Hey, hi, and hello. Welcome back to my blog where “not all those who wander are lost” (J.R.R Tolkien). This is the final M-POL, hard to believe this is the last year of doing these Presentations of Learning. The Driving Questions for this year’s M-POL are: How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year? And how can I sharpen my learning plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of this school year?
With preparing for this M-POL I wanted to look back at my T-POL from last year to review the goals I set. They were to have outlines for all written assignments, ask for help, and build my current skill set for university. I now write detailed outlines for all my blog posts and short outlines for written assignments. I try to ask for help when needed instead of trying to figure things out on my own. I have also set a goal this to build my skill set for university. In order to creating my learning plan for the year I looked back on these goals and how I was doing so far. In my learning plan, my goal for this year was to expand on my work in the ways of not just working with my strengths on projects but also my weaknesses. Before I talk more about my learning plan and how I want alter it I want to talk a bit about some of our projects so far this year in PLP.
We have had a total of 4 PLP projects this year. Reflecting back on each of them I believe that I did well in these projects but there are two that I feel have shown my growth so far this year, our horror project and our PGP project. In my learning plan this year I talked about how I wanted to step outside my comfort zone by expanding my knowledge and working with my weaknesses. I believe that with our horror project this year I managed to take a few steps in that direction. 
I have never been one to enjoy horror movies and so I was quite nervous heading into this project. During this project we did a few things that were not within my usual comfort zone, we watched 4 horror movies, went to a horror exhibit at the MoPOP, and went to a haunted house at an old morgue. During this project I was able to get a better understanding of what the genre of horror really is. Before this project I had not been aware of the different aspects of horror and that there are so many sub genres of horror. In the end I ended up enjoying this project a lot and it taught me the great lesson that if I don’t step outside my comfort zone every once and a while I will miss out on great opportunities.
Our PGP project was to read a self-improvement book and create an artifact to exhibit to our fellow grade 12s. The book I read for this 
project was ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F*ck’ by Mark Manson. I personally feel that I could have done better at my final artifact for this project however I do feel that this was one of the projects where I learned the most. From the book I read I was exposed to so many honest points. Some of the quotes that really impacted me were:
“The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.”
“To simply blame others is only to hurt yourself.”
“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.“
After reading this book I had so many quotes written down that I had found interesting and/or inspiring. My end artifact was a way to share the quotes I took note of to my fellow peers in a fun interactive way. At the beginning of this project I thought that with reading a self-improvement books they would be the stereotypical ones that I wouldn’t have gained any takeaways from, however, this book was different as it was not in anyways like the stereotypical self-improvement book. At the end of this project I have now reacessed my values in life and realized that I shouldn’t let the little things impact me so much. Imagine you have 86400 pieces of gold and someone took 10. Would you carry on with the remaining 86390 pieces or would you risk what you have to get those 10 pieces back? There are 86400 seconds in a day, would you let someone’s 10 seconds of negativity bring down the other 86390? After reading this book I have discovered less stress in my life as I don’t let the little things effect me.
We’ve had some pretty cool projects so far this year in PLP and I believe that I truly needed these projects in order to prepare me for this M-POL. After getting back into this year and experiencing some PLP 12 projects I now know how I want to improve this year. How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year? I feel that I have grown so far this year. I feel that I have demonstrated this by being capable of expanding my learning by trying to delve deeper and gain more knowledge. I see that there is still much room to grow before this year is up. And how can I sharpen my learning plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of this school year? At the beginning of this year I broadly knew that 
I wanted to work with my weaknesses but after some thinking and reflecting I am going to expand on that goal. Moving forward I hope to expand on my work by taking time out of my day to do extra research into a topic brought up in a project in order to expand my knowledge. So far in PLP I always strived for accomplished but now I want to set higher goals for myself as I know that if I work hard enough I am capable of reaching them. Another goal of mine moving forward is to be more vocal in class. I always shy away from speaking out as I worry that my answers are incorrect. But as PLP has taught me, FAILing is your First Attempt In Learning. In order to reach these goals I want to set up some sort of system where everyday or every second day I will be vocal in class at least once and make a literature note about a topic related to our project that I have researched. I hope by the end of this year I will have learned everything I can that PLP has to offer in order to prepare for the next big step of my life. University.
Thank you for spending the time to read through such a long post. Make sure to stay tuned for more to come.
Peace✌️