CAS 2008/9 Information

Tyler — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:44:16 +0000

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that nobody can sincerely try to help somebody else without, at the same time, helping himself…” Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (author / philosopher)

ISN is committed to providing its LPs with an education that will enable them to be active, creative and responsible citizens. Through community, action and service (CAS), learning partners will have the opportunity to become active citizens of our learning house, who contributes there skills and invests their time into our local and the international community. CAS is a core requirement of the IB Diploma programme and LPs will be expected to do a minimum of 150 hours of CAS activities during their 2 IB Diploma years.

CAS in the Middle School:

Each LP in the ISN Middle School is required to perform a minimum of thirty hours (30) of community service per academic year. LPs could choose to do more than 30 hours of community service and this positive attitude will be reflected in their end-of-term and end-of year reports.

LPs should start their community service projects by brainstorming and identifying opportunities within the school and local community where their skills could make a difference within the community. If the LP identifies an activity he/she would like to carry out he/she should inform the homeroom mentor.

If the activity/placement is outside the ISN community, the home room mentor/LP should inform the Middle School Coordinator. The MS coordinator or a member of staff will arrange contact with the outside organisation to discuss the activity/project in a formal way.

CAS documentation:

a) Statement of intent:

Prior to beginning your community service project, you must submit your statement of intent to your home room mentor, explaining the CAS activity and your goals. If your CAS activity is an outside project you should ask your parents to write a letter giving you permission to do the activity. Please note that you will not be covered by the school’s insurance if you are working outside school hours. Allow a minimum of one week, after submitting your statement of intent, to receive notice of approval. Your statement of intent will be returned to you in homeroom to let you know when the activity has been approved or not.

b) CAS Log:

You will be provided with a CAS Log, which you will use to record your CAS activities when you do them. Ask the supervisor of your CAS activity to sign your form regularly. To be authorised to sign your log the supervisor must be an adult (but not your parents) who has witnessed your work. This is important as it is evidence of the amount of time you have spent on your activity/project. When you have completed your project you must return your CAS Log to your homeroom mentor. It must be signed by you, your parent, and your supervisor. It must also include the total number of hours you spent on your project.

c) CAS Journal

You should reflect each time that you do an activity, even if it is only for an hour. Remember that the CAS log and journal is designed to help you to stay focused on the task, and to be organised. It will also help you to write a better final report. This CAS journal does belong to you so try to personalise it with pictures, stories, how you felt, and photos. As well as being evidence, try to make it a souvenir for the future.

Comment on the following in your journal:
the date and hours spent on the activity,
your aims ( what are you trying to do)
your objectives (what benefits will you get from the activity)
a brief description of what you did
How did it go? (Explain why it went well/poorly)
Do you think you have made a meaningful impact on the community? Explain how.
your plans for the next session

CAS Assessment

CAS assessment takes place on 3 different levels: You evaluate your own participation and learning, and report on it in your Final CAS report. Your activity supervisor assesses your participation using a rubric and give you feedback. Your homeroom mentor will assess your CAS report and presentation to the class.

Writing your CAS Report

Each term you are expected to write a report about your CAS activities and to present your CAS activities to your class. The report that you write at the end of your project is important for a number of reasons:

It enables you to focus on the activities that you have carried out and to reflect on the activities that you have undertaken.
It provides the school with valuable information about your extra-curricular life, which is often needed when we write recommendations and references for you if you leave the school,
At the end of the IB Diploma year 2, it is needed by the IB Organisation to award the IB Diploma to you if you have completed 150 hours of CAS activities in your 2 IB Diploma years. Please note that the IB Diploma is not awarded to students who do not take part in CAS, even if they achieve excellent results in other curricular areas.

When writing your report consider the following guiding questions:

What did others learn from you?
What skills did you apply?
What new skills did you develop?
Did some elements of the programme encourage originality, creativity or original thought?
In what way has your programme enabled you to be of service to others?
How much person to person contact did this involve with the community? In what way did you benefit from this? Did the recipient benefit? How?
Has your programme enable you to become physically fit or to become fitter? Explain
What skills and techniques did you learn? How would you assess your skill levels in these areas?
Were some parts of your programme especially challenging? How did you respond to these challenges?
Did some parts of your programme encourage individual responsibility? How were you able to respond to this?
What would you personally consider to be the most important aspect of your involvement in the programme? And the least successful?
What was the impact of your programme / project on others / the community?
What was the impact of your action or service on yourself?

Community and Service projects

Tyler — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:10:54 +0000

In the last 2 years we had a Community and Service (CAS) unit of inquiry each year for 6 weeks. Middle school mentors have decided that CAS projects should be continously integrated in our curriculum over a whole year. We had some wonderful projects in the past and we would like all members of our community (LPs, mentors and parents) to be involved in our CAS projects.