Hello, and welcome to the first post of my Grade 10 year. This year started of great, but I can already feel its a lot tougher than Grade 9. The year started off with project called “This Is Us 🇨🇦”, so let’s jump right into it!
What’s the Big Idea?
The idea of this project was about having conversation gives us a better understanding of our identity as Canadians. We learned about what makes us Canadian, and we practiced having meaningful conversations to better understand different perspectives. The final piece of the project was a Human Library, where we invited guests to share their experiences, and have conversations with one-another.
Canadian Identity.
To find out what it means to be Canadian, we did a number of assignments that provoked deeper thinking on the subject. A large part of our Identity is “not being American”, so we talked about what it meant to be American. I made some realizations about how Canadian culture tends to get smothered by the looming presence of the USA, and how Canada is looked at as Americas Little Brother.
Do deeper our understanding, each student researched a topic of there choice, relating to Canadian identity. I chose to research the Toronto Raptors, as they were the first non-American basketball team to win the NBA. We then had class discussions about our topics. I found that we as Canadians take pride in our sporting accomplishments. When the Raptors won, the whole country was buzzing. So much of our media originates from the USA, so we tend to cling on to any nationalism we can. After talking to some of my classmates who had similar topics, they agreed. Sports really bring Canadians together.
After doing this research project, I feel that I did a great job at looking at the big picture, but next time I think that there can be some improvements to the amount of information I researched. There weren’t too many facts to back up my statements, so next time I’m going to spend more time on the research part of the assignment. This is a copy of my research project if you’re interested in reading it: https://www.craft.me/s/dYNJCEr83tOxWq
The Human Library.
During the Human Library I had many great conversations with guests, and learned a few things in the process. It was very interesting to learn about many unique experiences. When thinking about Canadian identity, it really shows how much we value diversity. The only thing I would do differently next time would be to choose to talk with the people with experiences I’m least familiar with. I ended up talking with someone who Immigrated to Vancouver from South Africa, which is something I know quite a bit about, as both my parents did the exact same thing. It was still interesting to hear about it from someone new, but I feel like I could have learned more if it was a completely new topic.
Here is my longer form reflection on the whole project: https://www.craft.me/s/T2ljrpRrlUfhym
Wrapping Things Up.
Overall, I’m really proud of my work in this project. It was a very great start to the year, and I’m going to try my best to maintain this great start throughout the rest of the year. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for my next post!
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