1.0 Investigating 1.1 General Introduction to the Personal ProjectCompletion of Personal Project is an MYP requirement, vital for a year 5 student to receive an MYP certificate and progress to DP. 1.
2 Goal and Global Context The goal is to investigate how teenagers between the ages of 10-16 deal with low self-esteem in order to create a multi-media art campaign which showcases their emotions to raise awareness about the variety of emotions teenagers experience. The global context is Personal & Cultural Expression. The goal is related to the global context because self-esteem is an extremely important part of a person’s life, and personal expression can help a person deal with this. Cultural Expression isn’t addressed in this project because there are no links from culture to self-esteem and personal issues.
1.3. Prior Learning and Subject-Specific KnowledgeI have a lot of experience in the subject of art as I have been doing it since I was a very small child, both as a hobby and at school. Having aunts, both of whom are experienced and passionate about art was beneficial as a child. One of my Aunts have acquired a Fine Arts degree in London and currently teaches art at a school. She teaches painting, pottery, drawing, building, designing and creative arts. When I saw my aunts create artwork, I felt a desire to do it as well. I practiced it a lot and even did it as a subject in school.
Almost every birthday I have received equipment for me to do art1.4. ResearchDuring this project many different forms of research were used to improve understanding of the topic. The blog “Self-Esteem and teenagers” in “Reachout.com” gave an understanding of what low self-esteem is, the side effects of low self-esteem, the causes of low self-esteem and the signs of low self-esteem.
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In summary, low self-esteem is having a negative view of oneself and one’s own value. There are many reasons for low self-esteem for example poor performance at school (perhaps due to unrealistic expectations), criticism from peers or parents/ carers, stressful life events (such as divorce, bereavement, relocation), abuse and bullying and medical issues (mental or physical). Low self-esteem shows itself in the following behaviours; negativity about the self (including comparisons with others), fear of failure and embarrassment leading to low levels motivation and a reluctance to try new things, low confidence and self-isolation.The magazine “Self Confidence and Self Esteem” in “Amazing Kids Magazine” focuses on self-confidence and self-esteem leading to the following conclusions. Self-esteem? ?is? “?the? ?opinion? ?you? ?have? ?of? ?yourself” whether this is high or low it can be unrealistic. Self confidence, on the other hand, is a broader attribute because it shapes how you behave not just how you feel about yourself as summarised by this quotation from ?Ann? ?Bernard (President? ?and Founder? ?of? ?The? ?Loop? ?of? ?Confidence) ‘Self-confidence? ?is? ?an? ?attitude.? ?It? ?allows? ?individuals? ?to? ?have? ?positive? ?views? ?of? ?themselves? ?and situations? ?they? ?are? ?in,? ?yet? ?still? ?keep? ?those? ?views? ?realistic.
‘ Developing in self confidence through how you behave can ease low self esteem as Bernard states ‘One? ?way? ?to? ?begin? ?increasing? ?your? ?self-confidence? ?is? ?to? ?stop? ?comparing yourself? ?to? ?others? ?and? ?also? ?to? ?stop? ?listening? ?to? ?what? ?other? ?people? ?think? ?about? ?you? ?and? ?be? ?the? ?person you? ?want? ?to? ?be.’?The article “Overcoming Insecurity and Low Self Esteem” In “Pathway to Happiness” looks at increasing self-esteem through building self confidence and modifying how people view ourselves and what people feel success should be. “?To? ?build? ?self? ?confidence? ?and? ?overcome? ?low? ?self? ?esteem? ?is? ?to? ?change? ?how? ?we? ?feel? ?emotionally about? ?ourselves.? ?To? ?change? ?our? ?emotion? ?requires? ?changing? ?two? ?different? ?core? ?beliefs? ?about self? ?image.? ?The? ?first? ?core? ?belief? ?is? ?obvious.
? ?It? ?is? ?the? ?belief? ?that? ?we? ?are? ?not? ?good? ?enough.? ?It? ?may have? ?a? ?more? ?specific? ?association? ?to? ?how? ?we? ?look,? ?how? ?smart? ?we? ?are,? ?money,? ?or? ?lack? ?of confidence? ?sexually.? ?The? ?second? ?core? ?belief? ?to? ?change? ?is? ?the? ?image? ?of? ?success? ?that? ?we? ?feel? ?we should? ?be.? ?Changing? ?this? ?belief? ?is? ?contrary? ?to? ?logic,? ?but? ?is? ?a? ?must? ?if? ?we? ?are? ?to? ?overcome insecurity? ?and? ?raise? ?our? ?self? ?esteem.” The article “Self Esteem Article” in “More-Selfesteem.com” source looks at the relationship between self-confidence and self-esteem. In summary it was concluded from this source that there is an important relationship between both. Good, self-esteem combined with reasonable, self-confidence can allow a person to feel positive about themselves and what they can do and be realistic about what they can achieve.
If for example a person has overly high self-confidence and unrealistic self-esteem they can make bad decisions with bad consequences e.g. disappointment or worse.
The information, page “11 Facts About Teens and Self Esteem” in “DoSomething.org,” includes statistics about teen girls and boys. I have concluded that self-esteem has a big impact on how young people behave with regards to themselves and others and decisions they make about their lives – good and bad. Research shows that “75%? ?of? ?girls? ?with? ?low? ?self-esteem? ?reported? ?engaging? ?in? ?negative? ?activities? ?like cutting,? ?bullying,? ?smoking,? ?drinking,? ?or? ?disordered? ?eating.
?? ?This? ?compares? ?to? ?25% of? ?girls? ?with? ?high? ?self-esteem.” The article “Self Esteem” In Encyclopedia of Children’s Health” not only looks at self-confidence and self-esteem, it also looks at self-acceptance. To have high self-acceptance means feeling one is as close as possible to being ideally what they want to be. This is influenced by people around them, particularly parents and siblings when young, but more so peers and teachers in the teenage years. There is a clear gender difference shown by the following quote “Girls? ?tend? ?to? ?be? ?more? ?susceptible? ?to? ?having? ?low? ?self-esteem? ?than? ?boys,? ?perhaps because? ?of? ?increased? ?social? ?pressure? ?that? ?emphasizes? ?appearance? ?more? ?than? ??intelligence? ??or athletic? ?ability.” Self-acceptance begins at a young age and is strongly influenced by the amount of support and encouragement the person receives from the people about them, with this comes the ability to deal with the pressures and expectations that come from society and peer group pressure.
This article focuses on the benefits of creativity with regards to self-esteem. To conclude doing something creative focuses one’s mind on a task and can be rewarding and enjoyable and can take one away from negative thoughts. Also, one can feel good about learning or improving a skill and feeling a sense of achievement and connection with othersThe source focuses on building children’s self-esteem through Arts and Crafts. This form of flexible activity develops skills through creating something from beginning to end and allows the creator to extend and challenge themselves. As highlighted in the quote that follows children build confidence as they “put? ?themselves? ?and? ?their? ?work “out? ?there”. Particularly for younger children making things can be beneficial as they more readily accept advice and input from adults and in so doing learn to accept practical criticism.
In summary, arts and crafts give children freedom to express themselves in many ways and develop a foundation of self-belief that they can carry with them through life. A perspective about low-self esteem in adolescents and its effects were gathered from a counselor’s perspective in an interview (Appendix B). Andrew Zienchuk is an expert in counseling young adults and teenagers. As this project it about the effects of low self-esteem on ages 10-16, Andrew Zeinchuk was necessary to understand adolescent psychology. Andrew expressed his opinion of what low self-esteem is, stating that “Students that are unsure of themselves and because they unsure they feel hollow.
” An understanding about creating art to release emotions was learnt from a student. Aliah Caillan is a Grade 12 student who creates art to release emotions and build confidence. In an interview Aliah, talked about her artwork and how it has built her confidence as a person. She stated “art makes me feel belonged, like it comforts me through every trial I have in life.” Aliah expressed her emotions about art, how it makes her feel, how it helps her. This assisted in the learning towards using art as a therapy to build confidence.
2.0 Planning2.1 CriteriaAspect Criteria Justification Create a multi-media art campaign Use different mediums of art for instance, watercolour, pencil, photography, acrylic.
By using different mediums of art, it evokes different emotions, different people prefer different mediums of art. Teenage emotions Use specific colours to represent particular emotions. By using specific colours, to represent particular emotions, audiences can understand the artwork more easily. Raise awareness about the variety of emotions teenagers experience through art 2.2 Development ProcessDuring this project, many things were done to develop the work. Firstly, a plan to create a process journal entry every time Personal Project was worked on was created (Appendix D). However, this wasn’t the best approach because process journal entries didn’t always get completed due to the fact that there was not enough work that could be reflected upon.
Another method that was used to plan on developing the work was to use google calendar (Appendix A). This was used to balance the other academic and co curricular commitments and as well as plan meetings with the supervisor. However, planning meetings with the supervisor wasn’t always successful. My supervisor was usually busy and it was hard for us to communicate. On the whole, using the google calendar was beneficial because it assisted in managing short and long term deadlines. 2.3 Self-Management Skills In Personal Project, the ATL skills such as, communication, organization, self- management, thinking and research are very important, especially for long term projects. The two main ATL skills that are believed to have grown were communication and organization.
To stay organized during this project, the google calendar was used to assist. The main strategy that was used for staying organized was planning. Different classes were planned out according to what work was needed to be completed. The google calendar was used to separate school work and social/extra curricular activities. Using google calendars helped with getting work done because work was done according to plan, and consistently on schedule.Communication was a strong skill during the first exhibition. A variety of speaking techniques were used to communicate with different audiences; such as, young children, older people, stronger english speakers along with people who aren’t as confident in english. With young children and more international people, smaller, less complex words were used to describe the project, to create a clearer understanding for them.
For the older people and stronger english speakers, more formal language fit a context which they could understand. Using these speaking techniques really assisted in the ability to be able to talk to a variety of different people. 3.0 Taking Action 3.1 Creating an OutcomeOne piece of artwork was created in order to show ways visual art can be used as therapy for low self-esteem.
The creation of the action, consisted of the student to ask the art teacher (Appendix E), Mr. Were, to gather art materials e.g (paint, pencil, paper, canvas, camera,) from the school supplies. The action was completed using these materials. Initially, the action was to create 3-5 pieces of multimedia artwork, but after a great deal of thinking, this goal was unrealistic as it would have taken a lot of time. The number of pieces has been changed to just 1 big piece consisting a lot of different images in it. 3.2 Thinking Skills A variety of thinking skills assisted the student while creating the action.
A main one being creative thinking. The student spent a lot of time thinking creatively on how visual art can be used as a therapy to improve audiences self-esteem. 3.3 Communication and Social SkillsThroughout this project communication and social skills have been vital. Public speaking, presenting and interacting have needed to be used a lot especially during the exhibition. Confidently speaking and interacting with audiences is very important for communication and social skills. Also being a great listener is crucial for communication and social skills.
Communication and social skills were improved during this project as different types communication techniques were used. For example, a variety of speaking techniques were used to communicate with different audiences. Such as, young children, older people, stronger english speakers along with people who aren’t as confident in english. With young children and more international people, less complex words were used to describe the project. For the older people and stronger english speakers, formal context was used which they could understand. Using these speaking techniques really helped the process of communicating to a variety of different people. 4.0 Reflecting 4.
1 Evaluate the quality of the outcome against the criteria Aspect Criteria Level of achievement Create a multi-media art campaign 3 pieces of multimedia artwork completed Use different mediums of art for instance, watercolour, pencil, photography, acrylic.3 pieces of multimedia artwork completed 3 pieces of artwork were not completed.Evaluation & ImprovementThe expectation of making 3 art pieces was too high.
I should have set a more practical goal to get it done in time. Teenage emotions Use specific colours to represent particular emotions. Use specific colours to represent particular emotions.
Different colours were used to represent different emotions. Evaluation & ImprovementI think I was successful in achieving different colours to represent different emotions. Improvement could have been made by adding more colours. Raise awareness about the variety of emotions teenagers experience through art 4.
2 Reflection on completing the productFor the duration of this project, I researched, learnt and analysed the causes and effects of low self-esteem on teenagers. I learnt so much about low self-esteem and how it affects teenagers that I did not know before. In summary, low self-esteem is having a negative view of oneself and one’s own value. There are many reasons for low self-esteem e.g. poor performance at school (perhaps due to unrealistic expectations), criticism from peers or parents/ carers, stressful life events (such as divorce, bereavement, relocation), abuse and bullying and medical issues (mental or physical). Low self-esteem shows itself in the following behaviours; negativity about the self (including comparisons with others), fear of failure and embarrassment leading to low levels motivation and a reluctance to try new things, low confidence and self-isolation.
4.3 Reflection on development as IB learners through the projectDuring this project, I have improved my skills as an IB learner. I have shown most of my progress over the time of many months through my process journal. After completing a session of working on Personal Project for example my report, I would write an entry in my process journal depending on whether I have made substantial progress. In Personal Project, the ATL skills such as, communication, organization, self management, thinking and research are very important, especially for long term projects. The main ATL skill I think I grew in was communication.
I am a very shy person and I find it difficult to communicate and interact with audiences. I especially find it challenging to present to big crowds. After experiencing the exhibition, I now find it a lot easier to present and communicate with larger audiences. This is how I improved on my communication. I also think I improved on my organization however, not as much as my communication. For some of the project, I have used my google calendar to help me organize my work and extracurricular activities. On the other hand, there have been times where I have procrastinated, which I regret.
Due to procrastination, I fell behind. I always caught up in the end however, it became harder for me. This is why I regret it.
