Reflections

__ WEEK 1: History __ Alright, I am now going to attempt to do a reflection on my learning in History class. I don't really know how or what to do, but I guess I’ll just take a shot in the dark here.

How I learn in history class is largely made up of skills that I excel in. These include mostly left-brain skills like sheer memorization and analytical thinking, but also works some right-brained skills like seeing the whole picture and recognizing patterns. So, I guess you could say that symphony is a big part of my history class. Story also helps me memorize things.

__WEEK 2: SCIENCE__

In my biology class, things were pretty ho-hum before I started reading AWNM; come to class, get stuffed with information, leave. But now, I am looking at my science class in a new light. I am starting to look at the // design // of microscopic life and seeing if their structure can be used to improve everyday things (symphony). I am also understanding how to take science more light heartily (play) and transferring data that I am force-fed into stories that I can more easily understand. Overall, my once dull and dreary science class has now turned into a testing ground for all of the six senses.

__WEEK 3: MATH__

Math is a funny subject. It combines the more rule braced geometry with the more theory based algebras, so I guess you could say it contains a lot of symphony, but Math isn't a very right brained subject. Math is normally ether sheer memorization or usage of rules. Even though math is a bit of a cold, hard subject, I have had a lot of fun learning math. I personally have a bit of a knack for math, and it has always been one of my favorite subjects. Not because of memorizing, but because of math's importance in the real world. Math started out as a subject that taught the importance of math along with the rules of math, but that has quickly changed into a world with confusing theorems and formulas that ill use once in my life if I'm lucky.

__WEEK 4: LANGUAGE ARTS__

Out of all my "core" classes, I believe that the most important is language arts, or English class. After all, whatever goes on inside one's head is nothing without the skill to express it. This expression can be many things, art, music, but sometimes people don’t understand those as well as reading it. Therefore, writing is one of the most significant things we as humans can do to express ourselves. I started off learning English by learning to read, and the basics of writing. Then came the horrid days of spelling tests every Friday, which eventually evolved to vocabulary tests. At the peak of elementary career, I wrote my first multi-paragraph. Then came middle school, where we learned the "joy" of poetry, and wrote more papers on given assignments. The problem with this, though, is we only learned how to regurgitate facts into a neatly organized paper. This is an essential life skill, but in 6th and 7th grade, what the curriculum lacked was the writing about what we as students thought was important. This is needed in real life when one tries to explain their views in persuasive, and when one wants to get a certain view across about something they encounter that they care about. Then came 8th grade and LAS (or Language Arts Seminar) in this class, we were not assigned boring assignments about things we didn't care about, we were asked to write a specific type of essay or document but not told the exact subject. This way, every student had a chance to write about what mattered to them, hence making their papers stronger. We also discussed moral things in our Socratic Seminars, like happiness and facades, hence giving the class more meaning, and making it a lot more interesting for the students. Now, in my 9th grade year, my learning has moved away from the moral aspects and put more emphasis on understanding and thinking for myself. I like this because I am now trying to sculpt my learning style into a shape that allows for not only maximum retention, but also for maximum growth also. This will help me not only regurgitate information, but also help me in sharing it with others and finding it on my own.

__WEEK 5: SPAINISH__

Well, this is really the only other class that I don't consider an elective, and considering I've taken spanish for about 3 years now, I'd consider it a pretty core class. Well, I chose spanish as my foreign language because it was being used more and more in this country mostly by illegal immigrants, and it seemed more widely known than french. So, I started out learning from a Spaniard at my middle school, but I don't know if i learned very much through my two years because he focused more on the kids who were behind, and so if you did your work on time and kept up with class, it was a breeze. Then, first semester of this year, I had a great teacher who made sure everyone understood the material, while still going at a quick pace. He was also really funny, which helped lighten the mood like play would. this semester I have a new teacher who sort of is a buisywork kind of teacher, but that's ok.

__WEEK 6: PE__

Since elementary school, we all have had a Phisical Ed class, whether you liked it or not. In these classes, you always had fun, whether it was playing games or swinging from ropes. PE class was a joy. then, In middle school, Things became different. Running long distances was introduced, and fun, nonsencical games were replaced by actuall games where you were tracked and graded on not only teamwork, but also on effort and athletic ability. Those that still liked to run and exceled at those sports like flag football, soccer or baceball, you could just coast and not try, but those who weren't athletic struggled. In middle school, you were still required to have at least one semester of PE per year to graduate. Now, in high school, the requirements for PE have sharply declined, and you can even get out of PE if you do Band. Now, luckilly for me, I happen to be a moderatly athletic person, and I don't veiw working out as a requirement, but an activity that I happen to enjoy. The problem with PE is not kids like me, but kids who don't happen to be athletic. These kids do fine in elementary school because there's no stress to preform, but when they start middle school PE, games take a back seat to preformance. By 7th grade, kids are starting to dread PE, and thats not right. Mabye everyone takes 6th grade PE together, but after that teachers seperate the kids who won't like PE from the kids who will. Then teachers can go a bit slower and make PE a little easier with the first group, then go a little harder and focus their recruting on the second group. Overall, Pe is fun, but I think it could use some reworking of the system