💭 tPOL 2024

It’s tPOL time of year already! In this post I will be writing about my growth as a learner so far this year. I will then be presenting this post to my parents and a teacher in what we in PLP call a tPOL – Transitional Presentation of Learning – while I talk about my growth as a leaner and the driving question:

How can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP
Success Behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?

• Introductions

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tPOL Declaration

“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 opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”

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What I’ll Cover

• My growth as a learner this year in relation to the success behaviours
• Why I think I’m ready to advance to my final grade of high school: grade 12! 😵‍💫

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Success Behaviours

• I sadly don’t have time to talk about all of these, so I’ll be focusing on three in this presentation:
  1. Resilience
  2. Communication with teachers
  3. Enthusiasm

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Agency: Resilience

• This year took a lot of resilience.
• More pressure as a grade 11 student.

 

💣 The Manhattan Project²

• During this project near the beginning of the school year, despite my many reminders and creating spaces for group members to submit work, there was an overall lack of group member contribution and many of these efforts went ignored.
  • Took resilience to finish the book in the face of these challenges, and I was proud of my section even if the other sections may not have quite meet my ideals.
• I feel this was a good example of my ability to be resilient in the face of challenges.

 

🌸 Spring Exhibition 2024

• The Spring Exhibition was very confusing as what we were presenting kept changing (3 times!) in the week leading up to it

  

• These changes were very stressful as I often didn’t know what I should focus on and with such a short timespan left I felt a lot of pressure that I needed to work on SOMETHING, but wasn’t really able to get much done as I was unclear what the expectations were.
• Despite this stress and confusion, I was able to pivot several times to new plans.
• The final plan I actually had a lot of fun with Faith making our BCFP-Holocaust Upstander combo.

 

🪶 BCFP

• I realize there may have been a lot going on behind the scenes with the PLP team, however I found it really challenging when the assignment criteria was not always clear to me or when feedback was delayed.
• Because of this, I found it challenging to be motivated to do work.
• I showed resilience and persistence by repeatedly talking to Mr. Hughes, asking him to give feedback or to provide clarification on tasks.

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Communication and Collaboration: with Teachers

• I believe that my communication with teachers improved a lot this year.

 

👨‍🏫 Mr. Hughes

• In relation to the BCFP confusion I just talked about, I spoke to or messaged Mr. Hughes many times.
• I asked for extensions when I was feeling too stressed or overwhelmed to be able to create work I was proud of, such as for this paragraph on Indigeneity:

• Learning needs to be able to benefit from BCFP:
  • I spoke to him about the need for a break in lectures, to request something like Ms. McWilliam’s “body breaks” or nature time, or time to work on assignments in class.

 

👩‍🏫 Ms. Willemse

• I spoke to Ms. Willemse about what to do when team members weren’t contributing to the book we were making for The Manhattan Project² (as mentioned above).
• One time when I was having a really hard time taking notes in class, I asked Ms. Willemse if she had any suggestions or tips to make note taking easier for me.
  • She told me to do my best to get the main ideas and to get help from my friends for the notes I wasn’t able to capture in time.

 

 

🧑‍🏫 Ms. Madsen

• Asked when assignments would be marked so I could know if or how I needed to revise.
• Asked for help or clarification in class such as for my essay on Maus.

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Engagement: Enthusiasm

• I’m often not very enthusiastic in certain classes (some days I can be the polar opposite).
• I find it challenging to be excited for classes that are repeatedly structured with a lot of lectures or fast paced videos as I have a hard time keeping up with notes and processing information so it becomes overwhelming and not enjoyable.
  • When I do fall behind on notes I tend to give up and be cranky for the rest of the class or even day.
• Classes are much more exciting for me when I’m passionate about the topic or can understand the real-world applications.
• I am usually enthusiastic about creating the final product, but not so much the building knowledge phase.
• I learn best when I feel connected with and understood by the teacher and I’m in an enthusiastic learning environment.
  • This looks like feeling safe and encouraged to seek feedback, like the teacher is there to support my education, and make my learning experience as positive as possible.

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Conclusion

Overall what I’ve discussed in this tPOL connects to the SD44 and Seycove theme of “relationships with ourselves, each other, technology and the environment.”

• For example, I’ve become more aware of factors that influence my enthusiasm for learning and I’ve made an effort to improve my relationships with my teachers.

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Goals for Next Year

1. Continue to communicate with teachers to improve my learning abilities and experience.
2. Continue to balance personal, school and work life (my goal from last year’s tPOL which I did pretty well at this year!).
3. Continue to develop my note making and information processing skills.
4. … I’m not too sure how I can improve on enthusiasm: I welcome any suggestions you might have!

 

Thank you!

Any questions?