T.P.O.L.s
(Transitional Presentation Of Learning)
Good morning fellow out of the box thinkers, and others wishing to learn more about my journey this past year!
Today I must answer a very important question that the answer of may decide my future. Why do I feel that I am ready to advance to the next grade level?
First off, I want to go back to the beginning of the year and visit our goals one more time. Our goals for this year were:
- To learn to apply school learning to every day life
- To believe in ourselves because whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.
- To inquire and ask questions about the word around us
- To learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable
- To build our toolboxes and lay down sturdy bases to grow upon
- To think differently ABOUT the box instead of thinking outside the box
- To always try harder and harder to do our best, and better
- To accept feedback and criticism in a positive way
- To be able to give kind, helpful and specific feedback while installing growth mindset
- To become more comfortable pitching to the public
- To push ourselves to our limits and to find new limits to challenge
While growing my growth mindset, I wasn’t 100% sold on the idea and wasn’t sure it would work for me. At first it sounded like a lot of propaganda and only positive stories whereas there may be the majority where it ended out failing. Now I know it works a lot! Growth mindset has changed my life to say the LEAST!
It’s not only changed my life, but now I’m reaching out to my friends and family, helping them notice when a fixed mindset is holding them back. I believe that slowly their lives are changing too, well not their lives exactly. What is really changing is not what in life is given to us, but what we do with it.
Being truly inside a comfort zone is something that I’ve long forgotten about now, everything that I’ve learned this year has pushed me further and further out of my comfort zone. For example:
One of my fears has been to try out for a solo in choir because I compared myself to my brother who has been open about his singing for his whole life. Thanks to all of you amazing teachers who have reshaped me, I have a solo in jr.Chamber choir and I performed it in the Seycove Cabaret in front of 50 or more big tables packed with people! I am definitely comfortable being uncomfortable now.
All of these things I’m overcoming, but my biggest challenge was and still is to accept criticism more openly. At the beginning of the year for somethings I had myself convinced that if I was set on an idea and my teachers weren’t, the only problem was that they didn’t see my vision. You can see this in my deep cave add for Ahoy Goods. -it did not go over well.
Now that the lessons are sinking in, you will see me changing entire concepts because of the critique I get from them. I thought I was flexible but I was way too stubborn, now at least I can say that I admit my tenacity tends to go past tenacity and verge into stubbornness. I can also (gladly) say that I’m working on it, and that I seem to be letting go a bit more.
You can see examples of this in all of my recent work such as the exhibition ideas. I was convinced on an idea for an art app where you could post your own works of art (in any form) without your name attached so that you would not be too scared of the public opinion to post. I will admit that it would not have worked out like I thought it would, and i am very glad that I listened to Ms.Maxwell, Mrs.Willemse, and all of my classmates advice.
A common pattern that I see in myself this year is awareness, becoming aware of issues that I did not think I had until this year. Before, I thought that I knew what I needed to work on, but this year has exposed me to things that I had never experienced before (such as DI), and it made me realize some things about myself.
DI made me really experience stress, I had never felt responsible for others performances or grades before and it made me feel even more pressured to be perfect (a goal as unreasonable as trying to please everyone). For DI I came up with what I thought were some creative and original ideas, I later found out that my most creative idea was already being used by three other groups in PLP.
These things include:
- I do not work as well under stress as I had previously believed I did.
- Being creative is NEVER second nature without constant work.
- Focus can be achieved, it is not a given thing, it is a choice (I learned this from Ms.Maxwell in my mPOL)
- I have an odd knack for doing improv, as long as the people I’m including can be flexible
- Emotion can be settled more than I thought it could be, happiness is a choice.
- I enjoy most math, creative writing, persuasive writing, science, and other learning more than I ever thought I could.
- I can decide whether or not to be happy and interested in any topic.
- My future is entirely in my outlook, and in my perspective, and in my choices (not only in actions but also in feelings).
I have learned so much actual information this year, it would take ages to retell it all. It all seems to have seeped into me, I am a sponge and your lessons are liquid. It seems like I have always known everything that I’ve learned this year, I think this is partially because i am so constantly reflecting on past experiences with new knowledge. These reflections have been helping me understand my life as it is, and also making it easier to see the patterns as they happen. In past I’ve always seen the patterns well after they happen, and I am not able to use the knowledge I get from seeing these patterns in the events they come from.
I wish i had become quicker at noticing patterns in my “whatever floats your boat” project. This was a project where I was supposed to create a video describing all of the forms that kinetic energy can be. In this project i over complicated my solution. If I had seen the simplest solutions succeeding, I could have done a much better job.
I am constantly reflecting, reflecting in class, in dreams, random thought processes, on purpose and by accident. It has mainly started because of PLP and my constant will to improve.
My favourite part about this cohort is the challenges that we are all given daily, I have always really enjoyed a good challenge.This year however, I became aware of my reluctance to work with others. This group is not made up of my friends, we are a family, and I feel that it has helped me trust others more.
My favourite challenge so far has been when in science Mrs.Klausen told us to find a way to prove that both light and sound are waves. I took this challenge and used my patterning skills to find the similarities in both. I then took down all possible variables, and made an experiment for all three types of waves I knew (light, sound, liquid). I figured that if you reflected light sound or water at an angle, the reflected wave would come out at that same angle. – It turns out that I was right.
I may have grown a lot this year, but I still have so much more to show you – so much more to grow – so much more to become aware of – so much more to work on – so much more to show myself.
I am well aware that I have made a good number of mistakes (such as not fully reading the mPOL instructions), but I also have been learning an equal amount of lessons, and am constantly applying them to every single part of my life.
The lessons I have learned this year are changing my life for the better, but they are not what I am most proud of learning this year. My proudest achievement is how I’ve learned to find the lessons in my failures, successes and critiques.
The BIG Question…
So… why do I think I’m ready to advance to the next grade level?
— Grade 8 is all about expanding your perspective and broadening your opportunities and horizons.
I know this because of all the worldview involved work we did, the studying of religion, growing growth mindsets, the many opportunities to try more electives, teachers pushing us outside of our comfort zones, being taught to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and to try new things even if they may FAIL.
My Answer:
– I have learned to explore new ideas, concepts, and perspectives.
– I’ve learned to question myself and others.
– I’ve learned to correct myself and open myself up to the possibility of failure.
– The most important thing that I have learned is how to find the lessons throughout my experiences and apply them to my life in all the ways possible.
Why do I think I’ll persevere?
#1 I’ll persevere because the patterns in my past and present say so, and the numbers never lie.
#2 I’ll persevere because I love a good challenge.
#3 I’ll persevere because I have learned to be my own inspiration.
Do you think I’m ready for the next grade? -would you be?
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