Grade 11 done just like that. It’s hard to think 10 months have gone by that fast. With PLP in the past 10 months I have traveled thousands of kilometers from seeing the first Nuclear reactors to produce nuclear fuel for the japan bombings, to going down to Arizona and Nevada to see artifacts of history that other students would never be able to do. Plp this year has really helped me out for the next step and that is the WORLD, yep you read that right, the world.

This year in Plp I learned skills that will help me out on my way into my next stage into life as I am graduating this year. What I have done is since this January I have decided to Grade 12 online and be able to go to BCIT next January in 2018 a year ahead. What I am planning to go into is heavy duty mechanics and engineering, I’ll be doing a 4 year program to get my heavy duty mechanics red ticket. (The red ticket is like a global pass to work anywhere for that type of work). The reason why I have chosen this career path is because I am very talented with this type of work as I have been working with engines my whole life with my dad. For example I have rebuilt a small block 350 chevy V8 that is in a ski boat.

|

As being in the Plp program for 3 years now I think ad never be here if it wasn’t for this program. Plp has taught me how to look at things and learn beyond on what you just see with your eyes. This is going to be very helpful for the future as I know I will want to learn many more things. Plp has shown me how come up with questions that wake you more curious into the topic. How I can relate to this is heavy duty mechanics have to find out what the problem is with the machine and fix it while thinking about any other that could be wearing down.

Before I wrap up this post I just want to say that Plp has prepared me for the world better than any other class room has. This program has helped me out from learning how to teach my self-better without the guidance of a teacher, to the biggest one life skill I have learned from this program and that is showing your work to the WORLD. Why is this so important? Because if you can make things that people like, you get to be more of a leader. Just think about it.

FINALLY ITS OVER. The anger, bad decisions and arguing is finally over from finally finishing the Macbeth project. What I mean by finish Is I mean a pretty rough cut of what we hoped to get. But instead of talking about all the things we failed to do, let’s talk about the bit of success that came out of this project and how as a class we can learn from it and carry on.

The Macbeth project/movie brought some hard objectives to the table as the class worked their hardest to try and get them complete. I wouldn’t take this project as a failure because we barely got a movie done but I think this project is a great learning experience. The reason why I think this project was a great learning experience is because if this was real life and we where shooting a real movie everyone would have been fired just like what my teacher Ms Willemse said. This project taught more real life experiences then actually learning Macbeth which isn’t a bad thing. What we can all learn from this project is that time management is huge when it comes to making a movie or anything really in that matter.

Over all, getting the class together outside of school was pretty fun and had its times. It was great seeing everyone and it made people who barely talked to each other talk to each other which was great. This was a great learning experience for the class and we can take this and move on and learn from it,

The final cut of the movie will be here once it is uploaded to YouTube.

This week in PLP we got assigned to do a little short 30 second video on what Canada means for you. The question was what does Canada mean to you or what you would say to yourself is what is my Canada?. Thinking this was going to be a pretty simple video and was going to be pretty easy getting it done it actually was pretty hard. The hard part wasn’t making the video or even coming up with my thoughts it was trying to fit everything I wanted to say in a 30 second video.

I started off with a pretty awesome script I thought. It had everything I wanted to say, it was short and sweet and had a very strong connection with myself and Canada but the script was impossible to read in 30 seconds. (the fastest I was able to read it was 45 seconds) After a couple hours of thinking and editing I was finally able to make something close but not even close as good to the first script. The final product had a lot of missing little points that I wanted to say that would have made the video that much better but that goes for everyone.

I started off with this script

 
And ended with this one.

The apps I used to make this little video are IMovie and Garage band. I used IMovie to of course make the video and Garage band to record the voice over. All of the images I used are copyright free.

Video will be here once it uploads

Finally, it’s time for SLC’s!! My favourite time of the year. Just kidding, no I’m being completely sarcastic by the way.

Well you may be wondering what is a SLC? A SLC is a (Student Led Conference). A Student Led conference is where the Student (me) will give a presentation in front of my teachers and parents and I will go through my best work, stuff I need to work on and goals I have for the future.

The best work I think I’ve produced this year so far is my group project on our Hanford Site Project. This project is based on the secrecy of the Manhattan project in World War 2. The reason why I think this is my best piece of work so far this year is because I was very interested and in gaged in the topic of the secrecy of the Manhattan Project especially the science behind the Project. I know a lot more about the Manhattan Project now then I did before the Project especially how secret it was in it’s time period.

https://youtu.be/hZlMzmyiVjY

Throughout the year I think I’ve demonstrated my learning slowly getting better at writing blog posts doing class work and projects. I think the two pieces of work that i have done to show this is my World War 1 and World War 2 solider diaries. These Diaries are based on a real solider that fought in the time period. What I did is write a short diary from some point in there life’s and try to write as accurately as possible on how the soldiers felt what they where thinking and how the war is changing them as a person. For my World War 1 solider I wrote a diary on a solider named Frederick William Hall. Frederick William Hall was in the Canadian infantry in the 8th battalion. For my World War 2 solider I wrote a diary about a solider called Lawrence Balfour. Lawrence Balfour was in the royal Canadian Airforce. Then what I was able to learn about doing these two diaries is how life was like for a World War 1 and World War 2 solider and I was able to get better in writing in a first person point of view since diaries are written in first person. (most of the time).

GROWTH MINDSET.

The project that shows my Growth Mindset for this year has got to be the Macbeth Project. At the start of the project I thought the project was not the greatest idea of all, but that didn’t stop the class and me to at least attempt to pull it off. As the project went on, it fell off the rails pretty fast, and we had the choice of quitting the project and giving up or keep going at it and try to pull something off which we are doing right now. I think the best decision of the whole project was to keep going and not giving up because that’s what people with fixed mindsets do they give up. If you have a growing mindset you don’t fail you learn from your mistakes and you move on and fix the problem like what we are doing with the project right now.
GOALS FOR THE FUTURE.

Looking into my future goals is to be more of a leader, which I think I can be, and that’s why I’m mad at myself that I didn’t take a producer spot in the Macbeth project when I could’ve. I think if I took a producer spot in the Macbeth project I think the project would have been done a lot smoother, and we would actually have a movie to show. Other goals is to improve my writing and reading because I’m not great at it at all, and I know that there is room for improvement.

This Thursday in class in PLP we had a very special opportunity to meet and talk to a German World War 2 veteran Helmut Lemke. Helmut Lemke lived through the Hitler period and was drafted to fight on the Russian front. He experienced the occupation of Russian, British and American soldiers. Helmut Lemke was forced from his home and was a refugee in a camp in east Germany. Then he fled to west Germany then immigrated to Vancouver Canada 60 years ago (1957).

Today in class we reflected on Helmut Lemke’s story and everyone had to come up with a concept word for the whole story that Helmut told us. The concept word that I came up with is determination. But how did Helmut Lemke’s determination keep him going and surviving the war and living life after it?

As Helmut Lemke was living in Germany he was drafted to fight on the Russian front at an age of 16 and started fighting at the age of 18. After that Helmut was forced away from home and lived in a refugee camp in eastern Germany. After living in a refugee camp Helmut Lemke fled to western Germany to find his mother that he found alive back home. Through all of this he finally immigrated to Vancouver Canada 60 years ago. After hearing this story I can clearly see why Helmut Lemke had determination to live and get through the war and it was to save his mother that was in his need.
After listening to Helmut Lemke’s life story I have never met another person so honoured and brave in my life, it was an honer to meet Helmut Lemke.

The liberation of the Netherlands was the last straw for Nazi Germany before they surrendered to the allies. As these where the final months of the war. From September 1944 to April 1945 Canada accomplished the deadly task that they where given to liberate all of the Netherlands and push all of the Germans back the Berlin forcing them to surrender. But if the Canadians couldn’t push the Germans back did the Germans have another chance in retaking some of Europe back again?

The invasion of the Netherlands started by British and American troops entering southern Netherlands in early September,1944. Three months after the D-day landings in Normandy. In the middle of September the allies launched an operation called Market Garden. Operation Market Garden was a massive airborne assault on the Dutch town of Arnhem. The reason why the Allies wanted to do this is because this victory could lead them straight into Germany, crossing through the Rhine River at Arnhem. The attack on Arnhem failed for the allies which slowed down the Allied advance, this kept most of the Netherlands under German control.

Operation Market Garden.

Overall after the Americans and British failed to push the German force out of the Netherlands. Canada came over and wiped the Germans out of the Netherlands slowly with the help of the Americans and British. More than 7,600 Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen died fighting in the Netherlands.

Liberation of the Netherlands. 

If Canada wasn’t able to fight back the Germans and the Netherlands stayed in German control I don’t think Germany would’ve had it for much longer. The reason I think this is because the Americans have almost developed the first Nuclear bomb. So if the British, Canadians and Americans couldn’t push the German force out they would have basically Nuked the Nazis after dropping Atom Bombs on Japan.

Yay it’s time for another blog post…..(sarcasm used heavily by the way)

This week in PLP we got assigned to do another blog post on a World War 2 solider and make a diary about them as like if I was that person anytime in their life.

The solider that I researched is called Lawrence Balfour. Lawrence Balfour was in the Royal Canadian Airforce ranked as a Flying Officer. Lawrence Balfour was 21 years old and was born June 29th 1922 and died in battle November 15th 1943. Lawrence Was born in Ottawa Canada and was enlisted to the Canadian army on November 5th 1940

Continue reading →

This winter before school closed for the break we had another exhibition. This exhibition was the best exhibition for me by far. This year the BIG idea for the exhibition was World War 1. Our topic for World War 1 was the Trenches the trick was we had to represent Canadian identity. This year the scale that everyone went to is HUGE. In in our group we had 2 trenches, no man’s land and even a mobile tank that actually drives and is powered by a 6.5hp pressure washer engine.

Here is what it was like to walk through our group.

You walk into the trench, Michael is there to greet. We have a
black/grey tarp or carpet on the floor with dirt on top of it. One
side is the boxes of trench and the other is the wall with a backdrop
of a trench hung up. Along side the trenches there will be dead rats,
old boots, guns, grenades, artillery shells and ladders… The first
door will be opened, we will have have “barbed wire” around it and a
fake fence. Out side there will be a tent set up covering the area in
which a “tank” will be patrolling around. The tent will be enclosed by
2 tarps and 1 backdrop. After taking a look, the group will venture
out into mans land, here we will continue the dirt covered floors and
the backside of two trenches. For the wall of the gym we will have a
simple backdrop and for the opposite side a more complex backdrop. On
the floor we will have recruitment some extra bodies who will play
dead or injured in the field, during walking through no mans land nash
will have stretcher and by trying to save all these people taking them
back into the trench and into the medical tent. When you walk into the
second trench, there will be a block that is kind of a table and a
bench where 2 soldiers will be sitting. On the table there will be a
pack of cigars and cigarettes, diaries, letters, deck of cards…etc.
One side will be the trench wall and on the other will be a “rock
wall” with Canadian carvings. This continues until you reach the
medical tent which is all white with a red cross. Inside there will be
a “bed” medical equipment, crutches and Nash will be treating the same
patient that he brought in from no mans land.

 
As you may be wondering how we made trenches inside the gym Marley was able to bring in a bunch of large moving boxes to paint in a dark brown/mud color like what a trench would look like. The time we spent painting boxes and detailing them you could of probably have gone for a road trip and come back 2 weeks later and they would not be done.

The tank on the other hand was even harder to deal with as we had to cut out every piece and fit them together and make sure that the cardboard would stay together and not fall apart from its own weight. After putting all the cardboard together and reinforcing the cardboard so much with tuck tape you can hit it with a sledge hammer and it won’t break. Just kidding I can’t believe that the cardboard stayed together the whole time because I totally thought it would break half way through the night. Then after we where done with the cardboard we painted it green.

https://youtu.be/S3p_r_BboSQ

The tank was actually my go kart that I made when I was 8 years old. I welded the frame, machined the axle and did the steering ect. To make the thing go fast I also added a torque converter and put big sprocket on the axle. The fastest I have ever made the go kart go in a straight line is 80km on the medium size sprocket.

You got the whole ocean to maneuver your  ships but you had to crash them and take out a city with the crash great job…… ( claps slowly).

On December 6 1917 the SS Mont-Blac a French cargo ship loaded with explosives collided with a Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin. After the crash a fire on board the Mont-Blac ignited the explosives on the ship for the war. This explosion was so big to took the Richmond district of Halifax and took around 2,000 lives from debris and the shock. It also estimated that it injured 9,000 people also. This explosion was so big it was the biggest explosion ever before the first A-bomb was tested. Well if PLP fashion we were assigned to make a news report for the Halifax explosion so here it is enjoy.

https://youtu.be/vu7GG38EY3w