"I was fed up. I had tried to open my locker ten times and all attempts had failed. It was the beginning of middle school and I had to be at class in five minutes. My locker, I bet, hated me. It did not open and everyone was so busy opening their own lockers, that they turned down my request to open my locker. The locker, by now, was so confused. The bell rang and my heart skipped a beat. Surely, the teacher would excuse me for being late, right? I caught a passerby, a 7th grader, by the arm and pleaded her to open my locker. She bent down and grabbed the door and suddenly I was looking at the inside of my locker. I thanked the girl and locked my locker. Then I flew down the corridor to my Humanities room. Peeking through the door I glanced at the classroom’s interior. Everyone was staring wide-eyed at the teacher. They looked as if they thought that they were going to be eaten by the smiling teacher who stood at the front of the room, writing on the white board.
I sat down, quickly, and sat in anticipation as the teacher finished writing something on the board. She spun around and then I could see her face and blond hair. This must be Mrs. Narsiman, I thought.
'Welcome to Middle School! I hope you can open your locker. If you cannot, no worries, you will get it soon. All the teachers will be fine if you are late for the first couple of weeks,' Mrs. Narsiman reassured.
From that day on I felt better. I realized I was not the only one who could not get the locker combination or could not cope with the 6th grade schedule on the first day of school. I was one of many and I knew that I would adjust, just like everyone else. Today I feel like I have been in Middle School for ages and I really am enjoying my first year in Middle School."
That was what I felt about my first day of middle school. I had wrote that piece of writing on my first week of middle school. Reading that now and remembering how I was scared to even step on the middle school grounds, I find being afraid of middle school ridiculous. What I would of written and felt if I knew then what I know now...
My work represents the growth and learning that I experienced this entire year. I am certainly proud of all the work I completed and I am glad I can reflect upon previous pieces of work and examine what I could improve on in these and use this information for the future projects. An assignment that I am especially proud of is my blog. If you look at my past blog posts, from the very beginning, and then see the last ones, you can see the constant development in the structure and content of the blog post. I have learned to double check my grammar and spelling for blog posts and I also gained knowledge in providing my thoughts on the assigned topic with clarity that invoke interest among the readers. I am immensely proud that I was able to direct my hard concentration and time to accomplish the successful final product that are my blog posts. My blog is definitely an example of how I have grown this year, through each and every blog post.
A continual challenge throughout this year was organization and time management. Since we have a variety of classes taught by different teachers, we often found ourselves with an assortment of assignments that we had to remember to complete. In order to meet the teacher's expectations we had to have a orderly schedule for doing homework. Multiple times I would forget to finish a specific homework assignment and end up only remembering right before school starts. Those times require quick-thinking and really do raise the stress level as you are hurrying up to quickly complete the assignment before the class where you were assigned to do that homework. Middle school strengthens your organization skills, because usually in elementary school you are not expected to take on much responsibility and time is often provided, even if you do not finish by the due date. Writing down homework or checking Moodle helped me remember about forgotten assignments and are extremely useful. Managing your time and confirming that you evenly give enough time for each homework is an essential tip. Even though organization and time management were challenges this year, I was able to overcome them as the year continued. In due time my organization and time management skills were bettered.
This year I was able to learn about myself as a learner. Participating in finding our Learning Profiles assisted us in discovering our styles of learning. This year I found out that I learn best through verbal or written instruction. A teacher who tells me the directions or gives me written directions will be easier for me to follow. I also learned that when I am under stress I have difficulty seeing, hearing, or remembering details, so its better if I do not get stressed at all, otherwise it will affect my learning substantially. From obtaining an understanding of my learning profile, I found that I should sit in a particular position in a classroom to learn my best, for I prefer to use my left ear and eye. This year I have learned so much about what type of learner I am and can definitely use this to my advantage.
Behavior
Could be improved
Satisfactory
Perfect - the model student
I think that in class my behavior is controlled and polite. I pay attention during class and I try to be as respectful as possible. It is beneficial to have good behavior in class, because listening to the teacher and being respectful is not only required in any environment and situation. but also since it enables a more enhanced learning. In the future having excellent behavior is essential anywhere and all the time, so practicing it now is worthwhile for later.
Participation
None
Satisfactory
Actively participate in class
I believe that my participation in class is satisfactory. I do try to actively take part in class discussions and provide inputs that can be advantageous for the class to know, if they had not realized it before. I ask questions whenever I truly am not sure what to do and know that I cannot solve the problem or answer my own question logically by myself. I think that I can participate more in class, for sometimes I can be silent. But, I honestly think that I participate enough to improve my understanding and participate in relation to my learning style and myself.
Organization
Needs serious help
Satisfactory
I'm super organized
My organization skills have certainly been bettered over the past school year. At the beginning of they year I was not sure how to stay organized and often forgot to bring in homework assignments or left homework to the last minute. As the year progressed, however, I became accustomed to the load of homework and was able to work out a schedule to complete it all in a neat and well thought out manner.
Effort
Needs serious help
Satisfactory
I always go above and beyond what is required.
I always go above and beyond when it is required for every assignment. I can truthfully say I try my best all the time and believe that everyone should attempt their best, if they want to accomplish their goal.
Two personal goals that I have set myself for 7th grade are-
1. I plan to maintain my organization skills and make sure they become better. Organization is very important and having great organization skills will enable me a better learning experience.
2. I plan to make loads of new friends next year. Since I am moving to a different place, I will have to make friends as well as keeping in touch with the ones I moved away from. I hope that I will be able to establish friendships with new, nice people.
For grade 7 I want my teacher to know specific information about me. I want them to know that I usually take time to finish off assignments and do not finish very quickly, but usually on time. I also want my future teachers to know I am a visual and kinesthetic learner, so I learn best with the aid of a visual or with activities that allow me to participate effectively. Those are the main details that I wish my future teachers in 7th grade to know.
The advice that I would pass on to the 5th graders coming into 6th grade next year is to stay organized. That is an exceptionally important advice to follow. There is definitely enough homework to keep you busy in 6th grade for a while and it is good to divide it up and make sure you do not overwork yourself. The future 6th graders should schedule some time for what they want to do and not let homework take up their entire day. Organizing when they do their homework will help them have time for themselves and their own hobbies. Though it will be hard at the beginning to handle the work load, I know it will gradually get easy to manage your time and organize your homework and projects. Trust me, I have been there. ;)
6th grade has been amazing! I have been able to accomplish and achieve so much this year. I am proud and happy that I could complete this year of school the way I did. And if I could go back and change something that I did along my journey, I would not, because even though I did make plenty of mistakes this year and had to face the consequences, that is what assisted my progression in my learning and I was able to enhance my life skills from experiencing the consequences I had to confront. For once in my life, I am glad I made those mistakes that aided in the constant construction of my learning. Yet, I am nowhere near done. Nowhere near finished. There are still more obstacles ahead of me to conquer, more tears to shed, more ideas to contribute, more laughs to be had, new problems and accomplishments, more work to do, more people to meet, more places to go... And there are people I need to leave, and places I have to say goodbye too, but I will not forget about the times I have had this year. I created memories, here, that I certainly will cherish forever. One day I am going to look back and say, "Yeah, I remember that. That was one of the very moments of life that went on to make me who I am. today" It surely has been a unique and wonderful experience that I will never forget and is imprinted in my mind and will stay there no matter what happens. :)
And here ends my last post on this blog. Here's hoping that next year will be even better than this year, if that is possible! :D
“Celebrate endings – for they precede new beginnings.” — Jonathan Lockwood Huie
♥ S.K ♥
http://whatsyourbirthday.blogspot.com/2010/10/moving-on.htmlSource for quotes- http://quotes-aboutmovingon.com/
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