“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.”
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Last T-pol… wowie, I can’t believe that I am in grade 12 next year – actually crazy. A part of me wants to just stay in Grade 11 as I have had a great time. I’ve grown a lot and for once, I have actually felt balanced throughout the whole year with how I approach my learning.
At the start of the year we had to create our VMV – our vision, mission and values. Mine revolved around wanting to bring the way I think to the next level (and as always share my thoughts more openly.) I know that when I share my ideas, I get feedback, and from that, I grow.
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To my surprise, as I looked back on what helped me grow most in relation to my VMV, I kept coming back to Macbeth. I worked on it with two of my close friends, Susan and sofia – ironically, that’s part of what made it so challenging. Sharing in group settings is always a part of my goal, but I really wanted to push myself to challenge others ideas.
In this project, all three of us had different visions and creative styles, so we went back and forth a lot trying to make decisions. We definitely wasted a bit of time doing this, but I actually think that our back-and-forth was valuable. It gave me the opportunity to say what I really thought and oppose other ideas. Because we were friends it was both easier and harder: easier to speak up, but scarier because I didn’t want to upset my friends.
In the end I think Macbeth was a great example of me growing into my vision, practicing compromising, collaborating and communicating honestly. A skill I will continue to grow on.
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Like all years I wanted to answer more questions and blah blah, same old, same old. But this time I didn’t want to just “try harder” – it was about digging deeper into my ideas and challenging my own thinking to build up my own voice and confidence.
One project that really challenged me to think deeply and make my own strong connections was The Legacy of Hiroshima project with Mr. Gibson. We know by now that I am not the biggest history geek so sometimes its just harder for me to make connections between big, complex events. But through this project, I looked at the bombing of Hiroshima through an ethical and moral sense which I was quuite interested in. We used the book Hiroshima by John Hersey as our main text.
Each chapter I wrote a few notes and really just dumped my brain out. I wrote quotes, questions and thoughts. But then, through the journal entries, I took those messy ideas and shaped them into structured reflections. This helped me really build on my thinking, so by the time I wrote my final essay I was having a blast. I was supa proud of the connections I made and how I used my own thoughts and my own questioning to say something meaningful.
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Now, the projects that challenged me the most were strangely the creative, artsy ones – the animating and the scrapbooking. I always had such grand ideas in my head, and then forget how long it actually takes to draw every frame or design every page.
When animating the Manhattan project video, my BCFP animation for status and indigeneity or working on my scrapbook for Haida Gwaii, I constantly had to go back, fix something and always be adapting things. I’d spend hours and hoooours working. Even though I kept doing the same thing to myself I got a little better each time. I realized how long these projects would take me and find a slightly easier way around them. I still cared about the aesthetic, but I learned to balance quality with time, even if I truly enjoy doodling for my scrapbook that doesn’t justify staying up late and burning myself out.
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I am very happy with the way I have handled my workload this year. Obviously I have had weeks were all my due dates and tests line up but that happens to the best of us. But what matters is how I came out the other side still having done my best work. What helped me was using tutorial quite well, using class time to the best extent and just putting in the time to get my work done. In the past years, I never fully finished things in one go which made everything build up on itself. This year I made it a goal to finish things on time and surprise surprise, that made everything less stressful.
I have found a rhythm in how I learn, reflect and grow. I’ve learned how to manage my time, stay curious, and take pride in my work. I know Grade 12 will come with new challenges, but I also know, in the past 4 years of high school, I have built up a strong foundation to face them with confidence. Although slightly scared, I truly feel ready to move into grade 12.