MYP criteria reflection

As you can see in my grades, most of my grades are in the B range. My Criterion C skills have improved: at the beginning, I had a 6.5, and then improved to 7, and finally 8.5. The Criterion A, B, and D section has had almost no change throughout the semester. I think that I have not improved much in the A, B and D section due to my lack of reflection skills. I will try my best to improve these skills in future assignments. I need help especially in the Criterion B section because I have gotten a 4 out of 10. Because of this 4, I have ended up with a C for this assignment. I will try my best to improve overall, so I can get better grades in social studies.

Speech Reflection

By doing this speech, I have realized that I am definitely not the type of person who can perform great speeches. I sometimes forget what I want to say and stammer a lot, especially in Japanese (etto). I think I can, though, create speeches fairly well. I put effort mostly in the content, and emphasized my points by using the literary devices, such as rhetorical questions and repetition. I used these devises without really noticing, so I think they just naturally occurred.
In my opinion, I think that presentation and content are equally important, and that a great speech is made only when both are high in quality. A speech with great presentation and poor content can attract the audiences’ attention, but the main points of the speech will probably not convey to the audience. If the presentation is poor and the content is good, you can’t catch the audiences’ attention in the first place.
My speech relates to our school’s mission statement in the way that I am trying to persuade people stand up and to stop doing illegal acts so we can compassionately impact not only the world, but ourselves as well.

Found Poetry

Darkness

Shrouded in darkness,
When the sun goes down.
Darkness, when all creatures are equally black.

Shadows creep smoothly,
Like the elegant black cat
That slips freely from house to house.

Like the bats that pierce the night
With voices like knives.

Like the hungry owls,
Looking for souls to eat.

Darkness is time for seeing,
Without being seen.

The major goals of humans,
To move on,
To forgive and to remember,
And to walk forward,
Into the light.

Only god knows,
When darkness
Is about to pass.

Nationalism: Cohesive or Divisive?

Although nationalism can associate images of people getting together and being cohesive to emphasis the greatness of their country, I think nationalism is more divisive than it is cohesive. Some factors that prove nationalism is divisive are: how nationalism can provoke xenophobia in the citizen, and how jingoism is born from it. A factor that shows nationalism is more cohesive is how it supports the economy.

Xenophobia, or the fear of outsiders and strangers, supports how nationalism can be divisive because the nationalists start avoiding the outsiders and the strangers that aren’t from their country or are not for their country. An example could be how the Nazi hated Jews and the Gypsies. Because of their hate, even the Jews and Gypsies avoided them, which led to greater division. In this way, xenophobia is a major factor that causes nationalism to become divisive.

Jingoism is the idea that your country can do no wrong and that whatever is a benefit for your country is something right. This belief itself isn’t bad, but when it leads to things like terrorism, nationalism starts becoming divisive. An example would be when Spain attacked America for god, glory and gold. The Al-Qaeda can also be something like jingoism, but Al-Qaeda is more for their religion.

On the other hand, nationalism can be cohesive because it supports the economy. An example of this would be the nationalists of Kenya rebelling against the British rule. The British were using Kenya so that they can benefit themselves. All the nationalists united and were able to kick the British out. From this, some of the economic problems in Kenya recovered.

Nationalism can be both divisive and cohesive. I believe that nationalism is more divisive because it brings about xenophobia and jingoism. On the other hand, it could be cohesive because it supports the economy. Therefore I believed that the divisive characteristics were stronger than the cohesive characteristics, but other people may disagree.

Speech Annotations

English Speech -

My future

In the future, I will probably be doing a job regarding sciences or technology. This is not only because I like science and technology, but also because I don’t have much passion and interest in anything else. Since my mother, father and my brother are all doctors (except for my brother who is trying to become one), I have a feeling that I am also going to become one too. I think it is safe to say, though, that I will not have any job related to languages and history. Therefore, I am planning to take either SL economics or ITGS as my group 3 choice since they do not relate to history.
Looking at my grades in social studies, I can see that most of my grades are all average: around the B range. I believe that this is my weakness, that I always feel satisfied with average grades. I always study until I think I can get a B. I can’t remember the last time I studied until I was absolutely sure that I could get an A. I never do extra credit. I only do what is mandatory. Both my parents and my past teachers have told me this many times, but I can never get this bad habit off me. On the other hand, my strength is that I can finish any type of work and get an okay grade without much sweat. If I put more effort in my work, I am sure my grades can improve by a lot. My long-term goal is to try to think of what I really want to do. I will try my best to accomplish this goal until I get into college. Until then, I will be working on my short-term goal: to fix this bad habit of mine.