Hello and welcome back to the 4th installment of tPOLs on this blog. This year I will be answering the question, Why do I feel I am ready to advance to the next grade level? This year I think I have again continued to take great strides in my learning. I have shown again that I am capable of thinking outside of the box and not sticking with the norm. I have opened my mind to accepting new ways of living my life and new ways to increase productivity. So without further ado, let’s jump right into this tPOL and explain to you examples where I have shown these different characteristics.
Marshall Plan
Let’s start off with a great example of my revision skills and my ability to take criticism and feedback and to turn it into a great product. I feel that the project that shows this skill the best would be the World on the Brink unit and essay. This unit was based around the Cuban Missile Crisis and the 13 days that the American government and the Russian government were on the brink of destroying each other’s countries alongside the rest of the world. We watched the movie ’13 Days’ that outlined events that took place over these days and as well the final result of the disagreement between the two. We also did a lot of research about the events such as the Bay of Pigs and the interaction between the American War ships and the Russian tankers. As a class we were assigned a task. Individually we were told to choose a part of the Cuban missile crisis that was the make or break point of the nuclear bombs being set off. I decided to rethink the question and go in a different way then the rest of the class. I choose to focus my essay on the Marshall Plan and how it lead the way for the Cold War.
My essay topic was surrounding the Marshall Plan and how it prevented the world from nuclear war. My final thesis for this essay was “The Americans devised the Marshall Plan not just to gain allies in Europe but to create a constant reminder of their presence.” My argument for this was that the Americans saw an opportunity to create economic wellness for themselves and the countries that needed aid after World War Two. The Marshall Plan saw the United States contribute billions in economic aid to European allied countries and economic opportunities for the United States. The Americans were also having worrisome thoughts about Russia spreading communism so they thought if they helped European countries, they wouldn’t be vulnerable to communism. By having allied counties surrounding Russia it gave the US easy access to missiles if they needed to use them on Russia. This put a burden on Russia and enhanced the American presence around the Soviet Union. I worked hard on this essay and I did about four revisions to keep improving it and make it better and better. It was hard work but I learned a lot in the revision process about things like a thesis, formatting, citing references and proofreading.
I would love for you to read my essay
Carousel of Communism
Next I am going to move on to an example of my teamwork and different instanced where I showed the I can work well with my fellow classmates. This is probably the easiest example for me because I have grown up my entire life playing team sports and on team sports the most valuable lesson you learn is how to work with others. For this example I am going to go back to the middle of the year and talk about the Carousel of Communism (I take credit for coming up with the name). This type of project was totally new to my PLP year. This was because it was the biggest group project and we had to work as one entire class for the first time. The project had a three prong approach to it. The Crucible’s Witch Trials, the McCarthy Trials against Communists and the present day Russian investigation on Donald Trump and his presidential election. The idea was to create an interactive play of sorts that would take place in the 1950’s. This play encompassed the three parts seamlessly to create one big story. To pull this off our team or class would have to be on one page and be able to understand each part of the exhibition and what each person’s role would be. At this time I specifically had just been to the ER twice in three days so I had a head injury with stitches and a badly sprained ankle. My goal for the project was not to let these setbacks get in my way. Unfortunately it did make me miss some school and on some of the important planing stages but I made the best of it and overcame the adversity to take part and contribute. In terms of my teamwork, I was a leader of people for building and design work and this required a lot of teamwork. I demonstrated team skills with my peers as we put together the plans and had to be creative on the spot to address unexpected things. Overall this project was a complete hit. It was very fun and a way for me to better my teamwork skills. The feedback from the participants was great and they said they loved it.
Civil Rights Comparison
Next I am going to talk about responsibility. I sat here before writing this and thought of different ways to represent this topic in my learning before writing this section. I am going to talk about the responsibility that I took when I was assigned a very important and special topic. This topic is the civil rights movement and the different people within it. When I received this assignment I felt that I was obligated to produce the best work possible to fully do these people justice for such an important topic. I felt that I was responsible for this. How can the actions of an individual change a system? This is the question I answered. I compared two important people from different time periods with different careers. There were commonalities and connections between Barack Obama become the first African American president and Jackie Robinson being the first African American professional baseball player even though they had different jobs. These two men worked hard to achieve their goals and optimized their talents and skills to make a change. Although they were famous in different fields, they both paved the way for others to follow their lead. They showed how people can improve civil rights no matter where they are starting from in life or which path they take. I felt that I showed my best work in this blog post. I rose to the occasion and followed my responsibilities for this important topic.
Time Machine
Lastly I am going to talk about the piece of work that I am most proud of this year. This is the work that may not be the best or the most impactful from someone else’s eyes but for me it was very important. I am going to talk about my Time Machine project. This was best product that I made this year in my eyes because it impacted me the most. This year as part of the PLP program we were all told that we had to take part in PGP. This program was supposed to re-evaluate the way that we go through our lives. At first I was very skeptical about this program and what it would teach me. As we went through it I learned that it was actually extremely helpful and that for the final project I want to share this great knowledge. For the Time Machine I created this visually-pleasing interactive presentation that resembles a stop-motion technique. It will help you to better understand how to create your own goal ladder and how to take bigger strides to achieve the goals that you want to meet. This is why I decided to choose this as my best piece of work. Not because it was the best in the eyes of the normal abcd curriculum but the best in the eyes of the overall greater good for kids and other people who should do the PGP program. It helped me achieve many of my goals this year academically and with extra curricular activities.
This year has yet again been the best year for me so far in Seycove Secondary and the PLP program. I have enhanced my knowledge and understanding of important events following WWII and improved many of my skills. These examples of each discipline and skill are the best work that I was capable of at the time. I believe that I can do better now that I have gained even more skills from each individual project. This year I believe that my work ethic improved again since last year because I found myself procrastinating a lot less. My work habits have definitely increased positively in the past year because of the PGP program and the different goal setting that I have done this year. I do believe that there is always places to improve in each area of ones life so for me I would like to see myself improve my overall public speaking to be more relaxed and more natural. Now that I put all of these skills together to create even better outcomes I should be able to produce outstanding work that will be new and inventive next year. This is why I think that I should move on to PLP 12.
