The TPol Declaration:
“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am an 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 weaknesses. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”
Driving Question:
Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?
I feel amiss if I don’t mention that our year was defined by a global pandemic. Learning from home, with new responsibilities, and increased accountability catapulted my growth as a learner. Overall, I believe that succeeding in an unprecedented time prepares us all for dealing with the unknown, teaching us how to be kind, empathetic, and illustrating the most important lessons in life. This pandemic has not only prepared me for the next grade level in school but has also taught me to be a better human being.
This school year started off with the Manhattan Project^2, in many ways our “first attempt in learning”. Now I’m not using this as a F.A.I.L. acronym but more in a literal sense. I’ve always liked starting off the year strong, and although I wasn’t able to attend the field study, I worked even harder to exemplify my learning. This was one of the longest projects of the year, and it gave me time to delve into the history behind the Manhattan Project. I had one of my favourite memories of the school year while working on this project. On this particular day we had a sub, who after watching us all working silently on our iPads, seemed to become pretty bored. She sauntered over to my table and asked me about the Manhattan Project. I spent the next thirty minutes explaining to her in great detail the entire history, starting from Marie Curie and ending in the aftermath of the atomic bomb. The look on her face after I finished was priceless; it was this mixture of confusion, admiration, and regret for asking me the question in the first place.
The final milestone of this project was our Manhattan Project Book. I spent countless days researching, revising, and interviewing to create a draft that would truly exemplify my learning. One of my fears going into the creation of this book was my lack of experiential learning since I wasn’t taking part in the field study. When I asked my teachers about how I might be able to extend my learning, they gave me the idea of doing an interview. This Idea led me to interview my grandparents which gave me a human perspective on this time in history. In the end, I had created twenty-four pages of detailed, accurate, and in-depth information on the topic of the Manhattan Project. I felt extremely proud of my work and believe it is some of the highest level of work I have done at Seycove.
The next few projects introduced new leaning opportunities and competencies to be assessed. One competency that I have worked hard to improve throughout the year is literary analysis. When I write, I have always found it hard to structure my thoughts in essay form, and these assignments brought this weakness to light. Although this skill has taken multiple projects to improve, at the end of our Macbeth Project, I had finally acquired the elusive “rainbow” grade. In fact, it was the first rainbow I had received all year. In some ways, it was the most significant representation of my growth as a learner.
In our final unit this year, we delved into the topic of racism, it’s role in the conception of the United States to current day with the Black Lives Matter movement. I learned about systemic racism in our institutions, ie: education, health, judicial, banking and criminal justice systems. I found this unit to be incredibly important and relevant in today’s world.
In this unit, I created a video, a podcast and several reflections exhibiting my learning and believe these to be some of my strongest projects this year. I personally contribute this to my four years of experience in PLP and my understanding of the many different applications.
Here are some of the many amazing projects I have completed this year, I highly suggest you check them out:
Atomic Habits: // Building The App
Think and Create: The Path to The Mountain Top
Think and Create: The Great Northern Migration
TWIl Week Two: TV vs. Hollywood, a Paradigm of Macbeth?
PGP:
This year in PGP we have been focused around the book Atomic Habits, by James Clear. Atomic Habits is a self-help type book that teaches to build successful habits. If you’re interested in the book itself visit my Atomic Habits Reflection Blog Post. I found the book incredibly interesting, informative, and relatable. Every time I would reference back to the book, it would suck me in again. In PGP I feel I have shown my readiness to move on to the next grade level, in one main way. In the past years, PGP has only received a portion of my energy and dedication. I never really accepted the fact that this class had the same importance as my other classes. I have changed my opinion this year and have contributed the same effort and time to its projects. I know that this is the last year I will be taking PGP, and I am sad to see it go. It’s strange that you don’t really appreciate things until they’re gone. Although there won’t be a class, I know I will carry on the lessons I have learned throughout my life.
I thought I would end this year with a poem (Beat Poetry Unit “Cough” “Cough”)
Poem – The Point of No Return, by Luca
Going ahead I was afraid, I was afraid of what to come. I accompanied the jaunt of a traveller, although my persona did succumb.
I have tried to learned, to reminisce the days behind. It is not to go slowly into life, but to continuously rewind.
I knew this day would come, the day of altruistic realness, selflessly offering to accompany my future.
Where faces, turned sour with seriousness, joined with a suture. Where I might walk waiting patiently for ones gaze to meet my own eyes.
I wish the days of play were not all played out, I wish when mistakes were made, they’ll float up towards the sky.
For although no ravine separates my future and I, we might as well have made it to the place of no return.