Sunday, May 6, 2012

reflection (30/4/12-4/5/12)


  This week, I've learnt about morphemes which are units of meaning. Some could make sense on their own such as "cat" but some such as "-ness" do not bring any meaning unless combined with words. I also realise that my grammar is weak as I've unconsciously misused semi-colons and the single and double inverted commas in my writing. I've been developing a habit of putting my vocabulary skills to use ( putting in new words I've learned recently such as "catalyse") whenever I write to make my essays more sophisticated. I hope I can learn about the proper usage of semi-colons the inverted commas in class next time as the examples on the internet still confuses me.

 I also enjoyed doing the starter activity on morphemes simply it's honestly really interesting! I've always wondered about the root of words and I would love more exercises on grammar in the future. I'm still not confident about my writing as I've never been challenged to write in such an intermediate level back in my previous high school but I'm glad I have the chance to do so now. It's just baffling that it feels almost like I'm starting to learn English for the first time WHICH MEANS there's definitely things to learn about English. I intend to improve my writing by reading more to increase my vocabulary and definitely learn about punctuations as a semi-colon would most probably be worlds apart from the usage of a single-colon?? 

 Most of the times, my teenage angst gets the better of me by contemplating on the reason for education and all. Beyond these exams (IGCSE, A-levels, etc), how much are we really LEARNING? Some subjects completely fazes me as I have no idea how in the world is it ever applicable in life besides paying at the grocery counter (Maths good lord) and some subjects ( History and English) fazes me as I don't have a reason why I like them. I just do. Beyond Nexus, I see these subjects as platforms for me to explore who I really am and what I'm meant for.

 We as learners are always so stressed about exams but we seldom see school as the platform to learn from our mistakes. Or maybe society's influence on the obsession with grades now simply prevailed us from doing so. Hence, this is the challenge. To realise that this is the time for us to explore and not be afraid to take risks. The obsession with good grades gets to me as mistakes make me feel like a complete failure. I'm only starting to learn how to accept my mistakes and LEARN from them by putting my inferiority complexes aside. And I'm learning better through this simple step I've found recently. And I hope that I could help others to accept their flaws and help them understand this too.

Sorry for the long rant Ms. Abena! 

2 comments:

  1. No need to apologise - I think you've hit the nail on the head! It is so great to see a learner so involved in thinking about their learning in such a rounded way. I would like to hope that your time here (and in my classroom) allows you to learn in a way that does make sense to you. I am always open to suggestion and have already picked up a lot from your previous posts. Great effort Jo!

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  2. sorry for the late reply miss, just saw your comment! Thank you Ms Abena, I realise I've forgotten to use prompts lately until this recent post! I feel a need to relate the true importance of studies to our future as honestly, it's not long till the time where we really have to make real decisions. And with society's messed up mindsets of getting straight A's, it prevents my peers even further from knowing what's important and what's less important. I hope this mindset can be altered in the future and other adults such as some grade-obsessed teachers also need to know this too to help learners today.

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