Goal: To do my best at explaining the IB English A curriculum to other students and parents.
On Thursday February 11th 2016, the IB Year 1 students were asked to participate in an informative presentation night for the 10th Grade parents and students. Our job was to create some presentations and set up stands in which we each explained an IB subject we took to those who came and asked us about it. I chose to present the IB English A course, as it is one of my favourite subjects.
In order to prepare for this event, I decided to work hard and plan a truly informative presentation for the Grade 10 parents. Hence, I created an explanatory Prezi about the course (which can be viewed here), and I also had a meeting with my English A teacher in order to discuss what I should tell parents and students about the course and its benefits.
Before the presentations I felt rather nervous, as I was afraid of not being able to answer the parents’ questions. However, both the them and the students seemed to all have the same inquiries, and it was easy for me to clear up their doubts. I was asked about the differences between English A and English B quite a bit, as well as about how English A was similar to Spanish A. I also shared the Prezi I created with a couple of people who were interested in the course.
All in all, it was a rather pleasant evening, and I am proud of the information I was able to deliver.
Last week I accomplished my first long-term CAS goal: participating in a singing audition! The experience was both nerve-wracking and wonderful, and it was truly a unique event that I would love to participate in again.
In order to prepare for the audition, my singing partner and I practised the song both in and out of class for a month straight. Although it would have been good to have more classes to prepare it, I don’t think the outcome would have changed all that much, as we felt quite confident with the song. The hardest part to get right was its bridge, where my singing partner had to sing a different melody than I did. To make it even more difficult to coordinate, I had to sing in a lower key. At first, I thought I would never get it right but, with the help of my singing teacher, I did manage to go to the audition feeling ready and confident, although also extremely nervous.
The audition itself took place in the bar of a big department store in Bilbao. It was packed with excited singers, musicians, families, friends, and even random passersby. However, the atmosphere of the event was fantastic, everyone had fun and, when you were on stage, you never felt judged or looked down upon.
My classmate and I were the seventh (out of seventeen people) to sing and, right before I got up on stage, I felt completely numb. At that moment, I didn’t care how things would turn out: I just wanted to get it over with. Once we made our way up, our singing teacher came up and gave us some encouraging advice, telling us that the most important thing was for us to have fun and feel good onstage, and that’s what we did!
Our performance was not perfect by any means. Because we could not perform sound tests on the microphones before singing, our first few verses were not really heard that well across the room. In addition to this, it was apparent by our fidgeting that it was our first time singing onstage, although our teacher assured us that we looked much less nervous than other first-timers!
Still, our performance had many good qualities about it. To begin with, our teacher told us we were not off-key at all, something I am glad about. He also said that it looked as if we were having fun together onstage, and that the audience felt that. However, the aspect of our performance that I am most proud of is that the bridge of the song turned out much better than expected! It was that moment that let me know all the practise had been worth it as, at the beginning of my training, I could not get one note right. When the song was over, people clapped very hard for us – I think they could tell it was our first audition – and we quickly left the stage feeling incredibly accomplished. The rest of the audition was fun-filled and very animated, as the songs being sung were very widely known and everyone could sing along.
Therefore, I am happy to say that I have accomplished my first singing goal successfully! My next goal will be to sing at least four more songs from now to the end of the school year. I already know that the next song I will work on is “Please Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna. I can’t wait to get started with more!
Ainhoa Does CAS! 