Amy's Portfolio

Art: Sketchbook Cover Reflection

January 16, 2026 /

Sketchbook Cover Planning:

Sketchbook Cover:

Artistic Process:

The first step to creating this piece was to make a list of ideas of my hobbies and who I am as a person and an artist. I made sure that my artwork presented an unique version of myself, including elements that represented me the most. After listing out these ideas, I started to do thumbnails on my sketchbook cover, and explaining what those drawings meant for me. I chose the media of sketching/drawing, using color pencils, and by using those pencils, I created this sketchbook cover that I feel great about.

Expressing My Identity:

One way this cover expresses my identity is the speaker where releases “aaaa” and different colored music notes. The repetition of the “a”s is symbolizing the constant noises and my frustration towards music (especially when I had to practice both piano and violin on the same day every day). The various colored music notes express difficulties of the everyday pieces I am playing. Another way is the section in the bottom right corner, representing who I am around nature and when traveling. Nature and traveling makes me feel calm and organized away from my normal busy school life, showing how I change in different environments. One last major way is the crushed piano keys falling from the sky, which relates with the speaker, as they represent me in different layers.

Design Strategy Incorporation:

In my planning and my final creation, I used multiple symbols to represent who I am, like the piano keys and the speaker, making it mystifying to figure out what it is, but has its own meaning. I also use the Elements and Principles of Art, including the hues in my artwork, where the speaker, PART 1, is mutlicolored, the nature, PART 2, is vivid, while the buildings, PART 3, is dark hued. I used the principle of emphasis, where the speaker shines from others, because of the direction it leads when people look at it.

Transdisciplinary Transfer Goals (TTGs) Reflection

January 15, 2026 /

The TTG that I want to improve upon this semester is Critical Thinker. My goal is I will actively learn in class to elaborate on my own thinking by asking thoughtful, relevant questions and considering different views.

In math class, when Ms. Ari is teaching her mini-lesson, I will critically think and learn by thinking of multiple ways to solve a problem, and thoughtfully explaining my thinking and showing my work during warm ups.

In science class, when we split into small groups of 4 to complete experiments on gene and DNA, I will be more active into asking reflective questions, while thinking about how others think about ideas as well.

Vision Board/SMART Goal Reflection

January 13, 2026 /

Goal Progress:

I’ve made progress on this goal. Steps I took to make progress was selecting my 4th piece, finish learning it, and making my other pieces stronger with intonation and rhythm.

Challenges:

Some challenges I’ve met was sometimes I didn’t know what note it was, and the teacher was offline, so I had to find out myself by using the piano, using the tuner, and multiple other sources.

New Insights:

I’ve gained new perspectives since creating the vision board, and these insights influenced my goal and the way I approach it by listening to others’ advice and trying new ways to accomplish this goal, not only by practicing.

Accomplishments:

Accomplishments that I’m proud of since creating my vision board was being proficient in all my 4 pieces, where I started with only the 1st and 2nd piece familiar. This aligns with my vision because these pieces are part of my violin exam, and I need them to be recorded before May.

Revise Goal:

I feel that I don’t really need to revise it a lot, just perhaps change the practice time longer (1hr 30 min to 2 hrs). Longer and more effective practice time will help me reach this goal quicker.

Support System:

The support I’ve received was from my private violin teacher and my family. This support has encouraged me to manage my time more wisely and focus on the goal, while feeling confident at the same time.

Next Steps:

My next steps are to practice more, get more feedback on intonation, rhythm, articulation from my outside teacher, and to make sure to continue to be motivated into doing so!

Social Studies Unit 2: Visual Presentation  

January 5, 2026 /

The task was to create a visual to represent our CER essay on our learning on our topic (mine was airplanes). I chose to do a hand-drawn poster because I wanted to apply my creativity and design ideas onto paper to show how the contrasting colors appear on a blank sheet of paper.

I think I clearly showed how the colors can work together around the black-and-white plane I drew. The different colors managed to represent different things, like the colorful buildings in the left corner. Next time, I should show clearly which section of the paper is which impacts (negative or positive or solutions for the negative impacts).

Social Studies Unit 2: Essay

January 5, 2026 /

To get to this final essay shown above, I first did research on my topic using the 3 article sources (topic of airplanes), jotting down specific notes on the positive, negative impacts, and the solutions regarding the negative. Later, I plugged each of the information into a CER format, separating the 3, acting as a planning for the final essay. Finally, I put them all together, including link sentences.

I think something I did well in this essay was to keep my evidence short and have more reasoning that described HOW airplanes positively/negatively impacted the global society. I feel something that I still need to learn is to elaborate on my introductions (hooks as well) and my conclusions, perhaps engaging more so that the audience doesn’t get bored when I read all of this.

Me as a Collaborator

December 16, 2025 /

INTERACTIONS IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS

When interacting with other students, I act differently depending on what the situation is. When I’m placed in a new table group with people I don’t know that well, I try my best to be inclusive and invite them to a conversation together. I wouldn’t be as outgoing as I normally would be, but I would try to be open for new ideas as well. Normally, I’m someone who takes the initiative to get the notebooks and folders, but if someone is willing to do so, I will not stop them either. Partner work for me is the easiest, because I only have to talk directly to another person, but I also like to raise my hand to share the ideas and thoughts I have about a certain topic. Throughout units 1 and 2, I paired up with Effie for both the product branding (toothpaste) and the dystopian story (“Mirrored”). I would listen to her ideas and perhaps find a way to combine my ideas with hers, so we can make a solution that is fit for both of us.

Overall, I think I would rate myself a meeting for collaboration, because sometimes I just don’t feel like sharing my thoughts, and sometimes I share too much, which kind of overwhelms other’s ideas.

I think most people would describe me as someone who likes to talk a lot and have lots of ideas towards one matter, but not necessarily take too much ideas into consideration. Something that I would do to improve my collaboration skills starting in January is to make myself more open to ideas, even those that for me, seem absurd, because that is creativity from someone and that’s what makes us unique. I think I can do even better regarding communication between table mates, of course, I look forward more to partner projects.

ELA U2 Summatives Reflection

December 16, 2025 /

CERER Summative:

Character Outline:

REFLECTION ANSWERS

My 3 summatives were much better in comparison to my formatives, showing how I understand round, flat, static, and dynamic characters well, and that I understand the CERER structure and explanation requirements.

I am proud of trying my best in all of my summatives and getting ideal grades, so I think all my hard work paid off at the end. A challenge that I had was finding correct evidence for both opposing forces in the conflict CERER, but later I overcame it when I calmed myself down and try to scan through the whole story to find the best relevant textual evidence.

I used feedback from teachers and peers effectively because I incorporated some of the ideas that my teacher and peers gave such as implying transitions before my evidence in my CERER. If I could redo the summative assessment, I would change my round and dynamic traits because they seemed a bit too similar, when we were supposed to make 4 separate traits for the protagonist. The advice I would give myself for Unit 3 is to try my best, and try to get ideal grades, but also learn to improve and accept if my grades aren’t the ones that I wanted.

GOAL: Use time efficiently and effectively during class time, and always be engaged with classes!

Math Unit 3: Proportionality and Percentages

December 15, 2025 /

U-What do you understand about the topic?

Something that I’m confident in throughout the unit was finding the percent from a number with 2 given numbers, finding the part out of a number as a whole when given the percent, and finding the whole when given the part and what percent it is out of the whole. I can correctly convert between fraction, decimal, and percent. Other concepts involved with this unit is finding percent change (increase or decrease), and using 4 different ways, including visual ways, to express the problem (percent equation, proportions, double number line, tape diagram).

N-What new information do you have?

New information and concepts that were new to me at the start of the unit was using the special symbol for percent change, which is △, the triangle. I also learned how to solve simple interest using the correct formula, which is SI = principle * rate * time.

I-What was interesting about the unit?

Something that was interesting about unit 3 in math was final project, either choosing banking, shopping, dining, or another choice. I chose banking, and I compared ICBC China to CCB China with their interest rates, while explaining which is better to deposit money too.

T-What was tricky for you?

I think the most tricky part of this third unit for me is analyzing charts, especially from the L4 CFU, where we were examining the amount (grams) of carbohydrates in the cereal with milk. I realized that I need to be careful for calculations as well, especially not messing up with the original value and the new value.

Health Unit 3: Healthy Decision-Making

December 15, 2025 /

D.E.C.I.D.E. Model:

The DECIDE model is a model where there are 6 steps as Define the problem, Explore your options, Consider the consequences, Identify your values, Decide what to do, and Evaluate your decision, and it helps us analyze the situation and make the healthiest choice for that problem. It is very helpful for making difficult decisions because it explores all aspects of the given situation, making sure that the decision you choose has the least consequence from it.

DECIDE Model NOTES:

There are multiple effects from different substances. Common substances include nicotine: this could cause depression and is highest in addiction for drugs, which is found in nicotine pouches, vapes, cigarettes, and painkillers; cocaine: severe illnesses inside the body like brain damage and organ damage. These drugs and substances give a feeling of relieve, especially the feeling of happiness from the reward center.

WEBSITE PRESENTATION NOTES:

These websites are very useful for informing specific age ranges, like youth/teens, parents, school officers/staff etc. I think for me, personally, Youth Now is the best website focusing on drugs and substances (alcohol, marijuana) because there are lots of information broken down for teens to understand the consequences and effects from these drugs and substances. The pages are colorful, and for MS student like me, I think drawings and doodles and art appeal to me more than just plain text. I can utilize these websites to understand more about the consequences of drug substances by centering my attention to the youth/teens section, and jot down notes about solutions for coping stress, what the drugs are, and more information regarding drugs.

Science Unit 2: Cells and Human Body Systems Reflection

December 15, 2025 /
  • What was the essential question you chose to answer?
  • A: What happens inside our bodies when we get sick?
  • B: How do our body systems work together when we play our
    favorite sport?
  • How did what you learn about cells and human body systems help you to answer this essential question?
  • How does this relate to the idea that the body is a system of subsystems made up of groups of cells?

The essential question I chose to answer was B: “How do our body systems work together when we play our favorite sport?” One of my hobbies is tennis, so I enjoyed demonstrating some of learning on tennis too. In the cells and human body systems unit, I learned a lot of information, such as the organelles inside of cells, and what specific organs are in one body system as well as the organ’s function. This helped me answer this essential question because I can use what I know about tennis to describe what the body systems and the cells are doing inside when moving and hitting a specific tennis move. This relates a lot to the idea that the body is a system of subsystems made of cells, because the levels of organization in an organism shows that cells are the basic unit of life, where subsystems are composed of little tissues that are made up of cells. The subsystems are the body systems, and the body system’s function all comes from the cells working to make the overall function work.

  • Which learning experience was the most impactful or memorable for you as a learner?
    o Stations Activities (Organization of Life, Body System
    Interactions, Specialized Human Cells)
  • Self-directed notes (Human Body and Cell Notes)
  • Watching Videos (Ali Isaacson, The pathway of Oxygen,
    Microscope Parts)

o Teacher Mini-Lessons (Heart flow diagram, Direct instruction, Explanation of Body System functions)

  • Dissections (Pig’s heart/ lungs and Bullfrog)
  • Group work (VR or Cardboard Human body project, Cell Analogies, Microscope Observations, Connectors)
  • Extended learning activities (digestion simulation, mini-lung models, and knee reflex check)
  • Modeling activities (Edible cell, clay or digital models)
  • Review Games (Kahoot, Gimkit, Cells Guess Who)
  • Independent research projects (Blind Box Project)
  • Explain why by reflecting on the type of learner you are.

One of the experiences that was impactful was the dissections of the pig lungs, pig heart, and the bullfrog. This was memorable because I know the room was stinky and that is was very bloody (water was bloody from pig), but it helped me learned a lot about the tissues and that organ. Another experience was Blind Box Project we just finished, because it was hands-on and we get to use our imagination and creativity to design something we like to present.


If you could improve ONE aspect of your learning in this unit as a whole, what would it be and why? Provide a change that could enhance future learning experiences.

The one aspect of my learning I would improve is my CER writing, especially the reasoning because I need to tie it more with the claim and the evidence. A change would be practicing more of explaining how the evidence is tied to the reasoning. I enjoyed this unit, and I look forward to the 3rd unit as well!

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