MUN

On Wednesday in MUN we held our first mock-debate in preparation for our upcoming trip to New York. Because of this debate i have moved further towards my goals of improving my debating and teamwork skills. This debate was doubly helpful i believe because it put my team in an uncomfortable position, making us attempt to defend completely unethical actions such as genocide in Syria. Doing so has helped me understand more deeply how complicated foreign issues like these can become. It as also helped me think more deeply of the different perspectives that representatives have when looking at foreign issues. In total, this debate has been a very positive learning experience for me and i look forward to are next mock-debate next Wednesday.

Greek Club

Yesterday in Greek club we worked on the third declension some more. We learned more of the words that declined irregularly. We also discussed what we would do in the weeks to come. We decided that next week we will translate a short passage without having vocabulary in front of us. To prepare for this we were given the vocabulary this week. I know that i will be able to succeed in next week's class if i familiarise myself with the vocabulary this weekend. To do this i will make flash cards. I will see if my efforts pay off next thursday.

Sturgis "Sound Guy"

Last Friday, I set up the sound system for a school dance. This was my fourth experience setting up the sound system for a school activity, so i was far more comfortable with the routine than i was in October. This gave me a chance to reflect on what i have learned over the school year from this activity. I have grown far more confident in my ability to perform this service for my school over the past months. In addition to that, I have gained self confidence and leadership skills because I have been teaching and recruiting other students how to help me set up the sound system so the process moves faster.

SOI

At our SOI lunch meetings and advisory for the past few weeks we have been watching the documentary "Food Inc." which is about the American food industry. We have also been discussing how the problems in our food industry effect our culture as a whole. This documentary has motivated me to be more careful when choosing what I eat. I do not agree with much of the treatment of animals in the American food industry nor do I agree with the mass production techniques and the various health hazards created through these processes. Because of this, in many ways this documentary will help shape the decisions i make in for the rest of my life.

Greek Club

Unfortunately, in the past few weeks i have been unable to attend Greek Club meetings because I needed extra time after school to keep up with lab work in chemistry and physics. I know that my time away has been detrimental to my ability to achieve my goals in Greek club, but I have set new short term goals to bring myself back on track. For the next two weeks, i will work to translate passages i have missed in our classes and learn the second and third declensions. I know that if i do this work, i will be back on par with my fellow Greek students. I recognise that not going to Greek club for multiple weeks in a row will force me to do more work to resume my studies, but i had to keep on track with my responsibilities in my classes and i have learned how to manage my time better for lab work better because of it. Through this experience, i believe i will further achieve learning outcome number 5, to show perseverance and commitment to my activities. This is because even though i have missed a few weeks of Greek club meetings because of school work, i have exerted greater effort trying to catch up. This shows that I am determined to continue with this activity for the rest of the school year.

MUN

In MUN this past week I have been writing my position paper. In the process of writing and researching this paper on Macedonia's position on alternative methods of financing development. I feel that i have achieved my original goals of improving my researching skills, my debating skills, and my teamwork skills in the process of writing this paper. I have improved my ability to quickly determine useful sources and gather substantial and supportive information from them. I suspect that my debating and teamwork skills will improve further in the weeks to come because i will be debating amongst my peers to support our country's positions on alternative methods of financing development. Looking back now, I am proud of the amount of effort i put in my country's position paper and I believe that this level of effort shows through the paper i wrote. I was nervous about writing it before hand because I had never done MUN before, but learning the process and writing the paper has proved to be a valuable experience.