So it’s everyone’s favorite time of year again. It is time to present to my teachers and parents what I have accomplished so far this year and answer the driving question ‘How am I going to progress as a learner before the end of the school year?’ Let’s get started.
First I will start off with the Humanities of my school career. In Humanities 10 this year we have learned a lot about history. The most impactful thing that I learned this term was during the ‘War to End all Wars” project which is better known as World War One. The assignment for World War One was to create a podcast to tell the story of a soldier who was in World War One. We had to imagine what this soldier’s war story was and try to answer questions the listener might have. What happened to him? How do you think he felt? What did he learn? What was his outcome? I really enjoyed doing this assignment instead of just watching videos about World War One or reading about it in the text book. I got to know who my soldier was and what his personal life outside of the war was like. Since the focus of the Mpol is on opportunities for improvement I would say that for the World War One Project I would need to improve on my voice first off. Ms. Willemse sometimes states that I sound like I am I being held at gunpoint and told to make this podcast but this is not the case. I really enjoyed the project. Bottom line is that I have to improve the tone and enthusiasm of the voice that I use in my podcasts. I did many revisions and did make progress for this project. Another opportunity that I could improve on is my script writing or just writing in general. I need to improve on turning facts into my own words. I need to turn these facts into sentences that flow and sound like I am saying them off the top of my head. I learned how to make my voice not sound like I am falling asleep as well as how to make my own music that would go into the background. I learned how to edit the podcast on GarageBand and how to export the file into Sound Cloud for the world to hear. Overall I think that this is a great way for someone to learn more about a war and I would definitely recommend this project for the grade nines next year.
‘What is the Golden Ratio?’ I asked myself as I was assigned this project. I am going to be totally honest and say that I didn’t know anything about the Golden ratio or what it was but that all changed after I did this project. The project was to create a piece of art that would incorporate the Golden ratio or the Fibonacci code as well as define both of the terms. At school we recently acquired a 3D printer. I decided to try to make an art piece on the computer that would be three dimensional and relate to the Golden Ratio, the Golden Rectangle and have a Fibonacci swirl. After I drew the design on a piece of paper I used a 3D printing software called MakerBot Print. I took it to one of my teachers Mr. Hughes. Mr Hughes is also the keeper of the 3D printer. We printed it but it took about 10 hours. In conclusion I learned a lot about the Fibonacci pattern as well as the golden ratio while doing this project and how they show up in nature, art and buildings. For Math, I would say that I could improve upon writing down all my work. When I do calculations I find it a lot easier to do them mentally. I know that this is bad because when I get a question wrong I get no marks instead of showing my work and getting partial marks. This ties into the project because I had to show my math calculations. I learned how the math works behind the ratio, golden rectangle and interesting patterns in nature for the Fibonacci code. I learned how to make a 3D model in a 3D printing software as well as how to print a model. These are things I’ll use again in the future.
This project was to record a radio or podcast to answer to the following question. ‘If two sets of identical twins get married and each couple has a child would the children be identical?’ This project happened to be a pattern project so I set off with my partner Sam and we started to create a script. The script started off by determining the definition of meiosis and mitosis. As well as meiosis and mitosis we used Punnet squares, pedigrees, genotypes and phenotype to help us come to our final answer to the question. The answer to the question is identical twins born from both sets of parents will not be the same, because there’s a long list and combination of all the genotypes and phenotype that could differ for both families. In terms of opportunities where I could have improved, I would say that I could have made the podcast a lot more entertaining to grab the viewers off of their seats. Sam and I met the criteria and exceeded the expectations but if I was listening to the podcast I would be a little bored so I believe that I need to learn how to capture the audience more. Overall the genetics and DNA project was interesting and it helped improve my skills when writing a script, doing research as well as making a podcast.
So I am pretty sure that you know what the annual PLP Winter Exhibition is if you are a regular visitor of ‘Spencer Laube a Blog’. Every year in PLP, we as a cohort, have two exhibitions or ‘super bowls’ of the calendar year for PLP. This year the Grade 10 cohorts had a mission different from anything that we had set out to do before. The PLP 10 class collaborated with the PLP 12 class to find amazing stories and document them so they will never be forgotten. The Grade 12 class had a draft of sorts to decide which one of the grade 10’s they would work with. My partner turned out to be Jayden. I knew Jayden already because we play on the same senior basketball team. The Grade 10’s job in this project was to be the recorder as well as the editor for the podcast. The Grade 12’s side of the project was to be the producer or the DRI (directly responsible individual) of the project. The project was to create 3 podcasts that would later be turned into a series.
StoryCorps
The first podcast that we had to make was about our grade 12’s. I asked Jayden a question and I sat back and listened. Jayden ended up telling this great story about how he and his friends were down in Atlanta in a baseball tournament. They were hungry so they went to get something to eat and the rest of the story is told in the podcast linked below. The second podcast involved another interview but with a family member. I interviewed my sister and asked her a question. Her story was about the time she was on the starting line as her senior girls basketball team won Provincials last year. She talked about how much basketball really had a positive impact on her life and what she learned. The last podcast is where the exhibition came into play. For the exhibition we took over a classroom and transformed it from a boring old classroom to a living room type atmosphere. There were fewer rooms than groups so we had to double up. Jayden and I went with another group made up of Simon and Zakk. By the time people start to come into the exhibition, we had finished our magnificent room that we liked to call the ‘man cave’. While the exhibition was on Jayden’s job was to go and get people to interview. By the end of the night I had interviewed 3 people. Two of these people I already knew and one I hadn’t met before. First off I interviewed my friend, Sam’s dad, Curt. Curt had some great stories to tell about his childhood as well as Sam’s childhood. Curt talked about the time when he was a kid, he and his family traveled around eastern Canada in an RV. The cool thing is that Curt is taking his family on the same road trip this year. Next I talked to another one of my friend’s parents Julia. Julia is Adam’s mom Julia told the story of how she was in an airport in BC and she had to get down to Vancouver for work the next day but she couldn’t fly because of the really bad weather conditions. Julia along with two other strangers decided to rent a car and drive 5 hours in white-out conditions. In hindsight Julia said that it was not the best decision due to the danger of the situation. Lastly I interviewed Matty. Matty was one of my teachers friends. Matty told me about her childhood and growing up in Vancouver. After all the interviews were done it was time to choose one of them and make it into the final podcast. I ended up choosing Julia’s interview as the final podcast. When the project was all done and the lights were turned off I could really benefit from learning how to come up with better questions. When interviewing someone, I learned that you have to find the question that suits them. You have to talk to the person first and find out what they like and try to get a glimpse into their lives. That is how I think I would be able to get a better story. If you ask a better question, you will be gifted with an amazing story that you will never forget. I thought that this was a really interesting and fun assignment to do. I thought that it was a cool experience to work with a student from an older grade on the same project and we showed great teamwork skills. Everyone has a story to tell and by recording the stories, they can be remembered for generations and generations to come.
Conclusion
Overall I think these examples reflect my good work habits and my responsibility to strive for high quality work. I achieve high quality work when I don’t rush too much so I try to complete work a day before the due date to leave time for proofreading. To progress as a learner I am going to continue to try and leave time for extra proofreading and get feedback for revisions whenever I can. I will not just rely on spellcheck. I will continue to ask questions about work to make sure I understand what to do so I know the requirements clearly.
A question I have for my teachers and parents is ‘How can I still be efficient while also producing high quality written or spoken work under time constraints?’
Overall I have enjoyed being in PLP 10 this year even though the class has had some bumps along the way. I have learned a lot about things that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I do believe that I learned two times more in PLP this term than I would learn in the normal stream in the timeframe. I am looking forward to my favorite unit that I have ever been a part of which is called Disruption!
