saturday english classes

2 saturdays ago at the convent, my sister was complaining that her group of children is lazy and doesnt learn anything. I am convinced that an intelligent student can learn from even the worst teacher with abit of motivation and initiative, but these children lack these two qualities and are rather lazy. In situations such as these, it is important that the teacher motivates the students and makes them want to learn. I do not think the reason my students are the best at english is because of me, i think it is because they WANT to improve and persevere untill they do so. When i told my sister this, she told me to take her group and to test them the next week on what i had taught them the previous week and she guaranteed that they would have forgotten.

So..i took her class. I told her what i had been teaching my students-how to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense, and told her to carry on with that. I went to her group and sure enough, they didnt know half of the letters of the alphabet. So as not to overwhelm them, i taught them a, b, c, A, B and C. This may seem simple but as they write in sinhalese and tamil, the characters are completely different and one cannot decipher the sound of an english character by linking the shape to a sinhalese/tamil one and that characters sound. Also, sinhalese and tamil are phonetic.

Last week i taught the children where to use capital letters as in sinhalese and tamil there is no such thing.

My goal is to teach them the whole alphabet and get them to start speaking enlgish more. By the end of the year i hope my group can write in sentences using verbs and my new group can immediately recognise a letter and which form it is in (capital or simple) when shown one. I also want them to be able to write a little.



Me helping them to read:

Piano exam

I have been revising for my piano exam-grade 3-at the end of the month and i think i will be ok. My piano teacher says i should score in the 90’s. I better, as the content is simple and i should be at a much higher level at my age. I will continue to study the musical terms but it think i have a solid grasp of the other concepts in the syllabus. This is the first theory exam i have taken in music. My goals are: to remain calm and think carefully during the exam. To write neatly and use a ruler at all times. To check my answers as i have plenty of time. To be completely prepared on the day. I really hope i do well!

Alzheimers walk

As i am the leader of Alzheimers, i was in charge making sure that all the people in the group turned up at the walk on the 25th of september. As it was a little last minute because the CAS activities in school started late, it was hectic and only 3 people out of the 12 in the group could make it. The purpose of the walk was to raise awareness about the disease my walking along one of Colombo’s busiest roads with music, balloons and banners. We also distributed leaflets to passersby and put them into the cars that were passing. As well as being fun, the walk was good exercise as it took two hours and most of us were jumping around and carrying signs that got heavy after a while! i think i have been commited to this elective the whole year and done as much as i can for it so i am happy that i was able to make it to this walk!
I did not stay for the raffle as i had to get home, but i was happy with the money that the group in school raised and the tickets they sold. Overall, the group in school made 15000 rupees in less than a week. I was very happy with that, although some people just bought the tickets themselves and didn’t attempt to spread awareness through the raffle tickets. I made around 4000 on my own as i asked for some books in july, so i was also satisfied with my personal contribution.
In the future, i would like more of the members of the group i school to participate and make more of an effort to commit to this cause as at the moment i feel as though some of them may be there to waste time after school and to say that they are in a CAS group, yet do nothing for that group. I need to help motivate them which is a skill i need to develop.

Me selling raffle tickets during the summer at majestic city shopping mall:

Daily Exercise

For about 2 weeks now i have been exercising on my own. I usually start at around 7.00 and finish at 8.00 pm. As i used to dance i remember the routines that we used to do in dance class, especially the warm ups. It is more like aerobics than it is like jazz (which the class was). One of my aims is to become more fit and also to not give up when im in physical pain. When i get tired and i get cramps, as much as i want to continue i usually stop. I need to stop doing this and work on my stamina.




Flexibility warm up:











High Kicks: streching, and preparation for windmill step.












'Flat back' exercise-strength:

CAS

Alzheimers:

This year i am the sole leader of the Alzheimers elective-my co-leader is not in the group as he is busy and i got a chance to improve in this as he often did the planning as he often did the talking in the meetings as he had experience being a leader when i had not. the main skill i needed to develop was to become more confident about myself and learn how to talk to an audience without being intimidated by them. Tho other skills i need to develop are being more organised and being responsible for the group as a whole. The first thing i did was to talk to the group about what we should do. Then i contacted the lady in charge and asked her what she expected of us. In an attempt to reconcile the two i shared the ideas in the group. Although it was last minute, she told me there we should sell raffle rickets for the annual raffle draw on the 25th. I didn’t realize how organised i would have to be and asked peopel to sell as many tickets as theyy could and return what tney sold. I soon discovered that i was all wrong and that each ticket had to be accounted for. I had returned booklets with tickets missing and some books had no names on them etc so i had to run around asking everyone to return what they had sold and what they had left. I learnt from this experience that i needed to develop my skills of co-ordination when doing things like this. However, i was pleased with the way i introduced the group to the task and spoke to the organisation itself about what they wanted done.

I attended the walk and saw some people there from the group. We all had fun and it was great exercise spreading awareness about the disease. I am pleased with my commitment to this elective. The next thing to do is to arrange a presentation and a visit to the home being built as i think the most important part is the 'hands on' contact stuff that shows people you care. It easy to give money but to go and spend time with them is more difficult.

ASA's

This term in school some after school activities have been introduced. On mondays i am attending choir practices and on friday Latin dancing.

I am continuing choir this year, however, i am the only person who was there last year so i have to adjust to the new range of pitches in the choir. I am the oldest person in the choir and i am not generally good at making friends with people significantly younger than i am as they tend to irritate me. I know that i need to have patience with them and that learning to get along with people of all ages is a skill i need to develop. once again, patience comes into it. It is extremely important that the people in choir get along as we all need to sing together and our voices will have to blend. However, i am happy that one of the older girls is not at all annoying and is mature so i do not feel all alone (maturity wise). We are learning the national anthem of sri lanka (o know it but the others need to learn it) and love changes everything, which is a song i really like. I am still and alto. we are planning on performing it at assembly when we feel we are ready as a choir.

Latin dancing is taught by my Spanish teacher, ms eva. She is from paraguay and loves dancing so it is alot of fun learning from her. Although i have done salsa briefly at school, i have never learnt latin dancing properly. We learn which exercises stretch which muscles and then practice routines to latin american music. I am happy that i have learnt a new style of dance and also that i am continuing dancing like i wanted to!

Reflection on Mannar Trip

The trip to Mannar opened my eyes to the suffering people are still enduring in war torn areas of the country. My mother took me with her to a health camp in the north to help. Around 50 people went all together.









Briefing. The man in charge told us what we would be doing for the next 3 days:













Mother (left) with Patients:












The job i did was not help out with a school as i was told but it did require the same skills.I had to direct patients to the correct rooms in a hospital where the doctors were treating them. This may seem like an insignificant job but there were more than a thousand people who came and i was on my feet for almost the whole day. I think i achieved my goals.
I was co-operative and helpful, listening to all the instructions i was given.
I did speak more sinhala than i usually do as alot of the people who came from colombo conversed in sinhala and i spoke to them in sinhala too.

I was also asked to help paint a mural type painting on the wall of the hospital as a symbol to the people of the area (Viduvaltivvu) that the people of the south do care about them and did come to the north to help the people there. I learnt how to blend and balance colours and i was happy with my contribution to the painting.










Me painting mural:













The finished mural:









The Painters:













As i was standing at the front of the hospital directing people to the correct rooms i spoke to some of the soldiers that were there to help. They were very young, maybe a few years older than me so it was hard for me to grasp how they could be so far away from home living in an army camp and doing all jobs they have to do.
I realised that in the south of the country, especially in colombo alot of people critisize the army and the role they play in the north, without having seen first hand what they do.

We also went to a school. It was a sad experience as the roof was broken and this would obviously disrupt lessons if it started to rain. On the way to the school we passed many shells-the remains of bombed houses. They had been destroyed and people had to move.






School Children:









The whole group:













We noticed that there were vast expanses of land on which there was nothing for miles around. People had to walk miles to get to the nearest commercial centres. Children had to walk miles to school. My mother suggested that i contact the man in charge of organising these trips and ask if we could raise money to buy some bicyles or ask people to donate old bicycles to these children so that they can get to school faster. Unfortunately, he did not reply to the email, so i will attempt to initiate the project on my own.