Category: Grade 11

Year End Concert Reflection Concert Band

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What about the last concert/performance are you proud of? Why are proud of this?

I am proud of playing earth dance with no mistakes. I really enjoyed playing this song and it was one of my favorite songs we have played this year. At first when we got this song I found some parts a bit tricky and the transitions between instruments really fast. It helped that one the flute players switched to percussion and played the suspended cymbal.

If you could change or fix one thing about your performance, what would it be? What would you improve?

Halfway though Novena I had to adjust the tambourine stand as it was about to fall over. Even though it is barely noticeable in the recording, this could have been prevented If I just made sure everything was sturdy before we started the song.

Please write a few sentences to describe your performance at our concert.

I think I preformed very well in this year end concert. I stayed on tempo by watching the conductor as much as I could. I was able to setup and transition between percussion instruments faster than in previous concerts because I went on stage first to make sure I had enough time. In Fanfare and Festival my dynamics for in the crash cymbals were not all exactly the same as this is quite hard to do, though I don’t think it was that noticeable. Fortunately the second time we played that section I did fairly better.

In a few sentences, please describe how this past year has gone for you in band? How have you improved on your instrument and what would you like to continue to improve on? 

This past year has gone pretty good. I have improved a lot on playing multiple percussion instruments at once and switching quickly between instruments. Since this year we had one less percussionist as compared to last year it was quite common for me to play multiple instruments in one song. I also have learned some theory from our teacher which I found interesting at times since we have never done that in band before. I would like to continue improving on the drums and working on snare drum rudiments.

Code Talker and The Round House: Personal Connection Piece

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My Movie

Curricular Competency Reflection

A. In the past, Canada did not recognize Indigenous people, their land and their culture. Canada and the US tried to assimilate them by using residential schools to take their culture away from them, as talked about in the Code Talker. In the Round House, the main focus was on how land was taken away from the Indigenous people and how laws were biased towards the “white man”. Presently, we are more aware of the trauma that residential schools created for those that attended. We are also more aware of the rights of Native people in claiming their land. Canada is doing better today in trying to respecting Indigenous people by acknowledging the harm that was done, trying to negotiate land claims and have students learning more about Indigenous culture in schools. I think in the future Canada will have even more of an emphasize on Indigenous education and learning about their culture. Hopefully, Indigenous and Canadian will work together.

B. In the Round house I learned how justice is very hard to get in Indigenous communities. For example, the tribe was only allowed to prosecute someone if it was another Indigenous person that had committed a crime on tribal land; this jurisdictional issue results in problems of getting justice, like what happened to Linden Lark. Moreover, I learned many laws that are in effect, are still biased in favor of the “white man”. From the Code Talker I learned how important language is to Indigenous people and how it is very sacred to them. I also learned that the Navajos made a significant contribution to WW II.

C. I think it is very important to read novels from a variety of cultures including Indigenous authors. This gives students different views of the world as opposed to their own. It also helps helps you understand Indigenous culture and history from their point of view, and may help in understanding current issues. In addition, Indigenous authors can be a great role model for younger Indigenous people.

D. I would recommend the Code Talker to anyone who is interested in history, especially World War II. I would only recommend The Round House to someone who really likes books about justice and how it affects Indigenous communities. Overall I do not recommend The Round House because there are many elaborate side stories from other characters that are distracting and make the novel confusing as the narrative for each story is threaded throughout.

Core Competency Reflection

An example of where I took a significant risk in my thinking or the expected process was when I chose to come up with my own idea for the personal connection piece rather than using an suggested idea. I built a wooden scale which clearly demonstrated how different things in the books balanced with each other or out weighed each other.

This is how I select images and words to create impact for different audiences: Because I knew we were presenting to ELL students, I tried to embed images into my presentation that they could easily understand, as they may have not understood all the words on the slides. I also showed this in my personal connection piece, where I used images of my scale in the PowerPoint to give a visual to the students I was presenting to about how ideas in the books balance each other.

Physics 11 Core Competency Reflection

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Collaboration and Communication

In the Mini Lab on Friction I was able to demonstrate collaborating and communicating skills. In this lab we had to work together in a group of two to measure the force of friction on two different surfaces and use those measurements to calculate the coefficient of μ. We worked together to gather the data, one of us would measure how many newtons of force and the other person would record on to a sheet of paper. We also had to collaborate when writing in the lab. We worked together to do the calculations and then split up the other work between us. I also showed communication skills in this Lab, as it is important to clearly present your data and your results. 

Physics 11 lab on Friction

Chemistry 11 Self Assessment

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I use evidence to make judgements or decisions as demonstrated in this chemistry 11 titration lab. 

In this lab we had to do a titration using HCl and NaOH. I found this lab more challenging than some of the other labs. This was because the goal was to have the solution in the Erlenmeyer flask change to a light pale pink, but you had to be very precise and if you added one too many drops the solution would turn a darker pink, leading to an inaccurate result. In this lab I demonstrated that I can make decisions and judgements based on evidence.