Hello there inhabitants of the planet Earth! I’m proud to present to you… the third blog post I’ve written this week. Please keep your hands, arms, and lightsabers inside the vehicle at all times, because WE’RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!
It’s mPOLs time baby.
✨Driving Questions✨
How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?
How can I sharpen my Learning Plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of this school year?
✨POL Declaration✨
“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.”
✨Chosen Core Competencies✨
✨Goals✨
✨Actions✨
With that out of the way, I’ll begin reflecting on the work I’ve done this semester. Since we’ve only done 2 of the 3 PLP courses so far, I’ll only talk about the work I’ve done in Humanities and Scimatics! (No Maker yet!)
Projects this term:
Fails:
– Time Management
– Little Confidence
– Worrying
Strengths/Growth:
– Dedication
– Teamwork
All the projects we completed in Humanities have helped me learn new things. However, there’s one project in particular that has allowed me to extend further. I believe “Revolutions on Trial” is the best example of my work in Humanities, and it shows the most improvement and growth in the competencies.
Revolutions on Trial required us to put different historical revolutions on trial. We preformed our trials during the Winter Exhibition before a jury consisting of our audience members. The main objective was to learn how to make a proper argument and justify it with evidence. Although I already knew how to propose a written argument, presenting it in front of a live audience was a completely different experience.
This project was very unique and exciting in many ways. It challenged me to get out of my comfort zone, and try something new. However, most of all, it helped me grow in the Core Competency Profiles.
My work in this project demonstrates my growth towards the Core Competency, Collaborating (Profile 4): I can confidently interact and build relationships with other group members to further shared goals.
To complete our trial, I was required to collaborate with a lot of people. We were separated into groups based on our revolution. I was placed with Alicia, Declan, Noah, Patrick, and Sabrina, and after we completed a rough version of our script, we were able to practice our lines with the other team (Ariane, Ben, David, Gwen, Max L, and Max R.)
To be honest, I’m not the kind of person who likes working with others. I tend to have different expectations for myself, and I get disappointed when I don’t reach them. In a group setting, I dislike not having complete control over my work…
Ok, ok, I’ll admit it. I guess I’m a control freak. As much as I don’t like it, I felt like PLP was a good way to practice working with others (because if I don’t work on this, I might end up as a hermit on Tatooine.)
Anyways… I found it difficult collaborating with such a large group, especially since it was hard to speak up amongst all the people. However, I am proud that we were eventually able to interact effectively to achieve our common goal. Also, I continued to build on my relationships with my teammates within a working setting (in particular, Alicia, Sabrina, and Ariane.)
I also grew in the Core Competency, Communicating (Profile 4): I communicate clearly and purposefully using a variety of forms appropriately.
As someone who really dislikes public speaking, it was hard getting over the initial stage fright. At first, I found it very frustrating to properly share and explain our argument with others.
This project taught me many things about public speaking. Sometimes it didn’t matter what you said, but rather, how you said it. I realized that I needed to emphasize the important parts to grab attention. I tried saying things louder, taking advantage of the stage, and attempting to have a stronger posture.
You could say it’s like acting; pretending to be a completely different (more confident) person on the stage. It was exhausting, but I think I’ve improved my public speaking skills immensely! I was able to communicate clearly through verbal speech, which is a form I don’t usually like to use.
(And I didn’t even run off the stage!)
Projects this term:
Fails:
– Overestimating Skills/Burn Out
– Class Participation
Strengths/Growth:
– Dedication
– Time Management
Overall, I’m quite happy with my progress in this class, and I’m excited to experience more in the next semester. Again, all these projects have contributed to my improvement and growth. However, I believe I’ve learned the most from the “Chemistry Stories” project. It was also my favourite project in Scimatics this semester… mostly because it inspired me to come up with a wonderful pickup line (no wonder I’m single.)
Chemistry Stories was all about ATOMS. More specifically, how they bond, and become compounds! We learned mostly about ionic and covalent bonds (and a little bit about multivalent metals and polyatomic ions). It was very interesting to learn, but I admit it was tricky at times.
Anyways, we were assigned to create an animated video explaining these scientific concepts. This encouraged me to put my obsession with animation to use, and actually make something cool! Yet again, this project helped me grow in the Core Competency Profiles.
My work in this project demonstrates my growth towards the Core Competency, Creative Thinking (Profile 5): I can think “outside the box” to get innovative ideas and persevere to develop them.
As you can see, I really enjoyed the creative aspect of this project. As long as I included the main science parts, I felt like there was a lot of freedom.
I really focused on the characterization of the characters and made the story into the perspective of these inanimate objects (like the atoms, compounds, and elements). I also developed the design of the Bohr models into my art style, which was heavily inspired by old Disney cartoons.
While editing my animation, I faced the issue of voice acting. Going into this, I knew I was going to have a narrator (voiced by me), but I didn’t exactly have a way of doing voices for all the other characters. However, I concluded that it was boring for all the characters to have the same voice.
To extend my communication and creative skills, I pushed against my fear of voice acting, and edited the voices in a creative way. (Also, I had my mom do some voices as well, we had a great time recording.)
I am very passionate for animation and storytelling (which my parents should know, because I talk about it 24/7), so I had the time of my life. Although the process was taxing, mostly due to me overestimating my productiveness, I was able to persevere to develop my ideas.
My best example of revision would be the letter I wrote for the Humanities “People and the Environment” project.
How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?
How can I sharpen my Learning Plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of this school year?
I’ve demonstrated growth as a learner by learning to be more aware of my strengths and revising my “fails”. I can recognize competencies where I am not as proficient at, and improve them. Also, I have been trying to expand my mindset by facing my fears to grow as a person.
I have decided to keep my learning plan, and focus on becoming proficient in my learning targets without stressing too much on achieving them. I will continue to complete my best work, but also keep my personal life in mind as well.
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