Semester Reflection Part 2: Thursday, June 17th

Choose at least four (4) of the following and answer them in depth. I will quote from your answers in your report card comments, so please take time to edit & revise your writing, ensuring that it is ready for public consumption. For each answer, be sure to use specific evidence & examples.

• Explain how your thinking about American history and/or culture has developed over the course of the year. Include examples of particular people, places, events and/or ideas that influenced your thinking.

• What is the greatest challenge facing your generation? What will be necessary to address it?

• What is the greatest contribution you and/or your generation are in the process of making to America and/or American culture?

• Describe your vision for yourself in pursuing higher education.

• What in the world do you care about and what are you doing about it?

• What is a quality in a classmate that you would like to develop in yourself?

• What four-year college/s are you interested in and why?

• Beyond grades, what motivates you to work hard at school?

This blog post is due at 11:59:59pm on Friday, June 18. All students will receive up to a possible 20/20 for complete & excellent writing.


My vision for future education is to attend Mesa College and/or Grossmont College, and pick classes that seem interesting. I am not going to hold back my initial interests. I want to see what I am good at and what I am honestly interested in doing for the rest of my life.

I am Not interested in four year colleges. My plan is community college to get my Bachelor's and than decide to follow whatever my major is. If that course needs me to attend further education, than I will do so.

I care about Earth's beauty. I have reduced by carbon footprint by walking and riding bikes or finding other forms of transportation instead of a motor vehicle. I have reduced my plastic use, and if I must, use plastic as many times as I can (while being sanitary) before I discard of it.

I seek knowledge. I seek the information of the past. Grades are important, yes. But I would much rather learn about what ordinary people like me did centuries ago, and the people before them, and so on and so forth. The ideas, and histories of man are much more interesting than a letter grade.

Semester Reflection Part 1: Wednesday, June 16th

Choose at least three (3) of the following and answer them in depth. I will quote from your answers in your report card comments, so please take time to edit & revise your writing, ensuring that it is ready for public consumption. For each answer, be sure to use specific evidence & examples.

• What have you learned about the way you learn, work, and/or collaborate?
• What project was most valuable to you, and what have you gained from it?
• Describe in detail one significant academic challenge you faced this year. Why was it a challenge for you? Go in depth, use specific experiences, and explain how they contrast with a less challenging experience.
• Describe one valuable mistake you made this year.
• What is your greatest strength as a student in a project-based learning environment?
• What challenges do you face as a student in a project-based learning environment?

This blog post is due at 11:59:59pm on Thursday, June 17. all students will receive up to a possible 20/20 for complete & excellent writing.


I have learned that I tend to slack off quite a bit. I tend to let things pile up, become overwhelmed, and don't turn things in. Leading to a lack of confidence and self esteem. Making the matter worse.

I personally think that Ampersand was a huge project improvement for me. I made multiple drafts and changed my article idea almost as many times as I made drafts. It made me realize I need to think of a prompt and stick to it. I also realized that I need to put forth more effort into my drafts and pieces. I tend to slack off and just let things go unrevised. That is something that I realized during this project, and I believe my writing improved because of it.

I face quite a number of challenges as a student in a project-based learning environment. I am not used to it even after 3 years. I was raised and taught on a private school system, and I believe it was embedded into my brain. I am quite good at packets and "normal" school work. I enjoy reading in class and working hard on such tasks, But the social aspect of the project-based learning environment tends to make me slack off more than I normally would. I tend to talk more than I work.

Writing Reflection: Wednesday, June 16th

Please answer both of the following with substantial, thorough, thoughtful, well-revised, multi-paragraph pieces of writing that feature direct evidence, specific examples, and a high degree of honest self-reflection.

• Explain one or more specific aspects of your writing that have improved this year. In this explanation, you must directly refer to at least two specific pieces of writing that you produced for this class. You may use any assignment, project, writing sample, draft, blog entry, etc. You should discuss the writing tips & strategies we studied, the processes & methods we used, the critiques & drafts we employed and the products we created (feel free to use these specific key terms to keep your reflection focused).

• Describe one specific goal for your future writing. Your explanation of your goal(s) must include some or all of the following: writing samples from this year, writing strategies you have used in the past, writing strategies or techniques you would like to develop, examples from authors you respect, etc.

This blog post is due at 11:59:59 pm on Wednesday, June 16. Everyone will get up to 20/20 for thorough, careful writing.



One aspect of my writing that has improved this year would have to be the quality of improvement from draft to draft to the eventual final product. I'm not very good at writing first drafts or drafts at all, but I am learning to use the tip of quantity first and then going back through and revising to improve quality.

My Ampersand article somewhat depicts my improvement towards this new writing style. I typically wrote a first draft to meet the bare minimum, then revised that. But in later drafts, I used the tip to narrow down unnecessary portions.

A goal for my future writing would just to simply create visual language like Kurt Vonnegut. He created visual language in Slaughterhouse Five to his advantage to make you feel as if you were actually there with Billy Pilgrim. I keep thinking about Kurt explaining his trip with his little girls, and the language he used to describe the journey and the things they saw. He used perfect language to make it sound as if a child were narrating. I wish to use this technique if I choose to write as a career.