Christmas Decorations

Before holidays my classmates and I decorated the doors in our school to help spread the holiday spirit. We agreed on the designs we were going to do and then gathered one day after school to work on them.

Because there were a lot of us willing to participate we decided to decorate two doors insted of one. We decorated TB1's homeroom teacher's door and TB's coordinator's door.

Needless to say we had a lot of fun together and while working started to feel the holiday spirit.
Here are the final results.

Not only was the work in groups fun, but also we needed a lot of creativity for figuring out the designs we wanted to do and how to actually create them in real life (the ideas looked a bit easier on paper).
 

Choir

One of my classmates, Živilė, proposed an idea of creating a choir. She and a couple others organised the activity and a lot of us happilly joined in. We started out slowly, rehersing a couple of Christmas songs and then we started preparing for a charitable event our school holds in winter- the Pies' Day.

We started meeting up during lunch break's and after lessons, according to our vocals and had a joint practise on Fridays after school.

It was challenging to adapt to everybody's schedule and work efficiently, under the supervision of our own classmate, but this aspect helped us learn the necessary respect and order to produce presentable results. We worked intensely on the songs we wanted to prepare for about two to three weeks before the event and finally were able to perform.

A picture from our rehersals:

And a picture from our performance at the Pies' Day event:

The choir is not a finished activity, as we are going to continue rehersing and are already planning the songs we want to sing next.

The experience I have had so far in the choir is very valuable in the sense of learning how to work with a team. As I mentioned before, I do prefer individual activities and this is exactly why I found that I have gained a lot from working together with my classmates to create this. I understood how much effort it takes to work on something together, especially when it is more than just a one time thing.

It also showed me how important it is to keep on doing something. It was probably the most challenging thing for Živilė to keep everyone motivated to come to the rehersals and try as hard as we can. However, the result of the effort we put in was satisfying enough to help me realise that continuing this activity was worth it.

Antakalnis graveyard

On 23rd October, 2013 our CAS coordinator organised an event of helping to prepare the Antakalnis graveyard for the nearing All Souls' Day. We were divided into groups (about a three to four people per group) and given an area to clean. We were supposed to rake the leaves and make the area we were responsible for look neat.

The activity was very useful for improving my teamwork skills, as well as understanding how much work actually goes  into keeping public spaces clean and neat in our city (not to mention that usually the number of people working on certain area is quite a lot smaller).

"Maisto bankas"

On 2013-10-19 I participated in "Maisto bankas" action. "Maisto bankas" is a charitable organisation, which colects food from people willing to donate and gives it to the ones who truly need it. I volunteered in one of the Vilnius' supermarkets and had the job of distributing the flyers and inviting people to participate and also collecting the food from those who donated.

It was a very interesting experience as it was my first time doing something similar. I learned not only how good it feels to participate in a charitable event, but also how enjoyable the interaction with people actually is. I usually prefer individual work and solitary activities, because I do not feel comfortable interacting with people I do not know well. This event helped me step out of my comfort zone and see how willing some people are to actually talk and that approaching people is not as hard as I thought it was.

I also understood how hard it must be to ask for help for those who need it. Not only did I got the chance to think about the people who do not have enough to buy food for whom the food was being collected, but also listening to some of the people's reactions to the flyers and some of the stories they shared, made me understand that there is a lot of those who need help and who struggle all around me.

Overall, the activity was a challenge for me as I did not know what to expect, but I think that I dealt with it well and that what I have gained from it was well worth it.

The Introduction

My name is Gabrielė Žalaitė and this is the first entry to my CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) blog. In this blog I will be describing my experiences with CAS activities and what I have learned from or during them. The main aim of this blog is to reflect upon what I have gained from various kinds of activities that CAS part of the IB diploma programme motivated me to participate in.

I also aim to meet the expected outcomes of CAS activities stated in official CAS handbook:

• Increase my awareness of your own strengths and areas for growth.

• Undertake new challenges.

• Plan and initiate activities.

• Work collaboratively with others.

• Show perseverance and commitment in my activities.

• Engage with issues of global importance.

• Consider the ethical implications of my actions.

• Develop new skills. 

I  hope that by the end of the programme I can say that my experience with CAS was useful and that I have achieved all of these aims.