#Kernius

[gaudascas]

Liepkalnis vlog

Date.

From 28th to 29th of January, 2017.

Place.

Laimis hill (Liepkalnis), Vilnius.

Activity.

Making of a video log about tutoring a classmate in snowboarding.

Description.

Almost a year ago – during my first year in IB – I have promised several of my classmates to take them to Liepkalnis ski resort and teach them snowboarding. It happened that our trip got delayed a year – up to 2017. Nevertheless, throughout the year we grew smarter, stronger and better friends. This year we stormed the mountains with extreme power!

 My brother and I have been snowboarding since 2009. I was always interested not only in the riding but also in the techniques and methods to learn them involved. I have always wondered and was curious about teaching others to snowboard. Frankly, to teach somebody to snowboard is a great challenge. I have previously taught two people to ride the snowboard on their own: one of them was my brother and another – my friend Domas. At that time I was only 12 years old, and now I was 17! In the meantime, I have acquired new skills and knowledge in snowboarding, communicating and tutoring.

 We went to Liepkalnis on the evening of the 28th of January. Five of us: my classmate whom I tutored Brigita, my classmate Karolis with whom we shot and edited the vlog, my brother Kernius, who tutored my girlfriend Agnė, who also came along, and me. We snowboarded there for three full hours, excluding the 15-minute warm-up on flat snow at the bottom of the mountain. Apart from my major task of tutoring Brigita, with Karolis we shot footage for our vlog. Later that evening we went to Karolis’ home to review and edit our footage to produce a short video log. By the morning of the other day, our video was finished.

Reflection.

Strengths and areas for growth.

During our “trip” I have once again assured myself that I can be a great teacher. I have taught Brigita the basics of riding a snowboard and shared some of my long-time knowledge and insights about the subject and, of course, the danger involved and how to avoid it. I realized that I like to tutor people and give advice to them and, to my mind, and according to my results I am successful at it: Brigita can now descend from and ascend a slope on her own. Of course, she still requires supervision and a hand from time to time, bearing in mind the fact that we only have trained for three hours in one day.

 I have realized what a great way to convey an idea a video is if you have the right knowledge and right skills to produce it. Every time, and I mean every single time, I edit or shoot a video, I learn something new by simply being curious and also by learning from past mistakes. This time we have avoided the past mistake of our video being too serious and, thus, entertaining. Nevertheless, we failed to foresee the weather conditions on the mountain and our built-in camera microphone have failed us, so the audio quality in the video is quite poor. But looking from the bright side, we got the chance to hone our skills of the improving the quality of audio digitally.

Self-initiated challenge.

I like overcoming new challenges and this time it was no different. I have proposed an opportunity for my classmate to be tutored in snowboarding. I wanted to see how well I would be at tutoring someone in this rather complicated subject in always rather complicated and sometimes not the most comfortable situations.  And I did strived to give my best every second of my lesson, as well as, make my student as comfortable and safe as I possibly could. I can say with no doubt that I have overcame this challenge the best way I could and am proud of my effort.

 Furthermore, I have asked my classmate Karolis Špukas to join us in our training, shoot our whole CAS experience and produce a short video, or a vlog, as we like to call it because of its format. And Karolis has accepted my invitation! I’ve always found it hard to plan my CAS experiences to be thorough, complete and planned. This time, however, I have put a lot of time in planning our CAS experience by coordinating times, finding and providing the equipment and, of course, summing everything up with a nice video overview.

 Collaboration.

I wouldn’t have done the vlog and would have made our CAS experience so purposeful, safe and enjoyable at the same time without Karolis, my brother and Agnė, which all helped in shooting. Together with Karolis we have joined our forces to make the video. Karolis did the shooting, I provided him with the material to shoot and together we have put everything together into a video. We have both worked hard, but our endeavours have paid off in a form of the acquisition of new skills. I have once again made certain that teamwork is a killer force!

You can find the vlog under the link:

[maferife]

Con él cumpleañero de hoy #Kernius #happybday #RusiaVsEcuador 🇨🇷🌅🎂💙

[gaudascas]

This is our Generation!!!

On the 19th of February 2016 during the first (morning) part of the “Šimtadienis”* a dozen of students from our school, Vilnius Lyceum, my brother and I have appeared on stage with a song by “The Who” – “My Generation”.  

(PHOTO)

The first intentions to perform started about a month before the event. In the beginning I was planning to perform alone with the help of only two people. But in the middle of the preparation process tables turned. A choir of eleven-graders was formed and served as the back-vocals and the dancers for the show. As for the percussion, I have invited my brother Kernius to accompany us with his African-style drum.

(PHOTO)

The choir’s intention was to perform with their “solo” song. But later, after many rehearsals they have decided that it would be better to perform only “My Generation” with my brother and me. So, eventually, I became some sort of a leader of the choir. We became the team responsible for the “present for the twelve-graders from the eleven-graders”. What could be cooler, huh?

(PHOTO)

During this performance I have sang for the first time in my life with so many people on stage accompanying me. In addition, it was my first appearance on stage at Vilnius Lyceum with an English song. Everyone was happy and elated, especially my “team”, and me and the song was acclaimed by the community of our school. Even now we sometimes unintentionally remember the “famous” “My Generation”. Frankly, I was very pleased to represent “our” generation.

*Šimtadienis is an event which is dedicated to coomemorate the day from which a hundren days are left for the twelve-graders until the final exams.

The performance itself in video:

<<Yeah, people try to put us down>>

[maferife]

Me vinieron a invadir 😬 #Edu #Kernius #Nedas 🎉🇪🇨🇨🇷🎉 (en Curia's Beach)