Introduction

The purpose of this conference is to share my academic achievements and progress with my parents and show them artifacts and pieces of evidence of my journey in school this year.

I’d like to share:

• My goals and why I want to achieve them
• My specific progresses in all of my courses
• Artifacts and evidence to showcase my work

My Vision Board!

My Vision Board Highlights:

• My goals I hope to achieve in the next few school years.
• Pictures of my achievements and hopes for next year.
• A motivational quote to keep me going!

My Goals are:

1. Form more bonds with my peers.
2. Explore different cultures around the world.
3. Seek help from others.
4. Practice my creative problem-solving skills.

(The pictures above demonstrate some of my skills!)

Transdisciplinary Transfer Goal (TTG)

The TTG goal I chose to reflect on upon the year is creative learner because I feel like I could use some assistance and reflection in my subjects (especially math and science) to think creatively and find innovative solutions for my problems (not studying enough for a test, not understanding some skills, etc).

Examples of Creative Learning:

This picture demonstrates my attempt at being a creative learner because it displays me spray-painting parts of our Design Technology project in order to help my group achieve our goal.

This picture once again demonstrates my attempt at being a creative learner because, in this frame, I can be seen working on our Design Technology project and planning it on InkScape.

Passion Project:

My passion project is regarding my interest in Pokémon; I created a PPT that introduced aspects of the popular Japanese franchise (along with funny details), planned out my setup for the actual presentation day, and organized some gifts that the students could take away.

Progress of My P.P –

Core Classes:

Integrated Math

My progress in math is going okay so far, with a few gaps in comprehending aspects of learning such as the unit in transformations. The parts I couldn’t quite understand was related to problems in more complicated problems and more advanced functions, which led me to get a few 2.5s on some of my projects. However, after a few lessons and retests, I’ve regained my skill and can now keep on with the class pace.

I will now demonstrate evidence of my progress in math:

1. This evidence showcases my completion and on-time attitude toward our math homework and demonstrates the detail, time, and consideration I put into completing it. It also shows my attentiveness during class, which I later reflected on by completing my homework.

2. This evidence demonstrates my understanding of triangle congruence theorems by completing a mini Celebration of Learning. It also demonstrates my skills on this topic and my ability to decipher questions clearly.

English Language Arts

My progress in English language arts is going great so far, where I’ve successfully engaged in class content and collaborated effectively with my group members and partners during certain times. A few gaps that I feel like I need improvement on are my analytical essay writing and my process on multiple projects, because sometimes I didn’t check Schoology for the correct resources and ended up on a totally different track compared to other classmates.

I will now demonstrate evidence of my progress in language arts:

1. This artifact demonstrates my progress in Language Arts because it emphasizes (as a note from the teacher) my skills in public speaking and impromptu since this is an activity our class participated in at the beginning of the school year.

2. This second artifact also demonstrates my progress in Language Arts because I got a 3.5 out of 4 on the first unit’s reading and writing passport submission, which shows how engaged I am when participating in certain projects.

Science

Evidence of Organization:

Table of Contents –

Improvement – Before V.S. After

Before – Note-Taking:

After – Note-Taking:

How useful is my science notebook as a learning tool?

– My science notebook is a useful learning tool because not only can I take notes on it, but I can also review these notes for upcoming tests and 3-for-3s, which indicate how I may be able to improve my scores in the future.

Now, moving on to a demonstration of my science notebook…

Evidence of Active Learner Habits:

Active Learner Self-Rubric:

Grades and Assignments:

Active-Learner Reflection: These pieces of evidence from science class demonstrate that I have kept a consistent active learner habit throughout 8th grade and that I’m working to improve my skills by reflecting on areas of growth and setting goals for future success.

Evidence of Understanding of Key Concepts:

3-for-3 Grades:

Reflection –

My 3-for-3 grades have been pretty stable, with mostly 3s and 2s at the beginning of the first semester, but patterns showing 1s during the end of the first semester indicate gaps in understanding the concept of seasons (I met up with Mr. Tafel and gained some knowledge that I missed during class).

Evidence of Growth in Science Skills:

List of Science Standards-

• Standard 1: Developing and Using Models
• Standard 2: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
• Standard 3: Engaging in Argument from Evidence
• Standard 4: Asking Questions and Defining Problems
• Standard 5: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
• Standard 6: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Chosen Standard: Developing and Using Models

Claim: My growth in science skills (active learner) has been portrayed by the above evidence because I’ve shown that I am able to harness new skills (such as utilizing color to improve my models) and use them in my learning.

Social Studies

My progress in social studies is going pretty well so far, as I’ve learned many useful tips and tricks during our many units, and have always been on task and not procrastinated for any project/work that I have due. Some aspects that I think might need improvement are the ability to take more notes during class (optional) for better understanding of the topic and using more creative methods to demonstrate my work. These tactics can help me improve on my ability to focus during class, my accuracy with projects and work, and my ability to be a creative thinker.

I will now demonstrate evidence of my progress in social studies:

1. This first artifact showcases my skill and precision in a social studies project that I participated in during the Inquiry to Interest unit.

2. This second artifact demonstrates my understanding of the impact of WWI during our World War One unit. It also showcases my ability to express my ideas in related paragraphs.

Encore Classes:

Design Technology

My progress in Design Technology is rough so far, with multiple technology-related projects and hiccups happening because I just transferred, and I’m not very on par with how the APPs operate and how the technologies work.

I will now demonstrate evidence revolving around these areas:

1. Empathize: My part in the area of empathizing is going smoothly, with me being able to find existing products and analyze them correctly, with occasional reminders from Mr. Hatt to include academic integrity.
2. Define: My part in the area of defining is going smoothly as well, with me being able to correctly use my own skills (with the exceptions of AI’s help) to write paragraphs about how I plan on demonstrating my skills in multiple areas.
3. Ideate: My part in the area of ideating is going well, with me being able to plan and successfully draw design ideas that proved to be successful in my team’s final designs and product.
4. Prototype: My part in the area of prototyping is also going well, with me being able to demonstrate my technical skills by choosing pieces of evidence and pictures to showcase how I’ve been participating effectively during project time.
5. Test: My part in the area of testing is going well, with me being able to design testing methods for my projects and final products, as well as choosing what criteria is fit for different products.

Reflection on unit 1:

• My thoughts on Unit 1 are neutral but good. We worked on prototyping and finalizing tissue boxes and worked on FushionBot designs with our teams of four. I am generally proud of my work on my independently-created tissue box, because I feel like that was when I genuienly did some work of my own and was proud of how it turned out (exactly how I planned, but still with some small problems).

Goal for Semester 2:

• My goal for semester 2 is to be able to participate in more team-based projects and figure out how to operate on technical APPs such as InkScape and FushionBot. My goal is to be able to figure out the basics of operating in these APPs in a few weeks with the help of some friends and tutorials.

P.E

My progress in P.E. is going okay so far, with me being able to keep up with the learning content and exercises that we participate in during class. I think that I need to focus more on improving my skills over time in the future because if I don’t recollect a skill (tennis movements, for example) after some time after I’ve learned it, I won’t be able to perform as well.

I will now demonstrate examples of my progress in P.E:

1. This evidence showcases the new unit we had on how to play the trendy sport Pickleball. Although we didn’t have any evidence on it, I still learned new moves and tricks, such as how to serve with my right underhand.

Health

My progress in health is going well so far, with me being able to listen and take notes adequately during class as well as participate and skillfully use my active collaborator skills during discussions (which we have in almost every class). One aspect that I think I should focus more on in the future is my ability to communicate effectively when partaking in a group project, since it’s always hard to organize which member does which part and who gets the credit for it.

I will now demonstrate evidence of my progress in health:

1. This first artifact demonstrates my writing skills during Health class, and furthermore provides more evidence of my hard work.

2. This artifact demonstrates my attentiveness during Health class and my achievements, specifically my passion for L4 projects and my engagement during it.

Advanced Mid Chinese

My progress in advanced mid Chinese is going alright so far, with me being able to use my native language to communicate and partake in reading analyses on Chinese texts and essays. One aspect I think I should work on is my vocabulary in Chinese because I’m not incredibly fluent and able to identify every word in a Chinese text since I’ve been taught in English most of the time. This gap in learning has proven to be a hinderance in situations like Chinese debates, read-alouds, etc.

I will now demonstrate evidence of my progress in Chinese:

1. This artifact demonstrates my active learner skills in Chinese because I actively took notes and created a summary complete with my own thoughts and the events that happened in the story.

I used the connect, clarity, and process attributes to guide me and my team to create the process/planning of our clay vessel and share our ideas with each other adequately. I demonstrated these skills by effectively communicating during class and participating in group discussions.

I used the persistent, preparation, and reflection attributes to effectively demonstrate my skills as an Active Learner. I portrayed these know-hows by preparing well before each class, reflecting as a group (and individually) on the process so far, and being persistent in terms of our work.

During our group setting, each member of our group needed to work better on collaboration and skillfully communicating because for our clay vessel, we didn’t have enough coils to make it look adequate.

This picture once again demonstrates my attempt at being a creative learner because, in this frame, I can be seen working on our Design Technology project and planning it on InkScape.

This picture demonstrates my attempt at being a creative learner because it displays me spray-painting parts of our Design Technology project in order to help my group achieve our goal.

My evidence on my project revealed that cell phone usage is damaging teens’ mental health often, and most of them are aware of it. Some teens take action to try to regulate their cell phone usage, but some just let it go and keep scrolling on their devices. Also, their social-emotional health might also be impacted due to their constant focus on their phones rather than becoming more connected with their friends and try to develop their social life.

I think that increased cell phone access may affect my social and emotional health negatively if I do not restrict/control it. This is because cell phones and other devices naturally damages a person’s skill to communicate offline if they depend on it too much, so I believe that I need to control my cell phone usage more in order to keep control, rather than having it drive my life and take away my social life, my family, my friends, or even my treasured hobbies and interests. I think my teacher/parents would agree on this point because I trust that they’ve also been under the pressure of becoming addicted to their cell phones.

Strategies that would possibly help me to ensure that my phone usage doesn’t become too excessive are: 1. Screen time limitation: I could set screen time control on my phone and limit my activity, but it might not work that great since my devices are all connected. 2. Try to regulate usage myself: One of the best ways to test my responsibility towards myself is to try my best to set boundaries for myself and not get carried along the tide of other high-schoolers scrolling through their phones. 3. Schedule more engaging activities or family gatherings for myself: I could ask my friends or family to participate in engaging activities together such as Mafia or wild picnics, so I don’t get too head over heels by my phone activities. I can also aim to attend more social community activities (Like the Halloween social, Summer social, blah blah blah…) or be part of programs such as the A Team, ASA clubs, etc.

Evidence 1. According to a survey from Pew Research, 72% of high school teachers say that students are being distracted by cellphones immensely in class, while only 33% of middle school and 6% of elementary school teachers claim that.

Evidence 2. “I constantly refreshed my likes as they came in, spent hours reading and replying to comments and taking in other people’s posts. I became obsessed with living what social media promotes as a worthwhile and perfect life.”

A teen girl fantasizing over social media on her phone instead of focusing on her work

Tags: #cellphoneusage #addiction #learning #socialemotionalawareness