8 Learning Outcomes

The 8 learning outcomes represent the growth of a student through the CAS program and embody the goals of the IB. The creativity, action, and service projects that I have participated in have let me achieve each of the 8 objectives:
1. Increased their awareness of their strengths and areas for growth.
As the co-president of Computer Club (colloquially known as C-Squared) I feel that I have been able to become a more confident leader and have the ability to organize groups of people to reach a common goal. On the other hand, I have a feeling that I need to focus on my physical strengths, exemplified by my exhaustive efforts at Badminton that peaked at the end of the first year, but dwindled into the second. I feel that this is indicative of the awareness I have over my physical wellbeing and the need for constant work for it to be maintained.

2. Undertaken new challenges.
In the effort to distinguish myself in the service learning aspect of CAS, I joined GIN and discovered the intricacies of social problems in Bangladesh and around the world. As a part of the club I repeatedly found myself challenged by problems I had never personally faced before such as awareness raising and organizing an international film festival.

3. Planned and initiated activities.
As mentioned, I partook in the organizing of tasks and initiating activities such as a film festival, media coverage, and an awareness campaign. I also participated in a bevy of activities such as Habitat for Humanity builds, worked at booths at the Halloween carnival, international fair, and bake sales.

4. Worked collaboratively with others.
Collaborative working was a must in several of the clubs I was a part of, especially groups where teamwork is the foundation for efficient work such as Habitat for Humanity or GIN. In a different manner, C-Square also demands teamwork in the form of working in parallel and cooperatively to achieve a larger goal. Finally, Badminton can be played at a doubles game where teamwork is the fundamental strategy to win.

5. Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities.
As co-president of C-Squared, I’ve accepted a large share of responsibility for the projects that are assigned to us by various teachers and groups. I have persevered through several simultaneous jobs spanning numerous groups.

6. Engaged with issues of global importance.
GIN stands for Global Issues Network and has a relevance on a global scale (pretty much self-explanatory)

7. Considered the ethical implications of their actions.
In the process of taking photos, I have discovered that there are vast ethical implications of posting photos without prior approval of the persons in the photo. I have learnt to be conservative with the photos I take and submit to the yearbook and insert into slideshows. I have also learnt to be sensitive when being around the underprivileged orphans of The Forgotten Children.

8. Developed new skills
Over the course of the two years of CAS and the IB, I feel I have improved my skills through each of my creativity, action, and service groups. I have grown in my photography taking skills as well as my creativity in creating slideshows. I feel I have improved my badminton skills and my reflexes in general. Finally, I feel that service has let me grow as a person and my abilities to empathize.

CAS Blog - April 2011

This month was a pretty rigorous one for multimedia. For GIN, I, along with my peers, created a short video to entice students from AISD and abroad to create a video for a cause. Entitled "Reel Change" the video embodies the message and goal of our film festival competition: to spread awareness about situations we care about.
Secondly, throughout the DISA Cricket competition, I was able to take photos of our players. Although this wasn't a c-squared assignment, we thought it was an appropriate gesture to capture the performances of the other teams and share it with them over Facebook.
Thirdly, AISD Idol is a major event for the school where students may compete with their singing talent to win the role of Idol. This was an opportunity for us to showcase our media editing talents by hosting the media portion of the show. It included videos and pictures of the contestants as well as a small interview we conducted with each of them. The show was rounded up by a video synopsis as everyone voted. Finally, we began processing all the footage we captured in an attempt to create a DVD that could be distributed for the contestants' viewing pleasure (this project is still underway and will be completed after we, the seniors, have departed from the club)
This will be my last monthly post for CAS as I tie up all loose ends and activites as a conclusion to the IB program.

CAS Blog - February 2011

February has been a hectic month with several dozen things ticked off on my checklist I have difficulty remembering everything that has happened so far.
First and foremost was the very successful hosting of SAISA Soccer here at AISD thanks to the effort of the C-Squared group. We had arranged that as many matches as possible were photographed, videoed, and broadcasted live over the internet for other schools to watch. We even added a couple refining touches to the whole package by putting speakers on the field so that the athletes and audience could enjoy some music and listen to the commentary.
While overshadows by its international counterpart, DISA was also an important event where C-Squared found essential in the success of SAISA since it provided us a playing field upon which we could test out all the new equipment we received and test each member of the group for their strengths and weaknesses. I found myself particularly adept at taking photos (not a big surprise there since I love doing it!).
Finally, even though mock exams were shooting down a barrel aimed at me, I still managed to attend badminton club as I had promised to myself!

CAS Blog - January 2011

During the end of this month I was able to go to my first Habitat for Humanity build this year. After a strenuous day of work, together we counted that we had moved over a thousand bricks as a team. Pretty impressive considering that many, if not all of us, rarely do manual labor and are grossly out of shape. The whole experience brought the Habitat crew closer as a group but it also taught me that my physical health is very important and I pledged that I would dedicate myself more to Badminton Club which I had been sporadically attending. My goal for that club changed overnight from having the minimum 80% attendance to actively exercising my body. Until then I was not really as motivated as I could have been but sought out aid in the form of my friends who agreed to join badminton club.

CAS Blog - December 2010

As the end of the year approaches, more and more work needs to be done (think Extended Essay) as a result, the activities which I performed in December seem to be lacking severely. In addition to this, there were only 11 days of school in December hindering any major progression with and CAS activity before everyone left the country.
One notable activity was the creation of a presentation that summed up the whole first half of the sports-wise in the form of SAISA awards night. Here, C-Squared accumulated all the photos and videos taken over the past 6 months and condensed them into one slideshow. Believe me when I say that this took an immense amount of effort to accomplish but the experience left me more capable of doing similar projects in the future since I can learn from my mistakes and capitalize on the efficient techniques I picked up on. In retrospect, it will serve me well as I can expect to do a lot more presentations of this scope in the following half year.

CAS Blog - November 2010

The month of November had a lot of surprises in store. First of all, we (the C-Squared team) got to personally meet the visiting author, Taylor Mali after he performed for the whole school and the whole world thanks to the powers of internet technology and our dedicated team of videographers. We used a tool known as Ustream to broadcast a video feed to viewers worldwide.
Secondly, the DISA invitational boys basketball and the DISA invitational girls soccer provided our little team with double the photography workload.
Like October, November had a lot of free days and with the lack of school days came a lack of extra curricular activities. This month was mostly dedicated to the academics.

CAS Blog - October 2010

WOW! October has been a particularly odd month where we have a lot of things going on, especially event-wise. First of all, the month began with a class colors night on the 7th which served as an excellent opportunity for me to peruse my hobby of photography as well as aid the yearbook in obtaining a bevy of pictures.
Similarly, UN day also provided me with another opportunity to complete a couple photography jobs for Ms Kozara as she felt that it was still early in the year and her new yearbook staff still needed to become familiar with all the ropes of the production process and asked me to help out. I gladly obliged.
After a week-long break we returned to Dhaka only to begin preparations for the Halloween Carnival that was about to happen, all the service groups I was involved in had a booth: Habitat for Humanity, The Green Team, French Honor Society but I also worked at the senior class booth and continued with the 6 year old tradition of being a photographer at the carnival.
The hectic month ended with preparations for the visiting author, Taylor Mali, who C-Squared was assigned to record and broadcast.