ACLC has given me the opportunity to engage in a variety of activities, thereby giving me a self-governing sense of responsibility. I have been active in many arenas, including Peer Counseling, teaching classes to younger learners, Learning to Learn classes and being a small group leader. All of these made me play a role in something much bigger than just me. I was part of a community and it gave me a welcome sense of responsibility toward others as well as myself. I was counted on and had to show up for the better of the group and that made me grow as I spent my years at ACLC.
The wide range of classes offered at ACLC especially when compared to a traditional high school, has given me a skill set that I probably wouldn’t have developed otherwise. In my English classes for example, I became very proficient at annotating, learned about reading lenses and gained a keen sense of reading analysis through Socratic Seminars. I feel like I will take these skills with me through life and use them often and with confidence. These involvements made me a much better listener and a better speaker. Communication is an area that I have advanced in more recently. For my last semester at ACLC I took a college level Spanish class at Merritt College. I am not quite ready to speak it with confidence yet, but as far as my understanding it, I have become much more developed and will go on to study more. I really loved learning so much about another culture and being able to communicate outside of the classroom setting is my goal. Economics introduced me to a glimpse of how the world works, and better prepared me for the financial challenges we all face. I have learned things here that I will most certainly carry along with me and will reflect on often as I grow up.
My technique to learning has advanced greatly as my skills have sharpened over the years. When I first started at ACLC, I was under developed and raw, but as the years wore on, I became a much better and attentive learner, thanks to the methods I have been taught. I look at annotating again when I think of this, as it makes me write down my entire thought process as I read something and gives me an analytical eye on the writing instead of just reading something two-dimensionally. I am now much better able to see the whole picture and look at so many different visions of how the author may have wanted his reader to. Leadership is an area that taught me some invaluable skills as well. It makes me consider all options through working with my peers and allows my voice to be heard, even though it may not always be the way I think is the best, it ends up being the best for all concerned. We have a lot of decision making to perform and setting up and altering our system is so important in a democratic society. We use discussion, reasoning and finally cast a vote to make any and all changes and proposals that are presented to us.
Being a learner at ACLC is very unique in that it is impossible to be a loner. You have to interact in order to function on a daily basis and become more and more involved as you elevate in grade levels. We are slowly but certainly shown a path to becoming active members of a society through CCC, neoteric bevies and LLC’s. We are encouraged to give feed back all the time and this makes us productive members of our community. Our feedback may not always be met with welcome ears, but we are allowed to voice our opinions and in turn learn empathy when dealing with tough situations. This gives us a sense of belonging as well as a sense of responsibility all at once. In our Senior Year, we are tested to take these skills out into the workplace by performing an Internship in an area that interests us. This taught me that I am prepared to be part of a larger community and will become a very productive and most importantly active member of our society.
Our school is very technologically aware. In 6th grade our class was split in half and the first year one half was on Tech Team and in 7th grade the other half was on the team. We were taught how to fix computers and printers, learned our way around programs, and got a grasp on basic navigational skills that would prove invaluable in our later years. We have entire projects based on nothing other than computer skills. We are expected to make presentations using Power Point or Prezi and most of us become proficient at these and others by the age of 13. At most other traditional schools you wouldn’t find a room full of computers, especially the heart of campus. ACLC stresses the importance of being computer literate and with good reason. Our world is becoming more and more tied to what computers and programming can offer our lives and we were set up to have a powerful grasp on this knowledge.
The wide range of classes offered at ACLC especially when compared to a traditional high school, has given me a skill set that I probably wouldn’t have developed otherwise. In my English classes for example, I became very proficient at annotating, learned about reading lenses and gained a keen sense of reading analysis through Socratic Seminars. I feel like I will take these skills with me through life and use them often and with confidence. These involvements made me a much better listener and a better speaker. Communication is an area that I have advanced in more recently. For my last semester at ACLC I took a college level Spanish class at Merritt College. I am not quite ready to speak it with confidence yet, but as far as my understanding it, I have become much more developed and will go on to study more. I really loved learning so much about another culture and being able to communicate outside of the classroom setting is my goal. Economics introduced me to a glimpse of how the world works, and better prepared me for the financial challenges we all face. I have learned things here that I will most certainly carry along with me and will reflect on often as I grow up.
My technique to learning has advanced greatly as my skills have sharpened over the years. When I first started at ACLC, I was under developed and raw, but as the years wore on, I became a much better and attentive learner, thanks to the methods I have been taught. I look at annotating again when I think of this, as it makes me write down my entire thought process as I read something and gives me an analytical eye on the writing instead of just reading something two-dimensionally. I am now much better able to see the whole picture and look at so many different visions of how the author may have wanted his reader to. Leadership is an area that taught me some invaluable skills as well. It makes me consider all options through working with my peers and allows my voice to be heard, even though it may not always be the way I think is the best, it ends up being the best for all concerned. We have a lot of decision making to perform and setting up and altering our system is so important in a democratic society. We use discussion, reasoning and finally cast a vote to make any and all changes and proposals that are presented to us.
Being a learner at ACLC is very unique in that it is impossible to be a loner. You have to interact in order to function on a daily basis and become more and more involved as you elevate in grade levels. We are slowly but certainly shown a path to becoming active members of a society through CCC, neoteric bevies and LLC’s. We are encouraged to give feed back all the time and this makes us productive members of our community. Our feedback may not always be met with welcome ears, but we are allowed to voice our opinions and in turn learn empathy when dealing with tough situations. This gives us a sense of belonging as well as a sense of responsibility all at once. In our Senior Year, we are tested to take these skills out into the workplace by performing an Internship in an area that interests us. This taught me that I am prepared to be part of a larger community and will become a very productive and most importantly active member of our society.
Our school is very technologically aware. In 6th grade our class was split in half and the first year one half was on Tech Team and in 7th grade the other half was on the team. We were taught how to fix computers and printers, learned our way around programs, and got a grasp on basic navigational skills that would prove invaluable in our later years. We have entire projects based on nothing other than computer skills. We are expected to make presentations using Power Point or Prezi and most of us become proficient at these and others by the age of 13. At most other traditional schools you wouldn’t find a room full of computers, especially the heart of campus. ACLC stresses the importance of being computer literate and with good reason. Our world is becoming more and more tied to what computers and programming can offer our lives and we were set up to have a powerful grasp on this knowledge.