Cashel's Blog

Yep, it’s that time again. My first Blogpost of this school year. What will this year have in store for us? Another puppet show? Or maybe my first ever successful Explain Everything? We’ll have to wait and see.

Our first unit has been centred around the driving question How are style and form used to impact meaning? Now this unit started with us writing essays almost weekly, so I figured that it was mainly focused on getting us ready for the provincial exam. We learned how to improve our synthesis, narrative, and expository essays, something I felt was quite helpful since I know that writing can always be improved.

To help us, we read essays by famous authors such as Sir Francis Bacon, and some not so famous authors. But whether famous or not, all these essays helped us understand how style is used to create a meaningful essay.

Now I though that would be it for this unit. A lot of essays would replace a project, but I was very wrong. Towards the end of the unit, we started learning about satires and parodies, what they are, and how they are successful.

To help us understand, we watched some examples such as this MaddTv Satire:

Eventually, we were given our task: to create our own satires. Now this might sounds easy, but it is actually quite the opposite. There are many things that make a satire what it is, and there are many techniques to make it successful. These are some of the ones we learned about:

Exaggeration: To enlarge, increase, or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen.

Incongruity: To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to its surroundings.

Reversal: To present the opposite of the normal order (e.g., the order of events, hierarchical order).

Parody: To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing.

I knew that I would have to find something I was passionate about in order to create a successful satire. After much deliberation, I realized that I am extremely perplexed about the state of world politics, and I knew that this would be a great topic to satire.

Now that I had my general topic, I had to narrow it down to what I would satire. Eventually, my friends Tom, Nash, and I decided to make 3 episodes of a TV series. Since these projects had to be individual, we knew that we would have to differentiate our projects, so we decided to each focus on a different world leader. Tom would be Putin, Nash would be Trump, and I would be Kim Jong Un.

Next we had to decide what about these leaders we would satire. After reading some news articles it didn’t take long to realize what we could satire about these leaders; they are acting like children

We decided to make fun of the leaders by portraying them as children. They would be on a playground doing things that the actual leaders had done in real life. Although each of our videos share this theme, we each created our own ideas, scripts, and edited our own videos.

Now that I knew that I would be making a video of Kim Jong Un acting like a child, I had to think of the most memorable, childish things that he has done. It didn’t take me long to come up with the best ones:

1) His ridiculous arguments and name calling with Donald Trump

2) His parades to display his power to the world

3) His missile tests near Japan which intend to serve as a warning to the world

4) His bizarre relationship with Dennis Rodman

5) And finally, the fact that he claims that he doesn’t defecate

I decided to make the tweets or news headlines appear on the screen while we acted them out to emphasise that they are things that Un has actually said or done.

There were some difficulties with this project. It was very hard to appear and act like children, while doing things that adults had done. Also, we had initially planned to film our projects in a sandbox, however, we couldn’t find one to use.

One thing to keep in mind while watching this is that it is a series of skits. There is no continuous plot.

Well here it is. My satire on Kim Jong Un. Enjoy Playground Politics: Kim Jong Un:

To reflect, I think that there were definitely things that I did well. I think we did a good job of getting our message across, that the world leaders are acting like ridiculous children. I also think that I used many good techniques to make my satire effective. There was definitely exaggeration, parody, and incongruity. I also think that we used humour well to get our point across.

Going back to that driving question How are style and form used to impact meaning? After all these essays and satires, I am much more aware of how relevant that question is. Style and form affect what message and meaning people take from an essay, video, satire, parody, or any other form of communication. Style and form make the viewer stay engaged and can impact not just the viewer but also society to make positive changes.

Well I guess that pretty much wraps it up, my first blogpost of the year. To be honest it was actually pretty fun, making a satire and learning how to make it effective. I will definitely use this knowledge in future projects and endeavours.

Be sure to check out the other parts of the Playground Politics series on Nash and Tom’s blogs.

One of our most recent units for PLP was called Fear Factor. This unit was focused mainly on the Cold War, and the fear surrounding it. However, it also tied in the rise of organized crime in America, and the development of Las Vegas.

We did so much in the span of this unit. From reading the novel Fallout, to watching countless documentaries, we were really given a chance to fully understand the topics. Part way through the unit, we had to create a Blogpost relating past and current nuclear fear. And all this learning was in preparation for one thing, a field study! This time around we would be headed to Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Now, no field study goes without a project, so of course we would have our work cjut out for us on this trip. Sometimes we write essays, and sometimes we make videos, so of course our big project was to create a video essay. I partnered up with Tom for this one and we set out on an epic journey to create the World’s best video Essay.

We started brainstorming what our video would be about long before we stepped foot on American soil. We spent many hours figuring out and narrowing down our topic. We had charts like these to help us along the way:

Eventually our topic was narrowed down to a simple question: Was America’s nuclear Deterrence worth the cost?

Finally, the time rolled around for us to depart on our journey. First stop: Tucson. Now I’ve been to hot places before like California and Hawaii, but Tucson might just be the hottest place I’ve ever been. I wasn’t prepared for the dry desert sun scorching my skin every moment of the day.

To distract me from this heat, however, was our activities. Our time in Tucson was filled with information filled experiences. We visited the Biosphere, the Pima Air and Space Museum, the Sonora Desert Museum, a county fair (Ok, maybe that one wasn’t so informational), a missile silo, and many other places. Throughout this time, Tom and I collected interviews, photos, and information in general that would be useful in our video. We knew that it would be the on scene footage that could make or break our project.

After many action packed days, it was once again time to depart, this time for Las Vegas! I had never been to Las Vegas before, and there is honestly nothing like it. If I had to compare it to one thing, I would say that the Las Vegas Strip is basically a Disneyland for adults. It is a city of bright lights, good food, and crazy parties. Of course we wouldn’t get to experience the crazy parties. We definitely got the first two though, staying at the iconic Flamingo Hotel, and eating at the best buffets.

The work part of Vegas was quite cool as well. Some of our activities were going to many museums (including a wax museum if that counts), touring all the famous casinos, going to the Hoover Dam, and more. Tom and I got more than enough footage for our project.

Back in Vancouver was when the real work began. We had to start by writing an essay to answer our question. This essay would then be re written into the script for our movie. Three drafts and a couple thousand words later, our essay was finished:

Finally, it was time to start putting our video together. This was difficult but Tom and I were up for the challenge. We submitted our first draft, got critique, submitted our second draft, bit critique, and finally we submitted our final draft.
So, here it is, our Southwest Trip Video Essay:

Well, I think our video is pretty good, especially considering it was made by two students with limited iMovie skills.

In all, I had a blast on our field study this year. It was the perfect combination of work and fun. While it has it’s ups and downs, this trip was definitely one to remember.

This has been a great year for me as I have learned so many things about myself. But other than just passing all of my courses, why am I really ready for grade 12?

First off, I have learned new skills
This year has been challenging for me since I have been out of my element for a lot of it. Learning on an IPad has been extremely difficult for me, but it has taught me new skills. For example, I have learned how to successfully create animated videos and edit them in iMovie. A good example of this is a project that we recently completed, our concept blogposts. I created an animated video to go along with mine:

But not only have I learned new technological skills, I have also learned skills for how to learn better. I have learned how to create a deep inquiry question, that will take me so much further into the learning. An example of an inquiry question I have created is found in my Helmut Lemke Blogpost. Helmut Lemke was an inspiring World War Two veteran who came to speak to our class. We were tasked with creating an inquiry question based on something that Helmut had talked about during his presentation. I ended up with the question: In a time of war, who is a soldier’s greatest enemy?

To help answer this question I did research and also analyzed Helmut’s speech in a Podcast with some of my classmates. These are examples of skills that I have learned, skills that have helped make me more ready for grade 12.

Secondly, I have refined my work ethic.
Last year, I worked hard in school, but I didn’t have an end goal in mind. I was content to put in enough work to get an A, but that was it. But this year, I’ve learned why it’s important to put in the work beyond just for the mark. I realized that learning is something that can benefit us greatly in the long run. But not only that, I learned valuable new ways to learn. Reading about a topic is one thing, but actually experiencing it is another. And that is what I get to do on our field studies. Things like visiting a missile silo, speaking to war veterans, and visiting a nuclear reactor are just some of the things that have helped me go deeper into the learning. Here are some photos of places we have been this year:

These experiences are what have really helped show me that learning is an experience and a process, not just a task. A great example of this is our Fear Factor video. We used information that we had gathered from our field study in Los Vegas and Arizona, and applied it to our project. We never would have been able to gather the knowledge that we did without the field study. Here is part of our video:

It is this change in my work ethic and my attitude towards learning that will help me greatly in Grade 12.

Thirdly, I have learned the skill of revision. This might seem like a small thing, but it is actually a vital part in the learning process that we do in the PLP program. Coming from my background in standard classes, I was surprised at the amount of feedback we received. And at first, I was a little discouraged. In fact, my first project ever, the Manhattan project, was met with a 5 minute audio clip of Mr Hughes giving feedback:

This helped me realize how valuable the feedback was. In a standard class, a teacher usually wouldn’t care enough to give that much critique. And understanding that was such a vital part of accepting the learning process in a project based learning program. So while I was discouraged at first, I now see critique as a way for me to make my learning that much better, and without it my work definitely wouldn’t be the same as it is. This understanding will also help me immensely in the years to come.

Finally, I have learned how to strive towards a goal as part of a team. Sure, I have done group projects in the past, but never the way that I have this year. I could talk about the Manhattan project, or even the puppet show, but if course I’m going to talk about the Macbeth project. Now although it could be argued that the Macbeth project was a bit of a failure, as the finished project was not at all how we envisioned, I like to think of it as a success of sorts. Creating a project as a team is no small task and I thought we handled it well but also learned some lessons. We did well at the beginning, splitting up into different departments and working on our different jobs. But it was during the work outside of class time, when full commitment was needed, that the problems became apparent. I learned that in a team environment, there will always be people who don’t feel the need to pull their weight, and there will be the people picking up the slack from those people.

This was a valuable lesson for us all to learn because at the beginning, there was an expectation that everyone would pull their weight, which didn’t happen. I also learned that every member of a team will have a different opinion and not everyone will get what they want. It is these valuable team lessons that we have learned that I think will help me in the future.

So to summarize, why am I ready for grade 12? Because of the skills I’ve learned the change in my work ethic, and my opinions on revision and teamwork. These skills have all helped me grow as a learner, and I will continue to keep pushing my self to grow. So with that in mind, I have set myself a goal for next year:

Plan my time better. After all I am the winner of the late night worker, and I definitely deserve this award. Now that’s not because I leave all my work to the last minute, it’s because I work on things for too long.

I want to end with the “unsung hero” of projects so to speak. This was not a very major project, but it’s one of the things I feel the most proud of. The soldier blogpost. This project actually pushed my comfort level because it pushed a different side of me to the surface. I am a very straightforward writer, but for this assignment I really had to look to the creative writing aspect. I was happy about this though and I feel like I created a successful project, writing the letter well in English and in French:

Well, by the time you read all this I’m probably already in grade 12, so I guess that’s it for now and I’ll see you next year.

As I mentioned in my last post, we have spent the last few months studying Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. We focused mainly on the concepts and symbolism in the novel, and expanded on this knowledge by writing paragraphs once a week. However, there were a few other things intertwined with this unit. For one, we also briefly studied the Canadian government, and how it works. This worked well with Lord of the Flies since it is a very political novel. We were also told from early on that this unit would culminate in a debate, which would happen during the spring exhibition. I was quite happy about this since I feel comfortable debating and public speaking.

Our first assignment of the unit was obviously inspired by Lord of the Flies. The teachers left the room and told us we had about 20 minutes to form teams. These teams would be our groups for the rest of the unit. I ended up on a team with Tom, Chris, Alanah, and Teva, called team Tactical. Once the teachers returned, they told us that we would be part of a competition against the other teams. Different tasks throughout the unit would gain or lose us points:

Points could also be gained by things like winning the practice debates that we had in class. At first, teams worked hard to gain points and everyone was focused on winning the competition. But as time went on, the teams began to lose the desire to win the competition and follow the rules. As the unit progressed, I started to make a connection between the points system and Lord of the Flies. In Lord of the Flies, the boys set out rules quickly after crashing on an island. These rules included things like only letting the person who holds “the conch” speak, and never letting the signal fire out. At first, the boys are quite adamant about following these rules. But like our class, as time wore on, they lost focus on the rules and guidelines. So the exact same thing that happened in Lord of the Flies seemed to happen to our class as well.

We did a lot to prepare for the debates that would happen at the exhibition. Every class we would add ideas to posters that explored different concepts. These concepts were:

Power and Authority
Humanity and Inhumanity
Violence and Destruction
Human nature
Civilization and Savagery
Innocence and Evil
Individualism and Community

Insert photo of posters

We also wrote a paragraph about these concepts once a week. We also had our new teacher, Ms Maxwell, helping us with our debating skills.

Eventually, we were put into our teams for the debate. I was on a team with Jackson and Brianna, which was good because I thought the three of us worked well together. We did well in all the practice debates so I felt confident heading into the exhibition. We had prepared well with charts like this:

On the night of the debate setup was quick so my team had a lot of time to practice. Finally, it was time for the tournament to begin. The winners would be decided by a 3 way vote; two votes from judges and one vote from the audience. My team, ended up having to go first, so I was a little nervous. However, I thought my team did exceptionally well. We made good points and countered the other team’s points effectively. Once the round ended, the audience voted almost unanimously for us as the winners. However, both judges voted against us, so we ended up moving into the losers’ bracket. Afterwards, we found out that the judges had accidentally given some of our points to the other team, however I wasn’t too upset because I thought the other team had done a great job. I also knew that the judges had a very hard job and that they probably didn’t know what to expect until the night of the debates, so I thought they did a great job.

Our second round in the losers’ bracket lasted a minute and was decided by audience vote. We won almost unanimously, so we felt good about that. Eventually, the debate was won by Chris, Michael, and Maria which I thought was a good decision since they had done a great job.

If I had to do anything differently, I would have prepared a little differently. I would have focused less on Lord of the Flies, and more on how the concepts could be applied in the World today. I think that would have helped us come up with more unique points. But other than that, I thought my team did an exceptional job.

To conclude, I think that this debate was a great way to wrap up the year, since it drew upon all our skills; critical thinking, public speaking, thinking on the spot, etc. I had a lot of fun debating and would be happy to do another debate in the future.

Our most recent unit in PLP has been based around the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. In this unit, we explored concepts that appeared in the novel and could connect to history and everyday life in general. Every week, we had to write a paragraph about one of these concepts:

Power and Authority
Humanity and Inhumanity
Violence and Destruction
Human nature
Civilization and Savagery
Innocence and Evil
Individualism and Community

Also every week, we would receive feedback on these paragraphs, making our next paragraph more successful. Our task now is to expand on one of our concepts, so here goes:

I decided to look into the concept of power and authority, and I wanted to really focus on what makes a good leader. Eventually, I settled on an age old question; As a leader, is it better to be feared or loved?

Niccolo Machiavelli said “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
And although it is not usually wise to disagree with one of history’s greatest thinkers, Machiavelli’s statement couldn’t be more inaccurate. History has shown us that it is leaders who are loved that are capable of making the most difference. We can examine history as well as famous texts, which will prove that as a leader it is better to be loved than feared.

Macbeth:

A great counter to Machiavelli’s point lies in the play Macbeth, by Shakespeare. Macbeth is the epitome of a feared leader, with his ruthless wife at his side. Once Macbeth gets a taste of power, he develops an insatiable craving for more, eliminating his competition until he is the King of Scotland. Showing this kind of dominance creates fear and obedience in many, but Lord Macduff feels a different kind of fear, a fear that Macbeth will do whatever it takes to gain more and more power. Macbeth, however, realizes this and tries to scare off Macduff by killing his family:

“He has kill’d me, mother:
Run away, I pray you!” (Macduff’s son, Act 4 Scene 2)
Macbeth is clearly using fear as a tool to keep people in line. This tactic of being feared however, ultimately leads to Macbeth’s downfall. Macduff eventually kills Macbeth, since he knows that Macbeth has to be stopped. In fact, Macduff perfectly describes Macbeth as a tyrant:
“Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o’ th’ time.
We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a pole, and underwrit,
‘Here may you see the tyrant.’ “(Act 5 Scene 8)

Ultimately, Macbeth’s desire to be a feared leader leads to his downfall, and he is a great example that leaders are better off loved than feared.

History:

More great examples that it is better to be loved than feared lie in history. Arguably the greatest leader of all time, Julius Caesar, was adored by his people. Instead of trying to create obedient subjects who catered to his every will, Caesar gave the people what they wanted. He offered citizenship to people outside Rome, conquered barbaric tribes, and gave land to retired soldiers.

This kept the people happy and kept Caesar safe. Since Caesar didn’t have to worry about an uprising, he was able to focus on creating one of the World’s greatest empires. It seems that a feared leader has a target on their back, whilst a loved leader is left in peace to rule peacefully. Caesar is not the only loved leader who created a thriving empire. Alexander the Great, another one of history’s successful leaders was also loved by his people.

When Alexander conquered a place, he would let the people continue to live normally, instead of oppressing them. This created an empire where Alexander was able to rule prosperously for years. Not only will loved leaders rule longer, they will benefit society. It is usually during the reign of a loved leader that cultural growth and beneficial political reform is seen. This is when our World truly advances and the human potential is maximized. For example, during the Middle Ages, one of the most brutal and fearful times in history, leaders were usually feared or they would be overthrown. This caused little growth in the arts and very little political reform. In contrast, the Renaissance was filled with loved leaders such as Lorenzo'”the Magnificent” Medici. These loved leaders are what allowed for the rich cultural growth that occurred during the Renaissance. Since the citizens did not have to spend their time worrying about their leader, they could fill their days with creating art, trading goods, and other activities that benefited society for the better. The contrast between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance clearly shows that it is only during the reign of a loved leader when society can advance.

Lord of the Flies:

In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, it is clearly shown that a loved leader is more effective than a feared one. When the boys crash on an island, it does not take long for them to realize the need to elect a leader. In contention is Ralph, who comes across as calm and collected, and Jack who leads his choir with an “iron fist”: “When [Jack’s] party was about ten yards from the platform he shouted an order and they halted, gasping, sweating, swaying in the fierce light.” (Chapter 1). Not surprisingly, the boys elect Ralph as the leader. This shows that even if humans know nothing about two people, they will always gravitate away from the one who uses fear to gain obedience. This seems to contrast directly with Machiavelli’s opinion; he thought that leaders should be cruel and merciless. Obviously the boys in Lord of the Flies disagreed. In fact, through the course of the story, Ralph becomes less and less loved by the children. As their affection for Ralph is lost, the children gravitate towards Jack. Jack promises the thrill of the hunt, something that wins him support from the boys. This switch in the boys’ attitude shows again that people will gravitate towards a leader that they love, as they switch from Ralph to Jack.

To conclude, famous texts such as Macbeth and Lord of the Flies clearly illustrate that leaders are better off being loved than feared. They provide key examples which directly counter Machiavelli’s statement. History has also shown that it is the loved leaders, the likes of Caesar and Alexander the Great, who are the most successful.

So, while Machiavelli was a literary genius and had groundbreaking ideas for the time, it appears he was wrong about one thing; as a leader, it is much more beneficial, both for the leader and the people, to be loved than feared.

Just to sum it all up, here is a short animation that gives a quick summary of my ideas:

Well there you have it, my ideas on the concept of power and authority. I really enjoyed creating this post because at first, I wasn’t sure what stance to take on Machiavelli’s statement. This made the research and developing my thesis extremely interesting.

What does Canada mean to me? We were given an opportunity to win some great prizes, just by making a video that answers this question. The video had to be 30 seconds long, and tell a story about what Canada means to you. I’m not going to lie, when this question was asked, this was the first thing that came to mind:

Warning: Slightly offensive content

Other than that, the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Canada is the usual stereotypes. Really polite people who watch hockey, are lumberjacks, and have pet moose. But beyond the stereotypes there’s a lot of great things about Canada. First off, it truly is a land of opportunities. No matter how old you are, Canada is filled with great sports teams, occupations, clubs, and places to learn. People are supportive and will help you achieve whatever you desire.

After thinking about this, I started to realize how lucky we are to live in Canada. Every day we hear about brutal things going on in other parts of the world, so I really cherish the fact that Canada is a safe country. We are lucky to have a democracy so that our voices are heard. Also Canada isn’t just a safe place for Canadians, we are ranked 15th in the world in refugee population.

A stereotype of Canadians is that we are very polite and kind. And while some people might dismiss this as just a stereotype, it is based on a large truth. I remember being surprised the first time I was in a country other than Canada, because every person I passed didn’t ask me how I was doing. I think that it’s things like this that we take for granted, things that we don’t notice until we are not in Canada.

If you’re still not ready to pack your bags and move to Canada, here is a list of what makes it such a great country (from a statistical point of view):

– On average, Canadians live longer than Americans
– We have the 3rd highest quality of life IN THE WORLD
– Canadian students rank in the top 10% in the world in math and science
– We have a low suicide rate
– Almost 50% of Canadians have a post secondary degree (which is a huge number)
– On average, a very high percentage of our citizens are fit

The list goes on and on but those are just some of the highlights.

So, back to the project. I teamed up with Tom for this project and we both had some good ideas. At first, we thought about doing a lot of clips of Canada’s wilderness (which is one of the things that makes Canada so great). But after watching some of the other submissions, we realized that almost everyone else had done something like that, so we wanted to do something different. Since we both reflected on how much we enjoyed growing up in Canada, we wanted to put in some footage of us doing our favourite childhood activities.

Our movie starts with a Canadian flag waving which sets the tone.

After that, there is some vides of Tom and I doing our favourite activities, for me surfing and playing basketball. These were activities that I was lucky enough to be able to participate in as I grew up, and activities that I still enjoy to this day. These are things that I might not be able to do if I didn’t live in Canada (especially surfing in Tofino, which I consider one of the hidden gems of Canada).

Throughout our movie, there is a song being sung by Tom and his classmates from elementary school. This song emphasizes the great communities that can be found throughout Canada.

Well that’s a lot of talking for a 30 second video, so here it is:

In reflection, I guess this project just reminded me how lucky I am to live in Canada and have all the opportunities that I do. I think that sometimes we take it for granted how lucky we are, so it is important to reflect on what a great county we live in.

So for this unit, we were focusing on the play Macbeth, by some guy named Shakespeare. However, we were also learning about World War II. Our assignment: create a recreation of Macbeth set in WWII. This movie should be around 20 Minutes long and would be made by the entire class. Our question to focus on throughout the unit was this: What is the nature of evil?

After reading through Macbeth, and learning about WWII, we were ready to start our project. With the help of Ms Willemse and Mr Hughes, we got into departments of what our jobs would be. We needed a producer, a script department, actors, make up, props, and a lot more. I wanted to be a script writer, and I was also in charge of continuity. Joining me in the script department was Gabi, Alanah, Luciano, and Kirby.

I found it quite difficult to write a script, especially for such a long movie. Maybe the hardest part was making the script sound natural, so after we had finished the actors read over the script and gave us feedback. After we finished the script, received a lot of complaints about it from other classmates. While this offended some people, I knew that it was just constructive criticism and I think it helped us improve the script. After the script was finally finished it was time to start filming.

Our first day of filming it was very snowy outside, which had its pros and cons. While the snow looked good cinematically, it was really cold while we were filming.

The first few days were also not especially productive. We were too concerned about every scene being perfect, which led to us not getting a lot done.

By the time we were a week into filming, we were way behind schedule. The project was shaping up to take way too much time. We also had a habit of showing up to filming unprepared, so we often had to make decisions at the filming. This cut into our filming time and slowed us down even more. It also didn’t help that apparently no one in the props department knew how to make a tent.

At that point our teachers helped us get back on track by helping us make storyboards. This would make our filming more efficient and we like have everything prepared beforehand. While these helped, we were still too picky about everything being perfect. We were now past the due date with a lot more work still to do.

With the teachers’ help, we decided that we needed to cut some scenes out of the movie and keep only the necessary ones. This would enable us to finish and have something to hand in. But we were now well past the due date, and the amount of work the project required was passing the learning that we had done. It was then that we decided to abort and stop working on the project. A few things made us come to this decision. There was no end in sight to this project, because in order for us to make it how we wanted it, it would require a lot more work.

Also, we had learned all that we were going to, so what was the purpose of putting so much more time into it. However, we had worked so hard on the project that we were unsatisfied with not having a final product, so we decided to put together the scenes that we had filmed.

After that we gave everything to Zak, our editor, to stitch everything together. Realizing that parts of our film were unclear, we added some narration to help things make sense. We would make Michael, who played a main role in the film, pretend to write in a diary and narrate some scenes

The final product was not what we pictured when we started, that’s for sure. But it turned out ok considering the project had basically been aborted.

Well, here’s the final product, our WWII version of Macbeth:

Insert movie here

Throughout this project, I learned a lot, especially about large group projects. In fact, a few weeks ago, we had to write a paragraph about what we learned/ our thoughts on the project. Here’s an excerpt from mine:

So basically, aside from a ton of stuff about Macbeth and WWII, I learned that projects in large groups don’t work well unless everyone fully commits. Without full commitment, the project will quickly become behind schedule as some members will have to step in and do the jobs of others. Also I learned that when making a movie, always come to filming prepared. If decisions have to be made at filming, it will slow the entire process down.

To summarize the unit, we arrive at the same question: What is the nature of evil?
I guess that in WWII, the prejudice and discrimination of the ideals of Hitler and the Nazis embodies the nature of evil. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the evil one, as she ultimately influences Macbeth to become evil as well.

But what really is the nature of evil? I would have to agree with what we talked about in our Helmut Podcast. Evil comes down to a few choices made at some point in our life. These choices can be deliberate or indeliberate, but they ultimately set us on a path for good or evil. For example, when Macbeth decides to kill Duncan, the king, it sets him down a path of evil.

Well, I guess that’s that. This unit was really interesting as I knew very little previously about WWII.

Here’s some extra photos of us creating the project:

This is my Spring SLC, where I will explain what I have learned about myself this year. In this post, you will see examples of work that I have done, that will back up my points. It also contains 3 goals that I have set out for myself, and how I plan to achieve them.

The Project I am most proud of:

I am most proud of my Start of WWI Blogpost. I worked with Tom and Jackson on this project, a project that would explain what sparked the start of WWI. We decided to make a puppet show, a creative way to show our work.

I am proud of this project because we spent so much time working on it, and I think it turned out really great. I learned a lesson from this project too. I learned not to bite off more than I can chew. If I had to do this project again, I would have thought more about what is feasible for us to complete. I would not have planned for the project to be 20 Minutes long.

2. A project that demonstrates my growth as a learner:

I think the project that best demonstrates my growth as a learner is the Manhattan Project Squared. This was my first project in PLP, so it was really like an introduction to the program for me. One of the things that was so amazing about this project was the field study that accompanied it.

In groups of 5, we had to make a video that had something to do with the Manhattan Project. On this field study, we visited the actual Hanford Site, and were able to interview people who had worked at the Reactor. Until this project, I had never done this type of hands on learning, so it really opened my eyes. I realized that there are other ways to learn than just memorizing a textbook. This project and field study really grew me as a learner.

3. A project that demonstrates my growth mindset:

Over the course of the year, I have tried to make two projects with the app Explain Everything (number 1 and number 2). It is a great app that helps you make cool animations and videos. However, this app takes a certain degree of skill to use. Since I am new to the iPad, I do not yet posses this skill.

However, instead of giving up and deciding to never use Explain Everything again, I am determined to work hard until I can create great projects with the app. This is because I look at this situation with a growth mindset, which drives me to get better.

Three goals for the remainder of the year:

1.  Ask for more opinions on my work

2. Don’t be such a perfectionist

3. Manage my time better so that I do not have to rush assignments

*Note: In this post, when I named a piece of work, there is link to it. However if you missed them, all the links are here as well.

Puppet Show

Manhattan Project Squared

Explain Everyhthing #1

Explain Everything #2