1.6 Commentary & other projects

Aiming to keep this OP concise and clear I keep my commentary short. See my reflections on the review process and how it has impacted me and this project below. Continuing down I speak to the most important part of this project for me, the creation of my progress tracking system. Below that is my personal niche analysis (a continuous work in progress), another great tool helping me understand my pathway. On the rest of this page I share the projects that have given me deep un/learnings during the time of working on this LIPD.

Since completing the pro-review phase I have re-structured this OP breaking one page into three, adding sections to describe my design process better as well as others. I missed the mark on my abstract and conclusion as usual, this time after taking my advisors suggestions I feel I might have improved. I also changed dates around renegotiating my OP2 as this project has lingered and I have been busy building rock walls (real ones). I am really happy with the quality and specificity of Saskia's reviews. I feel I go deeper and deeper with each project. See my pro-review notes in left column on Evidence and Resource page.

Tracking my progress last year on a project-to-project basis with a detailed skillflex-chart proved inefficient (too detailed) and ineffective (too abstract). During my OP5 Learning Review when it came time to evaluate and quantify my progress I had to create a condensed version for the information to be accessible. Seeing a progress yield in a numerical representation feels abstract. 

During my guild meeting with Liam, who was nearing the end of creating his LIPD, I came to realize I needed an improved system to be efficient and effective. This was an edge for me, as quantifying something abstract such as learning has never made sense to me. After some research on best practices of self-evaluation and progress tracking systems, I learned about Rubrics and Proficiency.  See Resource review on Supporting evidence page right column. 

I decided to use my Learning Review Skillflex chart as a rapid-prototype template, as I felt most of the aptitude spheres where still relevant to my goals and the outline was already created. I spot-edited and tweaked some spheres to be even more accurate and relevant for the context of this LIPD. I created a new proficiency key which gave an articulated value to the numerical values. See right column Goals and pathway management page.

When filling out a number for each of the spheres for both my present and projected aptitude there was a new sense of meaning! 

I have a new sense of clarity on tracking my progress and it feels like a pivotal discovery for managing my pathway this year. 

Since creating this new tracking document nearly three weeks ago I have finished my end of cycle review and was given back a heavy dose of both positive and constructive feedback. I felt this particular feedback loop was critical to this year's learning yields and project management. I deconstructed and reconstructed the review to create a new document I am calling my F.L.E.C. checklist (Feedback Loop End of Cycle). I will be assessing both my previous OPs and future OPs in regards to the various focus points. See it in the left column on page Goals and pathway management.

For one of the introductory sessions in the Permaculture and Ecovillage design course I taught at Metta Earth (for my upcoming OP2) I had everyone do a personal niche analysis. I realized this is a good tool for me to assess the theme and direction of my year as well as assessing my longterm goals. See my personal Niche analysis above. I found this to be such a good representation of me that I put it on my resume.