Communication 

In my Communications 9 class, I did a project called Pecha Kucha, which was an excellent example of my communication skills by being able to demonstrate my learning on a subject of topic and being able to show the class what I’ve learned. For my project I picked to do the different types of energy in Canada, which focused on nuclear power compared to hydroelectricity. This is a topic that I’m passionate about because I care about where we get our energy from, and the sustainability of it. Through this project, I had to do a lot of research, information gathering, working on a Power Point and practicing my script. 

Creative Thinking 

In my English 9 class in the first semester, we worked a lot on poems, this greatly improved my creative thinking by pushing me out of my comfort zone and being more open with my ideas. At the end of the semester, we worked on creating our own poems of our choosing. At first, I had some difficulties knowing what I wanted to write. I knew I had to have an emotional connection to my poem, to be able to be passionate about what I was writing. I had decided to write about my complicated family life, mainly centered around the large amount of grief I had from my father’s passing. I was having a lot of mixed emotions, and it helped to use this project as an outlook for those emotions. By doing this, I worked on my creative thinking by expanding my social and emotional boundaries, being more original with my work and using a more personal connection to my work. 

 

This is the poem I wrote at the end of the semester: 

I’m from the truth and lies behind my families’ eyes, 

As well as the tears and sighs, 

A family that could never agree, 

Especially between the three, 

I’m from Christmas eve dinners that never end well, 

Because everyone had secrets to tell, 

Year after this this goes on,  

From dusk to dawn, 

Twisted tongues that are meant to sting, 

Because words hurt more than sticks and stones, 

Flowers that are meant to be feared, 

As I slowly disappear, 

I can’t even ask, 

So, I must hide under my mask, 

My future has already been written in stone, 

I needed to be away from them, 

But now all I feel is numb, 

I fell apart those last few days, 

I think about that moment all the time, 

It became a pastime, 

Fears of your skin being cold, 

Frozen like ice, 

Because now it’s something I can’t have 

Time I won’t get, 

Memories not made, 

The clocks always ticking,  

It just went too fast this time, 

And now I feel left behind, 

It’s a gut-wrenching feeling,  

Knowing that you’re not actually there anymore, 

But after winter must come spring, 

The flowers always bloom again, 

I am the only one who can pick up the shattered glass anymore, 

Each piece pierced my skin,  

The raw edges gave a great sting, 

The glass cut my skin like razors, 

But I had no other option, 

So, I piece by piece, I picked them up, 

So, I won’t become what I came from. 

 –

Critical Thinking 

This year, during my Science 9 class, we did a lot of work on biology, I had found this subject a bit difficult to comprehend, I didn’t have a deep understanding of it last year, and that seemed to translate onto this year. I worked hard in class by asking questions, doing a lot of review and working in groups to be able to make connections and draw conclusions. Later in the unit, I was able to demonstrate by newfound learning in our smaller microscope’s unit. By working hard during a hard time, I was able to develop new skills to solve and learn new strategies.