JAGS English 10

Tyler Flechtner

End of Year Reflection

May 24, 2021

Mrs. Muckley

JAGS Pillar: Take action to improve conditions, viewing themselves as players in the world and participating reflectively

Artifact:

My Sophomore Year of JAGS

This year in JAGS, I experienced the pillar of Investigating the World when I did research on Kenya for the documentary. When researching, I found that Kenya had some violent protests after the presidential election of 2007. The results of the protests allowed for the two candidates to work together to make Kenya better for everyone. We chose this country for our documentary because we wanted a country that had some recent tax changes. While there were some problems with researching and editing the documentary, I still found some great information about the economy of Kenya. I feel that researching Kenya has made me a more globally component person because it helped me understand the culture and economy of Kenya better than I ever would have in the past.

This year in JAGS, I experienced the pillar of Recognizing Perspectives when I wrote my global perspectives essay in English class. I wrote my essay on climate change and I researched many countries and found many perspectives. Many of the perspectives were politically based, but I think that everyone should work together to stop climate change. One perspective includes the ever growing tension between the Republican party and the Democrat party of the United States. During my research I found that mainly democrats care for the environment, while republicans are more likely to care for the economy. Another perspective comes from Switzerland. They understand the dangers of climate change and the government promotes recycling and using renewable energy. This essay made me feel more globally aware because I am recognizing different beliefs, while expressing my own, and I am challenging some beliefs that feel wrong to me. The Global Perspective easy has also allowed me to see how other nations and our own nation see climate change, how they plan to fight it, and how they plan to keep our world environmentally friendly.

This year in JAGS, I experienced the pillar of Communicating Ideas during Go Night.

We communicated the ideas of protecting and saving bats. We did this by reaching out to experts, having a fundraiser for bat boxes, and asking people to watch our presentation. We know these communication tools worked because we got an expert that was willing to help us with our presentation, a company that makes bat boxes donated two boxes for us to put up in the park, and we had lots of people show up to our presentation. I feel that this presentation has made me a more globally aware citizen because I am communicating ideas that I believe in and I could influence people to follow the same beliefs I believe in.

This year in JAGS, I experienced the pillar of Taking Action when I helped pick up trash with my boy scout troop. Even though this project wasn't through JAGS, I feel it is something that the JAGS community could do. During this cleanup, we collected about 15 bags of trash in 2 hours. I felt that we did something good in the world. I was wondering why people would just throw their stuff on the ground instead of throwing it in the trash? This event has made me a more global citizen because we are taking action and doing something good for the world.

Next year, in Model UN, I feel that I will become a more globally competent citizen because I will be able to use the 4 pillars of JAGS to Investigate the world, Recognize Perspectives, Communicate Ideas, and Take Action. My goal for this year is to have at least an A in all grading periods.

Reflection:

This artifact spans my whole Sophomore year of high school.  I took the time to reflect on all four pillars of JAGS and  how I experienced them. Even though I may not have met my goal for this year, I have come a lot farther than I had before. This goal will set a very high standard for where I should strive to be at this time next year. I believe that I can take action to use all 4 pillars of JAGS next year to successfully complete my Capstone project.