MPOL

I know I know back again so soon with yet another MPOL don’t worry I will talk about that later. For now, I’m going to start by introducing you to the driving question of the MPOL, What is your learning goal that you want to reach by the end of this school year, and how will you meet it? My answer to the question is I want to ensure by the end of the year, I can prepare myself so that I can finish my work to the best of my ability in a reasonable amount of time. So why did I start the blog post with the driving question and an answer? I thought it would be best if I answered the driving question at the start so you could think about it as I talked about how I have already made progress in getting there and how I still need to improve If I hope to achieve my goal. For the next part of this blog post, I’m going to split it up into four sections, one for each class. In those sections, I’m going to use a specific project as an example.

Humanities is the first class I’m going to be talking about, more specifically The Revolutions Project. The basis of this project was to study multiple revolutions throughout time to better understand how they work. This assignment was daunting and took us multiple weeks to complete. What we had to do was in groups We made short videos that explained what happened during revolutions of our choice. The first revolution I’m going to be talking about is the French Revolution. The reason I’m going to be talking about the French Revolution first is that I think that it’s an excellent example of time blocking/time management. For the French Revolution, my group (Ryan, Felix, Angelo, and I) decided we were going to make an animation. Our Jobs were split up like this. I did the animation, editing and voice acting. Ryan wrote the script and voice acting Angelo did the animation and Felix hadn’t joined our group yet. At first, everything went well, and we were getting done, but then it came to the animation, and things went downhill. When it came to animation, I truly underestimated how long it takes to draw and redraw. So what ended up happening was I did a little animating over the weekend then realized I had one day left and a ton of animating to do oh and did I forget to mention I still had to edit the video. So to just cut to the chase, I ended up working till 4:30 am on it, and I have to admit I am proud of how it turned out.

So let’s break down what I did right and what I did wrong and how I could have improved. To start, I’m going to talk about what I did right. One of the biggest things I did right was probably giving myself time over the weekend before the project was due. This was good because I gave myself extra time to work on it instead of just leaving it till the last minute. One of the smaller things I did right was to try to get help from other people in my group. Now for the things that I could have improved. Remember when earlier I was talking about how I set some time over the weekend to work on my animation well, that was also one of my mistakes. Before you get confused, let me explain why you see the mistake wasn’t giving myself time over the weekend; it was underestimating how long it would take to animate, so instead of giving myself 2 hours to work, I gave myself 45 minutes to an hour. The second mistake I made was that even though I asked for help, eventually, it was too late, and it didn’t help that much. So now, let’s discuss how I could have improved. First of all, if I had just planned my time better, I probably wouldn’t have had to stay up till 4:30. But an idea even easier than that if I had just done more research, I would have realized that it would take a very long time, and I could have picked a different idea. Overall there are ways I could have made my life a lot easier for this, and I think those are some things I will have to work on in the future.

The next class I’m going to be talking about is Maker, more specifically, our running a remake project. What did we have to do for this project? We had to make a video; in this case, it was a horror short called Run! and make a copy of it except staring us. One of the biggest things we did well during this project was time management. The reason I say that is because whenever we were filming we were to the point we figured out what we had to film and we got it done wasting as little time as possible. On the other hand, we weren’t very well organized. What I mean by that is when it actually came to figuring out when our group was going to meet, we were pretty much hopeless, entirely relying on our preset meeting times in class. How I think we could have improved is by setting up better communication (preferably through basecamp) and by setting dates at the start and not by a call an hour before. Overall I think we did well, although it shows I could example of how I can improve to become a better student.

Now for Scimatics, I’m only going to be talking about a math project, but I think it works well as an example. The project I’m going to be talking about is our correlation vs causation project. What did we have to do for this project? We had to make a survey and then get as many people as possible to complete it. After doing that, we had to take our results and find examples of correlation without causation and causation. So what did I do right in this project? The biggest thing I think I did right in this project was the splitting up of work in my group. This is a big thing because a lot of the time, I struggle when it comes to doing my fair share in group projects, so even though for some people, this seems like something that’s not worth talking about for me it was a big stride in becoming a better learner. Now for what I did wrong. The biggest thing I did wrong was probably my in-class time management. Because I didn’t spend my time in class well, I ended up having to do the majority of my project at home. This fact, combined with me being a world-class procrastinator, let’s say my project ended up getting done close to the night before. Overall this is an older project, and I have improved when it comes to using class time well, but I thought this would help to show how I have improved.

The final thing I’m going to be talking about is PGP, although the project I’m going to be talking about isn’t a PGP project. Before you get confused, let me explain the project I’m going to be talking about is drum roll please my MPOL, not this MPOL, the one that took place about a week ago as of writing this. So now I answer the question you have probably been asking inside your head why back so soon with a new MPOL? The answer to that is I didn’t do my first one right. Let me explain for our MPOL; there is a sheet that gives you specific instructions on what you need to have in it; here’s a photo of that sheet.

So my big mistake was I completely forgot that sheet existed. Let’s break that down the first mistake I made was not taking notes/adding the basecamp link to my things. That is probably one of the biggest mistakes I made because if I had just done that, this never would have happened. The next big mistake I made was not checking in with my teachers because If I had of checked in with my teachers, they would have said something along the lines of did you check the MPOL handout and I would have said what handout? Then bam problem solved. So how can I make sure I avoid these issues in the future? There are some strategies that I have already been given by my teachers, for example, one strategy I am working on making a habit is when I add projects to things I drag the link to the basecamp milestone.

Another strategy I’m working on making a habit is checking in with my teachers after class to make sure I know what I’m doing. Finally, a strategy I can use is keeping the basecamp for the project open at the side of my screen so I can always look to the side of my screen and be reminded of what I have to improve. Overall there are lots of things I can work on, and I have already started. In conclusion, there are ways I still need to improve, whether it’s making sure I read the instructions right or managing my time. but I also have improved in many ways. Overall I think this past term has been an excellent term for the learning, and I credit a lot of it to my parent-teacher meeting. Now the final thing I have to say is: how I can manage my time effectively without getting distracted by outside sources.