World War I

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Traveling Through History

Christmas break has come and gone so quickly. This means that yet another brilliant exhibition has also happened. This year, I believe, was the biggest turn out, most fun to present, most entertaining and inquiring to watch, and the hardest and most we have worked. In past exhibitions each grade in the PLP program has a different topic and each student creates their own inquiry “Blue Sky” project to relate to the topic and show they’re learning. This was still true for the grade 8’s and 9’s. For us as grade 11’s we had a slightly different task to pull off. Our project was to create an immersive experience that took you through the time of World War I, starting at pre war and ending in the Great Depression. We had to transform the gym into a whole new world, and wow can I say that that was quite a challenge.

Visitors of the exhibition would enter through a side room onto the gym in small groups to begin their immersive experience. First they would walk through the time of Pre War where they immigrated to Canada and signed up for the war, next they went into the trenches, after that they went through the time of conscription, next making their way to the post war to see the hardships people faced, and finally they ended their experience in the Great Depression. As people went through we interacted with them as if we were in that time period and they were immigrants and war soldiers. Everybody who went through seemed to really enjoy it and surprisingly from what I heard from my parents, everybody seemed to learn a lot.

My group was pre war. To even begin creating the immersive experience we had to delve deeper then what we learned in class so we could replicate exactly what it would have been like in that time period. Our task was to figure out the key events that led up to World War I. For example we chose to start it off with someone greeting the people, or in the immersive experience they were the immigrants, and explaining about Canada’s new open door policy. Then they made they’re way through the immigration office and were greeted by me! I was the immigration office lady and the year was 1913. Being a lady was also a key part to this considering more jobs were being offered to women at this time and in the year of 1912 women were able to finally work in offices and be receptionists. People would walk up to me and I would treat them as immigrants as they signed their immigration papers. Everybody really enjoyed this part surprisingly. Also most adults were happy to see that their age was 35 on the immigration papers which I found quite funny. Also might I add that I created both the immigration card and registration card myself from scratch.

After seeing me the people would make their way through to watch a rally held by Borden. Then they would make their way to the final stop of pre war, the registration office. Again it was me sitting their as the officer who made them sign their papers. Then they made their way over to the trenches and through the rest of the experience. 

We only had two hours to transform the entire gym into a whole new place which was quite stressful and a lot of work. They’re were some technical difficulties as well as worrying about not being done in time. Fortunately everybody ended up getting it together and we were the hit of the exhibition. Although everybody who went through the gym would complain about how cold it was since the door was open. I even hid slippers under one of my desks so I wouldn’t be too cold.

Overall I definitely enjoyed this exhibition more then any other we have done. Since people were constantly coming through it gave us more of an opportunity to really show our learning and what we are capable of creating. Compared to other exhibitions where people just kind of walk around and look at your projects and the odd person asks a question, this really made me feel proud of the work I had made. I think I can say everybody else felt this way as well. Although it was a lot of work and late nights to finish it, it payed off. Next time if we ever do this type of project again a small break in the middle would be nice because everybody in the gym was freezing and most people were losing their voices. Also a lot of people were hungry since we didn’t have time to eat because we were s focused on getting everything set up and ready to go.

This type of learning and style of projects has definitely been one of my favourites. I feel I learned more and can say I still remember facts off the top of my head. I even know about what the other groups were about. It was something different, but I feel it was one of the most engaging projects not only for us as creators, but for the people who walked through and got to experience our learning.

If you want to check out my other group members perspective and experience on the exhibition click the link to their blog posts, you can find them here. Gabi, Tom, Jackson, Stanfield.

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Halifax BOOM

So long story short our Halifax movie does no longer exist. It was on Anatolia’s computer which decided to die on us so we can no longer access the video. Technical difficulties are the worst. Luckily for us we still have all of the clips and audio saved, but we are hoping and waiting to see if Anatolia can get her computer fixed so we won’t have to completely re edit our whole video.

Our task for this project was to create a short video with a news casting theme. We would report as if we are news casters on a breaking news story of the Halifax explosion and the impact it had. Our first job was to research about the Halifax explosion and how it effected the people in the area. Next we put our information together in a short script. We filmed the video using a green screen background and were dressed up in news caster costumes. Finally we edited our movie in iMovie and put it all together. In the end the movie looked pretty good, but unfortunately it’s not on my blog because Anatolia still does not have her computer fixed. I promise as soon as it’s up I will upload the video to this blog post so you all can enjoy!

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Diary from the Fallen

I feel like we have written more blog posts this year then all the other years combined. I am definitely wrong about that, but it feels like a lot. This time our task was to create a diary entry in the perspective of a now deceased Canadian soldier that fought in WWI. The diary entry has to take place before the soldier died. Each of the soldiers that everybody in the class chose lost their life due to the war. If you want to check out some other amazing soldier Diary entries check out my friend Alanah’s blog post.

To start off this writing piece, we first went to a website where you can find all of the deceased Canadian soldiers. From there we chose someone to write about and researched more about their time in the war. I chose a man named Lance-Bombardier Frederick Arnold. He was enlisted in the Canadian Field Artillery in 1914. Almost two years later he dissaperead on June 5, 1916 and was later found at a nearby port in civilian clothes and was then arrested. On July 5, 1916 he was court-martialled and executed. An unfortunate end after surviving so long in the war. img_2750

This wasn’t my first attempt at writing this Diary entry. I first started off writing it with a completely different person, but it ended up being very challenging since the first person I had chosen didn’t have much information available. It took me quite a while to find someone who had enough information on him, but I finally got there. Writing the diary entry itself was a little difficult since it kept ending up looking more like a letter home then a diary entry. Overall this small project took longer for me to complete then it should have, but I really enjoyed writing it. Below is the diary entry.

Diary entry #27

It’s been a tough journey. This whole war thing. Who knew I would be here, on the battlefront, and missing my family. I hate everything about this war. The fighting, killing, long nights lying restlessly listening to other soldiers around me dying. Think of the worst scenario possible and then times it by ten. That’s war. This isn’t my first battle though. I initially served in the US Army before enlisting in the Canadian Field Artillery in September 1914. That was almost two years ago now.

I have been planning my escape from this dreadful war. Currently I am lying in the hospital bed with people around me dying. Tomorrow I will get discharged and that is when I will make my great escape. As soon as night falls I will grab my things and run as far away as my legs can take me. This probably won’t be very far since I have had my fair share of troubles in this battle. First I was admitted to the hospital for a simple illness, and then to be treated for shell shock, which is why I am here now.

There has been stories going around of people who leave the war. Rumour has it when someone leaves the war unannounced and they are caught they will be court-martialled. I’m smarter then all the other fools and know how to hide well enough that I won’t get caught. I just have to hide out until the end of the war and then I am home-free. Finally I will have a chance to live a normal life again and be reunited with my family who I miss dearly. Hopefully everything goes as planned.

Sincerely, Lance-Bombardier Frederick Arnold

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What Really Caused World War I?

In the turn of the century the world was experiencing change due to the industrialization of cities that required many resources and people. The governments of the time felt a need to control land in order to fulfil the supply and the demand of the industry. Countries began to seek alliances and thus caused conflict with those who felt threatened. A thirst and greed to control and conquer over took the politicians of the time to such an extent that they were ripe for conflict. It was a need for power, wealth, and resources fuelled by industrialization that led to World War I.

Although I may be terrible at drawing, I made a comic strip to represent England, as well as France and Russia since they were allied with England, during the industrialization of the country pre World War I. This was something new for me to try and if I’m being honest, I probably won’t make one of these again since it requires drawing. Although if I were a good artist I would make more comic strips because they were actually some fun to create.img_2726

In my opinion, I believe that it was a need for power, wealth, and resources fuelled by industrialization that led to World War I. At the time England and Germany were two countries that were beginning to industrialize everything they had. To do this they would require more resources, money, and land which neither of them knew where to get. Germany and England were on two different sides of the war. Both wanted what the other one had. England saw Germany as more space to put factories and fields for agriculture and vice versa. This started a feud between the two which then led to alliances being formed and ultimately, the first World War.