Hello everybody and welcome back to my eighth student led conference, known now as tPOLs. So since this presentation is now about how I’m ready to transition into my final year of high school next year, why don’t I pick out some skills and projects to talk about.

Writing

Since Christmas we have worked a lot on our writing skills. We had a whole unit based on it, and then have had multiple essays due throughout the term. In general I believe my writing skills have improved greatly. I feel confident in being able to set a tone with my writing and give the reader an understanding of what I’m trying to say as a writer. I believe my narrative essay from our writing unit was very strong, probably one of the best pieces of writing I’ve composed. However I’m most definitely still not perfect. My expository essay from the same unit was not nearly the same standard as the narrative. As I mentioned to Willemse earlier this term, I figured out that I write every piece like it’s a script. This means that I use words such as so and well more then I really should. I also will slip in a gonna here and there on accident instead of going to. This is something I plan on really trying hard to fix and think about when writing any pieces next year

Speaking

Over the course of the school year, I feel like I’ve become much more confortable speaking my mind in the class. A good example of this is the Socratic seminars we did during our civil rights unit. I felt that for these seminars I was well prepared and was able to speak my beliefs and ideas to the group. Even though this topic is about speaking, I also believe I listened very well in the seminars and gave thought to opposing points of view to my own. I still think a big improvement in myself over the last few years, is how I’ve come out to talk more. I’m a much better narrator in videos, a much better actor, and just in general more confident to speak up. I was a very quiet grade 8 and now I’m a pretty quiet grade 11, that’s a lot of growth for me.

Time Management

This year has by far been my most scheduled year of my high school life. Time blocking worked very well for me this year. It really showed me when the time to work was and when I was actually able to relax and play video games. Unfortunately there are some times where even when I’ve booked off homework and said I can’t play any games today, I’ll end up playing some and not spending as much time or effort on the homework. Time blocking was by far most helpful during the baseball season, with my super busy schedule it was very helpful to know when each team was playing so I could still make sure I had time to do work. Again unfortunately some stuff does slip through the cracks and there’s nothing I came blame but myself. There are just a few too many times when I disobey my blocked time for homework.

Year Reflection

All in all I believe my grade 11 year was a success at school and in daily life. After having the giant down year last year, I made a big comeback and brought my grades and effort level back up. I know for a fact that I can still do better but I’m happy with the progress I made. Looking at my outside of PLP classes, my Pre Calculus mark unfortunately never really got higher than a 78 unless something spectacular happens in my final on Thursday. Which for me is a bit of a let down, but I’m taking Pre Calculus 12 in the summer to get ahead of the curve to take straight calculus next year. I got a solid mark in physics, it never really moved the whole year. In chemistry I showed massive growth over the course of the year. Right after my trip to the Dominican, I had missed a test and pre trip wasn’t doing to great in the class. I was failing. I took the test and from there everything changed. As I write this blog post my mark is a 72.4%, 0.1% off a B! I am also very confident I will get that extra tenth of a grade and get the B. Which makes me very proud that I went from failing a class I was finding very difficult to getting a B. Outside of school, my reputation at the baseball couldn’t be better. I officially assistant coached a baseball team for the first time (I’ve unofficially coached 2 other teams) and had a lot of fun and success with that team. Now heading into the summer I was appointed as the Head Coach of a team of 11 year olds who were cut from the top team. This role is putting me in the real world of emails, and texting lots of adults to organize games and come up with practice plans. So far I’ve had 2 practices and personally I think both would be considered as successful. So I’ve had a good year, and I hope you gave to.