Reflection - Chloe Lloveras- Blog 2 T1 & 2- AEP9

Two months have gone by since I’ve written my last blog, which means it’s time for a new one! The adventures we’ve gone through in AEP have collected into one big swirl of memories just waiting to be unraveled. So without further ado, let’s start from September 6.

Theses were the days when we used to play “WordleCup” and unfortunately, I only guessed 1 out of the 3 words that day. 

And with that short warmup finished, we proceeded to our first project: writing a letter to someone we want to thank. Immediately after hearing the prompt, I’d thought of my aunt because of how I’d visited her over the summer. We spent my birthday together and she made the ultimate birthday bash with a custom cake, gifts, dinner, etc.! And I know she put a lot of effort into making it all possible; so, who better to thank than her? 

Finishing the letter was just a matter of a simple draft and actually writing on pretty stationary with a few stickers here and there. I finished the letter on September 7th whilst listening to “Studio Ghibli,” a guarantee for a relaxing time. I really enjoyed this type of project: simple, fun, rewarding! I definitely want similar projects like this in the future.

Moving on to September 13th, it was the day before midterms so we spent AEP playing “Codewords” as a class. It was pretty easy once we got the hang of it. And after about 3 minutes, we were instructed by Miss Disa to complete our missing assignments. Since I didn’t have any, I got to study for midterms. Lucky me! 

A week after midterms on September 19th we were assigned yet another project: to make a video to promote a specific country. We were given the privilege to choose 1 to our liking  (aside from the Philippines). Though, Miss Disa told us that she was just informing us for now and that’d we’d be working on it in the next few meetings. 

But before that, we played “Codewords” together. It took twice as long as last time (6 minutes). Afterwards, we played “Scrabble,” which was a bit trickier for me because at 1 point I had a full deck of vowels. In the end, Meral won with the winning score of 126 points. Nice job, Meral!  

The next day, on September 20th, we kicked the day off with “Wordle” and guessed the correct answer on the 5th try. Then, we watched a video on future tense phrases like “on the point of,” “to be due to,” and many more that we’d be using in our upcoming project.

To test our knowledge, we were told to join a “quizizz” containing 15 questions. Some were easy while others, I believe, had more than 1 answer. This made choosing very difficult. 

Meanwhile, at this point in time, I remember being so excited to start the project. It sounded fun and had endless possibilities to show creativity (1 of my strong suits). Spoiler alert! I preferred the other one better. But I’ll go into that in more detail later. 

On September 27th, we played “Quordle” together, which is definitely an upgrade from “Wordle.” It’s pretty much 4 “Wordles” mashed into 1 game. 

Afterwards, we did the same quizizz from the previous session over again. I got all of the answers correct. Since everyone didn’t have any more questions about the quizizz, Miss Disa appointed Leo as our head organizer for the project. 

It’s finally October, October 3 to be exact, and on that day we played “Scrabble” as the rainy weather encouraged it. This time I got really good letters and found the perfect places to put them. Upon completing the round in the 1st period, we decided to work on the project in the next. The planning stage took really long, specifically in choosing a country, but we eventually decided on Tokyo! 

On October 4th, we started the late morning off with “Waffle,” a new game that’s quite simple actually. We completed it on the 11th try out of the 14 we were given. Afterwards, we decided on what days each of us would do for the promo video and I got day 1. This meant that I’d be talking about the flight and hotel details. 

Researching information about the best options didn’t take that long. It was mostly the compiling of information and deciding on the format that was the hardest. 

During October 10, we started the day this time with “Codewords” and got it done in 7 minutes. We didn’t stay there too long because we all knew we needed to work on our project together. Throughout the session, I managed to fill my slides on the “Canva” PowerPoint, so all that was left to do was squeeze some more tenses on my part. The day ended with the usual exit ticket. 

The next day, on October 11th, we played a new game called “Letters Boxed,” which is the game where you have to create words with a string. You cannot use the letters on the same side next to each other, which is what makes it challenging. But after that, we worked on our project yet again. This time I managed to get everything done except for the voiceover (which I did over the weekend). 

My thoughts on this project were a bit jumbled. I enjoyed the design and research aspects of the project, but I found it hard to summarize all the information because there was so much of it! We get a lot of projects similar to this in other subjects like in English or Biology where we have to use “Canva” for PowerPoints, posters, etc. 

I just found writing a letter to be more rewarding because of how quick and simple it is. And for many people, like me, we can struggle in simplicity, which is why I found this project a big help in improving my English skills. Also, the fact that someone is actually receiving our work makes this project 10 times better. The letters project taught me that making something in school doesn’t always have to be for the grades, but it can also be for appreciating someone else.

Fast forward to the present time! It’s now November 7th, the end of term 1, but the beginning of term 2. The list of things we did in this first term seem endless, but here are a few: “Scrabble;” learning grammar; understanding the different future tenses; writing a letter; making a promotional video for Tokyo; and finding our way through the present and past  continuous tenses, present and past perfect tenses, and many others. Moreover, to name a some of the warm-ups we’ve encountered, we have “Wordle”, “Waffle,” “Codewords,” “Letters Boxed,” and “Quordle. And the lists go on!  

However, I do admit that doing these tasks did have some hardships like technical issues. Nonetheless, we managed to overcome them through practice, teamwork, and the help of actually being face to face. Oh, how good it feels to say we’re now face to face! 

Regarding the things I’ve liked over this past term, I must say that “Scrabble” and “writing a letter” would have to be in my top 2. They’re both fun, simple, but really get the gears in our brain to start turning. I also enjoy how we don’t write blogs as often since it lets us really talk more thoroughly about what’s happened so far when we actually do have to write. 

Overall, this term was a good way of pivoting from online to face to face. I do believe that we’re now getting into the groove of things a lot better than before. And with that, I bid term 1 “adieu” and welcome term 2 with open arms!