“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. 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 that I can use to improve as a learner”

This TPoL will be my final TPoL as I am leaving PLP at the end of this school year. I’m grateful for PLP’s assistance in understanding how I am motivated and how I best learn. Unfortunately, my learning style is not the same as what PLP has become focused on.

This TPoL is about me, and I’ll be talking about the most pertinent topic about this year for me; Mental Health.

Self Care:

This year, I was coming off of a high note with the World War I exhibition going extremely well, barring the loss of a singular miniature soldier after the exhibition. This would come to a screeching halt at the start of the year, when we started the New Year, New Me project. The forced “be happy or else” mentality of the project was the opposite of what I needed, but as a PLP learner, I was “flexible” like a “tortoise”, and took it on the chin. This wasn’t great, and between that and the grade-flation, I wasn’t doing too well mentally. But I took it on the chin, because I chose to be in this program. Then we came to World War II. This should’ve been an easy win for me, because I love war, and World War II is my comfort zone. But it wasn’t. Maybe I was thinking too deeply on the topic, or maybe I didn’t know enough. Either way, I wasn’t at the level I wanted to be at, and since World War II is a topic I care a lot about, my expectations were very high.

Anyways, this was not good for my mental health, and I only spiralled down from there, until teachers were reaching out to see if I was doing O.K.

Again, not good.

Since the spring break, I’ve been focused on doing better mentally, and our last project demonstrated my “grit” and my “willingness to keep going”. It was a project where we talked about myself, something I dreaded, because it meant that I would devolve further into the slump.

This project was different though, and through my various stages of exhaustion from Billy Joel, a Whistler Trip, and a day in Tacoma, I was able to fight my was back to the level I wanted to be at and I was able to create an “exemplary” resume. I was able to put the icing on the cake with the exhibition though, where I was able to show my skills and interests through a medium I love.

Just remember, sometime when you’re walking in circles, you need to check that it’s not a downwards spiral. 

Enthusiasm:

This year has been a slump of mine. I could talk about high points and low points, but I think that that isn’t the point of this presentation, and I think it would make more sense to talk about what caused the slumps and what solved them.

I’ve found that the main reason for my lack of enthusiasm for a project often stems from not understanding the purpose of a project; for example, “Cray Cray Yay Yay”. I didn’t understand the purpose of that project, and I think the way that it focused on people instead of ideas also didn’t make sense to me. I think that the project also suffered because I didn’t enjoy the learning, because of the not understanding the purpose of it.

I think this slump ended when we started our next project because it was something I understood, and was utilising a skill I might actually use I the careers I am seeking in the future.

Seeking Help:

I spoke about this topic a little bit at the start of this presentation, but I think that this is an important topic to cover in greater detail.

At the start of this year, like I spoke about earlier, I would “adapt” to situations, even when they were a detriment to my mental state, as well as my capability to work. I think that my unwillingness to speak up and advocate for myself stemmed from the fact that even when I did, I was ignored. Whilst I understand that this category in the chart is meant to be about seeking help for work, I’ve taken it to be about seeking help for yourself when you need it.

Anyways, the reason I’ve been so much more effective in this last month of the year isn’t due to behaviours or skills.

It’s because I’m actually sleeping better, because I have a new bed.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.