The Start of a New Journey- Meral- AEP 8- Blog 1

Introduction 

Hello!😀 It has been a long time. Summer is already over! It seems to me that it has passed by very quickly. Even so, I am glad to be back with another school year. A new school year is like a new chapter and a new door yet to be unlocked. Although I haven't experienced face to face classes in Grade 7, I am looking forward to getting a chance to do so this year. Even if that might not be the case, I hope to spend this school year in my best possible way😊.

Monday was the first official day of Grade 8 AEP classes. I must admit that the first day of  AEP classes in Grade 7 did flash before my eyes. It was also the first two subjects on Mondays. I remember having a technical problem with my school Gmail. I had to contact the school admins and my advisor at the time. Being the hesitant person I was, I couldn't quite explain what was going on. At least it is a funny memory to hunt me forever😆. 

This time around, I wasn't feeling nervous at all! I knew that I had enough experience to deal with a technical problem if one would arise. I guess mistakes do teach you lessons. Therefore, I joined the google meet. The first impression I had was feeling relaxed and calm. From there on, is the new chapter to fill in to the book📖! The book of which I have paused on writing for quite some time. The last part being titled : "Some see weeds, I see wishes" and now I am glad to be back on track✨.

AEP Class

The first two sessions of AEP classes were cancelled due to the first day of school. All grade levels were in one google meet. The orientation and guidelines were discussed. Thus, our first meeting started on Wednesday. 

On Wednesday, we had one period of AEP class. We got an invitation to blogger. There were no technical issues this time around🥳! For the rest of the period, we were each given a dogo news article to read about. Miss Disa gave us time to record ourselves. My article was titled "Rosetta Sone Eruption Provides Insights Into Solar Explosions." It was about powerful explosions that might be dangerous for astronauts and disrupt satellites in orbit. Many space agencies stated that it all comes from the same source/ mechanism, but the explosions are at different scales. I was able to finish my final recording after class. 

On Monday, we started with a quick typeshift. The moment I heard that we had to do this, I was very excited. I didn't struggle to find the words. Thus, I finished it in 40 seconds. Miss Disa and my classmates did great too. I am looking forward to continuing typeshift since it has always been one of my favorites!

Next, we did Unit 1 "Family Matters". We had to answer a page testing our vocabulary skills. There were two sections. At first, I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to do in the first part. Meanwhile, Miss Disa told the class that we would be given 5 minutes to finish the page. It was then that my panic mode activated. Not goanna lie, in between of panicking, I was also glad that we had five minutes to finish everything. I hear you questioning "Why?"🧐. 

Well, there is this personality trait in me. Basically, if a teacher gives a short period of time for an assessment, I happen to feel like it is in a simpler level of difficulty since they acknowledged the fact that us (students) can finish it in a simpler way than being given a long period of time and having to put more effort in it. Maybe it's just me...

Turning back to the topic, I read the instructions one more time. I realized that the task was rather understandable. We had to write the difference in meaning between the words in the groups. Basically, in one group there were about 2-3 words we had to differentiate. As I had just started, Miss Disa asked the class if we were all done or close to being finished with our work. To my relief, my classmates also needed more time to finish it⏰. Therefore, for the next 35 minutes, I was able to complete my assignment. I had to share my screen to prove that I've been working on something. I am glad that I had finished it.

After a ten minute break, the next part of AEP classes had begun. Miss Disa sent a link to a new website called "Miro". I am happy that Miss Disa has found this website because it's very fun and useful. This is coming from both my personal experience and my experience as a student. Once everyone in the class clicked to the link, there was the next page of Unit 1. There was a passage and we had to underline the words related to the topic of family. Miss Disa set the timer. The whole class interactively underlined every word that we could relate with family👨‍👩‍👧‍👦. Some of the words were: modern family, grandchildren, divorced, brothers, sisters, and so much more.

Once the timer run off, Miss Disa checked and made a tally of how many words each person had underlined. In my case, I had underlined about 7 words. I didn't know that our tally score would be individually written. I thought we were scored on how many words/ phrases everyone underlined. Either way, we all did a great job. The person with the most underlined words was...(drum roll)…Chloe. I want to congratulate Chloe and everyone else🎉.

Next, we did the following part of the page. We all needed to match the meanings of the vocabularies which were from the passage. This time when the timer hit on and the music played, I got more competitive. I matched some of the words to their corresponding meanings. The end result was quite successful🎯! 

 I have learned so many new vocabularies that would help me in the present and future. I took into account that in AEP classes we don't just learn for the sake of our grades. We also learn for our future. For example, back in Grade 7 we did many listening exercises and exams. This made us clear out some barriers in communication like the accents, word choice, pace in talking, and so much more. I hope to continue this way in AEP classes. 

Our exit ticket was in the same link. Thus, we all wrote down our feelings and thoughts about the day! I learned a lot from these exercises. These activities and assessments activated my brain a whole bunch more! Plus, I had lots of fun :D Now that we are tested on our reading skills, I hope to get better in that part of English. As the famous saying goes "There is always a room for improvement.✨"

Thank you so much for reading my first ever blog! I wish everyone the best of this school year!

Signing off - Meral