Here we are, 2 more days of grade 9, at the beginning of grade 8, this seemed like a century away. Back then I expected to be a completely different person by now, all of my hardships fixed, a perfect student and person. And although I have picked up skills that have helped me better myself, I still have a lot to learn.

My Learning Statement

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.

Why do I Feel as if I’m Ready For Grade 10?

Looking forwards at grade 10, all I can picture is the huge amounts of work, all of the projects I will have to do, all of the late nights I will have to spend, and all of the groups I will have to work with, and that is scary. However, grade 9 has taught me several skills that will help me get through it.

I feel as if I am ready for grade 10 because I have spent this year improving and growing, not just as a student, but as a person. This year I faced so many difficult challenges and situations that pushed me put of my comfort zone. Group projects that tested my communication, difficult situations that tested my agency, and deadlines that tested my time management. Although it wasn’t easy, I learned how to over come challenges, how to problem solve, and how to improve from my mistakes. Grade 10 is not going to be easy, but I now feel so much more equipped to handle it

Introduction

I would love to write my Tpol about how much I have improved since Mpols and how much I have changed as a learner, however unfortunately that is not the case. I really struggled to write this reflection because not much has changed since the beggining of the year. Although I have had had quite a few wins, I still have the same struggles and the same goals going forwards.

F.A.I.L in Time management + Perfectionism

What went wrong?

In my vision mission and values statement, I wrote about how I wanted to work on balancing my life and keeping the bad stress away.

During my MPOL this year I reflected on that goal, and my hardships with it, and I made it a point to work on it even more. Unfortunately I would be lying if I told you my skills in time management, balance and fixing my perfectionism have improved this second half of the year, and I would be lying if I told you I even tried to improve. As you know, I am a huge perfectionist and It is very important to me that I do well in school and succeed in life. I really want to stop hyper fixating on projects. However, I’m scared that once I do a bit less than I normally do, I will stop getting the same positive results. This is why I haven’t even attempted to better myself in this aspect.

Mini Doc Project

A project where I really noticed my poor time-management and perfectionism was the Mini Doc project in maker. We were assigned with creating a short 2-4 minute documentary that told a meaningful story in my life or community. I created my documentary about my mom and how she turned the pain she went through in her past into her passion. This was a very hard project for me because at the beginning we were shown several professionally made documentaries for inspiration. The whole time while making my video, I was trying to get it to look like the examples that took several years, lots of money, and professional film makers to make. This caused me to spiral and spend so many hours trying to make it look perfect. After a long time working on it, I eventually had to hand it in. I was very not proud of my final product and I came into school feeling very ashamed and embarrassed of it. Except, when it was shown to the class I got a very positive reaction I was not expecting.  This project goes to show how impossible the standards I put on myself are.

Moving forwards

My ultimate goal for next year is to, even if it is hard, focus on doing what is expected of me first, and then if I have time going back and adding the extra pizzaz. Also, I am going to start communicating my struggles with my teachers, that way I can talk to them about what they expect of me, and they can assist me in knowing when to stop working on something. If I follow through with this goal, It will be easier to finish my work on time and will prevent me from getting so burnt out all the time.

Success in Communication and Collaboration 

What went right?

I may have talked a lot about things have to work on but I have also had quite a few wins this year. Communication and collaboration is a skill I have been trying to learn for years and years now. I never thought I would be saying this but I have made huge progress this year.

In the name of the nation project

There has been several examples of my successes, destination imagination, the spring exhibition, but I am going to be highlighting the “in the name of the nation” project. For this project my group and I created a video advocating for Ontario to join confederation. I believe that our group had a very healthy dynamic. I dont feel like i took on any more work than anyone else in my group. That is because we all worked together, we communicated, and we assigned tasks that played off of each others strengths. This led us to creating a successful video and didn’t cause us to be in a time crunch.

Moving forwards

Going forwards I want to remember the things that I did in this project and I want to continue to do it in the future. That is, continuing to communicate to my peers about struggles in group projects, and things we should continue to do. This will allow me to continue to have successes within my communication and collaboration skills.

My Game Plan

Going forwards this summer, next year, and every chance I get I need to remember and start to learn the skills I acquired this year. I need to start going out of my comfort zone, and stop hyper fixating on projects by knowing when to stop. Also, I need to continue to communicate while working with other people. Mastering these skills will help me become a successful learner and person in grade 10.