My first year at Seycove is starting to come to an end. Its weird because in some ways I feel that this time has been so short, but I also feel like I have known all my class mates, peers and PLP teachers for much longer than I really have. This could be because of the Alberta field study which forced me to quickly make new friends or the supportive environment that Seycove has in general. Regardless I feel like a I have become a part of PLP. Summer break will be great but I think before the year officially comes to a close I need to reflect on the immense learning journey that I have been apart of. Lucky for me, PLP already forces students to do this in the form of Tpols. So with all that said, let the Tpol begin. 

My understanding of the topics that we learn in the four PLP classes has grown. In humanities I have learned all about Canadian history and I feel like I understand my country’s identity better. In maker, I have learned so much about using my iPad to film and edit videos, make movies and design inventions. In scimatics, I have learned so many mathematical skills and most of all lots of science (which I find particularly challenging) from polynomials to cell reproduction. And PGP has taught me about many of the skills I need to practice to create a better version of myself. But along with this I have also learned how to stay on task, represent ideas in ways that can engage an audience, learn from my mistakes, revise my work, be responsible and work collaboratively. But I think you teachers are probably looking for some proof of all these thing I’m claiming so here’s some examples and some more detail.

The first skill I want to talk about is working as a team. Almost all of PLP is about teamwork which makes giving a specific example of my growth difficult… that is until I remembered the humanities project “revolutions through the ages”. This project broke my teamwork skills apart and then forced me to build them back up. We were put into small groups and tasked to make videos about the French, Russian and American revolutions (we also learned about the industrial revolution) and then make one final video on a revolution of our choice. This seemed like any other PLP project until I saw what the deadlines were. With so few classes to work in, our teamwork and communication throughout our teams had to be flawless. And most groups learned the hard way that they were not flawless team workers. My groups first video was embarrassing. Luckily ms Maxwell didn’t just give up on us though. We worked together to develop systems that helped us work as a team, split up tasks and assign jobs. We kept improving these skills until we created a final video that made us proud. This project is really what kicked of my teamwork growth for this year. But it didn’t stop there. The winter exhibition was the next test for my teamwork skills. I had to learn how to work as a Team on a much bigger scale and with different grade levels. Once again my group and I were challenged but we persevered. This time I already had decent teamwork skills so we really excelled and created such a cool exhibition. Finally DI came along. This was so stressful especially with covid 19 getting in the way. We had to use in person teamwork skills and work as a team online in order to complete the project which was another curve ball. But thanks to all these challenges my ability to work with class mates without wanting to strangle each other has amazed me.

Revising my work is another skill I am proud of at the end of this year. At my past schools usually we would get feedback from our teachers and one chance to revise it. PLP doesn’t work that way. In most projects we get to bounce ideas of our peers, receive feedback, and repeat the process. Then we hand our work into showbie, and receive feedback from our teachers. This cycle repeats and can go on as long as I want until I have something to hand in that I’m proud of and that impress my teachers. The key part of this is knowing how to understand and then Implement that feedback. The first example of my experiments with revising my work I think was for my Alberta field study blog post ( the one for PGP ). I wasn’t sure what to write for this blog post so I wrote out a first draft. I then reached out to my more experienced classmates. They gave me advice and I updated my post to better fit the criteria. It still wasn’t where it should have been because ms Willemse gave me plenty of feedback. I went back and revised it as soon as I could. My revision skills have also improved throughout many other subjects. Ins climatic for an example we were designing a Rube Goldberg machine to represent the scientific method. My group did lots of revisions to our design but another type. This type of revision was self revision. Being able to try something see it’s mistakes and make it better. This skill is especially important and can be applied to almost anything in life. I am happy to say that my revision skills are much improved and I am exited to see where I can use them in the future.

Responsibility is not so much a skill as it is a mindset. What I mean by this is being responsible is something that is always being applied not something that is needed for certain things. Wether it’s risk vs reward assessment, staying on task, keeping up with school, or just doing the right thing. Covid 19 has really tested my responsibility. Normally in school it’s hard not to be on task without a teacher there to get you back on task. But when I’m working from home there no teacher telling me, no video games, do your work, don’t watch Netflix and so on. At the start of covid and for most of it I haven’t been very responsible. I fell slowly behind in work, spent to much time doing pointless things and didn’t feel very motivated to excel. Especially when all my friends seemed to be doing the same things. But in the last few weeks, ever since my PMBIA course which set me even further behind,I have really tried hard to be more responsible. I am trying to be responsible for staying on task, not procrastinating and catching back up on school. I have handed in tons of work. For an example just today, I completed two big scimatics milestones, attended 2 zoom meetings and of course wrote this Tpol. So I know I still have more work to catch up on and still need to work on being more responsible, but I want you as teachers to know that I am trying hard and I hope you have noticed I am becoming a more responsible young adult. 

One of the biggest things I mentioned in my Mpol was how I struggled with my work ethic and work habits. I mentioned that I tended to procrastinate until the night or even morning that something was do. I improved my work ethics and habits a ton before spring break. I think that the evidence of this is best seen in the scimatics project “metaphor machines” if you look in my showbie you would see that almost every thing is handed in on time. I really focused on getting work done before it was due and organizing it using things. I would also give the “let’s get Riel” project as an example of me not procrastinating but I missed the start of the project so my showbie isn’t very full. Once again though covid set me back. Once spring break ended I was good at staying on top of work at first. My mom had set up a good schedule which I followed. But after some weeks went by I began to not feel motivated to not procrastinate. My grades couldn’t get worse and I wouldn’t have to face any of my teachers in person which made not caring about doing my work pretty easy. Luckily my PMBI course like I said set me even farther behind in work which kind of opened my eyes. I realized I had to get the work done. So first Monday back I didn’t procrastinate to do work and I caught up on my scimatics, then humanities and the maker. This has been what I’ve been doing up until now and I’m proud that I got back on track. That being said I still have some work to catch up on but I’m proud of how for my work ethic and habits have come.

So, in conclusion, my answer to our driving question for the Tpol presentation is, the reason I feel like I am ready to advance to the next grade level is because of how far my teamwork, revision, responsibility, and work ethic how progressed and all the knowledge I have learned from my various PLP subjects this year. I hope that this presentation of learning post presented you with the evidence that you needed to see to see that my claims are true and so that you have faith that I’m ready for what ever comes next.