This year has been really interesting. I learned so much and if you could compare the amount I learned in elementary school to the amount I learned in the past couple of months, the difference would be catastrophic. Some examples, (for the rest of the examples mentioned, see slide show at the bottom)

It’s really interesting to see how I approach my learning now, opposed to in grades six and seven. I really appreciate the way that I’m learning now so much more than how I was in elementary school. The fact that that I’m appreciating my learning is such a ginormous change and it is crazy how much I’ve learned in such a short time. I want to continue my learning experience and with it, continue to work extremely hard at assignments and taking in the immense amount of fascinating topics.

So far this year, I have produced work I’m extremely proud of and so i am super disappointed in. In scimatics, I produced a document answering questions about, “The Really Big One” and I was fairly proud of those. On the other end of the spectrum, I also wrote up a paper abut the Kashmir Earthquake, and after some reflecting, I learned that I definitely needed to go back after and revise my writing. I approached the topic with an literary mind instead of a scientific one. Another example would be in humanities. I completely obliterated my bluhouse advertising drafts. They were AWFUL. My main issue was that I got stuck to an idea and did not have enough courage to scrap the idea. I was to stubborn, and in the end, that was my downfall. With group project work, I was super proud of my groups winter exhibition drafts. We worked well together and our communication really make the project outstanding.

Humanities has been quite the challenge. I love challenges so it hasn’t been bad, but at times it definitely had an impact on my growth mindset. I’d like to draw to your attention my Oregon field school reflection post. I believe that this post was concise and descriptive. It showed my tone when I am writing super clearly and I’m pretty proud of it. But success always comes from previous failure, so, in the case of my blog post, my Grade 8 Adventure Book was a bit of a dumpster fire. I did the bare minimum and was not happy with the end result. This definitely taught me the lesson that the amount of work you put in equals the amount of pride you feel after.

Scimatics is a super engaging class that I feel has made me more informed and has impacted the way I see the world. This class has taught me that difficult or perplexing concepts can be taught in a simple and effective way. The science aspect of this class interests me more than the math side but I have learned that the two go hand in hand. Like most things, there are concepts I can’t seem to grasp yet, and some that seem effortlessly easy. I hope to appreciate the concepts I don’t understand and use them as opportunities to learn. The goal I set at the beginning of this year was to approach math with an open mind and try to reset how I think about it. I am making progress but sometimes I still get frustrated. 

Maker is a class that I have found was kind of offset leading up to the winter exhibition. We really just had the student blogging challenge which I think impacted my writing quite a lot. I really appreciate the opportunity to repeat writing weekly. I liked some of the challenges more than others and I think it really showed when I gave 110% to a post. My best and favourite post was week 5, SCIENCE!  where I did an experiment and made a YouTube video about it. My weakest post was the differences and similarities post. It was not great and I think that I gave about 80% and it definitely showed. I created some visuals that obviously needed more work and commitment. Overall, I enjoyed maker so far but am extremely excited for destination imagination.

PGP is an interesting class. Its definitely not my favourite class to partake in, but only because it seems a little bit repetitive. I enjoyed the reading and the thought behind the class, but I just wasn’t super engaged. My goals have definitely improved but I just wasn’t super interested. I was super happy with how my dream board tuned out, but it was a different story for my goal setting book. It was sloppy and very hard to read. I just didn’t care enough to fix it, and in future, I will remember that this is an opportunity for self improvement and that goals are an important part of life. I also despise time blocking. It seems you make plans and then a wrench is thrown in and disrupts the entire schedule. I have stuck to time blocking big chunks of time. For example, basketball practice, school, and homework. The 15min breaks are not scheduled but are implied and implemented depending on how I am doing productivity wise. The idea of blocking out the minutes in your day seems like a great way to waste more time than you are saving. I gave it a good try but in the end, I wasn’t working any more effectively with it. In summary, time blocking doesn’t seem to work for me, and I have strong opinions on it

I think after reflection with my peers, I learned that taking breaks during working often increases the productivity and well being of those who implement them. I think this tip will help me in future projects but will require some time management techniques and dedication. I work hard as portrayed by my work and attitude, but sometimes I think I can do it all in one go. This is a strength and a weakness as I have a hard time procrastinating but when I sit down to do something I view taking breaks as being weak and not being dedicated to the task you are trying to accomplish.

My Goals for the remainder of the year, as a learner, are to appreciate the work I’m doing and the work that goes into creating the assignments. I want to respect the way I’m learning and, with that, approach each project or assignment with a growth mind set. This will help me with being  motivated and getting work done early. The combination of those two goals I think will make my learning experience much more interesting and functional. 

Thanks for reading! I’m super excited about the rest of this year and I’m extremely excited about improving my learning skills and I think that I will carry these skills with me wherever I go.

-Zoe