Journal (project)

Planning phase: I basically took notes from various sites on the pros and cons of each government system. It was a little hard to understand since I'm not a politician myself, but I got the hang of it later on. Planning phase was probably the hardest one for me, because I couldn't figure out a way on presenting my ideas.

Retrieving phase: Looking for information was easy, but there were some very complex words. There were many sentences I couldn't understand just because of the wording. Ethan helped me on this, I'm still in the process of fully learning these words, but I have already learnt many new definitions. It took some time to find information I needed.

Processing phase: Like I said definitions were a struggle for me. Since I had Google at my fingertips I used it to my full advantage. As I was processing all this information, it was just clicking together, I was getting it. I felt success, I felt more confident in my project, it was looking better already.

Creating phase: I stuck to a PowerPoint pros and cons presentation. It was fairly easy, but expanding on these little points will be a struggle for me. It's a challenge, I purposely challenged myself because now is the time to learn. I am here to improve myself and challenging myself is the best way to go for me.

Evaluating phase: I feel like I have created something I am proud of. I have struggled in socials, but still I have created something that represents it. I feel like I did a good job, my work has paid off. Now I just have to present it, which is not one of my strengths. I feel confident in my project and I think I will get a good mark.

Day 17 (part 1 of project)

  My project is based on government and economy. Which government/economic system would be best for our developing Island? So far I have been writing down notes on different government systems, how they affect the economy and the people. I'm trying to relate governments and economy as much as possible, but one of my challenges is how a democratic economy would work. The other governments like monarchy and communismn are easy, due to the fact that the government is solely controlling the economy, where as in a democracy it is decided by the people. It's hard for me to predict and visualize a democratic economy. I could looks at countries close to full democracy such as Norway which could help. Relating has helped me understand economic corruption through a monarchy. Mr. Dewinitz gave me an example of Louis XIV, and how he lead France to economic corruption after spending all of the peoples money on himself. After that my ideas started to flow. Sometimes I need these little boosts to get my mind flowing, like a jumpstart. Currently I'm trying to decide on how I am going present my subject, how I will engage the audience. I was thinking of doing a PowerPoint presentation with pictures and short sentences. Instead of reading of the screen, I am going to put a short sentence on the slide and explain in detail about the subject. I have been noting pros and cons of these governments. I'm struggling with the  amount of content on the economy part compared to the government. I'm still working on how a government will affect the economy as I don't have a full understanding of it.

Day 16

  Today I came late, but the class was focusing on math, which is one of my easier subjects. I challenged myself, I tried not to use my calculator, but only used it when absolutely needed. I think one of my reasons why I'm mainly better at math is because of my grandpa. My grandpa was a teacher in the army of India before he came to Canada. He was an influence on me for learning math. Everyday after school for around an hour, he used to give me complex math questions, mainly number problems. That built my strength of multiplication, division , addition and subtraction, the foundations of math. I took action today to challenge myself to build better habits, like not using my calculator as much. These little adjustments will hopefully help me learn, and approach questions differently. For example, not using my calculator helps me focus on building my mental math skills, and in my opinion using your skills instead of artificial skills is the best way to go. I got some answers wrong too, little mistakes is what challenges my learning. For example, sometimes I will forget to carry the one or, not look at the symbol of aproach (+, %, x, -). I need to slow myself down, many teachers have commented on my work as rushed, and this is the time to fix it. Like I said, approaching my learning with little steps will better help my overall learning. Today was also project day one.

I already had my question in mind because I thought of it in my spare time at home. Since I was enrolled in Social Studies, I focused on government and economy. This was one of my biggest interests in socials, but also one area I have struggled with. I chose this topic to not only educate myself but to educate others. I want my presentation to be engaging with the audience, to make them think.

Day 13

 Today we focused on math, it was pretty

easy, because of my interest in math. Since I was breezing through all of this math, I helped my table buddy Arsh, he was having trouble and I helped him relate. For example the paper said 3 cups  of flour for 24 muffins. We needed to make 12 muffins, he was having trouble dividing the cups. I made him picture he had $3, and we needed to see how many $.50 could fit into $3. Then he understood and lightbulb went on in his head. I took my perspective of the dividing and gave it to him, I related the fractions to real life. I felt most proud of this today, I helped someone who needed it. Ethan was also very proud of Arsh and I, he kept saying "I trained them well," bragging to others. During our muffin making Kidus was struggling with mixing the ingredients together and I thought of how Rocky Balboa went through the pain of training, I know it has nothing to do with baking, but sometimes my mind just wonders off. So I played the Rocky theme music for Kidus. It motivated him but also I made others laugh. I like making others happy, it makes me happy!

Story

  One day a boy named Harsh was walking out of camp past curphiw. While the clueless boy was walking away from the camp in the plateau, he heard some noises in the forest. Harsh, the curious boy he was, walked into the forest, only minutes away from camp. As the boy walked into the dark, misty forest, Harsh heard sticks cracking, louder and louder as he was getting closer. The boy walked with extreme silence, until he fell into a hole. It was a trap. The boy was panicking, and as soon as he turned around he spotted a half eaten, pale skinned dead body. Harsh was screaming for help, and then a dark brown, torn clothed zombie jumped on the frightened young boy. The next morning, the boy's mother searched all over for him. The mother found footsteps leading into the forest, as she followed the steps she spotted her son, but this time he was crying blood with his half eaten face and red eyes.

Moral of story: Don't leave camp past curphiw. 

Day 12

  Today we were presented with an activity on building shelters, with news paper and tape. These shelters have to withstand wind and water, but we also had to preserve our skittles used. Skittles were traded in for extra news paper or tape, and were represented as sustainability. I was in a group with Kidus, Adrian and Brayden. I presented the idea of a Tipi, which was used by the Cree, Apachi, Black Foot native groups. I remembered this from Socials class, The People Of The Plains used transportable shelters, also known as Tipis. We all agreed to the Tipi, teamwork and communication were necessary in this group building activity and we had a good flow going. As we were building we were discussing on how we were going to make the structure more stable. We really didn't care about our skittles, but that was the deciding point of us being second. We were confident in our structure, but as soon as we got to the water station, our Tipi fell apart. The challenge was fun, and you know what they say, first the worst, second the best!

Day 10

  Today one of the main points that I think will help me improve is the reading comprehension activities, that were presented today by Jennah. One of my strong points during reading are connections. Connections are always something I work on, which is basically relating two or more things. Like I have said in my other blog posts, I am always trying to work on relating/connections. While I read books I do get stuck sometimes, but when I do, I read the sentence over and over if I don't understand what is happening. There is one big part missing in my reading which will help me a lot, and that is inferencing. I have noticed this in my mom, she often gets stuck and then keeps repeating the question or sentence over and over without thinking. She does not inference at all, and that made me realize I do the same thing as her. That is also why I never ask her for help on homework. I also just realized that I used a connection without knowing to help me inference, I guess my thinking is already improving.

Day 9

  Today our day started off with an icebreaker like usual. We played running pictionary, I was pretty good at it too. I got my first answer right and went on to draw a storm for my group. I used silent communication with hand gestures. After that whenever I got an answer right I would not take the turn to draw the picture. I tried to get the whole group involved, I was mainly focusing on the quite group members. After pictionary we went on to learn about myths and morals. Ethan wasn't here when we started so I took action, I communicated with the group on what myths and morals are, and how they relate to each other. I found the part on how they relate a bit challenging, but when I started thinking about the past and myths I was told, it sparked a lightbulb. I came to a conclusion that Myths can be used as a lesson, and a moral is a lesson. As soon as that idea came to my head, my ideas started flowing. We also worked on story character stereotypes. For example bad guys, good guys, and heros. I came to an argument with my group about Walter White from breaking bad being a hero. He saved Jessie at the end so I considered him a hero. Today I learned about hidden morals in myths, those morals shaped me into a very cautious child. For example one very popular myth that has shaped young children for a very log time is Santa Claus. It makes kids want to be nice people instead of being on the "naughty list". I myself avoided the naughty list.

  Today is also the halfway point of lead. 

I had set goals for myself at the beginning of this program that I have already achieved. I have shaped my thinking in only two weeks. Lead has totally improved my lacking areas of intelligence. I'm looking forward to see what I could acomplish at the end of this program.

Day 8

Today we went on a field trip to UBC. We learnt how to do ropes. It was similar to rock climbing, but it required teamwork. Communication was really important in the activities that we were doing. Since everybody had their own ideas, we as a team chose the best one. The first activity was passing a ball around a group circle. We started off with 8.7 seconds and eventually with organization, teamwork and communication we got down to 0.69 seconds. I was a bit dissapointed that we had the simplest course, walking halfway across a log. So I challenged myself as much as possible on the simple course, walking backwards, eyes closed etc. It was a fun trip.

Day 7

  Today I presented my micro teach, it was on how to shoot a free throw. I messed up at the beginning as

I forgot to introduce myself and the topic I was covering. Luckily Ethan pointed it out and I started over. That is one of my big problems, forgetting. I am extremely forgetful, I have to get constantly reminded of things that I have to get done. I forget in seconds, my mom will ask me to take a waterbottle to practice and when I'm leaving out the door I will just leave the filled waterbottle on the counter. I often forget about Homework too, mostly due to procrastination and that I think it is not important, that I can just get by without doing it. I changed that habit now, but now that I look back it affected my schooling so much. We also did coordinates and fractions today. It was very quick and easy and as soon as I finished I started helping out the people around me. It was simple to me, I knew all of the shortcuts and I explained those shortcuts to my peers. I didn't really learn much today as I already knew the basic things that were taught, so today I focused towards those who didn't understand. (I know I messed up on the X axis)

Day 6

What was the biggest challenge to your learning?
The main challenge to my learning is completing work, I often cannot complete work due to my loss of interest and distractions around me. Somedays I persevere and try not to talk to other classmates and finish my work but it doesn't happen often. Even when I am interested in the work I get too excited and start talking to my classmates. Another big part in me not completing my work is I never know when to stop helping people. When I help others, usually my friends, I get more of my peers work done than myself.

How did you overcome this challenge?
I told my friends on the last few weeks of school that I am struggling in a few classes and I cannot waste my time on talking and such. Also that I could get help on work that I don't understand. Headphones also helped me as it filtered out noise from the classroom, limiting distractions. I felt that no matter what work I was doing I need to engage in it and finish it. Desperation also boosted my work habits, because of this I didn't fail any classes but I was extremely close before.

What would you do differently next time.
I could use all of the methods above from the beginning of grade 10 to the end. Instead of desperation for a pass I could be desperate for an A or a B. I know desperation is not a good thing but it motivates me, it helped me succeed.

Day 4

  Today is day 4 and in the morning we played a group game called river cross. It was a game that involved strategy as a group and we struggled in the beginning but eventually got the hang of it after our peer tutors yelled at us a couple of times. We never won but at least we had a plan we could all agree on. After the river cross game we headed back to class, we watched a presentation on jobs that my peer tutor Ethan presented. It was based on what we need vs. what we want, on the stranded island that we have focused on in the past few days. In our group (Harsh, Arsh and I) we decided that the most important wants were: Burial services for example a choice of cremation or a burial. An economy and food preservation. There were needs too but they were already said from the group before us. We also focused on idea webs, breaking down the question based on what we know. Ethan also used the idea web for the jobs on the island. After the presentation we did made a card of ourselves focused on our skills, and what roles we are suitable for on the island. One of my classmates wrote "reproducer" on their paper and that was funny.

  The most important skill I learned today was web creating. Web creating is a kind of brainstorming. It breaks down a question based on what you know. This helps because there are times when I am clueless about a question, but I actually know it. One of my problems with questions is I am not confident in my answer. This will help me as I will have proof that the answer is correct and be more confident in it.

Day 3

What are you learning?

I am learning new ways to learn, we have learned key things that I lack in and it changes the way I think. We learned the first and then method of accomplishing things that need to be done, and that helps my procrastination. I know that whatever we learn here needs to be applied to our thinking, it's not just hear it and do it. I need to make a habit of these things which will make me successful in school. We also learned the scientific method. The scientific method is applied to our everyday life whithout us knowing it, it breaks down and explains a question.

Why are you learning?

There is completely nothing wrong with learning, this program isn't a punishment to me but it's a complete benefit. School is extremely important and I have struggled in it which is bad. This program helps me learn and it benefits me. Knowledge is the most important thing in my opinion, it's too bad that I realized it too late. I'm here to learn, to gain critical skills that I do not have.

How will you learn it

The peer tutors are a really big help, they help me understand what I don't know. I need to apply everything I learn her to my work habits for example relating. Ethan explained to me that relating is how he remembered and gained interest in his subjects. Relating can drastically change my interest in Social Studies. I could use relating anywhere and I'm trying to make it a habit. Putting these skills in my everyday life would not only change the way I think in school but at home and everywhere else too.

Day 2

Why do you think you are here?
I have struggled in a few courses due to my bad study habits and attitude towards school. I am here to learn food habits and learn a new way of thinking as mine does not work as great.

What do you struggle with at school?
Memorization and work habits. My lack of memorization is due to my work habits. I have bad habits when it comes to homework as I always procrastinate, but only try when I am in desperation. Projects are also hard at home because I am always distracted by someone or something. I also have trouble understanding things, I usually have to have the subject explained to me more than one time.

What do you struggle with at home.
Understanding and effeciency. Math is very fast for me because I understand the questions and it is very fast for me. Other subjects like science and social studies, I cannot complete most work on time because I have trouble understanding it therefore I have trouble on homework as no one can help me at home.

What will you do differently in the lead program?
I will pay attention and ask questions whenever I need to, and apply what I have learned in lead to my work habits.