Reflective Essay

          In terms of "displaying responsibility, integrity, and honesty" at ACLC, I have become compassionate and learned to take responsibility for my time and actions because of my flexible schedule and internship requirement. In my sophomore year, I participated in the FLI program. I hosted a book drive for the Garfield Elementary School Library in Oakland, where my aunt had worked 5 years prior. The school is mostly made up of English as a Second Language students. I remember when I was in fourth grade, I visited my aunt's fourth grade class. I looked around and noticed that everything was way more run down than my Elementary School in Alameda was, especially the books in the library. With the help of another learner, I put book bins all around the center and the Alameda Head Start. We also asked book stores for donations. In the end, we donated over 300 children's books to the Garfield library.
          The English classes at ACLC are amazing, this year we have read Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance and Jack Kerouac's On the Road.   In Honors English we have written many five page theses on various texts including, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Mrs Dalloway, Hamlet and The Tempest. Lynn & Molly's English classes have broadened my worldview and my mind and made me enjoy reading. ACLC also offers amazing electives and gives learners the ability to take community college classes. Since I came to ACLC I have taken 5 years of Spanish, and went to Spain with the class. Taking Spanish at ACLC has made me passionate about learning the language.
           The science classes are very engaging and we do a lot of projects. In physics this year, we have made model rockets, electric motors, and Rube Goldberg machines. The biology and Environmental science classes take tons of fun field trips to the wetlands and to the Monterey Bay Aquarium sleepover. We got to dissect a pig's heart and a cow's eye and ate crickets and mealworms. The math program at ACLC, as I went through it, was awful and now I hate math, even though it used to be my favorite subject. I took algebra 1 and 2, geometry and pre-calculus, but when I went to the College of Alameda to take the math placement test, the first 7 problems given were on scientific notation, which I had never even seen before, so I got them wrong. The test stopped and I scored into pre algebra. I realized when I was studying for the SAT how much algebra and geometry I didn't know and my math scores on the SAT came out very lot.  In the history classes, we learned a lot about how government and society works and about capitalism, socialism, social Darwinism, current events, and the many wars that have been fought in the world.
             In the six years that I have been at ACLC, I have learned a lot about technology. Over the years ACLC has added laptops and a computer lab and they are both great resources to have. I mastered Microsoft word, excel, prezi, and powerpoint. In eighth grade I took DVS wheel and learned how to film videos and upload them to a computer to edit them. That skill has been useful all throughout high school, as I have filmed and edited many videos for Spanish, history, English, and physics.
             The humanities classes at ACLC have taught me critical thinking and reasoning skills that are much deeper than what I feel I would have learned at a regular public school. In Molly's English classes, sometimes we have to analyze and annotate a piece of literature VERY throughly and then participate in a socratic seminar with other learners to make inferences about the text and attempt to understand it's deeper meaning. All of the history classes that I have been in discuss and criticize current issues in society and politics.
            A lot of classes assign a lot of partner projects, so I've had to work with a lot of different people. In English 2/3 and 4, Molly had us work in groups in almost every class to share our ideas. At first, it was nerve-wracking, but after 2 years, I am starting to become accustomed to sharing my ideas with other learners in the class. We also have the ability to take college classes, which I have taken advantage of. I have taken Physical Anthropology, German, and Mythology, Symbol & Folklore. Last year with the help of two other learners, I planned and organized a multi-cultural night that was attended by around 250 people. It featured a henna booth and a photo booth which involved talking to kids and parents about ACLC and the event, a potluck, open house, and guest performers. I had to personally ask restaurants owners to donate food for it. We also had a costume contest, a talent show, and an art show. I was running around like crazy, coordinating and talking to people. I had to be very social even though I can sometimes be awkward and I felt that the event was a great success.