Introduction
Thank you for coming to my mPOL presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning, and I am 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, and I will showcase evidence to support these statements. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.
So, here we are, my grade 10 mPOL. It’s doesn’t seem long ago that I was in grade 8, preparing every last second for my first mPOL, and scared out of my wits for it. I have come a long way since then, at least in my ability for this kind of thing: to speak without script, present without fear, and most of all, speak my own words and tell a story of my learning and experience in PLP.
My Vision, Mission and Values: How have I Grown, and How can I Grow?
First, I want to talk about my VMV, which stands for Vision, Mission and Values, and is a system of objectives we established early on in the school year. The idea of the VMV is to create a vision, what you see yourself experiencing when you graduate from high school. Then to create a mission, where you will follow through with different areas of growth in order to see progress towards your idealized future.
Looking back on the VMV I created, I think the vision I made for myself is still on point to what I desire and am working toward, and I think what I said about having insight and experience that will guide me into who I want to become is very relevant to my growth this year. I have experienced lots of growth in my identity, and developed more visions to work toward, but how have I already worked toward those visions?
The mission I set for my VMV, to refine my curricular and extra-curricular skills and habits, and to make realistic goals to see progress, is also one I can get behind, but do I think I have fulfilled these expectations?
Yes and no. As you can see, there is a thermometer which represents that growth is only at 60%, and it shows that I have experienced some satisfactory growth, but also some struggles, I will delve deeper into how this interprets my growth. On one side, I have grown school wise, and my ability to create things that I truly enjoy and put my best efforts into has only gotten stronger.
However, applying this enthusiasm to everyday habits and cultivating the three core competencies in my VMV has been something that has seen growth, but also inconsistency. As you can see, my three VMV competencies are Agency, self regulation and preparation, which have all continued to require but also experience growth in my learning in PLP. Going back to the thermometer, its true lack of temperature is due to this, but how have I shown growth through projects in grade 10 PLP?
Smart Brevity WWII, how to put your writing to the test
Well, an important project I am highlighting is the Save Juno Beach Project for Humanities we did, where we learned about WWII through doing things like watching Saving Private Ryan, and really placing ourselves in that time period in order to learn about the profound aftershock of impact WWII had on everything. Part of this project was showcasing our knowledge of the scope of WWII using a tool called smart brevity, which is actually a highlight of my learning this year in PLP.
Writing has always been one of my strong suits in PLP, and Smart Brevity is a lens on writing, particularly the idea of efficiency in communicating information efficiently. It was created for particularly conveying information on articles and news, but it can be used in other ways. Here is my smart brevity note on the WWII aspect of the industrial boom in manufacturing specifically in Canada. Here is the brevity note broken down.
At the top you have the muscular tease, a statement that will grab attention from the reader. Then you have the lead sentence or in my case, lead sentences, and then the axioms.
The axioms are opened with a, “backstory” section, intended to catch you back up on the important events of WWII. Then there are the following axioms like a “why it matters” section to give the reader a reason to be interested, and the next axioms will be things like “by the numbers” for statistics, and a kind of driving question or other focuses on the subject.
Anyways, smart brevity changed the way I perceived concise writing, but how did it connect with another aspect of PLP, collaboration? The driving question for this mPOL was to show, how can I continue to grow in my collaboration with others? Well learning smart brevity is also a skill very relevant to cooperation. In fact, PLP teachers often use different aspects of it to teach the class. The skills from it will help me grow to share my ideas and prove my learning.
You Become New with Every Breath: Mindset Shifting
Now we are approaching the end of my mPOL presentation, and I want to talk about how I have and continue to grow my mindset around the snowballing of a workload. I have been overwhelmed this year, and its my own doing. But when work piles up, its hard to face it and easier to hide behind distractions, or simply, put in minimal effort at the last second. I care about school, which is why its been such a wake up call for me to discover this.
You are a new person with every breath, is a quote from my dad, and it is the idea that with every breath, imagine you are reset, but not your circumstances. You must live with any decision that was made, and learn from it. In the topic of snowballing schoolwork, this means to simply start chipping away at it, every day. Dwelling and hiding from it will not change anything, taking action will.
This concludes my 2025 mPOL, thanks for listening!
