mPOL 2023

Hello teachers and parents, and welcome to my 2023 mPOL! This year so far, has come with many new experiences, learning challenges and team growth. Between our second adventure to Loon Lake, our Winter Exhibition, and day to day classes, the PLP 10’s have changed a lot this semester. Allow me to demonstrate what I’ve learned thus far.

“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.”

Humanities

The only PLP class I have this semester is Humanities, so I will primarily talk about what I’ve done in this class. So far, we’ve completed two projects. The first one was called “GOLD!” And was about the gold rush in BC during the early 19th century, and the people involved. The second project was “Ology of Apology” which was about events in Canadian history that where arguably unjust, why they where unjust and what the BC/Canadian governments have done to reconcile and apologies for it.

My strengths in this class would be my communication skills, or my ability to be open minded and ready to try anything. I am confident talking with all teachers and classmates to become clear about assignments and roles in a group. I am not afraid to voice my opinions, and I encourage others to do the same. I am always ready to jump into things and think up new ways to do things.

Critical and Reflective thinking

The first project we started working on this year was called GOLD! This project had to do with the gold rush in BC and who it brought to the province. We looked into the different places gold was found throughout North America, and the people who followed the gold to make a living off of it. The first part of the project included a lot of researching, which helped strengthen my Critical and Reflective thinking competency. I chose: Profile 3: I can ask questions and consider options. I can use my observations, experience, and imagination to draw conclusions and make judgments. Having to create a character based off of many different types of people strengthened the Critical and Reflective thinking competency, and pushed me to make my own decisions and research accordingly.

Positive Personal and Cultural Identity

The second event I’d like to talk about was our Loon Lake Pursuits field study. Much of this trip was team building and group trust activities, where we got to bond with our peers and teachers. This aspect of the trip we’ve done before in various other things, but our team can always be strengthened. The part of the trip that inspired me the most was leadership and self-improvement part of the workshop. This is something I know I struggle with, so I put a Profile 3: I can describe different aspects of my identity in my Learning Plan. I think my understanding of what I’m good at, and what I enjoy was really accentuated. I actually had one night where I kind of had a break down, because I couldn’t think of anything that I was good at or that I truly love doing. Understanding me is still something I struggle with, but talking with the staff there really helped me start to figure out what represents me, and what I represent.

Collaboration

The most recent thing we’ve worked on is our Ology of Apology project, which we tied into our Winter Exhibition. The project was about events in Canadian history that could be ruled as unjust. We looked at a few discriminatory, oppressive and overall unjust actions and times by the Canadian and BC government. I was working with the Chinese Head Tax, and I did a lot of research about Chinese peoples history in Canada. I’m pretty confident with collaborating with a group, so I put Profile 4: I can confidently interact and build relationships with other group members to further shared goals. Our final product was a memorial to whatever event our group was (Head Tax for us), so that involved lots of build planning and construction. Even though I’ve marked this competency quite high, I think that my teamwork and time management in group projects can always be improved. During the building part of the project is when I really noticed this competency. The group often had to split up to gather materials, assemble different parts and write up planning documents, so we needed to have good communication to stay on top of things.

What Humanities has brought me so far

At the beginning of the year, I set 3 bullet point for things I wanted to improve on:

• I would like to build on my time management and teacher communication 
• I would like to attempt to stay on top of all my assignments
• I want to know when things are due, located and have all my assignments in Things

The first one has two parts. The first part, I think I’ve done a good job working on, especially considering that I’m busier now than I was than. The second part I don’t think I’ve touched on yet, but I think is do-able in this coming term.

The second point is the root of most of my stress, as this is the first year I’ve been out of the quarter system where there’s only two classes a day. I have work from other classes as well now. I don’t think I’ve improved this much, it’s more-or-less stayed the same, but I think I can build this next semester as well.

The final point I think I’ve improved the most on. I’ve gotten a lot better at using things (with help from Mr Hughes at Loon Lake) and using multiple calendar, to do, and alarm apps in an attempt to stay on top of my work, sports and school.

Conclusion

Humanities has made me think in different ways this semester, and I look forward to PGP and Maker next term. Thank for for reading my mPOL presentation.