My Midyear Presentation of Learning

The mPOL Declaration 

Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert of my own learning. This means that I am responsible, and therefore should also be held accountable, for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress to the best of my ability. we will both discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth, and so I thank you in advance for listening and offering feedback that I can use to improve as not just a student, but a learner.

Maker

I am so happy with my progress with my blog this year. Definitely the best thing that I’ve done in maker was create my learning portfolio. It is hard for me to express the innate joy I get out of having a digital representation of all my learning for the year. The fact that everyone has a blog in PLP is the things that actually made me want to go into PLP in the first place. I am proud of the fact that I have a blog.

On the other hand, one project that I didn’t particularly enjoy was the “Becoming a PLP Learner” project in maker. While the idea behind it was to help us understand who we are as learners, I didn’t feel like I gained much insight into myself. The presentation felt more like a checklist of things to do and learn rather than a meaningful start to my PLP learning journey. I struggled to see the connection between the project and my personal growth as a student.

Lots of the work I did in this project was really fun and taught me new skills, even if it didn’t really show me much about who I was.

For instance, I drew this awesome shoe, while learning about keynote!

Despite that the project was all about becoming a PLP learner, I found it challenging to truly understand how the project was helping me become a better learner. I think that the focus on learning new skills that we later needed to have kind of overshadowed the opportunity for learning who I am as a learner. 

If I could do this project again I would try to connect all of the different parts of the project back to the driving question, “Who am I as a PLP Learner?”. Overall, the project left me feeling unsatisfied as I was not able to give any sufficient answer to the driving question.

Humanities

When I think about how I’m doing in humanities this year, one thing really stood out to me. That is the Radical Innovations or How it’s Going Project that I did about the Renaissance. This is the project where I made part of the tryptic that eventually turned into a tableaux, which my group and I eventually presented at the winter exhibition. This was a project where I really did learn a lot about how to share workloads in a group project.

Another thing that I have done well with is revision, because at the start of the year when I heard that I had to revise my work, my mind immediately went to fixing mistakes, erasing errors, deleting portions of my work, and rewriting content, because that’s what I thought revision was. I thought revision was when you were told that your work wasn’t good enough, that you made mistakes, and that you had to redo it. I think the most important thing I’ve learned from PLP this year is that that is not what revision is. Revision is the ongoing process of improving, redrafting, and excelling in school. Revision isn’t a phase of a project, it is being open to improvement.

One of my first drafts of my Memoji. It is not very good, as the stickers aren’t even.

My second draft of the Memoji. Better, but I am still not satisfied with how it looks.

This is my final draft of my Memoji, and I like this a lot more. I think that it represents me a whole lot more than the first draft.

This is an example of how I can improve my work through means of revision. With each draft, I found that my Memoji represented me more and more.

The process of revising my Memoji allowed me to see how small tweaks and adjustments could make a big difference. From changing the stickers to adjusting their placement, each revision brought me closer to creating a Memoji that truly felt like an accurate representation of myself as a learner. It showed me that often, it’s the little details that can make all the difference in creating something that I can be proud of

Science

So far, the science project that I have done was called “Mind Over Matter”. In this project, I learned about the Kinetic Molecular Theory (KMT) and how atoms behave in different states of matter – solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. I created a video game as a creative and fun way to demonstrate how the states of matter behave. The driving question for the project was how to learn and demonstrate knowledge of atoms in a creative and fun way, and I believe that I answered this through my video game.

Areas I need to Improve on

I need to work on prioritizing tasks, as that has sometimes been a problem for me, resulting in not getting the work that I need to have done finished. I also could work more on some of my core competency related goals, (which I will get to later) by breaking them down into smaller, manageable steps, and creating a schedule to ensure that I can complete my goals.

The final product for the first project that I worked on in humanities, “It’s The End of the World As We Know It”, is definitely not my best piece of work. I think there are two reasons for this, the first of this being a group work. I definitely could’ve done a lot more to be a better group member. I really struggled with not getting frustrated with my fellow group members. If they were not doing the work that was assigned to them. In hindsight, I realize that me being frustrated and getting angry was definitely not productive or helpful for accomplishing the work that we had to do. Since then, I’ve worked hard to understand how I can help others get their work done, rather than getting frustrated by the fact that they aren’t.

The second reason was definitely the fact that we had to sing and create a song and music video for the final product. My first reaction to learning this was to I guess kind of dismiss parts of the project, as I didn’t see how writing a song was actually going to help me learn something. One of the things I’ve learned in PLP is that there are many different ways of conveying information and therefore learning, and they can all be useful in various ways. 

Overall, I am proud of the progress I have made this year, but I also recognize that there is always room for improvement. I need to work on my time management skills and prioritize my tasks more effectively. I need to break down my assignments into smaller, manageable steps and create a schedule to ensure that I can complete everything in a timely manner. Additionally, I need to work on being a more supportive and patient team member in group projects, and be open to different ways of learning and expressing knowledge. By making these changes, I believe I can continue to grow and improve as a student and learner

What do I need to change?

Honestly, I don’t think there is all that much that I have to change in order to meet my core competency related goals. They are pretty realistic, and I am well on my way to meeting my goals by the end if the school year.

One of my core competency goals is as follows: “This year, I will not take on too much work at once, or spend time on small details or portions of assignments that are not all that important in the grand scheme of things.” I think that I am well on my way to accomplishing this goal.

Another one of my core competency goals is to work on my listening skills, because I can be distracted by other conversations happening in the classroom. I have been working on this goal, and I am doing a lot better than I was at the start of the year.

In conclusion

What I strive to accomplish in the remainder of the year is to continue improving my time management skills, especially in terms of prioritizing tasks and breaking them down into smaller steps. I also want to work on my ability to collaborate effectively in group projects, by being more patient and understanding with my fellow group members. Additionally, I aim to further develop my skills in creating diverse forms of expression for my learning, such as through music and visual arts.

In conclusion, I am continuing to find ways to further my responsibility for my own learning. Thank you for being a part of my Midyear Presentation of Learning!