Core Competencies – Semester 2, 2025

Normally, I’d call myself chill and laid back. I wasn’t the best student, nor was I the worst – I’ve always sat in the middle of the pack, which I was completely fine with. This year, however, was different. Eleventh grade was when grades actually mattered for post-secondary, so I’ve been a lot more critical of myself. This was especially evident in Creative Writing 11.

Writing has been a staple hobby since elementary school, so I’ve already set high standards for myself. In this class, however, I pushed myself even further. I wanted every piece I handed in to be the best product I could produce. With this mindset, my inner perfectionist completely took over – I would hand in my stories a month late to get every detail right. It became an issue when I began scrapping weeks’ worth of work to start from square one – all because I thought my writing “wasn’t going anywhere.” Lately, I’ve been taking a step back and telling myself that something needs to change. Not only were my grades slipping because I took so long to hand in assignments, but my mental health was also deteriorating, with so much pressure I put on myself. With this realization, I’ve tried a new method for writing: typing an imperfect first draft before cleaning it up after I’m done. This was extremely difficult for me – I was used to getting everything perfect on the first write. Even though it’s still a struggle for me today, my progress is speeding up!

I’m still working hard to get this habit through my thick skull, but this is a good example of the “Personal Awareness and Responsibility” competency.

Core Competency Reflection

In the Physical Education 10 last year, I stepped up as a leader in a group project, which is an excellent example of communication because I was the glue that kept my group together. During the gymnastics unit, we had to perform a themed play in front of class. My group was struggled to even come up with a first move, so that was when I set myself in charge. First, I came up with a theme that everyone was happy with. From there, we were able to consistently build and improve our presentation. I suggested our moves and actively listened to everyone’s feedback, where we tweaked the performances to everyone’s liking. When deciding the moves, I took everyone’s skills into consideration; normally the strongest person was supporting the structure while the lightest was on top. I made sure the environment was positive and supportive, so everyone was comfortable participating. In the end, our final product was something everyone was happy with.

In a writing tutor class, we wrote unique stories, which is a great example of creative thinking because we constantly improved our writing and gave each other valuable feedback. Thanks to my imagination, I always have huge ideas for my stories, but I’m not always sure how to execute them in a meaningful way. By working together with the class, we work on our stories together and help find ways we can improve. Thesaurus is always a great tool whenever I need to find juicy words for everyone. However, sometimes my ideas just don’t work, and I have to accept that. Ultimately, it is part of the creative process to create the best story with my abilities.

Information Fluency

DL Information Fluency Notes

 

The information Fluency project required me to pick a passion to research about. I originally chose drawing, but there were no good articles about it. Instead, I picked a topic that I, along with many others have thought about: the rapid advancement of technology. The rise of AI in 2023 has gotten mixed feedback. While some think that this will be extremely beneficial for humanity, others think that this will eventually lead to the end of mankind. Most people have a mixed opinion on it.  I personally just think that AI is really fun to experiment on, but I can see the argument on both sides. Ai is not the only thing that is getting improved, as other things such as cars, phones, and computers are also getting massive upgrades. Some companies are even starting to invent special headsets or glasses that seem like they came straight out of a sci-fi movie. While I do think that the all the new tech is neat, I kind of hope that all this advancing would slow down so people could get used to all the new stuff. A human versus AI war is highly unlikely in my opinion, but you never know what might happen in the future.

Break the Fake – article claiming an asteroid almost hit earth

  1. I found this article that stated a large asteroid was very close to hitting earth.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/26/asteroid-will-miss-earth-in-one-of-closest-approaches-ever-nasa

2. I did a Wikipedia search on the publishing company behind this article and did not find anything negative about it.

3. I did a google search on the topic and found that a lot of other articles were talking about the event

4. Finally, I scrolled to the bottom of the news article where they did site their sources, concluding that this event was true.

Thank you for reading my post and have a wonderful day!

Take Your Kid to Work Day (TYKTWD)

Hello, welcome back to Felix’s blog!

On November 2nd, I participated in Take-Your-Kid-to-Work-Day, a day where a parent or trusted adult takes their kid to their job, where they participate in the work and help around. My dad had a job at a construction company, so he gladly invited me join for for the day. My dad woke me up at six in the morning, which was a lot earlier than when I usually get up. After having a quick breakfast, I got in my dad’s van which was packed full of equipment and papers. I expected him to pull up to a construction site, but instead he drove to a small office building. I’ve been there once or twice before, and the staff were very kind. My dad took me to the second floor where he seated me to an office desk. He put a stack of files on my desk and instructed me to do the paperwork while he leaves to help around. The paperwork was not very difficult because it was just multiplication and I had a calculator my dad gave me before he left. The office was quiet and peaceful, so nothing distracted me from doing work. After an hour or two of doing paperwork, my dad came back and picked me up to go to the actual construction site to help, but first he took me to a restaurant to get lunch.

Once we finished our meal, we took a thirty minute drive to arrive at the construction site. It was a regular house in a neighbourhood under construction, its wooden structure revealing and piles on gravel around the driveway. Once my dad suited me up in a vest and helmet, he headed inside. It was fascinating to see a house in its bare, skeletal structure, knowing that one day it would be a beautiful house with furniture and decor. I just explored the unfinished house while my dad was outside using a power saw. It was so ear-piercing that I can hear it from inside the house. About half an hour in, my called called for me to help do measurements and put cabinets into place, which felt very heavy, but I got it done. At five in the afternoon, it was time to leave. I used to complain that seven hour school was too long, but now that I see my dad’s ten hour work schedule, I think my mouth needs to be shut.

If I were to have this job, the thing I would look forward to everyday when wake up is knowing that I’ll help people by contributing to the construction of their house. That house would be the place they call home, a place they can always go to when they have a bad day. I would also look forward to helping my co-workers, assisting them carrying huge objects and building the house with them. One thing that I would not really look forward to is that all the physical work. I like physical actives, but if it is my job, I would get tired of it very quickly. Another thing is that construction does not interest me that much. I work environment that I could work with is writing or drawing, since I like doing both. I enjoy the peaceful and quiet project, so I would like it as a job. Thank you for reading my post and have a wonderful day!

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