M-POLs: The Work I’m Proud of So Far

It’s getting to the time in the school year where work is getting harder, more events are happening, and stress levels go up. This is also known as mid-year, so because of M-POLs (mid-year presentation of learning), and my own recollection I decided to make a blog post on the work I’m proud of so far. In this way I will answer the driving question which is “How are you going to progress as a learner before the end of the school year?”.

We have five blocks that are PLP, but I’ll begin with Humanities (this combines both Social Studies and English classes). The very first unit was Advertising, and I have a whole blog post about it here, though I just want to focus on work and what it taught me. I’d say the most important things I learned were about capturing peolpe’s attention and the psychology behind the advertising that surrounds us. The hard part was revising my ads over and over again because just when I thought I was done something new came up.

The next unit was Worldview and Religions, and there were many assignments, along with making an infographic. Like the other units, I made a blog post about this, and it goes into more depth through the process and the field study. We completed this unit shortly before Christmas, so experiencing the holidays after all this information was interesting. I suddenly became more aware of other people and how their religions changed this time to accommodate their beliefs.

The last unit in Humanities is one we haven’t finished yet, however it is already interesting to me because it’s on medieval times, and how society went from Rome to separated nations. We will also be creating a quilt with our groups, and that will surely make its way into another post later on. Something that has already stuck out to me is how much of information from the medieval times enters literature and media. When this is done I’d like to compare what I’ve learned to a novel, for example.

Moving forward to Maker class, the starting unit was very important to learn because it would affect all our schooling from there on out. You guessed it, there is a blog post about the Growth Mindset unit! Learning about growth mindset at the beginning of the year was a good idea because every. single. time. someone else, or myself says they can’t do something, I just think to my self…..yet.

A large project that I did mainly in Maker class was the Winter Exhibition on Star Wars. In fact, I made a post about it! I was really proud of my final project because it showcased something I was actually interested in learning about.

Currently, my class is focusing on Destination Imagination in our groups, so I don’t have anything much to showcase yet, even though I’m learning new things in group work, challenges, and my own creativity.

Moving on to science and math, which are also joint classes. I do have a blog post for both of these too… We don’t do as much sheets and assignments in this class, but the first project was video that we made in partners on the States of Matter. My class also just began a unit in science on cells and biology.

Another thing in science we did that I found interesting was a viscosity lab, where everyone tested the flow rate of oil. It somewhat felt like I was an actual scientist, and I did enjoy wearing a white apron, so I’m ready for more of these labs.

In math, the biggest project we did was calculating and creating a new surface area for one the the classroom doors that was five times the size. It was definitely harder than I originally thought, and I learned about teamwork and thinking out of the box when it comes to math.

Looking back on this time I’ve spent in PLP, I realized actually how much work I’ve done and how much more there is to learn. There are a few key things I really want to work on for the remainder of the year, the first being building up my perseverance. I have already got so much better at taking criticism and improving work continuously, though there is always room to exceed my mental capacity for this stuff (right?).  Another point I’d like to focus on is asking for my marks, or how well I’m doing more often than never, which is what I do now. I think it will help me identify what needs to be addressed, making the work I create more direct. I’m definitely still working on my growth mindset goal, which will carry through the rest of year, so the last quality I hope to imptovr upon is group work. I know the people in my classes so much better now, however there will be ongoing challenges I need to enhance the way I handle.  While it may be stressful, I’m prepared to mess up, do a million revisions, and make work that was better than I did before.