Essay Reflection
"No matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder." -Elon Musk
Introduction
Hi, I am Oliver Cantal. I have been in ACLC since 7th grade. In 6th grade, I was in Bay Farm Middle School. During my time in ACLC, I have participated in many events and classes. In 7th Grade, I was apart of the track team. While I did not do as well as I did during my 6th-grade year at Bay Farm, it was a fun experience. The track allowed me to make friends in a school where I did not know anyone. Something that I remember at the track was the practices and the relay teams. My individual performances were not as strong, but I loved the relays. This was when I had the opportunity to make close friends. Over the years, I made more friends. I even took college classes with some of them. What I remember after these classes were working together with the homework the teacher assigned. We would all meet up at the College of Alameda library to complete homework. While we did socialize at times, we all finished the assignments. In the end, I received an A in the class. That class was one of my favorite classes I ever took because I had my friends in it. Eventually, I took Leadership. At first, I was very scared to take the class. I was nervous when it came to public speaking. However, the more I was in charge of the class, the more I stopped becoming nervous. I learned how to become a public speaker. Using this skill allowed me to succeed in many presentations that I was assigned in all my classes. Even if I had speeches I would perform well because of my experience in Leadership. All in all, ACLC has not only allowed me to improve myself as a person but make friends.
The one on the top left is me.
7th-grade photo of the track team.
Personal Qualities, Work Habits, and Attitudes
Responsibility, sociability, and knowing your career are all crucial attributes that will help me achieve my goal. Being responsible is important because it allows an individual to put effort into the assignments he/she has. Doing an assignment is one thing, but doing it with effort is another. This is what separates responsible people from people who want to get their assignments done quicker. Responsible people also keep track of when their assignments are due. If you do not turn in your assignments before the due date, this could give you late credit. In addition, responsibility also requires people to attend classes and also participate in them. This gives them the ability to know and learn the topic the teacher is teaching. Next is sociability. Sociability is mostly important when you are working with people. For instance, if you are working on a group project, sociability is important. In order to have a high grade in a group project, you need to be good at working with others. You need to communicate with your team in a respectful manner and decide which part of the project you want you and your team to do. Lastly, knowing your career is important. Having a clear understanding of what you want to do in the future is important because it is your future. For me, I want to be a nurse. This requires me to go to college and get to nursing school.
New Basics
Communication, fitness, and health are important to me. Communication is important in many situations. Whether it is in a public speaking class where you communicate your ideas or in a group project you have, effective communication is critical to success. The way I knew I was good at communicating was through my college class: Comms 45 (public speaking). I took this class because I wanted to get to speak in front of others. Eventually, after I took the class, I learned how to present and communicate my ideas to a small audience, which helped me in many school presentations, such as science and history presentations. Fitness and health are also important because, with a healthy body, an individual is more resistant to certain diseases. I maintain good fitness and health because, before the quarantine, I went to the gym every day. I went every single day at 5 pm and made sure not to skip any days, no matter how busy I was. Not only that but I did competitive swimming and high school swimming for 3 years. Swimming has even helped me emotionally because it allowed me to have a better work ethic and maintain a fit body. I saw myself doing every single assignment in school and having good results in swim competitions. For instance, in high school swim competitions, I would normally get 1st or 2nd. The coaches were very proud of me and always considered me one of the best on the team. In the future, after the quarantine is over, I look forward to competitive swimming once again.
Thinking and Reasoning Skills
Knowing how to learn and make good decisions are all critical to success. The way I found it helpful to learn in a class is by asking questions, taking notes, and participating. This always helps me to get help with whatever I was confused with and understand the material better. What I did specifically asked a question, then after the teacher answered my question, I would take notes of that in my notebook. This was really helpful to me in Precalculus which was one of the classes I struggled the most in. Decision making is also important because it helps me decide what I had to do in order to succeed and what I didn’t have to do. For instance, if I had to choose whether I wanted to play games or do homework, I would pick homework, as homework is important to getting good grades in school.
Interpersonal Abilities
Participating in teams and teaching others new skills are important to me. The reason participation in teams is important is because participation improves performance. The more people work on the project together, the better your communication and knowledge of the project will be. I participate a lot in a class by asking questions. When I am confused I often ask questions to the teacher or a classmate to better understand the material. Participation is also helpful for presenting projects or ideas. One person cannot present the entire thing or else they will lose points for lack of participation. Everyone needs to work together to succeed. When I work on group projects, I always make sure to put effort into what I am assigned to do. Not only that but I communicate with my team what I want to present and how I am going to present it. This allows my team and me to succeed. Teaching others is also helpful in any situation. When learners around me are confused about certain lessons/topics, helping them not only helps them but helps me as well. It helps me understand the topic better, at the same time helping others.
Technology
Technology and the way you use technology is very important, especially right now. Since everyone in the bay area is quarantined, technology is important. Everyone has online school and since zoom is a requirement, having proper technique is crucial to succeeding. I have proper technology because I have my own laptop. Having my own laptop benefits me because then I do not have to ask one of my family members for theirs. Applying the technology you have is also important for online school in order for you to participate in the classes and understand what assignments are going to be due. Learners must be able to use the school’s grading website and how to access it. This grading website is called Jupiter ed, and on it, there are a calendar where teachers post when assignments are due and instructions for it. Knowing this has helped me with many assignments which resulted in good grades.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ACLC has taught me how to grow as a person. Not physically, but mentally. During my earlier years of ACLC, I was a loud person. I often got written up by teachers or other learners. However, over time I learned how to control myself. I learned when I can talk and when I could not. In the classes where I had many friends, this is where I had to control myself. The teachers did not like how loud I was and some even emailed my parents. But it is because I got written up a lot and emailed parents, that encouraged change. I had to change the way I acted in class. Not only did this make me more productive in my classes, but it allowed me to understand the material more. Because I focused more on the class than having fun, it was easier to learn the ideas presented. Eventually, I learned to take my loudness and use it to improve my public speaking skills. I even took a public speaking class with a friend and received an A. It was because of my experience in ACLC, that I was able to improve on myself. Even now, ACLC still means a lot to me. I have made many memories here. I will miss ACLC, but I will always remember the friends I made.