Welcome to my grade 9 mid-year presentation of learning. This blog post is to demonstrate my learning over the last few months and to express where I had successes and FAILs. This post is not related to any class or project, I am merely expressing my thoughts on the learning I have done this year.

What is FAIL?

FAIL stands for First Attempt In Learning. One example of when I FAILed this year was in our “People and the Environment” project where we had to mail letters to Canadian politicians about an environmental issue. At the beginning of the project, I tried to become and advocate for Quebec independence for environmental reasons. I wanted to write a letter to Bloc Québécois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet about how Quebec independence would be beneficial for the local environment. Unfortunately, the teachers rejected my proposal and changed the project guidelines from mailing letters to federal politicians, to mailing letters to provincial politicians. I was a bit disappointed that my dreams of an independent Quebec were shattered, but at least I got the change I was looking for.

Time Management and Procrastination

By far, my biggest challenge this year was procrastination and not using my time efficiently. I usually finish almost all of my work at school but when I was assigned work to do at home, I would try to put it off for as long as possible. Luckily, I came up with a system to use my time efficiently. After I arrive home, I give myself 30 minutes to rest, before tackling my work. When I have multiple assignments to do, I do them in order of when they are due, so I can divide my work evenly throughout the week. The app Things has been very helpful for this solution as it allows me to get an overview of what I have to do and when I have to finish my assignments. For the rest of the year, I would like to be able to use my time more efficiently, so that I can finish my assignments on time, and that they meet my standards. I’m glad I managed to solve this problem early as it hasn’t affected my grades yet and that I have developed a good habit that I can continue for years.

Did your work meet your standards?

I would say that overall, my work met my standards but there are some exceptions I would like to continue working on. For example, some of the work that met or exceeded my expectations were the letter I wrote to the provincial minister of transportation and my poem book. Some of the work that didn’t exactly meet my standards was the data chart I made for the Correlation Vs Causation project. I still think I made a decent graph but I could have done better. One reason for this could be because that project was a group project. I still work well in groups and I got along well with my partner but I still think I work better independently. I would say that I have higher standards for my work than most other students in PLP 9. 

What did you find frustrating about PLP work?

One time I was disappointed with the feedback from my work didn’t come from the PLP teachers, but instead, the BC government. A few months after I mailed my People and the Environment letter to the minister of transportation, I got a response. In my letter, I wrote about the benefits of zero emission vehicles and I pointed out a few flaws in the BC government’s plan to ban gas vehicles by 2040. In response, I received a passive-aggressive letter from the department of energy resources about how the BC government had done nothing wrong and that my ideas simply would not work. What really angered me was when they included two very long links to reports the BC government had written. To be completely honest, I did not open the links because they were very long and I didn’t want to manually type it in. I felt as if someone had disrespected me and my work by sending me such a bland response.

What skills do I need to continue developing and what skills do I use well?

One skill I think I used really well is filming and video editing. I actually quite like video editing and I was excited to show my skills in the Chemistry Stories animated video and in the Working with Words about me video. I think that adding simple things like music and smooth animation go a long way in improving the quality of a video.

Something I could work on would probably be paying attention to instructions.

For example, in the Chemistry Stories project, I made a scientific inaccuracy in my animated video.

If I had simply paid attention more in class or double checked my research I could have prevented

this mistake.

What is one piece of work that you put a lot of effort into?

One piece of work I put a lot of work into would be the poem book I wrote. I spent lots of time revising and rewriting my poems so that they would have a good flow and show my worldview. Of the 9 poems I wrote, I would say my imagery poem is my favourite one. I used a perfect balance of worldview and imagery to create a scene in the mind of the reader. I also used a advanced vocabulary and spent a long time creating a complementary drawing. I also put in lots of effort into my self-portrait poem. When I was first writing this poem, I had some struggles because I didn’t want my poem to sound to egotistical, but I realized that my ego is a big part of my personality, so I doubled down and wrote exclusively about how highly I think of myself. This shows a shift in my goals as I worked on the assignment.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my presentation. I am the expert of my learning. I am responsible and accountable for my learning. I believe I have given an honest and accurate evaluation of my progress. I believe that my success as a learner has grown extremely far over the last year and a half. For the rest of the year, I want to continue the high quality of my work while improving on my time management and overall efficiency. I believe that the skills, traits, and lessons I have learned this year and last year will take me to high places. I am very optimistic for my future.