~ Individual work ~

Some people can’t stand it, some people thrive in it, personally it is not my favourite, but it’s a necessary component to working well in a community so it doesn’t really matter how you view it

When I was in elementary school I was very bad at group work, I didn’t enjoy it and I struggled to communicate my thoughts to the people around me. I was also constantly told that I was bossy and demanding.

When I started to get a little older and transitioned into high school I started pushing away the hatred I had for group work. I started becoming a good team member who worked hard, supported my group members, and was trustworthy.

I’ve now realized that although I can work in groups, I work even better by myself. It doesn’t matter if you enjoy group work or not, what matters is how you work best. I will continue to work in groups because that’s how our society works, everyone’s a gear in the machine. But I will always take the opportunity to work alone if I can.

I work my best individually, and I want to now embrace that part of me. I can confidently say that I work well in groups, but I can also confidently say I work better individually.

This exhibition project really shines light on my skills of working individually. I have never really liked exhibitions but that wasn’t because of the exhibition itself it was because of the people I had to work with. Now working on an exhibition myself I found I really enjoy them. I like sharing my work and communicating my thoughts on it. Working individually I knew I could trust myself to get my work done, unlike many group members who have let me down in the past.

 

 

I started this project with big ideas, we were asked what was our superpower and I immediately knew what I wanted to do.

Coming up with creative ideas and expressing them in unique ways

My favourite thing about PLP is its unique feature of accepting work that is formatted in different and abnormal ways. In mainstream classes most work is asked to be put into an essay or a worksheet, but PLP is different. I have shown my work through documentaries, podcasts, ebooks, posters, infographics, plays, poems, and even stop-motion videos.

 

 

Because of this very broad range of how you can show your learning PLP students are given a lot of creative freedom. This has helped me stay excited and proud of the work I am creating because each project is different and a new challenge.

Also because of PLP I started to realize not only do I enjoy turning my thoughts and ideas into an interesting project, but I also am quite good at it. I have edited hundreds of videos and spent hours and hours recording my voice for a project. I wouldn’t have spent so much time on these projects if I wasn’t passionate about them. So I decided I had to find a way to share my ideas in a unique way for this exhibition.

I didn’t want to make a video because I’ve showcased many of those already…

I didn’t want to make a poster because that was too generic…

I didn’t want to make an infographic because that would be boring…

So I decided to make an audiobook with my own stories and narration, with sound effects and music!

I knew this would take a long time but I was very excited about it so I started working on it right away. I decided to make a poster for behind me at school, and then when I was at home I started compiling my stories and slowly turning them into an immersive audiobook. I ended up creating three out of the four stories the very last night before the exhibition, but day of I felt more prepared than I have for any other exhibition. “Why?” you ask do I feel so ready, because I’m the only one presenting this exhibition and I know if there’s one person I can count on, it’s me.

Then finally the long-awaited exhibition started! I was extremely happy about how my booth looked, and I knew exactly what I was going to pitch to the parents. Throughout the night I had many compliments and questions and I think it went really well. The only thing I would change for next time is to know how not only to pitch myself but how to pitch my stories.

 

 

Before I end this blog I’ve like to talk about one more thing, Reflection! I know, shocking, reflecting in a blog post who would do that?

Throughout the exhibition I encouraged people to write down what their favourite story was between the four I put together, Seagull, Heartbeat, Fog, or Skytrain.

Turns out Skytrain is the winner by far, which I am surprised about. This also makes me happy because Skytrain is a short part I took out of a full book I wrote a few years ago. I am quite proud of the story I wrote up and very glad other people also appreciated it. I thought Heartbeat would win because it’s more poetic with a mix of action and romance which I thought people would really like but I noticed a few people couldn’t finish it because it scared them too much, which isn’t something I thought about beforehand. I also realized I didn’t plan for what headphones my audience would be using. I created these audiobooks using my airports but when people listened to them using the schools cheaper headphones it was much quieter. Next time I want to finish my videos earlier so I can test out the equipment and make any changes necessary.

 

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped and listened to my stories! And for those who haven’t they are posted on my youtube channel Brooker, go check them out! Thanks for reading 🙂