This summer I went on a amazing holiday with my family as well as seeing my friends and working. On holiday I went sailing to the gulf islands and Howe sound. We had great fun sailing between the islands where we went to new and exiting places to meet new and exciting people, like this crazy guy on saltspring island offering me the ability to time travel. 
For work I got hired by my dad to help him build computer systems using salesforce. This proved to by quite a rewarding experience and I really enjoyed my time doing it. It was also fun responding to my dads employees troubleshooting.

If you are reading this something went terribly wrong, I lost the printed version. 

Hello parents, teacher welcome. This is now my fourth student led conference and this time around ms Willemse asked us to do something rather different than previous slcs. Today I am going to be focusing on two projects instead of three. One I am extremely proud of and one where I could have improved on. 

An honourable mention for work I’m proud of is my experience without Hughes and Willemse blog post. I am proud of this and I think it’s pretty funny but I didn’t want to do half my SLC on it. If you haven’t read it yet I think you should. 

First up is my blue sky project. I am extremely proud of this project and the final product that came with it. It’s great to be able to work so hard on something that I am passionate about and be able to share it with lots of people. To me this is what flight is all about. This project obviously conveys a lot of effort but to hammer the nail home. The blog post I made is all about how you would make a sword. Even this is an understatement of the amount of work that went into it just ask my parents. Because I also had to make the forge to heat it up in. The growth shown by this project is not only a growth of character and skill but it opened my eyes to a key aspect in learning. That is making do with what you have no matter what. Even though my parents were very kind in spending the time and money they did there was still limitations and obstacles to overcome. This means I wasn’t only dealing with trail and error but also discovering new ways round a problem that I was having. For example to polish the blade I was using a file for most of it which took a lot of time so I tried using a sander and it worked although I did go through about have a roll of sand paper. 

Next up I just wanted to quickly mention podcast. I will be handing a final final final draft in on Thursday on top of the one I have in now just to add in some things I feel are missing and fixing my voiceover. 

So next up is great big, *cough*cough* I mean little big story. In particular number one while I could have improved on two I think over all it is pretty solid which is mainly due to my mum giving me the chance to interview Jane which was a great opportunity and the project would not have been the same without her. But my main focus is number one. I am not particularly proud of this one because I feel I didn’t dedicate enough time on it because I spent most of my after school time doing blue sky and what time I did give to LBS I gave to number two. I think this is a perfect example of not enough effort on my part and honestly it looks like something a none PLP student would do and hand in. If I had a time machine and went back to do it again I think I would have done a better job of hunting down someone to interview and put in more visual aids like I did in two. I would have also added another minute to it. The only thing I feel is good about it is all the cinematic shots of the trail and the time lapses. 

My goals since last SLC were to get my mark up which I have done and to become a better listener in classes like math and Spanish and I feel Spanish especially I have been handing in more projects and getting better on tests. I’m not sure how this will reflect on my report card but hopefully it shows. 

Any questions?

Here are some links.

Work I’m proud of

Honourable mention

Work needing improvement

Of all the apps and websites our teacher has sent us over the past two years my favourite and possibly most useful one has been great big story. This is a news app that’s very different from anything that I’ve seen before. They tells stories from all around the globe in short videos that are usually around 3 minutes long. It is a great app and I recommend you check it out, here is the link.

After showing the app to the class she asked us to make our own great big story as our next project. But instead of doing just one, we were tasked with making two. This I feel was the one downfall of this project. I feel that if we didn’t have to split our time doing two we could have perfected one.

Out of the two I did I think my second one is the better one as I had the pleasure to interview Jane an amazing women with a brain tumour. She had a great story to tell but unfortunately she did not want her interview posted on the internet. But I can show the first one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ-jzQgR8kc&feature=youtu.be

​​ link

It’s a Friday morning everything is cold, my heart is racing. My head was filled with nothing but thoughts of where I was heading. As I approached the school I saw an empty flight room, chairs stacked, lights out and doors locked. I turn away from the cold classroom pushing memories once joyful out of my head, they contained nothing more than sour thoughts now. I couldn’t remember a time I was this depressed on a Friday. It was less than twenty four hours since ms Willemse and mr Hughes had abandoned us for the warm embrace of the south but we felt the emptiness already. It started with me, Harry, Tylo, Nolan, Elena, Mike and Griffin. As we were crowded into the back of the chill library by an unfamiliar voice belonging to an unfamiliar face it dawned on me that this was the beginning of the end. Despite all these signs the nail in the coffin was ms Willemse’s handwriting on the whiteboard it seemed rushed and it was smudged in places. Just as all hope seems lost and I begin to except the abyss, I hear: “Wanna freestyle guys?” 

This beginning was a foreboding one, the beginning of a week that would leave a taste of bitterness and regret in the mouths of those who stayed. 

The rapture of flight now seemed like a distant memory of a former life, what memories why did have were of an eternity of nothingness occupied occasionally with a freestyle verse. These were our only light in the dark, we clung to them like they were the only thing we had. 

On the third day of our new life word came from the other side. The words spoken from beyond the vale rang out like bell tolls over a lonely castle. At first it was hard to understand what the voice was saying for they used a word someone like me, an unchosen, would not know. I still hear the voice in my head, I try to curse it out but it remains haunting the halls and rooms of my mind. 

“Mr Hughes fell from a Segway and broke his leg. How will stay in the profaned city of Atlanta for some time to come.”

This news pierced my heart and sent me into a momentary trance broken only by a sarcastic remark and stifled laughs that in the silence seemed as loud as gunshots. I was left taken aback, shocked. Once the shock went away I was left with nothing except questions.

I got a lot of questions about how I made my sword and what kind of tools I used. So without further ado here is a recipe for a basic sword.
How to make a basic sword.
Materials:

Metal

Wood

Forge of some kind

Pommel

Hammer

Anvil

File/grinder/sander

Step 1
First you need to get the metal to the shape you want. You can do this by cutting or forging the metal. This will depend on what kind of metal you use. If you are using a ingot then you will have to forge it but if you started with a piece of metal that is roughly the right shape already then you can just cut it.

Step 2
Now you want to bevel the blade. This can be done by hand by heating up the middle piece by piece and hammering the edges. However this method takes a lot of skill and time. Another option is grind of file it down with your choose of tool. For this you can use an angle grinder, file, sander or belt grinder.
Step 3
Now it’s time to polish the blade. If you used the second method in the last all that you have to do is polish the middle. But if you used the first you will have to polish the whole blade with one of the tools mentioned in step 2.
Step 4
Forging the cross guard is a step with a lot of freedom but what I recommend is making it out of a cut piece of metal with holes drilled in it.
Step 5
Making the handle has a lot of variation in different techniques and styles. This step is purely your choice on how you go about it. This is the way I did it: I chiseled two pieces of wood so they would fit on the tang then I shaped it to a handle shape.

Step 6

Once you are pleased with your sword it is time to heat treat. You do this by heating up the whole blade until it is hot enough that a magnet no longer sticks to it. Once it is hot you plunge it into oil. Motor oil or peanut oil is best.

Step 7
Heat treating is fairly simple just heat the blade at about 425 degrees F until it’s golden brown. You can even do this In the oven if you wish.
Step 8
The pommel can be made of anything but metal is best suited as it is heavier. Forge or carve it to the shape you desire.
Step 9
Assemble the sword by slipping the cross guard and handle over the tang and screw or glue on the pommel to seal it all in.

here is a video of me doing it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVEz-oFoH64

 

Would you get beat up and hurt for your or someone other than yourself’s rights, how about killed? This is question that many Americans asked themselves when they heard about the freedom rides. C.O.R.E (congress of racial equality) was looking for more than an all black protest or boycott. They wanted a movement, they wanted something bold. 

They decided on integrating interstate buses which were breaking the law by segregating buses and waiting rooms. They needed all kinds of people, young and old, white and black and clergymen, to make it work. Once someone volunteered they went through “non-violent training” to test how they would react to getting beaten.

“The training that we did prior to getting on the buses was largely devoted to seeing how the person reacts.” Gordon Carey. From the videos and photos I saw, the training seemed pretty physical with people actually hitting other freedom riders as a test but the actual way they were treated even worse. After training it was time to get on a bus but no training could prepare them for what happened next. 

The first couple of weeks were easy and didn’t require any of their training however the further south they got the more violent the residents became. 

One day one of the buses was stopped and fire bombed, the people outside blocked the doors and screamed “burn the niggers.”I never understood why people got so angry about things like this that were perfectly legal yet not “acceptable.” It seems that the white mob would strike at any sign of desegregation not just big things like voting rights. 

Luckily the freedom riders managed to escape but were harshly beaten as soon as they got off the bus. C.O.R.E just kept sending buses. The people on those buses just kept getting arrested though. Neither side was seeming to give when finally all the prisoners were released and the segregation signs were taken down. 

A little superimpose I made:

Some additional information:

Freedom riders

Civil rights 

1955, Money Mississippi Emmet Till is visiting from Chicago when he decides to buy some gum from a mini mart. The shop was named Bryant’s grocery and meat mart. What happened next may have been one of the most influential things to kick off the civil rights movement. As hea paying for the gum he talks to the chequeout lady in a manor she found offensive and he husband Roy Bryant and her half brother kidnapp him 4 days later. They then torture and shoot him in the head and throw him in the river. 
We learnt about the civil rights movement event by event in chronological order so the murder Emmet till on August 28th was the first thing we learned about. We discovered the horror in the actions of Roy and J.W Milam. But things got a little more boring after that with not much else happening until the freedom rides in 61. That is not say people didn’t start talking about change. 

I think this lack of powerful movements was due to the fact that the south was ruled by fear. Lynch mobs roamed the streets at night and racist police officers by day. This is way it took so long for people to stand up and say enough. Fear is what white citizens in the south relied on to keep African Americans in check, that is why they were so surprised when a 14 year old boy challenges that fear just by whistling. The two murderers Roy and J.W were so caught up in tradition that they took it to far by torturing and killing Emmet just to maintain this fear. 
The older man playing checkers with Till’s cousin seemed to know what would happen if he whistled at the white girl and warned against it. He had experienced a life time of racism in the south while Emmet had experienced the north. This left him unaware of the segregation in the south. After his body was found by two young kids in the river strapped to part of a cotton Jin his mother decide to hold an open casket funeral in Chicago. This became one of the most famous funerals ever because of all the publicity that his mother employed by sending pictures of Emmett’s disfigured body to the newspaper.
The story of Emmett Till is truly a story one of good versus evil of right and wrong. Which is why I made this picture in the style of my French Revolution post from last year.  

   

 

To showcase my learning I used an example I’m most proud of (Star Wars blue sky). A piece I feel represents my growth as a learner (Podcast) and Growth mindset work (D.I.).

Star Wars blue sky is the work I’m most proud of

Podcast Growth learning 

D.I.

  

 

Watch our play here. Going into this I was not very confident that this was going to go well. But it did over time as we dominated the instant challenges realized that we might actually crush it which we nearly did but I guess it was for the best I don’t want succes going to my head.