For my mid year blog post titled “The Ninth Grade, So Far” I started off the post by saying that I thought that grade 9 had been the best school year of my life. After 6 months of up’s and down’s, I have learned more about myself then ever. When it comes to grade 9 being the best school year of my life I still stick by that statement. I think that the amount of out of class experiences and unique projects, topics, and assignments we have done, combined with the help from my amazing teachers really helped me though the year that I still think is the most jam packed and fun school year to date!
I have given this post 5 different stages. Each stage represents evidence that I will use to support me progressing into the next grade with PLP. Here we go!
Pride
There have been a few projects that come to mind when I think of work I am most proud of. I am proud of my metaphor machines project, my Star Wars exhibition, and my ionic bond project. However, the project that I am the most proud of over this jam packed school year would be my most recent project, my Blue Sky project.
The main reason I am so proud of this work is because I solved a problem that relates to one of my passions – skateboarding. When I started out with Blue Sky this year, I wondered if my project was going to come together last minute. This was not true, in fact the opposite was true. I started blueprints for my product as soon as we started work on Blue Sky. I worked hard to keep a steady pace and found myself reaching milestones and creating a product that I am really proud of.
In the end not only did I create a product that works, but a product that I still use to this day! The product I created does its job not only good, but better than any other shoe patch product on the market today. I surprised myself not only with how I approached this project, but the end result as well.
Another reason I am so proud of this project is that at the exhibition many people were wondering where they could purchase it. This was the biggest compliment to me! For the first time in my life, I actually created a product that is unlike any other. I plan to pitch this idea to a business investor. I don’t know when or how, but eventually it will happen.
Joy
We have completed an immense amount of projects over the past year. In this section I would like to highlight a select few projects that I enjoyed the most. One of them would be our lab safety video in science.
I think this project started the year off strong. I was put in a group with Luca Oliver Green and Logan Underwood. It was truly a group effort as we all put in an equal amount of work. I enjoyed this project because I was able to put to use the skills that I have developed in the area of filming and editing. I put a great deal of effort into the finished project and it brought me a lot of joy.
While I had a ton of fun creating this project, I think the most enjoyable part is being able to look back and watch it after the fact. Another reason I enjoyed this project would be the fact that there was not a great deal of stress involved. The project was definitely not high stakes and did not count for a lot of our mark. However, I saw this project as a neat activity that would start off the year positive and fun.
The last reason that I enjoyed this project the most was because it involved one of my passions. I love creating films. Whether it be acting, filming, editing, or doing audio; I’m not sure exactly what it is about films but I love to create them. I think one of the main reasons is because it is a great platform to show your passion, ideas and hard work to friends, family, strangers, anyone! I also love the idea of creating something that you can go back and enjoy later on.
I think projects which involve something that I am deeply interested in or involve doing something I enjoy are projects I do exceptionally well on. I would love to incorporate more of my passions and interests into my projects for next year.
Growth
One of the main ways I think I need to improve, especially as a learner would be focussing in class. I feel like I have had multiple encounters with my teachers where they have needed to remind me to stay on task.
Whether it be sitting next to people I wouldn’t mess around with or taking breaks every once and a while to help my brain reset, I feel like I need to make a more concentrated effort on focus. This year I have started to become more aware of when my focus is a problem. One of my goals for grade 10, is to pay more attention to this awareness.
Another way I think I need to improve would be planning ahead. Regardless of whether it be a blog post, a project, or a small assignment I tend to wait for the project to come to me instead of asking what our next project would be about. I think it would be helpful for me to start asking what our next project/assignment would be about so I can be fully prepared for what’s ahead. I know that planning ahead would benefit me and the students around me because I could help them out when they are struggling on something.
When it comes to science and math class I find myself often distracted by playing games or watching videos. I have allowed my mindset to slowly change to one of leaving my assignments until the last few days before they are due. This term I have realized more than ever that this is not a very good decision as I haven’t been putting as much effort into my projects/assignments as I could. Mr. Gross and I talked about this at my grading meeting last Thursday. He explained to me that if you spread out your work over a longer period of time it gives you more time to revise and edit, allowing you to have a cleaner and better project in the end. I will definitely take this advice into account the next year. I think I experienced this in my approach to the Blue Sky project, and I now realize more than ever how important it is to work smarter.
To end this section off I would like to address what happened on the Whistler band retreat. I have learned from this experience that you can be guilty even by association. This has been a hard lesson and I have spent a lot of time thinking about who I am and who I want to be. Coming out of this year I am also learning to be very careful when it comes to who I spend my time with. I’m trying hard to stay away from people that could get me in trouble, even if just by association. I see what happened in Whistler as a second chance and opportunity to show my worth in this school and show that I am not a troublemaker, but a strong student. I will enter the upcoming school year with this mindset and I know that I can make more responsible and positive choices.
Identity
For the most part I think my work reveals a lot about me and not only how I learn but how I express what I have learned. You can definitely tell when I have put a great deal of effort into something. Some examples of this would be my Ottawa blog post compared to my Like Terms blog post.
With the Ottawa blog post I was able to cover almost everything we did on the trip. I experienced our nations capitol first hand. In real life. With the information I leraned locked in my memory from experiencing the trip in real life (not in a classroom) I was able to explain a lot of information. Mostly because I was actually in Ottawa, learning about our country at the actual places we talked about. There is definitely a difference between my Ottawa post and my math post. One key reason why my math post was almost the complete opposite of my Ottawa post was because we did all of the work in the classroom. I find it difficult sometimes to express what I have learned in the classroom.
Now, I am not suggesting that we should always be learning through experience and field studies. Sometimes it is good to just take a chill pill and sit down for a project. But the fact that my math post is very different from my Ottawa post is an example that I learn best when I am experiencing learning in real life wether it be through field studies, or some other form of learning outside the classroom. For example, when we presented our comic books to the students at Cove Cliff, it was easier for me to write my blog post. I find it easier to express my experiences rather than explain a concept.
I believe that the more I learn about my individual learning style, the stronger student I will be. I have realized that I learn by experience and I express my knowledge through creativity. One of my goals for next year is to learn more about how I learn in order to help me be a stronger student.
Conclusion
I truly believe that I am ready to advance into grade 10. I have experienced so much this year that I honestly cannot thank my teachers enough.
The Calgary trip was the most fun I have ever had on any school trip and I think I bonded with a lot of my classmates that I didn’t know every well.
The Ottawa trip was the most jam packed learning experience I have ever been involved in. The exploring we did around our Capitol was truly the adventure of a lifetime. I learned more about World War 1 and the history of Canada in this trip then I would ever learn in a million years of studying textbooks and writing essays.
I would like to add the fact that when I am learning through real life experiences, I remember that learning for the rest of my life because I have visual, audial, and tactile memories of those experiences unique to the topic we learned about.
This is why I think I should continue the adventure of PLP for the next grade level. I know more than ever that I am truly a project based learner. To finish off this blog post I would like to take some time to thank my amazing teachers that have helped my through this year. Ms. Willemse, Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Hughes,and Mr. Gross, I can not that you enough for the amazing experiences I have had this year. See you all next year and I hope you all have a great Summer break!