Reflection: Student Council 2010-2011

During the speeches candidates always seem promising, and last year i thought i would be promising. Unfortunately when I finally got my hands on the job, it wasn't as easy as it seemed. Being treasurer wasn't just managing money, keeping count of the money transactions, but more than that. Being part of the council required brainstorming, constructing proposals through careful planning, organization and collaboration with others. All this tied together is what makes the purpose of a council. At first I thought it was just collecting money, and keeping it safe. At first it was easy, but once numbers got bigger and the money going in and out occurred more frequent, you start to lose track of things and you thought things were easy, and all of sudden you realize you really need to note down things, I learned a lot from my advisor dealing with money managing. Besides from this, the most important thing i learned is that always go through careful careful planning! Over the school year, we've had failures and mistakes in our projects which could have easily been avoided but are caused due to carelessness. Joining the student council was definitely a learning experience for me, although i may not have the honors to do it again next year because unelected, but these skills I've learn I can now use and can be handy to me in real life situations for the rest of life.

Reflection: Lower School Soccer Club

Overall, the lower school soccer club was a worthwhile activity, definitely did not waste any of my Saturday afternoons. In all honestly, after i agreed to be part of this, i was afraid to take on the commitment because i was afraid i would do bad. One big problem that I've always had is that it's hard for me to do anything that has no rules or guidelines, and in the soccer club, i was the "coach" i had to take initiative! The truth is, if you have no idea what you're doing, the kids know too! And they will start fooling around, ignoring you, doing their own thing. One thing that i learned to catch their attention is by putting up games, because kids are competitive and they don't like boring drills over and over, they just get bored and lose focus. Knowing the fact that they like competition, i also had to make teams and rules fair, or they would seriously seriously get frustrated and unhappy, and you DO NOT want a crying kid that will hate you SO MUCH. But luckily, when kids hate you, it's only momentarily.
The most enjoying part for me, was seeing kids with good sportsmanship, like little adults, shaking hands after a game, and helping up a fellow opponent, and most of all, watching them play hard on the field, no worries, no nothing, just pure soccer. And thats one thing that i think we, as teenagers and some adults should learn from kids, their innocence and ignorance, because sometimes its just better not worrying or caring so much.
The first few days at the club, i was still struggling how to get these kids attention, but once i got a hang of it, i enjoyed it, and when you really get the hang of it, you suddenly feel like a kid as well, just enjoying every moment, and being carefree. The truth is we will and always be forever young.
Lastly, i finally understand why they say the kids are our future, and potential to make the world a better place because their mind have not been influenced but has the capability to, so we should provide them with good influence and good education and thats what I've learned the most.

April 30th: Lower School Soccer Club

On the last day of April, after a stressful week and a tiring day, playing badminton from 8am to 3pm, i had my 4th appearance at the Lower school soccer club, in which somehow i was looking forward to the whole week, because i had such a fun time the last session. 3 days before the club, i asked mr.wyncoll, how can i get the kids to listen to me, when they're just fooling around doing their own thing? he told me, "kids love competition, so try to make some games, and they'll be more interested, also try to search up some drills to do, and encourage them more"(somewhere along those lines). So yesterday, i was assigned to the station, focusing on ball control, I let them do dribbling exercises, dribbling across cones and back. I let try it a few times, then i told them we're having a competition and i split them to two groups, the first group to finish dribbling through the cones win, but i realized the teams were unfair, the less skilled team didn't even bother to try, i didn't what to do next, but then the whistle blew shortly(thankfully), or else i would've felt bad, letting them do nothing. The next group came, they were 3 girls, around 1st grade, 2nd grade. So i changed the game, a little bit different, i said the three of them go against me! i do it 3 times while each of them just do it once, losers have to do sprints. But half way through, the whistle blew, so unfortunately, we had to end it. But the best part of the the club came, which were the games! My team had 4 kids, 2 boys 2 girls, and they're ALL VERY ATHLETIC. I put that in caps, because they were AMAZING. Before the game, we had a team huddle, i told them to spread around, and pass more, i had they're fastest player play defense, and told them defense is more important than offense, because kids normally have a misconception that scoring is more important. And so that was our game plan, and i told them that we should have a team name, and they came up with the "Chameleons" , and so "1,2,3, CHAMELEONS!" and the game began. Our team played really good offense and which us score a lot of points, no one was standing alone doing nothing, all of them contributed and they were running for the ball all the time. Our defense was unbelievable, when the other team gets the ball we all run back and play defense, we had a couple of big kicks that cleared our area. The highlight of the day was though, when the other team was open just a meter away from the goal, and shoots, Nicholas from grade 1, dashes to the ball and slide tackles the ball and denies it from the going in! That was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen, I barely even see that in professional soccer! At the end of the game, we finished with a 5-3 astonishing win! Jacob, a 2nd grader, who i am fairly close with because our basketball team had 2nd grade buddies that we spend lunches with and wrote to, i called him MVP, because he scored all 5 points for us, and he was happy and i can see that he was more motivated to play.
My thoughts at the end of the day was: ya, this was tiring after such a long and hot day, but it was worth it, this fun was good because it was guilt free, and we were helping while having fun at the same time. The best part of this club was working with the kids, because kids are so emotional(although they move on pretty fast), and they're simple and it gives me a break from my stressful high school, teenage life, I feel simple just like them. Joining this club is a double win for me, im giving and having fun at the same time. I look forward to the next session!

Boys Varsity Basketball: Reflection

This year's varsity basketball season impacted me a lot, because this season meant a lot to me. It was my time to finally come out of my shell, it was my time to show what I can do in this sport. Basketball has always been my favorite sport since in an elementary student. 2 years ago, during my 9th grade year, i was unfortunately unable to do sports, i missed my chance and last year i was cut right before isac. This year, to me, was the first time that i didn't feel out of place on the team. This forced me to learn faster because it was easier for me to execute what i can do. This season especially, i learned that being good at a sport like basketball, takes more than just simply trying hard in practice, because practice hours isn't enough if you want to excel, you must do conditioning on yourself, shoot a lot, watch basketball games to boost your basketball IQ. Being guard of the team wasn't easy work. Us guards took control of the team.

Our team this year, in my opinion, had the most potential compared to our teams in the past years. This year's team was really new, new teammates, new coach, and "new"bies. Last year's ISAC team had 5 seniors, which meant 5 new players had to take their spot(including myself). We were low in experienced players this year, so in the beginning of the season, a lot came to tryout, most of them were completely new in basketball, the ones who found interest in the sport and were eager to learn, stayed in the team. Our team learned and improved very quickly in just a span of around less than 2 months. We started from not even knowing where to stand during free throws, and not even knowing how to pass, dribble and do a simple layup, to becoming able to box-out, grab rebounds, break presses(even though not that well), and executing plays. On the first day of ISAC, we were all confident and excited to win some games! Our first game was with Brent Manila, a young team, but challenging, the first half went smooth, we executed our plays, and held their team down, but once we started getting turnovers in the second half, we let go, and let them take the win. The same thing happened throughout the our games. One thing i learned was that it was all up to ourselves and our mind set, because we knew we could do I already. But we weren't tough enough.
This ISAC meant a lot to me, it was my first basketball ISAC, the one where I've been striving for since grade 6. Before our team left for ISAC, many teachers came and greeted me good luck, and some of them asked me about my hip that was operated on just 2 years ago. I smiled and said, its all good, better than ever. This reminded me of the times when it happened, I was willing to give give up anything to be back in the court, when I came back to school, I would go watch the team practice in my crutches, i felt jealous of all those healthy people, i was eager to play, and that feeling came back to me, and i said to myself that I will play my heart out. After the first day was over in ISAC, i was extremely tired, and i passed on the bed, shivering, as soon as you know it, i was having a fever. Both me and my roommate, Adam, thought i was just too tired, and so thats what i told myself. This continued, until ISAC was over, only when i was playing my fever would go away, i thought it was maybe the adrenaline rush or something. At the end of the tournament, i realized little spots on my body and arm, I realized i got measles!!!

Although we lost, i was still proud of our team because we played clean and we respected every team. And even though losing to team we weren't suppose to lose, we still weren't sore losers, to me that was the most important, especially as an athlete, you have to respect yourself, your teammates, coaches, referees, and most importantly, your opponents.

Boys Varsity Basketball

Our basketball team is finally coming to the last stride. Our Baguio 10 Team has already been chosen, baguio this weekend and then isac 2 weeks after that! The season just keeps getting more and more exciting! Since the start, we've had 2 games, the first game we lost really badly and the second time we lost by around 10 which was much better, but for both games, i think we couldve done better. Our main problem is our turnover rate, in which we lost many points from. Our team needs to make better and sure passes, we lost position many times from bad passes. Our defense needs better communication and not defend smart, challenge shots. For both offense and defense, i think we need better court vision. About my personal progress, my jump shots have improved greatly, i just need to shoot more in games. I need to improve in my ball handling skills and have higher confidence bringing down the ball. My defense is decent, but I'd like to be more intimidating to the other team, and cause them turnovers.

Saturday Soccer Club

The Lower School soccer club has started since 3 weeks ago.. Watching these kids play reminded me of myself back in the days. I could totally relate what's going on with them, and see things about kids i never noticed when i was their age. One thing I've learned is that teaching takes a lot of patience, especially teaching kids. When playing sports with kids, keep in mind ONE THING, BE FAIR! I remembered as a kid, being fair was such a big thing to me, so it made sense to me seeing those kids taking the games so serious, even if they were just sitting around doing nothing, THEY WANT TO WIN! Mr.Wyncoll said something that i thought made a lot of sense, ENCOURAGE THEM at all times! Kids really appreciate encouragement, they want to know when they're doing good, and from knowing pushes them to keep doing what they're doing. The worst thing you can do is lose a kids confidence.

CAS Activity Proposal

This form must be submitted to and approved by the CAS Coordinator BEFORE you begin your work.

Full Name *
William Ou

Grade *
11
12

Activity Name *
Give your activity a title
Saturday LS Soccer Club

Activity Description *
Describe the activity you wish to undertake. Identify your role and responsibilities. If your activity is collaborative in nature, list down your collaborators.
This is sport is for Lower Schoolers to have more chances to play soccer and develop their skills. My role is warm-up the kids, lead them with drills, and ref their games. I have to collaborate with the kids and other coaches.

Activity Status *
Is this a new activity or an ongoing (started last school year) project?
New
Ongoing

Activity Core Value *
Which core value does your activity address? (Select all that apply.)
Creativity
Action
Service

Goals *
What is/are your personal goal/s for this activity? What do you hope to achieve?
My goal is to encourage the kids more to maximize their learning experience and have a good time on the field. I hope I can be a good role model to them and get to learn how to teach kids better.

Impact *
Who will benefit from this activity? How?
Both me and the lower school soccer players will benefit from this activity. It is a learning experience for me to interact with younger kids, coach them soccer, and learn to be a leader. The kids will benefit from meeting new friends from other classes and may develop their soccer skills and sportsmanship.

Timeline *
Where, how often, and for how long will the activity take place? (specific dates if possible)
Brent soccer field, every Saturday from 4-5:30pm, 2nd semester

Name of Supervisor *
Mr.Wyncoll

Supervisor's Organization *
Brent Subic

Supervisor's Information (if not from Brent Int'l. School Subic)
Contact Address, Email, Contact Number(s)


Student Agreement

I will commit to the activity at the above-stated time/s and given duration to the best of my ability. I understand that it is my responsibility to see this activity to its completion, and once approved, can only be cancelled through negotiation with the supervisor and the CAS Coordinator. (Click the SUBMIT button to signify your agreement.)