Grade 10 so far has been an interesting journey. From our Seattle trip and our blogging challenges at the beginning of the year, to the book trailer project and our ideal angles project, the year has been challenging and rewarding.
My favourite project I have completed so far this school year would be my Pecha kucha presentation at the exhibition. I appreciated the fact that I had the opportunity to make a presentation to a live audience outside of my classmates. I believe the skills I learned through preparing and presenting will serve me well into my future. I also appreciated learning a new presentation style and I learned first hand just how effective it is. I prepared and practiced a lot, making time in the car, at school, at home. In the end I feel it really paid off. I had a few rough parts during my actual live presentation but I managed to recover quickly and tried to make everything seem natural. I’m also proud of the fact that I used examples outside of my school life, highlighting different locations including the Museum Of Modern Art.
Most of the work that I completed this year shows once again that I am a very hands-on learner. I have said this before in previous posts and it is still evident that I learn this way through my Seattle video, posts, and pecha kucha presentation. It is evident that I remember things more clearly when I experience them in real-time, through experience, and face to face. My learning style makes PLP a good fit for me, even though it does come with its own challenges and frustrations.
One of the things I do find frustrating about PLP is writing blog posts. While I do recognize that these blog posts help me improve my writing, I find the reflection part to be a challenge. I’m not sure why, but every time I am writing a blog post and it comes time to reflect and express what I have learned, I find it difficult to find the words to explain my learning. I know that I am learning, but I find it frustrating to know how to communicate it. I hope to improve on this throughout the year and welcome any feedback on how to better communicate my learning.
In the past, I never really saw math as a great subject to incorporate projects into. I personally believe that math is best learned and graded the traditional way, which I believe is the reason there is no PLP math in grade 11. With that said, I think I have math on lock right now. With help from my tutor I feel more empowered and confident to tackle any math question. I think if I keep working hard with my tutor I can shine in math. One thing I have noticed, is my motivation to participate in projects is wavering as I struggle to connect what I am learning with my tutor with what is assigned in class. This is one aspect within math 10 that I am working to improve on.
I always feel positive and generally happy in humanities. With that said, I think that those vibes can sometimes distract me from the task at hand. I think everything in humanities has been going smoothly but one opportunity for improvement for me would be to stay 100% engaged in the topic, and to not distract anyone. I can’t really come up with any ways to try and solve this except for me to just do it. So I will be trying my best to improve on this through the rest of the year.
I have always loved maker, I think mostly because of the fact that we always do creative and unique activities. Even though maker might be my favourite class, that still doesn’t mean there is not room for improvement. For Destination Imagination this year, I am hoping to step up my game in all areas. When we looked at the charts for each person in the class, I felt really motivated to try my absolute best this year to show my teammates and classmates what I can really do.
I think the main way I am going to progress as a learner this year is by starting to write things that I learn on a regular basis. Whether it be on my notes in my phone or in a notebook with a pen, I believe that my reflections on my learning and in particular in my blog posts would be so much more meaningful if I had a record of the things I discovered or learned. This record is not only for a blog post, but to remember forever to help me better my entire life. I would very much appreciate it if my teachers could help me with this.
To conclude, I would like to say that I am thankful that I have the rest of the year to grow and improve. I do look forward to what the future has in store for me and I am delighted to go through it with my teachers and classmates. I know there are a lot of things for me to build upon and I am confident that by the end of the year I will have grown and learned a lot.