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Charity Christmas Fair

Activity Title: Christmas Fair 2019

Date: End of December

Approximate number of hours: 15

Type of activity: Service, Creativity

Learning outcomes:

Planned and initiated activities

Worked collaboratively with others

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

This year the Fair of the birth of Christ was only 1 day. I was part of the feasting section of this celebration. Hence, me and the rest of the gang made cookies with approximately a million different cautions, due to allergies that some persons may possess.

Reflections:

It is safe to say that the cookie squad once again brought back the most revenue and contributed to most of the money being made for charity. The experience was excellent, but the second year students did most of the work while the first year people were slacking off and being very irresponsible, but that is expected of them.

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European Researchers’ Night 2019

Activity title: Volunteering at the Researchers’ Night

Date: 27th September 2019

Approximate number of hours: 20

Type of activity: Service, Creativity

Learning outcomes:

Planned and initiated activities

Worked collaboratively with others

Shown perseverance and commitment in

their activities

Last year I was a part of this event, and I expected nothing more this year, just a follow-up to the prior year, since I planned to be on Mikk’s team again. And I was, but Mikk came the last day only, and when they said that some guy named Viktor will be coordinating this year, I was like ‘’whomst'd've'ly'yaint'nt'ed'ies's'y'es? ''. But then we got to meet him and he turned out to be pretty cool and we had a great time.

Reflections:

This year definitely got me more tired than last year, because I didn’t do anything last year, but eat ice cream and roam the event, forwarding every problem to IB2 students. But, this time I suffered, and was on every single stand of my team, from fire to ice cream to dry ice, to buying spoons and groceries with Mikk and Vik. After the event, though, there was a party at 13th floor of a building, and that was definitely the best part of the whole volunteering process.

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Zmijanje embroidery

Approximate number of hours: 2.25 h

Type of activity: Creativity

Date: 18.02.2019.

Learning outcomes:

Undertake a new challenge

Identify my own strengths and develop areas for growth

On our regular Tuesday CAS class an older woman came and decided that we needed to know how to sew a zmijanian embroidery. The older woman and a younger student from Gimnazija taught us the sacred techniques of the deed that is called embroidery.

Reflections:

The activity is a lot of fun and requires the engagement of the sewer to the fullest and to some it’s calming. I am in that group of people. I started excellent and then I lost my patience and by that I lost the thread and then I lost the needle. These types of activities are very important, since they remind us of our culture and how we should not abandon it.

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Movement Workshop

Approximate number of hours: 45 minutes

Type of activity: Activity, Service

Date: 19.02.2019.

Learning outcomes:

Undertake a new challenge

Work collaboratively with others

On the day of Tuesday in the middle of February, a sample of my classmates and I have partaken in an activity constructed by the IB history teacher. The activity had my classmates and I dancing, moving and letting “sculptors” design positions for their fellow peers.

Reflections:

We participated in three events, the first one being by ourselves and the other two in pairs. The first event was a type of warm up and nothing interesting happened. The second event was the “sculpting” activity and my sculpture didn’t listen to me so the sculpture chose the way it was going to look. It’s safe to say I was a better sculpture since I listened to my sculptor. The last event was, in a way, a trust walk where we closed our eyes and let our partner direct us where to walk. It was a fun event and I hope something similar will be designed in the near future. Cheers!

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CAS Week

Approximate number of hours: 15

Type of activity: Creativity, Service

Date: 26th - 28th December 2018.

Learning outcomes:

Undertake a new challenge

Work collaboratively with others

Recognize the ethical implications of my actions

Identify my own strengths and develop areas for growth

Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

The last 3 days of the last week of the first semester of the school year is a week reserved for CAS week. In this week there’s a number of activities ranging from bake sales to movie nights. Everything is priced in small amounts in order to encourage students to buy products made be the IB students. All the money goes to charity and this year we collected a decent amount. All in all another thing in a line of great things that the IB studnets do.

Reflections:

This year was our first year on this event. I was placed on the bake sale stand and I sold the cakes and bakeries we made like a pro. We sold a solid amount of sweets. The best sweets were made by my friend Vuk, just kidding. My were the best, but I had some competition in Vera, but I showed persistence and at the end I prevailed. This was a fun week for us and we strengthen the friendship bond between us and made kids happy by donating the money that they so desperately need.

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Art Week

Approximate number of hours: 20

Type of activity: Creativity, Service

Date: 26th November - 1st December 2018.

Learning outcomes:

Worked collaboratively with others

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

Developed new skills

The week of art in Gimnazija is a special week that former students have begun 3 years ago. Teenagers from Banja Luka have fun watching and participating in 6 days full of art. For every evening there is a different theme, e.g. movie night, poet night... And the most important thing, and the reason why this event was even started , all the money that is collected goes to the excursion of the fellow students who are not in the best financial situation to pay for the full trip.

Reflections:

I was volunteering all 6 days except Friday. I was supposed to collect money from the people who entered, but of course I did much more. On the first evening I helped set the stage for the actors and with the rest of the volunteers cleaned the school after the event was over. I really had a great time this week, many of my friends were also volunteering so it’s safe to say it was fun, especially the last night. And up there I put some pictures, the last of which are with 2 Vavans.

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Science Festival

Approximate number of hours: 8

Type of activity: Creativity, Service

Date: 06.11.2018.

Learning outcomes:

Planned and initiated activities

Worked collaboratively with others

Developed new skills

Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

The Science Festival is an event that took place on the 6th of November in Banja Luka. My classmates from physics SL and I, as well as a couple of students from the math and IT curriculum participated in it. It’s an event very similar to the Researchers Night, but of a bit smaller magnitude. We only prepared 1 experiment, since we were to the day before we would be participating. Luckily for us the other students prepared a couple of more, so we had a good amount to illustrate to the public.

  Reflections:

Seeing we had only less then 8 hours to prepare, I think we did a pretty good job. We had a lot of fun with the Non-Newtonian fluid, even the professor couldn’t stop playing with it. The kids had a lot of fun and we were exhausted when the day had ended. All in all, we had great time and looking forward to doing it next year.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the IBDP Program

Approximate number of hours: 3 

Type of activity: Creativity

Date: 25.10.2018.

Learning outcomes:

Undertaken new challenges 

Planned and initiated activities 

Worked collaboratively with others

Developed new skills

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities 

On the day of Thursday 25th of October 2018, my fellow classmates and I had participated in celebrating 50 years of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program’s 50th birthday. We took part in representing a subject we have chosen (in my case I didn’t choose, rather I was switched to philosophy the day earlier because my classmate was sick and I had to fill in for her). We had spoken about why our subject is significant in further education and by doing that encouraging the viewers to apply for the said program. At the end of the presentation a few students did a little sketch, they had prepared earlier,  for the crowd.

Reflections:

This activity was very pleasing, especially the short sketch subsequently, it sparked quite a few laughs in the crowd and within us. We got to know each other a little better and had a delightful time doing it. Also, I spoke in front of a relatively sizable crowd and by doing that boosted my confidence. I’m looking forward to doing similar projects in the near future.

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Gym Training

Activity title: Gym Training

Activity duration: Long-term 

Approximate number of hours: 12h per week

Type of activity: Activity

Learning outcomes:

 Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.

Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

I’ve been training intensely for over 11 years now. Gym training I’ve started in April of 2017, because I had a lot of injuries whilst I played basketball and I wanted to stay in shape. In September I had to undergo surgery and to give up basketball for at least 3 years, so I decided to go to the gym almost every day.

Sports and gym training are a lot different. I still didn’t get used to complete strength training, since I was running and jumping for the past 11 years. This activity is challenging me every day to do better. I really enjoy exercise and it’s honestly an escape from reality and all the stress. It’s 2 hours a day I can relax and waste all the extra energy I get during the day.

Reflections:

This activity isn’t at all easy and it pushes me through and beyond my limits. Sometimes it gets really hard and challenging, but when I push through the pain it really makes me happy and satisfied. Not only that, it increases my mental and physical strength. I know I’m not stopping this activity any time soon. 

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European Researchers’ Night 2018

Activity title: Volunteering at the Researcher’s Night

Date: 26th - 28th September 2018

Approximate number of hours: 22

Type of activity: Service, Creativity

Learning outcomes:

Identified own strengths and developed areas for growth.

Demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developed new skills in the process.

Demonstrated the skills and recognized the benefits of working collaboratively

Showed commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences

Hello my dear readers,

From September 26th to September 28th I’ve been a part of The European Researchers’ Night as a volunteer and let me tell you it has been an amazing experience.What’s Researchers’ Night you ask? It is an occasion where young scientists get together to present their ideas and share their knowledge .In those 3 days I was a member of Mikk’s chemistry team. What’s re Every year this is one of the most crowded stands to been around. 

Only I, of the the whole team of 8 members, was selected to this team randomly and I’m very happy that this was the stand I was assigned for. Our supervisor placed a huge importance on safety. After all, we were a bunch of high schoolers handling liquid nitrogen, flamethrowers and dried ice. This was a marvelous event to be a part of even for a guy that doesn’t even like chemistry, like me. 

Reflection:

When this event ended I was exhausted but in a good way. This was one of those experiences that I was glad to give my time to. There wasn’t one experiment that we did that was boring. Every single one brought a smile on our faces, from shredding cabbage to lighting hands on fire and making ice cream from liquid nitrogen. To be honest, I was a little skeptical of applying for a volunteer at this event because I've never done these kinds of things before. But, after being a part of this year and seeing how wonderful this event actually is, I'll definitely be back here next year.