I’ll start with what a T-Pol is:
So a TPOL is just like an M-Pol, except it’s about your whole year, and how you’ve grown as a learner, and it’s a bit like a pitch to enter grade 9. I have to write a blog post, (here it is) and present it, without just reading it aloud, to my parents and PLP teachers.
Here we go. Let’s dive deep into the story of my learning, by examining my year, the highlights of it, and the nadirs of it.
Oregon
Oregon was an incredible experience. I was excited to start my learning journey, quite literally, and to see things I’ve never seen before, and to get out of my comfort zone. All those long hours on the bus, reflecting, and reflecting on what we had just done, and doing activities, where we all had similar experiences that we could bond over, like ziplining, everyone was at least a little bit scared, I know I was. Right after we ziplined, we subconsciously were reflecting on our experiences with each other. It brought me closer together with everyone because we had empathy for each other about scary & fun situations like ziplining. This is why highlife was my highlight of Oregon, that and it being incredibly fun. THAT is what made the Oregon trip into a bit of a “family factory”. Oregon is when a bunch of kids that didn’t really know each other, suddenly were able to relate to each other about their shared experiences and started to proudly identify as one great big family: PLP 8.
Religion field studies
When we went onto learning about religion, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but that’s why we were going to learn about it weren’t we? So I knew some basic facts about the religions we were going to learn about, but I didn’t really UNDERSTAND the religions. So that’s why we went to a Muslim Mosque, a Catholic church, a Sikh Gurdwara, a Hindu temple, a Buddhist temple, and a Buddhist monastery. We learned and we learned about each of these religions and their people, but I really liked it because I got to temporarily see through the people of each religions eyes. I got to understand what it was like to be Muslim, or Catholic, or Sikh, or Hindu, or Buddhist. I got to see and deeply UNDERSTAND their worldview, and at some points, experience their worldview, which was very eye-opening. Then after we learned about other peoples worldview, it was time for us to reflect on OURS. We were given the assignment of making an Explain Everything video, about our worldview. So I made mine, and I was pretty proud of it when I was done. My peers told me that I did a good job on it, my teachers did too, and I thought it was good also. But now that I watched it again, boy was it horrible. I think that this shows my growth as a learner because it means that I have raised the bar for what I consider good work that I’m proud of.
Speaking of good work that I’m proud of, Infographics! I really liked the infographics project, and its got to be one of the highlights of the year for me. The infographic was so fun because it’s exactly the kind of work I love to do. I love working with images, text, and shapes. I love designing these kinds of things, and its the kind of thing that I do in my free time. So doing this as an assignment, was no problem, I was excited, motivated, and striving to accomplish and impress with my work. and I think that’s what made its good. I also think that was a very important and valuable project, as it gave me a strong foundation of working with different apps that we would be using throughout the year. a big thing that the infographics project taught me, was the value of peer critique.
Above: A peer critique guidelines sheet, that has been posted in various PLP classrooms
Before, I thought that peer critique was just kind of a gimmick, but with the infographics project, and how much we improved thanks to peer critique, that’s not how I feel.
Above: An example of peer critique and how it made my groups infographic better
Now, I use peer critique, all the time, even with things that aren’t school related. And I’m sure that I’ll continue to use it through my school life, and in my career afterward.
Now although everyone makes jokes about how much they ‘hate’ DI, I actually really like destination imagination. it was a really good creative outlet, and I really enjoyed having no adult recommendations or interventions. I liked that we could do whatever we wanted, which isn’t something we usually get to do. One thing that really helped me grow as a learner, was that the rest of my group members, helped me recognize my strengths and weaknesses. and example of this is when I told the group “I can build and code a robot”. sure I can code a bit, and I know how to, screw stuff onto other stuff, but I completely was overconfident in myself. luckily, my group caught me, and told me: “Ben, your not as good as you think you are at coding and building robots”. This goes hand in hand with how helpful peer critique is, and I’m so glad that I can learn from that mistake and never let it happen again.
Something that I’m not too proud of however is, my mighty molecular movie, and my Star Wars project. let’s start with my movie. I was with Anika for the mighty molecular movie. so we got started we did our research, and we recorded. now that I’m thinking about it again, we spent more time just messing around and laughing at what we had just recorded than actually taking the project seriously and working hard. This was a big mistake because we ended up failing that assignment altogether and never seriously completing it, which I still regret to this day. if I were to do it again, I would do a detailed shot plan of the movie, so that when we are out there, were arent just recording whatever we think of on the fly as it comes into our heads. because that’s what we did last time and it did not go well.
Now Star Wars was another project that really didn’t go well, in fact, it was a total and complete F.A.I.L. (first attempt in learning) and it really WAS the first attempt in learning, because the second attempt, (Blue Sky) was awesome and successful. But more on blue sky later. It was a fail because I left the project to the last minute. At first, I was going to build a working ion thruster, and then I realized: “uh oh, this will cost me more than 100$” so then, last minute, I scratched it and built a measly, ugly, barely working model of one. and I still needed supplies for a poster, so i was stressed, and that left my family stressed, which shouldn’t be happening because it’s my work that I need to do and manage. So i learned to start with a reasonable plan, don’t leave things last minute, and don’t put the burden of my work on my family.
Now for launch. L.A.U.N.C.H was by far THE MOST VALUABLE THING I HAVE LEARNED all year. I think that the launch process can be used for so much. making a product, starting a business, solving a problem. I love the launch process so much that I have even started using it for our of school projects like my lemonade company, PosiLemons Lemonade Co. I’m so glad I learned launch, in fact, I wish I had learned it at the very start of the year. Blue Sky was even more fun because of launch. i think that blue sky was an example of my best work, because of launch. I think ive grown as a learner becaus of launch, and when there’s something I need to make in the future, ill use launch.
Now lets look at my year overall.
I made handy little graphic to show how my year has been:
In the beginning of the year, I stayed on top of work for the most part, there was a bit of a dip around Oregon but then I came back up. But then work started to pile up and I came crashing down. This was around DI Regionals and Star Wars. Then my mom started nagging me about work, and i got help from the counselor, and that’s when I came straight back up, because I had started organizing myself. I cam all the way up to what I think was A level work for 1 or 2 weeks, but then I came back down to about a b and then a brief B/B+ at the end of the year.
But why did I come crashing down in the first place? Because I wasn’t organizing myself.
That’s why I won’t be in PLP next year. But that’s not the end. Next year, in grade 9, I will practice organizational techniques, and I’ll try to get back into PLP in grade 10. I’m not giving up. As usual, THATS A BURRITO!