It’s that time of the year again. We have our first SLC’s of the year. SLC’s are a student-led conference were we reflect on the work we have done in since the start of school. In this post I will talk about the work I am most proud of, work that shows a good example of my growth as a learner, work that shows an example of my growth mindset and three goals I have for the rest of the year.

 

First, the work I am most proud of. I think the work I am most proud of is my Harry Potter blue sky project. I was really happy with my end result and how I overcame the challenges that I faced with the project

I learned a lot about aerodynamics through this project. I’m glad, with the blue sky process, that we can look into our interests or something we have never looked into before. I was at first looking into the basic principles of aerodynamics and from there I looked at the current broom designs  and started to use the basic principles learned earlier to come up with a possible better design.

Then I had to think of a way to show that it was more aerodynamic. That was the biggest challenge. At first I thought about using a wind tunnel and only using a wind tunnel but that wasn’t able to show the aerodynamics. So, I then tried making smoke bombs(that was fun) and lighting them in the wind tunnel and then turning the fan on but that didn’t work either.

So I came up with the last resort idea which was to take strips of plastic shopping bags and glueing them onto the key parts of the broom and that seemed to work. So I stuck with it and finished off the project. In the end the plastic bags were the best way to show the aerodynamics of my brooms and I was happy and proud of the end result of my project and looking back on the challenges I feel that I faced them head on and worked hard to find a solution for them.

 

Second, the work that shows my growth as a learner.

Over the past two years that I have been in PLP I feel that I grew a ton as a learner in a variety of areas including problem solving and time management. Down in Florida, I found that my time management skills showed.

Every morning we had to be downstairs in the breakfast hall at a certain time. I made sure to set the alarms accordingly.

I also organized all of my free time activities to make sure I was back when we needed to be back. Espically while we had free time in Disney world. One the day we were in magic kingdom I had my Winnie the Pooh filming to get done and I was with Ryan who also had to film his ride so I put together a schedule that we would follow for that day and it was successful except for the unexpected line at Buzz Lightyear.

For the rest of the parks no matter who I was with I made sure to create a rough schedule so people could get their work done and we could have fun on other rides.

 

Third, the work that shows the most growth mindset. That of course is DI.

Di this this year was a bit like last year. We had a problem at the presentation.

Last year I had problems with my structure. It was over weight as well as unstable.

This year we had trouble with our hatchery model. On the tournament day we had brought in the hatchery in the morning and it stood up fine until 1:00, we had to present at 2:00. When it first fell over my entire group lept to their feet and we all rushed over to the model and I grabbed a bunch of tape and tried to reinforce it. After that first fall it began to fall more and more frequently until the entire model looked like a mound of tape.

I got mad/frustrated but I never gave up and keep trying to make it work.

A similar thing happened to the background curtain.

My group found a couple of ways to put together a solution to its un-stableness but it of course fell apart during our performance.

Now the time to have three goals for the rest of the year.

1) I want manage my effort levels more effectively

I have found that, for each unit, I put in a ton of effort to learn the content and do really well on the early assignments and by the time the final product comes around I am tired and burnt out. I push really hard during the end of the units and I become very tired at the end and it takes me a while to become fully ready to do the next unit.

I want to get to the point where I am able to conserve my energy so I can be less tired by the end of each unit so I am ready right away to go to the next unit. I still want to be able to put a lot of effort into the early stages of the units but I want to be able to carry that effort level into the project part and finish with a less amount.

2)  I want to get more experienced with translating my mind to the page.

In the past two essays I have struggled with writing what has been in my mind and putting them into the essays.

When ever I have the chance to write, even if it’s just writing about my day, I’m going to take it and hopefully after doing that I can then get better at writing my mind.

3) I want to get into the habit of studying for tests for more than five minutes

Before tests, I found that I got a little cocky and didn’t study or studied only a little bit. It seems to have been alright so far but I know in the future I will need to generate good study habits. So, when I have a test I want to get studying and find some good habits for the future when I need to study.