Targets

Date set

Completion target Week 1 date

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Completion Analysis

Develop my interpretive ability and cultural awareness

4 December 2013 1 January 2014

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I decided that the best way to approach attaining this skill was to read many different articles and critical writings that focused on the issues of culture, history, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Adding library time to my schedule allowed me to open myself to a variety of Literary theory books. I was able to use my knowledge of search engines to find appropriate university Press articles on related subjects.

Spending time making notes on all the information that I had read allowed me to process it mentally, I then used these notes to write essays which I asked my English teacher to mark testing how well I had learnt about the topics and how well I am able to write about the issues.

After learning that my learning style was Concrete Experience and Reflective Observation I was advised to discuss my research with other students. I chose to create debates to set up these discussions and was able to learn more about differing interpretations of the issues from opinions of an audience as opposed to that of a critic.

Wanting to develop on all the information that I have learnt trying to ensure I have a full understanding I involved myself in face-to-face exchanges of ideas with my teacher and this evolved into me gaining the chance to use broader research such as the ability to attend plays, talks and other performances.

Knowing that my learning modality was kinaesthetic allowed me to find more useful ways to gain and interpret the information which helped build my awareness. I enjoyed devising theories and doing hands on active learning to help me process the data however reading and writing essays from my notes ensured that I improved on my other learning abilities.

Targets

Date set

Completion target Week 1 date

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Completion Analysis

Improve on my communication skills

4th December 2013 1st January 2014

My teacher gave me the task of creating a presentation that gave details about potential barriers to I had a discussion with my teacher about what good communication communication and an explanation of skills were and asked for an assessment of my communication skills mechanisms that can be used to with guidance to areas I can improve on. After this discussion I did a reduce the impact of these barriers. I lot of research into the attributes that are considered as good was able to use the research I communication skills. conducted after my initial conversation with my I.T teacher to create this presentation.

Emailing my teacher about all the information I had learnt made me feel like I had gained an understanding of what it took to have good communication skills. He was impressed with my presentation and told me that to really develop personally and improve my communication skills I would have to give a presentation to an audience which is exactly what I did.

Personal development is all about assessing your achievements and attributes so i assessed myself on how I felt my presentation went and also asked for feedback from the audience and my teacher their feedback allowed me to feel that I had met my target and improved on my communication skills. I took on these feedbacks as methods for improvements and points to be proud of and continues to communicate in different ways for the rest of this week.

When giving my presentation I used the skills which I had put into the presentation myself all the information I researched came in handy and helped me to improve my personal communication ability. I felt that I learned a lot and gained a lot of knowledge on the topic of communication skills. Being able to put these skills to the test was very important and helped me to know that I had improved on my communication skills thus achieving this target.

Targets

Date set

Completion target Week 1 date

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Completion Analysis

Expand on planning skills learning to sustain and maintain an organised schedule

4 December 2013 1 January 2014

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Being a student who takes 4 A Levels that require coursework on a weekly basis it can become overwhelming and I sometimes miss deadlines and hand in work late or miss draft dates and end up with less work on essays, or hand in work late meaning I will be behind when new tasks are started. As we are in the weeks running up to the end of the term I have a Photography Unit: 1 deadline, an Art deadline of up-to-date bookwork accompanied by 12 big sheets of Artists research, an English essay to be written and redrafted as well as I.T coursework to be kept up-to-date. I set myself the goal of working through these tasks efficiently so that I can complete all work for the same deadline.

I started by determining all the work that I needed to complete and categorising the tasks into how long they will take and the importance of the tasks making sure that I will complete more important shorter tasks first. I then set myself a daily goal of how many tasks I need to complete daily.

I found that I was working sufficiently through these tasks but would spend longer time on one subject than the other and having to rush other bits of work This made me create a timetable of how many hours I should spend on each course and it consisted of breaks of walking home, eating, and even sleeping. My whole life became structured in this week and I found the quality of all works were at an equal high standard.

by this week a number of tasks had been completed and I found that I had more time than I did tasks, however following my regime I did not relax or spend less time on tasks I merely continued working at the rate that I planned for myself and completed all tasks with a few days to have for going back into work ensuring it was all completed to the best of my ability and to start future tasks ensuring that I was using my time wisely.

Deciding to improve on my planning and time management skills helped me complete all my work but most importantly all on time rather than late. It helped me to work evenly on all my work ensuring that no subject would take priority over another subject. My work was handed in earlier than expected and to a higher level than usual as there was no need for rushed work. Staying with this regime even after tasks were completed meant that I was used to the schedule and continue spending the same hours of time on each subject replacing working on coursework with doing revision and completing future tasks.

Targets

Date set

Completion target Week 1 date

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Completion Analysis

Learning new, efficient and effective Photoshop skills

4 December 2013

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1 January 2014

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I used my I.C.T slots on my schedule to give me time to search for tutorials on Photoshop videos that gave me step to step guides on different tools and guides for how to use these tools. I used this week to watch many basic and complex Photoshop tutorial skills and processed for manipulating images making as many notes as needed.

In this week I used websites that used written steps and printed out these steps which I would then make further notes on once I felt I had enough notes that I turned into very simplistic written guides I practiced the editing processing following my step by step guides.

By this week I felt had a good enough understanding of this editing software where I could begin experimenting with many different ideas while manipulating my images. At this stage I was able to use its tools to crop images, change certain areas of colour add new image layers, add text, as well as rotating and changing the sizing so that my image.

In the final week I set myself the task of drawing up image visions and taking the photographs and manipulating them just as I envisioned. It took a bit of time but I felt I was able to show off the skills that I had learnt and carried out the steps without the use of my step to step written guide.

I feel I have become accustomed to Photoshop my experimentations and explorations made it very easy and fast to use as time went on. I felt Photoshop had amazing tools to offer and I was very happy with all the processes I had undergone. I am now able to improve images that I take and even add animation and amazing effects to them improving them completely.