Preparing for the final interview

After sports break, I will start doing the final interviews for CAS.  Some of you will still be participating in experiences up to the beginning of May but others will have already done the 18 months by the end of March.  You can still do your final interview even if you have an open CAS experience.  Your portfolio will not be complete until all experiences are closed and you have done the final interview.

How do I prepare for the interview?

In some ways this is the most important interview as you need to show that you meet the requirements for CAS.  The main things that I will ask you to show me are:

• evidence of 18 months (or nearly at the time of interview) participation
• evidence and reflection for each of  the 7 learning outcomes
• evidence of creative, active and service experiences - should be a good balance of all 3
• reflection on the IB learner profile attributes.

You can do this in various ways but it must be done before the interview and added to your CAS portfolio documents before the interview.

In the past students have made posters, or visual representations of their achievements or written a text explaining their achievements. This is the basis for our discussion at the interview.

You can see some visual documents here and here or here.  Just note that some of these were done in the old CAS system with hour requirements and 8 learning outcomes but they should give you an idea.

If you have been diligent with your CAS portfolio this will be easy.  You can just past reflection for each outcome onto your document/poster.  If you want to make a big poster on paper, please do - just take a picture to upload onto your portfolio.

What kinds of questions will I ask?

This is a sample of the list from the IBO - the complete list can be found here

 What did you most enjoy about CAS?

 What have you achieved through CAS?

 What have you learned about balancing your time with your choices and commitments?

 Describe your CAS project: how you planned, who collaborated, your roles and responsibilities and the results of your collaboration. How were your expectations met or exceeded?

 What did you learn about yourself and others?

 What have you learned through working in collaboration with others?

 How did you improve and develop your planning skills?

 What could be improved about the way CAS is organized in school?

 What advice do you have for upcoming CAS students regarding making CAS enjoyable, sustained

over time and meaningful?

 Five years from now, what will you remember most about your CAS programme?

What does the IB say about the final interview?

This is the summative interview for CAS. It may well be just before the Diploma Programme finishes. In this interview the student outlines how they have achieved the learning outcomes for CAS. In addition, they discuss and evaluate their overall CAS programme and reflect on personal growth. The student’s CAS portfolio is used as reference in this interview. This third interview may provide the opportunity for discussion on development of the CAS programme for future CAS students based on this student’s personal

experience.

Creativity, activity and service guide - IBO March 2105

Congratulations to our rhino group!

They recently received certificates thanking them for their contribution to the the KZN Rhino project.

Why do I have a red flag?

If you still have a red flag it is because there is something that you need to fix.  I have done a very thorough check of the portfolios over the last week and I am pleased to say that most people have now managed to tidy up their lose ends and get a green flag.

10 minutes a week, keeps the red flag away!

If you now, please, try to dedicate 10 minutes a week to making sure that you have added some evidence and reflection to your portfolio you should find that finishing off CAS in March/April will not be a big chore.  If you do not take the time each week, you will be faced with a huge task in the time between the mock exams and the May exams.  If you really fall behind, you will find that you will need to come in to school during the study week.  No one wants to do that, so please do not put yourself in that position.

Why do I have to do all this?

Because if you don't, you will not be eligible for the IB Diploma.  

Of course there are lots of other reasons for doing CAS.  It can be fun!  it can help you with college/university/job applications. It is great experience.  You learn a lot.  You get to work with something you enjoy.  

What do I need to do to have a satisfactory CAS portfolio?

1. Have enough evidence to show that have participated in your CAS experiences for the time that you have claimed.
2. Have a balance of Creativity, Activity and Service experiences
3. Have reflection for each of your experiences - more for longer ones - at least 2 times each term.
4. Show that you have met the 7 learning outcomes
5. Have enough evidence and reflection to show that you have participated in CAS experiences for 18 months.
6. Complete 3 interviews with the CAS coordinator.

Coming up next week!

In my next blog post I will write about the final interview and how you need to prepare.  If you have a good CAS portfolio, you will find it easy to prepare.

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!