture that illustrates what is being told in an article or an interview. It is great if you are a creative person with many ideas of your own. We are very open to hear your suggestions on how a text can be illustrated. We hope that you can come up with illustrations that will highlight a story in a text and make it even more powerful. 

We would like to see examples of your art to see if you fit for the assignment. 
We hope that you want to help us with this important project! Do not hesitate to contact us if you think that you can help us. We are looking forward to hear from you! 
The assignment is voluntarily. When and where will the volunteering take place: 
The texts will be sent to you through e-mail. 
The assignment starts immediately since there are articles waiting to be illustrated. 
Specific requirements and information: 
- You should be a skilled drawing artist who can illustrate texts and thereby highlight the stories and make them more powerful. 
- It is great if you also are passionate about human rights.

Web designer  (Distance Job)

Föreningen Contact

Description of the volunteering opportunity: 
Our website can be criticized. We need someone who can create a new, interesting website that will people to our site. New ideas are needed. A pair of fresh eyes is one of the things that you will need for this challenge. In this challenge you will room for all of your creativity. Feel appealing? The fill out the attached form.

When and where will the volunteering take place: 
Now. Can be done from the comfort of your own home.

Specific requirements and information: 
We need enthusiasts. That you are a person that is curious about us and our mission.

Municipality where the volunteering will take place: 
Distansuppdrag

Bli datorstödjare hos oss!

Individuell Människohjälp/IM, Stockholm

Beskrivning av uppdraget/uppgifterna: 
Datorstödet på Stockholms Stadsbibliotek startade våren 2011. Verksamheten riktar sig till personer som av en eller annan anledning upplever att de har bristande datorvana eller/och behöver hjälp med konkreta, datorrelaterade frågor och problem.

Du stöttar ungdomar och vuxna till grundläggande datorkunskaper, t.ex. att öppna Word-dokument eller skaffa sig ett e-postkonto.

Du uppmuntrar till att på egen hand lösa uppgifter och motivera till fortsatt lärande.
När och var ska uppdraget utföras: 
Torsdagar kl 17-19 på Stadsbiblioteket.

Specifika önskemål eller information: 
För IM är datorstödet mer än att bara hjälpa någon med datorrelaterade problem. Det skapar också ett vardagligt möte mellan dig som volontär och personerna du möter som ömsesidigt ger nya insikter.

Personal Profiles

 Together we looked at the CAS STRANDS and now you all should have a better idea of what CAS is about.  We also looked at the CAS OUTCOMES and using this information, you should now be able to start creating your CAS personal profile.  Your profile should describe who you are, what you can do and what you want to improve.  Look carefully at the Learning Outcomes as they are what you need to achieve with CAS.  Write about what you think you can do to meet these 7 outcomes.  

Look through the CAS student handbook and this blog - see the pages at the side - for ideas.  Come and talk to me if you have any questions.  Further down this post you can see pictures from the work we did in the introduction week.  Due to many other commitments during advisory time, we won't have a chance for another workshop until after the September break.  I will start interviews in week 39  - that gives you some time to work on your profile.  I expect everyone to bring a profile to the interview.  Your profile can be on the form I gave you - but you can also add in other information.
Here are some other questions to help you think of things to include:

What are your talents?

What do you enjoy doing?

What skill or talent would you like to improve?

What are you already doing that could be part of your CAS programme?

What would you like to be involved in?

Describe a time when you helped someone else or helped with a cause.

Describe a time when someone helped you.

About what issues do you have concern or feel most passionate?

Are there any local clubs or community associations in which you could be involved?

What would you like to learn more about?

What have you always wanted to try but haven’t yet?

New CAS guide for grade 11 students

Welcome to grade 11 students

This blog is where I will publish information about CAS opportunities as well as good examples of CAS.  This year there is a new CAS guide so information in previous posts can be out of date.  Here is a link to the CAS student handbook for students graduating in 2017.

You will all have received a copy of the SIS CAS Student Handbook.  You can also find an electronic version of the handbook by following this link: CAS - student handbook 2015-17

Links can be found in the handbook to help you find ideas for CAS experiences and contact people.

Over the next few weeks we will be learning more about what CAS involves and how you can develop your CAS portfolio.    Most of this will take place during Advisory time.

Everyone will be called to an initial CAS interview in September.  You will be expected to bring your CAS profile form and your CAS proposal form (signed by you and your parents).  Once we have looked at them together you will be given an electronic version of the forms to fill and upload on ManageBac in your CAS folder.

All links to the forms/documents that you will need can be found under pages to the right of the posts.

Want something to get your started right away?  September 21st is International Peace One Day. There is an organisation that has loads of ideas about what you can do to promote this cause.  http://www.peaceoneday.org/ It includes playing football, dancing and many other fun ideas.  Check out the site and see if you can get something together before the 21st.

I am looking forward to working with you all and hope that you will find CAS and enjoyable and enriching part of your IB Diploma Programme.

Status updates

Do you have a red flag??????

If you do, it means I am  worried about your  CAS folders. Most of you have done the activities but you have not followed through with CAS questions and supervisor reports.  Without these the CAS folder is not complete.  Remember that supervisors can need reminders and often take a few weeks to respond - don't leave it to late to send off that request and contact your supervisor.

Remember - if CAS is not completed you will not be eligible for the IB Diploma.

No flag?

That means you probably have done some reports but not enough to make me feel like it is 100% certain that you will get it all done on time.  Take a look at your folder and finish it up.  Don't forget the final refection.  There is an example on the blog and 2 examples on the pink notice board.

Green Flag?

I am fairly confident that you will get it all finished but  you are not there yet so keep going.  You also need to upload your final visual reflection - see previous post for details or take a look at the examples on the pink notice board.

Gold Medal?

There are only a couple of those.  They are for people who have only one incomplete activity and just need to do the final visual reflection ( actually one person has already done that!  You can see his example on the pink notice board).

DON'T WAIT

Complete your CAS now - you  do not want phone calls from me during study week!

Final Reflections

As you near the end of your studies, it's important that you make sure your CAS folder is completed.

• CAS questions should be done for all activities
• Supervisor reports in for all activities
• Check that you have covered all the 8 outcomes
• Check that you have all the hours worked out for Creativity, Action and Service

Final Reflection - a visual representation of what you have learned from CAS

In the last post I gave an example of how to do your final reflection and you have had time to do that in Advisory.  There is no advisory lesson this week, so I will not be able to come and help you with these until the following week - your last day.  I know that some people have already done them and that is great.  When it is finished upload it in the CAS documents. 

If you did it by hand (rather than electronically) you can take a picture and upload that .  Once that is done and your reports are in you will receive a gold medal to show that everything is complete.

Status

I have updated the status markers and people who have not done much (often have done nothing) since our last interview have been down graded. Green flags are only given to people who have mostly green ticks (that is completed activities)

Gold Medal - basically completed and final reflection uploaded in documents

Green Flags - most activities completed, still need to do final reflection

No flag - some complete. some not, no final reflection

Red flag - very few completed activities - AT RISK OF NOT BEING ELIGIBLE FOR DIPLOMA

If you have any questions please come and see me.

If you have a red flag on Monday, I will have to notify your parents.  This must be completed before you go on study leave.

It's nearly over!

As you rush towards your exams, you will start to be winding up with your activities.  I know that some of you will continue some activities long after the IB is over.  It is great that you have found activities that have interested you and that you wish to continue.  I hope that you have even gained value experience from all the other activities and that the skills you have gained will help you  in the future.

What do you have to do now?

Before you start your exams, you should get your CAS folder in order.  

• upload any evidence or refections that are missing
• check that you have reflections for all the outcomes - a yellow bar means that you have missed on
• check that the dates and hours are correct.  It is not possible to get a 'complete' for an activity of 50 hours if you only did 20.  Be real - otherwise you might find yourself way short of your target at the end
• write up the CAS questions for all activities
• send for a supervisor report for all activities

If you have your supervisor report on paper, please scan it in and then let me know so that I can close off the relevant activity.  You can print out the supervisor reports if it is easier than getting a reply by email.  Ask me if you don't know how.

Final Reflections

I talked to you last week about doing some a final reflection about CAS as a whole.  Here is an example from last year.

You should try to include all the CAS outcomes and the learner profile attributes in your reflection.  I will come into advisory after the Spring break to help with these.  If you have completed yours, please upload it under CAS documents in your CAS folder.  Some of you uploaded your initial CAS goals at the beginning of grade 11.  Take a look at these and see if what you achieved is that same as what you wrote back then!  How have you changed as a learner?

Good luck with your exams but don't forget to finish off the CAS folder if you want a Diploma.  You don't want me chasing you during exams!