Hello everyone!

I’ve made progress in the three skills that we have focused on this year in various ways.

Firstly, my abilities relating to Responsible & Involved Citizenship have grown immensely. Before WTS, I had never really planned out a way to interact with my community in a way that relates to social justice and teaching. I have learned how to plan a specific and feasible goal that will encompass the purpose of a documentary, and I have broadened my own expectations what I thought a group project could be like. I think that my improvements can be shown with this indicator: “I can contribute to our team’s refined vision statement, a single slide that describes the exact change we seek and the precise audience we aim to impact.” 

My abilities relating to self direction have grown as well, I feel as though I have realized how to prioritize my time and make the most out of google hangouts, and WTS retreats. I have also learned how to be a better group member, and work with my team to make sure that we all are on the same page and keeping each other updated. I have improved my ability to be a risk taker by calling interviewee’s on the phone in order to make interviews happen, and I feel proud of my sucsesses. My improvements can be shown with this indicator: “I can accurately describe the successes and challenges I’m having managing and directing my WTS VT learning, and I can set and meet goals for improving how I manage my WTS VT learning.”

And lastly, my abilities relating to effective communication have improved through various ways as well. I have improved my documentary filming skills, interviewing skills, and story teller skills. Before this experience, I had always been afraid to try creating a documentary, because I had never made one before! I had originally felt nervous about even setting up a camera, but with practice the things that I was worried about became easier and easier, and I can safely say that now I can set up a camera and interview a stranger with almost zero nerves! After learning to better my skills relating to film making, I feel that especially in the last couple of retreats I really started to think more and more about the creative pieces that I want to be present in our film. I have also begun to think about things like music and themes that will help complete our original goal for our film too. My improvements can be shown by this indicator: “I can use and adapt these storytelling techniques and devices in my WTS VT writing, film, and presentations to elicit the impact I seek from my particular audience(s).”

The specific skill that I will work on between now and April 4th is “I can describe how I will apply the lessons I’ve learned about myself and teamwork to other settings.” I plan to continue evaluating my own work habits and use what I’ve realized about myself to help better my time management skills and teamwork skills as well. I think that this will improve my abilities to plan ahead and feel less stressed about larger, long term projects both in school and extra curricular activities.

See you all soon!

Grace

P.S. This photo is from unsplash and is by Mike Sanders.