I chose this TED talk because I found it the most relatable. Before I watched the TED talk I’ve always believed that only a marathon of effort and hard work will pay off, rather than a sprint. This is exactly what the speaker was saying; basically the moral is that being successful in something usually requires a person to be continuously working for it, rather than an immediate will and attempt. The speaker’s idea was surprisingly similar to my original belief, and it instantly caught my attention.
I agree with almost everything the speaker was trying to express, and I feel that we both stand in the same perspective when it comes to working towards success. For example, I sometimes look down upon the ones who claim that they are thriving for something but do not put in continuous effort. I personally don't think that it is realistic for someone to reach a tough goal without trying hard, and I feel that people who deserve something are the ones who paid enough for it. The speaker mentioned that the key to success is grit, which is prolonged passion and perseverance for something. This is exactly the moral that I’ve always had, and although she used different terms to convey the idea, I totally agree with what she is suggesting. The one bit of the talk that I can't exactly agree with is the fact that the speaker made grit sound like the only thing a successful person needs. She mentioned that grit is totally unrelated and sometimes even inverse to one’s talent, which made me interpret that reaching a goal does not require talent at all and grit is simply enough. Although my interpretation could be inaccurate, I feel that she should take in account of people’s capabilities of things when she makes that conclusion. This is because I believe a bit of talent or skill is always necessary when trying to accomplish something and that only having grit is not enough. I think it would be better if the speaker addressed talent as a slightly more decisive component, and not ignore its importance. As mentioned above, I had a very similar insight as the speaker before I watched the TED talk. The talk made me more confident in my belief, but made me reflect on myself a little. This is because recently I feel that I wasn’t putting in enough effort into the things I want to accomplish, such as improving grades, maintaining exercise and more personal goals. The talk acted as an alarm that reminded me of what my goals would take, and made me rethink what I needed to do. After the talk I had a brief discussion with myself regarding what I always believed in. In the end I realized that I needed to work harder and more consistently in some areas because I wasn’t seeing enough results. I would recommend this talk to anyone, and especially some of my friends who claim that they are often “lazy”. Although I’ve already agreed with the main idea of this talk, I still found this talk very meaningful and inspiring. To my friends who sometimes refuse to work hard because they feel lazy, I think this talk would give them some very meaningful insights. I want my friends to be able to reach their goals, and I think that the idea this talk conveys would be very beneficial to them. I sometimes try to tell my friends that prolonged passion in important like what the speaker said, but I’d recommended them to watch this talk because the speaker expresses my belief in a more profound way.
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Rather than dividing the project into separate components and assigning each group member a specific category to work on, our group completed the project as a whole and worked on almost every step altogether. There were a few parts of the project, such as the survey for the teacher and students, where we broke off into two smaller groups and worked on them individually. However no major component was completed totally by one single person. Because of this, I had the chance to participate in almost all the steps in our project, including planning the project, creating google forms, analyzing the data, finding the PED tool, presenting our PED tool, and finally writing the report. My contributions include providing suggestions (for the choice of PEDs tools), brainstorming questions and ideas (for the teacher’s survey), and writing conclusions (for the executive summary). But in the end, these tasks were generally done under group work where more than one person contributed.
I believe that our PEDs project was a success. We were able to execute every step as planned, from finding an appropriate PED tool to implementing it and seeing results. Throughout this project we did not face any major obstacles that gave us a hard time. I feel that our group members worked very well and cooperatively, which made the flow of our project even smoother. In the end, we were able to obtain and analyze the results from implementing our PED tool, which is exactly what we were aiming for in the beginning. Therefore, considering that we were able to follow our plans throughout the entire project, I would definitely call our project a success. If there was one thing that I could change about our group’s PEDs project, it would probably be our time management. Although we were able to execute the steps that we planned for our project, I feel that we could’ve finished the project in a shorter timeframe. For example, we spent many days on writing a survey for the students and teacher, and we waited even longer before handing them out. We also spent many class periods on choosing and planning to implement the PED tool, and the time our group spent on that could also be reduced (e.g. research a little at home). Some parts of our project also took longer than as planned in the timeline from the beginning, such as implementing the PED tool. In conclusion, I feel that our project could possibly be done in a much shorter timeframe; therefore if I were to change something about my project from the start, I would plan out a more efficient timeline and strictly follow it till the end. The goal of our project was to compare student engagement and achievement after we implement a PED tool. However we only had the chance to implement our tool for one class period only, and in my opinion that is not quite enough to make a significant impact. I feel that if we could implement our PED tool for more in-class sessions, the results would be much more noticeable. Therefore, I think it would be a great idea for next year’s IDC class to try to get more opportunities to implement their PED tools. This could probably lead to more appealing and accurate results and make the project more meaningful than it already is. I often spend part of my leisure time playing online games such as online chess, and I can say that I experience a fair amount of verbal harassment on almost every occasion of playing. I was first exposed to verbal harassment at a very young age, when I started to play online games rather than single player games. The first online game I played was chess, on the well-known online chess platform www.chess.com. A few days within playing, I’ve received several messages from the game chat that contains offensive language. I was actually quite shocked to see what people were saying to me, because I don't see why it is necessary at all to swear over a chess game. The abusive language gave me uneasy feelings, but they often fade away quickly. After a while of becoming part of the online community, I have soon realized that verbal harassment was very common. As I was more used to being exposed to this type of harassment, the amount of tolerance I have for it has also built up. By now, I am only slightly bothered by the abusive language seen on the game chat.
Personally, I dont have the habit of verbally harassing others whether in the real world or on the online platform. When I am the victim of online verbal harassment, I never reply with abusive language but rather try to reply in a wise and intelligent manner. For example, once I received a racist message during a chess game that I was winning, which read “Go make me some fried rice you chink”, and I responded with “No, I am too busy beating you in this chess game.” Similar to why I try to avoid verbally harassing others in the real world, I believe that insulting others over an online platform does not accomplish anything but generating hatred and ruining the atmosphere of the environment. And in my opinion, using abusive language is simply an act that only hurts others without benefiting one’s self. Therefore, I never participate in any type of verbal harassment, not even when I am the victim of one. I have not verbally harassed anyone in an online gaming platform, and I cannot exactly relate myself to ones who do. I don’t have any experience in being the aggressor; however I am able to draw some conclusions from certain situations I’ve been through. I’ve noticed that verbal harassment is commonly a result of an unsatisfied player, or in other words, the player who is losing. I assume that the reason for them to verbally harass is to express their rage from losing at the given moment. Perhaps harassing others through abusive language can relieve themselves from losing the game, which is my best guess. Although, I’m sure that there is some sort of psychological theory out there that could explain this behavior. In general, I believe that the act of verbally harassing others is morally wrong. I believe that it is not an intelligent decision to make, and as mentioned above, I never participate in it myself. For that reason, I would not accept a behavior like such in the real world. If I was ever verbally harassed in a face to face conversation, I would probably treat it very, very seriously. Again, I believe that verbal harassment is a sign of aggression and hostility. If this were to take place in the real world, I would view it as a serious threat and a risk to my well-being. It would be very difficult for me to tolerate it to any extent, and the fact that it occurs in the middle of a chess game would not change the way I perceive it. Unlike how I tolerate verbal harassment online, I would not accept this type of behavior in the real world at all. Verbal harassment has become a very wild theme in online gaming platforms, and in my opinion it has reached an extent where it should be addressed to the public. I feel that students make up the most part of the participants and victims of online harassment, so they should definitely be more aware of this issue. The most convenient method to address the issue to the students would be through schooling, and this can take on many forms. For example, even a short class discussion can be very effective at raising the student’s awareness of this issue. I feel that schools should take the initiative to guide students through this problem, and make sure that everyone understands what verbal harassment is all about. It could be difficult for students to analyze verbal harassment on their own, so it would be nice if schools can address this issue in some way. I believe that this could potentially improve the online society as a whole, and at the same time it is a wonderful learning opportunity for the students. As a student, I believe the two most helpful technologies for me are Livebinders and Rescue Time. These two technologies are both very applicable for me, and I can incorporate many of their uses into my own daily life. For example, Livebinders allows me to store all my notes on a safer and more organized platform. I can definitely see myself using this technology in the future to replace physical 3-ring binders. In terms of benefits, Livebinders makes organizing and maintaining notes much easier. This means that I would never have to ask my friends for a checklist of all notes before the exam. Another important feature of Livebinders is that it allows users to share their notes with others through an easily accessible link. I think that this is also a feature which I can put to good use. I am getting tired of emailing my friends my school-related files, and I believe the share option in Livebinders can certainly make my life much easier.
The second technology that I believe would be very useful for me is Rescue Time. Personally I often find myself losing track of time when doing things at home. Sometimes I actually feel that I need something to help me manage my time better, and I believe Rescue Time would be a great tool. This technology gives users a complete and through report of how their time was spent throughout the entire day. I certainly find this very useful, and in fact it is exactly what I need. I need something to tell me where all my time was spent, because sometimes I still find myself piled with uncompleted work at the end of a day. With the report that Rescue Time provides, I will be able to easily determine the factors that are costing me the most time and make adjustments to my schedule accordingly. Whether its social media, games, or outdoor activities, I am honestly curious to find out what is affecting my schedule the most through Rescue Time. For me, this technology could definitely serve its purpose. The presentation for Poll Everywhere immediately reminded me of my Introduction to Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology class (HSP3U1). In this class the teacher always asks the class for our general opinions, and there will always be interesting but different answers given by the students. This is a class where informal surveying is extremely frequent, and I strongly believe that Poll everywhere would be a useful tool here. Instead of posing a question to the class verbally, the teacher could just set up a poll and ask for responses in that manner. Also, the questions asked in HSP3U1 often include different possible answers. In Poll Everywhere, this can simply take form of multiple choice or up/down votes, and the class’ opinions can then be easily seen. Overall, I believe that Poll Everywhere be easily integrated into the class, and it can be a useful tool. On a teacher’s perspective, I believe Poll Everywhere is the most helpful tool out of the ones presented in class. This is primarily because the tool has a potential of significantly improving student engagement, and that it gives the students a different sense of learning. For example, one of the features that Poll Everywhere provides is to answer questions anonymously. This can be a lifesaver for ones who are too shy to share their opinions in front of the whole class, and thus could lead to an increase in classroom participation. Also, Poll Everywhere allows the teacher to receive multiple responses to a question at once. This could reduce the amount of chaos in class discussion, such as students talking over each other, and thus improving the efficiency. Finally, Poll Everywhere allows all the students to participate through answering polls, whether it’s multiple choice, up/down vote, or the other questioning forms. These polls can be used to keep students on track with the lesson, and might even get disengaged students to be interested in the topic. After all, Poll Everywhere offers many uses for teachers to take advantage of, and therefore I believe that it would be very helpful for one’s teaching practice. I am actually quite satisfied with my final product. This was the very first time I’ve made a video like this, and I think it was a success. I had to put in a great deal of work, because I was very willing to do well. From learning how to use new software to writing a script and recording myself, in total I spent about 9 hours on creating the video. I’ll say that I tried my best to produce a quality product. There are definitely things which I can still refine in my video, but overall I’d say that this counts as one of my best possible work.
As a fact, even though I had the time to work on my assignment earlier I still decided to start the assignment on Sunday afternoon. I did not give my learning task assignment a high priority; however I still managed to accomplish what I was aiming for before the deadline. Therefore, since the quality of my final product was not negatively affected, I wouldn’t say that I’ve procrastinated. As previously mentioned, I honestly did not prioritize this assignment. For me this meant that during the given class time I was not being very productive on this assignment, and I was working on other homework instead. During the two periods when the network service was still available, I only did a very brief research about the task and did not accomplish much. Therefore to be honest I don’t think I’ve used my given class periods effectively. I do have my regrets though. In terms of expectancy, I had much confidence throughout the entire assignment. From when it was assigned to when I submitted the assignment, I always believed that I could do well and will do well. In terms of value, I always had the mindset of trying to get the highest marks, but in this assignment I was also trying to produce a product that I am proud of. I started working harder after deciding to create a YouTube video because I wanted my first video to be qualitative. Therefore for me the motivation factor in this assignment was both the marks and the task itself. Finally, in terms of delay, I left this assignment until less than a day before the deadline. This is because even though I value the task, I didn’t prioritize it over my other work. I’m glad that my delay did not cause any real negative impacts. I feel that I’ve already gotten used to this class’ structure. Considering that I was able to submit all my work before deadlines and complete them with decent quality, I don't think I have any issues with the multiple work periods and loose guidelines. Though, if there is one thing that I’d suggest for a change, it would probably be to assign only one assignment at a time. Although I am quite comfortable with how this class is currently structured, one thing that slightly worries me is the fact that I am working on multiple assignments at once. This creates a little bit more stress, and I don’t quite enjoy it. However this is only a minor suggestion and I believe the classroom structure is fine as it is. It’s been a couple of weeks into this project, and so far I’ve liked it a lot. From the very start, this project felt different from all the other assignments I’ve done in high school. I love how this project involves an actual experiment with fellow Mackenzie students. I think this is far more exciting than writing research essays, or solving systems of equations. I also love how organized this project is when we planned it. I was really surprised by how much detail can be put into a project plan. Using terms like “deliverable” and “milestone” made me feel very professional. On the other hand, the one thing that I don’t enjoy as much in this project is also related to planning. I’m actually not a fan of planning specific activities too far ahead, because I feel that it’s very difficult to keep everything progressing exactly as planned, and in the end it’s very likely to have some changes in schedule. I do think it is necessary to plot out every step though, but assigning exact timeslots to activities happening a few months later is when I start to have my doubts.
Within my group I view myself more as a leader than a follower. Even though the planning part involved my entire group’s collaboration, I felt that I was usually the one to come up with ideas and told others what to do. In the beginning I was assigned to finish the survey for teachers. I got that done before the planed deadline, so for now I can say that I‘m on track. My only real concern is that we might not reach our goal. For now I have a solid team and together we can carry the project out very smoothly. However the only thing that we cannot control is the outcome of the experiment. I honestly hope that we can end up significant results, because then I'd feel accomplished and the effort our team put in would be worth. But considering how co-operative and productive my team is, I definitely have faith in seeing a successful outcome with this project. We’ll try our best to reach our goal - at least I will, and I’ll make sure my group members do too. With this kind of passion in mind, I really do believe. |
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