Category: Maker

MPOL

I am now officially old enough to to drive, to go on trips with my friends alone and to be in the second to last year of high school.

It’s a big year, and that is reflected in the work I produce. I have to say that I am particularly proud of what lays behind me this year, traveling to Albuquerque, New Mexico and really educating myself about the atomic bomb and its role in the war, to writing poetry, I think that my whole class has a lot to be proud of, so I would like to travel back in time, and show you what I have produced this year. 

This year all begins in the middle of August 2019.

Basking in the sun with my friends, the conceptual question of wether I had, or had not read the book for english pops up, what a stresser. I ended up not reading the book until school had started, though when school did start, we began discussing our very first project, and this book, which connected to

The manhattan project 

This project entailed research into the history of WW2 as well as research into the science behind the bomb itself. I really enjoyed the mix of the 2 subjects, and had a good time furthering my understanding outside of class. The trip that we went on made everything much more understandable, (aside from the time at which we had to wake up for to see the rise of the hot air balloons, though that was an incredible experience, and I will never forget it.)

While learning about the atomic bomb, we made our atomic books. I made sure to take a lot of footage for this project and enjoyed documenting every little thing, I took a lot of voice recordings and though I was quite persistent, I really only used very few! But the second I got a good clip, I knew exactly where it would go, and how it would fit into the video. I also prized myself on the writing that I added into the book. I did a lot of research, and though I was told at the beginning to cut the writing down, I did, but I also found that writing is one of my gifts, and that I should pursue my stronger talent before I further the lesser talents. So my book ended up being very book based, which makes sense. This made me more proud of the final product. 

Lord Of The Flies 

The second piece of literature we dug our noses into was Lord Of The Flies, we read and watched the movie for this project. The reading of the book went down quite well, I stuck to the due dates and perceived the story as I was reading. I feel that this is a good example of how self regulating I am. I know that it would have simple to read the spark notes, and pretend like I read the book, but no. I realized that the more I put off actually doing the work, the more the work builds up in the future,and the more screwed you get. I believe that I have been this way for a while and this has never really been a problem for me but I wanted to point out this quality because reading the book didn’t increase my grade, it didn’t automatically make me a better student, but it sort of ties into the PGP book,

just becuase you dont see evidence of change immediately, doesn’t mean you have to stop trying, it means you just beginning. So instead of looking for the evident reason that benefits me, I decided to self regulate, and make sure that I made time for it, instead of just leaving it. In the end it benefited me greatly, because just reading the book makes you have a stronger connection to the story, and then writing tests is simple because you have a grander understanding. 

DOWNFALL

Something that I didn’t do so well would have to be the Lord Of The Flies presentation. My group still did well, but our personalities did not mix well, and the characteristics began to clash. We ended up stepping on each others toes which just pissed everyone off, so our presentation wasn’t everything that I wanted it to be. What I took from this experience was that sometimes its hard to motivate unmotivated people, and that you cant treat everyone the same. Certain people need certain cues to actually do the work and if you use the same ones for everyone they loose their ability to achieve the outcome you want. So during this project I used cues that I would have followed, and Luca followed as well, but our other group members needed a different cue, and I didnt think about including that. So I have learned from this mistake and it will be especially important during our next project to remember. 

Poetry

Out of all the things I created this year, I would have to say that I was the most proud of my poetry. I had a random woman come up to me the day after I presented my work, almost in tears, she said that my work really resonated with her and had so many positive things to say about it. This means the most to me. When my work is able to leave me, and effect others it is incredible. I created a book of my poetry and each one took a little piece of me with it, which I think is a really unique project. While learning about poetry I felt that I really resonated with the information and found a little fire within that extremely enjoyed writing poetry. Here is the link to my post about that project.

And here is my book of poetry!

Atomic Habits 

I spoke briefly about the atomic habits book before, but I would like to mention this as well. Atomic Habits is jam packed full of powerful information, and I withdrew all of it. (Here are my habits I set in stone!)

I took notes on the book and read a chapter every morning for a week to get through it before school started up again, but I couldn’t fully apply it to my life. I found it hard to initialize these habits into my life. I decided this year my main goal was to focus my energy on areas that really need my help, and all the habit methods and the cue, craving, response, reward, have directed my focus more clearly but I think that I need a bit more of a cue, to initially start this regime. I used this process to incorporate more activity into my week and to plan with my family. But I find I am really happy with how I live my life right now. I dont have one major issue that sticks out to myself, and because of this I find it hard to apply pressure on myself to create this new habit that I am not interested in creating. I think I need to be struck with a bit of creativity and time, and I’ll think of one, but for now I’ve began working out more, and caring for my body, with help from atomic habits, and I’ll leave it at that. 

My goal this year is to apply the proper amount of energy into projects, instead of applying to much, or not enough (cantina), and be able to enjoy life and live a balanced lifestyle, where stress is a far away thought. 

So my questions for you as an audience is how do you decide what projects to spend the most time on, and on these projects what does full effort, half effort and little effort look like? 

adsLeave a comment

Job shadow

During this term we were assigned with the task of completing a job shadow with someone who obtains a position in a work environment that we would like to see ourselves in one day. This was a very challenging task for some, to send out all the emails, and though I thought myself different from the class and that I may fly through the job shadow unscathed, but much to my dismay I realized that I was too much alike the rest of my class, though my problem was not sending the emails, but receiving them! I sent 6 emails to countless sustainability company’s across the lower mainland, and I never received a email in response. Now I was a little shut down and I wanted to give up and come into the next school year without a job shadow to show (mind you my teachers had then given me and other students who had not completed the project all of summer to complete it) around then I realized I had the perfect connection just waiting for me under my nose. 

My cousin, Sage, is majoring in political science and is a very environmentally charged human being. She is always talking about what we need to do to help save our environment, and how we should do it. Sage has a job with the city of Penticton to help with recycling, and the connection that has with environmentalism. I was able to job shadow her during one of her shifts this summer when my family was staying in Naramata. I learned a lot about the connection proper recycling has to conserving life on this planet. I also learned that when you don’t put your recycling into the proper area or leave the products messy or dirty, the recycling company will not sort it for you and so the whole load will go to the landfill. Sage taught me a lot about the environment and how much we impact it. 

I thought I would describe an average day of work for Sage with the city of Penticton. After arriving in the morning sage settles in by preforming a few audits and checking cart inventory. Later in the day Sage let her creative side show by writing educational articles or creating educational videos. This is one of the videos that sage helped to create!

As well as doing all this, Sage will also make the rounds talking to local people about their recycling and helping to inform them about the affects of wrongly preforming recycling. At the end of the day I asked sage a few questions about her job. Here are my questions and answers!

A : What classes did you take to help you get to the position you are now?

S : Environmental studies, because I care about the environment and recycling has a lot to do with that.

A : What’s the best part of your job?

S : Educating the community on ways to improve their recycling which allows them to protect the environment.

A : What’s the worst part about your job?

S : Probably dumpster diving. That’s it!

A : What’s the typical work hours and schedule of your job?

S : Tuesday to Saturday, 7 am to 3:15 pm. 

A : Why did you chose your job?

S : Because I believed that it would give me good experience towards my aspirations in a political setting, whether that be in a provincial, municipal or federal environment. 

A : Thank you so much Sage!

S : Of course!

I learned quite a bit about recycling through this job shadow and this learning will further may efforts to create a lesser footprint

adsLeave a comment

Final exhibition

Recently PLP took part in the spring exhibition. This was actually my first spring exhibition I had ever been to. Last year I created a product for the exhibition, but I was so sick that I couldn’t make it to the actual event. I didn’t realize this until after the exhibition, but I think I like the spring exhibition better then the winter one, it may just be the fact that summer begins right when that night ends! I worked really hard on this years exhibition, we focused on our circle BC trip, and the three main topics, which were industries in BC, First Nation relations, and the gold rush. For my topic I chose to focus on industry in BC. I was so interested in the port of Prince Rupert, and the environmentalism that they talk about in their mission statement and there future plans. But really what drew me to the port was what wasn’t talked about. I wanted to know what they meant when they talked about being the most sustainable port in the world, or how they were actually showing that. And so my exhibition question was formed. Now came the heavy lifting.  

I have recently become very interested in journalism, and so I decided that for this project I would like to make a 3 page newspaper, that can hold a iPad within it. My idea varied a bit from this one at the start but this is what I ended with. I began with the idea of sustainability, and how industries like the cannery are being run dry, and losing income from our poor ecosystems, and I could show this by doing a newspaper which symbolizes the change in direction from classic “paper” to a more reliable source such as an iPad or an Ereader.

As my actual project idea changed my physical object idea mostly stayed the same so I was able to get a bit of a head start on creating my newspaper, and unlike many other people my project relied solely on research or actual information. So the next step was to do buckets and buckets of research and complete a few interviews.

We talked about this step in the launch journal in school, and I believe that this is the step that has stuck with me the most. For completing a project you had to have finished your primary and secondary research. Primary research is basically just using google and asking around with your peers, or creating pole. Secondary research is sourcing someone who would be understanding in the field that your looking into, and then asking them. This is really important because my project wouldn’t have been even remotely the same with out the secondary research I found.

I did a interview with someone at the port of Prince Rupert, and I also did a interview with someone at plastic bank. Now both of these interviews made my project quite a bit more interesting, so I personally think that research is a very big part of ones project, even if it’s not research based. 

The next step I took was creating the actual end product, this took quite a bit because I had to get the layout just right. People don’t really realize just how much work goes into the little things, and since I got quite a few compliments talking about how mine looked a lot like a north shore news paper, I think I did pretty good! The layout took quite a bit of time but once I had it down it was smooth sailing from there. 

On the night of the exhibition I really didn’t know what to expect. I had worked really hard on my project, but I didn’t know what people would think of it, and how they would react to the information. The first wave of people came by and Isabelle’s parents were the first people to come to my station, which made it a lot easier to tell people about my project for the first time. It was a huge hit, and I got a sense of confidence, I also found key points I wanted to cover and things I didn’t need to talk about. I also found myself a sort of script that I really enjoyed saying and made it easier for me to get my point across. I didn’t even escape my station till the end of the night when we all started to pack up because when people came to my station they stayed for quite a little bit, so I couldn’t find time throughout the night to see others, but from what I saw in my room alone, everyone’s was incredible, so I think PLP did really well this year. 

All in all I learned a bunch about environmentalism in platt industries and what that means, and I also had a good time. 

Thanks for reading and happy summer

adsLeave a comment

Tpols

Who am I and what have I learned?

Looking into it.

I am still the same physical person as I was at the beginning of the year. I am still named adlih, I am still a girl, and I am still living in deep cove, and even though my age did change I am still me, but I feel different. At the end of last year I felt as though I was just sort of shifting my gaze from one page to the next, when it came to thinking about grade 10, but stepping back into my shoes now I feel as though I am actually starting a whole new chapter. I know that sounds corny and fake, but it really does feel that way. It’s almost as if I am staring down a whole new challenge, compared to a year ago this time. A year ago I was excited for summer but I knew that grade 10 was looming near by and I was a bit nervous, and almost I felt as if grade 10 would be just another year, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Obviously there was something that changed, something that shifted inside me this year that has lead me to this understanding about school, and even about life in general. I felt like I have grown up a great deal this year, and I would like to share with you why, and how.

(Un)Balanced

I know what you are thinking right of the bat. “She going to talk about how she’s more balanced and she using time blocking… etc.” And now you probably thinking “she’s already thinking about our response to her “balance” section, and she’s trying to make it seem like she knows what she’s doing, and she is deserving of using balance as one of her categories…” and I myself am a bit lost by what I wrote, but what I am trying to say is that every year I have talked about my balance in school, and work, and friends, etc, and I don’t feel like I deserved to talk about it every year, since I have been able to experience it in actuality. I bet every single kid is trying to sell you guys on their work life balance but I really think that this is one that I want to talk about this year. 

Now I am not a crazy kid when it comes to school work. I don’t spend every waking moment doing things, but if I enjoy it I spend quite a bit of time doing it. I am also a busy woman, being 16 isn’t easy, and if you remember there’s a lot of stuff happening in ones life right now. Now my work life balance has always been very strong, I will take a shift every now and then after school, but the shift ends at 5 and then I have the rest of the night to do homework or relax, or really just do what I want. My school-schoolwork balance has also improved very much throughout this year. I felt that last year, it being my first year in PLP, I was a little lost when it came to what amount of effort I should put in, (even though we all all know that it’s 110% all the time!) I felt this year I have found a grove. I was able to see where my strengths and weaknesses are and where I need put more effort in.

https://soundcloud.com/user-335030245/circle-bc-podcast-adlih

A project that exemplifies this is my recent podcast work. I believe that I was able to find a good balance when it came to my podcast and how much work I should put in and when I should work on it. I produced a final product I was really happy with and was able to not overly stress about it during the trip! I found that this is a very important key or token to find and take with you into the future, because I get very very stressed about work and I was able to produce some of my best work this year when I was under pressure! My Pecha Cucha, my circle BC podcast, my PGP project (these are just a few coming to my mind). I felt under pressure during these projects, but I was able to push myself, and find a inner stable and peaceful space during that time. I feel that I produce my best work under pressure and I was really only able to see that when I found a space where I was unbalanced. I feel that being both balanced and unbalanced is very important and that you would have a lesser appreciation for being balanced with out being unbalanced. I was able to understand all this through balance. I cannot dedicate myself to my school work.

Though school work is very important to me, a project comes and goes, and it does not last forever, so I try to keep that in my mind. This is really not sounding the way it should, but what my main point is, is that, I work hard all the time. Like I said in my Mpol, I work hard to have a product I can sign my name on, and so to find a space where I can live my life and create work I am proud of, is a really big accomplishment for myself, and I know that this will play a big role in grade 11!

Style

Throughout this year I believe I have created a signature work style. Take our book trailers for example, I worked endlessly on that trailer, trying to perfect it.

Though there were people in my group that were more well known for their editing, I decided to accept the task and try to make it look exactly how I wanted it. I had a style for the trailer, and I created that. My style is unlike others in the class room because my style shows hard work, and more simplistic choices that risk a lot. When I say this what I mean is that I take a simple task or project and try to find a successful route to the end goal, but modify it and improve it along the way. Take my PGP project for example. Magazine isn’t that creative of an idea, it interests me so I decided to follow it.

Instead of just allowing it to take me to an end goal that isn’t anything I’m that impressed by, I decided to push my imagination a bit. I wanted to see how well I could make a magazine, I wanted to see how much work it was, I wanted to see what it would look like, and how I could put my vision onto a page. I built my style from this drive to find a successful route and then personifying it, to make it truly mine. Another example of my style is even in the pêcha couchas, or even the blog post challenge. In the blog post challenge I was able to show my style when we did the free blog because I was able to pick a something that interested me and style it around that one thing.

Failure

Life’s not about success all the time, if we all succeeded all the time, success wouldn’t feel the same, and we as a species would not be driven to reach success as much. I feel that PLP has always spoken about failure as your first attempt at learning, but only this year did I fully understand this. Obviously I didn’t learn that it’s totally ok to fail, and to just toss everything your doing to the wind, but when you fail it’s important to realize what you can learn from it. I failed countless times this year, but for this blog post I would like to address a fail that I still really don’t like to talk about.

For DI this year I got my team and another team disqualified. This stings to write, and I feel horrible even thinking about it. I thought after some time of thinking about this off and on, it would disappear, but every now and then I think about it and it makes me pretty upset at myself. I spoke to Ms. Willemse and Mr. Hughes about the whole situation and they really helped me to see what I could learn from such a horrible situation. It was really hard at first, and even now I am struggling to understand how to see the good in the bad, and trying to not hold on to every little piece that fails, but instead of the piece that succeeds. But I believe that this is an important skill, and I thought I would share about it here in this Tpol so that you can see how highly I think of failure, and success in school. I also feel this way about other things such as sports. When I skate (skateboard) falling is looked at like failure. When you fall you have failed a trick, or a landing. Though isy has helped me to see that when you fall you get right back up and you realize that you are less scared to fall again because it really wasn’t that bad. When I fall skating now I see it as a step further towards success then the opposite, which relates back to school because being able to see the good in the bad will help me to stay focused on the end goal and not get caught up along the way.

I have been brought every to a whole new level this year. I feel as though I matured and learned so much throughout the year, and am so excited for grade 11, though the summer is really on the top of my mind right now! I wanted to share with you how much has happened and what I’ve had time to clasp a hold of in the past year, and I hope I was able to do that!

I am ready to advance to the next grade because I have learned how to balance and to accept failure, not only have I also learned how to work under pressure but to portray my own style in a way unlike everyone else’s, and for these reasons I believe I am fully ready to advance to the next grade!

adsLeave a comment

Workplace safety

Watching a young girl get her fingers ripped out of her hands puts a lot into perspective for me. Seeing how one mistake can take your life right away, it is horrible, and I realize how important is to train for work, and to understand the risks that you are taking before attempting them. 

I am lucky because I have a very cushy job. The biggest thing I push is sustainability, and I don’t think that counts! At my work I am fully trained, and I always have access to someone who can help. I also get a lot of responsibility when I am working and feel like I handle it well. Though my work is very safe, there are jobs, even in my neighbourhood that are not. 

The dangers in a workplace vary on what your employer is asking of you, and what your job entails. We recently learned about the injuries that could take place in the workplace, which are Chemical, Noise, MSI, Sun, Heat, Cold, and Biological hazards. I’ll go into a bit of detail on each of these topics.

Chemical hazards

  • A lot of the hazards led to lung problems such as lunch cancer. Or breathing problems.
  • These problems included but were not limited to dust, asbestos, lead paint, or lead.

Noise hazards

  • 1 out of four people are affected by hearing injuries 
  • The damage of your hearing is permanent 
  • A lot of work places are exposed to this kind of injury such as: kitchens, traffic, music, movies, yard work, and cleaning.

MSI

  • most common work place injury 
  • Injury’s such as strains or sprains
  • 8 out of 10 people will visit a doctor due to back pain which is a MSI
  • MSI’s are treatable
  • Many people miss work due to MSI’s

Sun, Heat and Cold

  • heat can lead to stress, and illness
  • Sun leads to burns, or in long term skin cancer
  • Cold leads to hypothermia affecting: fingers, toes, ears, nose
  • Hypothermia can cause permanent damage to tissue
  • When hot drink plenty of water and avoid caffeine and alcohol 

Biological hazards

  • includes HIV and AIDS
  • Can be transferred through needles or sexual action
  • Don’t touch anything that may have been used to inject anything
  • Don’t eat or drink anything that could have been eaten or drunk by something 

I also learned about my rights as a employee. I did not know I had rights and so that was pretty shocking when I realized that there are a list of things that I don’t have to do unless I feel comfortable, and have the right training.

This is the artifact for this blog post! Its the safety award! I will be working hard to achieve the safety award, which basically means I will be working hard to stay as safe as I can in the workplace!

One of the more important ones is working any machinery. If I feel that I don’t have the proper training to complete the task including the machinery, I can refuse to do the work including the machinery. I can refuse work as long as it puts me or others in danger. This is super important because I knowing your rights make the workplace a better place! Here is a link to the rights to refuse work!

Thank you for reading my blog post!

Adlih

adsLeave a comment

Learning about me!

Everyone asks themselves what they want to be when they got older. People always thing about what pays the highest, what is the funnest, and what there dream lifestyle would be and how a job would fit into that. I have done this every time I wanted to think about where I see myself in the future, but until I took the My Blue Print survey’s, I really don’t think I was doing it properly!

In Maker class, (which doubles as a health education class) we got to ask our selves deep questions to see all kinds of outcomes, such as: What kind of learner I am, What personality type I am, What job would best suit me, etc. Through this blog I will dive into these questions and the answers that I received from them and see how they will help me in the future!

The first survey I took was the Learning Styles survey. This survey talked to you about which learning style you would find suits you best. (Kinaesthetic, Visual, and Auditory). Surprisingly our class was quite divided. There was at least 3 people that strived in all of the categories. Now I have always believed that I was a kinaesthetic learner, because I though when I learned hands on I took more in, which is still true, but the survey told me that I was actually a visual learner.

I actually totally believe this is true. I could not learn how to build a table by being given a already built table and then being told to re build it, (kinaesthetic), I also could not listen to someone tell me how to build a table, (auditory), but I could totally build a table if someone showed me how to build a table, (visual). For the learning styles survey, I think that it was correct, and with this knowledge know I can transition this to my future. If when in university my Professor is teaching the class auditory style, and I don’t understand what is happening, I could know to ask the professor to try to explain the concept visually for a better understanding. 

The second quiz I took was the personality quiz. I scored the ISFP (the composer). This personality is made up of I which stands for Introverted. Introverted meaning comfortable alone, when working and when with others. A introverted person can be very reflective and reserved as well. I didn’t quite agree with the personality quiz in this part, because I think of myself as a bit more open to group situations, and I think that would lean me towards being extroverted. The S in ISFP stands for sensing. I use my sensing ability’s to gather information, which I agree with. The F stands fro Feeling. When decision making I prefer to use subjective criteria, then objective criteria. This just means that I base it on finding an area where everyone can succeed, instead of a standard. For the last part of the personality quiz I got a P which stands for perceiving. What perceiving means is that I am open to new information and as well as being flexible and spontaneous. It states that a perceiving person can go with the flow, which I feel does not really apply to me. I feel that I need a bit of planning and more time to understand things that are coming up, instead of just going along with it. In the end the personality quiz didn’t really express who I am, and what my personality type is.

Through this survey I sort of realized that these answers were not prescribed to me because I went through numerous steps and many interviews, instead I just typed how much I agree or disagree to close ended questions, and then a website spit out a answer based on the way I answered maybe 20 questions. So these answers are not set in stone, but they are helpful and do give a little light into ones leaning. 

On the contrary these quizzes, right or wrong, really help us as young adults to figure out who we are and who we want to be. The reason for this is because we are now forced to talk about it. We took the test, we then may disagree or agree with the test. If we agree, then perfect you just realized something about yourself, but if you disagree, then you are now curious to see where you belong and who else is the same. By taking this next step you are figuring out who you are yourself, and in that way the surveys are quite helpful! 

There were 3 more surveys I took, the interests the knowledge and the motivations. I felt that the above 2 surveys were more important and will help to shape my life a bit more, because they are important to know, and shape who you are as a person. Though each survey focuses on a topic that will greatly affect your future! 

In the interests survey I scored a counsellor, because I care about others and want to hear about what people have to say. I feel this fits well because I am very passionate, and if I hurt someone else, I immediately feel terrible and I feel like I just hurt myself. So I feel that councillor is a perfect fit! 

In the knowledge survey I scored language arts which really just means I am into english and socials. This makes a lot of sense because I really like to write and am a big fan of books, stories and reading! I have always wanted to be a journalist, and so I can see how I got this score on this survey. Knowledge plays a big role in your future because if you understand your stronger subjects in school, you can focus on subjects that may be more challenging, in this you are making your self a more well rounded person that is can be more successful. 

On the last survey I was told that I am motivated by success. I totally agree with this, for example if I am trying to run a half marathon, of corse completion of the half marathon would be the ultimate achievement, but along the way to make myself continue to push myself I will set goals that are achievable, and then I feel better because I feel like I am improving, and pushing myself past these goals. For the future knowing your motivation is huge. Knowing that I am driven to do my best by setting goals and being able to achieve them is very important. For example if I want to do well in a class that I’m not doing to well in, I can reset my corse by setting small goals and achieving them!

Now taking all this information and planning my future. I have learned a lot about myself through these surveys, wether they are correct or not. I really enjoy learning about myself because I want to be able to help myself in the future, when careers come into play, and postsecondary. Now each of these surveys helps me in there own way. Each of these surveys cover topics that are important to us, and I know I am better off now that I have addressed these topics and experienced them!

 

adsLeave a comment

Destination imagination provincial tournament

Destination imagination happens every year. This was my second experience with DI. I would like to talk a bit about last year to help my reflection with comparaisons. 

Last year was my first year with DI, I was a bit nervous because of what people had said about it, which mostly just it was a crazy amount of work, and that it sometimes didn’t turn out so well and people could get harsh. I got my group and was a little nervous to get started. Our DI team did not succeed very far last year. We had our priorities in total wrong order, and ended up coming in fifth for provincials, which didn’t really bother us because we felt we had actually done worse! 

Switching back to this year, we only had 1 other competitor in our group, and they were grade 9 students in PLP, so we knew them all quite well. This point will play a big role later on in the post.

I felt we had an exceptionally good DI presentation. We had the the “Game On” challenge, (If you want to read more about our first steps and the regionals competition the blog post is here!) and for our challenge we chose to focus on the Game Of Life as our game, and have humour integrated in. Our perspective on the challenge was a humorous approach on stereotypes and situations that you get put while playing the game of life. An example being we tried to make many jokes on the marriage aspect of life, because you can’t leave life without being married! We also made jokes about retirement and juggling everything as a adult. 

Kai, Lucas and I during our Provincials Preformance

 

We lost a team member for our provincial tournament. Jessie was not able to make it to the tournament, so we had to plan around this. It put our team in a bit of a tight spot because Jessie was very important to our story and was definitely the main character. She had also memorized the whole script in the case that someone else had forgotten their lines, she could prod them with a line of her own to help the presentation move along. 3 days before the final presentation, we had to start to prepare without Jessie. We all took a bit of her lines, but Marshall took the most, becoming the main character. We all worked really hard for the last few days to prepare for a presentation, staying late after school one day, and working in our own time to remember the lines. 

 

Then out of the blue Destination Imagination just rolled right up. I wasn’t feeling to hot the morning of DI, but I felt a bit better later on in the day, but our presentation was almost right away in the morning. Our presentation was at 9:20 am, so we ran through our lines for awhile then presented. All things considered our presentation went really well, we had a few stutters and parts where people forgot their lines, but aside from that we were able to make people laugh, which felt really good. It felt good to get the presentation out of the way, and then all that was left was the instant challenge. I watched quite a few performances and ate lunch, and then it was our time for our challenge. The challenge its self felt like it went well, but afterwards I stepped foot into a situation that I have learned much from, and hope to try to avoid as much as possible in the future. 

 

I was speaking to another team about the instant challenge, we were caught, and disqualified. Talking about the instant challenge is against the rules and so we were disqualified from the whole competition. 

What I have learned from this is very important. I learned that when you know someone is upset, or angry, it feels worse to put it off and ignore it, then addressing it and trying to figuring out a win win situation. What I mean by this is, if you know you’ve done something wrong think about how that makes you feel, and then instead of being scared or fearful, address those feelings and find a way to let the other person know your sorry, or how you feel about that situation. I feel bad that I had to learn this lesson with the fate of my DI team resting on my shoulders, but I think we all may have learned. 

I also learned that even though DI is something that is extra curricular, and we can sometimes feel a little negative toward it, there are other people trying to enjoy it and to appreciate it, and are putting work into it, even if someone doesn’t want to be there, they have to realize that other people have really tried to put work in, and tried to make this a incredible experience for us, and that one should appreciate their work and effort. 

The last thing I learned is actually from PGP, and Ms. Willemse reminded me of it. If I had gone ahead and put my self in Ms. Willemse and Mr. Hughes shoes the outcome of the day may have been different. This is very important for the future and I don’t think I will ever forget it. 

All in all its the journey that matters not the destination, and even though it ended with a sour taste, the whole experience was actually very helpful, and informative. 

So in the end I learned a lot am a more educated person because of it. 

adsLeave a comment

Destination imagination regional tournament

DI seems to have come and gone very quickly this year. So before its fully forgotten, and provincials is just around the corner, I would like to reflect and consider the tournament that has just passed (regionals). 

In Destination Imagination this year I was placed in a team with Jessie, Marshall, Lucas, Kai and Luca. I really liked my team from the beginning. We complemented each other’s strengths and weaknesses, while also being able to be honest and give people the hard truth. A lot happened in a little bit of time. We decided our challenge, (which we were lucky enough to get,) and we got our team name and the rest just fell into place. (With a little bit of shoving!) We decided that our team name would be the KABOBZ, a letter from each of our last names! We also started to plan around our challenge guide lines. We chose the fine arts challenge.

In this challenge we had to pick a game that we could tell a story about and share with the appraisers, when the time came. We also had to be able to fit all the props or costumes or even the backdrop into one container. We got to work right away by planing what game we would choose to complete the regulations of the challenge. We set out a bunch of different game ideas from everyone in our group, and voted on which one would be the best.

In the end we choose the game of life, and decided to focus on what happiness and success really means in the game of life. We framed the story around the fact that you can’t leave the game without having at least one kid, and being married. And at the end of the game the winner is the player with the most money, and that is the only way that you can win. So when we brainstormed our story we thought we would toy around with that fact. 

Now once we had a story plan and a presentation plan, we got to work. We decided on the roles for our group. Jessie had the role of creating the story, and helping to paint the background, Luca had the role of creating our technical element, which was a game of life spinner, lucas and Marshall were on anything that wasn’t very prominent, the music the team choice elements, etc, Kai’s role was to finish forms, and I helped Jessie painting and was the team organizer, we all had very equal jobs.

We all complete our roles and responsibilities piece by piece. I was really proud of the work we completed as a team and when we practiced I felt that we had all put time and effort into the final product and I was very happy because of that. 

 

We had our provincial competition on Saturday March 9th. I was preparing with my group for the most of my time, and then it was our time to present. I was a bit nervous, but I knew that for the first time, I was really excited to present because we were all proud of the final product we had created. The presentation went really well, aside from one little stutter with our lines, but we got lots of laughs, which none of us were preparing for! We were all a little shocked! 

After the presentation my whole group was super happy about how it had gone. In the end we got 2nd out of 2, but I think since we had fun, that’s all that really mattered!

Reflection 

This season of Destination Imagination went really well because I felt that my team worked so well complementing and helping each other throughout the challenge. I learned a bit about de stressing and feeling in control for once. I felt that I would focus my reflection on the fact that for some reason this DI I felt that I didn’t have to worry to the point where it got in my. I knew that my team would pull it together in the end no matter what. I felt this way becuase throughout the challenge we continued to stay on top of our work, but also the team was very creative and if in doubt I knew they would make it work. So what I have taken out of this is that if I am stressed just remember that my stressing is not improving the situation, but if I take the time to figure out the problem and take steps to fix it I will be in a better place!

Thank you for reading, and I hope you learned a bit about our DI presentation. 

adsLeave a comment

Lomps, or Mpols…

Grade 10 is moving to fast. I can not believe we are already at the half way mark. That we’ve made it through the winter and now the summer is waiting just around the corner. (Not really) When I think about Mpols I think about last years and how unprepared I was and how I really did not know what I was doing. I think after 1 solid year in the program I might have a better grasp of what an Mpol draws from you and what it story it is telling. And I believe I have configured what story I would like to tell.

Now grade in 10, we have been exposed to many projects and many different assignments ranging from a no notes speech in front of parents and peers, to editing one of Justin Timberlake’s songs. I would like to show you the deeper meaning of each project and see what each project meant to me and what I learned from it. 

I would like to touch base with the EduBlogs challenge. I was fascinated with the challenge and how much freedom it gave us as students. I found it really cool to be able to tie everything back into something that I love and or admire. Don’t get me wrong I was not a huge fan of it at the beginning, and I probably would not have done this project if it had been an extra curricular, but I learned a lot from it. I learned about helping others around the world who are having difficulty with certain topics while blogging, and I also learned how to build my blog so it is more friendly and easier to use.

Through the blogging challenge I realized that people across the globe could see my world and I struck up a conversation with someone in my comments! Alex (the person in my comments) helped me with my CBC writing prompt, and complimented my writing skills, which was very reassuring! We struck up a nice online friendship and I think that was my highlight of this challenge! I feel that I expressed my highest quality of learning in my posts and I was very proud of my work! 

So heading back to my metaphor from before of editing Justin Timberlake’s song, I would like to talk about live loops. We visited Live Loops earlier in the year, and I don’t think it was as important as say the Pecha Kucha, but I learned so much about songs and the format in which you can play and tweak pre made songs and add any instrument or beat into it. This was all new information to me, because I had not done much work in garage band before this project. I worked really hard on my revised version of the song “Cant stop the feeling.” I deleted and copied almost every loop and tried so hard to make it sound like something totally different and yet still carry the original message. I felt very proud of my work, because I had put so much effort in to understand the loops and to create a unique piece of work. I think that his show my dedication to creating something that is my best piece of work all the time. I think it also shows how I am able to sign my name onto things, because if I enjoy the task I put my heart into it!

https://soundcloud.com/user-335030245/ecc-music-ch-2-act-2-cstf-p

This is my remix version of “Can’t Stop The Feeling.”

I would like to bring a point from the last example into this next one. If I enjoy the task I can put my heart and soul into it. This is quite a contradicting trait. I could really enjoy something and do a really good job, but I can also not really like a task and not be able to put all my effort into it. Most the time this side of me does not come out but if the task is something that I do not enjoy, or if I am doing the task with people who do not help, or listen, it becomes less than fun. The most recent example of this is the Seattle Video.

I had a really hard time in that project. I loved the idea behind it, the study of the “crazy” people and the thinking of a driving question, but when it came to the actual project I felt very lost. I did my fair share of work, but I felt that most of the work went to Luca O. I also felt very unorganized throughout this project. It was hard to complete that project and by the time I was done it was hard to sign my name on to it. It was hard to say that I was proud of the final project, and I feel bad because I feel that I should have picked up more slack, instead of choosing to do a fair share, and not pick up after others. I feel I may have learned the most from this project because I felt I did fail, and that I have learned how to deal with team members, and different personalities. I feel better on the other side of this project and will keep this project in mind when moving forward into other projects like it.

On a note that could be finagled to become attached to the last point, I would like to talk about PGP, and what it has done for my organization skills and what I have seen change throughout the corse of the journaling and the forms. I love to journal, I try to journal every night. I like journaling because I can share how I’m feeling, and what I’m feeling at any point. It also feels good to release stress sometimes when you can’t talk to a parent or friend about it. So for journaling to become part of my homework, I was sort of happy! Reflecting on the week has become a big part of my week, and it feels nice to have a reason and an excuse to write about the whole week. the journaling has had a positive impact on my weeks, but I think I owe most of the positive impact to the time blocking. I find it very soothing and organizing to be able to plan out my week so I can relax and be able to play around and have fun. I have learned a lot about the organizing of my life. I don’t want to time block everything to the minute, so that I still have freedom and don’t have to be so tied to a schedule.

 

 

 

This is my dream board. Each Piece may look like it is meaningless but everything has so much meaning, and I feel that this board has helped me to see what I want to become and how I want to spend my future!

Early in the year I also completed the More Happy Than Not trailer. I found the book very unsettling and I did not enjoy it much, but the creating of the trailer was a very incredible experience. I felt I totally upped my work level with it. My group did such good work filming and I was able to piece together the work into a very high quality piece of work. People in my class cried during the trailer, and I even got compliment from Lucas, saying that the editing quality was so good that you count even tell that it was filmed on a iPad and a phone.

I also recently presented my Pecha Kucha, I don’t think I have been so proud of a project ever before. I gave my heart and soul to that project, I knew it inside and out and was able to see any slide and know what I was saying word for word. I was so happy with how the project went down and how well people reacted to it. It was such a anxious and stressful preparation, but it was so rewarding to finally present it to others. I felt like I had learned so much about “crazy” people, and how to push the world forward. I would bring up a water next time though to make sure that my throat doesn’t dry up like it did. It was quite embarrassing!

To wrap this up, I would like to say that this term has been really successful for me, and I have been very proud of my work. In the coming term I would love to work harder on my goals in PGP. I will also hold my self to more exercise per week. In school I will push myself to become a presence that people can relay on, be more helpful, and kind. I am super excited to see what this next term brings, but I’m pretty sure I’m ready for anything, so bring it on!

My Question to end this presentation is : How can I achieve my goal of becoming more of a helpful/kind presence in the class?

Thank you!

Adlih

adsLeave a comment

Pêcha kucha

Before the break the whole of PLP 10, was tasked with the creation of a pêcha kucha per person. The pêcha kucha’s had to answer the driving question, “Why does it take a crazy person to change the world?” Now we had answered this question in our trip to Seattle, our Seattle videos, in our mini pêcha kucha’s, and our essays. But I believe I only truly understood the answer I was giving and the question itself, when I presented my pêcha kucha. Before I go into more detail, I will try to explain what a pêcha cucha is. 

A pêcha kucha is a oral presentation consisting of 20 slides, each on a self timer so they will change after 20 seconds. No script, your photos are your script. The slides are just photos, and they shouldn’t have any text. So it truly is quite simple, until it gets into the script. The script has to flow through the whole presentation (the whole 6 minutes and 40 seconds) It should transition with the images, and at the end of the presentation the audience should know the answer to the driving question. My pêcha kucha is above, and I’ll link some of the others  so you can watch those as well. Here’s Jamie’s, who I though did insanely well, Emily’s, and Jessie’s!

My pecha kucha focused deeply on how if you push your self past the point of becoming successful, and to a further goal only tou can see you will push the world forward.

This is proven through Elon Musks endeavours and his ambition to create a better planet, and to push our civilization onto another, becuase he knows that what the planet has undergone, will catch up with us at some point.

I also talked about our trip (briefly) to Seattle that defiantly shaped the answer I chose for my Pecha Kucha. 4 days and 3 nights in Seattle with my class, spending every day trying to figure out the answer to our driving question. We visited the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Center, we went on the Amazon tour, as well as the Microsoft tour, we also went to the Microsoft garage, and the Seattle Seahawks Satdium, Centry Link Field.

This trip, and the project itself, taught us so much about what it takes to change the world, and why those that are called crazy are the ones who are really pushing our world forward. Through the Pecha Kucha I learned so much about what it takes, and why people change the world. I also feel that I have a deeper understanding of the meaning of the word crazy, while also having a new found urge to become somebody called “crazy” and to push the world forward!

adsLeave a comment