The End of Senior Year

As the year is winding down to an end, senior project is finally over, and all that's left of school is just fun stuff, it is kind of a bitter sweet feeling. Although, I am happy to be moving on to bigger things, a part of me misses walking in to Lot K as a little freshmen. Ipoly will always hold a place in my heart. As a last note to my fellow classmates, if any of you read this, I hope you all chase your dreams, because like Eleanor Roosevelt once said," The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."   

Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

I am most proud of all the research that I was able to find and implement in my senior project and that I was able to convey all the information that I wanted to during my presentation.

(2) Questions to Consider

a. What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation (self-assessment)?

AE/P because not only did I make time, but I included an abundance of research throughout the presentation, and made constant references to mentorship and research. I also know my topic extremely well and that carried through to my presentation.

b. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

AE because I constantly was doing mentorship and did way more than the required hours, I also got to live my senior project and test the answers and the different techniques I found throughout research.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

Having a lot of research and a consistent mentor really worked for me research wise, without my mentor I would’ve had quite a difficult time constructing answers and my essential question.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

In the beginning of research I wasn’t aware of all the videos that there were, so I spent a lot of time going through articles that were unhelpful, so I would go back and tell myself to use videos more.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

My senior project has shown me that I am not only able to speak for long periods of time, but also write long papers and conduct a year long project. Walking in to iPoly freshman year I didn’t think I’d be able to do even a 10 minute presentation, much less an hour long one, but this final project has proved me wrong. Leaving this project also has left me with the knowledge that if I can accomplish this, a college thesis isn’t as scary as I might think. The last thing I have took from this project is a lot of valuable information on a topic that I truly enjoy. Dance is something that will definitely be apart of me for the rest of my life and being able to have all this knowledge on the topic and different methods I can apply to my dancing will help me a lot in the future.

Blog 22: Mentorship

Literal

• Belinda Maturo and Perfect Pointe School of Dance

Interpretive

What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

The most important thing that I have gained from this experience is that dance has many aspects to it, and it can be manipulated and morphed to fit you, as a dancer. This is something that I feel a lot of dancers don’t know, they see a movement and think, “I can’t do that,” and they never give it a chance. This can potentially hurt their career if they carry on with that mindset, which is why that knowing dance can be manipulated to fit the dancer is so important.

 Applied

How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.

My mentorship helped my both develop and answer my essential question because I was not only answering it with books and interviews, but I was actually putting the answers to work in real life. I got to live my project rather than just read about it.

Blog 21: Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

My essential question is, what is the best way for a dancer to prepare for a Royal Academy of Dance exam?

My best  answer is, a dancer should know the syllabus that their exam will be based upon. This is the best answer because a dancer should always know their choreography, and if the dancer doesn’t know the choreography there is no dance.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

My mentorship revealed this answer as the best one, due to how much emphasis my mentor puts on the syllabus and that most of our classes revolve around the syllabus.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

The only real problem I faced was finding an answer three, however going back and looking over my interviews I found that all of my interviewees kept saying the same thing, that a strong foundation is extremely important. Finding that recurring statement I found that it would be a good answer.  

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

The two most significant sources that helped me were the Royal Academy of Dance Syllabus and my mentor helped me a lot. The syllabus helped a lot because it is the set exercises that will be viewed in the exam and it has all the information you would need for an exam and my mentor helped me a lot with interviews, any questions about dance and helping me come up with answers and my final activity.