Its finally here, the project that we’ve been working for the last 8 months, is finally due today. I’m not sure if I should be relieved or worried. It’s so hard to measure your achievements, when it’s something that you’ve worked for so long. Personal Project is a Project with the purpose of finding yourself; follow a true passion, while showcasing all of the ATL skills and abilities that we’ve learned throughout our lives in the MYP.
Looking back in the last 8 months, I can see a lot of stress, this is one of the most stressful projects I’ve done in my life, or should I say the MOST stressful project I’ve done. I’m not saying stress is a problem, because after we all have to deal with stress in our lives. The thing is, doesn’t it sound ironic that this project is called personal project, and it’s supposed to be about finding yourself and following a passion, but at the same time we are overwhelmed with deadlines and specifications of what we have to do? I believe that there where so many expectations and rubrics, that the freedom from this Project was taken away. I myself can confirm that the stress and the pressure of getting a good grade was so big that people weren’t even focusing on doing what they love, but on writing a perfect report. When you are so overwhelmed with tasks you can’t focus on pursuing a passion or even expressing yourself the way you desire. This makes the Personal Project absolutely not personal at all, in fact it makes it fake. I have to confess, that this Project wasn’t what I was expecting, I thought I was going to have so much freedom, when actually the rubrics are pretty straight forward, I’m not sure if I did what I truly wanted to do. I question if I actually learned or if I was only doing what was needed to satisfy the specifications on the rubrics. So again I question, did I learn?
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What does it take to reach “perfection”? Of course there is no such thing as “perfect”, perfection is unreachable, but how can we target it, and try to get as close as possible to it? The IA has taught me to seek for perfection, and I have; in fact I’m craving for it, not because Mr. Bon told me to, but because I want to succeed, I want to have the best version of myself possible. But again, there is a difference between craving for perfection and working for it. So my question is, what’s the formula to achieve perfect? After thinking and reflecting for a few minutes, I came up with a few concepts, which I believe that are what lead to perfection.
worthless. Give feedback; we might as well learn to criticize, seek for perfection in other’s work. If you don’t give honest and to the point feedback to help others grow, then who will help you grow? Trust flows both ways. Don’t limit yourself. Don’t work to for a top mark, give more, exceed expectations. If you set yourself a bar, then you are putting yourself a barrier, limiting yourself. You will always be able to do better, that’s why we should not be setting ourselves expectations or conforming ourselves with good, we shall work as hard as we can. I don’t think there is a more rewarding feeling than to be able to say “I gave it all, and I succeeded”. Push yourself as hard as you can, because you can go as far as you let yourself. I can conclude by saying that though perfection doesn’t exist, still it is a way to measure how far can we go. It’s a way to achieve the best version of ourselves as possible.
We have basically 32 hours of free time. That is more enough time to finish 6 tasks. So what was stopping me? DISTRACTIONS. I am the kind of person who simply cannot work 15 minutes without getting distracted. Time isn’t the issue, I’ve got time, the thing is working efficiently and getting the work done. So how can I work efficiently to try to avoid stress? I started listing things up, things like: taking a five minute break every half an hour, closing facebook, twitter, tumbler, etc and turning my phone off, work in a quiet place with no distractions. Finally it’s Sunday at 9:00 pm and I have managed to successfully finish all of the tasks I proposed to do. Actually I didn’t only finish them, but I also was able to revise them, and send them to a peer for a second opinion. I am really surprised that I was able to finish everything on time; it’s amazing what you can do once you propose to do it. I feel like the quality of my work is better too, I guess it’s because my mind works better when I’m only thinking at one thing at the time, instead or being distracted every five minutes. So I guess that’s it. We use time as an excuse to cover for our laziness and distractions. Yes we can achieve almost anything we want, we just have to propose to do it. Our whole lives we have been taught that grades are what measure our capacity and efforts. In fact, we have become so obsessed with grades, that we have based our whole academic lives on them; we give them the power to control us.
A few days ago I got my biology test back. I got a 6 out of 8, which is not a bad grade at all, but I was definitely expecting something more that would payback all the effort I put into studying. When revising the test, I noticed that actually knew all of the correct answers, meaning I had totally learned the right concepts, but it where those small dumb mistakes that had driven me away from a top mark. So I thought, if I actually learned everything I should, then why am I disappointed about an insignificant number? That’s the thing; we give so much value to a number, that we are obstructed from what really matters, learning. Think about it, a grade is just a number, its empty, it has absolutely no value, but still we use it as our motivation. Going back to the biology test, why did my payback have to be the grade, when it could have been the simple fact that I had learned something new. Other times, the fear of the number wards us from actually learning. You know how it’s easier to memorize than to learn, so students (including myself) prefer to memorize a whole textbook to make sure that they do well on a test, than actually make sure they understand each concept. Doesn’t this sound ridiculous? We are killing our knowledge because we fear a number. Again, all of this comes from the culture we where raised in, a culture where a number is capable of defining a person.
When I asked the question about how did they choose their workers, I was really surprised with his answer. He said, “buscamos a gente con actitud no aptitud”. At first I didn’t totally get this concept, but as I kept thinking about it, I started getting it, and now I actually think it’s a very wise belief. Think about it; you can hire people with the best skills and abilities, but if they don’t have the right attitude and values, it is impossible that they will give their 100%. Attitude cannot be changed or modified, instead skills can be taught and learned haven’t you heard the saying practice makes perfect? Nobody is born with the skills, you learn them, but the attitude is a matter of values, and values are harder to change. When the company has this mentality, they have less limitations, because people aren't forced to do what they are "good" at, but instead what they are passionate about, which is what really motivates people to give their best. As students we do this all the time, in school we are confronted with topics we have never seen before, but still if you have the right attitude and are willing to work hard to learn it, you can succeed. After all, it is impossible to succeed in something that you're not passionate about.
This concept also reminded me of mindset; when you have the growth mindset, you can achieve greater things. Peruplast totally proved itself to be growth minded, they believe in improvement, and that with the right attitude you have no limitations. This week in the IA we talked about how people can't get work done in the office. It's true! This was no surprise for me, it actually sounded familiar; I've heard several times people saying that they can't get work done at school and that they'd rather work at home, me included. This definitely shouldn't be this way. How can it be possible that we get seven hours a day to work and learn, and we rather, just leave it all for when we get back home. Doesn't that sound irrational? If school has become a place were we can't concentrate nor produce quality, then why go to school, when we can concentrate better at home? This has to change. I remember last year in Ms. Malatesta's class, we had to hand in a one world essay. Ms. Malatesta gave us the whole class to work on the essay, due to that it was a very complicated and long task, and had a short amount of time to do it. Either way, Nerea and I where unable to concentrate in class even if we tried, and just gave up, and made the decision to work at home. It seems illogic to do the work in our free time, and get stressed, instead using the time that the teacher provides us.
This week our IBG project has finally taken shape. We have a consistent and organized plan, we already have a clear view of what we want to achieve, and we are now testing the recipes. On thursday during IBG time, Noa, Frances and I went to Frances's house with the purpose of testing the first recipe from our cook book. It's logic to think that a plan like this will be us fooling around, and not working at all. After all we are three friends leaving school early to go to our houses and cook; how serious could it get? But I was wrong. Actually everything turned out really well, everyone came prepared, we all stuck to our roles, and best of all, there was absolutely NO fooling around. We had our goal in mind and we literally didn't stop working until we finished the recipe. I was amazed with the level of maturity that we showed, in fact, I have to admit it was contaigious. The three of us where absolutely serious about this project, and where determined to work hard to make this cook book a success.
In a typical school project, students work to aim for a top mark, or even to pass the class; but its impossible to produce quality work when your motive is a number on a paper. This is what differs the IBG project from others, its not an obligation, it's a privilege. We work to pursue our passion, to make our project a success. This is when we start taking responsibility and acting with maturity towards our project. WE wanted our recipes to be exquisite, WE wanted to make each step of the process crystal clear, WE wanted this cookbook to be taken seriously, therefor we had to take our job seriously too. I really like how at least for me, the fact that the teacher is trusting me and giving me freedom to take lead, makes me more conscious of my actions, and helps me act with maturity. I believe that a student grows when he/she is just let loose with nothing to hold on to, but his/her own determination, when the teacher leaves it up to him/her to make something out of his/her time. Now that we have a strong start we have to make sure to keep up the hard work, and give our maximum effort. ICC is a week full of energy and spirit with the purpose of uniting each grade level while competing for a common goal... the ICC trophy.This year, us sophomores, desired the ICC trophy more than anything. We where willing to do anything to reach our goal, and set ourselves for success. We felt unstoppable, and where, we actually beat the Juniors and got 2nd place.
While watching the boy's soccer game against the juniors I started thinking about how the juniors had a stronger team than ours, that was said to be "invinsible", but still we where wining 2 - 0. WHY? In difference from the other grade levels, we sophomores wheren't only acting like a team, but like a family. I've seen good sportsmanship, and teamwork before; but I had never seen a team that was so supportive to each other. I watched closely when a player missed a goal, or did a wrong pass, to see the reaction of the rest of the teammates. I was surprised to see that instead of getting mad or frustrated, they where supportive, and helped each other grow. I remember seeing Ernesto surrounded by a lot of people who where masaging his feet so he could keep on playing because he had a cramp. It was amazing how the people who weren't even playing where as involved in the game as the ones who where, just because of the fact that we where all one, we where one team, one grade. I can confidently say that WE GAVE IT ALL. Everyone was trying their best as hard as they could no matter what. In the crouds, people where cheering their lungs out, as if it where the last day of their lives. I recall people getting tiered and saying "I'm going to be sick I can't scream anymore", and Almudena screaming at them saying, "You can be sick on friday when we win this thing, so until then you'll keep screaming as loud as you can!" I think it's fascinating how we where willing to do practically anything for the victory of ICC. The best thing .... we didn't have the need to bring other teams down, or try to manipulate results; we where better than that, we worried about ourselves, and effectively our effort payed off when the results where said. That's spirit. So if you ask me, YES, us sophomores did act like a team, in fact we acted like a family, we where United By One Rhythm! To be able to publish a professional magazine, for our organization unit, it was essential that we first visited an actual magazine company. COSAS magazine was the perfect option. We scheduled an interview with Raul Cachay, editor of COSAS, and planned to ask questions about the layout, the articles, the different roles, etc. Though I was assigned the writing articles questions, I still couldn't help noticing the work environment of the company.
At first I felt a little uncertained and intimidated, I thought that people weren't going to take us seriousely, and that we where just going to waste their time. But as I got to know the place and the people, I saw that actually COSAS wasn't so different to the IA. I took a moment to look at the white board in the room we where at, and I saw how they had brainstormed and discussed themes, ideas, profits, etc. Very similar to how we are organizing ourselves in the organizations project in the IA. What I most liked about the way they worked at COSAS, was that I felt as if everyone was treated with the same respect and value, there was no hierarchy, everyone was given freedom within a frame. COSAS was definetly the type of organization I would like to work in, I feel like i could totally fit in in this type of environment, where people really like what they do.
After this visit, I stayed a while thinking about how incredible it is that in the IA with only 15 years, we are working in a very similar way as the people in COSAS are. We are closer to the real world than we ever thought. Who said 10th graders couldn't make gourmet food? For the IBG project, myself, two 10th graders, and an 11th grader, are not only making gourmet food, but actually writing a book about making it. Noa Shavit, Frances Ficshman, Celine Mayo, and myself paired up to combine our skills and abilities, to together pursue our passion for gourmet food. We are planning to create a gourmet-style cookbook, featuring 15-20 recipes of classy/savory gourmet dishes, and after, publish and market the book. This seems like a perfect WHAT, but there is a lot to be done, before we get there. I have to admit, that I'm a bit unsure about the HOW. Our group consists of 10th and 11th graders on their first year in the IA. Are we ready to accept this challenge?
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June 2015
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