This post is all about mPOLs. Now, what the heck are those? I’m asking the same question.

Welcome back to my blog! It is time to embark on a magical journey called mPOLs, where I will be reflecting on the good and the bad of term one in grade 9 PLP, and thinking about improving my strengths and weaknesses alike. This is my first ever mPOL, unlike the other PLP kids who have some experience from last year. I’m not exactly sure how this will all go, so I’m just going to include the projects that I think will define my grades this term accurately, and display both things to improve and what I did well. 

Let’s start off with Humanities, which is both social studies and English in one. In Humanities, I am just getting used to having social studies and English combined into big projects. Perhaps our biggest was the PLP trip to Alberta. This was definitely a highlight of the year. I got to know my fellow PLP-goers a lot better, and had the opportunity to see a ton of amazing, beautiful and educational sights. We talked about identity, and geography, and improved our writing skills all in one. We produced amazing videos about identity and the trip, which involved video-making skills, something I’ve never needed to use in school before. It was great fun! Overall I think I really got used to the learning style of the program during this trip, and how we’re going to incorporate more creative aspects into our knowledge and hands-on experience. 

Another massive project was metaphor machines. This combined so many different skills and required a lot of different media tools; building, writing, researching, video-making, reading, science, math, history, and more. For metaphor machines, we built Rube Goldberg machines that were metaphors for a revolution, my group’s being the American Revolution. I really like history so this was a great project, plus building the machine was super fun too. We used lights and circuits as the science part, and made videos about our machines. This project was my second favourite. I learned that working in a group can be very difficult, and that you have to try your best to cooperate with your team members, because if you can’t work together, it will be so much harder to get things done. We had quite a few technical problems, so I realized  that it’s important to have a backup plan if something goes wrong. A good aspect of our group was, even though sometimes it was difficult to have everyone complete their own portion of the work, communication is so important in a group project. When we faced those technical challenges, we talked to each other and found that it was too difficult to directly fix the problem, so we resolved it easily with the teacher. If we hadn’t been in touch, and suddenly a due date was upon us when we had nothing but a giant problem that hadn’t been discussed so nothing had been done with it, we would have definitely gotten a much worse finished project, and a worse grade. 

Next up, Scimatics. This being my first time having another class combining two subjects, it was a big step. I am gonna talk about a project that we did that involved making an animation! It was super cool, but very difficult. First of all, this project was based on chemistry, so we learned about that. After, we wrote stories and made them into animations with the chemistry aspects intertwined in them. The chemistry was, for me, difficult to understand at times, but I persevered and continued trying my best. This project taught me that you gotta know your stuff. Chemistry isn’t something you can learn at the snap of your fingers. It required a lot of worksheets to remember how to make chemical formulas, what ionic and covalent bonds are, etc. Next time, I want to take it upon myself to research more into the subject to make sure that I’m fully grasping the content. This project was completed in a short amount of time, and I believe that the work I produced I was very proud of. 

Maker. Another class I have little experience with. In Maker, it very much focused on subjects that I am also new to. For example, at the beginning of the year, we were learning a lot about video-making. We also participated in something called the Student Blogging Challenge, which was super awesome and fun. There were a lot of successes in this subject; I am proud of the videomaking skills that I’ve gained over the course of the first term of this subject, which I will now be able to utilize throughout the rest of my schooling. I learned that drafts are important, and it’s so much better to make a rough first draft that can be improved on than to make something and call it done without coming back to it to reflect on the work you’ve created and recognize what can be improved. Especially for a project called our Live Event, I can improve on many aspects of my maker projects, being mostly videos which I had no experience with.

For this Live Event Video, I found that my video was very to-the-point, which is good, but it could have been a lot more creative. Watching some of the other videos, which were done reporter-style, or had a theme, it made me want to go back and make my video more comedic, or add more to it. A huge part of Maker is using creativity to cultivate cool and interesting projects. I know that I can grow by trying to think outside the box with future projects; to use my creativity to make things that are unique and different, rather than playing it safe with boring old tactics and things that aren’t going to be super interesting to the viewer of the project. 

Lastly, I’d like to mention a course called PGP. PGP, or Personal Growth Plan, is all about planning and making sure that our lives are organized to ensure success. In PGP, we started reading a book called “What do you Really Want” by Beverly K. Bachel. This book is all about goal setting. We read through it, and had to write down excerpts and answer questions from the book in a little notepad.

Here is an example of a little form I filled out from the book.

I learned quite a bit from this book, and PGP in general. Being introduced to this handy technology this year, I’ve realized that the iPad is a great tool for planning. Putting down dates in the calendar app, or using the highly encouraged app called Things from our teachers, whatever it is, it’s become super helpful in me organizing my life. I know that I can use this even more as the new term unfolds.

In terms of areas of growth, I haven’t been as efficient as I would like to be with writing in my notebook. I want to make sure that with all this help on how to time block, or set aside goals, etc., I need to use the lessons taught in PGP to help me stay consistent with my goals and homework. However, in PGP I am proud of something I created, called a dream board. It’s a collage of all my aspirations, and I am glad to say that this definitely puts things in perspective when I can lay them in front of me, and see my goals in a more physical way. This, on top of the assigned writing in the notepad and the other various planning assignments, has set me up for success, and I plan to follow through with utilizing my PGP resources. 

My dream board!

In conclusion, this year has been a big step foreword in my learning techniques, projects, and opportunities. The new things that I have been able to experience and fulfil is really amazing, and I’m so grateful to be part of PLP. I hope I don’t screw this mPOL thing up! Thanks again, Term One, and I can’t wait to see what Term Two has in stock for me.

Reflection:

This term has been full of new opportunities and experiences. I did a lot of work that I’m pretty proud of, and I have some areas that I can improve in. My goals for next term are reflective of what I’d like to improve on this term. My question is: how can I deal with being in a group with people who aren’t inclined to do as much work as required, especially in assigned groups? What are some strategies to working in groups and dividing work equally between the group members?