Welcome to my blog post about my mid-year presentation of learning, also known as mPOL.
Learning Intent
Let’s start with my learning intent from the start of the year:
So far, I think I’m becoming better at sharing my voice and opinions. For example, in Scimatics when we were creating a laser display, I thought a good idea for the theme of our display would be the sky and it worked out well! However, I still need to get better at asking clarifying questions since sometimes my questions are too open-ended. Once I asked what to do for a blog post and I got a whole bunch of information I already knew, since my question was very broad.
Core Competencies
These are the core competency profiles that I filled out: 
The core competency I have made the most growth in:
Positive Personal and Cultural Identity
The area that I think I’ve made the most progress in, is personal and cultural identity. The reason for this is because of all the worldview projects we’ve been doing. For example, what helped me learn more about myself was having to write many poems about me. When I brainstormed for the self-portrait poem I had to do a little bit of digging within myself and it made me question my interests and my strengths. This helped me notice some of the things I like. Also, when I was writing my personification worldview poem I tried to make a connection to myself, and that’s why I added that the worldview fell (because I’m clumsy), the line is, “As it takes a step forward It trips on what appears to be nothing and vanishes before it reaches the ground,” and I added a line about music in the background because music is a part of me.
The competency I would like to work more on:
Communication
I have found communicating is a big goal of mine. I have definitely gotten better at communicating with peers a bit more confidently and offering my ideas, but I’m not that good at asking clear concise questions, to both friends and teachers.
Now lets move on to the subjects…
Scimatics
Goals:
I should get better at paying attention when the worksheets are being explained since math/science are some of my less favoured ones. My second goal is to improve with my questions when needing support or clarity.
Progress:
I have definitely made some more progress in paying attention and I have started to take some notes when we are being explained something. Writing notes helps me think through what I am hearing. I think l’ll do much better when I don’t let my mind wander. A strategy I might try is to take a few deep breaths or tell myself to get back on track. Also, I can get better at asking questions because I struggle at phrasing what I need. For example, I am learning to think of and write down my questions before going to tutorials. While I still need to get better at phrasing my questions I am getting there slowly but surely.
Reflection:
If I could go back and change something I did it would be milestone 2. First off, my conclusion for it was not very good because it was not written well and did not show good understanding. It bothers me because I knew it wasn’t good but I went along with it anyway, and I don’t know why I didn’t fix it. One thing that would have helped my conclusion and the overall assignment was if I had communicated with my group better. I would have asked if I could jump in and help more, but because it was a close space to work in when working with the ray box it was tricky for me to move and see what was going on. Then I might have asked more questions to seek understanding during the process. For example, I struggled seeing and understanding the impact that moving the ray box had on the angle of light. If I had understood more than I would have tried to pay attention.
Maker
Goal:
I can become better at summarizing my reflections and stating what I’ve learned.
Progress:
I have made progress in reflecting yet I am still inconsistent, for example, when writing reflections for the Herzog Project! I found it easy because it was something I enjoyed and I had a good time doing it. I love photography so anytime I get to jump into that, I am excited. As a result I connected to Herzog and had no trouble with reflecting.
Reflection:
In Maker 8 we have done a lot of projects, and ironically the one I am least proud of is the one I did best on. This was the Herzog project, and the reason for this is because I am so used to using a camera that using an iPad felt completely awkward.
I feel like I’ve learned how to use my iPad the most with Maker, since I’ve learned how to use the Apple Pencil, take photos and then edit them, how to create presentations using keynote and more. Maker has helped me understand my iPad and how to use it to its best ability.
Humanities
Goal:
I can get better at slimming down my ideas and picking the best ones. Also, I should get better at analyzing concepts.
Progress:
During the process of creating advertisements for Honey’s Doughnuts I had a hard time figuring out which ad I liked better. It was hard to chose because I liked them all, but I had some help from peers to help me figure out which ideas were best.
Reflection:
Humanities is the subject I am the most comfortable with and have enjoyed the most. I feel happy with all of my work, and the one I’m most proud of is the Medium Is The Message project. That project was about creating an advertisement for a local business. The reason I am proud of it is because I feel like I used the skills I had to the best extent because it was for an actual business it felt like I had a real purpose (even though it wouldn’t go anywhere). As a result, I can see myself going into graphic design of some sort down the road.
Demonstrations of high quality work
I have decided to show a representation of high quality work in each subject:
For Humanities I chose the Outsiders Project
For Maker I chose The Power Of A Pencil project
For Scimatics I chose the Tectonic Chances project
The reason I chose these 3 is because they are some of the projects I’ve learned most in. For Scimatics I’m proud of me and my group for collaborating well and when I think back to the start I remember me and Gwen talking about what to do and I realized we put a lot of work in to it. I’ve never been the best artist and I’m still not but during Carr I had a lot of fun drawing with my Apple Pencil and I have learned different skills I can use in Digital art. The same goes for the outsider project since I used different apps and meshed them all together in Canva with the help of my group. p
The Driving Questions:
“How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?”
An obvious answer would be learning about how to use all the apps provided by PLP. But a better answer would be that I have gotten more responsible and I feel I am showing my learning in a deeper and more organized way. For example, I am now understanding how to make a stronger blog post. I am taking more time to reflect and explain my reasoning. I spend a lot of time on my homework to make sure I do a good job.
“How can I sharpen my Learning Plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of this school year”
I found that writing down certain questions I have before going into tutorial for something helps me a lot because then I have good questions to help give me the answer I want. So that is something I could add to my learning plan to help achieve the growth I want. Another one is that taking quick notes when being explained a blog post helps me figure out the way to form my blog post later on, and what information to add.
Habits, Dispositions and Systems
These are my habits, dispositions, and systems from my learning plan. 
I have made many checklists and they have helped me keep track of everything. I have to get better at taking breaks since it will probably help my mind keep on track. I have had no problem pushing aside my biases, and I’m open to collaborating. When it comes to persevering through my tasks I definitely can do this, however, I realize now that I need to figure out how to be more efficient with my time. I seem to have no problem spending hours on a blog for example, but I can get overwhelmed when I have work for multiple classes due around the same time. Moving forward I need to work on balancing out what I am doing and get better at not taking forever to put what I am thinking into words!