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2024 TPOL

2024 TPOL

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TPOL Declaration

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.

TPOL 2024

Only a day left of grade 8! Can you believe it? 

As I look back on this year, I am amazed at how much I’ve grown not just as a learner but as a person. This year has been a drastic change in almost all aspects of my life, I have had to navigate through so many new experiences, and it is these experiences that have prepared me for grade 9. 

How can I showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP success behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?  This is the question I am basing my TPOL on. We were given a checklist to evaluate ourselves on the behaviours we show consistently, sometimes, and rarely, here are my answers:

I have chosen three success behaviours to focus on: agency, communication and collaboration, and self-regulation

Agency

First, I want to highlight my success in accepting feedback and making revisions. Revision is something that was a very big shock and struggle for me at the beginning of the year. My whole school career I have required everything I do to be perfect. Because of this I often hyper fixate on projects and work long and hard on them to make them perfect. 

The first project I ever did in PLP was the ‘It’s the End of the World’ project where we had to rewrite the song It’s the End of The Word as we Know it in a way that displays our worldview. I worked long nights in making my song perfect. After doing this I was introduced to PLP’s Idea of how everything can be revised. After working so hard to make a ‘flawless’ song I was asked  to change it. My immediate reaction was “NO!” I remember sitting on the table at home just staring at my song, my brain refusing to revise.

During my most recent project ‘The Wilderness Must be Explored’ I created an advertisement that I handed in. I later got feedback on how I could improve and revise my ad. Unlike the beginning of the year I fixed it up without struggle.

This is an example of how much PLP has helped me with my perfectionism, which is a ongoing struggle I have always faced.

 

Communication and Collaboration with Peers

Because of the many group projects in PLP, I have had to communicate and collaborate a lot this year, which has made me very aware on how much I have to work on it. 

I am a good group member when it comes to actively participating and doing work, however sometimes I participate to much. My perfectionism causes me to have a hard time trusting other people with creating work that is up to my standards which leads me to end up doing all of the work.

Here is the participation pie I created after the ‘It’s the End of the World’ project:

Although my communication and collaboration skills have grown over this past year, this is still a skill I continue to struggle with and I would like to focus on it as something to improve in grade 9.

Self-Regulation

Self regulation is something I have been struggling a lot with this year. I am a very busy person and have several commitments out of school, because of this I often find it hard to balance school and sports which leads me to often be very stressed. My stress is also an out come of my time management skills, I don’t have a hard time staying on task during school. However when I am trying to get work done at home, staying focused is hard. 

A project where I really struggled with self-regulation was the Echoes of colonization project. During this project I was in the middle of the high school mountain bike team and was frequently missing class. This lead to a lot of homework as well as a lot of procrastinating.

I am not very proud of this project, I was very rushed in doing it, and not a very present group member. 

In the future, when I miss school or have homework, I am going to have set times to do the work. This could be in the car to a mountain bike race, or just a time at home where my phone or any distractions are away.

Goals For Grade 9

This year has taught me so much about who I am as a learner and as a person. Moving onto grade 9 I want to continue to work on improving my perfectionism, I will do this by focusing on getting the work done, and then making it better or revising it after. As I continue to work on my perfectionism, I believe my teamwork skills will improve. However, I still want to work on my teamwork by going out of my comfort zone and trusting my peers. 

How am I Prepared For Grade 9

This year I have improved as a learner. I have made goals and strived to meet them. Although I have overcome so many challenges this year, I still have work to do. Having reflected on my year as well as created goals and how i am going to reach them, I have prepared myself for all of the challenges I will face in grade 9. I have a game plan and wont stop until I have become the best learner I can be.

DI-ing to Get it Done Pt. 2 (Destination Imagination Provincials)

DI-ing to Get it Done Pt. 2 (Destination Imagination Provincials)

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Skiing in the arctic, falling through a tree well, an underground society, a spirit from the past, an old engraved vase, a finding that changed the world, ARE YOU GETTING DEJA-VU?! This was my Saturday afternoon yet again! However, this time the stakes were higher because we were presenting in the provincials tournament.

What is Destination Imagination

Destination Imagination (DI) is a global academic competition. Teams of all ages develop solutions to challenges and present them live at tournaments.

To learn more about DI and my challenge read my post I did about regionals here: 

DESTINATION IMAGINATION REGIONALS

 

My Challenge

My Solution

“Luke! Didn’t take you all the way to the arctic just for you to sit and do your little science hobby! Be a real man and come skiing with me” This was the sentence that led to Luke’s great adventure. 

A nerdy boy named Luke goes on a ski trip with his father who doesn’t accept his love for science. While skiing Luke falls through a tree well into a preserved underground city. While exploring, a beautifully engraved vase catches his eye and a spirt from the past floats out of it  to tell him the rich history of the new world Luke has discovered. While trying to leave he hits his head and wakes up outside thinking it was all a dream until he sees the beautiful vase in his hand. Him and his scientist mentor research the vase using relative dating and they find out about the societies matriarchy and how they treated people of all genders equally. This new found information gave woman all over the world motivation that they can do something great, and taught Luke that he didn’t need his dads acceptance for him to feel complete because he has so many other people who fill that void.

What we Improved

Last month, we presented our solution at the regionals tournament, and after that, we acknowledged our FAILs and we made some changes for provincials. During regionals, we noticed that in our solution, there was some parts of it where you couldn’t tell where Luke was or what he was doing.  We solved this problem by adding a tree that we created with a branch, held up with a Christmas tree holder, with a sign that said ‘caution tree well’.  Also,
during regionals we had no way to stand up our puppet, so it was very hard to manoeuvre, we fixed this problem by adding straps to the back of the puppet so we could wear it like a backpack.

FAILs (First Attempts in Learning)

Nothing anybody ever does is perfect, and although provincials was our second more improved time presenting, there was still a few things that didn’t go so well. The stress of the competition got to my teammates and I, which caused a few of us to forget our lines. This occurrence was very disappointing in the moment, however, after watching the video back, it didn’t look sound like as big of a deal as I thought it was.

This taught me about perspective, the performance may have looked not very good in my eyes, but to people watching it, who don’t know the whole story, it looked fine.

What we Could Improve

If I were to do this project again, I would quadruple check that everybody, including me, knew our lines so well that we could do it in our sleep. We all did a very good job at memorizing our lines, yet we still messed up a few parts. I think that if we all were even more confident with our lines, when the stress got to us, saying them would be our reaction to the stress rather than forgetting them.

What Went Well

Although some of us forgot our lines, I think that our presentation went much better than regionals. We were much more confident which made the story so much more effective. Also, we were much more organized back stage, we all knew when and where to move the props around which made it look seamless. 

What I Enjoyed

During this project I really enjoyed creating somthing I am proud of, showing it to the public, and winning somthing for all of my hard work. This project was so rewarding, and really fun once I had a good understanding of the assignment.

Strategies That Helped

How might we employ strategies to solve a challenge? This was the driving question I aimed to answer while doing DI. I learned so many and used so many strategies while doing DI, here are a few that really stood out.

Teamwork Strategies

Some strategies DI taught me that really helped with my teamwork was to communicate. At the beginning of the project we had a lot of problems with teamwork, after noticing these struggles we decided to have a team meeting about our teamwork. We started to give each other jobs, set strict rules and deadlines, and play off of each others strengths, and this help our group work immensely.

Acting Strategies

Another strategy that really helped me and my team out was to be super hyper and outgoing as possible when acting. This helps to make the presentation look a whole lot better and more dramatic. 

Procrastinating Strategies

When doing any project it is very easy to procrastinate, and this is something my group and I struggled with a lot. A strategy that helped us get stuff done is assigning each other jobs that play off of our strengths, this helps us get stuff done quicker and have more fun while doing it.

What I Learned 

Destination Imagination has come to an end, through this project I learned so much, I learned how to communicate with my group when I have an issue. I learned lots of different archeology terms and ways scientists study ancient artifacts. I learned lots of problem solving skills and critical thinking skills when I had to revise props and the script, and work through issues. I also learned a lot about acting, and much much more. 

Thanks for following along on my Destination Imagination journey, to hear more perspectives on this project, visit my group members blogs:

Aiden’s Blog

Chloe’s Blog

Elsa’s Blog

Finnley’s Blog

Mid Term Reflections (MPOL)

Mid Term Reflections (MPOL)

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My whole life, school has been relatively easy for me, follow the criteria, add a little extra pizzazz, and boom I had myself an an extending. When I stepped into my first PLP class 7 months ago I quickly realized that was not going to be the case. PLP has forced me to fully adapt the way I learn, and I fully believe I have grown as a student because of it. 

Statement of Learning

“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.”

Things I Struggled With This Term

Perfectionism 

My whole school career I have required everything I do to be perfect, my projects have to be perfect, my art has to be perfect, my grades have to be perfect. There is a lot of ways PLP has tested my perfectionism.

 First of all, none of the work we do is like elementary, rather than filling in blanks and answering specific questions on a worksheet, we do projects that force us to create our own questions.  This has really challenged my perfectionism because I no longer receive a “yes this is correct” instead I get “do you feel like this is correct?” There is no perfect answer!

 PLP has told me that nothing is perfect, because there is always room for improvement and revision. 

Also, I have found that we are often thrown projects last minute, this has been a very big struggle because now I don’t even have a choice to go as above and beyond as possible because i simply do not have enough time. 

From the very beginning of this year, this has been my main struggle. It is hard to go from easy work, perfect grades, and praise from my teachers to struggling to do the bare minimum. 

At the beginning of the year when I wrote my learning guide, I set a goal to put aside my perfectionism and focus on getting the job done. I do not believe I have met this goal yet,

In my most recent project, Mind Over Matter I really struggled with my perfectionism. We were assigned with creating a video game on scratch that demonstrated our knowlage of an atom. During the most of this project the only thing I was focusing on was the visuals of my game, as well as how many levels there were. I spent so much time on making the game perfect, that when It came down to the last few days I hardly had enough time to add the science into it. 

If I were to do this project again, I would create the game and the science first and then once I am done, if I have time, go in and add the final touches.

Teamwork

Another thing PLP has really tested, is my teamwork abilities. Teamwork is something I have always struggled with, I have a hard time trusting other people and often end up doing all of the work. This worked for me in elementary, but coming into high school, the workload is just way to much to do everything.

 

The teamwork in my first project in PLP, the It’s The End of The World project went horrible. We didn’t communicate well, there was hardly any work ethic, I was trying to make it perfect and the whole thing ended up falling into my hands.

 

After that, I made a goal on my learning guide to put more trust in my peers, know that I don’t have to do all of the work in group projects, and to not be the leader/director in every project. As I moved through the year I have done more and more group projects It has been my biggest ambition to improve. 

My most recent group project I have done is Destination Imagination I have worked so so hard to have successful and even group work and I do believe I have improved. 

It is obviously not even close to being perfect, at the beginning of the project we have struggled with people not doing their work and doing to much, and I still feel like I am the leader/director.

However, after noticing these struggles we decided to have a team meeting about our teamwork. We started to give each other jobs, set strict rules and deadlines, and play off of each others strengths, and this help our group work immensely.

Going forwards in the year, my goal is to go beyond my comfort level and trust my my peers, and continue communicate when I have a problem.

A Project I Didn’t Enjoy

A project I didn’t enjoy this term was Power Play And How it Started. This project was a long process full of many assignments that lead up to the final project of turing myself into medieval art that displayed the medieval worldview. I am not a big fan of learning about this kind of history and I think that was a big part in why I didn’t enjoy this project. Also, we learned a lot of our information through The Book of The Lion, which I really didn’t like because it was very hard to follow.

Despite not liking this project, it taught me a lot about who I am as a learner. I learned that the way in which I learn information has to be something I enjoy in order for me to be engaged and learn somthing.

A Project I Enjoyed 

My favourite project I have done so far is the Bon Voyage project. This project was full of all my favourite things, writing, indigenous history, and storytelling. For this assignment we were assigned with creating a story about the cause and consequence of European exploration and put it into an app called AR Makr all following the driving question, How can we use storytelling to investigate what sparked global exploration and understand its impact?

Through this project I learned new tech skills, critical thinking, and a lot about European exploration and the causes and consequences of it. I learned new tech skills while using AR Makr. I used critical thinking when I had to solve problems and learn the app. Also,  I learned so much about exploration, why it happened, and what it lead to. 

Goals

My goals for the rest of the year is to go through a group project and not do everything and control everyone. I am going to do this by going beyond my comfort level and trusting my peers and communicating my issues when I have a problem. Also, I want to start putting aside  my perfectionism, I am going to do this by focusing on completing the task at hand first, and then (if I have time) going in after and making it better.

DI-ing to Get it Done (Destination Imagination Regionals)

DI-ing to Get it Done (Destination Imagination Regionals)

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Skiing in the arctic, falling through a tree well, an underground society, a spirit from the past, an old engraved vase, a finding that changed the world, these were just some of the things I did on my Saturday afternoon. 

Why was I on this crazy adventure you ask? I preformed all of these things as a part of my solution for Destination Imagination at the regionals tournament.

What is Destination Imagination?

Destination Imagination (DI) is a global academic competition. Teams of all ages develop solutions to challenges and present them live at tournaments. This year we had a choice of 4 challenges, technical, fine arts, engineering, and scientific (my challenge).

My Challenge (Scientific) 

My Solution 

“Luke! Didn’t take you all the way to the arctic just for you to sit and do your little science hobby! Be a real man and come skiing with me” This was the sentence that led to Luke’s great adventure. 

A nerdy boy named Luke goes on a ski trip with his father who doesn’t accept his love for science. While skiing Luke falls through a tree well into a preserved underground city. While exploring, a beautifully engraved vase catches his eye and a spirt from the past floats out of it  to tell him the rich history of the new world Luke has discovered. While trying to leave he hits his head and wakes up outside thinking it was all a dream until he sees the beautiful vase in his hand. Him and his scientist mentor research the vase using relative dating and they find out about the societies matriarchy and how they treated people of all genders equally. This new found information gave woman all over the world motivation that they can do something great, and taught Luke that he didn’t need his dads acceptance for him to feel complete because he has so many other people who fill that void.

 

The video

The Puppet

Our spirit from the past was a princess in soobrooktooth, she was awakened from her vase in which she was trapped in up until Luke found it. Our puppet is manipulated using the traditional rod and arm puppet style, its arm is made from wooden dowels with nails drilled in and string tied in between them to move.  It uses structural engineering to function.

The Artifact

Our ancient embellished vase was discovered in an underground abandoned city in the arctic. We made it out of chicken wire, paper mache and then we finished it off by painting it with a layer of sparkly silver paint.

The Archeological Investigation 

We use relative dating when trying to find out the approxamet  age of our artifact. We used style which is a type of relative dating that studies the different techniques used to create the artifact and compares it to other artifacts and determines if it is older or younger. 

The Day

When the day rolled around i was more stressed than i ever thought i could be. We all met up in the morning, did a few dress rehearsals and then it was our turn. My main stress going into this day was the timing of our presentation. It had to be maximum 8 minutes, but every dress rehearsal we did was largely exceeding that time limit. However, it all worked out in the end when we presented with hardly any mistakes and an almost perfect time. 

What Went Well

I am very proud of the end presentation, our team had very well done props, we worked very hard on them, they didn’t break and they looked exactly how I envisioned them. We were also very well prepared, none of us messed up our lines, we all knew where to be, what to say, and when to say it. 

Fails (First Attempts in Learning)

Nothing anyone has ever done is perfect, there is always somthing to revise and work on. In our solution,  there was some parts of it where you couldn’t tell where Luke was or what he was doing.  Also, we had no way to stand up our puppet, so it was very hard to manoeuvre.

What Did I Learn 

Through this journey I learned a lot about teamwork, collaboration with peers, science, and critical thinking. One thing our team lacked at the beginning of the project was teamwork, we had struggles with all doing an equal amount of work and doing our parts. However, we worked through these struggles, we learned how to communicate our troubles and came through with valuable teamwork skills. Another thing I learned about was science, going into this project i had no knowledge of archeology whatsoever. Destination Imagination compelled me to research about different archeological investigations which made me come through this with lots of new science knowledge. Lastly, I gained lots of new skills in critical thinking, we had problems with the script being too long, the props breaking, the backdrops not hanging, etc, but we worked through all of them. I learned how to problem solve and revise things that needed a second draft.

Destination imagination was made so much better having the team I had, Check out their blogs:

Elsa- https://www.blog44.ca/elsaw/

Aiden- https://www.blog44.ca/kieral/

Chloe- https://www.blog44.ca/chloer/

Finnley- https://www.blog44.ca/finnleyl/

Look out for more blog posts in April as we go into the Provincial Tournament. Thankyou for reading!

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