Dollars and Sense

Hi everyone, welcome back to another post. In todays post we will be talking about my most recent Humanities project called Cray Cray yay yay. This project is all about crazy! The main idea of this project is how we can become crazy and who our examples are. The apple crazy ones campaign launched in 1977 was a big part of this project and we use the people in that advertisement as role models.

The driving question for this project is “why does it take a crazy person to change the world”. To answer this question we went to settle, well some of us did. I stayed home in Vancouver and my classmates went to settle to learn about crazy people who have changed the world. During this project we were all given a topic, my groups topic was “Dollars and Sense”. This topic was for something very important but we will get to that later.

Next we learned about a type of presentation called a “Pecha Kucha”. The format for this presentation is 20 slides 20 seconds per slide and the slides are images only no text. We were tasked with choosing someone from the apple crazy ones campaign to make a mini Pecha Kucha on them. I chose Orsen Welles, a famous director and actor who revolutionized the entertainment industry.

After my other classmates got back from Seattle it was time to work on our final project. A full Pecha Kucha on our topic Dollars and Sense. The main idea of the Dollar and Sense group is to talk about how crazy people do business differently. We had two weeks to craft a script and memorize it, as well as making a 20 slide presentation of original photos. Then it was presenting time. All the preparation came down to this presentation and we did great. We spoke clearly and had funny lines and we proved our points and made everyone go home wanting to be crazy. At first I was pretty nervous to present but once you are up there the words just flow out. And my answer to the driving question is, the reason it takes a crazy person to change the world is that only the crazy ones have ability to understand the changing the world is possible. Thank you for reading.

Ryan Reynolds: A philanthropist

Hi everyone welcome back to another blog post. In todays post I will be sharing my Essay on Ryan Reynolds. I am currently working on a humanities project called Cray Cray Yay Yay. This project included a trip to Seattle but some of us stayed back in Vancouver. For this assignment we were told to choose someone who has given back to the community they came from, someone who cares about communities in need. I choose Ryan Reynolds because he embodies giving back to people. The driving question I am trying to answer with this essay is why does it take a crazy person to the change the world”.

Here is my Essay.

Ryan Reynolds is a well-respected celebrity, but did you know that he is much more than that? Ryan Reynolds exemplifies a positively impactful form of ‘crazy’ through his unique acting, engaging social media presence, and philanthropic efforts, which actively contribute to supporting communities in need. His great deeds are often overlooked because he is famous for other things, but his donations, kind personality, and helpful attitude make him who he is.

Ryan Reynolds is a celebrated actor, but only because of the attitude he has. Ryan Reynolds has a very positive impact that extends its reach around the world, whether it be his charismatic acting or acts of charity; he is a great role model. When thinking of Ryan Reynolds, many people think of his hit movies or funny interviews because that is what is shown on screen. Ryan Reynolds helps people, even through a TV screen. His upbeat personality and kindness help people feel able to express themselves. He is a role model with a reach that extends to all corners of the world. His Ugly Christmas sweater campaign, for example, raised $500,000 for Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. Source. His philanthropic efforts complement his online presence well.

Ryan Reynolds is busy, yet he still has the time to give back. Ryan Reynolds cares deeply for the community he was brought up in, and that’s why he gives back to them. Ryan Reynolds has done great things in the world of acting and on social media, but he has also done great things for the community he grew up in. Ryan Reynolds visits Vancouver frequently and has much love for its people. He donated $500,000 to Water First Education and Training Inc., giving more First Nation reserves access to clean water. Source. He also donated money to food banks in Canada. These selfless acts really help our community thrive, and his acts also set an example for future generations.

Ryan Reynolds has done great deeds for Vancouver but also for the world. Ryan Reynolds is a philanthropist and a great help to communities in need because of his kind personality and how he feels the need to give back. He gave back to us in Vancouver, but he also helps people around the world, and I don’t just mean entertaining them with his funny acting. He donated $1 million to children in Israel and Gaza through the Red Cross. Source. He also donated $1 million to food banks in North America. The point is that Ryan Reynolds isn’t just an actor, and he cares. He is crazy in the way he acts and how he donates outrageous amounts of money just to help others. These philanthropic deeds won him the 2023 humanitarian award. Source.
Ryan Reynolds entertains us all, but he really does help the world. He helps people in different ways, whether it be donating money or his great acting. He gave back to Vancouver, and he gave back to the world. Ryan Reynolds is a great person and someone I would give the title of crazy to. Thank you for reading.

At first I choose Ryan Reynolds for this assignment because he was the most famous Canadian I could think of and he’s easy to talk about. But after researching him further I have learned that he is more than a funny actor, he helps people in need. Some people would say that donating millions of dollars to charity is a waste, Ryan Reynolds says otherwise. Thank you for reading.

Who Am I going to be?

Who Am I going to be? This question is by far one of the questions I ask myself the most, yet I couldn’t answer It, until we finished our final Humanities project of this semester. This projet wasn’t like others, It felt like it was more Important to me. When Asked the question, “who are you going to be” I used to think of career, for example someone would ask “who are you going to be?”, and I would often say a soccer player, or an engineer or other jobs. But now I answer with “I am going to be a motivated helpful person who inspires others”.

This post Isn’t going to just be a summary It’s going to be about that very Important question which is, “who are you going to be”. For me one of the most notable parts of the project was when we thought of five words that describe the person we want to be. We also add a slide of who we are currently.


I found these exercises very Important because we got to analyze what’s good about ourselves then we got to see how close we are to the person we want to be. Obviously I have grown as a person throughout this project but I am still quite far from being the person I would like to be.

The task that taught me the most about how to become and act like the person I want to be was our interview. We were tasked with interviewing someone who inspires us and is a role model similar to the who we want to be. I interviewed my uncle who Works In construction Management. He talked about how many times he has had really stressful times where things looked like they were almost impossible yet he pulled through. My uncle said that the best part about his job is feeling of accomplishment and pride when his team and him finsh a project.

These lessons taught me a lot about how I should look up to my uncle because he is a great role model and can help me achieve my goal of being the person I want to be. The most important virtue in my eyes is resilience. At times I thought kindness, or helpfulness were the most important virtues until I read the Alphonso Davies book. This book not only talks about how Davies is resilient person, but also about the early challenges him and his family faced. They had to move to a refugee camp to escape the war in Liberia, they didn’t have much money at all, all Alphonso had was football. It inspires me that even during the darkest times if you have a passion you can climb through the darkest times. I value Alphonso Davies because of his virtue and football ability, but his and his parents story is really inspiring to me.

Those were the most notable parts of this project that taught me lessons and motivated me, but what will I do to become the person I hope to be? I will continue
To learn and cherish the advice given to me by my teachers and role models, If I do this correctly and apply myself in all aspects of life then I will become the person I hope to be. Thank you for reading.

Ology of Apology

Hi everyone, welcome back to another blog of mine. Todays post is going to be covering the most recent project of mine Called Ology of Apology. Ive have been to many tourism cites in my life, Disneyland, Seattle space needle, the volcano In Maui, but little did I know that the ost impactful of them all are memorials.

Memorials are usually some kind of structure or building designed to remember a person or an event in it own unique way. Another type of memorial is a one that’s purpose is to raise awareness. For example my favourite memorial is the gun violence memorial in the United States. I like it because it raises awareness for an ongoing issue and could possibly make America a safer place.

At the start of this project we were told the definition of a memorial. After that we were tasked with researching, in a group of three, a memorial given to us by our teacher. The first notable assignment for me was making a memorial put of lego for any character we wanted. I chose to make a memorial on Anakin skywalker and how he was a great leader and man before he turned to the dark side.

Next we each choose a memorial we like and we had to make a slideshow with voice narration. My memorial was the motherland calls statue in russia. These two assignments were very fun because we got to create and research memorials we were interested in.

We then proceeded to learn about three groups of people in Canada that were heavily discriminated against. These groups were the Chinese, the Japanese, and the sikhs. This was a group project. There were nine groups, three groups were assigned Chinese, three groups were assigned Japanese, and three groups were assigned sikhs.
I was part of the Sikh group. We then spent many class days listening and taking notes. The incident our group covered was the Komagata Maru. Canadians at the time didn’t like that sikhs were moving to Canada and dominating the lumber industry. So they made a rule that your journey must be continuous passage. What this means is that if you were a Sikh you would have to sail from India to Canada without stopping in other ports. Sailing from India to Canada at the time was not possible. The Komagata Maru tested this law by sailing from Hong Kong. When they arrived in Vancouver they were denied entry. Eventually they were forced back to India and many passengers on the ship were killed in India because the Indian government thought that the passengers on the ship were causing trouble.

Our group choose to memorialize the ship by making it out of bones. We did this because it shows that people died that sailed on the Kamagata Maru. We worked on this and it turned out great. It was exhibition time.

We had a people vote for whose memorial was the best out of each group of people.
Unfortunately ours did not win, but I am still really proud of me and my groups work. I do think we could have made the boat more detailed, but I am still happy.
Thank you for reading.

The path to a great year

Hi guys welcome back to another blog post. This post is going to be about my learning and how I am going to set myself up for success this year. Throughout this podcast we will look through my past year as a learner and what I could have done better and we’ll also talk about some systems and habits to help me have a great year.

The driving question for this post is “what strategies can I use to maintain balance in my life and support my own well being”?.

Our first PGP project was made so we can be successful and organized, I learned many systems, habits, and strategies from this project. My favourite system was things. Things is an organization app that reminds you off tasks, to be specific my favourite strategie in things is the areas. The areas for me where all my classes and other things like soccer and chores, in areas you can put task and sub tasks to help accomplish more work.

Another very helpful task manager is calendar. At first I hated Calendar because putting your daily schedule in and looping so it is the same every week can be quite annoying. But once it is filled out you get lots of reminders and you can look when you have time to deal with assignments or other parts of your life.

My calendar shows my classes and their rotation everyday, it will also show when I have soccer or any special events coming up. Using these methods primarily has helped me become more organized and on task, one of the big topics in my learning plan was managing my time and how its important, I can now say I successfully manage my time.

The calendar app and things worked for me. But reminders just didn’t click. It seemed like things but just less effective and worse. Things is a great app but something that i didn’t understand about it was that it had an inbox. The teachers tired to explain it to me, in my mind I thought it would be like an email message inbox but It is where you would put tasks but I dropped it and didn’t use it because I didn’t think it was effective.

A big part of my Life during this project was positive brain training. The title of the project we did is “New year New me”, so it makes sense that we should be making changes to our lives and perhaps the biggest change one can make is mental. My teacher got this project showed us a video on positive brain training and how You can train your brain to be motivated but also fulfilled with your current situation. We all tried a system, Day 1 journaling, day 2, grateful for, day 3, physical activity, day 4 gesture of kindness, and meditation. These acts all had different perks. Meditation calmed me and made me motivated to succeed, acts of kindness made me feel good because I know I made someone’s day, being grateful makes me appreciate life more, journaling helps me express my feelings, and physical activity helps me vent energy. All of these strategies help me creat a strong disciplined and happy mindset so I can tackle any challenge in front of me.

But what’s the point of even changing my Mindset?, How does changing my mindset help me? A strong mindset makes you become a strong person. If you have a negative mindset you look at failure as a bad things, If you have a strong mindset then you look at failure as a chance to improve. A strong minded person sets goals and reaches for them, that’s a Positive mindset.

Another great way to Clear your mind Is clear the area around you. For example a dirty room is a dirty mind, All sorts of things like this can help clear your mind or help cloud it. I’m not just looking at this as school work, Im looking at this as a way to influence others to make a change, Your change could be journaling, working out, or any of the other positive brain training exercises I have mentioned previously.

For me Very big part of devolving a strong mindset was understanding that balance is key. Work but don’t over work, get the right amount of school in your life as well as outside activities. I play high level Football and balancing that with my schooling was difficult but I trusted in the process of developing a strong mindset and I have been able to accomplish balance in my life. Some of the ways I achieved balance were, timing how much work I do, Using task manager apps, having family members remind me when It’s time to move on, and many more.

Balance doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do your work, it means that your should be organized and be able to Judge when you need a break of your work and are ready to move onto your next task. For me I can’t sit down and watch TV when I have work, I just feel nervous so I prefer to get It done which works out quite well for me.

So far this year I have been doing pretty good but I know I can go from being a proficient learner to a sophisticated learner. I have shown evidence on How I have grown but most of all how I’ve set myself up to grow.

In conclusion, to be a strong minded successful person you have to take the necessary steps to organize your life, maintain balance, and most of all achieve a great mindset. That’s my Pre pol, thank you.

Canada in World War 2

Hi guys, welcome back to another blog post. Todays post is going to be about my latest Humanities 10 project. This project was all about WWII and how Canada was a significant nation during this catastrophic event.

I started this project excited because I had always wanted to learn about WW2, I thought it was cool and action packed, now done this project I will never think of any violence as cool ever again.

The driving question for this project is how is WWII significant to Canada, this post will answer that.

We started this project by watching the movie saving private Ryan. When watching this movie I noticed lots of things, the suffering of the soldiers, the sacrifices, the violence, but something that stood out to me the most is that in the first scene of the movie one of the soldiers is holding a cup and he can’t hold it without his hand shaking, that is because of the fear and trauma in his brain.

Now having seen a mere representation of WWII we started learning about things like total war, the economy, the roaring 20s, and the Great Depression. We learned about how WWI was a factor to starting WWII. The cause of a war is sometimes hard to understand but very important.

A lot of this project was listening to our teacher whilst she talked about important events in the war, some notable events that Canada were involved in were, the battle of the Atlantic, the battle of Hong Kong, and the storming of Normandy.
What really stood out to me was the downfall and rise of Germany. Germany were unhappy and felt shameful, their economy was weak, and so was the military. Then a strongman leader rose to lead them. A strongman leader is someone who makes the people feel strong by focusing on the military and solves problems. Hitler was said to be a strongman leader.

Next we learned about the darkest parts of WWII the holocaust and the bombing of japan. These events were terrifying brutal and hard to comprehend so leaning about them made me think that this war was truly the most significant event in human history. The holocaust was the biggest ever genocide and the bombing of japan introduced the atomic bomb which is still a threat today.

After this we were told that are final task was to write an essay so we focused on learning how to write essays. We already knew how to write essays but we were improving our skills.

Next we wrote the essay. Mine is too big to fit in here but my three topic were, Canadian war efforts, Innovation, and human rights. My reasoning for Canadian war efforts is that soldiers and relatives of people alive today fought and died in this war, it also shows that we were a brave country ready to take action. I choose innovation for one main reason, the atomic bombs dropped on japan killed an estimate of 110,000 to 210,000 people, that’s two bombs, this bomb was constructed during WWII. I choose human rights because human right were basically not a thing before WWII, and the Jewish people had no rights at all in Germany and wore mass killed and enslaved.

So if you’re wondering why WWII is Significant to Canada then I’ll tell you why. Our country fought in this war because we knew that Germany was a threat to all western civilization, we helped save many country and we sacrifice money and lives to do so, we also helped construct the atomic bomb by mining uranium, the human rights violations during the war are the reason we have the rights we have today, all of the previously mentioned reasons affect us today and thats why WWII is significant to Canada. Thank you for reading.

WW1

Hi guys welcome back to another blog post. This post Is about our 2023 PLP spring exhibition and the events leading up to it. This project was about WW1 and its battles.

The driving question is “what were the contrasting narratives of WW1. You’ll hear my question to this at the end.

At the start of this project We were told we were going to the MONOVA museum, because are spring exhibition was going to be themed as a museum and everyone will ave their own exhibit. We were tasked with researching and learning about museums and figuring out what exhibits our. Everyone took notes and predicted what they will be like at the exhibition versus what they are actually like once we visited.
Exhibits have a description of the things there and lots of different things on display, for example interactive experiments, but most of all exhibits tell story’s.

Next we went to the museum. At the museum I noticed that every exhibit tends to have a general theme and a description. For example at MONOVA there was a safety exhibit that was interactive. Every exhibit has different displayed objects relevant to that theme. Next after that experience the learning of WW1 began. We talked about famous battles and how the war began.

After that we were put into groups of 2 and made a presentation on a topic of our choice. Mine was on PTSD and I did it with my friend Daniel. Then after that we were put into bigger groups and we listed some of the contrasted narratives of war. For example the army painted the picture that every soldier would become a hero in reality they died a horrible death. We later figured out that these were our exhibition groups. We stared planning a room and themed in to WW1. My table setup was two iPads and a poster.

Having this understanding of the war was very beneficial when presenting because you could go off script and speak on related topics. Then the exhibition concluded. This project really opened my eyes to this project, imagine being a young 16 year old man who thinks he going to come back to his family as a hero, its truly sad.

My answer to the driving question is that people are tricked into thinking their lives will be full of glory when they don’t live long enough to see that. Thank you.

My tPOL

Hi teacher this is my Dad Kevin, Kevin this is teacher.

“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”

The tPOL stands for transition presentation of learning. This presentation will use evidence on why I am ready to move on to the next grade level. This year I have had 3 Plp classes, Maker, science and humanities. All of these classes were in the first semester. Humanities carry’s on into the second semester.

The biggest class for me this year has been humanities. I enjoy it a lot and I apply myself the most. Part of my growth this year is that at the start I choose to reach for accomplished on all my classes except humanities, I realize now that I am very capable of getting extending in all my classes if I put in the work. For Humanities I realize that i should be talking about the class that taught me the most not just the most enjoyable class. The Project in humanities the taught me the most was storm the barricades. It was a project on different revolutions, i learned about the French revolution. The main thing I learned from this project is time management. Our end goal of this project was making a trial between the two sides of the revolution. We ended up just finishing and it was a bit sloppy, if we haven’t have left it to the last minute that could have been the difference between an accomplished and an extending.

Picture of my stand at exhibition.

Through out humanities my biggest strengths were Teamwork, Critical Thinking, and questioning. For example in every group project this year except storm the barricades I took more of a leadership role. That leads on to my weaknesses. My biggest weaknesses this year were, confidence and mindset. The reason these were weak for me is that I was in a class with no friends and I let that effect me to much instead of focusing on my work. Once I got into the second semester humanities class I was more driven and I became confident again.

In my first semester I had maker and science some skills that I developed from those classes that I have used in humanities are Questioning, group work, and overall communication. Questioning was very important in science because experiments were always a challenge. I already knew how to question but I didn’t like asking or help, but I know realize that I need someone else’s feedback on my work, that ties into the communication, as well as group work.

Some questions to answer are

Why do I feel that I am ready to advance to the next grade level?

For me there are lots of reasons like hard work, resiliency, but most of all growth. If I have grown this much in 2 years then the growth in the next three will be great. Growing will open up more opportunity’s for things outside of school like jobs or volunteering.

Of the work you’ve done this year what are you least proud of?

For me I do like most of my work but I’m never upset with It. I hold myself to high expectations and will be disappointed if I don’t meet the bar I set, but at the same time the work I’m least proud of is the work that made me work harder in general.

What project Did I struggle with mostly this year. For me my Favourite project was about the geography of western Canada but at the same time I struggled a lot with this. Half my class was away so I sometimes struggled to understand some of the assignments with no one to explain at times. When everyone was back I understood everything and ended up really enjoying this project.

How did you approach projects differently this year?

This year I have tried to go into projects with an open mind because last year I would have a bit of a fixed mindset If I didn’t like how something sounded.

The core competencies of mine that have thrived the most this year are collaborating, creative thinking, and communicating. These have excelled this year because of the feedback from people around me, when I use and take suggested advice I tend to do better. When I ask questions I can clarify and make sure I know what I’m doing. Collaborating with others Is something I have always been good at but this year I have taken more of a leadership role.

On my leaning plan I wrote that I wanted to be someone who hands in work early and always has a good mindset, like I mentioned early my mindset was not the best but it has improved the most out of anything.

Learning plan

One of the other things I set out to improve on my learning plan was Asking for help. For me I felt a great sense of pride doing everything by myself, but I have now realized that everybody needs help sometimes, that’s why ask lots of questions now.

The systems I have used for this are Managing my homework, handing in work on time, and doing other things that are necessary to making me succeed. Managing my homework is important so I don’t overwork, handing in work on time makes everyone’s lives easier, and other things like getting enough sleep is very important.

At the start of this year I decided to only reach for extending on one class but I’ve grown and now I will reach for all extending so because I’m confident in myself.

Thank you.

Creation of Confederation

Hi everyone welcome back to another post, todays post is going to be about my most recent journey learning about confederation in Canada.

This project was about the creation of confederacy in Canada, its pros, its cons, and much more. The main characters or key people in this event were John A Macdonald and Louis Riel. At the start of this project we were put in to groups. Each group was a part of Canada, some groups had more power because they were given a better area of Canada and some groups weren’t as fortunate. I ended up in Canada east which was mostly just Quebec for this experiment. Canada east was Avery populated an had great trade at this time, so we were handed a lot of advantages and not many disadvantages. The goal for each group was to plead their case on why they would be a good fit for confederation, or they explain why they didn’t want join. At the end every group joined Except for PEI because they couldn’t contribute to the confederation.

After that simulation of confederacy we moved on to notes, it was important we understood who the key sides and people of this time were, we neededto know for a final product. We ;earned about the Mètis peoples, we learned about the confederacy side, but the people who stood out most to me were John A Macdonald and louis riel.
They were complete opposites, one was once depicted as a hero and one was depicted as a villain, even though it was the other way around. John was looked at as a hero for being a founding father of confederation but he did it my ridding Canada of the indigenous peoples. His opposite Louis Riel stood up for the Mètis and payed for it with his life.

Next we pitched the idea of our board game. Here’s our pitch.

Are board game consisted of two main ideas, risk and Monopoly. Are board was shaped like the monopoly board and had special cards. These cards were trivia cards that you had to answer correctly to pass. The risk element was battling for land by rolling dice, if you won you would place a card on the other player’s land.
Our board game showed that life was unfair for the Mètis people because the confederation wanted to drive them out, our game showed nationalism by people fighting for their country and the creation of a country. Thank you for reading

Full Steam Ahead

Hey everyone, welcome back to another blog post, this post is a reflection of a project in my humanities class we had a little while ago. The project was called full steam ahead, we learned about the Industrial Revolution and slam poetry.

The driving question for this project was, “how can slam poetry help us connect issues. Slam poetry has emotion and passion, it can be used to talk about are worlds problems, I see it as a more effective way to connect issues than just talk, when people see slam poetry with passion, frustration and any other emotions they become aware of these issues.

At the of this project we watched videos about the industrial Revolution so we could get a basic understanding. Are main focuses were causes and consequences. We talked about innovations and there consequences, these consequences could be good or bad. Next we had to learn what a slam poem is. What better way to start then listen to this poem by Shane coison. Click here

This poem showed us how to present and be passionate and confident. He got people to care, not by what he said, but by how he said it. The next part of this journey was writing a paragraph on the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, Mine was mainly focused on the impacts it had on the environment.

The next part of the project was focused on more stamp poems. We talked about effective poems and ineffective poems. After this we chooses a poem topic, mine was the environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution.

The next few days were writing my poem and practicing. I don’t have footage of me presenting it but I have the written copy. Here is the final product.

Thank you for reading.