Welcome to my tPOL presentation. In this post, I will be answering the question: Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level? I will be answering this question by reflecting on my growth as a learner as well as my work ethic, work habits and areas for improvement. I will also be showing evidence of my teamwork, revision, and the production of high-quality work from my studies throughout the year.
In humanities this year, I have improved my team working skills, and I have grown incredibly as a learner. One of the most evident and useful skills I learned is Podcasting and Interviewing. At the beginning of the year, when we were first introduced to podcasting, I thought I was doomed. I had never been good at recording my voice, I sound so robotic and fake. Our first big podcasting assignment was the WW1 Podcast. I spent a long time learning and trying to perfect my podcasting skills and in the end, I created an emotional and meaningful podcast. I used all the information learned in class, such as tone of voice, music, and creating a story, to craft my final product. I think it turned out great. Though, I was far from done yet. I used my newfound knowledge, critiques, and revisions to help me create a wide variety of podcasts throughout the year, my favorite being the Helmut Podcast. This assignment tested my editing and interpretation skills, as Helmut did most of the talking instead of us. I am very proud of my final product because I was able to take the tools I had learned earlier in the year and apply them to an assignment much different than any we had done before.
Another big part of humanities this year was the Perspectives of War Website. This project challenged my researching and teamwork abilities. I had to learn how to create a website, do extensive research on a certain country, and how to work together as a team. This project was massive, and in order to succeed my team and I had to really show that we could work together. Throughout this project, I have learned how to work with my team’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as my own, to come together and create a great final product.
Another example of my growth as a learner can be seen in my Science DNA and Genetics project. At the start of the unit Mr. Gross had us make a mind map to show our existing knowledge on the topic.
I really knew nothing about this unit and I was somewhat worried to see if I would understand the concept. I started to spend a lot of my own time researching about DNA and I finally started to understand the topic. My personal research, as well as the in-class assignments, helped me understand the topic in depth, and I finally started to feel confident in my ability to understand new ideas. When the final project for the unit came around I found it very easy to complete the tasks. I could look back at all of my previous work from the unit to help me format ideas and make conclusions.
At the end of the unit, I created another mindmap to show what I have learned.
In Maker, I have continued grown closer to my classmates which means I feel more confident about participating in class and in group projects. This can be seen through DI. In DI this year while the rest of my group was away in California I took the initiative to create the whole event director. This took me a lot of planning, work, and focus to complete it before my classmates were back in a week. I also feel like I applied myself at DI because I was constantly pitching ideas to my group and working hard to complete the project.
So, why do I feel that I am ready to advance to the next grade level? I have learned a lot about myself this year. I have had some ups and downs but I have always gotten back up on my feet and worked even harder than I have before. I am grateful that I have got the opportunity to be pushed to work harder in plp and I have learned so many useful skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I think one of the most important things I learned throughout the whole of PLP is how to apply myself. Many of the projects this year have challenged me to work harder than I have ever done before, and have taught me to put my full effort into everything that I do.
For next year, I need to be more organized with my work, and I need to stop procrastinating on my homework because it gives me to much stress. To do this I need to be more disciplined, and I need to eliminate all distractions from my work area so I can stay on task.
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