International Day

                 One of the most major festivals we have in our school is ‘international day’. International Day is a day when the students and parents from all over the world join and have fun together. We share the culture of our own countries, foods and we wear our national costumes. Also students perform their talents at the end of the day. Year 12&13 had to come up with some activities for year 7 to 11 and our team (Yoon-Joo, Soo-Min and me) decided to play a Korean well known game “al gga gi”.

           “al gga gi” is a game using stones. With stones and certain area marked, we don’t need anything else. Basically there are two different colours of stones (usually black and white or own special marks on them). Firstly players set their stones in front of them. When they are ready, they attack each other but one at the time. By only using the finger, player can bounce one of their stones once. And the game goes on till the last stone survives on the field and if stones fallout from the field, then it’s out.

           It was and is still a common game in Korea back in days because what we really need is few stones and a small area to play with it. So it doesn’t cost, and men and women of all age enjoyed playing. I thought all the students who came to play our game enjoyed our game and work collaboratively with others and plan and initiate activity.

          

Weather Club

           Our school has been running a ‘weather club’. By taking part in weather club, I developed skills of how to read the measures and engaged with issues of global importance of global warming, and increased awareness of strengths and areas of it. From last year’s reading, we have found that the average temperature was higher than the previous year and far less snow and rain. Also the range of the highest and the lowest temperature was narrower than the previous years. This year, I will keep participate in the weather club and as the IB student, I will pay more careful attention towards it.

Kim chi Making

          

‘Kim chi’ is a traditional fermented dish in Korea. ‘Kim chi’ is pickled cabbage, radish, cucumber, etc, with salt and seasoned spices of ginger, pepper, garlic. Then they are fermented in low temperature. Fermenting ‘Kim chi’ isn’t only the way of storing for a long time, but also creates several organic acids, so it becomes good fermented food. Kim chi is a source of various minerals and vitamins. And because there weren’t much fresh vegetables available in winter in the past, our ancestor found a way of storing them. So we make ‘Kim chi’ in autumn, ferment them throughout the winter and eat them. By making ‘Kim chi’ for my family this winter, I undertake new challenge to see the process of it making and not only watching but actually participated in the process. From the beginning of the process, it was hard to find the ingredients to make Kim-chi in Moscow. Fortunately, there were basic ingredients which we need to make the sauce, but some of additional ingredients were unable to find even in Korean supermarket. Because those we were missing were additional ingredients, it wasn’t really big problem to miss them out. That was the first problem we faced. Next one was the length of time required to pickle the vegetables before we put sauces on them. We pickle the vegetables; before saucing with only salts and with the sauces. The first pickling is much more important because if we pickle them for too long, the vegetables will become too soft and it will be hard for us to pickle later on. So it was hard to manage the time but we managed it somehow. The last problem we come across was the ratio of the sauces. This one, I followed my mother’s recipe; pepper, salt, sugar, ginger, garlic, etc, and while we were making the sauces, we pickled the vegetable to save time.

Also I develop new skill of making them. I realised how many ingredients I need, to make a box of "Kim-chi"; ginger, pepper, garlic, cabbage, radish, cucumber, other spices to make the sauce. I also realised that before we start to put sauces on the cabbage, radish, cucumber, etc, we need to pickle them and put the sauces on and then pickle them again. It takes about a week to a month to be fermented and after that, we can eat it just the way it is or we can make lots of other dishes from it. 

Sports Day

On 15th of September, our school had a bit of fun day: “Sports day”. In sports day students are divided into groups of four, regardless of year groups and played 5 different games: football, basketball, volleyball, dodge ball and the relay. The whole school, even teachers, are divided into groups of four: Pushkin, Chekhov, Gogol and Tolstoy who are the famous writers in Russia. Students are encouraged to wear house colour and participate in their house with pride.

Although it was September, it was cold. However, as we started to move and exercise, we became warmer and we enjoyed the games more. I tried to work collaboratively with others, as the member of the team and participated in the dodge ball. Because my team was combination of year 12&13 and I was the only year 12 girl in that team, so there were bit of mis-communication going on between me other girls from year 13.However, we manaed it and won the game. After the day finished, I was exhausted but was proud of myself working with others and participated in the games for my team. Through this activity, I also made some new friends.

A reflection linking TOK to CAS - A visit to the children hospital

I never liked children. However there was one time when I actually enjoyed myself being with children. And that experience changed my mind. I had a chance to visit to the children’s hospital and do some volunteer work. It was quite a big challenge for me to set up my mind to go to children’s hospital and help because I didn’t like being with children.

My family volunteered to clean the windows in the hospital. Since we are in Russia and we couldn’t barely speak Russian at all, that was the only job we could do for them. There were some other people playing (talking) to the children. Because I was in hospital, all the children were injured. And when I was cleaning a window of a girl, even though we didn’t say a word, she gave me a smile which I was surprised. I still don’t know the exact reason why I was surprised but probably because I had not nice ideas about children which she broke the frame of it.

Knowledge is like biased ideas in our head and once an idea is stored in our head, it’s hard to change or get rid of the idea whether it’s right or wrong. However through CAS activities, through experiences, it changed and I appreciate the purpose of CAS and my new ways of interpretation with CAS and TOK.

“Working house of woman”

During the summer vacation, I planned to visit orphanage in Seoul, however I changed my plan and visited ‘working house of woman’.

‘Working house of woman’ is an organization supported by “YCMA”, offering and training a job for women who want to, are looking for a job. I helped cleaning the empty desks and get organized files. I saw the place where the training was taken and I also saw the counseling place. Lots of women, high school graduate students, university students, mothers, even working women came and seek for new, suitable job for them. Working in there for one day taught me lots of things; I knew there are such more jobs available then what I knew, lots of women came and seek for jobs, and there are lots of jobs available for women.

I’ve undertaken new challenge of working in an organization for a day with people whom I don’t know, and worked collaboratively with others. There were 2 more volunteers who visited the “Working house of woman”; they were two females, much older than me. We first toured the group and introduced to the organization. Then we sorted out the letters (from who want to visit the organization to get some advice, from the organization which wants new workers to be introduced to them, etc) into different departments. There are several departments of HR, training, marketing, etc. Then we had lunch with the people who came for training and the trainers. After lunch, we cleaned the seminar hall for the training which will be held in there in afternoon. Also we set the hall, putting the papers, documents in place, placed some drinks and snacks, etc. One of us made the print hand-out, other two placed them in each seat. It was really worthy experience to be there with other volunteers, not only for the volunteering but also the knowledge we gain from the organization was really precious.

IB Introduction Day

On the 1^st of November, the first day back to the school, Year 13 organized activities related to IB objectives. Our group organized an activity which one person need to explain a word without saying anything and others have to guess the word. There were 5 groups of 4 to 5 people. Year 12 students had to do all 5 different activities that year 13 ran through, and after when we finished our activities, Year 12 and 13 made kites together (3 people in one group). With only 2 wooden stick, 1 garbage plastic bag, tape and string, we had to make our own kite. Then we all went to the Bitsevski Park to fly them. It was sunny day without wind so we couldn’t actually make them fly but we enjoyed the process of making the kite. Year 13 students worked collaboratively with others, planned and initiated activities for year 12 students and also made a kite. It was undertaking new challenge, and developing new skill of making kite and to make them fly.

Translating letters

During the summer vacation, I started to translate the letters again. As I wrote before, there are lots of supporters in South Korea who help American kids who suffer from food, clothes and health problem. And those who got helps from supporters are writing letter to them to say thanks. It is quite difficult to translate their handwritings because they use rough handwritings. While translating the letters, I also felt happy and proud to be born in Korea and realized the translation is such hard job to do. I will keep translating regardless of CAS activities. I engaged with issues of global importance and considered the ethical implications of helping children who need help.

Moscow Zoo

On 28th of June, Year 12 and Year 7 went to the Moscow Zoo in the center of the Moscow. The aim of this trip was to see lots of animals. Lots of them were endangered animals and we didn't know that. We saw elephants, dolphins, giraffe, eagles, lots of different kinds of fox, cat, bat, mouse, etc. I increased awareness of endangered animals and how to protect them. Also engaged with issues of global importance and considered the ethical implications of saving the animals by using producing less wastes and picking up trashes on the road.

Book reviews

One of my three plans for this term was to read three French books and write a book review. I chose 3 books named “Dans la maison bleue”, ”Le Comte de Monte-Cristo”, and ”Lili a peur des controles”. Three of them are stories for children and also for foreigners who’s learning French. So it wasn’t very difficult for me to read and understand the contents.

“Dans la maison bleue” is a story of two best friends sharing their secrets. One of them tell a story about a house which appears in certain time only. So they decide to go in there. When they got in there, everything was blue and found an alien who lives there. They share their own stories and become friends but keeping the house as secret. “Le Comte de Monte-Cristo” is the story of the count of Monte Cristo which origin from France. And the story of Lili, who’s afraid of having tests. However she manages to get over with it with some help from other people like parents, teachers and friends.

As I read through these books, I increased my awareness of my area for growth: the vocabulary. I looked up almost every word from a sentence even though it was easy books, especially the nouns and the verbs with the conjugation. I realized that I also lack of the idioms and the daily used expressions. And to improve that, I think reading a lot will make improvement and to memories lots of words. News articles will be hard for me to begin with so probably short passages from the internet on the topic which I’m interested in will do for me to start with. And once I become comfortable with translating, I will work on the grammar structure to strength my understanding of the context. Also I showed perseverance and commitment of reading these books. It took me lots of time to read them to understand and find the words which I don’t know. However it helped me a lot and also I had fun reading the story books.

Istra Fieldtrip

From 23^rd May to 27^th May, year 12 IB students went to the science field trip to Istra Region. The location was “Moscow Region, Istra District, buzharovo, Vysotka Hotel” and I did three experiments while I was there.

On the first day, when we arrived to the hotel, we did little activity to get to know the place. By using the latitude measurement, mark the place where the flags are. By doing this activity, I learned new skills, how to use the latitude measurement and also worked collaboratively with people. We get to measure at least 30points with the latitude measurement and draw a map of the surroundings.

The second day, we as a group of three, did an investigation called line transect. We place a line by using the pole above the ground, near pond hill and in each meter; we had to measure the biodiversity of the area. Also in the afternoon we had little bit fun of using soil kits and any other important testing elements.

The third day, we investigated mainly with the quadrats; calculating the total population of the shaded area and non-shaded area. And on Thursday, we did our own investigation and organize a barbecue. During the trip, I developed new skills of using equipment, worked collaboratively and planned and initiated experiments well.

Weather Club

As IB students, we managed to go through the weather club. We measure the maximum, minimum and the present temperature of the day, the precipitation, air pressure and the cloud cover. There are almost 15 groups of two and each group get to do the weather club once in 3 weeks.  We still got four more month to measure, but now we can see what graph looks like. This year, the coldest moment was similar to last year but with much lower temperature. And the general temperature was higher than last year. By promoting the awareness of climate change in my school, I engaged with an issue of global importance. Now, I’m more aware of climate changes and interested in what to do and how to prevent them from happening. The graph of what we measured in our school also increased my awareness more, by showing the overall climate change in one place; the increase in average temperature, winter came much quicker, compared to last year.

This month, due to the exams, year 11 and 13 were away, so basically only year 12 was doing the weather club and sometimes students forgot to record which also affects the next day’s reading. I haven’t missed any of my recording date, and make sure that I am using the tools in right way so I’ve shown perseverance and commitment. Now the graph is almost ready: I planned and initiated activity by never miss my turn to measure, drawing, colouring, and updating the graphs. And I worked collaboratively with my partner while I was measuring the weather club.

School 4 Fair

 

On 16^th June, the whole year 12 students went to BIS school 4 to organize some activities for young students. Yoon Joo, Soomin and I ran an activity called “eating cookies without using their hands”. Basically, students have to spin 5 rounds and have to eat without using their hands. It seems easy but once they finish spinning, they cannot run fast and straight due to the dizziness. Quiet many students came to play our activity; more than what we’ve expect and had lot of fun. We as IB students provided some service to the school four students, shown perseverance and commitment in our activity, worked collaboratively and we planned and initiated our activity.

Environment Day

It was the environment day in BIS Moscow on 3^rd June 2011 (the actual environment day is the 5^th of June). In the morning, from 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock, my group (Soomin, Yoon Joo and I) did the face painting to year 8, 9 and 10. We engaged with the issues of global importance by drawing some endangered animals like panda, dolphin, frogs, etc, to let students know what kinds of animals are endangered. As the process of searching the endangered animals, I realized that there are way much more species which are endangered than what I thought. Also there are some animals in almost endangered position but people don’t pay attention to them because they don’t look nice like pandas and dolphins. So I learnt that to save them, we should be more responsible for preserving the nature and paying attention to the endangered species no matter how to they look like or what harms do they give to other animals. We can arrange to change the size of population but not make them extinct because they have their rights to live and exist.

And after the break, we started to prepare for the barbecue, cutting tomato, paprika, cucumber, etc, while other people are grilling the sausages outside. I improved my skills of cutting vegetables, and work cooperatively with others. Year 12 and some teachers gave out the foods till the last student gets food, and then we started to eat. And after the eating, we also cleaned up for the after and we washed the kitchen utensils.

Trip to ‘Friends of Bitsevsky Park’

We’ve planned to go somewhere outside of school to make sure that year 12 actually do something for the environment. On 19th May 2011, whole year 12 went to the Bitsevsky Park to learn about the nature. In front of the park gate, we met a lady who only speaks Russian, and start touring the park. It was new challenge for me, because I don’t understand any Russian at all. However, one of our classmates who speak Russian really well translated everything for us and I was able to enjoy the tour. We expressed the tree layers in the forest by using our bodies; we draw little pictures of what we hear in the park (more like forest), the status of protected park in Moscow, etc. So we could engage with issues of global importance. It was really important to know what kinds of spices are there, how many are there because the Bitsevsky Park is selected as the national protected park. And everything in there was protected as well. The biodiversity of the forest gives us not only the status of the plants and animals but also the current situation of the plants and animals and what we should do to protect them. For example, we should plant more trees and cut fewer trees, so plants and animals could expand their territory and saved from vulnerable state.

Cross stitch

One of my CAS plan for this term was to do the cross stitch. As you might have notice, that I love creating things with my own hand. I’m still working on house making and I wanted to try something new for this term; cross stitch which was new challenging for me. I chose the fairly easy one to do, so it took me about a month to finish it.

As part of the creativity, I developed my skills of doing cross stitch, and to decorate them in nicer way. I also taught my sister how to do and we did one each, so I developed new skills of teaching someone how to do cross stitch. .

Sport Activities: the Inter-house competition

.

 On 4^th May 2011, BIS Moscow had a badminton competition between KeyStage4 and IB students. The competition meant to be individual competition; however, there were too many students, so we got ourselves into groups of two and then started the competition. I was with one of the Korean boy in year 10. There were about 10 groups of two but we didn't make it through to the semifinals.

During this competition, I was developed physically and socially, as part of the Action. I trained and exercised my body and also worked as a team and tried to communicate with my partner and other players; social development. I also undertook new challenge which was to do something for my year group and for my house team. I never participated in any of those inter-house competitions because I was afraid of losing and felt it was hard for me to represent my team, which is about 40 to 50 students. However, I did represent my team and I tried my best not to lose and as a result, me and the boy got up to before semi-final but failed. Also it was new challenge for me to be in a group of two people, whom I met 5minutes ago because I’m quite a shy person. I had difficulty to talk to him but luckily, he was Korean and we become friend qickly. It was nice challenge that I’ve take. I also enjoyed the play itself very much and had a great time with some new friends.

Volunteering

On 23^rd April 2011, my family and some colleagues from my father’s workplace went to an infant ward to clean the windows for them. There were lots of children who suffer from diseases and accidents, more than I expected. It was pity that a child put a bandage around his head and smiling at us. So as an action, we worked really hard to make windows look shine and children can see the outside through the windows clearly. It took about 4 hours to clean every single window in the hospital, inside and outside. After the cleanup I felt much more responsible for taking care of sickness children and felt much closer with children even though I couldn’t speak or listen to any Russian(Social and emotional development).

Here are some photos of volunteers’

http://kiablog.livejournal.com/90702.html#cutid1

Weather Club

On 22^nd April, Yoon Joo and I did a weather club measuring. We measured the cloud cover, precipitation, highest and lowest temperature of the day and temperature at that moment.

I’m learning and developing skills to use the equipments and to achieve my goal which is not missing the day of measurement. Ever since I stared the weather club, I haven’t missed a day.

Traditional clothe paper doll

I made a couple of paper dolls which is clothing Corean traditional cloth. They are called “Han-bok”. Back in 10 century to 19 century, Coreans wore “Han-bok”. However, as people seek for conveniences, they stop wearing them in 1970’s which is quite recent. Its origin is from Chain’s cloth, but Coreans changed as they continue to live on with it which now became ‘Han-bok”. We sometimes wear them in an important days like 1^st of January, Chuseok, bid holidays in Corea.

To explain our culture, I had to learn my own culture, the history of them, what colour will match perfectly etc. As part of creativity, I made them, and as the part of service, I explained the culture to my French teacher with the example of these paper dolls.

 

There are several of colors and shapes. How many colors in a cloth tells the social positions and it much expensive than one colored “Han-bok.”

I've developed my skill further more, of origami to make these dolls: folding, cutting, pasting the papers as well as the choice of the color papers. I made my own plan, which means I didn't follow the instructions but used my own instruction; a single way of making a tree, and i developed it into a doll. I was proud my self to make the tree into dolls as well as happy to find my new skills, which is creating something out of completely unexpected thing. 

Winter Activity Day



On 22^nd March, BISMoscow had a winter activity day. Year 12&13 had to organize activities for year 7 to 10. Yoon Joo, Soo Min and I did an origami activity, making snowmen and snow flakes. There were many students missing and most of activities were outdoor activities, so in my opinion, students who came to do our activities enjoyed our snowmen making.



We made snowmen, hat and globes, and displayed them on Mr.English’s room. In each group, we voted for the best snowmen and snow-women. So everyone tried their best to make the best and get house points.

Also I made snow flakes for the decorations. It took 30 minute to make and use 6 papers per each.On this day, I learned new skills, how to teach and how to cooperate with others. Also how to make snowman and snow flakes. I was satisfied that everyone enjoyed making snowmen.

Animation

In my English literature class, we are reading the ancient greek tragedy "Medea".
And our task during the holiday was to create an animation of an extract from "Medea".

Link : http://goanimate.com/movie/0IC29eqFli3Q/1

As part of the creativity, i found my new talent and interest in making the animations.
Also during the process, I practiced my English, the way of shortening the extract and using more computer technology.

Letter Translation

I planned three CAS activities for this tem: jumping-rope, translating letter, and making a house. I’m doing jumping-rope and house making and I’ve finished the letter translation.

It’s literary translating an English letter to Korean. There are lots of supporters in Korea who help American kids who suffer from food, clothes and health problem. And those who got helps from supporters are writing letter to them to say thanks. It is quiet difficult to translate their handwritings because they use rough handwritings. The first letter which I translated was from a girl to her supporter, that she felt happy to be born when the supporter actually visited her and take care of her. Due to her mother’s sickness, she had to take care of her 2 younger brothers, and she was happy to be taking cared by someone else.

During this translation, I undertook new challenge. I’ve never done a long translation especially in written form because there are lots of points to consider: the choice of words and vocabulary, the grammar, and most importantly, the meaning of the contents should stay the same as much as possible. Also the hand writing of a child was hard to read so much more consideration was required. After finishing the translation, I realized the translation is such hard job to do and felt happy and proud to be born in Korea. It was about 15 lines in the letter and it took me about 2 hours to translate it because of the rough handwriting and considering how to put the words in Korean. It was hard but I enjoyed it and I will keep doing it for the kids and for the supporters.

House making 2

I continued to make my house project this term as well. Last time I finished my walls and this time I did some furniture. Two wardrobes and one book shelf. It took me about one week to plan them and spend a week to make each of them. And for the next time, I will try to some kitchen equipments like table, sink, refrigerator, etc.

Weather club

On 17^th of February, Yoon Joo and I did weather club. We measured high and low temperature, and cloud cover. It was year 13 mock exam week so what was alone before wasn’t exact as well, but we will try to do it more accurately next time.

As I’m doing this I realized that Moscow has very low temperature but the coldness was similar to Korea. And I did some research on this. This is because the atmosphere is dry in Moscow and wet in Korea.

Valentine disco

On 16^th of February, BIS Moscow had a Valentine disco from 4pm to 7pm. All students were welcomed; we sold some sandwiches, snacks, chocolate bars and drinks. Me and Yoon Joo made sandwiches and sold them. I found my new ability to make sandwiches and serve them to people. We were quite busy so we couldn’t enjoy the party very much but we were responsible for moneys.  

jumping rope

One of my CAS plans for this term was doing jumping rope .Ever since I arrived in Moscow last September, I hardly didn’t do any activities for fun or for my health. This is because of weather in Moscow but also I didn’t force my-self to do some. And in the Sports Day which was in November 2010, on that day, I realized that I need to work on my health heavily. I've only participated in one or two game and rest of the time; I watched and cheered my team up. Yet still it was hard for me to wake up next morning. So I decided to do some activity which could be done indoors. And it’s been a month that I started my jumping-rope. At the beginning of the exercising, when I jump about 300times, I couldn’t jump anymore because my legs were shaking and it was hard to breathe, then I realized that I HAVE TO do exercise regularly because I was able to do about 1000jumps in a day when I was young. And I did twice or three times a week regularly, which made, now I’m able to do more than 500 jumps each time. I also stretched my-self before and after activity. I can feel now that my muscles are used and feel better than before I was doing nothing at home.

Parent-Teacher Meeting

On 18^th of January, there was a Parent-Teacher Meeting from 4pm to 6pm. It was for year 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 students’ parents. We just need to make coffees and teas for parents and teachers in front of the hall. We were expecting a lot of parents to come but they didn’t and even only Russian parents came, which I felt useless to be there. And I had to leave at 5 o’clock. So I decided to help Korean parents to find teachers which was better for me than just standing there and doing nothing. I couldn’t helped much with tea and coffee but I tried to offer some drinks to people, and find right teachers for parents as part of SERVICE and put myself into ACTION of helping people.