Kimberly Branham's Digital Portfolio
Transition to 10th grade
How has my performance in 9th grade prepared me for 10th grade? After reflecting on my 9th grade year, I have written a five-paragraph reflective essay that discusses aspects of three of my classes and proves my readiness for the 10th grade.
my 9th grade self
In August, I expected ninth grade to be a breeze and to not have to put too much effort into the work. After many projects I realized it was nothing like middle school. This year required lots and lots of effort and determination. For example, while working on the car project, a lot of communication and persistence were needed to reverse engineer a toy car. During the project, I did not put a lot of effort into understanding it which resulted in a bad grade on the project. About halfway through the year I realized my grades were really struggling and I needed to get it together which caused this sudden change in attitude and caused me to put in more effort. I even emailed one of my teachers to apologize for the lack of effort and promised to put more effort into the class. It felt great when he recognized later that I kept true to the promise. There are still days when I do not want to do work and put it off. There are occasionally days I do not finish my work and turn it in late. However, I made a major improvement and will continue to put in the effort into improving more throughout 10th grade. This is why I feel I am ready for 10th grade.
This year in ninth grade I excelled in Language Arts through the Apocalyptic Book Project.
A class i really struggled in was Algebra while working the Quadratics grid.
My greatest growth in 9th grade has been in Art through working on making mobiles and altered books.
I have changed a lot through ninth grade. I have become more focused on my work and now put more effort into the work. I also have been getting better at time management with my work and starting it at an earlier time than before. Of the five qualities at DRSS, I feel that communication has helped me become more prepared for 10th grade for multiple reasons. First, there have been more group work and discussions. In order to get good grades I have to communicate to get work done. Also, the work this year has been significantly harder so I also had to communicate more to ask for questions when I have struggled with problems or worksheets. Good communication is a great skill to have for communicating ideas, getting help when needed, and also to help other people. I feel I am ready for 10th grade because through this year I have become better at turning in all of my work and also communicating with other people and teachers when I need help with something. In 10th grade I want to turn in all of my work on time and put in maximum effort instead of pushing stuff of until last minute or not turning it in at all.