I demonstrated creative thinking through the poetry unit project we did in my English 10 Creative Writing class. When creating my artifact, I brainstormed the different ways that I or those around me have experienced love in different ways. I took different experiences I’ve had to generate the lines of the poems. I also took inspiration from different forms of media that I’ve consumed over the year that involved love and romance to paint a picture as to what love could be like from a variety of perspectives. A strategy I found when trying to write this poem was to just write “badly”. I would disregard any grammar rules and just let my mind run wild as I wrote down everything that would come to mind, no matter how bad it was. Once I decided that I had enough written down, I would go back and edit what I had written and try to fit it into lines of poetry that made sense and seemed cohesive. This poem was written in free verse, meaning it had no rhyme scheme or general pattern, so to improve for next time, I would like to branch out and try to write poems using more rhyme schemes or writing a wider variety of poems.
I demonstrated the ability to play in a group and create an entertaining stage when my friends and I performed Maroon 5’s Lucky Strike at a concert. During this performance, I both played guitar and sang at the same time, which I believe I did well in. A skill that I would like to improve on in the future is my stage presence, as I feel that there were times during our performance where my energy dropped. I feel like I could do more to contribute to an entertaining performance. I want to continue performing with my friends in the future, as the process was very enjoyable and I was satisfied with the end result.
Core Competencies Reflection:
During the process of creating this performance, I exercised my collaboration skills through my role in our group. I acted as the unofficial “leader” of our group and helped during the organization of our practices. When we were first deciding what songs we wanted to perform, we knew that we wanted to choose a Maroon 5 song as we had also performed Maroon 5’s Misery at a previous performance and dubbed ourselves “Maroon 4”. Due to me being the one who was most familiar with Maroon 5 songs, I was able to compile a list of Maroon 5 songs that we could perform and showed them to my group. Through a consensus, we decided on Lucky Strike. While we were practicing, the three of us that were playing instruments worked individually to find out how to play the song in a way that was comfortable for us. I was able to provide assistance and guidance when we were figuring this out, such as working with the pianist for the arrangement of the piano and guitar to make us sound the best we could. Overall, my group work really hard to create a good performance that we could all look back on and smile at, and I’m very proud of what we accomplished. To improve for next time, I would put more of a focus on the emotional side of performance as we were so focused on making it musically perfect that there were times we were reminded to have more energy.
I feel nervous this Monday morning because of all the upcoming final assessments I have going on this week.
Personal Health and Wellness
When I am sad, angry or frustrated, doing music helps me be more productive or calm. I really enjoy learning how to play instruments as it gives me something to focus on. I learn instruments for my own gain, so I feel very little pressure to vastly improve in a short amount of time. If I’m feeling stressed or upset, I can play songs that give me comfort and cheer me up or songs that reflect my emotions so that I can fully process them. I find it to be a healthy way to let out any negative emotions that I have as music is a very positive thing in my life. Music has also given me a lot of friends, so playing instruments with them and singing gives me a lot of joy and makes me feel better.
Core Competency Reflection
I work with others to achieve a goal. In our various sports units, we would play as teams and I would be teamed with people in my class that I usually never interact with. Although sports may not be my forte, I was able to work together with my teammates and listen to the advice of those who had more experience in the sports we were playing to help me improve. Whenever my team would win a match, it felt very gratifying and exciting, almost as gratifying as seeing the improvement in my own abilities over time.
I can identify my strengths and identify my potential. I used to often self-deprecate and say that I was horrible at most sports. While I am not extremely strong in some sports, I found certain sports that I am actually good at and enjoy, such as badminton and ultimate frisbee. Even if I wasn’t given the chance to show my strengths at times, it made the moments when I would do really well feel so much more meaningful. I believe that I have potential in some sports and if I were to practice more, I could get decent.
I can show a sense of accomplishment and joy. I take pride in my work and myself. When playing sports, I tend to be more of a supportive player than the one leading the game and making the most points. I find it best to be back support as I can back up my teammates if needed and there is not as much pressure as being at the front. Whenever my teammates would score, I would always celebrate the victory. However, there are certain times when I have been able to score a point or do some kind of action that greatly helps my team. When things like these would happen, I was able to celebrate my own accomplishments and feel proud that I could help my team.
I can identify how my actions affect the community or environment and I can make positive change. As a more supporting player, I’ve realized that there are little things that I could do to overall benefit my team. An example would be moving to a different side of the field or court if I was too close to another teammate to give more opportunities for plays. Although this was very small and insignificant, it was still something that could potentially benefit my team and I understood that the decisions of everyone in the game affect the outcome.
The internment of Japanese Canadians is one of the biggest mistakes the Canadian government is making as a reaction to Japan’s recent attacks. Much of the west coasts’ population is Japanese, either immigrated from Japan or with Japanese parents. Due to my parents’ fishing business, I’ve grown up surrounded by lots of Japanese folks, all of whom are incredibly kind people who would never hurt a fly. Their internment is a direct violation of the “innocent until proven guilty” law, as they’ve done nothing wrong except be Japanese, as it seems. My own best friend, the son of one of our fishers, is Japanese and was born here, not even able to speak the language yet was still sent away. I haven’t heard from him since and I miss him every day. With nearly all the fishers gone, my parents’ business has been struggling and I imagine that many other businesses are as well. I fear not only for my family’s future, but for the future of Canada as a result of internment. I can only imagine the immense cost of running the camps and how much money, labour and resources are going in to fund them. We barely survived the recent depression and are still in the process of getting back on our feet, so I worry about whether Canada will be able to handle another burden on its shoulders. Although I understand the fears surrounding Japan’s potential threat against Canada, the internment of Japanese Canadians is a terrible solution. I see nothing good coming out of internment and worry for the future of Canada if we continue to allow fear to rule over our lives and control our actions.
Curricular Competency
I did assess and explained the changes the Japanese-Canadians went through. In my research handout.
I did assess and explained the changes the non-Japanese-Canadians went through in my research handout.
I made an ethical judgement about the action of internment the Japanese-Canadians in my paragraph.
Core Competency
I now understand what is important to me and I can explain my values.
I now understand and can appreciate diverse perspectives on issues and can resolve problems effectively and responsibly.
I can now understand and tell, after examining the facts of the possible threat from Japanese- Canadians in Canada and the opinions of various people, the difference between fact and opinion.
I demonstrated creative thinking skills through one of the quick writes we do every Friday in English class. As we only had 15 minutes to think of and write a story, I needed to be fast in gathering my ideas and continue the prompt that we had been given. When writing, I immersed myself in the story and imagined myself in the character’s position, thinking of the five senses that my character would use and what he was experiencing. I drew inspiration from many action/adventures books and movies that I watched before to think about how I wanted my story to go. I got stuck a few times when trying to write due to feeling the pressure of a limited amount of time, but when I did, I would just continue to brainstorm ideas and would try not to let myself be stuck for too long. With perseverance, I was able to use the creative thinking skills I’ve developed over the years to create a story that I was satisfied with, and I will continue to grow these skills to become a better writer in the future.
