My journey to success

Sometimes the biggest lessons you learn in life don’t happen inside a classroom. Sometimes they happen in the middle of the forest, surrounded by people who slowly become your community.

Field Studies

The PLP program focuses on three main ways of learning, one of which is learning beyond the classroom. We go on field studies to gain real-life experiences and explore what the world outside of school is like.

Loon Lake

Recently, my class and I went to Loon Lake for a learning retreat, where we spent five days learning, growing, and acquiring skills we can apply to our lives. Going into Loon Lake, I didn’t have much of an idea of what I wanted to gain. It was my first field study, so I just wanted to get a grasp on what they are like and I wanted to grow closer to my classmates. While in Loon Lake, we had several workshops with a man named Jonathan Willcocks. We did risky things like climbing on a climbing wall and walking on high ropes, and we did activities as a group, all of which brought us so much closer as a learning team and taught very valuable life lessons.

Vision Mission Values

At the beginning of the year, I created my vision, mission, and values (see this blog post to learn more). These are goals and success behaviours I set at the beginning of the year as a plan for what I want grade 10 and the rest of high school to look like. A goal I set was to improve my collaboration skills. I reflected that I often have a hard time trusting my peers with work that is up to my standards, which leads me to do all of the work myself. My time at Loon Lake was very impactful for changing my mindset and struggles. We did an activity with trust falling where we took turns falling into each other’s arms, which gradually led up to me falling off a table into my peers’ arms. This activity was very impactful on me, my mindset, and my goal because it showed me how much I can trust my peers, both literally and figuratively. I know that we all have each other’s backs, and that during projects, I can communicate my struggles and trust that my peers will understand and prove my peers wrong. 

A Meaningful Moment

An important moment I had during Loon Lake happened on the first night. We had gotten our sleeping arrangements, and I wasn’t in a room with many of my close friends. At the beginning, I was very close-minded and even asked to switch rooms because I felt more comfortable with my closer friends. However, as Jono said, “in order to grow, you have to learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Staying in the room with people I wasn’t as familiar with was such an important part of the trip for me. We ended up talking and connecting all night. This experience not only brought me closer with my grade 10 class and gave me new connections and a new sense of community, but it also showed me how it is good to be uncomfortable because that is the only way you can learn something.

Evidence of my Learning

This is a video of the trust fall activity we did. This taught me that I can trust my peers and showed me my peers trust me, ultimately bringing us together as a PLP 10 community.

This is a poster I made displaying all of the things that define me, my values, and my passions. This exercise made the things that are important to me clear, making it easier to make decisions and live life by my values.

This is an exercise we did where we had to work together to pull strings and make a wooden A-frame walk. This tested my collaboration skills and forced us to work together to overcome challenges, bringing us closer together.

Success Behaviours

During this field study, I showed strength and struggled in every single one of the four PLP success behaviours: agency, grit, self-regulation, and community. I believe I really showed strength in community. At Loon Lake, I was kind and respectful to all of my peers. I listened to everyone’s ideas and perspectives, and I encouraged my peers in all of the activities and with their goals. I struggled with self-regulation. I didn’t have the best sleeps while I was there because I stayed up very late talking. This led to my social battery running very low and my attitude not always the best. Next time, I would prioritize and communicate how important my sleep is. That way, I will be recharged in the morning and more open to learning and collaborating.

 5-Day Goal

During Loon Lake, I learned how important it is for me to get enough sleep. It affects not only my mood but how I think and how I interact with people. My 5-day goal coming off of this experience is to get a minimum of 9 hours of sleep each night. I am going to do this by, each morning, planning out exactly what times I need to go to bed in order to reach my goal. I will need to give myself 30 minutes of time to prepare for bed and make sure I am not procrastinating so I get all of my homework and tasks done early and don’t have to stay up late. I will track my progress by marking it off on my calendar every day I reach my goal and I will keep myself motivated by rewarding myself with doing 15 extra minutes each day of something I love, this could be cuddling my dog, listening to my audiobook, etc. If I follow through with my goal, I will wake up each day feeling recharged and it will make the day so much easier and engaging.

Takeaways

This field study changed me as a learner because it pushed me to embrace discomfort, trust others, and push myself to connect with new people. It showed me that I need to regulate myself and stay rested in order to learn with an open mind and push myself to do things that are challenging. Through me connecting with, trusting, and supporting my peers, my experience at Loon brought the PLP 10’s so much closer and turned us from just classmates into a community and team.