A Gosh Darn Portfolio
Philosophy of Education
Upon entering Carpe Diem High School, I was apathetic and generally disregarded my responsibilities as a student. Graduation didn’t seem like an option, since I was pretty far behind on credits. Initially, I was a bit disoriented by the difference, but after getting used to it, my grades improved and it became a pleasant learning environment. Since switching to Carpe, I have become more interested in my education and feel more optimistic about it. I’m now getting the best grades I’ve had in years and feel confident that I can continue to do so.
I personally agree with the state’s belief that everyone should be educated enough to function efficiently in society. But I do think people should be educated however it is relevant and effective to them, because cramming a bunch of diverse people into a public school that has to tiptoe around education to get the most universal lesson plans possible is how you end up with a bunch of poorly educated young adults with diplomas they have no use for, who have no idea what to do next. You shouldn’t spend 4 years trying to teach someone who wants to work with sheet metal how to speak french, and you shouldn’t waste a teacher’s resources and time making him or her do so. The level of sufficient education, and when that point is reached is entirely dependent on the individual. It’s ridiculous to standardize something that is different from person to person.
Before I meet my first career goal, which is to record and mix a quality demo for my band entirely on my own, I need to work on my communication skills. Because recording other people as opposed to just recording yourself, requires a lot of communication. The reason this goal is significant is because it’s a good first milestone in addition to giving me something to measure my progress from. So before I can achieve this goal, it would be a good idea to practice recording people first so that I can get more experience with it and work on communication. As it stands, my communication skills absolutely do need improvement, but it’s something that I’ve been actively working on, and I’m confident that my efforts will be fruitful.
One affective skill that I find very important is leadership. Having good leadership skills gives you initiative, independence and freedom to make your own decisions. You can’t always rely on someone to lead for you, so if you are able to lead whether it’s just yourself or others as well, you’ll always be able to handle yourself, making you more versatile and less reliant on others. I think it’s important to be able to function independently, even if you don’t always have to.
Since I got to Carpe, I’ve been working on improving my organization, since it was a problem in the past. It has been a lot easier to do since we do a lot of our work on computers. In addition to organization, I’ve been trying to improve my punctuality and make sure I get to school on time everyday. My punctuality has definitely improved since, although I still need to work on it some more. I’d say my biggest weakness is making it to school on time, because I have a habit of sleeping in more often than I should.
My future education goals are to go to college to study music production and sound engineering so that I can work at professional level, which is essential to getting a legitimate job in my career of choice. Before I get there, I still need to graduate high school with good enough grades, probably take JC classes and come to whatever conclusion regarding money that is necessary to pay for tuition. My hope is that when I’m finally done with school for good, I’ll get a job that pays off all of the prerequisites. But as time goes by, what remains a constant is that I want to play music above all else. I spend less time thinking about a career and more time thinking about what makes me happy, so although I can financially benefit in a career in something like sound engineering, I’m far more focused on writing and performing music than I am making money off of it.
English
I have enjoyed Ms. D’s english class. I like the fact that it’s not the same curriculum as a typical english class, which I generally don’t find useful or thought provoking in any way. What we learn about is always deserving of the time and effort we put into it. One thing I found difficult about the class was the “What it Takes to be Great” unit. I had trouble getting into this assignment because it wasn’t a topic that I was particularly interested in, but it was good practice.
An assignment that I found challenging but also enjoyable was the Alt Ed writing assignment on the tobacco industry. It was an essay that I put a lot of thought and effort into, which made it difficult, but fun to complete. In my opinion, it was a relevant topic, which made it easier to get into, but challenging because I wanted to do the best work I could on it. The directions were to write a persuasive essay about the tobacco industries. I chose to share this assignment because I put a lot of thought into it and I think I did a good job. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q5IARbK2jyol-VPCsFRsEmSWpc0f4y-rEOwvD9DmCf4/edit
Another assignment that I thought was worth sharing was the Introduction to the Author assignment for All Quiet on the Western Front. I actually enjoyed learning about Erich Remarque, his life, and his writing. I think it helped put the book we’re reading into context, which is important since it was written nearly a century ago. The instructions were to read an article about Remarque and answer some questions. I followed the directions well and had no trouble answering the questions. https://docs.google.com/document/d/19ce2vxy__6eu1RLJmRYLxpBOVYOfY4ItDRSpa24dgjU/editHistory
I think that the time I’ve spent in history class has been fairly productive this year. I enjoy all of the assignments and put a full amount of effort into each of them. The curriculum was really good in my opinion, and I was actually interested in the assignments, which made it easier to complete them and do a good job. All of the assignments were challenging to some degree, but were well thought out and as long as I put the effort into them, I could finish them on time. I would say that for the most part Mr. Anderson should keep doing what he’s doing; don’t fix what isn’t broken. What I should do as a student is just stop procrastinating and get things done.
One of my favorite projects I did was my essay on Imperialism, because it’s something that I feel very strongly about, and I’d like to share it because I’m proud of how the finished product turned out. The directions were to make some kind of project arguing the presence of imperialism in the United states. I chose to write an essay arguing that there is imperialism in the U.S., because I just wanted to the argument to be there without worrying about aesthetics or gimmicks. I followed the directions to the letter, which you can see in the finished product. I think that I put a good deal of thought and effort into it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18kUgUbuo0_9-66xoNnzMMcju7CLEnnIZP6CY7x0AXw8/edit
Another one of the assignments that I want to share is the propaganda poster that I made. The directions were to use an iPad app to create a colorful, authentic wartime propaganda poster. Mine relied on sarcasm and satire to get a message across, and I’m confident in the way it turned out. The purpose of my poster was to illustrate how dangerous communism is, using an example that most people would be familiar with, Joseph Stalin and the mass amounts of violence he directed at his own people. I followed the directions well and did my best on it. I chose this because it’s one of the best visual projects that I’ve completed in history this year. https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Y9WDj646sMOc0ElqSsgizOfNihQByopAgfihLn7dUwM/editMath
Math class this year has been very different. With a new teacher this year, it has taken some adjustment on both sides. I would say that Mrs. McDonald isn’t the most compatible teacher for the learning environment that we’re accustomed to at Carpe, but I understand that she tries her best. I think that what I found most difficult about this class was the transition into common core mathematics. It has been incredibly difficult to have spent 12 years of your education doing math one way, and then suddenly switch to an entirely different curriculum. I find it absurd that anyone would think that it’s a good idea. One thing that mathematicians do is make sense of real world problems, using different types of mathematics. In our class, we sometimes use real world situations to relate to what we’re studying in class.
One of the assignments I struggled with in this class was the function machines. Something about that just never clicked with me and I had no prior experience with them, so it was very foreign to me. I still don’t have a very good understanding of them or really what we were supposed to take from it. I think that the biggest problem was that it was never broken down in a way that I could really gain an understanding, I felt like there was no logic that explained the way they worked, and that I was just supposed to go along with it. I think that if I knew what the functions did, or if there was a pattern that I knew, it would have made more sense. I tried fairly hard with this assignment, but eventually just became frustrated and gave up more or less and just did the work without understanding it.
One assignment I enjoyed was using a motion detector and graphing calculator to
plot distance and time on a graph. The assignment was to get into groups and use a
motion detector to graph our movement (in this case walking) to gain an understanding of distance and time. I liked this because it was a somewhat fun break from the typical math work we did, using new tools that we don’t use regularly. It was also nice to get out out of the desks for a little bit and be outside. I think that I put a good amount of effort into this assignment and it is worth sharing.
Science
My experience in science class was mostly the same as it was last year. It has generally been pleasant, and I feel like I have been able to be successful. Ms. Dennen does a good job of explaining the material in way that is easy for me to understand, and the work that we’re assigned is challenging, but I’m still completely able to complete it. I always enjoy doing the current event, because it allows me to find a topic that’s interesting to me, and then I get to research it and respond to what I learned.
One of the assignments I enjoyed doing was the Photosynthesis Diagram. I liked this assignment because photosynthesis is a very important part of science, and how we live, and it was cool to learn more about it, because it was never explained to me very well in the past. I would give myself an B on it because I did the best work that I could do, and the way it came out was a bit above average. The directions were to create a Google Drawing with a diagram that thoroughly explained the process of photosynthesis. I did my best to follow them to the letter, and I think that the finished product reflects that.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1IjatSIAI_NnDeL1FVaS2rA0h4G_KRtUDG9pKPZEFa-g/edit
Another assignment that I think is worth sharing is the digital water cycle. The directions were to use google drawings to create a diagram that accurately represents the water cycle. I did a good job of following the directions and it came out well. I think that it is of an adequate quality visually, and the diagram itself was accurate. I think that the work I did deserves an A, because I put a full amount of effort into it and it can be seen in the finished product.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1dnjTskZmcZoOTgMuxKai-DBXTmXkLRGrsV3H1VvXD7U/editAidan Morgan
Email: amorgan17@petk12.org