Greek Club

Unfortunately, I have been absent from Greek club for the past two weeks. Last week i missed Greek club because I was attending a special interview and overnight for NYU-Poly's honors program. The week before that I was in New York for the NHSMUN trip which I wrote a journal on earlier. The week before that, however, I did attend and grew significantly more savvy with the techniques of translating ancient Greek. In that Greek club meeting, we decided to try a new tactic and translate the passage as a group, without the help of a teacher. This proved to be very helpful because it allowed us to talk each other through the translating process. About half way through the class i realised that I was actually progressing fast enough to be able to help others through the passage. Because of this, I know that this technique has helped me improve significantly towards my goals in Greek Club that I set at the beginning of Junior year when I joined.

Sturgis "Sound Guy"

In the past month, there has not been much to journal about concerning my duties as the Sturgis "Sound Guy". The only significant event was that I have taught another student how to set up the sound system so that He can continue setting up student run activities after I graduate. Through this experience, I both learned a valuable lesson and further improved my skills. I realised through this that for me, teaching someone else how to do something is a great way for me to become more familiar with what I am teaching. This has already proven to be a useful skill. After my experience teaching this student how to work the sound system, i decided to test this new knowledge by helping tutor some juniors on three-dimensional vectors for their HL math class. Vectors have always been a weak spot for me because picturing how the equations work always confused me. But working with other students trying to find ways to explain vectors to them really helped me understand them better. Thanks to my experience as the Sturgis "Sound Guy" i gained valuable incite into efficient ways for me to study materials. Eventually, I plan to teach the music teacher, Ms. Davis how to set up the sound system but she has not wanted to learn yet because she has been busy working with her music students and the various school choruses. Through this, I hope to better improve this technique i discussed in this journal.

MUN

Last week we went on our NHSMUN conference trip to New York City. In addition to having a fantastic time in New York while on this trip, I believe I achieved all my learning outcomes to a degree I didn’t believe was possible. It also provided a valuable learning experience in areas I had not originally thought it would.
On the first day of MUN conferences, I was nervous and quiet because I was new to the surroundings and unfamiliar with many of the procedural aspects of UN style debates. I do believe I learned a valuable lesson through this however. Because I came in on the first day not knowing much about how to debate or what to do in general, I was able to improve my learning by example skills in the process of this conference. In order to learn quickly by example, I decided to take thorough notes the first day of committee meetings, writing down the countries with ideas that I thought that Macedonia would favor. I also deduced a bit of strategy during this session, I took notes on which countries had the strongest speakers in our committee.
On the second day of meetings, I put these notes to good use. I discovered that I had succeeded in improving my ability to learn by example with my efforts the previous night. The second day was much more interesting for me because I started meeting with the countries I had taken notes on the first day. Through these meetings, I progressed further towards my goals of being able to think and articulate on my feet and improving my public speaking. I was surprised that by the end of the day, I had swayed delegates to include my policies in a resolution lead by the delegates from Brazil. Before long I was writing notes, strategizing with Brazil and conveying my ideas as well as the veteran MUNers. This is proof that I had succeeded in improving my ability to learn quickly by example. Also, the fact that I was able to express my opinions in a convincing way to other delegates during unmoderated caucuses proves that I have further progressed towards my goals of being able to think on my feet and speak in public better. As a final affirmation that my progress towards these goals was grand, I was asked to speak in front of the committee without having prepared anything to say. I was the only one working on this resolution with “articulate knowledge on Foreign Direct Investments” as the delegate from Finland put it. This both surprised me and filled me with pride. The fact that I then delivered a successful speech supporting my points just further affirms my progress in accomplishing these goals.
The final day of committee was much less interesting. We had already finished drafting our resolutions and all that was left to be done on this day was voting on ammendments and on the resolutions themselves. I did not have to speak publicly this day but I did continue to use the skills I had both learned and improved throughout the conference. I did continue to make small points during unmoderated caucuses and pass notes to other countries concerning their position on certain clauses of resolutions.
In conclusion, the experience I had at this year’s NHSMUN conference was a very valuable one. I believe I not only succeeded in my goals of becoming a better speaker and becoming better at thinking on my feet, but surpassed my initial expectations. I also learned many other things I had not counted on learning such as improving my ability to learn quickly by example and pick up new skills in an unfamiliar setting such as these committee meetings. I feel that these skills will most certainly benefit me later in life. Perhaps the resolutions I worked on in my ECOFIN committee will help benefit the world some way if real UN delegates draw ideas from our work.

MUN

Last week in MUN we had our second debate. The speed at which we were able to get organised improved greatly from our previous debate. After this debate, i felt very confident that i was going to be prepared to make a meaningful contribution to the NHSMUN conference because i have further improved my debate skills and my teamwork skills. After this debate, i also became aware of a third skill that I learn from being active in MUN. Speaking in the debates has helped me learn to think on my feet. We only have 30 seconds to convey our point when we volunteer to speak so we have to be able to formulate a response to the opponent's point quickly and word it efficiently. This skill will be extremely valuable later in life as i will always need to be able to convey information vocally no matter what I do. This wednesday we have our last debate before the MUN conference in New York the following week. In order to prepare for it I will review the materials provided for us and formulate a brief argument for both sides of the debate.

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.