The main core competency I have used, and developed this year definitely falls under personal awareness and responsibility. In my fitness, and conditioning class this year I showed very strong self determination. I showed up to class as much as possible, and made the most out of every block working out till the end of the period. I created a training split, and took it very seriously to always stay on the regimen, and not slack. Some days I was very tired, and unmotivated, but I made sure to always stay disciplined by thinking about the future, and my goals of gaining strength, and size in the gym. I feel that my sucess in this class is all thanks to my self determination, and without it I would not have seen even close to the amount of progress I have made this semester. Overall I am very happy with how this class went, and feel very achieved.

In biology I also showed self determination in many situations. Whenever I felt tired or unmotivated after a long day, I would always be sure to review my notes, and all the material we went over in class that day. I would do this in preparation for tests, knowing tat if I learned the material early, it would be that much easier to fully grasp it when the big tests come around. I also showed self determination when we did dissections in biology. Often it would make me feel really sick, and grossed out to have to dissect the animal, but I learned to push through, and do my part in order to better understand the systems of the body.

Strengths

·      I believe my biggest strength is communication, I think it is the most important core competency so I have worked hard to improve it over time.  I used to have very poor communication skills and it would hinder my work, but I feel I am quite strong with it now.

Examples

·      I always work well in group assignments, and keep my group on track to being successful. For example, in social studies in grade 9 my class was dong a project in groups of 3 on Indigenous people. As we were organizing our project we all split the workload evenly, but after a few days I saw one of my group members wasn’t doing his part. So I used communication to talk with him, and get him back on track.

My Goals

·      A big goal for me is to have better focus in class so I can stay on task more. I often find myself falling behind so I believe this would solve that problem.

·      I want to become more disciplined when it comes to getting my homework done right after school

My Plan To Reach My Goals

·      To have better focus I will shut my phone off, and put it away in the beginning of class everyday. This will prevent me from getting distracted by it

·      I will set an alarm everyday for the time I usually get home to remind me to get my homework done.

 Competitive Youth Sports Problems

My main passion in life has always been sports, and recently I have seen something in youth sports that concerned me, and I am deeply passionate about spreading awareness. The thing that concerns me is youth sports being too competitive. I am passionate about this because many kids feel too much pressure that they must be the best on there team or get an athletic scholarship. Although it is good to have drive and passion it can become unhealthy and sports should be fun not stressful. In recent years children have been starting competitive sports at a younger age this has some benefits, but the negatives outweigh the benefits. Kids starting sports at a younger age is causing them to get stress injuries. Many talented kids are dropping out of their sport at a noticeably early age due to these injuries or just the feeling of being overwhelmed. some interesting facts I found about youth sports is that kids are quitting because they do not have fun and that, kids are getting busier and missing out on a normal childhood. I agree with both of these facts because I have seen these things happen with my own eyes and that why I am so passionate about it.