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In-Depth Post #5

Posted on by talonsjazminec

It’s that day again: in-depth time! These past few weeks I have been quite busy with homework, however, I have managed to finish one of my projects just in time for this post! However, before I get to that, let me first talk about the meetings I’ve had with my mentor and how it relates to De Bono’s topic: The Six Hats.

The Six Hats in De Bono’s book goes as follows. Note that all of this information can be found on pages 92-101 of How to Have a Beautiful Mind.

  • White hat: information. This can be “hard facts, which can be checked” or “soft information, like rumours and personal experience”
  • Red hat: emotions, feelings and intuitions
  • Black hat: critical thinking. Can also be associated with “risk assessment”
  • Yellow hat: values, benefits, and why somthing should work. As De Bono states, the black hat “points out all the dangers and disadvantages of the idea” while the yellow hat is “[finding] values” in those points.
  • Green hat: asks for ideas, alternatives, possibilities, and designs
  • Blue hat: conductor of the orchestra; overviews and organizes the other hats

After going through all the hats, as well as reflecting on meetings I’ve had with my mentor, I see that our conversations seem to revolve around only a few. Many are rarely utilized or not even used at all. For instance, we both use the white hat, the black hat, and the green hat most during our conversations. This revelation fits with De Bono’s book as he states that the black hat “is the most used […] in normal behavior” (p.95). Additionally, it makes sense for the other hats to have been used in the context of a meeting. During our meetings, I tend to use the green hat most as I try to ask for ideas and possibilities to improve on my art. For instance, one of my questions during a meeting was “are there any techniques you want me to use more?”. My mentor then proceeded to use the white hat, as he answered that I “should [use] ‘scumbling’ more”. At the time, I did not know what scumbling was and so I used green hat again and asked for clarification. He then, again, used white hat and told me that scumbling was a technique where “you make continuous circles on the paper without lifting your pencil”. This is when I started using black hat, as since I had no prior experience with the technique, I was hesitant to use it on my art. Like De Bono states, the black hat “stops us from doing things that are wrong, illegal, or dangerous” (p.96). This is when I started using yellow hat, which is probably the only time I did use it in the last few weeks. I started seeing value in the technique. I started to look at pictures which used it and became excited at the prospect of working with a new way of blending. I “[found] value” (p.97).

Of course, like I said, there were some hats that I did not use at all. For example, I did not use the blue hat during my meetings. Unfortunately, I did not spend time “[organizing] the other hats and [organizing] the thinking” (p.101). However, this is not to say that I don’t see any value in this hat. On the contrary! The blue hat is incredibly useful and, in hindsight, it would have been useful to have used it at the time so I could’ve organize my meetings better.

Thank you for reading through my blogpost! Here’s my new art:

During these past few weeks, I was really just craving a piece that  focused on blending. I did not want to spend much time thinking about structure, but instead focusing on just letting the pencils flow on the page with one another.

 

Career Life Education – The Business Side of Things

Posted on by talonsjazminec

I have always had an interest in creating and managing my own business, and as such, I decided that I would interview someone who has vast experience in that field. I was fortunate enough to be able to conduct an interview with Mrs. Rochelle Lee, one of the owners of two businesses located in the Coquitlam area. Mrs. Lee, formerly referred to as Ma’am by her students, runs the company with her husband, who also teaches their ever-growing athletics classes and childcare. I felt that they would be the best people to interview due to their years of experience, and I was even lucky enough to be their student in the past (sadly it was cut short due the pandemic). Because of this, I will be referring to Mrs. Lee as Ma’am for this assignment, as students would refer to her as such (it was only fitting!).

During the interview, after asking her how she got into the field, I learned that Ma’am always had a passion in teaching. During some of my own prior research, as well as being mentioned in the interview, I realized that, in Ma’am’s words, “finding that particular something” was essential when organizing a business. Passion goes a long way to any business owner, and it is completely necessary to take it into account when choosing it as an occupation. Ma’am told me how, despite having a desire in teaching children and youth, she did not find the classroom setting relatively appealing. Instead, she wanted to give students the space to “learn to be better citizens” while also giving them a chance to improve athletically, hence why she chose to teach in a gym rather than a typical classroom.

As I continued, I switched to more general questions relating to operating a business, such as skills that are vital to owning one. Ma’am mentioned how important it is to know yourself; to know your capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between. You have to know your limits and not beat yourself up over mistakes. Being able to step away when things don’t go the right way is crucial in any occupation, not just being a business owner. You have to know when to take breaks and how to relax, where Ma’am even suggested taking some time to meditate.

Finally, I learned how truly important planning is when it comes to being a business owner. Ma’am suggested to not only plan for future events, but having a daily plan as well. Not only does preparation help manage your time, but it also gives you the motivation to work harder. She mentioned how it is better to “work smarter, not harder”, and that’s something that I fully agree with. This is especially true for Ma’am and her husband, as not only do they need to juggle two separate businesses, but also a family of four. Time-management, something she’s “still trying to learn” is an incredibly important skill for anyone in any type of job.

I could not have picked a better person to interview for this assignment, and so I am thankful for her taking the time in her busy schedule to sit down with me! Ma’am and Sir are an incredibly hardworking couple who continue to inspire the children they teach on a daily basis. Hopefully, I can come back soon once it is safer to do so, but until then, I wish them the best in all their endeavors!

Corazon Aquino – Eminent Learning Center 2020

Posted on by talonsjazminec

Good afternoon everyone! My name is Cory Aquino and welcome to a learning center made for Eminent 2020 by a student at Gleneagle Secondary. They, for some reason, decided to present a fictitious “newspaper” that was made after my passing. I hope that you will be able to learn about my life, death, and legacy in this strange, yet somewhat endearing way. Thank you for taking your time to learn more about my life and I hope you find it, at least, somewhat interesting.

Please note that in order for the True Newspaper Simulation, you will need to download the PowerPoint (info on how to use on the actual PowerPoint). If you do not want to download an entire PowerPoint, a non-interactive version of the slides will be down below. Have fun and thank you for visiting!

Downloadable Powerpoint link: Newspaper

Non-Interactive Newspaper:

Developing the Leaders Around You

Posted on by talonsjazminec

Session 1: Grow the People… Grow the Organization

This principle says how by growing the people in your organization (or in TALONS’ case, committee) the whole program grows as well. The book talks about two laws, The Law of Explosive Growth and The Law of the Chain. By leading followers, we add growth to the organization. However, by developing and leading leaders, you multiply growth. A team’s strength is impacted by the weakest link, so by developing and leading others to success, the “weakest link” of your group won’t make as big of a negative impact.

I chose this principle as it’s very reminiscent of TALONS; everyone starts as a “weak link”. For many of us, this program is our first main introduction to leadership. Because of this, the new batch of students may be “weak” at the beginning as they had little or no prior training beforehand. When the Grade 10s, who have had at least a year of training under their belt, teach their knowledge onto the Grade 9s, it will develop them into leaders and help multiply the growth of the whole program. The program will not be able to function without its people’s growth, and the students won’t be able to function without the program’s growth.

Since I already have experience in the program, I will teach any advice / prior experiences / knowledge onto the Grade 9s. Giving them these pieces of information will help them get a better understanding of leadership, to which they can grow and develop into effective future leaders. Not only will this help grow them as people but will also help the program flourish due to the added growth.

 

Session 2: Levels of Influence

This principle talks about how leaders have the ability to influence everyone; however in order to do so, they must train, develop, and hone their skills. Influencing others is an extremely important aspect of leadership. We don’t just want to teach people, we also want to influence their thinking for the future. Like the book says, “a leader doesn’t just see the person; he or she sees all the people that person influences”.

There are 5 levels of influence:

  1. They influence everyone (highest)
  2. They influence those over them
  3. They influence those beside them
  4. They influence those under them
  5. They influence no one (lowest)

Everyone starts at the very bottom, influencing no one. But after years, maybe even decades, of training, we’ll be able to reach Level 1: influencing everyone.

For many years, I thought that leadership was just an act of leading and influencing those under you. But soon after that, I found that I had started to influence those around and beside me. However, after learning of these 5 levels, I want to be able to influence those above me. I chose this principle as it helped me develop a new goal in life: to be able to train my skills to the point I can have an impact on those above me.

In order to reach my goal (and to apply this principle to TALONS), I want to continue learning more about leadership and improving my skills by leading others. By participating in leadership activities like the ones done throughout TALONS, I will be able to train myself and possibly learn to influence those above me. In addition to this, I will also learn to take more risks in my leadership as I’ll start taking initiative with tasks that I may not have done in the past, furthering my overall learning and level of influence.

 

Session 3: People do what people see

This principle talks about how people are more keen with following the leader’s example. 89% of our learning is from visual stimulation, so having someone do an example in front of you instead of them just explaining the task will help you remember and learn better. For example, let’s say you want to teach someone how to send an email. Though it may take less time to simply explain the concept to them, physically acting it out will help them remember and retain the information for the long run.

I chose this concept as it’s already something I knew and wanted to do more of, even before learning more detail about it in the book. I would frequently end up falling into the trap of choosing the “easier way” (i.e. explaining rather than showing) when it comes to teaching groupmates. This is a concept that I’ve known for a while now, however, I seem to keep forgetting to do it.

Like I said, I want to be able to implement this concept more into my leadership. I will attempt to do this by inviting my peers over to my laptop (as most of the leadership work we do is done online) more to teach them face-to-face about what needs to be done. Not only will this help them remember and learn, but it’ll also help me reflect on what needs to be done and how the task was done, an incredibly useful skill in the TALONS program.

 

Session 4: Two Questions for the Apprentice and Mentor

This specific principle talks about how there’s two questions an apprentice and mentor must ask themselves:

  1. Are they compatible with each other?
  2. Is there mutual respect in their relationship?

If you said no to even just one question, then you’re leadership relationship goes down the drain. Answering yes to both questions is an essential part of turning producers (leaders who keep followers as followers / produce followers) into reproducers (leaders who turn followers into new leaders). The compatibility question talks about whether or not both parties are like-minded or in tune with one another. Failure in compatibility will result in the people involved becoming frustrated in one another as they may not see each other eye-to-eye. Mutual respect, on the other hand, talks about whether or not both parties have a good relationship with one another. A lack of mutual respect can lead to a tiresome, irritating mess where completing tasks ends up being moved to the back of your mind as you’re instead focused with getting away from the other person as quickly as possible.

I chose this principle as there have been many times where I was in a leadership relationship that didn’t say yes to both questions. In those situations, it was hard to function. I would need frequent breaks just to be able to tolerate working with the other party. Of course, I still had to make do with what I had, however, those were days where I just wanted to finish the tasks as quickly as possible, not caring about the final product. I became frustrated and miserable during those times, so I used my past experience to connect with this principle.

In order to avoid this in future trips, I want to get to know the person beforehand. This idea taught me the importance of learning the other person’s interests and personality before getting into a group with them, as blindly partnering with someone who isn’t compatible will hurt more in the long run.

Science TED Talk Presentation

Posted on by talonsjazminec

Hello TALONS! I hope you enjoy my TED Talk tackling the questions of “how do the structure and placement of a plant’s leaves provide the plant with the necessary nutrition to survive? How and why does this differ from other plants?” !

Link to presentation: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7uazvb

Ecological Footprint Blog Post

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After calculating my ecological footprint, I found that my footprint was actually 11.25 hectares! In comparison with people in different countries, I have a footprint just under those living in Aruba (11.86 hectares) and a little higher than those in Qatar (10.8 hectares). All this information can be found here. Comparing with my classmates, I found that

When looking over my sheet, I can definitely find 10 things that increase my footprint drastically. These are:

  1. Showering for more than 10 minutes
  2. Some of my clothes are brand-new
  3. My family’s one-day garbage would fit into a garbage can
  4. Lots of travelling by car
  5. Owning and using a van
  6. Spending more than 1 hour in front of electronics
  7. The beef I eat isn’t organic
  8. The chicken i eat isn’t organic
  9. Farmed fish is part of my diet
  10. The pork I eat isn’t organic

After looking over this list, I can find 5 things that I can definitely reduce / change that will help reduce my footprint. These are:

Showering for less than 10 minutes. I chose this because by this is a big influence on my footprint and it can be very easily changed. Reducing my showering time not only reduces my footprint, but also gives me more free time. I can do this by having a 5 minute timer in my shower. When this goes off, I will immediately stop showering. This will help train me to take less time showering.

Reducing the amount of garbage my family makes. I chose this because it is something that I’ve been wanting to change for a while. Even though our garbage can is quite small, I just don’t like the amount of garbage that my family ends up throwing away daily. In order to make this change, I will try to influence my family by buying items that have recyclable packaging. In addition to this, I can also try to bring our own containers when going shopping, however, this will be hard to do because of the pandemic.

Spending less time travelling by car. I chose this one because I think it will be quite easy to do considering the situation right now. I already spend most of my time at home, so I think it will be very easy to reduce the amount of time I am in a car. However, if in the case where I need to go outside, I will try to walk to places so I can reduce my footprint.

Not using a van. In the event where my family does need to use a car, I will try to persuade them to use my sister’s much smaller Hatchback. I chose this because I think it will be easy to persuade my family to use my sister’s car instead of our massive van. Not only will this reduce my footprint, but this will also allow my family to have a break from the van (because it is much easier to park into a parking spot when you have a small car).

Spending less than 1 hour in front of electronics. Out of all of these topics, I feel that this would be the hardest one to fulfill (especially since that most of my school work is done in front of screens). The reason I chose this is because if I were to choose any of the other practises (eating organic food), it would be impossible to do. I don’t want my family to have to worry about buying organic food, especially since the pandemic makes it hard to find food that we would normally buy. In order to do this, I can have a scrap piece of paper that I can write on whenever I get on the computer. I will write the amount of minutes I spent in front of electronics. In doing this, I can plan my time accordingly and (hopefully) spend, at the very least, less than what I normally would in front of screens.

2 weeks of following new guidelines to reduce the my footprint later…

For me, I think the easiest changes were the ones that I predicted prior to changing my lifestyle. These were the ones involving cars. Due to the pandemic, my family didn’t have many opportunities to use a car. However, when we had to go somewhere where we needed a vehicle, we used my sister’s hatchback. Her car was much more fuel efficient and thus would also reduce my footprint. It also helped that the places that we did drive to were fairly close-by (not close-by enough to walk, but not super far from our house).

The hardest changes for me to make was definitely spending less than 1 hour in front of screens and reducing the amount of garbage my family makes on a daily basis. Before I get into why, I would just like to say that I didn’t include showering for less than 10 minutes here because it was much easier to implement than I thought. Adding a timer while I showered definitely helped. However, I’m still having a bit of trouble when it comes to lessening my showering time without the use of a timer, but I will continue to work on that. What made spending less than 1 hour in front of screen hard was the fact that I needed screens to continue with homework. I needed computers to keep up-to-date on assignments and keep myself entertained in the midst of the pandemic, so it was impossible to spend less time on them. However, I did try my hardest to spend less time on them overall, which I was able to reduce by around 2 – 2 and a half hours daily. The biggest obstacle which hindered me from reducing my family’s amount of garbage was definitely due to the virus. Packaging was the least of our worries and we just wanted to be able to buy food that fit our needs. Maybe the outcome would’ve been different if this was done without the worry of Covid-19.

In the future, I want to be able to re-create the steps that I took for this assignment in order to reduce my footprint. I want to spend less time on screens by keeping a log-book of how many hours I spend on them. Instead of driving, I want to be able to use my bike and walk more. Finally, I want to also reduce my waste by finding foods / items with recyclable and / or biodegradable packaging.

Ecological Footprint Assessment

In-Depth Post #5

Posted on by talonsjazminec

Unfortunately, I have not heard from my mentor at all since the closure of Place Des Arts because of the pandemic. Because of this, I decided to watch more videos and read on how to improve on my art skills. However, while on the internet, I have found many learning opportunities to help motivate me with In-Depth as well as introduce me to topics that I never would’ve drawn prior. Quite a few these have popped up since starting this project, and right now, I feel I can confidentially take part in them. Since I am doing coloured pencil drawing, I have decided to take part in various different art competitions. These competitions expose me to new styles and techniques that I never would’ve used prior as some competitions may need a specific style to be able to participate in them. In addition to this, they also help accelerate my learning as they motivate me to keep practising to improve on my skills. For example, I have taken place in Coquitlam Centre’s art poster competition where participants have to draw a poster that talks about the risks of vaping (among other topics about vaping). I have already submitted my entry, so right now I am just hoping for the best!

The poster I submitted

 

Like I said, unfortunately I have not had any contact with my mentor since before spring break. I really hope she’s doing well to cope with the pandemic. However, this does not mean that I have stopped learning on how to improve on my skills. I have been spending time on the internet trying to find new skills /  improve and develop on skills that I already have. I have been working on shading, burnishing my works, layering, different types of hatching, as well as other techniques. As much as I have been enjoying my time here in quarantine improving on my skills and doing new things, I just hope that this pandemic get resolved soon as I want to talk with people face-to-face again.

In-Depth Post #4

Posted on by talonsjazminec

To me, the most difficult mentoring challenge so far was the fact that I cannot see my mentor due to the pandemic. Place Des Arts has decided to close its doors on its students and volunteers, which means there is no way to meet with my mentor. I have tried to contact my mentor through email, where I would ask her questions about colouring as well as tips; however, I have yet to receive an answer. This is understandable, though, as these are some pretty extraordinary times. Through all of this, however, I am spending a lot of my time at home working in In-Depth. I have started to improve on my colouring techniques as well as getting back into spending time doing art. In addition to creating new works, I have also been spending time with my old works and adding new techniques that I didn’t use prior. As a substitute for getting mentored face-to-face, I have also been spending time online reading articles and watching videos on how to improve my art. One aspect that I hope to improve on is shading and lighting. I have been creating artworks that try to focus on a specific light source, however, I have not fully-finished them yet. In the future, I want to focus on improving on this skill to be able to add more detail to my works.

Despite the grim situation happening all around us right now, I have been enjoying myself while working on In-Depth. I have started to enjoy sitting down and just working on art again, which is something that I’ve lacked for a very long while.

Here are a few of my works, some of which are work-in-progress or merely idea sketches.

In-Depth Post #3

Posted on by talonsjazminec

Right now, I am doing very well regarding my In-Depth. I have started many works, however, I need to spend some time finalizing them. I am still acting as a classroom assistant for my mentor, Lena, and I am still somehow managing to find time to work on art during the class while also helping the actual students of the class. I don’t have any major problems with In-Depth right now, so I will just have to answer some of the questions provided down below!

1. What went particularly well during your mentoring sessions?

Something that goes particularly well during the mentoring sessions is being able to not only work on my own projects but also being able to teach the students in the meantime. Teaching the students helps me get insight on their work and can give me new ideas on how to better my own work. I also enjoy helping out my mentor as she is a very busy woman who has to deal with at least 9 children at the same time.

3. What learning challenges emerge?

Throughout my mentoring sessions, I realized that I may not be able to complete my original In-Depth plan, which is realism drawing. This is due to the nature of my mentoring, as I volunteer as a classroom assistant where I assist children age 8-12 with art. The projects that I do for In-Depth are the same projects done by the children, I just add more detail or aspects to the art. Because of this, the projects assigned don’t seem to revolve around realism. I also want to create the same art provided by my mentor as her ideas give me a chance to explore a variety of subjects. So, as a solution, I have decided to change my In-Depth to strictly coloured pencil drawing, however, it will not be restricted to realism.

4. a) What factors affected your ability to interact effectively?

Something that limits my ability to interact with my mentor effectively is my mentor having to deal with the other students. Since it is her job to teach the actual students of the class, they obviously have a higher priority with her time. Because of this, I have to wait for her to finish in order to ask her questions regarding In-Depth. In addition, since I am also volunteering at Place Des Arts as a classroom assistant, I need to, of course, do my volunteer duties. I try to give these duties higher priority, however, when I finish with my tasks, I sit down and work on In-Depth. So I can spend more time with Lena about In-Depth, I stay for a few minutes after class so I can talk one-on-one with her as well as show her artworks without any distractions.