School Club/Organization

Before I came to GCA, I heard that there were many clubs in GCA. I think that is interesting. I had joined some clubs in my middle school, but they were not very good. They did not have many activities; some almost never had any activities. I could not develop or improve myself from the clubs. Now there are many clubs in GCA and they include many kinds of areas. Such as piano club, volunteer club, basketball club, cooking club, etc. I joined basketball club, volunteer club and TV series club.

Basketball club was the first club that had activities. Many people joined basketball club, so Mr. Saxby wanted to choose the players in GCA basketball team. He asked us to come to the playground to train for basketball on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday every week. If we could not come at least twice a week, we would be kicked out. Before I came to train, I was very excited. But when I came, I felt not very good. In fact the training was not about basketball any more. It was just running around the playground for many laps. I had not run such a long way before. Mr. Saxby told us if we want to play basketball well, we must train for this. I wanted to be a member of GCA basketball team. I came to train three times a week. About one month later, Mr. Saxby let us train for basketball. And he started to choose players by letting us play basketball matches. I went to play the first day. But something happened make me could not went to play. You know the training was after school, and I would go home very late then I did not have too much time to finish my homework. (My study was not good) So I gave up. I felt regret. I think I can study well now, Then I will have more free time to play basketball. I will be back next time.

TV series was a good club. I had activities on Tuesday every week. We could watch TV series or movies in the club. I remember we had seen a very funny movie KUNGFU PANDA. In the movie the main character the panda was very funny and lovely. He loved kungfu. At last he defeated Tailang. In this I saw many things about Chinese culture. It was good for people in other countries to know more about China. Volunteer club often had activities on Sunday. I had class on Sunday at half of last term. So I did not join the activities too much. But I was also very happy to join the activities. We went to the school for the blind to play with children there. Even they could not see anything but they lived happily.

I love the clubs in GCA. I can make many new friends there. I can learn more skills that I have not known before. I can improve myself. I have good time in the clubs.

Volunteer/Work Experience

This term we have to perform at least 10 hours of community service or paid employment. Before I came to GCA I almost never did any work like community service or paid employment. I think it is a new thing to me. But I think it will be a very interesting thing. And helping others without getting money or any awards is a happy thing. I like that even I did not have many chances to do that. Now the chances are coming. I can be a volunteer. I am happy to be a volunteer.

Maybe two months ago, our English teacher Ms. Mitschrich asked us to come to school to help her and Ms. Hadley at ten o'clock on Saturday if we were free. She also told us we must help for free. But I do not care that. So I went to school on that Saturday. I thought maybe many students would go and be a volunteer. But truth was not the same as what I thought. Happily most of the students were in our class 10-C. Students in 10-C are always helpful.

At ten o'clock, Ms. Mitschrich and Ms. Hadley appeared at school gate. Then the students and teachers went to the art room together. Over there Ms. Hadley and Ms. Mitschrich told us what to do and explained how to do. That day our task was to draw the walls. When I heard it, I thought it must be an easy task. Then Ms. Hadley explained how to do it and taught us how to do it well. She showed us many photos about different walls on her computer. We saw the walls were not very easy to draw. Then we went to the GCA building to start our work. But not all the students went there. Some stayed in the art room to make a big pig. I went to the GCA building with most of the students.

We took some wood blocks out of the GCA building. Our first task was not to draw. We had to paint the wood blocks white, and then made them dry. This job was not easy. We spent more than two hours finishing two thirds of the mission. So we went to school next Saturday. We finished the work that last Saturday did not finish. Then we started our main task, drawing the walls. Ms. Hadley showed us how to do at first. We needed four colors, brown, gray, black and green. And Ms. Hadley told more detail about how to mix the paint. Afterwards we worked in groups. We divided the work by ourselves. Time flew very quickly. We hadn't finished half of the work until one o'clock. So we had to meet at school the third Saturday. We finished at last on the fourth Saturday. Everyone was very happy even someone's cloth was dirty. When I got home my dad found my black trousers had some white on it.

I learn a lot from this volunteer experience. Helping others for free is a happy thing. The more people the more power. Many people can finish a work in very short time. I will not forget this experience.