Last SLC (Please)

Welcome to yet another SLC by yours truly. I think this is my fifth one now. WOW! 5 SLC’s, that’s quite a lot of work. And for those of you who just love SLC’s so much and reading all about my learning, don’t worry, there will most likely still be 3 more after this one. 

SLC’s, also known as student led conferences, are something my PLP class does twice a year, one in the winter and one at the end of the year in spring time. They give us the oppurtunity to present our learning, show off what we are most proud of, as well as show a piece of work that proves our growth mindset. And of course we talk about our goals and how we plan to achieve them. This isn’t my first rodeo so by now these presentations are a breeze. Looking back on my first one I kind of laugh. I remember shaking the whole time and I had gone over and practiced the script so many times so that I would be prepared and wouldn’t mess anything up. Now I don’t even think twice about worrying, of course I still practice my script thought. It’s never good to go into anything and just wing it.

So listed below are pieces of work from my portfolio that represent something different from my learning.

The first, my winter exhibition blog post. This was a project we worked on as a class back before winter break in December. We transformed the gym into an immersive experience that would take you through the time of World War One.

Winter Exhibition – Most Proud of

The next piece is my Hanford/Oregon blog post. This was a project where I showed my learning and development in movie making skills. I compare it back to my Frankenstuffie video which I made in grade 9, so two years ago, and see how much my skills have developed and how far I have come.

Hanford Video – Learning

Frankenstuffie Blog Post – Comparing of Learning

Finally the Macbeth movie project. This is a project that is currently ongoing as of right now and will be finished before spring break. However throughout the process of creating this movie as a class I believe I have shown my growth mindset the most.

Macbeth Blog Post – Growth Mindset

SLC #17839

I’m sure by now you all know what an SLC is, but if you are new here and have absolutely no idea what I am talking about then I will explain. An SLC stands for student led conference or in other words it is a small presentation where we as students show some other blog posts about our learning and growth throughout the year and present it to our parents and teachers. It gives us an opportunity to praise ourselves on work we our most proud of and reflect on what we could have improved on.

Personally these presentations are not my favourite thing in the world, but they are doable and aren’t that much of a hassle and honestly a really good thing to do to end the year. As well as it gives me a chance to improve my presentation skills some more. I remember when I did my first SLC ever in grade 9 I was shaking in my boots from fear. Now that I am on my fourth SLC coming up to present is a breeze.

Now below are my three blog posts that I will be presenting for my SLC. The first something I am most proud of from this final term. The second, a piece of work that needed improvement. Finally a blog post about a review of the year, which in my opinion was the most fun to write out of the three.

1. Most Proud of: LBS Civil Rights

2.Needed Improvement: Blue Sky Design

3. Review of the Year

Destination Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset was introduced to us at the beginning of the year. At first I’m pretty sure everybody thought it was some kind of joke. Now looking back on it I realize how important it is to think and act with a growth mindset. I have had a pretty fixed mindset in a lot of scenarios in my life and it would have benefited my greatly to have opened up my mind and thought with a growth mindset.

image Recently we got the amazing opportunity to participate in Destination Imagination. It was an extremely rewarding process and challenge. My group and I definitely were not to keen about working and presenting our challenge. I had it fixed in my head from all of the negative thoughts around me that this would not enjoyable. Going into this project with a mindset like that really brought my group and I down.

To start off we had some serious procrastination issues. For example we waited until the night before to fully create our structure and were even fixing and adjusting it on the day of the challenge. Also none of us really had any hope in our group because we were comparing ourselves to others. That is something that I should never do again. We had it fixed in our minds that we would not do well in this project.

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When the day of the challenge got closer to I started to realize how much I wanted to do well in this and how much time we had wasted. I turned my whole perspective on this project around and pushed myself and my group to work our hardest on the last few days of work. If I had gone into the project with the attitude I had during the last few days then I believe we could have done a lot better then we did.

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In the end we came out getting third place in our challenge, but we did a lot better then I ever expected we would going into that project. Luckily we get the opportunity to try again at a higher levelled competition and I know that for next time I will strive to push myself and my group to do the best we can and to always find a positive outcome in it all.

Death by Presentaion

Presenting is something that I have always dreaded doing. Every single time the words presentation or speaking come out of a teachers mouth I get all anxious and nervous. Although every time I know that once I am up there and I am in the flow of things everything will be fine. I still struggle with some aspects of presenting.

When looking back onto last year and the speaking presentations I did I feel I have really grown and developed my presenting skills. I feel that some key aspects as to why I feel more comfortable presenting today is because of PLP class. We have all been together for a year and a half now and I know the majority of the class very well. Everybody is comfortable in front of each other and I feel a lot more confident heading into presentations knowing that I will have the support of my classmates and friends.

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In my opinion poetry was a really entertaining and engaging thing to learn about. We got the opportunity to work in groups of our choice and focus on one category of poems. Our group chose death, which was surprisingly my suggestion. We then went on to find, analyze, and memorize poems for a final presentation. Going into this presentation I was extremely nervous that I would mess up the flow of the poem or forget a line and stumble along. Although just like every time I get up to the front of the class room to present I am completely fine. I really need to get it in my head before a presentation that I will be fine instead of after.

While presenting I believe I have improved on making eye contact and using an appropriate tone when speaking about my work. For example when I was reading out my poem I made sure to look all around the room and make eye contact with everyone. Also I used an appropriate tone when reading the poem, it was understandable, yet powerful considering my topic was death. Presenting I believe will always be something I am scared about, but I know that one day I will be truly proud of what I have said in front of my audience.

Tuesday Night Blog Post

Whenever I have something I need to say I always go to writing to use as a tool to speak my mind. Writing has been a passion of mine since I was in elementary school. I remember we would be assigned short stories, (my favourite was one about the moon) images-7to do and most people would be done in a matter of one or two work periods, but I would take my time and write down as much as possible. Although most of the time my grammar wasn’t very good, but hey, I was only 10! I even kept all my writing from elementary school so I could see how far I have come.

Throughout the beginning of the year we have been working on probably one of the most awful things any high school student dreads to do. That’s right, essays. Okay some essays are definitely better then others. For example I actually love writing narrative essays, but synthesis essays, that’s a whole other story.

When writing I tend to let my mind wander into the most bizarre places and sometimes the stories I write are quite weird. Essays have helped me to keep my writing structured and making sense.

The narrative essay was one of the last essays we wrote in class and it is definitely my best work yet. I spent a lot of time and effort on that one essay and it really payed off. It is the piece of work that I am definitely most proud of so far this year.

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When writing this essay I went through a lot of revision. For example I probably rewrote the intro 10 times before I got one that I was pleased with. Also I was really proud how I ended my essay off in a similar way how I started it to tie it all together because normally my endings to writing pieces are never my strong point. Although I am working my hardest to try and improve every detail about my writing techniques.

SLC Introduction

Student Led Conferences (SLC) are a very interactive way to share my learning with others. My first step was to answer the leading questions that helped me organize my thoughts. This gave me an opportunity to reflect on my learning. The blog posts allowed me to have a foundation to write my script. It forced me to look back on the work that I have completed in the past term. They will also be useful during the SLC to guide me through my presentation.
I hope to improve my presentation skills through practice and review.

My portfolio consists of my blogs and pictures that help explain my overall learning and goals.

 

Goals

Goal setting is key to a great learning experience and outcome. For the second term I have many goals that I wish to accomplish. In humanities I thrive to be able to get every single piece of work done on time. This is not an easy goal and will take some effort to accomplish, but I believe that if I set my mind to it, then I can do it. Also planning ahead when exactly I have time to do my work will be a big help.

imageDuring my first term of science I did not do my best. I found some aspects of the subject confusing and I did not do anything to help myself. My goal for science for term two is to put the effort into talking to a peer, adult, or teacher to ask for some clarification and maybe a little help. Also I can try and make the extra time to go and get some help to make sure my work is at its top standard.

A personal goal of mine for term two is to be able to be calm and relaxed when there is a project that needs to be presented to a small group or class. This can be accomplished by be well prepared by practicing exactly what I am going to say so that I won’t get worried about mixing up my words or stuttering while I’m presenting. Also if I forget about the people who will be watching my presentation and just pretend it is just me alone, then it would be much easier to speak clearly and fluidly.

Science Reflection

imageThrough term one, science was not my strongest course, but I always knew that I needed to try my best. I feel like my best work was my genetic mutation project that we did at the beginning of the year. Before we started this project we did a unit all on genetic mutations and how they can effect and organism. Once we had learned about that, we then chose a genetic mutation of our choice to look more into and later on create a project all about this mutation. Before starting my project I first decided what format I wanted to choose for this project, I chose eximageplain everything. Then I researched facts as well as pictured to fit into my presentation. After that I put it all together in paragraphs and created my presentation.

I did have some troubles throughout the project. For example, I found it challenging to find pictures that fit in nicely with what I was talking about. It took a lot of my time to find picturyes for this particular topic. Also when doing a project I always find it challenging to start it because it takes some time for me to create an idea of what it can do. I found it quite easy to find and write down facts about my topic and I think that researching would be considered one of my strengths when it comes to science projects.

Quizzes have always been a weakness of mine. I find it difficult to try and remember all that we have learned in the last unit and then spit it all out in one hour. For me, I much prefer to show my learning with projects because I think that it showcases my learning better. I would definitely say that doing projects is one of my strengths when it comes to science. For the remainder of the year I have set a goal to be able to openly talk about what we have learned in the last unit without having a problem.

Humanities Reflection

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One of the pieces of work that I am most proud of this year is my essay about Mt.Everest. This one piece of work is the one that I spent my most time and effort on working to make sure it was well written. I spent quite a fair amount of time planning out what points I could use in my essay as well as brainstorming supporting details to go with the points that I had chosen to use in my essay. Also I spent some time finding quotes from websites and Into Thin Air that supported and flowed with my topic for each paragraph. Finding and deciding which quotes were suitable to go in my essay was challenging. It took some time to find the right quotes that fit in nicely with the contents off my essay. I did two drafts of this essay to get it where it is now. During the process of writing this essay, my strengths were creating supporting details that helped to explain my topic. For future projects I will make sure to create a timetable so I know when I need to have completed certain steps for my projects or work.
Overall throughout humanities in term one I had quite a few bumps in the road. There were those times when I had a challenging time completing some guided notes at the beginning of the year. Also I had trouble when coming up with ideas for a story line for my Frankenstuffie creative writing. I always seem to have a problem when first coming up with an idea. It takes longer then it needs, but I know that once I have the idea, everything else comes easily. But even with all of the challenges that came my way in term one, I can’t forget my strengths. I had a strong point in writing essays. Although I may not have gotten the best mark in some of them, I know that if I had put just the little bit more effort I could have had a much better outcome.