ACTIVITY SHORT DESCRIPTION:
I, along with my classmates, will be helping the PTO to organize and prepare ASB’s Halloween party. In addition, our class is in charge of making the “Haunted House”; I will both decorate it and act in it.
PREDICTED LENGTH OF ACTIVITY
This experience will take place primarily over the course of two days: Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd October, although time is being spent beforehand informally discussing and planning. On Saturday we will be working at school preparing everything for the next day from approximately 14:30 or 15:00 to 18:00 or 18:30. Then, on Sunday, we will arrive around 10 am, and stay there the whole day until we finish cleaning up. Since the party ends at 18:30, we will probably leave around 19:30.
CAS ELEMENTS INVOLVED
PERSONAL GOALS FOR THE ACTIVITY:
ANTICIPATED LEARNING OUTCOMES:
I, along with my classmates, will be helping the PTO to organize and prepare ASB’s Halloween party. In addition, our class is in charge of making the “Haunted House”; I will both decorate it and act in it.
PREDICTED LENGTH OF ACTIVITY
This experience will take place primarily over the course of two days: Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd October, although time is being spent beforehand informally discussing and planning. On Saturday we will be working at school preparing everything for the next day from approximately 14:30 or 15:00 to 18:00 or 18:30. Then, on Sunday, we will arrive around 10 am, and stay there the whole day until we finish cleaning up. Since the party ends at 18:30, we will probably leave around 19:30.
CAS ELEMENTS INVOLVED
- CREATIVITY
- ACTIVITY
- SERVICE
PERSONAL GOALS FOR THE ACTIVITY:
- What do I hope to accomplish?
- How does what I'm doing help to accomplish the stated objectives?
- How will I know if I've achieved my objectives or not?
ANTICIPATED LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- (Learning outcome #3): Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
- My first learning outcome is to demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience. A Halloween party for an entire school and parents takes a lot of planning, so we will be doing this on Saturday, together with the PTO. What takes most planning, though, is the Haunted House, especially since we, as in my class, are doing it by ourselves, so it is an initiated CAS experience. We have been using recess time and some free time to discuss ideas for the theme, decorations and show in the haunted House. We have also had to discuss where to get the materials, what to buy, etc.
- (Learning outcome #4): Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
- My second learning outcome is to show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences. I will be need to spend a total of around 4 hours on Saturday and 9 or 10 hours on Sunday at school, so I will be committing my free time to preparing a great Halloween party. Perseverance will be needed to keep work efficiently during the whole time, especially on Saturday while preparing the school and on Sunday in the Haunted House, where I will have to perform repeatedly and many times for each group of kids that comes in.
- (Learning outcome #5): Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
- My third learning outcome is to demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively. This is most certainly a group CAS experience, as all my classmates and I are working together, and with the PTO, to produce this year’s ASB Halloween party. We will need to plan together, and then carry out all the tasks in groups to get things done effectively and efficiently.
REFLECTIONS:
BEFORE (Morning of Saturday 22 October 2016)
I am not too excited about having to go to school today, but I am looking forward to the Halloween party, and without preparation it will not be possible. I am actually going to be attending a lunch today, and even leaving early I will not get to school until around 10 past three. I will work hard from the moment I get there and do my best to work efficiently. I was also upset at some people because they where not staying, even thought they didn’t have a reasonable excuse to do so. This made me feel sad also because this lowered our group spirit.
I am not too excited about having to go to school today, but I am looking forward to the Halloween party, and without preparation it will not be possible. I am actually going to be attending a lunch today, and even leaving early I will not get to school until around 10 past three. I will work hard from the moment I get there and do my best to work efficiently. I was also upset at some people because they where not staying, even thought they didn’t have a reasonable excuse to do so. This made me feel sad also because this lowered our group spirit.
DURING (Evening of Saturday 22 October 2016)
I am really tired but satisfied with the work done today. A few of us moved all the tables and chairs, which was hard work, and it would have been faster if more of us had contributed. Still, we got it done.
We also all worked together on different parts of the haunted house:
- decorating the hallway with crosses, spooky pictures, spider webs, caution tape, etc.
- covering the windows with dark paper and the entrance with a huge black plastic tarp, to ensure the inside is as dark as possible
- hanging up lights:
- flashing/blinking bulb in the first room, which will add a frightening effect to the white masked girls that will be in there
- UV light bulb in the third room, so that when the lights are turned off all that will be seen are the eerie white masks (those of us in there will be wearing black clothes)
- colored bulb further down the corridor, which will give a spooky glow to the clown
- hanging non-flame (LED) candles from the ceiling of the second room with string and tape, which will be the only source of light in the second room, also making it eerie
Overall, I think we are well prepared for tomorrow; all we have left to do tomorrow is put on our costumes and discuss and rehearse our performance for each group that enters the haunted house.
I think that I have already achieved my learning outcome of demonstrating the skills and recognizing the benefits of working collaboratively, as I was able to work both with my classmates and the PTO, moving tables and chairs, putting up decorations, deciding where and how to decorate, etc.
On the other hand, I was somewhat disappointed when some of the people left at 5:30 pm, while about 6 of us stayed until around 6:45 pm, especially since they didn't really have any reason other than wanting to leave (which we all kind of wanted to). If they had stayed a bit longer we could have finished earlier. Anyway, the important thing right now is that we prepared everything very well for tomorrow and I am looking forward to it!
AFTER (Monday 24 October 2016)
Yesterday was a very long and very tiring day! It almost seems like I haven't had a weekend, as I had to come to school on both days...
I arrived around 10:30 am. We got together to organize each person's role, then did a couple of dress rehearsals. It was really fun to see how we had managed to transform the corridor, two bathrooms and a classroom into a genuinely frightening Haunted House.
We were then in the Haunted House until 14:00, when we had a break for lunch. Then it was back to the Haunted House. Those hours were fun, but it got hot and even a bit claustrophobic in there. It was interesting how accustomedwe became to the dark, though. I could see almost everything, whereas when I first entered it seemed to be pitch black.
The cleaning up was, as usual, the worst part. Nevertheless, I was pleased with how efficient we were as a team. It helped that our decorations were easy to take down, and we hadn't dirtied everything with fake blood like they did other years. In this way, working collaboratively, cleaning up was fast as we mostly worked hard.
I was so glad to go home, but thoroughly enjoyed my day. Us students at ASB spend every Halloween of lower school thinking about how our Haunted House in 11th grade will be the best. I am happy to say ours was pretty great, and it was a fun experience as I had never done anything quite like it before.
Yesterday was a very long and very tiring day! It almost seems like I haven't had a weekend, as I had to come to school on both days...
I arrived around 10:30 am. We got together to organize each person's role, then did a couple of dress rehearsals. It was really fun to see how we had managed to transform the corridor, two bathrooms and a classroom into a genuinely frightening Haunted House.
We were then in the Haunted House until 14:00, when we had a break for lunch. Then it was back to the Haunted House. Those hours were fun, but it got hot and even a bit claustrophobic in there. It was interesting how accustomedwe became to the dark, though. I could see almost everything, whereas when I first entered it seemed to be pitch black.
The cleaning up was, as usual, the worst part. Nevertheless, I was pleased with how efficient we were as a team. It helped that our decorations were easy to take down, and we hadn't dirtied everything with fake blood like they did other years. In this way, working collaboratively, cleaning up was fast as we mostly worked hard.
I was so glad to go home, but thoroughly enjoyed my day. Us students at ASB spend every Halloween of lower school thinking about how our Haunted House in 11th grade will be the best. I am happy to say ours was pretty great, and it was a fun experience as I had never done anything quite like it before.