My Last Tpol

Hello Internet, Hello again Miss McWilliam, Hello again parents. Welcome to my LAST EVER TPOL…. Oh god I’m so old. Before we get into anything, you know the drill. 

“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.”

We also have a new driving question “Why am I ready to move on to the next grade?” But I’ll answer that later.

Now that that’s out of the way we can get into my VMV’s that I made at the start of the year, so first we have my.

Vision:

My vision from the start of the year was “My vision is to be confident in social situations and be able to add valuable content to class discussions. I will be able to absorb information and use it in other ways, and even use it outside the classroom.” I think this one is great and I actually feel like I have accomplished it, to prove it I have this project to show you. Macbeth. In this project we had to be very confident and sociable, because it was all about acting and analyzing Shakespeare as a class, meaning I would have to read the script out loud, add my input to the conversation, and act out as a character of my choice for a video. This was especially important because we had to get insight into the minds of the characters to portray them in between scenes. This perfectly fits my vision, and I think I’ve fulfilled it pretty well. I added to class discussions and made a large knowledge network that helped me keep track of my thoughts. If you would like you can watch my video here, but try not to judge my attempt at a Scottish accent. 

Mission:

My mission was, “I plan to contribute to every one of my classes by providing at least one thing per class, whether it be a question, an idea or an answer. I want to do this because I believe I can bring new opinions to the table, as someone who has lived outside the country, I have two pretty different experiences and perspectives on how to live life. I think this is a valuable asset to have as I can give unique critiques and answers that some others might not think of”. Unfortunately, I don’t think I entirely completed this one, but I definitely did better than I did in any other year. As a naturally introverted person, I tend to be quite quiet in class, but I’ve been trying to improve. Funnily enough, I think the class that reflects this the most is not a PLP class, it’s actually my environmental science class. Miss Kadi makes the class a very open environment, meaning I feel very invited to add my part to the class. Every day we’re asked a question where we all go around and give our answer, which really helps me get out of my shell. This makes me feel more included in class discussions and therefore helps me to fulfill my mission.

Values:

Engagement:

In terms of engagement I think I have been more locked in this year than ever. I’ve been able to take away the message of every class and understand everything the teachers are telling me. A project that showed this off was my most recent one, Reaconciliaction part 2 Haida Gwaii. Now I unfortunately didn’t go on this trip, however while at home I felt very capable of managing the tasks I was given to do. I was able to stay engaged and focus on my work even when there wasn’t a teacher to tell me what to do. I also knew when to reach out to my teachers if I needed help.

Self Regulation:

I have continued to use the strategies that I talked about in my mpol, and improved on them to suit me best. I think this also feeds into the reconciliaction project, because I was able to contain myself and focus on the work without getting distracted.

Communication and Collaboration:

I think this was very well reflected in my spring exhibition. We were on quite a time crunch, being given only about a week to make the whole thing happen, but my group really stepped up our game and took on our own roles that matched what we were good at. We all communicated what we were doing very well and organized how we would represent each section of our topic. 

Conclusion:

So we are now at the end of my last ever tpol and it is genuinely shocking how much I think I’ve improved. From focus in class, to participation in discussions, I am really proud of how great of a learner I’ve become. But we can’t leave out the driving question, “Why am I ready to move on to the next grade?” I think this year has taught me so much about how to be an independent and engaged learner. I’ve grown so much by developing strategies to help me improve my focus, participation and collaborative skills. But despite all this I don’t feel ready for grade 12, nobody ever really does, but I know that this is the best next step for me as a learner. 

So on that note I will be signing off, thank you for reading or watching my last ever tpol, and I hope you’ve gained new insight on how I have improved as not just a learner, but as a person.