We are currently in the fourth week of PSE. Through the four lessons, we have learned about identity, emotional intelligence and GRIT and how these skills and qualities will help us through not only our journey in IB but also through our lives. We have been taught the many factors that will advance our skills in accomplishing our goals and will allow us to work harder as well as smarter. GRIT is a major part of learning and is a way of learning that needs to be followed and will result in great outcomes. GRIT relates to the idea of resilience. The idea that if you work hard enough, you will accomplish it no matter your level. Of course, GRIT also takes in the idea of possibility. For example, if you are not biologically capable, then there is no amount of trying that will allow you to accomplish your goal then the goal is not accomplishable. We also learnt about emotional intelligence and what it means. The idea of being able to connect with not only others but also your own feelings. Emotional Intelligence shows us the ways that we can understand other’s feelings and how to help and support those who require it. This will help me throughout IB and past it through life as there will always be someone who needs emotional support and thus this skill will be useful throughout life. Along with this, we also learnt about Personality and identity. We learnt about the different personality types and how each type functions along with the fact that all of identity and personality are very complex. Being knowledgeable in the different types of personality and the complexity of identity will allow me to understand and connect to the different personality and identity as well as allow me to find my own identity and personality.
Growth Mindset
I have a growth mindset for close to all of my subjects. I strongly believe that I can get better at anything if I work hard enough. There may be barriers that I will need to get past and there may be a few things that may not be in the realm of possibilities, however, I believe that anything that is available to me can be improved greatly with hard work and practice.
Currently, my Chemistry, Maths, Biology, Psychology, and TOK are at a very high level on the scale of a growth mindset. The main reason for this is because of my interest in the subjects. They allow a lot of exploration and covering of many ideas that I may be curious about. I think that I will be able to have a growth mindset as long as I am curious about something in the subject which means that I doubt I will run out of fuel to keep working hard in these areas soon. A subject where I have a slightly more fixed mindset is Spanish which may be because of my poor performance in grade 9 and 10 but I think that I will still be able to improve greatly if I focus and work hard in and out of class. To bring my mindset close to a growth mindset I should try and work on some goals for myself and plan out a long-term timetable.
Maths and Me
My name is Vanshaj Nandrajog and I have been at this school for 6 years. My previous mathematics experience has been IGCSEs. Feelings that I assign with Mathematics are excitement and satisfaction from solving a problem and confusion while working on the problem itself. I am feeling very excited about starting this course and starting to expand the number of different problems that I will be able to solve and add ways that I will be able to solve different problems. I love the process of solving problems and especially love the satisfaction that I receive from solving a problem. I like to learn Mathematics by being told the basic framework of the process to solve the problem but then going back and finding the answer myself and being able to figure out the problem by myself. This lets me learn the most and sticks with me as I remember how I figured out the way to solve the type of problem. When I am stuck in Mathematics, I try to forget everything I did in the problem and start from scratch making sure that each step makes sense and gets me to the answer I need. My biggest strength in mathematics is persistent as I cannot leave a problem unless I successfully solve it. Something that I may need to work on is being more organized so as to keep a clear head while solving problems and being able to keep a clear work process to improve my efficiency.
Gpers Ecocentric
Though advancement in human technology and society is very important, it should not be at the expense of the environment. My views are very close to an ecocentric but I still believe that the advancement of humans should still take place. I believe that if we advance at a rate at which we impact the environment very slightly, we should be able to find ways to repair the environment to prevent the consequences from impacting us. I do not have a technocentric view however. Technocentrics would believe that we should use the environment however we need it. And by the time we use it up, we will find other ways to advance without impacting the environment. The reason I do not believe in this is because i think that by the time we use up the environment, we will not be able to recover. I do not think that we as humans can simply flip a switch and repair all the damage that we have done. I think we need to advance slowly and carefully and be