Introduction
My name is Andrea Jasso and this is my third year at ACLC. When I first moved from Alameda High to ACLC I did not want to come here. I hated that my parents had moved me from schools without warning me, and on top of that, I had to repeat sophomore year here. I mean, I was never happy at Alameda High, I picked up life threatening bad habits and toxic relationships, found myself giving up on my school and future. However, I was comfortable within those discomforts of my life. My parents sent me to ACLC with the hopes that I would take advantage of my new fresh start. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t try this year and resist what my parents wanted for me. I had so much anger inside of me because I felt as if I lost my safe space; all my friends from all my life and the opportunities to undergo the senior experiences with them, and most importantly walking the stage with them. I felt exposed. I first came here with a pessimistic outlook, but as the first and second years passed, day by day the best version of myself that I can be started to unfold. To this day I’m still working on reaching the best version of myself that I can be, thanks to ACLC and the friendships I’ve made here.
Personal Qualities, Work Habits and Attitudes
I don't have the best work habits in all honesty but this year I am going to put a lot of effort into improving my work ethics. I started off this year using my agenda and writing down all the homework and pending homework that I needed to do. It’s been easy to keep up with the subjects that I do like such as: English, History, and Environmental Science but for the others it’s been harder. My goal is to maintain steady grades and be able to balance everything together. ACLC has helped me grow as a learner because I have learned about time management even if it was through the hard way.
New Basics
One of the things that I like about ACLC so much is the passionate teachers. They have helped me make my skills better in all of my subjects with their support. Particularly, my English teacher Molly helped me make my writing skills much better so that I will be prepared when applying to college. Since I joined in 10th grade, I felt a little behind. I was surprised by how quickly I was caught up, amount of help I got to make sure I was on path for the rest of my high school. Mollys class has also helped me learn how to make helpful annotations to gain more insight on texts that I read. Because of this new skill that I learned; I found it easier to read and understand. During Socratic seminars I learned how to speak and project my ideas out into the discussions, and I also learned how to listen and accept others ideas as they do to mine.
Thinking and Reasoning Skills
Something that I have focused on through ACLC is speaking more in class discussion, and working on my public speaking in general. Socratic Seminars were a big part in helping do this, and I have developed finer tuned skills because of this. One of the perks of ACLC’s independent model is that you learn to plan more. Waking up in the morning, I would use my planner to decide what work I would be doing in what free periods. Another thing that changed is that as you go further into high school, you get less free periods. This meant I had to prioritize certain work that would be better to do, than at home. For example, I spent most of my time working on the Hamlet Unit project at school with my peers, rather than having to go to each others houses and work on it there on our own time.
Interpersonal Abilities
Throughout my high school years when working in a group of people, I always tried to cooperate as much as I can in whatever work or project we were doing. There was this one time in math class where we were creating a poster to present to the class. With my teammates we negotiated who would do what and we evenly split up the roles. We finished the poster with information that would help our peers understand the concept better. For me this was difficult to do because I am very shy and am scared to share my ideas, but throughout the years I have learned that that is how one learns.
Technology
For high school I have been using chromebooks for all my typed assignments, which was the majority of them. While using these chromebooks during school I had to learn how to make slideshows, presentations, doc sheets, etc. It was first a bit confusing because I am horrible with technology, but over the years these little tasks became simple and easy to me.
Conclusion
Through my high school years I have changed so much. I first changed for the worst, I lost myself along the way and could not find my way. I am so grateful that I came to ACLC because I got to restart here, academically, socially, and emotionally. I can honestly say I am not the person I was three years ago when I first joined ACLC. My life took a sharp turn for the better, and I am ready to use everything that I have learned and apply it to real life. I will work on finding what suits me best because I know I'm good for something, I just hadn't found it yet.
My name is Andrea Jasso and this is my third year at ACLC. When I first moved from Alameda High to ACLC I did not want to come here. I hated that my parents had moved me from schools without warning me, and on top of that, I had to repeat sophomore year here. I mean, I was never happy at Alameda High, I picked up life threatening bad habits and toxic relationships, found myself giving up on my school and future. However, I was comfortable within those discomforts of my life. My parents sent me to ACLC with the hopes that I would take advantage of my new fresh start. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t try this year and resist what my parents wanted for me. I had so much anger inside of me because I felt as if I lost my safe space; all my friends from all my life and the opportunities to undergo the senior experiences with them, and most importantly walking the stage with them. I felt exposed. I first came here with a pessimistic outlook, but as the first and second years passed, day by day the best version of myself that I can be started to unfold. To this day I’m still working on reaching the best version of myself that I can be, thanks to ACLC and the friendships I’ve made here.
Personal Qualities, Work Habits and Attitudes
I don't have the best work habits in all honesty but this year I am going to put a lot of effort into improving my work ethics. I started off this year using my agenda and writing down all the homework and pending homework that I needed to do. It’s been easy to keep up with the subjects that I do like such as: English, History, and Environmental Science but for the others it’s been harder. My goal is to maintain steady grades and be able to balance everything together. ACLC has helped me grow as a learner because I have learned about time management even if it was through the hard way.
New Basics
One of the things that I like about ACLC so much is the passionate teachers. They have helped me make my skills better in all of my subjects with their support. Particularly, my English teacher Molly helped me make my writing skills much better so that I will be prepared when applying to college. Since I joined in 10th grade, I felt a little behind. I was surprised by how quickly I was caught up, amount of help I got to make sure I was on path for the rest of my high school. Mollys class has also helped me learn how to make helpful annotations to gain more insight on texts that I read. Because of this new skill that I learned; I found it easier to read and understand. During Socratic seminars I learned how to speak and project my ideas out into the discussions, and I also learned how to listen and accept others ideas as they do to mine.
Thinking and Reasoning Skills
Something that I have focused on through ACLC is speaking more in class discussion, and working on my public speaking in general. Socratic Seminars were a big part in helping do this, and I have developed finer tuned skills because of this. One of the perks of ACLC’s independent model is that you learn to plan more. Waking up in the morning, I would use my planner to decide what work I would be doing in what free periods. Another thing that changed is that as you go further into high school, you get less free periods. This meant I had to prioritize certain work that would be better to do, than at home. For example, I spent most of my time working on the Hamlet Unit project at school with my peers, rather than having to go to each others houses and work on it there on our own time.
Interpersonal Abilities
Throughout my high school years when working in a group of people, I always tried to cooperate as much as I can in whatever work or project we were doing. There was this one time in math class where we were creating a poster to present to the class. With my teammates we negotiated who would do what and we evenly split up the roles. We finished the poster with information that would help our peers understand the concept better. For me this was difficult to do because I am very shy and am scared to share my ideas, but throughout the years I have learned that that is how one learns.
Technology
For high school I have been using chromebooks for all my typed assignments, which was the majority of them. While using these chromebooks during school I had to learn how to make slideshows, presentations, doc sheets, etc. It was first a bit confusing because I am horrible with technology, but over the years these little tasks became simple and easy to me.
Conclusion
Through my high school years I have changed so much. I first changed for the worst, I lost myself along the way and could not find my way. I am so grateful that I came to ACLC because I got to restart here, academically, socially, and emotionally. I can honestly say I am not the person I was three years ago when I first joined ACLC. My life took a sharp turn for the better, and I am ready to use everything that I have learned and apply it to real life. I will work on finding what suits me best because I know I'm good for something, I just hadn't found it yet.