Skip to main content

Learning to Breathe — Leo's Fourth Blog

 RAHHHHHHHHHHH!



Today marks the day of the fourth blog! The entirety of the weeks following the last blog was all about learning about essays and learning about time management, because we had way too many suspensions on a supposedly normal Monday morning. Regardless, I have learnt a lot over the interval of these blogs. Although, I doubt I can remember the specifics, like Janek in his blog. Let's see as we go through the menagerie of random thoughts I've cultivated over AEP class!

We'll start off with the spotlight of the class: the project. DUN, DUN, DUN! On a duration of 10 days, we had learned how to ... drum roll ... breathe! Using an app, named "Balance", we had to do a course where we learnt meditative skills. It was difficult during the first session (yes, breathing was difficult), since I was often stressed and hated feeling like I was spending time doing something that would waste precious minutes, but it was my grade, so I had to do it. The project was an overall struggle, only because I was worrying about the wretched exams every time I tried to meditate for only 5 minutes. It was just me screaming in my head, "BREATHE IN! BREATHE OUT!" over and over and over again. Of course, I didn't have the expectation that I'd be a monk in the midst of the Chinese mountains doing nothing but saying "Ommmmm, Ommmmm" for the rest of my life, but I had expected me to be able to at least enter some sort of plane of spirituality and silence my thoughts. As I moved forward with the project, it began to come through easier—breathing became easier. It's safe to say, with all the people that had barged into my room during it, that I was successful in transforming into the Chinese monk! Also, I was the first one to finish out of all grades, woo!

Jokes aside, though, I did learn some meditative skills to help me when I slept. Nowadays, I try doing breathing techniques to aid my slumbers, and it helps to some sort of extent. I still have my troubles falling asleep, so it's not perfect, but at least better than nothing.

The project alone was finding a needle in a haystack (yes, breathing was very difficult), but when we had the midterms, I felt like finding an atom of uranium in a haystack! I studied a week before, before it was moved due to a suspension. Then I studied again the week after, not realizing that it was moved the week after the week after that week—2 weeks later. I had studied the vocabulary probably a million times, to the point where it's carved into my head, and I just gave up after hearing that it was the week after. Thankfully, I was well-acquainted with the words enough to not study the day before the test and run out of the examination room with flying colors.

We had learnt essay writing for majority of the classes, being taught how to structure an IELTS Writing Task 1 exam, by having 4 paragraphs which talk about the graph, the data, and the comparisons. I'm finding it easier as we continue to learn. However, my vocabulary sure is lacking to find words related to increases and decreases. It's good in poetry at least (hint: subtly wavering ...). What I mainly want to aim for is fluidity, more than lexis. I feel that once I figure out how to use words in transitions rather than hard periods and not-so-great comma placements, I would be able to let the synonyms flow simpler.

There is not much else to say other than the fact that we had a 159-try game of Contexto which was horrible, and the aforementioned. For the next half of this term, I'm only looking to improve.
Thank you for RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Comments

  1. 159 try game of Contexto? And I thought 49 guesses for the word "evening" was bad enough.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Idk what I'm doing guys - Blog 1.1 - Aire M.

I had lots of fun today in AEP. Adelia gave me lots of laughter by saying that "sister-in-law is the wife of your partner." All of us in our small group participated so I am really happy. I was also really excited for homeworks [yes, I know!] because I get a freedom ticket if I submit on time. Plus, Miss Disa gave us 2 breaks (period break and an extra one) so I got to stretch and relax, which was nice. Overall, my AEP experience was great. (Is this how I'm supposed to write my blog? Help I need confirmation)

AEP-Blog #1

 On our first lesson of AEP this year, Ms Disa gave us an overview on what we will be doing this year. And I'll be honest, I'm a bit nervous. Because we'll be doing a lot more things like seatwork and quizzes. I know that should've been expected in every subject, but I was in AEP last year and, though they were still seatworks done, it seemed more laid back and fun. Now it looks like it will be more uptight with work and we will have less fun in class.    Ms Disa added the vocabulary quizzes back into AEP, which I didn't do last year in AEP. She showed us what it is about and I think this will be quite useful. I like to add to my vocabulary, and this seems like a great way to do it. I believe Ms said that after we do our vocab quizzes, we will do a spin the wheel on the next lesson, the wheel will consist of words that were on the quiz and we will test our knowledge of the word by defining it using a sentence that tells us what the word means.  Though, I do believe

Short. Sweet. Simple! - Chloe Lloveras- Blog 1 T1- AEP10

      Back at it again! The new school year has begun and AEP along with it. But this year, it comes with a twist: a much more jam-packed schedule and more essay-writing. Did I mention that the vocabulary quizzes are back and that blogs will be more frequent now? No? Well, you're in for a treat!      We hadn't even met for the first session yet, but we were already juggling assessments like a syllabus quizlet, a "what's your English level?" test, and even a knowledge quiz about IELTS writing task one, something I haven't encountered before. When our first meeting did commence, it wasn't until a week later due to the heavy rainfall and strong winds so classes were canceled. As you might've guess, we were already behind and AEP hadn't even begun yet!  Before starting, Miss Disa established the basics for the new school year: 1. Every meeting will begin with a word game with a five-minute time limit. If we don't finish in time, we'll still mov