“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.”
In the learning plan I set in September, I documented the goals I would be working towards, the proficiencies I wished to achieve, and the profiles at which I would do so. For both of my courses I set myself an extending goal. As of right now I have achieved this in both, on paper. The beginning of this year was odd and unfamiliar. Whether I should blame that on finally reaching senior year, or how different PLP had become is still unbeknownst to me. For the past 5 years I’ve been growing as a PLP learner, inching towards a goal of becoming a successful and active citizen. Our driving ideas each year and project have had some overarching theme related to society and/or humanity, that as my high school education comes to an end have become increasingly clear. Thus far, grade 12 has been a culmination of each big idea we’ve learned in the past. That being said we’ve only completed 4 projects so far. I’m excited to see what’s next.
“This year I am determined to build upon the habits and qualities that allow me to span my learning and confidence to each of the subject areas and even personal and social aspects of my life. I want to be an extending learner and the highest version of myself in my last year of PLP. Setting myself up outside of my comfort zone and pushing myself to my limits until I can progress to new, open and limitless learning.” (From my learning plan)
In September we were introduced to Ms. Madsen, one of the new additions to PLP’s ever growing family. With her guidance we were introduced to dystopia through classic novels and media. This project provided my first opportunity to display my understanding of how specific genres of media often convey messages and reflect on societal issues, characteristics, and trends. I read George Orwell’s 1984, the first classic I ever read. Initially I didn’t know what to expect being so used to modern writing. However in reading and analyzing the novel’s themes, I was able to reflect on them, and make a strong, well evidenced claim that they relate to American society today. Within the first humanities project of the year, I had the opportunity to write, a lot. I’m thankful that I was able to do so right out of the gate, I felt that it helped me set a standard of writing this year, something I like to stay consistent with. I’ve really struggled with different styles of writing that I am less familiar with this year. Having a fresh set of eyes and a brand new overarching topic was incredibly helpful transitioning into our biggest project thus far. Final note on dystopia, learning the genre in an individual project format gave me loads of room to explore subtopics I was interested in and contributed to my understanding of how genre’s reflect people and ideas. I felt like this project, while not the most challenging for me, was hugely foundational in understanding our following project.
Horror is an incredibly complex and layered genre. I’ve grown to love it after hating it for essentially my entire life. The launch into this project was set in Seattle, having us search for initial answers to questions about the fundamentals of the genre. I go in depth on what forms this launch learning took in my horror project portfolio post. Essentially in Seattle I focused on harnessing the note taking and inquiry based skills I’ve been working on for the past year and applied them to each exhibit and experience we had. This went as far as audio recording our haunted house experience to look back on in search of what scared us the most. After the base was set, I very unfortunately caught the awful PLP flu and was absent for the first week of film planning. Despite this hurdle, I was determined to place myself in a leading role with a challenging twist. I have absolutely zero cinematography skills. I knew nothing about lighting and camera movements. Yet I had visions for how the pitch I was presented could look and more importantly scare. As director I was in my usual leadership position with the added discomfort of feeling like I didn’t know where I was leading. Visually I knew, mentally and intellectually I did not. Upon reflection, the film turned out good. Not great not terrible, but I can see where my leadership came through, and where it faltered. The horror project was an excellent opportunity to reflect on where I can learn to lead better, mostly highlighting where my communication and collaboration skills need work. The beautiful thing about the projects we’ve tackled this year, is that there is a clear connection in the idea of reflecting on people and society through different genres. I’m excited to see how my ideas flourish throughout the remainder of the year, especially if we continue down this road.
A note on PGP, the less consistent course of the two. PGP or CLC whichever you prefer, is focused mainly on transitions and personal reflection in grade 12. Aside from all I learned in our project with no name, a few ideas from our guest speakers really resonated with me.
- Never ask questions immediately after receiving instructions, at least try to figure it out yourself first, then ask good questions if you still need. – Owen Hope
- Nobody lives your university decisions more than yourself. – Luca Jacoe & Adlih Britton
- The Seycove bubble – Owen Hope
The form PGP took this past semester genuinely provided a lot of security and reassurance, especially in speaking with these people. These interviews tied in with the lessons learned in our nameless project gave me a well rounded idea of what I need to know and who I need to become going forward. The course, while on a sort of hiatus for now, provided me with the tools and ideas necessary for setting goals going forward.
Our shortest project by a significant amount of time taught us the history of women’s rights. That sounds like it deserves a much larger timeframe than 15 classes, but alas here we are. Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve been working on how I convey messages and information, trying to branch further than I have in the past. Well let me tell you, this project was gold for that purpose. Writing a children’s book is one thing. Writing a children’s book on the life and achievements of women’s rights pioneer Gloria Steinem is another. Alongside the production of this children’s book, the project gave me the opportunity to orally answer difficult questions as we strayed away from formal writing. It was challenging and I admittedly depended more on my partner than I would’ve liked. That being said, going forward a goal of mine is to be able to explain my ideas without having to display them on a page first. Orally communicating complex ideas is a skill I’ve yet to master and like most people, probably never will, but I’d love to see growth in this area as I tie off grade 12.
A page from our children’s book
Thank you for joining me in this presentation of learning. It is my last mPOL after all, a little bittersweet. Going forward I want to see myself achieving the smaller goals I’ve set out in this presentation. However what is perhaps more pressing is my lack of obviously and blatantly flexing my learning. As someone with the desire for an extending + grade, I need to be more clear and direct with how I’ve demonstrated sophisticated connections and flex opportunities in each project. I’m more anxious than ever at the impending graduation in just 4 months, luckily the learning I’ll continue to do in humanities, and the hardcore reflection and celebrations I’ll have in PGP will keep me grounded and excited for what’s to come.
