A Story Of Progression
With the current state of the world and the lifestyle we have all felt, I finally have an excuse for that feeling of time passing at strange speeds. On one hand, its ridiculous to think Im headed in to grade 12, my final year at high school, but on the other hand, my god does New Mexico feel like a lifetime ago! It’s always been interesting to look back at the past year for these TPOLs, however this year is unique as the last couple months have actually been the least hectic of the school year rather than what are normally the most hectic. With that being said, let’s rewind and take a look at a story of progression throughout this unprecedentedly unique year.
A Certified F.A.I.L.
Back in November, a period in time so distant from now, I was busy working on a group project structured by the reading of William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies. As has been discussed extensively throughout this blog of mine, conventional novel-reading isn’t exactly my forte. I struggle to connect with the literature and find myself falling in to a downward spiral of little to no self-accountability. This can prove quite the issue when you find yourself in need of using such information to help propel a group project. Of course I always mean well, and I really want to succeed in everything I do, it’s just that sometimes my intentions and my actions aren’t always in alignment at the end of the day. For this first look at my work from this year, I’m using my Tribalism presentation as an example of a FAILure.
As I just acknowledged, projects can be quite difficult when they require a certain level of initial understanding and preparation. They are especially difficult when that initial understanding requires the use of an apathy, combined with the presence of a group tackling the same task together. I really struggled with the first part of this unit, the reading part where we dove deep in to Lord Of The Flies, but I enjoyed the second part, the keynote presentation part. However, you’re only as strong as your weakest link, and in this instance, my weakest link was my disinterest in LOTF, and it became the downfall of my personal success.
All in all, I don’t think my groups final presentation was bad at all. My problem with it stems from a personal connection with the project as a whole, where I feel like I could have gotten more out of the bit had I put in a little bit more time and effort in to connecting with the book. This definitely had me feeling rough and unsatisfied with my work, and even though I wasn’t mad with the end product, I knew it could have been enhanced with some passion.
Practice Makes Perfect
This tale of progression now takes us to one of my most recent accomplishments: the Macbeth film. When thinking of where this year took me and how I showed a positive change in my learning and habits, I instantly drew connections between the Tribalism unit and the Macbeth/50s unit. I noticed they were both group projects with a visual final product, fuelled by works of literature that needed to be fully understood and interpreted in order to succeed. This inspired me to focus this TPOL on the story of progression between the two projects.
With the Macbeth unit, although against my first instincts, I dove in head first and tried to absorb as much content as possible. As I discuss in detail in my blog post for this unit, I do believe I was able to succeed in engaging in the literature content because there was also the 50s side of the unit where I built a personal connection. This allowed me to foster a connection with the unit as a WHOLE, and stopped me from losing interest in the more English-y Macbeth content.
Once I had completed the first half of the unit, it was time for the real fun: creating the film. Without a doubt, anybody in our class would agree that this film is the biggest group project we have ever undertaken. I mean our group was 16 people instead of the usual 4 or 5! Over the years I have recognized that I can only succeed in a position of leadership when I am leading in something I care deeply about and am passionate about succeeding in. For that reason, I wanted to take the role of editor because I knew it was a big role, but something I was super passionate about. This ended up being a massive success, and despite coronavirus crushing our hopes and dreams for the film, our class, including me, is super happy with what we were able to accomplish. Personally, it meant a lot to me because I was able to pull of my vision while working within a team, something that hadn’t worked earlier in the year. It proved to me that under the right self-empowerment, I am capable of success by adapting and moulding projects to fit my personal needs for a passionate connection.
I feel like that story of progression is the most valuable evidence I have of personal advancement I made this year, and I decided to solely focus this presentation on that as it means the most to me. Being able to pick out projects from the past year and draw connections that shine a spotlight on both the highs and lows of my work leads me to the conclusion that I am ready for whatever grade 12 throws at me. I’m excited for next year and I’m sure that before I know it I’ll be sitting here at my computer wondering “Where the hell has the time gone?!”
Until then however, Daniel out.
danielw • June 17, 2020