Friday Basketball - Some Photographic Evidence!

Here are some pictures of the Friday afternoon basketball session we had last week.
In these sessions, we have the opportunity to develop new skills and learn how to collaborate with others. Some of the members are playing for the first time and are undertaking new challenges.



(photo by author)

We're learning new skills by learning where to stand for defense and how to play offensively with a team.
We mostly just play games which is useful because it's as close to a real game as it gets and some of us intend on doing SAISA basketball so it's helpful in that sense.



(photo by author)

The fabled milkshake drive

The milkshake drive that was held inside the school canteen was a booming success. We raised more money than we had originally expected and now we'll be able to purchase equipment of mass entertainment.

Here's a photo of two of our members, setting up the stall and making some delicious milkshakes!



(Photo by author)

A short clip of Fun Basketball!

This is just a short clip showing that I actually do attend this after school activity.
(That's me in the white).
Some photos will be on the way!

(Video by my dear friend Nishant)

Check out his blog here.

A product of drawing club

Here is a painting I created during one of my drawing club activities. I used wall filler for the white section which also gave it a rough texture and black ink for the background and details.

I started off by painting the background black. I then continued by drawing a pencil outline for the stag's skull to make sure I knew what I was drawing exactly.

I then went over it with wall filler which is a thick white substance that dries up and hardens. The wall filler is slightly raised off the surface.

The black ink was also used to add detail to the skull such as the eye sockets and nose.



This was an opportunity to develop new skills by exploring new mediums to create artworks.
(Photo by author)

Hope For Kids - Halloween Edition!

We went to the hospital on the 31st of October with a Halloween themed visit in mind. We planned on creating small decorations so the children had something to hang up around their beds. The decorations were orange pieces of paper in the shape of various spooky things such as ghosts and jack'o'lanterns.

Here is a picture of a few our members creating some decorations! 

A picture of a few our awesome Hope for Kids crew. Jithmi, Laurens and Amira.

Photo by author.













A photo of the kids adding their own personal flare to the pumpkin decorations!

They added the string so they could hang it up around their rooms.

Photo by author.

Dinosaur!

Just a random dinosaur from a previous session.

A small example of developing skills for one, I've never drawn a dinosaur (not that hard) and second, you might notice that there is some shading on the ridge of the body. Oh yeah.

Photo by author.

Drawing Club - 5

I had Drawing Club yesterday and I found infinite amounts of inspiration within the artworks done by other students. There was one in particular that was a painting of a leopard with its jaws wide open and holding a sword. It was an interpretation of the lion on the Sri Lankan flag but replaced with the leopard because there are leopards found in the country.
I wanted to do my own version of the student's drawing to see how different it would turn out. Yoon-jae, a member of the drawing activity, added a few features to my drawing including the whiskers and eyebrows...

Hope for Kids - Meeting

We've found that our resources are dwindling and we don't really have anything to take to the hospital of interest. We decided to hold a meeting to make plans for a 'milkshake drive' which will involve us creating milkshakes of various flavours to sell at school. The flavours will include vanilla, chocolate, Oreo cookie and strawberry. How extraordinarily exciting.

We want to raise money so we can purchase more equipment for the kids. So far we've only had drawing equipment and some arts and craft so we hope to either find something new to do or simply purchase newer tools. I will keep you updated as I'm sure you'll be eager to find out what happens next...

Hope for Kids - 4

This will be our fourth Hope for Kids session and the third visit to the hospital.
We aim to entertain the children at the hospital but at the same time, we've decided to try something a little bit different.
 We brought along the usual equipment such as the board games, necklace making set and drawing equipment but we wanted to see if we could test out a more educational approach. Bringing along some work sheets (it's as fun as it sounds) that will improve their spelling and some plastic letters, we spoke to two older children to see if they wanted to give it a go.
They seemed reluctant at first but they succumbed to our incessant nagging and off we went.
Turns out it was as boring as it sounded and was too difficult since they didn't speak any English.

We played snakes and ladders instead.

Drawing Club - 4

Drawing club! How wonderful it is.

As I said I would last time, I did something more worthwhile. I experimented with tone and shading with three-dimensional objects. By observing simple shapes like spheres and square-based pyramids, I can see where the light is cast from and where the shadow lies. This allows me to more easily draw out a realistic representation of the object despite not being very good at drawing.

I hope to better develop this skill.

Friday Basketball - 3

Woo. It's the end of the week which marks another splendid lesson of basketball! More warm-ups, more full court games, more running, shooting, stealing... Sounds like a robbery.

I play as though it's an actual game (most of the time) so it can be very tiring. I need to improve my endurance otherwise I wont be able to compete against all the other players at the SAISA tournament.
There's not a whole lot to say about this activity because it's very repetitive but it is enjoyable nonetheless. Go basketball.

Hope for Kids - 3

Our third Hope for Kids was different from the other two. This time we didn't visit the hospital because we wanted to meet as a group and decide what direction we're heading in. We thought it would be a good idea to raise some money to help the children in a way that escapes me as I type this. We'll be selling milkshakes of various flavours at the school. Yes, I'm advertising it on my blog, although no one will see this except for my favourite teacher Mr. Lockwood. Haha.

Anyway, we're going to continue with the board-games and all that fun business but as I've stated in a previous post, we want to see if we can teach them some important applications such as mathematics and reading. What's important is relative though.

Drawing Club - 3

Today is the third Drawing Club lesson and the second I've attended. This is because I was absent for the second lesson. I was completely devastated that I missed the previous one but life goes on. Today wasn't particularly eventful, most of the students were not here and I drew a few pictures that I've seem to misplaced.
For the next lesson I plan to practice some techniques to develop skills. Maybe some shading practice will do be good. Who knows.

Friday Basketball - 2

Friday basketball is a good way to develop and maintain basketball skills and stay in shape for the upcoming basketball tournament. The activity itself doesn't really vary but I don't think it needs to. It usually consists of a warm-up at the beginning and then we play 5v5 full court for the rest of the time we have left. Playing a sport helps improve collaboration skills and measures your level of perseverance because I've already seen a few kids pull out of the activity.

All in all, it was another good way to end the day.

Hope for Kids - 2

This visit was more or less the same as our first but we brought along some more sources of entertainment. The most popular addition to our activities seemed to be the necklace making one. We brought along string, beads, sequences etc. and let the children loose on them. It looked as though they were thoroughly enjoying creating their own necklaces so that was a highlight.

Next time we visit the hospital, we hope to possibly have a more academic approach. Maybe teaching them simple addition and subtraction will be a good idea because they fall behind on their academic learning due to being bound to the hospital. This touches on an issue of global importance which is that children around the world have limited access to education, especially children that are sick and are unable to attend a learning institution.

Friday Basketball - 1

I end my favourite day of the week with my favourite sport. Friday basketball is a lot fun that is a good method to developing my skills in preparation for SAISA basketball. You can decide to play casually and just use the activity as a source of exercise or you can play as though it's a proper game, although it gets pretty tiring because the activity takes place on the outdoor courts.

We usually start each lesson with a warm up and some exercises to get ready for the game. We usually have an even amount of players for a game (6v6) so it's perfect. Although on occasion we have extra members that serve as substitutes. I look forward to the next lesson.

Hope for Kids - 1

Our first Hope for Kids activity consisted of visiting the children at the hospital to entertain them for an hour or so. Because it was our first time seeing them for the majority of our group, we planned on making the purpose of the visit more about getting to know them and learning about their stories.

Upon our arrival, unsurprisingly, the children had absolutely no interest in greetings. We decided to just proceed with the more fun activities. We brought along paper with crayons and pencils, board-games and picture stories in both English and Sinhalese. I believe this service is addressing a matter of global importance because we're learning about and getting to know the struggles that people go through when faced with cancer and we aim to improve their day as much as we can by seeing them almost every week.

Drawing Club - 1

I went to my first drawing club session. I'm doing for the creativity component of CAS. I also want to increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and develop my drawing skills which are lacking. As a small group, we decided on what to draw by using just our imagination and afterwards, we tried drawing the same thing but with an image as guidance. The first class was interesting because it reminded me of how bad my drawing skills are. This has only motivated me to persevere with the activity and improve as much as I can.

Goals For 2014

My first goal for the year is to improve upon my basketball skills and ultimately try out for the SAISA boys basketball team. Playing basketball in a team will improve my collaboration skills and I intend on showing perseverance and commitment in this activity by coming to every training session.
This time around I'm going to increase the awareness of areas of growth through practice.

I've joined a service activity called "Hope For Kids" that involves visiting children with cancer to talk to and entertain them. In this service, I want to plan and initiate activities. This could be seen as a matter of global importance because we're spending time with children that are in unfortunate circumstances and we aim to make it better for them.

The last after-school activity that I've joined is called "Drawing Club" and it's a good opportunity for me to increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth. I'm pretty bad at drawing despite Visual Arts being one of my classes so I hope to develop new skills and improve them.

The Final Reflection for 2014

In this year, I've fulfilled a few of the goals that I set for myself. My first goal was to take lessons and learn a new instrument. I took piano lessons every week for 3 months and was able to learn how to play. I wanted to try something new and was successful in doing so. The other creative goal that I was striving for was to raise enough money to fund an activity with kids from less fortunate backgrounds. With the co-operation and teamwork of my service group, we were able to do so. I believe this is a matter of global importance; interacting with and helping those that are less fortunate.

My action goal was to develop my skills in basketball. I also wanted to improve and maintain my skills. The biggest goal regarding basketball though was to make the SAISA basketball team and win the tournament. Although we didn't win the tournament, I was able to achieve my goal of making the team and representing the school.

Being part of the Gecko Inc. service group has definitely helped me improve my collaboration skills due to having to work together effectively and efficiently to keep operations and events running smoothly. Taking on these activities has helped me become better at organizing and carrying out activities on a large scale.

Gecko Inc! - Meeting the kids

Yesterday, my service group and I met up with the children from a local school. It was great to finally see the group interacting with the kids instead of spending most of the time planning. There were 25 kids ranging around the age of 5 to 9-years-old. We introduced ourselves and began with a fun activity to get them comfortable with us. We all grabbed the edges of a multi-coloured paruachute and ran under it when a corresponding colour was called out. They seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it!

The second activity that followed up the parachuting was quite successful. We thought we'd try a spot of ULTIMATE FRISBEE. This was another hit with the kids and we had bucket fulls of fun.

To end the day off, we gave the children drinks to cool off and pizza.

This was a matter of global importance because we are helping and interacting with kids from less fortunate backgrounds.

                                           
                                          Posing for the camera

                                          My designated Ultimate Frisbee bro

SAISA Day 1

March 11th marked the beginning of the Boys Basketball SAISA tournament. The day commenced at around 3:30 in the morning on a Tuesday. I felt like dropping dead from sleep deprivation.

The basketball team met up at the school at 4:00 and we set off for the airport with determination and fire in our hearts!

Getting through to our flight was surprisingly painless and easy. It was a reasonably short flight; most of the team just slept through it. Upon arriving at Bangladesh, Dhaka, there were noticeable differences when compared to Sri Lanka. Dhaka was clearly not as developed as Sri Lanka. There was rubbish littered on the streets, beggars everywhere and 

Basketball Training - So Intense

Basketball training's difficulty has increased exponentially. This is due to the fact that we're learning and practicing a new motion offense. We call it 'THE THUNDER'.
It takes some time to get a hang of but once perfected, it'll become a powerful tool that can be utilized to decimate our opponents. It requires a good deal of teamwork and co-ordination. The training sessions are always something to look forward to because of all the work and effort the members of the team put into every session. Here are a few wise words from a fellow member. "The overall standards of the team effort that has been displayed...by the team, is outstanding." - Kevin Fernando

Surface Embellishment - An Untold Tale

I had yet another wonderful experience in Surface Embellishment today. We've moved on from fooling around with vegetables and patterns and have commenced a new chapter in this increasingly intriguing story. We're learning how to stitch shapes into cloth such as rolling hills and clouds. So actually we haven't really progressed from patterns. I have learned the stitching technique called the cross stitch and have utilized it with great efficiency during my stitching endeavors. Another successful day of embellishing surfaces!

Basketball update

On Tuesday we played against a school called Gateway - It was a great game and we were evenly matched. Towards the second half of the game we started to gain a bigger lead. Must be our superior stamina!
The end results were 69-57 in our favour.

Basketball Team

I made the basketball team and I'll be travelling to Dhaka, Bangladesh for the SAISA tournament. Great.

I also have an after school game today against the school that has cancelled on us twice in a row. Will they back out? Find out next time on Jack's Blog.

Gecko Inc. Local School Update

Sadly, the students from the local school didn't end up coming to OSC for unknown reasons.
But here is a picture of me at playing football with the kids.

WWW picture

Information is soon to come

Surface Embellishment

On Mondays as part of the after school activity curriculum, I am involved in a CREATIVE activity called Surface Embellishment. It's basically art club. The first lesson involved cutting vegetables in half (let's say a potato for visual purposes) and cutting out patterns in the vegetable. We then dipped the flat side of the vegetable with the pattern into some paint and placed it onto a piece of fresh A4 paper. This was truly an exhilarating moment in my life.

The pattern that would emerge onto the paper that once remained blank was absolutely astonishing.

The second lesson was basically the first lesson EXCEPT this time we didn't use vegetables. Oh no, we surpassed that level of skill a lesson ago. This time we used things like leaves and.... well vegetables again.

It was yet another great experience logged into my memory. 

More to come...

Gecko Inc. Local School

In Gecko Inc so far, we have visited the local school twice to develop collaboration skills through common ground - playing cricket and football. We're interacting with kids from a very different background from ours without the use of verbal language, but body language. I believe it was successful because everyone took part in the activity despite the language barrier and overall it was an enjoyable experience.

Tomorrow they will be visiting our school for a change. I'll keep you updated on what transpires...

Week Without Walls - Coast to Coast Goals

My goals are as follows:

To develop my collaboration skills by being involved in an activity with other people and working with younger students from another school.
To persevere during the trip and carry on cycling instead of taking the easy way out and going on the bus.
To interact with children from an entirely different background from me and learn from them too.
To strengthen my cycling ability and challenge myself by partaking in an activity that I'm not particularly familiar with.

Basketball Training

I've enlisted myself into Basketball training that are held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and an after school activity called "Fun" Basketball that is on Wednesday afternoons. So far we've had two training sessions and the team have played three games against other schools at the British School of Colombo. Unfortunately we lost all the games but we've only had two training sessions as a team; lots of room for improvement.