Term 1: English Class

Term 1: English Class

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English Class
Term 1

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5 Things I’ve Learned this Term:
1. I’ve learned a lot about language as a whole and how it changes over time, including how new words are developed, and why exactly language has the words it does. Language is definitely shaped by culture, but it’s also really interesting how languages do have direct translations and why that is, and how interesting it is that all cultures and people from all around the world can think in relatively the same ways. It’s like how cultures may have many words for colour, but those that don’t usually always have words for black/dark, white/light or red, and that’s a constant.

2. I’ve learned about unseen text commentaries, and what makes a good one. I’ve definitely improved my skills over the term when it comes to writing a commentary on an unseen text, and have practiced doing lots of thinking on unseen texts, which will definitely help me in exams, sometime in the future.

3. I’ve learned about how to write a good thesis, and what exactly a good thesis needs to have to be, well, good. This includes things like vaguely outlining your essay, posing debatable arguments that leave you room to support them afterwards, and using clear language to define your stance or position.

4. I’ve learned how to use a semicolon; this definitely makes my writing a lot more professional.

5. I’ve learned a lot of new vocabulary, ‘idiolect’, ‘lineation’, ‘caesura’, ‘allusion’, ‘plosive’, ‘meter’, ‘sibilance’, ‘consonance’, ‘fricative’, just to name a few, and also how, when and where to use these in exam conditions, especially when I’m writing a commentary. However, I’ve also learned the meanings behind these words, like what ‘situational irony’ means, or what an ‘interjection’ is, and have had practice using them when I write.

1 Thing I Need to Work on:
I’m going to quote my English teacher on this, and tell myself: ‘Write in pen!’

However, I think that I can still work on my text analysing skills, and I plan to do lots of reading over the break to improve.

-Teia

NYAA Healthy Living: November Update

NYAA Healthy Living: November Update

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NYAA: Healthy Living
November Progress Report

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My Healthy Living Goal: To reduce and find better ways to deal with my stress through Music.

Why have I chosen this goal?
I personally am very invested in Music and it is the one creative art I take solace in. Playing the piano and listening to a lot of music are things that I do regularly, and I want to bring this into the award as it is something that I am very passionate about.

How I have been achieving this goal:
This month, I’ve had another performance, and I’ve also done some really beneficial work in Piano Masterclass. As I’ve said before, performances really help me learn about my stress, even though they are a cause of a lot of it, and performing a lot helps me build confidence and find things that make me more comfortable performing in front of others. This month, I participated in a recital held by the ITP department.

The ITP department holds regular recitals, and I used to take part in them regularly. However, for the past two years, I haven’t attended any because of performance anxiety, so starting to take part in them again is a big step for me. I also got to see how this familiar environment affected my playing, and I think that surprisingly it had a big effect. I felt a little more comfortable in this situation because of how much I’ve been exposed to it in childhood. I think that I’ve definitely discovered a viable and safe place for me to practice my performance skills.

I’ve also learned that other people’s playing doesn’t affect mine. Even if someone playing Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu plays before me, I won’t be bothered. This means that my stress isn’t caused by comparison to others. This discovery has helped me narrow my strategies to deal with a performance down to mainly calming myself.

Here’s the video of the performance.

Another thing that I’ve been learning is the difference between practice and performance, but also the similarities. Often, when we practice, we are familiar with our surroundings, and that makes us more comfortable. This means we can make mistakes and refine our pieces without qualms. However, in a performance, there are people listening to you and watching you, and your surroundings are completely different. This can be another cause of performance anxiety.

However, to deal with this performance anxiety, we can make our practice space a little different every time, to resemble a performance. We can also invite friends or family to listen to our practice sessions and provide feedback at the end. This addition of a friendly audience can really help lessen stress and feelings of nervousness.

What have been some setbacks?
So far, I haven’t had many setbacks, however, I’ve recently received the news that I won’t be taking my G6 exam in February, rather, I’d have to take it in July. Since I’m practically prepared already, I feel that it would be a waste of time waiting until July, so I’m progressing onto grade 7. In all honesty, I feel that this might be a missed opportunity, since preparing for exams is a really good way to learn about your habits, but I think that Grade 7 piano poses an adequate challenge, and I look forward to playing more challenging pieces. This may also benefit me because I will most definitely perform those pieces sometime, so it’ll definitely help me build confidence.

What am I looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to starting Grade 7, and starting to branch out and build my Piano repertoire. So far, I’ve practically only been playing exam pieces, so I look forward to exploring other genres and developing my skills. I have another performance in March for International Women’s Day, and in Piano Masterclass we’ll be looking at ways to deal with difficult parts in pieces, which I think will definitely help me with my performance anxiety.

That’s all for November! Thanks for reading!

Link to my tracking log