Alright, here we go. It’s that time of the year where I stand in front of my teachers and parents and describe what I have been doing in PLP 10 for the past year. I will talk about work where I have shown the most growth as a learner as well as answer the question why I feel I am ready to advance to the next grade level in terms of things like my work ethic and teamwork. I will focus on three examples that I believe show my growth as a learner which will include one from Scimatics, one from Humanities and one from Maker. So with out further adieu lets jump right into the first example.
Humanities: Lets start of with Humanities. In Humanities this past term we have learned a lot but I am going to focus on our recently completed World War 2 unit. One of the cool things that I like about PLP is the first hand encounters that you get when you are learning about a topic. An example of this is the memory project that we did in relation to the World War 2 unit. The memory project was a podcast that we had to create from a discussion that we had with a World War 2 veteran. A German World War 2 veteran named Helmut Lemke came to our class to discuss what the War was like for him. Our class got to ask some questions of Helmut and he gave some very interesting answers. As well, Helmut told a bunch of amazing stories such as his time on the Russian front. If you are interested in listening to his story about the Russian front feel free to listen below.For this unit we were told that we would be put into groups and that these groups would represent a country. Your country would then create a webpage that would be filled with different types of information about your country. I was put in a group with Mimi and Alex and we worked on France. My group and I started with a template of a website that we used from Weebly which is a website creator. We played around with different versions of the template until we found one that we liked. We added all of the research information that we had done earlier in the unit. We proofread our website and it was time to present our website to the class, Ms Maxwell and Kathleen Barter (our guest judge). I really enjoyed this unit because I believe that if we learn about our history or our past and those mistakes than we are less likely to repeat them. I also just find the topic of World War 2 very fascinating and it was cool how we got to incorporate that into making a website. While doing this project I showed my research, design and communication skills.
Scimatics: Next I’ll move on to Scimatics. In Scimatics this year we learned about math and science in a very interesting way by doing lots of projects that apply the theory into the project. I am going to talk about the algebra tiles project.This project’s objective was to create a fun and interesting board game that used algebra tiles to show how numbers and variables can be represented to demonstrate algebraic operations. The game had to expand, factor and complete the square for polynomial expressions. My partner Kyle and I decided to revise a version of Snakes and Ladders that incorporated the necessary requirements. We sat down and created a list of rules because every good game needs a long list of does and don’ts. Then we reused an old chess board to create the game board and some pieces. This project was a very interesting and informative way to teach someone about a topic such as algebra. There is no better way to teach someone than to have them create a game. We had to figure out the rules, the questions and many other variables. This project showed my growth in being able to plan, create and execute a project successfully with a partner as well as my ability to work within requirements while we still made it our own.
Maker/Planning 10: The last example that I will be talking about today will be from my other PLP class. This class is Maker/Planning 10. The example that I will be taking from these classes is going to be my job shadow project. I am chose this project because it really opened my eyes to a possible career in my future and I grew in my knowledge of how what we do in school is so important to jobs we do later in life. The job shadow that I took part in was related to project development. This project was super interesting hands on learning where my uncle Norman Laube and I drove around to different job sites that his two property development businesses Peakside Homes and Pure Living owns. It was super interesting to see what he does day to day. I was flabbergasted to find out all of the different regulations and rules that he has to follow when making a new home or planning for an multi-unit building. This job comes with a lot of ups and downs. There are a lot of different problems that you come in contact with. This a reason why I believe that I would be great for this job. One of the most satisfying and rewarding things for me is solving problems. There are many people like architects, contractors, city planners, bankers, realtors and home owners to deal with and I enjoy interacting with lots of different people so that would suit me too.
Revision, Teamwork, Responsibility and High Quality Work: Overall through the school year and almost 181 days of learning, I have learned a lot about subjects like English, Socials, History, Science , Math, Career Planning and Maker time. My knowledge of these topics has grown and I have really grown in my reading and writing and math skills. This will definitely help me in Grade 11 so I can keep up with more complicated and longer work. For revisions I believe that my podcast making skills have been the best thing this year in that respect. I worked hard to improve my podcast skills. The Helmut WWII podcast is a prime example of that. In terms of a project that I worked particularly well with a group or person. I believe that Blue Sky is a great example of me working as a team with an other individual. For responsibility, I think a good example was our Generator Project when our group was having trouble getting it to work. I dove in and tried something new to fix it and was successful. Lastly I believe that there is no way better than to finish strong and I believe that I did just that with my Lord of the Flies blog post. This is just one of many great examples of high quality work that I produced this year. I enjoyed the topics of the unit and I couldn’t wait to write about it in my blog.
Work Ethic, Work Habits: I believe that my work ethic has been the one of the best parts of my schooling this year. I have worked hard and made great improvements and so far my marks have been very good which reflects my work ethic. I am doing well at school at the same time playing school sports every term as well as team sports outside of school and working 2 days a week. I complete assignments on time and I try to get all of my revisions in as soon as I can once I get feedback on an assignment. My work ethic has to be good because I am still a normal teenager that likes to hangout with his friends and relax will at the same time doing everything that I mentioned above. This week for example I planned my week very carefully and tried to get my work done ahead of time because I worked Sat and then Sunday it was my birthday and Father’s Day. This meant doing home work on Thursday after Blue sky as well as staying home on Friday evening to do some blogs because I had work the next morning. Things happen and sadly I had to do some homework on Sunday but my planning helped me get the bulk of it out of my way.
Areas for Improvement: I believe that I have had a great year but no one is perfect and I am just the same. I would really like to work more on my public speaking. To be more specific when speaking. To quote Sam, “I tend to talk at an alarming rate”. So I would like to slow down because I think it will be easier to understand what I am saying. I would also like to get better at reading unfamiliar text out loud to groups of people. This just comes with practice and repetition.
In conclusion: Here is a quote related to my blogs that I was really proud to hear. Earlier this year Mr Hughes said “Spencer is the most on top of his blogs of any students in PLP 10” Mr Hughes. Not only was I proud to hear this, it is also another good reason that I am ready for Grade 11. I’d like to thank my teachers for giving us interesting assignments and answering my questions through the year. I enjoyed the year. I like school and the people at school so that makes learning even more fun.
