Welcome back everyone. I’m sure you all know the drill by now, so let’s just do a brief introduction.
Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own 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.
In this presentation, I will be discussing my growth this year through my learning behaviours. I will discuss my proficiency in Agency, Engagement, and Communication and Collaboration by using examples from our class work.
We began the year with a short but crucial project: Mightier Than the Sword. This project was heavily writing-focused, much like many of our other projects this year, so this was a good way to get in the habit and set expectations for the rest of the year. I always thought writing was one of my strong suits, so I thought this would be a great way to demonstrate extending learning. I believe that I made a very strong final product. I don’t think it really shows sophistication, but I’m certain that my letter to the Grade 8s was a mix of helpful advice, personal experiences, and valuable information that was effectively targeted towards the audience. With the final product, I think that I best exhibited my proficiency in collaboration with technology. I made my graphics specifically to appeal to my audience, which only could have been done through the use of technology.
Through the Manhattan Project Project, I continued on an upwards trajectory with the quality of my work. Of all the written pieces of this year, maybe throughout PLP, the Historical Significance practice writing was the most pleasantly surprising feedback I have ever received. We had a quick writing assignment to make a case for something we consider historically significant. Due to my love for milk, I decided to write about the white gold. The next day, once I saw my feedback from Ms. Willemse, I was a bit shocked but also happy she found my short paragraph about milk exemplary and a useful resource for the rest of the class.
I used this praise in guiding my writing for our collaborative book. Collaboration was a huge theme of this project, and while some of our group was in New Mexico, the rest of us, and I feel especially myself, carried a lot of the weight of the project. The feedback in my Report Card update explains to me why my contributions to that book were great, but not quite extending. To push myself to the upper echelons, I need to make my communications more creative and show more personal connections to further engage the audience. Fortunately, I think I showcase this better in the next project.
The Great Debaters was probably the most engaging project we did this year and the one I was most enthused about. Another building-knowledge assignment I was really proud of was “The Best ____ Ever” paragraph. To prepare for this project on debate, we had to write a piece of persuasive writing on something we consider the best ever, in 10 sentences or less. I used the free reigns of the assignment to fuel my writing. Even with the limitation, I managed to create probably my favourite piece of writing I’ve ever done, and I loved being able to express my passion in writing.
Max and I continued to fuse our passions with projects with our debate. We chose to argue about brain uploading, a complex and somewhat fantastical topic, but we were able to work around this and presented a coherent and engaging debate. I showed Agency during this project by seeking extra help and feedback from my teacher and peers to create next-steps on improving my speech.
Who Cares and Why Bother was probably my favourite project this year, in terms of content and product. I am very interested in politics, and I spend a lot of time outside of school learning about that so I was very excited to start this project. I believe this project showed my best and most sophisticated understanding of the subject matter. I showed complete knowledge of the topic from the beginning. We did several Kahoot quizzes to show our comprehension of the subject, and thanks to my severely overblown knowledge on Canadian government, I got first place every time and got every question right. After a few weeks, we did a final quiz that would count for our grade, and I can confidently say that was the easiest quiz I have ever done.
My borderline-excessive knowledge on the content in this project definitely translated into the presentation. Our group did have a bit of a handicap. I’m not going to name names, but one person in our group wasn’t particularly present in class. We managed to overcome this obstacle, and we created a highly creative, entertaining, and informative presentation. Of all my projects this year, I think this one shows the most evidence of extending learning. Like the Manhattan Project Project, I felt like an extremely reliable and valuable team member, but even more-so in this project.
By now, it was time for our mid-term grading conference. My goal for the last few years has been to bridge the gap between Proficient and Extending quality work, and I received some really valuable feedback from Ms. Willemse. One learning behaviour I could easily improve is Engagement. My teachers appreciated comments I made during class discussions, but I was not participating as much as I could be. This really stuck with me because I agreed with it, and I kept it in my mind for the next project.
Fear Factor was probably the most challenging project this year, but the one I put the most effort in. I felt like I already had a good starting point, as I had already built knowledge on the subject outside of school. I remember Ms. Willemse and Mr Hughes being really happy about my Zettelkasten and one of my Literature Notes I projected for the class to see. I was really passionate about this project, and I even started making titles, graphics, and transitions for my video before I had even done the planning sheet.
I also managed to show off some of my extended knowledge on the trip. I remember while we were driving through Sedona, Mr Hughes said “We’re going past a McDonald’s. Does anyone know what’s so special about the McDonald’s?” I had already done my research (looked up Sedona, AZ on Wikipedia) and I shared my answer. I said that I knew the McDonald’s in Sedona had a blue sign, the only in the world. Mr Hughes was delighted by my answer, proclaimed me as his favourite student, and used the walkie-talkie to tell the other van how genius I am. I am only exaggerating a little bit.
Even little moments like these had a big impact, and I saw this in my feedback for the whole project, as Ms. Willemse acknowledged my increased participation and I was making good progress.
The last project of the year was Cat and Maus. This was another very layered project that had a lot of moving parts. During the initial phases of the project, I felt like I showed a deep understanding of the topic through our various investigations and reflections.
By the time we got to the final-product/exhibition phase, I felt really confused by how often the directions kept changing, and I was struggling to find a connection between our Humanities project and our BC First Peoples projects, but in the end, we managed to create probably my favourite final product of the year. Max and I combined our research on anti-Vietnam War activism and the Residential School system to create a multi-media exhibit. We created a magazine in the style of real Vietnam War-era Zines to provide context to both events and draw the connection between them, and we built a memorial to show an example of reconciliation towards the 2 events. At the exhibitions, many people we talked to, both PLP students and visitors, were extremely impressed and told us we had created an amazing product which left Max and I very proud of the work we did.
In conclusion, I feel my next steps moving forward are clear. I will be more engaged and participatory in class discussions, and I will continue to find ways to share my learning in creative and uniquely personal ways.