Makenna’s mPol Post

Hello and welcome to my blog! This is my mPol post and I will be talking about my reflection as a learner so far this year. This post will be answering not one but two driving questions. 

• How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?
• How can I sharpen my Learning Plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of this school year?

At the start of the year I filled out a learning plan for each of my subjects. I chose goals based on what I specifically wanted to improve as a learner. The goals I came up with were for these three subjects.

•Humanities 

•Scimatics 

•Maker

Humanities:

My goals for humanities talk about how I can improve on presenting and talking in front of others. I can do this by raising my hand more when I know the answer and volunteering to talk in discussions. I think I showed great improvement at this in the two projects we did called Revolutions on Trial and Working with Words. An example of improving my communication skills in the Revolutions on Trial project was during The Animal Farm book discussions. I made an effort to share my thoughts during every in class discussion. 

Presenting my French Revolution Graphic Organizer helped me feel more comfortable talking to a group of people. When we were practicing presenting the graphic organizers I received valuable feedback and I was able make revisions. Then we had the final trial exhibition presentation. I was given the role of a lawyer and our group worked very well together to write the script. I then spent lots of time memorizing my lines to prepare ahead.  I worked really hard on memorizing the script and felt I did well during the presentation even though I was really nervous. 

During our Working With Words project I was able to successfully present poems to small groups and to the entire the class. This helped my growth in feeling more comfortable talking to larger groups.  I felt comfortable at this point and when I was asked if I wanted to read my self portrait poem during the Coffee House Presentation I said YES. I was very proud of myself for saying yes. I feel this was a big accomplishment in reaching my learning goals of doing presentations and volunteering to talk in front of others.

Scimatics:

In scimatics we did a few projects including the Game of Exponent Laws, Correlation vs. Causation, and Chemistry Stories. I think that Chemistry Stories ended up the best out of the three so far this year, and it goes with my learning plan goal better as well. I am really proud of my animation for Chemistry Stories turned out. I spent a lot of time working on the storyboards and the animation itself. I am really happy with the outcome. One area I can improve on in terms of my learning goal is to ask questions when I don’t understand something. This is still something I will work on doing for the rest of the year.  

Maker:

I have been working on my presentation skills and comfort level when talking in front of others as a learning goal in my other subjects. I feel my growth in this area will help me when the time comes to present the DI project.

Core Competencies:

Communication:

Communicating – I feel way more comfortable communicating with peers and adults then when I did at the start of the year. I think that I have moved on to profile 3 and even maybe 4. I can communicate purposefully and clearly during presentations to larger groups. 

Collaborating – I feel confident that I am still at profile 3. I can work with my group to achieve our goals.

Thinking:

Creative Thinking – I think I have accomplished profile three. An example of this would be when I was working on my Chemistry Stories animation. I was able to collect information to create my explanation which explains Ionic and Covalent Bonds.

Critical and Reflective Thinking – I think that I am still at profile three for this competency. Clued it in my learning goals for the rest of the year. My learning goals for the rest of the year will include asking more questions and this will help me improve on my critical and reflective thinking.

Personal and Social:

Personal Awareness and Responsibility – I think that I have moved onto Profile 4. My strengths include working hard, taking breaks when needed, balancing my learning with activity’s that I enjoy doing, and having good time management skills. 

Positive Personal and Cultural Identity – I continue to learn about myself and things that are important to me so I think I am still at profile 2.

Social Awareness and Responsibility – I feel I am good with interacting with others whom I am familiar with. I am still not as social with the people I do not know as well.

Reflection of my learning and core competencies:

As I reflect on my work so far this year I feel I have developed good working habits. I used my class time well and handed my assignments in on time. I participated in discussions in small groups and in front of the class. I worked with my team to accomplish tasks. I worked hard and spent a lot of time to produce the project that I was proud to share. 

I will continue to focus on my communication skills to feel more confident when I am sharing my ideas and when I have to present future projects and exhibitions. I will continue to work on participating in sharing roles and responsibilities in group activities.  An area that I can focus on during the rest of the year is asking questions when I don’t understand.