Greetings 3rd Term!- Meral- AEP 10- Blog 1

Welcome to the third term! It's quite startling how swiftly time flies; soon enough, we'll find ourselves finishing this school year. With the closure of the musicals, the school atmosphere is bound to return to its familiar routine, presenting both positive and challenging aspects. Fortunately, AEP has been sailing smoothly, though upcoming challenges, particularly in adapting to essays about Maps, are on the horizon. But before delving into that, let's revisit February 27th, our first day back after finals.

That particular day brought an unexpected twist from Miss Disa as she unveiled a new craft: the art of creating monkey fist knots. We eagerly dove into the world of intricate knots by following a tutorial on YouTube. Despite my efforts, I found myself wrestling with the elusive "baby in the cradle" maneuver, struggling to keep it securely in place. Eventually, I resorted to a bit of creative intuition, knotting the string in a more freestyle fashion and ended up with a result that resembled the intended knot. 

Throughout the process, I discovered the activity to be surprisingly therapeutic, regardless of the initial challenged. What intrigued me even more was the dual functionality of the monkey fist knot, serving both as a practical anchor and a decorative ornament. I hope there are more crafty projects in store for us this term! We also played several word games, including Squardle, Connections, Wordle, and Tiles to conclude the day. 

The following week, we engaged in a session of Squardle, comprising of 72 words. This customary activity served as both entertainment and a mental warm-up for the day. We also received our finals back to recheck. While taking the finals, I wasn't really in the headspace to write constructive essays; hence, my erasures. However, I'm glad my score turned out higher than I had expected. 

On March 5, we kicked off the class with the classic Wordle, successfully solving it in our 6th attempt and forming the word "hunch". Following that, we delved into a new type of diagram- maps. Miss Disa searched for a sample map from IELTS Writing task diagrams. There were two maps, representing the before and after snapshots. We divided into two groups, where we brainstormed and generated possible nouns and verbs relevant to the provided maps. Subsequently, Miss Disa annotated the map, circling essential information with labels such as "roundabout", "access road", "intersection"- words I rarely use but need to familiarize myself with.

Among all the diagrams we've tackled throughout this school year, this one stands out as perhaps the most challenging, especially at first glance. It became apparent that a meticulous examination of every difference between the two maps and a strong lexical field are necessary to effectively label specific parts when composing the essay.

In essence, I find myself somewhat daunted at the moment, yet I remain hopeful that I'll grasp the intricacies of this skill in the weeks to come. Thank you for reading this and I'm hoping to see you in the next one!

Signing off,

Meral