#11 Final Blogpost
Overall I assessed myself pretty well on this target. Before joining What’s They Story I worked better independently and preferred to not work in groups, therefore I believe I’m pretty stable when it came to self direction. For example, towards the middle of the year my group and I had a strong idea on how our final product would look like. Although, at the start of What’s The Story, we had a broad topic and weren’t sure how our film would cover the many aspects of foster care that at the time we wanted to purse. Eventually after researching, talking as a group and pre-interviewing a few people, we decided what our goal of our film was, and what kind of characters we needed to meet that goal.
In the future I would like to improve on the target by preparing more than I already do ahead of time to get a better plan of the kind of story, or idea I have for a future project.
Informed & Integrative Thinking
I love to research and gather information from topics I’m interested in. So, in the middle of the What’s The Story year I could successfully analyze the information my group and I gathered. For instance, our group did a lot of research and pre interviews before we begin interviewing people on camera, so we could be prepared for all our interviews and stories we would come across. With that information I could analyze it to approach new ideas and stories we might want in our film. As the year progressed I improved on this scale by being exposed to interviews where I gathered information that I most likely wouldn’t have been able to find by researching online. Interviewing people allowed me to evaluate new ideas from the information given to me. Once our group started pre interviewing people and decided what kind of film we wanted, we knew what stories and characters we needed in our film, and which ones we didn’t.
I can improve this target in the future by continuing exploring new ways to find and interpret information other than just researching. I will also create news ways
to synthesize and evaluate the information I find. I will also deeply consider different aspects of topics and decide how they can fit together and take time to decide what parts of a story are necessary and which ones are not.I will also continue to find evidence from various sources and evidence that is strong and has an impact on my project.
Responsible and involved citizenship
In the middle of my What’s The Story year, I assessed myself around the two-three area. Because at the time I was not completely sure about what our main goal of our film was, although we still had a pretty good idea. For instance, we knew that we wanted to raise awareness on the foster care system in Vermont and show people how they could help, we just weren’t entirely sure how we going to go about doing that. Now however, my group and I are confident about what our goal in our film is and we know how to show it. For example, we show many different aspects in our film from people who play different roles in the foster system. I was successfully able to understand and respect other people’s learning, thinking and ideas they had. For example, at the start of the WTS year, my group had some ideas about our topic that I didn’t love, but I heard them out and the suggestions/ideas grew on me. With the teamwork aspect of this target, I think our team works very well together and we when one of us is having trouble with something our team does a good job at working out the problem. For example, our team felt like we needed more time in person to work on our film, so we all met at the library and we were able to help each other out with our sections of the film.
I can use this target in my future, and improve on it by, planning ahead of time to get a clear picture about what I want my project to look like before I actually begin the project. I can also learn new skills to resolve conflicts with other people, exposing myself to more teamwork activities, communicate with people and understand them from a different level.
Clear and Effective Communication
I believe I’m doing pretty well in this target because during What’s The Story, I listened to other people’s ideas about their projects and to people’s suggestions on our film. I could also give positive feedback to other groups that help with their project. I think my group did a good job at figuring out how all our characters and their stories were going to fit together in our film.
I can improve on this target in the future by continuing to listen to people’s thinking even when I don’t want to and by connecting their thinking/ideas to mine. I can also plan more in advance and have a clear picture about my future idea/project.
Being part of What’s The Story this year has taught me a lot. I learned how to properly film interviews, how to interview people, ask questions in the interview that will give you a story, how to shape a story, how to edit videos and so much more. But, I’ve also learned things at What’s The Story that wasn’t necessarily taught to me. I learned a lot about the Vermont foster system through my project and interviewing. For example, I learned how desperate of a need there is for foster parents in Vermont, and how much a steady and healthy relationship can affect a foster child. My team and I interviewed a former foster child, Asa who was in the foster system. From his interview we heard a lot about how his life was when he was living at home with abuse and unhealthy relationships, and also how his life was after his adoption. That interview really showed me how much a strong and healthy relationship can affect someone’s future.
I also learned more about working in groups and how to communicate as a team. I’m an independent learner. Therefore, working in What’s The Story has taught me a lot about teamwork. For instance, throughout my What’s The Story year I experienced a lot of working independently as a group, communicating as a team and solving problems together. All those experiences has taught me how important communication as a group is and how working as a group can benefit your learning and other. Working in What’s The Story this year has taught me so many important life skills that I will continue to use and improve on.
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