Melinda's Portfolio

PE Reflection: Synchronized Swimming and Badminton

January 19, 2026 /

What we learned:

In swimming class, we learned to be synchronized together, how to float, what to do during a shallow water blackout, and reviewed swim strokes. In the end of the unit, we formed groups for an artistic swimming performance that showed skills we learned how to do an oyster, and swim in circles with your group.

In badminton class, we learned how to play games, practiced serving, the drop shot, the clear shot, and the smash shot. We had opportunities to play 2v2 and 1v1 or more and we watched videos for clearer explanations of each shot.

What I did well:

In swimming class, I did well in the swimming performance because I collaborated well with my group mates and we created a good show. Also, I listened well to the teacher and did what the teacher said.

In badminton, I did well with rallying with my partner and in the end, adapted to becoming more competitive and winning them rather than playing for fun. Also, I think I did good with the smash shot because I made my opponent miss the ball.

What I could improve on:

For swimming, I should be more prepared for classes and try to do my best. Also being more aware of what we’re learning so I don’t forget important concepts.

For badminton, I should listen more and be patient, because I often tend to rush and want to play games immediately, forgetting that I have to learn as well.

Art: Sketchbook Cover Reflection

January 16, 2026 /

Artistic process:

For this project, I decided to create a sketchbook cover out of paper, Posca markers, colored pencils, paint, pen, and pencil. I then glued it onto the notebook. First, I created a planning which helped me outline it better and start drawing faster. I also wrote down some reasons why I wanted to include these elements which helped me more understand the purpose. I transferred it onto a bigger and thicker paper after and copied the draft onto it. Halfway through, I also decided to make some changes and add things because I thought it would make it look better and there was too much blank space. Next, I added the colors and filled in the spots with different materials. Lastly, I added some details and erased the pencil markings.

Expressing my identity:

To show who I am, I included my hobbies, culture, favorite animals, important words, and school related things. I chose to include a volleyball and squash racket because those are my 2 favorite sports and I really enjoy practicing those sports. Also, I included some foods like Tanghulu since it reminds me of my hometown, and is like a comfort food. Noodles, boba, and ice cream are my favorite snacks and foods as well. To show my passion for music, I added some music notes along the top with arrows, like it’s guiding my life. The words at the bottom represent all the things I care about and some of my favorite things. Lastly, I added the letter “M” for my name and a cat since I love cats and playing with them makes me feel happy.

Design strategies incorporated:

I incorporated all these images by fitting them together and making sure they are laid out nicely. I put a volleyball on the top left connected with some wavy lines and arrows with music notes. I also tried to make the notes flow out inside a wave shooting out to make it look trapped, but also free. And for the sides, I added some simple sketches of the foods and things I like. The cat at the top was “looking” down at the paw and the rest of the things, I just put into the spaces where there weren’t anything. I think overall, I did okay with the design strategies, because I am happy with what came out and I’m proud of my work, but I still think I can do better.

TTG Goal Reflection

January 15, 2026 /

Main TTG’s I’m focusing on: Effective collaborator and critical thinker

Language arts: I will work on my effective collaborator skills in language arts class by participating in class discussions and collaborating with my group-mates. For example, I will collaborate with anyone and share ideas with the class. Also, in group projects or partner works, I can try to collaborate better with people and have no arguments or conflicts. This way, we can work better and share ideas.

Social studies: In social studies, I will work on my effective collaborator skills by participating in the socratic seminar and discussions more, collaborating with my classmates. For our project this unit, I can show demonstration of being a good collaborator by working well with my partner and discussing ideas together.

Math: I can show my critical thinker skills in math class by showing my work and writing a detailed CER for my explanation. I can think in different ways and apply my knowledge from what I’ve learned to help me understand new problems better and show thinking process with clear and well-written steps along with evidence.

Science: In science, I can be a critical thinker by considering multiple perspectives and ways to approach the problem, and being persistent. For example, when I am stuck on something, I can first try figuring it out myself and then asking thoughtful questions to my peers or teachers. In writing CER’s, I can also evaluate evidence and use sources to analyze ideas, support arguments, and create conclusions.

Vision Board/SMART Goal Reflection

January 13, 2026 /

My goal is to finish practicing my new viola piece by practicing 30 minutes a day and sending recording’s to my teacher.

Goal progress: I have been doing okay with my goal because now I am familiar with half of the piece and I have been constantly sending video recordings to my teacher. But my priority is practicing with quality and making it sound good before I keep going on, so I think I did good with that part.

Challenges: Some challenges were playing the fast parts because my fingers were always slipping and pressing the wrong notes. Also, another challenge was consistently practicing the piece because I couldn’t ensure practice time everyday, so I just tried my best to listen to the recordings and sing the notes and tempo.

New Insights: As I was trying to accomplish my goal, I learned new viola techniques that helped me understand the piece more. I also learned a lot more about myself and the types of sounds that I can produce like wide vibrato.

Accomplishments: I have accomplished half of my goal because I finished practicing part 1 and 2 of the piece (there are 4 parts inside), so now I just have to practice them together and make it sound fluent. For example, whenever I can, I practice and play to my family to get suggestions from them to try to improve.

Revised goal: I didn’t finish my whole goal because I went on vacation for a long time and I didn’t really have much classes during the time. Also, sometimes I find myself distracted and since I have too much classes, I rarely have time to practice. I revised my goal to play at least half of the song because it’s less and I already did.

Support system: My mom and my teacher helped me a lot because my mom always reminded me to send videos to my teacher and practice. Also, my teacher taught me well, and she gave me good advice for practicing which helped me get better. I think it helped push me a lot because sometimes I keep forgetting to do it.

Next steps: To get better at this piece, I will stay more focused during class and try to practice every day, so I don’t forget some parts. I’ll also practice more with a metronome and have my family members listen to it for feedback.

Social Studies Unit 2: Visual Presentation

January 8, 2026 /

For the project, I decided to do a stop-motion film about bicycles because I wanted to try something new and I thought that the example of the stop-motion was really cool. The task was to create a type of visual to show to teach about the technologies positive impact, negative impact, history, etc. We also had to make a script for the speech/presentation to introduce our topic, what we made, and some information about the technology.

Something I think I did well on was the speech part and talking because I memorized my script and I tried my best to not show my nervousness. Also, I think that my stop-motion video was well edited and that I included all needed parts.

To improve, I should add more color to my stop-motion video to make it more engaging to the audience and pop out more. Also, I think that I should add more icons into the video, so there are more images I can talk about while speaking.

Math Unit 3: Proportionality and Percentages Portfolio Post

January 7, 2026 /

In this unit, we learned about proportional relationships and percentages. Our final project was a presentation about a topic (I chose dining), so I had to compare 2 restaurants and the price of their food. I had to find the percent difference, write a CER of which was a better deal, a reflection about how this applies to every day life, and show our work with some type of visual. I think that something I did good was making the presentation detailed and including all of the parts needed. Also, I think that I did pretty good presenting in front of the class although I was a bit nervous. Something that I think I can improve on, is writing expressions to represent the problem because I forgot to do it, so I had to quickly write one before the day it was due and I don’t think it really made sense. Some vocab we learned were part, whole, percentage, proportional, percent change, rate, tax, tip, commission, percent increase, percent decrease, original, new amount, mark-up, mark-down, interest, deposit, change, shipping fee, etc. This is helpful for every day life because we can calculate tip, tax, commission, shipping fee, how much money we can save, which brand is a better deal, and paying for things or the percentage of something we want to know.

Social Studies Unit 2: Essay

January 5, 2026 /
Meimei Li – Essay How does technology have an impact on society – 4089979Download

To get to this essay, I first decided on a type of technology, which I chose the bicycle (mode of transportation). Then, I looked for articles and researched about the bicycles impact on American society, the positives and negatives of it, and some information about the bicycles history. I printed out the articles and annotated on them for better understanding. After I collected the information, I put it into a graphic organizer in categories like the positive impacts, negative impacts, who fixed it, and if it worked or not. I also cited my sources. Lastly, I put it together in an essay (introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion). I had to re-read the essay many times to check for spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.

I think something that I did good was the introduction and keeping the essay flowing and sounding natural. I think that the introduction had a pretty interesting hook and contained useful information about the bicycles history, so when people read it, they would think that the rest of the essay is intriguing to read. Also, I tried to keep the whole essay sounding neat, so there weren’t awkward transitions.

Something that I need to work on is the reasoning part, because I need to explain with more detail and use more eloquent language. I didn’t write enough to explain my evidence, which made it sound really weak. I can work on this by choosing a more relevant piece of evidence that I can elaborate more on.

Language Arts- Me as a Collaborator Reflection

December 16, 2025 /

When I was placed in new table groups, I think I adapted quickly and didn’t mind anyone at my table. I am pretty familiar with everyone in the class, so I never really care about who’s my table mates. Also, I like sitting with new people and friends.

When my table decided who put the notebooks away, we would always let the last person who sat down do it, and if there were conflicts, we would quickly solve it and anyone who was willing to help put it back for the other person would do it.

Whenever we have to turn and talk with a partner (Qiqi), I interact with my partner pretty well and we discuss and share ideas based on the question. However, I think I still should participate more to make sure we are talking.

For class discussions, I think I try to raise my hand whenever I know the question, but sometimes I’m scared to get the wrong answer or forget what I was about to say. Still, I try my best to participate in class discussions and raise my hand more.

I think Qiqi and I worked really well on the dystopian story in Unit 2 because we made a great comic book and it was super fun, and we also collaborated really well. Also, I think that Qiqi is a good partner with great ideas, so we get along.

For the product branding creation in Unit 1, I also worked with Qiqi and we did a campaign to fund to her cats surgery and health. I think that went really well too because the teacher said we did a good job, and it was really fun making it too.

I would rate myself a meeting for my active learner skills and an exceeding for collaborating because I can get along with anyone, and I won’t bother being with people I don’t know or don’t really like. For my active learning skills, my goal is to keep on raising my hand during class and asking questions whenever I don’t know.

I think another student would give me a meeting as well because I try my best to answer and talk whenever I know things, especially in small group discussions, but I still need to work on participating in the whole class conversations.

I will practice my public speaking skills more starting in January because I think that will help me in class more and try to be more confident when sharing ideas. Also, I will try to practice more with Flint and reading in general for my grades.

Language Art Unit 2 Summative’s

December 16, 2025 /

I think that I did better on the summative’s because I wasn’t that familiar with any mirror or windows before, but now I am more confident in writing about the conflict, types of characters, mirrors, windows, and dystopian characteristics.

I am proud of my conflict CERER about Ponies because I got 2 exceedings and 2 meetings. Also, I think that I improved a lot on the reasoning, comparing it from the last CERER about dystopian characteristics, so I am proud of my effort.

Some challenges for me was the pitch summative because I was really nervous to present, but I still think I did pretty good. I just need to make sure that I’m talking slower so it makes it sound more engaging and to practice public speaking more.

My feedback from last time was to write a claim that was more direct to the story (for the CERER about dystopian characteristics) and for the reasoning to explain deeper into the claim and evidence. I think I tried my best to use the feedback and improve because my reasoning became more strong and my claim improved a lot. Some feedback from my peers was to speak more confidently, and I think I tried to.

If I had to redo the summative assessment, I would try to study more about the difference of round and dynamic characters because I always mix them up. Also want to change my answer to the conflict CERER about ponies to internal conflict, because I think it would’ve been easier to write the claim and reason about.

Some advice for me in Unit 3 is to be more active in class, and to not be afraid of making mistakes. Also to practice more with the flint AI bot because it can help me review lessons and help me prepare for tests like formative or summatives.

My goal for the future is to read more (about 30-45 minutes every day) so I can build my reading and comprehension skills and get better for the MAP tests.

Meimei Li – L4 – U2 Summative Parts I II – RoundDynamic Characters (O – 4089979Download

Science Unit 2: Cells and Human Body Systems Portfolio Reflection

December 15, 2025 /

The essential question I chose to answer for this unit was question B: How do our body systems work together when we play our favorite sport?

My research about body systems and cells helped me understand this unit more because I learned more about how body systems work together when people play sports and why they are all important. I also learned about the cells structure and the different type of cells. This helped me create the specialized red blood cell for my project because I know more about the organelles in an animal and plant cell.

This relates to how the human body is a system with subsystems made up of cells because it shows how the subsystems inside the system work together to keep the human body alive and healthy. The cells inside also provide many functions, like the mitochondria produces energy for the body to move and stay active and the nucleus that holds all the DNA. Overall, the relationship between the systems and cells are important because they work together to keep the human body alive.

I liked the dissections because I never experienced it before, so this year’s activity was really memorable. I also like watching the videos because I think they explain it very well inside so I can more understand the content and what we learned. I am a type of learner who likes to work with other people and share ideas because I think it’s fun working with people and doing group projects. Sometimes I also prefer working individually because I don’t feel like doing it with someone else.

One experience that helped me learn human body systems more was the stations because there were many activities that explained things about body systems and it was also nice doing it with a partner so we could ask each other questions. Another time was when we played a Blooket game to review our knowledge. I think that it’s fun and helps us learn more so people want to engage more.

If I were to improve on something this unit, it would be to make my final clay model more detailed and specific because I think mine looks pretty normal and basic even though I did a specialized cell (which is L4). Next time, I will try to add more labels and make the clay model more realistic. Also, I want to write more for my CER so it is more long and detailed. I am going to review the lessons more and check the rubric more often to make sure I am meeting all of the expectations.

Overall, this unit was fun and I really enjoyed learning about cells and human body systems. I also learned a lot about the human body and the CER clay model project helped me strengthen my understanding of how the systems work together.

My clay model project:

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