This year has felt like it’s gone by so fast, I can’t believe it’s already the end of grade 10. With the year coming to a close it’s that time again when we do our PLP presentations of learning called tPOLS. If you’re not sure what presentations of learning are, twice a year instead of parent teacher interviews, we present to our parents and teachers examples of our work from our learning portfolio. These examples can be anything from what we have learned along with what we think we can improve upon or just any work we want to show off that we think are good examples of our best work. If you want to check out some of my previous presentations of learning check one of them out right here.
The driving question for our tPOLS is “why do you feel you should move on to the next grade level?” Throughout this term I feel that I have many examples to draw upon that show not only my growth as a learner but also demonstrates my success within PLP. In this post I will be showing off some of the work I am most proud of, the valuable lessons I’ve learned this year, and the work that shows my growth as a learner. I will also be explaining some of my goals going forward into grade 11 in PLP.
Photo with Helmut, a WWII German veteran
In Humanities, this year has been the most interesting as we have covered some historical events that were up my alley and kept me interested for the entire year. One big unit we worked on this entire term was our World War Two website. If you want to read the blog post for this click here. For this project, we were split into groups and each group focused on researching about one country during WWII. As our website is called Perspectives of War, it made sense that we showed the perspectives of many different countries during this time. My group got to make our webpage on Germany which I was really excited about as it was my first choice and something I was super eager to learn more about. Throughout the research, creation process, and final product I feel my group worked very well together, building off of each other’s strengths. I feel as if this project shows off my best quality of work and is definitely one of the projects I’m the most proud of this year.
With my group’s final draft of our webpage, I think it definitely shows our understanding of Germany’s huge part in the war along with their perspective before, during and after the war. I worked really hard throughout this entire project and put a lot of work into making each part of it the best product it could be. After completing the final draft of our website, we presented it to Kathleen Barter (who is from the North Van School District). I was nervous about this meeting but as my group worked so hard on this website and we were happy with the final product, the presentation went really well!!
Throughout this entire year, our focus has been on bringing a story together. In grade 8 we focused on images, grade 9 on filmmaking and this year has been based around audio and interviews. At first I was not excited at all for the year to be based around podcasts and audio as I hate the sound of my own voice. Previously we had done interviewing within PLP but before this year I hadn’t seen the overall importance of it. However, I’ve learned how it can make a story better, connect and engage listeners to what you’ve created. This was definitely a learning process over the year as we have made many different podcasts. One part that took me quite a while to get used to was the recording of my own voice as every time I slightly messed up on a recording or jumbled my words I ended up re-recording the entire thing. This did not work to my advantage when recording an entire WWI soldier podcast of my own voice. However throughout this year, I’ve found ways to become less stressed and anxious about recording, this has allowed me to sound more natural and less like I’m reading off a script during recording.
Interviewing and creating podcasts has definitely improved my overall communication skills. I’ve learned so much this year on how to conduct a proper interview and what questions to ask as well as how to follow up with the questions I’ve asked. I’ve learned that you want to engage with your interviewee throughout the entire interview and pay attention which will allow you to ask and come up with questions that are more geared to them. This is definitely an important skill that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to practice outside of PLP. During my planning 10 job shadow, I decided to do an interview. If this had been last year, I probably wouldn’t have done an interview but because this is what we’ve been focusing on I did an interview and felt very comfortable while doing it. I think this has definitely been my best interview so far as I was not only engaged the entire time but drew upon what she said to create questions on the spot. My interview skills are definitely the most valuable thing I’ve learned this year and are something I will use when moving forward.
In Math and Science, one of the latest projects we’ve done was our renewable energy project. This project taught me about potential and kinetic energy for science and linear equations for math. At first, I didn’t really understand the concepts of what we were learning but throughout this project alongside mini projects and in-class labs my knowledge for these two subjects has expanded. I definitely think this shows my growth as a learner from the start of these units to the end result of this project. This project also shows my ability to self-critique and do revisions as my group had many failed attempts before our final product. We definitely worked well together to create the best product possible for our final draft. Although I know I can definitely improve upon the work that I’ve done I was proud of my group’s final product.
https://youtu.be/g07osiGFfxg
Throughout this entire year, I’ve learned so much from how to be a more productive student to interview skills that I can use throughout my life. I think I’ve definitely shown my growth as a learner throughout every PLP class especially from the beginning of this year to where I am now. This year, I also think that my time management skills have improved with not leaving my work to the last minute when my schedule is packed full of sports. I have used the free time I have efficiently and effectively to create the best work possible. During all my classes, I’m able to take critique and make revisions to improve upon my work and create better and better drafts.
With this upcoming year, with only having two PLP classes, my goal is to take my work ethic, growth mindset and PLP work standards into all of my classes outside of the program. I will push myself to get better and always make revisions to make the best results I can possibly create even though most teachers don’t have the same revision process as in PLP. PLP pushes me to always get better and holds my work to the highest standards. This motivates me to improve the quality of the work I produce. I can’t wait to see how I can improve in the next year of school!!