Juan Grajeda

Advisory
5/29/14
Growing As a Student and Citizen
As a student i have grown, mentally, emotionally, and globally. Throughout this semester i have encountered
many obstacles, school-wise. Those obstacle are passing and understanding my classes. Also, being able to
investigate the world, recognize perspectives, and communicating ideas. The take action GLPO is what in my opinion
helped me be more global. The other GLPOs helped me globally too. I needed certain skills to me a global citizen.
Those skills were taught to me through countless packets projects and lessons. But it pays off because being a global
citizen is important. Its what connects people throughout this earth by sharing and understanding each other.

One way I Investigated the World was in my math project. In the project we chose certain questions and
observed if there was any correlation or connection between the question and our school culture. The driving question
was Does marijuana affect a student's grades? Therefore leading us to our choice of two questions, do you smoke
marijuana ? and do you get good grades?. The reason we chose the questions is because it answers our driving
question, and it shows our school culture. We also felt that if a student does smoke marijuana then, he or she has bad
grades. The way my team mates and i conducted our survey was, we got two group members to survey the sixth
graders, then one to 7th, and one to 8th graders. Through this survey we did, we were astonished by the small amount
of students that smoke marijuana and get bad grades. It was surprising to know , none of the sixth graders smoke
marijuana, although a couple do get bad grades. Also, only a handful of students in the 7th grade smoke marijuana
but, about half of them get bad grades. But what was kind of disappointing was, 25 of my fellow 8th graders smoke
marijuana and get bad grades

The predictions we made were that students who smoke marijuana get bad grades. We also thought wed see
an association between the grade and how many kids smoke marijuana. We had to Recognize Perspectives because
there is different reason why kids do it.The reason we think is is because, the older a student is, the more the need to
be cool increases. As to were young kids just know dont do that thats bad. Also since the child is physically
growing, their hormones take over and are more vulnerable to things like drugs. We identified these associations
because we saw that the higher the grade level, the more kids that smoke and get bad grades. But we understand these
statistics because we are young and we can see from their point of view. Many times kids do drugs because of life at
home or they get bullied or they were raised into it such as a family member exposing the to it.

After we conducted our survey and organized our data, we decided to use a prezi presentation, and posters to
emphasize and better explain our hypothesis, question and data. We had two data charts showing the percentages of
students out of their grade level and a correlation map showing if there is a positive, negative, or no association at all.
We used a presentation instead of writing an essay because we thought it was more efficient and it was quicker and
easier to read and the audience can read it too. In our presentation we explained how these associations and hard facts
reveal or school culture. in our eyes, the school culture is actually very well. Compared to public schools where drugs
are fairly popular. This shows that administration like our teachers and coordinators actually get involved with
students. It shows our students think twice about decisions making them very mature.In all the visual aids helped us
with Comunicating Ideas with our peers.

What i think the school should do to better improve our culture, is, instead of punishing children. Make them
talk about it and help them realize what they do is wrong. If a student acts immature, then the teacher needs to be
patient and ask the student to calm down for a while. If the problem keep going then the teacher should have a talk
with them and ask why they are acting up. The teacher should make an agreement with the student to not give any
behavior stamps or demerits if the student agrees to not be disruptive. if the student has emotional problems then
teachers should be able to tell signs of stress or depression. Teachers should have lunches with the student every once
in a while to talk about their day and life. The teacher should listen and and try to see throught the students eyes. If a
child unfortunately does do drugs then the teacher should accept the student and not tell anyone. The teacher or
coordinators should not only be there for academic guidance. But for emotional, mental guidance as well. I think
student-teacher friendships is a way our administration and students can Take Action.

So in all this past semester i have learned many skills and procedures by being an active global citizen. I have
grown be being able to understand an others ideas and perspectives. Also by investigating my school, community, and
world. I also learned very much by taking action in my school and community. I think these skills will be most
effective in college and in my career and my life. These skills will help me advance in my high school classes as well
because high school is all about recognizing perspectives and taking action. This will help me pave the way to success
in my future educational and global life as a student and citizen.