“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.”

I am like my cat Seymour. Hopefully a little smarter, he definitely couldn’t tell you a basic timeline of the French Revolution but we are similar even if it doesn’t seem it from the outside. However, I see myself in him sometimes though it may not be obvious at first glance. Here is a photo for reference (of him as I write this).

 

However, Seymour and I are similar. We both have short attention spans, neither of us can ever make up our minds (though he tends to focus on being in or outdoors) and we both have trouble getting out of bed to do stuff in the middle of the day.

I have decided to outline this blog post and presentation differently, by showing my learning through the 3 pillars of the PLP program, technology, travel and project-based learning. I have also added another “pillar” I consider vital to what PLP is. It’s teamwork because almost all of our projects have been group projects and as frustrating as they have been I have demonstrated much growth in this area that I’m proud of.

 

Let’s start with the obvious one, iPads and tech. I’ve pushed myself in this sector this past year, especially with the grade 9 focus on the moving image. I’ve learned new techniques, pushed myself taken risks and made multiple short films. I’m really glad we had this focus because it’s something I never would have thought to put the time into outside of school. I had the opportunity to see so many others’ ideas of how to portray stories through the moving image and it was cool. To demonstrate my growth here is the first video I created this Video, my “at-home video” from the storytelling in the Rockies project.

Here’s my most recent film from the Frankenstuffies project

And what I think is my best film from this year was created with Kennedy and Hazel (add links) “The Note” from our Thrill Us project in Maker.

Another aspect of the tech pillar I’ve grown in is using the apps available. Since this is my second year in the program, I know which apps work for me and keep me organized. I love notability, MindNode and of course things. These apps make sure I remember that projects exist and don’t leave anything to the last minute (although sometimes it still happens). I’ve cut down on stress using these apps because I can take notes in a way that keeps me unstressed.

In science this year for example I used the notability function to record audio of class in case I missed bits of when Ms kadi was talking as I took notes. Later when I reviewed my notes I realized I missed something important but I had it on audio.
Here’s an example of my notes

And My things. Things’ pie charts for projects are really helpful they drive me to close them because they’re unsatisfying, here’s the current things section for this post.

Overall I’ve done a really good job of using my iPad in a smart way this year and I’m proud of that. I get distracted by it sometimes like anyone, but I’m good at getting myself back on track and getting work done on it using the tools available to me. (No matter the amount of internet available. This brings me to the next Pillar I will address, travel.

Travel

We started the year in Alberta (or ‘Berta as Mr Harris calls it), and though that was incredible the trip was as was our trip to Loon Lake, I want to talk about going somewhere else that demonstrated my growth first.

Earlier this year, I got the chance to visit my elementary school and talk to the grade 7 students about PLP, explaining it from a student’s perspective. As I stood there all I could think about was how far I had come. I’ve changed a lot since I first even thought about PLP and I’m so glad I picked it. Through these two years (the time since I had that presentation done to me) I’ve grown as a person since then as a result of PLP. I’m so thankful to all my teachers for giving me this opportunity to share my experience with the next generation of learners and the chance to reflect on myself as a learner.

In September as I mentioned, we went to Alberta. This trip was around a week long and it was the longest week of my life but not always in a bad way. This trip pushed my ability to focus in more… difficult environments. Travelling in a group of 30ish people is no joke, especially when it’s a group of teenagers, your bus breaks down and everyone’s tired all the time. But at the same time, we were seeing all these amazing things and it was really important to stay focused on the learning of the trip. I think my book created on this field study demonstrates how I stayed focused and managed to have a complete understanding of the actual project throughout all the chaos. On our next field study, I would like to not get involved in the drama of the trip as much (since it’s bound to happen in our class) and stay even more absorbed in the learning.

The last trip we took, and my last one to mention was our trip to loon lake. If I were to describe this trip in one word I would call it transformative. I think we all changed this week in ways we didn’t expect and in the end, it brought us closer together as a group. Before this trip, I didn’t like group work with the people in my class very often. But this trip highlighted everyone’s skills and abilities in a way I didn’t see before. It made me more open to teamwork which brings me to my honorary pillar, teamwork.

Teamwork

I decided to include this because almost every project we’ve done this year has been a group project. At the start of the year, I hated group projects. Never in a million years would I have thought that a group project would be my favourite this year.

Throughout this year I have noticed how different dynamics work in group projects and my place in them. I tend to gravitate towards leadership roles because they feel like I can control what’s happening and make sure everything will be done on time, and correctly. It’s hard for me to trust group members in school because of past experiences when team members didn’t do their part of the work. It’s a hard line to walk, or when I should just let people face their consequences or pull their weight so the group doesn’t fail.

A project this was apparent in was the metaphor machine project. I was designated as the project manager and this put a lot of stress on me, but I’m thankful I had the opportunity to be in this role as it taught me a lot about who I currently am as a leader and who I want to be. In this project, I noticed that I have a system for dealing with conflict that doesn’t necessarily serve me as well as it could.

People approach group projects differently. I like to put my head down, get a good concept stick with it and work hard until it’s done. Other people on my learning team don’t necessarily share that process and that’s hard for me to process because then I get scared nothing going to get done. The system revolves around me getting other people to learn like me and I have realized this will not work in the long run, it’s just exhausting for everyone to be around. I tend to assign roles and then follow people very closely to make sure they’re doing it. And to be fair to me I usually do this when the person in question hasn’t pulled their weight in the past. This usually ends in me sending text messages the night before deadlines seeing if people did the stuff they signed up to do, panicking, getting annoyed and sending text messages that I will somewhat regret in the morning. None of this is good.

Since nagging people and outlining what they need to do doesn’t work, in the future I am going to be taking an “it’s your problem now” attitude, while still being available for support. Every group project doesn’t have to be pushing other people and I need to let go of my need for control sometimes. As I continue this year I will focus more on this and ask for more help, as outlined in my learning plan. I think this comes from my need to succeed but if I put in the work necessary, I can still feel successful.

However, I think DI went well for me this year regarding my learning plan especially. I wrote in it that I was going to focus on being confident working with older students and I was. I contributed and enjoyed not always being the leader. I meshed well with teammates, did my work and we came together in the end if not for the whole time.

Projects

Finally projects. Projects are where I feel I can see the most growth. Let’s start with what I’m proud of. The project that was my best this year was Louis Riel. It was a project we could do on our own which let me hone in on the learning. I was very organized, using my things effectively as you can see here:

I also participated well in class, I found the material early interesting. This was also a writing project so it played to my strengths. I did well in the analyzing exercises in class with whiteboards and watching videos in class. I also wrote a successful multi-paragraph composition which I’m proud of. It made me look forward to writing essays. This project made me realize that I’m good at putting things into words after analyzing them and I can’t wait for more opportunities to grow that skill.

A project I’m not proud of was the videos I created at our Alberta field school. I was exhausted that week and I should have taken care of myself better so I could produce my work to my standard. I say my standard because I still met the proficient standard but I feel I could have done better and I wish I had pushed myself more. This is proof to me that I still have stuff to work on from my learning plan from the start of grade 8 where I said I was more confident in writing and I still have a lot to learn about with other media. though I have grown my video skills this year they can still be stronger. I want them to be at my writing standards, which is as easy as walking for me.

I’m next going to talk about Science which was successful for me this year. Isn’t the past I’ve struggled with having motivation in science as it wasn’t very fun in elementary school, leading to me having a fixed mindset of not linking her class until last year. This year however I pushed myself in Ms. Kadi’s class and created a lot of work I’m proud of, which led me to my current career plan. On my first RC, I got proficient. That wasn’t enough for Rome and I’m proud of how I pushed myself to extend in the second quarter of the year. My agency is really strong and that’s demonstrated here. I am currently extending my learning plan goals in that sector.

I demonstrated growth by making a video after being told to take risks. I chose this because as I’ve said before, videos aren’t my strong suit and I wanted to push myself. I was fully aware that that idea could fail. I also wanted to create an accessible option on that project because it felt like something I could do. I’m going to try to make my blog more accessible in the future by recording audio versions of my blog posts. This was inspired by a talk my dad did on this at a conference a couple of years ago.

This is also proof of my engagement. I pay attention to the feedback my teachers give me, it’s the only way I’m going to grow. Even if I can’t always tell what an academic risk is I’ll keep taking them.

Overall I think Grade 9 has been very successful for me so far. I applied feedback to my work and got straight “extenings” on my semester 1 report card. I worked hard for that and got the results I wanted. Even though it probably won’t happen again, it gave me the confidence to keep working hard. It proved to me that hard work pays off. I would say I am currently proficient or extending in all of the success behaviours of a PLP learner and I’m proud of that (#fillingmywaterbottlebeforeclass).

Until the next post!
Neko