“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and weaknesses. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”

This year it was pretty easy to figure out what I think I needed to improve on. In grade 6 I had a problem with handing work in on time. This year the same thing has happened with certain assignments and I think my biggest goal for this year is managing my time and making sure I have slotted enough time to finish my assignments on time.

Some examples of this would be the Live Event Video, which I managed to hand in over a month late, my Winter Exhibition Post which was almost a week overdue, and various assignments I have finished a day late. I see this as my biggest focus moving into the second half of PLP 9. I think the main problem with this is I “relaxed a little too hard” over winter break and I have lost my discipline for getting assignments done. This happened to me in grade 6, but this time I have a plan to get that flow and self-discipline back. I used to do timeblocking nearing the end of grade 8, but since the summer I have stopped using it. I think the first step in reaching this goal I have set is starting to assign certain times to work on these assignments. Time blocking will let me slot specific times for me to work.

I could also start putting alarms and notifications to remind me to work on them. Whether these notifications be from Things or Calendar, or any other app, this will help me remember to do these assignments. These notifications could be notifications saying that they are due soon, or when my specific time block for that assignment has started. I think the biggest problem with this is the fact that I either forget I have to do it, or I realize too late and I am already swamped in work I started and don’t have time to start it. This is where using things more effectively comes in. I do use things to an extent, but I feel like I could use it more effectively to help enhance my productivity and learning. I find that I assign time to do work and then another event gets in the way. So a simple solution to that would be to start putting everything into Things, not just school related stuff. These are all stuff I want to start doing for the rest of the year and beyond.

I still think my year has had good points and areas. Let’s start with my projects in Humanities. This year my favourite project we did was This Land Is Us. I really enjoyed getting the chance to interview different people on their view on the world and how where they live affects them. I enjoyed the theme of making video because I have always been interested in videography and making a film to display a point or project. That is why I feel like I did well in the projects that included making a video of some sort. It applies to my interests so I naturally work harder on it and feel more comfortable making it. I don’t think my videos were good all the time though. I know that the Run! Video was not good, but it was a learning experience for me and helped me figure out what I could improve and focus on for my next video. Which happened to be a maker video, so this is a good transition to Maker.

The video in question was the Take Your Kid To Work Day video. What I found my group lacked in the Run! Video was pre-production and planning. We didn’t plan very well what shots we needed, so for the next video, that was my priority. When I got to the site I took as many clips and photos as possible so I had a ton to work with when I started editing. I also had a list of questions I would ask whoever I was interviewing, and a list of images or clips I wanted for the video. These helped me make a video I was proud of and it was a good F.A.I.L that would help me make better videos in the future. That has been my mindset for this yard or at least it is the mindset I want. Everything is a learning experience if you approach it with the right state of mind and attitude to improve. This also applies to the blogging challenge, where I had trouble handing things in on time. This goes back to my main goal, which it to plan my time better so I can get everything done on time. For the Blogging Challenge, I had trouble keeping up with the tasks for each week, so when we do the blogging challenge later this year, my main goal will be to read the challenges beforehand so I know what I have to do so I can properly plan it out. I feel like this is a recurring problem for me, which is not a good thing. It does mean I will have time to fix it however.

Another thing that I kept on realizing was that during projects I would start to come up with new ideas after I had already committed to another idea. An example of this would be the LAUNCH Cycle and the Winter Exhibition. I had already started making my spear and heart, but then with under a week before the exhibition I started to make a stormtrooper helmet. This could be because I don’t have enough time to think about what exactly I wanted, or it was because I kept revising my story while I was coming up with what to make, so my perspective on what I should make had changed as well. Anyways, I think this could be a positive and negative thing. The negative part is that I will always want to restart and change what I do which may not always be the best thing, but the positive side is that I will always have new ideas that can bring a new perspective to the group or encourage people to build on the idea into something better. This would be good for DI, because it will encourage the team to communicate, and in DI, as many ideas as possible would be a good idea.

For Scimatics, I think it’s been a pretty good year. I started off slow, but I’ve gotten into the groove of things, and I really like the project we are doing right now. Something I want to work on though is using class time effectively. I still do that well at the moment but there are times where I get off task and i want to change that. So that is what I will be focusing on for the rest of the year. I enjoy doing like terms and simplifying them. It just has a satisfying feeling when I get the equation correct and I am really enjoying my class right now. However, I didn’t enter the year with a good mindset. Last year in scimatics I was not a good student, so I was prepared to take that into this year. I think I had managed to reel myself back, and back to a good, responsible student. The competencies we have worked on in a Scimatics this year that I feel like I could improve more on is reasoning and analyzing. The project we have used this competency in was the Game of Exponent Laws, and I feel like I was off task for most of the time we could work on it. I have identified that as a problem in Scimatics and I am going to be working on it for the rest of the year. I also think that I could work on using logic and patterns to solve puzzles and questions. I also had trouble with this in the project we did so for the next two projects where this competency will be put to the test, I am going to focus on working on this part of the competency.

PGP has been a good year for me so far. I enjoyed the Take Your Kid To Work Day Post and Video because this also played to my interests. I have always enjoyed architecture so the fact that I got to make a video about it was very good and enjoyable. I also think the Alberta Field Study Reflection was a very good way for me to reflect on stuff I normally have a problem with. My impulsivity may be a problem with the fact that I can’t get work done. That connection may be to the fact that I get easily distracted and don’t generally have the strength to pull myself back immediately. That is where impulsivity comes in. So the post was a good way for me reflect on what I did to control that in Alberta, and what things I did to help me with that.

I’m going to leave you with a question I have been trying to answer for a while.

How can I stay on top of my work and make sure I don’t fall behind?