Once again it is the time where I reflect on this year and figure out what goals for this year I completed, and what has room for improvement next year. I already know this reflection will be longer than the previous considering that we had two big exhibitions, and multiple projects in between. Overall this post is to celebrate the end of this year in PLP and to highlight the moments which I thought best represented the cool things we did this year.

At the beginning of this year we did something new and created a learning plan, in which we set goals for the year and how we would accomplish them in order to achieve the grades we wanted. This is a bit similar to the grade contracts we had last year, but this new learning plan really focuses on the steps required in order to achieve the desired goal and grade. I found most of the new plan helpful, especially the beginning where we set a standard for more than once aspect of our learning, for example I may have set my critical thinking to a six, which would be the highest. However I might have a different skill like communication at only a 4, and these would be set based on what I think I can accomplish and what I have done in past years. While going through this years Tpols, I will also include my goals and whether or not I accomplished them based on each project.

First off, I want to start by celebrating two pieces of work that I thought really turned out better than expected, in the way they look, and also in the ideas behind them. The first one is the Manhattan Project Project which was the focus of this years winter exhibition. I am not going to be including a lot of the process which is took to create these projects, but if you want to find out how I made each one I will leave the link to another post which focuses on them specifically. 

What I think made the Manhattan Project Project  so successful for me was to factors. First, It was my second project of the year, the politics projects being the first, and I felt I was not able to show my full strength and knowledge during that project. To make up for that I decided to create something new and completely different from anything I had done in the past, which eventually lead to me creating an polished final product which I was definitely proud of. Secondly, I was able to put most of my effort into creating a final product which would show my knowledge of our topic, and in the build up of this project that was not something I was able to do. We did a lot of research into contemporary art, which definitely open my eyes to a new style, but what I saw was not something I would replicate at an exhibition if I had the choice. I worked with the ideas of contemporary art, however I focused on the final product because I felt it was the absolute best way to show my learning and also engage and audience.

The second project which I thought best represented by standards was our latest one which was all about community Impact Makers. I was really fortunate with this project as I had just finished a completing in the MVPL league, which turns out to be the best impact of the community impact, and it connects to be in a personal way. I think the reason I am proud of this project was because I felt more attached to it than others, and I think that has to do a lot with it being based around field hockey. I put a lot of effort into not only reaching out to find more information about the league, but also I put a lot of time into the final product. I wanted to represent my community impact maker in the best possible way, so it was necessary to use as much detail when creating my final portrait. 

For this project I was able to try something new as well. I decided to draw my final product in a 1930’s cartoon style because I felt this technique allowed me to show my audience how my community impact maker is and why he has changed my sport in our community. Overall I was pleased with how both of these projects came out, and in general it seems that I put more effort in exhibition projects, but these two are definitely up there with some of my best works.

Moving onto some of the projects that left me feeling not so accomplished as my last ones. The first one is our Playlist of My Life Project . This was all about understanding poetry, more specifically understanding why we listen to the types of music that we enjoy. A lot of this project was based around first understanding how emotions play a role in deciding wha type of music we listen, and we then went into how writers use tone and mood to cater to a certain audience. Our final produce was our “playlist of my life” which was five songs which we felt best described who we are, and we backed this with evidence which we found in the lyrics of each song. That was it, project finished. For all the work we did understanding songs and song techniques this felt like a let down as a final product. Another letdown was the fact that we could not chose song that we actually listened to. It was advertised at the start of the project that we would be choosing songs based on our favourite music and we would work with them throughout the project, but of course this is a school project so there is no way we could get away with everyone personally songs as most contain material unfit for school. Overall I just felt the work put in was not represented in our final product.

The second project is the  Adversaries to Allies project. I thought learning techniques to convince and audience was actually pretty cool and a skill that could be applied outside of school, which is always helpful. However I feel like our final presentation was not the best use of these techniques. Our final project was a writing piece to our audience and its purpose was to change their minds, as our target audience, about something happening in the world that connects to them or something more focuses that involves them. I worked hard to figure out what would be the best way to approach my audience ( jr. national/ national athletes) and then created a piece which I thought was well thought out. In the end I was able to convince my teammates about the idea of targeted funding for national teams, but after that I had nothing to do but reflect on the experience. 

I think for the future it should be up to me to continue the conversation and see who else I can try and impact with my writing instead of the just stopping at the requirements.

The last bit is all about what I tried differently this year, and even though it might not seem like it, to me I tried a few different things. To start off I was in my fist film of PLP. Considering how many different films we have done in PLP this is my fist whole class project where I made an appearance in an actual final product. In our project  Macbeth . I originally had no intention whatsoever to be part of the film we are doing, that was my mindset for the last few films we have done as being on camera is one of my least favourite things. This time around it was a little different. I now see how getting a different view on the project is actually pretty cool and I feel like this skill of being able to adapt to new roles will be super crucial in upcoming years.

In addition to all this I feel it is important to talk about how other aspects of school played a part in my PLP year. This was the fist year I took part in classes like Pre Calc, Chem 11 and Physics, and of course they pose quite a challenge making this year more interesting than an other. This did mean I had to plan my work in advance and figure out what needs to be done by when. Even thought this may have been a challenging year, it really taught me how organize my work and time which I know has been a challenge in previous years, but I really think this year developed that skill better than any other. I think part of the success of this organization piece was our new Zettlecasten system. Now that I had my notes, I could select only the important parts of texts and conversations, and use that throughout multiple projects if I needed to.

One thing I regret is not getting my teachers advice more often, even though I knew early on it would help me. The reason for this is still unknown to me as well. I think the main reason was because this year I got an idea in my head after I heard instructions, and then followed that idea to the end, even though it maybe have not been what the criteria was about, and this was in other classes as well. In the future I need to not only question more, but read more carefully through my work and requirements before I start because I know that will save me time and make my projects reflect my learning and ideas better.

As mentioned in the beginning I set some learning goals and throughout the projects this year I think I developed on all of those skills, at least a little. I set high standards for skills like critical thinking, creative thinking, and communication because I know in the past those have been strong skills of mine. During projects like the spring exhibition and political parties projects I know I was able to go further, using tons of communication with peers and younger members of PLP as well. In addition I was able to push my ideas further by connecting with community members and thinking outside the box with how I presented by final products.

For skills like collaboration and personal responsibility I set goals that were slightly lower than the previous few. I only did this because I knew these were challenging for me, and setting unrealistic goals does not help me in the long run. However I know that I got better through trial and error in projects like Adversaries to Allies that I can push myself to work with others and those in my individual communities to create incredible projects.

Overall I think this year showed my that I can push my skills and ideas further by trying new things and connecting real world issues and ideas to smaller things in my own community. Being able to connect big important issues back to smaller community things really gives you an understanding of what you are studying.

That’s all for now.