The Tpol is our big, end-of-year reflection. To many, the Tpols are a rollercoaster of emotions ranging from ecstatic because it’s the end of the school year, to very sad because you have to complete the Tpols. They’re basically a time where you look back and see how unproductive and lazy you were at the start of the year and, hopefully, how you improved by the end of the year.

I will be breaking this post down into five parts. Four of these parts will be reflections on all of the goals I set in the Mpols, whereas the final section will be about how I can answer, and have answered, the driving question, “Why am I ready to move forward into the next grade”?

The First Goal Revisited: Writing and Grammar

I started off with a bad habit of being a lazy writer and making a lot of mistakes. I didn’t take time to plan out my work, or review it all that well. Now, I am a lot more focused and I’ve managed to tighten up my writing. I still have my mother look over my blogs from time to time, as she is a writer and actually knows what she’s doing. The subject where I have shown the most improvement with my writing and grammar skills has to be Humanities. It’s a class where a lot of writing is required. Humanities is also where I’ve also done the majority of my blog posts. Overall there have been six blog posts, and there will be another one coming before the end of the year. The next runner up subject is Maker with 5 posts. I started off writing posts like “my week three challenges“, and soon made my way to what you’re reading now, only this time with proper spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.

Second Goal Revisited: Communication Within Groups

This goal mattered to me the most. Aside from improving my connections with more kids outside of school, I have worked to be a better team member inside of school as well. The biggest thing that clicked for me was the ability to broaden my view from only seeing the negative side to being able to appreciate people for what they bring to the table. I’ve also been able to take a step back and look at myself and where I fit in to most groups. Finding my place was something that made social interaction / communication a lot easier since I don’t have to try to be a person I’m not. Like boasting that I would be the best person in a mountain bike race when I would obviously lose, just for the sake of fitting in. The subject where I have noticed the biggest communication change is in Maker. This is probably because Maker is our most group-oriented subject. I had a fun time with Maker this year and thoroughly enjoyed the work and the topics. Some of my favourite topics were the story strikes back, which was a Star Wars themed project that we did, and:

“witness to history“

Third Revisited Goal: Blog Post Media

I sucked at putting media on posts. For example,if we take a look back at some blog posts from last year, here, this was the whole post.

You will see that I included the bare minimum of detail for a blog post. Along with being very short and boring, it only included links to my group members. There wasn’t any media! Then, if we move to the beginning of this year, we see that I begin to include pictures and videos as well.

Now, lets take a look at the post you’re reading right now. I have included many pictures, links, videos, etc. And, because of this progression, I have been reviving higher grades for my posts.

My Final Revisited Goal: Getting Assignments In On Time

Ah yes. No matter what I do or what I try, the talk of time management always comes up. This task was something that came to me this year, somewhat naturally. I don’t know if something just clicked or what, but I do know that I am doing a lot better this year. I am using all the tools given to me like Calendar, Things (best), and Reminders.

All these tools have helped me to get almost all of my assignments in on time, and they’ve reduced my overall stress a lot. Time management has worked especially well with math and science. For example, for some of my later science and math projects, I’ve had to balance my time between schoolwork, my job, and free time. This is where apps like Things and Calendar have come in handy. I can mark certain hours to get my work done, and certain hours in advance where I know I have to go to work. This means I dont have to stress about up coming work, or deadlines.

Finally: “Why do I feel I can move on to grade 10″?

 There are a couple of things I have done to make me feel ready for grade 10. One of the biggest things has been doing all this work, sitting at home and planning out my days around school. That fact that I and most students have been keeping and even improving our grades during the pandemic, shows a level of maturity that suggests we’re ready for the next level. On top of that, I’ve learned how to be a functioning team member by being optimistic and open minded. And, I finally understand what working environment works best for me. With this new understanding, I can be my most productive self and student, and use it going forward into grade 10.