3rd Quarter Reflection

     I feel that in 3rd quarter I've made some huge improvements in English Language Arts, though one of the biggest being my writing.  We wrote two large papers during 3rd quarter.  We wrote our To Kill a Mockingbird thematic essays, and we wrote our SeaWorld versus Blackfish argumentative essays.  With writing these, I believe that I have become better at getting my point across, even if I am thorough, though have gotten better at not being redundant.  Redundancy is still something that I really need to work on, though I believe during third quarter, I saw some huge improvements in that aspect of my writing.  I've also improved in editing my writing.  I've been more aware of my grammar, specifically run-on sentences, which had definitely helped to improve the quality of my writing.  The reason I brought up the two large essays we wrote this quarter, is because I feel like while writing those I made some of my greatest improvements.  They gave me lots of practice when it came to editing my work and the content of my piece.  We did lots of editing of papers and looking at examples and non examples of other students work to get an idea of what some of the best writing looks like.  We were also introduced to multiple sources, and websites to help learn and practice different parts of writing.  I know that in 3rd quarter, my writing overall improved a lot!

     Something huge that I've accomplished as of the new year, is getting accepted into Saint Ignatius College Preparatory high school.  Saint Ignatius is one of the more prestigious high schools in the state, and being accepted was a huge honor for me.  I doubt myself and my abilities a lot, and I was very nervous about getting into this school.  I filled out multiple practice tests, took hours  to write the essay portion of the application, and awaited long, nerve-wracking weeks for a letter to finally come. When a letter finally did come with the news that I had been accepted, I was absolutely overjoyed.  I put a lot of work into applying for the school, and there were a lot of days where I thought there was no way I was going to get into the school.  Though, I'm extremely proud of myself getting the opportunity to attend this incredible school!

     The most challenging part of 3rd quarter has definitely been balancing all of my activities.  Third quarter has definitely been filled with the most action so far this year, and it's been hard for me to balance school with everything else I have on my plate.  First, there was applying to Saint Ignatius, which took hours to prepare for the test, and complete the written essays.  Then, there was of course, Irish dancing.  With it being St. Patrick's Day season during the 3rd quarter, I have even more dancing than I normally do!  I have extra classes to take, and tons of shows and parades to perform in all over Chicago!  Along with that, the District Musical rehearsals started, and after finding out I received the main role, I had even more to do.  Even in the first two weeks I had to be there 3 times a week and have lots of lines to memorize.  With all of these activities occurring consecutively, it's hard to get to everything and get everything done.  Somehow, I managed to get through the quarter with minimal stress, though balancing everything I had going on was definitely the most challenging part of this quarter.