This post is bitter sweet. This is my last post of the whole entire school year. I know pretty crazy right. Hey guys, welcome back to My Dog Ate My Blog and I am here to tell you about my second Blue Sky exhibition. You know what, let’s just go ahead and get started!!

The first thing I am going to talk about is Blue Sky. Now, most of you probably have no clue what that is. It can also be called 20% Time or Genius Hour depending on the company. The original company to have created this time was 3M, they would give their employees 20% of their work hours to work on a project outside of their normal work. Many ideas from huge companies like Google and Apple have been thought of during this time. We call it Blue Sky because since PLP is an Apple based program and that is what they called it, that is what we will call it. It is a very fitting name, it means that the skies are the limit, we can do whatever we want.

For this edition of Blue Sky, we used the LAUNCH Cycle to create a solution to a problem. Any problem we want as long as it is designed by you and important to you. We have used the launch cycle before for several projects such creating a new sport and last year’s Blue Sky. These are the stages of the launch cycle that I created in Keynote for my project:

As well as a great video explaining it:

MY PROJECT

Since I am a teen and all of my friends are teens, this is kind of the time everyone is starting to apply for their first job, but with personal experience it can be really scary and Intimidating which is a feeling I want to eliminate. So I decided to create an app that includes tons of information as well as Tips and Tricks.

I will be talking about the most important thing I learned about each stage of the LAUNCH cycle, sort of like a few highlights, I guess you could call them.

L

In the “L” section, I really had the opportunity to connect with a lot of people, a wide variety of teens on Instagram. I asked the question “What do you find most intimidating about applying for a new job?” And “If you don’t have a job, why?”

I actually got a ton of responses from my followers, here are a few.

“I don’t have time for a job, too much going on”

And

“An Interview for sure. I find it really nerve wracking to speak to someone who may be you potential employer because you don’t want to say something that could mess it up.”

And

 

“The hardest part for me was fitting it in with my soccer schedule and still being able to have a good time with my friends.”

A

Next comes ask tons of questions where I created my NTK chart:

This gave me a huge chance toi be able to talk to my teachers about what i wanted to do which I discovered is very important. I was talking to my Maker teacher since i had absolutely no idea how to create an app at all and she helped me out a ton. Imagine if I hadn’t asked her questions?! My project would have been a lot harder!

U

Research time! Research has never been a strong suit of mine……. until this project. I discovered, that there are many different ways to research! My favorite being interviewing live people. Here is one I did with my friend Taylor’s that really changed the way I research and that made it more fun.

It was awesome to find a new way that I really enjoy researching, it is something that allows me to bring more of ME into it.

N

I PROMISE!! THE BEST WAY TO ORGANIZE YOUR IDEAS IS WITH POST-IT! I discovered this in the “N” section fo the Launch Cycle.

This is basically what my brain looked like during this section, just a bunch of post-it’s organized into ways I see them because it doesn’t matter if other people understand, it is for you.

C

This is when I began creating prototypes of many different things. Things such as MyMap:

My Resume:

And even the Whole App!:

This stage may not seem important but it definitely is. I thought the same thing until I tried to build the final product without drafts and feedback. It doesn’t work.

H

Overall, this is probably the most important stage of all. I received feedback from my friend Lexy on my Resume:

And feedback from my stepmom on my app:

Without this feedback, my project would not have been as succesful.

LAUNCH

After that whole process, my app was complete. Not only was it complete though, it was something I was actually really proud to show the world. You can check it out here:

THE ROOM

I was in a group with Ally, Zoe, Anika, Meg, and Ryan and we were part of the self awareness group. we decorated our room to be calm and tranquil by putting tons of plants all around, we had a self appreciation corner, and we turned the lights of and just had a a few lamps. I think it turned out really well and I am really happy with it. the biggest thing I think I learned from theming a room is that everything has to have a purpose!! if you have a random chair in there, why? a table, why? a plant, why? Everything counts. here is a video I created showing the room as well as my station.

CONCLUSION

For me, Blue Sky is a great way to to end the year. Everyone’s work is celebrated by the public and by each other and that is such a good feeling. But it is also a time to look back on everything you have learned this year and see if you can somehow incorporate it into your project. I love having time to work on absolutely anything you want, it allows me to let loose and make the project my own. Blue Sky teaches me so many valuable lessons each year about perseverance, teamwork, research, asking for help and so much more. thank you Blue Sky and everyone who was involved for such a great school year. I would just like to finish off the school year with this photo of Ally.

~ Signing off, Jordyn Eyton