Category: Pol Pain

Surviving Year 3 of High School (tPols)

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“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.”

This year is my third year in PLP, and the last year before it becomes the closing grades of high school. Throughout the semesters and four different blocks of PLP classes, I’ve had many opportunities to experiment and evolve as a learner, and using these opportunities has gotten me where I am today. From collaborating with groups and compromising, working through struggles, overcoming obstacles, learning new skills and building on old ones, to coming 1st at the Destination Imagination regional tournament, this school year has changed me as a person and as a learner (for the better).

I will now share with you how I’ve grown as a learner and examples of what makes me ready for the transition to grade 11.

 

Evidence of My Progress as a Learner

To the PLP teachers reading this, you already know about the new grading system in Showbie, but for anyone who’s reading this besides them, here’s a brief overview.

I used to showcase my outstanding marks at the start of each tPol section for each subject, but PLP recently did a rework of the grading system. While it used to be ☁️⛅️☀️🌈, it went under a few changes such as a simple 🤿🧗‍♂️🚂 as well as a ✅, before eventually transitioning to a 👻🔁🧗‍♂️👌⌛️, which is where we’re at now. Therefore, I will just be highlighting assignments that I’m proud of and think really showed effort.

 

Maker:

Seeing as there were only two Maker projects this year, and one of them was more of a program, Maker was quite straightforward this year. Despite having only two projects under its name, Maker was my favourite class this year, specifically the “Peas in a Pod(cast)!” project. Having the ability to do a podcast on whatever I choose was a great experience that let me explain a special interest of mine.

 

Proud of:

Episode 1 (Part 1) “The Name of the Game”

Episode 1 (Part 2) “The Name of the Game”

Episode 2 “Child’s Play”

Episode 3 “An Eventful Evening”

Episode 4 (Bonus Episode) “Bloopers? Bloopers!”

The podcast project as a whole was just so fun and interesting to do. I was able to freely choose a topic to talk about and settled on Pokémon GO, which I’m very passionate about. I feel that I went above and beyond in making extra episodes just for the fun of it, as well as putting lots of effort into the podcast cover art. I personally struggle with drawing and being satisfied with them, but I was very proud of how it turned out. Writing and drawing with Dysgraphia can be difficult, but I’ve developed ways to overcome and work around this disability. A strategy/tool I obtained to help with this is a special pencil grip that makes it more comfortable and easier to use. Along with the art, I also really enjoyed recording and editing the audio clips for the podcast episodes. It gave me a chance to further my technology skills and also introduced me to the world of podcasts. I learned that recording podcasts can be difficult, but asking for help when confused and trying again can lead to better results. With recording, it’s all about patience and perseverance, trial and error. So is life.

 

Destination Imagination. Three years at Seycove, two of them in the DI program. What a journey.

My time spent in DI over the past 3 years has been some of the most unique experiences of my life. I have gained and grown many essential skills in the process of creation and performance. When we were first introduced to it in Grade 8, I knew this was going to be something I would remember for the rest of my life when I look back on high school, and I was right. Destination Imagination helped me work on my collaboration with teammates as well as organization, time-allocation, and brainstorming. I also made sure to take charge during the process when the rest of my group was feeling unmotivated to make sure we stayed on our feet and productive. One could say I was trying to set an example.

Peace be with all the uncredited volunteers from the tournaments.

 

PGP:

Somewhat new to PLP this year or at least to me, PGP (also known as the Personal Growth Plan) is basically PLP-atized Careers. Both projects helped us look more at ourselves both inside the classroom and outside of it. We also delved more into our futures and goal setting. Two different projects, sandwiching the rest of the year. All about who we are and who we want to be, PGP really gets us thinking and is a truly spectacular opportunity to be gifted with.

 

Proud of:

Coming from the first of two PLP projects, the Personal Productivity System (PPS) Backlog Clearance was a great chance for us to both clear our mind, room and devices, AND actually doing schoolwork at the same time. I really enjoyed getting the chance to do this as my device personally was quite cluttered at the time (it still is). This assignment gave me the chance to organize myself so that I can be more productive and find things quicker, while also having the benefit of being nice to look at. I may or may not have hyper-fixated on it for too long, neglecting other parts of my academics for the time I was making progress with it. However, when I was finished it felt amazing to look at all the progress I made and how much of a difference between the two there was.

 

The PLP Spring exhibition! I think this is the first time I’ve mentioned one in a tPol post, but boy is it worth it. Sprouting from the second Careers project which closed off the year exquisitely, the 2024 PLP Spring Exhibition was an amazing experience with a variety of different exhibits to see, centred around the theme of a comic-con of sorts. My final exhibit hinged on the question “What is your superpower?” which I answered as me being musically adept. My table focused on my musical accomplishments and the journey I took to get there, from my multitude choir awards to a 10 minute long video showcasing my journey and experiences with choirs and music alike. I really enjoyed the process of getting to that point (even if I was cutting it close time-wise), and I can say that I am extremely satisfied with my final products (the video + a sheet describing my music goals and aspirations as well as experience).

Stay tuned for the Spring Exhibition blog post!

 

Humanities:

As Humanities is a year-long class, there was many experiences and assignments that I was a part of. With all those different aspects of PLP coming into play, I learned many new skills and techniques for writing, working, using iPads to the full potential, and much more. I had a hard time narrowing down the assignments that I thought best showed who I have become and reflects the success behaviours of PLP learners, but with looking at it through the lens of what I’m proud of and what I put a lot of effort into, I was able to narrow it down to 3. This year, I’ve strived to be the best learner I can be with the opportunities presented to me. My favourite project was without a doubt “Ology of Apology.” Gotta love the nationalism in BC’s curriculum.

 

Proud of:

As part of the “Who Are You Gonna Be?” project, we got to choose a book to read and make notes on. I felt that I went above and beyond with the effort I put in, as I made multiple different sections for multiple different topics and take aways from the book. This assignment helped me further my writing as I usually struggle with that, along with using deeper and reflective thinking while reading. I used to do this back in “Battle of the Books” in elementary school as well, where we were expected to be extremely reflective and I held that standard.

 

This final product of an assignment was a struggle I overcame. If I haven’t already mentioned, I usually struggle with writing and getting my thoughts onto a page (which makes this tPol post all the harder). During the course of the project that this assignment originated from, there was a lot of writing involved, but I persevered, asked for help, and demonstrated growth as a learner. I used some strategies I’d picked up along the way to help me get words onto the page.

 

Choir is a major passion for me, and nothing gets me more interested than hearing and learning others’ musical stories. Carrie Tennant is the conductor of the Vancouver Youth Choir (VYC for short). Just like mentioned in my last post (see above), I struggle with writing, but I find that I’m way more motivated to write and generally interact (be productive) when the topic is centred around an interest of mine. I’ve learned this after years of going through the school system.

 

Stretches and My Strategies to Deal with Them

Driving Question

How can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP Success Behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting Year 3 of High School

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[Definition of a PrePol = tPol but at the start of the next year and covering the exact same things you said in last year’s tPol]

The Project Path

It’s a presentation, it’s a PrePol, it’s a final reflective blog post! (even though it’s only halfway through semester 1)

Welcome to the first PGP post, where I’ll be talking about competencies, learning strategies, what worked for me, what didn’t, and much more! From taking up Maker and personal time, to taking stress away from (or adding stress to) the minds of students, this post is all about the journey through PGP. In this post, we’ll go over the driving question and my answer, evidence of the organization tactics, why the personal documentation system was such a bad idea for me, and proof of my work.

I hope you have a good time reading this! Now, let’s move onto the post.

 

My Learning Adventure

As this project was mostly centred around strategies, different apps, and different ways to organize yourself, there wasn’t much research to be done or facts to be learned. One thing near the start of the unit, however, was a video about the effects of happiness. I won’t go into too much detail here (see “Craft Notes and 421 on Happiness video with Why Comment” in “My Work” section), but it was basically about the benefits of happiness, how to trick your mind into happiness, the negatives of the world, and the norm vs the average.

 

The Skills

So many strategies provided, all for the end goal of creating a less stressed, more organized you. Which worked, and which didn’t? That’s what I’m here to cover.

Some of the strategies that we were given to try did not work for me. It was either too much commitment, too much to remember, or just didn’t connect with me. One example could be the Daily Reflection Journal, in which I felt like it was more of a commitment than an opportunity to reflect on the day and release my thoughts (which is what I assume the intention was). The major thing that didn’t work with me, for the same reason as the Daily Reflection Journal, was the Personal Documentation System. It was way too much writing for me, even though it had been my own idea. I should’ve considered my strengths more and realized that writing is not my strong suit. In hindsight, perhaps doing daily drawings would’ve been better for me. I ended up barely getting through three days/assignments worth of tracking before eventually falling behind and losing track completely. This strategy that I myself came up with did not work for me, and rather hindered me and caused more stress.

On the other side of the coin, we have the things that did work for me. The original pitch for the final PrePol took a while to come up with, but when I finally settled on an idea, I couldn’t wait to see how it would turn out. Unfortunately, as I didn’t have enough time to create and execute the idea, it’s been left as an idea for the future. The creative writing pieces of the Daily Reflection Journal were quite thought-provoking, and depending on the topic and time given, I felt like I was able to clear my mind to some extent. Clearing out my photos was a huge weight off my mind as well, and though it did end up taking quite a bit of time, I found it 100% worth it after the fact. Buckets were also a big bonus for me, because when I took the time to use it, it felt very rewarding to check off big goals, or even smaller ones.

Moving forward, I’ll definitely be keeping the homework trackers, checklists, & to-do lists to keep track of my day-to-day life. I already use tables and recording docs to keep track of things such as Spotify songs or shows I’m watching, so I believe this will be useful for how my brain works.

 

My Work

Benchmark Pitch Check In

“I’ll document my learning on Numbers. I will mark my stress levels every single day of the week. I will also write down the corresponding assignments of each day. I’ll look for patterns in this to see if certain activities from that day were harder than others to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I will also keep track of days when I handed in assignments late or didn’t meet the guidelines first time around (if applicable). I’ll write down how I felt I did on each assignment (i.e. keystones, in-class activities, normal Showbie assignments, etc.). I’ll write down things I think looking back I could’ve done better.”

“On Wednesdays and Fridays, I will document all these things at lunch (since PLP will be done for the day) and on the other weekdays, I will document after school (since I have lunch activities those days).”

“This will work for me because I’m constantly journaling and keeping track of things so I’ll be able to get into the habit quickly. The fact that I’ll be recording every day MAY get a bit overbearing, but I think it’ll work best for me as the day will still be fresh in my mind.”

 

Benchmark Pitch Final PrePol

“To answer the driving question, I will use an ad format video to “pitch and showcase” the different learning strategies and systems to balance and organize my life. Then when it comes to the person interview “what did you think of this product”, I’ll talk about my experiences with the different systems and which I preferred and will carry on. I’ll also talk about different support things of my learning plan as related products. This reflects my personality as well because I love acting and also have a low attention span, just like a flashy ad. I will play this at the end of the Pre-Pol.” – ShamWoW

 

Positive Brain Training Daily Reflection

Week 1

“Week 1 Reflection: This first week was very well-planned for an introduction, and I enjoyed participating in each and every activity. My favourite was the daily journal. It let me express my thoughts.”

 

Week 2

“Week 2 Reflection: This second week was a bit more unique. I found that the daily notes gave me a bit of time to think, and really look back at what I was happy about, unhappy about, and all things in between. Thursday was my favourite note day, same as last week. Seems like I have a passion for journaling. Next week, I’ll focus on keeping my attention glued to class and the activity, as that was the only problem I noticed at all.”

 

Week 3

“Week 3 Reflection: The third week was a bit lacking in motivation. My mind had been drained of proper words in previous weeks, so I had short, terrible answers in some. This next week, I will work to maximum effort to make up for this failure of a week.”

 

PPS: Cleared Backlog

Physical Capture

“Physical Capture: In the future, I will do cleanups of my room and house every two weeks, to make sure I’m not getting lost in the clutter or being too disorganized. This has worked for me in the past as I’ve done monthly “room purges” and cleared out my room significantly. (That’s the reason my room looks so tidy already in the first photo, it’s shortly after a large clean-up)”

 

Digital Capture

“Digital Capture: In the future, I will do monthly cleanses of my iPad and phone, to make sure that I can have the easiest and most organized learning experience. This is the first time I’ve ever done this, but after doing this for the first time, I’m already feeling a large weight off my shoulders. This is great for me.”

 

Mental Capture

“Mental Capture: This was an exercise I needed. At first, it was slow, but it began to flow after a while. In the future, I’ll do this every two weeks (same day as room clean). The thoughts running through my head will be put onto paper, making my mind clearer. Who knows, maybe I’ll do some of the meditation we’re doing for keystone 2.”

 

Backlog Clearance Schedule

 

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Quadrants and Next Steps

 

Final Norms Poster

 

Craft Notes and 421 on Happiness video with Why Comment

 

PPS: Intro and Tools Evidence

Before

 

After

 

Buckets

 

Personal Documentation System

Driving Question and Answer

What strategies can I use to maintain balance in my life and support my own well-being?

Learning with ADHD and Autism, or even just focusing can be difficult for me. Often, I need to put different strategies in place just to help me out with day-to-day things like completing homework or even interacting with other people. This project offered me new things I hadn’t considered before.

Based on what I’ve experienced and tried, constant “Things” management, creative writing journal-wise (on my own schedule), backlog clearance of clutter on iPad and iPhone (when I have the time), marking important events on the calendar, and making guides for myself on different things (such as blogs). After trying out the strategies, these were the ones that best worked for me with who I am.

Overall, strategies that are centred around checklists and to-dos seem to work better for me as a learner. These help me keep a straight mind and organize my thoughts in a way that works for my ADHD and Autism.

Surviving Year 2 of High School (tPols)

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“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.”

This year is my second year in PLP and a lot has happened. As a learner, I’ve had lots of opportunities to grow, and I’m confident that I have improved myself using these opportunities. I’ve brainstormed, compromised on ideas and reached agreement in group projects, worked on my public speaking skills, communicated with my peers, developed my skills in technology, and overall used my creativity as a driving force for my projects.

I will now share with you how I’ve grown as a learner and why I’m ready for the transition to grade 10.

 

Evidence of My Progress as a Learner

Science:

If I had to choose a PLP class to be my favourite, I would have to settle for Science. I felt that during the projects that we did in this class, I was really able to unleash my creativity and create final products that I was really proud of. I feel as though during the duration of Science, I was able to meet, if not go beyond, the goals I had set for myself.

Proud of:

For this assignment, I was really proud of my work on it. I utilized my practice in coding and graphic design to create a “somewhat” comprehensible food web of some of the more basic species. The only thing I’d change if I did this again is making the arrows more orderly and easy to understand. Other than that, this is definitely something I as a learner can be proud of.

 

I really liked the idea of this project because it relied on two abilities that I’m confident in; acting and video editing. I was able to put both of these to good work in this keystone, and I was thrilled with the results afterwards. The accents and impressions, amazing lines, and “smooth” video editing provided for an experience that I was pleased with.

Honourable Mention:

 

Maker

This year in Maker, I was really able to explore my areas of interest more. We spent a lot of time working on photography and videography projects, which is a strength of mine, and I was able to apply these skills well.

Proud of:

This assignment definitely preyed on our patience. In this, I created a Stop Motion video that used both my practice in video editing and filming. I put a lot of time and effort into this project, even asking for an extension just so I could finish it at home because I was so keen on getting the final product just right and as close to the original video as possible (Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”). I wanted to make sure that I as a learner could say “I made that” with confidence.

 

This was a real video editing experience, and I enjoyed every minute of it. From conducting an interview, to filming B-roll of different AR and VR technologies, to spending hours in CapCut, looking over and making sure that my creation was going to be interesting and eye-catching. Creating and presenting this video at the winter 2022 exhibition was an experience I’ll never forget because I was so overjoyed with how the final product turned out and how much people enjoyed watching it.

 

Humanities

We touched on a wide range of topics in humanities, and I found myself intrigued by each one. From sci-fi and Frankenstuffies, to the five themes of geography and slam poetry, it was an exciting and new project at every turn.

Proud of:

Here we have the project called “Rise of the Frankenstuffies”. I was given lots of creative freedom in this project, and I feel like I used it to its fullest potential. I enjoyed getting to make up my own story from scratch that followed my rules in a world of my imagination. Both the most challenging and rewarding part was the video filming and editing, where it was necessary for me to use a green screen on the backdrop while filming and move my stuffies at the same time. All of these working parts definitely made it harder, but I still managed to complete it with general ease and enjoyment. I enjoyed voicing the characters because I got to make up their personalities from scratch as well as I saw fit.

 

This project was certainly an interesting one, and I found myself getting more wrapped up in it by the day. In the past I’ve had my fair share of poems, both in grade 8’s coffeehouse, and in my grade 7 and 6 classes, where we learned more about the vocabulary of poems and how to both make and identify one. The thing about this that specifically stood out to me was how, from the very first day, the poem was meant to be revised by your classmates. You weren’t supposed to get it right first try. You were supposed to look back, ask a peer, and see what you could improve on if anything. Even if you didn’t have anything that you thought you could change, the fresh perspective of someone else definitely aided in making a satisfying final product.

 


This project relied on teamwork and cooperation between your group member(s). Both DIY skills and the creativity of coming up with a (semi) new idea for a board game were necessary in given out to us by the teachers. I had a fun time creating this because I got to design my own player pieces based on information I’d researched about each of the Canadian provinces (see second above photo). I also enjoyed seeing the looks of joy on the grade 8 faces when they got to try our game. I especially enjoyed when they turned to looks of horror when they found out how complicated the game was.

 

This was the most recent humanities project we had, and probably the one I enjoyed the most in the entire year. Now, that might be saying a lot, but I find it to be true in this project. I’ve gotten to use lots of skills, and even further some new ones for me. From acting and theatre performance practice, to sound design and video editing. Even DIY and script writing were included in this collection of talents! This project had it all, and better yet, it was being performed at the spring exhibition. The final product was a massive hit with everyone, and tons of compliments were showered upon my group and me. Collaborating in a group was definitely something that helped the experience because there’s nothing like bouncing ideas off of people you know to create an amazing piece of art. In this case, a performance.

 

Stretches and My Strategies to Deal with Them

Driving Question

Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?

I think my work in grade 9 reflects that, as a learner, I have made quite a few final products that I can be proud of, and in the end, I have the skills and spirit to get things done, despite having difficulties arise.

Last year, I had difficulties focusing my attention in class and staying on task. I often distract both classmates and myself, and generally have a harder time completing work within the given class time. This year, though, I’ve had a very successful time focusing and using my time wisely and efficiently to create and accomplish.

I will take my skills, both new and old, my strengths and weaknesses, my strategies for learning, my love of both photography and music, and my newfound knowledge with me as I move into grade 10. (Double digits! Woot woot!)

Halfway Through Surviving Year 2 of High School (mPols)

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“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.”

We’re almost through the first semester of Grade 9, and I’ve learned and created so many things in PLP in that short time. Now that we’re getting close to that (somewhat) halfway point, it’s time for…

In this blog post, I’ll basically be doing a summative blog post of my projects so far this year, my answers to the driving questions, and which was my favourite project from each by class so far.

Starting off, we have…

Science

Handle with Care

links:

Food Web, Bioaccumulation/Biomagnification GIF, and Mock New Report

This was our first project for the year for Science, and it was a fun one for sure! For the first science project of the semester, we had a wide variety of assignments covering lots of amazing skills. For example, I learned more about coding with the food web assignment. The mock news report got me more familiar with videography techniques and software. I find these 2 skills to be important to me because in the future, two of my dream jobs are game developer and photographer/videographer. These skills have also helped me in more recent projects too! (More on that later)

I really enjoyed this project as the introduction to a new year of science with a new teacher too!

 

Life as we Know It

Links:
Puppet Show and Finish Line Video

The second project was very fun. We learned about sexual reproduction, Meiosis and Mitosis, and asexual reproduction. We had our drawing skills put to the test during the Asexual Reproduction comics, which we made 5 of! (Not a bad thing) Last year, in Scimatics, I did the whole drawing project without an Apple Pencil!

This was a very enjoyable project that let my creativity run wild. I built on quite a few skills, and I’m glad that this is one of the ways to teach us PLP kids.

 

Essential Elements

Links:

Periodic Table Version 1 and Version 2

This unit wasn’t very long because it was paused over winter break and couldn’t be completed in time. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the coding aspect (so much that I made 2 scratch periodic tables).

I’d have to say that even though this was the shortest Science project, it was my favourite one, because I demonstrated that I could go above and beyond if I was passionate about the task. I even helped a classmate make their game because they didn’t understand how.

 

Exciting Electricity

This project was an interesting one, that’s for sure. Whether it was the frustration of not knowing whether the battery, LED light, or even the wire wasn’t working, or the Kurzgesagt videos and Kahoots on the different types of energy. It was unique for sure. Other than that though, I really like the idea of creating our own “Operation” style board game. Mine turned out pretty well. I’m happy with the final product, although it could have been even better with a bit more work. Poor Rick Astley…

 

 

Maker

Vibrant Video

Links:

Clips, Shots and Angles, and Planning and Shooting

The first project to start off maker was a very fun, one which was within my areas of interest. We learned many filming techniques, including rule of thirds, shots and angles, and story boarding. I was able to learn more about photo editing, shading, and lighting just like I had stated in my learning plan as an area of growth. One thing that I would improve on next time is that I want to make the Keystone 1 video in Clips without using other software. I would need to figure out how to use Clips more since I am very confident in my skills with the app at the moment.

I really enjoyed this project because it was an area where I am knowledgeable.

 

Your First Film

Link:

AR Video

I am very proud of the end product of this project, and I feel like I took a lot from this experience. I learned how to conduct an interview properly and had the first experience of an online interview as the interviewer. I also learned what B-roll is, and how to add it efficiently to complement your interview video. I would like to improve my skill of paraphrasing and using my own words in a timely manner to make my presentation seem more like me.

I really enjoyed working on this project because I’m very passionate about technology and so I felt like this was really a way for me to express my skills in video editing, as well as my knowledge in that area of augmented reality. A connection to my personal life is that I enjoy playing. Pokémon go what uses an AR element to enhance the experience all I know this was a really great project to do and I’m very glad that I got to do this project in school.

 

Finding Fun with Videos

Links:

Jump Cut, AR Snow Globe, Green Screen Travel Spot, and Memoji Storytelling

I’m not really sure if this counts as a project, but I still learned quite a few skills during its duration. Just as I said in my learning plan, I discovered photo editing skills, which transferred over into video editing skills. I learned things such as green screening on iMovie and timing videos correctly so that I could make jump cuts. I was able to complete these tasks efficiently and promptly because, as stated in my strengths on my learning plan, learning new technology skills comes quickly to me. I would like to improve my drawing skills as I was not happy with the final product of the Memoji storytelling. I want to add more details. I also want to make them look more realistic and less plain. I would like to, in the future work on my drawing skills more and refine them.

This was a fun collection of assignments that gave me new opportunities to learn, and I’m glad that I got the chance to.

Viral Video Stop Motion

Link:

Final Stopmotion

I really enjoyed this project because it allowed us to choose a topic as our liking and partner up with people of our choice as well. You were able to choose your own viral video to create a reproduction stop motion of it. I chose Rick Astley‘s “Never Gonna Give You Up” because I thought it would be funny and I also have a love for music. I am very happy with how it turned out. I learned patience through struggling with moving around such small pieces without messing it up. What I take away from this experience is that stop motion looks easy, but there’s a lot of effort put in behind it. If I were to do this project again, I would focus on, trying not to show the severed limbs of the characters as these were needed for posing, I would also hope to make the characters look more natural in their poses, and make them look more like they are doing the actions. (The characters were paper.)

I liked this project a lot because it let our creativity run free and let us create a video of our choosing.

 

Humanities

The Power of Geography


Links:

Welcome to Alberta

This project was the introduction to Humanities 9, and it was a “wild ride”, no pun intended. This was my first field study as I was not able to attend last year’s trip to Loon Lake. I feel like being able to experience it in person was more effective than sitting in a desk learning things from a textbook. During this project, I learned about the five themes of geography and what the term geography really means. I learned that there was a lot more to the history of Canada’s railways than I thought; for example, railways were an ingenuity to spread ideas, people and goods across Canada.

If I could go back and redo my E-book, I don’t think I’d change a thing because I’m happy about how my book turned out. I was proud of the photos I took and the written materials I developed for this book.

I’m grateful for the experiences I had and the memories I made on this trip. There’s a time and place for everything, and going on an epic PLP learning advance is, in my mind, one of the best ways to learn effectively.

 

Storm the Barricades


Link:

Revolutions on Trial Video

In “Storm the Barricades” I learned about the things that make up a revolution. Before I began this project, I didn’t have any idea what a revolution was. After going through all the lessons and learning experiences, I can confidently say that revolutions are an important part of creating the societies we live in today. For example, the American Revolution led them to independence from Britain, creating the America we know today. Without the American Revolution, America would most likely still be a part of Britain and perhaps slavery would not yet have been abolished, but that is maybe a big assumption to make.

One area I regret that I would like to improve on next time is the Revolutions on Trial video. I wish that I had incorporated more of my video skills into this project, skills that I acquired earlier on in the year in other projects. I would have incorporated shots, angles and lighting to my advantage to make our video more interesting and appealing to watch, but since this was a team project, these ideas of mine were not used. I can continue to work on my skills and role within a group.

Full Steam Ahead

Link:

Environmental Consequences Final Draft

This project was a great experience, and I really enjoyed the chance to understand the Industrial Revolution, the story behind it, and all of its inventions. One of the most shocking learnings from this revolution was the poor working conditions for people, especially working class children. I feel lucky to be in Canada in this century with better working conditions and unions to improve workplaces.

I learned a lot more about how much this revolution also affected today’s society, both environmentally and mechanically. Environmentally, the consequences were crazy, such ans habitat destruction, deforestation, air pollution, and chemical contamination, which can still be observed today and are contributing to climate change. However, the Industrial Revolution also led to a lot of innovations that have advanced our society in many ways. Some examples of this include the lightbulb, the car, and the steam engine, which are all used in some form today.

 

 

Surviving Year 1 of High School (tPols)

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“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.”

This year, I’ve worked really hard and made a lot of progress in my learning. I’ve collaborated, shared ideas, communicated with groups, and created some amazing things that I am very proud of. I would like to share with you how I have grown as a learner and am ready for the transition to grade 9.

Reflecting on my Learning Plan and my growth as a learner

Scimatics

In Scimatics, I forecasted earlier in the year that I would reach a sun as a level of accomplishment. I feel like I have met the bar that I set for myself. I continued to show that I could be a productive and reliable group member when given the opportunity, and always completed my portion of the work. I felt like I made a strong effort to bring ideas to the group for the different projects.

I can continue to work on submitting my work on time. For Scimatics in particular, I struggled to manage my time with assignments and often underestimated how long it would take me to complete the work. I may not have submitted them on time, but I always completed the assignments and tried to do the recommended revisions.

– Chemistry Coding

With the Chemistry Coding assignment, I learned that we will almost never get things right on the first try, and that it will take many revisions to achieve the product that you set out to make in the first place. For example, for this assignment, I had to keep going back into the game to fix bugs and glitches and to make sure that it met the criteria.

Humanities

For Humanities, I think one of my greatest skills was in understanding new ideas quite quickly. For example, during the Working with Words project, we learned a lot of new types of poems and I was able to grasp the major concepts in a short amount of time and come up with my own examples of these poems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used the App Book Creator to create the poem ebook for Working with Words, and I feel like I learned some valuable new skills from this app. Some of those skills include creating background photos and adjusting colour schemes to complement the poems I created.

Some of my stretches for Humanities are related to writing. These include writing longer blog posts, especially reflections. I think I could organize more of a plan before beginning to write. I also need to work on putting in my best effort rather than putting in a mediocre effort and moving on. A great first step would be to go back and review the assignment criteria to check if I have met all of the requirements. Argh Matey is a good example of an assignment where I could have put in greater effort by using more descriptive words in the Pirate Story and could have organized my thoughts a lot more clearly so that the story flowed more naturally.

 

Maker

In Maker, I developed a ton of skills based on the new programs we were introduced to in Maker 8.  One of the new apps that I now use all the time is the Sketches Pro app, and I first discovered it when I participated in the “Power of the Pencil” Carr unit. One example of how I’ve applied it is the cell biology comic creation in Scimatics that we just completed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also really enjoyed all of the photo walks and the tutoring on new photography techniques that could expand our creativity in taking photos. I look forward to using those techniques in grade 9 and seeing what photography challenges lie ahead. I feel like I am already very comfortable photographing nature, but I’d like to work on photographing people and experimenting with different angles and lighting.

Another example of work that I am proud of from Maker 8 is the Geek Out blog post challenge in which we had the freedom to write about our own interests. During this blog challenge, I used my skill of drawing to create a tracing of a photo from the December choir concert, and now I’ve expanded even further on this skill in creating several comic panels in a much faster period of time. Looking back, I think I found the Geek Out challenge a lot more enjoyable because when I’m limited to a particular subject, I feel frustrated by how it squashes my creativity and I can sometimes suffer from a “brain block”. Going into grade 9, I think I need to continue to look for ways that I can express my creativity even when I’m given a specific topic.

Conclusion

I think my work in grade 8 reflects that, as a learner, I may lack motivation and become easily distracted, but in the end, I have the knowledge and the technical skills to get things done.  I’ve grown a lot in terms of my group work skills. I know that I need to continue to work on time management and will find strategies to motivate myself instead of relying on others to help to motivate me. I will take my new iPad skills, group skills, and knowledge with me as I move into grade 9.

Halfway Through Surviving Year 1 of High School (mPols)

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Welcome to my presentation!

Today, I will be talking about every subject so far this year and highlighting the most fun projects I did in each subject.

Humanities:

The Medium is the Message AKA Creating Ads:

For the first project, we were assigned a local business and were tasked with creating an ad for them.  Me and my group were assigned a local real estate agent (Patricia Houlihan). We went through multiple stages before achieving a final design that both the business and our group liked. At the start, we were just creating our own personal ones that we thought the business would like. Then, we combined ideas with our group members to make a rough draft group ad.  We all got a turn to get a group interview with David Hepburn, an ad creator agency. We ended up choosing Ruby’s comic book theme and Makai’s mountain background. In the end, this project was a pretty fun startup to a first year of high school.

The Outsiders:

For this project, we read a classic novel both at school and at home, and partook in book discussions every 2-3 chapters. Near the end of the project, we got assigned a scene from the book and started practicing making that scene into a tableau (a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from
history) to perform at the winter exhibition. We were then supposed to transpose the scene into what it might look like in 2021. Me and my group got the Darry slapping Ponyboy scene. We had a lot of fun practicing the tableau. This was a fun project and I gotta say that this was the highlight project of Humanities so far.

Working with Words AKA Poems

For the latest project, we were charged with creating multiple different types of poems over the course of a few weeks and then told to make it into and eBook. It was supposed to be centred around our worldview personally. Not only were there poems in the eBook, but also complementary text (e.g. photos, videos, or drawings that complement the poem) and meaning statements (audio recordings telling the reader, in relation to the driving question [How might I construct text that shows who I am right now?], the meaning behind the poem). At the end of the project, as a presentation of our learning, relatives and friends were invited to watch a live stream of the “Coffee House Performance”, where we would show off the poems that we created in class that same day to show them how neat poems can be. Overall, Humanities has been a really fun subject and I can’t wait to do it again next semester.

 

Scimatics:

Fractions of your Time:

This was the probably the easiest Scimatics project so far. We were told to track our screen time and make note of the different devices and subjects on that respective device. We then made a graph/diagram showing the different types. Even though I could easily understand all the data, others had a hard time figuring it out, probably due to them not being the ones recording the info. Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable starter project to begin the school year with, with easy to follow instructions that most new grade 8s could probably understand.

Tectonic Chances:

We started off by learning more about tectonic plates, mid-ocean ridges, and other things to do with plate tectonics. We then started brainstorming how we could incorporate these vocabulary words into the board game or card game that we’d be creating for it. Me and my partner ended up making a tectonic plate quiz game. We were supposed to include chance in it but I ended up forgetting.

Laser Laws:

Laser Laws has to be the best project in Scimatics so far. It was really cool to experiment with the different angles of lasers and how it could make a cool shape with the right measurements. My group members and I made our laser display space themed, with a funny spaceman reaching out, and our battery pack hidden inside a NASA spaceship. I thought that was pretty clever. One problem that appeared near the end was the fact that our battery pack was dying! This was a BIG problem because we couldn’t remove the batteries from the spaceship without knocking the laser and messing up the trajectory. Luckily, a classmate was able to give us a second battery pack, which I quickly thought to us to just move the wires and connect it to that instead of moving the first battery pack. It didn’t look as good but at least it worked! After that, with the help of no lights and spray smoke, we had one of th most powerful lasers in the room! This was definitely my favourite project so far in Scimatics.

Maker:

Becoming a PLP Learner:

Introducing us at the start of the year to PLP, we have this project. The end goal of this project was to show what you learned so far and prove that you were worthy of the title PLP learner. We learned a lot of cool techniques to making things and used a lot of fun apps. We also learned a lot more about ourself and the world through this first project. At the end of the day, everything went great and we learned a lot.

Constructing Creative Communication:

This project had 2 parts. We were split up into 2 groups: Herzog and Carr. Two famous people with two different talents. Carr people would practice drawing and learn new tips and tricks. The Herzog people practiced their photography skills and worked on new angles and approaches to photo taking. Half way through, once you were finished with that topic, you would switch to the other group. Overall, we learned a lot of things about both subjects and learned some really neat techniques that will definitely come in handy in the future. Personally, I liked Herzog the best, because I want to be a professional photographer, even though i already knew most of the tactics they were teaching us. This was my favourite subject for Maker.

Geek Out Blog Challenge:

This project was a fun and easygoing one. We got to choose a topic that we are really interested in, write blogs about it, and then let people read it online. I chose to write my blog on music; for example, the songs I like to listen to or play on instruments, my musical history, and much more. This was a pretty open project where you could just ramble on about your interests without hesitation.

Destination Imagination:

This is an ongoing program that I can’t spoil much about. All I can tell you is that we are each assigned a challenge and compete by creating inventions, making stories, and then doing an unknown instant challenge. At the end, I’ll definitely do a blog post detailing everything, but until then, adios!

Thanks for Reading!