Welcome back to my blog of never ending work! I just got back from a crazy new unit where we studied the renaissance. For those of you who don’t know or have completely forgotten what you’ve learned in grade 8 humanities, the renaissance is a period of time after the medieval times. The term renaissance means to be reborn or the rebirth of the world. The renaissance was a very busy time period full of growth and creativity mainly shown through the arts and sciences. These people, including the famous Leonardo Da Vinci, helped spread and change the way we see our world today, or in other words, these people, helped shape our worldview. During this unit, we had to fill out and answer a variety of questions on the renaissance topic which might help further explain what we did in class so I’ve attached the link to the page I filled out below!⤵️

Humanities Questions-12o9773

During this period of change, three groups or categories of people most influenced the change and ideas that occurred. These three groups were the Thinkers, Artists and Scientists/Mathmetitions.

The Thinkers were an interesting bunch. They basically came up with the first ideas of Humanism which explains why they are popularly called humanists. Thinkers thought of ways for the individual to strive by themselves and being less dependent on religion such as biblical studies and such. Humanists found both beauty and knowledge in humans and believed in trusting yourself and being unique.

The second group of people and infact my favourite group of people were the artists. The artists began to depict their pieces more realistically using lots of detail and paying special attention to the human body and how it could be used in their art to create a deeper feeling and meaning. This began a trend as most artists began to feature more of the human body to show human excellence. Patrons played a big role because they supported artists at the time so that they could make a living. Learn more about art patrons today by clicking the link!

The final group of people we studied were the science and mathematicians. The famous scientific method as well as medicines and astronomy were well developed during the renaissance. People learned through books to try and answer their questions leading to people wanting to discover more. A great theory by Galileo was that our Earth is not flat but round. For centuries people thought the Earth we lived on was flat but was then proved using the first telescope invented in renaissance times.

So how does this all tie together? Well to show the changes that occurred during the Renaissance, we were asked to create a triptych. Triptychs are a three panel piece of art that was very popular during the renaissance. Today they can be found in some churches, however, triptychs are made up of three images, each independent and different, but together, they create one magnificent masterpiece. For us, one panel had to show the changes of ideas, one thespread of ideas and the Center was the impact today on our worldview. To begin this project, we filled out a guided research sheet to help brainstorm ideas for each panel.

The change of ideas

The spread of ideas

The impact of ideas

Ok, after completing all of these organisers, it was time to start drawing out my triptych. Below is my first draft as well as the feedback given to me by my peers.

To wrap this post up, the whole post and unit was basically leading up to this final project of the triptych. I am pretty proud of how it turned out and can’t wait for another rushing adventure! I guess you can say that from the renaissance, “this changes everything!”

Have you ever heard the saying « a picture is worth a thousand words? » Well, the same applies to quilts. Back in the days of the Crusades, quilts were not only a beautiful piece of art, but a way of telling stories. Many quilts used symbols to symbolize something of a deeper meaning to help tell the story. Stories sometimes told legends or myths containing an important moral, which at the time, stories were how many people learned new things.

Now, although I may sound a bit like a boring school teacher at the moment, let’s go over a quick recap of the Crusades. The Crusades were basically a series of religious wars where nights and men alike fought to reclaim what the each army thought was rightfully theirs, the holy land of Jerusalem. The Christians sent armies and knights and men to go fight and bring back Jerusalem. To the right is a map of the travel route people took to get to the war. Judging by the distance people had to walk (remember, they didn’t have cars) the Christians must have really wanted to win back their holy land!

It began with the fall of Ancient Rome back in around the 15th century. Once Rome fell, trade began to occur. Because of all the trading that was caused by so many people traveling, towns began to form. This created a convient stop for travelers to rest as well as a one stop shop to buy and sell goods. To show how Trade led to towns during the Crusade times, I created this short comic. Click on the picture below to view! ⤵️

Basicaly what the comic is saying is that towns were formed because it was so much easier for people to live right where they needed to be in order to get what they need. This helped civilization thrive as people were where the resources were.

As towns developed, a society known as Feudalism began to grow in what is now known as Western Europe. Feudalism, as many societies were back then, used the idea of ranks. This meant that people were ranked more or less important than another according to what they did. For example, merchants were ranked lower than priests because priests were the ones with direct contact with God. Feudalism was based off of the 3 F:

Fief: Land

Fealty: Loyalty

Faith: Belief

These three main points were the base of Feudalism.

Ok, now that we’ve briefly covered what the Crusades were and how Trade led to towns during the time, let’s get back to how quilts can tell a story. To begin this topic, we learned what a myth and legend are. This helps to explain the story I will describe in my quilt later. Anyways, a myth, as is a legend, is a type of story that is usually passed down from generation to generation. Most myths contain a certain hero that may have some kind of supernatural power. During this lesson in class, we discussed and read different legends and myths such as the Legend of Robin Hood. Consider this portion of the unit “story writing class”. As a take away from this class, we learned that all stories had a certain flow to how they were written. This, we then learned, is called the Heroes Journey. Below I’ve attached a short video explaining exactly what the Heroes Journey is. You might even think of certain movies or stories that come to mind when watching! ⤵️

Any movies or books come to mind that follow this cycle? Hopefully the video helped explain the cycle to you. If you didn’t watch the video or happened to not fully understand what the Heroes Journey is, let me do just a quick recap. Most people know the story of Harry Potter. Well, like most heroes, he started out as an ordinary boy. However, he gets called into the Wizarding World by Hagrid. This is described as the CALL TO ADVENTURE. He then receives ASSISTANCE  from his friends, Ron and Hermione and guidance from Dumbledore. Fast forwarding through like five or so books, Harry has all these small battles or otherwise known as TRIALS and APPROACH. As you get to the Deathly Hallows book and Harry dies from defeating Voldemort, this is known as the CRISIS or the hero’s time of most need. He then gets REBORN and defeats Voldemort at the CLIMAX before RETURNING HOME. Below is the layout of the hero’s journey planner for the legend my group and I were to create. ⤵️

Quilt Blocks Planner 3-113kldy

Now it’s time to get quilting! Once we learned and understood how quilts could tell a story using symbols and how to follow the Hero’s Journey, it was time to get into our groups and write our own Crusade Legend. I had the great opportunity to work with people I don’t usually work with: Izzy, Fraser and Kyle. So this was a great learning experience! Our legend had to follow the journey of a Christian hero as well as one from the Muslim point of view. While the two stories were meant to be separate with their own heroes and goals, together, they also created one big picture. To begin the task of writing the story, our group broke into two: Fraser and Izzy, and Kyle and I. Izzy and Fraser would write the Muslim’s side of the legend while Kyle and I wrote the Christian side. Below is our story idea from the Christians perspective. ⤵️

storytelling graphic organizer-yvx6nq

Together in class, we drew out what we wanted the quilt blocks to look like:

Story 1: Crusaders

William and Annie depart on a Journey to Jerusalem in search of revenge.

Along the way, they were attacked by a Muslim man and Annie shoots him with her bow and arrow.

Although the man tried to kill them, Annie feels sorry for him and kneels beside him to pray. Then, William and Annie continue their journey to Jerusalem.

Story 2: Muslim

Flynn, a Muslim man flees Jerusalem after witnessing the death of his wife and children.

During his journey, he sees two kids camping out in the forest. With jealousy, he tries to kill them because these kids got to live while his are dead.

Flynn dies during the attack, but forever lies peacefully among the flowers.

Ok, now you kind of see how each of the stories fits in with the other and how each are still their separate stories. To see more examples of how art could tell a story, our teacher, Ms. Willemse took us to the Gordon Smith Art Gallery. There, we used the featured art as examples of different stories that could be hidden within the picture. To do this, we each had to pic and stand beside a piece of artwork, then explain to the class, how it tells a story. Whether through words, symbols or realistic detail, each piece of art told a different story. Here are some of the masterpieces we saw! See if you can guess any of the stories hidden in the art!

Well, there you have it, how art or in this case quilts tell a story. Thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for more posts on the way! Bye!

And…we’re back from another crazy adventure of Destination Imagination (or DI)! What a great learning experience full of team work, growth and creativity! First off, you might have noticed from our team picture at the beginning of this post, that we’ve lost 50% or a good chunk of our team. Well, to answer that question, let’s just say that they couldn’t make it to this tournament (lucky them!)so, we had a independent group of two who took the challenge head on and attended DI. For those of you who have like no idea what in the world I’m talking about, DI is a worldwide academic competition where students between the ages of Elementary school to post Secondary compete in different stages of competitions where they will use teamwork, determination and creativity to solve a challenge both pre-prepared and on the spot! For more information about Destination Imagination and my challenge I competed in, click on the link to my regionals blog!

Anyways, for those of you who are completely caught up on my DI adventure, let me tell you how the Provincials Tournament went… well, like I said earlier, we only had a team of two. With Grace gone and Caleb away, our mighty ”Constructures” were whittled down to just two members: Sam and I. This in a way, makes completing the challenge harder especially when having to perform a skit or play with only two, but, a lot less arguing and people in the way came with that. DI is a great experience where your meant to solve problems, well, that just exactly what Sam and I did: solve lots and lots of problems.

We all knew from the beginning that the whole King and Queen story wasn’t working. It just felt awkward having to act so formal and unlike ourselves, so, to solve that problem, Sam and I completely scrapped that idea and rewrote the script, this time using characters based off of our personality and hobbies. I got to dance, and Sam got to use his own everyday slang and puns! Bye bye king and queen! To view our script, simply click on the link below!

Drop Zone Adventure x2-1e3fp33

Secondly, our structure,and every other team’s, got destroyed after the Regionals Tournament to check for nails. This meant that we had to rebuild the structure. Another problem came with this one, however, because the team members that were no longer part of the team were the ones who had the machine saws! This meant that we had to cut the wood by hand. The project was luckily done by Sam (Thank you, Sam!) But ended up being a last minute project. You might have noticed that the sketch with the structure’s dimensions is slightly different than the actual structure. This is due to weight because when our team members left us, we had no idea what type of wood they had used. So when we built the structure, it was overweight and had to be altered. Talking about last minute changes, our team scored very poorly on our event depicter last tournament so therefore rethought the whole thing. And on the night before, painted a new backdrop! Again, thanks Sam for helping! Below are pictures of our event depicter. ⤵️

The cave

The house (opening scene)

The forest

I was very proud of our new backdrop, considering it was a last minute change and that our last backdrop was much worse (it was blank). Another problem that occurred was on the actual day of the tournament. Because of all the last minute changes that were happening, we forgot to print the actual forms that allowed us to compete ! This is where I had my miniature mental meltdown and, like last time, luckily had Sam there to help. We ended up having to fill out most of the forms by hand, but, as boring and hand cramping as it was, this unlikely and sudden activity was a great team bonding event. Way to go team for solving challenges!

Now, you might be asking yourself, well, Kiera, what about the actual tournament? Well, the actual performance went pretty well and mostly as planned. All lines were memorized and costumes were complete. Our structure withstood all the weights to a total of 700lbs! To see our full performance, watch the video below!

We also did well on our instant challenge, but unfortunately, we’re not allowed to talk about it. But, if you want to see our score for our central Drop Zone challenge, click on the images below! If you don’t want to, good choice!

Besides just doing our own challenge, the rest of the time was either used to eat food or cheer on team Seycove. After all, we really are one big team. Cheering on others played an important role during the day as it was encouraging to have people from your class watch your performance but also friends were what made the whole experience worth it. Here are some pictures of us having a good time.

 Cheering on Team Seycove!

Well, to wrap up this DI season, did we win anything? No. Unless you count a participant certificate, but I did learn that teamwork isn’t always easy and sometimes you really have to keep going and persevere even when everything seems wrong and people aren’t exactly with you. If I had to change something about the actual presentation, I would have changed the amount of effort that went into the event depicter not knowing it was worth so much. Next year, I hope to take what I learned and apply that to next year and a fresh new start. Would I do DI again by choice? Absolutely not! After everything I went through to get to Provincials, I would never go through again. But am I glad I did it? Absolutely yes! What I learned from this experience is something I’ll take with me for the rest of my life. DI helped me grow not only as a learner but as a person. Having to deal with difficult situations, whether it be a challenge or a person, the lessons and strategies I’ve learned are and will forever be valuable to me. I guess I did win something after all, new knowledge, and, a new friend:

“Thanks, Sam! Even if it’s for the one millionth time, thank you!!! It was awesome working with you! A crazy journey I’ll never forget. And the greatest prize or treasure of all? Friendship!”

Team Constructures!

Woooh! Destination Imagination (DI) regionals have come and gone! What an exciting, adventurous, stressful and rewarding journey so far! Although DI is a fun experience, my team and I suffered some stressful moments but also learned an important lesson along the way. If you have never heard or been to a DI tournament before, you might be thinking, « Kiera, slow down! » or, « What is all this nonsense? » Well, for those of you who don’t have a clue what I am talking about, DI or Destination Imagination is an academic based worldwide competition where school age kids all the way to post secondary compete, have fun and solve challenges. Students are divided into groups of 2-7 people where they will work together and prepare a solution to their given challenge. During the tournament, team members are also required to think on the spot as they complete a mystery instant challenge. The purpose of this competition is to grow your mind. Not only will you learn from the tournament itself, but also from the journey leading to the big day! Below, I have attached a video of highlights from past DI tournaments. Hopefully if my words have not explained DI well enough, this video will give you a visual of what happens on this big and exciting day!

Click on the video below for information and an explanation of our challenge!⤵️

This was my first ever year of DI. I was placed in the Engineering challenge with team members Sam, Caleb and Grace. Together we had to create a unique story and structure. The structure, on the day of the tournament, would be placed in a tester base and weights would be dropped on the structure to see how much weight it could hold. The story, had to be integrated with the dropping of weights and a backdrop or event depicter had to be apart of your presentation. For months, my group and I worked hard to brainstorm ideas. We finally came to the idea of how we would create a structure. Research gave us the idea of using triangles as they are the strongest shape. Below is an image of the wire frame for our structure.

Once we had an idea for the structure, it was time for work on the story part of the challenge. Caleb and Sam were our story brainstormers. They basically came up with the whole story including the characters and sudden event that would occur. The story would be about a king(Sam) and queen (Me) who got attacked by  a giant(Caleb).  A narrator (Grace) would tell the story as the giant dropped the weights which would represent him pounding on a cellar door to attack! Choosing who would play who caused a bit of friction between our team, but I just had to take one for the team and was therefore cast as the queen (so not me!) For further details on the story, click on the link below to view our script!⤵️

Blank 5-1zlmsig

During this whole experience, I have experienced some amazing fun times and some stressful and unpleasant times. I like to think of my group’s progress like a river ride. We departed together into the unknown which is like departing on a new journey. My group and I then rode pretty smoothly for a while and everything went pretty much as planned. However, as most experienced people would know, something would go wrong and that’s exactly what happened. Our group started getting overpowered my large waves of stress and work. We hit sharp turns and rocks (set backs and unlikely events) until finally, we got into a huge argument and hit a waterfall which symbolizes our group’s  downfall. But, just like a waterfall, something amazing happens afterwards and you get back up on your feet again and the whole cycle restarts. Most people during DI will experience this.my group and I learned that you just have to persevere, work hard, be determined and work with what you got. And if you can do this, you’ve already accomplished something through DI!

DI is like a crazy river ride!

Leading up to the day of the tournament, we divided up jobs to make sure that everything got done and everyone contributed based on talents and schedules. Grace, being our most Mathematical and scientific thinker was in charge of calculating and measuring the measurements for the structure so it could fit in the tester base. Caleb, with a very creative mind came up with the story details and sudden events. Sam, being the most technical person, created the jig and worked the projector for our event depicter. I was the artist of the group so therefore designed the costumes as well as wrote the script in a poetic form. As for team choice elements, Grace recorded a lovely themed music she had played on her flute which we incorporated into the story. The poetry and rhyming of the script was also used as a team choice element.

So everything was going super well and smoothly, however, on the day of the tournament, my team and I were in for a few surprises…First off, Grace called in sick last minute. This was a HUGE set back. However, we had planned for someone to not be there so quickly came up with a plan B (full credit to Sam and Caleb during my melt down! Thank you guys!) The plan was that I would portray Grace’s and my part. Although there was an unexpected event of a no show team member, I was so thankful to have the boys help out and the three of us completed the task. If you want to see us perform our story and challenge, click on the video below!⤵️

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Overall, although we may not have scored 1st and took home nothing more then a participant ribbon, I am so proud of my team, considering what all of us have been through. As we move towards regionals, we have grown stronger together and have created an amazing new script that I can’t wait to share with you in my next post! And if we continue to work as a team, that is how we are going to win and take home the gold!

During the time Ms. Willemse and the other PLP teachers were away, the class was left with the task of completing a Poetry book full of different poems all of which use different techniques that we learned over the week with a sub. Some poems were short, others long, but regardless of the poem, they all had to tie into my worldview. This made poetry writing even harder!

My worldview MindNode from the past unit!

During this unit, everyone was also expected to write down definitions and methods for poetry which would come in handy later as a study sheet for our unit test.

The first day of the unit was mostly focused on Similes and Cliches. We learned the difference between the two as well as how to write a a Simile, which we then put into our book. A simile, which is a repetitive poem using definitions such “as” or “like”, was a very simple and easy poem to write and was a great start off for our long week of poetry. Below is my document full of the other definitions, methods and types of poems. You will also notice that each poem written in my poetry book has at least one or more of these methods and styles of poetry. ⤵️

Poetry Terms and Definitions -13g5olk

Finally, using our technical design and knowledge of apps, all of us were tasked to create a book containing all of our poems we have written over the past week. I created mine using book creator. It contains many poems all of which relate to the worldview topic we have been studying. My book also features many photos some are mine! Anyways, I hope you enjoy my book as much as I did making it. And as you flip through the pages, I hope you learn something about my worldview! ⤵️

Poetry book

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

https://read.bookcreator.com

At the end of the unit, I discovered that poetry doesn’t necessarily have to be a chore. When you write about something you enjoy and choose the right style of poem for you, poetry can be quite fun and a rewarding form of art.

I look back at my past work and see a sheet of hard work, perseverance and dedication staring back at me, but now I ask myself, how can I improve and progress by the end of the year? Or in other terms, where do I go from where I stand as a learner now? This blog is all about how I plan to grow my learning from now, to the end of the year (kind’a like a “school years” resolution!😉).

The first half of this school year has been an uneasy journey. I like to image this journey as a river (just like the title of my blog!) that I am riding through. And just like a river, I encounter some rapids and choppy times as well as some occasional downfalls that, in a way, are similar to a waterfall. But, like a waterfall, things usually smooth out afterwards and something amazing comes out at the end of this rough journey. This is the story of my Journey Through the Process.

Heading out on my journey through high school

Hitting a few waves along the way

The river journey started at the beginning of the school year where I was the new “fresh meat” and had no idea what kind of river I was about to step into. I was soon way over my head with work. Luckily, I was well prepared for high school thanks to my elementary teacher, but had never experienced “Maker” before, which was something completely new to me. Because it was new, I didn’t do so well at first and regardless of my hard work, perseverance and numerous drafts, my selfie growth mindset poster was not my best work and quite a few pieces of the project, such as my photo was handed in late. Since then, I have worked hard to accomplish high quality work in all my subjects. I showed dedication to school, and if it meant missing a sports practice or dance class, then it had to be done. But cutting outside of school activities ended up being worth it in the end. And now, I plan to work hard and try my best to stay focused during class so that I use the most of my class time and complete all my work. And then, my group and I, will bring home the win at D.I.

Beside having a focused mindset in class, I also really feel that it is important for me to have a positive mindset. This goes for all subjects and projects whether I like them or not. I believe that having a positive attitude at all times will greatly increase my focus, work habits and work quality as well as make me a better group member and peer.

Ridding Smoothly

Hitting my first waterfall

And so after my downfall and slow reclimb in “Maker”, my academic river smoothed itself out, but, it was only a short period of time before I hit my next big waterfall. I took my good work habits from that I then developed from my first experience and applied it to my Humanities work. Because of this, I was able to complete a very good Oregon business ad that I am very proud of. However, once Star Wars came up and was assigned, everything went downhill again to the point where I had to miss my other commitments to keep up. I was already behind due to sickness and had so much research and type ups that needed to be done. In fact, this rough current I was going through was so big, that I hit my waterfall which resulted in tears and major break down. It took me a while to gather myself and get me back on track, but I came up with a timeline which I made to help me keep on track, manage my time and most of all, to ensure that my work was done and to relieve me of stress. I learned a lot from this experience and know that I have a second shot at it coming this spring. For next time, I hope to avoid major waterfalls and keep to the smoother root meaning managing my time and assignments accordingly as well as making a time line and dividing my work up. I also hope to stay organized and know exactly what needs to be done and when the check in dates area. This will help me avoid getting off track or handing things in late.

Lastly, my past work such as my Business Ads, Star Wars Project, Maker Project, Worldview Infographic and all my past assignments reflect me as a learner. I see my hard work and perseverance, but also the stress and anxiety that goes on behind the scenes that parents and teachers don’t see. I know the work that goes into just a short type up or simple ad and poster. And knowing what goes into my work, I cannot help but feel proud and see myself as a hard working and dedicated learner. But, where I see myself now, and where I wish to be by the end of the school year is a long ways. I hope to continue to grow my learning by applying my past experiences to my current work to make sure that mistakes I made in the past, are not made again.

Now that I look back at my past work, there are many projects I feel proud of and are happy to show others and share. But there are also assignments that I know could have been a lot better and see many ways I could improve. As I continue down my river of school, I want to improve, take risks, try new things and move on, but never want to forget my past experiences. For who knows? I just might learn something from my past accomplishments and failures. But now I ask, how can I take my failures and work hard to learn from them so that I can recognize them as just another opportunity to improve and try again?

Imgine travelling through different religions in a matter of days! That’s what the grade 8 PLP class did. Not only did we learn in-depth about a variety of religions, we also had many field studies to visit local religious buildings to further our knowledge of each religion.

Before beginning our tour of religious buildings and temples, we were placed into small groups of four. Each group was given the task to research and eventually design and complete an infographic about a religion.

Unfortunatly, I was sick and was unable to attend our first two field studies the class went on which was to a mosque and a synagogue. During class, I learned that Muslims pray and cleanse themselves at least five times a day. To do this, a mosque will usually be equipped with some sort of sink and mats to cleanse and pray. Muslims pray regularly in a specific order. Before starting, one would usually remove all extra clothing  such as coats and hats as well as any bags or additional luggage. They will then face the general direction if the holy town of Mecca and begin their prayer. Because Muslims categorize themselves as Christians, they believe in only one true God. However, another man by the name of Muhammad is also very well spoken of in the Islamic Religion. Muhammad is believed to be  the last prophet and God’s messenger. For additional information on the Islamic Religion or any of the others below, please click on the link below ⤵️.

World Religion Chart-1spfdhu  

Due to sickness, I also missed my opportunity to visit a Jewish Synagogue. However, in class I discovered that Judaism aism and Christianity share the same founder and that Christianity branched off from the Jewish religion in the New Testiment of the Bible.

Over a few days, I got to visit a Hindu temple, a Chinese Buddhist temple, Sikh Temple and a Catholic Church. All of the buildings were equipped with all the needs a person may need to worship including altars, books and statues.

the Hindu temple was rather simple on the outside, however, once inside, the air smelled of Indian food and upstairs were many statues dressed in elaborate bright clothing. A traditional song was being played and fruit and flowers covered the altar/stage and the statues. I odserved many people as they came and left, praying and offering their offerings before the shrines. One interesting act I noticed was that a person would ring a bell before kneeling before a statue in prayer. I later learned that this was to alert the God that someone was there and willing to talk.

Right after our visit to the Hindu building, the class took a short drive to a Chinese based Buddhist temple. Buddhism is probably the most loosely tied religion with very few guidelines and rules. The decor on the inside and outside including theunique shape of the  golden roofs indicated that this temple was based off of Chinese architecture. Once inside, the walls and corners of the building were covered by large golden statues of different Buddhas. One room even had thousands of miniature Buddha statues all embedded into the walls. This room also had pads in which people would kneel on to pray. A certain method of fortune telling was taught to us, where one shakes a tube of sticks. The first stick that falls out of the tube answers your question. The tour guide demonstrated this to us using a volunteer. During class, I took note that Buddhists believe that a person’s afterlife is based on their previous life. All actions are believed to have a consequence called karma. One with good karma will be delivered to Nirvana and those with bad karma will be reborn back to Earth either as a human or animal. The goal of all Buddhists is to reach Nirvana. Since this was my groups religion, we took this opportunity to ask questions to help us with our study.

The class then visited a Sikh temple where we were treated to an amazing traditional lunch of Indian food. After that, we were guided into the main room of worship and a lady spoke to us about how to properly bow and meditate before the altar. In class we learned about the importance of the Guru Granth Sahib which is a highly respected book of teachings in the Sikh religion as it is believed to be the word of God. Prayer is a central part of the belief. Sikhism prayers include meditation, hymns, devotionals and, like Islam, five daily prayers. Lastly, the class visited a local Catholic Church where we learned about the journey through this religion and how Baptism is an important step for Christians. We also were told about the birth and death of Jesus as well as the difference between Judaism and Christianity.

Once we visited all of these locations, our groups began to design and work on the infographic. In my group was Jordyn, Jackson and Taylor. The four of us began with a simple wire frame that included the main ideas we were going to write about as well as a quick outline of where the pictures, symbols and text boxes would be. My group then assigned each one of us a job and together, we put together an infographic. Below are all our drafts, and you might notice that there are more drafts in this project then any other projects I have posted. However, I learned a very important lesson: that you can never stop improving. And that every time you try again, you improve just a little bit more.

First Draft: Pretty much a replica of the wireframe with colour. Lots of text, big empty space, no pictures and overall sort of displeasing to the eye.

Draft #2: Less words and more info in the tree. Still lacking pictures and graphs.

Draft #3: Clearer and words are better fitted to the leaves. Graph is kind of lacking something though and is very simple.

Draft #4: Better Graph and use of space. Few adjustments could be made.

Draft #5: font is bolded and infographic is just about done!

Final: Graph is bigger, words are easy to read, infographic is neat and artistically interesting.

Besides the infographic, I also made a short Explain Everything  video talking about my worldview. Before beginning the video, I was required to create a thought web using MindNode which I would then use to create my video using my most important aspects of my worldview.

The chart showed different ways a persons worldview could be formed and influenced. I then filled in under each category, how these things influenced my personal worldview.

After the chart was completed, I made my Explain Everything. I made a few drafts but was unable to complete my final product due to sickness. As I didn’t want a sick voice as my new voiceover!😝

A long time ago in a classroom far far away, Star Wars visited the PLP Exhibition of 2017. For weeks the classroom was filled with hard work, stress, movies and excitement as the students prepared for the big day on December 14.

All of us were assigned a Inquiry project based off of the all so popular Star Wars film series. I immediately took a great interest in the making of the film’s costumes so decided to base my question off of this. I then came up with the question: “How do costumes influence our understanding of the character?” I also wanted to relate the question to real life situations so then added “Do outfits we wear influence other people’s understanding of us?” After choosing my question, I spent weeks researching info to help me answer my question.

All students were also required to do either a live or online interview with someone who would help us further answer our questions and expand our knowledge. I was in great luck to get the chance to interview costume designer Jeniffer Hofmann who happened to be Anika’s mom. Jeniffer replied back with very detailed and descriptive answers. She used both personal experiences and quotes to answer my questions.

Along with the type ups and slide show portion of my project, I also made a miniature model of Padmé Amidala’s costume as a small example of how a costume can greatly enhance the movie. Below is a link to a time lapse video of me making the costume ⤵️.

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once the board was put together, the whole class including the grade 9s did a large revision and debugging process. Below is my first draft and second draft. You can really tell the decrease in words and the addition of more photos.

Draft #1 LOTS of text, very few images and very plain

Final More photos, less text, still room for improvement

During the weeks it took to create this project, I learned that costumes not only add visual elements to the film, but aid the audience and their understanding of the movie, setting, character and plot line. I also read many different studies on how fashion and different clothes can influence our feel for one another. Like many people say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” also applies to costumes and clothing. Costumes help add visuals which in a way is like a picture. The image created by costumes can be very powerful as they can give the audience a lot of information not only about the character, but also the story. Tap on the following links below to learn more about costumes and my research!

Importance of Costumes -15zbl6g 

How Outfits Influence Us-u45sld 

Star Wars Costumes-2eydamu 

Padmé Amidala -27grslc.       

Finally, the day of the exhibition came and it was time to set up the room. But before getting all stressed about the actual exhibition, everyone was treated to pizza.  After, we continued work on the room getting the final touches in before the big night. The walls were lined with tables and projects and the room was decided into three sections. The first was decorated like Hoth and the other two were the inside of the rebel base. The room had a snack bar for audience members to enjoy as well as short skits playing every fifteen minutes. My set up was simple with nothing more then my poster board, model and some lights as the room was somewhat dark. The night felt truly magical and the world of Star Wars came to life.

The layout of our room for the evening

Thank you so much for reading and may the force be with you!

Testing out Gabby’s TaunTaun photo booth

Soecial thank you to Anika for the awesome costume!

Rocking out the costumes with Gabby and Jordyn!

Use the force!

Tons of lightsaber battles!

Our amazing snack bar!

Welcome to the Light Side!

Happy Halloween to everyone! Today was a very exciting day in class. After a class cha cha Dance, we were assigned to make a horror movie trailer in iMovie. I made this video with my lovely group members Jordyn and Jackson. It took a while to figure out the storyline, but together as a team, we were able to put together this short video for our class and you to enjoy. All three of us worked very hard on this assignment and hope that you enjoy it.

Happy Halloween!

click on link to view video⤵️

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Thanks For Watching!

As part of our advertising unit, the whole class went on a road trip to Oregon to get a more realistic, hands on experience. Although the trip was fun and exciting, it also required hard work and thinking. During the trip, we were asked to complete a journal book of our time there as well as interview a local business and create an ad based on the information they gave you. Besides the project part of the trip, my class and I were also taken to fun, but educational sites such as museums and an aquarium. There, we discovered new species, took a close look at certain animals, studied different speeds of crabs and so much more!

After doing a previous ad for a local business in the Cove (see my advertising portfolio post), it was time to move on to something bigger, as in interviewing and designing an ad for a business in a different country. This is my ad for the Marine Discovery Tours company. After interviewing and asking questions to one of the staff including the owner herself, my group and I got together to discuss exactly what the company was asking us to advertise and how they preferred the poster to look to c reate the ultimate ad. The following print ads show my progress from draft one to my final ad which will be sent back to the Marine Discovery company.

First Draft (Before the trip)

Before going, we had to design an ad for the business before hand. This is just my first copy using a photo I found online and the information I already knew.

Draft 2-bad choice of font

Draft 3-Bold font just not working

Draft 4-font still not working and website is hard to read

Draft 5-Better font and outlined but “Ultimate” needs more attention

Final-good font choice and easy to read

Throughout the field school, each student had to fill out and complete a book. Similar to a journal, the book recorded what you did everyday and what you learned. Photos and short videos were also included and it was required that we change, customize and add pages to our book to make them unique and our own. This is my finished book and all the photos and videos were taken during our stay and the words reflect on what I saw, learned or did each day.

One of the museums/aquariums that I personally found interesting was the Hatfield Marine Science Center. There, we had a short lesson on crabs and their special aspects. We then got together in groups to race small crabs. In our group we discussed how we were going to test the crabs to see which one was fastest based on size, number of legs, species or gender. My group and I decided to test the crabs based on their number of legs to see if that effected their speed. Unfortunately we were unable to access our iPad at the time so were unable to take photos. However, I did find this photo online which shows what the crabs looked like.

Lastly, here are a few photos of my time in Oregon. I sure learned a lot and got to experience what many other students may never get to do. This trip was surely a memorable journey.