The topic about creativeness was continued to another session with giving an opportunity to show everyone's creativeness. The topic given was to make something useful out of something which is not useful. This was more than just making something because we had to think about the topic too. So the whole class brought something creative on that day except for a few guys who didn't bring anything. It was pretty interesting because we found out that different people have different areas of creativeness. 

From the time the topic was given, the best idea which cam to my mind was to make a pen holder from the use of a bamboo. So i found a good piece of bamboo from the help of my father and then painted it with fabric paint. When starting to paint i didn't have any idea of what i was going to paint but finally i got a beautiful design of hearts which was very colorful.

Likewise many different creations were made by my colleagues too. Such as, Flower baskets, wedding cake box, till using a half cut coke bottle, pencil which looked like a pen, bracelet made with tamarind seeds, dessert cup using the coconut shell, purse out of leather, collage done by thrown away beads and cloth, and more pen holders but made with different material. It was really interesting !

This was my pen holder made out of bamboo.

Author's work,2012

So eventually the people who claimed that they are not creative finally came out with a creative invention and understood that they are also creative. I think that was the whole point of doing that activity.

CreAtiVEneSs

Another lecture which was very interesting and helpful to figure out that everyone has some kind of ability, talent in them. The very first thing Mr. Rehan wanted us to do was to tell whether each of think that we are creative or talented in some way. So according to the responses the class was divided in to two groups on either side. There was almost 50% in either side which meant that half of the class thinks that they are not creative while the rest thinks that they are creative in some way and has positive thoughts.
I'm a person who always want to think in a positive way but there are a lot of times that I've failed too. But this time i took a step and went to the creative people's side because I believe in myself and know that I'm creative in some way. At that moment I was not prepared to give an answer to the question "why do you think you are creative?" but later on when Mr. Rehan wanted everyone to think of a reason as to why they think they are creative/not creative, I started thinking about myself to come up with an answer.

So after going through a rough thinking session in my mind, i decided to tell the class about my 'passion for fashion' because i'm the one who designs my own dresses if its being sewed. But then again I thought about singing because i believe that i have some kind of ability to sing and that's something i really enjoy doing at my leisure time. I was kind of afraid that sir would ask me to sing in front of the whole class when i was not at all ready, so i decided to think of something else. By this time everyone had come up with their ability or creativeness but I was still thinking of what to tell. Finally when sir was about to ask me one of the activities i really really enjoyed during school days struck my head. Announcing !! I used to be kinda the main announcer back in school and I've even compered in school shows all by my self. That was the best thing to tell so I told about announcing. Then again I knew that a question would come back to me because I'm not quite the "announcer" type at APIIT but the quiet girl who doesn't talk much (but non stop talking with friends). So I told him that I used to be a different person back in school, but I'm very happy because even after coming to APIIT I still got the chance to do announcing at some of the school functions. I really do miss my school life because that's the place which made me understand my talents and helped me a lot to develop them.

I've heard many elders say that there's nothing like school life, and I do agree with them because it was one of the best times of my life too :) But coming to APIIT sure did give me some awesome friends and a whole new experience ! :)

Coming back to the topic, at the end of the session I think all of the students realized that they have some kind of creativeness, ability or talent in them which they haven't identified but their friends have. For the people who still think that they are not creative, someday you'll figure out that you are creative, you just have to work on it after you find out what it is. Remember, everyone is creative !

Self Evaluation

Another lecture of LFS was conducted specially in order to make everyone understand about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in each of us. According to the handout which was given by Mr. Rehan, the strengths that I identified in my self were mostly under the people section. The points that i found out as strengths in me are listed below:

• Ability to get on with people from different backgrounds
• Ability to see and understand other people's point of view
• Dealing with the general public
• Teamwork
• Teaching or training others
• Helping others to arrive at decisions
• Being sensitive to other's feelings
• Caring for others
• Ability to read other people's body language
• Courage to speak out against injustice

The stuff that I identified in myself under the activities section are:

• Creativity, design and layout
• Making decisions
• Word-processing
• Computer literacy
• Working with numbers
• Problem solving

Personal qualities in myself according to the handout are:

• Ability to recognize my own needs and ask for help
• Ability to set my own goals
• Trust in my own abilities

So basically all the other points which are not mentioned here can be noted as the weaknesses in me or areas in which I should develop in.

According to what have been discussed previously, there is no 100% perfect human being on earth in the author's view. So everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses which should be developed accordingly.
So this is another step in finding out about our selves. Who we are and what we can do.

Today was fun during the lfs lecture because it was live and active which gave a chance for everyone in the class to participate. At first the whole class was told to make a plane from the use of an A4 sheet (which was actually a rocket). By sending the rockets inside the class, the skill of each person in making a rocket was shown where only one rocket could reach the target and the others were close. Something that the author understood through it is that a person can always improve his/her skills in a particular area by following correct instructions and practicing.

Throughout the next session a discussion (rather a debate) was conducted by the students of the class (mostly boys) by presenting each person's view on the statement "Can imperfection create perfection". One thing that everyone should agree with, is that there is nothing called perfection because there is a development happening in everything, some where in the world everyday. So being perfect is impossible because there is some kind of weakness in whatever one does, according to the author's view (which also means that all of us are imperfect too). Another main point raised during the discussion was that the status or measurement of perfectness depends on each other's point of view and it can have different measures according to different situations. So in order to reach that particular status which one calls as perfection, he/she should keep on doing a certain thing until that maximum point is reached which also includes developing that particular skill, etc. which could probably lead to invention of something new. And in that case the status called as perfection by someone, will be taken higher. So it continues on and on until a person is satisfied and confident that he/she is perfect or even is close to perfection.

Anyway it was a really interesting session today so hope the rest of the semester will also be interesting and enjoyable like this :)

The second lecture for the week was where the topics were divided among the students as seven people for each topic and explained about them. The lecturer also explained about what kind of study activities there will be in the coming weeks such as debates, speeches, etc. Since this is a reflective blog, the author's views and ideas about the presentations done in the class will also be added in here along with an evaluation and analysis about them.

The first day of the semester was included with the beginning of the lecture "Learning for Success". we were supposed to create a reflective blog which should be continued till the 12th week of the semester. the stuff we learn during the 12 weeks are to be analyzed and presented throughout this blog.