Emely Ortiz

HoM Summary
Paul Healy
June 10, 2014
Habit of Mind Summary


1) What are my greatest accomplishments this year?
I believe that my greatest accomplishment of this year is definitely passing Geometry. I was on
the verge of maybe staying back for this class. And I preserved and passed my finals and also passed
the class for the year. It took a ton of work to try and get everything I needed to know in my brain.
But I spent hours studying. It all finally paid off in a way I am most grateful. Passing geometry
hopefully shows how much dedication I am willing to put into a school subject just to pass. I am glad
that my grade for my final can speak for itself and it shows my determination.
What allowed me to achieve this accomplishment?
I achieved passing geometry by organizing what is most important to me. I wanted to set a list
and put what I felt was most needed for myself at the top. At the top of my list I had passing geometry.
Once I heard that finals were coming up I cracked open my notebook and book and quickly began to test
myself and study. I spent several days studying and would have others test me. I wanted to feel as
prepared as I could when I took the final. Of course I had one other final that I had to study for but I
made sure to equal the time I needed to study for both finals. It was difficult to try and understand
material from months ago. But I did it and I passed both my finals and I am ecstatic. I pushed through
and finally I got through to myself that if I didnt pass the final for geometry that I would have to take
the class over again. I managed to complete my checklist and crossed off my top goal which was to pass
the geometry final.
What has been my greatest struggle this year?
My greatest struggle this year was trying to balance classes and priorities outside of school. I
had to keep up with all my classes and the assignments. I was doing great until I started to have a load of
work to do. I wasnt managing my time well. I was taking advantage of valuable time that I needed for
other priorities. I had to keep up with school and my religious classes which both required time out of
the actual class. I also got into two car accidents one over the summer coming into sophomore year the
other in the middle of the year. The accidents left me attending bi-weekly therapy sessions. My time
was all over the place and I felt as if I was being stretched out and couldnt maintain control of anything.
I was rushing to do assignments just to get it done. My time was never used for the right reasons and I
now regret it.
How well have I dealt with that struggle? What might I have done differently?
I didnt deal with prioritizing. I did everything I needed to do when I needed to do it. I never
really got to really embrace the assignments. I felt as if the world was rushing me and there wasnt
enough time to do anything. I wish I would have a made a list prioritizing what I needed to do. I also
wish I would have kept up with writing in my agenda as often as possible. But I knew that I had to do
what I had to do to complete assignments. I felt as if I was swimming in a pool of work after work with
no time for myself. I would have managed my time effectively.
What are your HoM strengths? How have you demonstrated these strengths this year (inside
or outside of school)?
I believe that some of my strengths this year have been Collaboration and Community
engagement. Throughout my sophomore year I have had various projects where I was assigned to work
in a group. I have learned to put others opinion into perspective because everyone is entitled to their
own opinion. I have also learned how to incorporate everyones ideas to ensure that no ones thoughts
are left unknown remarked. In one project we had to work in a group of 5. We all had our own ideas of
what we believed was the right answer. Once we finally decided that none of us where right. The right
answer was a little of every idea in the group. I combined the ideas together and we all finally agreed on
what we thought was right. Collaboration is one Habit of Mind I love to use over and over again. I love to
work in groups because it lets you open your mind to how other peoples brain work. It is almost
remarkable when you get the chance to see how everyone can interpret a piece of work or writing
differently.
Another strength that I am learning to love is Grit. I was always the type of person to leave a
situation if it was too difficult. If it was a math problem that even looked challenging I would give up and
not complete the assignment. But this year I learned how to overcome that habit and now I love
overcoming obstacles. I love the feeling of working hard to try and complete a difficult problem. Once
you do finish you feel amazing afterwords. One class I can say that I have shown Grit would be Geometry
class. I have struggled with math all my life and this year wasnt any different. I was at the point that
some thought I may even fail Geometry for the year. But I pushed through I studied tediously trying to
pass my last final. I spent hours a day going over basic skills we learned mid-way through the year. I
came through and passed my final with a C+ and I couldnt be any happier. I worked extremely hard and
you can definitely tell with my grades.
Showing humility towards others is something I grew into this year. During a presentation in U.S
History class I acknowledged my weakness that I tend to avoid eye contact. I was confronted after the
presentation about how I could improve. My grade on the project suffered because of my lack of eye
contact. I embraced the idea that showing eye contact makes you and your audience a little more closer.
After presenting some individuals came up to me and acknowledged my strong voice. I embraced the
idea that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, including myself. I worked on improving my eye
contact through every presentation. I also kept the strong voice that I had throughout all the
presentation. By embracing the fact that weaknesses and strengths is in all of us. I decided that I would
like to be the motivator who pushes people to acknowledge their weakness and embrace their
strengths.
I have also learned how to show Community engagement by working on a variety of projects
involving trying to get volunteers or trying to change something in my community for the better. In U.S
History class we are working on an Upstander Project where my partner and I are trying to recreate
freshman orientation. We have to create and present PowerPoints to try and convince other to join in
on our project. We have to encourage others on how helping lower freshman anxiety that this can
better our school for the better. We can probably lower anxiety for that same group of kids for the rest
of their years in high school. Using community engagement really helps our project because we needed
students in our BACS community to volunteer to come along and join us on this remarkable journey.
Integrity is something I learned how to embrace this year. I learned how to be honest with
myself. For example if I needed help with a certain topic, Ive learned to ask questions. Its okay to be
honest with yourself when you dont understand a topic. In geometry in the beginning of the year I
never asked questions even though I didnt understand anything. I sat in class and hoped that I would be
able to understand it on the test. Unfortunately that wasnt the case; what so ever. My grades dropped
and I was on the verge of failing. Until I talked to a close friend and they convinced me that my
questions werent stupid. I had to learn the hard way that integrity is being honest with yourself. For me
geometry became a whole lot easier when my questions were answered.
Which HoMs are you currently working on & how have you demonstrated that this year?
This year I am working on the Habit of Mind of Wellness. Having a healthy body and mind was
never an issue for me. Then this year came around and having a perfect mind wasnt important to me
anymore. I stressed out my brain, by procrastinating on studying and completing homework
assignments at 12:30 at night. My goal was never to intentionally hurt my brain but the stress of
sophomore year had me oblivious to how much I was hurting myself. I also quickly lost focus on trying
to maintain a healthy body. Towards the middle of year with midterms reeling in my attention wasnt on
trying to keep my brain and body healthy; it was trying to pass midterms.
Now towards the end of my sophomore year I am now back on track to try and return to the
state of a healthy mind and body. I am eating right and am also giving my brain time to relax. I am not
leaving everything to the last minute. I honestly know feel that I am a strong, healthier individual than I
was in the beginning of the year. Ive learned how to figure out when I am stressing by brain out far too
much. I have learned how to relax and take things one step at a time. High school overall is an extremely
stressful experience. I wouldnt want to add unnecessary stress to myself.
Which HoMs are you still struggling with & how do you plan to make them strengths next year?
I am struggling with self-advocacy and also gratitude. I struggle with self-advocacy because I am
honestly one to not speak her mind when the time is right. In little arguments with friends of course I
speak my mind. But when it comes to higher more important scenarios my voice seems to diminish and
my mouth never seems to open. I dont like to speak my mind in front of large groups because I feel that
others may judge my answer or worse judge me. I want to try and join the debate club next year. I
would want the opportunity to speak my mind in front of crowds in a formal manor. It would help my
self-esteem by letting me voice what I believe.
I want to try and help myself become more optimistic towards life and school. I am always one
to doubt the way life works. I am sometimes an extremely negative person. I see the bad in every
situation and try and talk myself out of it. I want to work on being happier with life and embracing the
life I have. I want to try and see the good in everything and everyone. In life everything has its bad
quality. In order for me to be able to push that away I also need to use humility. Knowing that in life
everything has it strengths and its weaknesses. I feel that in life currently I am in a place where I am
happy with where I am. I know that I could also improve the way I life and hopefully one day I can.
Optimism is a great aptitude to have in life and will help you overall be a happy person. Just like school
you need to see that in the end your education is going to lead you to a good life. You shouldnt have
the mindset of going to school every day because its the law. You should go for your own wellbeing.
Once you see what youre twelve years of education paid off for it will all be worth it. I am just going to
try and keep the mindset that my education is going to lead me somewhere in this world. I believe
having this mindset will help me with growing to become a more optimistic person.
I also want to try and work on gratitude. I like to believe that I am grateful for others around
me. But I know that I sometimes take advantage of the strong motivators I have in my corner. I dont
always take advantage of the opportunities that I am offered. I leave them in the air hoping that I can
just make my way through life. I want to try and change this mind set I have. I want to go out and take
advantage of the opportunities that are being handed to me. Next year I am hoping to start taking SAT
prep classes to better prepare me for what is going to come from the SATS. I think it will be a great
opportunity for me to better my learning. Taking these classes will also help with helping to better
grasps the meaning of what it is like to have gratitude.
Lastly, I want to work on trying to become a little more organized with my word and studies. I
have papers all over my backpack and its not okay. I lose a ton of work that I spend valuable time
completing. I want to keep my education organized but I also feel that I should organize my life a little
more. I want to prioritize what is actually important to me. Family and my education are the two most
important aspects in my life. I honestly want to just see the world in a bright light. I want to see the
good in everyone. I want to stop pushing everything off and have set daily goal for myself to complete. I
feel that I would get more completed if I knew I could achieve the goal. Once I organize my life I feel that
everything else will just come in place. The world will start to be less blurry and I can finally focus my
attention on whats important.