Taking My Foot Off The Gas
Even though I feel like I say this every year, its really crazy to think that we’re already half way through the year. This year has been quite the whirlwind, with so much going on in so many different areas of my life. Even in just this school alone, I have found myself spread thin across many subjects, and there really hasn’t been any time in between the constant studying and homework to take a look back and realize how far I’ve already come. Any time I think about the fact that next year is my final year before I head off to university, I’m always met with the thought that even though sometimes time feels so slow, it’s really anything but. There are always periods where every week feels like a month and things just feel stagnant, but when I get the chance to take a step back and evaluate things, it’s always a nice time, and that’s what I love about these mPOLs.
As I mentioned, its no secret that this year has brought forth a new set of challenges for me to handle. For the first 3 years of high school, I felt more or less protected by the friendly bubble that is PLP. However, this was the year that bubble was burst and I found myself among other students being taught by unfamiliar teachers, in relatively unfamiliar subjects. Now, I know that the goal of this mPOL is to focus on primarily PLP-related subjects, but I think it would be naive of me not to discuss how my other schoolwork has made an impact on the work I do in PLP.
Moving Forward
With that being said however, by no means do I feel like I am slipping in my PLP work, in fact, I feel like this year I have consistently been doing some of the best work I have ever done. I’m extremely happy with the way I have performed throughout this first half of the year, and I’ve been feeling really confident and motivated with almost everything assigned to me. The point of this presentation is to highlight some opportunities for improvement though, and I definitely see some areas of my learning that I have yet to excel in yet, that I would love to. This brings me to my answer to our driving question: “What is your learning goal that you want to reach by the end of this school year, and how will you meet it?”
My goal is to apply my personal creative outlets to my schoolwork in an effort to bridge the gap between my passions and academics.
What I mean by this is that I want to find a way to extend my personal creative passions in to my schoolwork, because I know that the result will be completed with much higher motivation and quality control. When I first started in PLP, I found myself extremely motivated and always in pursuit of merging my passions with my work. Over the years, as I began to rack up more responsibilities and overall became busier, although that motivation is still hanging on, I have certainly stopped pursuing that connection between my passions.
Opportunities For Application
The reason I have set myself this goal is because I can see opportunities to achieve it in the coming months, both in PLP, and in other subjects. Within PLP, we are set to be tackling the goal of creating our own film of Macbeth, and this is a perfect opportunity for me to apply some of my creative outlets such as photography and especially videography. I will of course apply myself to aspects of the film other than just photo/videography, but I’m really excited to focus myself on these aspects of it.
So far this year, the work I have done that included these passions went extremely well, and had me really motivated. Back during the Albuquerque trip, I devoted myself to filming a highlight video of the trip and I loved how it turned out. Making this video is really what has inspired me to keep searching for similar opportunities, and I look forward to using my skills and passions in a group setting.
Another opportunity that I can see myself applying these passions too is one that is not in PLP, but for a class that I absolutely adore: Economics. Every year, Ms. Hendy does a “Dragons Den” project, that as its name entails, tasks us students with creating a company/product and selling it to some simulated investors. I have had so much fun in Econ this year and its part of the reason I am very interested in studying business in university. As I’m sure you’re thinking if you’re an avid reader of my blog, this project is awfully similar to PLPs annual ‘Blue Sky’ project. This of course means that I have quite a bit of experience with these types of projects. That fact coupled with the ideas I have in my head on how I can achieve my goal could make this project something really special.
Before I end off this post, I want to just give a nod to some of the work I think I really excelled in this year, as well as highlight some of the things I feel like I didn’t do so well on.
Highlights/Lowlights
One of the first main projected we completed this school year was the ‘Manhattan Project’ project. This is some solid proof on how when I attach a passion to a project it can really help my motivation and drive to make it as good as it can be. In this case, I wanted to show off my graphic design skills, so I prided myself on making sure my book not just featured solid content (what the teachers primarily wanted) but also stylistic elements (what I, personally cared a lot about). All in all, it was very refreshing to see my ideas and ambitions come to fruition with the whole project.
Hands down the most I feel I went above and beyond on a project was for the Atomic Habits book. It was one of those projects that filtered into other aspects of my life and made a positive, genuine impact on my character. I spent a lot of thought and effort on my post and at the end of it all I was quite sad to be done with something that had become a part of my life.
Lastly, I’m going to end off by highlighting some of the work I have completed so far that I feel I could have done more with. The first half of this school year was certainly an all-round positive for me. I was more motivated and captivated by the idea of succeeding academically than ever before, and my first term report card really showed that enthusiasm. That being said, I have come to realize over my years of experience that there is no such thing as perfection, and there is always work to be done. Having said that, if there was one project that I wish in did more on, it would have to be the Lord Of The Flies Tribalism unit. As has been mentioned before, reading has never been a passion of mine and I often struggle to find the motivation to read for school. I really wish I commit myself more to this unit, specifically the LOTF aspect, as I feel that is where I lacked. I have no issue with my work on the final presentation milestone, but there was surely more I could have done with the novel itself.
My Question
Now that that is all said and done, I’d like to end this all off by asking a question. The potential answers to this question are meant to help guide my thoughts and endeavours going forward to help me keep my goals and progress aligned. My question for you is…
How have you recognized a shift, either positive or negative, in my motivation and enthusiasm towards completing work?
danielw • January 28, 2020