MPOL 2022

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my mPOLs 2022 edition. This mPol will be slightly different from past editions due to the loss of more than half of my PLP classes. The fallen include Scimatics, Maker and PGP. That leaves us with only Humanities which is technically two classes, Socials and literary studies. Because of that unlike usual, I will be splitting humanities into two parts. Finally, I will be covering my chosen core competency.

Social Studies

So far the project we have done for social studies has not been my best. Despite that, I do think there are a few pieces of evidence that would show a glimmer of hope for my success in social studies. But before I get into that I think it’s just about time to delve into what I did over the past five months. 

Think you can do better?

The first of our three projects “Think you can do better?” Gave us the driving question “How should we govern ourselves?”. To answer that question we had to complete Three main milestones Election reflection, Statement of intent, and finally the Press release. For a more in-depth look into each of the milestones feel free to take a look at my other blog post here. Reflecting on this project now I can see lots of issues and mistakes I make. I can also see a few successes. So now the question becomes why? What leads to my shortcomings and what leads to my successes? One mistake I made during this project was focusing on the less important and slacking off when it came to the more important. For example, I spent an absurd amount of time on the video then proceed to procrastinate and sloppily create my blog post. I think there are a few things that could be attributed to this failure to deliver. First of all, is my work ethic/time blocking. This is an issue since I often procrastinate on assignments leading to them feeling rushed and incomplete. Another issue that could be attributed to my shortcoming would be burnout. This often affects blog posts because they come at the end of the project. So often when we get to them I am tired and lack the motivation to get them done. This affects me since blog posts are a vital part of my learning as a PLP student. They are also vital in showing the teachers what I learned and my progress as a learner. On the other hand, a good example of something I did well in this project was the main part, the video. I think this is a good example of success in this project since with this assignment I tried to avoid procrastination and didn’t settle for the bare minimum. Because of the aforementioned reasons the final product ended up being something I was proud of. Overall my performance in this project left something to be desired and improvements to be made.

Manhattan Project²

The “Manhattan Project²” was in was similar and different from “Think you can do better?”. Their structure was similar in that it consisted of some learning than the main task then a blog post. However unlike in “Think you can do better?” this project was displayed at our winter exhibition of learning. This meant we had more pressure to make sure our final product was the best it could be as it would be on display. Along with this added pressure we also had to do more on this project. This included reading and writing reports on the book “Hiroshima” by John Hersey. So where did I improve and where did I fall short compared to the last project? To start with the positives I feel as though I did put more effort into the project especially when it comes to the exhibition. An example of this is the video I created for my group’s room in the exhibition. This demonstrates a willingness to go above and beyond for certain aspects of a project. Sadly I wish I didn’t have to say this but this also demonstrates a negative in my work ethic. That is my constant favouritism towards things I find more fun. An example of this was my willingness to go above and beyond when it came to my video but my constant lack of effort when it came to zettlekastens. The issue with zettlekastens for me (and I would like to preface that this is not meant as an excuse) is that I frankly find them very boring. Now, this does bring up a bigger issue, my lack of motivation to put effort into things that bore me. What is a solution to this problem? A possible solution could be giving myself some form of reward for doing the work I find less entertaining. This would help build better habits which would hopefully result in better performance on assignments. Now that I have discussed zettlekastens I should discuss the elephant in the room, my final response journal or should I say the lack of my final response journal. So what happened? The most basic explanation is that I was scared it wouldn’t be good enough so I never completed it. I am aware that sounds very counterintuitive since obviously handing in nothing is worse than handing in something subpar. The solution to this is the same as my solution to creating a higher quality of work. This solution is to improve my time blocking and to work on eliminating distractions in my work environments. This is because the more time and effort I put into my work the higher quality it will be and the higher quality the more confidence I will have in it. Overall like the last project this project had examples of where I put more effort into certain aspects whereas I was lacking on others. Overall I feel I showed little improvement from the last project to this project. (You can find my blog post about this project here.)

Literary Studies

Unlike with socials we have so far only had one project in literary studies (unless you count our current project). The project we did do however showed improvement in the effort I put into the assignments. 

Sounds of Poetry

As stated in the intro this project sits in stark contrast to the past two as it is a demonstration of what I can accomplish when I put in the effort (although it is by no means perfect). The goal of this project was to create a playlist that represented us then to use the poetic techniques we had learned about to analyze those songs. Some things that could be attributed to my success in this project are fewer assignments, shorter length, starting assignments sooner than the night before. I’m sure just reading that list you can see the big contributor to my success, not doing all of my assignments the night before. The cause of this sudden shift in work ethics still puzzles me as I am not sure why it started. Now the issue becomes how can I keep it going. As always the answer comes down to better time management and lessening distractions in the workplace. On the time management side of things, it would be beneficial to set a specific amount of time to spend on each piece of homework because unlike past years grade 11 brings along a much heavier workload. For distraction, it would be beneficial to put my phone away and perhaps find some program that limits what I can do on my computer during designated work periods (although I am unsure if a program like that exists). Overall this project is a good example of improvements to my work but by no means makes up for past mistakes. (You can find my blog post about this project here.)

Core Competency 

The core competency I chose for our latest project “Sounds of Poetry” was creative thinking. I specifically chose this competency because I felt as though it was something I could accomplish and that fit well with the project. I believe that I was able to accomplish this milestone. The best evidence to support this would be the analysis of my chosen songs. Despite that, I do think there is room to improve. This is because even though I feel as though I was able to creatively analyze my chosen songs I could have gone much more in-depth into the meaning behind the lyrics. I also could have taken a more creative approach when it came to identifying the poetic techniques used in the song. Overall I feel as though I have shown a close to if not accomplished demonstration of this competency and I hope to in the future demonstrate an exceeding demonstration of this competency. 

Conclusion

Overall my performance over the past three projects has left lots to be desired. However, I do feel as though I have begun to show signs of improvement. The only thing left is to build on those skills and continue to improve.

MPOL

I know I know back again so soon with yet another MPOL don’t worry I will talk about that later. For now, I’m going to start by introducing you to the driving question of the MPOL, What is your learning goal that you want to reach by the end of this school year, and how will you meet it? My answer to the question is I want to ensure by the end of the year, I can prepare myself so that I can finish my work to the best of my ability in a reasonable amount of time. So why did I start the blog post with the driving question and an answer? I thought it would be best if I answered the driving question at the start so you could think about it as I talked about how I have already made progress in getting there and how I still need to improve If I hope to achieve my goal. For the next part of this blog post, I’m going to split it up into four sections, one for each class. In those sections, I’m going to use a specific project as an example.

Humanities is the first class I’m going to be talking about, more specifically The Revolutions Project. The basis of this project was to study multiple revolutions throughout time to better understand how they work. This assignment was daunting and took us multiple weeks to complete. What we had to do was in groups We made short videos that explained what happened during revolutions of our choice. The first revolution I’m going to be talking about is the French Revolution. The reason I’m going to be talking about the French Revolution first is that I think that it’s an excellent example of time blocking/time management. For the French Revolution, my group (Ryan, Felix, Angelo, and I) decided we were going to make an animation. Our Jobs were split up like this. I did the animation, editing and voice acting. Ryan wrote the script and voice acting Angelo did the animation and Felix hadn’t joined our group yet. At first, everything went well, and we were getting done, but then it came to the animation, and things went downhill. When it came to animation, I truly underestimated how long it takes to draw and redraw. So what ended up happening was I did a little animating over the weekend then realized I had one day left and a ton of animating to do oh and did I forget to mention I still had to edit the video. So to just cut to the chase, I ended up working till 4:30 am on it, and I have to admit I am proud of how it turned out.

So let’s break down what I did right and what I did wrong and how I could have improved. To start, I’m going to talk about what I did right. One of the biggest things I did right was probably giving myself time over the weekend before the project was due. This was good because I gave myself extra time to work on it instead of just leaving it till the last minute. One of the smaller things I did right was to try to get help from other people in my group. Now for the things that I could have improved. Remember when earlier I was talking about how I set some time over the weekend to work on my animation well, that was also one of my mistakes. Before you get confused, let me explain why you see the mistake wasn’t giving myself time over the weekend; it was underestimating how long it would take to animate, so instead of giving myself 2 hours to work, I gave myself 45 minutes to an hour. The second mistake I made was that even though I asked for help, eventually, it was too late, and it didn’t help that much. So now, let’s discuss how I could have improved. First of all, if I had just planned my time better, I probably wouldn’t have had to stay up till 4:30. But an idea even easier than that if I had just done more research, I would have realized that it would take a very long time, and I could have picked a different idea. Overall there are ways I could have made my life a lot easier for this, and I think those are some things I will have to work on in the future.

The next class I’m going to be talking about is Maker, more specifically, our running a remake project. What did we have to do for this project? We had to make a video; in this case, it was a horror short called Run! and make a copy of it except staring us. One of the biggest things we did well during this project was time management. The reason I say that is because whenever we were filming we were to the point we figured out what we had to film and we got it done wasting as little time as possible. On the other hand, we weren’t very well organized. What I mean by that is when it actually came to figuring out when our group was going to meet, we were pretty much hopeless, entirely relying on our preset meeting times in class. How I think we could have improved is by setting up better communication (preferably through basecamp) and by setting dates at the start and not by a call an hour before. Overall I think we did well, although it shows I could example of how I can improve to become a better student.

Now for Scimatics, I’m only going to be talking about a math project, but I think it works well as an example. The project I’m going to be talking about is our correlation vs causation project. What did we have to do for this project? We had to make a survey and then get as many people as possible to complete it. After doing that, we had to take our results and find examples of correlation without causation and causation. So what did I do right in this project? The biggest thing I think I did right in this project was the splitting up of work in my group. This is a big thing because a lot of the time, I struggle when it comes to doing my fair share in group projects, so even though for some people, this seems like something that’s not worth talking about for me it was a big stride in becoming a better learner. Now for what I did wrong. The biggest thing I did wrong was probably my in-class time management. Because I didn’t spend my time in class well, I ended up having to do the majority of my project at home. This fact, combined with me being a world-class procrastinator, let’s say my project ended up getting done close to the night before. Overall this is an older project, and I have improved when it comes to using class time well, but I thought this would help to show how I have improved.

The final thing I’m going to be talking about is PGP, although the project I’m going to be talking about isn’t a PGP project. Before you get confused, let me explain the project I’m going to be talking about is drum roll please my MPOL, not this MPOL, the one that took place about a week ago as of writing this. So now I answer the question you have probably been asking inside your head why back so soon with a new MPOL? The answer to that is I didn’t do my first one right. Let me explain for our MPOL; there is a sheet that gives you specific instructions on what you need to have in it; here’s a photo of that sheet.

So my big mistake was I completely forgot that sheet existed. Let’s break that down the first mistake I made was not taking notes/adding the basecamp link to my things. That is probably one of the biggest mistakes I made because if I had just done that, this never would have happened. The next big mistake I made was not checking in with my teachers because If I had of checked in with my teachers, they would have said something along the lines of did you check the MPOL handout and I would have said what handout? Then bam problem solved. So how can I make sure I avoid these issues in the future? There are some strategies that I have already been given by my teachers, for example, one strategy I am working on making a habit is when I add projects to things I drag the link to the basecamp milestone.

Another strategy I’m working on making a habit is checking in with my teachers after class to make sure I know what I’m doing. Finally, a strategy I can use is keeping the basecamp for the project open at the side of my screen so I can always look to the side of my screen and be reminded of what I have to improve. Overall there are lots of things I can work on, and I have already started. In conclusion, there are ways I still need to improve, whether it’s making sure I read the instructions right or managing my time. but I also have improved in many ways. Overall I think this past term has been an excellent term for the learning, and I credit a lot of it to my parent-teacher meeting. Now the final thing I have to say is: how I can manage my time effectively without getting distracted by outside sources.

MPOL blog post

In this blog post, I’m going to be doing something pretty different. That is because this blog post is a reflection on how I have improved and how I still need to improve.

Before I start talking about how I have improved and still need to improve I am going to do a quick recap of what has happened so far. This year we have done around 8 projects so far Including one field study.

Now for the good part of the blog how I needed to improve and how I have improved. I think I have improved the most in the past term than in any term before. That is because in the past term I was given a good insight into how I needed to improve. That insight was my parent-teacher interview where we discussed how I needed to improve. Because of that, I was able to improve on issues such as focusing, being a distraction, the quality of my blog posts, ext. I think one of the best examples of improvement was my blog posts because all you have to do to see the improvements is compare two posts one new post and one old post(here’s a good example old post new post). Another big way I have improved is by focusing in class. One of the strategies I have been using to do that was putting my phone on do not disturb and putting my phone in my backpack during class I also took all of the games off of my iPad. The final big way I have improved is being a distraction this is a really good thing because I used to not only get distracted I would go to other people and would distract them too which is probably one of the worst things you can do in class (excluding illegal things). The thing that helped me in getting better at this was the help from my teachers who when I was being a distraction they would call me out on it and I think that helped me. Overall I think I have improved a lot in when it comes to focusing and my blog post quality but I still have a lot to improve on and that’s what I’m going to be talking about in the part of this blog.

So what are the big ways I need to improve? One of the things I still need to improve is my blog posts because even though I have improved when it comes to grammar and looking over my blogs I still struggle with talking about how I demonstrated the competencies. This is important because the competencies are one of the biggest reasons we do blogs. The main reason I have been struggling with this is that I have trouble figuring out how to include the competency’s in my blog. One way I can help fix this is by asking my teacher how they think I can incorporate the competency’s into my blog posts. Another thing I can do is examine some of my peer’s blog posts to see how they incorporate competency’s into their posts. Overall I don’t think it will be too hard to show how I met the competency’s it will just take some work. The next thing that I need to improve on is revision more specifically revision on blog posts I think this is important because not only is it one of the curricular competency’s that I have an emerging but it’s a way you can improve a bad mark to a good mark and it’s not even that difficult because they give us all of the information we need to revise. My plan for working on this is to spare some time on Saturdays when I’m at the library to work on revising blog posts. The final thing that I am going to talk about is time management which is probably one of the biggest issues I need to work on it is also one of the most important issues I need to work on because not having good time management can lead to late assignments and just all around not good stuff. How I can improve my time management is by setting goals for how long I want to take on each assignment and go onto my calendar and block out when I’m going to be working on what. Overall there is a lot that I need to work on but I think if I work hard it is possible.

In conclusion in the last term, I have improved a lot but I still have a lot I can improve on including some big and some small things. Now for this blog post, we were supposed to end with a question so here’s mine how can I optimize the amount of time it takes me to finish assignments so they are to the best of my ability and I have personal time left over?

Take your kid to work day

For take your kid to work day we were given an assignment that assignment was to make a video documenting your day/ interviewing people. On take your kid to work day I ended up going to my mom’s office which I was happy about because it’s enjoyable there.

The first thing I had to do was plan my shots, who I was going to interview, and what questions I was going to ask them. This part wasn’t too hard since I had already been thinking about what questions I wanted to ask. The thing that was harder was figuring out who to interview and that mostly consisted of asking my mom who she thinks would be open to getting interviewed. The final thing was getting a list of what shots I wanted but just like questions I had been thinking about what shots, I wanted for a while so this only took like 7 minutes.

all of my planning done and it was time to actually go to my mom’s office and film. Once I got to my mom’s office I didn’t instantly start filming the first thing I had to do was double-check who I was interviewing. Once I had double-checked who I was interviewing I set up my stuff and did my interviews. After doing my interviews I went out and had lunch with the other kids who were there to take your kid to the workday. After that, I played some VR and went home.

Editing was hard because I had around an hour of footage and was only allowed to have a two-minute video but I made it work.  My biggest struggle when editing was probably the audio because for one of the interviews I had recorded the audio through an external microphone so I had to line up the audio with the video and that took a while.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed take your kid to work day and I think that this was a fun project to do. If I had to pick a highlight it would probably be talking to the Development team or playing VR.