Well, it’s that time of year again. It’s everyone’s favourite, it’s MPoL season. For this year though it will be my final MPoL as the next student lead conference will be my FPoL (Final Presentation of Learning).

For this MPoL, I’ll be highlighting the three projects we have done this year. The Taming of The Shrew, the horror film and most recently the significant event project. I will also just be touching on my focus this year in school, overall, and how that’s playing into PLP.

 

So, first off this year is my final year in high school and with that brings a whole lot of new challenges. My goal has always been university and I’ve only recently, in the past year, solidified what I want my area of study to be. I want to be doing biology, with the focus on having a career in conservation. So with Biology in mind I have, of course, been focusing on my science and math courses. Which have been a major challenge and primary focus of mine for the entire year so far. Maintaining a high average grade as well as learning and understanding concepts to help me with my post secondary future. PLP has been a home ground for me, a place where I know my basic knowledge and can learn about some different subjects away from the sciences. I’ve been using PLP as a stable base for the past 1.5 years as I begin to shift my focus into what I will be pursuing in my future academic years. I’ve been using PLP as a means to continue to develop my skills so I can then apply them to the sciences as well. This year, I’ve focused on being more analytical and focused on my essay writing.

So let’s start at the beginning of the year. Summer was an interesting time and I was still recovering from that along with some other things so it’s safe to say it was a rocky start. Despite that the first unit/project was a really good start for me.

I first was pretty apprehensive with doing Shakespeare of any form. I’ve never understood his writing or really enjoyed it. So I wasn’t overly fond of the overall unit but I used it to work on my writing skills. The essay assignment was looking at how The Taming of The Shrew could be or not be considered a classic. I was arguing that it is a classic.

In the past my writing hasn’t been overly supported/I’m really used to using cited sources for evidence. I’ve typically go off of what I already know and learn little tidbits from various sources, so over the past year I’ve really worked on utilizing research and using that as a core aspects of my structured writing. I think this was really brought out in the essay I wrote for the Taming of the Shrew I spent more time doing research and finding sources than the actual writing. I tried to gather credible sources that really pertained to what I wanted to focus and write about. I made sure to use them as a structure for what I actually wrote, to emphasis my point.

I think that’s a really good benchmark for my progress in writing. Moving forward I want to look at the actual embedding of the quote and supporting it fully with my writing. So, I only have roughly 6 months left of high school so I really want to continue to have high efforts with my writing and challenging myself to keep going with it.

Next is our horror project. To me it kinda comes in two parts. First being the movie watching and second being the production. One was overall a lot better than the other I felt but both showed me what I wanted to work on.

So, First is the movie watching. Before the unit I was not someone who willingly watched a scary movie, let alone a horror. So I had to get used to that pretty quick if I wanted to learn what I needed to. When we began with watching movies I really wanted to focus on not just enveloping myself into the world and becoming entrapped, like I do with most movies until now. I wanted to look at them with an analytical mindset and view so I could understand how powerful horror is. It not only worked but helped me not get scared by the suspense. I was able to gradually learn about the capabilities of horror, from how the set ran to what was appearing on screen and how those things can be interpreted. I now look at every movie as I did Halloween, Get Out and Frankenstein. Watching the acting, how they did this stunt or what the idea was behind this scene etc…..

I’m not going to say it ruined how I watch movies but it kinda did.

Now with the actual horror production. That’s a a whole other story. With my original role as producer I learned a lot about my leadership style/solidified my ideas on my leadership style. In the end that did not align with what was needed for the project. My leadership style is a very laid back style. As a head counsellor and Program Head of scouting events I’ve always been the middle man between the camp chief and the “boots on ground” staff running the day to day things. So being in more of a “camp chief” role was a large shift that I didn’t really process. With my previous leadership experience I’ve had a more active role working “boots on ground” working with my team and doing similar work as them, not sitting on a throne doing paperwork or commanding like a dictator. I much prefer getting my hands dirty and actively working with my subordinates to ensure the job is done and as a team not a work force being whipped by an overseer.

After my position shift I thought my roles ran a lot smoother than previously.

I did all of the scheduling and call sheets, boom operation and managing the post production efforts. Which I think was a little better suited towards me in the long run. I was able to do some managing of a small team while still contributing to the physical work being done.

Moving forward (With another leadership role I have already begun) I’m working to have a more active leadership style. Being a little less “it’ll all come together no worries” and more “ok, let’s get it done and here’s how we are going to do it”. With my upcoming leadership role I have already begun to see a change in my style. I’ve gone with a more active approach, spending a lot of time meeting with my superiors and communicating my team, doing a lot of new things that haven’t been done before and working to ensure a whole new camp.

 

Now with the final project. In the last month I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Recently I’ve moved my personal military history interest over to Vietnam a little more and Dien Bien Phu was right on the course for that. I found it a really great way to kick start my research into the general topic. The focus for the project was why was the event significant. So I tried to formulate an understanding of the impacts that it had with doing a lot of research of various sources and looking at the event specifically but also some of the background things around it. I looked at the communist aid from China and the origin of the French colonial rule. I also really looked at the effects from the battle and how that affect Vietnam and subsequently the world.

Along with the research we had to do a presentation as well as an artifact that reflects on why our event was significant. With the artifact I threw myself into a confined space with that way too early and didn’t leave room for creating different options. I did an explain everything for my artifact but while creating it I started to come up some better ideas that I wish I could do instead to challenge myself and do something a little more engaging. With the presentation I struggled to compact all of the information I to a shorter time in order to focus on the actual significance. I find, especially with projects I enjoy and work to know a lot about, I bet carried away with the details and don’t focus on the bigger picture. I talk about all of these cool facts and things I find interesting and that took up time in my presentation which ultimately lead to me rushing the significance and running out of time.

So, moving forward I want to work on being more creative with my products as well as leaving time to think things over and try to find a unique option I will enjoy doing. With compaction information I want to work on focusing on the bigger picture and working to make sure I can condense a lot of information into a shorter span in order to meet project requirements.

 

Now with my overall plan moving forward in the year. We have roughly 6 months left and a lot is going to happen in those 6 months. Hopefully I’ll be accepted to university, do housing applications, get some scholarships, graduated, play Ultimate Frisbee and hopefully make a team heading for nationals in the summer. There’s a lot more I’m listing but you get the picture. It’s going to be crazy.

So my plan. I have a few goals for the rest of the year.

1. Raise my Pre-Calc and Chemistry marks to an A to be in line with the rest of my courses currently

2. Begin training for the Ultimate Season, getting into a routine that improves my physical conditioning and strength as well as my skills.

3. Improve my time scheduling in order to have high intensity work periods, rest periods and training periods in order to get out of a small bog I’ve gotten into over the winter.

 

The last goal really comes around every winter, I stay inside more because of the cold and dark and I get bogged down, lax and don’t really work as a hard as I know I can.

All of those goals I have listed above all play into each other and go hand in hand in how I’m working on achieving them. It of course starts with motivation and I have different motives for each goal. Second is the scheduling. So I’ve started testing out new ways to schedule myself better, writing lists of tasks, blocking out breaks etc…. That has been somewhat successful, when I stick to their course. Moving forward is now to ensure I stick to them, which I feel is the hardest part. I working on that each day, allowing time to unwind but ensuring I can have work periods where I can focus solely on my work instead of flipping between 4 different things. I also think that with the increased want for activity, more so than in previous years, that will help in being able to retain my focus while doing work to make sure I’m making less mistakes and putting in as much effort as I can be.

Like I said previously, the next 6 months are going to be crazy so right now my main focus is to do everything I can to prepare for them in any way possible and it’s starting with better scheduling, moving forward into analyzing the “bugs” and working those out. The next step after scheduling is doing prioritizing and finding balance. Having the understanding of what comes first at certain times and finding the fine balance between work and play. That is something I have always played with over the years and right now it is slightly out of alignment so my focus is to realign that in order to end my high school career on a high note.

Now for my question to finish the presentation.

What would you like to see me accomplish before the end of Grade 12?