It has been a lot harder here at 7th Grade than at 6th Grade last year. With more work, projects and self-sustainment, it’s been a challenge. But, throughout the year, I have helped myself get through this using the quality, Persistence. In fact, I think I’ve grown in Persistence because of how much I’ve worked with it. In the beginning of the year, I wasn’t as motivated. I didn’t try as hard with my work as long as I got a good grade. But now, I rarely give up, I put almost all my work on assignments and I feel like I should try my best for all assignments. I have artifacts to show my growth.

 

My first artifact to show my growth is my 8th Draft of my Storybook. The Storybook Project was a project where we made books for children in order to teach them about wellness topics, like conflict resolution, effective communication and refusal skills. We worked on this project in three classes, Language Arts, STEM Foundations and Wellness and Fitness. My group with my partner Dylan and I chose to do a circular ending book with pencil drawings and conflict resolution as the wellness topic. Some classroom content seen in this piece is conflict resolution. Conflict resolution is a group of strategies used to fix a problem. Usually, problems are with other people, such as someone you do not like or someone who doesn’t like you. When this happens, you use strategies like “I” messages (messages that say how you do not like what they’re doing, such as “I don’t like it when people eat my cake because I got dibs on it” or statements like that), talking with the person about the issue or talking to others about the issue. Do not ignore or stay away from that person! Last of all, you want to have volume, tone and good body language when speaking to that person again. Volume and tone is speaking in a loud and clear voice. This artifact shows growth because it took a lot of willpower to continue this project. Believe it or not, making a book is much harder than it seems to be. Especially when you are only working with one person. At first I didn’t feel as confident and I didn’t do as much with my time as I should have. Some days it would be times where I only got two or three pictures in, or I would make one of poor quality. I thought this was good, but we were pretty far behind, so I realized that I had to work more. It came to a point where I had realized I should work harder and better than I was in the past in order to complete this project successfully.  I tried hard to work better, and I did. While I worked, I used my time to do the best work I can for the time I can do it. Eventually, I got really good at time management and I got through the project well. So, I grew in Persistence by getting through something hard and long.

 

My second artifact to show my growth is my Jump Rope Video. The Jump Rope Video was a state required activity we had to do for fitness where we would have to make a jump rope routine that had 3 different jump rope techniques in it with a partner for a whole minute. If we messed up during the routine, we just had to jump back in while synchronizing with the routine. A classroom content that can be seen in this piece is One-Foot-Jumping. In One-Foot-Jumping, you jump on one foot while trying to switch back to the other foot. This may seem easy to most people, but it can be very difficult to achieve for people who aren’t as well coordinated. A good strategy in One-Foot-Jumping is to practice first without the rope in order to first feel what it’s like to jump on one foot and then switch feet. Also, a strategy that has helped me in the past is to start with your leading foot in order to get in to the pattern quickly. This artifact shows growth because it took a lot of practice with my partner. My partner and I were really different people, with different skill sets, heights and reflexes. It was hard to decide on a proper routine we both could do. So, when we eventually found a routine (one we both could do), we practiced a lot before actually doing the video. When we found the right routine, then we had to practice at least Five times in order to get it right.  We overcame our struggles, such as not tripping up as much, and had to put a lot of hard work and concentration into the routine, and finally we got a solid routine. When we did the video, we were first. But, surprisingly to me, I did well and barely tripped up. So, I grew in Persistence for trying really hard to do well.

 

My last artifact to show my growth is my 4th Week Health Goal Sheet. The Health Goal project was a project where we had to make a goal that would increase our health for a whole month. Our Health Goal had to either increase our mental, social or physical health. Physical health is taking care of your body and keeping it healthy. Mental health is keeping your emotions and mind calm and okay. Social health is interacting with people at a normal level. I chose to increase my physical health by lifting weights to increase my Upper Body Strength, which I really needed. Some classroom content seen in this piece is Upper Body Strength. Upper Body Strength (like the name sounds) is exercising your upper body muscles in order to create muscle growth, especially on your arms. When doing Upper Body exercises, you want to put most of your energy in your muscles. When you are feeling pressure in your arms that is a sign that you are getting muscle growth. Good activities I would recommend to do if you want to increase your upper body strength are weight lifts and push-ups. Specifically, you should do around five pounds when you start and eventually go up five pounds every twenty times (At least that’s what I’d do) to not hurt yourself, but still keep it challenging. This artifact shows growth because I tried to do the best I could for the Health Goal Project, which was the longest, difficult, annoying and determine-needed project I have faced in Wellness and Fitness. At the beginning, I felt unsure about the project and trying really hard at it. By the beginning of the 2nd week I had felt sick of the Health Goal Project and wanted to end it. By the middle of the 2nd week, I had realized that this project required hard work to succeed. So, for the rest of the weeks I had left, I got better at it and challenged myself at it more and more each week. Finally, when I got to the last day, I felt much stronger and felt much more confident in myself for finally completing the project. You can especially see my growth for the days of week 2 and week 4, like how in week 2, I got 65 push  ups on Monday, and in Week 4, I got 130 push ups on Monday, which shows that I’ve grown in my skill and Persistence. So, I grew in Persistence for trying hard to get good and complete a long and hard endeavor.

 

I’m glad I grew so much in Persistence. Persistence is a good quality to have in the future for jobs and for school. People like other people who work hard and stay confident to get through a difficult endeavor. I think though, that I will still need to grow in this quality. To do this, I will have to better than what I can do now and train myself to get through difficult problems. Overall, I think I did well this year in Wellness and Fitness.