Online Portfolio Reflection, 2nd Semester

I have had a great experience being the the core. There were so many things I have learned and have done in this year that I'm able to say that this year was a job well done. I'm proud of the accomplishments I have achieved so far in my high school career and I hope to continue to strive in my education and academics. My GLO portfolio will showcase to you the work I have done this year showing how I have applied my class lessons into my work. So, after you have viewed my portfolio, please proceed so that you can answer the questions below.

Click Here to view my portfolio ^o^

1. What did you like best about my portfolio and portfolio conference? What would you like to see me improve on in my portfolio?
2. From your point of view, which of my attainments of the 6 general learner outcomes is of most value? Please explain why you feel it is important and what about my documentation of it impresses you.
3. Which of the GLOs would you like me to focus on in the coming year(s)?

Journal #4 - How You Shaped & Produced the "Impact Activity?" (Process Paper)

For my “impact activity,” I am going to play a portion of a piano piece I’m currently teaching myself, and I will be applying the lessons I have learned from my piano classes into the song. I made a video instead because I couldn’t bring in my keyboard to school. (Hahaha)

For the piano piece, I actually knew how to play the whole beginning part of the song so that wasn’t much of a problem for me to do. However, I could never get past the first page of the song so I gave up. It became sort of difficult. I gave it a try, but it didn’t sound right. Then, with some practice and after the first two piano lessons I took, it became quite easier. The lessons really did help me out a lot.

The process I went through to develop my impact activity wasn’t difficult to come up with. It was obvious that I would have to perform a piano piece. The better question was “HOW?” How could I present it to the class? I knew I couldn’t bring my piano to school. That would be crazy. (Hahaha) So, as suggested by Mrs. Sueoka and my friends, I should just take a video of myself. I was even thinking of having someone film me while I was taking my lessons, but it didn’t work out. So, instead of performing live, which I would have loved to do, I just decided to take a video of myself and present it to the class.

Journal #3 - Response To Your Learning (Reflective Journal)

My passion is playing the piano. Even though I stopped having lessons ever since the third grade, that never stopped me from continuing to play. Without lessons, I managed to still teach myself how to play about 10 songs, mostly by ear. However, I didn’t know the dynamics and terms of piano, such as forte, which means to play loud, and piano, which means to play soft. Because of Project Icarus, I signed myself up for piano lessons and it was the best decision I ever made. (This is shown as a documentation of how I attained GLO #1.) I learned a lot from my instructor, which helped me improve my piano playing overall. As the lessons became a little more challenging, I began to struggle a bit. I could read the notes just fine, but I needed to give myself a second to figure out what note it was. No matter how difficult it gets, I’m still motivated to continue and not give up. The challenge is what keeps me going. The point of school is to inspire and challenge students and to help them reach their highest potential. Because of this, I have developed an outgoing attitude that will help me go far in life.

Journal #2 - Data & Information Gathering (Essay)

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard and it is also one of the most popular instruments in the world because of it’s versatility and ubiquity. I enjoy playing this instrument a lot. By taking lessons, my skills have enhanced and my passion for “tickling the ivories” grew. (“Tickling the ivories” is another way of saying playing the piano.)

Playing the piano involves a lot of focus. In piano, you are required to think about how each hand needs to move separately. Reading the notes on the music staff, which creates the melody, is one of the most important things when it comes to piano because you need to translate the notes and hit the correct keys in order to produce the right sound.

When you play the piano, you also need to have some kind of control; control of timing and control of tone and dynamics. Timing is more of a mental thing. That is why piano playing requires much concentration. In addition, it enhances fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. The control of dynamics is control of hammer velocity; how hard or soft you hit the keys of the piano. If you strike a key with a small amount of force, then the resulting sound would be soft. If you strike a key with a large amount of force, then the resulting sound would be loud. The control of tone is control of hammer acceleration; the acceleration of the hammer to the strings of the piano, which causes the deformation of the string affecting the tone.

Of course before you play the piano, you need to know the basic terms and their meanings. (Since there are a lot, I’ll just explain the most common ones.) The treble clef sign is used for right hand notes and is found on the treble staff. The bass clef sign is used for left hand notes and is found on the bass staff. When combining the bass staff and the treble staff with a brace, it makes up the grand staff. The dynamic signs such as p for piano meaning to play softly, mf for mezzo forte meaning to play moderately loud, and f for fore meaning to play loud, are very important things to remember too.

Other than just control and knowing the fundamentals of piano, as a pianist, I think it’s very important to not only just learn and memorize the song, but more beyond that, feel the music. In my opinion, there is no sense in playing a piano piece you aren’t into. It’s just a waste of time when you could be learning another song that you’d probably enjoy playing much more.

Playing the piano has its benefits. It develops your brain by engaging it to multitasking activities because you have to read the notes and simultaneously press the keys of the piano. It can also enhance school performance. Research shows that learning the piano can improve school performance because the sessions needed to learn the piano causes a long-term enhancement of the brain that involves logic and reasoning skills and cognitive skills. The things attained from playing the piano can last for a lifetime.