Leadership skill I have: Communication

I have found that having frequent and transparent communication within a group project is crucial in keeping it running smoothly. When organizing the Health and Cancer Care cupcake workshop, it was imperative that everyone knew what their responsibilities were. In a larger group with nine members, it can be easy to lose track of everyone’s tasks. I am able to communicate my thoughts and ideas clearly not just in Leadership, but with family and friends as well. In conflicts, I have very little struggle elaborating on how a situation makes me feel. Writing has also been a strength for me, so I pride myself on my written communication abilities as well as verbal.

Leadership quality I have: Organization

I have become very adept when it comes to keeping plans organized, even in their fruition. For example, as soon as HACC begins brainstorming new plans, I open a word document and take notes of every suggestion and supplies we would need. I have an app that allows me to sort homework assignments by subject and due date, which has been essential in keeping track of my school work. I also have a physical planner where I write homework and other tasks I need to complete each day. Having a list of things that I can cross off when completed helps me to stay organized and motivated.

Leadership skill I want: Team building

The need for team bonding has not been great as most of the group projects I have done in the past are people I have worked with before and become close with. However, some of Health and Cancer Care’s more last-minute additions are not direct friends of mine, and I have only spoken with them a handful of times. I think being able to bond with some of the more distant members of HACC would be very beneficial. Having a closer sense of trust between all of us will allow us to work as a cohesive unit much more effectively.

Leadership quality I want: Flexibility

I often will have a specific idea of how to complete a task efficiently and effectively. Once my mind is made up, it is difficult to consider that others ideas may work just as well or better. I have caught myself being quick to find the faults in other peoples ideas. Sometimes it is because I have already thought through the pros and cons of a situation and decided on what I think is the best course of action, meaning that others’ suggestions are ones I had already considered and dismissed. I need to work on being more accepting of others ingenuity and that someone else’s plan may be better than my own, and detach it from my pride.

Core Competency Reflection: I can work with others to achieve a goal

In my previous paragraph, I mentioned that I struggle to use other peoples ideas rather than my own in a group setting. However, once a clear action plan is in place with one goal in mind, I have found that I have strong delegation skills that allow us to tackle multiple facets of our endeavor simultaneously. Working together to accomplish a large task as a unit is far more rewarding than achieving something alone in my opinion, because having others to bask in the glow of your success with is something I value so much. It sometimes difficult to get validation from others in regard to solo accomplishments, because it can bring up feelings of envy or spite. Therefore, succeeding as a collective is significantly more impactful and meaningful.

My current inquiry question is about how much time is needed to really progress when learning a musical instrument. I had limited experience playing the drums until October, when I started attending weekly classes. It’s also a great opportunity to practice video editing skills, as a montage-style video will be the best way to show my progress at the end of the year. I am on track to have it finished by late May. My focus has drastically changed since the start of the year, when I wanted to research how creators on different social-media platforms make money with a focus on comparing traditional film to YouTube.

I have done well managing my time. All IDS assignments have been completed fully and turned in before the due date. Approximately half of the work for this project is recording my lessons and editing the footage, so most of my IDS work is done outside of CENT time. This time is reserved for written IDS assignments and other homework. My work would not be presented effectively come May if it wasn’t for Adobe Premiere Pro. This editing software is been crucial in the progression of my project. My drum teacher has also been incredibly supportive and adaptable when I explained how the classes would be integrated into my schoolwork. We take five minutes at the end of each class to take a video of the beat I learned that week. I am also fortunate enough to have an electric drum kit at home so I can practice outside of class time.

At the beginning of the year it took a long time for me to decide how to structure my IDS project. This was probably the biggest challenge I have faced while doing this project. I am currently trying to decide on the most effective way to organize the clips so the story and progression of the video is clear.

My Capstone subject for next year is still undecided, but I doubt it will connect to this year’s IDS. Hopefully my Capstone will highlight my post-secondary and career goals, or my fitness journey and kickboxing.

My Personal Awareness and Responsibility have improved as a result of this project. Because I don’t have daily IDS class time, I need to self-regulate and motivate myself to continue making progress. My IDS teacher changed at the start of this semester, and the replacement teacher has not been very communicative. My overall well-being has also improved, as music is very therapeutic for me. Having designated time each week dedicated to music has been really refreshing.

In this course, I have had to utilize my skills in generating ideas to come up with storylines for my various projects. It has been challenging to devise an idea that is interesting and meets the criteria, but is feasible for me to accomplish with limited time and resources. Then once I come up with a solid plan, I have had to change my course of action to fit within other people schedules and weather changes since most of the scenes I have filmed thus far have been outdoors. My script writing and planning skills have greatly improved in the past four months because of this. It has been very satisfying to witness my ideas come to fruition, and to see my improvement.

Critical and Reflective Thinking

I think our criminal justice system should be more rehabilitative. Most of the people who spend time incarcerated will one day reenter society. Because of this, it seems there should be more of a priority on helping these people improve their mental health and help them to acquire the emotional and physical skills needed to get a job to support themselves. Prisons are intended to keep those within from hurting society, but they are also meant to help in the rehabilitation of prisoners. This philosophy is not obvious and is carried out rather poorly. The Netherlands for example, have one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Per 100k Dutch citizens, 0.64 crimes happened in 2018. In the United States however, experienced 368.9 offences per 100k citizens. The Dutch legal system heavily favors rehabilitation, which means that after those who have been incarcerated get released, they rarely reoffend. The United States has a rather opposing view. On average, Dutch prisons have a population that fills 68.1% of their facilities. To contrast, American prisons are at 103.9% of their capacity. The Dutch rehabilitative method is something a lot of prisons could benefit from investigating. I believe that if more resources were put into criminal counseling and psychology the rate of smaller crimes would decrease.

Self-Reflection

I can analyze evidence and make judgements. To successfully portray my views, I needed to investigate a number of articles and select the evidence I needed. I had to judge where my personal views fall in between a punitive and rehabilitative criminal legal system. I compared countries that use opposing ideologies in this regard and compared the statistics of how many crimes happened and the average populations of the two countries prisons.

From this activity I gained an appreciation for how statistics can be easily manipulated and portrayed to agree with your views. I would like to improve my ability to display numbers in a paragraph setting.

Personal Awareness and Responsibility

In order to achieve my desired grade on this test, I needed to practice Personal Awareness and Responsibility. I managed my time outside of school efficiently so I had time to prepare for the test while keeping on top of my other homework. It can sometimes be challenging to find motivation and stay focused in a home environment, particularly if you don’t have a desk or designated workspace at home. This is an issue I have dealt with for a while. It has taken a while to find studying methods that work well for me, but I find that making flash cards is a fruitful method, especially for learning and memorizing vocabulary. I am very satisfied with how I have done in this course so far and hope to continue on this trajectory.

• I plan to show others that I truly value their contributions- I have often found that my dedication to a group project relies heavily on the effort and commitment of the others I am working with. Therefore, when someone else has a genuinely good idea or suggestion, I feel it’s important to show my appreciation, as I have found that this is a rare occurrence. I do this by complimenting and elaborating on why their contribution is so valued. In the future, I want to be more intentional and direct about it.
• I remain open minded as I explore viable options or alternative approaches– I think it’s really important to keep and open mind when considering any course of action. I find that sometimes I feel the need to be in total control of a situation, but in doing so I may be missing out on an amazing opportunity! My goal is to actively maintain a more positive attitude towards other ideas or approaches in the future.
• One strategy or activity that stimulates my imagination– Listening to music really helps me with my imagination while I study or do homework. I find that I am more motivated and focused while I listen to music or a podcast. If I work in silence, I find I have to take more breaks, and I work slower. Another activity that helps stimulate my imagination is playing video games! The types of games I play are mostly puzzle based, which I greatly enjoy and is good exercise for my mind. In the future, I would like to try doing meditation to help my mental health. I did daily meditations during online school in 2020, and I would like to get back into it.

While there appears to be less outright violence or police brutality in Canada compared to the United States, racism is still an undeniable and prevalent problem in this country. One facet of racism that I have witnessed is racial stereotyping. In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian hate crime rates skyrocketed. Because COVID-19 originated in China, some people blamed all people of Asian descent, going as far as to attack and chase them in the streets. Many Asian people are from families that have been in Canada for multiple generations. How could these individuals be the main cause of spreading disease more than anyone else? It is also unjust to assume that a person is new to the country or cannot speak English based on how they look, act, or dress. These assumptions are toxic and damaging. In one scene in To Kill A Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandra hosts her neighbours for tea at the Finch household. They discuss the Holocaust in Germany. They are completely blind to the similarities between Germany and Maycomb, their hometown. One group of people is actively persecuting and segregating a minority in their community in both places. This scene within the novel has allowed me to meditate upon the intricacies of racism within our society. One of the first things that comes to mind is ingrained racism. For example, a person who is brought up within a society where it is normal to hate and shun the Black community, will not register that this mindset is harmful because they have never known anything different. Even today many people in older generations do not want to believe the views they grew up with may be incorrect or harmful. People within many minorities have been rejected and excluded from society for so long by so many. Racism, ableism, transphobia, and homophobia are all equal in this regard. These issues have only been addressed on a large scale in recent years. Canadian society still has a long way to go before it could be considered a welcoming and accepting space. 

I would say that my most memorable food experience would have to be when I learned how to make macarons. For Christmas of 2019, I got a book full of different cookie and frosting recipes. At that time I was really into cooking and baking shows, so that’s what started my interest. The first macarons I made were vanilla cookies with a strawberry frosting. Here is a picture.

My mom and I made them together, around January at home. The cookies were chewy in the middle with a thin crunchy outside, and flavourful icing with good consistency.

My Bio

My name is Lily, and I am in grade 9 at Centennial Secondary School. My best subject is English, while I tend to struggle in math. I am taking social studies and food studies this quarter. In foods, we have been making lots of foods such as omelets, cookies, muffins, and scones. My main interest is dance. I’m a competitive dancer and have been dancing for ten years, taking ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and pointe, and have classes for roughly ten hours a week. I love hanging out with my dance friends and making tasty treats, such as macarons, cheesecake, pies, and many sweet and savoury things involving puff pastry. Below is a picture of a strawberry-vanilla cake that I made over quarantine for my grandparent’s wedding anniversary.

One of My Favourite Websites

https://www.netflix.com/browse

I love watching Netflix in my down time. Its a great way to unwind and have a laugh (or cry if your in the mood) a good handful of my favorite shows are cooking and baking shows.

My Favourite Quote

“She needed a hero, so thats what she became”

I am a big advocate for female rights and equality, and this quote is pretty powerful in saying that everyone has the capability to be their own hero.

A Video of Something I Aspire to Achieve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EixtGKNP6ok

This video is of a dancer doing fouettés. If you don’t know what that is, its a very challenging type of turn in dance, AND she’s on pointe, which adds a lot more challenge to any dance move.

References

https://www.dccomics.com/movies/wonder-woman

https://www.netflix.com/browse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EixtGKNP6ok