English 12 Reflection

My Reflection

Ortigas Hostpital, Cainta, Philippines

The Writing Process

In this assignment, we wrote about something that happened in our family that shaped our perspectives today. For my assignment, I interviewed my aunt’s friend, Sherill, about her scariest experience before she came to Canada. She is a Filipino and was an ex-nurse who worked at the ER at a local hospital in the Philippines. This was where her horrifying experience happened: Her first time handling a patient’s corpse after attempting to revive them from a cardiac arrest.

First I asked her simple questions about how is she currently doing. I did not want to make her feel uncomfortable from this interview. Additional questions like when, where, and how did it happen soon followed. Luckily for me, Sherill immediately told me everything about her experience. I did not have to ask more questions in the middle of the conversation. By the end I finally asked her what lesson did she picked up from it. At the same time, I recorded her voice (with her permission of course) throughout the whole interview. The audio became as a reference for the written version of it. I unfortunately did not have the original pictures from that event, but I did found a picture of the hospital she worked at.

Upon writing the draft, I found it very difficult to translate the words. The recording was originally spoken in our native language. It took me a long time to fully and properly translate it into English, including the quotes that I took from the voice recording. I did not enjoy that part of the writing process that much because it took a lot of work. I overcame this obstacle, by slowing down the audio, listening to it carefully, and pausing it while I type it all out. Though I did found myself invested in her story, because I was thinking of taking a medical course in college at the time. As someone who can be a little bit curious, the story gave me an insight of what could happen inside a hospital.

Sherill said that she learned that fear does not control your actions. The more you’re scared and overwhelmed, the more you are unable to accomplish your goal. I learned a lot from this, because I often struggle with my decision making. My emotions get ahead of me, and I start overthinking things before doing anything. Her words gave me a realization to not get my extra thoughts in the way when deciding on something. This assignment also made me understand how listening is important both in and out of school. I believe that this skill can make one understand exactly what is being listening to. It helped me to not just fully mentally process my interviewee’s story, but also became a key for me to write and translate it in the best way I could.

Core Competency Reflection

I show others that I truly value their contributions by making sure that their ideas are included. When I collaborate with people, I make sure any of them is not left out. I make sure to ask all of them for their ideas, and put it into the work that we’re doing. I include all of my teammates into accomplishing our work, and not just focus on one team member only. Having a people work with me is helpful because all of us can have multiple ideas on how to successfully succeed a task.

I used to think that I could remember every information, and now I know that I could not do that because I keep forgetting it. With the help of a few people, they taught me the need in taking notes. Now, I write or type down all of my notes. It helped my mind stay on track and not get lost. I also saw how this helped others in my surroundings. It became a confirmation that I could use this skill anywhere, even the ones that are not work related.

An example of something I have spent a lot of time learning about is my academic writing. I usually write everything informally. I was not used to it when it was first introduced me into it. It took me a long time to understand how academic writing works, and incorporate it into my current writing skills. Now, I can switch into formal and informal writing whenever it is necessary.

I appreciate feedback in any of my works and prefer it comes in the form of a casual conversation. I feel like corrections doesn’t need to always be strict and formal. A gentle tap on the shoulder and a comment is enough. I know to myself that I am willing to correct my wrong doings if someone corrects me. In fact, I always value the feedbacks that we’re given to me. Sometimes I even ask for it if I am allowed to. I understand that not all of the things that I’m doing are right. Not all of them are wrong either. That is why I appreciate a second pair of eyes, to see if what I am doing is acceptable or not.

Reporting Reflection

My Reflection

The Writing Process

This course has taught me so many things, but it’s no doubt that it was easy. I had moments where my drafts have a lot of grammatical errors. Sometimes the formats of my story is messy, unexpected spelling mistakes, and weird looking photos. My writing progress is about learning professional writing, and gaining confidence. I learned how to take photos in different angles, and create questions that can lead to the answers I need. Journalism has also taught me how to be socially confident through conducting interviews. It lessened my anxiety with social communication, and helped me to feel confident with talking to others.

One of the best things I have learned in Journalism is how to write academically. Writing is a part of my hobbies. Though, I never learned how to do it professionally . Journalism has taught me exactly that, and I benefited from it when doing school works. I could say that my academic writing improved and I am very proud of it. What I enjoyed doing in that class product reviewing and writing a column. It allowed me to share my own opinions and observations. Adding people’s responses after mine, it allowed to back up my statements and prove my point clearly. It surprised me when I learned that writing a story for the catalyst needed EVERY information. I didn’t expect that getting even the small details from sources are incredibly important.

From all the things I enjoy, there are also some things that I hate. I hate the fact that there plenty of rules and details when it comes to Journalism. From proper wording to codes, I feel like it’s too much for me to know that all. I also didn’t like it when you have to chase people just to interview them, regardless of where they are. Finding sources to make your story believable is important. There are some people out there are not always available. This would unfortunately sometimes delay the progress of my story and eventually handing it in late.

Social and academic writing skills are the things I will be taking into the future. I believe that it would help me both in and out of school. Journalism has also taught me to be very careful with details, and not trusting things immediately. I did not know this first, because I am a person who easily believes most of things. It has taught me how to be extra cautious from the informations I’ve been given, in which I can say it is my most valued lesson.

Choir Core Competency Refelction

Core Competency Reflection

Joining a singing course is one of my plans this school year. I have always loved singing, and I wanted to maintain that talent for a very long time. Choir gave me this opportunity, and even opened me to new experiences that I was not expecting. I had no overview of what joining Choir and the Music Department will be like (concerts and everything else). I had never been to our school’s concerts before, hence the fact that I did not know what our activities were. Once I stepped on stage with my Choir team, I had a remarkable realization—WE were making the concerts. We were the ones making these massive events in our school, in which I am very proud and honoured to be a part of.

At my first day at choir, I thought my singing process will be difficult. I thought since I identify as a female, and girls often can reach high notes, I will be doing exactly that which I find it hard. I never knew there were choir sections that separated the different vocal ranges for different people. I discovered that I was Tenor, and this allowed me to expand my vocal range as a singer. I used to think that certain singing techniques were challenging, and now I know that it’s possible because I get to practice in class. I get to understand what am I doing right or wrong through pitch matching with others. I’m also allowed to ask my teacher and classmates for assistance in order to sing correctly and harmonize with them.

There are times where I do not see my mistakes. Sometimes I am not even aware that I am already making mistakes. Often times people get frustrated when someone corrects them. For me, I think of it as a valuable lesson that I can take. If no one does that to me, I would probably make the same mistakes over and over again. I show that I value feedback from my teacher by listening and respecting their advice. I do not know everything about singing. My teacher knows way more than I do when it comes to this topic. I believe they have the right to have authority and guide me throughout our activities. I am a student after all. I am here to learn from them, and learning requires discipline or correction. One will never learn if hey think they are always right.

Not everything will be easy in choir. There were certain times that I see our activities as obstacles. From understanding another language to learning the exact duration of the notes, there is always a challenge to every song. Of course, with every problem comes with a solution. An example of something I have spent a lot of time learning about in choir is when we learned how to sing the song called, “I Dreamed Of Rain”. At first, I thought it would be easy because it was in English. Little did I know that the lyrics were tough to memorize. One time, the day before our concert, I practiced that song and I thought I knew every single word. When the concert rehearsals came, I completely forgot most parts of the song, including some of my classmates. Luckily our teacher helped us and found a solution for it.

Having the opportunity to join Centennial Choir is going to be one of my memorable experiences once I graduate. I had a lot of fun and learned various things from it at the same time. It may be tiring in some days but it was totally worth it. I enjoyed the most of it, and I hope future choir singers will find it as exciting as I did.

SJ Reflection

SJ Midterm Reflection

Core Competency Reflection

In this course, my strategies for collecting relevant information for specific tasks include getting the right and the most relevant sources I could find both on the internet and in books. I make sure that the content of the informations that my sources provides are relevant, makes sense, and connects to the topic. When I’m working in a group, I listen to what they have to say and eventually share my ideas so that I could help too. Same goes to the rest of the people in the group. I make sure that I both listen and cooperate with everyone, so that we all get to achieve our goal.

An example of an idea I developed that was new to my peers are the different kinds of racism and the things that makes one racist, specifically covert racism. I feel like the issue is not that new, but I believe it is to some people. I was surprised that I wasn’t fully aware back then that some of the people that told me these specific things were racist and is discriminating me. This course helped open my eyes to understand what and how could someone be or say something racist. It helped me understand the issue more, helped me to be careful with the words that I say, and to feel empathy to the people who experience it.

Positive Social Media

Positive Social Media Post

Reflection

Joining social media gan give you both risks and benefits. If you have a positive social media account, you can give people a good impression about your background, or give you a positive feedback. Your account can tell a good story about you, and there will no be people out there to tell that you are a threatening person. This can also tell people about your interest, social interactions, and even your hobbies. Since many of us post our daily lives online, it is possible that people can tell what are the things that we like and dislikes, or even assume what kind of personality what we have. On the other hand, having a negative based social media account can put you in trouble in many ways. If you do not have a positive account, people will think that you as well are not a great person to be with and will result different kinds of negative feedback. People will assume that you are a threat to everyone, and they have to avoid you to keep themselves somewhat safe from your presence.

Core Competency Reflection

“I can recognize different points of view and can disagree respectfully.”

• I chose this one because I talk to people about different topics, and I give my opinions about it while making sure that I am saying the right words. I also do my best to not offend them when stating my side, because I understand that people get upset with other’s statements and all of us have different perspectives.

“I can represent my learning and tell how it connects to my experiences.”

• I chose this one because most of the time I find some of the things that I learn, similar to the past experiences that I have. From this, I sometimes manage to predict what might happen to me of I make certain choices, and how am I going to manage sudden obstacles.

“I can understand that learning is continuous and my identity will continue to evolve.”

• I chose this one because I believe that I am still a growing person who is still picking up new informations and learning from it. I know that maturity also comes along with it, so I do my best to understand things as best as I can so I will not eventually struggle with it.

“I can be kind to others, and support others when they need it.”

• I chose this because I know that I am a person who can be kind and understanding with people. When someone asks for my help, I always kindly do my best to help them in a way that they could understand, because I know that they might do the same thing to me.

My goal:

“I can use strategies to help me find peace and I sustain a healthy and balanced lifestyle.”

• My goal is to expand my strategic understanding of the things around me more. I know to myself that I do this in a way that I know, but it does not work as better as I planned most of the time; Therefore, I need to improve this more because I believe that I can use my strategical thinking in other ways, not just for a healthy lifestyle. I believe that if I can improve this, I can use it on other aspects like finance, future planning, or maybe even in my future work space.

The War Between Classes (Novel Study Reflection)

This books is about a Japanese girl named Amy who’s in love with a white boy named Adam. Adam’s family is one of the upper classes, while Amy’s is somewhere in the lower class. This made their parents dislike their relationship because they see them as two different people who don’t belong to each other. One day, they got involved in the “color game” at their school which changed everything.

Amy’s brother’s wife, Sue, said that, “It’s so much harder to make it when you’re not white. It’s possible, sure, but prejudice runs deep”. I agree to what she said in story because in our modern society, most of us categorize each other based on our social status and even our skin. People make up this social hierarchy out of nonsense that separates people from one another. They could loose their value as a human being, because the idea that these barriers are preventing them to be so is holding them back. They discriminate other people just because they are the complete opposite of them. The sad truth is no matter how better things are, there are still going to be problems out there. Everything has their both pros and cons, which is why I agree to what Sue stated in the book.

“A Gash of Pain” and “The Sun”

This pieces are inspired by my own experiences in life, which I believe some people may have also experienced, including my friends and family. In order to create these, I gathered pictures from the Internet for me to use as my reference. Then, I would use different art strategies to complete the whole artwork. I focused more on how will I form the the texture, balance, form, and shape of the image. I wanted to show the story behind these pieces and might inspire my audience. I always have a hard time figuring these things will be put in the work, so I took my time and I successfully accomplished my works.

Welcome!