Beginning/ Introduction:
Thank you for coming to listen about my learning. I am an expert on my own learning. I am responsible for my learning and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will be discussing my strengths and opportunity’s for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.
Overview:
-How have I demonstrated growth as a learner this year?
-How can I get ready for grade 9 and make my learning plan useful?
-Habits I want to change for the next year
-Humanities Reflection
-Science Reflection
-To achieve this plan, I will
-European Exploration
-Mind Over Matter
-Small But Mighty
-Consequences Of Colonization
-My First Field Study To Oregon
-Spring Exhibition
-Transitional Presentation Of Learning:
I Set A Goal To Be: Accomplished for Humanities
I Set A Goal To Be: Extending for Science
How have I demonstrated growth as a learner this year?
I think I have demonstrated growth so far by slowly overtime building up an understanding of my time management skills. I have been wanting to work on them and I have, but I can always improve on them. When getting closer to the end of the school year I have noticed I have been strengthening the way I use those skills. I have been more productive and giving myself enough time, but for some projects I could have worked on that. I focus on this topic because I think this is a big part of the projects because it depends on how much time and effort you put into them.
I also think from the exhibitions I have gotten a lot better at public speaking and how to make a conversation engaging but also still showing your learning. Working with others was a big part. I have learned how to work with all different types of learners. From being in randomly generated groups, I now know many different ways of looking at what we are learning with different perspectives and worldviews.
How can I get ready for grade 9 and make my learning plan useful?
I can get ready for grade 9 by getting into habits with being productive a lot of the time over the summer. I can think back to the beginning of PLP and then compare it to now to see how far I have come and think of the ways of how I did that. I can use those skills to be even more ready for grade 9. I can make my learning plan useful by understanding more about myself. I can look back and reflect on the projects and see what I can add or take away from them.
Habits I want to change for the next year:
A habit I have is overwhelming myself with all of the work I might have for homework or I need to get done in class. PLP has helped me with getting better at that in certain areas, but also not. When I catch myself doing that I stop and think of when it’s all due. I breathe and create a plan of what I need to get done first according to how long it will take and when it’s due. To help me focus I may put on music or change where I’m sitting to a new environment. When looking at that, it leads to my time management. If I managed my time better I probably wouldn’t have been overwhelmed. I have improved on that, but I also have the room to improve on it. I would say time management is a big thing I struggle with, but also I can do very well at. To accomplish getting stronger at this, I can get a good sleep, think ahead of what I need to get done, and think to myself, should I really be doing this instead of homework?
Humanities Reflection:
On my learning plan I set a goal to be accomplished. Next year for grade 9 I want to set a goal to be extending. I set a goal and that was to ask more questions and be more involved in class discussions. I can definitely work on that for next year, but when looking at the beginning of the year to now, I have noticed a difference because I have gotten more comfortable with my classmates and teachers.
Science Reflection:
I set a goal to be extending in science. I want to continue to be extending. I really enjoy science and I always love to learn more about our world. A goal I set for myself is to make sure I check properly for errors and make sure I’m exact with things like measurements and experiments.
I would say I have definitely taken my time when working with measuring things. A lot of the time I check over my work throughly and get someone to look over it too. I wanted to grow on learning more about science, to work with people I don’t really know, to do more labs and experiments, to find the answers to the experiments/ labs, and to ask more questions. I have done a couple experiments and learned how they work. I have worked with many different people and have shared my ideas and thoughts with them when we do experiments. I think I have gotten way better at asking questions more often to help make my project stronger, and to improve on it.
To achieve this plan, I will:
I said I needed to believe more in myself and be more confident with my ideas. I think I have improved on that compared to the beginning of the year. For habits I said I will make good habits by communicating more and being more positive. I think I have shown this by having a positive mindset when doing my work. Lastly for systems I said I will try different systems to see which one suits me best. I have tried many different ways, but I think I work well when I work for about half an hour, then a couple minute break. I work well with music in the background, or silence.
European Exploration:
European Exploration project, I learned about the many explorers who came to Canada. In particular I learned a lot about Jacques Cartier because I made a book about him. I used the skills I learned from Maker to make a book about his journey to Canada on Book Creator. The other explorers I learned about were Christopher Columbus, Vasco Da Gama, and John Cabot. I learned a lot more about the history of Canada from this project, which I wanted to learn more about. I also learned more about the tools they used and technology. I found it challenging to tell Jacques Cartier’s story in under 200 words. I think I did well on creating an interesting book, that makes sense and properly explains who he is. But I didn’t do as well on my time management. At the beginning of this project I didn’t really keep up with where I wanted to be. Since I didn’t start off strong, I think that threw me off, that’s why I wasn’t as productive as I would have liked to be.
Mind Over Matter:
The mind over matter project was about matter, the different states, and atoms in general. The first keystone was Who Am I. I had to create a paragraph and without saying what it was and only using the descriptions quantitative and qualitative properties. Since I was done early I decided to add those descriptions into Canva. I did well with my time management, I was even done early so I could make it look more appealing by putting it onto a Canva poster. I think I did very well in this first keystone and was pleased with my results.
Gummy Bear Diffusion was the second keystone I did. I was supposed to create a question to answer, choose the different products, hypothesis, prediction, a name, procedure, observations, materials and a conclusion with a partner. Sunny was my partner and we created this in Canva. We chose two different coloured gummy bears and let them soak for 24 hours in vinegar. In the end the colour didn’t effect what happened to the gummy bears. I learned many things during this project. How to make the questions relate to the whole project, how exact to be when creating an experiment, and how to make a poster look interesting when you have a lot of information to add in a little space. Next time I wouldn’t over think it as much when creating what question we should make.
The last keystone was the video game. This was definitely the most challenging thing I have done in science. I struggled with this project the most. I had to code a video game that relates to what we have been learning in science. My brain couldn’t wrap around how coding works. I had to watch many YouTube videos and tried different things. After a bit I started to get the hang of it. I could have added the character gaining an apple when you get the question right since if was a true of false game. I basically watched YouTube videos and didn’t really try to make it myself. Next time I would try to do it myself and don’t give up right away. I want to push myself next time.
Small But Mighty:
For the first keystone for the small but mighty project I learned how to use a Petri dish. I really enjoyed this project because I could choose anything I wanted to swab and see how over time the bacteria developed. I had to be very careful, and I learned to watch my surroundings when working with these microorganisms. I made a keynote power play for it that I think I did pretty well and I’m proud of myself.
Second keystone was about the different cells in our body. I drew them and gave them funny names like Kevin the killer T-cell. I talked about, who they are, what their job is, where they live, and a story of how they do their job. I took notes about them and then used the information to create those character cards. I found it hard to write the story because I always thought of a similar story line. For example one day Abby was walking along and heard the alarm go off. But over time I realized and found ways to fix the problem. But other than that it was pretty fun. I don’t think I managed my time that well for this project. I left a lot of the drawings to the last minute, along with the writing.
Third Keystone was about bias in science. Sunny was my partner and we created a poster in Canva if vaccines cause autism. I talked a bit about how bias in science can slowly distort into a lie, from the internet or others because they are creating or saying usually what they think, and not always the exact truth. I learned how important it is to not always believe everything you hear. I was very productive for this keynote, and Sunny and I worked well with doing our research and making our poster look great!
The final keystone was creating a public health poster for kids. I spent a lot of time on this, even if I didn’t need to. I had to incorporate the drawings that kindergarten children made which was an easier part. But I found it hard to make the poster look presentable. I didn’t know how to add all of the information or how to make it look eye catching. I searched online to get a better understanding of what I needed, and spent a lot of time on the drawing.
Consequences Of Colonization:
Consequences Of Colonization was the next project I did. I learned many things about how the world view changed, and the consequences of the change for the world. I spent a lot of time on this project. I created two big paragraphs of what I have learned and compared life and surviving in New France in the 17th century. I also got ready for the re-interpreted drawing by writing about the changes they made and reasons for change. I also made a comparison to things that were unique to New France, unique today, and the same for both. After learning all about the consequences of colonization I created a re-interpreted drawing of the First Nations looking at the Europeans meeting each other. Lastly I created a video of what the consequences were. For the image I made to put in the video, I over thought what I needed to create and had a bit of trouble organizing the main points. For the other writing I didn’t know what to write because I kept saying the same things which became repetitive. I think I was more successful with the written work. I found it kind of fun to write about what I have learned. I could have improved on my video by adding more text to explain it better, and by adding more pictures.
My First Field Study To Oregon:
I was very lucky to go to Oregon for a field study. It was my first field study which was such a cool experience. For science we went to the tide pools at Yaquina Head and I learned about all of the different sea creatures in the tide pools. We saw baby seals only a couple hours old which was an amazing thing to see. I learned a lot about the beaches and creatures native to Oregon. For Humanities I learned more about the history of the early settlers and the history of Fort Stevens. For the ad I created, I made it for Clarks Restaurant in Washington, on the way to Oregon. My group and I interviewed them to learn more about the history of the restaurant and we worked hard to create an attractive advertisement. I learned how even the smallest thing on an ad can effect the overall product. I learned about the font, pictures, and colour theme. I learned many skills on how to conduct a proper interview and know how to start it and end it along with what questions to ask. I learned how to work with all different types of learners for all different types of projects, how to deal with high energy kids, and manage my time efficiently. I created an Oregon journal that I am very proud of! I couldn’t do the work on the bus because I get car sick, but I had a week after the trip to work on it, and I enjoyed reflecting on the incredible experience.
Spring Exhibition:
The spring exhibition was very fun! I loved seeing other people’s projects. I wasn’t that stressed, or worried since I already got an idea of how it goes from the winter exhibition. Compared to the other exhibition the spring one went much smoother for me and I felt more relaxed. I was pleased when my ad was chosen to be the big print ad. I learned how to say all of the important information in a short amount of time while keeping people’s attention. I had a lot of fun making the setup to make it look like Clarks and combining my ideas with our group to make more and even better ones. I also was the DRI, which was the person in charge. I found it challenging but also fun to be one, and learned some important leadership skills.
Transitional Presentation Of Learning:
Overall for Grade 9 I want to get into the habit of managing my time well, especially if the workload is going to be greater next year. During the week, I would like to do my homework when I get home from school and then have the rest of the evening. For the weekends, it would be great to be able to get my work done on Friday or at least a part of it, and then try to finish it on Saturday. That would give me my Sunday free, and a break before starting the next week. Thats my main goal I can work on in the coming year. I’m sad grade 8 is over, but I’m also happy, to have a new beginning in Grade 9 and to get into new habits. Thank you for listening to my transitional presentation of learning!
Leave a Reply