Portfolio
by Clara Silva
Philosophy of Education
I feel my attitude when coming here, was just generally anger I guess. Not at anything particular, but just that I was angry at myself for not being able to focus or get myself motivated to do work. I have found that my motivation has gone up somewhat since last year which is definitely good for me. The thing that I agree with is that you do need to be educated and learn throughout your life, but there is also the fact that if your mental state isn't normal, that child is going to have to deal with that along with trying and struggling to do there work, then what do we do? I don’t know. I also don’t really know what skills I have other than procrastinating, and really I have no clue what career I am going to be working towards. Cooperation, leadership, organization and responsibility are good qualities for an employee to have or anyone to have. I maybe have made a lot of changes here, but I am not totally sure what those changes may have been. It may have been my motivation becoming something more I feel. My main future goal is to be happy honestly, but something else that is my goal is to get a steady job and be able to move out and live on my own and not being able to do that terrifies me. But I would be interested to go into anything that involves science I guess or anything that involves figuring out like the science of something because I’ve always been curious about how things work and just everything really. Dissecting stuff in science class was always fun too, although gross too. I would usually be the only one to touch whatever it was we were dissecting.
For me I feel and know that students want and need to learn, just as much as they need food, clothing and shelter. Another thing is that a student needs to be willing to learn and participate in learning. And to be able to go out and want to learn and search for more answers when they get out of school too. For students to be able to learn, it is a corporeal activity involving your whole body, and it is also the teacher's job to be well put together and have a solid lesson plan to be able to interest the students and leave them wanting to learn more. A teacher should be able to create an exciting learning environment that makes it difficult for students to not learn. A teacher should know how to include all students in learning at their own level, and a teacher should be able to inspire the students to push themselves to the next level, which is the ideal idea for me, thinking about how students are taught. I don’t ever recall ever encountering a teacher that made me want to learn more about their subject, or making me feel inspired, or make me want to push myself more to learn more and more. It’s kind of sad when I think about that. Something else that I think is important for students to learn is that they should skills and strategies to be able to work efficiently. Students should also be aware of their own learning preferences, and teachers should help with creating a plan to develop other learning skills. Educational tools are a means to an end. For example, technology used appropriately can greatly magnify the students' capacity to learn and the teachers' capacity to teach, inspire, and motivate. But only if the student is willing and motivated to put their effort into learning.
English
As a brief summary, my time in the english class has been okay, I’ve always kind of struggle with it but because of my love of reading I can still keep up somewhat, and even surpass some people with my extensive vocabulary. From your class there was some things that I kind of enjoyed like the SSR assignments. Some things I found challenging or hard was the vocabulary assignment where we are supposed to find the definitions and part of speech for the words she gave us. It really isn't hard though but they are my favorite assignments to do out of all the things she assigns. I don’t really know what you could do differently. The only problem I have with your class is how many assignments you give out. But other than that you’re the best teacher there could be in my opinion. All of my previous english teachers I never really liked much so really that’s good. You kind of scare me though. But I guess that’s just me being nervous. As always. Something I could do differently as a student would be to try harder at finishing all of my work that i’m given. I’ve never really been motivated to do anything really but my motivation has gone up a little bit since joining Carpe Diem so that’s good, and hopefully I can get better at focusing on my work, even if it doesn’t interest me at all.
An assignment that I particularly like was the Introduction to the author assignment we did, where we had to read and answer the questions assigned to us. I worked hard to complete it, mainly so that I could get it done but also so that my mom would stop bugging me. The directions of the assignment was to read the two handouts we were allowed to use, or the digital copy and then answer all the questions we were given about the author. And I believe the purpose of this assignment was to learn more about the author so we could understand his point of view, and or how it must have been for him during that time period. I choose this assignment to share because it was the easiest to explain really. And because I actually enjoyed completing it. Here is the link to the assignment with its questions and answers. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vGcjB85p4TxhjNmzVuDxegFUUIRF3oSjFiLdnl8nG5g/edit
Another assignment that I enjoyed doing was a far back Common Core vocabulary assignment. And for this assignment we were to pick 15 vocabulary words and use them to write a story or draw a picture for each. I chose to write a story. I can’t remember how many words I used but I might have ended up going over fifteen for the story, or not because it was hard to do. It just kind of got away from me. And I know I worked hard at this assignment because you can’t fake a story, and I spent a lot of time on it and stressing about it until I finished it. I chose this assignment to share because I enjoyed it, and because of the story I wrote, Writing has always been fun for me so I wanted to use this assignment for the last choice. Here is the link to the story https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yiQ84sb3sQrUpGi0MsG-Xx1U1iYGgVbwJSe6OQkTP80/edit and the link to the vocabulary words we could choose from although it doesn’t have the right directions https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jof8M5FTqj1tlZQQ6jWwFL7qWTmai7V6rzZvfFdIL28/edit
The Autobiography for English
The rewritten New New Colossus Poem
An SSR assignment I did
History
To briefly summarize my experience in you class, it has been, good per say I guess. Out of all of my history teachers your the best in my opinion. You actually made me interested in it and want to do it which is why I would put effort into finishing your assignments. Some of the things I enjoyed about your class was how you could make me feel interested enough in the assignment to put my focus on it and get it done, which has never been easy for me. Some of the things that I found challenging were the current events or some of the slides that we would have to look at the quotes for or the propaganda poster which I still haven't quite grasped yet. For a teacher, as long as you can be totally interested in it and love talking about it that's all you need to do to be a great teacher for me, because you make me feel interested in it, when usually I get bored with it the minute someone starts talking about it. Some things I know I can do differently as a student is pay more attention definitely. And try my hardest to get things done that I know I need to finish. I guess some other things I could do would be to put more effort into doing my work, and try to be more motivated to do all my work and to do anything really. Some of the other assignments that I liked were the assignments that were laid out very simple and easy to follow along to.
Another digital assignment that we did that I enjoyed completing was the Analyzing war quotes assignment. For me it took awhile to finish but it pushed me and challenged me and in the end I got it done. What we had to do for this assignment was look at a slideshow of war quotes and decide if it was anti or pro war quote and why, then find out what about the speaker's background would cause them to say this. We would then have to say what we thought this quote was saying about war. I feel I probably did follow the directions right, but I had trouble finding information about the speaker's past. I worked hard to finish this I know, but I could have put more effort into it I know. I chose this assignment to share because it was one of the assignments that I enjoyed to do, even though it was tedious to do, but it was also kind of fun really. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mp6NmK8BIz_WaLZZbjOH3A9gCHieJpzCNUwzIr2YmMk/edit
The last assignment that I enjoyed doing was the Causes of World War 1 slideshow I made. The directions for this was to make a slideshow titled Causes of World War 1, to list and define the four main causes of world war 1, and then to make a google draw or slide show of it listing each cause with images to represent each of the four causes. I did follow the directions I know, but for the pictures I used I'm not totally sure for some of them if they really fit with the causes, but what's done is done. I legitimately worked hard at this assignment because one my mom was bearing down on me about my homework and because at the time I had nothing better to do than put my focus on it. I chose this assignment to share because I liked it the best out of most of the other assignments that I have, and because i just like the way it came out look wise. The slide: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ocCa3JEMaxWfCLW6Sp9N_W1-r96f9Zci5E7ykqLD3dE/edit#slide=id.p and the instruction page with the list and define part: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13e1phi8vQ-rh9kbotVqAtLaU5SUHgbBeZYL4AuvaRM8/edit
Al Capone
War
Chemical Weapons
Science
To summarize it, my time in your class has been fun, and educational. Some of the activities that we did in this class was making a 3D flower and for me that was really hard to do but in the end I eventually got it done. Another activity that I actually enjoyed was the current events we would have to do now and then. I honestly wish there were more that we would have to do. It's gets you to read an article about something interesting and write about it so I like it. It was sometimes hard for me to get them done though if I couldn’t focus. Something that you could do? Well for me you're a good teacher the way you are but just keep helping us out like you usually do and you'll be good. Something I could do differently to help myself in the long run would definitely be to get better focus. And to try to stay motivated as much as possible.
The assignment that I enjoyed completing the most would have to be the current event because it would have me read up on something that I would then learn about and then have to write about it and add a couple vocabulary words that I didn't know, that would then mean I would learn a word and its meaning. Seeing as how I would have to put all of my focus onto it, I would work hard at finishing it and turning it in. I would maybe grade myself a B or C, because sometimes I wouldn’t be as interested in it and not be able to put much effort into it. The originally directions was to summarize the article in five to seven complete sentences and to write your opinion on it in five to seven complex sentences and add some vocabulary of words you didn't know. And from my memory I followed them pretty well. Here is one of the recent current events I did https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iXg5FD5OlogytX92rPl1V0Eyx8yWWIuYkxL35abieW8/edit
Personally for me I enjoyed the fracking subject only because it was really interesting to learn simply about the subject, even though the assignments were hard to do sometimes. Mostly I would gradually do them until I finished them and could turn them in. I feel like I worked somewhat hard at completing it, I was stressing about finishing it so I try to make sure I did it all right and answered every question. I would probably give myself a C maybe or a C-. There were no digital assignments for fracking and they were all on paper so I don’t really remember much of it but it was where you would watch the video about it and have a sheet full of questions to answer. Something else we did that I found easy to complete was an energy types PicCollage, that I enjoyed completing. I think I chose this assignment specifically to share because I generally liked it and it was somewhat easy to complete. But all in all it was fun too.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1SAwgaqHcApnrrQecUHg7nm4GbGrt62RzjCMWrjIPY2Q/edit?ts=56faf031
Fracking
Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility
Liquid Gold
Math
My time in math has been, okay. Math has never been my strong suit so I have struggled a bit but I can usually get it done. Some things I enjoyed about this class was when she would pass out candy for stuff, and some of the assignments that we have been assigned. Some things I found challenging or hard was the math notebook, where we would have to paste a whole bunch of cut out pieces of paper and glue them into the notebook. It wasn’t hard per say, but it was just something that was taxing to do. I didn’t know what one was until I looked it up but mathematicians are sometimes teachers but there are several things that mathematicians do: teachers of mathematics teach math, and you surely know some of those, applied mathematicians use their knowledge of mathematics to help engineers, physicists, chemists, and other scientists solve math problems. I’m not really sure how that is reflected in what we did in this class. Overall most of the stuff we did was just kind of scattered all over the place.
Some of the other assignments I enjoyed was anything relating to graphing because graphing has always been easy for me, and fun honestly. For the graphs I would always try to work my hardest at them to make sure I would get them right. For one assignment that was awhile back and on paper, we had to graph a number of points that came out to a shape and then do some other graphing of points and I can't remember what the name or it was, but it was related to translations, which is what we just finished with, where we had to see like how far the shape had moved from the first spot to the second spot and so on. The reason for us doing this was probably some reason, I’m not even really sure, but it's something to learn just in case you want to go into something that's going to involve mathematics. I chose to share this because it was the only thing that I really liked from math.
There really weren’t that many assignments from math that I enjoyed, but I have a couple assignments that I haven't yet gotten done that I could use, because they challenge me. Well seeing as how I need to get it done anyways and if I get it done I can add it to my portfolio, I will work hard on it to get it done. After a little while of working and scratching my head in confusion I got done the math assignment, that I will be including a picture of if I can figure out how to include the work in my notebook and the piece of paper together somehow in the picture. Other than that the directions for this assignment was mainly multiplying polynomials and the distributive property using models which we use in the first problem and most of the rest of them. Most of the problems revolve around using the area model, or specifically not using the model, which is easier believe it or not. We then proceed to two questions that asks whether or not (x-1)(7x+1) and (7x+1)(x+1) are equivalent, and (x-1)(7x+1) and (1-x)(7x+1) are equivalent expressions, the answer, was yes. It all comes down to the Commutative Property, where when adding or multiplying two or more numbers or terms, order is not important. However for subtraction and division, they are not commutative. The next main part of the page, we have to see which expressions have the same product, that was easy but time consuming all and all. Seeing as how it was easy I actually liked it but still anything for math bores me, and I will find myself drifting if I see something from the corner of my eye or hear something and then get distracted and not want to go back to working. I chose this assignment to share specifically because it was the easiest to explain without having to use so many math terms and add a whole bunch of math problems to the mix to explain it. Plus because out of all the math we have done, even graphs, I liked this work more than anything, except reading maybe.
Math Project- Tile Patterns
Area Model Used
Reflections
Art
Art is personally my favorite subject of all the classes I have. Some of the things we do is a sketch on those little things where you can scratch it away to reveal whats under it and I did one that my teacher liked and put on the back of her laptop. I will be including a photo of it for you to see underneath this in fact. Another project we did for this class was an autobiography, where we put a bunch of photos of things we like, and have a couple phrases a picture of yourself and the description of your name. I couldn't find the original directions for it unfortunately so I had to go by memory and by what I did. Here is the link to the end results: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1IuVE-GtXmJsoSia3ck40ykzF-lEcN4V6v3YB0TaPNCo/edit For the scratch away sketches I did two I think the one in rainbow and the gold one. I wish we could do more of those because they are so fun to do. Something else that we have done recently in art was make clay bowls and another thing of our choice. I made thew bowl of course and then attempted to make a dinosaur. It turned out a little wobbly on its legs but I still like him. He's cute in his own little weird way.
The Rainbow Sketch!
My Little Dinosaur
My Clay Art
Clara Silva
Email: csilva18@petk12.org