Mr./Ms. (teacher’s name), this is my mom, Christa Smith. D

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.

The most interesting thing I learned was Tinkercad because  it’s cool.  It’s based on design. I like designing things. Tinkercad gives me ultimate freedom to design. I use it in my free time to design trains, of course.  Link to ultimate design

I find find growth charts, MPOL and tpols the most boring because they are frustrating because I save them to the last minute.  I have a really hard remembering things so reflecting is hard. I struggle with negative self talk these days. I think because I’m a teenager. I have a very hard time taking praise so praising myself is next to impossible. To cope I act like my work is complete garbage even though I know it isn’t. I also wait until the last minute or it’s overdue. I feel pathetic with these assignments they make me look like a failure because I wait so long to start them. 

With Tinkercad I had lots of freedom to do the assignment.  With the learning charts and pols I have limited freedom on how I can finish it. With Tinkercad or any design app I learn I am confident and know I can find any solution.  With learning charts I feel that when I talk about myself it goes down hill really fast. I feel depressed and just want to ignore them. 

My strategies to complete assignments were Simple. I winged it. It worked sometimes. I’m better at trading criteria now instead of just guessing what the teacher wanted me to do. I made a decision to actually read through the Basecamp stuff so I knew what to do. I need a lot more support with time management. Especially on the big projects breaking them into smaller chunks. I need to ask my mom to remind me what things are due when so I can get help on them. I need to go to my mom’s to get work done when it’s a dad week. I can’t concentrate at my dad’s and I just forget about school work when I’m there. 

For sure I FAILed in time management. I am still working on it. I got better in second semester because I had LAC. They helped me managed my time and helped keep track of due dates. They reminded me by telling me what was coming up. It helped me get my assignments done in time more often. It helped me at home too because I had a quiet place to work a few times a week. I don’t find the school work hard. I find it hard to keep track of it all. I learned that I will still need help with time managing in grade 9 but I am getting a little but better.

If you want an actual example of FAIL, when I was doing my Chemistry Coding mind map I got some feedback from Mr. Harris.  I revised it and it was much better. I got a sunny in the end. I learned that I can always use a bit of feedback. Teachers are trying to help me with my work.

I am good at using LAC time appropriately by finishing up my work. That way I have less work to do at home. I know the tutorials for things are in the morning but I need that time to have a break and preparing my brain for the day. If I don’t have that morning break I lose my temper more easily. I need to figure out how to make the soft start and tutorials co-exist. I didn’t find a way this year. Asking for help is really hard. Teachers tell me to show up to the tutorials but if I do that instead of soft start that I can’t manage my temper. I’m not sure what to do about that. 

Atomic models and atomic theory quiz were good because it was scimatics. I understood it better than humanities because there is a right or wrong answer. I’m kind of black and white like that. Link to atomic model 

Ultimate design and tinkercad were fun because there was a clear right and wrong way to do the work. Including and design and math with trains meant I had unlimited freedom to show what I knew. 

In the PLP exhibition I showed people how I used. Tinkercad. It was easy. I wouldn’t say I was a good teacher but the video spoke for itself.
 

I found Khan quizzes simple and easy. I took the tests more than once so I could get a good grade. I still learned things that way and it was fun.

Scimatics work book assignments were too because I followed the instructions. I did the readings and answered the questions. I also like scimatics because it is chill and laid back. Mr. Harris is also chilled and laid back. He made it easy to learn because I was so relaxed. 

Am I ready for grade 9? Yes I am. It is quite simple. Every new grade I go into I can tackle like a champ. I am getting better and better every year at managing myself. Considering from grade 5-7 I had 100% EA supervision I think I handled grade 8 like a champ. It was a big change not having someone with me all the time. Sure. I messed up from time to time but that is normal for me. I think I am going to be able to handle things better next year. I think you do too.