Poetry Slam getting under way

Audrey, Mr. Kane, and I finally met again last Thursday.

Last month, in order to take stock of our position, and how to move forward, I conducted a survey of the school, as best as I could, by emailing a google spreadsheet form to the whole school.

(screenshot of the live form)

The results were not encouraging, but we forged ahead anyway.
We've basically finalised the rules, the prizes, and the structure of the competition (copy-paste from the document) :

SIS Poetry Slam

Name suggestions: Slam!  ... SIS Poetry Slam ... When Words Take Flight ...

Annual Event. Two heats and a finals day, spread over three weeks: Heat 1, Heat 2, Finals. Heats after school, OR just have scheduled auditions for each entrant at lunch times. Finals day on a Friday afternoon, April 1, in Hall.

As the event gains prestige and competitors year by year, it can perhaps be allocated an evening, like the Winter and Spring concerts, school plays, Innovation, and International Evening.

Rules and Judging
    •    Each poem must be of the poet's own construction.
    •    Any genre of poetry
    •    No props, costumes or musical instruments.
    •    3 minutes (+ 10-sec grace period) to read 1 poem. If the poet goes over time, points shall be deducted from the total score.
    •    Judged by 5 members of the audience, pre-selected by the organizer.
    •    Judges give scores from 0 to 10 based on content and performance. 5 for content, 5 for performance.
    •    Lowest and highest scores dropped, middle 3 added to give a total out of 30.
    •    Audience encouraged to respond to the poets or the judges in any way they see fit. Gives the event a much more sport-like atmosphere and encourages more energy and enthusiasm. No poet is beyond critique; all are at the mercy of the audience.

Awards and Prizes
    •    Trophy and Certificate for Winner. Certificate for runner up.
    •    SIS Poetry Slam Hall of Fame (where? display-board space around school is limited...)
    •    Congratulated in a Whole School Assembly
    •    House Points
    •    ???

Raise Awareness
    •    The revived Piggybank magazine, pending renaming (Audrey and Kenneth are both among the editors)
    •    Bulletin notices
    •    English classes
    •    House Assemblies (Spread the message to other House Captains to talk about it in the House Assembly) (contact Mrs. McKee about making it a house event)
    •    Whole School Assembly (introduction of the event)
    •    Posters around school (outsource design - Victor Kwan)
    •    Start an afterschool activity? (will have to be next year; Kenneth is unavailable this year due to unavoidable schedule clashes)

How well will it be received?
Probably not very enthusiastically; the lack of interest in poetry at SIS, after all, was one of the things that inspired the idea of starting an SIS Poetry Slam event.

Hopefully, the idea of "glory" in the proposed hall of fame will attract people. And CAS hours, of course. And as something to put into one's college app.

The word "poetry" tends to arouse a lot of bad feeling in SIS students. How can we overcome this?
 -> Make it mandatory for a particular year group.
 -> Prepare students in English classes
 -> After-school activity?
 -> Maybe simply by initially removing the word "poetry" from the name of the event: instead of SIS Poetry Slam, call it, "SLAM! - SIS Poetry Slam" or something like that.

If it's really not well received in SIS, perhaps we can do it within ESF so that there's a larger pool of competitors?
Are there any poetry slams in Hong Kong? Perhaps an SIS team can be formed.

We also decided to begin an after-school activity next term, so I'm pretty excited.

IH Athletics Finals

Yesterday was the Inter-House Athletics Finals.

All in all, not exactly the best Athletics days ever. I didn't run, for one. Well, for all. It just doesn't feel like Athletics day when I don't run.

That aside, the Movember and 70s theme wasn't as bad as I'd expected.

Selling silicone wrist bands wasn't particularly good or bad.

And there weren't so many House Captain duty things to do as I'd expected.

This year's Athletics Final s were very different from previous ones. This year, the finals lineups were draw up to have 1 finalist from each house. Personally, I don't think that's fair at all to any fast runners or powerful jumpers or throwers who may not be the best in their house but are better than most others. Maybe set a maximum of finalists per house, like many international meets, but not 1 per house.

The results are coming out next week. I hope Schweitzer has done well.

ATCL Piano Exam

Officially dead. I have a gut feeling that I failed again. I was so unbelievably nervous, though less so than the first time. The examiner was this massive German (I think) guy. Seemed quite friendly, but, as I told my piano teacher, that's not an accurate measure of how strict his marking is.

As I played my recital, I, like, screwed up A LOT. Last time, I actually got stuck and forgot a part and ended up just sitting dumbly for a few seconds before continuing; this time, I didn't have any one incident like that, but I can't help but feel that my screw-ups this time add up to more. As I made more mistakes, I got more and more nervous, and that in turn caused me to make more mistakes, and so on and so on...

I do believe, however, that i was far more well-versed with the technical side of the pieces this time. (Technique is where I historically suck...) Hopefully that's enough.


UPDATE Jan 18, 2011: I passed! Yay for me!

Focus Week: Hakka trip

Simply the best focus week EVER.

The biking experience was perhaps the best part. Around 80km in total over 4 days, through the beautiful countryside. The rush from the physical exertion fit perfectly with the freedom of the scenery.

We stayed at one of those "tulou" (土楼）, the cylindrical ancient Hakka fortress-come-apartment-complex structures, and we visited a whole bunch of them around the area.

We learned about tea-leaf manufacture.

We taught English at a local school. The performance, however, wasted almost half of the time we had available. Why did we have to teach the kids a song to perform?

In our free time, we played cards.

I and the boys who I shared a dorm with, Derek and Calvin Lee, woke early every morning, before 6am. I don't like not being up before the other people.

We watched a puppet show.

For the entire 6 days of the trip, my mind was pleasantly blank, relaxed, taking a break from routine life. Pure bliss.

Now, let my just copy-paste what I put in my CAS self-evaluation, 'cause I can't be bothered thinking of it all again:

I discovered that I have to take a little bit of time to think before I speak in Putonghua.

My biking ability was beyond what I expected, though I believe I made up for lack of technical control with brute strength.

I was, however, unable to do the writing and homework I intended to do on the trip. Instead, my mind was in a state of perpetual relaxation and calmness. I also, unfortunately, got homesick after the first 4 days.

Nonetheless, I still count the trip a success in increasing my awareness of my own boundaries.

I have never in my life biked for 50km in a day. That was definitely a new challenge, and an exciting one.

Teaching the children English didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, though. For one, there pre-existing English levels were much lower than what I and my fellow group members had expected. Yet, that is but a testament to our inexperience at this new challenege.

Because we had overestimated the students abilities, our group had to replan our lessons from scratch. Although we sometimes got distracted from planning by invitations to play cards, we were able to recover from the initial setback and plan successful lessons that taught the kids a little bit of basic English.

I worked with Matt Tung, Derek, and Calvin Lee. Although the teaching was initially awkward, we worked well together.

Indeed, nobody there knew an int of English, not even the school headmaster.

I don't think our short stay contributed to any sort of dilution of local culture. In fact, it was more of a learning experience for them, since the students had never before met anyone from outside the area, as well as a learning experience for us.

I learned that teaching English as a second language is much more difficult than I thought; first language students inevitably pick up the material much faster as it is natural to them.

Picking tea leaves was one of the high points of the trip. We learned to find newly opened leaves and pick cuttings from these leaves to three leaves beneath them for the best maturity and thus taste.

Edit (March 25, 2011): Damn, those were good times...

Back to the Library

I should confess that I missed library duty the previous week.

I had just been well enough to attend school, and completely forgot about library duty. Although that is no excuse, it is only right that I provide an explanation for my action - or inaction.

Now yesterday, I remembered to go. Luckily, I still remembered how to loan and return books. But because of my multiple absences (the previous time was because I had to represent SIS at HKSSF Swimming), the Librarian, Ms Ow, hadn't had a chance to explain the online catalogue system to me, so she did so yesterday.

It was embarrassing, the whole thing.

Ground Zero Mosque Debate

On the week right after half term, Mr. Evershed was away, so Debating was canceled. Not that I would have attended, as I was sick practically the whole week, but it's the principle of the thing; because Mr. Evershed was away, it doesn't look so bad for me to skip another session.

The prepared debate about the Ground Zero Mosque ("THBT a mosque should be allowed to be built near Ground Zero") was finally debated this Monday, the 1st of November.

It sucked big time.

First of all, the teams were all mixed up since quite a substantial number of people were not in attendance. On top of that, it had been about 2 weeks since I'd done the research and I was unfamiliar with the topic. It was my first time trying the role of the First speaker, and I had no idea whatsoever how to start the debate.

I spoke like a 6th grader debating for the first time.

At least it's so bad that it can only get better from here...

-----
On the topic of the actual debate itself:

The "Ground Zero Mosque" is a planned mosque being built near the 9-11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks Ground Zero. I feel that it brings into focus the still on-going tension between religious ideology even in the 21st century, and even years after 9-11. The ongoing controversy and debate surrounding it is another symptom of the mutual hate and suspicion that the terrorist suicide bombings, religious wars, etc, going on in the world, especially in the Middle East, are rooted in.

screenshot of my section of the debate research/plan:

Missing Athletics heats.

Dear Diary,

This past week sucked. Not only was the experience of being ill terrible in and of itself, I missed Inter-House Athletics heats, which was on Thursday, after training hard for it during mid-term break.

Trying to see if I can be seeded into the finals anyway using my time from last year.

HKSSF Swimming: Day 2

South Island School was overall 4th in the Division. Our C-grade was amazing, coming 2nd and pulling our overall score up to get 4th. It was a really great experience; it was the first time the swimming team has ever achieved something like this in the years I've been on the team.

Despite the overall success of the team, however, my individual performance was lame. I missed my one remaining event. =.= I missed marshalling as I was in the washroom, and when I got back they wouldn't let me swim even the the event hadn't started yet. Mr. Picknell had an argument with the officials about it, but they didn't relent.

Economics tutoring, lesson 3

Lesson 3. Inflation.

HKSSF Swimming Day 1

HKSSF Division Two swimming heats took place last Friday. As the day approached my excitement grew. I was certain that I could get into the final in my main individual event, the 50m butterfly, as I had last year, and perhaps even be a contender for a medal, as my personal time had recently reached a personal best of 30.26 seconds and I felt I could drop that further.



youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PcAL8DQEX8&feature=channel_video_title

Unfortunately, when the time came, I did not perform to expectations, stopping the clock at 31.17, 10th place and cut off from the finals. Upon completing the race, I knew immediately without even looking at the clock that I had not made the final. My reaction time had been slow, I took 1 fewer underwater dolphins then planned, and then had a horrible breakout that had me expend extra energy getting into the pace of my stroke. Combined with having gone all out in inter-house cross-country the previous day, I had completely run out of energy by the last 20m or so, and then touching the wall with a glide rather than a full stroke. Watching the video, graciously taken by Victor at my request, I see that I was stroking at the same pace as the person in the next lane, lane 5, until the second half of the 50m, when I started falling back. In the end, that person got into the finals with a sub-30 time. Not to be arrogant, but judging from my knowledge of my own ability, I strongly believe that I could have kept up if not for fatiguing prematurely due to cross country the previous day.

After my 50 fly, I also took part in the 4x50m medley relay. Although our team came 10th in 2:13:30, falling short of the top eight again, I met my goal of proving to myself that I could indeed go faster than 31 in 50fly. I spit a 30.78... which would have made the final in 7th place. 

Although I did not manage to make the finals in either event, I take heart in the fact that I will still be at finals day completing in the 200IM, which is a straight-final event. At first, when I was slated to swim the 200IM, I was, to put it lightly, unenthusiastic. Now, however, it appears it was a blessing in disguise.

Photos from Debating

The motion of the debate last week was that "it should be compulsory for women over the age of 18 to own tasers." Tiffany gave us some quick feedback afterward. She said, for example, that I contradicted myself by first saying that the proposition team was discriminating against women by generalising that all women need weapons to protect themselves, and then saying that women under 18 should not be excluded.

I really appreciate the tips she gave us, and I will definitely take them into account in my next debate.

Also, I got one of the other club members to help me take some photos:

Piano exam coming up

Piano lessons have been ongoing from the beginning. The exam will be in mid-to-late November (though I haven't received notice of the exact date or venue yet) which means only a few weeks are left to prepare. The timetable my teacher and I are going by is rather tight, and I'm currently not sure whether I'll be able to perform well for the exam. I took the same exam, with the same pieces, some one and a half years previous, in May 2009, and failed by a few marks to pass. I worry that I may once again fail to pass, as I don't feel I've put enough time and effort into preparing and will be left still hanging by my climbing rope by the time November rolls around, rather than safely at the top of the mountain. Either way, the coming weeks will no doubt have to be full of piano practice among other things if I want to achieve a good result in the coming exams.

Oh yes, the pieces I'm playing are four in number. J.S.Bach's Toccata and Fugue in E minor, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Minor Opus 10 No. 1, Debussy's Sarabande No. 2 in C# Minor from his _Pour le Piano_, and Chopin's Waltz in E flat Major Opus 18. These total a 30-something minute-long recital.

I should actually elaborate more on my exam, shouldn't I? The exam I'm taking is the ATCL Performance exam by Trinity Guildhall. It's ostensibly, according to the website, equal to one year of university study. "ATCL" stands for something like Associateship of Trinity College London. Does that mean that, if I make this exam, I'll become part of some sort of Associateship? Probably not, but, heh, it's a pretty cool name. Beyond ATCL is LTCL (Licentiateship) and then FTCL (Fellowship). The "Performance" part simply means that the diploma is for piano _performance_ as opposed to something like teaching (which is yet another diploma). I'm also taking the Recital format, which means that I just go in, hand over my programme notes (which is basically a short essay analysing the pieces to show I understand them) play, and go out.

So. (Gets back to practicing)

Update. IB week 6

Debating, 27th Sep

So. Unfortunately, I missed debating last week (20th) due to some timetable clash with a piano lesson. This Monday, though, we had another impromptu debate with the motion, "This House believes that it is irresponsible for women over the age of 50 to have children." Our team won by 8 points. One of the people at the debating club has an amusing tendency to argue, unintendedly, for the other side when he delivers his speech. On the other hand, I've finally had the wonderful opportunity to watch/listen to Tiffany Chung debate. After Paul Lau, Prakash Sanker, and Nicky Gordon left, she is, without a doubt, the most skillful debater we have. My own speech was... alright, I suppose. I'm coming to find the fast pace of thinking required for debating rather daunting on my meager mental capacity. I do hope, of course, that I adapt to it.

In the impromptu on the first day of the activity, I was Third Speaker for our team, the person who analyses all the points made throughout the debate before the Captain summarises. This Monday was the first time I spoke as Second Speaker. The role of a Second Speaker is drastically different from that of the Third Speaker, as the Second Speaker is expected to make new points while the Third Speaker should not. I find that it is much harder to present my own argument than it is to simply take down or back up arguments others have put out.

------------

Untitled Post

The student magazine project Victor, Emmanuel, Audrey, and I have been working on has now been tentatively titled the "Untitled Post", pending name change after the survey results come in. Meeting once a week, we've created a form for writer's to apply to write for the magazine, but our attempt at doing a survey during tutor period failed before it even started. We'd thought that House Assemblies had all been finished last week, so we emailed form tutors on Monday asking them to help us with the survey during pastoral on Tuesday. Guess what? Yeah. We got replies telling us that there were House Assemblies. And so, we intend to conduct our survey NEXT Tuesday instead.

--------------

English Tutoring

I assisted at my second Year 11 extra English session today. Today. the students were doing corrections on the past-paper they had done in class previously. I just went around and helped out where I could. Ms Egan is starting to get worried that some of the students aren't taking these extra lessons seriously, since the actually _actual_, _real_ GCSE Eng Lit exam is coming up in November for them. It does seem to me, too, that some of the boys don't exactly want to be there and aren't ashamed of showing it. Well, what can one do about that?

First meetings: Part 5

First training session for student librarian duties, today at lunch. Awesome. Learned how to loan and return books and how to charge for overdue books. It's more complicated than I'd thought.

Feels so cool to be on the other side of the counter.

Another training session next week, and then it'll be time for the real duties. ::excitement::

First House Assembly

First house assembly yesterday. How as it? Not bad. :)

I presented the section about our new House website, and about the Facebook page and Twitter.

We had music playing, and handed out candy to everyone as they came in... (an idea we stole from our predecessors!)

We actually had a piano performance lined up, too, but there were difficulties actually _getting_ a piano, since we were in the sports hall. 

It's really quite a feeling to be standing on the other side of the microphone and actually _delivering_ an assembly.

All in all, it went smoothly, but I was told that I spoke to softly - in my defense, I couldn't really tell what my voice sounded like because the microphone made everything echo from my perspective...

Next House Assembly is in February.

ESF Swimming Gala

It has been two weeks since the Swimming Team training sessions began. I have found that after I stopped training with my swimming team outside school, I have seriously lost endurance. Yet, during Interhouse Swimming heats last Thursday, I attained personal best times in both 50m freestyle (26.73s) and 50m butterfly (30.44), with an A-grade (age 16-19) school record in the freestyle over the previous mark of 26.89 set about 20 years ago, which was a _very_ pleasant surprise.

Today, I swam in the ESF Swimming Gala, where I improved my 50m butterfly time again to 30.26 seconds. Although compared to the swimmers i raced against today, I am still about half a second slower, it is a fantastic achievement for me personally to have been able to lower my time from 32 last year to 30 this year. My aim now is to increase the volume of training I do at school in order to improve my endurance and break the 30-second barrier at HKSSF swimming next month; that should allow me to get an ok place at the Finals of that event, according to the past results.

First meetings: Part 4

My English teacher last year, Ms. Hartcher, offered to let me be an assistant teacher this year in some English classes. Unfortunately, it turned out to be infeasible, so she redirected me to Ms. Egan.

I helped out in Ms. Egan's English class for the first time last Wednesday, period 3, originally one of my free study periods. It's an "extra English" class for year 11 students who are struggling with their GCSE English. Though I didn't find the 2-hour session particularly productive, especially since the main point that Ms. Egan put a lot of emphasis on was trying to get the students to 'answer the question' rather than going off and writing irrelevant things in their answer, after checking the work of a few of them, I realized that Ms. Egan's seemingly excessive emphasis of that point really was very appropriate, since the issue with the few essays I checked was exactly that: they weren't addressing the question.

I hope that in the coming weeks, I can work with Ms. Egan to supplement these year 11 students' usual English classes and drastically raise their level of ability in English. Since the current year 11s will be taking their Literature exams in November rather than the usual may, it is particularly important for them to improve their English in the coming weeks.

Debating. Week 2

Second session of Debating club. Motion: This House believes that rescue servicemen/women should have the power to strike. I'm opposition. We did some planning and discussion, and Tiffany Chung, as an experienced debater, imparted some cool debating knowledge to us. No, we need to do some research. The debate will be next week. I'm the first speaker.

I suppose I'm looking forward to the debate next week, seeing as how we'll be much more prepared and thus can have a more... quality debate.

First meetings: Part 3

I gave Adrian Ma his first tutoring lesson this afternoon. We went over the entire first unit (out of 14, if I remember correctly).

The pace of progress was a little slower than I expected for the first unit, to be honest, but I hope that we will be able to cover 1 unit every lesson on average. With hard work, frequent revision, and doing many past papers, I'm sure Adrian can raise his Economics grade from a D to an A*.

I also helped out at my first Inter-House event yesterday. It was Year 10 dodgeball. I think I expected it to be a little more fun than it turned out to be; seems there isn't really much for a volunteer to do in House events! It was still a rather interesting experience to see the House dynamics between the year 10s and how House spirit is distributed in their year group in comparison to ours.

And on Monday, I also went to my first Debating club meeting; I forgot to post this earlier. Debating started off average, but it was okay-interesting. What I found most surprising was that I was the only member above year 10 even though t club is open to all year 9 and above. We started off immediately with an impromptu debate. The motion was that "This House believes that Facebook is a hazard to personal security." Our team won. One of the more experienced debaters from year 10, Madhav, complimented me on my debating skill, saying he would talk to Mr. Evershed, the teacher who manages Debating at SIS, about letting me compete in tournaments. I was quite pleased about that. I hope Mr. Evershed really does let me do some tournaments.

First meetings: Part 2 - Piggybank

Today was a great day. Victor, Audrey, Emmanuel and I met Mrs. Curran after school to discuss the School Magazine. This project is the third incarnation of the Piggybank, first started two years ago as a print magazine to channel the student voice.

Our new project was inspired by the Piggybank student magazine. Now, however, the new Student Council "Student Voice" forums have provided a new medium for student voice, so our magazine will have a completely different aim. Also, past attempts ran into cost difficulties, so we aim to take advantage of the student Laptop program to take the Piggybank online for a broader readership.

Our first meeting addressed the issue of genre and timetable. We decided that we would enlist the help of tutors to collect data by way of surveys in order to determine what sort of content to publish. We also set a vague timetable.

This project excites me. I have always been surprised that SIS, a school that has existed for 30+ years, does not have a student newspaper. It is my hope that this new project, currently nameless, will take that role down the future of SIS.

First Meetings in the CAS-verse: Part 1

So. School is on once again! Unfortunately, my computer had to be sent to be repaired, so I haven't been updating. Just got it back a few hours ago!

Anyway.

Met with Mr. Kane about the Poetry Slam yesterday. Audrey couldn't make it.

Basically, we just agreed that the Slam would be held annually, and perhaps as an Inter-House event. Audrey and I will begin designing the programme, and Mr. Kane will talk to the other English teachers about it and probably do something related in English class in order to spread awareness.

Also had our first House Captain meeting. Not much happened, but we're taking our first steps as House Captains.

I don't know how the Poetry Slam organisation process will be incorporated into my CAS record yet,  but it seems that everything's beginning to shape up.

Very excited about my IB courses, too. Looking forward to the coming two years.

Action Before IB: Part 3

Audrey and I went to see Mr. Kane last week. Unfortunately, he was busy, so we'll officially start the project next term.

Interestingly, I've also been made (the only) editor for the new Hong Kong Career Development Association, which my cousin Nathan is president of. Emmanuel (11J) has also asked me to become an editor for the Piggybank magazine, which he and Victor (11M) are planning to start up again next term. Although editing can't really make any tangible "hours", it promises to be an exciting experience.

Starting from today, I'll be following my meticulously-planned summer schedule, so the next post won't be until August-September.

Schweitzer House Website

As a deputy house captain for the year 2010-2011, I went ahead and redesigned the Schweitzer website, as the old site hadn't been maintained since 2003.

http://web.sis.edu.hk/departments/schweitzer/

Action Before IB: Part 2

Taking Ms. Hartcher's advice, I emailed Mr. Kane:

Dear Mr. Kane

I'm Kenneth Chan, from year 11. My classmate Audrey and I have been thinking that it would be great to start an annual or biannual Poetry Slam at South Island next term, introducing performance poetry to our fellow students to allow poetic talents to showcase their artistry in a non-traditional way and to raise enthusiasm for poetry at SIS.

We have been told by Ms. Hartcher that you have been trying to get a similar project going, so we respectfully ask if we may collaborate with you to bring this event into being.

Thanks for your consideration.

Regards,
Kenneth Chan, on behalf of Audrey and Kenneth

 His reply this morning was positive:

Dear Kenneth

I'd love to speak to you about this and would like to help/collaborate. If you could come and see me for a chat in c45 that would be a good start!

Regards

Mr Kane

Hm... I wonder when we should go see him. Without exams during the school day, it would be slightly more inconvenient. I'll have a chat with Audrey. But progress is good! 

-----
Screenshot of the email transcript print page:

 

Action Before IB: Part 1

I contacted my classmate Audrey, who has an interest in poetry, about my idea for an SIS Poetry Slam. She was enthusiastic and agreed to collaborate.

I then emailed our English Teacher, Ms. Hartcher:

Hi Ms. Hartcher,

Audrey and I think it would be a great idea to start up a Poetry Slam at SIS next year. We think that it is beyond time to introduce our fellow students to performance poetry. It will allow poetic talents to showcase their artistry in a non-traditional way, as well as being a novel approach to raise enthusiasm about poetry at South Island.

(Veiled, or not so veiled, in all that, is a CAS project.)

We'd like to know if you support the idea and if you'll help us get it passed. If so, could we please meet with you before the end of term to discuss the idea further?

Many thanks,
Kenneth and Audrey

Ms. Hartcher replied today, saying:

Dear both

Awesome idea - I think Mr Kane tried to get this going this year. I will chat to him on Monday - or you could email him.

thanks
Ms H

So that's the progress for now.

-----
Screenshot of the email transcript print page:

CAS Plan

A tentative plan for my IB CAS. It will be interesting to see how the actual activities differ from this...
 
Creativity

• Will join Senior Debating, and hope to make the team that competes in the Sing Tao tournament; our school's English debating team are multi-time champions. Haven't done debating in 4 years, so wish me luck!
• Continue studying Piano performance. Failed my ATCL exam last year by just a few marks, unexpectedly, so I'll retake it in Nov/Dec; then, I'll move on the LTCL level pieces and concentrate more on Hong Kong Schools Music Festival competitions. 

Action

• HKAYP Silver (also has Creativity and Service elements), after having attained Bronze last year (2008-2009). Our school is authorised to offer the HKAYP program. HKAYP is part of The International Award.
• Continue swimming training with PSC and race with the school team at HKSSF, and also compete in HKASA D2 Short Course meet, 15-16 age group, in January 2011, and attempt to break the school record for 50m butterfly, preferably by Fall 2011. Current record for Long Course is 27:## and for Short Course 28:51 (strangely enough, the SC time is slower), while my personal best is an abysmal 32 from October 2009.

 Service

• I'll tutor my friend Adrian in GCSE Economics. 
• My English teacher this year (year 11, or grade 10) has also offered to let me help in some lower-year classes.
• House captain duties, as I'm deputy house captain for Schweitzer.
• I'll volunteer for WWF or Salvation Army in the summer of 2011

Project

I plan to collaborate with a classmate to start up and run a Poetry Slam at South Island School, competing in it as well. Maybe an annual or biannual event? "Creativity" and "Service" will be the two CAS areas covered. If this idea won't be allowed as my project, it'll become just another activity, with my project being something else I'll have to think up later on.