For this year end TPOL blog post I have decided to go in-depth into my learning on many different topics. It really surprised me when I realized that we only had two weeks left, usually, I was counting the days until the beginning of Sumer Break. Why was this year different?
As I reflected on this year to answer this question I realized how much work I have done. For example, I found myself asking Mr. Gross if he taught trigonometry in grade nine, as it turns out it was only the beginning of this year. This last part of the year has been quite the endeavour, with the circle BC trip, Two French Final Projects, Two Final Photo Projects, Four Scimatics Projects, and The Blue Sky Project. I think that this year, in general, has been incredibly condensed with all different types of tests and projects.
Why do I feel I am ready to advance to the next grade level?
Every year in my TPOL Blog Post, I like to touch on my challenges, my failures, my favourite projects, and successes. In hindsight, I don’t think that this explanation has really perpetuates my learning. The best way to exhibit my learning is to explain HOW I learned on some of my most significant projects.
This was one of the first projects this year, and when it comes to videography I think it was one of the most substantial. This was one of the first times I realized how important Preproduction was in a video project. One big contribution to this project was my screenplay. Even though I had previously created many different screenplays I think that this was probably some of my best work and really introduced my descriptive writing to a video project (Scene Descriptions). I really liked this project because it was very entertaining and informational. We did two renditions of this project and I have to admit it was nice to have another project that we could use our newly created skills on.
This was one of my first in class essay writes and was most definitely one of the hardest essays to write. The novel that we read for this essay was quite eye-opening and a little bit depressing. It was easier to connect it to my thesis because of its impact on your emotions. I learned a lot about essay prep, time consumption, and essay flow. When my essay was critiqued I was a little bit taken back at how much I had to change. This was one of the first times I felt overwhelmed with critique. I realized that I really had push myself to do this critique, but once it was finished I felt very proud of my work. This was the first time I realized that in some situations it is important that you revise your critique to its fullest potential, instead of being picky and just changing the aspects that you want to change.
This was a very interesting field study and it focused more on technical industry, such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple. The main project for this field study was a video that illustrated Our inquiry question, “Why does it take a crazy person to change the world?” Throughout this trip, I pioneered the film taking eventually the editing. We did run into some problems in the editing proses, and even though we ran into some problems we still made the deadlines. You are probably wondering why this project is in my TPOL Blog, since it was not nessisaraly my best work. I think it is important to recognize that just because you might “fail” at something doesn’t mean you won’t learn from it. There are many things I would change from my video, but possibly the most predominant skill is still splitting up the work between my team so that everyone can work on something that they want to work on.
Circle BC Field Study
Even though this trip was incredibly educational, I really want to focus on the different skills I learned instead of the content. If you’re interested in the content aspect of the trip, visit my Circle BC blog post. Some of the skills I learned during this trip were to always be in a work mode, always be jotting down notes and always be recording ideas and audio clips for the podcast. In this situation, you always want to be open to new information. This way you can have just a big amount of knowledge that you can put to use when to create your final project.
Bears in Northern British Columbia | Circle BC Field Study
This year has really been incredible, and every day I feel like I’m becoming a better human being. All of these new skills I have learned have contributed to me being able to advance to the next grade level. Even though there have been many times this year where I have been overwhelmed and stressed out, there has been just as many being overexcited, and proud of my work. This year I have been incredibly proud of my work, and steadfast on handing my work in on time and completing my critique to its fullest potential. I am excited for next year, and can’t wait for the new challenges I will encounter.