Final Portfolio Collection and Self Assessment

Self Regulation

I would say I never missed a day in this class but, I do come to class right after the second bell. I guess you can consider that being late but I've never been told to go to class by Neuf. I always finished my work before it is due so I don't have to worry about any missing work and completing it. But now I go back to my assignments and re-read or add on to my work to make it better, for example, Rebecca commented on my recent post to fix my grammar mistakes. Therefore, I did and then at school I had  Gayle edit my work.

Remember, I just started going back and improving my work, I haven't got through all of them but I'm getting there. I also went back on my PE blogs and re-read what I wrote and edited it to make it better. I do come prepared for class with an open mind but sometimes I have those days where I just can't and want to do nothing but that is usually where we have to complete our work or start a new assignment. I'm one of those people who like to go home and finished their work, for example, this assignment.

I'm just more focused and determined to do this assignment rather then at school because it is loud and so many distractions including myself. I can use my device responsibly because like others I am not tempted to look at my iPod the whole time in class, sometimes I like to know what time it is because our classroom clock is wrong. But, sometimes I do need send a quick text to my family or friends. I'm not gonna lie but I do go on twitter or Instagram on my iPod when I'm bored or doing work. In terms of learning use I do use my iPod to research and use the dictionary/thesaurus in class. I usually just sit in the back with my friends and I don't have to choose to sit there, I just do. 

When it comes to choosing partners I choose my partner wisely, I like to partner up with Gayle because she actually does something and not just sit there and waste time in class. Plus, Gayle is very smart. 

As I mentioned before, I have some days where I do something in class and get the assignment done in class and some days I don't want to do anything because I know I can be more focused at home to finish the assignment and do better. I can get distracted very easy and I'm know for distracted others but like Neuf said to Gamez, "To do well on a test or anything you have to find a way to be interested in it". So my job is to find something interesting about the assignments or whatever we are learning in order to stay focused and on task. If you have noticed all my assignments are completed and done on time.

YOn commenting on others blogs, I always try to find something good that they have done in there writing and something that they can work on. In the beginning my comments were vague and repeated but my most recent comments are better and there is much more thought and time spent on them. I like to participate in class when we have our discussions because it is fun to know what others think and hearing their opinions. Sometimes hearing ones opinion can change your whole point of view on one thought and it can expand your knowledge learning new things. When something is talking in our group we politely tell them to be quiet or we shh them because they are being rude to the speaker. I remind myself to keep my device away from me so I can focus on whats being said instead worrying about what time it is. Also to shutup and listen when something important is said during a lesson.

One strength of mine is listening and paying attention to what is going on in class. For example, yesterday Neuf taught us a lesson about how he can figure out who was listening and contributing in class by noticing if they had a reaction on there face. He basically called us stupid and I reacted back to the comment by saying,"Pffftt", and he laughed because I demonstrated listening and paying attention to what has been said or done in class. One of my weakness is staying on task in class because I have a short attention span in class when it comes to working on our assignments. I need to focus more in class and stop distracting others and myself. I can fix by sitting somewhere else, leaving my iPod at home and come to class before the second bell rings so I can get prepared physically and mentally. I like the whole commenting on our blogs because I get to know what others think about my writing and improve on my mistakes and make the whole piece better. I always like to expand on others thoughts and opinions and compare them to mine because it helps you understand something better, for example, when we did the poem assignment everyone had a bunch or thoughts and opinions about on poem, some were in depth and others were not so but I took that information and came up with another thought using everything I read. I like the fact that in this particular class you are in charge of what you do in this class, for instance, we you are doing your work and your hands get tried from all that typing you have the choice to take a break for how ever long you want. Then you get back to work once your brain is relaxed and ready to function again. This is where self regulation comes in because some student stay on task while others slack and do nothing. So self regulation is a big key in this class.

When we first started this course it was very different for me to tranistion it took awhile but I got a hang of it. I would say this class was a challenge because who knew technology could do wonders. I find this course very convenient because you don't have to worry about your binder and get lots of booklets to do for homework. Using technology for school is growing on me, I'm starting to like it a lot.

Quality of Communication Skills

One PLO that I demonstrate in class is to interact and collaborate in pairs and groups because when we have discussions in class, for example, Romeo and Juliet I participated and joined in the conversation about how love can be conniving and make you do such things you couldn't imagine like marrying a man that you met a day ago. I've got to know what others thought about love by listening to their opinions and thoughts about how they viewed Romeo and Juliet's love because it all fell down to being love or lust? Many and different points on why it could be love and vice versa but there is not a right answer, the only two people that know are Romeo and Juliet.

It was kind of like a debate, as a class we tried to analyze their love but to prove that theory you needed to provide evidence and a depth of understanding of why you see that. When we did the poem assignment where we had to find some background information of the author we got to know how Charles Bukowski was raised and what he went through as a kid, which was horrific and sad. Knowing all that information we summed up why he wrote this poem, "How Is Your Heart". After collecting and analyzing all the information, my partner and I came to an understanding of a life he lived by making connections and experiences, coming up with a list of possibilities of what happened at that time of his life.

Another PLO that I demonstrate in class is to select, adapt, and apply a range of strategies to interact and collaborate with others in pairs and groups. When we are assigned to do partner work each of us then has a responsibility to research or write down some information rather it being personal connections or experiences. I do actively listen in class when I know we are talking about an important topic like Romeo and Juliet, analyzing the poems of relationships, our class novel, etc. As I mentioned before, a teacher can always tell when a student is listening by the way they react to what has just been said. For example, when Neuf dissed the class I said, "Pffttt"and he smiled because he know I was listening. I would say I do contribute ideas in class because when we read, "The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Nighttime" when Christopher was trying to figure out who killed Wellington we had a class discussion of who we might think are the possible suspects of the murder of Wellington. 

I first thought I could be the dad, therefore in our discussion I explained why I thought it was the dad because it seemed like he had an affair with Mrs. Shears and he hated Mr. Shears, plus his wife was "dead" all for a sudden so something was suspicious to me leading me to think the father was the killer. I do support others ideas because sometimes someone else's opinion can make an impact on your point of view of something leading you to support someone else's thought. For instance, we were talking about what should put in our final assessment and each group had to come up with some ideas that we should put in our last blog. I remember someones group said, "Making connections" and I supported it by saying, "By making personal connections and experiences". I like to hear what others think like what Neuf has to say about Shakespeare because the only way to learn more is to look at things in a different way and listen to others opinions and thoughts so you can have more of an understanding. So I can agree or disagree to the topic by gathering up information and defend what I believe in.

Lastly, I speak and listen to make personal responses to texts by making connections with experiences and what I learnt into my work like the narrative story, the teenage essay, etc. When we read the Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet" I felt that this love was lust at first but then I tended to start thinking this might be love. My opinion changed because of what others said in class and what Neuf had to say about these characters and how significant they are to the play also what he strongly felt about the play. Not understanding what each word meant in the play really confused me at times where I had some questions about the play so I can understand it a bit more and be more aware of what is going on. When we talked about the novel I had some questions like Who really killed the dog? Why was his father being so secretive by telling Christopher to not go in his room? And many more. I always like to come to a conclusion because it is good to get all your thoughts organized and come up with a conclusion so you can start on something new. For instance, by reading the book, we were provided with evidence and knowledge of who killed the dog and what then happened to Christopher. When I was assigned to be Friar Lawrence, Gayle and I came up with our tweets by reading Friar's lines and trying to figure out what he might be thinking at that moment. We basically pretended to be Friar and acted the way he did, so it was easy for use to tweet as if he was tweeting in our class twitter feed.

Contribution to the Learning Environment

I just got the habit into editing and re-reading my work before I post it such as my narrative story that we recently did because after I posted it Rebecca commented on my post and said, "I had some grammar mistakes" so I went back re-read it and changed a few things and reposted it again. I think I am know for having the most comments in class, but the first couple of comments I posted were't really in depth and I basically repeated them on there comments. In the mid of this semester I started to post more comments that were better then before where they were more in depth and could actually help the writer to improve. I remember when we were analyzing the poems and we had to analyze the poem, "Unentitled" we all started our own line of comments without the teachers help on what we thought this poem was about.

 I thought so was talking about her son because some lines in the poem seemed like to me she was describing a person and on her Facebook her profile picture was with her son. But the poem wasn't about her son, I just took the evidence that I researched and came up with a conclusion. I have shared some ideas orally to the class during our discussion time in class and sometimes I share ideas orally in my group like when we were talking about the PLOs and what we thought we should be marked on (the 3 pillar idea). When we had to research the author of the poems, I did find information on them and posted it so everyone can see what I've found while researching. In the beginning of this semester, I didn't know how to embed a video on wikispaces (personal page assignment) so I watched the video Neuf linked to our class website and figured it out,

someone needed help to embed the video so I helped them and they did it. I help my group when they don't understand what to do for the assignment such as the thesis essay. When we have our talks in class I do pay attention and contribute to what has been said and if I don't agree to someone else's opinion or thought I tend to not be rude of come off wrong by saying, "Are you kidding me?" because I know that that is rude and you have to respect others learning, they might had thought of a whole different reason to why they have said that. But like i mentioned before I thought the poem, "Unentitled" was about her son but it wasn't because I used the clues in a different perspective. I read, but only biographies and magazines. If I am assigned to read a book I will but other than that I like to read true stories and biographies about famous people for enjoyment.

 I always finish my work on time so everyone can read it but I don't post it before the due date because I want my work all done before I post it. Like I said before, I have good days and bad days and sometimes hyper days where I distract others and won't shut up. But, I always try to keep a positive attitude in class and towards my learning because the more positive you are, the more positive outcomes you get. 

Self Regulation: 25%

Quality of Communication Skills: 27%

Contribution to the Learning Environment: 30% 

Overall, my percentage adds up to 83%