I’m Indecisive, I think?!

Mr./Ms. (teacher’s name), this is my mum Jen Hetherington.

Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.

Driving question: how can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP success behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?

My success behaviours!

What are success behaviours? Success behaviours are basically a guide to how we should act, in order to be a successful proficient PLP learner.

Here’s a chart I completed to see where I am with my success behaviours:

Success Behaviours Self-Assessment

In the agency category, I chose “Seeking help” because that’s not something I usually do. Sometimes, if I don’t understand a topic, a project, or even just what was taught in the class on that day. I just decide that I can figure it out myself, and that I don’t need help. That’s usually not the greatest plan. It sometimes works, but sometimes doesn’t. I’m a little bit more confident now, and I do keep in mind that most questions are asked for a reason, but I still need to remember that there’s usually, within reason, no such thing as thing as a dumb question.

Another success behaviour I chose, I think is one of my biggest strengths! Which is “enthusiasm” in the engagement category! One of my friends said “your very positive, especially in a group.” Sometimes I can get super excited about a project, and my friends are like “Ailie how are you so excited about this, its work!” I try to be as positive as I can, as much as I can, and my positivity helps me be enthusiastic!

The last success behaviour I chose was “outside of school” in the preparation category. This is something I should work on, I just need to be able to manage my work better. Sometimes I’m working on a project and I know it’s due that night, but I forget the time and so I end up turning it in a few minutes to a few hours late.

My Favourite Projects and things!

British Nationalism:

I love learning about my ancestors and ancestry. Research usually isn’t something I love doing, but learning about Queen Victoria was worth the research! Queen Victorias reign was called the Victorian era, it was a bountiful time for Britain. She ended up marrying her her first cousin, Prince Albert, and she had 9 children, 5 girls and 4 boys. I feel like this project stretched my researching skills, and got me looking at multiple sources to make sure my information was credible. One success behaviour I feel I used was “integrity” because my work was original.

https://www.blog44.ca/ailieh/2024/05/10/uhhhh-queen-victoria-married-her-first-cousin/

Di:

Di was such a fun experience! My favourite part was working in a group, especially with other grades. I also loved actually presenting our work and performing. We won second over all in both our competitions. Our group was very proud and surprised that we won a Da Vinci Award! The Da Vinci Award is a rare award given to “those who clearly demonstrate that spirit of adventurous risk to reach truly new and unique destinations.” We received it for our incredibly awesome dance to starships by Niki Minaj. During Di we had to use many success behaviours, especially the ones related to being in a team. For example “Helpfulness” and “With peers”.

https://www.blog44.ca/ailieh/2024/03/15/the-stoves-on-fire/

The Exhibition:

During the exhibitions I always get my steps in! This latest exhibition project, the winter exhibition project was in the end something I was fairly proud of. When I heard the exhibition was going to be about World War One, I was very apprehensive, because I am not a history buff what so ever. But when I heard the end result was going to be a comic I was a bit more relieved, because I love to draw. When we were researching topics I remembered that someone at some point had mentioned that I had a family member in WW1. So I asked my mum and she told be about my Great Grandpa Dugald Smith. She told me his story and I decided to make it my comic! In the end this project showed me that history can be quite interesting, especially if it’s something you can be proud of, like how my great grandpa fought for his country and his family. I feel like the success behaviours I used in this project were, “completing evidence” and “focus” because we needed to complete the project on time and lock in to make sure our comics were good.

My comic: Dugald Smith

https://www.blog44.ca/ailieh/2024/06/17/263/

PLP Trips:

I talked a fair bit about PLP trips in my mPOL but they’re probably my favourite part of PLP! They always bring our class closer together and there always full of unique experiences. From going to a cheese factory, to climbing a mountain, PLP trips will never disappoint! They help me use many of my success behaviours, such as “citizenship” and “with peers” because us students on the trip are representing PLP outside of the classroom and interacting with the public.

Extra curricular activities:

Something that isn’t PLP, but could be related to it, and something I love so much, are Seycoves extra curricular activities! I’m in band, I was also on the junior girls basketball team and junior girls soccer team. I love being on those teams, working together, making new friends, trying our best, and having fun! In band, I won an award for leadership, which I didn’t really expect, but I was really proud of that. I met some amazing PLP 8’s through especially the soccer team, as well as band! IIn these activities there are some relevant success behaviours, such as “contributions” and “citizenship”. PLP 9 is also a team of our own. You need multiple people to make a team, and there’s no I in team!

Goals I want to score!

My top 3 goals for next year:

1. To make sure I fully understand the elements of the project, or the lessons we’ve already been taught corresponding with the project, before I do the final part of the project to make sure its to the best of my abilities.

2. To just ask more questions, maybe even the question “How do I make this extending?”

3. To understand the different elements of PLP better, for example success behaviours and driving questions.

Final minutes!

To answer the driving question, how can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP success behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?

I was able to tick off most of the “consistently” boxes in the “success behaviours in proficient learners chart” which shows that I feel like I have been displaying the success behaviours in all of my projects.

This year I feel like my work has slowly and progressively gotten better. I put more and more effort in! PLP, even I didn’t really get how it worked at first, is actually a really great fit for me. It helps me unlock my creativity, and put my personality into my work.

To warp it up, and a fun fact, my name “Ailie” or spelt “Eilidh”(that would have been much harder for substitute teachers to pronounce) means “light” in Scottish Gaelic, as in sunlight or light for a street light. So to live up to my name, literally, I want to be able to shine a light everywhere I go and with everything I do. Whether its in my work or in a classroom, I want to leave behind a little bit of Ailie.

Thank you so much for watching and listening to my tPOL!

Mr./Ms. (teacher’s name), this is my mum Jen and my dad Paul.

Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.

PLP Trips!

Probably my favourite part of PLP are the PLP trips. This year out of the two trips we went on, loon lake was my favourite by far! I absolutely loved the trust falls, the dance, the ropes course and the food! Before loon lake everyone was friends, sure, but after loon lake everyone was noticeably closer! Loon lake not only helped with my learning but it also helped me learn about my fellow PLP 9’s and their learning.

My Favourite Projects!

My frankinstuffie and frankinstuffie video: I loved the frankinstuffies project! It was a little hard to sew my frankinstuffie together and her head kept falling off, but in the end Pamella Gwendolyn Brog was one beautiful panda dragon cat! The leviathan was also a great story. I loved the plot and it was pretty engaging to. The process of making my frankinstuffies video was pretty fun, and I learned how to utilize new tools on keynote.

Heres that video so I can show a clip:

https://youtu.be/ZR5rzDBlGeI

Science element painting: I love art and I also love science, so put the two together in a pretty awesome project, and you got me hooked. I chose the element radium because I thought it was really cool and something I really enjoyed learning about. I represent this element in a painting using a scull with no jaw, because girls how worked with radium and didn’t know it was harm full would slowly start dying, starting with loosing there jaws!

The exhibition: Our metaphor machines project this year for the exhibition was pretty fun! The revolution group I was in was the Irish revolution with my group members Hunter, Finn, Matteo, Meghan, Ryan and Jannik! I love working in a group and always have and this was a pretty great group to be a member of! With this exhibition I learned trial and error are important, and your machine might not always work!

My Learning Plan!

My learning plan is something I haven’t even looked at in a long time, but let’s see. I think I’ve met “getting to know more people” and “take harder criticism”. Most of my goals I still agree with and can still improve on a little bit but I’d like to add a new one. Something that I would like to improve on, and one of my main learning goals is making sure I fully understand my work before I dive into assignments and projects. If I don’t get a topic, I usually just try and figure it out myself without asking questions. Sometimes that works but sometimes I still don’t get it. Some goals I also hope to have completed by my tPOL are: to stay on task more, to ask more questions to get clarification so I can do my best work, and to consistently get good grades on all of my assignments even the less important ones!

Di!

Di was quite the experience! Going into it I was quite apprehensive, I didn’t really know what to expect. In the end, the challenge I got, the technical challenge was definitely not my first choice. When we were told our task, to make a 8 by 16 foot pinball machine! My first reaction was “Oh no, this is not in my wheel house.” When I got my team, my team members ranged from knowing them quite well to not knowing them at all! Mika I already knew and was good friends with, Jack and Matteo I both knew and Jackson and Jasper I didn’t know at all. To help split up work, and have a good group dynamic we divided the tasks into design and build. I mostly worked on the design elements with Mika and Jasper, and Jack, Matteo and Jackson focused on the building. We actually needed up having a lot of fun working on our machine and other tasks. Some of my favourite memories are, when Jack, Mika and I went through the catastrophe of making doughnuts and when we were all practicing our dance so we could perform it well. I loved the actual Di days! It was so fun to watch everyone’s presentations and perform ourselves. In the end we won second over all in both our competitions. Something absolutely amazing is that we won a Da Vinci Award! The Da Vinci Award is a rare award given to “those who clearly demonstrate that spirit of adventurous risk to reach truly new and unique destinations.” Our group was so proud of this achievement! We received it for our incredibly awesome dance to starships by Niki Minaj.

Summary!

I feel like I have grown a lot this year. I put more effort into my work! Sometimes I wonder, What is PLP? Why am I in it? Why do we go on trips? Why do we do Di? Why am I standing here doing my mPOL? Well, I actually think I have the answers to those questions now. In my opinion, PLP also known as the Performance Learning Program is a program made to have its learners think out side the box, be creative and experience real life experiences, like the trips and Di. It helps me stretch my learning. Sometimes I feel like without explanation, or without knowing how to work my iPad and all the apps on it, I wouldn’t be able to understand it and sometimes its still confusing. My favourite part of plp is the F.A.I.L. first attempt in learning approach! With explanations and by asking questions the complexity helps me stretch myself and be a better PLP learner. Thank you so much for listening to my mPOL!

Louis Riel is portrayed in many different ways, depending on the time period, and the view one has on the history involving him. The start of the story was in 1812, when the Red River settlement was formed. During the mid 1800’s there were multiple groups arriving and settling in the Red River colony. Louis Riel was born in 1844 to a Métis father and a French Canadian mother. He was already a leader in his family, being the eldest of 11 children. He spoke the French language, as well as being a practicing Catholic. The groups directly involved with the story of Louis Riel were the English and Scottish settlers, and several different cultures, including the Métis who had already settled in the Red River. In 1868 the Hudson’s Bay Company was going to sell the colony to the British, who would then sell it to the Canadian government. However the First Nations and Métis who lived on the land were not consulted about this sale. This is where Louis Riel comes into the story.

Before the sale was finalized, the Canadian government sent surveyors to scope out the land. When they entered the Métis land however, they did not ask for permission. In 1869, Métis community leader Louis Riel and a dozen other armed Metis drove the surveyors away from a farm belonging to Riel's cousin. The Métis now controlled Red River after this action of resistance. In December of 1869 the Métis established their own provisional government. At this time Riel is seen or portrayed as a courageous leader to the Métis, a hero of sorts, who didn’t give up his land or his people. A secondary source that portrays this is the statue “Joyal’s Louis Riel at the Manitoba Legislature”. It portrays Riel as professional and strong, because his posture is straight and he is wearing professional robes. To others, specifically the Canadian government, Riel was seen as a nuisance, a rebel, someone who was a problem, or just in the way of there plans.

In 1870 one of the most beneficial members of a group called the Canadian Party, Thomas Scott was then trialed for disobedience, he was found guilty by Louis Riel and was executed. The cause of this was that the Canadian Party attempted to overthrow Louis Riel and the provisional government. The tables turned for Riel, he could now be seen as unjust, wicked and wrongful of killing a man who didn’t agree with him. There was discontent in Canada; people wanted Riel to be caught and hung. On May 12th, 1870 with the help of Louis Riel, Manitoba became a province, through negotiations between the federal and provisional government. In many Canadian history textbook and resources, Riel will be mentioned because of his influence in the Manitoba act. In these textbooks he is portrayed as a influential political figure with the nickname of “the founding father of Manitoba”.

Now Manitoba is a province, but despite that there is still conflict! Riel was getting may death threats, and they were damaging his mental heath. 1200 Canadian troops were sent to assassinate him. In fear of death he fled over the American boarder. He couldn’t live in Canada because he feared for his life. Riel was also a religious man, who faithfully believed in God. While he was in exile, he had delusions that he was a prophet sent by God to defend the Métis. In the end, he came back across the boarder, surrendered, and was executed by the Canadian government. Another statue made to portray Riel is “Lemay and Gadboury’s Abstract Louis Riel Statue”. It portrays Riel as shamed, crazy or even deformed and defeated, because his mental heath was hurting him and he was getting death threats. The sides that were with him were the Métis, French speaking, and Catholics, all of which supported him and thought of him as a hero. The other sides however, the English, Protestant and Europeans, did not support him and thought of him as rebellious and cruel.

In conclusion, Riels portrayals overtime changed with every action he took. Today Riel has schools named after him, artwork representing him, and a national day dedicated to him. His execution is now generally thought of as a wrongful action, and was apologized for by the Canadian government in 1998. Today he is still a hero for the Métis in Canada!