I’m back! This was our first project in PGP EVER, and I was really excited to do it. This project was based around the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. This books is centred around the idea of improving by 1% everyday. I really like this idea becuase it means that you still get progress but you dont have to put your all into every aspect of your life that you want to do well in. That’s just a recipie for burnout. After reading this book and doing many activities on it, we make artifacts to represent our learning. Read more to find out about mine!
The driving question for this was :
How can small changes in my habits shape my success this year, and beyond?
I implemented this through my artifact. I chose pick many topics from the book to show my understanding. My artifact was a desk redesign and I chose this becuase it was truly useful to me. By organizing and making this space welcoming it is ready to serve me for years to come. I did a really good job of picking an artifact that works for me, not just something that I thought would get an A. It’s been two weeks as of now and my desk truly has turned into a study space. Everything I outlined worked and I am very proud of myself.
Read and look at my artifact here: https://poets-find-fp9.craft.me/lA9sMCIGVBTB47
I couldn’t just get there though. It took a lot of work. We did this project at the same time as a big humanities/maker project which forced me to really evaluate what was worth spending my time on. This is really pushed me to time block to make sure I could get a proper deep understanding of the topics.
One of the pieces of this project was really awful for me. I have ADHD and because of that I’m very sensitive to background noise (listen to our class podcast The World Needs More Canada) to go through a simulation I made of this. We had two tests on this book. That first one was find. The room was quiet and I had had a good day so far so it was easier to bear. The second test fell on a bad day for me. I had had choir early in the morning, and likely French beforehand. This was not a good set up. As soon as I sat down to take it I started shaking. I have anxiety and it’s really spiked by tests, as I have a very bad habit of measuring my self worth against my grades. With my anxiety already running rampant, all of the little noises drove me nuts. I understood the concept completely and I think I wrote a good quiz, but everyone else was finishing faster. This made my anxiety worse. Add the guys next to me loudly whispering about brawl stars, and its no wonder I had a mini anxiety attack. The big takeaway for me from this was that I did go ask for the accommodations I’m legally allowed to have. I got up and was allowed to use my headphones for white noise which helped but the drama was already done. In the future I hope to advocate for myself in advance.
The core competency for this project was personal social : “I take purposeful action to support others and the environment, advocate for my rights, and take responsibility for my choices, actions, and achievements. I use my strengths to contribute to my communities.” I showed this by picking a project that worked for me. I advocated for my rights by using my accommodations to use headphones in the stressful test. I took responsibility for my choices by planning in advance for when I would make the artifact instead of doing it last minute and badly.
By adding all these atomic steps together I created a insightful artifact that fully communicated my understanding of atomic habits. My artifact will serve me for years to come to come and remain relevant in my life.
Until Next time!
neko