This year, we were introduced to a new course- PGP. While this course is not required by the curriculum, it has helped me so much throughout my projects. This video exemplifies all the things that would have helped me so much from the start of the year, and even before that. This video is my ‘Time Machine’ project-something (an arti I would send back in time to me at the beginning of the year, and the info in it is what has helped me the most. 

For my artifact, I decided to write and create a one-woman play, showcasing the things I have found the most helpful about PGP this year. It took a long time to write, but I worked hard, and I’m very proud of it. 

We’ve had three focuses during PGP this year, and my artifact exemplifies the most important parts (to me) of those three focuses, and how they have helped me throughout this school year.

The first thing we focused on in PGP this year was Productivity. This focus, to me, was the most important. During this unit, we learned how to manage our time to make us more productive learners. One of the main things that we learned how to do to manage our time was to timeblock. Timeblocking is used by many successful people, all around the world, and it helps them work through their days. It’s the practice of dividing your days into chunks of time for you to work on certain things, go to events, and do the things that you enjoy. Basically, it’s like planning using a calendar, to an extreme degree. I think that this is the most important thing for me that we have learned in PGP this year. Timeblocking has helped me complete more projects on time, and on a better, thorough schedule, which left me with enough time to complete a project in a way I enjoy. Timeblocking is the main focus of my artifact, and it is very clear in my video how it helps. In the first ‘act’, the girl is struggling to stay on top of her work, especially when she’s wasting tons of time watching movies, calling friends, and generally procrastinating. In the second act, this girl is not only managing to stay on top of her work, she is thriving, excelling in school, growing her skills, and staying organized. The only difference? She’s timeblocking! Now, this difference may be drastic, but that doesn’t mean it’s not realistic. I’ve found myself struggling to finish work after procrastinating before. And timeblocking as a method to stay productive has made that almost a thing of the past for me, which is why I wanted to exemplify it in my video. This, however, wasn’t the only thing we did in the Productivity unit, it was just the most important and helpful thing to me. 

The next unit we did this year is Goal-Setting, which is more of a general focus for my artifact. The work that we did throughout the unit was learning not only how to set goals, but also how to achieve them. To understand goal-setting better, we’ve used journals! These journals were private, and filled with goals we want to achieve, plans to achieve them, and reflections on past goals. For this unit, we read the book ‘What Do You Really Want?’ by Beverly K. Bachel, which provided things like prompts for our journal and insights into how teens can become better at goal-setting. This book was really interesting to read. I did a bunch of the forms and worksheets in it, and they were very engaging. My favourite, I would say, was the one where I imagined a newspaper article about my success in the future. It was a great way to visualise what my goal was. In fact, this entire unit has helped me to not only set realistic goals, but achieve them as well. 

The last unit we’ve worked on in PGP this year was all about a book- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Now, this book has a lot of chapters, each detailing a different habit that a so-called ‘highly effective teen’ would use. To describe how much this book has impacted my learning, I’ll go through each habit and talk about it a bit. 

The first habit is ‘Be Proactive.’ This means that when something bad happens to you, you don’t get upset, blame others and react when something happens to you. If something is out of your control, why waste time being angry? You can take steps to what you want, now. You can also stop thinking along the lines of ‘I’ll try’ or ‘I guess I’ll do my best’, and start thinking along the lines of ‘I will do it’ and ‘I can do it.’ 

The second habit is my favourite- ‘Begin With the End in Mind.’ This is when that you start something, you already have a clear goal for the end product. This is the one I chose to exemplify in my video. Especially when the girl in the second act is doing the painting, she is beginning with the End in Mind. She knows what she wants to do eventually- paint something as beautiful as the painting she’s inspired by. This helps her along her steps to greatness (using a goal ladder— one of the prompts from What Do You Really Want!). 

The third Habit is ‘Put First Things First.’ This Habit is all about learning to prioritize what’s important. The girl in Act 1 is absolutely awful at this, as she watches a movie, takes a nap, and has a phone conversation before doing an arguably much more urgent thing- her homework. She is what the 7 Habits classifies as a ‘Procrastinator’, one of the four types of people. The other three are the Slacker, who never does anything, the Yes-Man, who does everything, no matter how small or not urgent it may be, and the Prioritizer, the one you want to be. The girl in Act 2 is a Prioritizer, as she immediately prioritizes homework over other things— her hobbies, phone conversations. 

The fourth Habit is ‘Think Win-Win.’ This Habit is all about not only finding the bright side in everything, but being sportsmanlike and enjoying yourself during a game or competition, rather than caring too much about the outcome. This concept is super helpful, and has helped me become successful because it reminds me that even when I fail, I’m on my way to learning. 

The fifth Habit is ‘Seek First To Understand, Then to be Understood.’ Listening is a huge part of this habit, and not just nodding along, saying ‘yeah’ every few minutes, and mentally checking out. You need to be fully paying attention, looking at the person you’re listening to, and understanding what they have to say, before you butt in with your point. 

The sixth Habit is ‘Synergize.’ Now, this Habit is all about working together with others. I’ll admit it- working with others can be difficult. Everyone has lots of conflicting ideas, so Synergy is very important. You need to see the issue that you’re dealing with from all points of view- theirs, yours, and others. Work with Habit 5, and you’ll find that people will respect you more and you’ll become better at collaborating with others.

The last (but not least!) Habit is ‘Sharpen the Saw.’ This Habit is all about keeping yourself ‘sharp.’ It’s really important to take care of yourself, and ‘Sharpen the Saw’ outlines a few key areas; you can take care of your brain by doing puzzles or other interesting things to challenge yourself. You can take care of your body by keeping yourself healthy, you can take care of your heart by being kind and loving yourself, and you can take care of your soul by learning and experiencing new things. 

We also did creative reflections on the four ‘parts’ of the book. I created a lot of images for mine. 

As this post is a reflection on this entire course, I want to talk about how PGP has helped me. While the point of this Time Machine project, I feel the need to expand a little. Last year, I struggled with managing procrastination and staying on top of tasks. PGP has helped me immensely, and I showed how in my artifact- timeblocking! Timeblocking has been the best thing for me, as I’ve learned how to use it effectively in PGP this year. I can know when to take breaks, how long it’ll take to work on something, and how much time I’ll have to work on other things like my writing or my volleyball skills. PGP, however, has helped me in many more ways, too many to list, (but I’ll try!), helping me have a more positive mindset, helping me write, plan, and achieve goals, and helping me be more empathetic towards others. All in all, PGP has been one of the best courses I’ve taken this year, and I’m excited to take it again next year.

Thanks for reading my blog post!