Hello teachers, parents, and siblings and welcome to my TPOL. This year has been full of twists and turns, but I’m finally at the finish line of grade 11. It’s felt long and short at the same time, it’s been a year full of new challenges. A new grading system, new teachers, and challenging learning goals were reached. This year I was accountable for my learning, if I was struggling I was self-aware and my teachers let me know.
“Thank you for coming to my presentation on learning. I am the expert on my learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my 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.”
“How can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP Success Behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?”
I have demonstrated this evidence throughout the year, whether it be in class or field studies. This year, I’ve pushed beyond my comfort zone and have started to reach my potential as a PLP learner. I’ve started to contribute more to class activities and ask more questions which benefit my learning. I’ve also been able to provide connections and see the bigger picture of things. Something that held me back in previous years was my interest and passion to learn more about certaintopics. This year, I’ve started to be more open-minded and see the end goals in the projects that we complete. These examples, as well as many more that I’ll mention in my presentation, are all pieces of evidence that support this….
Success Behaviours:
Goals and self-assessing:
A big part of my grade 11 year has been goal setting and planning where I strive to be by the end of the year. This is an important trait to have for any course in high school, especially in PLP. At the start of the year, I aimed to be more flexible and open to trying new things. I think I achieved these goals this year, I worked more with the people that I didn’t necessarily know as well as my good buddies. An example of this was in the Great Debaters project when Dana and I battled it out in a debate over social media. She won, but this was a good opportunity to learn and expand my horizons a little. Another goal that I scratched off was my ability to self-regulate and manage my time. I’m a pretty busy guy outside of school, so it’s always pretty stressful meeting deadlines and getting projects done. However, this year I was able to plan things out well and work around my mammoth schedule. Right now I am writing this after a weekend-long soccer tournament. ! I always try to get my tasks done and do my best in that regard.
Enthusiasm:
As I mentioned in my answer to the driving question, I was more engaged this year in our material and the PLP community as a whole. I found the fun things in our projects, and I did some volunteering at the Destination Imagination tournament. This year I tried new things, and as a result, my learning got better and more in-depth. One example of thiswas when we were tasked with making some fleeting notes during our Arizona-Nevada field study. I always talked about them in the car and stuff. (Sorry Mr. Hughes for annoying you…)
Reflection:
I’ve put more time and effort into reflection this year, and have started to prioritize it. This is shown in my blog, and also in the Bank of Zettlekasten, and in notes that I’ve made throughout the year. Reflecting during projects has helped me to find the deeper meaning behind topics and events. An example of this was in our Fear Factor project about the Cold War. During our field study, I would reflect daily and this helped me, especially to make a good final product. I’ve realized that reflection isn’t a sugarcoating of fancy words, but it’s an opportunity to bring in other aspects of your life and find the links to it.
Learning Evidence:
Now I’m going to talk about the successes and failures I’ve experienced in projects this year. I could come up here and talk about only good parts of my learning, but I’m not going to do that.mklk
My favorite project had to be Fear Factor…
The field study was a blast, and in the process, we learned a lot about world history and the effects that fear can have on people’s decisions. I tried really hard in this project and as a result, got the most out of it. I had a great time driving around in the tik TikTok Rizz bus throughout our adventures in Arizona and Vegas.
The project that was the most challenging had to be “The Great Debaters.” This required the most focus and self-determination. In order to prepare for our final product, the debate, we had to do hours of research and practice. The hardest part was crafting an effective rebuttal, which we mostly had to make up on the spot. This showed my ability to improvise and make things up on the spot
Conclusion:
In summary, this year was full of bumps in the road, but as a result I learned many valuable lessons. An unfamiliar grading system, limited teachers, and harder projects, all brought out the resilience and work ethic in myself. I reached my full potential this year as a PLP learner. I tried new things, widened my surroundings, and opened myself to new learning opportunities. I had a fun experience on our field study and got to know the PLP 11 class quite well. This is my last ever TPOL, as next year I’ll be onto my FPOL, (final presentation of learning). High School really has gone by in a flash. I hope you all enjoyed my TPOL, bring on grade 12!