Hi guys, this post is all about Tpols (Transitionary Presentation Of Learning). If you remember my earlier post on Mpols, you’ll see that it was me reflecting on my learning during around the middle of the school year. This is the same thing except it’s a reflection of the year as a whole, and kinda seeing if I did the things that I said I would do during Mpols.
Humanities
I think that I could have done better with handing things in on time but I can see that I have improved since Mpols. I know after DI, I started to realize what I was doing that didn’t work, so I was defiantly trying to work on my communication. I think I can still work on this especially with the teachers so that we have a mutual understanding of where I am as a learner. The main thing that we did in Humanities was learning about the history of New France, colonization, and learning about Shakespeare’s, The Tempest. The final project for this ended up being a display of tableau’s that we used to represent events in history while using the characters from “The Tempest.”
I really liked this project because it had to do with acting and theatre which are things that I really like, I do Pantos and stuff in the winter. So I was really surprised with how nervous I was on the actual day of the performance. I’m usually ok with things like that so it seemed really out of the blue. Because of that I fumbled my lines and it was kind of embarrassing. I realize now, that it was probably because I was performing in front of people I know, rather than strangers, who I am ok with. However, this made me realize that I want to take more risks and put myself out there more. This will help me be more creative and better at speaking in front of people. I also want to have more confidence in what I say including, especially, when speaking in class.
Maker
This is the class that I had problems with handing things in on time. I do believe that the quality of the work didn’t go down but I didn’t hand things in on time which is a problem that I still need to work on. The main thing that we focussed on in Maker that I would like to mention is Blue sky, a project that we are working on for the winter exhibition. Blue sky is basically where student individually chose a problem they or someone else has and they make a product in order to fix that problem. It is a display or creativity, innovation, and invention. I really like doing Blue sky however I found that following the exact steps and handing everything in was not up my ally. For blue sky, I am making a app that basically makes people laugh. I started off by focussing on homework with teens, then it went to stress, and somehow ended up being a stress reliever using laughter. I’m not going to talk to much about this because the Exhibition hasn’t passed yet, and I still need to improve on my product.
Scimatics
Scimatics is like a sometimes ok, sometimes not ok class for me. This is because it is 2 classes in one. I am perfectly fine with math. I’d like to think that I am smart when it comes to math, and a fast learner in that aspect. I am not as great when it comes to science because it is mostly about memorization and knowing your facts. I think that science is very interesting and useful though so I am conflicted about whether or not I can say that I’m putting my best into learning. We are learning about light and how it works so we did a eyeball dissection. I really liked the eyeball dissection that we did a few days ago because I found it interesting and a hands on way to learn that makes it easier to remember things by. I am ok with gore so I started to consider whether or not I wanted to be a surgeon, and then I scraped the idea because of how much work and pressure that surgeons have especially since people lives can count on them. At any rate, since Mpols I have worked on my attention span in Scimatics and I dare say it has improved. Part of the reason for this is probably because we had so many substitutes. Not to say anything about not paying attention just because Mr.Thomas is teaching. He is a great teacher and makes material sound very interesting.
PGP
I will be honest when I say that I do not like PGP. The only reason for that though, is because it is a course that is outside the time table. For someone like me, who has horrible time management skills, and hands things late with classes from inside the timetable anyways, PGP is like a nightmare. I will tell you though, and genuinely, I like what is taught in PGP. I think that we are taught things that are lifelong skills, and are very useful. The 7 habits for example are a great example of this. They are skills, that once you learn them, they will be with you forever. Which is the main reason that PGP is a great class. When we first started learning about it though, I thought it was kind of funny how close the things taught and shown, were so close to my moms usual speech for improving yourself. Putting that aside, I want to talk about the time machine (link). I actually managed to hand this in on time and get it done. However, you can see that I only handed in the final product which makes me a little disappointed in myself. This is because in my Mpols I specifically said that I would work on handing in drafts. I remembered that I said this, and had actually wrote my lyrics out and could have handed it in… and then I noticed a spelling mistake. So I went back, fixed it… then I noticed something was off tempo. So I went back fixed it… then I noticed something else was wrong. So I was actually doing the drafting process, I just didn’t show that to the teachers and that’s what makes me disappointed. However, I was still happy with my final product, a song that I wrote;
Conclusion
I think I will defiantly still work on handing in drafts to show my growth and keeping contact with my teachers and parents. Honestly, I just need to extend the growth that I did since Mpols and continue to work on my skills that I mentioned above; Communication, Organization, and knowing when to stop. I can become very invested in things, and lose interest just as quickly.