Tagged: reflection

It’s Time To Reflect! Term 1

Hi y’all and welcome back to another blog post. Since term one is ending, today, I will be talking about and reflecting on all of the videos that I had done this term. So, let’s get right into it!

4 Shot Film

Empowered Learner:  I have leveraged technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in my learning goals 

For this video, being the first video that we had made this year, I think that we did a pretty good job. The video quality of when Ms Maxwell was walking up could have been better if it wasn’t blurred up and the music at the end. Although this video may not have been perfect, I think that I was really surprised as to how it turned out with the angles, shots, organization and roles and it has definitely started this year full of videos off strong. Which is why, I think that my group and I had leveraged technologies and have taken an active role in achieving and demonstrating our learning goals. 

Ghost Town Film

Knowledge Constructor: I can critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts, and make meaningful experiences for myself and others 

Similar to what I had said in my Alberta Reflection Post, this video did turn out pretty well, minus, the communication on who was bringing a cowboy hat and not using “landscape” during the whole course of filming. But we did all cooperate very well together. The editing was all done in iMovie but the writing at the beginning was done by Jude. If I had time (and wifi) at that time, I would’ve made my own music for the video. But I definitely learned some new things in the process of planning, filming and editing.

Drumheller Documentary

Creative Communicator: I communicated clearly and expressed myself creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats, and digital media appropriate to my goals. 

Just like what I said in my Alberta Reflection Post, since this was a surprise task, we had very little time to plan, film and edit our videos. But, during this video, I did not waste any time and persisted well. I definitely had some troubles with the audio at times but in reality, I think that that was the only real flaw other than maybe trying to communicate more information about the artifact. For this task, we could only use Clips, an apple application. I thought that this was great because I got to learn a little more about this app and plus, it took less time to edit. But, I wasn’t fully comfortable with it because I hadn’t used it very much in the past. 

Alberta People Video

Innovative Designer: I used a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful, or imaginative solutions 

As you could probably see in my This Land Is Us Project Reflection Post, my original and final video were very different and you could see a huge improvement between the two. I always made sure to be having a good eye for things when filming my video. I had planned all the questions that I was asking people in the course of the video but they had changed a little bit during the trip because I had began to be more specific with what type of content I wanted in my video. I rotated between my phone and iPad everyday because one of them on its own could not last the whole day. 

“Run” Remake Video

Computational Thinker: I developed and employed strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions 

I think that the original and final video had a huge difference, not to mention, the video quality was so much better. For the original video, where Finn and Brenton made the horror music. I had made the horror music for the last one. The thing that sucked for me though, was that I had no idea how to make horror music from scratch. Luckily, I had searched up many, many tutorials that didn’t make much sense and most were not from this update, that eventually ended up with the music that you hear in the final video. It wasn’t too good but definitely pretty god considering I had no idea what I was doing.

https://youtu.be/oGYBfvngATE

French Revolution Heritage Minute Video

Knowledge Constructor: I can critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts, and make meaningful experiences for myself and others 

This video, being our first of many revolution videos, wasn’t all that bad. Just like I said in my Revolution Post, the video quality and editing was good but, we could have perhaps filled in some missing information for some things that happened in between the events that were described and talked about in the video. My group persisted and worked together very well in the making of this video which really started our revolution project off strong. We only really used iMovie and maybe GarageBand for some music. I definitely think that we could’ve gotten some better shots for the last event but still, it was really good. 

American Revolution Rap Video

Innovative Designer: I used a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful, or imaginative solutions 

In this video, we definitely used quite a variety of apps to get this video together and this definitely took the longest time to film and edit. We used GarageBand, iMovie, Pages (a lot, for the lyrics), voice memos and many of our devices to film. This video was the hardest to manage out of all of them because it took the most time and planning but it was definitely worth it. We had some problems to overcome such as, using our time well and not practicing the lines enough. 

Russian Revolution John Green Video

Computational Thinker: I developed and employed strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions 

When it came to this video, we had amazing communication an planning with our props, backdrop and lines. The thing was, there was a problem about WHERE we would be filming. During the block that we had to film it, we had to move our set around because there were some communication issues with the people who originally allowed us to film there. Still, the video turned out great and I think that this may have been one of our best. 

Final French Revolution John Green and Animation Video

Empowered Learner:  I have leveraged technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in my learning goals 

This final video, certainly did put all of our best skills from the other revolution videos into one. It may have been a little too long, but I think it was fine. Since our last video didn’t have enough information, we wanted to get more in there but we ended up with a little too much. For the last video, we were certain to as to what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it and definitely achieved those goals. 

Take Your Kid To Work Day Video

Creative Communicator: I communicated clearly and expressed myself creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats, and digital media appropriate to my goals. 

Even though, I had some extreme technical issues with losing all of my interviews and other media that I had taken that day, it all worked out. I went back there and re-filmed all of my b-roll and shots but didn’t get to re-film the interview with my mom. I still liked the different angles that I took, how synced it was with the music and my creativity with the different transitions and editing details in iMovie. I had a plan of how I wanted my video to look like but I thought of an even better way to put it all together.

To conclude, I have really enjoyed creating all of these videos. Even though, it may take more time with the screenplays, the storyboards, the call sheets, the filming, editing and publishing, it was definitely worth it. Plus, I can look back at all of those videos when I’m older! I am super looking forward to continuing making these videos and maybe, by the end of this year, to be a master video maker! 

Alberta Trip Reflection

Hi guys! It’s Alex! Back with another blog post! This post, I am reflecting on our trip to Alberta for our PGP course. The driving question for this post is: “How did you persist and manage your impulsivity on this field study in order to question, think and gather data to complete your project and enjoy yourself?”. This question is talking about the work that we did in Alberta. Such as, our Tyrell Video, our Ghost Town Video, our Daily Note and other pictures and documentation we created. So, let’s get right onto the blog post!

Royal Tyrell Video

For this video, even though, we had very little time to plan, film and edit our videos because this was a surprise task, I think I still persisted well into completing this video. I had some troubles with the audio at times, which effected my video quality and I also had trouble finding out what to say that would really interest the viewer. This may not have been my best video yet, but it was pretty good. If I were to do this project again, I would make sure that my audio is understandable and doesn’t hurt the audiences ears (actually putting my mic on my shirt instead of holding it up) I would also put more effort into how I was talking about my artifact. Here is my video:

Ghost Town Video

I think that this video turned out pretty well, my group and I all cooperated very well together and planned everything out. The only thing was that we didn’t communicate well enough to figure out who was bringing the cowboy hat for our film. We had someone who was supposed to bring it but it ended up not being at their house. On the other hand, I still think that we had a good storyline and this video might have been one of the best that I’ve made so far. If I had to do this again, I would just make sure that we are all communicating properly.  

Daily Note

I am pretty proud of how my daily note turned out. I think that my writing was well done, the look of it is not too all over the place, and I got some pretty good pictures as well. I’m also pretty glad that I managed to never be behind and always had my daily note up to date everyday during the trip. But, if I were to do this assignment again, I would probably make my writing a lot shorter because, it is really really long. Here are some examples of what my daily note looks like from my favourite days!

 

Other stuff

When it came to things such as always thinking about how place impacted certain people and getting content for my “This Land Is Us” video, it really varied. In most places, I took a lot of pictures and videos but didn’t interview someone or didn’t think really talk to many people there at least. Other places, I interviewed and talked to lots of people but found that I didn’t get enough pictures and videos from different angles. If I were to redo it again, I would definitely try to keep a good balance between the two.  

 

In conclusion, I think that I did in fact persist and manage my impulsivity very well during this trip. My videos and Daily Note turned out pretty good. If I were to do this trip all over again, I would definitely take more pictures and videos of my trip, especially at the places that I interviewed people at. I also think that I had a good balance between having fun and learning at the same time. This trip was an amazing experience and opportunity to learn about how place impacts certain people because what place better to do it than Alberta the landscapes and different lifestyles are super diverse. Bye and I’ll see you in my next blog post!

 

Alex

Albertans & Identity – This Land Is Us Project Reflection

Hi! It’s Alex and welcome back to my blog! This project’s driving question was “How Does Place Impact Who We Are?” And, to answer this question, we went through this whole project and went to do a nine day trip to Alberta! 

Milestone 1: Power Of Place

To start off our project we first explored deeply into what place means to us and how it impacts us.

To reflect on this activity, we completed a “Creative Response”. Here is mine!

I think that I did a pretty good job on my creative response because it was nice and organized and represented the assignment very well. 

Milestone 2: Using A Lens

Next, we learned about looking at things in a different perspective, which we call, using a lens. The different types of lenses were Political, Economical, Geographical/Environmental and Social. To practice our lens using skills, we were put into groups and were assigned an article that described a recent event. My group was assigned the event on the Trans-Mountain pipeline with Alberta having a great dispute with British Columbia. Here was how mine turned out:

Since I chose to use an economical lens for this activity, I was able to find lots of examples on how the pipeline impacts the world economically. Therefore, it was a little easier for me to do this activity. I think I did a pretty good job at it still; it was the perfect length, had great examples and was formatted like it was supposed to be. 

Milestone 3: Pre-trip Plan & Research

For our “This Land Is Us” project, we were assigned people groups such as, students, business owners or tourists, which would make our answer to the driving question a little bit more specific and that our final video will turn out different than all of the other students. My people group was Albertans. Each group was given “first dibs” to interview someone at select locations which would also give us a better chance to research on the places and figure out our questions, which is exactly what we did for this assignment. Here is how mine turned out:

I was pretty proud of this assignment because it was pretty well organized so I trusted that it would be a great thing to go back to right before interviewing someone at those locations.

Milestone 4: Daily Note

During our Alberta trip, my class and I each had a document where we we had to answer certain questions based on what we learned and did that day. They also had to be all very well formatted with pictures from that day that were optional.  Here are some examples of a few days:

I was pretty proud of my Daily Note because I found it very eye appealing and organized. Also, for each day, I was always caught up and never had to work on something from the day before. 

Milestone 5: Alberta Video (version 1)

Next, we did our first version of our Alberta video. The day that it was due, in class we presented our videos to a partner and received feedback from them. Later, I also got some feedback from Ms. Maxwell on Showbie. 

Here was my video:

https://youtu.be/TxbVCA5g9yE

Here was the feedback from one of my classmates:

Here was the feedback from Ms Maxwell:

I struggled a lot with the 4 minute time limit because I wanted to be able to include all of my examples/evidence in the video but ended up just picking the interviews which I thought had the best answers to what I was looking for. The two lenses that I was mostly looking at were social and environmental which the people that I interviewed answered pretty well. The guy at Lake Louise was looking at more of a social lens, the guy at the Minnewanka boat cruise was a little bit of both and the guy from The Lake Louise Gondola And Ranger Program was more focused on an environmental lens. 

I think that my interviews were very good and the points of what I said were very good but I still think that I had a lot to fix in this video and was lucky enough to get some amazing feedback from both my classmate and teacher. I decided to work on:

  • Adding music perhaps making my own to the video
  • Adding more clips so that the others were shorter
  • Evening out my audio to make sure all the clips of me speaking were consistent
  • Slowing down some parts to give my viewer time to process information better

Milestone 6: Final Alberta Video

I think that my video improved a lot compared to my first version and I improved on everything that I wanted to improve on. It was also very well organized and was more clear. 

I really enjoyed doing this project and the type of opportunities I got to have during this project such as learning about a lot of different points of views of a lot of different Albertans with completely different lives. 

Colonizing In A Tempest Reflection!

Hello and welcome back to my blog! Once again! Today, we are reflecting on my most recent project that just finished, Colonizing In A Tempest. Just like every project, we had a driving question, this project’s driving question was “How can we use Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and the history of New France to stage dramatic tableaus that help an audience understand the lasting effects of colonization?”. In case you are wondering, tableaus are like a play except the characters stand in one position and each character says one line. Let’s just say that it was a lot harder than it looks. There were lots and lots of Milestones but sadly, I won’t be able to explain all of them to you, the only ones that I will explain are the ones that helped me best understand the driving question. 

1. What was life like in a colony? Skit + reflection 

So, number one, after we learned a whole lot about Colonization, we were assigned to create a skit to show the audience what life was like in a colony in the New France era, I found this pretty fun since I am half French Canadian. In my skit, we were supposed to present the different roles in a colony and different people. My group and I decided to not only show it from one perspective but from 3. In our skit, we decided to not always use the same characters but put them in different scenes. Here is my skit:

Next, completing this activity, we had to write a reflection paragraph, so if you’d like to understand the skit more clearly, here it is:

I think that this activity really helped me understand the driving question because I got to learn more about the different roles in a colony and got true chance to get a sense of acting!

2. Active Readings

Now, on the Shakespeare part of our project, to help us understand the Shakespearean language and the play better, we completed these Active Readings. Every few days, we would watch one act of the play (there were five) then complete an active reading that had to do with the play. 

Here they are:

I think that the active readings really helped me understand the driving question because it made the Shakespearean language much easier to understand and would force you to actually pay attention to the play and focus more while watching it. I especially had lots of trouble understanding the Shakespearean language because Shakespeare used all of these words and sentences that I did not understand one bit, it was very confusing. 

3. New France History & The Tempest Timeline

The next thing that helped me understand the driving question was the thing that pulled those “two worlds” together: The history of New France and the play “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare. After we created a mood board (that showed the emotions that The Tempest made you feel throughout the play), we tried to connect those to the feelings of the New France era, and it ended up pretty well. It looked something like this except in a real timeline:

1.1-Arrival of the first colonists

1.2-First contacts 

2.1- Early fur trade

2.2-The beaver wars

3.1- Treaty of Montreal

3.2-Treaty of Utrecht 

3.3-Seven years war

4.1-Acadian deportation 

5.1-Treaty of Paris

Here is the video of my presentation:

 

Deep Cove Ad Reflection

 

We just recently finished a project where we had to pick a local business and make a print ad for them. There is an ice cream place near our school so we decided to do that one. Here are the steps that we used to do our project. 

1. Research

After choosing a business, we did some research about the company and getting ready to interview them by gathering up some questions to ask them.  

2. Interview 

In the interview, we asked the business owner about 15 questions including: “When did you start your business?” and “How did you learn how to make the ice cream?” They told us that they wanted their ad to be simple, to somehow mention the quality of the ice cream, and to have a tagline of course.

We also had the chance to take some pictures of the ice cream for our ad. Also, my group and I (Malaika, Liam and Ryan), were very happy that they gave us all free ice cream!!

3. Ad draft #1

Here is my first draft, honestly, I knew it didn’t look very good. For my first draft, I  wanted to show the main idea instead of the actual quality of the ad. I included the information: made using all natural ingredients, no preservatives, etc. I also included the tagline, which really says a lot more about the ice cream than you’d think: Italy, is pretty well known for their amazing food (Atleast I think so): pasta, pizza and gelato. Which means that their Gelato is just as amazing  as the gelato in Italy except, you won’t have to travel as far.

One of the only ways that Gelato Express get costumers is from seeing it on social media, so I decided to add text that says to use a hashtag (#italyonacone) so that it could attract even more costumers. 

4. Ad draft #2

For my second draft, I decided to change the fonts and colours because they did not really go together that well with the colour of the background. I also wanted to have a  sort of “matte” background to make it look more professional. I also added some pictures of the social media apps. Finally, I added the location of the icecream shop so that they’d know where it is and where to find it. 

5. Ad draft #3

For my third draft, I decided to change the background colours because the other one didn’t match at all. Also, I made the location of the ice cream shop a little shorter since it didn’t need to be so detailed. Another change that I made was to move the logo and make it slightly bigger. Finally, took off the information because I felt like it was too much text on the ad so too focus more on the tagline and their hashtag. 

6. Visiting pound and grain 

My class and I went to visit a company called Pound and Grain. Pound and grain is basically an advertising company, but they call themselves “a digital creative agency”. They have advertised for many companies such as Arc’teryx, OUTtv and Weight Watchers (WW) and told  us that they made about 10 drafts before the companies were satisfied with their ads. I loved that the inside of their building looked very professional and organized. I also loved their choice of colours in their building, website and logo, it is very bold and unique.

Pound and grain also offered to take a look at our deep cove ads. They showed us how to enhance the quality of the ad by: Adding more visuals, that space is key but not TOO much, simple is good (most of the time). 

I would love to work there some day, it seems that I would be learning lots there (mainly about advertising) and having fun at the same time, just like PLP!!!

7.  Final ad

After the visit at Pound and grain, the people there gave me some advice and little things to change in my ad. For example, they said that I didn’t need to say “use our hashtag!” I could just put the hashtag under it with the pictures of social media apps. And also, that if I’m saying “Italy on a cone”, the ice cream on the cone should be replaced with something like the leaning tower of Pisa.

 

9. Conclusion 

To conclude, I really enjoyed making these ads and be in the place of an advertiser myself. It was a great experience to be the creator and to realize all these techniques and appeals that I still fall for this day.

I hope that you enjoyed my post and I will be posting another soon! Thanks for reading! See you in my next post!

If you happen to come by Deep Cove, come check out Gelato Express, the staff are super friendly!!

 

-Lexie😜