For the past four months, I’ve been learning and growing creatively in PLP. I’ve overcome difficult projects and changing and learning to thrive in new environments. One of the main ideas of PLP is reflection and improving from past mistakes and accomplishments. So I’m writing this as a way to look back on projects I’m proud of and projects that I would improve.
I know that I’ve talked a lot about my other projects in my previous reflections so I’ve decided to talk more about my learning journey and the growth and failures I’ve encountered throughout that journey. I will be using different projects to show my progressions and set backs but I want to focus more on what they taught me about my own learning that the actual creation of them.
One of my original reasons to join PLP was so that I could work on improving my public speaking skills. For years my goal in school was to talk more in school and contribute to the class more frequently. I’ve always had this anxiety around always being considered the “smart kid” or the one to ask for help. So contributing to class was difficult because I was scared of getting the answer wrong and being made fun of. This pressure was difficult because definitely affected my ability to be anything other than perfect because what if I was judged? Or did I look weird? These questions would haunt me every singe time I was about to start a presentation. Throughout my past couple of months in PLP I’ve slowly started to leave behind my fears because I’ve tried to leave behind parts of myself that I didn’t like.
One of the most important parts of my learning was our learning plans. I was able to decide on how I wanted to grow as a learner early in the year. Ive always wanted to become a more confident learner and presenter which is quite important in PLP. I surprisingly enjoyed creating my learning plan because I got to express how I wanted to be as a learner early in the year.
Learning Plan 2022-23
I first started to notice my progress in creating more confidence in myself when we started our Outsider project. We worked in randomized group, so I couldn’t rely on my friends support. We worked together to create the final product, but to build up to that we had to make smaller, individual projects. After each smaller project we made we had to present it to our group. The first time I presented I was so nervous and all the way up to my presentation I tried to find an excuse to leave. In the end I did actually present and it went quite well. Everyone was surprisingly supportive and I felt as though I gained a lot of new confidence from that moment on.
For the majority of my projects I’ve put out for others to see, I’ve known that I would use a certain style of writing and that I would just write the project and submit it. So when I had to actually create a video about why I think a book is a good fit to become a movie. I’ve always disliked talking into a camera, because it felt uncomfortable. So when I had to create an entire video of just me speaking, I tried to put it off because I strongly disliked the idea of speaking into the camera. When I created my original video, I was quite nervous on how it would be viewed by the teachers. I ended up feeling proud of my video because I put in a lot of effort and tried to use new skills. Although the teachers didn’t feel the same. I got a revision on my video because the teachers noticed that I did not add enough new skills to show improvement.
After seeing the revision mark I had a small panic attack. It felt like I failed myself and that I had just proved that I shouldn’t speak out as much. But instead of procrastinating because I felt annoyed with myself I just sucked it up and stayed working again. In the end I got a good mark but having to create a new video changed my outlook on using a different style to create my work.
Since I’ve always had difficulty with public speaking, when I first heard about the winter exhibition I thought that I was really bad at presenting and that I was going to embarrasses myself. Surprisingly though, once I had actually made my entire box I felt quite proud and I wanted to show it off. At this point, I had already furthered my confidence quite significantly so instead of having an unhealthy amount of nervous butterfly’s building up towards the exhibition, I felt like I needed it to be sooner because I felt so excited. So when I finally got to start presenting I became this extremely extroverted version of myself, who would start the conversation and give a perfect presentation of the top of my head. I tried putting myself out there and it felt really good to just present my box which I was so proud of myself for creating. We had to create a new blog post which I’ve linked below!
One project I really enjoyed creating was our interesting images. We got to explore different styles of photography and learn new techniques. I’ve always loved photography and how its created, so being able to learn new skills related to photography was a great opportunity. We got to go outside and explore what we thought would be the best area to create new photos to present.
Making interesting images copy
Throughout the past 5 months I’ve seen myself grow as a person and a learner. I know that I’ve learned new ways on how to create in numerous styles and how to independently work. One of my favourite things about PLP is how it’s taught me how to depend on myself to work without needing to rely on a plentiful of instructions. Yet I’ve also learned how to work in new environments and new people everyday.
Ive seen myself change to become a better learner and teammate throughout my time in PLP. The progress I’ve made is indescribable but I know that I can and that I will continue to grow throughout the rest of the year.