The Stress Of This Is mPol-ing Me Apart

As part of our mid-year presentations (mPOL), we were asked to write a blog post that tells the story of our learning as well as shares more information about our driving question that focuses. As you may know, every tPOL and mPOL I have ever done has had three driving questions, each with examples from my work. However, this mPOL is different. Instead of three questions, we where given just one question and asked to give examples from each of our classes (Humanities, Science, Math and Maker Time) . This mPOL question was: “How are you going to progress as a learner before the end of the school year?”

Totally Tubular TPOL

MAKER TIME
Most recently, we worked on creating an All About Me video for the school High Tech High we will be visiting during our February California field school. I was pretty excited about this assignment because I love talking about myself. I spent the good part of a weekend making my first draft of this video.

A significant amount of time that weekend may have been spent on making a chartoon character to portray me which was, in hindsight, probably not the best use of my time though I did really like the look of it.

My first draft was a very chartoon/image oriented design which I found entertaining and interesting however, it became clear that I wasn’t thinking, enough, about my audience and what would be interesting and entertaining for them.

It was in the making of my second draft that I realized what the audience needed from my video. They needed me to introduce myself with a bit more comedy and entertainment, which would actually be a better representation of who I am.

The second draft went over well with me teachers, I think, and only needed a small revision at the end of the video to make it complete. This is final version:

At the beginning of this project I was creating a video that I liked and enjoyed, however when I was focused on what the real goal of the video was, what the audience needed, the assignment was actually easier! At the beginning, I was so concerned with what I wanted to make, I lost sight of making sure that the video itself was entertaining and met the goals of the project. I’ll definitely be a better learner if I keep this in mind as I work through assignments.

 

MATH
As we studied trigonometry, we where given an assignment to design and construct a solar panel. I was very focused on making sure that the solar panel, as well as the house it was on, met all the requirements.

In doing the assignment, I answered the questions we were asked and then made a model of a house with the solar panel on it.

The first bit of feedback I received from my teacher was that I had to expand on my explanation and use more diagrams.
I ate don the feedback and revised my explanation and then I submitted my house with the solar panel.

I thought my house was awesome. It was meant to be a good representation of the Florida style fashion. It was all white with some metal pillars holding up the upper floor. I thought it was great and it took time to make, even though it looked simple.

My teacher was not as impressed or thrilled with it as I was. Seems he wanted a more traditional house and what I noticed is that he was responding more positively to other people’s houses that were made with lego and such.

I did not get as good a grade as I thought on this project and part of the reason was that I was not really watching and listening to what my teacher wanted, I was a little stuck on my belief that my house was awesome because I didn’t take the audience into account. My teacher was the audience.

Again, I needed to be more in tune with the teacher’s directions and goal for the assignment. That was an important learning.

SCIENCE
Back in November, we started learning about DNA. I wrote a post on this unit entitled “Dabbling with DNA”. For the project we were assigned, we had to explain DNA and genetics.
Me and my partner, Will, had to make a podcast to explain our driving question: “if two sets of identical twins had children would the children would they be identical?”.

Will and I focused most of our time on collecting information, which was good because then we had all the info we needed, however we didn’t balance it out enough with creating a podcast with high audio quality, good editing and solid script writing. This resulted in the podcast being not as entertaining or original as we’d like. This, again, is another example of how I need to: 1)focus on my audience, and 2)manage my work load better so I give enough time production, as well as research.

HUMANITIES

Waaaay back at the beginning of the year, we focused on learning about World War One and World War Two.

I knew a bit about World War Two because you can find information threaded throughout movies, video games, books, etc.. However, most of this information is about the Second World War and less on the first.

So what I learned in this unit about the first world war, how it started and how it affected Canada, which was a pretty young country at the time, was pretty interesting.

But what I also learned was the power of podcasts.

I know now that podcasts are a big part of PLP 10 but what I did not know back in September is that making a really good podcast takes time and a lot of effort because you have to focus on using the script and audio to create the visuals in the viewers mind instead of just giving it to them on their screen.

Sky Go Extra

Our end of unit podcast was on a World War Two soldier of our choice. This podcast was supposed to be serious and informational. Unfortunately, while making the music, I didn’t take the audience into account. I had created a very interesting traditional Chinese looping melody and beat which would be good for most other projects unfortunately it was far to lively and happy for this one.

To answer the previous question “How am I going to progress as a learner before the end of the school year?” I will take more time to always, first, reflect on who my audience is and what they’ll want and need to see in my projects. I’ll manage my time better to make sure each part of my work has the time it needs to be done well.

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