“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.”
Hello All, and welcome to my very last tPOL here at Seycove. It’s truly scary thinking that by this time next year I will have graduated. Nonetheless, onto the presentation…
I want to start my tPOL off with what the goals I set at my mPOL. This will allow me to truly see my growth as a learner.
The primary goal I set was using my time effectively. In my mPOL I expanded this goal out into creating purposeful habits and communicating with my teachers.

1. Using my time effectively

My goal was that by the end of the year. I wanted to be using my time as efficiently and effectively as possible. I struggled with this during the first semester which I knew wasn’t going to stand in a tough second semester. My second semester consisted of… Chemistry, Physics, PLP, and Pre Calc. Going into it, I knew if my time wasn’t managed well, juggling school, soccer, and more I would not be able to stay afloat in my biggest year yet. I was able to improve on this skill drastically during the second semester. In a way, having the four hardest classes at once forced me to build and continue these habits. It forced me to manage my time well because I knew if I didn’t my grades would reflect that. I built meaningful habits like starting my homework right away after school. On this busy busy days, I had a strict timeline made. Where the night before I mapped out my next day. In these classes, you could kind of tell which week was a slow week, and which week was more intense. By mapping my next day out the night before, I eliminated the stress of worrying about time blocking during school hours. I knew my workload, and had already allocated time to do it the next day. Then, all I needed to do was actually do the work. Having this mindset that not doing the work will not get me where I want to go, pushed me to put the effort into my work that was needed to succeed.
 A great example of this is my most recent project. The Spring Exhibition 2022. This project perfectly encapsulates my effort and time management. From introducing our impact maker and pitching him to Ms. Willemse, to making a portrait these two skills I had been working on perfectly came into play. I was able to time manage as I knew I was going away for a weekend for a soccer tournament. I told Ms. Willemse a week in advance and allocated even more time to allow me to get some of the work I would be missing done. I time managed well and had all my “ingredients” to my portrait by the time I left for Seattle. When I came back, I just needed to assemble it and I got it done just how I wanted to. This communication with my teachers and using my time effectively really pushed me to do my best effort in this project. When everything is planned out, doing the actual work is easy.

2. Putting more effort in/creating purposeful habits

Another goal I had for my mPOL was putting in more effort/creating purposeful habits. I had thought of many ways to achieve this goal. The main way I brainstormed to achieve this way was to use tutorial time to the best of my advantage. Unf

ortunately due to a multitude of reasons I was unable to complete this goal using tutorial times. I was already up at 8am twice a week to tutor Kadin, and when I did go to tutorial time I often had questions about Physics, Chemistry, or Pre Calc. This with a mix of getting home late from practice really made it difficult to attend PLP tutorial regularly. Thankfully, I found other ways to achieve this goal. I managed to do this by constantly asking for feedback. This was also shown in my Spring Exhibition Project. When offering my pitch about how I was going to portray Ray Cairney, I remember revising my idea 4 total times. From not thinking my original portrait would balance, to thinking I would ruin his face if I conceptually drew it I kept going back to the drawing board and re thinking. I obviously came to a conclusion and portrayed him amazingly with the conceptual wording that built his face. Another example of this way my Playlist of my life project. Throughout this project, I regularly asked Ms. Maxwell on revision about
my songs and my writing pieces for them. I distinctly remember double checking the criteria multiple times and asking if my songs fit them or how I could fix my writing to make it better. This allowed me to take full advantage of my learning and put maximum effort.

How did I fail this year?

While thinking my plan for this presentation and post, I kept circling back to this question. I believe my fails this year are as important as my successes. Because, its when you fail that the learning happens. I believe my biggest failure this year was my persuasive writing project. Going into the project I already knew writing wasn’t/isn’t my best skill. My biggest failure was my mindset. I still put a lot of effort into the project, but I would constantly feel demoralized. I would read a peers writing and would instantly get a cold sweat as it was significantly better than mine. I felt the need to compare my work to others for validation but I kept getting let down. My mindset going into the project was that I knew I was going to do bad. This is very out of character as I normally LOVE facing these challenges and proving myself wrong. There was just something deeper that gave me a mental block. I knew what I wanted to write, and I wrote it the best I could. I just felt that my “best” effort wasn’t at the same level as everybody’s “regular” effort. It was at this point where going to tutorial time and communicating with my teachers could have helped me the most. Unfortunately, I let myself down and didn’t reach out. I wanted to do it all myself and wouldn’t accept help from anybody. I think this can be a major lesson and I can definitely work on it next year. Allowing myself to be vulnerable, and asking for that extra help when it is needed.

So, why do I feel like I am ready to advance to the next grade level? I believe it is my growth. I have grown immensely these past 4 years and have understood what it really means to be in Project Based Learning and how much PLP has affected my growth. Sometimes I am curious how I would be if I wasn’t in PLP. I like to think that I wouldn’t be where I am today. I enjoy PLP so much and how it has refined my knowledge through projects for the past 4 years. I understand how the system works and I fully beivle that I am ready to advance to the next grade level with this higher knowledge.