Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert of 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 giving me feedback I can use to improve as a learner.
It is hard to believe that another year has already passed. It feels like last September was just a week ago. This year I have grown, learned, and reflected more than ever. In this TPOL we will explore this, and I will prove to you that I am ready for grade 11.
Throughout this year I have been reflecting on my VMV—my vision, mission, and values. The statement I wrote at the start of the year stated:
To impact myself and those around me positively, I always show up as the person who will do that. I remove unnecessary stressors so that I’m always available to take care of myself and be kind to others. I am a person who makes sure that my mental health and physical health are properly prioritized (i.e., going to peer-to-peer support groups like Gals and Pals, swimming, and singing in choir) while still maintaining high grades that will gain me access to a well-regarded post-secondary institution. I stay connected to my community by singing in our school choirs and impacting this community positively by being a role model to younger students. I stay devoted to myself before anyone else, because at the end of the day, I am all I have, so I must serve myself and the people around me in a way that aligns with my values.
I have mostly fulfilled this. Of course I can’t be perfect, but I have taken the steps to be the best version of me so that I can be there for myself and others. I try my best and realize that I can only do so much. I have stayed connected to the choir community, stayed devoted to myself, and maintained my grades, which writing out makes me realize how much I really have put in this year. That’s not to say that I have always felt balanced and well and happy. It’s been far from easy, especially as some of the people I care for most have definitely not had great years. This has caused me to put an immense amount of pressure on myself, and at points I have felt quite helpless. The only reason I got through this was my support system. Had I not had all of them, I don’t know where I would be right now, but it definitely wouldn’t be as self-assured and successful as I am right now.
There were also 3 sections that I chose to focus on: engagement, self-regulation, and conduct and integrity. As you may recall, at my MPoL, I calculated my average for demonstrating each of these success behaviours in our projects overall. I talked about how I hoped to improve my averages before my TPoL. Sadly they have not improved, but in fact they have dropped. However, though my average may have dropped, I have grown more in this semester than the calculations show. I have ended this semester with an 80% in self regulation, and 93% in conduct and integrity and engagement. Since these stats haven’t changed much, in this pol I have chosen to focus more on the my vision and mission sections of my VMV.
(a rating in a blog post)
A year ago, looking at these numbers would have made my stomach drop and spun me into a spiral. I am not the me of last year anymore, though.
Every year I pick a word to live by. In my last TPOL, I expressed my desire to be resilient in grade 10. I think that this shift in mindset perfectly expresses this.
So sure this demonstrates growth, this demonstrates learning, but how can I reflect on my experiences from this year to prove that I am ready for grade 11? There are 3 projects this year that we have done that I think can help with this. They are what I think is the best work I have created this year, maybe even in all of school. They are examples of how I am able to use my time wisely, find topics that interest me, and connect my ideas to make deep, insightful work.
In the Juno Beach project, I demonstrated my ability to learn from past errors. In the first project we did this year, I felt I didn’t create the best work I could because of planning issues and a bad outline. I took the lesson I learned from this and created possibly the best writing I have ever created.

Screenshot
In the Change Makers project, I demonstrated how I continue to push myself to use different media to customize my project. I have never been someone who likes to edit videos. I have made this known for a very long time. I just don’t like things I’m not good at. What was different this time was the passion I had for my idea. Even though I’m not great at editing, because I cared so much about my idea and the story I was telling, I made a great video. Watch it here:
In our most recent project, “Definitely NOT the 51st State!” I showed my ability to adapt my learning style by quickly learning to use the Zettlekasten system thoroughly. By using this system so well, by the time that we were ready to create our speeches, I could just use one of my permanent notes as the basis. Because of this, I then had the time to revise my speech a total of 5 full times and almost fully memorize it, which made it more impactful and easy to deliver. I have always enjoyed public speaking, and this project showed me that I have the skills to be good at it.
Overall, I am very happy with my progress. I have done my best and done well. That’s all I or anyone else can ask of me. I look forward to this summer where I will be focusing on “experience” and this fall where I will be focusing on “diligence”.
Checking out until September.
Neko