What aspects of the skill do you need/want to improve some more? I enjoy group projects more than I used to, and I now see the benefit in them.ģ. I usually work behind the camera, with the script and filming, but I've become more comfortable with being on-screeen. I have gotten better with working in group projects, and making my voice heard. What aspects of the skill have you improved this year? Working with others is a vital skill, and it's one that can always be improved.Ģ. This skill is one that I think will be very important in the future, as I may be working alongside other people. I still want to improve on asking for help, talking and communicating with group members and classmates, and making sure my ideas are understood. I've improved communication within collaboration, and understanding criticism and ideas. When partners are assigned, collaboration is vital, but it's still important to ask for help, get advice, or talk to others about the subject. Many of the projects we've been assigned this year have required collaboration in some form or another. What has the skill looked like in your 8th grade year? Photography has not been as easy for me, but I now have multiple photographs that I'm satisfied with. I thought a lot about emotion as I worked, which helped me in solving that particular problem. As I worked on it, the painting became more than a re-creation, and more of a representation. I struggled to begin the painting and come up with a good idea for it, but I eventually settled on re-creating one of my ink drawings. My main project this year was my Scholastic Arts submission a mixed-media painting. This year, art has been about photography and personal representation, and, for me, painting and paper-folding. Creative thinking applies to science, but less so than in art. In our projects, there are clear steps to be taken in order to succeed, which I think I have mastered in some of the projects. In science and physics, evaluation and identification are key tools, and fit into the category of 'thinking critically'. Solving problems has been a vitally important skill this year, and has come into play in every class, most obviously in science and art. This can be confusing, and used to make me feel completely lost for a while, but music, in all its glory, makes me feel found. Although it goes against my morals, I often wander on the edges of the line.

There's not much room for a shy kid, and I know that I'm not the favored kind of person. Reality is solid and firm, which makes me feel safe, in a way, but can also make me feel trapped. I don't know what I want out of life, or what to do with mine. I feel the ache of being too old to do half of the things I want to do, and too young to do the other, and I'm not the only one who feels that way. I can sometimes forget that everyone has grown up. But every once in a while, I'll really connect with the words, and the curtain will lift, just long enough for me to see that there are others, really and truly, and that they understand.

I often feel as though no one else has felt what I'm feeling, like everyone else is on the other side of the line, of a curtain. There are chords and melodies attached, and even the backgrounds alone can be enough to make me love a song. Writing is one of the most important aspects of my life, but music may be even more prominent, because it's poetry and writings, but with even more emotion. Absorbing the ideas or problems of another can be very enlightening, and can take me away from my own issues. Most of the music I listen to is reflective of my personality, and my mood at the time. Music bridges this gap, and is often an antidote for stress and other negative emotions. I think that this applies to humans and the natural world, but that the line between real and the surreal is bold and firm. I think that the world is not made up of straight lines and borders, but that the lines are often blurred and grey, instead of black and white. They are part of a different world, a different reality. It's why I love to read, and why I love to watch films they are filled with sometimes impossible scenarios. It's why I've loved fairy tales, but haven't believed in fairies. I don't like to place my faith into something I don't know to be true, or that doesn't have a solid base, but I do love to imagine.

Eggy weggy