CAS Blog - Frederika

Latin Ballroom Dancing  Topic: Activity  Learning Outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.  In Spanish, we had been preparing for a Latin ballroom dance class for all Spanish students with a professional dance teacher. We had been practicing salsa steps in class and watching videos of the dance classes from previous years. I remembered some moves I learned from when I was a freshman so I was pretty excited for the dance class.  The dance teacher didn't only teach us salsa this time, he also showed us how to do the merengue and bachata. The merengue was easier because it only consisted of two steps which felt kind of like marching. Bachata had a lot of lateral movements which made the turns a bit difficult. Salsa felt more familiar but we also learned several new turns even though we didn't get to the dips. I also got to learn how to do the leader's part which is something I have wanted to try. Usually, th...

Creative Writing Club #7 Topic: Service  Learning Outcome 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in a fieldwork experience  During this new school year, everyone has been attending school in person and my co-president has  moved out of state. So a lot has changed in terms of how the club is being managed. As the president, I have the freedom to make all the decisions myself but, of course, the independence also comes with more responsibility. Over time, the interests of students joining the club has also shifted. Before, the club was more of a workshop mostly consisting of peer-reviewing with people bringing in prewritten work. But now, most people are joining the club to write more.  I was thankfully able to reuse some of last year's lesson plans that consisted of mini-lessons on writing techniques. It has been necessary for me to take planning more seriously since the general atmosphere of the club has been less organized due to the lack of COVID restrictions. I've...

Topic: Activity  Learning Outcome 1: Identify areas of strength and develop areas for growth  This Saturday I went ice skating for the first time in years. It was a leisure activity that I used to do with my friends until we lost interest. Today, for old time's sake, we went back to the Sugar Land Ice & Sports Center to test our muscle memory.  At first, we all wobbled onto the ice holding our bodies in awkward positions to prevent ourselves from falling. After a few minutes, I had warmed up and keeping my balance was not much of a problem. I was still very cautious and kept my back slightly bent so that I wouldn't slip and fall backwards. I tired out before my friends since we had skated for two hours already. It was decent exercise and I was pretty sore the next day.  I'm proud to say that I only fell once even though it was still painful. As I felt my body close in on the ground I twisted to my side so that my left thigh felt most of the impact. That left a so...

Topic: Activity  Learning Outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance  This weekend I volunteered at the Institute of Chinese Culture (ICC) to assist in the restoration process before reopening for the fall semester for the first time since the pandemic. I found this opportunity through a close friend who attends the Chinese language program offered by the ICC and we went together along with my sister. Our main task was to paint the walls of each classroom. They had been repainting since November but had just finished the first floor this month. There was a demand for volunteers since they are in a hurry to reopen the school by September.  I had no prior experience with painting walls but it was a task that was simple enough. It was just time consuming since we had so many rooms left to paint. On the first day, we finished two rooms with six people working for 5 hours. I woke up the next day with sore arms from using the rollers which is why I con...

Urban Air Trampoline Park  Topic: Activity  Learning Outcome 1: Identify areas of strength and develop areas for growth  For our last day of school, we were going to go to Camp Allen for our end-of-year retreat but due to the weather warnings we opted for an indoor activity instead. We went to the Urban Air trampoline park in the Pearland location to spend our last day of our 2020-2021 school year together after going through hybrid learning, the Texas winter power outage and the general challenges that the pandemic brought us.  I had been cooped up in my room for the past month trying to get my final assignments in so it had been a while since I had done some exercise. The first thing I tried out was the trampoline room with rows of trampolines lined up side by side. Then I went through a maze-like playhouse structure where I ran into a lot of friends I hadn't seen in months. I was out of breathe much sooner than I expected so I took a break to watch people above me...

Voter Registration Drive  Topic: Service  Learning Outcome 3: Initiate and Plan a Fieldwork Experience  During the Civics 101 A-Term, we planned a voter registration drive for our school. First, Ms. Harrison directed our research with resources she found. Then we got approval from our school directors to hold our voter registration drive. To advertise our drive we wrote a script and shot a short PSA video with general information about voter registration that was played during the A-Term presentations. The following week we held our drive with a physical station and an online drive.  While we were researching for our Voter Registration Drive we learned that we can’t actually register people to vote, unless we are official voter registrars. We can only offer them the resources and facilitate the process by giving them the link to fill out the form or handing out envelopes to mail them. Since I was the only student from the Civics class who was online, I was in ch...