TPol 2025

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.”

As of me presenting this, I’ve been a student at Seycove for 1,021 days, or about 2.8 years. To be honest, I still can’t entirely wrap my head around the fact that I’ve completed the entirety of grade 10, and am more than half way through high school as a whole.¹

I was nervous going into this year, but I think it’s been one of my best years as a learner. While I’ve had undeniable growth between grade 8 and 9, that growth was mainly in building my skills, from organization, to writing, presentation, time management, and a whole host of other things you need to be successful.

In analyzing my growth this year, I’ve found it valuable to not only look at what I’ve changed, but what has stayed the same. I’ve found myself in a position where I’m now more concerned with applying and honing the skills I already have than acquiring new ones. That’s not to say I didn’t pick up any new skills, but I don’t feel like anything is missing, some things just need a bit of polish.²

If you read my mPOL you’ll know that in the beginning of the year, we did Pre-POLs where we outlined a set of goals within a Vision Mission Values document. At my MPOL, I believed I was about 80% of the way to fully achieving these goals. While I have made some progress in the three months since my mpol there are also some areas that might warrant some extra care. That said, I am still much further ahead than I was at the beginning of the year, especially in relation to:

• Organization
• Collaboration
• Time-Management³

One thing I’ve let slip a bit since my mPOL was my task management habits, which I’ve definitely seen the effects of. While not catastrophic to forget, I know I’ll need to keep them in mind for next year. I’d also like to try and keep myself organized, building on my systems with techniques like zettelkasten, but leaving the strong foundations I’ve built over the past three years. Habit formation has never been easy, so to maintain these systems I’ll need to make good use of external tools. Whether these are notes, physical reminders, to-do lists, or anything else, I feel like they will be crucial for my future life.

When looking at work I’m doing, I often find myself blindsided by what I was making, if if was being done quick, if it was good enough, and a whole host of other things. Given schoolwork generally has some purpose beyond the final product, it’s also important to look at how I was doing it, and what I was learning. In retrospect, it’s generally much clearer than in the heat of the deadlines, so here’s some of the most significant things I’ve done this year, learning wise.⁴

• In Hey Boomer I found myself in a role that let me contribute to the project that was very personal to my skills, and that allowed me to use those skills in a way that benefitted others in our class performance.
• Mentor For A Day was a really beneficial experience, not only in the power of reaching out to people to ask questions and the confidence required to do so, but also in the advice and insight I gained for myself and my future, such as this poem, something I could definitely benefit from remembering.

Put up in a place
where it is easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T.T.T

When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb
it’s well to remember that
Things Take Time.
    - Piet Hien

• Definitely not the 51st State, while a bit of a fractured project, provided the aforementioned skill of zettelkasten which I can definitely see value in for future classes, Additionally the ( albeit short ) section on public speaking was another valuable skill, and led me to the opportunity of:
• Speaking at the grade 8/9 awards ceremony. I was able to further practice public speaking here, and in doing so I helped the Seycove community, something I hope I can continue to do going into grade 11.
• Change Makers was far from my favourite project of the year, despite Disney world’s best efforts. I wasn’t a huge fan of the vagueness of the direction, and the amount of responsibility placed on us. That said, this was still a good experience in operating with agency, and doing more self directed learning. ( even if it did seem secondary at times )

Moving into grade 11, I want to really emphasize becoming someone I would have looked up to as a grade 8. This has already informed much of what I’ve done this year, and I hope it can continue to be a guiding principle going forwards. From speaking at assemblies to TAing the grade 8s, I’m trying to focus on building qualities I personally value in others. I want to become more responsible, operate with more agency, and provide help to those around me. I’m hoping I’ll be able to become someone people trust, and that they feel they can turn to when they need stuff done.⁵

With the grade 12s graduating, I’ve really though about what sort of impact I’ll have left by the time I do. First, I obviously need to focus on myself; to continue to be an effective learner and not let myself get overwhelmed with work. After that, It’s about what I can do for Seycove, and the people around me.

Thank you for witnessing this milestone in my learning.

That’s all for this post, so long for now.