MPOL-Midyear Presentation of Learning!!

Hello!! This is my blog post for something that is very confusing for anybody who is not in the program that I am in, PLP. This thing is called an MPOL. MPOL stands for a Midway Presentation Of Learning. We do these instead of Parent-Teacher Interviews. So, instead of a rushed, 5 minute talk, we, as students, get to lead it. We get to make this blog post, and we get to tell a story about our learning at the presentation. I decided to break down each subject that we do in PLP and explain a little bit about the projects that we did for each individual subject. Let’s start with Humanities!

 

Humanities!

The first subject is Humanities. We have done 3 projects so far in Humanities. I’ll start from the very beginning. The first project was The Media is the Message. In this project, we learned about advertising. We did a little bit of this project in Oregon, for our Oregon Ads. Since it was our first project, I didn’t really know what to expect. I am pretty proud of my work for this project. I definitely like my Oregon Ad way better than my Deep Cove ad, but I learned a lot about ads from the Deep Cove ad, and that for sure helped me with the Oregon Ad. The next project wasn’t named for a long time, so in my head, it will always be TBD Religion. The official name is Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. In this project, we learned about 6 different religions, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Judaism. This project pushed me way out of my comfort zone. I experienced things in this project that I will never forget. What other program would take kids to talk with a Tibetan monk? I learned a lot about religions that I would normally never learn about in this way. It also opened up my eyes to different ways of life. I feel like I could have done better on this project, I didn’t pick my theme for my photo documentary until after the first day, so some of the photos from the Eastern religions don’t match my theme as well as I wish they did. The project that we are currently working on is called This Changes Everything: Middle Ages. As you have probably guessed from the title, it is about the Middle Ages. I am happy so far with this project. My partner, Keenan, is super great to work with, and that’s really good. He also agreed to do women’s rights, which is super great!

 

Maker!

In this subject, we have done 5 projects so far. Wow, I honestly can’t believe it’s already been 5 whole projects. The first project was the Big Life Journal. I didn’t expect to like this project, but I actually ended up loving it, and it is probably my favourite project so far. I think that this project made me realize the power of the iPad. It also started me on a bit of a journaling kick, which was fun. The next project we did was called Awesome Still Images. I think of this project as a bit of a  mini project, because we only had 4 assignments. It was really fun to do though. I learned that the iPad is an incredible tool, and I learned some new ways to use it for photography. The next project was the Student Blogging Challenge. At first, I liked this project, but then, as weeks went by, I started liking it less and less. My work sorta faded, and you can very clearly see that. I am waiting for next year, where I can redeem myself. This project was definitely a low point for me. The next project was called The Power of a Pencil. Specifically, an Apple Pencil. We had a new drawing project about twice every week. This, like the Still Images project, opened my eyes to all of the possibilities out technology can give us. I loved this project. It really didn’t feel like work, it just felt like something fun to do. I also found that if I was stressed, or couldn’t figure something out, or just needed a break, I could turn to the art we were doing, do it, and  still feel like I was accomplishing something. That was really cool. The last Maker project was Star Wars: Mini-Blue Sky. I liked this project. I think that I could have improved my final product if I had had more time, but I was decently proud of it. It really opened my eyes into different possibilities for more Blue Sky projects, and just general work in PLP.

 

Scimatics!

We did 3  projects in Scimatics. The first project was called Fractions of Your Time. We basically made a chart with our screen time, and the transferred that information into pie charts. I liked this project, but I don’t think that it is still a accurate representation of my screen time now. The next project was our Tectonics Book. I liked this project because we presented it to kids, which was fun. I think my book was good, but I could definitely fine tune it a bit more. A struggle that I had was that we had to include our curricular competencies, which was hard to do in a kids book. I think I should of made that a little but more kid friendly. The next project was Mazer Tag. This was the project for out Winter Exhibition. I like this project. I think that we could have made our Tie Fighter a bit more accurate, but I really liked our laser maze. They were really cool to look at!

 

PGP!

We haven’t done that much work in PGP this year, but one thing that we have done is our Oregon blog post. We learned a lot about reflection doing that. The other thing that we have done is learning about time blocking in our Calenders, and adding things into our Things. Here are some photos of those things!

 

That was just summaries, we have a whole other part of the post. I know, I write a lot. In the words of Ms. Willemse, “Oh, you’re another writer”. That is correct. We had to answer the question:

What is your learning goal that you want to reach by the end of this school year, and how will you meet it?

I had to think a lot about this question, but I finally came up with the answer. My learning goal is to find a way to create balance with my screen time. I spend a lot of time on my iPad, and since this is a technology based program, I am on my iPad a lot. I have found that this is effecting my sleep, because I have a bad habit of staying up late doing homework, and then I can’t fall asleep because I was on a device. This has not been good for my physical and mental health. I am trying to cut myself off at 10:00 pm. My goal is no more screen time, homework or not, after 10:00. Of course, if I am doing a huge project, like DI, or something for a exhibition, I am going to be up late. But I think that having this goal for normal days will really help. By the end of the year, I want to have a awareness for my screen time, figure out how to manage it, and incorporate more mindfulness into my life. I am going to do this by having no screen after 10:00, as I said, and by generally reserving my iPad for homework. I also want to start working out more, because that puts my mind at rest. During the Ringette season, there is typically open ice that I can go and just skate on, so that is really fun. I am also doing some spring hockey, so that is more ice time in the spring. I think that by doing those things, it will set me on the path to having a balanced life. That is something that I am sure will come in handy for whatever path I decide to take in life.

 

Wow, you have just read a lot. I would like to end my presentation by asking you the question:

How do you think I can maintain a healthy balance of schoolwork and screen time?

 

Thanks, Amy