Multicultural Christmas Lunch

This activity was created for the IB students to get together in a lunch break and celebrate the upcoming holidays. As it was holiday season, we were challenged to create a food that is traditional in our country in the season, whether it be for Christmas, which was my case, or any other festivity. From my spanish half, I decided to create Crema de Castañas (sweetened chestnut purée) as it is widely made in Spain as a desert for Christmas. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth whilst cooking the recipe and also undertaken new challenges as I had never made it myself before. I considered the ethical implications of my actions such as considering allergies people may have and made sure to write that it contained nuts to make sure no one that was allergic took it by accident. I developed new skills like caramelising and become involved in an international project as this activity opened up a diversity of cultures. By participating in this activity I became an inquirer, knowledgeable, a thinker, a communicator, principled, open-minded, caring, a risk-taker, balanced.

This was a challenge for me because I had never made the dish before. I had to peel a kilo of chestnuts which should be an activity for CAS alone because it took so much time and patience! Also, when I had made the purée, I realised that I had to figure out where to put it. I found some small Actimel bottles, and cut them to make small cups and put the puree in there where I could finally put the caramel on top and take it to school.

My aims were to create a delicious dish to represent Christmas in my culture and country to my peers and find out about my peers' cultures as well.

This activity was CREATIVITY because I made the recipe in my own way, not identical to the actual recipe, and also because I had to create a way to present the desert and make it look aesthetically pleasing at the same time. This is also SERVICE because I made it for other people to enjoy and to show them about my culture.

Overall this was a very fun activity. My dish was very successful and we all exchanged dishes and had a taste of our different cultures at Christmas. I managed to meet all of my aims and learning outcomes and fill my stomach with Christmas spirit as well as delicious food.

Model United Nations

In the evening of today my school held its first Model United Nations simulation, debating the worsening crisis in Syria. Some sixth form students were given the opportunity to act as delegates on the United Nations Security Council. They discussed issues concerning the conflict in Syria and its effects on bordering states as well as the situation of refugees. The delegates worked in teams with the people who did the research on the matter. I was in the team for the United States along with two other people for research, a teacher to guide us correctly, and the delegate. First we had to create a position paper to summarise the views and current position of America in the Syrian matter. After this, we simply needed to prepare for the meeting and think about creating resolutions that could be signed with other countries. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth in researching for the team and discussing the situation in Syria. This was a new challenge for me as I had never done anything similar to it before. I planned and initiated the different meetings and what was going to be said in them and worked collaboratively with others to do so. I attended all of the meetings and did a lot of research showing perseverance and commitment. The whole idea of the activity is to engage with issues of global importance which is what I did with all of the other participants. I have developed new skills in presentation and have become an inquirer, knowledgeable, a thinker, a communicator, open-minded, caring, balanced, reflective.

This was a challenge for me because it is different to all of the things which I have done. I find looking at things that are happening in the world very interesting so I think that helped me a lot with researching about the current situation of the area we were looking at. in addition it was challenging to work with the other countries to come to a mutually benefitial conclusion. 

My aims doing this activity were to experience how diplomacy and the UN works and how it may help to resolve international conflicts. In addition to this I wanted to understand what the limitations of diplomacy are and develop my personal qualities whilst taking part in something that is important worldwide.

MUN is Creativity because I had to work in a team to create a position paper and also to create resolutions which are possible to be signed with all of the necessary countries so that it is not vetoed (otherwise it will not be passed). MUN also fits into Skills, however, because I feel that I have been able to vastly improve my skills in research and writing for others about factual events and decisions.  

I think this was a very useful activity as it made me aware of the situation in Syria to a large extent. I enjoyed the process of creating the position paper and the requests to other countries with my team mates. Every one of our US meetings was a very lively and insightful interchange of ideas and opinions which broadened everyone's knowledge and minds to absorb other's ideas. I have met all of my learning outcomes and also my aims.   

Trip to the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery

On this day my peers and I went on a trip to Central London to see two of its greatest galleries: the Tate Modern, an art museum full of contemporary art from a range of  both modern and past artists which opens up doors to different ways of thinking about art and its possibilities, and the National Gallery which is comprised a lot more of traditional art. We walked to the National Gallery from the Tate Modern so I was able to see Southbank which I love because it is always filled with so much culture and character. By visiting the galleries I increased my awareness of current art and worked collaboratively with others to discuss and share our opinions about it. Art is usually trying to comment on aspect of society and we discussed about how it engaged with issues of global importance and considered the ethical implications it made. I developed my analytical skills and became an inquirer, a thinker, open-minded, balanced, reflective.

I find that it is always challenging to visit an art gallery, no matter how many times I have visited it previously. I think that there is always a different way for one to interpret art and that there are always new ideas which it can spark about it, whether it is by listening to other people's interpretations or because I have a change of perspective and different interpretation.

My aims for the visit were to manage to interpret art both in the way the artist thinks it should be interpreted, but also with my own interpretations and analysis. I also wanted to get inspiration for my own art projects and get a look at new art and the way in which different materials are used for different purposes. Throughout the visit I was also trying to extend my use of artistic vocabulary and extend my thinking process towards different art whilst looking at different techniques and concepts.

The visits were Creativity because I had to interpret art and analyse it, in the sense of how it makes me feel, my first reaction and its overall appearance so that I could manipulate the information that I gained and use it for my own work.

I really enjoyed the visit because I was very excited about going to these as I love looking at new art and seeing the different ways in which I can interpret it, and looking at older art to look at the past techniques and styles of art, and compare them together to see the change of thinking about art throughout time.  I managed to reach all of my aims, although I think that I would like to continue to look at extending my artistic vocabulary and looking at different techniques and concepts of art. I feel that all of these aims cannot ever be fully be reached, as with time they will always continue to develop. For example with the use of materials, there are always new materials appearing which artists use in different ways, so there is no telling really exactly how materials can be used and for which purposes.