Hello again my fellow classmates, teachers, and humans. I’m here with a very exciting post! Today we are going to be talking about what I have done well this year and how I feel I have progressed as a learner, otherwise known as a TPOL. Not an MPOL (by the way go check out my mid-year presentation of learning here), but a TPOL. TPOL stands for Transitional Presentation Of Learning. I will be showing you some of the work that I’m most proud of from throughout the year and reflecting on how I feel I’ve done as a PLP learner and how I’ll improve throughout next year. So, without further to do, let’s get into it.

First off I’d like to reflect on a project we did near the beginning of the year. If you’ve been reading my posts you’ll recognize it. It’s the Growth Mindset project. I feel that I have continued to use growth mindset throughout all of my projects so far, but I’d more importantly like to talk about my goal I set during that unit (the picture above is my goal). I set this goal because I felt that I could definitely improve taking feedback in a kind, positive, and constructive way. I’m proud to announce that I feel I have overcome this goal and I have lots of work to show it. Near the beginning of the year I didn’t really like someone (other than myself) telling me what I needed to fix or improve. Now towards the end of the year I welcome any feedback and actually seek to find feedback so that I can have a different point of view on my work. All the feedback that I receive I take constructively and implement it into my work. A great example of this is my project that I’m currently working on in Maker. It’s our Blue Sky project (post will be coming out shortly). I have been getting lots of critique from my peers and my teachers. I have been using this critique to create the best product I can. I will continue to use this new found skill in grade 9 and further down the road.

Still needs some improvement:

Now that we have talked about my goal from last year, I would like to talk about what I plan on improving as a PLP learner. This won’t be a fully set goal for next year, but rather a couple of things I would like to improve. First off I’d like to get better at staying on task. I feel like I’m normally exceptionally good at staying on task, but sometimes I get distracted by my friends or even just zone out. I’m planning on getting much better at staying on task next year. Staying on task will help me get my work done faster, which will then allow me to hangout with my friends. Another thing that I would like to focus on next year is having a good balance between sports and school. I tend to be very busy outside of school with different sports like skiing and hockey. I would like to get better at making time for homework and having a good balance between both. I feel like I could improve immensely next year in school with a couple of these goals in mind.

Improvement:

During the MPOL I talked about one of my weaknesses being procrastination. I feel that I have improved a lot since then and I would like to talk about that. Procrastination had always been a problem for me and I’d end up spending a whole day doing homework for something that I knew the due date for weeks before. I’ve always wanted to procrastinate less, but I never really took action until this year. Since the MPOL’s I have improved immensely. I’ve been doing work right when it get’s assigned. A great example of this are my blog posts. Near the start of the year I waited until last minute to do them, but now I do them in advance so that I can improve them and add to them before I hand them in. I think that this has made my blog posts much better and more in depth because I actually take the time to go back and reread them. I will continue to improve on not being a procrastinator throughout grade 9 and I will continue to keep these blog posts in depth and put time into them.

Work I’m proud of:

Now that I’ve talked about what needs improving and what I have improved, it’s time to talk about some of the work I’m most proud of. Starting off this list I’d like to say that my Blue Sky project is coming along very well. The hat protector that I’m making is working really good and some people that have seen it are saying that I’ll make millions with it. I think I have showed lots of things that I have been working on in grade 8 through this project like still images and persuading and audience. Overall this project is coming out beautifully.

Another project that I’m very proud of was the comic book age of exploration project in Humanities. I’m especially proud of my comic book I made and how everything tied together. This project shows what I’ve learnt about still images and exploration. I feel like I showed a good mix of keeping the comic book entertaining and educational at the same time. I really enjoyed making and it probably was one of my favourite projects in PLP.

The last project that I’m going to talk about is one in Scimatix. It was actually a project that we did near the start of the year. The cell project. We had to make a video on cells and what happens when heated up or cooled down. Me and Fraser were partners and we did a very good job. I’m not sure where the video went, but it was great with lots of little animations and it probably took the longest I’ve ever spent on a video for a project. It showed how much I learnt about cell theory and how I could use the IPad to enhance my learning.

Overall I’m very proud with all my projects and if I was able to change anything from grade 8 I wouldn’t. I learnt so much this year that I will bring to grade 9 next year and I am excited to learn more new and exciting things in PLP next year. I’d like to thank all my teachers for an amazing first year in PLP and highschool. It’s been a great year for me and I hope it was for you guys as well. Thanks for taking time out of your day to teach us. It’s been a great year and I’m excited for more amazing projects next year. This concludes my TPOL blog post.

Until next time… Aedan Loughran