Atomic habits!

Atomic definition: something that’s so small, it’s microscopic!

Hello and welcome to my first ever post for careers!!

For our first careers project we read the book” Atomic habits by James Clear”. Atomic Habits by James Clear teaches that small changes can lead to big results over time. It’s important to create systems that support your habits. Clear outlines four key steps to build good habits: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. He also emphasizes the importance of changing your identity, seeing yourself as the kind of person who has good habits. By focusing on tiny improvements every day, anyone can achieve lasting change in their life.

For this project our final assignment was to make anything to showcase what we learned form the book. The thing that I made for this project, was a scrapbook full of I am statements! Each I am statement represents a different part of my life, for example school, soccer etc. On each page I have my “I am” statement for example “I am a good student”. Then I have goals I’d like to meet to do with my statement. I also had some bad habits and how I should break them, because it’s important to recognize the good and the bad. I also have people who could help me with affirm my “I am” statements jotted down, because sometimes we need a little bit of help! My scrapbook:

7 images

We also created some really cool pop art, to represent our intentions for this year. I wrote an intention statement to go along with the art:

I want to be a dedicated student who fully comprehends the tasks and projects assigned to me. I will approach each assignment with curiosity and enthusiasm, ensuring that I get the objectives, success behaviours, criteria and requirements. When I don’t understand something, I will proactively seek clarification by asking questions. I will mainly ask my teachers questions, but sometimes my peers and if needed my parents. I also will embrace challenges as opportunities for growth, knowing that my inquiries contribute to deeper insights and better outcomes. I will work towards affirming the statement “I am a student who understands the work/task at hand and asks questions when she doesn’t.” I also want to be a person who is good at, and very proud of my main interests. So, I can also turn that statement into “I am a person who understands the music I play/ my sport (soccer) and asks questions and tries to improve when she doesn’t. In soccer I’ll ask my coach and in band I’ll ask my band teacher.

My pop art:

🤔 Questioning: I can ask questions, research information, and share ideas.

For this project our competency was Questioning. I asked myself questions about how I could connect atomic habits to my every day life. I did research through through out the project, through reading the book. I also referred back to the book when making my scrapbook. I shared ideas with my classmates during the process of making my scrapbook. I also shared my thoughts about the book each time we met to discuss it.

The driving question for this project was: “How can small changes in my habits shape my success this year, and beyond?”

Small changes in your habits can greatly affect your success. For example, spending just 10 minutes a day reading or exercising can lead to big improvements over time. These little actions add up and help you become more productive. Sticking to these habits also builds discipline, making it easier to reach bigger goals. In the end, these small changes can help you succeed now and in the future.

Thank you so much for reading my first careers blog post! Stay tuned for our next project, which is a reoccurring favourite, that happens every winter….

-Ailie 💜

Why does the world need more Canada?

Hello!

Why does the world need more canada? That’s a pretty good question, and that was the driving question we had to answer for this project! Other than maple syrup, we as Canadians bring so much to the table (the breakfast table obviously).

Thinking Thursday:

I never watch the news that much, but when we were assigned to watch the national every night, I actually quite enjoyed being informed. I heard a bunch of different types of stories, but the story I chose to talk about was “girl gets set on fire at high school in Saskatoon”. I relate to this story because l am a 15 year old girl in high school in the Canadian school system. This incident was tragic and very interesting to me.

“Girl of 15 set on fire by girl of 14 at high school in Saskatchewan.”

Script:

One of my favourite things about this project was being able to really put my personality into my work! We had to choose a topic we wanted to discuss related to Canada’s awesomeness, and I chose soccer in Canada! I play soccer in a Canadian youth soccer club and so Canadian soccer really relates to me. I’m also pretty passionate about professional soccer. I was very proud that I could put what I love into my work. I also learned how to use a 3 act structure to build up my script.

Soccer in Canada

Podcast:

The actual aftermath of my script was my podcast, which I’m very proud of! | learned how to use garage band. I recorded and edited my voice, and I added sound effects for more pizazz! I went a little bit over the 5 minute limit, but I was able to cut down and only include the most important things. There was just so much I wanted to say about soccer in Canada! I always love doing a project where I can connect it to something I love. Please give my podcast a listen, and check out my classmates podcasts too!

Core Competency:

The Core Competency for this concert was! 🤔 Questioning: I can ask questions, research

information, and share ideas. I feel like I need to ask more questions to insure I understand and so that I can do my best work. I did do a bunch of research to make sure all of my facts were correct, but I had learned about Canada soccer previously, just because it’s one of my interests. I shared my ideas thought my podcast and made edits to it when needed.

My answer to the driving question “Why does the world need more Canada?”

The world needs more Canada because it promotes peace, cooperation, and inclusivity on a global scale. Welcoming more immigrants can strengthen its economy and enrich its cultural diversity. Canada’s values of kindness and respect for human rights serve as a positive example for other nations. Overall, more of Canada’s approach could lead to a better, more united world.

Thank you so much for reading yet another one of my blog posts! Have a good day!

-Ailie 💜

Tpol time, take two!

Hellooooo! It’s that time of the year again! It’s tPOL time! Let’s kick off and start the game!

Mr./Ms. (teacher’s name), this is my mum Jen Hetherington.

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.

Driving question: how can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP success behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?

My success behaviours!

What are success behaviours? Success behaviours are basically a guide to how we should act, in order to be a successful proficient PLP learner.

Here’s a chart I completed to see where I am with my success behaviours:

Success Behaviours Self-Assessment

 

In the agency category, I chose “Seeking help” because that’s not something I usually do. Sometimes, if I don’t understand a topic, a project, or even just what was taught in the class on that day. I just decide that I can figure it out myself, and that I don’t need help. That’s usually not the greatest plan. It sometimes works, but sometimes doesn’t. I’m a little bit more confident now, and I do keep in mind that most questions are asked for a reason, but I still need to remember that there’s usually, within reason, no such thing as thing as a dumb question.

Another success behaviour I chose, I think is one of my biggest strengths! Which is “enthusiasm” in the engagement category! One of my friends said “your very positive, especially in a group.” Sometimes I can get super excited about a project, and my friends are like “Ailie how are you so excited about this, its work!” I try to be as positive as I can, as much as I can, and my positivity helps me be enthusiastic!

The last success behaviour I chose was “outside of school” in the preparation category. This is something I should work on, I just need to be able to manage my work better. Sometimes I’m working on a project and I know it’s due that night, but I forget the time and so I end up turning it in a few minutes to a few hours late.

My Favourite Projects and things!

British Nationalism:

I love learning about my ancestors and ancestry. Research usually isn’t something I love doing, but learning about Queen Victoria was worth the research! Queen Victorias reign was called the Victorian era, it was a bountiful time for Britain. She ended up marrying her her first cousin, Prince Albert, and she had 9 children, 5 girls and 4 boys. I feel like this project stretched my researching skills, and got me looking at multiple sources to make sure my information was credible. One success behaviour I feel I used was “integrity” because my work was original.

https://www.blog44.ca/ailieh/2024/05/10/uhhhh-queen-victoria-married-her-first-cousin/

Di:

Di was such a fun experience! My favourite part was working in a group, especially with other grades. I also loved actually presenting our work and performing. We won second over all in both our competitions. Our group was very proud and surprised that we won a Da Vinci Award! The Da Vinci Award is a rare award given to “those who clearly demonstrate that spirit of adventurous risk to reach truly new and unique destinations.” We received it for our incredibly awesome dance to starships by Niki Minaj. During Di we had to use many success behaviours, especially the ones related to being in a team. For example “Helpfulness” and “With peers”.

https://www.blog44.ca/ailieh/2024/03/15/the-stoves-on-fire/

The Exhibition:

During the exhibitions I always get my steps in! This latest exhibition project, the winter exhibition project was in the end something I was fairly proud of. When I heard the exhibition was going to be about World War One, I was very apprehensive, because I am not a history buff what so ever. But when I heard the end result was going to be a comic I was a bit more relieved, because I love to draw. When we were researching topics I remembered that someone at some point had mentioned that I had a family member in WW1. So I asked my mum and she told be about my Great Grandpa Dugald Smith. She told me his story and I decided to make it my comic! In the end this project showed me that history can be quite interesting, especially if it’s something you can be proud of, like how my great grandpa fought for his country and his family. I feel like the success behaviours I used in this project were, “completing evidence” and “focus” because we needed to complete the project on time and lock in to make sure our comics were good.

My comic: Dugald Smith

https://www.blog44.ca/ailieh/2024/06/17/263/

PLP Trips:

I talked a fair bit about PLP trips in my mPOL but they’re probably my favourite part of PLP! They always bring our class closer together and there always full of unique experiences. From going to a cheese factory, to climbing a mountain, PLP trips will never disappoint! They help me use many of my success behaviours, such as “citizenship” and “with peers” because us students on the trip are representing PLP outside of the classroom and interacting with the public.

Extra curricular activities:

Something that isn’t PLP, but could be related to it, and something I love so much, are Seycoves extra curricular activities! I’m in band, I was also on the junior girls basketball team and junior girls soccer team. I love being on those teams, working together, making new friends, trying our best, and having fun! In band, I won an award for leadership, which I didn’t really expect, but I was really proud of that. I met some amazing PLP 8’s through especially the soccer team, as well as band! IIn these activities there are some relevant success behaviours, such as “contributions” and “citizenship”. PLP 9 is also a team of our own. You need multiple people to make a team, and there’s no I in team!

Goals I want to score!

My top 3 goals for next year:

1. To make sure I fully understand the elements of the project, or the lessons we’ve already been taught corresponding with the project, before I do the final part of the project to make sure its to the best of my abilities.

2. To just ask more questions, maybe even the question “How do I make this extending?”

3. To understand the different elements of PLP better, for example success behaviours and driving questions.

Final minutes!

To answer the driving question, how can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP success behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?

I was able to tick off most of the “consistently” boxes in the “success behaviours in proficient learners chart” which shows that I feel like I have been displaying the success behaviours in all of my projects.

This year I feel like my work has slowly and progressively gotten better. I put more and more effort in! PLP, even I didn’t really get how it worked at first, is actually a really great fit for me. It helps me unlock my creativity, and put my personality into my work.

To warp it up, and a fun fact, my name “Ailie” or spelt “Eilidh”(that would have been much harder for substitute teachers to pronounce) means “light” in Scottish Gaelic, as in sunlight or light for a street light. So to live up to my name, literally, I want to be able to shine a light everywhere I go and with everything I do. Whether its in my work or in a classroom, I want to leave behind a little bit of Ailie.

Thank you so much for watching and listening to my tPOL!

That’s the final whistle! Good game and see you next year!

Have a good summer!

– Ailie 💜

P.S. Those were all soccer references! ⚽️

Who’s Dugald and what’s he got to do with the winter exhibition?

Hello and welcome back to another exhibition blog post!

His best friend was shot! He stopped down to check on him but his friend told him to keep going. He pushed on mourning the loss of his friend. 

World War 1 was gruesome and confusing, and I’m not exactly a history buff. Although I do love learning about my ancestors and the cultures I came from. Though our nationalism project for the winter exhibition I learned about my Irish roots, and through this project I learned about one of my ancestors in particular. From Scotland, my great grandpa Dugald Smith! Dugald Smith, father of my Gran Mary Hanson, had signed up when he was 18 in 1914 to fight in the war for Scotland under the British troops. He was sent to the battle of the Somme in France in July 1916.

Our driving question was “How can I create a comic that accurately depicts an event from WWI?” To start off this process we learned a little bit about WW1 and also all of the different parts of a comic. After being told that our final assignment would be a 20 panel comic on a WW1 related topic, I asked my mum if we had any ancestors in WW1 because I thought I remembered her mentioning one once. She told me about my Great Grandpa and his awesome story, and so I decided I would dedicate my comic to him! Then we were assigned to build a story board of what we wanted our comics to look like. Here’s what I made:

IMG_2705

The actual exhibition was pretty fun, but probably my least favourite one in terms of the actual night of because we didn’t really do a lot of decoration for our station. It was probably my favourite project to present though. I found that most people thought it was cool that it was actually a true story about one of my ancestors, which made me really proud.

So without further ado here’s my comic!:

Dugald Smith

Thanks for reading!

-Ailie 💜

P.S. It’s almost tPOL time!

Uhhhh Queen Victoria married her first cousin!!

Queen victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. With her first cousin, she had 9 children, 5 girls and 4 boys!

Hey guys welcome to ….. British nationalism!

So first off, I had no idea what Nationalism is, so I searched it up!

Here’s what I found: Nationalism is devotion and loyalty to your country, it could be as serious as idolizing your country above all other countries.

Then what is British Nationalism?: British nationalism is the fact that Britain is a nation and promotes loyalty to Britain and being British.

One of the main periods of British nationalism and a time where England was at the peak of its power was the Victorian era. The Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria Daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was the longest of all of the people before her. Form when she was 18 in June 1837 to January 1901 when she was 81!

There were many inventions and discoveries in the Victorian era, including the inventions of the telescope, the sewing machine, the type writer, and the bicycle. With the power and discovery that came from the Victorian era, England decided to colonize more. They colonized many places over seas so they could provide England with valuable materials like metals and sugar. Englands colonizing spread its rule and power beyond its boarders. This brought huge changes to societies, industries, and cultures in other countries.

For this project I put all of the information I learned from researching into a video! Making the video was quite fun. I first planned it in an organizer, then I wrote a script for the video. Finally, I filmed all of the different shots, for example me talking to the camera, and I even made some animations to make the video more exciting. 

Here’s my video!:

Don’t forget to like and subscribe! I’ll see you next time on the battle field of the world first huge war!

-Ailie💜

My mPOL 2024!!

Hello and welcome back!

It’s that time of the year again! It’s mPOL time!

So without further ado:

Mr./Ms. (teacher’s name), this is my mum Jen and my dad Paul.

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.

PLP Trips!

Probably my favourite part of PLP are the PLP trips. This year out of the two trips we went on, loon lake was my favourite by far! I absolutely loved the trust falls, the dance, the ropes course and the food! Before loon lake everyone was friends, sure, but after loon lake everyone was noticeably closer! Loon lake not only helped with my learning but it also helped me learn about my fellow PLP 9’s and their learning.

My Favourite Projects!

My frankinstuffie and frankinstuffie video: I loved the frankinstuffies project! It was a little hard to sew my frankinstuffie together and her head kept falling off, but in the end Pamella Gwendolyn Brog was one beautiful panda dragon cat! The leviathan was also a great story. I loved the plot and it was pretty engaging to. The process of making my frankinstuffies video was pretty fun, and I learned how to utilize new tools on keynote.

Heres that video so I can show a clip:

https://youtu.be/ZR5rzDBlGeI

Science element painting: I love art and I also love science, so put the two together in a pretty awesome project, and you got me hooked. I chose the element radium because I thought it was really cool and something I really enjoyed learning about. I represent this element in a painting using a scull with no jaw, because girls how worked with radium and didn’t know it was harm full would slowly start dying, starting with loosing there jaws!

The exhibition: Our metaphor machines project this year for the exhibition was pretty fun! The revolution group I was in was the Irish revolution with my group members Hunter, Finn, Matteo, Meghan, Ryan and Jannik! I love working in a group and always have and this was a pretty great group to be a member of! With this exhibition I learned trial and error are important, and your machine might not always work!

My Learning Plan!

My learning plan is something I haven’t even looked at in a long time, but let’s see. I think I’ve met “getting to know more people” and “take harder criticism”. Most of my goals I still agree with and can still improve on a little bit but I’d like to add a new one. Something that I would like to improve on, and one of my main learning goals is making sure I fully understand my work before I dive into assignments and projects. If I don’t get a topic, I usually just try and figure it out myself without asking questions. Sometimes that works but sometimes I still don’t get it. Some goals I also hope to have completed by my tPOL are: to stay on task more, to ask more questions to get clarification so I can do my best work, and to consistently get good grades on all of my assignments even the less important ones!

Di!

Di was quite the experience! Going into it I was quite apprehensive, I didn’t really know what to expect. In the end, the challenge I got, the technical challenge was definitely not my first choice. When we were told our task, to make a 8 by 16 foot pinball machine! My first reaction was “Oh no, this is not in my wheel house.” When I got my team, my team members ranged from knowing them quite well to not knowing them at all! Mika I already knew and was good friends with, Jack and Matteo I both knew and Jackson and Jasper I didn’t know at all. To help split up work, and have a good group dynamic we divided the tasks into design and build. I mostly worked on the design elements with Mika and Jasper, and Jack, Matteo and Jackson focused on the building. We actually needed up having a lot of fun working on our machine and other tasks. Some of my favourite memories are, when Jack, Mika and I went through the catastrophe of making doughnuts and when we were all practicing our dance so we could perform it well. I loved the actual Di days! It was so fun to watch everyone’s presentations and perform ourselves. In the end we won second over all in both our competitions. Something absolutely amazing is that we won a Da Vinci Award! The Da Vinci Award is a rare award given to “those who clearly demonstrate that spirit of adventurous risk to reach truly new and unique destinations.” Our group was so proud of this achievement! We received it for our incredibly awesome dance to starships by Niki Minaj.

Summary!

I feel like I have grown a lot this year. I put more effort into my work! Sometimes I wonder, What is PLP? Why am I in it? Why do we go on trips? Why do we do Di? Why am I standing here doing my mPOL? Well, I actually think I have the answers to those questions now. In my opinion, PLP also known as the Performance Learning Program is a program made to have its learners think out side the box, be creative and experience real life experiences, like the trips and Di. It helps me stretch my learning. Sometimes I feel like without explanation, or without knowing how to work my iPad and all the apps on it, I wouldn’t be able to understand it and sometimes its still confusing. My favourite part of plp is the F.A.I.L. first attempt in learning approach! With explanations and by asking questions the complexity helps me stretch myself and be a better PLP learner. Thank you so much for listening to my mPOL!

Wish me luck on my presentation and thanks for reading!

-Ailie 💜

The stoves on fire!!

Hello and welcome back to my blog!

In second place….. J.J.J.A.M.M! Di was quite the experience. What is di you ask? Well, it’s a competition which teaches kids to be more creative and problem solve. It requires out side of the box thinking. Our team as a whole was pretty cohesive. J.J.J.A.M.M was made up of Jackson,Jack,Jasper, me, Mika and Matteo. 

What did we have to do to compete in di? Oh you know, just make a gigantic pinball machine and a story about how the pinball represents a hero going on a journey. That may sound like a lot, and ya it was a lot, but our team pulled through with a sorta working 4 by 8 foot pinball machine and a pretty awesome Star Wars themed story.

We worked hard to complete all of our elements. Some people were better at building, and some at designing, so we split the work in half under those two categories. I was on the design half of the team, because let’s be honest, I would almost definitely cut my thumb off if I was handed a saw. 

Since our presentation stopped at 5 minutes when it was supposed to be 8, the judges didn’t eat our donuts, the music wasn’t loud enough, and our pinball round didn’t even count, being some of the many things that didn’t go great, we have a lot to improve on! Two main things we’ll be improving on are, bettering our machine mainly practicing utilizing it in our story and having a new team choice element to replace the donuts. 

My favourite parts of di were, how well our team worked together on our instant challenge, how our team presented, and acted very well, and our overall teamwork. Some fun moments so far were when Mika and I stayed late at school to make costumes out of cardboard, and cooking donuts with Mika and Jack, even though it was quite chaotic, there was a whole lot of smoke and maybe even a flame, and in the end someone asked us if they were chicken wings.

Di has been quite the adventure so far, and it will continue to be as we prepare for our second competition, provincials!

Our di team J.J.J.A.M.M:

May the toast be with you!

-Ailie 💜

It’s raining meatballs!

Hey guys!

With her little purple wings fluttering nervously and her fluffy paws shaking, she gently peeled back the stamp of the envelope, and folded open the piece of paper inside. Her warm brown eyes rapidly scanned the page. As they reached the bottom of the document her fluffy features fell. A small tear landed on the big red words, Admission Declined. Pamella’s dream washed away like a leaf riding the rapids of a river.

Our most recent project was cutting heads and limbs off stuffed animals. Well ok, we had reasons for that. Our PLP 9 class made the PLP famous Frankinstuffies! We decapitated and de-limbed multiple stuffed animals to create new animals! I already knew how to hand sew, but this was quite a challenge, and I learned new ways to sew to reinforce my Frankinstuffies body. I was tasked with making an awesome life story for her, with many challenges and adventures throughout it. 

The process of creating her though sewing was sooo fun!

The photo above is what Pamella looked like before.

And this is the after!

The summary of my story is, when my frankinstuffie, Pamella Gwendolyn Brog was rejected from culinary school, her life goal to make food and spread it to the world suddenly seemed impossible. So she decided to take action and not quit because of one setback! With the assignment to make this story, I improved my story writing skills, and I learned about how all stories have a theme. The theme for Pamella’s life story is, if life isn’t going your way, other doors will open and other opportunities will arrive so keep living life to the fullest and don’t give up!

After I wrote my short story I turned it into a 2min video! With the help and new information about green screens and how they work in iMovie, I created many different scenes for Pamella to live in. Keynote helped with removing backgrounds and cleaning up scenes. 

Here’s the video I made!:

Here also a link to my paddlet to give me feedback and comment on my story!:

Pamella paddlet

-Ailie 💜

Louis was Riel Historical!

Hello!

Have any of you ever heard of Louis Riel? For our most recent project we learned all about the history Louis Riel, his portrayals over the historical period of his life and how he was an important historical figure to Canada, with the driving question of “How has the Portrayal of Riel Changed Over Time?”.

To learn about Riel and to work up to having a good understanding of him, we did a bunch of research! We looked at how artists portrayed him through statues, such as “Joyal’s Louis Riel at the Manitoba Legislature”. This is a statue made in 1996 that can be seen in front of the Legislative buildings in Manitoba. Another source we used for research and understanding was the “Louis Riel Heritage Minute”. We watched this video, and then wrote a mini paragraph about how we thought it portrays Louis Riel.
The heritage minute video:

 https://youtu.be/0fLnJp-Rjow?si=luLoZhHOKzbmQf9N

We also improved our writing skills in order to write a multi paragraph response to the driving question. The first few lessons we touched up on things we already knew like synonyms and antonyms. Then we just deepened our understanding on more complex words and more professional ways to say things.

There were multiple drafts and trials to try and create a final multi paragraph response. We had help from our peers and teachers to make some edits. Along with gaining feedback and giving peer critique, we also learned how to properly improve our editing skills. With these skills we made it so that the final result of our work, and our peers work could reach its full potential.

Here are some of the most recent edits I have received:

Our class learned about the portrayals of Riel, in order to understand the important events in Canadian history. Louis Riel was part of the history of Canada, he helped found Manitoba! Being able to write is also a very valuable skill, and touching up on your writing skills is important to do from time to time. In the future if I ever have to look back on my Canadian history knowledge, then I can confidently say that Riel was a big part of Canadian history. Louis was Riel historical! 

Click here to see my multi paragraph response:

Louis Riel is portrayed in many different ways, depending on the time period, and the view one has on the history involving him. The start of the story was in 1812, when the Red River settlement was formed. During the mid 1800’s there were multiple groups arriving and settling in the Red River colony. Louis Riel was born in 1844 to a Métis father and a French Canadian mother. He was already a leader in his family, being the eldest of 11 children. He spoke the French language, as well as being a practicing Catholic. The groups directly involved with the story of Louis Riel were the English and Scottish settlers, and several different cultures, including the Métis who had already settled in the Red River. In 1868 the Hudson’s Bay Company was going to sell the colony to the British, who would then sell it to the Canadian government. However the First Nations and Métis who lived on the land were not consulted about this sale. This is where Louis Riel comes into the story.

Before the sale was finalized, the Canadian government sent surveyors to scope out the land. When they entered the Métis land however, they did not ask for permission. In 1869, Métis community leader Louis Riel and a dozen other armed Metis drove the surveyors away from a farm belonging to Riel's cousin. The Métis now controlled Red River after this action of resistance. In December of 1869 the Métis established their own provisional government. At this time Riel is seen or portrayed as a courageous leader to the Métis, a hero of sorts, who didn’t give up his land or his people. A secondary source that portrays this is the statue “Joyal’s Louis Riel at the Manitoba Legislature”. It portrays Riel as professional and strong, because his posture is straight and he is wearing professional robes. To others, specifically the Canadian government, Riel was seen as a nuisance, a rebel, someone who was a problem, or just in the way of there plans.

In 1870 one of the most beneficial members of a group called the Canadian Party, Thomas Scott was then trialed for disobedience, he was found guilty by Louis Riel and was executed. The cause of this was that the Canadian Party attempted to overthrow Louis Riel and the provisional government. The tables turned for Riel, he could now be seen as unjust, wicked and wrongful of killing a man who didn’t agree with him. There was discontent in Canada; people wanted Riel to be caught and hung. On May 12th, 1870 with the help of Louis Riel, Manitoba became a province, through negotiations between the federal and provisional government. In many Canadian history textbook and resources, Riel will be mentioned because of his influence in the Manitoba act. In these textbooks he is portrayed as a influential political figure with the nickname of “the founding father of Manitoba”.

Now Manitoba is a province, but despite that there is still conflict! Riel was getting may death threats, and they were damaging his mental heath. 1200 Canadian troops were sent to assassinate him. In fear of death he fled over the American boarder. He couldn’t live in Canada because he feared for his life. Riel was also a religious man, who faithfully believed in God. While he was in exile, he had delusions that he was a prophet sent by God to defend the Métis. In the end, he came back across the boarder, surrendered, and was executed by the Canadian government. Another statue made to portray Riel is “Lemay and Gadboury’s Abstract Louis Riel Statue”. It portrays Riel as shamed, crazy or even deformed and defeated, because his mental heath was hurting him and he was getting death threats. The sides that were with him were the Métis, French speaking, and Catholics, all of which supported him and thought of him as a hero. The other sides however, the English, Protestant and Europeans, did not support him and thought of him as rebellious and cruel.

In conclusion, Riels portrayals overtime changed with every action he took. Today Riel has schools named after him, artwork representing him, and a national day dedicated to him. His execution is now generally thought of as a wrongful action, and was apologized for by the Canadian government in 1998. Today he is still a hero for the Métis in Canada!

Thank you so much for reading!

 -Ailie 💜

Potatoes 🥔

Ireland is famous for its potatoes, it’s less famous for its revolution but….

This winter exhibition was my third exhibition ever! This time our project was called metaphor machines, with a driving question of: how do ideas drive change? For this project we were put into groups based on which revolution we wanted to study. I was put in group Ireland (aka Easter Rising) with Finn, MatteoJannik, Meghan, Hunter, and Ryan.

I learned so much about the Irish revolution, like how it technically started in the 1100’s but there were 800 years of buildup, violence, and little rebellions until the actual impactful actions in 1916. Our first project was an individual project of making info graphics about our revolutions, so we could learn a little bit about our revolution. Then we met as a group and it was really interesting to see all of the different research done by everyone! From there we combined all of our research to make a logical chain of events. 

Our group was particularly excited for building our metaphor machine. As well as a machine we had to make a documentary which mostly Matteo, Ryan and Finn made. Check it out here in Matteo‘s blog! We took the idea of a Rube Goldberg machine, which is a series of events and reactions that are pieced together to trigger a continues flow of energy from beginning to end. We started planing our machine. With each stage of the revolution we connected a connection. In total we had 8 connections. It was quite the process building our machine. We learned so many things, like unfortunately hot glue isn’t water proof. 

The actual exhibition was chaotic as always! The positive was that’s our group was really good at our speaking parts. Something that we could grow on was not loosing our marbles, literally and metaphorically! Our negative was a track from our machine fell off our machine, and landed in our bucket of water and red die mid presentation!

This revolution ended in 15 people getting executed, which we represented with 15 marbles falling to our bucket of red die. Thank goodness that the exhibition didn’t end that violently! 

I don’t know that much about what project next for just us PLP 9s, but as for most of PLP, the 8s, 9s, and 10s, there’s gonna be a whole lot of chaos and duck tape!

Thanks for reading!

-Ailie 💜