Name: Belle Barreiro Seiden

Student-Led Comments / Growth and Development Reflection

1. A Growth & Development goal in which I have shown the most growth would be: Model with
Mathematics. I used this utilized this skill by taking part in projects that directly relate to the current
states of the world around me as well as in my own personal life. For example, I was able to directly
connect math to my future college financing which will affect me in the long run in relation to debt,
family situations, etc. I also connected math to the real world in the Power & Privilege project by
understanding the way funding is allocated based on surrounding property values which affects our
society as a whole in terms of opportunities available and modern day equality vs. discrimination.

2. I think that I had a bit of trouble this year in reasoning quantitatively as compared to reasoning
abstractly. Ive always had a hard time keeping track of exact numbers, but once I understand the
concept of the problem - it becomes much easier. I think that next year Ill utilize my knowledge of
the concept to connect to placement and similar situations with the numbers to be able to solve a
problem easier. I often try and make problems a lot harder to solve than they need to be, so just
focusing in on the quantities in a smaller sense and building upon that might help me as well.

3. I contributed to the learning environment in the classroom by sharing out my ideas and questions
during whole-class discussions, which certainly benefitted me and hopefully my peers. I also
challenged ideas or found short-cuts for how to solve problems and discussed them with my table
group. I helped group members with their work when they did not understand the concepts and I
asked for their help when I was confused. By hearing others insight or ways to approach problems, I
was able to learn and grow at a faster pace because I was grasping material much quicker than if I was
working everything out on my own.

4. I think that the most useful things I learned this year were Financial Planning and successful
mathematical group collaboration. I feel that I am able to apply these to my life now and after high
school in my future educational and career paths. I was surprised about how screwed the reality of the
money distribution in America is. It really put things into perspective and I thought it was incredible,
how little the distribution increased from those in poverty to the middle class - considering the
earnings of the 1%. The 1% holds of the money in America which seems extremely unfair. I also
learned a lot about loans and how to plan much financial decisions for college. I now understand the
great debts that I could plummet into and how greatly it would affect my future if I was to take out
large loans to pay for college.

5. My intelligence has grown through my efforts in class this year because I put in a lot more effort
to truly understand the content. I didnt just figure out how to solve a problem I didnt understand and move
on, I instead asked questions and tried looking at the problems in different ways to see why I got to that
answer - not just how.


6. In our recent Finance project, I got very confused when we started talking about loans and factoring
them into the accumulation of debt. I didnt understand the differences in types of loans at first and how
easily interest can pile up. I made sure to ask questions to my peers and Ms. GC whenever I did not fully
understand a concept of reasoning behind the loans. However, I think that next time I would try to research
the individual loans a bit further to get a better understanding of their outcomes in comparison to other types
of loans and financial aid.

7. I was very proud of my Finance and Power & privilege work this semester because of how much time I
applied myself outside of class to thoroughly grasp and back up my topics. I think that this helped
tremendously when trying to articulate my findings to peers and visitors during exhibition. I am also still very
proud of the math video I created with my group in the beginning of the year because of the amount creative
freedom we were allowed which gave me the chance to not only improve my math skills, but also video
production and collaboration! Our video now has nearly 10,000 view on YouTube, which is crazy!!! : )
Thanks Ms. GC!