Daniel's Senior Website
Introduction
Hi my name is Daniel Tang and I was 13 when I first came to ACLC. I entered into the eighth grade as brand new kid to everyone there and I felt a little scared and nervous my first week. Gradually as the school year went on I became friends with most of the people in my grade and everyone was a part of their own little community of learners for each grade. I felt like I was in a really big family where everyone was friends with each other. ACLC has taught me a lot over the years both from learners and teachers, I was shown friendship, understanding, accepting, forgiving, letting go, and positivity.
Personal Qualities
Furthermore, gradually over the years I picked up skills and qualities I use in everyday life that ACLC has taught me. It’s not a normal school because of the rigorous projects and exams that ACLC throws at you. You have to know how manage your time well because some facilitators will give you projects or tests all in the same week and you’re expected to achieve for a high grade. Learning from this school, I would say I am hardworking, trustworthy, positive, cooperative, adaptive, social, and skillful. These skills and qualities I have developed actually helped me get a job at an ice cream shop that I am still working at. ACLC also taught me to overcome my fear of public speaking because of all the projects and skits we’ve had to do which will help me a lot in college to not be afraid to socialize and communicate with my professors and fellow students. Being able to adapt quickly and being organized is a key trait to surviving through high school. Sometimes facilitators will change their lesson plans, test/project dates and you have to be ready and make time to study for each of them. If you don’t study for a test at ACLC and you don’t do well on it, it brings your grade down immensely and you can only bring your grade back up by doing well on the next test or exam. I still don’t know what exactly It is that I want to do for a living or career, but I am pretty sure ACLC can help me find the right path. This schools gives its learners many opportunities to explore and find what they want to do for a career, like career fair, college night and ect..
New Basics
The new basic ideas I’ve learned over the years here at ACLC through my classes have taught me many life lessons that I am going to stick with for a long time. English taught me how to write good essays and how to structure them. I was taught how to put essays into different formats like MLA to prepare me for college essays which I will be asked to use a wide variety of different formats. I also learned to analyze articles, essays, poems, books and many more and how they can apply to everyday life. In a weird way though I also learned what it means to be a good friend and how you can’t always trust people. You have to learn who’s a friend, who’s fake, who’s an acquaintance and who is a true friend because if you don’t learn how to do this quickly then you won't make it in the real world. From math classes I learned how to solve equations and problems but what I really took away from math were my algebra 2 and pre calc class because they taught me good life lessons. The teachers I had for those classes showed how some math problems applied to our everyday lives and which jobs required the knowledge. They showed how certain math problems were used to fix modern day issues. My history and government classes taught me about America’s history and wars and our involvement with other countries. Government taught me about civics, our government and America as well as current political issues going on in the world.
Thinking and Reasoning Skills
I have adopted many useful and important thinking/reasoning skills from ACLC. All the work that I’ve done over the years taught and showed me how to think clearly and critically and especially keep an open and positive mind. I sometimes pick apart a problem like a project or test into pieces and devise a plan on how accomplish it and accomplish it with a good grade. The many times that I’ve been given a huge workload of homework on the same day gave me the opportunity to prioritize and manage my time. By this I mean I look at each assignment and decide how much time it will take me to do, which has more importance/priority, and easiest to hardest to accomplish and I work on them in that order. When it comes to project however this is where, in my opinion, I truly shine. I have a really great flow of creative thinking like what colors look nice, which colors correspond with the subject of the project, what to draw and how I should draw it.
Interpersonal Abilities
I’ve developed good team member and leadership skills through projects but also through the sports I’ve played which are football and lacrosse. Sometimes in a group project someone needs to take leadership and most of the time It’s usually me, I discuss with other members what we have to do, which we need to finish first and which can be done last, and keeping track of time. Lacrosse and football taught me to just take charge when I see necessary and to show others what to do in certain situations or plays. My weekend job teaches me to help and communicate in a friendly way to customers and what they want to order. It’s important to keep a friendly smile and attitude so the customers will be happy with your service and come back. My job has really helped me with making new friends and opening up to others because I used to be a hermit and only mingled with my group of five friends.
Technology
Technology is so important utilize here at ACLC because almost all your assignments, exams, essays and tests are done online. Even the teachers teach their lessons online showing us videos or poems or directions. Since the beginning of high school assignments, especially for english, are typed on google docs and turned in the next day so from the start you’re required to know how to use google docs and google drive. For Spanish classes for example, learners are told to use websites like Duolingo and Conjuguemos to do do assigned work and homework on it. During my time at ACLC, I and a lot of my other classmates, have spent at least a hundred hours on a computer typing something up for a class. ACLC truly is a school that revolves around technology and the learners ability to utilize and adapt to it.
Conclusion
All in all, ACLC is a great school that does a good job at preparing its learners for college and the big world. They’ve created this rigorous academic program that shapes learners that define who they are as they finish high school and enter the world of college. All the experiences, relationships and lessons that I’ve learned through my years at ACLC have taught me to be the student and man I am today. This school offers their students so much to prepare them for college and the real world and it’s one of the many reasons why I, and my senior class, appreciate and love about this school. I’m so grateful and thankful to have attended this unique school and not some normal high school because of all the opportunities I’ve been given to succeed and prosper.