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.
Looking back from grade 8 to all the way to grade 9, I have noticed a big change in myself and work. First coming to Seycove in grade 8 I was shy and timid. I still am a bit shy, but I have become more comfortable in myself. This year particularly I have learned that I am a visual learner. From learning that I find I can get my work done more efficiently and to get a better understating of it by planning what I am going to be writing about. Throughout this tPOL I have planned and reflected of the things that I will be talking about. What the success behaviours are, what all the projects were all throughout this year, and exactly what success behaviours I will be talking about. I know this takes time to do things like this, but I find I get a better understating and know what to reflect upon.
Success behaviours: agency, engagement, conduct and integrity, preparation, self-regulation, communication and collaboration.
Humanities:
-Rocky Mountain High
-Metaphor Machines/ Winter Exhibition
-Let’s Get Riel!
-Rise of the Frankenstuffies
-In the Name of Nationalism
-WWl Con- The Great War Graphic Novel
Maker:
-Thrill Us!
-Rube Goldberg Documentary
-Story Finding in the Rockies
-Destination Imagination
Science:
-Handle with Care!
-ChemHISTORY!
-Sparks Fly!
-Seeing Double!
Learning Plan:
My main goal I put on my learning plan that I wanted to improve on and achieve, was to set goals. What I mean by goals, is to set little goals that lead up to a big one. As an example when I had to read ten chapters per week from the Leviathan book, the Rise of the Frankenstuffies project. Before we started reading the book as a class, I added to Things of when I needed the chapters to be read by. After the class almost everyday I wrote in Things, of how many more chapters I needed to read before the deadline. I think after getting better at this and knowing how to use it, has helped me quickly write down what I need to get done. The features Things has, when the deadline is, when I’m going to work on it, and the overall organization of how it works. The learning plan guided the way for me to understand how I was going to set the goals.
Leviathan:
Animal Farm:
Agency:
-Goals and self-assessing (sets goals and self-assess using criteria)
-Accepting Feedback (accepts feedback and makes revisions)
Engagement:
-Contributions (seldom participates; rarely, if ever, contributes ideas and needs significant encouragement and support to engage)
Self-Regulation:
-Balance (Struggles at times to maintain balance between activities, schoolwork, and social life)
-Self-care (May recognize sources of stress but struggles to speak help proactively)
Agency, goals and self-assessing, I find I set goals in my head and create a mental note. I have started to use Reminders and Things recently, because I have discovered my memory is horrible. Writing down my thought or what I have to do, will make me remember. I chose this to be my major goal because it plans and creates a strong path for my work. The World War One project I found at the beginning I set mental notes for how many panels I needed to draw each day. That didn’t play out well, so I then decided writing down in Things of when to do that might be a better solution. It may have helped a little, but I think it was mostly because I just wanted to get it done so I would end up spending the last couple days cramming in all the work.
That leads to time management. Time management has been something I haven’t been so good at coping with. The WW1 project had its ups and downs with how I managed my time. At the beginning I barely even got one panel done a day. Half way until the project was due I realized I really didn’t want for my comic not to be finished by then. I wanted to properly showcase my hard work and be able to relax and not stress over it anymore.
I think I know what the problem is for me to not manage my time properly. I get very distracted easily and I can’t think very well when there is sound. Music sometimes helps me focus on my work because I can only hear it, although it really depends on the day and time. Or when the classroom is very quiet and some one gets up, I notice and look up away from my work. I find this very challenging and I realize mostly when creating blog posts, I end up doing a lot of the work at home and/or out of the classroom. I usually leave to do my homework to when my family gets home, which means interruptions occasionally.
Self-Regulation, balance, I do not balance my school life and home/ social life well. As I have mentioned before this has to do with my time management. An example is when I had the basketball skills camp after school and the project at the time was In The Name Of Nationalism. I had to miss basketball because I had a lot of homework. I did use every hour after school to edit the video, but earlIer in the week I could have managed my time better. Although I spent a lot of time each day working on it, so I would say I spent to much time being a perfectionist. That project and the WWl project taught me that there wasn’t any time for being a perfectionist.
Engagement, contributions, I barely and maybe not ever contributes ideas or share my thoughts. My brain takes a while to process things, which isn’t an excuse to not raise my hand once in a while or often. As my friends know, I am very slow to even understanding what they are saying or the jokes they make. My goal for next year, going into grade 10 is to be more engaged into the conversations held during class time.
I want to become stronger in:
-Grammar, I find I get present and past tense mixed up a lot and I can’t spell
-Revisions, I look at what I need to do and know how to fix it, I just don’t do it
-Stop being a perfectionist, especially when I was drawing out the panels for the WW1 comic
-Writing style, I want to use more of a variety of words
-Note taking, take notes that make sense and only the key points
-Typing, be able to type properly
Humanities:
Our last project of this year was the World War One Comic Con. This project was fun sometimes, but challenging at others. This project taught me the importance of time management, planning and not procrastinating. Along the way I had to think fast and come up of ways to get the project done in time. I did that by having to copy the characters and reuse the background for my panels. During the exhibition I had to quickly sum up and explain what my comic book was about. Before the exhibition started I had to quickly improvise because I needed to look through my work to show evidence and the process of making the comic. After long nights of working on my panels I ended up finishing early. I then helped build the trenches for the exhibition because I managed my time properly in the end and had that extra time.
Science:
The Handle with Care project taught me the importance of writing a well structured script and managing my time properly when working in a group. It showed me that having a clear plan and structure for what we’re doing makes everything easier. As an example when everyone had an idea of the script and what to say, we got almost all the filming done in one class.
The ChemHISTORY project I found the most challenging for me because of having to convert the names from the periodic table. Along with finding the right formula. I learned about ionic compounds, ionic compounds with transition metals, and polyatomic ions and covalent compounds. I think I found this science project the most challenging for me because of having to remember what formula to use for each area. I need to practice a lot to understand and memorize certain things. Another part of this project was also learning about an element or compound of my choice. I chose radium because it interested me the most. I leaned how to shorten a big amount of important information to an easy to understand two paragraphs.
Maker:
The first project in Maker was Thrill Us. For the one week challenge video I learned a lot about working with group members, coordination and finding the importance of team work. When learning all about film making I realized how important it is and the difference it makes to a video when the sound, lighting and camera angles make such a difference.
After learning more about the 3C’s we then had to create a 2 minute thriller video called You’re Next. I’m very proud of this project and loved making it. I learned a lot more about videography like how important it is for your video to be eye catching. By doing this and making the video more scary and suspenseful. Having the camera lower down looking up at the scary object helped create the creepiness. I worked on storyboarding, character charts, and combining ideas with my group. Overall just practicing how to film helped get the You’re Next video on YouTube to have 1500 views. This project was the most memorable because of the funny acting by Sunny and having fun in the process.
Destination Imagination really helped me get out of my comfort zone. I improved on my public speaking, group work, confidence, and memorization. Even though I wasn’t a big fan of DI, I still had fun connecting with my group members. Looking back my group has taught me to see their different perspectives and incorporating many ideas into one. For the instant challenges for both Regionals and Provincials, I had to work under pressure and learned different problem solving skills. Time management, being creative, communication and critical thinking. For critical thinking I had to analyze and critique at any point, developed and design, and question and investigate.
All of these PLP classes has helped me improve as a learner. Maker showed my create side the most. Science made me love my earth even more and make me curious of what’s out there. Humanities has challenged me the most, it brought out my way of thinking. Grade 9 has had its peaks and valleys of work, but in the end I have grown as a learn and within myself.