Month: March 2017

You’re probably wondering what’s with this? Why have I suddenly decided to channel my roots and scream ‘EH’ from the top of my igloo, riding my moose, with Tom Hortons, while wearing hockey gear and apologizing for shouting?

I’m not doing that. Though I may, its on my bucket list. Anyways, we had to do a mini video project on ‘What Canada Means To Me’. It started with our teachers proposing the idea to us. Some people from an organization called Here’s My Canada were coming to to help us make videos about what Canada means to us.

I could go into a long thirty page essay about what Canada means to me…. but I’m going to instead give you a thirty second video

IMG_4056-ptwp63

Watch that? Good. If not, I don’t know why you’re reading on.

 

So that was what Canada means to me! Community is really important so that you can gain friends and have people to help and that can help you, like in the video. It’s also helpful if you’re in a zombie apocalypse, you can have people who won’t betray you. I’m looking at you, Walking Dead.

The video was pretty simple to make. It started off with getting the idea. I decided on the story because it gives a more personal connection, taking about my neighbourhood, which is like a second family. The dads shovelling the driveway, it’s always a happy memory for me.

The rest was simple. Record the audio, film a few things, like drawing the Canadian flag and filming the forest, and then we just had to put it together using iMovie.

Anyways, that’s all for this post!

Read You Later

Ruby

Have I used that gif before? I hope not, otherwise this is awkward. Anyways, another post! I know there’s been a lot recently, but bear with me.

I’m so sorry.

This post, however, isn’t about bears. (Small gasp). It’s about… math! I know, a post about bears might have been better, but math will have to do. So, we’ve been doing geometry.

Geometry, more like geome-try-to-understand-what’s-happening. Just kidding, it’s quite easy. Just plugging numbers into formulas and measuring stuff.

So, why is geometry worthy of a blog post? Well, mainly because Pye made us right one…. I mean it’s an exciting project! We got to… make our own monsters!

Out of shapes….

It sounded better in my head, okay? But it was quite fun. We got a formula sheet with all of the formulas for calculating volume and surface area, as well as a basic idea of what our monsters should look like. Torso, head, legs, arms, blah blah blah. Then we had to add three extra things.

I decided to add on horns, wings, and a tail. I pretty much made the devil, yeah. Or a weird dragon boy. Anyways, we had to build them. And he turned out devilishly good

I’ll stop with the puns now. Maybe.

So, we made our monsters. And then came the scary part. The math

We had to calculate the volume and the surface area of each part. Warning: if you have Numerophobia or Arithmophobia, this isn’t for you. Here it is:

VOLUMES:
Horns: 2.0104cm3
Head: 13.5648cm3
Neck: 0.157cm3
Arms: 1.86cm3
Torso: 7.085cm3
Legs: 0.866cm3
Tail: 0.282cm3
Wings: 14.5cm3

SURFACE AREA:
Horns: 2.7632cm2
Head: 35.4192cm2
Neck: 2.198cm2
Arms: 7.052cm2
Torso: 23.55cm2
Legs: 5.024cm2
Tail: 3.108cm2
Wings: 128.5cm2

That was a lot of numbers. Not fun. Anyways, we did that. This is supposed to be for another project in the near future, but I shan’t say anything yet.

“Shan’t”? What am I, Shakespeare?

Anyways, that’s all for this post

Read ya later

Ruby

Sorry for the long title, it happens. I kind of fell down the rabbit hole with it…. Okay I’ll stop.

So, if you can’t tell by the numerous rabbit hole references I’ve made, this post is about Alice in Wonderland! So, we read Lewis Carrol’s masterpiece in class over the past few months, and I really enjoyed it. But it didn’t stop there, no. We got to write an essay!

So, here’s the thing. I don’t write essays very often. May come as a shock that I don’t decide to sit down and write an essay in my spare time, but I never really wrote them in elementary school. I wrote one, about how pie is better than cake. Yes, I think that. Fight me. No, don’t fight me, that’s a bad idea.

Anyways, back on track. We got the options of two topics for our essay. Either “what Draws us To Imaginary Worlds?” Or “How Does Lewis Carrol Create An Imaginary World in Alice and Wonderland?”. We got one class to plan, and then the next class we had to bring our plan, which included our three paragraph sentences as well as some quotes. And then we had to write the test….. in 45 minutes.

It was surprisingly a long amount of time, I managed to finish ten minutes early. But enough about that, here’s my essay:

Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Alice In Wonderland. These are all very well known titles, and very popular stories. The authors all draw us into the fantasy genre, in a way that’s very unique. A way that no other genre really can. We all love the classic stories, and there’s a very good reason for that. Authors draw us into imaginary worlds by letting us escape from reality, with the appeal of being the hero, and the way that the stories mirror reality and real life issues.

Real life is hard, we all know this. With bills, homework, politics. Fantasy gives us a way to escape from the stresses of reality. We all like the idea of falling down the rabbit hole. As said in Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, “Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end!” (Carrol, 9). It’s a very fun idea to entertain the impossible, to be able to escape into this imaginary world that immerses us. These fantastical worlds let us entertain the idea of a simpler life, with spells that can fix any problem and heroes to save the day. As well as having a distinct contrast between what is wrong and what is right. The fantasy genre lets us escape from the stresses and issues of reality into a simpler life, in a way that other genres cannot.

There is also the appeal of being the hero, the one to save the day. People can all relate to the protagonist of a story, the underdog who rises up. Everyone has been the underdog at some point in their life, whether it was at school or later on in life. Not everyone is liked all the time, much like most protagonists of stories, and we can relate to and become the hero. Everyone always wants their own adventure, to break away from reality. Being with “the voyages of the starship Enterprise” (Roddenberry) is so appealing. We are attracted to imaginary worlds because we get our own adventure to Mordor, or to fall down the rabbit hole. It’s very attractive, the idea of being the strong and courageous hero, because sometimes we don’t have that courage ourselves.

Fantasy and imaginary worlds are very attractive in another way, because it mirrors and helps us understand reality. The origins of the fantasy genre were people making up tales to cope with not being able to understand. Seamen were seeing mermaids instead of fish, and the creaks of the house at night were large monsters. It was all a way to cope with not being able to understand what they’d really seen. As well, the issues do tend to mirror the reality of life. The Queen of Hearts in Alice was a mirror to the government from long ago, in France, possibly. “Off with their heads!” (Carrol). It’s a way to help us understand the impossible and mirror reality in a way that is easier to comprehend.

We are all drawn to imaginary worlds, in one way or another. Whether it be wanting to be the hero and to have an adventure, to escape from the hardship of reality and entertain an easier way. Or to understand the unknown and make up our own small stories. Fantasy is a truly fascinating way of drawing readers in, and letting us be someone else or somewhere else. Whether we’re chasing a white rabbit or flying in the Millennium Falcon. It’s a genre that draws everyone in, and is a great way to escape for a little while. Fantasy draws us in, and it never leaves us to be disappointed.

So that was my essay! I hope you enjoyed reading it, I worked hard on it! This really helped me expand my literary skills, and learning how to intergrate quotes into my writing.

Read ya later,

Ruby

It’s that time of year again. Student Led Conferences. And this means another post about it! Yay!

So I’d like to talk about a few pieces of work. First one would have to be my Fantasy Essay, which I’m really proud of. We had to write an essay using the driving question of ‘What Draws Us To Imaginary Worlds?’. So I haven’t done a lot of writing essays in the past, and certainly not one like this. But the topic was interesting, so I was happy to write about it. We had only just started learned about quote integration, but I learned how to do that, and I think it went over well. It also helped expand my writing skills, which is very useful, as I do enjoy writing short stories, and writing better in general is a good thing.

So another thing that I’d like to talk about is something that shows my growth as a learner. I think that I’ve really grown in the way I present information, and the way that it’s more clear. For this, I’d like to bring up two pieces of work. One being my Visual Essay on Railroads in the Industrial Revolution, and my Disney Video.

At the beginning of the year, we had to do a visual essay on Railroads. This means we made a video about how the railroads affected the industrial revolution

As you can see, it’s a good video, but I mess up a few words, and it’s very amateur. Now, I think I’ve done a better job of presenting information in a way that’s easier, and clearer. For this, I’d like to show my most recent video: My Disney Video

So this one I feel a lot better about. The information is clear, the shots are better, along with the audio. It’s easier to understand, and I’ve only chosen the important information.

The third, and final thing I’d like to talk about would be an example of my growth mindset, one of the core things of PLP. I think one thing that really shows this is Destination Imagination. I did have a few issues with this, as our group was a bit behind, and I was afraid we wouldn’t get it done. There was a lot to do, from our gadget, to our Team Choice Elements, to our script, the two codes, our disguised character. It was a lot, and I’ll admit, our group wasn’t always on task. But in the end, we pulled it together. We persevered and we did it, and got first place!

I think this shows my growth mindset as even though we all thought we were going to fail, we kept going and pulled it together. There were a few moments of panic, such as a week before when no one had their script memorized and we were just starting our background. But we did it, and that’s what matters.

MY first goal is to work on teamwork. I don’t do very well with teamwork, so I intend in working on it by contributing more ideas to group, taking in others ideas, and not snapping at my teammates.

My second goal is to work on organizing my work. I intend on creating folders in my iPad for different projects, and bringing a binder for important papers.

My final goal is to work on my procrastination. I intend on setting reminders in my iPad so I do homework the day that it’s assigned and not leave it.

That’s the end of this! Yay! So, that’s all for this post. And for SLCs….. until June.

Read ya later!

Ruby

Hello, I return! For another post (obviously).

No it’s not. I just like Hamilton. But this post is about Destination Imagination (again). But, this year, it was different. I went out of my comfort zone to do the Scientific Challenge. And…. how do I put this.

I don’t science.

Let me explain. I do fine in Science. It’s just the challenge itself is very difficult. Let me break it down for you.

We have to:

1) Have two different codes. One using steganography  and one using cryptography. One of them we design the code and the solution ourselves. But the other one we only get to make the code. The workers give us a sentence with three words, that we have to encrypt and decrypt on sight.

2) Have a disguised character. We need to have one of our characters in our presentation be disguised, whether that’s through acting, lines, costumes, or any other method

3) Have a gadget that looks like an everyday object, but preforms an unexpected task. This has to use technical methods, and can either actually work or use theatrical methods to ‘work’.

4) Have 2 Team Choice Elements. This means two parts of our presentation that use the Team’s interest to create it. I’ll go into more detail on this later.

So, that sounds simple, right? Right?

Yeah, it got quite difficult. So, we got to work. And by we, I mean Tyler, Quinn, Makyla, William, along with myself. It started with a team name. We went though many names, including ‘Double No Seven’, ‘00420’, until we decided on….. H2.0.

Something about water being scientific? Ask Quinn, I don’t know. Then it was on to research. We researched the two different codes, and what they meant. It eventually got down to deciding on a storyline.

We decided on a futuristic setting. Kind of like Terminator, evil Robots are taking over the world. It’s up to a secret spy base to shut off the robots. But, one of the spies is working against them to keep the robots up and alive, to destroy the world.

Its an interesting plot, and a lot to make it into a reality. We started with the gadget. It was up to Tyler to make a remote spray water, that we can pretend was toxic gas to knock out myself and Makyla. But…. well, Tyler was a bit late with it. We asked him to have it done, and it was never done. But…. it turns out he didn’t even make it a remote. He used a chewbacca mug, and the inside of a water gun. It worked, which is what matters.

Then the Disguised Character. We decided that Tyler would be the Disguised Character. So, he was going to be the secret agent, who is trying to keep the robots alive. We used acting and dialogue to disguise Tyler.

Our first code, the Pre-Crypted one, used steganography. It was a skip code, which means that every second letter of each word makes up a word. For instance: this example from Sherlock. Ours was saying that Tyler was the enemy. It was:

Our second code, we didn’t get much control over. We used Cryptography to make our own code, but they gave us the sentence, which Tyler encrypted backstage, and we had to decrypt onstage, without knowing what the sentence was. Our key for this was:

It was complicated to decrypt on stage, but we did it.

Then came the Team Choice elements. One was the background, which could hold two iPads, and was completely black

 

We also had an animation. I am quite proud of this, as I did HAND DRAW IT FRAME BY FRAME. Well, I drew on an iPad, but hey. Still, it took three days. I do really enjoy animation, so it was fun.

 

Those were our Team Choice Elements.

We practiced, and practiced, and practiced, until it was the day before Regionals. And…. I got sick. And I’m not talking about a small cough. I was throwing up…. you don’t need to hear about that

So, I couldn’t go to our final practice. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make it to regionals, Makyla was memorizing my lines. But, luckily, I made it.

Now, let’s talk about Regionals. First of all, we orgot our Team Sign. Great start. Then, we couldn’t go to the opening ceremonies because we had our Instant Challenge. So we did that, it went well. Can’t say anything though.

And then it was time for our Team Challenge. I felt like I was going to be sick, but it certainly wasn’t nerves. We started…. and things started going wrong. Well, there was some awkward stalling as Quinn and Tyler dragged Bill behind stage after he ‘died’. Then, Tyler had to encrypt the code. And…. we hadn’t planned for him to take long. So we hadn’t to improv. And, let me tell you, I CANNOT IMPROV. It was awkward stalling, and lines about Bill being dead.

Then Tyler didn’t put the code back into the drop zone. The drop zone is where, once encrypted, the code should go. And Tyler didn’t put it there. We scrambled, finding it among the other props backstage.

We decrypted it, everything went good from there. And then I went home and was sick.

So that was DI! But….. it’s not over. No, after all of that…

Provincials.

But that’s a different blog post

Read ya Later

Ruby