Hi!

My name is Sam, and I’m in Grade 10. This blog is all about me and my life in PLP (or Performance Learning Program).

This program is where us students all have our own iPads and we do almost all of our work on those handy devices, and most of the work is projects. We write about our assignments on this blog, and that’s usually how we hand our projects in, if it’s not a video or other visual, since we would just post it on here. We mostly explain our learning and the process we went through for each project, and then reflect on what we did and learned. I personally enjoy this way of learning because it teaches you life skills without you really knowing. And I’d rather work on an iPad than in a textbook…

Now about me. I really enjoy all sports, my favourite being hockey, skiing and mountain biking.

If I had to choose only one for the rest of my life, I couldn’t do it. I also like cliffjumping in the river near my house, boating around in the ocean, and just hanging out with my friends. If I’m not doing something fun, I’m usually doing homework…😴

In fact, below is an assignment we did in PLP about ourselves:

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This year, since we are in grade ten now, we are doing a course called Planning 10. This course makes us think about our future career and how to get there. This is about the first project we are doing in this course.

Our first step: Quote

The first thing we needed to do was find a quote that is meaningful to us personally. It can speak to us anyway we want and can be from anywhere. I first started looking for my quote by looking up quotes from some professional athletes I know, but didn’t find anything from them. Then, I kind of came across a quote I’m pretty sure I’ve heard before, but I didn’t know where from.

I chose this one because it can relate to many areas of my life, and it says that what you put in, you get out. It applies to my schoolwork, sports like hockey or mountain biking, and my personal life. I will have a better reward from a stronger effort.

Second Step: Visual

Now that we have our quote, we needed to find a photo that we think supports or goes with that quote. This is the photo I chose to represent the quote:

We then had to take that photo, and using our new drawing app, Sketches Pro, draw or trace a similar image. Since I hadn’t used Sketches Pro before, it took a while to get used to, but I figured it out as I went on.

That was my finished product. I just traced myself, then the boards in another layer, and the ice surface in another layer, with the layer of me on top.

Third Step: Audio

With our image ready, we needed to add our quote to that image. But not just writing it onto the photo. I recorded myself saying the quote, and who said it, Les Brown, and then we had one more thing to do. In GarageBand, we had to make copyright free music that suited the tone of the quote. I used the classic rock organ, the bass, and the drummer. It all sounded great and blended well together. Then,  I added the music to my voice, and viola! I had me a soundtrack.

Final Step: Final Product

My last task was to put the pieces together. I opened iMovie and inserted my image, and then imported my GarageBand song from iCloud. And this is what all the steps put into one short video look like:

This project was fun, and interesting. My favourite part was tracing the photo and learning about Sketches Pro. The project didn’t take long to do once the photo was drawn out. Putting it all together and seeing the product of my hard work is what I like about these projects.

 

See you,

Sam