This unit focused on healthy relationships, boundaries and consent. The project above is the final project I completed for this unit, where we had to take a fictional relationship and analyze the healthy and unhealthy aspects of it against real life. I chose Katniss and Peeta from the Hunger Games, and overall despite the relationship having some healthy aspects to it by the end, Katniss both sexually harasses and manipulates Peeta without his consent, and Peeta also violates Katniss’s boundaries numerous times (as at first it was completely one-way), making it an unhealthy relationship.
This unit touches on many key themes related to this topic. Firstly, one of the most important points brought up was consent – the idea of no sexual action or unwanted advances (which count as sexual harassment) without a clear “yes” from both parties. In addition, healthy relationship boundaries (how far someone is willing to take things or the lines in which things become uncomfortable) was also mentioned, as was the risks of sexting (sending intimate photos online), as those never truly disappear and are part of someone’s digital footprint, leading to possible privacy concerns in the future. Also, we discussed how gender is a social construct and how sex is a spectrum, and LGBTQIA+ inclusion as well as how people don’t necessarily fit into a gender binary like often assumed.
I picked this because it shows how I actually contributed to the discussion. For example, it shows that I communicated and contributed a decent amount to the discussion and our thinking, but it still leaves some room for growth. I spoke three times against the average of four, I spoke for 36 seconds while the average was 55, which shows that I did effectively contribute to the discussion. It shows that I do contribute and I have done so to the previous socratic seminar, but theres still some room for improvement to get closer to the average.
In the swimming unit, we primarily focused on water polo. At the start of the unit, I was completely new to that sport, but over the course of the unit, we went through the basics of dribbling, passing and shooting, which helped me become a little bit more familiar with water polo as a whole. Also, with the swimming unit we reviewed elementary backstroke and some other basics of treading water, which helped. In other words, I learned a lot of water polo from scratch and also reviewed a lot of water safety fundamentals. In the outdoor invasion unit, we primarily focused on soccer, and again I was mostly (not entirely) new to soccer (as there were soccer units in the past, unlike water polo), and I improved a lot on dribbling, passing, defense and generally being more familiar with how to play soccer and its rules. In the future, I hope to probably learn more offense and shooting instead of just being purely defensive for water polo and also soccer as well.
This most recent unit in Health class was mental health awareness and the stigmas surrounding it. Previously, before the unit had started, I was aware of mental health stigmas quite extensively, but I never really had thought about this subject particularly deeply. For example, stigmas often included that OCD was just perfectionism and obsession with cleanliness, anxiety and panic attacks could be easily overcome and regulated just by managing emotions and “getting over it”, and that depression was just a phase of brief sadness. However, all of these harmful perceptions by society and the media grossly oversimplify the reality of mental health and actually end up making them seem quirky or beneficial, which is ultimately detrimental to those actually struggling with said conditions and negatively affects them by indirectly saying that mental health isn’t as important as physical health.
However, as I went further in this unit and learned more about mental health, I realized most of these stigmas were misleading or flat out wrong. OCD is a serious mental health condition that can significantly impact someone’s interpersonal relationships, depression is intense sadness and loneliness that can last months or years (even if not shown on the outside), and anxiety can severely impact someone’s productivity, relationships and work ethic for a long time. Overall, it’s fair to say mental health is just as important as physical health. Those who suffer through mental health conditions are extremely important and not at all freaks or outcasts as often portrayed in media. Learning about the scientific aspects of how these conditions form and how they can seriously impact someone’s life despite not being visible at first glance on the outside right away, and how the stigma of “just a phase” and how one can just “get over it” is entirely false with no basis in reality and scientific fact at all.
In French class, during Unit 1 specifically, we had to read a short novel in French called La Guerre Des Jumeaux, or the basically the Twins’ War, about a set of twins who constantly fight over the tiniest things. Overall, it wasn’t too bad as the content wasn’t particularly difficult, and I think the actual plot was fairly entertaining. The final assessment for this story was an oral assignment where I had to explain it without a full script and only some notes, which meant I had to practice a lot of vocabulary and generally be familiar with the story. One of the best ways to do so was to use Quizlet flashcards, which worked well for me as it allowed me to run through a lot of words and phrases relatively quickly.
I prepared for the assignment with a blend of re-reading the actual story and memorizing the key points, in addition to also going to Quizlet here and there to get through some more vocabulary. I think I did fine, but I did prepare quite a lot of notes which may have stifled the spontaneousness of it a little bit and I hope in the future I should prepare less notes and try to improvise, which probably would help in the future (that’s also the primary piece of feedback I got).
My current goal as of right now, as stated above is to become more self-aware and responsible as a learner. Sometimes, especially in the past, I sometimes had trouble getting minor assignments done, as I didn’t have any sort of fixed system for remembering things to do last year at all. In order to change that, I’ve been leveraging the Notes app as well as my Outlook to-do list to hopefully improve that in the near future. Connecting it to Health class as well, in Health we had to try out and utilise a new app for whatever purposes we deemed necessary in our lives, and I chose to improve on this simultaneously by using the app Remember the Milk which is used as a checklist and reminder app. However, I personally didn’t find it too effective and sort of inefficient without the paid version, so that one didn’t lead anywhere significant.
So far, as far as progress goes, I’m fairly sure I haven’t missed any homework assignments or anything significant yet in Science at all, and things have been going reasonably well in that regard. I want to keep this level of consistency across the board for the rest of the year so that I don’t ever forget anything for Science again. However, so far, I’ve only been marking assignments for homework, and one thing I want to improve on in the near future is also marking studying for 3 for 3 mini quizzes and other things like that rather than just major assignments, as that would help me get better scores.
What I’ve been most proud of in Science class so far has probably been staying consistent as mentioned above, always turning in homework on time and staying on-task at all times when it comes to generally being productive and using time well. However, my biggest challenge has also been briefly touched upon above, which is that sometimes I get overconfident with how well I know class material, and that becomes in an issue in 3 for 3s sometimes as I sometimes get a question wrong, which becomes a problem, so I hope that’s something to work on later.
Overall, I think I have demonstrated being an active learner quite well, with effective time management, completing all assignments on time and having a good completion rate for homework as well. However, in the future, I should again work on studying for quizzes and 3 for 3s.
Overall, I think I’m reasonably happy with how this sticker project went. The best part of it was probably the actual math part of it (which I spent a lot of time checking and checking again since I had more of the luxury of time) and the connection I made to Elden Ring. Initially, I didn’t really have an idea for what to use for the sticker project (as I had first thought the Elden Ring motif was too complex), so it did take some time to simplify it into just a few interlocking circles. The actual mathematical section of it was nearly perfect (I think), and all detailed with no major mistakes at all, but the only major thing I would have done differently if I had to do it again was to connect the actual math more with more detailed reasoning in words (which is one of the important things holding me back from obtaining a full 4 or Exceeding) by adding another paragraph explaining in words how we got from the smaller Cursemark of Death to the other one.
- I chose Question 8 as evidence of my best thinking because I think it demonstrates my knowledge the best. It’s a question that I think I completed entirely correctly, with correct notation, a correct drawing and logical reasoning without any errors at all. I have a habit of making careless mistakes and notation, but I spent longer than usual on this specific question and really paid a lot of attention to not making any mistakes, so it turned out better than a lot of the others.
2. I also chose Question 5 as evidence of my best thinking because I also did something similar to Question 8, as I slowed down and instead of impulsively writing what came to mind, I actually marked what would make the most sense (angles and lines) on the triangles on the paper, which helped me avoid a mistake in Part C (where I nearly read SSS as SAS).
3. Throughout this unit, I improved the most at probably being more careful. I still struggle with it to this day, but overall I think Question 8 especially demonstrates how much better I’ve gotten at notation and writing down all the steps correctly.
4. I feel that I still need to work on very small details at times. I sort of fumbled Question 7, as I confused the notation/sign for parallel lines for congruence, and that sort of little detail often still slips through the cracks for me.
5. List three of your strengths so far this year.
- Writing out sequences of transformations (dilations, especially) in full detail
- Writing a lot for logical reasoning on certain questions and really going in-depth
- Using certain techniques such as projection lines and tracing paper for questions instead of just winging it off intuition
6. List things you want to improve on in the next unit.
- Being more careful with tiny details
- Being more familiar with symbols and shorthand
- Also keeping an eye out for notation (as I nearly got a question entirely wrong because I wrote the angle incorrectly).
- Using certain mathematical language (translate instead of move)
In the next unit, I want to essentially become more careful (with issues such as mathematical language and notation), since that’ll help me avoid careless mistakes and very small errors in the future..
Over the past several week or so, I began using a self-help app known as Remember the Milk, which was specifically designed in order for someone to remember important assignments and project due dates beforehand. I generally do not struggle with this issue and find it fairly easy (for the most part), so I thought I should try out this app in order to fully get rid of any assignments or responsibilities I may end up forgetting directly before, during and after the October Break.
Remember the Milk (the free version I signed up for) works fairly simply. It’s not very complex, mainly hinging upon a simple list of tasks or upcoming assignments. One can add as many tasks as they please to the list (as seen above, this is my list as of today), and add a due date, hashtags, group by topics, urgency, priority, etc. (although none of this is technically necessary or mandatory, but the option is always available), and slowly check completed tasks off the list as their own pace. There are not a lot of features beyond the primary list and several adjustable, modifiable parameters that can be used to slightly tweak the tasks. Interestingly, the app encouraged me to break down assignments into smaller tasks (e.g., “outline essay,” “write intro,” “edit draft”), which wasn’t part of my original plan. This helped reduce procrastination and made large assignments feel more manageable. While RTM worked well for a student like me, it might be less effective for people with unpredictable schedules or those who rely heavily on automated reminders, unless they upgrade to Pro for a pretty hefty price.
Above: the relatively (so far) “completed” list of tasks I’ve checked off the list and can say I did not forget and have already finished
The upsides to this app is that it is fairly simple. It lacks ultra-complex mechanics, and is very straightforward, allowing anyone, very quickly, even with very limited times to hop in, hop out, and set and complete goals more efficiently.The business model is freemium, with a $39.99 yearly Pro plan. While this encourages users to upgrade, it also risks creating a dependency on the app for organization instead of helping them develop good habits. For me, it helped establish a routine, but I had to be intentional about checking the app daily. However, the major downside is that the free version I used for several days was extremely limited in terms of premium/advanced features, which was also a double-edged sword, as it was a straightforward, simple app with very simple features, but also lacked any sort of advanced mechanics that I desired such as tags, social sharing and that kind of thing, which was unfortunately locked behind a paywall.
In other words, I believe it was partially a scam. The intent behind the marketing promised a one-size-fits-all solution, which was partially a lie. Currently, the issue lies in that it simply doesn’t fulfill the promised features, and instead locks those behind 49.99$ per year (subtasks, etc., premium features), which I find as false advertising. In other words, this is a sign of manipulative app design and luring the user into installing an app that doesn’t fully fulfill.
My hypothesis was technically correct, as this was somewhat useful to the extent that I didn’t forget any assignments, but still I would not recommend Remember the Milk due to the deceitful and somewhat manipulative business practice that promised way more than the free version offered. I didn’t end up forgetting a single assignment (it was at least effective enough to prevent that), but the issue is that I feel slightly deceived or duped by the marketing into believing that this was a clean, one size fits all solution for all future assignments and problems one might need to remember, but it didn’t quite deliver that upfront with the free version. This is a pretty important case study in how phrasing and marketing may end up overshadowing the actual product, and how promised, important and expected features may be locked behind a price tag.