We have to make a slideshow about role models in our life to prove that we know how to use PowerPoint. We need to include a historical figure, a living person, a person you see at least 3 times a year, and any other role model(s). I have one for historical figure and living person, but I don't have anybody else that I look up to. Oreo doesn't count because she is not a human. I would just lie, but I'm honestly just tired with lying for the good grade. I've done it so many times. Every year we have to write something around Thanksgiving (in America, so we are starting that soon) about what we are thankful for. I know there are things that I probably should be thankful for (like parents, having a home, etc.), but I'm genuinly not because of where/how I've been raised. We had to make goals at the beginning of the year then write an essay about how we did/didn't keep up with your goals. I said I did even though I didn't. I've tried to be honest in school assignments before but everytime I've gotten nervous and changed it right before presenting/or submitting. My point is I feel bad for not being honest, but I have this fear about something happening when I'm actually honest in a school assignment. I don't know why I have that fear but I do.
My question is, do I:
a) Actually be honest even if I'm nervous.
b) Just lie.
c) Something else if you can think of it.
Thanks.
(if your wondering who the role models I have so far is my grandfather and NF)
Honestly, just lie. It's just a stupid assignment which, as you said, is only to prove that you can use Powerpoint (which a 5 year old can figure out.... why the heck are they still testing students on this!?), it's not anything actually meaningful. You could even use these ridiculous assignments to (secretly) improve your creative writing skills... make something up and make it believable. Make up an uncle that doesn't exist who did some amazing thing and you totally admire him for it. It might even be easier to make up a completely fictional person because then it doesn't feel like you're lying about someone real. So you're not, for example, saying that you look up to your mum for something that isn't true. The teacher quite honestly won't know or care. This imaginary uncle maybe saved your fictional dog from drowning when you were 5 years old, by selflessly jumping into the river to save him when his collar got caught on some weeds, and since then you've always looked up to this uncle who would put his own life at risk to save an animal. IDK. Maybe he won a tractor-driving race, or grows lovely flowers that have inspired you to try gardening. Go wild with your imagination haha xD
I made up a completely fictitious brother for my German speaking exam because I knew that there were marks for being able to describe a person and their personality, and when asked "Do you have any siblings?", just saying "No." wouldn't show off any language ability, so instead I said, "Yes, I have one brother, he is 2 years older than me, he is tall and ugly and plays football and .... etc. etc."
For the historical character, you could challenge yourself by just Googling some completely random person and then have a game of "how do I look up to this person?". eg. I just Googled "famous person 1738" just because that was a number that popped into my head, and got this list, and I'm gonna pick........ hmm......... William Herschel, astronomer, who discovered Uranus and now has a massive telescope named after him. When I first learned of him I was inspired to look to the stars, and I got my first telescope as a birthday present when I was 7 years old after hearing about him. I used my telescope to look at the moon and this further inspired me to study astronomy later in life. Or, let's see... Arthur Phillip who was the first governor of NSW, who I admire because he not only sailed in the first fleet to Australia, showing great courage, but he grew up in a town nearby to me meaning that I feel a connection to his roots, and also when he got there he was one of the only people to actually be sympathetic to the native people, working hard to avoid famine. Etc. Etc. I literally just made all this up based on a 2 second Google search.
Same goes for things like targets. Make it up. It's genuinely just a box-ticking exercise that the teachers have to make you do and they even think it's a waste of time but some manager somewhere above them will want to see that they've made you do it. Choose something that you know you do, and say you don't, or you need to improve it. Good at organising your books/folders? "I need to improve my organisation because last year when I had to revise for exams I found it difficult because my notes weren't organised so this term I am going to work to improve this and my target is to put my books in order and make sure that I know where everything is." What you have to do: nothing. What you report at the end of term: "Here are my lovely organised notes and books!"
Trust me, as a teacher, this is honestly how it works. (I tell my students this as well, btw). Make something up, make it sound good, get your grades, don't feel bad about it. Lying isn't always a bad thing 
Edited by IsAnyoneThere, 14 November 2021 - 06:29 PM.
