The POL declaration
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.
Start of T-POL
This has been an exciting year for me these past few months. I made new friends, I discovered new hobbies of mine, and I found out my passion for black holes. I made so many amazing memories this past year, and I would never ask for a better way start to high school. People say that PLP is just a program for “special” kids, and that we don’t have lives, but I think otherwise. PLP is one of the best programs in the world, and it always will be. But with all of those amazing things that have happened to me this year, there is some stuff that I like to improve before going into grade nine.
Self Assessment.
For our T-POL, we were asked to make a “self assessment” on what tells our story the best. For example: I could choose a column for “agency”, and chose two other behaviors that I think are most interesting. So, we were assigned to choose one behavior from “Agency”, and then two from any other column.
Agency.
At the start of the school year, I didn’t really know how to do work properly. I wasn’t able to be on task for longer then 20 minutes without switching to a game, I didn’t read the instructions carefully, and didn’t do the task properly. All of this led me to almost failing one of my classes. (Not in PLP). I had so much pressure on me because of how much homework I had over due, and I just couldn’t keep up with the rest of the class. But time, after time, I started to learn and find out how to do work properly. I would read over the instructions carefully, I would read the success criteria to know what I have to do, and eventually, over time I learned to do work without any help, and became less stressed out. After I figured out how to work properly without any stress, I tried to set goal’s for myself. I would try and not have any assignments overdue for the whole half year still waiting for me. And I did keep this up for about 4 months. This may not seem like a lot, but me adapting this fast to homework and school is very unusual. Not only did I set goals for myself and keep them for a very long time, if I had to revise an assignment, then I would try and always make it better. If I need to revise the assignment twice, then that just give me more motivation to make it even better. This is a huge step for me, because at the start of the school year, I just wouldn’t revise anything and just keep it as it is. But now, I just try and make it better which every attempt. Now that we have talked about Agency, lets move on to different behaviors.
Communication and Callaboration
when I first started high school, I was pretty shy and even kind of scared to talk to people I didn’t really know. When we were assigned groups with people I don’t know, then I was really quiet and scared because I thought they would judge me for not understanding the question and getting it wrong. This really effected how I should have grown over the year, and it took me longer to get used to everyone and to stop being quiet. It also effected how learned especially in the Winter Exhibition. I wouldn’t really talk and I wouldn’t really help out my group until the end of the exhibition. This is also another reason why struggled so much with handing my group assignments. This wasn’t just with students that I struggled with talking to, this was also the teachers. I was scared that if I ask a question on what they just explained a few minutes ago, then I would get in trouble. So the only person who I felt safe talking to was my mom and my dad. But that was probably not the best decision because they had there own work on their hands and I just put more stress on them. But over time, I learned how to communicate normally with everyone including the teachers. This led me to asking more question with confidence, and led me cooperating, with my group better and handing my group assignments in on time. It has also made me more confident with the decision I make, and not only helped me in school, but in public. Since then, I have been a million times more confident then I was before. And now that you know about my second behavior, lets move onto the final behavior…
Preparation
Preparation is probably the biggest thing I have improved in the past 10 months of being in high school. I used to struggle with getting everything done on time, which put a lot of stress on me and my family. I never really cared about being prepared for a assignment that I needed to present in front of the teachers, as long as I got through it. But later in the year, I realized that its was super stupid that I was not putting any effort into school, and getting low grades. So, I decided to change. I started to care about my assignments so much more then I did back in the first couple of months of school. I started to get my grades up, and with every single assignment, I got more used to doing my homework with effort put into it. This turned out to be a really good decision because I learned how to focus on certain things like school, and other learning I needed to do. I learned how to control what I do, and how I do them, which is really going to help me out with school, and when I’m an adult.
Areas for Improvement
Like with all good things that happen, there is always something that we can improve. And myself too also has some things that I would like to improve before moving into grade nine. One of them being to stop switching apps to play a game. This habit I have been trying to shake off since the start of the year. This is one of the biggest bad habits of mine that I will ever have in PLP, and still to this day I am trying to get rid of the bad habit. At the start of the year, I kept switching apps every 3 or 2 sentences I write, because the urge was just too big to handle. But my addiction slowly started to fade away, and is becoming easier to handle.
Maker Reflection
Maker has possibly been one of my least favorite classes. I don’t really know why, but I just don’t really like the concept of it. But even though I don’t really like the class, I still try and get good grades and cooperate with the class. At the start of the year, I didn’t really understand the class and why it was so important. So, like with everything I do, I didn’t really care on what I needed to revise. But now that the year is basically over, I have gotten a pretty good understanding on why we have Maker, and why it can help us in real life. So, I started caring and actually did the assignments properly. I also helped out my group a lot in the Spring Exhibition, and during D.I. Even though I don’t really like the class, I still had a really amazing year with all my friends and class mates in Maker. Something I could improve before going into grade nine is probably to help my group out more on figuring out what we are going to do for a winter exhibition or D.I.
Science Reflection
Science has always been one of my favorite subjects for a good reason. It holds one of my best hobbies and passions. Black Holes. When I first started PLP Science 8, I was kind of struggling in the beginning, but then I realized that Science is really interesting, and that it can help us change the world for the better good. Not only that, but it is really amazing just thinking about how its possible to find these things in our world. Its like its a big scavenger hunt, and we need to find the clues to solves the puzzle. When I realized this, its like a whole new world was in front of me. So, I started to really pay attention to what the teachers were saying, and I started to develop a passion for science. Something I could improve though before I move into grade nine is to write down observations a little bit more precise.
Humanities Reflection
Humanities has been really fun this past year. Even from the start when I had difficulties keeping up with the rest of the class. I also just recently realized that it could change our lives for the better. It could stop all wars. It could uncover all myths and secrets. I struggled with Humanities in the beginning, but as the year when on, I started to be really interested into Humanities and what it had to offer, so that made me much more confident and focused when doing my work and doing my research. This has truly been an amazing year for me in Humanities, and I hope that it keeps getting better. But something that I could improve is to do more research when looking at a project, so the chances of me getting a good grade are really high.
Final thoughts/reflections
This past year I did not expect any of this to happen. Going to Oregon for a week, the Winter, Spring Exhibitions, and D.I, could leave a man speechless if they ever hear about this. And Im sure that next year will be even better. You will see a brand new me, who will ask questions, who will try and do the assignment better which each revision, and possibly will not game. I could have never started high school a better way than this. This has truly been an adventure, and I hope that I will stay in PLP in the future. I am so grateful on how much the teachers, and done for us, and I look forward to seeing you next year. Thank you again, and have an amazing day.
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