Monday 14 December 2015

What's next?

Congratulations grade 11 - everyone has a green flag this term.  A few people made some last minute additions to their CAS portfolios leading to green flags in these reports.

Next term it will be impossible to get a green flag at the last minute.

In order to make sure that your CAS portfolio is satisfactory you must start uploading evidence/reflections on an ongoing basis.

You must also show that you have been part of at least ONE CAS project and that means that you must show that you have followed the CAS stages:

Investigation; preparation, action, demonstration and reflection.  

We will talk more about this at the beginning of next term.
We will also go over how to do good, meaningful reflections.

Amnesty International Group

The Amnesty group has been campaigning for the rights of a Malaysian cartoonist through drawing their own cartoons and posting them under #zunar.  Here are some of the pictures they have posted on the wall in school.  You can read more about Zunar's situation at: zunar



Volunteering opportunities

Just now there are a lot of opportunities for people who speak Swedish to help refugees with improving their language skills.  See http://www.volontarbyran.org/ for details or ask me. 

If you are good at art, once again an organisation  called 'Untold Stories' that works with human rights in Africa is looking for people to illustrate. 
'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.'

Otherwise enjoy your break and don't forget to keep documenting your CAS experiences.  No one attempted last week's quiz so it is still open.  See the last blog post for the details.




Monday 7 December 2015

First term of CAS

Most of you are off to a good start and have added lots of CAS experiences.  It is good to see a variety of Creativity, Activity and Service.  Today, I have set all the progress markers that will appear on the final reports.  It is pleasing to see so many gold cups for outstanding performance.  These were given to students who have:

  • a variety of experiences across the 3 strands
  • have goals and descriptions for all their experiences
  • have evidence and reflections for most of their experiences.

Green flags have been given to those who have written goals and descriptions for most experiences and may even have started with evidence and reflection.

At the beginning of next term, all students without reflections and/or evidence for every experience will get a red flag.  You MUST start adding evidence and/or reflection.  Without it, even if you have participated in 500 CAS experiences, you will not get an IB Diploma. You MUST demonstrate that you have tried reach the learning outcomes (LOs) at least once.  

CAS Projects


Remember that CAS projects require that you show how you have followed the CAS stages - 

Investigation; preparation, action, demonstration and reflection.  

Don't mark every experience a project unless you can show how you went through the stages.

CAS Service

Students wearing the red AIDs day ribbons 
You should always consider the CAS stages when doing service.  You should think about how the service impacts on communities.  Remember thinking global, acting local is something that is encouraged.  Service can often be in response to something you have learnt or heard at school.  Last week we had a speaker about AIDS awareness.  A few weeks ago a speaker about Ebola.  What kind of responses could be appropriate for these events?  Stine and Angela made red ribbons for everyone to wear in response to AIDS awareness day.  Think creatively and I am sure you will find opportunities arise from what we do in school. 



Remember you must have evidence and reflection to qualify for the IB Diploma

This weeks quiz questions.
1. What must you have in order to show that you have met the LOs?
2. What do you need to do to get a green flag next term?
3. What happens if you do not complete CAS?
Be the first person to write the answers on a piece of paper and hand to me personally to claim your prize.