What is an mPOL?
I recently learned what an mPOL is, as this will be my first experience of completing one, which an mPOL is basically a mid-term presentation of learning. This is where students have to present their improvements in learning and show examples. This presentation will be in front of our parents and one PLP teacher. Prior to the meeting we have to prepare a blog post, which is what you are currently reading. This blog post will be presented at the meeting along with other blog posts that will be used as examples of individual growth in learning. We will explain what they have learned so far and how they can continue to improve.
Our parents are also encouraged to talk and maybe even talk about ways they think we have improved in the past. Teachers will also provide there input as to how we are developing. We are to make a presentation that will last for seven minutes, followed by five minutes for questions and discussion. Part of our preparation for this meeting is that we have to come up with a detailed question to ask our teacher and our parents. The question can be something like “For the amount of time you’ve known me, what are some examples of times I have improved?” But it must be much more specific.
Sucessful examples of my work
One of the first big projects we did was our advertisement unit, in which we learned a lot about the media and their techniques, skills, etc. If you want to know a bit more detail about the process and overall experience the you can read into my Practicing Advertisement blog post that I have already created. But here I will explain my learning and growth from this project, and also what I took from it and how it was successful.
We started off with a practice run which was with a local business and creating an ad for them, we asked the basic colours they were looking for and any specific theme that they wanted. Then each person in my group went off to create their own advertisement. My first draft to my final draft was definitely an example of how I take critique and use it to improve my work.
Then after that practice run, we went on a school trip to Oregon and got the information from a company there like what colours, or any theme they wanted and followed a similar process in which I also listened to all the critique and used it to improve the draft from the first to last.
Another project that we have done that I’ve showed growth and improvement when finished is our Star Wars exhibition. This was one of our bigger projects as there was a lot of preparation required, along with research, and construction. This was our first exhibition, it was on a smaller scale to introduce us to what its like presenting and how an exhibition works as it was a practice run for our next exhibition which will be larger.
We started by looking into what an exhibition is, this is explained in more detail in my Out of this World Exhibition post. After we learned about what we had to do and what an exhibition is, we had to do some independent work before we split into groups. We would have to decide what aspect of Star Wars we would focus on, and I chose makeup and design. During my project I had to plan how i could approach the work involved so that I didn’t leave it all to the last minute and I spread out the work evenly so my work was the best I could make it. This was definitely an improvement in my organizational skills. I started off with research and then built my project up from there, thinking of ideas of what I could do and how best to present it.
In the end I had made a model of a character from Star Wars, and created two posters boards including a few illustrations, and all the research I had found about how they designed and created each character. Also I focussed on who designed some major characters in the movies, and what their thought process was while creating the characters. We were then put into small groups based on what catergory our project fell under, but we also had two major groups which were the dark side and the light side. The smaller of the groups that I worked in worked well together as we all had similar ideas and didn’t have too many conflicts. I was at first nervous of what to say to everyone on how to present my project but after the first time I talked to someone I started to get the hang of it and I knew exactly what to say. During this project I definitely grew as a learner in many ways. There was an improvement in my presenting skills, and leadership skills, as the behind the scenes dark side group got the back of the library which was being used for classes most of the day. This meant while everyone had from 3:00 – 5:00 to set up but the five people in my group only had forty minutes so it was definitely a struggle. By five when people were starting to come in we had not completed setting up, so I quickly came up with an idea to quickly tape paper to the wall and cover up the computers. This situation was a challenge but in the end I’m glad it happened as I was able to demonstrate being a quick thinker when on a tight schedule.
One last project to mention is our Growth Mindset unit in maker, which I cover in more detail in my Having a Growth Mindset post. We took many notes in class and I tried my best to complete each part of the project to my fullest potential as they were assigned. So when it came down to getting a picture and having a goal I already had a basic idea and the end product was easier to get to due to my previous work.
Times when my work wasn’t the best I could’ve made it
For our first novel study of the year The Highest Tide I definitely could’ve used some improvement on getting the worksheets assigned done asap as I did end up procrastinating and not putting in my best efforts. In future novels studies to better improve my learning I will make sure I finish the work sheets on time and include more parts from the reading.
Another thing I could work on which isn’t any specific project, is math. Sometimes I tend to not do as much study for a quiz as I should, so I don’t do my best. To improve in math I plan to study more and ask if I don’t understand.
Overall there definitely are a few ways to improve my learning, whether it be writing down criteria for a project we will be working on, better taking and applying criticism, less procrastination, etc. To finish up there is still one more thing we had to do. Which was come up with a question that is very specific, and that both your teacher and parent can answer. I had a few ideas what I wanted my question to be, like something based around procrastination, or improvements I could make, or criticism, I pulled a few ideas together and figured out my question. My question is “How could I go a step further with future projects based on times you have seen me improve and progress before, while using critique and input from my peers?”
Until next time
Paisley:)