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.

Introduction

Since my MPOLs last semester, I’ve had a lot of time to improve, reflect, and work on many more projects that have been assigned since the beginning of the second semester. Now that Grade 8 is finally coming to an end, I think that I am ready to transition into a grade 9 student. I feel that I am ready to take on grade 9 because I am excited for the coming challenges to overcome, and field studies to go to, as well as the exhibitions to present in, and projects to make.

What Were My Strengths This Year?

Some of my strengths that I think will really help me in my transition to a Grade 9 is my ability to manage my time wisely. So far this year, there wasn’t a project that I struggled with because of lack of time. Most of the time, I was able to get the projects or assignments completed in time, but sometimes I forgot to turn it in, which might be something that I have to work on next year.  Another one of my strengths this year was my ability to plan ahead. Thanks to this, I was able to know what I was going to do, or say, or make, or prepare for a project or assignment and it made the whole process so much easier. One of the projects that I did that I needed this skill to do was my Cells Field experiment. This experiment was basically where we had to swab parts of the school and make a hypothesis and prediction, then observe the bacteria that was swabbed to test our hypothesis. This assignment needed me to plan ahead not only because it was part of the assignment, but also because it made the whole process for me so much easier to manage. My journal for this project can be seen below.

Another example of how this skill was useful was my gummy bear diffusion project for science. This assignment really needed a step by step instruction, not only because it was part of the assignment but also because it helped making this project happen so much easier for me and my group members. What the gummy diffusion project is, is it’s basically a science experiment that a group of 2 or 3 people had to make, record, observe, and present. It had to include 2 or more ways of diffusing a gummy bear in a beaker with some sort of liquid (pop, hot water, cold water, etc). My group recorded our process using a Canva slideshow video. Here is our Gummy Bear Diffusion Presentation.

What Were My Weaknesses?

Something that I need to work on for the remainder of this year, and all throughout next year, is my attention to detail. What I mean by that is sometimes, when an instruction is written down on a craft document by the teacher, I forget to read all of the instructions thoroughly. A time I did this was when in Keystone 1 for our triptych project in humanities last semester, we were supposed to use things and calendar to make time blocks. I did understand the basics of what I was supposed to do, but ended up not turning it in correctly, because I didn’t read the instructions carefully. Another example of my lack of attention to instructions is for my MPOL last semester. I thought that the blog post was just there because we had to write blog posts for everything we did, and that I was allowed to use a Keynote presentation for my MPOLs. So I went ahead a made a whole slideshow for it, only to find out after, that I was only supposed to use my blog post. Whoops! Another one of my weaknesses that I can definitely work on is checking my iPad out of school more often. Most of the time, when I’m out of school, I tend to never open my iPad, unless I have homework that I haven’t turned in. Once an assignment is turned in though, I never open my iPad during weekends or holidays to check on showbie, or Gmail, or Basecamp for any mistakes or feedback, and the revisions end up being overdue. One of the projects that this happened was actually again, Keystone 1 of my triptych projects. After I had handed in my time blocks and checklists to showbie, I never open my iPad during the weekend so I was unable to see Ms. Willemse’s notes for revision. 

What are My Improvements Since Last Semester?

Since my MPOLs last semester, I was able to reflect on my weaknesses, and improve on them throughout this semester. One of the things that used to be my weak point, but now something that really helped me throughout this semester and will probably help me for next year, is my photography. Not only did I use the tips that I got from Maker for the perspective photos assignment to work on my photography skills, but I have also learned to unconsciously go straight for the photo opportunities. This talent helped me a lot in Oregon, when we had to take photos to fill in our Field study journals. A lot of my friends forgot to take their photos at locations they were supposed to take photos at, while I was taking a photos of the landscape, or a selfie of me or my friends everywhere we went, even if we didn’t need one. This skill definitely helped filling in my journal so much easier and much less stressful.

My Oregon Field Study Journal

Something else that I improved on throughout this whole year was my blog post skills. As I said before in my MPOL, this was a whole new skill for me to learn and I definitely struggle at first. But now that grade 8 is coming to a close, I already feel like this is part of my learning process and I know exactly what to write for each project. It’s all coming to me so much more naturally, as if I have been doing this for much longer than 10 months. Even writing this TPOL blog post is easier that writing the MPOL blog post. 

My Learning Plan

 Looking back on my learning plan now, I can see so many adjustments that I know I will make when writing my learning plan for next year. I know now, that science is not my weakest subject, and that I should not have taken last year and assume my abilities and limits to my learning. Now I know that next year, I’m going to set the highest expectations for my self instead trying to play safe and be lazy. I’m so proud of myself for exceeding my own expectations and now that I am reading my growth notes that I wrote down, I realized that I was worrying a bit too much. I hope that when it is time to start another year of PLP and I have to write a whole new learning plan for myself, that I have more self-confidence, and choose to push myself out of my comfort zone.

Conclusion

Overall, I think that this year was a great first year of high school and PLP. I have learned so much this year and grown so much as a learner, aging new skills that I can actually put to use for the real world, and not just school. I’m ready to take on grade 9 PLP because I want to grow from my weaknesses and put my strengths to use. I’m looking forward to all the upcoming exhibitions, POLs, projects, assignments, challenges, and especially field study trips that will teach me so many things next year. Bring it on grade 9!