Core Competency Reflection

Personal Awareness & Responsibility

Strengths

I take personal responsibility for my choices and actions

One of my personal beliefs is that one should always take responsibility for a choice or an action,
as taking responsibility for the choices made can be rewarding overall. When one takes responsibility for
their mistakes, they take ownership of who they are and how things are in life. Personally, I take
responsibility for poor choices and actions as I think being dishonest about such things builds up and
does not allow one to grow as a person. A recent example of how I took responsibility for a mistake
happened a few days ago when I accidentally broke a mug, instead of hiding what I did I informed my
parent and cleaned up the mess.

I understand my decisions and actions can affect me

The understanding that my decisions and actions can affect me is important as the choices and
actions one takes heavily contributes to personal growth, like gaining knowledge learning a new skill or
developing a greater understanding of the world around one. I understand that my decisions and actions
have an impact on my life whether it is a big decision and action or a small one. The choices I make set
off a chain reaction of outcomes that impact my wellbeing, quality of life and growth as a human being.
This is one of my strengths as I try and make good decisions that lead me towards personal growth and
learning.

Weakness

I can express my needs and seek help when needed

An area I struggle in is expressing my needs and seeking help when needed, as there have been times
when I had hesitation to voice a need. An example of this in a classroom setting is that I would simply
not look for help and ask a teacher for support. It is a dislike for burdening my issues on others or a want
to seem self-sufficient, but this weakness has affected me leading to poor outcomes.

Social Responsibility

Strengths

I am aware of my environment and work independently and collaboratively for the benefit of others
I have a good awareness of my environment and I do well when adapting to different situations. For
example, whether I am working independently or in collaboration with people, I feel I can focus on the
task that I am assigned to do. I can use my critical thinking skills to analyze situations and problems we
may have and can create strategies to combat the problems. Last year an organization in our school that
cleans up the garbage and focuses on the environment of our school organized many cleanups around
the school and I was able to work collaboratively and independently very effectively.

I can identify and appreciate different perspectives on issues and use and evaluate strategies to resolve
problems

Being able to identify and appreciate different perspectives on issues and approaching an issue
is something that I believe is one of my strengths. I understand that everyone brings different skills and
perspectives to the table, and I seek out different perspectives to solve problems whether I am working
independently or working collaboratively. I can see the possible benefits and risks of every perspective
and can give my opinion on which approach would be best to solve a problem and result in a solution.
For example, last semester in my Spanish 11 class I was put in a group, and we were given the task of
creating a market stand. We collaboratively brainstormed many ideas on what to sell and we all gave
our perspectives on which item would work well for all of us while being an interesting item.

Weakness

I have positive peer and intergenerational relationships

I struggle with maintaining positive relationships with peers as it is difficult to build a close bond. This
may be because of my hesitance to open up fully or maybe it is because of an internal fear of being
judged negatively. An example of this is when I was younger, I was in a badminton team with many new
people I had not known before, and I struggled to create a rapport with my teammates. In
intergenerational interactions there is sometimes a difference in understanding, maybe due to different
life experiences. This has affected my ability to communicate meaningfully with people from different
age groups. I am currently working on improving my communication skills with the goal of creating
better peer relationships and closing the generation gap better.

Critical Thinking

Strength
I can ask good quality questions gather relevant information and produce well-developed conclusions

Asking good quality questions and being able to gather relevant information to produce well-
developed conclusions is one of my strengths as it helped me gain important information effectively. I
think that asking good questions is how good solutions can be made. By looking at the context and
information of a situation I can create questions that help solve the situation. A recent example of this is
in my economics class we had to create a new product and market the product launch. A question that I
asked my groupmate was what demographic we were trying to target and what do they engage with
most.

I can assess my progress

I can assess my progress well while tracking my goals and achievements allowing me to look over the
things I want to accomplish. I am also able to get feedback from my peers to gain another perspective
giving me more information of areas for improvement. This approach can help me adjust and set new
goals to be more successful. An example of this is during the quarantine we were assigned to do build
and improve our fitness activities remotely and I am proud of how I was able to track and assess my
progress throughout that time.

Weakness

I can analyze and critique my work and my learning

Analyzing and critiquing my work and learning is a skill that I do possess. But I find it challenging to do so
without someone else's perspective. I find it hard to detach from my work that I feel I personally did well
on, and it can make it harder to analyze and critique my own work. For an English assignment last
semester, and I had to do self-evaluation, but I had a hard time doing so as the piece of writing I did was
very personal to me, and it was hard for me to find critiques.

Creative Thinking

Strengths

I can take my ideas, evaluate, develop and refine them and make something productive out of them.
I have a strong capacity to take ideas and look at their potential to change and develop them into better
outcomes. I feel I can take ideas and transform them into small tasks while being open to adjustments
and create something productive.

I can persevere and understand that failure can be productive

I can understand failure can be productive as I recognize that failure can offer understanding of what is
working and what is not working. I understand that failure is a part of the learning process, and that
failure is an opportunity to look over why something went wrong to adapt and learn to become more
capable and improve my adaptability. I can take on challenges with optimism with understanding that
they help my journey of growth productivity. In middle school I used to skate a lot and when you learn a
trick in skating failure is inevitable and is due to happen. I knew that every time I fell, I would learn
something and improve slowly to make my goal of making whatever trick I would be attempting to
learn.

Weakness

I can use the environment around me, including my unconscious mind, to generate new ideas.

I would say using the environment around me and tapping into my unconscious mind to
generate new ideas is a weakness as I have a tough time channeling and creating fresh new ideas. It's
challenging for me to quiet my mind so my thoughts can flow. I also have a hard time using the
environment around me to seek inspiration for ideas. Even recently when brainstorming ideas for
capstone it took me a while to think of an idea that I was fully wanting to do. I am committed to
improving this weakness.

Communication

I can work with other students to plan, inquire, and solve problems

Working with other students so we can plan, inquire and solve problems is a strength of mine as I think I
do well in a team environment. I can see and value other perspectives and I feel I try to engage with my
peers to make sure everyone is on the same page and that everyone understands what and when tasks
should be accomplished by. An example of this could be the paper trick that we did at the start of the
school year where we were tasked to fold a paper in a strange way and in my group, we had good
communication and good ideas on how to solve the problem.

I can reflect on the processes of learning and share what I have learned
Reflecting on the processes of learning is a very important part of my learning as I try to take time to see
what challenges I faced and what I did to solve them. By sharing my personal process of learning my
peers could see and contribute to the growth of their own learning, while also improving my own
processes of learning. In grade 9 I used to do lots of swimming classes and my instructor told us to do a
swimming technique that I had not known how to do. But after seeing examples of my peers doing the
swimming technique, I was able to learn how to do it myself.

Weakness

I can listen, learn to contribute meaningfully to discussion and debate, consider different perspectives,
and build consensus

Understanding the importance of listening and participating in active learning is a weakness of mine as I
have issues fully engaging as I at times can be distracted and lose focus on the activities taking place.
Sometimes I also tend to focus too much on my response to what the speaker is saying then to fully take
in what the speaker is saying so I may miss key points. This happened in my psychology class when my
teacher was lecturing us about the 7 key traits of psychology, and I was thinking about how some of
those traits applied to my personal life instead of fully focusing on what she was trying to teach.

Personal & Cultural Identity

Strengths

I understand what is important to me

Having an understanding of what is important to me is a strength of mine because to me my family and

meaningful relationships are usually the priority in my life. I usually don’t question what is or isn't
important to be because I have solid belief in my principles.

I know my strengths and what makes me unique

Personally I would say I know my strengths and I know what I can bring to a group. I can convey my
opinions and I am able to listen to other people's ideas and provide personal input well.

Weakness

I understand how to use my strengths and abilities to my advantage, and I can explain how I use them to
contribute to my community

I have a clear understanding of how to use my strengths and abilities to my advantage so that I can
contribute well to my community. For example, I feel I have good creative thinking skills and that I can
offer different solutions for problems and challenges and that I am able to understand and recognize the
concerns of others. Being able to tailor my contributions to meet with what my community needs.