Final Report Card Post

Participation- When it comes to participation in PE, I think I am doing well. I don't have many days where I was away and when I do they're excused. I don't think I have ever forgot to bring my gymstrip before but besides forgetting my socks one time. I have a lot of fun in gym so I try really hard. When we're doing activities where we are in teams and against each other, I get competitive and really want to win so that makes me try really hard. In fitness, I genuinely want to be more fit so I try to push myself all the time but we didn't have as many fitness days as last year. My motivation for regular PE days is just to be really good because a lot of the time people underestimate me and think that I'm just small and I don't know what else they would think but people usually don't expect much from me. I also got super competitive when we did band vs band things and grade 9 vs grade 10 things.

I think I should get 24/25

Social Responsibility and Contribution to the Class- In the beginning of the year this category was pretty weak for me. I was hard to make the adjustment from being into a class where we were younger and had a lot of friends to make the class more positive and fun to being in a class with less friends that I was already comfortable with and where we were the older ones who kinda knew more about how the class worked than the grade 9s. I think I had kinda like an indirect leadership role in our class. I think this because in our class, Yulia is kind of like a dictator because she's loud and she gets angry quickly so a lot of people are scared and intimidated by her so that's how she shows her leadership, but sometimes she can be a bit intense and other people don't want to say anything. Since Yulia and I are such good friends, I'm one of the only people who can stop her, talk to her, disagree with her and that kind of stuff. I can talk to her if she's being too controlling or if she's being too intense. I also encourage people (but usually people on my team) and sometimes I help set up but almost every game we play I help with the clean up. I try to have a good, positive attitude in class because when people are positive and trying their best it makes the class more fun! My goal for this class was not to be healthier because honestly I was pretty healthy before but I wanted the class to become better friends and for us to be more comfortable with each other and even though I'm not like bffs with every single person, we have a lot more fun doing class activities and I think I'm definitely more comfortable being around everyone and I hope they feel more comfortable around me as well. I'm also honest during games and fitness activities like the beep test because nobody cares if I'm lying I would only be lying to myself so there's really no point not telling the truth. I also like to give back to the community by volunteering for different things and events. I think I should get 24/25

Healthy Living- When it comes to my fitness scores for the beep test, I have no idea what's going on there. I feel like I'm a lot more active now than I was in grade 8 but my scores aren't getting higher or lower. I can now do things like body bridge and push-ups a lot more than the beginning of the year. I can also run farther than last year without stopping. Shiho and I did the sun run in a little over an hour including stopping and taking pictures at a few places so that was good. I don't really have and limitations except for days when I'm sick or my body isn't cooperating fitness wise I guess. I ate a lot more salads and vegetables for lunch and I love the Summer season because I can drink smoothies with a lot of different fruits and vegetables because a lot of really good fruits are in season now!! I also don't drink a lot of drinks other than water. I've been trying to drink less Starbucks which is hard because my sister works there and gets a discount but I'm trying. Outside of school I like to go running and swimming! Here's a blog post about why swimming is such a great type of exercise! 

http://gabyalmero.blogspot.com/2015/06/swim.html

In the future I hope to exercise regularly and make healthy eating choices! I don't think it's good to deprive yourself of anything but it's best to eat everything in portions so like one slice of pizza instead of 5 and stuff like that.

this is a jacket I bought for running so I could run in the cold. It also has a reflector thing on the back for cars to see me in case it's dark.

and this is after one fitness

I think I'm a pretty healthy person outside of school. I like sleeping and watching movies and eating good food but I also like to sweat and I love looking for healthy alternatives. I also recently learned how to make home made potato chips which are way healthier than lays chips and taste like real potato! I think I should get 24/25

Digital Portfolio- When it comes to my digital portfolio, I know that I definitely did not do as well as last year. I think I have about 20 posts which is less. One good thing though is that I actually put effort into my blog posts. Like I never just put in one sentence about how PE was fun that day. I actually put in things like how I acted like a leader like at the bottom of this post:

In this post I talked about why I liked that fitness, how I felt the day after and how I showed leadership.

I think my first buddy post was also good because I talked about what I learned having a buddy in grade 2 for the first time in a really long time and since we missed fitness I did some workouts at home

http://gabyalmero.blogspot.com/2015/02/buddy-program.html

This post was good:

http://gabyalmero.blogspot.com/2015/04/fitness.html

because I talked about how I felt and how I had to interact more with everyone else but I didn't have digital evidence. We were supposed to get the picture from Simran but I don't know what happened

I think I could have really worked on posting more often and using a lot more digital evidence. I think my posts do provide evidence for my learning but I still could have done more so I'm gonna give myself 18/25

Overall, I gave adding them all together I think I should get 90. I'm doing well in all the other categories but my blog brought me down so I will work on that next time!

Last day of buddies

Last week on Tuesday was our last day with our buddies. I took Yulia's buddy with my buddy and I because Yulia's was away. It was hard to control two girls that wanted to to their own thing but I got it under control after a while. It was cool seeing what they do around the class because I forgot how little we all knew in grade one. They were really excited about their teeth falling out and that was cute because i remember when I was excited about that too. It was kinda sad when we had to leave because I probably won't see my buddy again. The buddy project thing was a really good experience and I learned a lot about how much of an example I can be to little kids. 

Swim

On Saturday last week I went swimming with my friend. Whenever we go to the pool it's not for leisure but we actually work on our strokes! Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise. It's better than running because running can be hard on your ankles and knees but that doesn't happen in swimming. You also have to hold your breath a lot, and if you are trying to get a good speed the water provides a lot of resistance which also makes it a good workout. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you're working hard or not because you don't feel the sweat, but if you are actually trying really hard you will be out of breath quickly. Swimming also helps your muscles. For example, Butterfly is a great core workout. Whenever I do it properly, the next day my abs are really sore. It is also a leg and arm workout because you are constantly kicking and using your arms to keep yourself up!

Running

I did so bad at writing in my blog this year  but I actually did stuff after school! Shiho and I went running a lot and I half hated her for it half loved her. Recently like around the May long weekend, we started running before school started and it's actually nice. Since we start at 9:20, we would run around and do the community run at like 7:00ish and get back home at around 7:30 so we would still have a lot of time to get ready and the run would wake us up for the day. I think exercising helps me sleep and focus better throughout the day. I don't know if it's just in my mind but I think it's working. It's also nice to run in the morning because it isn't as hot as after school during the day.

fitness intervals

For fitness on Friday we did intervals around the pond again. I remember the first time we did this I got sick after and I felt like I was dying and gonna puke and I had such a bad headache and I had a fever for a week after. This time it felt so much better and I feel like I ran faster and improved a lot since last time. I still felt tired and like I was dying but in a good way this time. Our group was Nathan, Yulia, Shiho, Nicole and I. Since we had five people Yulia and Nathan went together. Nathan worked so hard being in our group I'm so proud of him!! My face was so red after Yulia was surprised because my face never gets that red. Usually after a good workout my face gets really pale but not red so that was a first.

Sun Run

in April Shiho and I did the Sun Run. It was 10k and super hot. There were so many people so it was a bit hard to maneuver around everyone. My time was one hour and 5 minutes and I'm pretty proud of that because there was a lot of people. We stopped to take a picture and that also took a while so that slowed us down a bit but that's ok. By the end we were so tired and it was super hot and sunny but I was just really happy to finish. At the end of the run they gave us so much free food and drinks and chocolate milk. The energy at the run was super great and everyone was happy to be running and it was not competitive so it wasn't stressful either

Parent Post

It was nice reading Gaby's blog, I found that most of her physical fitness/activities are not new to me because I hear a lot about it at home.  I'm surprised that she has not blogged about the Vancouver Sun Run.  It was Gaby's second time joining the Sun Run, her first time was a mini 2.5k for kids.
She could have also talked about her Assistant Water Safety Instructor Course that she took last year in November and shared her learnings and discoveries as well as her interaction with the kids she helped teach.

I'm pleased with the progress she is making in terms of physical fitness and healthy lifestyle choices.  As Gaby had mentioned in her blog, she tries to be mindful of being active and eating healthy even when we go on vacation.  Last year, we went to Vegas for 5 days and though we ate restaurant/fast food, we were able to compensate our "unhealthy eating" with walking every single day.  Not once did we take public transit or rented a car.  At the end of the trip, we did not feel guilty at all.  In Hawaii, we had home cooked meals and though we ate out quite a bit, Gaby's cousins definitely kept her active.

I think Gaby can improve more by regularly updating  her blog,  making it more interesting by showing videos and photos, talking about her food choices, the little things that she does at home that adds to her physical activity, and how she plans on incorporating physical fitness into the summer months. Gaby has been accepted to volunteer at the YMCA and we are hoping that she will get started on it as soon as possible.  She's also planning on volunteering in the Surrey Rec Centres.  There are quite a number of things that Gaby could write on her blog.

Overall, I enjoyed reading her blog.  I give it a 20, because I know that she can still push herself a bit more by sharing what goes on in the present and her short term (and possibly long term) fitness goals.  This blog is a good venue for her to look back in a few months/years how far she has gone in reaching her goals.