Junior year as a whole has been chaotic. Due dates, extracurricular activities, AP testing, and school overall became overwhelming at various points in the year. But all these different experiences made me once again realize why time management was so important. I am most proud of not being one of the many students that dropped out of their AP classes, although it was tough, I managed to finish all my work on time. Although I didn’t do so in my advanced English class, I got all level fours in my advance United States History class, which meant that I increased my GPA because Advanced Placement is considered a college course.
These classes, along with my AVID class, shaped me the most because it was this year when reality hit me. In AVID our teacher began to use the point system, which meant that any assignments that were turned in late would automatically have a deduction of half a point for every day after the due date. There was no time to waste, if I was absent one day I knew I was going to fall behind. If I turned in an assignment late or forgot to do it, I would fall even farther behind, because there was no such thing as waiting for others to catch up in order to move forward. My AP US History class in particular was the one where our teacher taught a new lesson almost every other class period if not every class period, which meant that every night we had work to do in order to understand the assignment or to be up to date with the lesson being taught. My AP English class was all about reading, writing and constant revisions of essays. But what I did not realize until second semester was that all these revisions, were slowly improving my writing skills. I took the notes that my teacher left on the margins of my paper, and I used those to write my next essay, to guide myself and prevent myself from making the same mistakes.
I also participated in Migrant Speech and Debate this year, being my first year I was very nervous, but with the help of my speech coach and various friends that helped me improve my speaking skills, I took second place in the speech competition. This was one of the extracurricular activities that shaped me the most. I learned that the only way to improve was by constantly practicing and analyzing my mistakes. Seeing other people’s mistakes helped me as well, I took what was wrong with their delivery of the speech and made sure I didn’t make those same mistakes when it was my turn to deliver my speech.
All of the classes and extracurricular activities I participated in shaped me in one way or another. Whether it be by improving my speaking skills, strengthening my time management, improving my writing skills, or simply just setting due dates for assignments, all of these classes and activities slowly molded me into a better student.
These classes, along with my AVID class, shaped me the most because it was this year when reality hit me. In AVID our teacher began to use the point system, which meant that any assignments that were turned in late would automatically have a deduction of half a point for every day after the due date. There was no time to waste, if I was absent one day I knew I was going to fall behind. If I turned in an assignment late or forgot to do it, I would fall even farther behind, because there was no such thing as waiting for others to catch up in order to move forward. My AP US History class in particular was the one where our teacher taught a new lesson almost every other class period if not every class period, which meant that every night we had work to do in order to understand the assignment or to be up to date with the lesson being taught. My AP English class was all about reading, writing and constant revisions of essays. But what I did not realize until second semester was that all these revisions, were slowly improving my writing skills. I took the notes that my teacher left on the margins of my paper, and I used those to write my next essay, to guide myself and prevent myself from making the same mistakes.
I also participated in Migrant Speech and Debate this year, being my first year I was very nervous, but with the help of my speech coach and various friends that helped me improve my speaking skills, I took second place in the speech competition. This was one of the extracurricular activities that shaped me the most. I learned that the only way to improve was by constantly practicing and analyzing my mistakes. Seeing other people’s mistakes helped me as well, I took what was wrong with their delivery of the speech and made sure I didn’t make those same mistakes when it was my turn to deliver my speech.
All of the classes and extracurricular activities I participated in shaped me in one way or another. Whether it be by improving my speaking skills, strengthening my time management, improving my writing skills, or simply just setting due dates for assignments, all of these classes and activities slowly molded me into a better student.