If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, your probably familiar with TPOL’s, MPOL’s or maybe even SLC’s. If you haven’t click here and here for some other examples! Anyways TPOL’s are something we do at the end of the year to share and reflect all the great work we did over the year. We usually have a question that we need to answer throughout the presentation, this year the question was: Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?

I think this term I improved in quite a few areas as well as grown as a learner. A few examples of this are the perspectives of war project in humanities, my job shadow in maker and our renewable energy project in math and science.

A few weeks ago we wrapped up a unit on the perspectives of war. We learned a lot about WWII but also widened our perspective on different countries and people who fought in the war. Throughout this project we had to learn to create a website as well as do extensive research on a certain country. You can read all about the process here! I really felt like I grew as a learner for a few reasons. First of all, if you read my post on the project you would know that a historian named Kathleen Barter (Mrs. Barter) came in to see our end product. We had to present all our completed work in front of her. At first I was really nervous, but if anything it challenged me to grow as a learner. I had to triple check all my facts and do extensive research on reliable sources. I think doing this I learned way more than I would have if I didn’t have too present in front of Mrs. Barter. In the end by doing this I grew as a leaner and got new perspectives on the war.

We also had to complete a job shadow which you can read about here. At first I had no idea who I wanted to shadow, but after I did some research and a few people helped me out I eventually found something I was interested in, this was physiotherapy. As I explored this career I began to further my options into a future career and started to look at other branches of medicine. As I did this I grew as a learner and eventually found a future area of interest. This sparked ideas and put more inspiration into what I was working on. In the end it as well led me to growing as a learner.

The final thing that taught me to grow as a learner was our renewable energy project. Throughout this project we had to create a video alongside a homemade generator. Personally I don’t have to much experience with circuits, solar panels and the use of natural energy so to me the project was very challenging. As we furthered throughout the unit I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone which ended in me learning all about those things I didn’t have a clue about. I know now about quite a few things like using hydro electricity to power an LED light as well as using many other sources of renewable energy. Without this challenge I don’t think I would have learned or grown nearly as much as I did. 

Throughout the year I did improve quite a few work habits but I also have some things I think I still need to work on. I think it’s safe to say I’m pretty good at handing things in on time but I would like to work on being more focused in class. I have personally found that the past few weeks I have been really unfocused, this has led to me having excessive work to do after school that could have been finished during class. This is something I would definitely like to work on in the upcoming year. But regardless of that, I am very happy with the outcome of quite a few projects and I feel as though that’s because of the effort I put into each one of them. 

Another aspect of the WWII unit was a podcast we created with the audio we got from a WWII veteran. You can read more about that here! Overall I was very proud of my podcast but as per usual I knew I had revisions to do. After we paired up and critiqued our podcasts I received lots of good advice and improved my podcast even more! Thanks to all the critique and revisions we do after every project it helped me create an even better draft two. I think this shows that I not only grew as a learner but also shows that I can take that critique and turn it into advice I can use towards an even better project!

Helmut Lemke (WWII veteran we talked to)

By now you’ve probably heard me mention the project “Perspectives of WWII”, but I think it’s a great example of team work. Throughout the project we had to use a website called Weebly to create our own website. We tried over and over again to use it on iPads, but the software was not at all compatible with the iPad. Every time somebody would attempt to edit something it would delete or move around. We had to use our team work skills to make sure the project was done on time. After school we would contact each other and create a semi schedule to split up the work at different times (otherwise the website would glitch). This showed great examples of how when we put our minds to it and use our team work skills we can get a lot done no matter the circumstances. 

I also mentioned my job shadow project multiple times. This was something my whole class had to participate in and I feel as though it pushed us all to become more responsible individuals. During this project we had to research and contact employers and businesses in order to find a job shadow. We also had to set up dates and act and dress accordingly to the work environment. In the end doing this pushed us to be more responsible individuals especially because we were dealing with real world situations. Not only did I become more responsible but I also got a glimpse of what my future could look like!

Finally I feel as though my #BcTech blog post showed high quality work. I felt as though I pushed myself to create the best product possible. I incorporated many links and picture as well as my own media I had collected from the day. On top of the post we also had to do some research and take notes on at least one speaker. I felt like I really found lots of information from many different sources for each of the speakers. The final thing I was proud of was the video we had to create. Although the actual video quality wasn’t the best, I still felt like how I had reflected and the information I was giving was very thorough while still being to the point.

Now to answer the question, Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level? Well, over the year I have put in so much effort into everything I do, this has ended in me only growing as a learner. This effort shows through my writing, presentation skills, teamwork and responsibility (all traits I have just talked about). So, I hope throughout this you at least got a glimpse of the work we have done over the years. Personally I am very proud of the projects of not only I, but of all my fellow classmates as well, I can’t wait to start a fresh school year!