Celebrations: Academic improvement; Looking back from this time last year to now, I am amazed at how much I have improved my grades. Last year my GPA was at a 2.73 at the end of semester My parents were frustrated with me and they were worried that I wouldn’t pass the semester. I hated the fact that I was losing my parents’ trust because I kept lying about my grades. The turning point for me was the day before I was supposed to leave for New York and I had three F’s. My parents almost didn’t let me go on the trip that I had dreamed of going on for over a year. At that point I knew that something had to change. When I started this school year I made a promise to myself that I would pass the year with at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA. So far, I am more than achieving my goal. I have a 4.0 and I am only missing 3 assignments for the whole semester. My parents are super proud of how well I am doing and haven’t asked me once to check my grades with them because they trust me. This year I have strived to turn in all of my assignments and try really hard to get the best grades on my assignments. I have done better at keeping track of my assignments and I avoided blowing off assignments that I didn’t want to do. (show this year’s grades and last year’s grades)
Social Growth; Since coming to Animas, I have noticed a big change in how social I am. I find that I hang out with people more and initiate more conversations with people that I normally wouldn’t have. One example is the friends that I have made in the last year. The first day of school last year I made a snap judgement about Saige and assumed that we would never be friends. We ended up being best friends. I have made friends with people that I never would have expected. I frequently find myself having very in depth conversations with perfect strangers. I find that this change is due to the fact that Animas pushes you to have in depth conversations with people in your community through seminars and exhibitions. New friends and conversation with guy in the trolley station
Artistic Growth; Since I took studio art this past semester, I have noticed a huge improvement in my artwork. My painting, blending and drawing have gone from looking like huge blobs of color to beautiful works of art that are defined and show the time that they took. Past artwork and acrylic transfer
Growth: Pushing myself in math; Although I have done my work in math and have an A, I feel that next semester I could work on pushing myself rather than doing the bare minimum to get an A. During the spreadsheet workshop(evidence) I felt that I did try but I didn’t push myself to do more than I thought I could do. When it came time to turn in the assignment I barely had anything done and said that I really struggled to understand how to do the things that were asked of me in the project. While this was true, I also didn’t try super hard to make progress and understand it.
Using class time wisely; This is something that I have struggled with for as long as I can remember. Granted I have gotten better, but I still have trouble with it. I often will have my assignments open and they will be in front of me but I just won’t work on them. I won’t type or do any research, I’ll just sit there and let my mind wander off or get distracted by the purple piece of glitter in the corner. Or, more often than not, I will be worrying about getting a different assignment done rather than the one right in front of me. My example of this is the Ecology Take action Project in Tina’s class. I ended up working with Brooklyn and that didn’t turn out very well. I ended up getting stuck trying to complete both the paper and my infographic. I am aware of the fact that it is just as much my fault as it is Brooklyn’s that our paper didn’t get completed. If I had used my time better during the beginning of the project, we would have at least had a slightly more complete paper. Not completing the infographic was completely my fault, however. I should have been more focused on that section of the project because, then I would have at least had one part of the project that I would have had a good grade. I think that I can use my class time better by making a conscious effort to not sit by people that distract me and by trying to focus on the task at hand rather than everything else that I have to do.
Question:
How can I keep myself engaged in class so that I can keep my grades where I want them?