This School year for me has been a big one, but not just because of PLP. Throughout the year I have had to manage my dance schedule, choir performances and practices, school trips such as Hanford and Spain, and volunteering and work opportunities.

Above all of that, grade 11 classes are known and have proven to be the toughest to get through.

Even though it has been a chaotic year, I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished.

I decided for my Tpol instead of going through my best and worst work, I would use the story spine we continuously keep coming back to, to demonstrate my year.

The Beginning

The year started off like any other, every student was fresh and eager to be back after a long two months of sunny days by the beach. Although this year already felt different then any other being that our grade 11 PLP class had shrunk down 1 size and we now had regular science and math classes with the other students in our school. I only joined PLP last year, so for me it wasn’t a new skill to have to manage assignments and tests scattered and sometimes stacked on one day from multiple teachers but for the rest of the class, (other than Izzy), this was going to take some getting used to.

The Event

As per usual we got right to work starting off with a Bomb Drop Newsreel video project that some excelled at and others such as myself gave loads of room to grow for this year. What we didn’t realize at the time is that this was all leading up to the big event our Hanford project. We had about a month to prepare for our History in 5 video projects that we would film on our mini exploration to the atomic bomb Hanford site. This project taught me so much about going above and beyond to prepare yourself therefore you can get the most out of your experiences.

Middle

At this point in the year I didn’t have any projects that were my best work so I was determined to make the winter exhibition something great. Our exhibition did turn out to be one of my favourite projects I have done in PLP. The exhibition was a class project where we created an interactive experience for our audience. This project captured what I love about projects in PLP. We had a lot of freedom to express our knowledge, we were able to work as a team, and it used a huge variety of skills from writing to building.

 

With the exhibition done we had a brief moment of celebration for all the work we did before moving on to our next task. This task took a lot of careful thought to be able to execute it really well. The project we had to create was about the Civil Rights Movement. Because this topic was so huge and had many layers we had to really narrow down our topic. My partner for this project was Parker. We both had so many ideas of what we could do because we were exited about learning about such an important topic. We were able to implement our love of music into the project as the influence of freedom songs had a huge impact. Even though I was really passionate about the project I learned that partner projects are really hard for me because I often have contrasting ideas with the other person and get stressed not having control of meeting deadlines.

The Climax

By this time in the story I have been able to balance all of which I talked about at the beginning of the journey. My grades aren’t as high as I would like, I haven’t been able to find much free time but I was still going strong. It was after spring break that this all was going to change. These last three months of school is truly what makes or breaks you and these past three weeks has felt like the great battle that seems to never end. With countless tests and a new job it’s been hard to find enough time to focus on my exhibition. I’ve come to far to create something I felt was mediocre for my conceptual art project so as it comes to the final week I’m needing all the time management skills I can get.

Resolution

The final performances for dance and choir have come and gone the grade 12s have graduated but somehow there’s still a lot to complete before I’m able to put this past school year behind me. Once it truly does come to an end I will take what I learned this year about teamwork, dedication, and time management into the following years. Even though this story of how I got through my Grade 11 year of high school has come to a conclusion this is not the end for me yet. For now I’m going to enjoy my summer and prepare myself the best I can for truly the end of a great chapter in my life.