Category Archives: Humanities

Humanities, Reflections

Dystopia Post

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Hey guys, welcome back to my blog. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog on this site but today I’m coming back with a boom. Today’s post is about a project in Humanities class that we just completed called “Dystopia.” In this project we learned about themes of dystopia, dystopian art, and how concepts of dystopia are seen in our society today. If you don’t know what dystopia means I’ll give you all a quick definition: “Dystopia is a society characterized by oppressive control, widespread suffering, and the illusion of perfection, often serving as a cautionary reflection of real-world issues.” 

The main goal of this project was to create conceptual art that effectively sheds a light on a topic of dystopia of our choice. 

“How Can Art Shine a Spotlight on the Dark Sections of our Society?” 

“Art shines a light on the dark sections of our society by describing uncomfortable truths, and fostering connections that inspire real action. In our project, we were tasked with creating an art piece that highlighted a topic or issue that currently faces our society today. In order to build an effective piece, we read dystopic literature, and had discussions in order to learn what dystopia really meant. “

The Book: 

I chose to read “Brave New World,” by Aldous Huxley. This book is centred around the idea of totalitarianism and is set in a futuristic world. The citizens of the “World State” are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy. This book carries many themes and topics that resonate with our society, which is why I found this book pretty interesting. 

The Art:

Photo of me presenting my piece at the yearly PLP Exhibition:

This art piece visualizes a constant trend in our society: “Censorship.” The media, governments, and other organizations try to twist and turn the outcomes of events. This piece shows how this idea of censorship is controlling the way we view the world. In articles, news and social media feeds we are force fed these agendas of “what we want to hear.” In this day and age the amount of information that isn’t disclosed to the public is astonishing. In my piece, I have a collage of images and pieces of media that show this concept or “censorship.” As well as these pieces, I have integrated several forms of artwork to support my ideas. I also use supporting quotes from literature, and significant figures which confront censorship.

The Process:

In order to build this piece, we had to ideate first. I created a blueprint of my art, which included a sketch, and a brief explanation with brainstorming. I originally wanted to talk about current issues in our society such as conspiracies, but I changed my idea in the end. 

We also crafted an Annotated Bibliography in order to learn more about our chosen topic. I explored some articles, and I also pulled from some books I’ve read in the past that relate to my topic, including Brave New World. 

Using conceptual art as a medium to communicate ideas to an audience was a really interesting way to spark discussion about censorship and teach citizens to learn more about what they see in their every day lives. I learned a lot from reading Brave New World as well as other texts in this project. Reading dystopic literature was a very interesting way to explore the dystopian controls in today’s society. I hope you enjoyed my concept art, learned something about the dystopia present in our world, and were inspired by my art. 

Thanks for reading!

Humanities, Reflections

Cat and Maus Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog. Today’s post is about our most recent project in humanities, “Cat and Maus.” In this project, we dived into the topic of the holocaust. This is a complicated event to understand that has many layers to it. In order to develop and understanding of the event, we read the book “Maus,” by Art Spiegelman. This is a comic style book which details the harsh realities of the holocaust in Eastern Europe. 

Driving Question:

How can multi-modal communication enhance our ability to humanize and understand complex issues?

In this project, we heard from multiple speakers and used various resources to understand the big ideas of the holocaust. As I mentioned, the book was helpful, and we also heard from a speaker who’s family was directly affected. Most of these resources were shocking, and brought out the true brutality of this event. As one of our first activities, we wrote a reflection on the holocaust, based on the resources we discovered in class. In this I wrote about my thoughts and connected the resources to one another. I also explained how each told it’s own important story. 

We did a field trip as part of this project to the Holocaust Symposium at UBC. This was a day trip where we listened to multiple speakers, one of which a holocaust survivor who lived through the terrible event.  Here’s some photos of the symposium:

I thought the presentation would be more hands on, but I still learned lots and had a good time at the UBC campus.

Near the end of the project, we watched “Schindlers list.”

This movie was great, and it documented the events of the holocaust very well. In an event full of negative figures, Oskar Schindler was one of the few good ones. 

Final product:

For this project our final product was initially supposed to be about an upstander in history and how they contributed their efforts to philanthropy. But, the teachers pivoted and made it a combined product with our BCFP exhibition. In my BCFP post, I go into more detail about the exhibition. Go give it a read!

For the exhibiton, I chose to talk about the importance of indigenous lands, and focused on Indian arm. I pivoted from talking about the humanities material, and solely talked about BCFP. 

Here’s a photo of my final product:

In summary, this project was interesting and presenting lots of shocking details about human history. There has been many holocausts such as this in our history, but none this brutal or done with modern technology such as this. This was one of my first times learning about the holocaust in school. Thanks for reading my post!

Humanities, Learning Advance, Reflections

Fear Factor Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog! It’s been a bit since I’ve posted but I’m sure you’ll enjoy today’s read. 

Today’s post is about a project we did as part of our humanities class. This project was called “Fear Factor” and was centred around the Cold War.

In order to further learn our topic and develop an in-depth answer to the driving question, we travelled to Arizona and Nevada in late April. During this field study, we got first hand accounts about the story of the Cold War, and how it affected the world as a whole. Our whole class didn’t take part in this trip, as half of them went to New Mexico earlier in the year. I went with… (link to peers who went on trip). The PLP teachers who joined us on the trip were Mr. Hughes, and Ms. McWilliam. The driving question in this project was: “How has fear been used as a political, defensive, and cultural tool to shape our society?” I offered my answer to the driving question in my final product, which is linked at the bottom. But, I’ll reitarate it for you all here on the blog. During the Cold War, fear was used as a motive for both sides to expand their rule and ideals around the world. They were both scared of the other taking control, as a result they both built up their nuclear arsenal and fought over territory in different parts of the world. This apsect of fear led to these weapons being used for deterrence, as well as alliances being made, NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog! It’s been a bit since I’ve posted but I’m sure you’ll enjoy today’s read. 

The start: 

The excitement was real for us going on the trip. Going away on trips is always something I look forwards to, (especially when you get to skip school at the same time.) 

 

View of the sunset on our way down south to Arizona!

On our first day, we headed to the Titan Missile Silo in Tucson, AZ. This museum held lots of important info for our project, and was just an all around cool place. We got a full tour of the silo, we learned how the missies could be launched, and how quickly they could hit the enemy in a nuclear war scenario. They told us it would only take 30 minutes for a missile to reach the targets. While at the silo, I had a chance to talk to the tour guide, which would be very helpful for my eventual final product! (I won’t spoil it yet)

Along our adventures through the deserts of Arizona, we did lots of fun activities. We did lots of hiking, which at first we all dreaded but I found a liking to it near the end of the trip. Here’s some photos of our hiking adventures:

We also checked out the Grand Canyon!

Arizona was a great experience, and that was my first time ever being there.

Resources for our learning:

To help build an understanding of the Cold War as a whole, we were tasked with two books to read during this project: “Hiroshima by John Hersey, and “Fallout by Todd Strasser. These books helped me learn more about the Cold War, and make my answer to the driving question more in-depth. These were assigned at different times during the project, and we were tasked with making notes based on our readings. This helped me develop this “zettlekasten”, and made organizing my ideas much easier. 

 Near the end:

Once we left Arizona and arrived in Las Vegas, the excitement was at an all time high. But, it was time to dial in on the project. There had been some long days so far throughout the trip so we had limited time to do project work. At our hotel, we had some time to wrap our thoughts together and craft a master plan. This wasn’t a very hard thing to accomplish, as I had my “zettlekasten tool” where I had noted down my learnings during the trip so far. A zettlekasten is a bank of notes that are either from a source or are your own ideas. They’re organized by Fleeting notes, Litertaure notes, and Permanent notes. Think of it as your own personal filing cabinet of knowledge. (Sorry Mr. Hughes for talking about my permanent notes so much.) I took these learnings and started this final plan for my eventual final product. 

While we were in Vegas we got up to lots of fun stuff, and we checked out some cool places along the way. 

It was a good learning experience as well, something you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a Vegas vacation… We went to the “underground mansion”, which was a 14,000 square foot house that was a full blown fallout shelter. 

This shelter was a symbol of how people were scared of a possible nuclear war between the US and Russia. Many wealthy people invested in these type of shelters from the 1960’s to 1990’s. Shelters such as this one still exist, as the lingering threat of an attack is still there. 

Later while we were in Vegas, we also checked out the national nuclear testing museum. 

This museum was one of the most valuable resources we had for our project. The museum had lots of important artifacts and carefully explained the timeline of the Cold War, which I found helpful. It showed how the cold war affected contemporary lifestyle and the average American. My friends and I wanted to grab an interview here but unfortunately no staff was available for an interview. 

The final product:

 Now for the grand reveal to you guys, my final product was a documentary. For this final product we were tasked with creating an inquiry question, then creating a product which supported it. My inquiry question was: “How did the development of the nuclear arsenal lead to proxy wars around the world?” I chose to make my video about proxy wars and how they were a direct consequence of Cold War tensions. I could explain more in this post, but if you want to dive into the full story, watch the documentary I made:

The process wasn’t easy, but I eventually completed the video. And it felt really good, cause I put a lot of hours into this!

In summary, this project was very interesting and held ties to past projects that we have done. (Link to manhattan project post). The trip was a blast, and it felt like it went by in a flash, (that’s when you know you had a good time). I liked how we had free choices in picking our final product, and how we could pick which topic to focus on. I’m proud of how I did in this project, and I think I put my best work in!

Thanks for reading..

Group Project, Humanities, Reflections

Who cares and why bother? post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog.

Today’s post is about our most recent Humanities project, “Who cares and why bother?” This project was all about the Canadian government system and why young people need to vote and let their voices be heard. In this post, I’ll discuss what I learned and the growth I experienced throughout this project. The driving question was (the same as the project’s name, lol): “Who cares, and why bother?” There are many reasons why people and young people, in particular, should care about the government system. Firstly, voting outcomes over the next few elections could dictate how we as a country tackle precedent issues such as the climate crisis, cost of living, and rights. This is why young people must vote so that real action can be taken. Things will stay the same if this demographic isn’t demonstrated in the polls, and no changes will be made. The first thing we did as a class was an activity where you would go to either side of the room depending on whether you knew much or didn’t know much about politics. Around 90% of the kids in my class said they knew almost nothing, myself included. This activity showed how little we knew about politics collectively as a class. But that would soon change…. We then began social seminars about the Canadian government system and the different levels of government. During these seminars, we listened to Ms. Madsen’s info and made notes in the process. This helped me better understand how our government is run and who is in charge of different things.

After gathering this newfound knowledge of government structure, we were tasked with reading “The Lord of the Flies.” This book encompasses the government structure through the story of a tribe of boys stranded on a deserted island. As we read, we kept a recollection of notes that we made throughout reading the book.

After finishing the reading, we had the opportunity to share our learnings and connections in a student-led Socratic discussion. This allowed us to share our thoughts and see what opinions we had on the book. I was able to make connections during the debate and express my own beliefs. I thought this was a great learning opportunity.

Once we had gathered background knowledge from our seminars and the book, it was time to build our final product. This product was based on our fundamental question: “Who cares, and why bother?” Our main task was to create a presentation, supported by a video that convinced young people to vote, which we would present to a panel of grade 10 and 12 learners. This was a group-style assignment; my partners were Nolan and Sepaus. Cale was also a part of our group, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, he didn’t come to school or did any work whatsoever.

Our theme was comedy-based, and we tried to use a hint of sarcasm to get our ideas across. I found this to be a new and creative way of showing our ideas, and it was something other groups wouldn’t necessarily do. This was a way for our group to extend in this regard. After creating the first draft of our video, it was time to make our final presentation. The purpose of this presentation was to show why it’s important to vote. In our case, with the sarcastic approach, we wanted to show how ridiculous it would be not to vote. Also included in the presentation were three precedent issues that voters could directly influence. Our chosen issues were the Cost of Living, the Environment, and Healthcare. Once we had completed our presentation and gathered our ideas, we did a practice run for some of our fellow grade 11 peers. This allowed us to practice and get good feedback so that we could revise and make it better. When it came to the presentation day, we were prepared and ready to go. Other than that Nolan was sick, we got our boy Declan to sub in and do his lines. I think the presentation went pretty well, without too many slip-ups.

In summary, I learned many valuable things from this project, such as the structure of our government and how government can come in all shapes and sizes. In the Lord of the Flies, we learned how adversity and challenges can affect the structure of a government. Moreover, I gained more experience working with a group with its ups and downs. My favorite part of this process was making our video; it was quite the fan-favorite among the PLP 11 class.

Humanities, Reflections

Manhattan Project Project Post

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Hello readers and welcome back to the blog! Today I’ll be talking about our most recent project called “the Manhattan Project Project”. This project was about, (you can guess I’m sure), about the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb. Our final product was an interactive book that explained the historical significance of the Manhattan Project. The driving question was: “How did the development of the atomic bomb change the world?”
The atomic bomb had both positive and negative consequences. Firstly, it led to more scientific developments, new forms of energy, and new medicines. Secondly, it led to millions of deaths and ignited a period known as the “Cold War”, a dispute which still rages on today between the US and communist states.

This project did include a field study in New Mexico in the US. However, I didn’t go, I chose to go on a trip to Nevada which will happen in April of next year. The first step in this project was assigning groups, as this was a collaborative project. My group partners were: Teva, Dana, Theryn, and Ben T. Using Basecamp, we then created a group folder where we could assign tasks and keep track of what we were working on. I found this to be a very helpful tool and it set us on the path to success. In order to get an idea of what we were doing, we read some books from past PLP students. In doing this, we got some inspiration and also got ideas for color, theme, etc. During the week that some of our peers were away in New Mexico, the rest of us did some preliminary research on our topic. One of my main responsibilities was completing research, as well as proofreading the pieces of writing that would go into our book. We started to gain a baseline knowledge and focused in on what aspects we wanted to include in our book. Dana and Theryn collected interviews, photos, and videos while they were on the trip, and they also immersed themselves in the Manhattan Project. They visited Los Alamos, the site where the project was located, and they also visited the Trinity site, (where they tested the first atomic bomb). All of this media would be key in our final book, as it further proved the historical significance behind it.

Once we built our knowledge it was time to put it all together…

Completing the book took lots of work and collaboration between our group, everyone had important tasks they were responsible for. My role was to complete pieces of writing, and then insert them into the book. Once we felt like we had a good draft we did some peer critique as a class. We got some helpful feedback from some other groups, their main focus points, were to limit text and make our visual aspects more organized. We acted upon this feedback and created a beautiful final draft!

In conclusion, I thought this project was difficult yet it focused on a topic that I had an interest in. Competing for the book was a grind, but it was all worth it in the end, as we had created something that we were all proud of. The field school in New Mexico looked fun, I’m super hyped for when we get to go to our field school in Nevada!

Thanks for reading!

Humanities, Individual Project, Reflections

Letter to Grade 8’s

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For me, grade 8 was overwhelming. Based on some of the conversations from last week, it seemed like most of you guys weren’t feeling the heat. Some of you mentioned that high school is the same as elementary, just with more classes. Or that the transition to PLP was easy since you had used iPads in Grade 7. Well I guess everyone has a different Grade 8 experience, some find things harder than others.

Here’s a quick list of concerns I had in my first year at Seycove:

1. Lockers (how the heck do they work) I still barely know how to open one.

2. Homework (finding the time to actually do it)

3. Meeting new friends (I had gone to a French immersion school and most of my friends went to Windsor)

Being a PLP student adds a whole new dimension to being in high school. For example, the program generates students from all sorts of elementary schools, far and close to Seycove. Over the years, I’ve grown closer with lots of my friends through PLP.

One place where you’ll bond the most is through field schools. The photo on the right is from our recent PLP 10 trip to DisneyWorld. It was an amazing experience where I got to know lots of my peers better. You guys have your trip to Oregon to look forward to, I’m sure that’ll be a great learning experience. Sadly cause of Covid we weren’t able to go on that trip…

There are some projects that will test you as a PLP learner. One to be mindful of is Destination Imagination, which is a highly demanding project. In this project, you have to solve solutions and work collaboratively as a group. When I did this in grade 8 I was overwhelmed, to say the least. There was a whole bunch of things we had to do, but it seemed to bring the best out of our group. We ended up winning 1st place!

https://youtu.be/vGGfAE-8Cfk

In summary, being a high school student is exciting and you have lots to look forward to! Especially being a PLP learner, there are so many new opportunities and topics to learn about. You have your first-ever field school, new and exciting projects, and a whole new community to be apart of!

Humanities, Individual Project

Lies and Incongruences Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog.

Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve been working on in PLP 10. It’s called Lies and Incongruences, and is about First Nations in Canada.  The driving question in this project was: “How can art and text reflect both the history and our current place in time?” It can do this by demonstrating the realities and truths about our society. Also, we can connect to other past events and compare and contrast our ideas. The final product for this project was a art collage, digital or physical that represented the idea of truth and reconciliation. 

For keystone 1, we were tasked with reading “the Marrow Thieves”, by Cherie Dimaline. This book is a dystopian future where all Indians are refugees from the white people. It is directly tied to the residential schools of Canada’s past. Along with keeping up with our reading, we had to do a weekly journal that contained our thoughts and ideas on the book. We also did “contributions” where we created something that embellished the theme of the past chapters. 

 Near the end of the project, we did a full reflection on the book. Here’s a link to mine: Reading Journal

In keystone 2, we began to connect art and test with one another. There were 3 parts to this milestone, History and art, Contemporary issues and art, and civil dispute and art. For each of these assignments, we had to research a topic that interested us, then create a reflection. 

(Here’s a link to each of my reflections)

Outside of the classroom, we did the “blanket activity”. The blanket exercise is a activity that teaches about colonization in Canada. The program was created in response to the 1996 report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and is used as a teaching tool across Canada. This activity really opened my eyes and I made many connections.

It took lots of critique and revision to complete my pieces, it was quite the grind. But it was all worth it in the end, cause I had created quality, sophisticated work. 

Then it was time to craft our final art collage……

I chose to do mine as a physical piece of art. I based mine off the place I live, the Indian arm or “Say Nuth Khaw-yum”. Indian arm used to be a hunting ground for First Nations people many years ago, and holds deep roots in their culture.

For my draft, I cut out my poem from earlier in the project into magazine letters. I then put them on an image of the arm.

That was the first layer, I then layered a duplicate image with First Nations art on top:

This art will be part of our PLP spring exhibition, an event where we present our learning to friends and family. I can’t wait!

In summation, this project was interesting and I learned lots about Canada’s dark past. Specifically in the blanket activity I heard some shocking facts about our government and the way we treat First Nations. I actually enjoyed the reading and the plot was really interesting, it was unlike most school novels that we’ve read in the past. As for my art, I’m proud of it, and I’m hyped to show it off during the exhibition!

Thanks for reading!

Humanities, Individual Project, Reflections

Save Juno Beach Post

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(Insert craft link here)

Hello readers and welcome back to Maximus the Greatest. Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve been doing in Humanities, Save Juno Beach! This project was all about the history of WWII and discussing which events are most significant and why. The driving question to this project is: “Why is it so important to preserve the Juno Beach Centre?” It’s important because it displays Canada on the world stage and tells our story. Also, it shows how we aided the war effort in France. The final product for this project was a persuasive writing piece. 

To begin this project, we learned about WWII and significant moment of the battle. We learned about Canada’s involvement, the war in Eastern Europe, and D-day. We “made” these notes in Craft, an app that is a useful tool for notes. After gathering all of this knowledge, we wrote about the 3 most significant events of WWII, I chose the Great Depression, D-day, and the rise of authoritarian leaders. 

Here’s what my keystone 1 looked like:

The next step was to understand what “rhetoric” meant, since our final product was a persuasive text on Juno Beach. It was important to have a good understanding of rhetoric to craft an effective piece. To work on this, we did a rhetorical analysis on this piece called “thanks for not killing my son”, we also did this activity in craft. For this assignment, we had to identify how pathos, ethos, and logos were all used. 

After gaining this knowledge about rhetoric, we then began to craft our first drafts of our persuasive texts. All of us were writing about Juno beach, but we had a choice on what we wanted to write about specifically. I chose to write about how the Juno Beach centre represents Canada on the world stage. Using the knowledge I had, I made my first draft, and at first I found it to be too short and not meeting the requirements. So, I made an improved second draft and I also received peer feedback from my classmates. I found the feedback to be very beneficial, as I was able to improve and make it way better. 

By the end of this whole process, I had created my final draft:Insert craft link here)

Once we were all done our drafts, we published them on a public website. The whole purpose being to educate others about the Juno Beach Centre, and emphasize it’s importance. 

In summary, this project was interesting, and I learned lots about WWII and other important  events in history. I discovered more about Canada’s importance, and how they were key in beating the Axis powers. I enjoyed writing about the Juno Beach Centre, and conveying my opinion to the public. 

Thanks for reading!

Group Project, Humanities, Learning Advance, Pages, Reflections

Power of Imagination Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog! Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve been doing called “Power of imagination”. This project was all about Disney of course, since we went to Disneyworld! This was our first ever out of loon lake learning advance, and it lasted from February 28th to March 9th. The driving question to this project was: “How do Disney theme parks shape and influence the cultural, economic, psychological, and social experiences of visitors?”. They do this through immersive storytelling and visual aspects that make people feel “like they’re there”. I felt this especially at Toy Story land at Hollywood studios, where you felt like a toy, since all the toys around you were life sized. The final product for this project was a video that answered the driving question through interviews, examples, and references to the past. My group partners were: Alicia, Erik, Carter, Ben T, and Theryn.

For keystone 1, we were tasked with creating a “PKM” collection. A PKM stands for “know, wonder, learn, and is a way of organizing your thoughts through notes, links and reflections. We created our “PKM’s” on craft, an app that’s somewhat new for us. For our pkm’s we had to research topics that resounded with our project topic. Since our group was Psychological, I researched on that basis. Here’s one of the PKM’s I made:

I found this keystone to be really resourceful, as I learned more about disneyworld and places I could visit. 

For keystone 2, we created a group pitch board for our final video. My group partners were: Alicia, Ben T, Theryn, Carter, and Erik. For this assignment, we made an effort to organize all of our ideas:

Our main talking point was nostalgia of multiple generations, and how Disney had influenced them. We planned to interview people from different generations, and get their opinion on how Disney has influenced them. 

For keystone 3, we were tasked with creating a storyboard for our video. This was a chance to visualize our ideas, and get an idea of what our video would look like. This is also where we assigned roles and responsibilities for each task. I was tasked with narrating and filming an interview at Hollywood studios. 

Here’s what our storyboard looked like:

Next, we had to complete our final video script. We all evenly contributed to this task, and provided our own ideas into it. Since I was narrator, I had most of the lines for the video.

On February 28th, after a false start, (our initial flight was cancelled), we got to florida on late Tuesday night. What a relief it was to finally get there…

On the first day, which was at Magic Kingdom, we all immediately felt the magic of Disney:

IMG_2893

During my day at magic kingdom, I filmed one of my trend videos which was my “just wanna rock dance”. 

The work for my trend video didn’t start until we got to Hollywood studios. Erik and myself conducted interviews while in a Walt Disney museum. We asked people about how Disney has affected them, and what makes them feel nostalgic. 

Here’s what Hollywood studios looked like:

IMG_2899

Once we got back from the trip, it was time to put it all together. We had our clips and interviews all filmed, and the hard work began…

When we started to edit we realized that there was some missing components, that would need to be troubleshooted. For example, our audio in our interviews was pretty quiet and we had to add subtitles over it. 

In summation, going to Disney world was an experience of a lifetime and is something I’ll never forget. It was an opportunity to know my peers better, as well as the teachers. As for the project, it was hard work to coordinate different shots and interviews, and we faced some adversity. In this project I got to work on my group work and communication, which was key for us to complete the video. 

Thanks for reading!

Group Project, Humanities, Pages, Reflections

Romeo and Juliet Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog. Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve finished in Humanities. This project is all about Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. The driving question in this project is: “How has William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet remained relevant to contemporary storytelling? Although the language is very different today, you still see similar variations of his storytelling. For example, you see many variations of the infamous balcony scene, and the final death scene. The final product for this project was to recreate a scene from the play with modern aspects…..

We started off the project by reading scenes from the original play. In the process of that, we explored the language, and what it really meant. There was many words that meant no sense to me, and when I saw their definition, it really surprised me. Words such as, “hither”, and “Thither”, seemed pretty out there to me. Also, we did a “Elizabethan roast” activity where we combined different terms to create the perfect roast!

Here’s a few of my burns…

“You fawning, crook-pated, bugbear!”

“You saucy, dizzy eyed, giglet!”

As we read through the story, I discovered more about the story as a whole, and also the language used. It also gave me an opportunity to see which scenes I liked beast, as the final product was to recreate a scene of our choice.

For Keystone 1, we were tasked with creating a themebook, that explained each scene, and included evidence from a adaptation. To complete this, we watched “Gnomeo and Juliet”, and “warm bodies”, in class. Both films are adapted from the play, and both follow similar storylines, other than the fact that one is a zombie movie!

After completing keystone 1, we were put into our movie groups. My group was Alicia, Fraser, and Makenna, and we chose to recreate the “balcony scene”. Right as we were put into groups, we had to create our “film pitch”. We chose to center our scene around two teens, Rowan and Jessica, who fall in love through Snapchat. After finalizing our plans, it was time to put them into action.

My role in our scene was Rowan, the main character, and it was quite the experience. There was few “cringe” scenes in there, that took a lot to film. But you can judge for yourself: Rowan and Jessica, a Romeo and Juliet recreation..

The filming process was fun, as I got to have fun with my friends and create good work. The best part to me, was the credits scene where Zach and I broke out into song. It was an off script moment, where we were just screwing around, and Fraser thought it’d be cool to put in.

In summation, this project was a blast to do with Mr. Harris. We learned about old language, and how it’s evolved over time. And, how one story has been incorporated in hundreds of movies and films. I liked how we had little to no limitations, and could really release our creativity into our scene.

Thanks for reading!