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! 

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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.

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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.