CAS Supervisors?

[Kid-Fox]

Currently, I'm getting my creativity hours by practicing jazz music on the piano. My CAS coordinator told us that playing instruments was fine for creativity, as long as it was something new (I only played RCM classical piano until then).

I've read that students need to get their hours signed by a supervisor for the activities, but I'm only practicing at home. I'm pretty sure my mom can't be a supervisor. Will these hours spent practicing count even without a signature?

My school has a yellow CAS sheet, where we only need to put in our CAS activity name and number of hours spent on it. I don't see anything that needs a supervisor signature.

Basically, my question is, do I need a supervisor and his/her signature for each activity I do? It seems like any student can just fake hours with the yellow sheets we have...

[Drake Glau]

Ummm our CAS coordinator requires a signature from whoever supervised, which would include a parent I guess but I'd check with your own coordinator. We also have to supply 2-3 other pieces of evidence that demonstrate how we did it and achieved at least 1 of the learning outcomes. So I'm assuming this would be taking on a new challenges so you would need to prove to him/her that jazz is new to you so maybe a sheet of jazz music that you were practicing to prove its jazz? And maybe an old piece you play all the time. Record yourself practicing even, just prove you did it and met an outcome

[Xelar]

It varies from school to school. At my old school you only needed a signature but at the one here they have to fill out an assessment of you and evaluate you. I would still get a signature because if there's a problem in the future you have evidence/someone to vouch for you. We weren't allowed parents as supervisors though.

[Abdominal Procrastinator]

At our school, it is permitted (only as a last resort and not recommended) to have a parent as supervisor. However, in addition to a signature from our supervisor. We are required to provide some other type of evidence such as a photographic record or letters.

[Mahuta ♥]

Not sure about your school, but my school had the Supervisor sign every activity we did. That and the CAS COORDINATOR's signature at the end.

Fake hours? Yes, too many of those. Even teachers can give you more hours than you did just because they want to help you. There is noway to ensure that all hours counted are not fake.

[dessskris]

playing a piano.. can you get a piano teacher? maybe a relative or neighbor. or maybe if your friend is willing to teach you, they could be your supervisor. or if nobody can teach you, you would need to just have your friend WATCHING you (preferably a friend who has a good taste in music). they could just supervise and write for the evaluation part.

or if you can't find a friends, maybe your music teacher could help you. how? you practice at home, and in the end of the week/month, have a concert or something? get your music teacher to listen to you playing the piano as you have practised and then if they ask you to improve something, do it. at least you got a supervisor...

[Kid-Fox]

I think I'm actually already having my teacher evaluate my playing and suggest improvements. I guess the upcoming Christmas recital I'm having can be evidence of practice for me.

Just to clarify though, nobody is actually supervising me. I was saying that just in case I really couldn't get hours counted without a supervisor, I would be in trouble because I've only got family to supervise my practice.

So I would only need a signature for evidence? And recording my practice hour could be evidence for my hours then?

[Abdominal Procrastinator]

At our school, practice cannot be counted as CAS, but performances, lessons, and other supervised activities count. And I believe that those proposed activities have to be something different from what you have previously done, (but most CAS coordinators approve related activities anyways).

[dessskris]

Doh, Kid-Fox. From what I know, we must have a supervisor for every single project. I do not know how your school does the CAS forms but my school does it this way:

We have 4 forms: proposal, log, diary, evaluation&reflection for each activity, and 1 other form: activity summary for the whole CAS thing.

Activity Summary

This is the list of CAS activities that you did. This includes the number of C, A, S hours you have got from each activity, the total C, A, S hours you have got from all the activities and the total CAS hours from everything.

Proposal

You need to write your name, name of activity, name of supervisor, starting date, time taken, supervisor contact details, aim of the activity, list of learning outcomes that you expect to learn, supervisor's signature, CAS coordinator's signature.

CAS Log

This is a list of things you did in a particular CAS activity. This includes: date, time taken, what you did, supervisor's signature for each day. This needs to be updated each day you do this activity.

CAS Diary

This is a diary. Yes, diary. You need to give some subjective opinion, how you feel about what you did weekly. This includes: week number, diary, time taken in the whole week. This does not need your supervisor's signature but the supervisor still needs to read your diary. This needs to be updated each week you do this activity. At the end of the page, you have 2 more columns to fill in: summary of things that you learned, things to improve for next time.

Self Evaluation and Reflection

This contains questions that you need to answer regarding the activity. You would usually need to write a lot of balderdash in here. They would ask if you have completed your aim, what you have gained, whether your friends helped you and how, etc there are so many questions -- I can't remember all of them. Then there is a table. This rates your performance in the activity. Your supervisor would need to tick one of these for each row: very good, good, moderate, bad, very bad. After that there is an evaluation from your supervisor, supervisor's signature and CAS coordinator's signature.

My CAS coordinator did not really mention to us about the proofs so I do not know much, but we usually do take pictures and those are the proofs. For a performance, a video could also be the proof.

As a conclusion, a supervisor is a must, counting the hours is a must, proof is a must.

At our school, practice cannot be counted as CAS, but performances, lessons, and other supervised activities count. And I believe that those proposed activities have to be something different from what you have previously done, (but most CAS coordinators approve related activities anyways).

For us, practice can still be counted because most of my activities are school-related: co-curricular activities, so there are teachers who teach and supervise us when we practise.

I did drama and choir before IB, and I am still allowed to do it for CAS.