[IB9 & IB10] Bang Bang You're Dead - a play directed by the students

Vaiva Zokaitė -

           CAS has never been about collecting the hours or doing something that has to be done just because somebody says so. The idea which, I believe, all IB students at this point can agree on is to combine having a great time and getting out of your comfort zone, as well as discovering hidden talents. This is what we had in mind when we started putting up posters of “Bang Bang You’re Dead” play auditions on the walls of Didzdvaris Gymnasium and figuring out a plan.

A friend of mine, Zivile Matjusaityte (IB1), once randomly suggested to direct a play at our school. She already had experience working on some plays in Hawaii, so did I – both acting and directing. Without waiting much longer, we talked to some people at Didzdvaris Gymnasium who gave out the permission to carry out the plan to direct this controversial and thought-provoking play without hesitations.  

           It wasn’t too long before we gathered a team of charismatic, fluent English speakers who were adventurous enough to try themselves out in the field of theater or just revive their acting skills. We were all eager to begin taking this bumpy road, which at first appeared a piece of cake to most.

We started meeting several times a week in a classroom after school, just reading out the script of “Bang Bang You’re Dead” out loud. The actors were assigned the task of learning their lines within the first month or so, which, of course, was way easier to say than to do. This appeared to be one of the biggest problems we encountered and it seemed as if we were not getting anywhere closer to our goals. However, slowly but surely, we all started overcoming these obstacles and moving forward, as well as getting closer to each other. At that point we started understanding how important the process is – being scattered and unconfident were the main things holding us back. Even as things were starting to get better, problems would find their way back –we could barely fit into the time frame, there were thoughts of delaying the premiere and so on. The lesson we learned here was how important confidence, teamwork and proper organization are. We often had to encourage each other not to lose the motivation, which was our key to success.

           The week before the premiere of the play, which is often called “hell week” was not too big of a hell after all. We seemed to have gone through the roughest patches, the lines had been memorized, and nobody made excuses or missed the rehearsals. Zivile and I had the job of deciding where and what time we will be ready to let others see and feel what we had been working so hard on for the past several months, what the audience should look like and run all the possible scenarios in our heads.

           The time had come. Thankfully, we had all the support from our teachers and school administrators to show it to some of the students of Didzdvaris Gymnasium during classes. After that, we have been given a hall in the Siauliai Art Gallery and performed to the closest people – friends, family members and such. Both performances happened on the same day and we had never felt closer to each other and more accomplished. We had not imagined the audience, especially at our school, would be so concentrated, serious and understanding during the play. The moment we saw how moved some people were and how much they appreciated our dedication and the actors’ talent, we knew our hard work had paid off.

           After having the summer to slow down, we’re not ready to stop - we’re back at work. There have been some minor challenges already, but this only shows there’s still a lot of room for improvement. At this moment, with the help of out English teacher Alla Chvostova, we are getting ready to give our very best to a school in Panevezys. We have planned a bit more than that, but only time can tell what is possible and how much further we will go, especially with the majority of us being seniors. This year we are striving for a performance more polished and professional, as well as hoping to learn even more not only about theater, but about ourselves, too.

The last rehearsal before the big play. 

The crew after an outstanding performance

[IB9] Voluntary work for the “Food Bank” action ||| Part 3

Anelė Brazaitytė -

Food bank is a charity organization, which collects donation in food products and allocate it to poor families, elderly and other people in need. The aim of this “Food Bank” organization is to provide people with information about those poor families, lonely mothers and elderly, suggest to donate any of long-term products for them, to grow mercy feeling in citizens hearts. As far as I know Food Bank action in our school’s IB history is quite a long time. In this action IB students participate twice a year and annually. Namely our generation, my class mates and I, participate in this action second time.

This and previous time there was a made-up timetable, which divided us into small groups and each group had their own period of time to volunteer. Then when particular group’s turn came up to work they are separated into different roles. Up to two persons share booklets for comers. Firstly they welcome people with nice greetings, then comes suggestion to participate in Food Bank action and in the end answering their questions or other reaction to buyer. Another role of volunteering in this action is to stand with boxes and thank for products that are donated by people. There is needed up to 4 people. One should take products and to sort them in boxes, another should mark what products were donated and third person should thank in appropriate way for products donated.

Personally mine expectation of 2014 Food Bank was positive, keeping in mind that it was my second participation in this action. Had it was my first time I participating there, I would have had more suspense feeling in my heart. I was expected to have opportunity to meet new people, to be useful in collecting food donation for poorer people, to advance self-confidence in encouraging people to be lavish, to spend more time with our classmates in social activities, to improve communication skills. And actually I was successful in taking part in this volunteering event. Next time most probably I would participate for a longer time, not only for several hours, but may be for two days. Not only I would donate more by myself, but also invite my friends to collect some money and to buy any of those long-term products.

Now after those two times I have participated in Food Bank I could summarize several of advantages and lessons that it gave to me. First of all, it gave me an experience on volunteering, gave an opportunity to meet new people, to find out how little do they know about products donated to this action and to introduce them with action more widely. I developed my communication, people understanding, team work skills. I improved my tolerance and debate skills and I believe so did my classmates.  

[IB9] Siauliai Didzdvaris Gymnasium park spring clean-up

Deividas Nekrašius -   

        In the end of March me and my classmates - Anelė Brazaitytė and Gabrielė Baristaitė, were invited to go and help to clean up the Didzdvaris park. We were assigned with different tasks such as raking and taking leafs away, thin out the bushes, pick up the litter from the ground. Over-all we, as a group, did pretty well because after our help in the area we were assigned to, was cleaned out and looked a lot better than in the beginning. Also we have benefited from this activity by learning more about the park of Didzdvaris because there was a person who told us about the park itself. Furthermore, there were supposed to be tea and porridge but it was not there. I think that the next time it could be organized a bit better and clearer. Over-all the whole cleaning up was both – beneficial and fun for us. We got the chance to clean up the park and listen to interesting stories about it.

Taking a picture before the upcoming hard work (we are on the left)

[IB9] The first IB convention or why the IBDP is awesome beyond the academic side.

Klaudijus Rulys -

On February 15 the first ever Lithuanian IB convention was held, which was 2 days long and as the school which has the IBDP for several years now, we got invited as well. Seven students from IB1 were chosen to represent the school. But before we went to the event, we had some preparation to do, namely, we had to create a short film about the IBDP in our school. Me, Kristijonas Lotiukas, Augustė Bagdonaitė, Kamilė Inčiūraitė, Dovydas Jokšas, Greta Timaitė and Tomas Bilkauskas rounded up some people from our class and did a little questionnaire, which we taught was the quickest and most effective way to gather information. Questions such as “What is the IBDP to you?” “Why did you choose the IBDP over the national program?” and “How to spell International Baccalaureate?”(My favourite one) were included. We used our school’s radio club, because it had the best acoustics for recording the answers. All in all, it took us about 2 hours to film the answers and another 2 or so hours to make it more appealing. In the end, I was really happy with our final result, the short film, because it turned out really entertaining and I think showed the IBDP students opinions about the program really well.

When I thought about the IB convention as an event, I expected and event of 50 or so students sharing their ideas, opinions and experiences about the IBDP. I got what I expected, though perhaps to a lesser extent. There were only about 20 of us, which is not bad, this made the atmosphere cosier, at least for me. Once we all checked in, we were shortly briefed about the activities that are to take place. The plan included such activities as a creative workshop based on the IB learners profile, a meeting with an alumni, the planning of a CAS activity to unite all the IB schools in Lithuania and various lessons, discussions Also, in between the discussions we had some games and a tiny bit of free time to get to know each other better. What was really surprising for me, is that at the night of day 1, Kaunas Jesuit Gymnasium held “The battle for independence” to commemorate the events that happened on February 16 in Lithuania. We often referenced to the battle of independence as to “the hunger games” and the whole idea of this game was interesting to me and I believe I may use this idea when organising future events in our school. Because I was really tired after the creative workshops and discussions, I wasn’t in the mood to play this game. Despite this, my team won the first place!

Although there were a lot of good moments, there were also some awkward and confusing moments. The free time that was given, at least for me was not enough to get acquainted with other participants, which for me was really sad. This caused an awkward situation at the end of the convention when we played a game, where you basically have to tell the chosen person’s name and tell him what you liked about him and what you wish for him. I had to tell something about a person who I saw only 2-3 times and never really got to talk with. What I found confusing during the discussions is that quite a lot of people are still switching subjects, are not sure about their universities and overall aren’t planning their future as much as I think me and my classmates are.

On the other hand, remembering the best moments of the convention, the first thought that comes to mind is definitely the sleeping bag fights right before sleep on the first night. Boys and girls had to sleep in different rooms and the guys got quite a lot of mattresses. We laid out all of the mattresses and we saw that it covered the whole floor. So we thought of doing a sleeping bag fight tournament, where you have to remain in your sleeping bag and get your opponent on his back. Just like real wrestling… just in sleeping bags. Another fun moment was when we were discussing our subject choices, university choices and the different approaches to CAS. We all comprehended CAS in a very similar way. During day 2, we were split into random groups and had to come up with 2 ideas for CAS which would include all of the IB schools in Lithuania. There were a lot of really good suggestions and I hope at least some of them, with our contribution, will come true.

Overall, the IB convention was interesting to say the least. There was a lot of fun moments, interesting people and different perceptions of the IBDP.

Here are some moments from the event: 

[IB9] A hike to Kurtuvėnai Regional Park

Gabrielė Baristaitė -

The 25th of January is known as midwinter. This day marks the middle of winter, it means that there is half of winter left till spring. There is one myth about this day. It is known that on this day a badger comes out of its cave and if the day is sunny he recognizes his shadow and goes back to the cave. It means that spring will come later. But if the day is foggy, the badger comes out from the cave and takes a walk. Thus, we can expect that spring will come earlier.   

Each midwinter “Aukuras club” organizes a hike to commemorate midwinter and to check whether the myth has some truth in it.  It became a tradition to do this every year. This club aims to protect and handle the heritage of nature. Club does this by organizing hikes, seminars and competitions related to nature preservation.  Also, club contributes to the activities of Kurtuvėvai Regional Park. The midwinter hike is organized annually in the Kurtuvėnai regional park because the park has a lot of beautiful lakes and hills. During the hike twelve lakes are visited and also people attempt to find out whether the spring will come earlier or later.

This year my classmate Eglė and I have decided to participate in the midwinter hike. I have not known what I should expect because it was the first time when I went to the hike. I thought that the hike in winter time is very unusual but also it is a great chance to try something new. The hike has started from the early morning. The morning was sunny, so following the idea of the myth we expect that spring will come later. The people who wanted to join the hike had to be in the car parking near Pageluvis Lake. The coordinator of the hike introduced the plan and we started the hike from the first lake Pageluvis.  National and local television were also interested in the predictions about spring. They decided to create a coverage of the hike.  During the hike we have visited twelve lakes, we have seen some boars and also we had one incident on the lake. 

When we were standing on one of the lakes, and while our coordinator was talking about the lake, suddenly everyone heard ice breaking. Some of the group lied down, some ran to the shore. Fortunately, it was only a sound of ice breaking, about which we had quite a laugh each time we went on different lakes. I have learnt that lying down is the best and safest way to keep safe in emergencies of ice breaking. I think this was the most memorable event during the hike for everyone who participated.

This hike helped us to get to know more about Kurtuvėnai Regional Park; we have seen striking nature scenes and the amazing lakes in winter time. During this activity I, personally, have improved my collaboration skills and also have increased my ability to deal with emotions in unpredictable situations. I am very happy that I had an opportunity to join the midwinter hike in Kurtuvėnai Regional Park because of the amazing moments we all shared on that day. Next year I will participate too, and I advise everyone to join it as well, to experience moments that will be remembered for a long time!

[IB9] Fundraising for the victims of typhoon Haiyan in Philippines

Dovydas Jokšas -

The human‘s nature is to look only around himself and care only about his own environment. CAS tries to make students be different by developing caring and open-mindedness in everyday life. The activity that I am going to write about is closely related to the IB mission of intercultural understanding – me Dovydas Jokšas and my classmates – Vaiva Zokaitė and Karolina Vitkevičiūtė - were doing fundraising for the victims of typhoon Haiyan in Philippines.

Two months ago Vaiva Zokaitė, my classmate, offered me to organise a fundraising action in Didzdvaris gymnasium to help victims in Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan hit the islands of Philippines on the 8th of November with the speed of 300 km/h. Many big cities in the country were destroyed, including the infrastructure – transport, healthcare, education and many other systems. It was the deadliest natural disaster in the history of Philippines, because at least 6000 people were killed and few thousands are still missing. Over a million lost their homes, many have lost their jobs and families. The damage of millions of US dollars was made. We thought that it would be a great chance to help those people. We searched for the information what would be the best way to help the victims. The organisations that were working there (particularly – Red Cross organisation)  announced that financial help would be the best, because sending products to the Philippines where the transport system was mainly destroyed would be complicated – the aid had to be centralised with the help of money. Therefore, we started to brainstorm what is the best way to collect as much money as possible. We thought of charity boxes which would be placed in the corridors of our school, but we abandoned this idea because the previous practise in our school shows that it does not attract much money. Finally, we decided to make presentations in every class, so that students would get enough information about the tragedy and would decide whether they want to contribute or not. The organisation that we decided to donate to was the Red Cross of Philippines. Its’ goal was to ensure food, clean water, shelter and medicine for 100 000 affected families.

In Didzdvaris gymnasium there are over twenty classes, thus it was not easy to organise presentation for every one of them. With the help of four our gymnasium‘s class coordinators we arranged the time of presentations in every class meeting – all coordinators accepted this idea very well. From the 18th of November the presentations started. At first we were not sure if the students in classes will be interested in these presentations and the idea itself. As we started the presentations, we were pleasantly surprised how nicely students accepted it. It was great to see how willingly many students were donating the money to help the people who are over 9000 km away from Lithuania. After few days from the start of our action, due to the huge load of work, our classmate Karolina Vitkevičiūtė joined to help us. After four weeks of hard work we have made an extra presentation for the teachers of our gymnasium and by that ended the fundraising. The very last part of our project was to count the money and send it to the Red Cross – we have counted 950 Lithuanian Litas which was a huge amount of money taking into account that it was donated by the community of school. Just after the Christmas we sent the money to the Lithuanian Red Cross from where it was transferred to the Red Cross of Philippines.

Such events as this are a great way to help other people. After this voluntary action the three of us were really happy of the result we achieved. It was a great example for us that with a lot of effort so much can be done – for the money that we donated a few thousands of food rations or a few hundreds of medical kits can be bought. We understood how easy it is sometimes to improve the life of others.

[IB9] Annual Siauliai Didzdvaris Gymnasium IB community meeting.

Karolina Vitkevičiūtė- 

27th December at Didzdvaris gymnasium is a special day.   DG IBDP students gather together at the annual IB Meet. This year, 2013, the event was organized for the sixth time. Traditionally, not only do present students participate at the meeting, but they also help at the preparation process. Some of us got the assembly hall ready, some prepared snacks, others greeted the guests, and me and my classmate Ieva hosted the Diploma giving ceremony.

Events on 27th December began with newly established Didzdvaris gymnasium IB Alumni club meeting. After that Ilona Radavičiūtė (5^th IB generation student) announced the beginning of the IB Conference. We heard inspiring stories by:

o   Aidas Medžiūnas (1^st IB generation student, now studying Mathematics in Vilnius University), who told that people shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes.

o   Dominykas Gudavičius (6^th IB generation student, now studying Bio-mechanics in Vilnius Gediminas Technical University), who told about the importance of national defense.

o   Ligita Ivanauskaitė (5th IB generation student, finished Bachelor of Science in Psychology in Royal Holloway University of London, now teaching Psychology in DG IBDP), who told about a research on children that she had done in the University.

o   Simas Simanauskas (5th IB generation student, finished International relations and political science in the University of Sheffield, now working with the program “Kurk Lietuvai”), who told that experience of living abroad can be very useful for further life in Lithuania.

The last but not least event on IB Meet was the 7th IB generation Diploma giving ceremony. We saw wonderful performances by:

o   Kamilė Inčiūraitė (Current IB1 student)

o  Gabrielė Andriūnaitė (Current IB1 student) and Vykintas Jasaitis (7th IB generation student, now studying Jazz in Klaipeda University)

o   Greta Keraitė (6th IB generation student, now studying Chemistry in Vilnius University)

Great speeches were given by:

o   Paulius Urbonas (7^th IB generation student, who is now studying Economics in New York University of Abu Dhabi)

o   Kęstutis Balynas (former History teacher in DG IBDP)

o   Kamilė Šeraitė (6^th IB generation student, president of the DG IB Alumni club, now studying Political Science at Vilnius University), who announced the Alumni club officially opened and invited all the members to make an oath.

o   Rima Tamošiūnienė (Diploma Program Coordinator), who gave the Diplomas to the 7^th IB generation students with the help of school principal Vitalis Balsevičius.

To sum up, I can say that the event went very well! As present students of IBDP, me and my classmates got motivated by the stories of former students and we are glad that we got a chance to be a part of this event and its fluency. 

DG IB 7th generation receiving their diplomas

6^th IB generation student Dominykas Gudavičius giving a speech about the importance of national defense

 Gabrielė Andriūnaitė and Vykintas Jasaitis giving a wonderful performance