Mrs. Peterson CAS- Projector Help

Helping take inventory on the school's projectors for Mrs. Peterson was a job requiring organization and teamwork. This activity ran a span of two days, making the organization part essential to completely the job, and I learned that it was important to make preparations for tasks ahead of time in order to successfully accomplish it, not only on time, but efficiently and to the best of your ability. Teamwork played a major role as well and this was another essential part to getting the job done in decent amount of time and well. While one person read off the numbers on the projectors atop a ladder, the other held the ladder and marked off the numbers. I read off the numbers, and this provided some difficulty at first due to my fear of heights that have somewhat held me back most of my life. In order to finish this task though I made it my priority to overcome the fear and climb the ladder swiftly. By the end of the activity I had learned a lot about the projector, how it works and also, how delicate they are. With this knowledge of projectors, I hope to incorporate it into my future career somehow in the movie business, because a projector is the main machine used in movie theaters and I feel it essential that I know how it works because before DVDs and video sets there were reels on projectors. By knowing even little things about projectors I can be a little more self aware in the future about the mechanics and usefulness of them. This activity helped me learn about organization and putting aside dates to get jobs done as well as teamwork, which I learned can make the difference between a 5 day task and a 2 day one. This activity also helped a little with my future, giving me some knowledge of an important tool in film.

Potato Dinner

This activity is actually something new to me. Im no stranger to bake sales which consist of baking your goods ahead of time and wrapping them up for people to go while they walk by, but open house dinners at local churches have an entirely different system to them. I was assigned a specific job of serving coffee and running back between the food lines re-stocking the soda and helping to serve desserts. This job helped me learn about structure and having a specific duty so as to be part of a whole. Every helper at the dinner had their own specifics jobs all helping the others jobs in some way, building a foundation. I re-stocked the soda while another distributed it out to the people. Id serve coffee and the helper next to me would offer desserts, a specific order about doing things that in the end resulted in lots of people having free food and getting together to to just chat. The event held in order to help people meet new people, over a nice free dinner, and even as a helper I met new people and the whole event brought the group together. So as well as learning about structure and specific duties to perform I also learned a little more about team work, and feeling like part of a bigger picture, as opposed to the bake sale, which was for a foreign country, this activity was for the locals of Cape Cod, my own country.

Bake Sale Journal #1

This activity took place for only three hours but was well worth it in the end. People donated money to Haiti through 20 dollar bills even, just for a 50 cent brownie or cookie. This helped showed me how committed people were to helping others in need. It also showed who didnt care, since some people just laughed and walked away. The temperature was vvery low and I spent most of the time shivering however in my opinion it was necesary because I was helping a country that was probably feeling a lot worse. For the bake sale I made a variety of cup cakes ranging from lemon poppy seed to double chocolate chip and all baked goods sold for 50 cents. Baking the goods was relatively easy and I was driven more by the urge to contribute to this event in order to help the earthquake victims and actually selling them took even more concentration because in order for people to donate you have to show that you yourself are interested in the cause you are selling for. This activity proved to be very helpful to me because first of all it helped me with my organization skills, teaching me how to plan ahead and bake the goods as well as group together with others in a common area to sell the goods. Along with the organization I was able to feel important having helped donated a couple hundred dollars, possibly more, to a foriegn country in need. Overall I feel as if this activity was a success and it helped me feel like I was part of a bigger picture.

An image of the Adopt a Soldier box for collecting supplies. This is one of two boxes, one for each main entrance of the school. The box contains a detailed list of needed items as well as who is sponsoring the drive. Was made from an alcohol box and construction paper. I used bright colors so as to attract the eyes of passerby's so that more items can be received.

CAS Journal #5-Meditation

Ive now completed a second session of meditation and this time less people came, not sure if that was because they didn't like it or if they just couldn't do it, no matter the reason I plan on sticking with it since the first session had a great effect on me. This session was kind of a repeat since there were some new faces and so the instructors gave an overview of the hand gestures and body forms. My goal for the session was to work on my attention skills and drown out the sound of kids eating and the instructors talking. I found I wasnt as successful in this as I would like to have been but its just prove that more practice is needed. I underwent another fifteen minute meditation session and after wards I realized I had the same great feeling as last time. The trick is not to focus too much on the scene you create in your head, in my case I dont focus on what the trees on my beach look like or how light out it is because that can cause you to get carried away with thoughts and lose concentration so instead I focus solely on the water which blocks out all other thoughts until the only thing I can hear is the water and the silence of my own head. I felt I wasnt worrying about how I was getting home today or how I was going to complete my homework since I had a meeting tonight and other such thoughts that usually do nothing but annoy me and make me cranky. This also helped with the anxiety over driving and how I was going to do my driving hours next week, this had been clouding my mind all vacation and was now interfering with my school work so by drowning out the worries and focusing on my beach I realized that everything would work itself out and that the important thing is that I focus on things one day at a time, the driving is next week and so when it comes to time to drive Ill just up and do it. This club is really helping with my coping skills and Im actually finding myself excited for the upcoming class, its a little break from all the high school drama and work and it always ends in me feeling renewed.

CAS journal #4-Meditation

With the completion of the first meditation club session my realizations were correct. Not only was it a calm environment with peers I knew quite well but the instructors, two guys with a great sense of humor added to the good mood. They talked about "Zen", a form of meditation that they were undergoing classes for, meditation itself is very diverse and different people prefer to do different ways depending on its use. For Zen a simple sit down is all that is required. I was taught different ways of holding my hands and body gestures that would help with concentration as well as breathing techniques that consisted of breathing in and out of the nose as if I was pushing the thoughts out of my head. When the meditation started I decided on a beach setting where as I breathed in the waves would wash over me and as I breathed out they would recede. I found this to be quite effective and before I knew it lunch was over. I went on to my next class calm and happy, even though this class takes place only twice a week I think its going to be a nice break in the middle of the day and week. And now that I had actually completed a session I could reflect on how its going to help and what things I can do to improve this skill. During this first class I found I could meditate for about fifteen minutes, not bad for starters Im guessing but ive decided that outside of these sessions im going to practice to improve my endurance and the amount of time and can successfully meditate without any interruptions. Im very satisfied with this club so far and I feel as if its going to do wonders for my attitude.

CAS Journal Entry #3

For a third activity I plan on joining the meditation club. When deciding on CAS activities I found myself being very picky on what activities I wanted to do, mostly because I wanted something that could overlap into my personal life and have a positive effect on my life. When meditation club was mentioned to me I immediately realized that this could be an activity that would help with the stress dished out in the IB. As a firm believer in Buddhism I already knew the basics of meditation but wanted to expand more and actually learn something more about it. This club seems like the perfect way to learn how to meditate properly and with a skill like this I can not only use it to help me relax before or after a major test or assignment but I can pass it along to someone else possibly. In a school program where intense work is frequent a skill such as meditation can become extremely useful, allowing for time where no thoughts enter the mind and calm, tranquil breathing is the only thing heard. I strongly believe this club will have a positive effect on me and that with it I will be able to survive the next year and a half of IB and even continue to use it in college to overcome the next level of pressure. I can take meditation with me for the rest of my life and with it can learn to cope with difficult situations without overreacting or losing my mind.