Category: Passions

In English 10, I did a character development timeline, which was a great demonstration of the core competency Communication because it required me to concisely and cohesively present a large amount of information as a form that is both pleasing to look at and easy to follow for the reader. As this character was quite important, tracing their arc means I had to retell most of the events that happened in the novel. Here I was able to develop my ability of really understanding what the instructions ask of me. English is an abstract course, and this assignment did not specify what “counts” as character development. It was up to me to use the knowledge I had learnt to infer that, gather information I deemed necessary, then condense it all into a flow chart. As a visual medium, flow charts also require a higher level of cohesion than essays. While designing the chart, I had to keep in mind my audience and goal for this assignment and try my best to focus on them. Completing this character development timeline has allowed me to both demonstrate and develop my Communication skills, and on a literary standpoint, provided me with interesting, new knowledge. In the future, I plan to further develop this core competency by experimenting with different mediums of presentation and tackling on more complex topics/themes.

This year, I’ve developed a lot of skills/core competencies. I’ve chosen to highlight two that were significant for me.

Communication

In Graphic Arts, I learnt how to clearly and artistically communicate an idea to its audience, how to collaborate and connect with other artists in a constructive manner, and how to make art that was what I had in mind. This was most clearly reflected in my latest project, Me, where I had to isolate the most important traits that make up my personality and portray them visually in a way where they are shown, not told. It forced me to think about my audience during the process, express myself clearly enough that a stranger would understand but stay true to the value I had wanted to illustrate. We also did critique sessions, which is a good example of communication with others around you. By giving constructive criticism I connected with my classmates in a helpful manner and was able to give them an outsider’s opinion on their work.

My current draft of the project

Critical Thinking

In Science and Social Studies, I developed my problem solving skills and learnt to evaluate, analyze, and deal with school more efficiently. Rather than one specific assignment, I think this competency was better reflected in my pre-exam reviews where I had to remember a large amount of information on short notice while still keeping my life functional. When given the material I start by analyzing how heavy it is, how long it will take, whether it would interfere with my current assignments and how I could plan my following week around it. This trained me to critically deal with my problems when I am bombarded with them and to react to stressful situations calmly, taking one step at a time as to not get overwhelmed. I also became more logical in my approaches, using observations and facts to smooth out any confusions I had about the topic during past lessons. Developing this skill was especially useful as I struggled with executive dysfunction and would have freezed if I hadn’t learnt to take charge.

Goals

To continue developing Communication, I will redo the Me project in my own time in the future. This will allow me to again look and present myself with the audience in mind, where I can continue to learn what is and isn’t understood by an outsider. To continue developing Critical Thinking, in the next school year I will use my review strategies in smaller assignments and projects. This will let me expand the thinking into smaller tasks and encourage me to use more logical reasoning in my daily life. 

> How has your awareness of Coast Salish Art in our community changed?

This assignment has taught me the cultural significances in Coast Salish art. I learnt about specific shapes to use and their meanings; how they are arranged on the artwork, specifically how circles are put at animal joints; how the artists utilize colors and oil from nature; and the importance of a black silhouette. I also learnt to not overcrowd the animal with images, as the point of these artworks is to convey importance subtly but effectively.  Overall, this assignment had given me an insightful view into a new culture.

My paragraph

The concept of language is fascinating. It is defined as ‘the principle method of human communication’ that follows a set structure to convey long and complex thoughts. It is compositional and referential, providing words that can be rearranged or quickly inform one about something. It is long standing, whereas animal communication is usually formed during survival situations, and contrasts to the short, simple gestures of what you might see between primates; being able to represent the abstractness of art and theory if the user welds it skillfully enough. Researchers had used this depth to determine the origin, concluding that it must be near the time our ancestors started exhibiting more symbolic, “artistic” behaviors, since language is not a simple, mechanical habit. It was then drawn back to around 200 000 years ago, but what about numbers? Though not the first thing to come to mind when art is talked about, there definitely is a place for them in the word, argued many linguists. They are after all, a means of communication, universal one at that; and even though they fall more within the more rigid rules of mathematics, numbers play an important role in helping us work out how exactly language came to be. For example, in a study done on monkeys’ ability to grasp the numerical rule of smaller and larger (1 is smaller than 2; 5 is larger than 3; etc.), it is found that they take it on very quickly, even learning to apply said rule on numbers they weren’t shown yet. This tells us that there might already be an understanding in our ancestors’ brains similar to these monkeys that then evolved into mathematical rules. The same argument could be made for language then; with humans being creatures wired to be social, it makes sense for communication to be continuously evolving to accommodate more complex, more complete thoughts. It still is now, linguists say, with words constantly changing meanings, dying off, getting revived for satirical means, mixing together. Lay and lie have been used interchangeably for decades, but as of recent years, lie became almost disregarded as spoken language in song, speech favors lay more, bringing yet another word to the light. As this communicative form moves on to take forms fitting to our ever-changing lives, perhaps all one can do is observe in wonder.

AI paragraph

Reflection questions

—   What was your experience in using AI?
It was alright. It was scary though impressive how fast sentences were being churned out, and the UI seems to be designed to be appealing.

—   Was the paragraph the AI generated accurate?
Yes, but the topic itself is based on theories anyways. The AI’s points do make sense though, and are more cohesive than mine in 15 sentences. I’ve noticed that most of them get cut short for some reason, and the complicated adjectives does muddy up the paragraph a lot.

—   Was the exercise useful? How can this help you with your learning going forward?
Yes, as it introduced me to AI and showed me the difference between a work driven by sources and one by texts scraped off of Google. The exercise helped me be more proficient with finding reliable sources too, which will be useful for future learning.

A few days ago I saw this tweet circulating around accusing a game of plagiarizing Pokemon designs:

This person claimed that making “complex models with near-exact proportions [to those of pokemons]” is suspicious and impossible. Along with that they attached some videos showing the models overlapped & side by side. They generally line up.

➔ Firstly, I checked both accounts to see how trustworthy our sources are:


Searching Eric’s name up proves that he is a game designer


We can see that neither of them have a blue checkmark (though it can be bought on this site) and both seems to just be personal accounts, not news sources. Since the poster has experience in the subject matter though, we can assume that the videos are trustworthy.

➔ Then, I tried searching about the claims on fact checking sites – Snopes and MediaSmarts:


Since the situation is new, these sites seems to not have covered it yet.

➔ So, in order to find more sources and opinions, I turned to Google:


From these headlines, we can see that even though action is being taken by Pokemon, the general consensus seems to be unclear, probably because plagiarism or inspiration is dependent on the artist.

But, Palworld hasn’t disproved these claims or showed their side, and since the video clearly shows us the similarities it’s talking about, I’ll conclude that the post above is true.

On TYKTWD I watched over my mom and her average day as an HR manager. Her work is hybrid, meaning some things are online, and some in person. Since her office is based in Vietnam, she showed me all the online part, which is done right at home.

As a manager, her job is to communicate with other regional managers/teams in case of a problem, and ensure everything is running smoothly in the office. Which is why we spent a large part of the day going through and responding to emails, arranging meetings, talking to other colleagues, and making calls. One thing I found interesting was how her way of talking changed based on the culture of the person she’s talking to, like how she jokes more with her Vietnamese coworkers and how she’s more enthusiastic to the expats from foreign countries. Besides communication, my mom also showed me how she manages data about other employees, training, contracts, salaries, finance, and new recruits. Most of it was done over Microsoft Office, but the company also uses systems to help organize things, like SAP and SuccessFactors.

We ended the ‘visit’ at lunch and went to make food. Overall, it was interesting seeing how a job works in depth, minus the Excel worksheets. Here are some extra information about the work environment:

What did you see, hear, smell, and feel?

Hear: keyboard typing, scribble of a pen; phone calls; traffic; TV; dishes being washed; other conversations

See: bright screen; cars passing by; family members walking around and doing chores 

Smell: paper and books; food

Feel: interested; cold; a bit distracted

What about the environment would motivate you to wake up every day to attend work? 

Comfortable atmosphere since it’s at home; most resources/things available; relaxed schedule and ability to change things (space, temperature, sound, dress code, etc.) without having to consider other employees/formality.

What about the work environment would discourage you from waking up every day to attend work? 

Lack of face-to-face interactions, moving around, and ability to consult colleagues/boss; loud and distracting/too quiet atmosphere; same environment every day; harder communication. 

What is ONE thing you found interesting about your workplace visit?

How much more distracting it is to be working alone in a quiet room compared to a loud office.