tPOL June 2018

We are so close to the end of the year! One of the last things I have to do is my tPOL. By now I’m sure you know what this is but if you don’t a tPOL is a transitional presentation of learning where each student presents their outstanding work from this year to their teachers to show why they should advance to the next grade level. I have done quite a few of these before so here are some of my past ones. March 2016, June 2016, March 2017, June 2017, and January 2018.

In humanities this year I have felt pretty confident in a lot of my work. At the beginning of the year my work wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be but as the year has gone on my work and work ethics have significantly improved. For example at the beginning of the year we did the WWI project and mine was not good. I tried to do as little work as possible in my group and our final project was simple and boring. One project that I would like to highlight is the Perspectives of WWIIWebsite. It was one of my favourite projects we have done this year. I was put in a group with Will and Lucas and I hadn’t really worked with them much so I was a little nervous. We ended up working really well together. The reason I chose to highlight this project is that I worked extremely hard on it and I am very proud of the outcome. We all did a lot of but I pretty much put the whole website together.

I worked very hard to go through all of the information we had and correct any mistakes. I had never used Weebly before so I was a little nervous that I would mess everything up but it was surprisingly easy to use. I enjoyed organizing all of our information and adding visuals to the website. It was so much fun to see all of our research come together. There were also some other aspects to this project such as the podcast which I feel like I did a really good job on and the book review which I feel I could have done better on. Writing is still one of my weaker points and I feel like I need to work on it. I was so happy with this project that I wasn’t even very nervous to present it to Kathleen Barter. I worked very hard on this project during class and I didn’t even mind working on it outside of class. This is just one example of how I feel I am working harder on all of my work.

In maker I feel that I have done a lot better the second half of the year. At the beginning of the year I did the bear minimum in my work because I just wanted it done. I felt like I was stuck in a box and couldn’t come up with any ideas. For example my story corps podcasts weren’t that creative and could have been more exciting. I feel that I have stepped out of my shell more and used more creativity. One example of this is Destination Imagination. I was put in a group with a couple people I really didn’t think I would work well with but we all managed to work together really well together. Everyone in my team stepped up and we all had lots of fun doing DI. I wanted to do a good job in DI So I tried to come up with a good story. Our group wanted to tackle a more serious matter and I feel like we did a really good job. We all put in lots of time outside of school and did lots of practices to make sure everything was perfect. I also feel like we did a good job of finding the weak spots in our first performance and improving them for our second one. Even though our final performance wasn’t that great I still feel like DI was some of my best work in maker this year. My goal is too keep stepping outside of my comfort zone like I did in this project so my work can meet my standards for myself.

We did generator project in science and math that was a bit of a challenge but I really enjoyed it. It was a group project and I was put in a group with a couple of people that I never really even talked to so it was a bit of a challenge. I feel like a did a pretty good job of working with everyone in my group. I found this project challenging because I was very confused for a lot of it. I don’t think I read the project brief thoroughly enough. In this project we had to learn about different types of energy and how we could collect them in nature using a generator. I feel like I did a good job of understanding the learning part of this but my group struggled with executing the project. We wanted to make a water wheel but we had no idea how to make a working one. I feel we did a really good job of coming up with a successful idea and taking the time to revise it constantly.

The other aspect of this project was to use linear equations to graph the energy collection. I understood the math very quickly and I did a lot of work with the graphs. My math skills have improved a lot since the beginning of the year and I am doing a much better job of implementing them into my projects. For example at the beginning of the year we did the solar panel project and I didn’t do a very good job. The math was there but I didn’t do a good job of incorporating it into the project. I ended up really enjoying this project because there was a lot of hands on learning which I loved. I think for next year I need to improve on understanding the topic before I try and execute the task.

I feel that I am ready to advance to the next grade level. My work habits have improved significantly. I work harder during class so I have less homework and when I do have homework I get it done on time or even early. I feel that I have started to take more of a leadership roll in a lot of projects this year and I am taking more responsibility for my work. I have stepped out of my comfort zone because I want to be a better student and I will continue to do so next year. My goal for next year is to be as creative as possible and work very hard on everything I do. I know I still have room for improvement but I am ready to tackle grade 11.