Who Where You as a Child?
¿Como Eres De Niña?
Creative Piece - Quilt
Written/Spoken Piece
As a little girl, I used to be very curious. I loved to see new places and things. My family and I used to go camping every month. We saw mountains, valleys, rivers, forests, and fields. From the first moment, I loved to explore. One time, we went to Alaska and it was cold. When I was two years old, I had blond hair. When I was a child, I used to be shy. I was special as a child because I am from Singapore. I lived in Singapore for 1 year. When I was three years old, my sister was born. Every day, I played games with my sister. As a little girl, I loved to build things with blocks. I had a lot of blocks. Every year, we saw our family. I liked to play games with my cousins, aunts and uncles. I was always happy and excited as a kid. Sometimes, we saw trains at the station.
De niña, yo era muy curiosa. Yo amaba ver nuevos lugares y cosas. Mi familia y yo, íbamos de campamento cada mes. Nosotros veíamos montañas, valles, ríos, bosques, y campos. Desde el primer momento, yo amaba explorar. Una vez, nosotros fuimos a Alaska, y estuvo frío. Tenía dos años, tenía pelo rubio. Cuando yo era niña, yo era tímida. De niña yo era especial porque yo nací en Singapore. Yo viví en Singapore para uno año. Cuándo tenía tres años, mi hermana nació. Cada día, yo jugaba juegos con mi hermana. De niña, yo amaba construir cosas con bloques. Yo tenía muchos bloques. Cada año, nosotros veíamos a la familia. Yo amaba jugar a los juegos con mi primos, tías, y tíos. Yo siempre estaba feliz y emocionada como niña. A veces nosotros vimos los trenes en la estación.
De niña, yo era muy curiosa. Yo amaba ver nuevos lugares y cosas. Mi familia y yo, íbamos de campamento cada mes. Nosotros veíamos montañas, valles, ríos, bosques, y campos. Desde el primer momento, yo amaba explorar. Una vez, nosotros fuimos a Alaska, y estuvo frío. Tenía dos años, tenía pelo rubio. Cuando yo era niña, yo era tímida. De niña yo era especial porque yo nací en Singapore. Yo viví en Singapore para uno año. Cuándo tenía tres años, mi hermana nació. Cada día, yo jugaba juegos con mi hermana. De niña, yo amaba construir cosas con bloques. Yo tenía muchos bloques. Cada año, nosotros veíamos a la familia. Yo amaba jugar a los juegos con mi primos, tías, y tíos. Yo siempre estaba feliz y emocionada como niña. A veces nosotros vimos los trenes en la estación.
Reflection
1. What do you think you did well for your project?
I think the creative portion of my ‘como eres de niña’ project was the most successful because I worked really hard on my quilt and learned many new things. I used a lot of perseverance to complete my quilt on time because I encountered a few problems, such as trouble printing my images onto the iron transfer paper, that I overcame. I also feel that my writing for the project was successful because I challenged myself to use new vocabulary and connect my writing to what we were learning in class.
2. What do you think that you could have done better for your project?
I could have done a better job with my spoken piece. I did practice at home many times, but when I actually gave my presentation, I was disappointed that I kept stuttering. I think this was because I practiced on Wednesday in preparation for Thursday, but I didn’t actually present until Monday. Also, on my quilt, some of my corners were not exactly matched. I tried to go back and fix the ones that were noticeable, but I probably could have redone the whole thing once I noticed the corners were not perfect.
3. What challenges did you face during your project? How did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge I faced during the project was printing my images onto the iron transfer paper because it kept getting jammed in my printer. I overcame this challenge by using the manual paper feed slot, which worked most of the time. Also, I was very glad that I had decided to purchase the larger package of iron transfer paper because I had just enough. Another challenge was speaking, because I don’t have much experience writing and giving presentations in Spanish yet. I got help on my written piece, and looked up the pronunciation for the words I didn’t know which helped me a lot on my spoken piece.
4. What did you learn about yourself as a child from this project?
It was really fun to look through my old photo books from when I was a kid because they are filled with a lot of nice memories. I especially liked to see pictures of when my parents were young, because they look different and it’s kind of weird to see. I learned a lot about myself by my parents telling stories because after I would print each photo, they would say “Oooh, this was when we were in Alaska, or this was your first trip to the zoo…” so that is how I learned where each picture was from. I think it was really cool how you can see so much of my personality even when I was just a little baby, like when I would build things out of blocks, or play with stuffed animals.
5. Did you find this project to be enjoyable? If so, how? If not, why not? (Be specific and give examples.)
I personally really liked this project, it was one of my favorites in all of my HTH experience. I liked this project because we had so much freedom when it came to our visual piece. It is so cool that my quilt I can keep forever and it will become an awesome memory thing to display in my house when I grow up. I really enjoyed looking back at old photographs and memories of my family, I think it is something that is very important for us as high schoolers to remember. I also really had fun with the Spanish writing because I felt like I had the perfect amount of resources provided plus enough challenge to produce meaningful work.
6. Do you have any suggestions for Sra. P and Señorita C as to how we can improve the project for future students?
My only suggestion for this project is to add an additional challenge/extra credit option for non honors students. I think I would have benefited from creating another piece in Spanish, such as a poem or a story. Another thing that was really challenging for me was when you had us write two sentences for each presenter, because I do not feel that I have the skills yet to complete that task effectively.
7. How do you think you did during your presentation?
I think my presentation was not as good as I could have made it, because I got really nervous and was stuttering during my spoken piece. I practiced for my spoken piece a lot, but I didn’t seem to remember any of the hard words I had been practicing, which made me very frustrated. I think the end of my presentation was better because I was less nervous, probably because I was talking about something I was more comfortable with. Overall, I think my presentation was okay, but I was frustrated that my spoken piece didn’t sound as prepared as it did when I practiced alone.
8. Are you happy with how your visual piece(s) turned out? If not, what could you have done better?
I am very happy with how my visual piece turned out because I worked really hard on it. I have made a quilt before once, but my mom was helping a lot. For this project, I did the quilt all by myself, and ignored my mom nagging about how my corners were so bad. I am proud that I was able to make a quilt all by myself, even if it was not perfect. I think I will cherish my quilt forever because each square reminds me of a wonderful memory.
9. What else would you like to comment on that was not asked above?
I just wanted to say that I am really grateful for your guidance on this project and for your understanding that my previous knowledge of Spanish 1 and 2 is pretty weak. I really liked how you gave us all of the information we needed to complete the written piece, but still left room for us to branch off in our own directions. I feel that I have learned so much vocabulary just through completing my own spoken piece, and listening to other spoken pieces.
I think the creative portion of my ‘como eres de niña’ project was the most successful because I worked really hard on my quilt and learned many new things. I used a lot of perseverance to complete my quilt on time because I encountered a few problems, such as trouble printing my images onto the iron transfer paper, that I overcame. I also feel that my writing for the project was successful because I challenged myself to use new vocabulary and connect my writing to what we were learning in class.
2. What do you think that you could have done better for your project?
I could have done a better job with my spoken piece. I did practice at home many times, but when I actually gave my presentation, I was disappointed that I kept stuttering. I think this was because I practiced on Wednesday in preparation for Thursday, but I didn’t actually present until Monday. Also, on my quilt, some of my corners were not exactly matched. I tried to go back and fix the ones that were noticeable, but I probably could have redone the whole thing once I noticed the corners were not perfect.
3. What challenges did you face during your project? How did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge I faced during the project was printing my images onto the iron transfer paper because it kept getting jammed in my printer. I overcame this challenge by using the manual paper feed slot, which worked most of the time. Also, I was very glad that I had decided to purchase the larger package of iron transfer paper because I had just enough. Another challenge was speaking, because I don’t have much experience writing and giving presentations in Spanish yet. I got help on my written piece, and looked up the pronunciation for the words I didn’t know which helped me a lot on my spoken piece.
4. What did you learn about yourself as a child from this project?
It was really fun to look through my old photo books from when I was a kid because they are filled with a lot of nice memories. I especially liked to see pictures of when my parents were young, because they look different and it’s kind of weird to see. I learned a lot about myself by my parents telling stories because after I would print each photo, they would say “Oooh, this was when we were in Alaska, or this was your first trip to the zoo…” so that is how I learned where each picture was from. I think it was really cool how you can see so much of my personality even when I was just a little baby, like when I would build things out of blocks, or play with stuffed animals.
5. Did you find this project to be enjoyable? If so, how? If not, why not? (Be specific and give examples.)
I personally really liked this project, it was one of my favorites in all of my HTH experience. I liked this project because we had so much freedom when it came to our visual piece. It is so cool that my quilt I can keep forever and it will become an awesome memory thing to display in my house when I grow up. I really enjoyed looking back at old photographs and memories of my family, I think it is something that is very important for us as high schoolers to remember. I also really had fun with the Spanish writing because I felt like I had the perfect amount of resources provided plus enough challenge to produce meaningful work.
6. Do you have any suggestions for Sra. P and Señorita C as to how we can improve the project for future students?
My only suggestion for this project is to add an additional challenge/extra credit option for non honors students. I think I would have benefited from creating another piece in Spanish, such as a poem or a story. Another thing that was really challenging for me was when you had us write two sentences for each presenter, because I do not feel that I have the skills yet to complete that task effectively.
7. How do you think you did during your presentation?
I think my presentation was not as good as I could have made it, because I got really nervous and was stuttering during my spoken piece. I practiced for my spoken piece a lot, but I didn’t seem to remember any of the hard words I had been practicing, which made me very frustrated. I think the end of my presentation was better because I was less nervous, probably because I was talking about something I was more comfortable with. Overall, I think my presentation was okay, but I was frustrated that my spoken piece didn’t sound as prepared as it did when I practiced alone.
8. Are you happy with how your visual piece(s) turned out? If not, what could you have done better?
I am very happy with how my visual piece turned out because I worked really hard on it. I have made a quilt before once, but my mom was helping a lot. For this project, I did the quilt all by myself, and ignored my mom nagging about how my corners were so bad. I am proud that I was able to make a quilt all by myself, even if it was not perfect. I think I will cherish my quilt forever because each square reminds me of a wonderful memory.
9. What else would you like to comment on that was not asked above?
I just wanted to say that I am really grateful for your guidance on this project and for your understanding that my previous knowledge of Spanish 1 and 2 is pretty weak. I really liked how you gave us all of the information we needed to complete the written piece, but still left room for us to branch off in our own directions. I feel that I have learned so much vocabulary just through completing my own spoken piece, and listening to other spoken pieces.