Marcus Humber

Core Competencies Strengths and Weaknesses

Personal Awareness and Responsibility

Strengths

1. Self Determination: I can express my needs and seek help when needed
- I can use this skill effectively and regularly. This skill helps me understand what I do get and
what I do not get, and what I need and don’t need. I apply this skill at school by asking a
teacher for help when I need it, and at work if I get backed up with work or do not get
something.
2. Self-Regulation: I take personal responsibility for my choices and actions
- I will always take personal responsibility for my choices and actions mainly because I believe
in integrity and being responsible for your own actions. Whether it is something like not
doing an assignment and handing it in late, saying/doing something that might have a
negative impact etc. I will take responsibility and think about what I did and how to better
myself and make that mistake again.

Weaknesses

1. Well-being: I use a variety of strategies to manage my personal well being

- This is one of my biggest weaknesses for this core competency. I tend to procrastinate lots
of things in life and do not do anything about it. I also tend to work myself until I can’t
anymore which causes stress and other issues. I do not have a mix of strategies to manage
any of these. I can improve this by taking the time to explore my well being and adopt
strategies that will better my personal well being

Social Responsibility

Strengths

1. Solving problems in peaceful ways: I can identify and appreciate different perspectives on issues
and use and evaluate strategies to resolve problems
- Whenever there is a problem, I am very good at seeing perspectives and can come up with
solutions that benefit all parties involved. A great example of being open-minded and
identifying and appreciating different perspectives is in my English First Peoples class, where
we read about Indigenous culture and their beliefs and how they can differ from other
perspectives and cultures. I always consider all perspectives and create authentic work by
doing so.
2. Building relationships: I have positive peer and intergenerational relationships
- I have good relationships with pretty much everyone that I know. At school when I have to
work in groups, at work with all of my co-workers, my personal friends and with my family
at home. I can build relationships with others positively by just being kind and open-minded
when talking to others.
Weaknesses

1. Contributing to the community and caring for the environment: I am aware of my community,
environment and work independently and collaboratively for the benefit of others.
- Most of the time, when it comes to contribution to community and environment, I only
think about myself. I tend to ignore and avoid contribution unless I am directly involved. I
can improve this by putting myself out there more and looking for ways to benefit myself
and others. I can be aware of community, environment, and work both independently and
collaboratively, but I do not act on it.

Critical Thinking

Strengths

1. Develop and design: I understand the purpose for my work and consider my audience.
- Whenever I am given an assignment in school or a task at work or in life, I can identify and
understand the purpose of that assignment/task. This skill is used best in my English First
people’s class when writing big assignments, and by effectively understanding the purpose, I
can consider the audience appropriately and produce work that is authentic and meets
criteria.
2. Analyze and critique: I can analyze and make defensible judgements, draw conclusions and
consider a variety of perspectives.
- I am pretty good at analyzing information and making my own judgements based off it. I do
not make judgements unless I am able to defend it, because without defense then there is
no meaning behind it. This skill Is used in my history class, where we analyze various texts
and make our own conclusions and judgements based off what we read and consider that
there are various perspectives involved.

Weaknesses

1. Develop and design: I can explore and create new ways to represent my learning around a
variety of problems, events, issues and needs.
- I tend to stick to ways that I am familiar with and do well rather than explore new ones that
may bring my message across clearer. When it comes to projects or presentations I almost
always gravitate towards PowerPoints unless I have no choice but to do something else. I
can improve this by taking some time and thinking about different ways to show my learning
and which method would be the most effective in getting that message across.

Creative Thinking

Strengths

1. Novelty and value: I can create new and unique ideas that may provide new perspectives that
influence how people think about topics.
- This skill is probably my strongest for creative thinking. I can generate new ideas that are
outside the box, and I am able to back it up with a convincing argument to persuade peoples
opinions. I use this skill mainly in school, in socials class and even in English and science
classes.
 2. Developing ideas: I can take my ideas evaluate, develop, and refine them and make something
productive out of them.
- I can take my ideas and develop them further to produce a better outcome. I use this skill at
work, whether its problem solving and, I can use this skill in school, specifically in English
class, taking an idea/purpose and turning it into a piece of writing.

Weaknesses

1. Developing Ideas: I can preserve and understand that failure can be productive.
- I am not as bad with this skill as I was before, but I would consider myself to be a
perfectionist when it comes to certain things. I didn’t take failure as success and would beat
myself up if I didn’t do good enough. I am slowly starting to think differently simply by
having a different mindset and I can continue to improve by thinking of failure as progress.

Communication

Strengths

1. Connect and engage with others: I can listen, learn to contribute meaningfully to discussion and
debate, consider different perspectives, and build consensus.
- Whether it is inside school or outside school in any scenario I can have meaningful
discussion with others and listen to different perspectives. This skill helps contribute to my
communication skills and open-mindedness when discussing different perspectives/opinions
with others.
2. Collaborate to plan, carry out, and review: I can work with other students to plan, inquire and
solve problems
- This skill is commonly used. I demonstrate this skill almost every day at school, working with
my peers as well as outside of school at work with my co-workers by taking charge and
leading discussions to help come up with a solution, as well as actively contributing to group
efforts to produce a better outcome.

Weaknesses

1. Explain/recount and reflect on experiences and accomplishments: I can reflect on the process of
learning and share what I have learned.
- When it comes to finalizing and summarizing learning, I am not able to show it clearly yet
because I have a hard time with coming up with meaningful summarizations that make
sense and bring closure to the topic. I can better this skill by taking more time to plan out
the sharing process of my learning and seek peer review for my work.

Personal & Cultural Identity

Strengths

1. Relationships and cultural identity: I understand that culture is a broad concept that includes
things like my geographic region, nationality, sex/gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality, language and
religion.
- Like many of the other skills revolving around understanding different perspectives, same
applies to understanding the broadness of culture. I have taken a BC First Peoples socials
 class and am taking an English First Peoples class which requires me to understand
Indigenous culture and use an open mind when thinking about it with other cultures. I apply
this skill to many things, understanding that there are many factors that make up someone’s
culture, beliefs and perspectives.
2. Personal Values and choices: I understand how what I value has and will shape my choices
- This skill is a strong one for me. I reflect that my choices do indeed reflect my values. I have
values such as integrity, honesty, responsibility, and reliability. Many of my actions and
choices reflect these values both at work, at school, at home, and in my community. It does
not openly occur to me that my choices are based off of my values, however when thinking
about it, it opens my eyes on how much my values affect my choices.

Weaknesses

1. Personal strengths and abilities: I know my strengths and what makes me unique.
- I consider this a weakness, although I know there are things I do better than others, which
makes me unique because everyone has their own strengths, but I do not know how to
identify and fine point them. I also do not tend to focus on what I may be better at than
others, rather I focus on everything and go with it whether I am decent at it or not so much.
I can improve this by looking into myself more, thinking more about myself and my
strengths, and discovering who I am instead of sweeping it under the rug.