“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.” – PLP POL declaration 

Hellooo everyone it is the time of year that mPols arise. Yipee..!

At the beginning of every year we have to write out a learning plan about what we hope to achieve over the year. At the top there is something called the “Statement of Learning Intent” and again, its about what we strive to get better at. When I read my grade 9 learning intent and my grade 8 learning intent I find it funny that the grade 9 learning intent is kind of just an upgraded version of it. In both I said I wanted to get better at voicing my opinions in groups. I think I am better at that but only when it’s with people I know, or are a little comfortable with. When I was in a group with no one I knew I kept to myself and did not do much. In grade 8 I said I would ask clarifying questions and go to tutorial more. I am doing that! Win for me, and it definitely does help since it’s a more work friendly environment I get more work done.

This year my goal was and still is to not get distracted. It is a pretty basic goal but it is a necessary skill. Being distracted has made me drag on projects that could be done in 30 minutes to being done in an hour and a half instead. That’s why when I write a blog post I usually brain storm it out on paper since paper doesn’t have any apps I can get distracted by. I originally wrote this mPol on my pad then quickly switched to paper and wrote the whole thing out in a notebook. Writing my ideas on paper is one of the habits I wrote I wanted acquire in my learning plan. A part of the learning plan is talking about systems, habits and disposions you want to work on.

Maker:

In maker I stated that I wanted to challenge myself by thinking out of the box. The projects we had were all about creating videos and setting successful goals. 

I do not like setting goals at all, I find I always repeat the same thing over and over. Anytime I have to list my hobbies I repeat the same things. For example we had to write a paragraph about a goal we achieved. I didn’t want to talk about baking or photography but I couldn’t think of anything. I ended up choosing to write it about skiing which I wasn’t super happy about but I was proud of acknowledging that I have to try thinking about other things.

I am also proud of the documentary I created about racism for the vibrant videos project. During this project I got a little lost and stressed about how it would end up. Since we couldn’t just have someone talking for our whole video we needed B-roll which is just overlaying images to add to the story, but since I didn’t know what my interviewees answers would be I was not able to take any since I didn’t know what they would be about. Also, racism is a hard topic to find media that relates to it; a theme like sustainability of nature is easy because you could show the forest. So, I ended up having to draw most of my B-roll. It was difficult not knowing what was happening and not having a firm hold on my project. I did not think I was going to finish my video how I wanted to since I edited it quite slow but I actually did finish it on time and I was content with how it looked. When I got my final grade and I was very happy with myself and I felt successful! I just have to keep in mind to not freak out when I don’t really know what I am doing so I can stay level headed. Because once I cloud my mind with worries and doubts it will be harder to focus and succeed. 

Science:

I was a bit scared for science this year since it used to be scimatics so I didn’t know what to expect. I actually had a lot of fun in science and didn’t struggle as much as I thought I would. In my learning plan I said I find science terminology confusing and that I would research them when I didn’t understand. Luckily, I didn’t have too! Ms Kadi created presentations that clearly explained most of the topics and terminology so if I ever need a refresher I could look back on those. I also wrote notes in class and I doubted I would ever use them but surprisingly I actually did as well. 

Essential Elements:

The assignment was to create a interactive game to teach someone about the periodic table. You could create it on scratch or keynote. I have a bad history with scratch and can never figure out how to use it. It was one of the things I failed at in grade 8. Yet I decided to challenge myself to do it on scratch because you can’t learn how to do things by hiding from them. But that was a bad idea since I failed again. I kept coding and coding so the backdrop wouldn’t disappear and my sprites would stop bouncing off the walls. Soon enough it was time to hand it in and at I still wasn’t done. So at 10pm I decided restart the whole thing on Keynote. As much as I wanted to prove I could use scratch I made it on keynote in no time. I’m proud of myself for trying to stretch myself but next time I’ll just try to make a decision to switch earlier in the day.

Humanities:

In my learning plan I said I wanted to work on my stamina and perseverance when I look for resources. Also, to try to use more advanced vocabulary and seek feedback on projects. I think I definitely achieved those goals when I created a multi touch e-book. It feels like ages since I went on the Alberta trip and looking back on book we had to create I am reminded of I dreaded working on it, but also how proud I am.

The Power Of Geography

 The more I progressed as I wrote the book the more I struggled answering questions. Especially when I had to answer about personal connections of places we visited. Some areas we visited I had 0 connections to, or very small ones which made me have to do extra research. Writing the book was very draining and I doubted that I would ever finish it and even if I did it would look bad; and that is a fixed mindset which is what I don’t want. Now I wonder how do I fix the fixed mindsets I get? I honestly don’t know, but I just need to remember to tell myself I always pull through and finish what I started.

Conclusion 

I looked over what I wanted to grow in for each subject and I think underlying each growth goal the main thing I want to work on is strengthening my research skills. The reason I struggle with research is because I never know where to look, and even when I find stuff I don’t know what to take out of it. My next steps to grow and get better at researching is to create mind maps and pull important quotes from each article I read. Then when I think I have enough I will read through it all and relate it to what I’m working on. Also, instead of just looking at the first few things that pop up and skimming through articles I will read through them throughly and not judge them by first glance.

Grade 9 is going by so fast soon enough it will be my TPol.

Goodbye and thank you!