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.

In roughly 85 days, I, and all the grade 10s, will be off to grade 11. Crazy, right? We will have been at Seycove for approximately 3240 hours. That’s a lot of hours. 

Am I ready for grade 11, though? Well, thats what I’m here to answer. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Around 1030 days ago, I stepped into Seycove Secondary. Hair long, backpack filled, nerves flowing. 

Over the next 3 years, I’ve had ups, I’ve had downs, but in both, I learned. Not only through the actual education, but through the interactions I’ve had with such a variety of amazing classmates. One thing I’ve really learned in my time here at Seycove, is that people are beautiful, and not what they seem. 

To begin my tPOL, I’m gonna tell you about my Vision, Mission, Values chart. 

The VMV 📊

At the beginning of grade 10, we all made a chart describing who we wanted to be when we graduated Seycove. I decided to be remembered for the person I was at Seycove, rather than the academic journey I had. Of course, I’d love to be remembered to being a good student, but when people are 45 years old, they don’t remember the valedictorian, or who had the highest grade in the class, but they’ll remember who had an impact on them emotionally or socially. I’d like to think I’ve made significant progress on my goal over the last year. I feel extremely comfortable communicating and bonding with all of my PLP peers, and, I hope, they feel the same about me. That’s something I definitely could not have said this time last year. I believe that I’ve capitalized on things I said I would, like citizenship, respect, and enthusiasm. 

Although I’ve made big strides towards my goal, some of my success behaviours will need to improve in grade 11. Things like class participation, feedback distribution, and helpfulness are things that’ll have to improve upon to fully achieve my goal. Next year, I hope to have my VMV posted somewhere, either on my wall, or somewhere else accessible, so that I can see it more often than I did this year. 

Curating Projects For Myself (And Being a Chameleon) 👨‍🍳

In my mPOL earlier this year, I talked about how I succeed in projects in which I care about what I’m learning about, and how I need to find ways to make myself like every project. 

I think I’ve done a much better job of curating projects to fit my interests and what I like to talk about. An example I’d like to talk about is our “Definitely Not The 51st State” project. 

The final piece of evidence for this project was to write a 2-minute speech about Canadian identity. 

I wasn’t super confident going into this project, because I wasn’t sure if I’d be a good speech writer. 

When I was told we could choose our topic, my mind immediately went to hockey. When people think of me, they think of hockey. But, for once, I didn’t wanna make this project too easy, and I didn’t want to seem like a one-trick pony. I talk about hockey enough, anyways. 

I’ll use a UFC example to explain my thought process here. Say I’m a fantastic grappler, and my opponent is a terrible grappler. Now, it would be really easy if I were to just walk into the octagon and submit him, but it would feel way better if I could prove I could do it all. I wanted to prove I was well-rounded.

However, I knew I needed to choose a topic that I would have fun writing about, in order to get the most out of me. 

“He may have actually picked the wrong club- to get the most out of him” – Jamie Carragher 

I decided to write about the Tragically Hip, something I’ve never talked about before, and something I’d have fun writing about. 

I discovered I really love writing, and I can create a convincing, engaging speech. 

Not only do I believe I wrote a good speech, but I had a lot of fun doing it. When I’m writing about something I’m passionate about and I care about, I sorta enter a flow state, and my thoughts just kinda travel from my brain, through my arms, out my fingers, and onto my iPad, without thinking. 

I think this whole situation proved that I’m adaptable, and I can notice flaws or characteristics about myself, and adapt to fix those on the fly. 

Having the confidence in knowing I can make those corrections on the fly will help me a lot in grade 11. Like a chameleon.

 

The TV Incident 📺

I learned a very valuable lesson near the end of the year. 

While planing for the spring exhibition, our group had to build this giant TV for us to be in. We kinda procrastinated working on it, and we ended up having it like half done the day prior to the exhibiton. I decided to stay at the school during lunch to work on it, hoping to get it done.

 I worked really hard on it, cutting, gluing, painting, the whole shabang. At around 1:44pm, I stepped back, and looked at what I had done. I was still unsatisfied, and it looked bad. That really upset me, I worked as hard as I could and gave up my lunch break to fix it, but it still looked, well frankly, like doodoo. You cant obsess over details, it’ll turn your hair grey. Sometimes, you can pour your heart into creating something, and end up not being happy with it. That happens, and it’s not your fault. Sometimes, things just are out of your skill range, and thats ok. I realized that being happy about what you can do is a heck of a lot more important than being upset about what you can’t. Also, you can always accomplish greater things as a team. 

Onto The Next One 💨

And to answer the question of “Why am I prepared for the next grade?”.

I believe the experiences, and lessons I’ve learned over the last 3 years- not just grade 10- have prepared me for grade 11. The commonality between all the ups, downs, lefts, and rights, was that at the end of each, I learned something.

The other main reason is I’m confident in my ability to adapt to different situations. I can be self-aware enough to notice characteristics, issues, or strengths that carry throughout my work, and can adjust on the fly. So no matter what faces in grade 11, I’ll be able to adapt. Like a chameleon. 

Adding onto that, I think my self-awareness in general is a big factor in why I’m ready for grade 11. I really know what I’m good at, and what I’m not, and I think I have the ability to access the resources I need in order to improve both. 

The Bottom Line 🤏

✅ I need to keep succeeding: Enthusiasm, citizenship, writing, respect, adaptability

❌ I need to keep developing: leadership, organization, critical thinking, class participation 

I’m excited for my future with PLP, and I’m excited to spend the next 2 years in PLP with such amazing people around me.