What an exciting year it’s been! Staring high school going into PLP! I’ve had a really good year and I’m glad that I made the decision to go into PLP because I have really enjoyed it and I am excited to be going into it next year! I hope you enjoy reading about my first year in high school!
Here is a link to my mPOL!
Introduction
Hello!
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.
My 3 main focuses
In agency I have chosen to talk about “Accepting Feedback”
In Preparation I am talking about “Outside of School”
In Communication and collaboration I am talking about “Working with peers”
Humanities
One project that was really transitional for me was “How Does Language Inspire Adventure”
This is the project when we went to Oregon! Oregon was our first trip in PLP 8 and my first time away from home for a week! I had a lot of fun on this trip but it was also a big change for me! I was really nervous to go to Oregon because I had never been away from home for that long. Something I hope will improve is my confidence of going on trips like this and in the future I hope I wont be as nervous. In this project we learnt all about advertisement and adventure. At the start of this project we went on a hike up to quarry rock and took pictures of the view so we could come back and make advertisements for it. I was good at get my work done at home and I made sure that it wasn’t late when I hand it in. I was really proud of my ad and I also really liked making ads because it was super fun to design posters for different places. One thing that I can work on is accepting feedback from my peers and teachers because I had a hard time when people were telling what I could change on my ad and I refused because I really liked my ad.
When we went to Oregon we had to make an adventure book all about the trip. This book had tasks that we had to do everyday. I was very good at getting it done and I put aside time for me to do it each day. I am very happy that I did that because then I didn’t have to have a lot of work to do at the end of the trip. Some of the pages in this book were fun to do but others I found hard to do because I didn’t want to do them. Going into grade 9 humanities I want to be more confident in the work I produce because I am never confident that my work is good enough or that my work is right so I don’t like to show people and I get very anxious and stressed. I also need to work on handing my work in when I finish it because I always wait until the last minute because I get scared that my work is wrong. I really enjoyed this project and I think that it was really transitional in my learning!
Worldview
Going to Oregon really changed my worldview because as I have mentioned I had never been away without my family for that long so it was a big change to me. I certainly missed my family but it has opened me up to new opportunities because now I know that I am able to go in trips for that long and not feel too homesick. Although this was a big change and I wasn’t sure what it would do to my life I think that it was a good change. I don’t regret going on the trip and that’s saying something because I definitely had my doubts!
Maker
A project in maker that I found transitional was doing “Destination Imagination.” That project was hard and it also meant that I had to work with people that were in my class but I didn’t know well. We were given the hardest challenge which is the technical challenge and for that challenge we were meant to make a life size pinball machine. Making a life size pinball machine was hard and we didn’t really know what we were doing. Our original plan was to make a pinball machine that sat on the floor not raised off the ground or anything. It didn’t work. When we got to the competition it didn’t work one bit and our story was way too short. I was embarrassed and angry that our pinball machine looked like a piece of trash compared to the other teams. One team even had a real tv!
If you want to check out my post on our first DI competition click here!
The build up to our second competition was way better, we made a pin ball machine out of wood that had legs and everything! It worked perfectly until we had to bring it into the gym space where we were presenting and then it all broke and it didn’t work. That was also really frustrating and I learnt that we need to make the machine more lighter and put more nails and screws in it so it wouldn’t fall apart. We did a good job preparing everything and getting it ready for the competition and we weren’t rushing to finish in the end, we used our time wisely. I did a good job working with my teammates and I definitely got closer to them all. We all worked well together and we didn’t have any big disagreements or anything. We accepted feedback well like we knew what we had to do after the first competition we were not allowed to be given any ideas but people just said that our first idea wasn’t working so my team knew that we had to change it. Going into grade 9 maker and doing DI again I think that we need to think out our plan more and build our machines stronger in the first competition and not make another bad machine out of cardboard. I don’t know what category I will be in or whom I will be with but I think we need to apply those factors to the first competition and make it more simple and not very heavy so its not easy to break and we need to make it lighter so it can be broken into small parts.
Links to my team mates blog:
Science
One project that was transitional for me what our “Small But Mighty” project. In this project we leant all about the immune system that changed things for me because I now see everything differently. I know that when I get a cut that my white blood cells, t-cells, B-cells, and macrophage are fighting to keep me from getting sick by the pathogens. We made a field journal where we grew bacteria in little Petri dishes. This was fun but also really gross because the bacteria was all lumpy and orange and it spelt really bad!
We made immune character cards where we made little Pokémon card type things that had facts about the cells in the immune system. This was really fun because I loved making these cards and you got to choose what the theme was and I chose Mickey Mouse.
The last thing that we did in this project was make media posts (we didn’t actually post them on social media) based on the covid-19 vaccine. These posts were about the why people thought you shouldn’t get vaccinated like people thought that you would get heart attacks, blood clot or things like the government planting microchip in you. We had to make a media campaign that explains why that wouldn’t work.
I did well accepting feedback for my field journal because when the teacher or my peers said that I needed to change something I did well doing that and making my work better. Going into grade 9 I can work on making sure that I am being confident in my work when I go up and present and speak in a loud clear voice and not get scared when people ask questions about my work. I need to be proud of the work I produce.
Spring Exhibition
This year for our Spring Exhibition we made ads about Oregon that we were to present to the public. I think that my group did a really good job. I had 6 people in my group and we all did an amazing job to bring our trip to Oregon to life! We had 3 stations and in each station 2 people were there to run it. In the station I was in we talked about the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Me and Cece who was the person I was running the Tillamook Cheese station made a diagram of how cheese is made we also had a cow milking station where you can see what its like to milk a cow. I think that I did a really good job making sure that I was prepared beforehand for the exhibition, I made sure that everything was ready to bring and that I had everything printed and ready to go. I think that I worked well with my group we had a couple of disagreements that I think we could work on in the future, we need to be able to talk it out and not get upset with things. I did well accepting feedback but I think that I could work on accepting feedback from my peers more. Going into grade 9 I think for the next spring exhibition I need to be able to agree with my group more and make sure that we can work our problems out without getting annoyed with each other.
Conclusion
I think that this first year in high school wad a success! I have had a great year and I have had lots of fun in my first year in PLP I really enjoyed doing all the projects and working with my peers. I have done a good job working with my classmates in each project, sometimes I have been a little upset that I was not with any of my friends but in the end I did not feel that anymore because I was happy with my group and what we had done. I think I have done well to accept feedback because at the start of the year when I got feedback or a revision sign I just felt like I wanted to give up and stop but I kept going and now when I get a revision sigh I don’t give up and I make the necessary changes to make my work better. I am really good at making sure my work is done and ready ahead of time and making sure that I don’t leave it until late and then I am rushing to get it done. I used to do that at the start of the year but now I always do my homework and get everything prepared as soon as I get home so I am not rushing to do it later or so I don’t forget something and then that messes up my work. Going into grade 9 I want to be able to feel more confident in my work and this counts for all classes because I am always embarrassed to show my work to my teachers and peers and I don’t like to hand it in on Showbie because I get scared that my work isn’t good enough. Those are somethings I think I can work on going into grade 9 and I hope that I will be able to achieve the goals I have set for myself!
Thank you for listening to my “Transitional Presentation Of Learning!” I hope you enjoyed it and have a great summer!😁🏖️