Effective Collaborator

I teamed up with some of my fellow peers to solve a murder mystery. We all actively engaged with each other and learnt to use eye contact and hand gestures / symbols to further convey our ideas to each other. This however, was due to the circumstance of us not being allowed to speak. I was so smart that I decided to make a group chat, but sadly nobody used it. We also did a voting protocol, which helped me to become a better collaborator. From this valuable experience, I learnt that working with others isn’t just about sharing your ideas; it is also about actively listening to your peers and valuing everyone else’s opinions. Overall, this experiences not only improved my problem solving skills but also made me a better team player, as I discovered new ways to connect with others without relying on words. It was an unforgettable experience that underscored the importance of teamwork.

Skillful Communication

I demonstrated skillful interactions with my peers using the arts of language through using such methods to effectively teach and support people on their journey towards the hobby of playing the mobile game brawl stars, which can help to elevate the mental awareness of our surroundings. I created a power point office presentation on the subject and it has effectively and efficiently showed and instructed my social peers on how they should begin their journey. In the step to step guide, I included information for beginners and taught them, the basic dynamics and mechanics for people who have just started the game By sharing my insights and knowledge from experience, I aimed to foster a supportive environment where everyone around me would feel encouraged to ask questions and explore the game together. The feedback I received was overall extremely positive, with my friend (the subject of this instigation) expressing gratitude for the clarity and guidance that I provided in my presentation. At the end of this experience, I was able to not only reinforced my teaching skills as an individual, but also strengthened my connections with my fellow peers.

Resilience

In terms of mental resilience, I was able to improve my mental capabilities through mindfully eating and reflecting on where my food came and the resources that were necessary to make it, and also through creating a personal vision board, where I established myself as an effective learner, an efficient thinker, and economically minded perseverant individual. Through the vision board, I was able to gain further insights into myself and I reflected deeply on my personalities and the way I do things. For the mindful eating activity, I was able to reflect upon the origin of foods that I were consuming, and helped me to better have a visual understanding of the bigger picture of factories and the consumer chain and helped me to delve deeper into the complexes of human society. Through these experiences, I not only enhanced my own understanding on resilience but also set the foundation for a thoughtful and intentional approach to my personal life. My journey reflected a commitment to continuous learning, self-improvement, and a deeper connection to the world around myself.

Critical Thinking

I was able to make two individual power point presentations and they both demonstrated my ability to think creatively and come up with solutions to abstract situations. For one, I had to demonstrate how a seemingly extremely outlandish thing could become a very agreeable deal. For example, I would be able to get something that would be extremely hard to access otherwise if I pay the owner double the original price of what he needed to acquire the product. I used information from the national institution of health to back up my hypothesis using very detailed information on psychological phenomena that occur in the cases of buy / sell scenario. I also made a power point presentation on how I could save a cat from a tree using very abstract materials and had to have a basic understanding of the study of physics to save a cat which would be falling from a tree. Both presentations helped to improve my problem solving skills and also reinforced the importance of having innovative thinking in circumstances of addressing unique challenges. They also effectively highlighted my ability to combine my research with my creativity, resulting in the creation of engaging and informative content for readers.

Creative Learner

I was able to demonstrate my abilities to be a very and extremely creative learner by creating a very creative poster and a very melodic piece of music that was meant to be a morning wake up tune. In my music piece, I demonstrated my ability to coherently create a piece of music and I was able to individually think of a unique idea and cultivate it to an entire piece of music! For my creative poster, I was asked by the instructors to create a poster for a book that I am very much fond of, and I chose the book animal farm, which may or may not be the book that I have been working on this recent unit in language arts class. I searched the web for pictures and I mixed them together, and creative a very creative communist pig poster, which fully captures the depths of which the book delves into and the deep philosophical ideas that it provides for its readers. Both projects allowed me to express my creativity and deepen my understanding on respective topics.  The combination of music and visual arts not only enhanced my learning experience but also helped me to better articulate certain complex themes in ways that resonate better with different audiences in life. I am proud of my ability to think creatively and bring unique ideas to life, which effectively showcases my individual growth as a learner and an artist.

Today during learning lab, students were split into groups of 3 and each performed a skit. From our skit, I have learned the importance of credible information. When a piece of information looks sketchy, it is important to not use it instead of being too lazy to find another source. It is extremely important that we maintain credibility and trustworthiness online by only using credible information.

The AI Ethics Dilemma is regarding whether we should use a 99% accurate tool, considering that if misunderstands a result, it would lead to government prosecution. Regarding this in my studies, I haven’t really played around with the concept of using AI, but I believe that I can learn information more effectively using AI. This dilemma taught me that it is important to double check when using information from AI, as there is always a possibility that it is feeding a false result.

Today during Learning lab, we are supposed to respond to one of the following prompts:.

• Middle School reflections: What do you wish you’d known?
• Transdisciplinary Transfer Goals: Your strengths and areas for improvement (see attached PDF)
• High School excitement: What are you looking forward to?

Enee-Menee-Minee-Moe… I guess fate told me to do number 2. Well, here goes nothing:

In SAS, we strive to cultivate 5 skills that are going to be important to our future development: critical thinking, skilled communication, effective collaboration, creative learning, and being an ethical global citizen.

I would say that critical thinking is my best skill among these, with effective collaboration being my worst.

Regarding critical thinking, even though I never took classes outside of school, I manage to do well in classes. This also includes math class, which is generally more challenging to keep up with if I don’t pre-learn it outside of school.

However, I believe that I am more lacking in effective collaboration. I don’t know if its just me, but my partners just seem to do nothing most of the time. During my time in high school, I need to learn to deal with more people when working with them in a group.

Well, I guess this is the end of my first high school portfolio entry. Yay!

The Feather and the Rock

What has been easy and what has been challenging?

During today’s work period, I felt a bit challenged by the length of the articles, which would be a rock. The extreme length of the articles makes me hesitant to read and demotivates me before I even start. In addition, there isn’t a lot of time to complete the articles before I start my product.

However, I was able to focus and have decent reading speed, which would be my feather. I read faster compared to last class and decided to start taking notes to increase my efficiency. This allowed me to efficiently skim through the articles while finding information that would be important for my final product.

Emoji representation of progress

At the start of the project, I thought the topic that I chose was rather easy, so I was not in a rush to complete it. Therefore, the emoji that I chose to represent this stage would be:

😑

After a few lessons into the project, I realized that researching the topic was harder than I expected. The only sources that clearly demonstrate the topic are extremely long, and they were written by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. I feel extremely exhausted trying to read the entire article, and I feel the adequate emoji would be:

😫

At the end of the project, I wish that I would be successful in researching the topic. Research is the easiest part, and once I complete it, the process will get smoother. The emoji I choose would be:

😎

Progress Check-in

The project has been a success so far and I have been able to research about different topics and also have been able to narrow down my scope, and identify some potential topics that I will write about. Currently, main contenders include Skepticism, Idealism, Determinism, Constructivism and Realism.

I have also decided the topic of my final product, and I decided that It would be about reality. Seeing the topics that intrigue me, I noticed that they all seem to question the roots of reality and find sense in such a chaotic world.

I believe that minor changes might have to be made towards my action plan because the progress has been faster than I imagined. I would also need to identify more credible and usable sources/videos to gain more understanding on the relating concepts.

I will continue researching in the following blocks, and try to get enough information to start on my final product. During the project, I think I should have been a bit more careful in the evidence selection. considering that philosophy is a controversial topic, sources sometimes have different information regarding concept. I should cross-check sources to verify the information.

Pitch Proposal Reflection

During our pitch proposals, our Cohort #1 teacher (Ms. O’Dwyer) separated us into individual groups of 5 students. We took turns to take inspiration, ask questions and provide feedback on each individual’s progress on their pitch proposal.

My idea was to create a piece that educates the audience regarding philosophical concepts and some of my own ideas that I will research more deeply about during the entire process. The poster would be presented on an A4 paper, but I’m considering adding more information and turning it to a science fair project so that it can hold more information.

During my pitch, fellow student were engaged and being active listeners, actively asking questions and trying to understand more regarding the product.

After some careful considerations, my fellow students provided they’re thoughtful feedback. Overall, there was concern towards the complexity of the project. They believed that the project may have been too simple over the span of 19 periods. This indeed is a valid concern, and I plan to solve this by adding more A4 faces towards my final product, which would increase the information that I can include.

My fellow students also suggested that I include information regarding my experience and some of my thoughts regarding the topics. I find this a helpful suggestion that I plan on acting upon on my final product.

The pitch proposal was extremely helpful and helped me gain new insights towards how the final product should be. The pitch proposal allowed for the providing of invaluable feedback, and helped me to reflect on the overall idea for the project.

In conclusion, I found the pitch proposal extremely productive because it has helped to gain important insights towards the path that the project is to progress towards.