“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.”
Why am I ready to advance to the next grade?
This year I have learned a lot, but in this presentation I will focus on three competencies I feel have improved this year and why this makes me a qualified learner for next year.
Self-Regulation:
During this project, I started a zettelkasten which has helped me remember ideas and focus on school more as well as keep me on track throughout other learning experiences.
During this project I worked in a group setting for a majority of it, and I found it improved my connections with other students in the class as well as my collaboration skills.
My evidence of improvement here is from the Great Debaters project that we completed at the start of the year. During this project, my work underwent LOTS of critique and I learned how to accept and apply critique much better.
In the latest PLP project, we explored how fear can be used as a tool for societal, technological, and governmental change; mainly through the lens of fear of nuclear weapons, in the quest to ultimately answer the driving question “How has fear been used as a political, defensive, and cultural tool to shape our society?”. So come along with me as I learn how nukes have shaped the world today.
This project started off strong with some over-the-holiday reading of the book Hiroshima by John Hershey. Once we were done reading and got back into school, we learned about a brand new PKM system called a “zettelkasten”. A zettelkasten is basically a second brain, consisting of many notes that can be made on anything you observe or learn throughout your day. It categorized notes into three categories:
Literature notes, which are summaries of a text and its message/themes without drawing your own conclusions
Permanent notes, which are specific ideas or concepts that you can create or learn
Fleeting notes, which are quick jots of any random thought you have that you should look back on again later and process into one of the other two types.
Now the notes are very helpful on their own, but the zettelkasten I used really shines because of the connections. Each note has a section at the bottom filled with my own thoughts, idea, links to sites or other notes, and much more. I found when I was making my final product it was easy to use this section to add more depth to my thoughts just by looking at the connections page.
I decided to make my zettelkasten a space in craft, as I already stored many personal notes in there before the project. I was actually able to convert many of my own “fleeting notes” into processed permanent notes after the project was over as well. I usually abandon most of the documents of my learning after a project, but with the zettelkasten system, I found myself actually keeping on using it after the project ended and retaining far more information than I think I would’ve normally.
The first processed note added to my zettelkasten was a literature note on the book I mentioned far above, Hiroshima. It my first time making a literature note, so I had a little trouble, but in the end making a note on the book helped me gain a much deeper understanding of the text, which made it worth it.
The next step of the project was to create three or more permanent notes based on the reading we did. Here are mine:
I found making these permanent notes, surprisingly, very enjoyable. It was the first time an awhile a school assignment really made me think critically and create something of my own.
Although the building knowledge section of any project, especially this one is important, I will not include much it in my blog post. The book Hiroshima was an awesome read, and we actually read another book “fallout” which depicts the story of families in a bunker after a nuclear strike. We also read or watched many secondary texts to gain a more complex understanding, including an article about America’s reporting of the bomb dropping, a documentary series about the Cold War, and the movie “Turning Point”.
After what felt like everything about nukes had been learned and recorded in my zettelkasten, I started work on my final product, starting with the development of a narrowed-down inquiry question.
I started off knowing I wanted to look into the technological aspects of nuclear bombs, but ran into problems when I tried to connect it to the driving question. After some time and lots of thinking, I came up with this: How Does the Fear of Nuclear War Influence Scientific and Technological Development?.
After creating a more clear goal for the information in my final product, I started outlining how I can share the information I learned. I wanted something engaging (at least something I would find engaging) and also thought provoking. I decided telling two stories, one what actually happened, and one an alternate reality where nukes were never invented, would be compelling and fit my goals for the product.
For the next two weeks I worked on my product, ultimately leading to my answer to the driving question: this presentation
Thanks for reading my blog post, and hopefully I will see you again in the next one.
The latest PLP project, we explored voting, governmental systems, social contract theory, and the behavioural patterns of humanity to answer the driving question: How do we convince young people that they should vote? So follow me today on a journey through the ups and downs of those project.
We started off our learning by reading the book “Lord Of The Flies” by William Golding. It is a classic novel that explores themes of inner evil, innate human urges, and how successful and unsuccessful societies form.
Here is my reflection and chapter summaries: https://carrots-warn-h8i.craft.me/bFvKU9p9NfwzlZ
I honestly found the book very good: I liked how the author made no unintentional choices and every action is meant to reflect a counterpart in modern societal patterns. Every word is intentional and the book forms a powerful allegory for social contract theory and brings up an interesting debate about innate evil and good in every person.
I do, however, think that this step of the project was not helpful in moving towards answering the driving question: when we later explored the reason why young people don’t vote, the three main ones were
1: Not knowing how to vote
2: Thinking it doesn’t make a difference wether they vote or not
3: Not having the time to vote
So after knowing these three main reason, I ask you, how does a deep understanding of lord of the flies help us learn to influence young people. Common topics the book tackles are mentioned earlier, and none of them coincide with influencing young people to vote. Also, to some extent, the points above are all valid to an extent. Voting does take time, and some people need that time for other things. Also, when you cast your vote it is just one of millions that all have very little effect on their own. Fundamentally if you didn’t vote the election’s outcome would very likely be the exact same. So really the main thing we should focus on in influencing the young is teaching them how the system works this segways nicely into the next part of the project. This is why I think most of this project wasn’t actually helpful in the answering of the driving question.
This segment was started off with a comedy video that explains the Canadian government in a funny and engaging way:
Canada Explained
My main takeaway from this video was actually not about the Canadian government, but rather about how engaging the presentation was: I was laughing almost the whole time, which actually helped me retain the information much better. This concept will also be important later when me and my group create our own presentation.
After learning everything there is to know about Canadian government structure, we showed our evidence of learning with a Kahoot quiz.
Now that we knew the information needed to educate young people, it was time to learn how to teach them it. In my opinion, this section is the most critical to a good presentation: no matter how much useful information is in your final presentation, if nobody is listening it doesn’t matter. So we learned about how the most popular modern marketing trends and audience engagement strategies work, and we tried to incorporate these into our final presentation.
The style we used to incorporate our audience was a presentation with an interactive voting activity throughout. We split our group to research six individual issues that are very relevant right now and then found each political party’s stance on the topic and compiled all of this into one document.
After this, we were finally ready to create our presentation. We worked hard to make graphics, videos, and an overall engaging and informative presentation, and then it was time to present. Unfortunately, our presentation fell slightly short. We had a sick group member who couldn’t come, our timing was off and we didn’t rehearse enough beforehand. If I did this again, I would strive to add more entertainment value to the presentation: ours, even after our efforts, was quite boring. I think comedy would be a useful tool and I think probably the biggest change I would make.
Thanks for reading my blog post! If you want to read this from my groupmember’s perspective check out their blogs here:
In the latest PLP project we learned all about the dawn of atomic energy: the manhattan project, Oppenheimer, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and so much more. Half of the class also ventured out to the birthplace of nuclear bombs: Albuquerque, New Mexico, to experience firsthand what happened there and capture media for the final product of this project, a book about the historical significance of the manhattan project.
This project started with a trip to where the first ever nuclear bombs were invented: Albuquerque New Mexico. This trip was not only an absolute blast, but we also learned s much valuable information firsthand. We visited the Trinity test site (where the first ever nuclear bomb was detonated), the los alamos lab were even today the military still innovates technology, the white sands missile range, and so much more. This trip not only gave us trivial information about the bomb’s development, but also gave insights on the cultural and economical impact present in the towns and people closest to where it happened.
The final product of this project was a book centered around one claim your group decides on (pertaining to nuclear energy of course). After lots of carful thought, our group’s claim was “The Manhattan Project is the reason the science of nuclear fission and fusion are creating positive change in our world today.” I actually disagreed with the assertion our claim makes, but we stuck with that claim regardless.
We wanted our book to feel like you’re reading and watching snippets from a bunch of movies, ads, and magazines. I was in charge of visual direction and I also created almost all the assets the book uses. I also helped edit and fact check every page of the book. Here are some of the pages I am most proud of. (I also wrote one of the top one’s magazine snippets)
Once we got through many rounds of tweaks, peer feedback, and revisions, we finally finished our book. I am very happy with the final result, but I think my group took it in a bad direction. Since our claim only talks about the good of the manhattan project (which is very little by the way) we have much more trouble filling up the ludicrous amount of pages we decided to add, and also make most sections of the book purposeless.
Overall, this has been one of, if not the best PLP project I’ve ever done. I loved learning about the rich history of the bombs and all the struggles that were involved making them, plus getting as close to the history ad possible with the field study gave it a quality I haven’t seen in any other projects (maybe loon lake). I just regret the direction our book went because I feel it didn’t accurately represent or show all the interesting parts of the manhattan project and nuclear bombs in general.
Thanks for reading my post! Stay tuned for the nest post where I learn how to debate like a boss. Bye bye now.
In the latest PLP projects, we learned about finances and presented this at the 2023 spring exhibition to answer the driving question: “How Do I Support My Career Life Choices?”. So without further ado, here is the post.
We kicked off this project by talking about budgeting and our financial future (bank accounts, investing, etc…). I created a budgeting chart and logging onto MyBlueprint, a site that helps students with finding jobs, university, school, and finances.
MyBlueprint Tasks
After learning some more context information, we moved on to the stage part of this project: the Stock Market Simulator. Everybody downloaded an app that track real life stocks and simulate stock trading for free. we tracked our stock success using weekly reflections, and this was what we would present at the exhibition.
First we researched stock market terms so we could be better educated on the stock market. I honestly think this didn’t help at all because the top money makers used a very simple strategy to make all their money.
I made around 3000$ from the starting 12,000, and got 4th place in the class.
Then we presented this at the exhibition, but in my opinion the stock-related stuff was to hard to find and ask about to guests, so I really only ended up marketing my podcast and not my stocks. I really liked all the ideas of the exhibition, but I felt like the execution was a bit rushed. I learned a lot though, like how valuable investing and interest can be among other things.
Thanks for reading my post, and I’ll see you in the next one.
In the latest PLP humanities project we learned all about Canada’s darker history of residential schools and cultural genocide to answer the driving question of “How can art and text reflect both the history and our current place in time”. So without further ado, here is the post.
The first step of this project was creating an I Am From Poem, which is a poem that describes me using a specific format. The way this connects to truth and reconciliation was very unclear at the start of this project to me, but later it connected back to the main idea of the project.
I Am From Poem
The order of this project was slightly disorienting, with Keystone 1 being the last keystone due and some other things like that, so I will go through this project in the order we handed them in.
🧱 Keystone 2
Part 1: History and Art
For this activity I explored a governmental act (I chose the Indian Act) and find art that reflects or makes a commentary on it. I found an amazing art exhibit called “The Indian Act Revisited” that looks at the Indian act and the current state of indigenous affair to see what has changed and what could be done. It consists of art form eight different First Nations artists. Here it is:
The goal of this segment was to find a text (art, music, essay, etc…) that reflects a modern indigenous issue. I found a song by indigenous artist “Dakota Bear” called Freedom that talks about inter generational trauma.
The next step in this project was a reflection on how I feel about living in Canada and my connections to truth and reconciliation. This is the part where the I Am From Poem ties back into the project, but to be honest, I felt like there could’ve been better ways to identify personal connections to Canada, like revising our I am from poems from a different perspective or creating rhetorical paragraphs from First Nations perspectives.
Throughout this project the whole class read a book called “The Marrow Thieves” by Cherie Dimaline. We also completed reading journal entries and reflections each week and finally at the end a paragraph that analyzes the book’s commentaries form the past and future.
My thoughts on the book
Personally, I really didn’t like this book; the dystopian future was somewhat believable, with the exception of one of the main plot points of the book: the ability to dream being lost by everyone EXCEPT First Nations people, with the secret being in their bone marrow. This is extremely unrealistic, as 1. Bone marrow cannot affect any of the brain’s processes 2. The government creates “schools” to place First Nations people in, killing them for their born marrow, but bone marrow can be harvested even right now in the real world without hurting the host, and 3. Bone marrow can infinitely be cloned with current technology as well.
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.
Welcome to my grade 10 tPOL. In this post I will cover all my biggest learnings and achievements throughout the year.
The first project of the year was called “gold digger”. This project was about Canada’s history of gold rushes that built up the Canada we know today.
The first field study of the year was the Loon Lake trip. This was the second time we’ve gone to loon lake, but it was very different this time, with a workshop about personal productivity and growth.
The second field study of the year was to disney world, and on this trip we worked on two projects: the Power of Imagination and the trend videos project.
The last project I will talk about is the PGP project “Atomic Habits”. I learned more about myself in this project and also about how I can be more productive.
Have you ever wondered why it’s so important that we preserve the past? Well, in the latest PLP humanities project, we learned that and much more, from D-Day to guided missiles and The Battle of The Atlantic. So, without further ado, here is the post.
The first thing we did in this project was to learn about WW2: why is was caused, what happened in the war, the motives behind the different sides, and much more. We learned about it using a slideshow the teacher made and took notes on.
Once we all had good foundation knowledge on WW2 worked on our first assignment, which was a write up on why the battle of the Atlantic was significant. Here is mine:
The Battle of the Atlantic
The next step was the first keystone of the project. I was tasked to make a 3-point argument on why WW2 was significant for Canada. After some research, I came up with this:
The next keystone was a rhetorical analysis of a text and a table that is supposed to help with the planning of my final paragraph. I found the first part f the activity very helpful practice, but thee second part was less helpful to me. Here is the analysis:
The final part of this project was the actual paragraph, which we developed through the writing process, starting with a thesis, then expanding into more than one paragraph, and finally editing to make it as compelling and fluent as possible.
Thesis
Then, I wrote a multi paragraph essay and got many peer critiques.
and finally, I ended up with this multi paragraph essay:
Thanks for reading this post! This project wasn’t super eventful or interesting to me personally because there was a lot of writing involved, but it is very valuable to learn about our history. Anyways, see you in the next post, bye.
In this post, I will talk about the latest PGP 10 project. The driving question for this project was: “how does balance in my life create opportunities?”. So, without further ado, here is the post.
This project can be cleanly split into 3 facets of learning: atomic habits by James Clear, the 7 habits of highly effective people by Sean Covey, and positive brain training.
Positive Brain Training
Positive brain training is the act of consistently using your brain in ways that increase positivity and efficiency. This can be accomplished through meditation, exercise, being kind or grateful, and many others. We set a positive brain training schedule that looked like this:
Positive Brain Training
I felt that this process helped short term, but I didn’t train my brain consistently for long enough for long term results. But, I have started to keep journaling and noting routines because of this activity
The 7 Habits
You may recognize this book from another blog post I did long ago, but if you don’t or need a refresher, the seven habits are habits that anyone can implement into their life to make their productivity and overall happiness better. They go as follows:
1. Be Proactive
2. Begin With The End In Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen The Saw
These habits I think help simplify and objectify the process of improvement into clear individual steps, which I found very helpful when I first read the book. When it was brought up again, I used this as an opportunity to reflect on the habits and goals I set previously.
Atomic Habits
Now for the center piece of this project: Atomic Habits by Sean Covey. This book’s messages about how small things can compound for massive impact later was quite eye opening for me personally, and I really enjoyed reading the first 5-6 chapters. However as the book went on, I found it quite repetitive, and the way the author wrote was sometimes convoluted. Even with these minor gripes though, I have implemented many of these habits into my life such as workouts and making negative habits unattractive, and had noticeable improvements since.
And this concludes my post! Thanks for reading, and I hope you learned something. I would recommend anyone to try these self improvement strategies on their own as well. Bye
Recently, most of the PLP 10 class went to Disney world in Florida for a ten day trip. And we didn’t go there just for the rides (though they were a very nice extra), we had two projects centred around this trip: The Power of Imagination & Creating Trend Videos. This post will cover the latter, the trend videos project. In this project, I created five trend videos to answer the essential question: “How do I make effective personal design choices?”. So, without further ado, here is the post.
We started this project by creating personal productivity systems. The first step in making my system was to learn about the tools I already had: like things, calendar, etc… next, I cleaned and organized my physical and mental spaces and started creating time blocks in my calendar and checklists in my things. Then, I started on the next facet of this project, which was creating trend videos
Trend: a general direction in which something is developing or changing.
A the next step in this project was creating Disney themed trend videos: creating ideas for what our five videos could be, and writing it down for the next step. I came up with five ideas: a dance compilation, a street interview about people’s favourite rides, a fake interview and hotel room tour, a prank video, and a day in the life at Disney video. Once these ideas where written down in my craft document, I started planning out how I would create them.
I created a storyboard and planning table for each idea, as well as example material and extra details. Then, we went on the trip to Florida,
Or we would have gone to Florida, if our flight hadn’t been cancelled the night before. Thankfully, our teachers somehow managed to reschedule the trip for soon after, and the trip was back underway.
I filmed all my videos, but once I got home and started editing, I realized I didn’t film enough for one, and it wasn’t turning out how I wanted, so I pivoted and created something else instead. You can watch the final five videos on my YouTube channel:
