January 24, 2025 by Claire

Personal Awareness and Responsibility: How I manage school related stress

When I get stuck on a problem, I have strategies for what to do next. They include…

They include taking small breaks, asking for help, or encouraging myself to view the issue from a different perspective. Taking breaks helps me focus and regain initiative to try again. I also like to ask for help when I cannot solve something myself because the act of talking it out with someone can help me find the solution. I remind myself that finding solutions to any problem is simpler if I change my perspective of it. I often attempt to fix problems as soon as they arise which means that I can get stuck in a certain mindset that can be limiting. This requires me to use my other strategies to remove myself from it and look at a problem with new resolve.

When I need to boost my mood or re-focus, I…

When I need to boost my mood or re-focus, I often give myself a small break. This can include getting a snack or water, having a conversation with a family member, or even standing up and moving around my space. I can get very frustrated if I spend too long on a single task, so any small reset can help me revive my morale. I find movement and snacks are usually my go to. The mundane and simple action of eating is a strong contrast to most school-related tasks and is an easy way to fuel myself while also giving my brain a break.

I can prevent some school-related stress by…

I can prevent some school-related stress by staying on top of work, making to-do lists of remaining tasks, and prioritizing healthy sleep. My sleep has not been good this semester and has affected my motivation to accomplish school-work. Shifting it to a more reasonable time frame over I-week will help me gain back some initiative. Organizing my work into lists is also very helpful for me. It prevents me from needing to allocate brain space to remember and keep track of everything I need to accomplish.

When distractions are getting in the way of my work, I can…

When distractions are getting in the way of my work, I can change where I am working. Working by myself makes room for me to procrastinate and so, moving some where public forces me to hold myself accountable. It is a great help when I am trying to avoid wasting time.

January 17, 2025January 17, 2025 by Claire

Anatomy and Physiology 12 Core Competency Self Assessment

Pig Dissection

Communication

Share the experience of collaboration for your artifact.

The pig dissection lab required thoughtful collaboration between me and my lab partner. Success was heavily based on having discussions about next steps and taking turns cutting while another advised. While beginning the dissection I found it very important to decide together where cuts should be made. Certain mistakes were not fixable so we needed to be sure at every step. My partner was extremely helpful and we both made equal contributions to the completed dissection. During labelling , we agreed that I would take off my gloves, make the labels, and be in charge of inspecting pictures while my partner was in charge of inserting the labels and finding anything buried deeper in the pig. This meant I often would describe where she should look in the pig and direct her while she looked. It also meant that she could look at images with me and give advice on which diagrams/pictures would be the most helpful. I could show her images and we would discuss the structure’s plausible locations based on what we knew about it and the location of other organs in the pig. We put our combined knowledge together to more efficiently complete the task and created a great collaborative environment.

We also collaborating in the removal of our pigs digestive system. It required trying many different techniques to remove. The esophagus was specifically a challenge because it was heavily anchored to other organs. We talked about strategies and took turns attempting to dislodge it while the other gave advice and helped move things out of the way with a blunt probe.

I found no problems in this experience and would probably attempt to follow this exact structure for other labs in the future.

Personal/Social

Share the experience of personal awareness/responsibility for your artifact.

Dissecting the pig was very scary at times and uncomfortable. Me and my partner were very agreed that we were going to take turns dissecting. Sharing the responsibility was good for managing my discomfort. I once dissected a worm and felt very responsible for the success of the dissection because my partner was not very willing to do some of the cutting.

Our time for dissecting was limited and so me and my partner decided to utilize flex periods. We were able to manage our time well and avoid rushing. Prioritizing planning and setting goals per day unsured that we did complete the lab. This demonstrating our ability to take charge of our learning and complete our goals using different strategies.

In the future I would’ve moved through the first few steps slightly faster. I say this but I recognize that this was my first proper dissection of this type and so I was managing stress an doing my best to avoid mistakes. These two factors meant that we did have to manage ourselves in a slightly tighter time frame, but ended with a good experience for goal setting and self responsibility.

Heart Dissection

Heart of a lamb – dissected

Thinking

Share the experience of critical/reflective thinking for your artifact.

The heart dissection was another lab which required translating diagrams into physical learning. Most diagrams proved to be useless resources and instead I needed to use my knowledge of the structures to find them instead of matching them to a diagram like I would’ve expected. Each structure is connected to many others, so me and my partner changed our strategies. We would label a simple structure and then use its position to locate another based on their physical relation. This proved helpful but still left some labels without a space. We ended up having to guess and check multiple times to gather feedback. We used this to narrow down possible locations of structures like the atria which were very difficult to locate in physical form compared to a diagram. Our labelling was a bit all over the place in the beginning and so in the future I would most likely start with labels I definitely knew and then begin to gather feedback about the others using teachers reviews of our labels and other knowledge.

June 24, 2024June 24, 2024 by Claire

My Inquiry About Poetry

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Inquiry Reflection

For my inquiry I wrote 24 poems in a collection I titled ‘A poem for every hour I waste a day.’ It was an inquiry dedicated to developing my knowledge of poetry and my overall goal was to fight writers block by holding myself accountable and driven. My final product is something I am extremely proud of. It took a long time to complete, a lot of brain storming, tons of writing and rewriting, and a shocking amount of editing. I found that I have developed much more confidence in my own abilities and got my revised plan accomplished in a satisfying way. I really enjoyed the editing of my poems because it lacked the stress of having to write an entirely new poem but still held the creative aspect. This creative aspect was something I was glad to explore and I enjoyed diving deeper into my interest in the subject. I look forward to rereading my inquiry in a few years and analyzing how my subject matter, views, and poetic devices have changed or stayed the same. It was overall a great way to lay big emotions out to process and share.

Core Competency Reflection

Personal Identity & Communication in Poetry

Poetry is a deeply personal thing but I found that every single poem was also a lesson in communication. It was a fine line between tell vs imply and in my opinion I usually struck the balance in my poems. Some poems would’ve made no sense to a reader because they were deeply personal and vague but others balanced out by being more understandable and simple. Poetry allowed my to look at myself because of the emotions my poems drew from. It was an amazing way to vent some of my issues while practicing my communication of those issues. I needed to read every poem carefully and imagine how the words on the page may be received by someone without my personal experiences. If it seemed confusing without my own context I would edit, unless I wanted the poem to be purposefully extremely confusing, which I did do a few times to stay true to the goal of writing personal poems that meant something to myself. The project was an outlet that allowed me practice in communicating myself to others.

June 18, 2024June 18, 2024 by Claire

Core Competency Self-Assessment

DO NOT read if you DO NOT want to see worm guts – ‘artifact’ at bottom of post

Communication and Collaboration

We did several dissections in the animal unit but the worm dissection was the one that required the most collaboration. It was a partner dissection and needed to have the work divided in a functional way. Me and my partner found it easier if one person solely focused on cutting and the other focused on suction and pinning. We were easily able to complete the lab this way and it allowed for simpler communication when discussing the location of organs while proceeding with the lab. It made less need for movement while completing the lab and also meant that there was less passing of tools all contributing to a safer work space.

Critical Thinking

The worm dissection gave us an opportunity to see a digestion tract with similarities to our own. We observed diagrams and compared them to figure out where things were located inside the worm. This was slightly more difficult than I would’ve thought because every chart is obviously more clear and segmented than an actual worm where everything is slightly similar in color. We learnt most of the functions of each organ in class but when labelling some organs I had to go to the textbook to get an actual understanding of what I was explaining. Next time I would’ve loved to know a trick to dissect the worm in order to preserve the pseudo hearts.

Personal Awareness

I found dissecting the worm slightly sickening but was able to put it aside because I knew it was a great learning opportunity. At first I really hated cutting into the worm but as the lab progressed I felt less uncomfortable with the slight gore. I would say this lab was a good example of taking ownership for my learning because it was optional to participate in the actual dissection. I did not need to if I didn’t want to but I decided that I would fight my slight discomfort in order to get a valuable experience out of it. I also know that I developed this skill because I continued fighting my slight discomfort when we did the squid and mussel dissections because I knew that these were also important.

You are about to see worm guts

January 12, 2024 by Claire

Reflection on BC First Peoples 12 course and core competencies

What has changed in terms of your perspective with First Nations people? What has led to this change?

I think my perspective of First Nations people has grown a lot in this course. I’ve learned a lot of new information and I think overall developed deeper respect for other cultures that I previously knew less about. I have enjoyed learning about unique cultural traditions and found learning about Aboriginal story telling very rewarding. First Nations culture is different compared to my usual life and it’s always interesting to learn about other cultures who live differently than me. It’s also interesting to be learning about cultures so close to my own home. Many First Nations groups we discussed are close to our area, so I feel connected to the information we are learning. I think what has really contributed to my growth in perspective is the connection to the material and the feeling that it is very important to me. I’m growing up in a world where we are actively trying to heal the relationship between Aboriginal people and the government and education is the first step. I feel obligated to take this information when I’m given the opportunity to, so in the future I am properly educated and don’t accidentally internalize unfair and harmful stereotypes that have affected First Nations for many years. I think something else that benefited my learning was hearing First Nations people’s perspectives on the topics we were discussing. Sometimes this was a speaker in class which was a very rewarding experience for me, but the “First Nations voices” sections of textbook were also interesting and worthwhile to read. I loved the nature walk we did once, and it really helped me enjoy learning about different world views and different and unique uses for resources. I liked being outside and taking notes on information that was genuinely interesting because almost all of it I had never heard before. I also liked being able to reflect on my learning in my journal because it let me really process and understand the information I was learning and applying. I will leave this course with a changed and evolved mindset.

“Positive Personal and Cultural Identity (Values/Cultural Contexts)” Reflection

I think that BC First People 12 has helped me grow my values. Before entering this course, I did have an idea of some issues that First Nations were faced with, but I did not know enough to truly have well developed values and opinions on those issues. Now I feel more educated which has let me develop and improve my values based on facts. Another thing I have learned in this course is more context surrounding residential schools. I’ve been learning about the atrocities of residential schools since elementary school and overall do think I had a good understanding of them. What I was missing was the understanding of how residential schools have also affected people’s perceptions of First Nations people. Residential Schools led to many harmful and derogatory stereotypes that have persisted to this day. I learned a lot about this in the course and was able to add to my earlier understanding of residential schools and learn more about people’s experiences there.

Goals	Action Plans
1. Manage my time better	– continue using my bullet journal to keep track of school and activities – write to do lists – hold myself responsible when I procrastinate school work
2. Create more free time/use it well	– stay on top of school work – not wasting my free time – enjoy my free time by doing things that make me happy

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