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Was Canada Really That Important?

June 6, 1944. The allied forces of England, America, and Canada stormed the five beaches of Normandy taking out the axis force of Germany on a day we call D-Day. Canada’s roll was key in this event. However I want to know, how might the events of d-day been different if the Canadian forces had not supported the allies?

The Canadian troops supported the allies by sending over 14000 men to fight as well as 110 ships, and 10000 sailors. England informed Canada that they would have to help and fight along side the other allies in order for them to successfully take back Normandy France. Canada’s job was to take over Juno beach which was located in between Sword and Gold beach. Those two beaches were where the England troops were located.

After a successful beginning to a mission, Canada was then supposed to help connect the three beaches so that all of the English troops could be grouped back together for the final part of the battle. The R.C.A.F. had helped prepare the invasion by bombing targets inland. Also on the day of D-Day the R.C.A.F had 15 fighter and fighter-bombing squadrons that helped to control the skies over Normandy and attacked the enemy targets. 

If the Canadian forces did not participate in this event then the outcome could have been much different. For example the English and American troops could have spread out along the five beached which could have lead to more casualties and the possibility of one of them not conquering one of the beaches. Or the allies might not have fought for all five beaches, maybe they would have left one out which again could have lead to the possibility of the battle not being successful.

The Canadians role in the battle of D-Day was key to the successful fight. Without them the English troops would not have been able to regroup as easily, there was always the possibility of more casualties, as well as without the bombings that were previously done by the R.C.A.F before there could have been more enemy troops to fight off. Overall every single one of those men were needed that day, whether they were Canadian or not. Each one of those men were important and without them we don’t know what the outcome could have been.

I can’t imagine the courage and strength those men had in them to storm the beaches knowing very well that this could be the last time they saw the light of day. My great grandad was apart of this. He stormed Sword beach on D-Day with the English Allies. He never talked much about what happened that day for him, so I don’t know what struggles he had to go through personally. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for him after all the research on this day I did. There’s the possibility he could have been taken down, shot at, seen his own friends around him fall. Knowing that my great grandad could have faced all of that and still managed to live his life happily after the war shows how strong of a man he was. He was just 1 of 150000 men who stormed those beaches that day.

*Insert photo of my great grandad receiving a metal for fighting on the front lines on D-Day, (It’s too late at night currently to look for it)*

Sources I used to find out more information on D-Day and Canada’s role in the event:
WarMuseum.ca
Juno Beach – Wikipedia

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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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A Trip to Hanford, and a Project to Follow

In September we got the amazing opportunity to go on a field study down the Oregon coast. On this trip we visited many places such as the Hanford B reactor and the Reed College Research Reactor. This field study was for us to grow a better understanding of how the nuclear weapons were created, why, and how they were used in World War II. img_2743

Now let’s take a quick pause before I go into the details about the project we worked on based around this trip. It’s time to explain the amazing wonders of what goes on during a PLP 11 trip. Our adventure started off bright and early at 6:50am. We departed Seycove and made our way to our first destination, lunch! Our first day of the trip was not filled with very many activities, this was good since everybody was pretty tired from being at school early and travelling.

One of our first educational stops on the trip was the Reed College Research Reactor. We toured around the place as well as doing a lab with one of the students there. Next we stopped by the Maryhill Museum of Art where we got a short tour from a worker there where she explained some of the art pieces in the museum. We then got some time to roam around and take in the magnificent art in the museum. The next day we went to the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Pre-War Historic Sites Tour. Later that day we made our way over to the REACH Museum. Our finally stop on the trip was the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Reactor B Tour. There we walked around and took in what once was a secret place as well as interviewed workers there about our topic for our project. img_2742

Also while on the trip it was our job to ask many questions to our lovely and helpful tour guides on the different tours we went on. Before the trip we had prepared insightful questions to ask about the topic of the project we were working on. My group’s topic was learning more about the discrimination that went on at the Hanford sites.

This topic was more difficult then we had hoped for. Of course there was a lot of racism still present at the time of World War II, but we wanted to look further then that. We each had the task of finding an individual story about someone hardships and obstacles with discrimination they fought while working on the Hanford site. I found a story about a woman named Leona Woods who fought against not having equal women rights and in the end wound up leaving the Hanford site and moving to Seattle. This was one of five stories we chose to include in the movie we created. All of them had the same theme of discrimination on the site of Hanford. img_2745

To start off the movie project we first had to research what it was like to be living or working at the Hanford site if you were considered a minor. Next we went on to putting that information into different categories and forming a short video on it. We ended up scratching this whole first draft of the movie to recreate something better with more depth and something that was a little more interesting to watch. This was when we each chose a different personal story of someone who worked or lived on the Hanford site that was being discriminated whether that be sexism, racism, or something else.

All of these five stories were put into condensed versions of themselves and interpreted by pictures from the time and a brief sentence on each picture explaining part of the story. The movie style was a quick and concise video with informative information and pictures that helped to tell five separate stories which all relate back to the main idea of discrimination. The whole process was quite a roller coaster ride with editing as well as getting everybody to co-operate at the same time, (which always seems to happen in every group project you ever do). In the end we finally got the project done, (I think, we still are waiting to see if it is approved for the final time).

*INSERT MOVIE HERE*

My role in this project was to find an individual story that related to the topic. I also worked on putting together the green screen slides and adding and refining the text on each clip. The process of putting the texts on the slides was tedious but overall I feel ended up looking pretty nice.

If, or I feel like I should say when we do another project like this one I would spend more time planning out how the overall look of the video will be. We went into this project with one idea and came out with a completely different version of the movie.

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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.

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SLC #17839

I’m sure by now you all know what an SLC is, but if you are new here and have absolutely no idea what I am talking about then I will explain. An SLC stands for student led conference or in other words it is a small presentation where we as students show some other blog posts about our learning and growth throughout the year and present it to our parents and teachers. It gives us an opportunity to praise ourselves on work we our most proud of and reflect on what we could have improved on.

Personally these presentations are not my favourite thing in the world, but they are doable and aren’t that much of a hassle and honestly a really good thing to do to end the year. As well as it gives me a chance to improve my presentation skills some more. I remember when I did my first SLC ever in grade 9 I was shaking in my boots from fear. Now that I am on my fourth SLC coming up to present is a breeze.

Now below are my three blog posts that I will be presenting for my SLC. The first something I am most proud of from this final term. The second, a piece of work that needed improvement. Finally a blog post about a review of the year, which in my opinion was the most fun to write out of the three.

1. Most Proud of: LBS Civil Rights

2.Needed Improvement: Blue Sky Design

3. Review of the Year

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Little (Great) Big Story

Normally when we get the option to choose whatever we want to do for a project most people go with videos where as I normally go with a safer and smaller root to show my learning. This time for our project we all had to create two short, entertaining videos. Now when I first started this project I was unsure on how to even start. That’s probably why it took me so long to get this project finished in the first place.

After many failed attempts at trying to create some product that would be acceptable I finally came up with an idea that could work well. I have never really done a movie of this quality. In fact I think the last movie I made was the Frankenstuffie videos we made at the beginning of grade 9 and we all know how bad that is looking back on it now. When I think about that video I realize how much my video quality has improved over the two years of being in PLP.

I worked for several endless hours revising, adding more, and editing this video and finally came out with a final product that I am proud of. Although I’m sure if I went back and looked at it there would be another million things I would want to change about it to make it look better. Considering I am never one to make movies I really believe that this is one of the videos I am most proud of this year and the piece of work I am most proud of from this final term. image

For this project we had to create a short video about a piece from the Civil Rights movement that is less known about. I chose to make my movie on the story of the two youngest people to march on Bloody Sunday. We had the chance to meet those two ladies a few weeks ago while we were on the south trip which I was really fortunate to be able to have the chance to do that. They were inspirational, moving, and informative and really changed my outlook on the whole event of Bloody Sunday.

Overall I think that this is probably my best movie I have made this year and I worked the hardest on this out of all my projects over term three. There definitely is room for improvement but I am most proud of this product.

 

 

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Grade 10 is Over?

It doesn’t seem real that grade 10 is already over. Everything just flew by. I feel like just yesterday I was getting ready to go on the Victoria trip we took in October. This year has been my favourite school year by far for many reasons and I’m sad to see it come to an end. On the other hand I am very excited to see what next year will bring me.

Having the privilege to be in the PLP program for the second year in a row really opened up my mind to a new way of thinking. This year we learned a new concept to me called growth mindset. It really helped me to better understand a new way of thinking and to grow as a learner. Also we continued on using the term growth mindset throughout the year whenever people were thinking that they couldn’t do something. This surprisingly did help me to push myself beyond the point of wanting to give up and made it easier to keep going and finishing my work.image

The trips we went on this year helped me to become closer to my fellow classmates as well as further my learning on the topics we were studying in class. For example on the Seattle trip we went on in September I learned a lot more about the idea of being a maker and how I can create ideas that can turn into magnificent projects. Then when we went on the Victoria trip I learned a lot about the Gold Rush from visiting the Royal BC Museum.image

I feel like I have learned a lot this year in many different aspects. Not just by absorbing new facts and information, but learning about different styles to present my products and I can’t forget about the many ways I learned how to show my learning.

Procrastination has definitely been something that happened a lot this year with me. I honestly think I procrastinated almost every project we did this year which only made things more challenging for me. Although as we got closer to the end of the year I really felt more pressure and put my head down and got all my work completed. I know after this year that I need to fix this by creating a schedule and finding a place without distractions to get all my work done. Next year will not be the same because I don’t think I would be able to handle another year of waiting until the last minute.image

Over the year I feel I have come a long way in how comfortable I am with speaking up and presenting. This was made possible by the major support I got from my teachers and from all of my classmates and friends. Doing presentations is no longer a worry for me and I haven’t felt nervous for a presentation since my last SLC. I am quite proud of myself for overcoming almost completely my nervousness for presenting.

Overall this year was a great year. I got closer and more comfortable with my class mates, I developed my movie making skills, my writing skills, and especially my presenting skills. I also learned how to manage my time a bit better then last year, although we all know that still needs a lot of work to fix completely.

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Blue Sky: Round Two

Last year I remember how proud I was of my blue sky project and how hard I had worked on it. This year I didn’t spend as much time focusing on this project as I was also focusing on three other projects at the same time as this one. Although I did work really hard on this project it definitely was a last minute idea being that I only came up with the idea for my project two weeks before the exhibition where as most people had there ideas a month in advance.

I feel like one of the main reasons why this project was not one of my proudest piece of work was because the idea I had for the project was just hard to work with and was too simple with no depth or challenge to it. This could have been fixed if I had come up with ideas for the project earlier instead of later. My idea for the project was to create a Swiss Army knife phone case but using tools that would be useful to teens in the Swiss Army knife instead. This idea I was actually happy with but realized when I started making it that it was way too complicated for the amount of time I had given myself to work on it. This meant that I had to alter the idea slightly to turn it into something a bit more simple and easier to create.

My final product ended up being a wallet phone case but inside of the wallet were allotted slots which held helpful tools that teens would use on their daily basis. It wasn’t at all what I expected it to be but I worked hard in making it and it came out pretty well. Although I do believe that there was a lot of room for improvement. If I had the chance to go back in time and fix any project this year I would choose to improve my blue sky.image

I would make it so that I could’ve made my original idea for the product. Also I would’ve worked harder on making the movie instead of just putting my time lapses and some photos of the process together with some music. It was acceptable but it wasn’t something that I would say I am most proud of. Although the exhibition night is a different story.

On the night of the exhibition our group really worked hard in transforming our space to fit our theme of PNE exhibition hall, or what we called The Hall of Bazar. We all came together to get everything in place and looking great. Also I presented my product well to people who came by to look at it. That part of the Blue Sky project I was proud of, the actual product I made, not as much.

Overall I think that I worked hard on this project but it didn’t turn out the way I had hoped it would. It needed a lot of improvement and I wish I would’ve worked harder on this or started a few weeks earlier then the final product could’ve been what I had hoped for.