Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level? 

I feel I am ready to move up to grade 11 as I have progressed greatly in my ability to complete my best work and motivate myself to learn about things that interest me.

To support the driving question, one of the best examples of my growth as a learner has been my work ethic, from the mPOL, through the 7 habits, to loon lake, and finally here at the Tpol, my work ethic and motivation has increased through methods I’ve fostered and experimented with throughout each project. Firstly, at the mPOL, I tried the 2 minute method, where I would only work for 2 minutes on a project, then end up being drawn into the work and end up getting in a good 30-60 minute work period. This didn’t exactly work as I would still end up getting distracted by other things around me. After reading the 7 habits I had a new idea. I wanted to try to use habit 6 “synergize” to my advantage. I wanted to use an accountability partner to make sure both of us get our work done. This didn’t work either as it was too easy to spiral into a conversation with your accountability partner or pretend you were doing work. Loon lake is where I really started to improve and become motivated. I tried to spark motivation by finding something interesting in what we were learning about. This still didn’t work though, as each individual has niche interests and you can’t simply find something interesting for the sake of it. From the Romeo and Juliet project, to the 7 habits, to the Loon Lake goal setting none of the assignments I completed were my best work because I wasn’t motivated to complete my best work.

Finally, here at the tPOL, I’ve succeeded in my journey to find ways to motivate myself. What works for me is finding mini topics within the big topic of our project that interest me. I showed this in our “Project Podcast” project. For my podcast, I chose a topic that I love, basketball. This topic made is much easier to research and write a script, since I was learning about something that really interests me. Through the first episode, to the most recent, I believe that each one shows my best work, and what can come out of true motivation. That’s why I believe this growth of motivation is my best example of “Personal Awareness and Responsibility” and how I reached and exceeded my learning plan targeted profile 4 for this competency.

Another example of my growth as a learner happened in the creation of my podcasts. From my first podcast episode back in March titled “Friends to Foes” up to my most recent podcast episode “the future of Canada and internationals in the NBA”. My production quality, ability to research, drive to inquire, and storytelling has improved tenfold.

Although my motivation has improved, this hasn’t been in all areas. I’m now always striving to complete my best work, and get the most out of each project learning wise, I still struggle to meet deadlines. Now that I’m working super hard on a per-assignment basis, it happens that I get too caught up in the details and overwork myself which leads to a missed deadline. A way I can work around this is order my assignments and to-do’s into a priority list. Then spend the most time on the most important assignments, and get all the work in on time.

Throughout all my projects this year, I displayed my best ability to work in a team and undertake responsibility in Destination Imagination. I organized meet ups for our team, kept the group organized at said meet ups, assigned individual tasks for each member, and overall kept the group working well together. Through all these tasks, I remained composed and we were able to work together well to create something amazing for the final presentation.

Through all that I’ve grown in my grade 10 year, I believe this has prepared me to attack grade 11 staying motivated and putting forth my best work.