CAS Experiences
Summary:
Meaningful CAS experiences usually share these traits:
Based on personal interest and passion that help with further skill development and growth.
Real and purposeful activities that would lead to goal achievement or significant outcomes.
Personal challenges that can broaden their perspective and beliefs about themselves and others.
Provoke or require thoughtful and ethical consideration during planning, implementing, and reviewing of group goals and vision. In so doing, respecting the rights, dignity and autonomy of those involved, particularly in Service, is crucial.
CAS experiences can be:
Supervised or unsupervised.
School-based or outside of school.
In one or more of the CAS strands.
Student Choices in CAS Experiences
You get to choose how you want to explore the three strands of CAS!
You can do so by joining different co-curricular activities of your choice at ISKL.
You can also take up lessons or join groups outside of the ISKL community for your CAS experiences.
Life in the IB Diploma Programme will be very busy, so it is important for you to choose something that brings you:
Joy
A sense of fulfilment
Achievement
Opportunities to connect with others to find your own communities of practice and your own niche in them
Benefits of a healthy lifestyle, both for your body and soul.
The above could also enhance your exploration and research in your favourite subject area(s). Many 'successful' people in their professions tend to draw on their personal interests, talents, and passion to attain their goals and maintain a high level of performance through these, driving them to learn some more in their trades and innovate their approaches.
Try the chart on the right hand side to determine if what you have in mind can be a CAS experience or not.
Click on the button below to learn more about what makes your activities a 'CAS experience'.
Supervised and Unsupervised CAS Experiences
1. Supervised CAS Experiences: At ISKL and Outside of School
In order to ensure that you can develop skills and enjoy what you are doing in a way that is meaningful to you, it is always beneficial to work with a coach, a mentor, advisor, or any other qualified and experienced instructors.
At ISKL, we ask you to undertake at least one supervised CAS experience in each strand of CAS for a reasonable period of commitment (e.g. a minimum of one semester) with a qualified ISKL CAS supervisor.
CAS Supervisors in Supervised CAS Experiences: Each school-based club has a faculty or staff advisor/ coach. In your CAS experiences, these people will be known as your 'CAS supervisors'. These adults can teach you the activity-specific and life skills you need and guide you appropriately in your journey to achieve your goals. Each of the ManageBac CAS entries automatically include a section for your CAS supervisor's details.
At the end of your commitment period (usually one academic year for school-based clubs and one season for the school-based athletics, etc.), you will request 'supervisor reviews' from your CAS supervisors in order to verify: 1) your regular participation, and 2) meaningful engagement and contribution to the group/ team and its mission.
2. Unsupervised CAS Experiences
After completing at least one supervised CAS experience and having learned how to set achievable goals for your growth (e.g. knowing about warm-ups, how hard to push yourself, and when to cool down or cut back in order not to compromise your health and well-being or making yourself prone to injuries and engaging with hazardous activities, etc.), then you can do some unsupervised CAS experiences. This is because:
CAS intends to foster your self-directedness and initiatives, so some CAS experiences should be planned and pursued on your own.
Certain CAS experiences may be in a virtual, asynchronous setting, or require your engagement at times that do not fit in a school day or any instructors' schedules.
Other circumstances may apply (e.g. health and well-being issues, etc.).
In any unsupervised CAS experiences, it is important to:
Set clear, achievable, and feasible goals with the details to explain the context of your unsupervised CAS experiences in the 'Description and Goals' text box in the Summary section of your entry in your ManageBac CAS portfolio. This needs to include the steps you need to take in order to engage with your unsupervised CAS experience in a safe and appropriate manner.
You are responsible for adding journal reflections in the Reflections and Evidence section of your entry to discuss what you are doing with regards to the relevant and targeted CAS Learning Outcomes at least once a month.
You need to add all relevant materials and evidence (e.g. photos, video clips, certificates, etc.) in the Reflections and Evidence tab of your entry on ManageBac to show your progress on goal achievement.
*No supervisor reviews are required for unsupervised CAS experiences. Your CAS Advisor or Coordinator can approve your unsupervised CAS experiences when the item #1 has been completed in your newly added entry. The same people can also mark your entry as completed once you have completed your unsupervised CAS Experience with the items #2 and 3 completed in your entry on ManageBac.
ISKL CAS Experiences by CAS Strands
Non-ISKL CAS Experiences
To provide you with a wider range of choices for your CAS experiences, you are free to sign up for lessons with non-ISKL instructors or join sports, cultural, and service groups off-campus in your local communities. Here are some examples:
Community-based service/ charity organisations
Dance (e.g. ballet, traditional genres that are not available at ISKL, etc.)
Fencing
Horseback riding/ Polo
Martial Arts (e.g. karate, judo, kendo, tae kwon do, etc.)
Music (e.g. lessons in instruments/ singing, ensemble, composition, etc.)
Sports clubs/ gyms (e.g. boxing, cricket, hockey, ice skating, KL Youth Soccer, pilates, yoga, etc.)
In order to ensure that you are able to set achievable goals and practice your choice of activities in a safe manner, we ask that you submit the CAS Experience Advance Permission Form signed by your non-ISKL instructor.
Please keep your attendance record on the CAS Experience Verification Form and take some photos of you in action and upload any material that demonstrates your progress and enjoyment (e.g. videos of your musical performances/ compositions, training; samples of your art work or creative writing, etc.).
Then at the end of the agreed commitment period, ask your instructor conduct the review of your participation and growth (either on the same form or via email on ManageBac).
Please also study this section of the CAS Home Page.
Exploring Your Interests and Passion: Personal Inventory
How well do you know yourself?
Try the personal inventory sheet by a well-known Service Learning consultant, Cathryn Berger Kaye. Then use the 'Personal Inventory, CAS Strands, and CAS Stages' Google Doc (the button on right below) to help you choose your CAS experiences and projects.
Goal Setting
After completing your personal inventory, you are more aware of your interests, passion, talents, and skills. This will help you set your personal goals and group goals in the CAS experiences you will choose to commit to. This will also identify the cause for your CAS project.
Study the Google Doc below to understand the significance of goal setting in your CAS experiences and project(s).
The document will help you write your 'Description and Goals' for your CAS entries on ManageBac.
Growth Mindset in CAS
A meaning CAS experience will facilitate the development of your collaborative and leadership skills, ethical awareness, and finding your passion. It will naturally engage you with one or more of the seven CAS learning outcomes. It will also contribute to your personal growth in different ways: going for challenges and persevering through them, exploring new skills and talents, leading from within, and gaining confidence.
Doing what you do with all your attention with your body and soul, even when things do not go as you expected, will lead to your own empowerment and life-long learning. In the midst of it all, you may not feel that you are having a 'good' time, but if done with appropriate guidance and support, you could look back on the experience as a life-enriching one. So, remembering to stick with these four actions throughout your CAS experience is vital:
Advice on Commitment and Perseverance
'Commitment and perseverance' is one of the CAS learning outcomes. These are important when you join a group and try something new.
To develop your skills and achieve the desired outcomes, it is important to not give up too soon and persevere through some challenges that may arise during the course of your commitment period.
Simultaneously, it is always important to learn about what and when to persevere through or not. Read on...
You never know what else you might be interested in or are passionate about until you try the uncharted territory. This is why you have been asked to explore all three strands of CAS.
Trying out something new may bring you some challenges, too. This could range from your feeling nervous about meeting new people in a group that is 'not your thing' or not resonating with their vision and goals, or your body feeling awkward and achy in learning new workout routines, etc.
Initially, these kinds of challenges may make you think that you should just walk out and stick to what you know and can do reasonably well. However, after some time, you might begin to feel that you see something different that you did not see before, and after learning more about what the group does or the routine involves, may come to an expanded understanding of the human capacity to do things, both individually and collectively.
So, making a commitment to try something is important to persevere through some challenges that may arise from your unfamiliarity with certain know-hows, perspectives, and understanding of how things work in a particular community of practice.
Simultaneously, it is always important to learn about what and when to persevere through or not. For example, if you are physically injured, you need to modify your work out in the rehabilitation mode or take a break, as per your coach, therapist, or doctor's recommendations. The same can be said of the activities that may affect your mental well-being and health. Therefore, communication with your CAS supervisors and peers, and other stakeholders in your CAS journey, is vital for you to have a worthwhile learning experience without compromising your safety and well-being.
CAS During the Pandemic
Malaysia has been placed under the Movement Control Order (MCO) and its different phases since March 2020. ISKL first began the online Continuous Learning (CL) then. At the beginning of the school year 2020-21, co-curricular activities were allowed on campus with some restrictions, but in October 2020, the school had to resume CL.
However, life goes on and people all over the world have been making good use of technology and online modes of collaboration to continue with their passion activities and reaching out to those in need. 'How to Do CAS at Home during the COVID-19 Pandemic' was inspired by CAS at other schools. The document lists ideas for unsupervised CAS experiences that you can do at home during the lockdown or at other times when face-to-face interactions are prohibited.
During CL, many ISKL clubs continued to meet via Zoom. The school has also been offering after school Zoom sessions for personal fitness. You can check out the MCO Panther Activities that are led by our faculty and staff members.