Author Archive

Before U18 Pre-Season Volleyball (2018-2019 Season 4) Reflection

This season I’ve decided to join U18 pre-season competitive and recreational volleyball. Through this activity, I hope to be able to improve my volleyball skills and knowledge, especially as a setter. Since I have only been playing volleyball for a couple of years, I believe that I still have a lot to learn and I hope that I am able to improve so that I can tryout for the SEASAC volleyball team next year as well as hopefully continue playing volleyball during university.

Extended Essay Reflection 1

I initially wanted to do a world studies EE with psychology and drama because these are the subjects in which I find the concepts are interesting and highly applicable. One link I found was dramatherapy for mental illnesses however, I found it would be possible to analyse this topic from only a theatre angle, perhaps in more depth. My research started with broader thinking about different types and variations of dramatherapy historically. I tried to narrow my research question by researching mental illnesses. I briefly learned about borderline personality disorder which intrigued me as it wasn’t a very commonly known mental illness. Therefore, research into this would expand my knowledge. However, I wasn’t able to find many different sources of information on dramatherapy for borderline personality disorder and I realised I couldn’t explore this topic from multiple views with varied, verifiable sources. I have since decided to try and redirect my thinking by going back to broad research about dramatherapy.

Sonos Mid-Year Reflection (LO1, LO2, LO5)

Throughout my experience in Sonos, I have managed to improve my singing techniques not only within choral pieces but also in solo pieces. By practicing and performing a range of repertoire with different vocal arrangements, I have learned to harmonize and adjust my voice to better fit with pieces that we perform.

For example, during the Carols by Candlelight performance on the 7th of December 2018, I performed multiple songs with five other members of the Sonos group to an audience in the school’s open plaza. This was a new experience for me as it was unusual for me to perform in an open area. Additionally, I was performing with fewer members which was a challenge at first since I would not have the backing of many other people. This places a larger importance on my singing as part of the pieces. For the repertoire, the six of us took charge in arranging the pieces vocally which was an essential part of the performance. In doing this, I used the skills that I developed in Sonos to harmonize with the other members to establish a euphonic sound. This also required lots of collaboration as we needed to work together and listen carefully to each other to arrange our parts well.

For some of the songs in the performance, my group was joined by other singers, some of whom were teachers. Furthermore, during the performance we were asked to perform other carols which we had not prepared beforehand. It was initially a large challenge; however, we were able to adapt accordingly and perform well. I managed to sight-sing by reading the score and listening carefully to those who knew the songs, a skill that I have learned in Sonos.

In the Wavelengths Music Concert on the 12th of December 2018, I had a solo part in the starting section which was essential to the piece. In this, I was able to boost my confidence enough to overcome the challenge of performing solo. However, I believe that I can still increase my confidence in solo performances which will further improve my singing in the future.

PSE Reflection Unit 1 – Emotional intelligence

In this unit, I have learned about the difference between IQ and EQ. I think that EQ and IQ are both equally important and that they can both be developed by self-awareness and practice.

Generally, I believe that I am quite an open person and I try to be aware of my and others’ emotions and feelings which is a measure of EQ. The scores indicated on the EQ tests that I completed suggested that I had a slightly above average EQ. However, I do not believe that it is accurate as emotional intelligence is very hard to put a number to.

I think that I have quite high emotional intelligence although it is still something I can improve by focusing on being more self-aware.

FOA 1 Reflection

For my first FOA, I thought that I did quite well in exploring how language used to describe netball contributed to the issue of gender equality.

At the start of my presentation, I analysed three different texts to establish the discourse. I believe that I utilised these texts well to explore the initial purpose of netball; however, I think that I was simply repeating similar points by analysing three different texts. Instead, I could have analysed one in more depth and spent more time on other aspects of my presentation.

I think that my close analysis of specific words was quite thorough and I was able to draw important points from very short words and phrases. I feel that one of the other things I did well was identify the effect that text type had on the intention and receival of the text although I think I could have analysed context and audience purpose further. Additionally, I could have concentrated on using more terminology to show my understanding of literary techniques.

Another thing that I could have focused on is commenting on the overall style of the text before doing close analysis so that I can introduce my points before showing examples.

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