To me, impact means something that leaves a lasting and strong effect, or something people will remember even for a short period of time. You can make an impact on your community, your school, and the people around you. It also means the impact you make when you leave the school. 

I have connected with our lens by making an impact on my peers, my teachers,  and my classroom. One way I have made an impact is on character targets, where we have a certain goal for the week in our classes that we try to reach. For example, one character target for the week might be to transition more quietly from class to class. By following these targets I make an impact by being a good role model for others. By also following the expectations, I can impact my teachers in a positive way, to show I respect them and have their respect. Also just to make a more positive atmosphere.  

What is a character target?

Character targets are targets that are on our warm up sheets for the week. The set goals that the teachers want to acomplish or follow over the week. By following these targets I made a positive impact on my classmates, the classroom atmosphere, and also my teachers. 

The internship Presentation was the presentation that we gave to the upcoming 8th graders about our experience. We gave helpful tips on things like cover letters, locations, work, how you act, and overall helpful information. This shows how I made a bigger impact than just my classmates, but instead impacting people across the school and help guide them. This shows how my connection to impact has grown from targets to presentations to other grades. 

We made these purpose maps in purpose learning not that long ago. My purpose statement is: My purpose is to heal wounds to help people. 

I chose Vanessa Taylor to be my inspirational community member because she has always been so kind, funny, and welcoming. I am so grateful to have her in my life.`

Im first going to be talking about Integrity because I feel that it is one of the most important habits of heart and mind, especially in and outside of school. At the beginning of the year integrity was about doing the right thing when nobody was around to watch me or tell me what to do. For example, not gaming during class like I see many of my classmates do. During flex work time or silent work where we work on exhibition work like just mercy or especially our real world project I see a lot of people gaming, so having integrity by not gaming. However I have grown in my definition of integrity. I now see it more as the integrity to try your best on your work when you are supposed to. To have the integrity to try your best and not be told to try harder. For example, one of our exhibitions called the real world project , I felt like I demonstrated the type of integrity that I just spoke about. This exhibition was about making a realistic business that both makes a profit and helps one of the UN sustainable development goals. We got to pick the partner we worked with and we ended up winning. It was very free range so you could do basically anything you wanted within the guidelines, but me and my partner worked extremely hard on our business and ended up winning. We didn't have to be told twice to put in effort or work into our project, we started immediately and had the integrity to work on that when we needed to. Overall, my definition of integrity has never changed but evolved into something bigger. Now I will be moving on to Effort.

I received a meets on my TED talk, (Oral Presentation) and an exceeds on my research, and slides. 

Slides and Research  

I learned a lot about injustices and specifically about protests and how people protest in an effort to make changes and stop injustices. 

I learned a lot about protesting and also how to set up a TED talk. 

For my overall TED talk (Oral Presentation) I got a meets because I met the standards, I think I would have gotten an exeeds if I had memorized my script. 

I got an exeeds on my slides because I added a lot of visuals that connected to my topic, and added some slides. 

I got an exeeds on my research because I exceeded the expectation, and added a lot of research and paragraphs for my sources. 

My goal for my next presentation I want to memorize my script, and aim for an exeeds. 

For this project we worked a lot with learning how successfule45 cvx 7 businesses work and a lot of the budget and financial parts of a business. We had guest speakers of a business come in as well as a member of the chamber of commerce who talked about ideas for our UN goals. 

One way I grew was not having note cards, which I normally have during presentations just in case I forget what I'm saying. Even though I didn't have note cards I still spoke well and was confident. One of the challenges was time, especially with CMAS, we couldn't always finish parts of the business in one day because of this. But I grew from that because we were able to still make a successful business that won. 

I learned a lot about how businesses that support UN goals help society and help the communities around them. Which we then incorporated into our  business plan and overall business. 

I learned that I am able to (With my partner) create a successful business that supported 2 (basically 4) of the UN sustainable development goals by helping my community and beyond. 

Overall, I would give myself and exeeds on this project because of the way I was able to work with my partner. Plus, we won so that should be a given because we beat all the other businesses. I also worked well with the written aspect, and presentation aspect. 

Next year one of my goals will be to study for things to make sure I understand 

Another one of my goals will be to work just as hard as I did on this project on any other assignment or projects in high school. 

(I did get an exceeds on this project)

Effort is the habit of heart and mind that I feel like is the easiest to connect with and the easiest to actually do. I have always put effort into so much of my work and throughout my time at mountain. The TPOL rubric for effort and all of the other habits of heart and mind ask to talk about how your understanding or definition changed but my definition never has. To me effort has always meant putting your best into your work, whatever your best may be that day. But my understanding has expanded, it's also putting time and effort into becoming better at things, or making progress. Throughout 8th grade I put so much effort into assignments in science, math, humanities, and exhibitions. For example, I put a bunch of effort into the Just Mercy exhibition which was also the TED talk exhibition. We picked a topic from the list and wrote a TED talk style presentation in front of a small crowd.  which I ended up getting an exceeds on the slides and research part. But I also started to put even more effort into progress. One example is in math, when I got an approaching on one of our quizzes, the algebra quiz#2 which was about slope and slope equations. Instead of just continuing to get approachings I put the effort into making sure I understood what we were learning. And since then I haven't got developings or aproachings in math. So, at the end of my 8th grade year. I not only put my effort into all of my assignments and projects, but I also put effort into making progress and getting a better understanding of things. But, my definition of effort has never changed but instead evolved. 

I received a meets on my TED talk, (Oral Presentation) and an exceeds on my research, and slides. 

Slides and Research  

I learned a lot about injustices and specifically about protests and how people protest in an effort to make changes and stop injustices. 

I learned a lot about protesting and also how to set up a TED talk. 

For my overall TED talk (Oral Presentation) I got a meets because I met the standards, I think I would have gotten an exeeds if I had memorized my script. 

I got an exeeds on my slides because I added a lot of visuals that connected to my topic, and added some slides. 

I got an exeeds on my research because I exceeded the expectation, and added a lot of research and paragraphs for my sources. 

My goal for my next presentation I want to memorize my script, and aim for an exeeds. 

I received an approaching on this quiz because I missed some important things, such as I missed that one of my answers should have been negative. This quiz was about slope, and getting the slope based on equations. 

My main goal is to especially look closely and make sure I completely think I have the correct answer before submitting. 

Next I will be talking about refinement, one of the habits of heart and mind that I have been struggling with and working on since I started going to Mountain. Still to this day I get lazy and dont refine my work as much as I say I do or want to, which I definitely need to do in high school. At the beginning of 8th grade I understood refinement to be just looking over my work and seeing if anything is wrong or looks weird. One example of an assignment that we did early in the year was our argumentative, this is where we picked a topic to write an arugumentative essay on. I actually refined this more than I normally refine my assignments because it was an essay and it had a work cited page which is all specific about MLA and alphabetical. But by the end of the year I knew refinement to mean taking feedback, going deeper into my refinement skills, revision, and making what I'm writing or working on cleaner. One example of this is our science exhibition, the rocket royal for this exhibition we worked in a group off three to create and launch a rocket where it would protect the egg and go as high as it could go. We launched it as many times as we could to make sure that we liked our design, every time we launched we made a change. I think this was extremely important because our final product ended up going extremely high even though our egg jacob egglordi ended up dying. But at least we refined it to make our rocket go super high. Overall I think my refinement has improved but of course could use a bit more work and effort. 

For this assignment, we wrote an ARP about a topic of our choice. Mine was climate change, we talked a lot about the controversies of climate, and our opinion on our topic. 

This exhibition was about working with your group to successfully launch a rocket and try to protect the egg inside while getting the maximum height you can. We worked a lot on researching forces and motion and things such as Newtons laws and types of forces especially. In the speech part of the exhibition, I talked about the egg protection, Marley talked about Kinetic and Potential energy, and Maddie talked about the intro. But when we did the rocket manuals, I worked on Newton's laws. (The image shown was the image before putting Jacob Elordis face and Bad bunnys face all over it.) I also got a meets+ on my overall exhibition and an exceeds for my personal contribution. This is because I worked really hard, and on my rocket manual added an exceeds extension. 

Rocket Royale Reflection 

At the beginning of the year I knew ownership meant taking charge of assignments. Working with my group, taking responsibilities, participating, and more. I still believe this is what ownership means, however I also feel like ownership means taking responsibility in putting as much effort into things as I can. For example, at the beginning of the year when we were doing our Chemical reaction exhibition in science where we worked in a group of three and got assignedeither a checmical or physical reaction, we got assigned rainbow fire whcih was a chemical reaction. We then made a poster on it and presented our reaction in front of a crowd. I took ownership in my assignments, research, and writing my script. I participated with my group members well and we all worked really well together. But towards the end of the year ownership meant more than just doing assignments and being an active group member. It meant putting all my effort into the group and myself. For example, on our escape room exhibition which was where we worked in groups of fours to make an escape room about sound and sound waves, and made many different clues. I worked extremely hard with my partners and as an individual to make sure that my work was refined and the best it could be. Overall I feel like my definition of ownership has really evolved into something deeper than just working on assignments and participating, but more about the effort that is put into my work. 

This exhibition was about an experiment that you got assigned, I got assigned Rainbow fire. We then researched and made a poster about it, and then did the experiment in front of the crowd to show what we know and learned. I received a exeeds because I exceeded the expectation on this project, and worked well with my group as well as fully memorizing my script, and doing well on the poster.   

This is my Letter to a future 8th grader, 

Letter 

This exhibition was all about waves, my group worked together to create and escape room and many clues and puzzles. 

I got an exceeds on my overall exhibition, and a meets on my exhibition reflection. 

What went well for the players playing your game:

They read things very clearly for everyone to hear, and found the clues when they should. They also worked together relatively well when looking for clues. When we told them the amount of time they had, they started to pick up the pace and take that into consideration. 

What was challenging for the players playing your game:

I think they got bored when reading so much information, which was often repetitive. Sometimes they didn’t notice clues right in front of them. I think it was hard for some of them to read the small words. They also might have had difficulty when reading in the dark atmosphere, but they used their phone lights. 

How well did the players feel your escape room taught them about light waves and sound waves:

I think they learned a lot of good information. They said that there was a bit of repetitive information though. But they learned and used their knowledge when solving the puzzles. 

How immersive did the players feel the escape room was? Did the creative artifacts enhance the setting of the room:

They really liked how the escape room looked and the vibes. They thought it was pretty immersive, especially when finding the clues. They liked the decor, lighting, and outfits a lot. 

If you were to design an escape room like this again, what would you do differently and why:

I would do less reading, and maybe actually have more things they do with their hands. I would also have a bigger area because it was kind of cramped. I would also get more lights because while the darkness was cool it was a bit too dark, but the lights were too bright. 

How well did you work together with your group to complete this exhibition:

My group worked really well together, we got a lot done. We also agreed on almost everything,and when we had disagreements or arguments we were able to sort it out quickly. We also worked well on our individual things, and worked great when doing things as a whole group. 

Now I will be moving on to helpfulness in group work. At the beginning of the year helpfulness meant just participating with my group and doing my work. But now I understand helpfulness to mean more about communication and being able to work well with my group in a way that positively supports the environment. For example, in the middle of the year when we were working on our escape room exhibition which I previously was talking about, we noticed some people giving feedback and saying that it was a bit repetitive with what our clues were saying. Sure we had different topics but they all related in some way. I think maybe it was a lack of communication and I think that goes hand in hand with being helpful and working with groups. But still I really enjoyed that exhibition and thought it was great. But towards the end of the year helpfulness was communication, being able to fully understand your group and the tasks at hand. For example, our real world project Oasis which I already talked about had an extreme amount of communication, and also the Blood and Thunder exhibition AKA the mock trial (explain.) So I think the communication between the groups really worked well and I think helpfulness is extremely important in group work. 

This exhibition was all about waves, my group worked together to create and escape room and many clues and puzzles. 

I got an exceeds on my overall exhibition, and a meets on my exhibition reflection. 

What went well for the players playing your game:

They read things very clearly for everyone to hear, and found the clues when they should. They also worked together relatively well when looking for clues. When we told them the amount of time they had, they started to pick up the pace and take that into consideration. 

What was challenging for the players playing your game:

I think they got bored when reading so much information, which was often repetitive. Sometimes they didn’t notice clues right in front of them. I think it was hard for some of them to read the small words. They also might have had difficulty when reading in the dark atmosphere, but they used their phone lights. 

How well did the players feel your escape room taught them about light waves and sound waves:

I think they learned a lot of good information. They said that there was a bit of repetitive information though. But they learned and used their knowledge when solving the puzzles. 

How immersive did the players feel the escape room was? Did the creative artifacts enhance the setting of the room:

They really liked how the escape room looked and the vibes. They thought it was pretty immersive, especially when finding the clues. They liked the decor, lighting, and outfits a lot. 

If you were to design an escape room like this again, what would you do differently and why:

I would do less reading, and maybe actually have more things they do with their hands. I would also have a bigger area because it was kind of cramped. I would also get more lights because while the darkness was cool it was a bit too dark, but the lights were too bright. 

How well did you work together with your group to complete this exhibition:

My group worked really well together, we got a lot done. We also agreed on almost everything,and when we had disagreements or arguments we were able to sort it out quickly. We also worked well on our individual things, and worked great when doing things as a whole group. 

For this project we worked a lot with learning how successfule45 cvx 7 businesses work and a lot of the budget and financial parts of a business. We had guest speakers of a business come in as well as a member of the chamber of commerce who talked about ideas for our UN goals. 

One way I grew was not having note cards, which I normally have during presentations just in case I forget what I'm saying. Even though I didn't have note cards I still spoke well and was confident. One of the challenges was time, especially with CMAS, we couldn't always finish parts of the business in one day because of this. But I grew from that because we were able to still make a successful business that won. 

I learned a lot about how businesses that support UN goals help society and help the communities around them. Which we then incorporated into our  business plan and overall business. 

I learned that I am able to (With my partner) create a successful business that supported 2 (basically 4) of the UN sustainable development goals by helping my community and beyond. 

Overall, I would give myself and exeeds on this project because of the way I was able to work with my partner. Plus, we won so that should be a given because we beat all the other businesses. I also worked well with the written aspect, and presentation aspect. 

Next year one of my goals will be to study for things to make sure I understand 

Another one of my goals will be to work just as hard as I did on this project on any other assignment or projects in high school. 

(I did get an exceeds on this project)

Finally, I will be talking and reflecting on respect in group work. Respect at the beginning of the year meant following rules, being kind to others, polite, and being a considerate person. But my definition has definitely expanded more. Respect means to value others ideas, perspectives, work, and being able to communicate which all builds good group work. For example towards the beginning of the year, on one of our first Socratic seminars on Blood and Thunder which was a book we read in class about Kit Carson. I added my ideas and thoughts on the questions that we had on our Socratic seminar sheet. I did get a meets on this because I spoke at least twice during the seminar. However, towards the end of the year on our latest Socratic seminar for the book Into the Wild which is another book we read in class about a person named Chris McCandles who left home and went exploring, but later died in the Alaskan wilderness in a bus. I added onto others ideas about the questions while also incorporating my own. I also acted with respect when responding to ideas that might have been different from mine or didn't incorporate the same ideas or opinions. So I feel like over the years respect has expanded and became something more. Instead of just respecting the people around me and following the rules, it means to communicate respectfully with others and value others' ideas and opinions with your own. 

This one our first Socratic seminar for our book blood and thunder which was about Kit Carson. I ended up getting an meets on my Socratic seminar because I talked at least twice and was active in the conversations. I did get an exceeds on my Socratic Seminar sheet because I wrote a lot for each question and sourced the book multiple times adding two quotes per section. 

I got a meets on the Socratic seminar because I talked twice like I was supposed to and just did normally.  But I also added onto peoples ideas and thoughts blending both my views and theirs together.  I got an exceeds on my socratic seminar sheet because I added a bunch of detail and thought into what I was writing. I also added two quotes for each question to full elaborate on what I was answering. Plus I added two questions at the end of the sheet if I wanted to ask them in the seminar. 

Overall I am very proud of the work that I have done this year. Throughout the 6 exhibitions that we had I grew each time and improved my work through the habits of heart and mind. This year definitely went by quicker than I was expecting and I'm both excited yet nervous to be leaving mountain and going to high school. I have built really good relationships between the people in my class, my friends, and my teachers and the people around me. I feel I am ready to graduate middle school and move towards something bigger. High school will be a totally different experience and hopefully will be just fine. 

As we sadly come to an end on my presentation I would like to fully wrap everything up including my time at mountain. I have grown in impact by being able to actually impact my peers and the people around me, by growing as a school and as a class. I hope that I leave a positive impact on mountain when I leave and the people that I was around. The people around me are all so inspiring and kind and I am so lucky to be a part of a very great group of kids. Now it wouldn't fully be a TPOL if I didn't reflect on how I have grown in the habits of heart and mind. I have grown in integrity by knowing to fully put in my best, I have grown in effort by knowing to put effort into goals and not just school work, I have grown in refinement by actually trying to improve or notice that I still need to improve, and I have grown in respect by being able to value others ideas and opinions.  Throughout this year I have demonstrated helpfulness, ownership,and respect by working well and having communication in my groups. I am now ready to leave mountain and go on to high school. Thank you so much for coming to my last TPOL, and thank you to everyone who came and supported me.