The Final Blog

     My leadership journey was so bumpy that it's too dangerous to put a roller coaster on it. A basic summary is that I started off great, and I started dropping a lot. So it all started when Laila recommended me, and I got into leadership after an eh interview. I was so happy and determined to do good. Which I did, for only the first quarter. The second quarter, I had a hard time following things. Our whole period started falling around that point and that's when I started to stand out, negatively. I had my vest taken away and it took a lot of effort and determination to earn it back, but it wouldn't be easy. Then after that problem was resolved, we moved onto Quarter 3, which means YEARBOOK! So honestly I didn't have a mistake as BAD as the ones made in the second, but I did need a lot of reminders and close calls before I actually could do this properly, but at the end of the day, I didn't get the grass shaded properly and I had to get it edited for me because I was absent for almost a week. That's also a problem this school year, my attendance. I'm always sick, and other than Chad there's always people in Period 5 that are always in the "sick chain". But this is just negativity in these past sentences. The school year wasn't really horrible, but neither was it the best. It's either good or alright but I wouldn't say outstanding. Other students stood out more than others, and people who weren't up to expectations were categorized. There's a lot of things I don't know what could've made this school year worse. So I'd just rather be more happy that we didn't have a rough school year and a rather good one, especially in the first and fourth quarters. I mean after all our class was great, we had a few bumps along the way but it's okay because we all became closer and that's what makes us Leadership 2015-2016.

     Highlights of the year: Well for starters, getting accepted into leadership was probably the main highlight of this whole blog. Retreat was amazing. We didn't have a lot of glaring mistakes or problems this year. I got closer with most of the people in leadership, especially my group leaders, Chad and Deriecka. I got to meet new people and experience something different. Learn more things that make so much more sense and makes me seem like an idiot. There is a lot more highlights but I can't remember most of them because there was a lot going on in most of them. Lowlights of the year: Well for starters, my period ran into some problems along the way and me and Miah eventually dropped a bit, but me mostly. And then kaylin had some attendance problems which affected her too so Chad and deriecka had a lot of things to deal with. And then there's Laila, she went out of her way to make a recommendation for me and I ended up being a nuisance for her, I had my moments though, and hopefully Laila got her rank back because she's probably mad at me but I don't blame her, but I owe her a lot and this is not helping at all.

     Lesson Learned: Things gotta change. Obviously if something doesn't gotta go right, then you gotta fix something so that it'll actually work. It's like trying to use a key sideways, straighten up and maybe something will happen, (basically I mean it WILL). Why do you think your having these problems? You gotta change the way you do things and make it better. If I'm being honest, I tried to change things but it wasn't the correct change. That's just exactly how I dropped in leadership, because what I tried to do was wrong, if I try to fix it then it's still wrong. Why? Because I don't think before I try to fix it. There's a narrow gap between me and the correct thing to do, yet I still can't get it right. There's still a lot I have to work on. And this is definitely one of those.

     How to improve on this: Just think. Use common sense. The only thing I'm good at using my head for is pretty much my school subjects, but when it comes to interactions, I have bad common sense and its really glaring. I need to just mention the fact that everytime I go to a place, or am sent there, I always have trouble getting it or I have horrible detection skills because sometimes I don't even see those things. I feel like I know what steps to take to get there since sometimes I already am like that, but other times, I really need to know what to do because there's times when I get it perfectly and times when I just look stupid or I am stupid. The In-Between part, is non-existent when it comes to me. So that's something really important.

Retreat Cheer W/ PERIOD 5!

4th, and Final Quarter Blog!

     This is the 4th and Final quarter. This quarter felt nonexistent because of how much time passed by. Taking pictures of the 8th graders for slideshow around the mid 20 day mark, to writing my semi-last blog (there's also yearly) at the 3 day countdown. If you ask me, I'm not ready to leave leadership or move on to eighth grade. It won't be the same and I still haven't improved as much as I should have. But that's one way to continue my endless journey towards my goal of "self-confidence" and "time management", but I'll discuss more about it for my yearly blog. For now let's focus more on important things this quarter. It could be orientation, which was a pretty successful part of this quarter, having to hold up banners for our speakers or even doing the dances for fashion show. There's also yearbook passing out, which only lasted for a day but it was something. And awards night, which was something that was well 50/50, the night itself was okay, some mistakes or misconceptions but the next day was more of the concern for us. I feel like that no matter what, I'll be able to find what I really needed in leadership, because for some reason, I wasn't able to myself.
     Highlights of the final quarter: Our orientation was great. We didn't have as much mistakes as we could have made, our speakers were doing a good job, our dances were decent, and our tours were pretty good. I also think that awards night was pretty successful. There wasn't a lot of obvious mistakes, there were some timing issues with the students on stage and having them stay there long enough to take pictures though. Our Gradution Program and Slideshow is finally done and now we have to wait on Gradution. And this quarter had a lot more of things but these are things that I really remember clearly, other than the elections we had today.
     Lesson of the Quarter: There's many lessons I could choose from this quarter, whether it's being too complicated when I think, or being an insolent indi.. I mean not overthinking, I think I could say it's pretty much both. I need to stop thinking about things too much and actually listen instead of thinking, because I've done this the whole school year and it hasn't worked out for me, so that's something I learned this quarter and is very important for me because I need to just stop overthinking and making myself look stupid.
     Something I need to work on to be more successful? Well I just said it in the last paragraph (lesson learned), but to get more in depth I guess, I can say focus. I need to focus on what I do so I don't forget about something, or lose that trait of thought. There's a lot of things that it could be interpreted into when it comes to me but that's what I think because of the fact that most of things like this if not all are problems about focusing. So that's something that is incredibly important in my opinion because it's become very apparent.

This Week...

     This is the final week of our 3 week rotation, or was at least. We had music in which I worked by myself at least twice this week because kaylin and sometimes Sierra were absent. On Friday which seemed really important, I was actually absent for a change. It was kind of interesting because that's the only day I took a day off even though I was practically not in great condition like this whole week. But now we are at our final 9 or 10 days of school and we are getting so much closer to 8th grade grad and me moving to 8th grade next year, which is kind of exciting and scary at the same time.

     Highlights of this week: Final week of rotation didn't go down, or at least not a strike at all these past three weeks, closer to the end of the school year, graduation program and slideshow are done, andddd summer is coming! Lowlights: Music did have some mistakes, some have been pretty noticeable like timing or even volume control, I was absent on Friday and I ended up missing a lot more than I thought, and it's also a lowlight: the end of the school year.

   

   Lesson of the week: Don't spend time moping about something you did, what's done is done and all you can do from there is move forward. If you ended up accidentally making a mistake, if you can't fix it, then don't waste your time thinking about it. Just move on or else your just gonna be wasting so much time doing what? NOTHING. So it's important to just keep going and don't let yourself get down unnecessarily.

 

TB to when they locked my phone in the freezer for like 10 minutes...

Personal Display Board #4 10 items

For my fourth and last Personal Display Board, I will list the 10 items I will have for it.

1.) Magic Notes
2.) Group Photo (Pd. 5)
3.) Leadership 2015-2016
4.) Both Leadership Shirts
5.) AR Goal
6.) Orientation
7.) Conditional Acceptance Paper
8.) My Vest
9.) Deriecka and Chad
10.) McPick2For2Deal

Orientation 2016 in a nutshell!

     Orientation is one of those events that we've been planning for ever since the first quarter, or well at least mentioned since first quarter. This Orientation was successful, there were things we could've improved on, specifically me with my banner. Other than that it was great and speeches got better as the orientation days went on and on. The tour was solo'd by me and I was accompanied by Matthew and just in case I forgot something he would remind me, but he only had to remind me of something once and then all the other times I had it. The fashion show was amazing and pretty good, but the grease lightning timing could've been superb but it wasn't quite. 

      Highlights and Lowlights: The fact that we could show the sixth graders how Ilima is and letting them see how the school works, it was just so fun. I'd say another highlight is that with this Orientation, we're probably changing students minds about whether or not they would want to join Ilima instead of another school like Ewa Makai or even Waipahu. A lowlight is that for parent orientation, Matthew forgot to hold up Deriecka's sign and Kaya had to take his place. Another lowlight is that it was most likely our banner that was the one that couldn't be handled properly so we gotta take that as a lesson.

     Lesson learned from Orientation: In order to succeed, you must have cooperation with everyone and work together on things. This Orientation was a great way to teach us that. Everyone had a role to play in order to make this successful, and we needed everyone in this to make it work. Like the people who taught us dances, the people who had speeches and even the people who were just visible in the fashion show. We needed each of them to make this click and that's what made this so special.

     One thing that we could improve on is timing. When I say timing I don't just mean queues, I mean times leading up to this. We could've taken more time to work on the tour and finished dances and banners so much sooner than it should've been. The amount of time decreased should've been that Mr. Ing could make changes to Orientation without him having to worry about the changes being too soon and won't interfere with Orientation plans so far or it being a disaster.

Orientation Coming Soon!

     Within the next few days, Orientation will be here. We have our yearbooks, we have prepared for Orientation for a long time, and we showed our newbies how to get the job done. Now we need to finish one of our biggest obstacles, Orientation. Some of the things extremely necessary for Orientation is not yet ready, like tour and some speeches. We had T.V. this week, at the beginning we had some troubles but we eventually became really great. Matthew really wanted to go on T.V. but he's not allowed to until I think he comes next school year or some time else. But probably not anytime soon. I think Jerilyn wanted to go on too but I wasn't for sure. For Pd. 1 (Math): We did Module tests and Homework quizzes. Pd. 2 (Science): We did a skit which I think we got an A on but hasn't yet been inputted into JupiterEd. Pd. 3 (Home Ec.) We made fried oreos which were okay but they weren't perfect. One of my group members took the fork I was wetting out of my hand and stuck it in the frying pan which made a huge splash. Pd. 4 (English): SBA SBA SBA SBAAAA! Pd. 5 (Leadership): Orientation, TV, Yearbooks, and Kaylin and Miah possibly missing in action for Orientation. Pd. 6 (Social Studies): We had a rude sub on Friday, no common sense, according to the association, considered "mentally retarded" with her 1.1 GPA during her schooling days, horribly racist, and just outright rude.

     Highlights of the Week: Orientation is coming on Tuesday and we are just so close to being ready but not quite there yet. Home Ec. has lots of cooking and labs now. My grades are straight A's so far. Successful T.V. week (especially with the newbies because they learned their job fast but made some mistakes). And lastly, being able to make my skit great. Lowlights of the week: Orientation could possibly go down hill depending on whether everyone is there or not. Miah has some sort of flu, same with Shay-Anne, and I don't know about Gabby but she has a fever. I have no idea about Kaylin but she's been missing just about the whole week. 

     Lesson of the week: You'll never know something/ if you can do something unless you try. That's why before you say something like I don't want to or I can't do it, then make sure you actually aren't the one that is needed for that kind of thing. Always try before you decide something for yourself that you can't do it.

When Chad put my phone in the freezer

First week back!

     It feels good to be back, but at the same time I'm not quite ready. Orientation will be here in just more than a week and we already have our new ones added to the group. With 39 days left of school, we're already closing in on all of the future events, like Orientation, Banquet, Graduation and more things in 4th quarter. That's also the closer I am from leaving Leadership, which is ashame because my Leadership adventure has been a rollercoaster from being stuck at the bottom and not being able to go up to the top, but now I think I have gotten on my feet more and I just need to keep improving and end this year on a high note. Other than that, this week/ 4 days was just full of Orientation non-stop and teaching our new ones about their jobs in Leadership. Matthew and Jerilyn have learned in a very short period of time and have proven that they can handle leadership very well. I believe that they can succeed the next school year. Matthew's strengths: Fast learner, quickly gets things done, smart, and good attitude so far. Cons: Talkative, but hasn't shown to be a problem, and just needs to concentrate a bit more on his job (ex. no talking to friends while working). Jerilyn's strengths: Understands directions, positive, focuses on her job, and fits in well with everyone. Cons: Needed a few reminders of what to do, and didn't pick up on things right away.

Though, these two have been good so far and hopefully will keep this up. 

     Highlights of the week: New quarter, new beginning of the end, Orientation soon, new members and they've been doing good for their first week here, got through this week successfully, and we got april fool'd by our home ec. teacher because she said we were gonna do a CFA, but we ended up baking a cake instead and it turned out to be good (it was like a mix of cornbread and pancakes).Lowlights: Orientation is just so close and we still have things we need to improve on, last quarter of this school year, more things coming this quarter. Not to mention that this quarter's AR goal is due in 3 weeks (more than 2 now) but on the bright side it's a lower goal now.

     Lesson of the week: The more focused you are on something or when you set your mind on something, you can definitely do it. There's nothing stopping you and it makes you show commitment to that something, and you can have it done so much faster than if you just put that certain thing to the side. That's what makes focusing on something very important.

 

Quarter 3 Blog! :)

     It's already 3/4 the way to the end of the school year, and this is not very slow either. The track meet seemed so far away before and it just happened, which means orientation will definitely be here in a minute. This quarter was very intense, and hectic at the same time. During this quarter we had Spirit Week which I was absent for the first two days. It's okay though because I was there for the most important events, and when everything started getting serious, like how on the Thursday of spirit week, Mr. Shim put $100 in each jar like he usually does from what I hear. Then, Mr. Barayuga evens the odds and donates a lot in the canned food drive for more points, and to top it off, he put $200 in chain links. I do feel bad for him though because he put in a lot of money for that and still didn't win, but i'd say the same for Mr. Shim so one of them had to win I guess. It was funny how during the relays, 8-3 was celebrating so proudly, but they got disqualified from the relays, and to make it fair they even disqualified 8-2 which actually made it very funny because I thought it was gonna be really heated between those two and maybe even 8-1 because they won. Sadly, 7-1 and 7-3 didn't have any idea about the mini-activities and stuff like that. We ended up losing because of our lack of spirit in "Spirit Week". 8-3 ended up winning but in the end no one was really a poor sport, at first there were some complaints but then it just settled down. Then, we had yearbooks to deal with. I had 7th and 8th grade teams which are just simply editing those photos, and pasting them on while writing the numbers next to them and changing the colors and fonts. I wasn't able to complete it myself because I was missing and I couldn't fix them so I had them done for me. There's also times when I got yelled at by my group leaders, close calls, and even put on probation for my grades. I have major concerns for my grades because I have too many B's and they are irking me atm because I was supposed to have A's on my report card, and I am definitely not looking forward to getting yelled at for my grades. Then there is drama going on as well in this quarter, involving people who will be joining Leadership this quarter and just some other people overall. It's okay though, because this next and final quarter is when I will hopefully shine and start showing how I've improved since the beginning.
     Highlights of the quarter is that: Our school won the track meet! My grades aren't completely dead unlike before when I had every single grade (A,B,C,D,F), I got a 39/45 on my final science test which is better than most people's scores, Spirit Week was enjoyable for everyone and there wasn't too much trouble, I learned so many things from different experiences, stood out a little more from other people in a positive way (not talking about from other leadership students, but I mean classmates), and I had a positive quarter overall. Lowlights of the quarter were: I didn't place in anything on my track meet, I didn't complete AR by the date of deadline, my grades are hurting at the moment, still missing some things, some struggles experienced during this quarter, yearbook mistakes, orientation misunderstandings, and I've been in and out of school a lot because I'm always sick this quarter like how I caught the flu recently so I've been out for a longgg
timee.
     Lesson of the quarter: Don't give up. People who failed did not realize how close they were to success before they gave up. Honestly, during the 400m, I somewhat gave up after I realize the difference between our speeds for the boys, and I ended up failing dramatically. There were some things I gave up on during the quarter, there was barely any times that ever turned out well if there was a time before when it turned out alright. It's important to never give up or else you will fail and you can explain to yourself how you didn't try at all before you failed. You'll never know what'll happen if you just try. I may not have won the track meet even if I tried a little harder, but at least it's that feeling you get to know that you finished your race strong and proudly.

Yearbook Photos

7th Grade Class of 2017

Leadership Class of 2016

TRACKKK!

     This week in Period 5, we had TV and did some Orientation practice at the stage on Monday. We also had our Track Meet on Thursday, which I got last place on I think both, I know I had last for sure during the 400m, the 100m I'm not sure. This week I missed like all of my even periods, because I was absent on Tuesday, and the track meet took up like everything. BUT OUR SCHOOL WON! This marks the end of the track season this school year, which is kind of upsetting because it feels like it passed by so fast, it's already the 13th of March, and we've been practicing since December. I'm gonna miss this track team because it was so fun being with them, and next year it'll be our turn.
     Highlights of the week: Successful T.V. week, won the track meet, didn't stop running during the 400, Orientation practice was fine, and we also did the Graduation photo's which I had to switch to giving the cards. Lowlights of the week: Got last place on the 400 and didn't win the 100, had some issues with the Grad photos, but it was resolved, Orientation practice wasn't perfect, had some trouble understanding a bit, but not too bad.
     The lesson of the week, is to never stop trying or give up. During the track meet, I didn't give up, sure I didn't win, but at least I gave it my all and tried my best. If I stopped, I wouldn't have been able to finish right away (had nothing else to say because I lost anyways lol). So in any case, don't stop trying your hardest because you'll never get anywhere.

Making introo

Thinking Week...

     So at this point of the school year, this is where I want to ask myself, how much have you learned? Well once we approach Orientation and Graduation or more important things, that's when it will start to appear. If I were to join Leadership next year as a group leader, would it be a positive or negative thing? It could be a bit of both, but you'll never know if I could become one of the best students next year. All that will depend on the choices that you make as the year ends. The thing that will affect not only me but possibly my group and someone, is where I stand and rank in Leadership. My rank could possibly be gradually increasing because there hasn't been too many big mistakes lately. What I really want to do is help that someone make sure that they can get back there if they haven't yet. It would be great to be able to come back next year, but knowing my current grades and records, I won't have a high chance. Though, related to school I am still waiting forever to have my teachers grade everything and my probation may last until next week. We got back into Orientation like our dances and ISA banners. 

     Highlights of the week: We had a luncheon on Friday, getting further progress with our Orientation dances and banners, and we had a shorter week than usual since Monday was President's Day! Lowlights of the week: Always so tired this week, grades are still killing me pretty badly, some drama, and we had to have track cut short on Tuesday and Thursday. (Plus we still can't use Campbell's track field and we might not be able to until next school year which sucks.)

     Lesson learned this week: Every choice you make will lead you down a path with the door behind you closed, these choices are what will lead you on through these different and difficult sharp turns and it's just a short matter of time before your path comes to a dead end.

The Friday Luncheon with the Leadership Fam

Superbowl Weekendd!!!

     Progress reports came out today, and mine is shocking. Especially my F in SS and D in Math. I took a big test recently (Unit 2) for math, so i'm hoping that it will raise it up to a B, especially because I'm confident I got all of them right because I did all of them correctly. For Social Studies, i'm waiting for that History Day project in the grade book, and I turned in some late assignments, but I still have an F so I still have more and more to turn in. I'm not concerned as much for my 2 c's because for both of them I have something turned in that'll raise it much higher. We also have to prepare for Orientation as we only have exactly two months and it's probably gonna pass by FAST.
     Highlights of the week are: Superbowl is tomorrow, AR for the week is done, completed some things for different subjects that should help my grade. Lowlights: Terrible grades, failed an AR test, technically on probation again, grades haven't really changed yet, and had to spend so much time trying to fix my grades because they haven't increased yet. Overall this isn't a great week like usual and I need to end this semester on a high note and make a positive change for myself and make sure that I am not just dragging behind the rest of the class.
     Lesson of the week: It's easy to set your mind to whatever you want, but you just have to know what you need to do in order to get there. Let's say that you want to travel around the world when you grow up, you gotta know what you are gonna do to get there, like how are you gonna earn the money to do that? Who are you going to go with? How do you plan to get there? All of these things you gotta know so you can actually get where you wanna be in the future.
      Oh and GO PANTHERSSSSS!!

My AR book (H. Potter)

Sick week!!

     It's that week for me where i've been sick for a long periodically time. 3 days away from school really affected me, but at least I was able to recover by Friday, it would've been disastrous to miss the rest of the week after Monday. This week I don't have a lot to talk about because well like I said I wasn't here for most of it. Though, our Period was on T.V. this week and I didn't get to go on or make the Friday intro unfortunately, but thankfully my intro was made by Deriecka. Now that I was away from school for 3 days, I need to start catching up with all work and grades. On Friday, I had to miss afterschool sales because I had to take 2 tests in Math, which were both 10 min. each. My progress report is gonna look ugly if my teachers don't update anything I turned in. I definitely need to bring up those by the time we get our report cards, as well as finishing my AR goal right away.
     My highlights of the week are: Took 3 days off (both high and low), TV intro was done for me thankfully, and slowly getting back on my feet. Lowlights of the week are: Sick for 3 days, had to miss afterschool sales because of testing, had to have my YB photos edited for me because they weren't good for it, and I was absent so I couldn't do it myself, and grades are all over the place. This blog is shorter than usual too because I don't have a lot to say since I was absent.
     Lesson of the week is to always double check your work. My yearbook page was ugly, and the edits were too dark for the 8th teams, so Mr. Ing had to change those photos AND the team fonts. That's why it's so important to double check what you do, because it's not a good thing if others have to do what you were responsible for.

Throwback to seeing cells through the microscopes

What A Disaster.

      This week really wasn't my best. Marquee mistakes, different yearbook photo shade edits, last minute photo uploading, and yet I still am having problems with my computer. I can't put the photos into the place holders for the yearbook through my computer. Everytime I drag it there it doesn't give me any options or anything for the place holders. So now I need to use another computer which I don't have right now. I've been trying the whole day and the whole Friday night trying to fix this problem but it didn't do anything. To top it off, I haven't been able to completely fix the photos, I figured I would fix most of those photo shades and I would combine both of those photos to make them blend in more, but Team 8-2 is more off than the others soo.. Then my other problem was Marquee, we accidentally took down the Grad meeting message when we weren't supposed to. I'm really close to going on probation again, one more small mistake can really make that happen. Also, my Social Studies grade is currently an F for some reason, I have to see if he has my papers because I am pretty sure I turned everything in.
     My Highlights of the Week are: We finished our Orientation banner top outline and marker. It was only a 4 day week, (I was absent on Wednesday so technically 3 days for me). I got A's on all of my Science quizzes and INB checks. My Lowlights of the Week are: I messed up on yearbook because of my different team photos and last minute things. Marquee is messed up. My Social Studies grade is an F because I have lots of missings for some reason. Problems with Computer at home.
     My Lesson of the Week is, be careful. It doesn't seem like such a huge message, but it can mean a lot in different ways. Like being careful with editing yearbook photos or doing the marquee so that you don't mess up. Being careful can take you to places and is a really helpful tip, especially when it's something like my situation, i'm still learning about being more careful about things, but even though I am not really able to completely do this, at least I know that. I can't tell if a Lesson is something that you are able to do, or if it's just something you know, but either way, it's a great lesson.

My first week back!

     These past 3 days have been hard, but they also had a semi positive outcome. With third quarter here, there is a lot to do with Orientation and Yearbook. It's not easy to have to do Orientation banners, practice dancing, work on yearbook, and not to mention AR has weekly goals now but i'm not to worried about that in contrast to the other things we have to do this quarter. Plus this week had it's ups and downs, like how I was able to get my vest back, but for a big cost. I must keep working hard and stop making careless mistakes. On that note, I have to show why I am in Leadership in the first place and make sure Mr. Ing doesn't rethink putting me in. Other than that I think this has been a successful first week of the quarter, I have have to keep it that way.
     My highlights of the week are: Me and the rest of the 7th graders in Pd. 5 finished Marquee in the 15 minute time limit that we had. I got my vest back, but in exchange for another bad thing related to this. My classes were good, and I have a new elective: Home Economics. My lowlights of the week are: The bad thing in exchange for my vest was that someone else in my period got on probation in exchange. Though, that was the only lowlight of the week, which is good because I started off the quarter with less lowlights then I did last quarter. New quarter, fresh start!
     My lesson of the week is mistakes are supposed to be a learning experience, they aren't there for you to do it again. I realized that over my winter break when I really started thinking about what I should do to improve and do better in Leadership, STOP MAKING MISTAKES! If you don't stop making the same mistakes, what will you learn from it? There are reasons why mistakes are mistakes, so don't make them again and again.

Period 5 during Christmas time!