Category: mPol

MPOL 2023

quinnLeave a comment

Wow the school year is halfway done, I’m in disbelief. I feel like we just started the first semester. Since we are halfway done our semester we have a classic PLP event, the MPOL (Mid Year Presentation of Learning). Since this is my seventh or eighth POL (presentation of learning), Im not going to explain it, but you can go read one of my previous posts where I explain it in depth here.

Intro: Why are we so destructive. From the time we can walk, we our knocking toys down, and p over. Throughout history people have spent huge amounts of resources in order to destroy each other’s villages, towns, and cities. As our societies evolved so did our ability to destroy. Fire became gunpowder, then dynamite, then firebombs. Finally we came up with the ultimate destructive power, the atomic bomb. While it destroyed ended the lives of tens of thousands of people, and flattened cities, why should we care? Intro Alt: Destruction, it created the world we live in today. Rich forests, cut down to build our towns and cities. Lush meadows plowed to create farmland to feed us. Wild rivers, dammed to power and irrigate our cities. Every amenity we take for granted today required something to be destroyed to make it. But at what point does this destruction become to much. I think we can all agree we need to cut some forests down to build our houses, or convert some of our coast into ports and industrial zones. But how about when we have to destroy these same amenities of others, even cause them suffering. How about when it requires killing them. How about 150,000. This was the price we paid to end the Second World War. The destruction of two entire cities, full of innocent people. There were children Body: Evidence 1: The explosions of the atomic bomb were not the only important part. The invention and construction of these bombs were incredibly taxing economically, environmentally, and socially. The extraction of uranium is incredibly destructive both to our health and the environment. Uranium is both radioactive as well as chemically toxic. Mining it often leads to contaminated water sources which can ruin ecosystems as well as our health. So why do we use such a powerful resource, which can take such a toll on the environment to extract, just to destroy each other? Evidence 2: There is no better example of our destructive capabilities as humans then the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These bombings are incredibly significant in our history. They killed well over 100,000 people, Brought and end to WWII, and changed the future of warfare. These bombings were more complicated then being good or bad. Did the positives outweigh the Negatives? What even are the positives and negatives? These are all questions we must ask ourselves when were considering the implications of Nuclear Weapons in warfare. Evidence 3: Nuclear Weapons undoubtedly changed warfare forever. In the last 75 years there has not been a single large scale conflict between major powers. While this seems like a good thing, we need to consider why is this? Could the destruction of an eventual conflict between these two powers destroy our whole planet? Conclusion: So why is the manhattan project important. I think it is because it is the perfect representation of our destructive nature and capabilities. It was. a project with the sole intent of developing a bomb capable of killing millions. Is the potential destruction of us as a species worth the peace we’ve had in recent years? This is why we need to care, so we can answer questions like these, and hopefully use the positive technologies developed by the manhattan project, and leave the destructive ones in the past.

This has been a strange year, at least in terms of PLP. This is the least amount of PLP courses I have ever taken. When I look back at the year I feel like we haven’t done that much yet, even though we have done quite a bit. I think its because of PLP’s slower progression compared to my other academic courses. Even thought there is a logical reason as to why there has been slow progression in this course, I still feel like I FAILed. Also going through my assignments I don’t have very much media I can include in this post. Most of our projects were in person presentations, these styles of assignments don’t leave me much evidence of my work.

Now I didn’t truly fail at people however I don’t think I worked up to my full potential either. Ive missed a bunch of my last two projects to factors I have no control over. I dont think my Macbeth project was anywhere near as good as it should have been. I think I need to prove my strengths in our current Cold War project but at the moment I’m a bit behind in that project as well. Over the next 5 weeks of this term I need to pull together this Cold War Project into something I’m truly proud of, something which showcases my strengths and potential as a learner.

My greatest accomplishments since the last POL weren’t in PLP courses. Many of my other accomplishments, helped me develop skills which I can use in this course. 

My first accomplishment was my completion and high mark (at least for me) in chemistry and precalc.

I spent a lot of time working on these two courses in the last semester. They were two of the most challenging, and complicated courses I have ever taken. While they taught me how to calculate the zero of a parabola, or analyze the bond structure of an organic molecule, the most valuable thing they taught me were study habits. During the busiest weeks, I was spending around 4 hours a night on just those two courses. Spending all this time studying really helped me figure out some study routines, and methods which work for me. This semester I’m going to try to use them while working on PLP assignments. 

I have begun to realize that many commonly suggested methods of study don’t work well for me. I’ve heard so many people suggest that you should take frequent breaks while studying. This doesn’t work for me. In order to effectively complete work I need to get on a roll, in general that means a 1-2 hour period with no breaks and then an extended break. This gets a lot easier If I’m interested in the subject. Sometimes I can work for 3-4 hours straight on subjects Im super interested in them. I also need to work while its quiet. I can’t effectively compete work while theres people coming and going from my house, or talking even in another room. My least efficient work times are at school though. I can’t focus on most assignments at school, particularly assignments which require a lot of thinking. One other little study method for me is to work in cold environments. Kind of random but it actually helps me a lot. 

In order to apply these methods to PLP, I am going to have to adapt them. The most important factors are focusing on making my topics interesting, making sure I can work in a flow state while doing my work, and starting my work after exercising and eating. Over the next semester I will be dedicating 1-2 hours later in the evening to just PLP work a few times a week. The best times to do this work will either be in the evenings when my brother is at volleyball, or later in the night (after 9pm). At both of these times the house is very quiet and I can easily get homework done without interruption.

Another one of my accomplishments was my drastic improvements and dedication to my wildlife photography. If you’ve been following this blog you know I’m super into wildlife photography, last spring I did a podcast on it for a project (go check out the post here). Since then I would say I have improved a ton. I’ve spent hours talking to pros, and other amateurs about all sorts of topics. I have learned so much, and have been able to utilize that learning to improve my work in so many ways. The dedication, learning, and perseverance I have learned in the last few months could really benefit me in PLP. 

  • A bald eagle looking for fish from its perch
  • A wood duck enjoying an evening nap

Above you can see my images from spring last year, and below our my images from this winter. You can see the technical and compositional improvement between the two sliders.

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Now obviously I’m not going to be mentally capable of treating school the same way I treat wildlife photography. The only reason I can spend so long, in brutal weather conditions shooting animals (with my camera), is because I’m truly passionate about it. I wont be able to spark the same passion for PLP. I do think I can trick myself into being passionate about certain projects by incorporating these topics I am passionate about, such as conservation, ecology, and animal behaviour into my projects in some way or another. I am currently doing that in my coldest war project. It’s not sparking my passion the same way the podcast did though. My podcast was the work I was most proud of, and that’s because I actually cared about. Now obviously I care about all my schoolwork, but I don’t necessarily care about the content, I just care about completing it to a certain standard. With the podcast I actually wanted people to hear it, Ive even considered continuing it for a second season, or revamping it. I need to find that passion in more projects this year.

Another goal for the last half of the year is to improve my blog. I want to make this a place I can use as a portfolio when applying for university. In order to improve this I will need to work on the main format of my page, as well as going back and recategorizing old posts. I will try and record more media when

My main goal for the next semester is to be more invested in my work. I want to be creating assignments I am proud of, assignments I want to share with the world. This will require me to be more efficient with my time and find ways to keep myself involved in my work even when I’m not super interested.

MPOL 2022

quinnLeave a comment

Hi everyone,

And they’re back, Presentations of Learning. After being cancelled last year due to COVID we have to present to our teachers and parents our learning goals, progress, and accomplishments this year. This year has been tough for me. Between a lack on consistency across projects and various classes. Ive also have found that COVID has caused group work to be incredibly difficult. I’m hoping that a lot will change after this omicron wave and once the next semester comes around. I know everything is up in the air right now but I hope next semester everything looks more normal. 

This doesn’t really relate to anything. Just a photo I took on a field trip to the Punjabi Market.

I would say my biggest in school accomplishment this year has been the leap I have made in terms of writing. If you look back on my older blog posts you’ll will notice the improvement. My writing is so much more polished now then it was a year ago. I think this happened because of the amount of different styles of media I have written over the last few years. But I really noticed the jump at the start of this school year. Why, I can’t say exactly, but I believe its because of the fact that I put more effort into the actual writing now compared to my previous research and fact heavy approach. It was mostly a mindset shift which happened at the start of the year. I realized that being able to communicate your point with specific powerful information, was more important then having tons of information and facts and trying to tell your story that way. I still have a long way to go as a writer and I will continue to improve that with every project I work on.

The work Im the most proud of this year is my exhibition project. I think I did a really good job at designing a good memorial idea, as well as did a good job pitching it to visitors. I was proud of how my group pulled together even though we had troubles coming up with an idea and working designing the memorial. I definitely think we could have been more organized and used our time better but in the end the video turned out great. 

My groups memorial Proposal

I’m not very proud of my election project video. I don’t think we accomplished the task. The video was not very well made. We overall needed to work much harder to find a good objective and name. I wasn’t super into this project and neither was my group. That was probably why we didn’t really think much through. Such as filming a video about poverty and wealth inequality on the waterfront of deep cove. 

Looking through my work I notice a few key things. First of all the difference in quality and care of work is astounding when I’m interested verse not interested. Just look at my blog post on why we need to change the election system verse my party video. You can tell which one I was interested in and which one I wasn’t very quickly. Also my strongest work is always done at the end of an assignment or project. I believe I need to fail once or twice to find a solution that works for me. This can be problematic on short deadlines though. A great example of this was our Romeo and Juliet Video linked below. A lot went wrong in that project. One of our group members got COVID. We also missed out on three classes for this project so our schedule had to be compressed. We also realized half way through filming that our vision was way to ambitious and we had to cut it down. The final product is a little bit rough but I think we demonstrated growth and learning. I’m also really proud of the police siren effect idea and execution.

I’ve thought a lot about whether or not my work is up to my standard this year. Now I’ve began to question how important having a standard is in the first place. Because what my standards are is an ever changing, complicated question. It depends on a number of factors, my group, the amount of time I have and how interested I am in the work. A good example is during the winter I see the lowest quality output of group work. One reason is I have less time, the Basketball team occupies most of my evenings which prevents me from staying late after school. Overall I need to find an acceptable standard to work towards in this next half of the year. 

This video is a great example of the standard of work I would like to consistently be at. I think it was a unique idea, I had a lot of fun making it. As well as it was engaging to the viewer.

Now this year has been incredibly frustrating in so many ways. Obviously Omicron pretty much ruined the winter term of school. Also the weather has been terrible in every way. Finally, PLP and school in general has been really frustrating. I have found a lack of consistency in homework and expectations between not only all my classes, but between every project. I don’t know what to expect in terms of homework. I also have found there have been wildly different expectations for work output, and quality of work on every different project. However, I do understand that COVID has been tough on everyone, and I know delivering consistent results across projects from a teaching end is tough. 

I have three main focuses for next semester, consistency, balance, and growth.

Next semester I will focus on having a consistent, quality and output of work. This will require me to push through projects I don’t want to do. A good example of when I did this was in my Romeo and Juliet project. Our group fell apart but I think working together we did a good job of doing a project none of us wanted to do. Another part of consistency is going to be comparing my work to other work I’m proud of to make sure it meets my standards. 

Another key focus is balance. I’m often busy between sports, school, and social events. If I don’t keep a good balance I feel extremely overwhelmed. This is extremely unproductive and my quality of work suffers. Next semester I need to find a balance and flow of work which suits my style of learning. In general I put out my strongest work close to deadlines. I think when I get a sense of urgency it forces me to step up and do my best work. I generally need to large amounts of work at once. Breaking it up into small chunks does not work for me as I never achieve a good work flow. One strategy Ive found to be effective is to do a smaller bit of work related to my topic and then that leads me straight into the main work. 

Balance includes making sure I have time to do my hobbies. One of them is photography. This is a shot of a black turnstone I captured over winter break.

Finally I need to continue to grow. I don’t think I grew as learner as much this year as I could. This one much like consistency will require reflection on past work. I want to feel that my work I did during this semester is not on the same level as the work I will do next semester. In order to achieve growth I will need both consistency and balance. 

To wrap things up I would like to improve my consistency in my work, as well as to continue to work on my writing. I’m proud of my communication, presentation, and writing skills. I hope to continue my improvement as a learner in this next year.  

Mid Year Presentations of Learning 2020

quinnLeave a comment

Hi everyone,

We are now almost halfway through the school year! I have done a lot of work, and my work habits have changed a lot. So far this year I have learnt many things. Now I have a 12 minute presentation to give to my parents and teachers about how I have grown as a learner this year. This blog post will be about my work so far this year and everything I have accomplished and failed. 

The driving question for the mPol is, “What is your learning goal that you want to reach by the end of this school year, and how will you meet it?” I will be explaining how I’ve grown as a learner this term. I’ll also explain what my learning goal for the end of the year is, and how I’ll get to that goal.

My first Project was, “The Medium is the Message.” You can check out my blog post on that here. Looking back on a lot of the work I did at the start of the year I am really impressed with how far I’ve come along. Below I have to summaries I wrote, one which I wrote at the start of this school year and one which I wrote in mid January. Notice the difference? In the first one I was vague, didn’t explain my points enough and was just not that interesting. In the second one I was more descriptive, explained my points more and, was more interesting.

  • This was the first assignment. My Welcome Home Dissection.
  • This was my recent assignment. The Siege of Acre

Another thing I have really Improved on over this year is blogging. Checkout my first blog post vs my reflection post on the winter exhibition and my blue sky project. The latter is so much better than the first one. The first one was super short, didn’t use many photos, was super boring, and skimmed over all the topics. If you went through my blog posts you would notice my blog posts improved very quickly. The first thing you will notice is the extra photos, and longer posts. Then my vocabulary and my writing improved. I still have a lot to improve in the area of blogging. In my first reflection post called Tectonic Books I had troubles reflecting on competencies. If you check out my reflection post on my blue sky project you will see how much better I was at reflecting on competencies. 

We started this year out in Humanities learning about advertising. It is astonishing about how much better my work is now then it was at the start of this project. I’ve already showed you my first assignment. Here is my reflection blog post from this project. During this project I learned many interesting things and my work improved quite a bit. The second project this year in humanities was religion. We never really seemed to complete this project. I learned about all the major world religions in this project (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism). The project we are currently doing in humanities is This Changes Everything, Middle Ages. As you can probably guess by the name we are studying the Middle Ages. We are focusing on the continuity and change. So far I feel as if I have done well in humanities, and I have learned a lot. My hard work this year has given me many sunshine’s and even a 1 rainbows!

In Maker this year we have completed many projects. It started off with Big Life Journal, this project was really important as it taught us the basis of a growth mindset which is super valuable in PLP. Then we did Photography, This project was about teaching us some basic Photo techniques to help us with photography in Oregon. Then we did sketching. Then we did are Star Wars blue sky project for the exhibition. Finally, now we are doing DI (Destination Imagination). This year I have enjoyed maker a lot, and I feel I have really improved. The thing I like the most about maker is that you seem to have more freedom in maker. I’ve worked very hard in maker and I have been rewarded with 1 rainbow and lots of sunshines. 

We started Scimatics this year learning about fractions. This project introduced us to spreadsheets and improved are math skills. Then we moved on to Tectonic Books were we wrote a children’s book about Tectonic Plates. Then we moved on to Mazer Tag, this was my favourite Scimatics project so far this year. Now we are doing chemistry coding. My work in Scimatics this year has been very consistent, I have gotten all sunshines.

My 4th subject is PGP. We haven’t really done much PGP yet this year. Although, we have had many experiences which we can be evaluated for in PGP. The whole Oregon trip involved us being evaluated for PGP. We have also had one PGP meeting. So far this year in PGP I have improved a ton. The skill I am the best at in PGP is leadership. I sometimes get in pointless argument with classmates and I need to stop that. I also am sometimes a little bit bossy. 

So far this year I have learned many things. I get all my work done. Although, it is sometimes a little bit late. I also need to improve my grammar. Finally, I find myself doing a lot of work at home, I’m really busy so I want to get my homework done quicker so that I can do more things which I love. My learning goal for the end of the year is to get more work done in class. Specifically I want to do no more than an average of 1 hour per day (although, I will do more if I have more). In order to achieve this I will need to start time blocking my calendar. I’m terrible at this, I put tasks in things but I need to know when to do them. If I assign a 30 minute time to do my homework it will help me be more efficient. Also, I need to become more aware of how long assignments will take. Secondly, I need to get less distracted in class if I want to do this. The biggest distraction I’ve had this year in class wasn’t gaming, it was talking to friends. Thirdly, I need to balance out my work better. To do this I will have to remind myself when I’m talking to friends I actually should be doing work. Sometimes I will get hung up on something and spend 30 minutes on something which should only take 5 minutes. This will prolong my whole assignment and throw off my workflow. The way I will change this is that if I spend 5 minutes on something and get nowhere I will move on to something else or take a break from homework and go outside. I think the best way for me to clear my head is to go for around 20 minutes. 

My learning question is “how can I use the resources I have to improve my productivity and keep a good school/life balance?”