Communication (Entrepreneurship and Marketing)
This semester in Entrepreneurship and Marketing 10, my peers and I worked on selling food items in the Devil’s Den to other students around the school. This experience taught me how to communicate effectively with others and engage with people around my school community. Additionally, this allowed me to interact with new people, listen to others while learning how to promote and sell products. I believe I have grown the most in my communication competency by explaining and presenting products to customers, enhancing my ability to convey my ideas thoroughly. During the next semester, I hope to continue working on these skills and presenting my ideas with clarity.

Communication (Spanish)
In Spanish 10, I was able to perfect my communication skills while learning how to engage in conversations with my teacher and peers. During this class, I received the opportunity to talk with peers, participate in class discussions, and complete assignments in Spanish. Learning a new language taught me how to adapt my communication style by developing a deep appreciation for different cultures and experiences. This also improved my listening skills and taught me to become more confident when conveying my ideas. By practicing my core skills in a different language, I believe I strengthened my overall communication competency.

Critical Thinking
During Math 10, I was able to work on my critical thinking skills and analyze problems from different approaches. This taught me to evaluate problems from a variety of angles in order to select the most efficient solutions possible. Math also helped me understand how to break down larger problems into smaller, more manageable parts, further developing my critical thinking skills. This skill not only helped me during tests but also in everyday life. By approaching situations in various ways, testing different hypotheses, and working through problems logically, I was able to improve my problem-solving skills and boost my overall confidence.

Social Responsibility
This semester I further developed my social responsibility skills by engaging with my peers, participating in group work, and contributing to my school community. Through STUCO and Leadership, I often volunteered my time to help others in my school community feel included and involved. This was an amazing opportunity for me to work with new peers and help make a difference. Additionally, by offering support to my peers when necessary, I was able to further improve my social responsibility competency and strengthen my ability to create a more inclusive and inviting environment within our school community.

Creativity
This semester I was able to nurture my creativity through my writing and communication with my peers. This competency helped me think outside the box, write creatively, and approach tasks from various perspectives. In poetry, I experimented with various different poetry forms and literary devices to craft interesting and thought-provoking pieces of literature. Creativity allows me to see situations in a unique manner while finding innovative solutions to problems. I hope to continue to work on this competency in the future and apply my creativity to new challenges.

Decision-Making
During this semester, I worked to strengthen my decision-making skills to aid me in various aspects of my life. During Math 10, I believe I was able to acquire notable skills such as logical thinking and the ability to analyze situations in numerous ways to reach a solution. This course helped me learn how to adapt strategies, apply logic, and choose between a variety of methods in order to solve a problem. By learning these skills, I believe I will be able to apply them in daily scenarios by exploring alternative approaches to problem-solving, improving my time management, and developing a more logical approach to various situations.

Last semester in English, I worked on enhancing my critical thinking and writing skills. During this class, my peers and I worked on countless assignments where we had to critically assess and answer questions. One particular assignment I believe played a crucial role in sharpening my critical thinking skills was a novel study assignment. This was a great example of critical thinking because of how we assessed the various parts and aspects of the novel. To begin, we had to choose one main protagonist and meticulously analyze their skills, traits and main character conflicts. We then split the main assignment into three parts and for each section, we had to assess a certain action the character did and why we were either impressed or not impressed by it. Using the information given in the book, we found evidence to express and support our opinions. However, in order to find and express this information, we had to critically think and use our observations (from the novel), imagination and general knowledge to draw conclusion and make good judgements. In order to understand and explain why we were impressed by certain character actions; we had to elaborate our evidence and express our answers in detail.

This year, I’ve grown the most in my analyzing skills in math. When I first started Math 9, I was confident that I would do well; however, after the first unit test I was surprised by my test score. After seeing this grade, I felt motivated to try harder and worked harder on all my other unit tests. Since the beginning of the semester, I have gotten much better at my analyzing, communicating and solving skills. When I started trying harder in math, I also got better grades and found it easier to understand complex units. I did this by working on my problem solving and critical thinking along with learning to break down problems so they’re easier to solve.

Lastly, I will focus on improving my time management skills by prioritizing assignments and trying not to procrastinate on work. In order to get my homework and assignments in on time, I will try to complete them as soon as I can and make sure not to procrastinate my work. This is important because it will help me in the future and teach me how to complete assignments quickly. I hope to continue working on this skill and become better at time management in the future.

Personal and Social

This year through Digital Literacy, I expanded my digital knowledge and skills in countless ways. The Coast Salish Art assignment taught me how to use different digital platforms to create pieces of artwork. Through this assignment, I also learnt the significance of each art form and the meaning behind each shape. I learnt that each shape has a unique and significant meaning; for example, the crescent represents the moon which holds a lot of significance in Coast Salish traditions. These shapes have ceremonial and spiritual significance that the moon and other celestial bodies have in the Coast Salish way of living. Additionally, in the Break the Fake assignments, I learned how to use online media accurately and how to identify fake versus real information. This will help me in the future while completing assignments as it teaches me what information I should and shouldn’t trust. Furthermore, while comparing my writing to an AI, I was able to see a significant difference in how the text is worded and the style of writing. This taught me to use AI only to generate preliminary ideas. Overall, DL helped me learn how to ethically use digital media for school-based assignments which will benefit me in the future. This course has taught me a lot and has given me the right tools to use for future assignments.

My Paragraph –

For this assignment, I chose to write about the music industry and how it is constantly changing and evolving. Throughout history, music has been a way for people to express their feelings and something almost everyone enjoys. Major contributors to the industry include music awards and the recent influence of social media. Music awards have been a way for artists to receive the acknowledgment they deserve. A Grammy nomination provides an artist with an increase in visibility which helps acknowledge their work and achievements. These awards help artists promote their music and share their thoughts with their fan following. In recent years, we have also been able to see a noticeable change in these music awards when it comes to inclusivity, as this is something the industry lacked. Additionally, another change we have been able to see is the effect of social media. With apps such as TikTok and Instagram, artists can spread their ideas, views and songs easily. Using these apps, they can share their thoughts and lives with their fan following. The influence of social media also helps new artists gain fan following and share their music. Overall, despite there being countless changes in the music industry, I believe the influence of social media and music awards has been positive.

AI-Generated Paragraph –
Music awards and social media are pivotal contributors to the music industry, as they play crucial roles in artist recognition, promotion, and fan engagement. Awards ceremonies provide prestigious recognition that enhances an artist’s visibility and credibility, often leading to increased sales and media attention. Meanwhile, social media platforms serve as direct channels for artists to connect with their fan base, share music, and cultivate loyal followings independently of traditional gatekeepers. This democratization of promotion has levelled the playing field, allowing emerging talents to compete with established acts. Moreover, the viral nature of social media can rapidly propel songs and artists to mainstream success, creating a symbiotic relationship between awards recognition and online presence. Overall, the combined influence of music awards and social media has transformed the industry, empowering artists and enriching the fan experience while fostering a more diverse and inclusive musical landscape.

What was your experience in using AI?
My experience with AI was efficient and easy to understand. The AI-generated paragraph helped introduce some new information and introduced a unique perspective to my topic.

Was the paragraph the AI-generated accurate? Fact-check any new information and see if it’s true.
The information was accurate and all new information was true. Based on the articles I read nothing was false or incorrectly stated.

Was the exercise useful? How can this help you with your learning going forward?
This exercise helped me notice the difference between human and ai- generated writing. It can help me in the future as it gives me a new perspective on certain topics and is very unique from regular articles. Comparing my work to an AI-generated paragraph can also show me where I need to improve and what aspects of my paragraph I should work on. Using AI also helped me realize how easy it is to differentiate two texts; one that is not AI-generated and one that is.

Were your results expected? Yes or No? Explain.
The information the AI gave was not entirely new or shocking; however, I found it interesting how detailed the AI paragraph truly was. The results were similar to what I expected as they summarized the important information needed.

Recently many sources have claimed that the Eiffel Tower has caught on fire. While many people believe this article is true, countless other sources say it’s false. After a lot of research, I’ve concluded that this is a false news story.

1. Find the source

I found a news article by The Sun which claimed that this news story was a “hoax”.

2. Verify the source

The Sun is a real British tabloid newspaper paper which was founded in 1964. On sources such as Twitter, it is verified (with the blue checkmark); however, recently it has become easy to buy the checkmark on Twitter. The article has been written by a real person named Caroline Peacock, but she is not verified online.

3. Fact checking

When I went on the Snopes website, I didn’t find any other information about this article which likely indicates it’s false.

4. Checking other sources

After checking many other resources which also stated this as fake news, I believe this news story is a hoax.