The First Day Back

The first day back at school, but there is no time to waste, the IB starts today and that means a very tough two years ahead of us - the new year 12 group. After a brief speech from our headmaster we went straight to our activities, which aimed at improving our teamwork and, in point of view, succeeded in it's primary task. It all started from planning and building a tower from a very limited supply of straws and paper and it enabled us to attempt to work collaboratively with others, putting together our ideas and executing together. Although it might seem slightly childish it allows us to both develop new skills and the undertaking of new challenges, the activity itself was fun, it is a shame it was limited to only ten minutes. As we went along the different activities prepared for us by the elders in year 13, we noticed that activities prepared were continuing to get more and more challenging, until we reached the point where we were blind folded and told to work as a team by communicating in order to make different geometric shapes using the five metre rope given. This was a challenging activity, but a very interesting one, I now understand that many objectives may not be reached when working alone, but may become easy tasks if working with others. Another activity that I found interesting was to protect an egg, which is thrown from a three metre height by only using the materials provided. Sadly we failed to protect the egg in the end, but no worries, since now we know that our strategy was not so good as it seemed and maybe, if we get another chance, we will use our previous experience.
The main activity of the day was the kite building activity, where we again demonstrated our teamwork as we worked in groups of three in order to make an actual flying model of a kite. At that moment we were given some light sticks as well as duck-tape, string and a plastic garbage bag and were set straight to work after some tips given by the year 13s. However our group decided to make a small risk, the kite was meant to be a cross, but we made it into a diamond shape with a cross inside it, we increased the mass of the kite and were now afraid that it would not lift off the ground. Throughout the one hour period given we were able to construct a kite and after a break we actually got to fly then out on a plain. There was not much wind that day, therefore we could no lift our kites into the air, although we were happy to see that the kite, after several failed attempts (some of which were quite close to getting the kite up and flying), still held in one piece. We were glad to take part in this activity, the whole group seemed to felt very happy, since we spent the day on activities, learning about CAS through actions, instead of never ending lectures. I learned that even kite-making could actually be turned into activities that could help other children and people in general. Anyone can take any experience from their life and turn it to a service to help others.
In just one day I have undertaken some new challenges and definitely developed a new skill - kite-buiding, something I have never done. I believe I did show commitment in the activities, however I might need to learn to work a bit more collaboratively. I hope to go on to plan my own activities and execute them fairly soon.