English- Capabilities

Over the course of the year, I have been given countless opportunities to better myself not only as a student but as a person. While I believe I have been able to grow in all these areas (shown in the image below), this year’s English class has allowed me to develop and enhance my problem-solving skills. Problem-solving entails various “thinking skills”; emotional intelligence, critical thinking, analytical skills & initiative, to name a few. Numerous times I have found myself in situations (class, assessments, group projects etc.) where I have had to adapt &/or reconstruct my thinking. For instance, our most recent assessment required us to write and produce a dramatic performance with a group. Around the week before our performance, a member of our group left, leaving our script with unfilled roles and multiple contextual gaps. With under a week left, we knew that rewriting the script would be difficult. Instead, we edited and altered the script and parts of the original storyline, as well as several characters. Even with the changes we had made, we still had one role left unfilled and resorted to asking a classmate to play the role. Although I think we could’ve done better with more time, our performance went well especially given the circumstances.

Another skill I was able to develop was my ethics. I believe that knowing and exercising our own moral principles is a crucial part of growth and self-development. One of our earlier assessments entailed writing and performing a speech about a relevant issue that we felt was important to us. I had originally written my speech about the relevance and importance of climate change, however, a few days before the deadline I made the decision to rewrite my speech about gender equality (with the focus on women). Although I am passionate about climate change, I felt that this topic allowed me to better express my personal ethics and values. Making this change was worthwhile as my final speech was written and performed better and with more passion. This is an example of how important ethics are, especially when making important decisions.

Traditional drawing and painting

This semester I participated in the traditional drawing and painting class, aimed at helping to broaden and improve my skills. Not only has this course improved my artistic abilities, but it has also helped teach me the importance of other fundamental life skills, such as time management and critical thinking. Throughout the semester we faced multiple challenges which required us to think outside the box to find alternative solutions. Moreover, this course allowed me to experiment with new tools, techniques, and my personal art style; what worked and what didn’t. For instance, until this year I had never made or used egg tempera (paint) before. I found this paint to have both positive and negative attributes. Namely, I was impressed by the texture and variety of modes in which the paint allowed however, we soon realised that when this paint is not kept cool/refrigerated it begins to grow mould and change colour. This resulted in the class having to discard and throw away our paint/s consequently, using up our working/class time making and replacing the paint we’d lost. Overall, I enjoyed this semesters course and feel as though I’m able to take away an array of new skills and if given the opportunity, would take it again.

Test crop of my original drawing:

Ceramic hand building

In addition to the traditional painting and drawing course, I also participated in ceramic hand building. Prior to this class, I had near to no experience working with clay. Nevertheless, I can gladly say I have learnt a vast range of new skills over the course of the semester. Throughout term one, we learned and researched the history of pottery/ceramics (Paleolithic & Neolithic); its origins, purpose and techniques that people used during those time periods.

By week 4, we began to experiment with various tools and techniques; using (clay) slabs to experiment with texture, piercing tools etc. As well as practising and getting used to the “proper” tools, we also used household objects to create unique patterns and textures in the clay e.g. nails, washers (hardware washers).

Nearing the end of the term we learned and experimented with several methods of making pots (coil pots & pinch pots). Personally, I preferred using coils as I found that it was easier to control the clay’s shape/form. Bearing this in mind, by using this method I ran the risk of having air bubbles in my work. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case, however, if it were, the pot could explode in the kiln and potentially break other pieces being fired.

For the remainder of term one, we worked on designing and creating a set of our own pots, using our preferred method (coil pots). I based the theme of my (pot designs on the elements; water, earth & fire (3/4). After finishing the first pot, I realised I would have to alter my original designs as the first one took longer than I expected. Unfortunately, this meant I was only able to finish 2/3 pots. Instead, I made a few small alterations to the final pot by making a slight change to its shape and size.

Final pot before glaze:
Final pot before gloss glaze:

Dear year 8 me

Dear year 8 me,

One of the most enjoyable things this year for me was camp. This year’s camp was full of laughs and good memories. After camp, I felt that I had become a lot closer with my peers and even some of the staff. It pushed me out of my comfort zone. I participated in things that I would normally never even consider (e.g. the high ropes course). The high ropes challenged me to face my fear of heights and to push my boundaries. At first, I was terrified, though now I look back I am glad that I took the opportunity. One contribution that I’ve made this year is taking part in inter-house activities including, the spelling bee, inter-house sport etc. Despite this, I learned that I should take up more opportunities when given the chance. In saying that, if I were to give advice to the year 7’s about their time in year 8, I would tell them to take up as many opportunities as they can and to make the most out of them and their time in year 8.

InnovatED

Over the past 3 months we (my group and I) have been working on an idea to help improve the delivery of food to RAFFA residents. The problem at RAFFA is that they only have two cafe’s where the residents can get their food and a social club which nobody really uses. The cafe’s are often very overcrowded and it is also harder to reach for those who live further away from the cafe’s as some of them can’t  walk very far. The focus task for this project was to come up with a way that residents staying at RAFFA could get their food without walking all the way to the cafe and back. In doing this the food would have to be as neat and presentable as it would be if they had got it from the cafe themselves. Our idea was that if we