Jeds blog

8th Grade Reflective Journal

Throughout my school year in MKIS, I have learned many things that have improved many aspects of my life. This essay will be covering some important factors that I have improved on, such as my personal growth, and two ESLR’s that I have best done on.
First and foremost, I will be talking about my personal growth in school throughout the year. For example, I have developed in my writing skills because in English class, we learn to write express our writing through many different forms for many different audiences. For example I have learned to write poetry in many different styles and has brought out the poetic side in me. This essay itself is an example of how my writing skills have improved throughout the quarter. This has helped me in other subjects too. I now can write scripts in drama class. I also can write newspaper articles with ease. My next example would be on how I improved in my taking of photographs. During the second or third quarter, when we were asked to take photos during a project, like for the poetry unit and Teenlife project I did not how. Now, looking back at those times, I have realized how much I have improved in my photography skills. I now like to spend my time taking photos and editing them, which is a lesson I learned from newspaper class, using adobe photoshop. This has brought me to another improvement in my personal growth. This is about my improvement in the use of technology in the school. For example, I can now work on computer programs such as garage band and photoshop without much trouble. In English class, we have a weblog where we post our homework assignments and put videos and pictures. Speaking of video’s we also learned how to compress videos to make them small enough to put on our blogs. I can also make my own e-portfolio, make use of the flash program and make a wiki all thanks to the computer exploratory. In fact, almost all my subjects in school have something to do with computers, technology and this has made learning more enjoyable and simple.
Next up is my growth in the ESLR’s. One of the ESLR’s I grew in would be an academic achiever. I demonstrated progress in all curricular areas by doing well in subjects like social studies, English and newspaper. I did this by revising weekly and listening attentively in class. Well, most of the time I try to. And fine, maybe I don’t revise that much but I still try to remember what to learn and I try my best in everything I do. I also demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. For example, during the Anne Frank project, we were put in groups of three. However, one of our group members was not committed to staying back after school and working hard so we had to work independently. After working on our assigned parts, we the put all our work together to make the final product, which came out very nicely. This showed that we were able to work unaided and then collaboratively because though some people were not reliable and that might affect our grade, we still managed to get an outstanding score. Another point that brought out the academic achiever in me was that I continually assessed, evaluate and adjust work to maintain high standards. I did this by revising weekly and improving on the mistakes on a quiz we took.
Another ESLR that I improved in was being a Self directed learner. First of all, I accepted responsibility for my own learning. I was not dependant on my parents for help when I was in need. I tried to think critically to work out my problem. And if I did not do well on a quiz or test, it was probably my fault for not studying hard enough. I may blame the teachers, but in the end, it’s always up to you to study hard. I also identified my needs and applied appropriate learning strategies. For example, I had some weaknesses in math but I soon got over it by practicing and telling myself not to repeat that mistake next time. Lastly, I monitored, documented and adjusted work in progress. First, I kept my test papers so I could review on them. I also took notes, which helped me in revision.
In summary, I think that this year for me was a fruitful and knowledgeable and I had many wonderful experiences along the way. The 8th graders will be moving on to grade nine soon, and I hope that I will remember all the things I have learned. I also hope to learn more in the coming years and use this knowledge in everyday life.

Filed under: final