Monthly Archives: June 2024

It’s tPOL Time 🏁!

by

Welcome!

This is my first ever tPOL, and I will be reflecting upon my first year in PLP, and I will talk about how I am transitioning into grade 9. I will also talk about Humanities, Maker, and Science. But first thing, the POL declaration.

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 driving question for this tPOL is “How can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP Success Behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?” I have chosen 3 success behaviours to showcase my areas of growth, and how I have grown.

Accepting Feedback 🧗

I chose 1 agency success behaviour, and 2 others. The agency success behaviour I chose to reflect on is Accepting Feedback. I think that I consistently accept feedback now. I chose this one, because I feel like I have really grown in accepting feedback from teachers and others.

Here is a bit of feedback I got from my most recent project “The wilderness must be explored”. If I had gotten this feedback at the start of the year, I would’ve though of it as a fail, but I now see it as an opportunity to improve my work and try to create the best version of it. In this certain project, I was creating advertisements. I learned that there is never a perfect draft, and sometimes you need to hand in many, many drafts of one thing in order to get it right. I only made 3 final ads, but they all took a lot of revision 🔄.

Self Regulation

For my second Success Behaviour to highlight, I chose the self-care part of self regulation. This is something that I need to work on still. I recognize that I get stressed out, but I sometimes don’t seek help with my stress. A lot of the time I just want all my work to turn out perfectly! I have began to realize that all the stress about something as simple as a blog post is not necessary. I think the Spring Exhibition was one of the biggest projects, along with the Winter Exhibition and DI. But surprisingly, I didn’t get very stressed. It could have been that I was in a very strong group, or that I am working on managing my stress levels. I only realized I wasn’t too stressed about it until after the fact. It shows how much better I work, and how more free I feel without being stressed out! Seeking help and recognizing my stress levels is something that I can continue to work on for grade 9, and in the future.

Communication and Collaboration

For my 3rd Success Behaviour, I chose to focus on Communication and Collaboration.

With peers: Whenever I am in a group project, I feel like I am a trusted group member, and I will always do my part. I always try to be supportive, and offer helpful feedback. The project I feel best demonstrated this was the Winter Exhibition. I was in a group where some members had trouble doing their part, and communicating. I was always patient, and I feel like my leadership shone through in this project.

 

With teachers: I have become much better at communicating with my teachers. As I have gotten to know my teachers better, I have realized that there is no harm in asking for help and asking questions. If I have questions, I will reach out to my teachers on iMessage and ask.

With technology: I have become very responsible with my iPad in class, and I go on do not disturb to block out messages that may be distracting. At the beginning of the year, I would be easily distracted by messages, and I would go to respond but now I refrain.

 

Humanities 👩🏼‍💻

Humanities is the subject that I have probably learned the most about resilience from. It can be a very difficult subject at times, but throughout the year I learned so many things in that class, from how to be a good group member, to renaissance and medieval times. We have done so many projects throughout the year, and they ranged from songs to books, but a project that I feel demonstrates the 3 success behaviours I chose was the most recent, the Spring Exhibition. This project was sort of short notice, but I feel like our group was very strong, so we put in a lot of work in the short time. In the end, I was really proud of the whole group for putting in their part.

I actually enjoyed this project, and I had the most fun in this project than any other so far. Probably because we got to go to Oregon 😁! We also got to create our own advertisements and make a whole exhibition out of it!

I got a lot of feedback from my classmates, and teachers. Like I said, I had to revise my ads quite a few times. I used the feedback as an advantage to make them better, and more effective. Yes, there was stress involved. But somehow, I wasn’t that stressed. I trusted my group, and I put in my hardest work. In the end , it all payed off! I communicated and collaborated to my group members through sending checklists, giving helpful feedback, and supporting the group.

During the year, we always reflected back to how things change our worldview. I think that almost every project we did in humanities connected back to our knowledge of worldview. I have grown a much greater understanding about what worldview is. This trip to Oregon definitely changed my worldview in a few ways. One of them being that there is so much to learn about every small place to go to, and that helps we gain understanding in the world. Another was being away from my family for a long time. I have been gone for a week without my family before, but I think it feels different being “At school” for a whole week 24/7.

Maker 🎨

Although we haven’t had maker since first semester, I have carried my skills through until now! I learned a lot about apps, and how to use them. We only really had 2 main projects, because we used Maker to work on Humanities sometimes. One of the projects was where we learned to draw on our iPads. Here is the blog post for that project!

Looking back at that blog post, I had trouble looking at the drawings… I know so much more about using the drawing apps now, so I really think I could improve these drawings now.

With the design skills I have now, I could definitely improve the emoji and make it way neater.

 

 

 

 

 

These shapes could have been way neater too!

 

 

 

 

 

Science 🧪

I really enjoy science. I think I have really learned a lot about multiple different things in science class. Last year, we never really got to do hands on experiments, but in this class we got to do lots of fun activities and experiments. The project where I demonstrated my learning best was “Small but Mighty”. I got to demonstrate my drawing skills, my scientist observational skills, and I got to communicate it all in a fun way. While creating my field journal, I worked on accepting feedback from peer critiques, and my teacher telling me how to revise. The part that I originally struggled with was being very specific with observations.

This project also helped me work on design skills, as we created a campaign about vaccines.

Another project was the Scratch Video Game. 

I am proud of this project, but looking back, I think that I could have asked for more help. I was still working on communicating with teachers back then, but I did ask my classmates for lots of help. Coding is not one of my strong suits, and it is a skill that I will continue to work on throughout my years I am sure.

 

Some strategies I have used to help me throughout the year!

Attending tutorial time: Something that I have learned to take advantage of is tutorial time. It has been extremely helpful during big projects to get the group together!

Using Things: Using the app things has been a really good way for me to keep track of my assignments, and even personal things. I wish I took advantage of it earlier.

Texting the teachers: As I mentioned, Texting the teachers on iMessage had been really helpful. I don’t hesitate anymore to ask questions!

 

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Looking back, I just started grade 8 with little knowledge about how PLP works, and new teachers and classmates. I slowly started to learn the ways, and through the year I improved on the subjects that were quite difficult at the start, like humanities! I have learned that not getting a ✅ on my first try is ok, and there is always room for improvement.

A goal that I am going to work on for next year is managing my stress levels. I am going to try to identify the source of my stress, and think if it is worth getting worked up about.

Now, looking forward! I feel like I am a confident learner, and I am excited for next year and all that it entails. I have become much more confident speaking in front of my class, and teachers. I am looking forward to doing PLP next year!

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY tPOL! 🏁

Spring Exhibition 2024 ☀️

by

WOW, this year has gone by so fast! Before I even knew it, I was headed to Oregon for the PLP yearly field study! And then before I knew it, I was prepping for my first Spring Exhibition! Time flies when you’re having fun….

How does language inspire adventure?

That was the driving question for this project. I am sure you can guess, this whole project was about advertisement, and how they affect people. There were so many steps to this project and thinking back, I can barely remember how it started! Oh wait, yes I can!

It all started with Quarry Rock!

A you know, this project was about advertisement. As a class, we hiked up to quarry rock. The task was to talk to strangers and ask them why they came to Quarry Rock. The majority of the people said that they came because of instagram, or the view. That shows how people make decisions all the time based off what everyone else is doing. When we got to the top, It was a beautiful sunny day. We were also told to take a picture to use for an ad. This is the picture that I took:

Of course, the next step was to create an advertisement! I also had to come up with a slogan for Quarry Rock. “Take on Quarry Rock for a rewarding view”

I thought that this ad was really good, but my teacher said that something was off. I didn’t think the small font was good either, so I changed it to a more simple font. I then realized that that font might look good on both texts, so I tried that.

My teacher said that this is the one! At first it looked bland to me, but I realized it might be more effective to other people looking at it.

 

Oregon 🌲🥾

I won’t talk too long about the trip because we did so much stuff! The good thing is that I made a book keeping track of every single day! I will put the book right here.

Every day we had different tasks in book creator. Each activity we did had a task to go with it. It was hard to keep up with everything, so I had to use all of my spare time.

Those are some photos from different places on the trip. I think this trip was better than I could hope for. Our class bonded so much, and I had so much fun.

 

Exhibition Time!

All of a sudden, the Spring Exhibition was looming over us! The spring exhibition project was to create an ad campaign to promote Oregon. There were categories, and each group was assigned one. Ours was Discovery and Learning. We had to create advertisements to get people to go there, but in the sense that they were going to learn and discover there. My group members were Cece, Julia, Ella, Griffin, and Marcus. As a group, we needed to decide on a consistent font, and layout for our individual ads. We decided on all of that, then I added our colour palette and font choices to Basecamp. I was in charge of adding everything to Basecamp. There were also a few other preparation things we had to do. Making merch with our slogan: “Oregon, discover your potential.” Here is the hoodie that I designed.  

Here is my individual ad:

With only less than a week until the exhibition, we needed to start mapping out hat we were going to display. We chose Fort Stevens, Tillamook Creamery, and the Yaquina Head tide pools. We thought that those demonstrated learning and discovery well. (And we had good ideas)

Stations

We decided to go into groups of two and each make a station. Me and Julia made a tide pool, complete with rocks, sea anemones, sea urchins (Big hit), and starfish. Ella and Cece made a cheese factory with a cow milking section and the steps to making cheese! Marcus and Griffin made a model cannon and explained to the people about Fort Stevens.

 

 

After making ads, scripts, tide pools, setting up and cleaning up, it was over! I think it was a big success. I felt like I really did my part and put in my hardest work, and I think that my whole group did too! I thought that I had the most fun in this project too.

So,

How does language inspire adventure?

When I see an ad for a place, I look at the photo, but in order to know where the ad is for I need context. I am not going to look around for a place that looks cool without knowing where it is, or what it entails. If there is a catchy slogan or catchphrase, I am more likely to go there than if it was “Go to Vancouver”, for example. I need to know what to do in Vancouver! Maybe, “Hikes, Beaches, Stores, Beatiful views, come experience gorgeous Vancouver!” Now that sounds way ore appealing to me. I need to hear what I can do there, how I can have fun and explore. Language is a big part in inspiring people.

THANK YOU FOR READING

This is my final post of my first year in PLP!

 

How does our Knowledge of Cell Biology Contribute to Public Health?

by

The driving question for this project was “How does our Knowledge of Cell Biology Contribute to Public Health?”

When you look at that, you immediately think about health and the body. Or at least I do! That gives a sneak peak into the project we just did. 👀

 

Pull out the Petri Dish!🧫

After learning about bacteria, it was time for our experiment! The experiment was to swab a surface and see how the growth of bacteria changes depending on the surface. My hypothesis was depending on the surface that is more public, there will be more bacterial growth. The next step was to swab the door to outside (more public), and my iPad (less public). The next step after that was to just wait for the growth to happen!

 

Field Journal 📔

I created this field journal to keep track of my hypothesis, prediction, and to keep track of the growth. In order to make a good, effective field journal, I needed to focus on a couple things! My design skills, and my observational skills. For my design I chose to do a green theme as you can probably see. I think this field journal helped me with design because I got to pick my style! In order to keep track of the growth, I needed to take very specific, up close observations. I payed attention to small things like colour, texture, size, and shape. Being very specific can be weird because I dont usually think like that. (Spot all the tiny things). Keeping a field journal was a really good way for documenting the growth.

Immune System Cell Cards

Moving on! The next thing we learned about is the immune system! Specifically the adaptive immune system. We learned about all the cells: T-cell, B-cell, Macrophage, White blood cell, and even what they protect the body from! (Pathogens). We were assigned a very fun and creative ways to show our knowledge about the adaptive immune system. We had to make character cards for each cell. I chose to theme mine about minions! I gave each cell a name, wrote their function, and I wrote a little description for each. I tried to personify each cell so it was more fun.

Those are the cards! Something that we worked on with this project was communication. I worked on communicating my knowledge in a fun way. I feel like I did a good job in the communicating aspect of this project. Overall, I really liked making these cards and I think that they were effective in helping me learn about each cell.

 

Who Don’t People Get Vaccinated? 💉 🤔

There are a lot of reasons why people choose not to get the COVID 19 vaccine. As a class, we brainstormed some reasons why people are against vaccination.

Here are some we came up with: The vaccine was too rushed, Side effects, Gives you autism, Religious reasons, and micro-chips.

Those are only some reasons. Some of the reasons seem pretty silly, but some people are actually worried about those things. It is important for people to be properly educated about these things. Especially with social media, information travels fast (if it is right or wrong). That is where science comes into place!

My partner for this assignment was Gemma. We worked pretty well together! Oh yeah, I need to say what the project was 😂. The project was to research one of the reasons people don’t want to get vaccinated. We chose “The vaccine was too rushed”. Then, we made 3 posters with clever sayings or ways to prove that statement wrong. We made a point about all the verification steps that come with verifying a vaccine. Here are our posters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So… How does our Knowledge of Cell Biology Contribute to Public Health?

It is that time of post to answer the driving question! Before doing this unit, I honestly had little knowledge about our immune system, and about how vaccines actually work. Will all the new knowledge, I know how my body deals with sickness, bacteria, and vaccines. Lots of people don’t have that knowledge. It greatly affects the way people see vaccines, and therefore a lot of those people choose not to get vaccinated. When people do not get vaccinated, they are at higher risk to getting COVID 19. That puts more people at risk. To sum it up, the more scientific knowledge you have, the healthier you will be! You will think about being sick differently. The symptoms you have are actually your immune system trying its best to fight off the virus. The immune system is powerful, and so are vaccines! Sometimes all you need is to learn more about it.

 

Reflection

I learned so much in this unit! I learned everything from how dirty surfaces are, to what people think about vaccines! I think it is important we are educated about this stuff so we can stay healthy, and help other people. I also learned more about how communication and observation are important things to think about with these topics.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project!

Thank you for reading!!😄