In semester 1, we have done 2 units: Unit 1, clay unit, and Unit 2, cultural textiles. I have actively engaged, participated and listened to the lessons about art techniques done by the teachers in visual arts course. And because I took visual arts as serious as core courses like English, social studies, science and math, I mostly got a meeting for every L4, and got the maximum grade for all L2s and L3s, which is something I am proud of.
Something that was challenging in the visual arts course was that I had trouble keeping up in Unit 1, the clay unit and Unit 2, the cultural textiles unit. In unit 1, I was supposed to put glaze on my clay pot, but this was planned to be done after we finished Unit 2. And at that time, I had chosen to make a pillow with my textiles printed on it, which was the hardest option. So I had to work on my pillow and I didn’t manage to finish my clay pot glazing after I finished the pillow. My plan to overcome this challenge is to choose an easier option next time for the cultural textiles project, so that I have enough time to finish both of them.
Overall, I think it has been a great year, and I have grown in both my creativity and perspectives toward different kinds of art. I have also expanded my art knowledge.
The purpose of my conference is to guide you through how semester 1 and start of semester 2 has been for me in all of my 8 classes. I will have a lot to show, a lot of evidence of hard work. So be prepared to dive in into my semester 1 and 2 learning journey
In more detail, I’d like to share:
What I’ve done and what I still want to achieve
Some areas of growth, struggles, and some of my work
My goals and how I plan to achieve them
My Vision Board
Some of the things included on my vision board are:
My hobbies
The place I come from/ my culture
The places I have been to in my life
Portrait of myself
These are important because:
They can help me be ready for high school hard work.
My Goals Are:
1. To improve as a writer in semester 2 to be prepared for high school essay writing (achieve by taking essay writing opportunities in ELA and Social studies class more seriously)
2. To improve my reading comprehension skills to not lack of it in high school. (By reading more 8th grade level books and articles, doing more critical thinking exercises)
3. To improve my vocabulary in the next semester to become better in reading comprehension. (By always checking the dictionary when not knowing the meaning of word)
Transdisciplinary Transfer Goal (TTG)
The TTG I chose to reflect upon throughout the year is to be a critical thinker.
Reasons I chose this TTG goal:
can help me in my learning (getting better at critical thinking in essay writing)
can make me prepared for deep essay critical thinking in high school
Artifacts
Vocal and Modern Music (VMM)
For Unit 1 of VMM, we started by exploring ways to make decent and interesting short songs with loops on GarageBand. I learned that there were a variety of ways in making different kinds of songs with different emotional purposes. One of the techniques was blending different loops to make the connect and not make the song sound like a disaster. Another way was by having the right dynamics for each of the instruments played in each loops, so basically I made reduced the dynamics of the loops with higher dynamics instruments so that we can hear the loops with the lower dynamics instruments. And overall, I have made a lot of progress toward my understanding about how the different ways of using loops can create different emotional purposes in the audience’s points of view.
In unit 2 of VMM, we were doing a unit on cover songs. The task was to choose a partner, and together with our partner, we would choose a song of our choice, and then practice performing it in our own style. So, the purpose is to sound different from the original version of the song we choose. This unit was challenging at some points because I chose to play guitar as my instrument for the final performance. And since I basically didn’t have any experiences in the instrument before, I had to practice and work a lot harder than my partner, as my partner chose the piano, which was an instrument he already played for 6 years. Eventually, with more practice, I did end up improving in playing the guitar. And just before the final performance, which happened on March 18th, I was confident with playing the notes of the song on the guitar. As you can see, on this picture, it is me and my partner performing our chosen song called “Demons”.
Visual Arts
In semester 1, we have done 2 units: Unit 1, clay unit, and Unit 2, cultural textiles. I have actively engaged, participated and listened to the lessons about art techniques done by the teachers in visual arts course. And because I took visual arts as serious as core courses like English, social studies, science and math, I mostly got a meeting for every L4, and got the maximum grade for all L2s and L3s, which is something I am proud of.
Something that was challenging in the visual arts course was that I had trouble keeping up in Unit 1, the clay unit and Unit 2, the cultural textiles unit. In unit 1, I was supposed to put glaze on my clay pot, but this was planned to be done after we finished Unit 2. And at that time, I had chosen to make a pillow with my textiles printed on it, which was the hardest option. So I had to work on my pillow and I didn’t manage to finish my clay pot glazing after I finished the pillow. My plan to overcome this challenge is to choose an easier option next time for the cultural textiles project, so that I have enough time to finish both of them.
Science
Evidence of Organization
Improvement in CER Writing:
Semester 1 CER Writing:
Semester 2 CER Writing:
These are some evidence of my improvements of CER Writing from the beginning of semester 1 to now in semester 2. In semester 1, I mostly got 2 or 2.5. But in semester 2, I started understanding that CERs can be very brief, it’s just that each sections need to have the information required, and I got 3s on both of my semester 2 CERs.
Here are is an example of my level 3 CER Writing:
Showcase of my science notebook
My science notebook became more useful as the school year continued, as I took more care to add details and clarity to my work.
Evidence of Active Learner Habits
Beginning of the semester 1 September:
As of semester 2 January:
Evidence of Understanding of Key Concepts
A 3 for 3, is a small quiz to check if students are paying attention in class, most often, it asks 3 questions that the teacher has talked about in the previous classes. As you can see here, most of my 3 for 3s are all 3/3, but I do have one 3 for 3 where I got 1/3, which signifies I should pay attention every single minutes of every science class.
Language Arts
We have done a public speaking unit, I think it was pretty interesting and enjoyable since I got the opportunity to practices one of my weaknesses. First, we started by doing group discussions about random chosen topics and then we would each do a speech about our answer to these topics and questions. For me, it was challenging at the start, because I didn’t have a lot of confidence in public speaking. And the first speech I did in the unit was not the worst, but I was stuttering a lot as I didn’t have enough preparation. But as I practiced and practiced public speaking, I gradually gained my confidence. I learned a lot of things in this unit; mainly about the way to make a good speech. And to do so, you have to have an effective and engaging pitch and tone that matches the emotions of your speech. As well of making sure that you are clearly communicating your information and purpose.
At the end of each unit in ELA class, we are required to finish a reading writing passport; basically, it includes taking notes on articles/books to then make reflections, also includes CTQs, which stand for critical thinking questions, where you have to use critical thinking to analyze your chosen question, and finally, there is visuals, which is where you have to either analyze or create a story based on a meaningful picture that you choose, then writing a reflection about it, connecting your personal experiences to the meaning picture. And reading writing passports have helped me improve my critical thinking, reading, and writing skills from doing article/book reflections, CTQ reflections, and visual reflections. This is very helpful in my opinion because it can make me more prepared in writing hard essays that require a lot of critical thinking in high school. So, I am very greatful for having the opportunity to practice important skills in high school. I knew that all these grades don’t count for your GPA in high school, but I still wanted to do good work, so I worked very hard and took my time to carefully answer and take notes and analyze to do well in my article/book reflections, CTQ reflections, and visual reflections. For both reading writing passport 1 and 2, I got 4/4, as I did quality over quantity, well a bit of too much quantity too.
Social Studies
For Unit 1 in social studies, we did a project called “III”, which stands for Inquiry into Interests. Basically, we got the chance to choose a question that we were really interested in. My question was “To What Extent Can The 2024 Paris Olympics Environmental Initiatives Serve As A Model For Future Large-Scale Sporting Events?” as I really enjoyed watching the Olympics, and I was interested to know how it could serve as a model for future big-picture sport events. Since I was really hooked into my topic question, I took this assessment as an opportunity to show my improvements in analyzing and taking notes on different articles. As I worked hard each classes, I was able to also take the opportunity in being creative with my learning, from designing my poster for making it look better. At the end of the unit, I got a grade of 14/15. That extra mark I was missing was from not making a presentation to discuss about my topic question and statistics etc. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to have an opportunity for making a presentation about my topic. So, from this unit, I also learned that I have to always manage my time well.
Unit 2 of social studies class was all about perspectives on issues. At the start of this unit, we practiced making small group debates and performances to prepare for the crossfire debates, which was the important assessment. In crossfire debates, you are debating with someone that has the opposite perspectives from you. In the unit, I learned that you always have to be active and ready to respond to any of your opponents strong points about the debate question. I also learned that there is a lot of practice needed behind good and excellent work. On the actual crossfire debates, I was nervous, but everything went well. We won the debate as we had the stronger points. For a first time debate experience, to be honest, I got a good grade, which was a bit more than a meeting level for the criteria of the assessment, 16.5/20.
PE
In PE semester 1, we had a swimming unit. It was about learning the sport of water polo. I think it was very fun because I already knew how to swim, and now in this unit, I could also learn to swim and float at the same time when not swimming and trying to float in the water. I also enjoyed the sensation of water polo, because it’s not like football or basketball where you are standing and running, it is all about scoring into your opponents’ goal while swimming and floating to be able to score. As I enjoy the swimming as a competitive sport, we also did normal swimming stroke warm-ups which were also very fun.
We are doing a unit called track and field, which is basically about running and doing sport events like in the olympics, for instance, throwing javelin, throwing the 1kg ball, long jump and high jump. This unit is really enjoyable as it is very competitive, and I like competition. I also enjoy it because this is one of the only chances I get to do these sport events. I am excited to test my 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m running time, which is going to happen next week.
Math
Showing Evidence of Organization in my Math Notebook
In both semester 1 and 2, I have tried my best to learn the most knowledge I can so that I could do well on rare L4 math assessments that require critical thinking such as the sticker design in semester 1, and the story board problem graphic organizer and pumpkin timebomb performance task in semester 2. In semester 1, I have worked hard on learning all the possible types of transformations that can happen in a graph and understand the mathematical reason behind it, this allowed me to get a 4/4 on my sticker design as I listed a variety of types of shape transformations, which was the task. For the semester 2 story board problem graphic organizer, the task was to showcase your understanding about the relationship between slope, y-intercept and a real-life example, it was also about understanding how real-life examples related to slope and y-intercept work mathematically. I also earned a 4 on this assessment since I went to check in with the teacher for help very often at breaks or in the mornings. And finally, for the pumpkin timebomb performance task in semester 2, our task was to use many methods to predict the number of rubber bands needed to explode our specific chosen pumpkin. We had to predict the number of rubber bands by using the data about diameter of pumpkins, data about circumference of pumpkins, and data about height of pumpkins. I nearly guessed the number of rubber bands needed to make our pumpkin explode, since my calculations and prediction were pretty accurate. The most exciting and scary part of this assessment was when we got to go outside and explode our pumpkins to see if our predictions were right. My work and contribution on this group project earned me a 3.5/4.
Mandarin
Here, as you can see, is my ETK tests in mandarin, ETK tests includes vocabulary writing, sentence making, paragraph writing, and reading comprehension. As I worked hard both semesters, I got a 4.5/4 for one the ETK tests and a 4/4 for the other one. In my opinion, the ETK tests is challenging, but when practicing and working hard a lot on the vocabulary words that you need to memorize and understand, it is simple, because the test is all about knowledge and understanding.
Strengths & Weaknesses
2 Strengths:
1) Active Learner (ELA)
In semester 1, I have being a good active learner, meaning that I have actively and positively learned in ELA class. I took my learning very seriously in this course in this semester. For example, in the reading writing passport, I have always done all the requirements and even for exceeding, I spent a lot of hours on this assignment, it was basically about reading and analyzing articles, visuals, books, and CTQs (critical thinking questions). This earned me a 4 due to my hard work. And I also got active learner with a grade of 4.
2) Active Learner and Listener, Paying Attention (Science)
Beginning of the semester 1:
End of the semester 1:
Throughout the year about being an active listener and paying attention in class. As you can see, in the beginning of the semester, I had a beginning level in participating in class, and I had an approaching level for demonstrating persistence and positivity, and reflecting on my learning. And I had only one exceeding, which was in the complete own work requirement. But near the end of the semester, I had reached a meeting for all of the criteria (including engaging in participation for learning, participating in class, completing assignments, demonstrating persistence and positivity, and reflecting on learning). This time I also got 3 exceeding. This shows evidence of my improvement in active learning in class.
2 Weaknesses:
1) Story and Essay Writing Skills (ELA)
In semester 1, I have been a good writer, but I was always at a meeting level, never exceeding. For example, for the scene assessment that was L4 in Unit 1, I got 9.5 out of 12, which was just a bit more than a meeting but not an exceeding. For the Unit 2 literary essay, I got a meeting for that assessment and it was a little challenging for me. So, in semester 2, my goal is to be on an exceeding level in English writing skills so that I can get ready for high school. So overall, to overcome this goal, I will try to practice my writing skills more often, by reading a book and writing an essay about it for example.
2）Pickle Ball (PE)
In PE semester 1, at the start of the pickle ball unit, I was very unfamiliar with the sport as I had never played it before. The court was smaller, the way of playing was different, the rules were different. The feeling of using the wooden racket in pickle ball felt very unfamiliar.
Passion Project
For my passion project, I chose to create music on GarageBand, both with instrument parts I create, and also with loops. And my goal is to be able to make an interesting song that can inspire people who listen to my music. I considered this project challenging, as creating your own music is not easy, but I was trying to be a risk-taker, like my teachers said “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. And I think that my music is going pretty well. On showcase day of my passion project, I am planning to show the process of creating my music and explaining the way I got inspiration. I will also explain the musical elements and techniques I used to come to my final project. I am not sure, but I will maybe add a video that matches to my music in my project, so that when the audience is listening to my music, they can see the emotional purpose of my music as well in the pictures and movement of the video.
To start, there are a lot of ways social media can influence teen mental health. For example, what other people online might do cyberbullying like body shaming, which can cause those teens to go through stress episodes of not being perfect enough, the way they look or the way they act and think. It can cause them to have bipolar disorders.
Stigma happens from a lack of understanding of mental illness, through ignorance and misinformation. It can also happen because some people have negative attitudes or beliefs towards mental illness, which can lead to discrimination. There are various ways to reduce stigma. Such as not letting stigma create self-doubt and shame because it doesn’t just come from others, it also comes ourselves. Also, don’t equate yourself with your illness. Lastly, you can also get help at school and speak out against stigma.
Some mental health conditions include bipolar disorders like depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors. It is important for teens to understand them because if they don’t learn that it is best to ignore it, then there could be long-term impacts on their mental health.
HS students just like Lele (person we interviewed) that have a good management and are able to control their phone usage won’t have their social-emotional health and relationships impacted as much as the others that rely on their electronic devices to communicate with others. This can impact their relationship with friends, family, and others and makes their devices become their new best friend. It can make them become more isolated, leading their self-awareness and social awareness to decrease. To conclude, HS students have harder times to control their emotions when using their electronic devices to communicate.
I don’t think that increased cell phone access will impact my social-emotional health and relationship much next year. It is because I get used to not using phone in school except for emergencies this year. Also, I have make responsible decision making skills as I can manage to stay on tasks at school and know what is the priority and what is secondary, which will prevent me from taking out my phone from time to time like before. I also have relationship skills, which can help me have better and positive relationship for the prevention of non-face to face interaction.
Some strategies I could use to prevent myself to lose my self-management and awareness for my phone is sticking with responsible friends or classmates to so that I can have reminders from them if I am not being responsible and not doing what I am supposed to do.
Creating a portfolio, or blog is a great way to collect all the work you’ve done throughout your academic career. You can include academic, athletic, and personal artifacts or experiences that you want to share with a wider audience. This is a great way to organize all your learning in one place and you can take it with you when you leave SAS. When you make your portfolio, you create posts that are categorized according to your subject. Some categories have already been set up for you, but if you need more categories you can add them as needed. It’s important that your posts have the following:
An engaging title – this should not include the name of the subject since this is referenced in the category. Think of this as the first opportunity to engage and hook your reader!
Body – this is where you share your learning. This should include a combination of text and media in the form of images, graphics, and embedded videos. You should always consider how your post looks to your audience. Is it engaging and organized? Do they want to keep reading?
Category – select one that has been set for you or add a new category. Posts can have more than one category e.g. Humanities and Myself as a Learner
Tags – create tags that can be used as keywords to describe your post. Tags help organize your post a little more! Aim to have 3-5 tags for each post. For example, if you are posting about a novel you wrote, you might want the following tags: #Fiction, #MurderMystery, #Theme, #PlotDiagram
Click on the images below to find a few helpful tips for creating your posts, adding media, and making categories:
