In socials studies class we have been studying WWII. In most wars there is no good side and bad side, there is just soldiers, citizens, and dictators all hoping or fighting for the same outcome. Every country has its own perspective that should be acknowledged. That’s why we were able to pick one of three novels that each told a whole different story of WWII.

The book I chose was All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

After we had about three weeks to finish our novel, we wrote a book review on it.

We learned what makes a good book review by reading examples and making a mind map together on what aspects we noticed were included.

For this assignment we had two drafts. The first draft we got a peer critique.This was very helpful because I was able to see what I missed and what could make stronger.

Here is my final book review enjoy!

Book review: Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See gives light to valuable and interesting perspectives during WW2

All The Light We Cannot See
By Anthony Doerr
Pages 544pp. Scribner. $27

 

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr tells more than the heartaches, distruction and cruelty to fellow human beings during World War II. Doerr sends the message that at the end of the tunnel there is light no matter how dark it is.

Anthony Doerr was born in Cleveland Ohio. He majored in history at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine then earned an MFA from Bowling Green State University. He has also written the story collections Memory Wall and The Shell Collector, the novel About Grace, and the memoir Four Seasons in Rome.

This novel tells the story of two protagonists, both children who are experiencing the horrors of World War II. The two stories are combined as Werner and Marie-Laure meet from seemingly effortless but in extraordinary circumstances.

Even though the characters are not based on fact, Anthony Doerr completely fooled me. It’s nearly unbelievable that he created these characters that match the setting and enhance the story without experiencing the war himself.

The author first introduces the reader to Marie Laure, a girl who becomes blind when she is young. Doer uses sensory skills to describe her developing a new perspective. Doerr writes, “The world pivots and rumbles. Crows shout, brakes hiss, someone to her left bangs something metal with what might be a hammer. She shuffles forward until the tip of her cane floats in space”.

Werner and his sister Jutta represent how German children saw Hitler and what was being drilled into their brain. Werner and Jutta are orphans, and the beginning of the war changed their lives in simple but influential ways. Hitler did get Germany out of the Great Depression and this caused many to believe he would bring glory back to Germany. For example, Doerr describes, “Indeed it does seem to Werner, as the weeks go by, that something new is rising. Mine production increases; unemployment drops. Meat appears at Sunday supper. Lamb, pork, wieners—extravagances unheard of a year before”. Jutta seemed to have a different perspective of what was going on. Even though she was younger than Werner, she wasn’t fooled by the Nazi propaganda. When Werner confronted her for listening to a foreign radio staition she stated, “That’s what I’m listening to, Werner. Our airplanes are bombing Paris”. She knew what was going on wasn’t right and didn’t want to stand idly by.

 

Anthony Doerr definitely made interesting choices when creating this novel. There were often times were he didn’t shine the light on substantial events in the story as a reader might have expected. His writing style didn’t allow the reader to achieve a deep understanding, because he changed back and fourth between two different stories and at times did not conclude key events. For example, Werner, one of the protagonist, dies very sudden and obscurely. Doerr wrote, “But Werner has crossed the edge of the field, where he steps on a trigger land mine set there by his own army three months before, and disappears in a fountain of earth”. Once the reader is told of Werner’s death, the chapter ends followed by the next chapter which has a completely different tone. This style moves the reader too quickly, and does not allow for the opportunity to digest what had just occurred to one of the protagonists.

Throughout the novel even when the characters are facing terrible times in World War II they find some light shining through the darkness. Such as Werner’s interest in fixing radios or Marie Laure falling in love.

The Destination Imagination Regional tournament was a big success for my group, Ending on a High Note. But that wasn’t the last of DI, because we also competed in the provincial tournament.

If your wondering what I’m talking about, Destination Imagination (DI) is a tournament we do in PLP. You use skills such as critical thinking and team work to pull of a presentation that is only limited by your imagination and the challenge requirements/restrictions.

As we came 1st in the regional tournament there was no doubt provincials would be a breeze. But that’s not what DI is really about. In DI you have to be able to use creativity and critical thinking to solve any problems thrown your way. Which is what we did when not one but two of my teammates Robbie, and Sofia weren’t able to make it to provincials. With only half of our team now being Lucas and I, we had a lot of work ahead of us.

Revisions

Because Robbie was the main character and performed the spectacle we needed an effective way to replace him. We first came up with creating a robot dressed like Robbie’s character Roberto. Let’s just say not everyone was a fan the Robot Roberto idea.

The next idea we had was more out of my comfort zone, but I decided to give it a go. Using Sofia’s sowing skills with Robbie’s and my costume we combined them so I could be two people at once.

Because we were able to keep “Roberto” who we now named “Harmony” we were also able to keep most of the script. When changing our script we made sure to focus on what would make sense to the audience. We also had to assign new roles for things like who will play the music and who does the set change so we wouldn’t scramble on stage.

Change of Tune Revised Script

I learned alot about what goes into a production and how you have to take consideration to every single piece in it.

I also learned how to memorize lines quickly because I went from having two lines to about 24 (not including the three songs). I also had to deal with stage fright because even though I’m a competitive dancer this type of performance I never do.

The Tournament

Something Lucas and I definitely learned at this tournament is that teammates motivate each other and help each other to stay calm, and be on track. So it made everything a lot harder not having two of our teammates with us. We definitely got off track and weren’t motivated during our instant challenge, unlike we usually were. But we managed to perform our central challenge just like we rehearse.

https://youtu.be/NO-BeQcQU84

Results

Our hard work seemed to pay off because we came in second! Even though there is so much more we could have done we managed to push through with a good attitude and accomplish what we hoped.

 

The appraisers score your central challenge and give you positive feedback.

Why we do DI

In PLP we do DI because it benefits us in the same way the program does. It is scientifically proven that students who participate in DI become better at creative and critical thinking, collaboration and idea generation.

With everything that happened and all the hard work we did as a team I’m glad to say we were able to “end on a high note”.

This year I participated in the Destination Imagination tournament.

If your wondering what Destination imagination or DI is, its an educational experience that has project-based STEAM Challenges that use creative process to be successful.

 

The STEAM Challenge categories are science, technology, engineering, arts, or mathematics based. These challenges change every year.

My challenge is arts based and my team members are Lucas, Sofia, and Robbie. This year the arts challenge is called Change Of Tune which requires you to create a two act musical that includes a change of plan.

Teamwork

When we first got our teams for DI we were given a challenge to create a iMovie horror trailer using any of the trailer templates but scary. This tested our teamwork because we had to use creativity and produce a trailer in little time.

This trailer actually turned out great and we really did work well as a team. Our teamwork has continued to grow in DI demonstrated in our success of the instant challenges.

Preparation

In each category there are multiple requirements for the set team choice elements and story that if completed well will get you points.

To understand our challenge, we prepared by doing the Project Management steps. We kept the work we did, as well as the script, in a shared google docs with our team.

Grade 10 Fine Arts (Change of Tune)

For our musical we needed to get our costumes, and create our script,  music, set (with a changing background), and instrument.

With all of this to do stayed on task by splitting up the jobs and work outside of school (which we did multiple times).

In every challenge you need two team choice elements this can be anything that you think shows your teams best capabilities and isn’t apart of the central challenge. We decided to make our team choice elements Robbie’s pants that we designed, and a home made 3 drum bongo.

Research

Our theme for our musical was all about the 60s music and hippie revolution.

We presented our knowledge of the 60s in the set (was a tie die background), music and lyrics, dance moves, and especially in our groovy costumes.

 

Presentation

This year DI was hosted at our school Seycove so we didn’t have to move our set and equipment. Our presentation went great we and successfully pulled of our spectacle. The judges really liked our 60s theme and our music so we were very confident on how we did.

Next it was time for our instant challenge. In class we did a lot of preparation for this. For this instant challenge we got a high score and the additional 30 bonus points.

After everyone finnished there challenges it was time to see how we did. My team, Ending on a High Note, ended up being first in the regionals competition for secondary level fine arts. We won the central challenge and the instant challenge

Regionals was a success but let’s see how provincials goes

Have you ever wished that math was fun… me too

This term while learning about algebraic equations, polynomials factoring, and expanding we created a board game incorporating these things.To help us stay on task throughout the project we had clear criteria.

My partner Isobel and I had multiple days to brainstorm ideas for our board game rules.

Math board game rules

Our first draft wasn’t very clear and needed to incorporate factoring and perfect square more obviously. So we took this feedback and created our final draft.

final math board game rules

The last part of this project was to create a video playing and explaining the game.

Hope you enjoyed.

California trip 2018, feb 2-11
The PLP California trip was a really amazing experience that taught me a lot about Silicon Valley, education, multiple unique professions, and myself.

In this blog I’m gonna take you through day 1-10 of what we did and saw during this trip.

Day 1. First we took two planes to San Diego. Our first day we took in a breath of California seeing the beautiful Torrey pines national reserve and La Jolla cove.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Torrey pines national reserve is home to some of the last Torrey pines and is keeping them from extinction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2. We spent most of the day at the San Diego Safari Park.

Here we saw:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also went on a hot air balloon ride that is apart of the park

At Safari park I learned that the most common factor that leads to animals going extinct is deforestation and habitat fragmentation. This disruption is what caused the three band armadillo to get be near endangered. I also learned that zoos work together to end extinction and decide the best place to put an endangered animal. The Safari park adapts the environment for different animals need and keeps them well exercised.

Day 3. Today we went to the USS midway and enjoyed the audio tour, listening to the interns who worked on the midway, and the very life like manikins.

At the midway I learned that it was full of determine young adults 17-19 who ran the ship. It’s amazing to think these young adults went on the large voyages in harsh conditions but still managed to do there job well.

Day 4. On day 4 and 6 we went to High Tech High. We got paired up with grade 9 students from high tech high, and got to experience what a school day for them was like.

Day 5. The final day at HTH we interviewed and said goodbye to our buddies.

I had an amazing experience at high tech high and learned so much from the teachers, students, and the school.

After we left HTH we took a flight to San Jose

Day 6. Today we went to google, Apple, and intel

Day 7. We spent our day at the computer history museum and at Stanford University.

At the Computer History Museum we saw examples of how technology has been creating huge disruptions throughout time.

Later we had dinner with tech giants Scott and Brendan who shared with us what being an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley and working in tech companies is really like.

Day 8. Today we had a private tour of Twitter headquarters

This tour was really cool because we saw how modern and relaxed this work environment was. It looked like a place that you would want to be and encourages you to be creative and share your ideas.

Next we took a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge and then to dinner.

 

Day 9. We started off our day with a Wild SF walking tour.

This was a really great tour because it talked about a lot of things we have been learning about San Francisco:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was really cool to learn about how all of these great movements started in San Francisco because of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Because of the earthquake and fire the area became poor and had low population so the hippies were able to move in to the cheap houses. From there on San Francisco has been a place that people were free to go against American values.

Day 10 . This last day we took one last ride on the cable cars heading to the airport we’re our California journey ends.

 

riding the cable-cars

going back home

It was sad to leave the California sun but after a week of activities everyday it would be nice to see my dog and relax on my bed

In humanities instead of focusing on war or a particular movement, we focused on one word that includes that and more…DISRUPTION!

It might seem that disruption is a scary thing that causes problems but disruption can actually be a great thing and change our world for the better.

 

The word Disruption can be complicated because it has multiple definitions

• disturbance or problems that interrupt an event, activity, or process.
• to change the traditional way that an industry operates, especially in a new and effective way

This term we discovered disruption innovation and other types of disruption fit in to our (California trip) and how it effects our lives.

 

Our assignment for California was to choose one of the places we were going to go to and find examples of disruption.

This project could be a video, podcast, board game, photo essay, or the all time favourite puppet show.

My partner Willa and I chose to do a podcast on High Tech High.

After lots of research on the school we decided to focused on how HTH gives all students a chance to experience there great school by accepting them through a lottery system.

Thesis: High Tech High gives a variety of students, with different capabilities, an opportunity to learn and become educated innovators and critical thinkers.

I was really happy with the thesis Willa and I created so this project was on to a good start.

To further prepare for this project before we left for California we created a list of questions we could ask people at HTH

High Tech High questions

Next step once we were in California we got interviews from two teachers and a few students on HTH and the lottery systems impact.

Because willa and I split up to get the interviews it was hard to put them together at the end while staying on topic. I enjoyed learning about High Tech High and love how unique this charter school is. This school cares or every student and focuses on teaching them in away that is engaging and meaningful to them. No matter who you are or what your skill level is this is a place where you can succeed.

Reflection

This podcast had some amazing interviews and was strong. I thought we could have done more with the interviews by splitting them up into topics instead of having the questions all over the place. I think if we were to do another draft it would be stronger but I still think this podcast is good.

 

Once we came home our last assignment on disruption was a synthesis essays that was based on the topic question: How has technology acted as a disruption throughout history? This essay included a interesting novel we read over winter break, Little Brother by Correy Doctorow, which you can read more about here.

We also had to choose 2 or more other sources to include in the essay as well as some other requirements.

Synthesis Essay Outline

This was a in class essay that was done in the two humanitie classes that were given. Before writing the essay we did a lot of preparation and research.

Synthesis Essay preparation

My final thesis statement turned out to be: Technology is an amazing tool that can put your ideas into action to create a positive change.

Throughout the year we have been working on thesis statements and making them more specific

For my sources I used:

Little brother: how the main character used his knowledge of technology to create a change when no one else would

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak: there creation Macintosh was the most successful useful personal computer that made a huge disruption.

Welcome to Silicon Valley: young entrepreneurs using the reasources provided at Silicon Valley to make their ideas reality.

Going into this essay I felt very prepared and had a sheet of paper with quotes from my sources. In the first class we had time to write I finnished half of my essay. Then during the second class I had just enough time to finish my conclusion and read over.

Disruption in Technology final essay

I thought my essay proved my thesis statements and followed the requirements. I really enjoyed writing this essay because disruption in technology is such a interesting topic that could be taken in many different ways. What I could have done better on is referencing my quotes. I should have looked back on the work we did referencing quotes earlier this year because I think a few times I made mistakes.

Recently, my PLP class went on our trip to California.

After a couple days of enjoying the sun, seeing some beautiful beaches, and going to the safari park, it was back to school. But not our high school Seycove an Americain charter school, High Tech High.

A charter school is a school that is independently operated but receives funding from the government. Charter schools provide educational approaches that are different from regular schools. HTH has a community of elementary, middle, and high schools. The school that we spent our time in was High Tech High Media Arts.

HTH media arts focuses on having a college-going culture supported through a strong liberal arts and sciences foundation.

Now that we learned about charter schools and HTH we get to have a inside look by experiencing two days following a student throughout there classes.

 

HTH Media arts

The first thing we did was go on a tour of the campus with our high tech high buddies. I was super lucky to get two awesome gals Mui and Blanca.

When you walk around high tech high you can tell it’s not a normal high school. There are amazing student creations displayed all over the school and very open classroom.

We attended our buddies math class, media arts class, and socials class.

In socials we learned about how education should be the great equalizer and how American and Canadian schools are different.

In the media arts class we debated on current events today. Unlike how I have done  current events in school before this was completely student lead and you didn’t have to prepare an essay before. I thought this was great because we talked about a variety of things from school shootings to Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy.

Finally in math we did a interesting riddle. The riddle is called the Locker riddle and independently in groups of three we tried to figure it out. After lots of redrawing the problem out and using what we know we surprisingly solved the riddle.

At HTH we also got to interview our buddies. First we prepared questions to ask them.

I thought this interview went really well I enjoyed talking to Miu and Blanca because they had a lot of cool things to say like how high tech high has given them great opportunities that there parents could have benefited from, and what they like and dislike about San Diego.

What didn’t go well for this interview was the sound quality because we did the interview outside. Because there was an airport nearby HTH and the elementary school was walking around, a lot of the good information I got you weren’t able to hear.

Reflection

HTH believes that education should be the great equalizer. The school is devoted to giving everyone an equal chance for a great education by taking in students from different parts of San Diego no matter there skill level . This creates disruption because many students that wouldn’t normally get a great education like hth provides now are more likely to going on to college. These students have a chance to become intelligent future leaders and have a powerful impact on society. Another way HTH causes this same disruption is by encouraging and preparing the students to go to college. They have after school programs and praise every student that gets into college. The two main things I would love to bring back to Seycove is debates on current events. I think this would be great to bring back because sometimes we are so focused on our projects that we don’t take time to discuss the major issues happening right now. I also think that we could focus more on helping students with thinking about college and preparing for it. My oldest brother found that the grade 12 grad trans did not help him in any way moving on to college as it should have. Finally I also loved how HTH created this amazing environment by letting there students paint the walls, and furnish and decorate areas however they wanted. I thought this was very cool because it connects to how we saw technology companies like twitter and google create a place that people want to be. Just like Scott said at dinner, if you are exited about a problem it makes it seem like less work. I believe if employees and students want to be working at their job or school, it will radiate positive energy and reflect on the work that is produced.

This blog post may look like a ordinary blog post but you are mistaken.

This blog post is not about a book, or a project, It’s about Reflection

So let’s reflect on these amazing past 4 months, and go back to my first blog post Why did the War Start.

Not only was this blog post extremely vague,(being about 300 words) but I felt it didn’t show much of my learning. The blog post also had zero links. Which proves there was little or zero effort. (Or I didn’t know how to link, but besides the point)

What I did like was the difference between my first video draft, and the second. Isobel, Sofia, and I took a chance trying to use the green screen last minute, and it didn’t work out.

https://youtu.be/vbyDlVJNbjk

Though, Ms. Maxwell was fine with are video, we decided we wanted to create something we were proud. This is always my biggest goal because I set high standers for myself because I know I can succeed.

This project would have been much stronger if we planned out our time better and used sound effects or any effects in general. Overall our video was creative, and could have been strong but was not executed well.

Now I’ll take you…

And share a project I am proud of, my latest blog Everyone has a Story. Comparing these two projects I think show a good example of my growth, and what difference it makes when I’m enthusiastic about the project and use my time better.

Already in this blog I used a technique we learned, which is to draw your reader in by asking them questions: We all have personal stories, but if you were asked to open up and share one would you? What story would you choose? And how would you tell it?

Something that I demonstrate in this blog is that I improved in, and still can improve in, reflecting and showing my knowledge.

After every story I shared my favourite part of the interview, what went well or didn’t and what I learned.

In my family story I shared how this interview was the hardest because I wasn’t very prepared with questions and I stated:

“I found it inspiring to to hear how my mom stood up for what she believed because she could have chosen different god parents for James but she didn’t. This interview really taught me that you always can learn from the people around you.”

I have become much more confident in my blog post and projects but I can still work on organizing my time better to produce quality work for every draft.

Moving on to science I decided to share my project Identical or Just Similar I think for this blog I showed good understanding of the subject, (DNA and genetics) by referring back to the previous work we did like the table. Kate and I weren’t that exited for this project and it showed in our first draft but once I added some sound effects and fixed the audio it turned out to be good.

I decided to compare my two math blogs because they were strong and week in opposite ways.

In my trigonometry project I think I showed the most understanding of my learning for this subject (soh cah toa) in my blog post and the attached keynote. For this project I didn’t pay attention as muc to the astectics of my house unlike I did in the other project about the golden ratio

This years mPols there’s a twist. Instead of answering questions at the end, we get to ask a question. I decided to ask a question that I would love to know. I’m not sure what my future will look like and I’m very undecided on what my plans are. What I do know is I still have growing to do as a person and as a student.

If I was leaving high school now, what is some advice you would give me about what I need to spend more energy on to become a more skilled learner?