I've had a fantastic, eventful, and exciting three years at Heritage Middle School. As we come to the end of eighth grade, evaluating our achievements, experiences, and journey through the last year of middle school will be one of our final goals. Throughout the time that I've been thinking or reflecting on my eighth grade year, I realized that there've been good experiences and bad ones not only during eighth grade, but within the time frame of all of middle school.
I've learned incredible and immeasurable amounts of information within the duration of this year. I've learned and been introduced to all kinds of morals, vocabulary, history, and current events. However, this list of everything that's been taught to me this year could on and on with way more than just that. I believe that the three most influencial or important things that I've learned this year are that time is extremely valuable and should not be taken advantage of, loop holes are not an effective, or responsible to get done what's asked of you, and that balancing friendship and education is very important.
There were a lot of things we did this year that I won't forget for a long time. One thing that I probably won't forget and that really affected me, was having Socratic Seminars on the book Tuesdays with Morrie. These seminars really influenced how I thought about several different subjects, and my fellow students and I discussed many sensitive topics that I could truly connect to. I feel like I won't forget this experience and many new viewpoints and perspectives were introduced to me throughout these exercises.
I loved all my classmates this year, and many of them did some really nice things for myself and each other. We all helped each other out throughout the year and I really appreciate the support, advice, and constructive criticism that was provided for me either within the class or outside of it. One of the nicest things someone has ever done for me in this class was to give me some really good advice on whether to admit to not doing my homework or trying to avoid it. Someone could say they didn't care what I did, but this student suggested that I come clean rather than risk more trouble. Due to this, I was able to make the right decision.
I've never taught my classmates something extremely significant, but I did provide both my peers and teacher with small tips, advice, and help when needed. If someone needed assistance with technology or an iPad, if they didn't understand directions, or if they were unsure of something and needed advice, I would do my best to aid them. I enjoyed doing this because I new they would do the same for me.
I've grown immensely mentally during this year, because of this class. I feel that I made the most improvement in my feelings, emotions, and undying passion for reading and writing. I will admit that I despise having to analyze what I'm reading, and I really dislike writing about things that I'm not passionate about or things that I'm not interested in. However, reading books is one of my favorite things to do and I also love expressing my emotions through writing.
I believe that the most challenging part of this year, was two specific projects. The Butterfly Project, and the Aphorism Project, we're both very challenging for me. Both of these assignments required a lot of creativity, and this was especially hard for me, because I have no artistic talent. However, I was able to apply myself and actually produce two good projects. That just goes to show that if you try hard and put your mind to it, you can do anything.
The best piece of writing that I conducted this year was my "I Believe" speech. This speech is going to be performed or delivered to the rest of our eighth grade team at the end of the year, and I'm really excited and nervous for it at the same time. I will be preparing ahead of time, and this will be the first speech that I've given in front of several people. I think this is my best piece of writing because we were able to choose our topic, and I'm going to be writing about something I'm passionate about, and something I want to talk about with lots of people.
Of all the books I read this year, I have to say my favorite is Tuesdays with Morrie. This specific book influenced the way I see all kinds of life lessons, morals, and vague, powerful topics such as life or death. The Socratic Seminars that were based of or associated with this book also changed how I see things. Morrie Schwartz, one of the book's main characters affected me the most, and the way he looked at everything he encountered inspired and left me in awe.
For incoming students in Mrs. Larson's ELA class, I would suggest that if you're assigned something that's due days from then, start it early in preparation. Procrastination was definitely one of my biggest obstacles or challenges throughout my years at Heritage, and it still is an ongoing struggle for me. Countless occurrences of "I'll do it later"s or "I can get it done tomorrow"s really hurt me and resulted in several late night homework sessions. The hole that you dig for yourself will get deeper and deeper before you even realize how far behind you've gotten. After you've dig this pit, it's extremely hard to get back out. Good luck!
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