Project+Evaluation

I. Goals: a. I want to be able to show students that standardize testing are not everything and that their abilities to perform as a person are more important than their test results.  i. I was able to meet this goal because I did prove my point for my topic. I was able to talk to different students and have them fill out a survey that allowed me to see how they felt and my results showed me that they felt that standardize testing was very important. I talked to many classes and explained to them briefly how important they might seem but how important their other classes are too. b. If I get a chance to go to different schools throughout the area, I want to be able to talk to different students and get their views on standardize testing and compare them to other schools throughout the area.  i. I was able to complete this goal as well. I was able to go to a few schools and talk to students in different grades. I had them fill out my survey and write their school district on top and it allowed me to see how they felt about testing and I compared it to schools in my district as well and out of state schools. c. I want to be able to work close with my mentor in getting in contact with school boards and parents from the schools to see how they feel about their child taking tests that colleges or higher levels of education look at.  i. I wasn’t able to work with my mentor like I wanted to. She did help me think of questions for parents and teachers. She wasn’t able to help me for the rest of my project because she was away for work a few times and was too busy and my other mentor is in the hospital. I should have found someone else to work with but I believe I did okay on my own. d. I want to research different colleges and be able to find out if they look at a student’s tests scores and why they don’t look at their ability just as much.  i. I was able to complete this goal but not as much as I wanted to. I wasn’t able to get as much information because it wasn’t available. I did talk to two people from a college in Pennsylvania and they gave me their opinion on my topic and discussed it with me. They knew just as much as I did and agreed with me. I wish I could have gotten to more schools and met higher officials. e. Finally, I want to be able to find out from students if they get discouraged because of standardize testing and how many have to make changes in their lives because of them.  i. I was able to complete this goal. I completed it by having students in different grades fill out a survey and some talked to me about how they feel about having to take standardize tests. I was able to read over their surveys and see how they feel about not only tests but school in general. I was able to prove that many students change their lives by cutting out other activities and stop paying attention to other subjects as well. This goal was most important to me because it helped me with my overall presentation. II. I look for many people for advice on my project. I asked students what they think could help me improve my overall project and if they had any more questions they think would be helpful. I did improve at asking for feedback because the opinions of not only the students, but the teachers and parents changed my perspective on my overall project/presentation. They helped me focus more on how they feel instead of how I felt. III. In order to complete this project I had to make a few risks. My major risk was increasing my concentration on this project by cutting out concentration on my other classes. I started to see myself get into my project and started to watch my grades decrease in my other classes. I also had to deal with parents yelling and explain to people several times why I decided to do my project. I had to tell them that it’s because of what I’m going through in school and how I’m personally worried about my future because of testing. I also had to cut out my after school activities, such as work or my involvement in different clubs in the school. I devoted my weekends and some days during the week in order to go to different schools and talk to teachers and students. I also had to walk a lot in the city when I was going to the different schools which caused more problems with my knee after my accident. I went through a lot in order to complete this project and everything turned out well. IV. One personal satisfaction that I gained during my project was the ability to stand up and talk to people. I was very nervous at first, but after awhile I was able to explain my project and my topic like I’ve known it for years. Another satisfaction that I gained was being able to talk about my personal reasons why I choose my topic. I don’t like to ask a lot of questions but doing this project helped me realize that when I do ask questions I will understand things a lot better. My last satisfaction that I gained was the chance to go to different schools and talk to other students. I met a lot of new friends and people that said they will help me through the rest of my senior year if I ever need it. V. One problem that occurred during my whole project was how was I going to get into the schools and talk to the teachers or students? This problem followed me to every school that I went to and I was able to solve it because my aunt worked in many schools in Philadelphia and she got me in. Also, I knew people at the school so I signed in as a visitor and was able to get permission to talk to the students, staff, and parents. Another problem that came up a lot was that many students asked me, how this would change anything? I couldn’t really answer this question but I did my best to try and explain to them what I hope could change. I’m not sure who to go to in order to change the way testing is done but every class that I went into asked me this same question. VI. I learned about managing my time. I learned that in order to do this project I have to start right away and I can’t waste any time. This project would have never gotten done if I did it at the last minute. I would have failed every marking period. I also learn that I should map everything out when I have a big project like this to do before I start. Having good time management skills in very important for this project and when I have another big project like this I will be more prepare. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">VII. Learning how to manage stress is very important for senior seminar. This class might seem easy at first but it’s not. This class will become stressful and I learned that I had to deal with it. I talked to a couple of teachers who told me to take time out every day for about ten minutes whenever I feel like I’m becoming stressed. So I decided to listen to music and go in a quiet place where I can just clear my head and then go back to work. Stress is always going to occur and everyone deals with it in different ways but that’s my way of dealing with it. Peace and quiet and then some music to get me back in the mood to work.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">VIII. If I could restart my project I would do it in a heartbeat. I would do this because I would have someone help me and be there to support me. The extra help from a mentor would have been very useful because when I would get stuck they could help me solve the problem and keep moving forward. I would also start my project before my paper. When I did my paper I realized it would have been better if my project was done a little bit first because I could use examples from my project and put them in my paper. I would also be careful of everything that I chose to talk about in my paper. My paper did seem a little confusing when I re-read it after my project was finished. I was very disappointed in myself because I know I can do way better than that.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">IX. I think I deserve a passing grade. I don’t think I deserve an “A” or a “B” because I don’t feel like I worked hard enough on anything to get either of those grades. I think I deserve a “C+”. I think this grade is fair because I did work a lot hard this third marking period and I finished everything that I needed to do, except for my mentor progress reports. I think I could have done way better on my paper and worked hard to do everything I needed to do to complete my goals. I think I worked harder on this project than any other project in school. I don’t think I deserve to fail because I worked too hard to fail this class. I have improved my thinking and analysis skills and I have encourage myself to do better and I have proof based on my time and efforts that I put into this project. Senior Seminar helped me a lot and prepared myself for college next year.