Krysta's Senior Portfolio @krystaportfolio-blog - Tumblr Blog

THE ULTIMATE REFLECTION

As a learner, I think I am ready to finally finish up at ISA and take what I've learned here and apply it to life outside of high school. I've learned that I'll never stop learning (I've known that all along). Everything I've learned here has been very influential with shaping who I am. All of the artifacts I've listed for each section of the graduate profile don't even begin to explain what I've learned. There's so many more artifacts I could have used for each section. Everything we've done applies to the graduate profile. I think we really have all grown. There's some things I've known all along, but now I can say that I am graduating completely having full knowledge of these things. For example, understanding and caring about global issues and happening in the world. Understanding that there is so much more out there than just the US. Although we never got to travel out of the country, it's still a huge dream of mine. I want to go everywhere. To every continent. ISA helped me see more of the US and get outside of just Texas. I've really loved all of our traveling experiences and the activities the teachers came up with for us while we were there, they were really great.

I've also gotten a huge sense of community being at ISA. I love the feeling of being close with the people that surround you. It's such a cool idea to have a small school that brings people together. I want to bring that sense of community everywhere I go. To try and always establish close relationships and have a genuine concern with others. I want to love everyone everywhere I go, as cheesy as that sounds. I know right now it's the end of the year and I (and hopefully others) are feeling pretty burnt out. It's not that we're tired of each other, we'll have these relationships and friendships for the rest of our lives with todays technology, I'm just ready to get a change of scenery and meet new people too.

In the end, the people at ISA are basically family. I know we have something that other schools don't. It's like when I describe our school to other's they remind me of how cool it really is. The way a person reacts to hearing about ISA really opens my eyes back up to how neat it really is. I'm glad I didn't go to a regular high school. Although it was probably much more tough, and we're stuck doing portfolio while we have exams and finishing up internship at the end of the year while other schools are basically done, it's still worth it in the end. The experience was something I couldn't get at any other school and I'm always going to enjoy remembering it and thinking back on the years.

GLOBAL AWARENESS

A lot of things that we do at ISA have to do with Global Awareness. We learn a lot about economic, political, social, environmental, and technological systems. I think we are know a lot about what is going on in the world, and also are very involved in a lot of ways. All of our neat class trips each year also contribute greatly to having new experiences with traveling and being more globally aware.

ARTIFACT 1 - NOLA Travel Journal El Mercado entry, grade 10

This artifact is from my New Orleans Travel Journal. It was one of the entries we had to write in after we had gone to El Mercado near downtown San Antonio on one of our field trips. We were to look around and observe the shops, and then possibly find a story from someone around the area if we ask or listen carefully. I talked to a woman named Amber, who owned a shop down there called "Los Arcos." She talked about Fiesta and the culture of San Antonio. Also, I was able to sit down and talked with the manager of "Mitierra," which is one of the main bakery shops down in the El Mercado area. He told me about his family owning the restaurant and bakery, and how it all started out. It was very interesting and personal!

To me, this fits into Global Awareness, because by traveling to downtown San Antonio and places in our town we had never been to, it was promoting my knowledge of our own culture within this area. It helped me understand the contribution of different cultures to the United States. Also, a lot of Spanish was spoken down there and it added to the idea of language being very important and a key role within cultures and communication. I was also learning about other people's values and perspectives within the region.

ARTIFACT 2 - Battle of Vicksburg Journal, Grade 11

>>>>>>The Battle of Vicksburg (Powerpoint) <<<<<<

(Scanned pages of James Crookshanks journal)

For US History Junior year, I was assigned a person who took part in and died in the Civil War at the Battle of Vicksburg. His name was James Crookshanks. I was to write a journal as if I was him, putting myself in his shoes and describing what it was like being a confederate soldier in the Civil War.

For the next part of the project, after the journal, we had to make a powerpoint telling all about the Battle of Vicksburg. I started by gathering information, I learned about the geography, the key leaders, phases, each seperate battle, strategies, the technology and weapons used, and where my soldier (James Crookshanks) took place in it. We then had to present our Powerpoint presentations in front of the class, and it had to be about 10 minutes long. I added pictures to it as well and maps to better communicate things.

Both of these 2 parts of the Battle of Vicksburg project were very significant, because they were to prepare us better for when we went to the actual battle grounds in Vicksburg during our Alabama trip. It felt much more real and personal because we knew so much about what had gone on there, and about that battle. Also, we found our soldier's graves, and since we had literally put outselves in their shoes to the best of our abilities, it had a much stronger impact on us then just seeing graves. It's almost like we knew these men.

It represents Global Awareness from the Graduate Profile. I learned a new perspective within our region. I took on the perspective of a person during the US Civil War, which gaveme a better understanding and closeness to our history in the US. This was an important US turning point (the Battle of Vicksburg) and I learned about the event on a very in-depth level. Also doing the project, the Civil War led to America's developement, so understanding and researching it more taught me a lot about what our past was like. Then, these 2 artifacts tied in with our traveling to Alabama. We used our prior knowledge of them, they were basically the reason we went to Vicksburg or it wouldn't have been as significant to us without knowing all we did about the battle.

COLLABORATION AND LEADERSHIP

ARTIFACT 1 - Positive "community mural," Multimedia, Grade 9

Freshman year, for our Make A Difference project we wanted to do some sort of mural. We wanted people who drove by to think about the mural, or feel happy by it. We wanted it to make people feel good! Also, in the process, we decided that it would also help get rid of graffiti/tagging. We asked a convenient store in town if it was alright if we painted over the graffiti on the side of their building, but also did a community mural over it. We showed the owner our idea and he accepted excitedly. A bunch of people in my group were also very artistic and into art, so it was the perfect project. We went through quotes for a week or so, trying to pick the perfect one to convey the perfect message. Finally, we found "Take delight in the beauty that surrounds you." It was just right, simple, short, and meaningful. We wrote the quote across a banner and painted a scene in the background. With blues skies, flowers, and green hills. It was really cool to come together in the way that we did to do something that a lot of people would be seeing.

As for Collaboration and leadership, it really did show me that individuals could make a difference, I know that every time I drive by it. It's still there today, 4 years later! I also think it promotes human rights because it is so positive. You can't help but really think a lot about how you should be appreciating life and the beauty in it. It's also appreciating the community. It's said that a large percentage of murals that are painted are usually not tagged over, compared to a blank wall or people tagging over other's tags. There's a sort of respect for them. I'm really proud of what we did!

ARTIFACT 2 - Internship, Grade 12

Straight forward, I have completed my 120 hours of career exploration with my internship. It's finally finished and it's a huge relief. I will describe my 2 internships!

I'm pretty sure that I want to be an English teacher, so I thought it would be really fun to explore teaching within an elementary school (something i'm less use to). I also really love kids. I worked with a classroom at Jackson Keller and right away fell in love with all the students. We were close friends by the end of a few weeks. I got to help them in the class everyday, and usually I had to stay with students that needed more help. They were all really great. Unfortunately, the teacher and I didn't really hit it off. We didn't have a big problem with one another, but I think she was burnt out on teaching and it really wasn't the environment I wanted to be in. Also, when I was with the kids I felt like a kid. I would play around with them and have fun too much over being serious. So after first semester, I went to finish my internship here at ISA.

I asked Dehart if I could intern with him because I think he is so interesting. He teachers very different. Also, he's an English teacher that I never had. His class hasn't been much of things I don't know, of course I know all about ISA classes, but it's been a good learning experience. He showed me lesson plans, and I got to grade a lot of papers which I've never done before. By the end of the year I made a lesson, which I didn't get to teach because of AP testing, but still worked very hard on. I will include it along with pictures from the elementary school.

I now know that I most likely want to be a teacher. It's the career I'm going for. It's just that I have so many dreams and so many things I want to do. I'm hoping with teaching I can get everything done. I'll have summer to travel, and maybe somehow I can open my own clothing business. Maybe some day I'll take out a loan for the shelter I've always wanted to build. There's endless possibilities. I've really enjoyed internship.

Photos from Jackson Keller internship and my lessons from both of the internships:

https://docs.google.com/a/isa.neisd.net/leaf?id=0B94NsJBxsKVbNDZhOTVlYTMtYmFjYy00N2I4LTlkOTYtNmRmNTgyNjM4N2Qy&hl=en_US

PERSONAL WELLNESS

ARTIFACT 1 - Philosophy, Grade 11

>>>>>>Values Video Project <<<<<<

In my Philosophy elective class junior year, after thinking and learning about values and morals, we were to make a photostory video of what we value, whatever it may be. Everything in the video was to show who we are.

It describes me for Personal Wellness because after sharing all of these things about myself in a presentation with the whole class, I felt confident with who I was more. Like I knew myself and was content with my interests and what I valued. I still feel this way, the photostory is still all the way relevant to who I am. It gives me a sense of identity to be confident and share who I am with others. Also, it showed my individuality.

I think it gives me a habbit of mindof being more comfortable with myself. Through doing this project, I can have everything I am put all into one place to watch. After watching it I just get this "this is me, this is who I am" kind of feeling. It's nice to know your personal values.

For the future, I can look back and remember things that meant so much to me then. I can look at what is important to me now, and see what has changed, why it has changed, and what stayed the same. Do I have a new favorite musician? Is my music style the same? What writers influence me? Have I done any big service projects? That kind of thing. I can see who I am, who I've been, and who I strive to be.

ARTIFACT 2 - Photography, 2007 - Present

For personal wellness, every year I can't think of anything better than photography. It's something I love doing. The pictures, while capturing other things, actually capture who I am. I've always wanted to document moments and always remember everything, maybe that's why I love taking pictures so much. It's a moment in time paused, and a lot of the time, made very beautiful.

The pictures I take are moments in my life, and therefor make up who I am. That is why I decided to add them to Personal Wellness. Through these moments paused in time, these photos, I find value in my life and myself. It definitely shows my individuality and helps me find it because I better know myself when I go through all the photos I’ve taken and realize what’s important to me and where I’ve been. I think it also shows me cultivating productive relationships. All the people in the photos are people in my life, or who have been.

I’ve started to enjoy using film a lot more over digital. There's just something about the way the photos come out that I love. You never know when there will be light leaks, or when the camera will give you the absolute perfect photo. Just the right subject will always be focused on, and the background will come out a beautiful blur. It's so exciting to wait until they're developed to see how they're turn out, I always get so anxious. Career wise, I would use film for photography.

Also now, I use flickr a whole lot. Using flickr as a sort of online portfolio for my photography definitey requires me prioritizing and managing lots of tasks. I like to take new pictures and keep up with the site. I love going through them as well, taking photos is so healthy for my mind. It makes me feel very positive and productive when I take a new roll.

Below are some of my favorites (taken from my flickr - www.flickr.com/krystakrysta)

PROBLEM SOLVING PROFICIENCY

A lot I have done over the years includes problem solving and analyzing things, while seeing the “big picture” and component parts. With everything we do at school almost, I feel like we have to evaluate, generate new ideas, and do a lot of logical reasoning.

ARTIFACT 1 - CAYA Experience, grade 12

This year my family hosted a foreign exchange student from Honduras for a week. Her name is Suany. Not only did we host Suany, but each day at school we got to miss most of our classes and do projects and activities with all of the exchange students. I was honestly very challenged to think in new and creative ways with everyone. We were put into groups to brainstorm ideas about 3 elements (Air, Water, Earth). We had to think of problems that each of them face, it really took a lot of thinking outside of the box. My group was air. As a group we thought of ideas to share, since we would be presenting our findings at the end of the week downtown for everyone to see. It took a lot of logical reasoning and brainstorming together. In our air group, we thought of environmental problems with the air. Pollution, chemicals, ciggarette smoke. It was really so neat because although we didn't all speak the same language, we could still communicate so well and understand one another and form friendships. As a group, we were a range of sources. Different people bringing in different ideas. We all formed connection despite language challenges, and found out new ways to view the world together. The experience really opened my eyes to other communities as well, and being able to learn about other people.

These are photos from Suany's stay here and the activities we did:

ARTIFACT 2 - Element Project, Chemistry, Grade 10

In Chemistry sophomore, we did our Element Project. We basically had an element from the periodic table chosen for us, and then once we knew our element we had to create a square about the element that would become a piece of a giant periodic table that was going on the wall. I was given Cobalt. I had to research cobalt, create the front of my element square, decorate it, and then write an “element resume.” Where we had to act as if the element was filling out a resume on what it was used for and what it’s like, and then staple that to the part of the periodic table we created.

I feel like this fits into Problem Solving Proficiency because I collected and analyzed infromation from a range of sources (included at the bottom of the resume sheet). I also feel like I had to reason logicaly while creating the Cobalt periodic table square, and then the resume. I had to make sure it was accurate, and then decorate it and try to make it creative, while still having it fit to what Cobalt is.

ACADEMIC PREPARATION

ARTIFACT 1 - Table of Contents, Geometry, grade 10

I worked very hard the whole year to keep my grades up, and to academically try hard with all the projects or assignments we were given. By doing all of the things we do at ISA, I do constantly feel a desire to always be learning. It's not just assignments and things we do in class that I learn from, but also it's from the people around me and from being at school everyday. I've realized that, in order to keep my grades up and be doing okay in school, I have to be pretty organized with everything. Organization plays a key role always. Sometime's it's honestly not about how smart someone is at school, it's about how organized they are. For example, if someone knew all the material in class and understood everything perfectly but didn't turn anything in or lost papers easily, they would have a really bad grade in that class. Sometime's I think school is about 50/50. Part organization, part smarts.

I've included one of my Table of Contents from Math (geometry) during my sophomore year. Each time we took a test, we got a new one. I think it demonstrates organization, because each time we got a new paper we had to document it on there (for a grade). So you had to keep up with it. Then you also had to make sure to put the papers all in order in your binder as you've written them down, or else it would count off. It really helped me stay organized.

My Table of Contents applies to Academic Preparation because it shows my efforts to be organized with academics and what I am learning. For this situation, it is being organized in Math class so I can benefit myself in there by being ready and always knowing where my notes are and keeping track of them.

ARTIFACT 2 - College Tuiton Project, Pre-Calculus, Grade 12

In Pre-Cal this year (senior), we had to do a project that required a lot of math, but also a lot of planning for college. It really helped us realize how much college is actually going to be costing. I don't think most of us had actually sat down and calculated the cost (including interest rate over the years, etc). It was really a wake up call to figure out how much our colleges we're going to be costing tuition wise and with interest rates.

It is not only preparing for college work by calculating all the costs of it and better preparing us for our pursuits after high school, but it also took a lot of critical thinking. I've included the google docs pages I wrote out during our research time, it has all the math work I used to figure out my prices. It was actually very difficult and took a lot of explaining, but I finally figured it all out. I'm so much better prepared for what the future holds with colllege now because I am considering money and how much it will cost me over time (depending on what college I go to). I calculated my costs for both SAC and St. Edwards.

Also, after we calculated all of our prices, we had to write a letter to some kind of representative about how we feel about college prices. I was all for this because I feel like it really is so expensive to go to a college, and you should be able to get the education you deserve regardless of the price. So many people don't leave town or go to community college because they simply can't afford leaving (you could say I'm one of those people). This project definitly got me thinking about college and my life after school (and how I will afford it!)

TECHNOLOGICAL PROFICIENCY

ARTIFACT 1 - Environmental Systems, Grade 12

This year (senior year), in Environmental Systems, we were to set up a project about an endangered species. Of course, I chose to use powerpoint, which we have learned a lot about at ISA over the years. It's the simplest, and now easiest (since we know how to use it so well), way to get your point across of present infromation to groups. The project was very interesting to me personally because I care about animals so much. It was tough to choose which animal to research, and sadly there are so many to choose from. I chose the African Wild Dog, which I fell in love with because they are very cute.

As for Technological Proficiency, we had to present our findings in front of the whole class individually. Over the years I have gotten better with not reading the screen, and just using power point for the audience to get a better idea. It's definitly a big form of communication and public speaking. Throughout the years, and what feels like more this year, we've been using power point and presenting it almost every time. This is actually really good experience. It's using technology to help us share research of info and present it professionaly.

ARTIFACT 2 - Global Leadership, 11th grade

In Global Leadership junior year, we learned a whole bunch about technology. More than I've ever learned. We also used a lot of different websites I've never used before and learned about how useful the computer really is today, and also how fast it's popularity is growing. It actually challenged my beliefs a lot, because I'm more of a "less is more" person with technology. I like to use it as little as possible. After we learned so much about new technology in the class though, I was much more for it when used it towards or with education. We had to take all that we learned and apply it to a short video we made on our own. We put this video on a website where we would share it with a bunch of people. Mine was on mobile computing (technology on the go), and I filmed Elena basically advertising smart phones on how useful they are and how much you can do on them, everywhere and anywhere you go. My video actually won an award as one of the videos picked from the site. Here is a link to the video:

http://grownupdigital.ning.com/video/freedom-with-mobile-computing

and here is a link to the website that says I won an award (scroll down after the videos and my name's under "multimedia awards"):

http://www.netgened.org/netgened-project-2010-awards.html

I edited and filmed the video. I added the music, the captions, cut the scenes, and everything else it takes to make a short video. You really have to understand the technology because movie editing can be super confusing. I used windows movie maker, which I've also learned a lot about over the years. Making this video was also working across boundaries. On the ning "grown up digital" website, tons of kids and teachers viewed the videos and shared them. This was during the rise of technology, so the videos were more likely to be more meaningful and have an impact on people.

#Technological Proficiency #Global Leadership #11th grade #Junior #Endangered Species Project #Environmental Systems #12th grade

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

ARTIFACT 1- English, Grade 11

>>>>>> http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3339253-krysta (My good reads account page) <<<<<<

Junior year, in English class we had to create a Goodreads account. Basically, good reads is an online book database. You can add books to your page/account (what you've read, what you want to read, and what you plan to read), rate your favorite books, see what other people are reading and talk about it, and review books. We had to give ratings, write reviews, leave comments, and so on.

I'm using this website as a tool online to communicate effectively with the rest of my class, Miss Barnett, and goodreads members. As for Effective Communication, I would say I demonstrated a new mastery of reading and writing. Going onto this website and learning about new books I want to go buy or check out, and then also remembering old ones I'd read and being able to keep track of them, I was re-brought back into wanting to read all the time and keep up with books. It's not just about the reading though, also since we had to do 5 reviews, so I was able to practice with my writing skills. The reviews were my opinions of the books I'd read presented (since they are open to anyone to see) in literary and persuasive ways. And all through this, I was using technology to present it and show everything.

Here is a link to the reviews I wrote for 5 of the books I read:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3339253?sort=review&view=reviews.

ARTIFACT 2: Spanish 2, Grade 11

>>>>>> Spanish Photostory <<<<<<

For this assignment in Spanish 2 my junior year, we had to start with the phrase "Cuando era niña..." on all of our slides. This means "When i was a little girl.." We used photostory, which basically is a program that you add pictures, text, and then record audio clips to make a video as your finished project. We had to describe all the things we would do when we were little kids using our most recent vocabulary from spanish. Examples of this vocabulary would be, "saltar a la cuerda" - "to jump rope," and "coleccion de rocas" - "to collect rocks." Then, depending on the things we said we did when we were younger, we had to search for a picture that was relevant and attach it with the slide to play as we added the text and voice over using our sentence.

I think this assignment represented Effective Communication (and also technology, but there’s many more artifacts for that). This was definitely developing proficiency in an additional language. All year I had been learning different parts of how to speak in Spanish, and finally I actually exercised it and put it into sentences and spoke it out loud clearly.

It showed my habit of mind to be more willing to try and keep learning Spanish, even if I had trouble memorizing things sometimes. It shows that I was getting somewhere, and that I can at least speak complete sentences by now. I think, through this, I gained more confidence with actually speaking Spanish. I don't feel like I'm doing it wrong, and I know I'm saying the right things that actually make sense and would be understood my someone who knows Spanish well. I think it was a small step towards my being more familiar with the language and being able to talk it easily and fluently.

#Effective Communication #Junior year #Spanish #English

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