Toria's CAS Portfolio

Welcome to my CAS portfolio blog where I will update and reflect on the projects that I will participated or ran over the course of my 2 years in the International Baccalaureate (IB).

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In 2011 my brother and his best friend were eager to start up a club at school. They were unsure where to start and what to do. Needing a little help in organizing the club and how to teach the students they asked me. I became an inaugural member helping develop the lessons and expanding class sizes.

Bliss4Youth began as an English teaching club for underprivileged local Vietnamese children. Last year we had a new focus on my school’s staff’s children. It is run by students for students. We teach for 2 hours every Saturday and spend an hour on classroom prep each week.

Through teaching each week, I’ve learned how to manage a classroom, keep people engaged while I speak, and how wonderful it is to see people learn new things. One of the most rewarding parts of teaching English is when the students use a turn of phrase in their speech that they have recently been taught.

We determine a theme and each teacher has a cohort of students who are split up by levels. We then play games, read books, and write stories in order to improve the overall English levels. I am currently Co-President of Bliss4Youth.

If you are interested in anymore information you can find us on Facebook at:

Bliss4Youth : https://www.facebook.com/Bliss4Youth/?fref=ts

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Basketball started out like a foreign language to me, I didn’t understand how plays were supposed to run, how to defend another player, and I always looked like a deer in the headlights when I played.

My freshman year in high school I made the JV basketball team, I began to develop basic skills such as dribbling, the formal technique of shooting, and slight positioning. Then due to reasons undenounced to me I made the Varsity basketball team my sophomore and junior year. This was though, I was playing with girls who had a stronger grasp of the game than I did. However this didn’t stop me it inspired me come to practice every day with the incentive to work harder.

Fortunately it also meant that every practice was captivating because I was always learning something new. I learnt plays, new drills, and enhanced my technique. Though I still sometimes get overwhelmed during games I was able to master practice time. I will continue to strive to work hard in order to reach my goals.

In my junior year I made it on to the tournament team and although the odds were against us as we were the shortest team there, we ended up becoming MRISA champions.

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SSIS has a charter for National Honor Society (NHS). Just in the United States we are a selective admission club, and entrance is determined by an application process. It is an organization based on the four pillars, Scholarship, Leadership, Character, and Service. All our club activities strive to fulfill and honor our pillars.

I am currently the President of our schools charter and I am proud to say that we have beautified our school and created a more tight-knit community. We hold quarterly Tedx Talks, given by both students and teachers, and we are the go-to group when anyone in school needs some extra help. For instance we provide student volunteers at back to school night, graduation, and the eight to ninth grade transition day.

Once you reach sophomore year you are eligible to apply into NHS, and that was the year that was when I was initiated. I have been in awe of the aptitude of the club ever since. We share a common goal of striving to do more, and with my go-getter attitude I fit right in.

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Through this sport I have learned what it means to be a part of a team, over the course of the four these girl have become a family to me. In freshman year I played and trained on the varsity volleyball team (top 12), meeting upperclassmen which allowed me to be more confident in school because I became someone other than my siblings’ little sister. Making the tournament team (top 10) my sophomore year, I traveled across the Mekong River region and participated in an annual tournament called Mekong River International School Association (MRISA). Where I met people from all over. As a senior I’ve come know some of them for years and know I will stay in touch for years to come.

The tournaments rotate amongst schools. The hosting school is responsible for housing student during the tournament weekend; due to this I’ve learnt to adapt and it also provided me with an inside view on different cultures. Not only did the tournaments improve my volleyball skills but they made me more flexible and well-rounded. As an added treat I have been able to enjoy a variety of interesting cuisines.

I was elected Captain my senior year. During which we achieve the status of city champions and became a great team. The latest MRISA which was a week ago was held at my school, our first day (Friday) ran quite rough. The team was not playing to the best of our ability, so we held and mini meeting before the last game on Friday and decided that every time we lost a point we were going to share the pain. In order to do this we would huddle together and say the weirdest thing we could think of, one of the words said was “poopytinkle”. This boost of positive energy got us through the rest of the tournament. From then on we gave our best effort and reached third place. I was also awarded Most Valuable Player by my coach, which was the cherry on top of my final tournament.

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Volleyball Update Senior Year

I’m back, this year I was selected to be my teams Captain.

 My goal this year was to improve my spike.I did this by breaking apart my individual weaknesses. Our coach filmed us as we hit, at the start of my season my timing, footwork and placing was all wrong. However, as the season continued I perfected my footwork of course with every set adjustments have to be made and I ever was able to put the proper spin on my ball and angle it downwards. I have done so much more than I thought I’d be able to accomplish. 

We only have a couple more weeks in the season, hopefully we do well in our tournament on Thursday “Can we be the best in Saigon?”. And then continue to bring that fierce attitude in both our MRISA tournament and the tournament against RMIT.  

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Bliss4Youth videos by Rom

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My team went to a tournament, being the shortest team there with an average height of 5 feet 3 inches our determination pulled us through to the finals. We ended up winning the finals and became MRISA champions. 

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Saigon South English Camp

March 11 (Wed):

 In the High School Gymnasium we had our first meeting, which was basically an introduce yourself meeting. We played ice breaker challenges and then were introduced to our mission for this summer. We began drafting our Curriculum for the two weeks away by electing which part of the course we would be in charge of.

March 28 (Sat): 

The school councilor and English training facilitator in the elementary they both came in and gave presentations about how to manage your classroom. One of the skills we learned was “turn & talk” where the students find a partner and discuss the matter at hand.

April 8 (Wed):

We had a curriculum day today, we worked on power points, organized classes, and planned activities in preparation for our 2 weeks at camp. I took charge of the English curriculum; we split up the group work and got down to all the nitty gritty details of the classroom.

April 25 (Sat): 

Running through mock classroom trials we found new areas for improvement.

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Saigon South English Camp

Introduction to the Project:

Saigon South English Camp was founded by Philip Tsien, Stephanie Tai, Alex Sylte, David Lo, and more. I was one of many elected to apply for volunteering at the camp. After I applied I was given a main teacher position, my main course is English. Through out the 2 weeks during the summer June 20th to July 6th I will be teaching English and PE classes to a variety of local Vietnamese students. Our aim of the camp is to immerse the children in English and to get them to practice as much as possible.

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Bliss4Youth

Reflection: 

March 28th:

 We had to leave our old classroom and move to our school Saigon South International School. This allowed us to directly impact our community as we teach our school maintenance and cleaning staff’s children. Theme of the day was to introduce ourselves and get to know the new class. 

April 4th:  Our Second day teaching at our new location. The theme we taught was Sports, as usual the day was split two games and learning. Our goal was to promote the use of vocabulary around sports. Changing settings and children has set us back in our past advancement. 

April 11th: Our third week at SSIS, today’s theme was body parts. Of course we sang the classics “head, shoulders, knees, and toes”.  The kids sang along and we had a blast.

April 18th: CANCELED: This week was canceled because we had family fun day at school.

May 2nd: Spring was the theme of the book, we reviewed spring like vocabulary. Read books, colored rabbits, and more. 

May 9th: We split the classroom into three groups so each child would have more specific attention based on their skill levels. The more advanced group practiced weather, the vocabulary covered; clouds, storm, thunder. While the beginners group reviewed body parts by the end of the day the whole group could name at least 15 body parts. Our youngest member could count to 10 by the end of the day and even introduce himself. We are hoping to get him to 30 words next week.

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Self Evaluation Volleyball 2014 -2015

 Name: Toria Zimmermann

Activity: Varsity Volleyball

Description: From August 18 to November 13 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m, volleyball practice took place. We participated in tournaments, trained new/old skills, and learned new plays. My project in volleyball was to increase my overhand serving percentage. 

To what extent have you developed each of the following attitudes as a consequence of this activity? No, Little, Yes, Very much: Inquirer - Yes,     Knowledgeable - No,     Thinker - Little,      Communicator - Very much,     Principled - Yes,    Open-minded - Little,   Caring - Yes,     Risk-taker - Yes,   Balanced - Very much,     Reflective - Little

Your expectation for the project and its results: My expectation for the project was to improve my individual skills in volleyball, primarily by increasing my overhand serve percentage. At the start of the season I was at around 30% but by the end I reached 80% making over half my serves. 

Did you encounter any challenges? How did you cope with set-backs? What did you learn from them? I had to practice a myriad of different serving styles and build up my muscle tone in order to accomplish my goal. There were weeks where I simply was not able to serve over handed, but I kept trying added a bit more weights into my work out routine and practiced my form against the walls.

Your role, your expectations, your achievements: My role was a player on the team; participating in team rituals, balancing practice, school work, and working out, with the rest of my teammates. However, individually I made S.M.A.R.T goals. Which include, increasing my serving percentage and building my knowledge of moves and plays in volleyball. 

Would you propose this project to your fellow students as a valuable CAS experience?  Why or why not? Being apart of a team is always a valuable experience, you learn how to communicate with others while participating in something you love. On top of this I was able to build my personal strength in the sport. 

How does this project fit into the “Spirit of CAS?” This fit in the spirit of CAS, as it is an example of an action goal, a sporting activity working on building on my own techniques and skills.

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I was inducted to NHS in January 2014, in order to be eligible to for this induction we have to maintain a 3.3 gpa and monthly 4 hours of service out of the club.I was inducted to NHS in January 2014, in order to be eligible to for this induction we have to maintain a 3.3 gpa and monthly 4 hours of service out of the club. 

This year in NHS we have held a few tedx talks the latest being seniors providing underclassmen with tips and tricks to surviving highschool. 

Tonight February 2nd the new members will be inducted.

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Bliss 4 Youth

Since 2014 I have been an inaugural member of Bliss4Youth an English teaching club where each week we spend 4 hours on Saturday with around 20 local students improving and working on their English. Over the last 2 months we have celebrated a birthday and have thrown a Christmas celebration with money raised at our schools annual Charity Bazaar.

 - Click

HERE

for the official Bliss4Youth facebook page

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From August 18 to November 13 2014-  Varsity Volleyball

Over the duration of these few months, I participated in my schools varsity volleyball team. During which I gained friends and worked on my Volleyball skils. My CAS goal was an Action goal, specifically focused on overhand serving. Each practice we would serve 10 balls and I'd take that percentage as a way to measure my growth through out the course of the year. I achieved my goal by increasing my ability by 20%. My team and I ended up coming second in our City Championships and taking second place in our traveling tournament MRISA (Mekong River International Schools Association) which was held in Hanoi Vietnam.