26 April, 2007
Quarter 3 Reflective Journal
This journal shows my understanding of the Expected School-wide Learning Results, or ESLRs, using Blooms Taxonomy. This quarter in English we worked on the Teen Life Project with three others schools from around the world, in Canada, Columbia, and USA. In the Teen Life Project, we addressed global issues that are important to people our age. In addition to the Teen Life Project we had our Poetry Unit. Our Poetry Unit included the poetry night and our poetry book.
I was a Critical Thinker by building meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. To me this means creating something new with the knowledge you had before, along with what you learn from school or research about the topic. I demonstrated this by writing poems using the knowledge I already had on global warming along with research I conducted. I demonstrated this same ESLR by creating poems with the knowledge and thoughts I had along with my new wisdom of poetry. To improve myself next time for the Teen Life Project, I would go above and beyond not just do what is assigned to me. If I had been more involved working on the subject in my free time like others I would have had a better knowledge on the subject and been able to write a better poem on the topic. Overall for this skill if I were to grade myself I would give myself a B. I did do the bullet, make a new product from my previous information on the topic and new information but I don’t think I did it to the best of my ability. I don’t think I built much meaning and understanding on the topic either.
I was an Academic Achiever by demonstrating the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. My personal definition of this is the ability to work well by yourself and in a group. I demonstrated this by writing poems and doing some of my book by myself. In making the book, a few of my friends and I planned a day to put our books together. Working in a group for this part of the project was a good idea because with many of us we could each bring supplies that we had and share them. To make it better next time, I think I would work in an environment where there was no distractions, such as toys or computers or games. I would also invite people who work well together and would take the work time seriously. Overall if I had to grade myself, I would give myself a C. When I was in the mood I could sit for hours and write great poems, sometimes, well most of the time I was distracted, called someone for help, and then ended up talking to them for up to an hour. When I was in a group I tried to work well but a few of the people I invited were not taking it seriously and were easily distracted playing games. In the end, I just ended up making most of the book myself.
I was an Academic Achiever by demonstrating technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project. In my own words it is using technology, such as a computer, to complete a project creatively and doing it well so it is pleasing to the eye. For almost all the pictures I used in my poetry book, whether from the internet or taken by myself I edited it on the computer. Also for the photography part of the unit, I edited the pictures so they still looked realistic but looked more poetic. If I were to do it again, I think I would have drawn a few pictures, scanned it and coloured it in and edited it on the computer. For many of the pictures I edited I just deleted the background or changed it to something else, resized it, and/or cropped it. Next time I think I would mess around with the colours. For this ESLR I would grade myself with a B. I edited the pictures and did it quite professionally although I did not utilize all the tools that were available to me.
I was an Involved Citizen by demonstrating care and concern for the environment. In a more straightforward description, it is to show you are concerned about the environment by undertaking a task to better the world. For me, I showed this ESLR by writing at least two of my poems about global issues that are concerning me, such as global warming and poverty. I showed this same ESLR in the Teen Life project. In this project, I thought about what global issues concern me and which one I thought was most important. Our whole project was about that issue, global warming. If I were to do this again, I would have tried to take a more active role in the Teen Life project. Seeing that our part of the project was poetry there was very little connection with our part of the project and all the other schools. There was very little assigned to us for this project and I did the bare minimum. If I were to grade myself for this ESLR I would give myself a C. The poems I wrote were true and I truly believe what I wrote and I am deeply concerned about the matter. However, my part in the Teen Life project was minimal and I did not try my hardest to be involved.
I was a Self-Directed Learner by demonstrating competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills. This in my own words is to be organized, have a plan, set your priorities, and to manage your time wisely. I feel I demonstrated this by making my poetry book. I kept up with all the poems we had to write so I wasn’t doing them at the last minute. I cut up a newspaper and wrote which pages would be on the same piece of paper. Doing this I had to see which colours I wanted the pages to have and paired them up. I had a goal when to finish the book and finished it completely and on time. I think I could have improved in this ESLR by finishing my cover earlier. Since I didn’t have paint at my house I planned to go to the art room at lunch to paint it. One day the art teacher had a class so I had to do it the next day, the day the book was due. Despite this I finished the cover and the whole book well. For this ESLR if I were to grade myself I would give myself an A. This is because I finished the book completely and on time I set goals for myself and was very organized.
On the whole I think I had a great 3rd Quarter. I feel I showed most if not all the ESLRs but those I wrote about above are the ones I feel I demonstrated the most and best. I will try to improve on what I lacked this quarter, such as being an Effective Communicator, and grow in what I am doing well in. I feel I worked efficiently in the completion of this unit.
