This year in 8th grade math has been a long and hard ride. We have covered a lot of new material that were hard to learn at first, but it got easier as time went on. We also went over things I had covered before, only the material was a little bit more complex. To work through all of this took a lot of persistence, and effort, and it payed off in the end. That is why this year in math, I grew in persistence. My artifacts will not show the work I had to do from the get go, but things I had to do to maintain a good grade. My two artifacts show that you can’t use excuses to try and get away with thing, because the real word doesn’t accept excuses, and things that could have been prevented. My first artifact is my quarter 2 extra credit, and how it played a huge role in getting the grade I got for the quarter. The other artifact, is my quarter 2 math notebook, that includes a story of how I overcame forgetting to turn something in, and didn’t back down, no matter what obstacles stood in my way.

The first artifact that helps to prove this growth, is my quarter 2 extra credit. For a very long time, I hadn’t been taking extra credit opportunities, because I was afraid of doing extra work that would take away from my free time. However coming into my 8th grade year, I started to take as many extra credit opportunities that I fit into my schedule. In the end, I was glad that I started doing this, because the work I had done with this extra credit, was almost worth two letter grades, or 16 points! This however, only got me up to a B letter grade at the end of the quarter, which taught me a very important lesson. Even when your grades are looking good, never, ever, slack off, or not put full effort into assignments, because that alone plays a big role in whether or not you pass a class. Looking at the amount of points I earned, 16, the thought that it must have been really hard and time consuming, must be going through the reader’s mind. Well, yes, it was a very time consuming endeavor, and it was very hard to accomplish. In other words, doing this took a lot of persistence. This ties up to the problem with my other regular assignments, so the work from doing this, carried on to my regular quarter 3 assignments, or due to the work I put into my extra credit, it changed my work ethic. After this, I never let any points slide by as much as I could.

The second artifact is my 2nd Quarter Math Notebook. I remember the story behind this like it happened yesterday. So the day this notebook was due, we were taking a math test on the Pythagorean Theorem, the theorem that states that C2=A2+B2. The class spent the entire time working on the test. By the end of the period, I was still working on the test. I was given some extra time from my math teacher, Ms. Schultz, to work on the test. I finished five minutes later, and hurried of to Chinese class. I had forgotten all about turning in my math notebook. I had finally realized that I hadn’t turned in my Math Notebook an hour after I got home, at around five o’clock. I had fallen into a panic, I had no idea what to do. I didn’t know what I should do to fix this, I was starting to think that there wasn’t even a way to fix this. So I decided the first thing I needed to do was go listen to some music, and calm down. That was probably the best decision I had ever made in a long time. One of the songs that came on said this one thing, “Never back down.” So now that the right thing happened to get me thinking, I decided to look for anything that could help me think of a way to take care of my problem. Then, it hit me. I felt so stupid for never thinking of this before. What helped me think of a solution was the Independent Reading Project, and how this is normally turned in printed out. However, it can also be turned in digitally. Since Ms. Schultz is also the teacher in charge of that project, I figured it was worth a shot. So, I took a picture of every page in my math notebook, and sent it to her. After some time after I asked if the copy could be turned in for grading, I got a reply from Ms. Schultz saying it could, and liked how I problem solved my way through my situation. Reflecting on this, I knew that I had changed for the better. I had grown in persistence, and it would continue to grow stronger ever since.

Those two examples of growth are all good in all, but so what? Why is the quality of persistence and improving my use of it so important? Well, improvement in this skill will help me in the future. See without persistence, where would get nowhere. Persistence is the quality that helps keep us going in anything. In a job for example, persistence is needed to withstand the day’s work. Without persistence, people wouldn’t have jobs. Even in my hobbies, to remain good at doing them, persistence is needed. Now, I see that my growth in persistence was necessary. Those two examples prove that this year in math, I grew in persistence.