I am proud of how much I’ve practiced for the concert. Almost every week I came into flex to practice. If I could fix one thing, it would be that I didn’t practice too much outside of school. I believe this performance was one of the best performances I have done. This performance shows how much I’ve improved at playing saxophone, I think I should try to do soloing in the future or pick up a new instrument.
In my journey as a choir member, I have found that reflecting on my personal experiences, such as past performances, enhances my well-being, particularly when performing in concerts. My experience from band helps me when I perform on stage for choir. For band I need good posture to perform well, also in choir to sing well and from my experience of performing in band helps me with performing in choir, so I feel more confident when singing. I have also learned from past choir performances from what I needed to work on, so my singing abilities has improved. When facing challenging pieces or demanding rehearsals, I often look back on my personal journey in choir as a source of inspiration and resilience, especially when sight reading challenging pieces. A challenging song for this concert was called “Sparrow’s Jig”. To make singing this song easier, I used the suggestions from the whistler trip adjudicators to help me listen to others singing around me and sing the correct pitch and rhythm. I have also went to flex to do sectionals with my part to sing my part right. As a choir member, I consistently take ownership of my vocal goals, learning, and behavior, as seen in my dedication to being in choir. This semester was harder to balance because I had both band and choir. Especially during the whistler trip, keeping track of time was hard because there were many choir and band events happening. I was stressed due to being both in band and choir and I almost considered dropping one of those two. However, I have put lots of hard work into those courses and could not let it go to waste and after the concert my dedication to choir showed.
In this project I had to make and equation that looks like a polynomial and prove why it is not a polynomial. This required me to look at the rules of what a polynomial has to be. I also used Desmos to help me make this equation to see if it does break the rules of a polynomial. I used graphs and rules to prove that my equation was not a polynomial. This assignment benefitted my understanding of polynomials and other graph functions.
I have many strengths and weaknesses in my writing. My ideas for writing is not too general so I can create a strong paragraph. I also try not to repeat many words to make the paragraph sound better. A weakness in my writing is that sometimes I forget to write a “so what?” and when I do they are a bit awkward. Also, when I put in quotes into my paragraph and attempt to make them flow, they sound awkward. In the future I will proofread my writing to check if something sounds awkward or not.
Writing is between easy and hard for me. It depends on what I am writing about. I like to be creative in my writing; I find writing stories is easier because I feel less restricted on what to write. I find writing compare and contrast paragraphs and essays easy. However, when I am proving an idea I can find writing a bit hard.
I prioritize my vocal well-being by consistently sustaining a healthy and balanced vocal lifestyle. This includes me talking at a normal and comfortable volume to not strain my voice. I have also been advised not to eat dairy and fried foods so my voice does not clog my throat. Informing myself about the historical or cultural significance of the pieces we perform is a responsibility. I take this seriously to respect other cultures and their forms of art. I demonstrate this by acting engaged in class when the teacher shows us videos of the origin of the music we are singing. However, I think I should show my engagement more clearly by saying my thoughts in group discussions. As a choir member, I consistently take ownership of my vocal goals, learning, and behaviour. I ask questions if I do not understand something about music we are singing. I also take voice lessons to improve my skills in singing and to expand my voice range to sing different parts. I take ownership of my behaviour by being patient when something goes wrong and recognize my mistakes to improve.
For this lab, we had to be in a group of four. Two people would make a tube with Glucose and the other two people would make a tube with Starch. I did Starch with my partner. We had to ask our group members questions because we were only allowed to ask the teacher one question. Asking each other questions made the lab procedure easier to understand.
The procedure for the lab was a bit unclear so I had to reread it multiple times to do the lab correctly. After the first half of the lab, I had to make a hypothesis of what would happen after 24 hours. I had to refer to my notes and try to understand them and the procedure of the lab to make my hypothesis. After the whole lab, I had to answer questions. I had to think about the evidence I collected for this lab to answer the questions.
I use evidence to make judgements or decisions as demonstrated in this essay I wrote.
An example of where I built upon someone else’s ideas is listening to the suggestions my teacher gave or my classmates gave me.
My strategies for collecting relevant information for specific tasks include taking notes to write an essay while being given the information.
This semester (2) for Jazz and Concert Band, I have improved a lot in my music ability. The small ensemble project and the year end concert demonstrate my growth as a musician. For the small ensemble project, I played bass guitar for two ensembles, it was slightly difficult since I was still learning how to play bass guitar. However, it helped me improve because I had to learn the fingerings for notes which made me more flexible to play music on bass guitar. The experience had helped me find a better method to practice and a better reason to practice. For the year end concert, I played 7 songs for concert and Jazz band. One song for Jazz band was difficult for the band and myself. Over time, we eventually got better at the song by practice and I had a few sectionals with the saxophone section which helped a lot to figure out rhythms and fingerings. I did this with other songs too. Compared to myself from last semester, I have improved a lot. I have learned from this experience from this year and my band teacher that I should practice a song once I get it for the first time, so I do not end up not playing well during rehearsals because it will take longer to improve for future concerts. Also, this year I did not take any solos due to my lack of confidence on the instruments I play and experience. However, next year I plan to at least to take one solo for my last school year next year.
This year my mental health has improved a lot. In grade 10 I wasn’t doing well, but in grade 11 I learned how to take care of myself better. I’ve also improved a lot as a musician for my band class.
My inquiry question is “how can I become a better artist?” Before my question was chemistry related, but my interest changed and my focus was too hard to complete in school. I chose something I did as a hobby, which is digital art. I try to work in my project during CENT time and outside of school, sometimes I don’t use CENT time to work on my inquiry project and use CENT time for homework. However, when I use CENT time for homework I try to find another time to work on my project. The most useful sources I have used for my inquiry project are Pinterest(references to get ideas), Instagram(for tutorials and references, TikTok and YouTube(for tutorials). A challenge with this project was trying to stay motivated while drawing. I have overcome this by looking on Pinterest for inspiration. The core competency “Thinking” had grown through the process of my project; I found ways to get rid of my “art block” to generate ideas. Most likely, my work will be shared by some of my art pieces I have made and my Instagram account. For capstone, I will not be working on this since my capstone project is not going to be related to this project.
