• At the beginning of the year, I understood integrity to mean being honest and coming clean when faced with challenges.  

  • For example, on a lot of the assignments at the beginning of the year I would make up excuses for why I shouldn’t do them. When I was working I thought, “Will one bad grade really affect me that much.” “ Why should I even try.” This kind of thinking put me in a lazy rabbit hole and I got used to thinking in these kinds of ways.

•  However by the end of this year, I don’t care about the purpose of the assignment or the excuses. Instead I just get through the assignments and try my hardest. And honestly, I haven’t had a single science or humanity lesson or assignment that I think will help me in the future, but I have got into good habits, and have built character

• To me this shows integrity because I am working hard not for the approval of my parents, but because it’s the right thing to do and I feel good about myself when I work hard.

  • For example learning about bonds and atoms in science class has never made sense to me but I pushed through and worked hard not only to get a good grade, but to build character and to develop good habits.

• At the beginning of the year, I understood effort to mean trying hard.  

  • For example I pushed myself to complete math 1 in a single semester. I would go home and study delta math and incorporate AI to help me grasp key concepts. By the end of the semester I got an exceeds on the math 1 final.

• By the end of this year, I have not only worked hard in math but my other classes too. 

  • For example pushing myself through something hard like a revolutionary war video note gatherer, and boring things. I struggled a lot with humanities before, but now it’s one of my biggest strengths on infinite campus. Effort goes a long way. Even one assignment can make such a difference. One assignment at a time you are working hard towards being a better person.

• At the beginning of the year, I understood refinement to mean going back and reviewing your work.

  • For example I would review my work, but I wouldn’t make many changes to it.

• By the end of this year, I have realized that your work wouldn’t even be 1/10 of how good it would be if you used refinement. Refinement is so important that you can turn something horrible into a masterpiece. 

• At the beginning of the year, I believed that being respectful meant listening with eyes and ears and taking feedback and showing that you care.

• By the end of the year, I understood being respectful to mean anything you do to show care, appreciation, or admiration. 

Project Evidence: Two projects or assignments that show my respect are the escape room project and my last socratic seminar.

1,  Escape room exhibition: This project really taught me about respect because we were in a group of 4 and one member was messing everything up all the time, changing his puzzles and they didn’t match with ours, deleting great things like the intro and replacing it with his own which he puts no effort into, and complained and winned to the teacher when we tried to reason with him. The three of us were able to work through it and be patient. We were so stressed because everything was perfect a week before the exhibition and a couple days before, he changed literally everything. We were able to hold in our frustration and be kind and work through it with our teacher.

2. Last socratic seminar: At the beginning of the seminar I said something really stupid and dumb and it didn’t really make sense. I immediately wanted to speak again to get a better grade, but I showed respect by controlling my emotions and letting other people speak. As the seminar progressed I was able to speak and said some smart things and bumped my grade up to a meets. I was really proud of the way I dealt with the situation and pushed through a challenge. Not only does this show respect, but it shows integrity, refinement and effort. I showed integrity by controlling my emotions and not getting upset. I was already stressed about my grades and staying calm and persevering not only showed integrity, but refinement and effort too. I showed refinement by improving upon my mistake and saying good smart things as the seminar continued. I showed effort by not giving up and kept persevering.

• At the beginning of the year, I believed taking ownership meant just doing your work

• By the end of the year, I understood ownership to mean exceeding and not having people always telling you what “your work” is and what to do and just work and do a good job . 

1.  One project that shows my ownership is the rocket manual. In this project I went beyond the standards and helped out my group when I refined my part.

For my significant adult I chose someone named Scott Crowley because he helps makes me feel happy all the time.  He works in the FBI and he's really smart and a great person that I look up to. I really aprieciate what he does for me and how he shows all four habits of heart and mind. He shows integrity by not sharing information about his job that he shouldn't share. He shows effort in always planning great things and making things fun. Overall my significant adult has helped me along the

• I’ve grown in Impact by thinking about all my actions and not just how it will impact their actions, but how it might've come across and how my actions impacted others directly.

• I have been inspired by my community members because there is some really good people out there and a lot of cool things people do that I look up to

• I have grown in integrity by trying my hardest to make the right decisions only because it is the right thing to do.

• I have grown in effort by working as hard as I can as soon as I can in my academics and completing all my assignments on time.

• I have grown in refinement by asking teachers what I can refine when I get a bad grade and looking over my work before I turn it in.

• I have demonstrated ownership, helpfulness and respect by contributing positively to my group and solving problems

• I know I am ready to graduate from middle school and start high school because I not only have grown as a person, but as a learner and I know I’m prepared because I learned the importance of hard work.

• Thank you to everyone that came and listened to my presentation for being respectful people while I presented. I would now like to conclude my presentation by saying how much this school has impacted me. This school helped me build character and relationships with others and I grew as a learner.

• Thanks again. Any questions?