We did it! The last and final step of the school year! BlueSky was definitely a crazy night to remember.

Again, focusing on the LAUNCH Cycle, the Spring Exhibition gave us all the chance to design and create something that solves a problem we are interested in. Once again, I chose dance. As a dancer, you can really see all the flaws in everything from the products to the politics. However, there isn’t much I can do for politics so let’s take a look st a common problem. Slipping when dancing on pointe.

When your whole body weight is standing on nothing but your longest toe, there’s a good chance you’ll fall. Especially when the platform you’re balancing on is really no bigger than a coin.

Dancers also practice for hours on end and many don’t have access to proper flooring at home. There are many solutions already created to stop a dancer from slipping, however, many require liquid which actually warps the form of the shoe or otherwise causes stains and marks accords the floor.

Below is a little fun animated video as a review of the LAUNCH Cycle. While we did study this last year, the cycle is the basic creative process when creating something. Therefore, why not revisit it?

Now knowing the LAUNCH Cycle, we can take a look at how I incorporated it into my project, starting with the L Stage: Look, Listen & Learn. This being mainly my pre research such as observing. This is how I discovered the slipping problem. I also discovered the importance of proper dance flooring. This took me into the A Stage: Ask Questions.

In the A Stage, I interviewed some of my dance friends to get an idea of their perspective on the problem. I created a little questionnaire chart showing each of their answers.

Moving into the U Stage where I began to understand the info I collected and analyze the problem. I started writing down all my research from the use of floorings, friction and pointe shoes. From there, I Navigated my research by grouping them into groups based on where and how I got the info as well as what the research is on.

Finally, it was time to Create. I drew up a design plan on what my basic product would look like. From there, I tested multiple different types of materials such as marley and rubber before finding the perfect fit for my product and a dancer’s needs.

On the night of the exhibition, I worked with my room team: Jackson, Holly, Felix, Liam and Grace to create a forest themed room. We get that this idea worked best for the themes of our projects. I bet we looked like a pack of ants scurrying around trying to get everything done on such a time crunch.

The Project was a great journey and I’m so happy I was able to create a product that works and matches the need of dancers. If I had to go back and revise something, I probably would have created a few more prototypes just to try out some more materials as you never know what’s out there.

Great. While everyone is out partying it up in the Summer sun, splashing around in the water and enjoying the nice weather, I’m still here on my last week of school stressing about yet another parent, teacher and student presentation. Great. It’s TPOL time.

As usual, the teachers ask me to reflect on how I grew as a learner, what I learned and how I’d like to move forward towards next year. Well, I think we should change this up a wee bit. Rather than starting with a cheesy montage of the year, let’s take an adventure back in time to the start of Grade 9.

Ok well that’s just embarrassing. Here it is, younger Kiera at the start of September having no idea what was in store for her. This year, our main focus in class was learning new video skills and methods, so, it’s only natural that my first project I show you is my video project from the beginning of the year.

Voila! Here it is! Let’s just cut to the chase. Here is my Metaphor Machine Video. Pretty basic. It consists of voiceovers and angles but otherwise a pretty basic video. At the time, I was extremely proud of how this film turned out. Now looking back on it, I realize how far I’ve come as a learner. I never really noticed this until now when I revisit projects from the beginning of the year.

And I’m not trying to put myself down by saying the video wasn’t good, it was, it just didn’t live up to its full potential. I made it a goal of mine to be able to reflect critically and positively on my work. Since my last MPOL, I’ve tried to look on imperfections and fails as a chance to learn and improve. Therefore, let’s compare this video to one from a more recent project. My World War One Video. Although slightly different concepts, the video still shows much improvement from the media used, to the audio and even the use of words and the script itself.

No, this wasn’t just a magical transformation. In fact, it took literally a whole school year, which, might as well have been forever as well as many many video projects and drafts. But, it’s true what they say, each time you try, you improve a little more. With each draft I did and each video I created, I got to expand my knowledge and skills in video making. I soon learned about the importance of consistency in media, film sets and more! So let’s take a look st a more recent video. One with a similar concept but a completely different approach. Here is my World War One Video. This was actually just finished a few weeks ago and was, in fact the last video project of the year!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zJjcY9rp_CE

The video focuses on the role of Women in the First World War. Besides taking in the information, pay close attention to the use of angles, sound quality and overall consistency. See an improvement? I certainly do!

In fact, I made it a personal goal of mine to push myself this year. This doesn’t just mean challenge myself but to face things that, in the past, have been considered a fear or something I’ve been super uncomfortable with. This project showed great growth in accomplishing this goal as I’m really not a child loving person, however, in this project, we were required to share our final videos with the grade sixes and sevens from Cove Cliff Elementary. Therefore, I had to face my fear of kids.

So moving on, let’s have a look at the Scientific and Mathematical side of this year. To show my growth in this category, I’d like to take a look at my Card Game Project and my Matter Cycles Project. The reason I chose these two is because I had a similar work mindset and had the same partner. Therefore, I found these two projects a good comparison.

The Card Game Project focused on different exponents and methods. This would then be presented in the form of a card game. Unfortunately, for this project, my mindset wasn’t in the right place and I was away for the majority of it meaning a lot of the responsibility fell on my partner, which, is very unfair. The project itself turned out ok but it definitely wasn’t the best. Some of our calculations and math was wrong but hey, first attempt at learning people!

Therefore, for the Matter Cycles Project, when I was paired up with the same partner again, I made it a goal of mine to put my absolute best into this project. This time, my partner and I worked equally and I was much more focused, and, the final result showed the extra effort. You could really tell that this project was done by a team and as a team.

Finally, let’s have a look at PGP. In other words, the newbie of this year’s courses. One that, at the beginning of the year, we knew nothing about. However, this particular course helped me accomplish one of my biggest goals this year. How to handle stress. Ok, sure, I have a serious stress issue like I don’t handle stress very well at all. In fact, I break down terribly under stress. However, PGP, although not the most interesting of courses definitely helped with this. Let’s have a look at the beginning of this year. I’m pretty sure the amount of stress attacks I had was above 3 a month. Yeesh! Of course, once reading about the seven habits and time blocking, this all changed…

Learning to use THINGS helped me manage my busy schedule. It provided me with a visual that allowed me to priorities tasks to maximize my time. I think, if there’s one thing (get the pun?) that I’ll remember going into grade 10, it would be the importance of keeping a clear schedule and staying organized. Plus, there’s the added bonus sensation you get each time you tick off a task on your to do list.

Now, I ain’t no fan of speeches or long essays that go on forever. So, I think it would be a great chance to conclude this incredible year. I’ve changed so much as both a learner and a person. I’m not the same person I was at the beginning of grade nine and, usually, I hate change. But, the things I learned this year will carry me into next year and hopefully, these skills and improvements I’ve learned will help me for the rest of my life. Thanks for reading!

If the title didn’t draw you into this post, hopefully this will. We all have fears. Some, greater than others. Imagine your teacher telling you that you will be walking into a room full of your fear. As you approach the building, shivers crawl down your spine as you brace yourself to step into the room…

Yeah you guessed it, my greatest fear is kids. Some people are great with them! That definitely isn’t me. In short, screaming kids just terrify me. Well, looks like I’m gonna have to face that fear as that’s one of the main points of this project.

Like most grade nine students, we came to the point in the year where we had to learn and uncover the topic of World War One. As gruesome and bloody as this topic may be, we were told that our final project actually would be presented to a younger audience: the “lovely, quiet and wonderful” grade six and seven students from CoveCliff Elementary.

Since this year is focused on video making, we would each be given a topic based off of World War One and present what we learned in the form of a video. The video could be any form we wanted from animations, to documentaries, Stop Motions and more. I chose to challenge myself with an animation. Due to my lack of drawing utensils and patience, this format of video isn’t one I do often.

Great. Just great. Not only do I have to stress about another video, but, I also have to present it to a group of over energetic kids. Great.

I’ve always had a particular interest in what women and girls did in the past. I mean, come on, men got to do all the fun stuff. They’re the ones seen in the trenches, as soldiers, officers and more. Women? Well, Disney explains their role pretty well in the majority of their princess movies. Girls were always seen as the pretty damsel in distress. Weak, dependant not as important as men. While men were seen as higher up, women played a huge role during the First World War.

We all know men were the ones who fought on the actual battlefield, but at the same time, women were fighting another battle. A battle for equality. To this day, men are treated better, however, what the women did during the war changed their lives and the lives of other women forever.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zJjcY9rp_CE

Because our audience was the grade sixes and sevens, it was important to keep them in mind while creating the video. This meant that we couldn’t add anything that might traumatize the children or any words they might not understand. I felt that an animation would be most appropriate for the age group as it allows me to show visuals that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise such as explosions, etc.

Like all videos, the process starts with an idea than we moved to a screenplay and finally a storyboard. Honestly, if I were to go back and change something, I would’ve spent more time on the storyboard and really plan out where I was going to film myself at the desk because, I soon realized that my house was unfit to film. Luckily though, I was able to film in the classroom which made for a surprisingly good film set!

Finally, the hardest part of the project arrived. The day we would have to share our work to the kids of Cove Cliff. At first, it took all my might not to run or scream or hide, but after seeing some familiar faces, I calmed down a bit. I’m happy to report that the kids I shared my video with were all engaged and showed a good understanding of the topic!

So, at the end of the day, producing a video I’m proud of and conquering my fear? A pretty great way to end grade nine humanities I’d say!

We’ve finally come to the end of our PGP year, and, to be honest, while PGP actually stands for Personal Growth Plan, I always thought of it as the Painfully Gruelling Program. I mean, who actually wants to have to spend their own time outside of school to do another course? Well, pretty much no one, but PGP, as gruelling as it may have seemed at times, was an exception that was totally worth it.

So, after reading that very blunt intro, you’re probably asking yourself why was PGP the exception? I mean, I did say that it wasn’t my favourite course, but, I also just contradicted myself saying that it was worth doing. Well, that’s because, PGP has taught me skills that go beyond the classroom setting. Think of it like Math. Not everyone’s favourite subject, but the concepts you learn will help you throughout life. PGP is much the same.

In this course, we learned about different ways of problem solving and effective thinking and organization tactics. One of the major things I learned from this course was goal setting: having a goal in mind and creating the steps to get there. As many have stated, a goal without a plan to achieve it is only a wish. We read the book “What Do I Really Want”. Along with the book, we were required to fill out certain forms that accompanied what the author had to say. The forms really made me sit and think about the goals I wanted to reach and how best to achieve them. Now, when I think of goals, I begin with the end in mind. Rather than making a wish and waiting for that wish to happen, I think of the end result which is the goal I want to achieve and then start thinking about the path it’s going to take to get there.

The course also taught me how best to manage time and reduce the amount of stress. We were introduced to two apps: Things and Calendar. Of course I already knew what these were, but a thorough refresher never hurts. Since then, Things has helped me manage the assignments in priority order so I know what needs to be done and handed in ontime.

So, I know we all have trouble dealing with stress. It’s just such an unpleasant feeling. Sean Covey’s Book on the Seven Habits reassured me that there are strategies to overcoming challenges and stress was no exception. The seven habits book has been written in many different forms to appeal to a variety of audiences and age groups. The main habit that stood out to me was seeing things from a new perspective. It showed me that no one’s life is perfect. But, if we could accept that there is both good and bad in everyone’s life, it’s easier to move forward. And, by doing so, we can focus on the good things. Again, it’s all about seeing things through a different perspective.

I feel that if there’s one thing I needed to take away from this course, it would be to see and understand that things only seem as they are because of the way you look at them. Similar to a cloud or painting, everyone sees it different. While you might see a cloud shaped as a dog, your friend might interpret that same cloud as a lion. The same goes with life, and to show this, I created a short dance video about myself and how I used to see a life full of misery, but now see a life of light and possibility.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rhybSTu1RzY

As a dancer, I understand the language of dance sometimes more than a speech. For this reason, my final project for PGP was a dance that showed how seeing things from a new perspective can be life changing. I wish that I had seen this sooner…but I guess now I know. Thanks to PGP and my future self.