Blog 26: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your 2-Hour Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

I think the thing that I am most proud of would be presenting to a class for about 2 hours. Never in my life did I ever think that I would ever be able to do something like that. For years, I have always been the kind of person that has dreaded speaking in public, I would also blend myself in with the background. But after doing my 2 hour, I feel much more confident in myself, it has opened my eyes to see just what I am capable of doing if I just try. Doing this presentation in my oppinion was a huge boost in my confidence level, and I feel that for being a very shy person I did a pretty good job.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)?

      P       I feel  that for my 2 hour presentation I deserve a P. I did everything that was on the requirements for the presentation. I stated various sources, I met the time requirements, I feel that all the research that I have done was shown through this presentation, and I cited more than 3 sources throughout the presentation. I feel that I did everything that was asked for this presentation.

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

   P       I would personally give myself a P. I personally feel that I worked hard throughout the year and I did what was asked. I did not miss a single assignment and I turned in everything on time. I tried my best with my assignments and did the best I could to make them good and meet the expectations that were needed. I personally feel that I did a pretty good job at doing everything that was asked.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

I feel that one thing that really worked for me was personally i-search and the blogs. I feel that i-Search really helped me with starting to reflect on my project and start organizing my thought and what I would say during the presentation. When creating my powerpoint I noticed myself going back to my i-Search and reviewing it to help me organize my thoughts for the presentation and helping me come up with a certain order. Another thing that I feel really helped me was the different blog posts we had to do throughout the year. In a way I feel that they helped me with not procrastinating as much. Through the blogs we were many times able to fix our thoughts and start thinking about future assignments. I feel that they were a really big help.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I think I would have personally not have taken a young scholars class during winter quater because if not then I could have helped Ontario High School with another production. I was actually really sad about not being able to participate in another play with Ontario High School. I would have really loved to have done more mentorship there.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

Senior project helped me realize of just what I was capable of doing on my own. Before this year I never really had the confidence in myself.  This year made me go out of my comfort zone many times. First with finding mentorship; I am a really shy person so having to go around asking people if I could do mentorship with them was a big deal. Then, with all the interviews. Before this year if I could avoid setting up and appointment and interviewing someone, I would. But with senior project, it helped me get out of that shell and just overcome my shyness and fears. It pushed me to do new things that I would have never done. This project basically helped me prepare for the real world where it is basically up to just me to solve problems and set up appointments, and do things with little to no help almost.

Presentation!

Today was the big day! I finally did my 2-Hour presentation. Regardless to say, it went better than I thought. I was stressing for the longest time. The more I saw presentations, the more nervous I became when ever I thought about presenting. The nerves were killing me and making me feel sick. While I was waiting inside the classroom for the students to come in to see my presentation, I got to the point where I felt like throwing up. But when the actual presentation came, my nerves only lasted for like the first 3 or 4 minutes, after that I got used to the audience I was presenting, and as I was presenting suddenly I realised that the entire year's hard work and research was finally paying off. All the research that I had done throught the year just flowed through my head and made presenting so much easier. This 2-hour presentation made me become much more confident in myself, helping me see just what I could accomplish and what I was capable of doing. Never in my life did I ever think I would be able to do a 2 hour presentation, much less on just one topic itself.

Support and Thank You!

The night before my presentation helped me realize what great friends and family I had. I kept recieving messages from different friends and family members wishing me luck on my presentation. They told me that if I needed any help with anything, they were there to help with what ever they could. I also had people from where I did my mentorship wishing me luck and giving me words of advice before my presentation. This gave me a lot more confidence. It made me very happy to see that they still remembered that I had to do this presentation and that they were willing to help me even though I no longer do mentorship at Ontario High School.
Another thing that I realized was the amazing friends that I have at iPoly. I already knew that They were very amazing friends. But for my presentation it only made me realize how much more blessed I was to have them. They helped me with so much. Just to mention a few people, for set up, J.D., Victoria, and Roxy were such a big help and I greatly appreciate that. And during the actual presentations, once again J.D. and Victoria were there to help me and calm my nerves down. Amanda K. also helped me greatly helping me with the powerpoint and helping me keep track of time. And at the end when everyone helped me pick up, Roxy, Jose, Lucas, Audri, Amanda, JD, Elizabeth, Alissa and others, it made me happy to see them there to support me and help me. I'm really thankful for all the help.

New Classroom Decor

Thanks to J.D. I was actually able to come up with a new idea for setting up the classroom for my presentation. He was able to get me out of my block for coming up with ideas. He ended up giving me an idea to create a small living room set. Based off of that I was able to create a set that using things from my home. I brought in various little things that you could find in a living room. I brought some living room decorations, DVD player, DVDs, remote control, a globe that is located in my living room and some curtains. I based the decoration of the smart board. The smart board became my focal point. I set up the classroom so the the front of the room was like a miniture stage. The smart board was supposed to act as a TV in a living room.

Powerpoint Coming Along

Here are some shots of my powerpoint when I was working on it. I had 39 slide when i took this. By the final product, I ended up having around 55 slides, give or take a few.

SET UP! (day before)

Originally my set up was going to be very simple. I was basically just gonna have a collage of pictures of different sets on the white-board. I wasn't planning on doing anything else other than that due to tight budget and the fact that I was very nervous about the presentation that I couldn't think of anything else to do with the set up of the class room so that it would fit. It wasn't until J.D. came in to help me set up that I figured how to set up the room. J.D. ended up giving me so many ideas that were simple and I can't believe I couldn't think of them.

I was actually very proud of how my collage came out for the presentation.

Update!

So as I am preparing for my 2 hour presntation, my father started talking to me about set design. He told me about how at his old job, he would go deliever clay to different film studios. He told me about all the things that happened behind the stage and the huge amount of pepople that would work to create the contruction. he told me about how once he went do deliever clay to a studio and when he entered one of the warehouses he got to see how the stage crew built the pirate ship for the movie "Hook" with Robbin Williams. He described the huge amount of people working there to construct the ship. He got to talk to some of the people about the construction for the ship, and all the work that went into designing it and constructing it. He also told me about some warehouses he walked into and got to see the different props and sets that were saved so that they could possibly be reused in future movies.