Driving Question: I feel I am ready to move onto grade 9 as I have developed and grown as a learner not only according to the curricular competencies but also on my own terms. 

Grade 8. Possibly one of the most stressful years so far in my learning career. It’s the pivotal year in learning as it’s the transition from elementary school to high school. Now I know what you might be thinking. “What about middle school”? Well, in British Columbia, most school districts don’t have middle schools. That’s why it’s so hard for us. A different teacher for every class, homework, and the workload. Compared to high school, elementary school is like a walk through the park it’s so easy. Regardless, it’s over for me. It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to comprehend everything that happened but it’s over. Grade 8 gave me the building blocks to move onto higher levels of education. Now I’m onto bigger and better things in grade 9. So let’s take a look back at what made me who I am in grade 8

For this Mid Year Presentation of Learning, the goal of mine is to have a positive mindset when given new learning opportunities. Lately I have struggled with this. Whenever I get something else to do I look at it in a negative way. In the past years I would always finish my work early and ask for more to keep me occupied. Unfortunately in high school the workload is much higher so I have trouble keeping a positive mindset when given new learning opportunities. I want to change that by reflecting on it today.

Let’s see how I’ve grown In my Maker class. Throughout the year we’ve undertaken 5 Maker projects. The Big Life Journal which was our first project. The Power of a Pencil, the Star-Wars Mini Blue-Sky, Destination Imagination and our COVID Photo Essay My best work that reflects this node is from my Corona Photo Essay. This project reflects my growth as a learner because I developed a passion for photography and videography through this project itself. It showed me composition, rule of thirds and other great photography techniques. I thoroughly believe that this project helped me grow as a learned and become a more well-rounded person. It showed growth on my own terms by myself taking the initiative to pursue something that I enjoyed. I would say this project paid off and I’ve already taken some videos. Throughout maker, I’ve definitely displayed my negative mindset for more work but I think I can overcome that by focusing on the big idea of maker which is making stuff as I love building. I think I am ready to move to the next level in Maker as I showed how I can be creative and take initiative in the subject.

To show my growth in our Humanities class, I picked out our Renaissance Project out of the 4 others, The Medium Is The Message, Knockin’ on Heavens Door, The Dark Ages and our latest project, Every Object Tells A Story. I picked this project to show my growth as a learner as I’ve always been interested in historic leaders and their impact on the world today. As there were many extremely influential leaders from the renaissance. Although I’m not the fondest of humanities, I showed drive in this project as I wanted to learn more about the renaissance and I did. It showed my growth through my initiative to learn more about the Renaissance, the leaders, the paintings, the culture and I even learned how to spell Renaissance on the first try. I think this subject is where I need to improve my attitude most. Since I am not as keen to do humanities work I really need to keep a positive mindset to do the best I can. I think I can achieve this by showing how interested I am in each aspect of the project. I showed my proficiency and ability to move to the next level in humanities to forging the path ahead for myself even if it isn’t my favourite subject.

The next subject to focus on is Sciematics. We had 5 sciematics projects this year but the one I enjoyed the most was Argh Matey. I really enjoyed this project as it incorporated biology with drawing, two things that I love. I definitely showed growth through this project as I barely even knew what a cell was before but then I grew a love for it and now it’s one of the better subjects in my opinion. I’d say that in this subject, my goal isn’t as prominent as in the other subjects as I quite enjoy sciematics so I usually have a pretty positive mindset when it comes to sciematics work. Although I still could work on it a bit. I think I can move to grade 9 in Sciematics as it is one of my more favoured subjects and I have an advanced  understanding of it compared to the other subjects.

The final subject that I will talk about is PGP. Since we didn’t have any PGP meetings or projects other than the start this paragraph will be pretty much the same. The first thing that I want to talk about in PGP is THINGS. Things is a godly app that helps me organize my life. It’s basically a homework reminder app that helps me stay on task and keep up with my schoolwork. Things is definitely the first step for reaching my learning goal and having a more meaningful experience in PLP. Another thing that we learned how to use efficiently in PGP was TIME-BLOCKING. Time-blocking is another way to keep track of your homework. The only difference is that time-blocking is a bit more advanced. When you time-block, you set up your entire day so that you stay organized and know everything you have to do for that day. Time-blocking is also another way for me to reach my learning goal. The final thing that I will talk about in this PGP segment was our trip to OREGON. Oregon was an extremely meaningful experience for me. It meant a lot to get to know more about the class and that definitely contoured the process in which we get to know our class-mates. In Oregon I learned so much and it was much better than simply writing a test or creating a poster. It created new opportunities and helped me understand our unit much better. PGP is a subject where you forge the path ahead and create your own work. That is why I always have a positive mindset for PGP. In PGP I can move up to grade 9 as I’ve reflected over myself throughout this year and am willing to make changes to move up a level.

Now, to the goal and conclusion. Overall, I believe that grade 8 was a great experience as it gave me the tools I needed to create my own successful life. My work ethic over the past year I would say has been great. After my reflection at the MPOL, my work habits have also improved. I now do the work almost as soon as I get it. I still could improve my routine but the biggest area of improvement for me would definitely be what my goal was based around. That is having a positive mindset when given new learning opportunities or extra work. I think the main way I will combat this is to put myself in a happy place. I could listen to music, take a walk or even just go for a bike ride. I am able to move up to grade 9 as I’ve reflected on myself, ideas and work ethic and made changes for PGP. Showed an advanced understanding in Sciematics. Taking initiative to learn more in Maker, and I’ve stayed driven in times where I may not be as interested in Humanities.