“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.”
Hello and welcome to my Tpol. It’s that time of the year again. So we are going to dive straight into today’s topic:
Why do I feel I’m ready to advance to the next grade level?
Let’s define the meaning of being “ready”?
During the loon lake trip, we learned the definition of being ready. Being ready is a mentality of accepting risk for change. Being ready for transitions means having the ability to handle shifts in key areas of your life. But how do you “feel” ready? Feeling ready is different for everyone. You could be feeling confident, empowered or independent, but I feel nothing. I am the same person as I was yesterday and the day before yesterday. So am I really ready?
Yes! I’m ready to advance!
I’ll use three different categories of work to show that I have the ability to handle change, and demonstrate my growth as a learner.
Podcasting:
Our first podcast project of the year was the “Hidden Chapter of World War 2”. It was a Humanities project, and each of us made a podcast episode on our topics. The main focus of that project was to understand the causes and consequences of WW2. We were spending most of our time on the content of the podcast episode, rather than the product quality. That was my first take on podcasting, pretty much just reading my essay, and not professional. But now in Maker, we’ve been learning how to make entertaining podcasts that people would enjoy. I learned how to make podcast music, how to script, edit, etc. I tried to go above and beyond, instead of choosing an easy topic, such as a sport or a hobby, I chose to explain a real-life problem, to a wide range of audiences. In my current podcast series, Educating the New Generations, I’m able to explain the pros and cons of the Chinese education system informatively as well as having amazing production quality. Slowly throughout each episode, I develop my routine of podcasting. I stopped using the number document that PLP has provided, and I’m organizing everything in Pages. Including the research, sources, interview questions, and the script. I’m overall more experienced with podcasting now, I’m better at scripting, better at researching. If I could do my WW2 podcast again, the episode would be 10 times more engaging.
Exhibitions:
The winter exhibitions I had this year was amazing, but it wasn’t perfect. The memorial project was a masterpiece, my group had great teamwork, we had creative ideas and we escalated them almost perfectly. But my presentations weren’t up to my standard, I didn’t have a script, and my presentations weren’t demonstrating my full understanding of the topic I was doing. In my reflection post, I wrote that I would have some sort of script next time.
In the spring exhibition, I came prepared with everything I needed. I scanned over the craft notes I wrote and watched the interview clips before the exhibition started. I made sure to give everyone 5-minute presentations based on what impact my community changer has made, and everything I knew about him. The presentations went much smoother and combined with the portrait I did, it was an outstanding project.
Habits:
We started learning 7 habits since semester two started. We spent time studying the book, we went on a field study, and we created many interesting products. I think 7 habits isn’t just one of those school projects that you just get it over with. I learned a lot about goal setting, and how having good habits could change someone’s life. I still use my custom alarms to this day. I’ve developed some good habits this year, like taking notes with craft, active listening, and setting my priorities straight. I didn’t just develop the habits passively, I proactively learned the process of developing habits.
Learning plan reflection:
I wanted to be an accomplished student achieving at least 86% this year. I got 90% in Maker and 83% in Humanities in the midterm of semester two. I’m very close to my goal in Humanities, and exceeded my expectations in Maker. I went to tutorial sessions when I needed help or a quiet space. Overall I’ve worked really hard this year to achieve my goals, and I’m ready for the next grade level!