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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.