Month: June 2023

Dulce et Decorum Est

jacksonc Other 0 Comment

Welcome back to my blog! It’s that time of the year again for an exhibition. This was our final one of the year. The driving question for the project was based around contrasting narratives, me and my group were specifically focused on the contrasting narrative of the traditional women compared to the WW1 and post WW1 women. For it I built a replica of a WW1 hospital, the place where women could work on the frontlines for the first time. This and more all went into the final and main thing, the exhibition.

The main part of this all was building of the replica hospital. This was a process that took multiple class times plus the better part of a night to complete and get to a point where it looks good and I was happy with it. The reason I built the hospital for the exhibition was, like I said earlier, it was the first chance women had to work on the frontlines. The traditional women, the pre WW1 women, was expected to be this stay at home mom that only worked as a teacher or a nurse until married. WW1 was the big tipping point where, since the men were away at war, the women got the chance to step up and prove themselves. They got the chance to vote for the first time, if their husbands and sons were at war, they started working in jobs like in factories that were previously male dominated, and they got their chance to work on the frontline for the first time in the hospitals. This snowballed and continued to grow even after the war ended. 

Finally, the day of the exhibition arrived, and I was excited to present my project to a group of people. The exhibition was held in the library, which all of grade 9 had to transform into our own WW1 museum, and each student had their own table to display their work. I set up my cardboard replica of the WW1 hospital, along with the card explaining it. As people began to arrive, I explained my project to them giving similar points to what I saying earlier. 

Overall, the PLP end of year exhibition was a success, and I was proud to showcase my project alongside the rest of PLP. The planner I had created for the cardboard replica of a WW1 hospital was an essential tool in the building process, helping me stay organized and efficient. Through the process of constructing the replica, I developed an appreciation for the WW1 women and what they went through. And finally, presenting my work to people and sharing what I learned was a very rewarding experience that’s always a highlight of the exhibitions.

My 2023 tPOL

jacksonc Other 0 Comment

Hi, and welcome to my 2023 tPOL. Before I begin I have to, as always, make 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.

The first thing that I want to bring up as example of why I’m ready to move on to the next grade is my learning plan. Within my learning plan there are a few things that I would want to further change since my mPOL. During my mPOL I focused mainly on wanting to set a higher goal for myself and aim for an extending instead of an accomplished. While this is still a change I want to keep, there are other aspects I would also change if I were to do it again. The first thing would be to also change my goal for careers to an extending instead of an accomplished. With the level of work that I can produce I feel that I need to aim higher with my goals so I can set an expectation for myself of what I should be doing. Even though I have been doing a pretty good job of meeting my goals, I think that I could be a lot better at meeting them, and meeting them on time, if I stuck to the habits that I had wanted to set for myself. This semester especially, I have been having trouble sticking to the habit I wanted to set of having a time where I would just get work done. I have a busy schedule that changes a lot which made it very hard to find a time that worked every day, making it hard to get in the rhythm of it. Next year, I want to try a lot harder at making this work so that I can do a better job of meeting my goals. 

If I could’ve gone back there are a few things that I would’ve changed with the work that I did this semester, the main one being, and I know that I keep repeating this time and time again, not putting my work off to the last minute. I repeat this all the time but I’ve noticed that this last semester, which has been a lot busier for me then normal, I’ve been pushing work more and more. A good example of this, and how I’m working on it, was the Frankenstuffies project. For some parts of this project that I found less important I would put off till the last second, or even just do it late, but for the parts that I knew were important and hard I was able to sit down and put in the work. When we had to film the trailer and I committed to doing stop motion I knew it was going to be a challenge and that it was going to take a lot prof time. Knowing this, plus the fact that I genuinely enjoyed doing the stop motion, I used all my class time to the best of my ability as well as making time to do it at home. This really reminded me that when I enjoy something and think it’s important I will really focus in and get an end project I’m happy with and I think that if I can find more ways to incorporate things that I enjoy in my work it’ll deter me from putting it off.

Even though there have been many things with my work that I’d I wish I had done different or changed, there have also been positives in my work. I think that taking and using feedback is one of my strong suits. I believe that I demonstrated this in all my projects this year, but one of the outstanding ones was the Case For A Nation project. With all three of the keystones I got feedback while working on it, after I was done it, or both. All the feedback that I got from peers and teachers I was really able to apply and make changes. For example our first draft of the game was very plain, didn’t have enough information, and was overall lacking in various areas. After a few rounds of feedback from a few different people, I was able to make the changes that it needed to be a good project that I was fairly proud of. This project was also good for helping me with my collaboration skills. This was a partnered project and my one problem when I’m in a group is that I tend to take control. I think that I did a good job working with my partner, Jessie, and making sure we both had an equal say.

So why do I think I am ready to advance to the next grade level. Well, I believe that I have shown growth in most areas, and if not growth then an understanding of what I could’ve done differently. I believe that I can consistently produce an extending level of work, even if I’m putting off my work. There are many examples that show this, but these examples are some of the best ones. I look forward to continuing my growth as a learner over the next few years. Thanks for reading my tPOL and listening to why I’m ready to move onto the next grade.