AOD: Creative Conflict

Just recently I had to use creative conflict in order to get to an understanding on a final project. She was barely doing anything at all in the beginning. I had to first confront my partner about how she wasn't really helping me with our project. I was basically doing it by myself and she wasn't helping at all because of personal problems. So we talked it out in a civil matter. Even though we aren't friends anymore we still got the project finished.

AOD: Boxer for President #1

Article: Manny Pacquiao Is a Boxing Icon -- Should He Be More? Aug 1, 2006

Apparently when Manny Pacquiao has a fight the whole country stops everything to watch. Even the President stops meetings to watch his fights. The country itself has gone through many issues itself but during Pacquiao's fight they seem to all go away. They look to him so much they are hoping he will run for a political position. The Filipino people hope he wil decide to take a stand like Muhammad Ali during the Vietnam War, and speaking out for other major problems. The author herself hopes he does not though because the corruption has a habit of changing the best-intentional people, and she doesn't want that to happen to him as well.

AOD: Negotiation

My mom and I disagree all the time. One time my mom and I didn't agree on how long I should stay out with my friends on weekends. She wanted me to be home before the streetlights go on, but I wanted to stay out later because I don't get to see them often because our schedules are so different. Thats when we tried to negotiate a time when it would be reasonable of the both of us. We came to the conclusion that if finish all my homework then I could be home by 11:30pm. Both of us were happy with the decision.

AOD: Public Judgement & Public Dialogue

At PSEC, we all do our best to get everyone to work together to make a choice on problems we are all willing to help solve, and an bringing up an issues that concern many people in the community. Like with the student lounge. Terry brought up the issue and asked if students wanted to make an effort to solve the problems brought up about it or just eliminate it entirely. The lounge was too loud during classes and it would get real messy at times. Students wanted to keep the lounge so not all, but a few came together to clean it up, maintain the lounge, and created rules to keep people from getting out of hand. An issue was brought up and people came who were willing to help solve the problem, which is a definition of public judgment.

AOD: Active Listening

On my first day of school (kindergarten) my teacher tried to teach everyone active listening. She told us that in order to actively listen we need to do 3 things: stop, look, and listen. We needed to stop what we were doing, so we dont have anything to distract us. Then look at the speaker, and give them our full attention. Last, listen to what they are saying. This was to help us get that she said the first time instead of her having to repeat it over and over again. It was pretty fun actually. It helped me learn in a new way.

AOD: Diversity

In all the schools I've been to there was always lots of diversity. There was never really a dominant race. In elementary there were a lot of kids with different ethnicities, like Black, Mexican, Russian, almost every Asian you can think of, and Caucasian. That made me feel comfortable and I made lots of friends. Totem Middle School had an abundance of diversity as well. Even though there were quite a few more Mexicans than any thing else, there were still a lot of other teens of different races.

Portfolio: Reflective Letter

From elementary all the way through the first two years of high school, I have written informative essays to write, from my lenient grading teachers. When I reached PSEC, Craig told us our first essay was to be argumentative. I felt totally out of my comfort zone, but as I have gone through this quarter I was taught a new form of writing that challenged my skills as a writer. I have gone through a major evolution as a writer. As I am given more assignments from my teachers and get evaluated on what I've done, I gain a better understanding of what should do to better the next one. In doing that I have greatly improved in several areas of writing that I wouldn't have had if I was in my old school.

In general I have progressed in a few areas that have made me a greater writer. When I look back at my first essay I can see that I needed to add more evidence and explain it. I also realize I didn't make much sense in the intro. In my portion of the third done with my wiki group, I also found small revisions I could’ve made that I didn’t see before. These small realizations show I have improved in revising. Another area I have progressed in is organization. While I go over what Craig has commented about my essays I have kept it in mind and know what things go together and what isn't necessary in a certain part of my essay. Even revising the draft for this reflective letter I found things I could put in and take out. The small parts I needed to add were things that go with other parts to make it easier to grasp what I am trying to say.

The first essay assigned to the class was about Bacon's rebellion. We had to choose an area that had an impact on causing the rebellion, whether it was political, economical, or social. I chose political because I found much more information to support it than the others. Then we had to give evidence about whether we were for or against it in an argumentative essay. I didn't do as well as I would've wanted because like I said before, I had never done an essay like this one. Now that I look back at it I could find several things I could revise to make it better. One main thing I needed to change was the introduction. It was all over the place and a few things didn’t belong because they had nothing to do with my thesis. Such as, a part about what rebellion is. It had nothing to do with political issues being factor in the cause for Bacon’s Rebellion.

Areas that still need improvement are obvious to me. I am not confident when writing my final drafts. While I'm writing it I'm not convinced that it is written well or not. Another thing I need to improve on is the proper use of words. I don't think my writing style is up to the standards of my placement in school. To extend on my need of improvements, I also know I have trouble writing enough to meet the minimum. When I did the first essay I wrote way less than the minimum of 5 pages double spaced. Usually I would stay away from going into depth. I would usually scratch the surface and use main details. Definitely need to work on improving my skills on creating introductions and conclusions. I'm not sure what goes into an introduction or conclusion. My question is whether an intro and conclusion written different in an argumentative essay or is it the same in any form of writing?

Another essay I have attached to my portfolio is the last essay I had worked on with my wiki group. This essay was also argumentative. For this particular essay our group was given the state Connecticut. Our state and a few others were for the ratification of the Constitution, whereas the rest were against it. The objective was to create an essay that states our position towards the ratification of the Constitution, and why. While doing that we also had to create an argument within the essay so the opposing side could either disagree or support our position. Our group split up jobs for writing the essay. My part was to write about economic issues in Connecticut that caused the state to move toward ratifying the Constitution. According to my instructor, the only problem with my part was the verb context and I could've broken up the portion about money, added a few more details, and made it another paragraph.

For the Final Exam, I think I did quite well on my final exam . My research before the quiz really helped. Once I found the original quote I read over it several times to make sure I really understood it. Then I tried to out the quote into words I could understand better. I also looked at the online thesauri to get a diversity of words that have the same meaning. I didn't want to go into my final exam sounding repetitive and boring using the same word over multiple times. For having only two hours to work on it I know I made a major improvement than on my first essays. I tried my best and everything pretty much came to me as I was typing it up.

Along with my improvements that need to be done and my general progress I have already made, I do have a few strengths. Even though I stated I don't know how to right my final drafts, I really know how to plan out my essay by creating a pre-write. I setup my essay and where I want everything on my pre- write by putting the topics of each paragraph in the body, and then I add the supporting details under each topic. Researching is also a strength I believe I have. I love looking up information because I find it easy. I have a great strength about writing essays on things I can honestly relate to. Normally I stay away from going into depth, because I'm afraid of not getting the right facts or not being correct. When I can relate to something I know what I am talking about, which creates a comfort for me. Because I know what I am talking about, I feel I can go as deep as I please because I know the facts and the outcomes.