All right mates. I have had a pretty stellar year so far. It’s been filled with school, sports, new friends, fear and celebration. (And lots of new and old-ish words – Like, “stellar”) This post is about my PGP experiences so far. The main focus of this specific post is to reflect on my PGP time machine (which was a project to send back to our past selves and help us with our learning,) and over all reflection about this course. So this is gonna be a long one. Strap in and get ready for the reflection of a life time.
Ok so firstly we stared with productivity. This meant learning about an app called things. It is basically is a big calendar where you can put projects and assignments in. You can assign due dates, times to work on the project, notes on the assignment, and much more. Here’s what my things looks like…
It’s a very cool app. This was an important thing for me to utilize. I am not the most organized person ever. The thing gets done, but not without some stress along the way. This helped avert the majority of that stress but sometimes it did get overwhelming having 96 things planned for the same day. Things definitely has a learning curve. The fact we started with productivity was genius so we would get the rest of the projects done on time. Very smart.
My productivity before this unit..
My productivity after this unit..
We also did time blocking and started doing weekly reviews. I DESPISE TIME BLOCKING. Ok, so I don’t like time blocking. It seems pointless to plan everything you plan you do. I am, admittedly, not great at going with the flow but this seemed a bit extreme even for me. It didn’t save me any more time than it wasted. I stuck with blocking big chunks of my day or special events. We also did weekly reviews which aren’t super complicated but I love them. I do a review of the week and a clear out of my things inbox. I really liked them and i learned a lot about what works for me and what doesn’t. Overall, I learned that there are better ways to be organized and that I definitely needed this chance to work on my organization skills.
Next we did goal setting. I did a lot of this in elementary school, but I realized I still have a long way to go. I learned that the most important things in goal setting are are to have SMART goals. This means, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time constrained. This was important for me to learn because I have goals and needed advice to help me achieve them.
Last in our big section of PGP projects, we did The 7 Habits. This is a book about the 7 important habits of highly effective teenagers. This was a sequel to the 7 habits of highly effective people, and was much more relevant to me than its predecessor. I learned that I need to work on my control issues and asking for help. I have a bad habit of taking control of a project or assignment, in fear that if I don’t, it will be a failure. I have been working on this by trying to communicate better in group projects and spend less time worrying about the grade and more about my opinion on the project. I also need to ask for help more to help me learn how to improve. I really liked this part of this course and am glad I got the opportunity to learn these things about myself.
Ok so now all that all that learning is done we did this big project! The time machine. My big idea or Thesis Statement is: “Celebrating achievements is very beneficial to mental health because it demonstrates to yourself your ability to accomplish goals. Taking responsible risks and thinking flexibly helps to improve your goal in the beginning. Living a balanced life helps you to accomplish your goals and celebrating all those steps is important to satisfy your mindset.” I did my best in my final product to represent this and I feel pleased with how it worked out.
My final idea was to make a poster. Now this seems pretty simple but.. knowing me, that wasn’t going to happen. My artifact is a mind map with photographs, drawings, and prints, done by myself. I will use this format to show how I have grown and how I plan to improve. I like art and I want to get better at it, but I also have room for improvement in my photos. I want to challenge my comfort zone by using photography as a medium, but not the only one. This will show learning by using a creative representation of achieving and celebrating your goals.This project will aim to educate my prior self on the importance of sharpening the saw, balance, goals, properly celebrating them once they have been achieved, the habits of mind, taking responsible risks and thinking flexibly. I took very little time to celebrate my achievements prior to the PGP course. This will help my former self to succeed and my future self to grow and achieve my goals.
This poster is a representation of me. There are things in this poster that have storys and emotions tied to them. (Like the, “Enjoy the journey and the destination.” This seems cheesy but my dad lives in a different country and before leaving for a long period of time, he wrote that on a card for me.) This isn’t a project I did because I wanted to do the bare minimum. I pushed myself and I learned a lot along the way.
This is what I learned from each section and a bit of a summary of each.
Celebrating (PHOTOS)- I learned that there is a lot of planing going into buying printer ink and that the three most important things to me are to celebrate stuff from big to small.
Enjoy the journey + the destination, be concise and considerate, and preservere (DRAWINGS)- I learned that I need to work on my drawing. By that I mean there are small details I can see that no one else notices. Pretty much I need to take a chill pill on my perfectionism.
And lastly, balance, sharpen the saw, persevere (PRINTS)- This took me some time to work out the kinks especially because I made 2 difrent types of prints. One where I carved off the back of my old stamps and cut the back of my thumb multiple times, and the other one was made with glow-in-the-dark-puffy-fabric-paint. I preferred the ladder because I didnt get hurt. (Sorry Mum)
Here is my final product. I am super proud of the work I put in and how I have represented my learning.
So now do you feel confused or stressed or excited? Because currently I feel all of the above. I am very nervous to present at the spring exhibition but I know I will learn a lot. This was an awesome project and my worldview around school has definitely shifted. I feel more excited and energized because I am achieving my goals everyday. I hope to learn more and grow even more with a open mindset as we go. So, yay! This post is officially finished now. Please go treat yourself. This was a lot of writing to read. Go get a blizzard from DQ. You deserve it.
The end.