-Personal Qualities, Work Habits and Attitudes
Coming to ACLC in the 6th grade I was the timid, shy boy with little social skill. It was very bizarre experience becoming accustomed to the idea of group collaboration this school emphasizes so heavily. It was something I did not have a lot of experience with; coming from an elementary school where the rare group projects would fall to the all too common outcome of a minority of the group doing the majority of the group’s work. This was the outcome of the majority of group projects in my first year at ACLC. However, through trial and error as well as advice given by others I learned to be a better leader and group member. I utilized my newly developed skill in projects such as the lemon catapult in algebra, the boat project in 8th grade science, as well as the rollercoaster project in physics; each time learning more about collaboration in groups. Overtime, I learned to lead projects by distributing workloads and making sure each member is capable as well as has the necessary support to complete their allocated work and to ensure the work assigned to me would be completed appropriately and on time. It is also a vital part to offer help as well as ask for help whenever you needed. Through the years I was able develop a practically non-existence skill that allowed me to be successful in this school and undoubtedly greatly assist me in the future.
-New Basics
Over the course of my school years in ACLC I been steadily completing my graduation requirements. I’m currently on my last year in English and even gone above by taking the Honors class offered to gather a greater understanding as well as develop more in depth strengths in analyzing literature and essay writing. Completing my required three year of required foreign languag and I felt content with what I had accomplish and felt no need to further pursuit in that field. I was able to go above and beyond in my stronger field of subject of math and completed the highest possible course of calculus 1 in my sophomore year. Although I did not have the three required and four recommended years of math for high school yet. This required me to take additional courses such as statistics in first semester of senior year. Currently I'm on the way to completing my required internship and any othermiscellaneous requirements that I have not completed yet.
-Thinking and Reasoning
Similarly to other learners I use to unwisely use my free periods to simply have fun. Never have I heard of a curriculum where there are periods of the day where you are not in a class and I took advantage of that in a way that negatively affected me. My grades were more or less lackluster. There were times that I simply turned in either incomplete homework or homework that wasn’t up to standards. It took me a while to figure out what I needed to do in order to fix my grades as well as my habits. I started to complete homework whenever given the chance such as free periods. By beginning to do my homework as soon as a free period started, I turned in more competent homework and more than often still had time leftover to have fun. I took this a step further and began to plan the most appropriate time to do a specific task, such as: organizing myself to make sure I had time to meet with any members of a group project I was in as well as allocating time to work with my team and separate it from working on independent projects or homework. I now plan a couple days ahead to a even a week for tasks that I need to complete and at a specific range of time that I will require to complete the task.
-Interpersonal and Collaborative Activity
Throughout my years at ACLC I’ve experienced many times being a leader as well as a team member. Sometimes I prefer to lead a group in the direction that I feel would benefit all members in the best way. Likewise, as a group member it is important to complete what is required of me and make sure all goes smoothly within the group. As either a leader or a simple member it is a responsibility of both roles to offer help where needed and ask for help when needed. More often the fall of a group is due to a lack of communication which could breed more conflicts between members so it is invaluable to not only listen to others as either a leader or a member, but to be transparent as well. I find that these lessons learned from experience here at ACLC are skills that I will utilize throughout my adulthood to ensure that every collaborative project runs smoothly.
-Technology
Before coming to ACLC, I had little to no interaction with computers during school, and most of the things I did know about computers came from home. Although I knew how to do basic things like surfing the web, I did not have a clue on using programs such as word, excel, and prezi. Looking back I realize this was a bigger problem that I had thought beforehand because knowing the basics of these programs are vital part in being able to communicate one’s knowledge on a subject or field. Thanks to this school’s curriculum I now know which program is appropriate for a specific task. Such as prezi presents information in a more interactive way and focuses more on artistic values. While on the other hand powerpoint conveys information in a more direct way. Being exposed to computers at both school and home has inspired me to actually build one myself, which I now use daily. I’m very glad that I have the knowledge to build a computer because it also gives me the knowledge to troubleshoot most malfunctions that my computer or a school computer would encounter and in this day and age such a skill is invaluable. I now feel fully prepared to undertake any required task that needs to be completed on a computer because the technological availability that has also motivated me to learn more about this necessary tool.