This has been a great year for me as I have learned so many things about myself. But other than just passing all of my courses, why am I really ready for grade 12?
First off, I have learned new skills
This year has been challenging for me since I have been out of my element for a lot of it. Learning on an IPad has been extremely difficult for me, but it has taught me new skills. For example, I have learned how to successfully create animated videos and edit them in iMovie. A good example of this is a project that we recently completed, our concept blogposts. I created an animated video to go along with mine:
But not only have I learned new technological skills, I have also learned skills for how to learn better. I have learned how to create a deep inquiry question, that will take me so much further into the learning. An example of an inquiry question I have created is found in my Helmut Lemke Blogpost. Helmut Lemke was an inspiring World War Two veteran who came to speak to our class. We were tasked with creating an inquiry question based on something that Helmut had talked about during his presentation. I ended up with the question: In a time of war, who is a soldier’s greatest enemy?
To help answer this question I did research and also analyzed Helmut’s speech in a Podcast with some of my classmates. These are examples of skills that I have learned, skills that have helped make me more ready for grade 12.
Secondly, I have refined my work ethic.
Last year, I worked hard in school, but I didn’t have an end goal in mind. I was content to put in enough work to get an A, but that was it. But this year, I’ve learned why it’s important to put in the work beyond just for the mark. I realized that learning is something that can benefit us greatly in the long run. But not only that, I learned valuable new ways to learn. Reading about a topic is one thing, but actually experiencing it is another. And that is what I get to do on our field studies. Things like visiting a missile silo, speaking to war veterans, and visiting a nuclear reactor are just some of the things that have helped me go deeper into the learning. Here are some photos of places we have been this year:
These experiences are what have really helped show me that learning is an experience and a process, not just a task. A great example of this is our Fear Factor video. We used information that we had gathered from our field study in Los Vegas and Arizona, and applied it to our project. We never would have been able to gather the knowledge that we did without the field study. Here is part of our video:
It is this change in my work ethic and my attitude towards learning that will help me greatly in Grade 12.
Thirdly, I have learned the skill of revision. This might seem like a small thing, but it is actually a vital part in the learning process that we do in the PLP program. Coming from my background in standard classes, I was surprised at the amount of feedback we received. And at first, I was a little discouraged. In fact, my first project ever, the Manhattan project, was met with a 5 minute audio clip of Mr Hughes giving feedback:
This helped me realize how valuable the feedback was. In a standard class, a teacher usually wouldn’t care enough to give that much critique. And understanding that was such a vital part of accepting the learning process in a project based learning program. So while I was discouraged at first, I now see critique as a way for me to make my learning that much better, and without it my work definitely wouldn’t be the same as it is. This understanding will also help me immensely in the years to come.
Finally, I have learned how to strive towards a goal as part of a team. Sure, I have done group projects in the past, but never the way that I have this year. I could talk about the Manhattan project, or even the puppet show, but if course I’m going to talk about the Macbeth project. Now although it could be argued that the Macbeth project was a bit of a failure, as the finished project was not at all how we envisioned, I like to think of it as a success of sorts. Creating a project as a team is no small task and I thought we handled it well but also learned some lessons. We did well at the beginning, splitting up into different departments and working on our different jobs. But it was during the work outside of class time, when full commitment was needed, that the problems became apparent. I learned that in a team environment, there will always be people who don’t feel the need to pull their weight, and there will be the people picking up the slack from those people.
This was a valuable lesson for us all to learn because at the beginning, there was an expectation that everyone would pull their weight, which didn’t happen. I also learned that every member of a team will have a different opinion and not everyone will get what they want. It is these valuable team lessons that we have learned that I think will help me in the future.
So to summarize, why am I ready for grade 12? Because of the skills I’ve learned the change in my work ethic, and my opinions on revision and teamwork. These skills have all helped me grow as a learner, and I will continue to keep pushing my self to grow. So with that in mind, I have set myself a goal for next year:
Plan my time better. After all I am the winner of the late night worker, and I definitely deserve this award. Now that’s not because I leave all my work to the last minute, it’s because I work on things for too long.
I want to end with the “unsung hero” of projects so to speak. This was not a very major project, but it’s one of the things I feel the most proud of. The soldier blogpost. This project actually pushed my comfort level because it pushed a different side of me to the surface. I am a very straightforward writer, but for this assignment I really had to look to the creative writing aspect. I was happy about this though and I feel like I created a successful project, writing the letter well in English and in French:
Well, by the time you read all this I’m probably already in grade 12, so I guess that’s it for now and I’ll see you next year.