Juwon's Portfolio

 Social Studies Unit 2: Visual Presentation  

January 17, 2026 /

Link to My Presentation

Transportation Presentation.mov

Brief Summary

The task was to make a visual model of my topic, which were cars, to demonstrate my understanding for my topic, and to produce a visual presentation with it. I chose to make a cardboard model of a car, since I like crafting and is fairly good at making things with hands. Then I used my cardboard model to present what I learned about my topic.

What I Did Well

I did well in making the model and was pretty satisfied with my final product. I was able to use cardboard to make a 3D model that could be recognized as a car. I also painted my car model so it doesn’t look so boring. Although maybe I could have added more details or parts.

What I Need to Improve On

I can definitely improve in visual presentation. The biggest part is eye contact; I should try to look at the audience more. Another part is confidence, I could have been more confident when sharing my visual presentation, like speaking louder and clearer. One last thing I could have done is show and appeal my visual model more. I thought about showing the engine picture that I put inside the car hood and the exhaust pipe that I made out of a plastic straw, but forgot to do so when standing in front of the class to present.

Smart Goal/Vision Board Reflection

January 17, 2026 /

Goal Progress

My academic goal was participating more in class and raising hands more often. I honestly forgot about the goal and didn’t really succeed. I did raise my hands a couple of times, but not once a week.

Challenges/New Insight

It was really hard for me to raise hands in class because I am too shy to do so. I also always have the thought that what if my answer is incorrect and other people will think that I’m weird. But what I learned recently is that others actually don’t really care what other people do, and even if I say something wrong, they won’t think that I’m strange. Plus, people do make mistakes sometimes.

Accomplishments

There isn’t anything big that I accomplished, but I am proud that I at least tried to reach my goal. Although, I learned that it is not enough and I should really try harder next time.

Revised Goal

I should add to my original goal to build some confidence. This is related to my first goal because if a I build confidence, then I will probably be easier to raise my hands in class.

Support System

My teacher (Ms. Jiang) helped me throughout my journey; she always reminded me to raise my hand in at least one of my classes. Then I will remember my goal and try but couldn’t succeed. Maybe next time I can try to record my progress more often, so I could support myself.

Next Step

My next step is to build confidence, but I don’t really know how to do that. Some options might be finding a mentor I can seek guidance to (people like my parents), try to avoid comparing myself to others, or doing something nice to me. I will try all of these other time and this time I will succeed in both building confidence and participating more in class. I will try to take things step by step.

Badminton Reflection

January 15, 2026 /

During the badminton unit, I learned how to do drop shots, clear shots, and played games using those techniques. I already new how to do both of does shots, but I was able to strengthen does skills this time.

I did well in doing drop shots. I was able to hit the birdie close to the net so my opponent had to run up from the middle in order to hit it. I was also able to use fakes sometimes, I pretended to hit the ball far away (clear shot) and actually hit it weakly and near the net. I should still work on controlling the distance of my clear shots. The birdie often goes too far away and gets out of the court. I should practice on adjusting my strength when hitting the birdie, so the shot is not like a drop shot, but also doesn’t get out of the court.

Playing games in badminton was really fun, I could practice playing doubles, since I mostly play singles with my dad. I hope that I can improve more on doing clear shots and play better next year.

Social Studies Unit 2: Essay 

January 14, 2026 /
Picture of essay
Picture of essay

Brief Summary of Essay

I wrote an essay about my topic, cars. First, I did some research about cars and found 3 articles about three main body paragraphs; one paragraph about the positive impacts, one paragraph about negative effects, one more paragraph about who and how people fixed the problem. Then I filled a graphic organizer about it and wrote the three body paragraphs after. For all of them, I wrote the evidence and reasoning first and then I wrote the claim. Finally, I wrote an introduction and a conclusion.

What I Did Well

I did a good job in writing the evidence. I found relevant pieces of evidence from articles and wrote the correct citation for it. Although there was an confusion between the evidence and reasoning in the first paragraph, overall, my evidence and citations were mostly solid.

What I Need to Improve On

I need to improve in writing the reasoning. I need to be more detailed and write more of the reasoning. I should work on explaining how my evidence supports the claim, and should connect back to the claim more often. On the first paragraph, my evidence and reasoning didn’t really match up, so I had to adjust both the evidence and reasoning. It might help if I practice writing relevant pieces of reasoning for evidences.

Unit 3 Math Reflection

January 8, 2026 /

I understand how to calculate a certain percentage of number, and how to apply that knowledge to solve real life problems. For example, how to calculate tip and tax, calculating simple interest, and working with discounts on sales.

One new information I learned during this unit is how to solve a problem with both tax and tip. Before, I never solved a problem including both tax and tip, so I thought that I had to calculate the tax first, and then calculate the tip from the subtotal. However, that is not how I do it, and it doesn’t matter wether I calculate the tip first or tax first, as long as I calculate both of them from the original cost.

Something interesting during this unit was that we use percentages in real life a lot more than we think. For example, as we learned in class, people use percentages when paying money in a restaurant (tax and tip), when buying items on sale (discounts), and when using a bank (simple interest). We also use percentages when talking about grades, like in MAP test. I think that when we use percentages to talk about grades, it is a lot easier to understand and compare because the number 100 is really clear.

At first, calculating simple interest was tricky for me, because when solving the pretest, I didn’t know the definition of simple interest (I had to ask the teacher) and also got confused with the wrong number of months to multiply. But after all the lessons, I understood what it was and was able to solve the problem.

Orchestra Semester 1 Reflection

December 30, 2025 /

Winter Concert:

Rose

I tried my best to follow the dynamics in the pieces as the teacher told me to. I tried to match the sound of the other instruments. Like in the last part of Cold of Winter, I made an effort to match the second violins and cellos during the ritardando.  

Thorn

Playing together with stand partner. When playing Cold of Winter and Danse Bacchanale, I didn’t play with my stand partner. The sound and bowing were not in sync, sometimes I played faster, and sometimes I got lost in the middle of the piece. I think the reason is because I am the only viola in my class and I have nobody to practice with. 

Bud

Practice more at home next time. When playing Danse Bacchanale, I had to play the bottom part of the divisi, but because I sat alone during class time, I only practiced the top part. So, at the concert, I messed up a bit during that piece. I should be aware of that and make sure to practice both the top and bottom just in case.  

Chamber Music:

Our performance today went well. Jay and I were prepared; we both brought music and our instruments. We tried our best and showed all of what we had. The feedback from last time was helpful because we were able to focus on practicing what we needed to improve. We practiced playing at the same pace and playing the correct notes. The sound got better after we practiced with the feedback. Compared to the first time we played the piece, we improved a lot. At first, we couldn’t even get the correct rhythm. The four sharps made it even more confusing. We sounded really funky and were not together at all. However, after many classes of practicing together and individual practice, we were able to perform the entire piece with no pauses and played all sharps. We got really good at playing a piece with multiple sharps. We also improved in collaborating, since we had to play together at the same pace. As I said earlier, the feedback also played a big role in improving. Overall, this chamber unit was really fun and was a success.  

 Unit 2 Portfolio Reflection

December 17, 2025 /

Essential Question and Standard Reflection

The essential question that I answered was “What happens to our body when we get sick?” What we learned about cells and body systems helped me make the connections and interactions between cells and body systems. If there is something wrong with the cell, then the problem continues, also making the body system malfunction. This indicates that the body is a system of subsystems made up of cells. For example, when someone has hemophilia, the mutation of DNA within the nucleus leads to lack of blood clotting proteins production, which impacts the circulatory system, immune system, muscle system, and skeletal system. The blood flow is interrupted in the circulatory system, bruises frequently appear on the skin, internal bleeding happens in muscles and between joints.

Learning Experiences

The dissections were really impactful for me. I think the reason is because I am a person that learns best when actually doing the experiment myself. It also helped me because I could see the body systems in real life. The frog dissection was especially memorable because I could see the whole digestive system. Modeling activities, like edible cell models and clay models, were also very memorable. As I said earlier, I learn best when trying out things on my own, like modeling, and seeing things for real. It was also really fun because I enjoy crafting.

Improvements

One aspect that I can improve in this unit is working towards extensions (L4) opportunities. I got 3s in most of the L4 assignments. This means that I only did the bare minimum and didn’t try harder to get a better grade. I can try to check the rubric for a 4 in the future to see what I need to do in order to get one. The most important change that I have to make is to try the best I can do in all of the assignments, not just doing the least I have to do.

Health Unit 3 Reflection

December 12, 2025 /

DECIDE Model

DECIDE models can help people think thoroughly about the situation, options, and consequences before making a decision. There are six steps; define the problem, explore options, consider the consequences, identify your values, decide what to do, and evaluate my decision. By going through each step, people can navigate each option, the consequences of each of them, and the one that fits best for the situation. The DECIDE model can also be helpful when one feels overwhelmed by the situation or feels peer pressure. It will help people make effective choices with the structured and step-by-step decide-making model.

Substance Use

I learned that different kind of substances have different and similar effects on out body. Some substances have effects on different body parts. For example, nicotine pouches can damage teeth and gum, while cigarettes can damage lungs. Some similarities are that most of them are very addictive and can’t be easily quit. They are especially harmful to teens because they can damage a developing brain. Some of the substances can also lead to different kind of cancers when overdosed.

Soccer Reflection

December 10, 2025 /

I didn’t learn anything new, since I already learned all of it in Eagles Soccer Academy. But I practiced more dribbling and shooting.

I am proud that I can shoot a goal accurately. I am able to put the goal in where I want to. I can also dribble, but I think that I need to practice more on getting pass the defender, since I get blocked most of the time.

It was really fun to play games with someone new, because every time I go to soccer practice, I always play with the same people. It was also interesting to play with the boys, because I also don’t get to do that often. It was slightly different from playing with girls, but the skills used were the same. I hope that we can play more games in the future.

Math Unit 2 Reflection

December 3, 2025 /

In this unit, I understood how to identify a scaled copy, how to find the sides, perimeter, and area by using the scaled factor, and how to write a CER in math.

The fact that I could not only figure out the sides in two similar shapes but could also find out the perimeter and area by just knowing the same element in the similar shape and the scale factor was really interesting.

One thing I newly learned during this unit was how to write a CER in math. I write a claim, work in math was the evidence, and the reasoning part was me explaining the evidence. For me, this part was tricky when I first did it, because it was slightly different from how I write CERs in other classes. Even though I did something similar in 6th grade, it was also different from that. But as I did it repeatedly, I got better at it, and now I don’t feel like writing a CER is that hard.

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