Hello everyone! It’s that time of year again, mPOLs!
Throughout the past months of grade 11, I’ve worked on a variety of projects and have learned a lot of valuable skills.
At the beginning of this year I created a learning plan. In my learning plan I recorded some goals and aspirations I had for this year. These goals each apply to multiple aspects of my life.
The first skill I wanted to focus on, was to….
I’ve always been a very introverted person at school. While this may not be true in all aspects of my life, I tend to be a quiet person. The past years in PLP, I’ve been trying to become better at collaborating and speaking my mind. I’ve always thought that I have a lot of the tools that a good leader needs, I’ve just never been able to find my voice.
This year during the winter exhibition, I feel that I was really able to work on my leadership skills. My group and I were tasked with making a video for our section of the exhibition. It was a very busy time of the year, so we were all very preoccupied with assignments and events. A lot of the responsibility ended up falling on me, almost by accident. While it was a little bit overwhelming at the time, now I see the valuable lessons I learned through that assignment. I took a leadership role and I truly pushed myself to work well with my group.
While I feel like I’ve been taking a lot of steps in the right direction this year. There is so much room for improvement. I want to allow myself to take on new things and truly challenge myself. I want to be more confident and outspoken. While this does not happen overnight, I’ve come up with some ways that I can continue to improve.
I think the best option for me moving forwards, is by starting small. Slowly challenging myself and pushing myself a little bit further with each project. Whether this means asking a few more questions in class or leading discussions with a group. I think accomplishing small things every single day will slowly improve my ability to collaborate and work with others.
Improving my ability to communicate ties into the last goal I mentioned. Communicating my ideas has never been a problem, while presenting in front of a large group of people. While speaking one on one or with a small group can really be challenging for me.
This year, a way I worked on my communication skills was through our Sounds of Poetry Project.
I was given the chance to present in front of a smaller group. While my first presentation did not go as planned the second time I presented, I did a much better job of connecting with my group and properly projecting my ideas. Looking forward I think what I really struggle with is connecting with people. In the future I think I can become a much better communicator, by focusing on being confident and connecting well with those I work with.
Like I mentioned earlier, these habits cannot be changed overnight. If I motivate myself to make small changes every single class, I think I’m on track to becoming a much better communicator.
The last goal I really wanted to focus on this year, was adding more depth to my work.
Something that’s always been missing from my blog posts, is deep reflection. This year I really wanted to take my learning a lot further, building more thoughtful work.
A project where I think I definitely accomplished this, was my sputnik post for the Manhattan project. I was very proud of this post! While this wasn’t a very serious assignment I ended up taking it very seriously.
I loved the freedom this assignment gave us. We were allowed to pick our own topics and I chose something I was very interested in, The Space Race (Sputnik)! I think I made a lot of great connections, and effectively supported my opinions. Overall I thought this post went into a lot of depth and was entertaining to create.
Moving forwards I think the best way for me to add more depth and thought into my work, is by connecting things that I’m passionate about to my assignments. I work best when my work has meaning to me, if I include the things I love into my school work, I think they will be much higher quality.
A way I can connect my passions to my work is through Zettlecasten. By using my second brain, I can connect seemingly unrelated topics to my homework. Giving me interesting examples and information to include in my work.
I’m super proud of everything I’ve learned this year! I think I’m really beginning to make progress, and become better at these skills. Hopefully by the end of the year I’m able to accomplish more, and achieve my goals!
Thanks for reading my mPOL post! If you have any advice or ideas, comment down below!
See you later!
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