Hello! And welcome into my learning journey. Today I’m going to talk about how my year has gone so far and my plans for the rest of the year. Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert of my own learning and 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 on what I can improve on as a PLP student.
How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?
To answer this question I will go through my learning plan that I painstakingly filled out at the start of this year. This learning plan shows what I want to grow in this year and how I will do it. I thought a lot about what I wrote in this and tried my best to plan out my intentions. Now lets get into it!
That is a lot of words, so lets break it down into categories:
1. Communication, Thinking, Personal and social
2. Humanities
3. Maker
4. Careers
5. Science
6. How have I achieved this plan?
Communication, Thinking, Personal and Social
These are all important elements of learning you need to have to be successful. Throughout the year we have all worked on building these skills by pushing ourselves to do new things. Although everyone is striving to do well in all of these skills, they are hard to develop and not everyone can be perfect at them. Due to this there is different levels to each of these elements.
Communication/Collaboration 🗣
Communication: I chose the 5th level because I believe that I am strong in my communication skills but I would like to be a little stronger. Level 5 says ”I communicate confidently, using forms and strategies that show attention to my audience and purpose”, by now half way through the year I think I have achieved this. I will provide you with media down below to show you how I have accomplished this.
Collaboration: I again chose the 5th level for this. Even though I can collaborate well, I don’t particularly like it or prefer it. Although PLP is all about group projects, I prefer to do them myself because I find it easier. The 5th level I chose also called a profile says ”I can facilitate group processes and encourage collective responsibility, for our progress”, which I think I am able to do now. I still need to learn some things, but I believe I have accomplished this as well.
Press HERE to see a blog post about the Winter Exhibition, which shows my collaboration and communication skills well.
Thinking 🧠
Creative Thinking: again I chose level 5 because I think I can easily think of ‘out of the box’ ideas. I have grown in this area a lot this year and I believe I still am growing. The level I chose says “I can think ‘outside the box’ to get innovative ideas and persevere to develop them”. I believe I have always had more intellectual thoughts and ideas ever since I was younger, and I can keep developing those into deeper thoughts and ideas.
Critical and Reflective Thinking: I do not like reflective thinking as much as I do creative thinking but I know it’s necessary for growth. I chose level 4 because I believe I am able to reflect on my work, but I still need to learn how to expand my boarders when it comes to reflection. Level 4 says “I can gather and combine new evidence with what I already know to develop reasoned conclusions and judgments”, which I believe I am able to do. Below I will show you media of how I have thought critically for a project.
Press HERE to see a blog post about one of our past projects, which should show off my creative, critical, and reflective thinking skills.
Personal and Social 🏫
Personal Awareness and Responsibility: I believe I have good self awareness and lots of respect for the things and people around me. I understand the responsibilities I have and try my best to do them. I chose level 5 because I believe I have these skills, but I could always be better. Level 5 says “I recognize my value and advocate for my rights. I take responsibility for my choices, actions, and achieve them”, which I believe I respectfully display well.
Positive Personal and Culture Identity: I have struggled with having positive personal identity for a long time but I believe I have really changed now. I respect myself more and understand my value. I chose level 5 because I really wanted to push myself these last few months and I think it was successful. Profile 5 says “I understand that my identity is influenced by many aspects of my life. I am aware that my values shape who I am”, and I now can easily agree.
Social Awareness and Responsibility: this is similar to the first one but still different. I also believe I have good awareness and responsibility for the people and things around me. I will always go to the furthest extents to respect the people around me. I chose profile 5, and it says “I can advocate and take action for my communities and the natural world. I expect to make a difference”. I do believe I try my best to advocate for my communities and I really hope I made some kind of difference in my life.
Press HERE to see a blog post about our last project displaying my personal but also social skills.
Humanities!
My strengths: 💪Perseverance 💪 🫂Collaboration🫂
At the start of the year, I wrote that my strengths are perseverance and collaboration. I chose these two qualities because I was trying to make the best of it (I did not like Humanities very much). Now half way through the year I don’t think I dislike it as much; it’s still not my favourite class but I don’t mind it. I think my strengths have changed since then. Instead of persevering through what I didn’t like and collaborating with people I didn’t want to be in a group with, I would like to change my strengths to:
✍️ Writing ✍️ 📚 Organizing information 📚
Here is some media proof displaying my writing, but also organizing information skills. 
These have been some of my favourite projects so far, and I am also quite proud of all of them. I hope we do a lot more of these graphic organizers because I had a lot of fun making them.
Growth:
1. Hand homework in on time
2. Stay on task and not let the people around me distract me
3. Have a more positive outlook on Humanities projects
At the start of the year I wrote down those three things that I wanted to improve on. Here’s how I think I have done so far:
1. I am still having trouble handing in some things on time and I plan to continue working on that. I can see some improvement with handing things in on time!
2. I believe I am way better at staying on task as long as I am listening to music. When I put my headphones on I instantly forget about all the distractions around me that are bothering me from finishing the work.
3. Every new project we get assigned I can see myself being more and more excited to do it. At first I used to always dread it and it would slow me down, but now I jump right into it.
Support:
In the support section I talked about how I would get support by coming into tutorial time, I did end up doing that at times and it did help. I finished up lots of projects there with all the teachers help (THANK YOU MS KADI I LOVE YOU)
I also talked about getting help by reminding me about the homework, there was times I did have reminders and I think those really helped to get me back into it.
My favourite humanities project: The Alberta trip of course!
Maker!
My strengths in maker: ✏️ Writing ✏️ 📃 Homework 📃
In the strength section I wrote that my strengths are to get the homework in on time, although I have been getting better at handing homework in I still struggle sometimes. I also wrote down a strength I have for maker is writing, which is still true. I love writing and when I enjoy what I’m writing about I think I do it well. This year in maker so far we have mainly been working on videos which I have found really fun. I loved making them in and handed most of them in on time.
Here is some media proof displaying my strengths:
In that project we made an entire documentary on how the movie Avatar connects to the real world. Before I could start filming and editing I had to prepare. I wrote down what I will include in the video and then some prompt questions. I loved this project because I always wanted to make a documentary. I’m glad I was finally able to.
Growth:
Here is what I wrote down at the start of this year for my list of strengths:
1. Finding out more functions on my ipad
2. Increase my creative writing skills
and here is how I think I have grown in them so far:
1. I have explored a lot more apps and learned different features on the one’s we already know. One of my favourite new things I have found out is actually here on my blog posts! When writing text and adding photos you can actually put the photo down then writing next around it instead of the picture taking up the full screen. I really like how it looks and I’m glad I figured this out. I saw a grade 12s blog post and noticed their text and photos were like that so I messed around with this site and found out how to do it.
2. I did not have a lot of times to display any writing or practise it. Which is sad, but I did end up doing a lot of writing at home. I am writing a story currently and I’m excited to how it will turn out. I think I am getting better at my creative writing skills.
Support:
At the start of the year I wrote down some things the teachers could do that would help me in class. I said that 1, I get easily distracted by people so it might help to be put in a differemt area. I found that that did happen a few times, but in LAC I ended up doing it myself so I could get more work done. Then 2, I said I sometimes don’t understand the maker instructions or requirements so I might need some extra explanations. Farther through the year I think I started to understand Maker more and needed more explanations less, but it still helped when I got it.
Careers
Strength:
We don’t have a lot of careers so I was a little bit stumped what to write for this section. I ended up writing that my strengths were:
👍 Persevering 👍 ✔️ Detailed ✔️
I wrote perseverance because I kept going through the work no matter how much I didn’t want to do it or didn’t really do it often. Then I wrote down detailed because I realized I always put lots of detail into my careers work.
Growth:
In the growth section I talked mainly about learning more about myself. When I first joined PLP I was surprised by how often we did projects reflecting on ourselves and past experiences. I learned lots about myself and I feel like I have made a better more detailed picture of myself. I also talked about having more positivity about careers. I didn’t really enjoy doing the career work and I would start it with a bad headspace, I think that has changed. I feel that I don’t force myself into that headspace anymore and I try to expand on my work.
Support:
For the support I needed I said it would be helpful to give me ideas on the projects because I have a hard time thinking about thinkings that relate to myself. I also said I sometimes get bored answering questions about myself so I might need someone to check in and make sure I am where I should be.
The Careers project we did this year was ‘take your kids to work day!’
I went to the SPCA where my mom works and learned all about her job. In the future I ended up coming back and volenteering more at the shelter, I gave out pet supplies to people in need and helped move boxes. I hope I can come back again one day because I really enjoyed it. 🐶🐱🐹
Science
Strengths: 🤩 Motivation 🤩 ✋ Multitasking 🤚
For the strength section I wrote down that I felt like I was very motivated in science. Because I enjoy doing science so much I try very very hard to get it done and I actually like the work I am doing. When I like the work I am doing I do it well. I also wrote down that a strength I have for science us multitasking! I found that in science we had to do a lot of different things in a short span of time and that’s when I realized I could do many different things at once. When it came down to taking notes and watching documentaries and filling out other work I found it easy to quickly do it all at once, which is a good skill to have.
Growth:
In the growth area I wrote down that I really want to learn more in science, I want to know random biology facts and be able to explain how a black hole works. I want science to sound easy coming from me and I want to be able to answer questions easily. I also wanted to be able to write notes faster and more efficiently. I wanted to learn how to paraphrase well and type without looking. Now halfway through the year I am starting to be able to type without looking!! I am proud that now I don’t hace to stare at my keyboard to type the words correctly. One last thing I wrote was handing in work on time. I had a huge problem of never handing in things on time, I was in a bad mindset of leaving things to the last moment and not caring if they were late. Now I believe I have broken past that and I can hand everything in on time. I have handed in almost every science work in on time. I made sure that I started the work earlier and kept working at it.
Support:
The support I talked about said that having 1 on 1 would help me a lot. So far this year that did happen at times and it really helped. When teachers are teaching the whole class up on a white board It’s hard for me to understand sometimes but when it’s 1 on 1 it is way easier (especially when it comes to math!). It also says I sometimes need to be moved to a different table, but I think that wasn’t that necessary. I am slowly trying to learn how to block out people beside me to get my work done.
My favourite project we have done in Science is actually what we are doing right now. We are working on a electrical unit to make a board game. We are learning about how electricity works and how to make circuits. The finished project will be a ‘operation’ game we each make.
Here are some science projects we have done in the past that I really enjoyed:
Now, how have I actually achieved this wonderful learning plan?
My learning plan achievements
My plans to achieve greatness were to:
– Have a positive disposition
– Make coming into tutorial time a habit if needed
– Keep a ‘To-do’ notes document
– Use music to keep me focused (It is now an addiction…)
– Have a good homework, sports, and down time routine
I think these things have definitely helped me complete the work I needed to complete. Using these techniques and habits have helped me achieve my goals and I am glad I have stuck to them this year.
One thing I think I still need to work on is having a balanced routine of homework and other important things. Sometimes I prioritize homework over sleep or down time and I get very mentally exhausted but other times I don’t start my homework earlier enough. This is when I am forced to finish it all the night before and I stay up very late to finish It. I have been doing better then last year by using tutorial time and LAC to finish homework and balancing it out a bit better. I still think I need to have a more even routine when I get home from school. Having all downtime or all homework is not a good balanced routine.
I am happy with my grades at the moment and I think I have accomplished the things I need to. I have been getting all A’s (🌈) in electives and science then in other academic classes I have been getting B’s (☀️) this is better then I originally thought I would ever get in high school. As I get older I am going to stride to getting more A’s (🌈) in different classes. To do this I will need to follow my learning plan and make sure I always make improvements.
and that is all! Thank you so much for coming and listening to my mPol presentation. I worked very hard on this and I hope you learned some more about me.
