Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Portfolio - Improvement

Over the past two years, I have improved on my righting skills a lot. I can seriously say that I love righting and proud to have learned as much as I have. When I first entered my first year of high school I was completely horrible at righting. I did not know the proper punctuations and were they belonged in a sentence. I was always righting run on sentences and never actually put periods anywhere. Now as a sophomore entering my junior year I have learned proper grammar and I am able to grade other people’s paper besides my own. I am also capable of using bigger vocabulary words and actually knowing what they mean. I improved in my righting skills by practicing on paper, games like free rice etc, and my teachers/staff help. When I entered high school for the first time I did not only have a problem with righting but also with reading. When I arrive I had to take a reading to test to see were I was at. When I took that test and found out my score I was a little disappointed because I had a low score. My reading skills have got much better as the time passed. I noticed I was able to read much better and comprehend what I reed if I reed to myself. I improved my reading skills and scores by taking a reading support class. Now I can read at a twelfth grade level. My speaking skills were definitely not the best I also needed more work and help. In order to improve them I started to take a little program on the computer called Rosetta stone which helps me speak English better and understand what others were saying and meant. When I finished the program I was able to understand and say everything correctly. My group skills have always been good. I have always been able to work with people and cope with them. Sometimes I strongly believed that working in groups for certain assignments helped me a lot more then doing it all by myself. My group skills are still the same, they haven’t changed. I enjoy working with peers because it makes the job much easier and it gets it done faster. My technology skills were not the best. When I entered my first year of high school I already knew the basics like how to type an essay and make a power point etc. Now that I have had more time to work with computers I learned about different ways to create things and make them fun. I learned plenty of new things that I did not know existed with technology. I even learned about cyber safety which I was never aware of. For the rest of the two years I have left in high school I will be making sure that I keep improving on my skills. I will keep on asking questions and even researching sometimes.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Portfolio - Future

I feel nervous about my future because I am scared that I will not graduate in time or simply just not graduate at all. The reason I feel this way is because I was behind in school and I feel that I need to work harder then half the students on this campus. Missing five years of school was not something I expected to happen but actually getting an education wasn't either. My goals for the future are to improve even more on my grades and to keep up the hard work. One of my main goals is to reach a 4.0 by the beginning of my senior year or earlier. My main thing to make sure I achieve these goals is to always keep trying and never give up. I also make sure that I don’t let anyone tell me that I can’t do something when I know I can. An after high school goal I have is to attend a music school like Berkeley. I have been able to achieve other past goals for example when I wanted to achieve a 3.0 or higher GPA. By the end of my third quarter of sophomore year I received an award for accomplishing a 3.5. The goals I have planned out for me are not going to be easy and are going to take plenty of hard work and dedication but I am willing to put in the effort just so I can pursue my dream and make not only myself proud but the little family I have left. I will have to make sure that I continue to complete all my assignments and ask for help if I need it. I know that I am going to need help during this process so for that I will make sure I ask my residential staff, teachers, houseparent’s and peers for help in order to achieve these goals that I have set for myself. I genuinely believe that I will achieve my goals because I am a very determined young lady who never gives up and seeks for more.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Playwrights Project Play Performance Paragraph

I feel accomplished after completing my playwright for Playwrights Project. I feel that all that hard work payed off and I ended up with a incredible play. I feel like I never really accomplished much in my early child hood but what my mom expected me to do. For once I felt like I was doing something for me. I felt like this was a way to get my real life story out in the open for others to hear. During the first year of high school I felt like I was slaking off and procrastinating on all my work. As I entered my sophomore year I started to care more about my grades and understand that I have a long life ahead of me to just give up on my work.Being able to express myself and share a part of my story was a great experience. Not only the fact that I was able to share it with others that might be in the same situation but being able to wright it on paper,letting others visualize it and the hardest part of all letting it go.

End of Year Reflection – Greatest High School Achievement


My greatest high school achievement was receiving a 3.5 through out the quarter and keeping it at that GPA. I was extremely proud of myself because I didn't think I was going to be able to do it. I worked so hard and would bug my teachers a lot about what grade I had in the class and what I had to do to raise it and make it better. I think that my teachers would get frustrated sometimes because I started taking my grade really serious. I remember crying on one of my main projects for my English class because I thought I didn't do well. Ms. Priester told me I did great and not to cry so I stopped. Achieving that GPA made me think more positively and try and rank higher. I know I can do it if I put my mind to it.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Portfolio - My Educational Experiences

Due to my educational experiences, I am currently improving each day that passes. I am a very unique student in my opinion because I missed 5 years of school. I was able to catch on fast and keep up with every other student in my present school now. I never finished third grade and skipped all grades until I finally attended the seventh grade. This affected my education completely. Moving from school to school did not make my situation any better when I was able to attended school. It was not only stopping me from learning but it was also very unstable. When I came to San Pasquale Academy I thought I was going to move again and I was not going to last here but now I am entering my junior year and have been completing every work assignment and making sure I ask people for help.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

End of Year Reflection – Greatest High School Obstacle

The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was getting back into the routine of going back to school. It was difficult to get back in to school because I missed five years of school. The reason I missed five years of school was because I was living with my mom in Mexico and she wouldn't let me go. She would tell me that going to school was a privilege not something I need to do daily. Not going to school affected me in every way possible because I was not able to read or wright in English. It also affected me in my social life because I never had friends or acquaintances so I did not know how to make any. When I entered school again I was not sure what I had to do or learn. Missing so much school motivated me to try harder in everything I do and make sure I complete every assignment. As well as to never give up on anything.

Friday, May 27, 2011