It’s finally the end of the year and I have to say, I’ve really enjoyed high school. It was so different from elementary school in many ways but mostly the work. In my classes I was given a lot of independence and it felt good to lead my own project. A big part of that was PLP. After this year I decided that joining PLP was definitely a good idea. I had so much fun in all the classes and I’m super proud of all the work I’ve made. I also can’t believe how much I have grown in just one year.

Critique

In elementary school I couldn’t take the slightest bit of critique on anything. Now I have learned that critique makes my work better and I always try and get it because it makes my final product the best it can be. A good example of this in the second half of the year was the stitch in time project. We began that project by creating a story from the perspective of a crusader in the crusades, and creating a story from a Muslim’s perspective in the crusades. Over the course of a week or two these very detailed stories became very simple and vague jot points. It really helped me think about how nothing is ever decided from the beginning.

Exhibitions

One of my favourite things we did in PLP were the exhibitions. These projects were so much fun for me but I’m not exactly sure why. I think it’s because the project is about something you choose to do and you get to show your work in front of people. I’m very proud of the two projects I did. For my Star Wars one I created Mom-bot, the first female droid, which was so much fun to show off on the exhibition night. For my second one I created the helping heARt stickers which I think is super cool. I am very excited to show my work off later this week. Keep checking my blog to see that post once we finish the project.

Being Engaged in my Learning

Another thing I’m proud of is my Christchurch Playground project. Up in the science room we worked on a group project where we had to build an earthquake in a seismically active area. My group consisted of Anika, Jordyn, and Taylor and our place was Christchurch, New Zealand. We worked really well together and had a lot of fun working on the project. The reason why I was so proud of my work on this is because I learned how to use excel and I was fully engaged in my learning. In the unit we did before, the one about light, I had a difficult time understanding everything and it was really hard for me to do. Because of this I started doubting myself and wasn’t confident in my work. So when we started the earthquake unit I wanted to make sure I was fully engaged and was understanding what was happening. I actually found this unit super cool and gained an interest in the science behind natural disasters. Below is what we have so far on the excel.

Things to Improve

Apart from the light unit in science there was only one other project that I found hard to work on. For me it was the renaissance project. For this unit I actually really liked what we were learning about but making the triptych was super hard for me. My original idea sketch seemed really good at the time but when I looked back at it I realized that it was way too much of a collage and it didn’t make sense at all. I also didn’t really use the middle panel in a useful way. When I wrote the blog post I only had one draft of it done and said I would put in a more update version. However with all the other projects we were working on I never finished a second draft. I plan on going back to fix it but I am frustrated with myself for sort of giving up on that project. In the future I won’t wait until the blog post is due to do a second draft. As soon as I finish a draft I need to ask for critique and get working on the next one.

Habits

In my opinion my best work habit is always communicating. With all of the group work we do communication is key. An example of this is the last project we did in Humanities. We had to create tableaus showing Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, set in New France. My group consisted of Ben, Kiera, and Emerson. We made a group chat that was constantly being used to show work, ask for help, and mainly just to keep us all updated on what work was being done and who was doing it. I did this with almost every group I was in. My communication also helped me with individual projects. I would always reach out to my classmates or brother if there was something I missed or didn’t get. However if I didn’t get a response and couldn’t find anything else, I wasn’t afraid to text my teachers. Below is a video of one of the groups, not mine, on the first day we practiced performing our tableaus.

Overall I am super proud of my learning from my grade 8 year of PLP and feel that I have grown so much as a learner I’m so many different ways. I hope to continue growing and learning next year and the many years after in PLP. Now enjoy some photos of the fun times I had with my PLP classmates in class, on field studies, and outside of school.