-       Play fair (Play by the rules)

-       Communicate a lot during the game

-       Motivate other members of the team

-       Score and get baskets for all games

-       Care for others

-       B’BALL TEAM GOAL: Get into the finals for basketball

-       FOOTBALL TEAM GOAL: Win a few games

Once again senior FOBISSEA was held at the Regents school on the 4^th-5^th of February. I was selected to play both basketball and football for the school’s team. Even though sports is not a new activity for me, there is still a lot more for me to learn about myself, and a lot more skills that I could develop in action related activities. Even though I know how to play football, it felt like I have forgotten how to play because I haven’t been on the field for a very long time, therefore this requires me to recall all my skills back, and teach myself again

The girls started off with football on the first day. As an IB student, it is difficult to find and go the after school practices; however the thought of this did not make me back down. I still wanted to play for the team. At the start I found it very difficult because it was very sunny, and I wasn’t use to the heat. However this did not stop me from trying my best for the team.

Football Team

I was also asked to lead the teams warm up before every game. At the beginning it was hard to get everybody in the team to join. But after each warm up more team members started to join and follow my drills, and by the last warm up I managed to get the whole team to warm up. It is important to warm up because this can prevent your muscles from cramping. Also, knowing that most of us hardly turn up in practice, everybody was demotivated. This was the biggest problem for the whole team because, without being motivated we will not play as well. However, this changed after the first match. I also tried to motivate others by talking about the positive things about our team, rather than negative. Before each match we would have small group meetings for a few minutes to get our minds set with the game, which shows a great cooperation in the team.

Shaking Hands

Team Meeting

For both football and basketball I never use my left sides, but at the moment of scoring I had to make a quick and fast decision, whether to take a risk and score with the left hand/foot, or to pass. It was very difficult, but I decided to take the risk, and the results were positive! I have learned to make quick, fast and smart decisions in the games.

The biggest risk I took in this tournament was when the opposite opponent kicked me and my leg bruised and started hurting. However, I got up and continued running, and played until the end. This was really dangerous because I could have injured myself even more, but other members were too tired, so I did not want to let the team down. The other difficult thing during that weekend was that the next day, we all had to wake up early and play basketball. Everybody was sore and tired. However, when we were on the court, all of that was gone. I didn’t show any sign on the pain, and I was very focused with what was going on with the court. We had good communication, we always talked. After each half time we would give each other advice. Compared to the last senior game I would usually listen more than giving advises, but this year I’ve shown improvement. I decided to talk more, communicate more, give advices and my opinions for the team.

My bruised Leg

Basketball

I also made some new friends for other schools. The most important part of these tournaments is to socialize and to have fun. Even though it gets competitive at times but I know how to play fair and follow all the rules. When I accidentally hurt somebody I would apologize and help them.

Overall the team and me were very successful. We managed to win a few games for football, and we did get into the finals for basketball and came second. In the end we learn that it takes a lot of practice to become a champion. We know this because we practice a lot more for basketball and hardly for football, and this matches with the results we got in the end. We all know our weaknesses and our strength. My weakness would be my aiming for scoring and also not be able to use my left foot and left hand, but my strengths are my fitness level, and my motivation. Not only noticing my own strength and weakness, I have managed to pick up some of the opponents weaknesses, which I have used to help me when I played in the games. I also managed to pick up some new drills really fast from the other team, and use it as my own during warm up, which actually helped me as well. Which shows that I am learning my observing others and that I are aware of my surroundings.

All the skills that I have could also be used in other sports. For example following the rules. Knowing that my fitness level is high, I could join cross-country running to improve my fitness level even more. Being able to socialize more will increase my self-confidence and this could also be used in classroom presentations for instance. It is my last year of high school, and I am glad that I have represented my school for the senior games.

Team Photo, 2nd Place

Croston House Logo

OBJECTIVES
- To finish the walk
- To care and motivate others around me
- To care for the environment and make sure that I don’t leave any rubbish behind
- Work collaboratively with others

The whole walk took about 3 hours, it was actually faster than we expected. At the beginning it wasn’t too bad, but after one hour everybody started to feel tired and was exhausted because of the strong heat. I was sweating, my foot started to hurt and I was really tired, but I kept myself hydrated the whole time.
When one person started complaining and seem like they wanted to give up, we motivated each other, we turned on some music so that everybody can keep going. We also had a lunched break after walking for 2 hours, and I brought some cookies and shared it, especially to the ones who looked like they needed more energy. After that we cleared all the rubbish and made sure there was no rubbish left behind, because we all care for the environment.

Taking A Break

After 2 hours of walking

Reached our destination!

Stretching

OBJECTIVES
- I want to be able to help others and teach others
- Work as a team and help each others to improve their skills
- I want to be able to start and learn tackling
- I want to join the after school training and train with the guys team

A Rugby Ball

Just Being Me

Catching!

After the tackle

Touch Rugby With The Guys

streching

Rebound

On the 29th of May on a Friday, all 12 students from the Regent’s school, including myself left the campus at 9am. When we arrived, everybody got changed and started warming up. It was girls basketball and boys football.
Our first match was against a school from Chaing Mai (north of Thailand). This game was really close because the scores weren’t that far apart. But in the end we managed to stay strong and keep our scores up. We also won the 2nd and 3rd game. Our last game was against ICS, which we lost, but this time the score was not really far apart comparing to the score we had during senior FOBISSEA in February.

After the basketball game we had to play volleyball. In my opinion I think we did pretty good, even though we lost. This was because we never practice volleyball and we don’t even have a proper team. The score weren’t far apart, so I think if we had practice at least once a week, we might have had a better chance of winning.

Blocking the shoot

On Saturday we had to leave the campus at 7am.  I found it difficult to wake up in the morning because I was still tired from basketball on Friday.
In our first game, for the first half, everyone was tired and was not motivated. When it was the 2nd half, I managed to score a goal!
For football, overall we lost all the games, but again the scores were not far apart, so if we had more practice we could have done better.

Overall from this tournament, we came third place. The score of all sports were added up in total, from both girls and boys. This tournament was based on team sports. We did best in basketball for girls.
From this tournament I think our team have communicated well. We worked well as a team, we cared for each other when somebody gets hurt, and we help each other out. I had forgotten to cut my nails and it was actually risk taking. I managed to break 2 nails during the basketball game and it was

Volleyball

deep and painful. But I didn’t want to let the team down, so I didn’t tell anybody and continued to play. This shows that I was taking a risk because it could have ripped even more deeper.
I think my fitness level have increase so much more from the past few months. I was able to last the whole game

without having to sub. There was one time when I feel flat on my back, it was painful, but I didn’t want to give up, so I stood up and continued playing.

The day we had to play football, the sun was really strong. This was challenging because our team haven’t practice football since term 1, and we haven’t been in this heat for ages. Nobody gave up, we all fought with the heat and humidity. The football games was challenging because the other teams practices 2 times a week and they were really good. But this didn’t put our team down, and we always had our hopes up high because we knew that we were a good team and we can work well together.For volleyball, we did not win. But we did pretty good, knowing that we never have practiced as a team before. I think everybody worked well

Football

as a team because we passed the ball to each other and gave each other a chance to score or to shoot.

What I’ve learn from this tournament is that, for the team to become more stronger we need to find more time to practice, especially for football and volleyball. Also if there is any disagreements between some people in our own team, we should speak up and discuss it rather than just letting it out on the field. My strength for this tournament would be my fitness level and how I managed to score in football (the only goal our team got for football). My weakness would be my accuracy in scoring. I am aware of this because I had many chances to score in both football and basketball but I missed quite a lot. For me to improve, I have to do a lot of practice during my free time.

Tackling the ball

The tournament started early at 8.30am. A few people from our team wasn’t able to make it, therefore made our team smaller which means we had less substitutes. This still didn’t make the team thinking we would lose. Everybody was confident and was ready to win. For the past two school terms my level of fitness had been a problem for me. But in this tournament I was able to last long in the games, and I hardly needed to substitute.

I think I have improved a lot compared to the other basketball games in the past. I was able to jump higher and was able to steal the ball for the other team more often. I was able to think fast and pass the ball fast when I know that I wouldn’t be able to score. Our teams communication was extremely good, everybody passed the ball more often and helped each other all the time. Even though sometimes the game can be too rough, but in the end everybody apologized which shows that it wasn’t on purpose and that we all cared how other people felt.

Everybody played fair, and followed all the rules. It was a successful tournament and we did win in the end. The only improvement I think both me and the team needs to improve is our shooting skills. We got many chances to score but we miss it quite a lot. There is going to be another tournament in term 3, and hopefully everyone will improve their shooting skill, so we would win this another tournament.

I have signed myself up with a few friends for the backstage crew for the school production. Although it may sound like an easy job to do because there isn’t any lines to be memorized, but actually for the backstage crew, they are as important as the characters in the play. We actually have to know the whole script for the play.

For the first few weeks during activities, me and the other members of the backstage crew had to sort out and organized the room behind the theater for the props. There were at least 20 bags of materials and props that we had to organize and look into, to try and find the materials and that was needed for the play. I’ve had no experience with backstage so at the beginning I found it hard to cope with and challenging, because I’ve never had to organize anything so much in a limited amount of time. It was frustrating because we had to do this for at least two weeks. Just look into all the bags and organizing and putting everything into place.

After all the materials were collected and when the room was organized, we had to go through the script and look for more props that we could use for the play, which will have to be made after. So we made a prop list for the play. Then we got a list of things to organize, clean up and find for the play. It was a very long to do list, so we decided to split the jobs up which made everything easier for everyone, and this shows that the crew have a good co-operation and was able to communicate well and make fast decisions.

On the first night of the production I was nervous because I’ve never seen the actual play so I had no idea when I needed to do my job. So just right before the play I had to have a quick run through of the jobs I had so that I don’t mess anything up for the production.

Being in the production was actually fun, and I’ve got to experience what it was like to become a backstage crew. It was interesting because we also got to help out with the characters costume. And all the organizing we had done behind the stage helped me with other things as well. But it was challenging for me because the day before it was performed, we had to miss a whole day of school, which made me worried. What made it worse was that I had 2 tests to do during the week. The production was on for 3 nights in a row which did not help with my revision. Every night it ended at 10pm which is quite late, and every morning everyone was exhausted including myself. But I still pushed myself to go to school because I knew how important my classes were. From this production I’ve learn how to be more organized with my time, and that being involved in extra activity is a good thing, but I can’t let it in the way of my studies. I’ve also learn how to work with others,  having to be responsible for my jobs and undertake new challenges.

The 2nd game was against our Under15′s. It was a very close game and pretty rough as well. We also lost this game, but the team was still looking forward to the next game. Everyone in the team always had their heads up high and knew that we would still have a chance of getting a medal.

Then finally for the 3rd game we finally won. Everybody was happy and then was more exited for the next game. But everybody knew the next would be the biggest challenge of the day. It was the school that had won every single year. It wasn’t a surprised that we lost, but we tried our best and was not afraid to compete. The whole never gave up and everyone pushed themselves and accepted the challenge. Who ever got tired, we always had a sub ready to go up and play instead, which show that our team is caring and is always there each other.

For the last game we had to play against our Under15 once more. It was a very close game. We were only 1 point away from winning. I actually managed to score in the last 30 seconds, but then according to the referee it was a foal and they blew the whistle before the ball went into the basket. Everyone in the team was very disappointed but we all thought to ourselves that we played well, and if the decision that was made by the referee was a little difference we could have won a medal.

Overall we came 4th place. I am still glad that I got to be involved in the senior FOBISSEA games once again. I got to meet new people and also get to learn some new tricks and skills from other teams. Team work and communication was very important for this and in my opinion I think our team did a fantastic job. Improvements that is needed for the team is probably only our physical fitness level and some skills, but other than that we have a good and perfect team that can motivate each other well, not give up easily and can communicate well.

In term one, we have started the training a bit late than usual. The team normally trains every Tuesday, after school. At the very beginning of the training, it was obvious that everybody needed to improve their physical fitness, including myself because I seemed to get tired very easily.

Not only my physical fitness but my shooting skills wasn’t as good as before. So I have been practicing a lot during the training. Even though we did not have a lot of matches in term 1, but will still got to have a match against the U15 boys basketball team. Which was quite challenging because their physical fitness was much better than the girls. But as each training passes by I could see that I was improving because I was able to last longer in the games. The teams communication was very poor as well in the beginning, but then everybody started to improve and calling for the ball or names more often.

Before every game we decide and plan on how we are gonna play in each set of the game. For example if we should play ‘ManVSman’ or if we should play ‘zone’. Before I wasn’t able to shoot with my left hand, but I am slowly improving and also developing a new skill. Not only that but i have worked collaboratively with the members of the team.

Next term we will be having Senior FOBISSEA, which is a sports tournament, and involves basketball and football which I will be attending. I am looking forward to it and hoping to be ready for the tournament on the 5th-6th of February.

I’ve been going to most of my practice on Tuesday. At the very beginning of my practice I’ve noticed straight away that I had to improve my cardio vascular endurance, because I wasn’t able to last long in the games. But even though I was very tired, I’ve always tried to push myself. For my skills, at the very beginning I wasn’t able to move as fast away from the opposite team when they tackled, but I was able to score and take a shot in all games.

In term 1 we had a few matches with a few other schools. We haven’t lost a game. On my first game, I played the whole game didn’t have any rest, until the half time. I was tired and was asked a few times if I wanted to go out, but I wanted to push myself and not give up. The heat from the sun did make everyone even more tired, so it was quite challenging for everyone including myself. I was told I had good passes and was able to tackle the opposite team.

Everyone in our team was really good at communicating on the field, for example we would call the person’s name if we wanted to pass it to someone. When we accidentally hurt our component, we would help them up to show that we didn’t mean it and that we are caring.

Practice after practice I’ve learn how to make better decisions on the field, and I have improved my cardio vascular endurance. I was able to last longer in my games, especially in the heat! But in my opinion I think I should improve more on my skills, and maybe some scoring. In every game I get many chances to score but its either I miss it, or that I tried to take a shot too late. I am looking forward in term 2 for the Senior FOBISSEA Games, and the other upcoming games later in the term.

Loi Krathong is held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calender. In the western calendar this usually falls in November. But this year at The Regent’s School, the celebration was on the 16th of November.“Loi” means “to float” and a “Krathong” is a raft, about a hand span in diameter, traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk.   The Krathong  is decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. The beauty contests that accompany the festival are known as “Noppamas Queen Contests”, which we also had during the celebration.

I got my script just one day before the celebration, and the script wasn’t perfect. Which means that me and my partner only had one day to practice. When it go to the day, me and my partner only got to practice on the real stage, with the microphone once. We both were worried because we wanted everything to be perfect but we did not have enough time to practice.

When the celebration started, me and my partner started the opening of the celebration. We introduced ourselves and gave a small information about the celebration to everyone. It was hard for me because I don’t like public speaking. But when the teacher asked me to do it, I realized I should step out of my comfort zone.

Everything didn’t go perfect. We had house colour’s dance and sometimes they weren’t ready, and me and my partner had to switch the orders of the performances, and everything was complicated and non of the performance was in order. The electricity went off a few times which was difficult for me and my partner. During the noppamas contest, I had to make up the questions myself on the spot for the primary kids which was challenging. The questions had to be very simple and easy.

During the secondary noppamas contest, was time consuming because some of the contestants were not on stage. So me and my partner had to improvise quite a lot, which we both found it hard, but in the end we managed to get everything in control again.

Overall I think I did a good job, because it was my first time to be MC and even though some performance weren’t ready, we managed to find a replacement, and improvised on stage. I’m glad I took this job, because now I am not afraid of public speaking, and I also learn how to improvise when things doesn’t go perfect on stage. At the start I found it hard, but then towards the end I had more confident and everything seemed easier.