During the Sophomore Inspire week at Juniper, I applied skills that I have developed at Animas, and gained skills that will benefit my education experience. These skills include group collaboration, presenting and public speaking, as well as time management. Collaboration has been a common skill that I have used this year, especially in the model United Nations conference, and I was able to apply it to my group work for our Sophomore Inspire Week. This year has also helped me develop better public speaking skills through all the exhibitions we have done, which in turn allowed me to successfully present a lesson to the elementary students. As well as collaboration and presenting, time management has been a huge part of my 10th grade experience. I have been able to learn about my work ethic and time management from experience regarding deadlines and assignments, and have been trying to find ways and strategies for how I work best. This experience at Osprey Inspire week has taught me that I work best when there is a clear and realistic deadline.
I believe that I worked with considerable efficiency while designing the garden and creating lessons for juniper students. Because there were outside factors dependent on me completing these tasks, I was highly motivated to complete the work that needed to be done for each day. It was important for me to complete the lesson plan for the purpose of the students and teachers, and the garden design needed to be completed and refined by the end of the week. If I did not complete the lesson plan in time, I wouldn’t be able to deliver a lesson to the fifth graders at juniper and It would be a waste of time for them and their teachers. If the garden design was incomplete, the school staff would have to contribute more time and energy, which would interfere with the energy put into teaching the elementary students. Since the osprey week at juniper required us to work together as a large group as well as small three person groups, we had to communicate and compromise to create a successful outcome. I believe that my group was highly efficient and worked well because we all had motivation and understood what needed to be completed. SInce we were all passionate about creating a lesson for the 5th graders, we each had different ideas that we were able to put together and find a compromise that resulted in a successful and meaningful lesson. The most challenging part of this Osprey week was staying on task while working at the smiley cafe. Since my group consisted of people that I enjoy talking to, It was difficult to maintain focus the entire day. I got off task a few times because I was excited to spend time with people I don’t often interact with. Luckily, our time was well structured by my teacher who gave us specific directions and clear deadlines, and I was able to overcome the temptation of being off task. It was also difficult to collaborate with my peers while designing the garden because we each had a different vision, and we all had different opinions regarding elements that could be incorporated into the design. We often had to make compromises and have consideration for each other's ideas in order to work successfully as a large group. |