Finding a Mentor

Other then school trips to Oregon and Alberta my favourite day that PLP has given me was the one I spent at Chinook Helicopters for our “mentor for a day” project. I feel like I always struggled to find a mentor. This project wasn’t the first time I have been asked who my mentor is or who I look up to the most. There are many people that I look up to and I would usually just end up saying some celebrity that I found cool at the time, but I found I never really had a mentor to help me with where I want to go in my life. Since I want to become a Commercial Pilot when I’m older or at least work in the aviation industry It’s difficult to find connections and know people that are in it. For this project it was no different. I just couldn’t find a way to shadow a Pilot, or aviation related job so I settled for less and I was going to shadow Dip. Co for a day. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dip Co, but owning a sandwich shop isn’t at the top of my list. I had the day booked, to go into Dip Co for a day and interview the owner. As I went home from school that same day, my mom told me about a friend of a freind that had just got his piloting license. This was perfect, I would shadow him for a day. The only issue is that Piloting wasn’t his job as he just got his license, so he would have to take time off his actual job to go all the way out to Abbotsford (where he got his license) to meet with me. Which he was very happy to do. 

My Day at Chinook

It was settled. I would go out to Abbotsford for a day at chinook helicopters so he can show me all around the facility and give me a insight to what its like to have a aviation license. Before I knew it the day was here. I woke up at 7am and drove out to chinook helicopters with my mom and we met Matteo there. The place looked familiar, turns out almost 2 years ago I had been to that same airfield for the Abbotsford Airshow, except this time there was no food trucks. For the first half of the tour we went to the mechanical and repair hanger where the helicopters had their blades off, and doors open, getting fixed up for their next flight. After that we toured the classrooms and sign out area, where once you get your license you sign out to fly for the day. We then walked out on the tarmac and saw all the helicopters lined up, and even one landing right in front of us. We then walked outside and around the the fixed wing side of the facility (airplanes). We walked through that hanger and I was able to ask all sorts of questions to learn even more about how things work and what the facility is like. After that, we left with Matteo to go to a nearby coffee shop so I could interview him.

Interview

Turns out Matteo doesn’t only have his helicopter license, but he also owns a cyber truck and he drove me in it to the coffee shop. I had never been in one before and It felt like a rocket ship and had so many cool things in it. Once we made it to the coffee shop I found a quiet space to interview him and I did. I asked about 6 questions while also just listening to him sharing his unique experiences. Like one time he landed on a rock at a alpine lake where you usually cant get to. I learned about how diverse helicopters are and some of the realities of getting your license.I had to attach the audio as a YouTube screen recording nothing else worked.

Bonus

Not only did I get to go out to chinook helicopters because of this project, but Matteo offered to take me for a helicopter ride sometime and to check out some cool places. Upon reflection this day I had at chinook really sparked some even more motivation and interest into becoming a pilot. Thank you Matteo if you’re reading this. 

Audio Reflection Skills

I learned quite a bit about making a audio reflection too, like the one you just heard. How to make background music, edit it, make it engaging. This project was like a 2 in 1 and I learned so many interesting and unique skills because of it.

Conclusion

Finally, to answer the driving question “How can learning from other’ career journeys help us shape our own”. In response to that, I feel that learning about other peoples careers, especially ones your interested in can be all it takes to give someone enough information or insight to know what its really like to have that job. Chinook helicopters did just that for me, and now that I learned so much about becoming a pilot, I just want to be one even more now. 

Thank you to Matteo and Thank you for reading my Blog Post!

Introduction

This is my reflective post for our humanities 10 Romeo and Juliet parody. In this post I’m going to reflect on the project while talking about how I did and what I learned. 

Skills I Learned

Throughout this whole project I learned and built on a lot of my skills and got a lot more comfortable with doing performances. Throughout the past, in elementary school and even early high school, I always hated doing presentations or performances in front of the class. Now that I’m in grade 10 I barely mind it at all and I think that is because of PLP and just doing little things like this that have helped a lot over time. Not only that but I learned a lot about teamwork and working with the other acts in our project to make a play that works well together.

Project Path

The project started by us all going through the original Romeo and Juliet script as a class while acting out some scenes. It was really fun acting the whole thing out together and then when we were finally done reading we all worked as a class to find a way to make it a parody. We decided for it to be a Seycove V.S. Windsor spinoff and to incorporate modern technology and humour into it. We all got into groups and each group would have their own act to act out and then it would all go into one big play. I got act 4 and my group and I started working on a script while also making sure to keep in close contact with the other acts around us so it all worked well. We had to simulate Juliet faking her death to avoid marrying Paris (my role) and to go off with Romeo. We did this by making her take melatonin when Paris arrives at a dinner in Kelowna and that was how she faked her death to go off with Romeo in act 5. Overall I think the final performance went great and the only thing I would change is to give the crowd a little but more knowledge about Romeo and Juliet before watching our interpretation of it.

Driving Question

The driving question for this project is “How do we use parody to bring the themes of Romeo and Juliet to a modern audience”. We can use parody to bring the themes to a modern audience by making it more relatable or applicable to the average persons life so they can gain a understanding of the play through a fun and engaging performance.

Thank you for reading my Blog Post!

Introduction

Juno Beach, one of the 5 beaches that got stormed on the tragic D-Day. The Canadian troops took Juno Beach with 961 casualties. This day marked a turning point in history and is remembered by the world. We have done a project on it called save Juno Beach. Recently there was a condo development proposal for Juno beach and a movement in response to keep its historical significance.

Project Path

This project started off by watching the opening scene of saving Privite ryan, which was D-Day, Normandy Beach. It gave the whole class a insight to how horrible this day was and all the lives lost that day. After this we started looking into a condo proposal for Juno Beach and talked about how we felt about it after. I think a condo proposal on a historical beach like that is disrespectful because its building something pretty insignificant on a extremely value and important beach that cost the lives of 961 soldiers. After this, We researched a lot of WW2 related topics and using smart brevity, wrote about them. Then we did a service project, essay (bottom of the page), and zine. 

Reflection

Learning about WWII really helped me understand what it was really like and how tragic it was. I have always been interested in it but this project was very helpful and I loved it because of that. It was like expanding on something I already knew a bit of and it gave me a better understanding. I also learnt how these conflicts shaped the world. The world would be completely different if D-Day never happened and especially the war in general. I learned that conflict changes everyone’s perception of the world when you can see what has really happened throughout history and how bad it really is. Some skills I learnt throughout this project were writing, researching, MLA formatting, and essay format. We also learned that doing an act of service is something small but it plays a bigger role in giving to your community and helping others.

Conclusion and Answer to Driving Question

What role did the conflict of WWII play in shaping Canadian identity? That is the driving question for this project. This is what we wrote the essay about but WWII changed canada in many ways. The country we recognize as Canada today was mainly built off the major industrial boom that occurred after WWII due to the crazy high demand for factories, manufacturing, and technological advancements. Not only did it change canada in that way but the culture of Canada has also significantly changed after ww2 due to all the casualties and the overall impact the war had.

Overall this project taught me a lot about the war and gave me a insight to what it was really like while also learning important writing skills and doing fun activities like the act of service.

Thank you for reading!

Essay

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Hunter Perry

Erin Madsen

Humanities 10 

1 December 2024

“How did WWII set up Canada to be a industrial, resourceful, advanced nation”

“WWII enabled the development and advancement of technology and industries which helped Canada to progress and have a economic boom after WW2”, is my thesis for the following essay that contains information to back it up and explain how Canada had become the industrial country it is now.

WWII had a constant high demand for factories to help produce and keep up with the demands. WWII was a point in history where demands were very high and this effected many countries including canada to help produce. So many factories were built the total value of Canadian war production was 10 billion dollars, which is equivalent to 100 billion today. The factories skyrocketed Canada’s economy and built a strong base for after the war, where many of the factories could be repurposed for civilian needs. Many of the factories could use their materials as building materials and make construction related products and also textiles and clothing.These factories built served as a base for canada to have a strong economy and manufacturing industry’s. 

During WWII Canada advanced greatly in building aircraft and aerospace engineering. The reason behind this was to keep up with the high demand for these technologies during conflict. During the war, Canada employed nearly 116,000 workers and delivered 16,418 aircraft to fill allied orders. Mostly going to Britan and the USA. These advancements helped Canada a lot with its aerospace industry after ww2, giving the country a advantage because of their experience and manufacturing capabilities. Other then aircraft, Canadas healthcare system greatly improved during and after the war. With so many soldiers getting injured and the demand for medicine and diagnosis, many countries including canada went through a major change in healthcare, making it better. Many new hospitals were built or developed wherever they could be and advancements on the technological side of healthcare also made Canada have such a good healthcare system, which is still very prominent to this day.

During World War II, Canada’s mining and oil industries expanded to meet the Allied demand for essential materials like metals and oil, with government support and new projects boosting production. Most of these resources went towards what I’ve already covered, aerospace engineering, and healthcare. After the war hit, Canada used this experience to grow the industries even more and had a lot of pre-existing knowledge about them. With all these major factories built during the war and still being there afterwards, left Canada with a great opportunity to continue exporting those recourses and build a strong economy off of it.

In conclusion, World War II helped shape Canada’s economy and industries. The growth of factories during the war boosted the economy and provided a foundation for the future. Advances in aerospace and healthcare improved Canada’s global standing. The expansion of resource industries, like mining and oil, also helped Canada become an important supplier of materials. Overall, the war played a key role in turning Canada into a strong industrial nation.

Works Cited

Canadian War Museum. “Aircraft of the Second World War.” Canadian War Museum, 2024, www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/newspapers/canadawar/aircraft_e.html#:~:text=During%20the%20Second%20World%20War,by%20the%20RCAF%20and%20BCATP. Accessed Nov 30 2024

“Health and WWII.” Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador, Memorial University of Newfoundland, www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/society/health-wwii.php. Accessed Nov 30 2024

“Industry and the War.” Veterans Affairs Canada, Government of Canada, www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/classroom/fact-sheets/industry. Accessed Nov 30 2024

“Post-World War II Economic Boom.” University of Waterloo Library Special Collections & Archives, University of Waterloo, uwaterloo.ca/library/special-collections-archives/exhibits/doerr-dare-story-canadian-business/post-world-war-ii-economic-boom. Accessed Nov 30 2024

Project Path

The marketing me project lasted from October 29th to December 19th and also served as base for the winter exhibition. The overall outline of the project was finding our core values, then building and revising our resume and business card for the final exhibition in December. We worked on brain training and also had some guest speakers come in to motivate and teach about what the world outside school is like, and give us a motivational mindset to get a job and put ourselves out there. After that we stared to work on our very own booth designs for the exhibition. After this we had a lot of in class time to just work on our booths and things that will go around my groups station (business, design, architecture). We constructed a skyline with different buildings displaying and representing the business, design, and architecture segments. And there before we all knew it, exhibition night was here, Thursday December 19th.

Exhibition Night

All of a sudden exhibition night was here. This would be my 5th exhibition which is mind blowing and reminded be how long ago grade 8 really was. Right after school we started setting up everything in the library. My groups stand was at the door and we had about 10 people. Ryan and I were sharing a double table with our snow pants that we made to represent entrepreneurship. Ryan and I have been working on starting a business on snow pants that are baggy but affordable and that’s a big pat of why we are in the business section.

We fully set up, I had my resume, business cards, snow pants designs, the actual snow pants, photos of me doing a mountain climb (Mt. Temple), and finally my skis. Everything here is meant to show how I am through a person and all my different interests that are going to heavily influence my career. After getting some pizza the night started. All the parents started showing up and it was great. The first hour was just parent after parent with so many questions and advice and someone even took my business cards. After the first hour and a half or so I checked out the rest of the library on my break and just as it ended I ran into my grandma and showed her the exhibition as well. Overall I would say it was a success.

Reflection on Exhibition Night

Overall this night ought me a lot and built my skillset as well. I definitely improved on communication and trying to sell myself through my business interests, which I had never done before (other then practice prior) I think the night was my favourite part of the whole project and it was a great way to wrap up school before the break. The main skills I worked on were, as I said, communication, teamwork, collaboration, and design (for my booth). The night was very successful in my eyes and I had a great time meeting all the parents and showing them my booth. There were some challenging questions for sure, but they just pushed me to think more deeply about everything I had there and improved my confidence talking about what I have to show a lot.

Conclusion and Answer to the Driving Question

How might I present my passions, strengths, and learning to the world? That is the driving question for this project. I can present my passions, strengths, and learning to the world in so many different ways, physical, digital, and more. In this case, being able to present me to the world is a great way to attract employers and clients based off how they perceive me from my booth. I designed my booth to represent me fully and there’s no better way then showing the world that to help gain advice and support. It also shows who even is interested in potentially employing me in the future since they can see who I am before they even talk to me. 

In Conclusion I loved this project, it has been my favourite so far this year and I built so many skills. Overall this project opened up a window to doing more things like this in the future, and was a great way to build experience. 

Thank you for Reading!

 

Introduction

How does Hydroelectricity lead to Canada being one of the most loved countries in the world? That’s what my podcast episode was about in he world needs more canada podcast. The whole class all worked together in the World Needs More Canada project where every student made a podcast episode about why the world needs more Canada. My topic Was hydroelectricity and how it leads to Canada having such happy citizens and that’s why other countries could use it. Now lets talk about how I got this done.

Project Path

To start, we learned about the different components of a podcast and got a understanding of what it is, a audio recording holding the contents of a video or book put without any visuals. After learning about what a podcast is, we made our own short script for a 2 minute mini episode about ourselves, this didn’t get published but was still worth good practice. After this we learned the 3 act structure and how its used to make quality, interesting, and engaging story’s. The 3 act structure consists of 3 sections each playing a role in making a interesting story where they lead up to a climax and then a conclusion. Using this we made composition where we wrote down a rough outline of what we were going to talk about using the 3 act structure. Next I did my podcast script, then revised it and recorded a draft of our final podcast episode. Next, we edited, revised again, and made our final podcast episode with introduction music and sound effects. The end result got posted on Spotify and is called “The World Needs More Canada”.

Podcast Script

Curricular and Core Competencies

☂️: I achieved this competency by contributing my best work to the class podcast and putting in effort doing so. My podcast episode is juts a small part of the bigger podcast but I still feel confident in the fact that I delivered my part and did well doing so. Overall I think this whole project helped me be more grateful and more appreciative to where I live, which comes down to me being responsible and finishing my work.

🤔: I achieved this competency by asking questions and knowing when I’m stuck, this is still a big growing point for me but there were points in this project where I believe I demonstrated this. 

My Answer to the Driving Question

Why does the world need more Canada? The driving question of this project. Throughout all the drafts and writing I have gotten a understanding about Canadas strengths and what the world needs more of. Overall I determined that my whole project on hydroelectricity contributes to Canadas overall quality of life and that’s why people want to stay here so much. Hydroelectricity is just a small part of what makes Canadas quality of life so great, and with that I think that’s what other countries could use. The world needs more Canada because Canada is known for quality of life and many countries in the world could have that or build on it.

WW1 Comic Book & Exhibition Blog Post

Making my Comic

Starting the project, I was away in Mexico for a week which made me behind. I didn’t have long to catch up which forced me to put my time management skills to the test. I ended up balancing my work really well at home and I think I did a great job. My final comic ended up being great and I was very proud of all the effort I put into it. Before I knew it the exhibition was here and it went amazing and I think the comic I ended up making was a perfect example of what I was capable of doing. Some skills I put to the test were Time management, Communication, etc.

What Would I Have Done Differently

If I were to do this project again I wouldn’t do much differently which I think shows I did good although there are a few things I would change. Next time I would spend less time on my story board and spend more time on my comic which would hopefully let me balance the work a little bit more then I did.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, this project was massive in growth and testing skills I’ve been learning. As a end of year project I think it went great and was a perfect was to end of the year.

Thank you for reading!

By: Hunter Perry

“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.”

Introduction

 Grade 9 has been a massive year in growth and development for me for multiple reasons. The many projects throughout the year have affected me in positive and negative ways. Some projects that I think went poorly and felt negative in the moment, have just had good outcomes and taught me lessons on how to perform in future projects. In this presentation I will be answering these questions: what project do I feel I succeed in the most, what project did I learn from my mistakes the most, how do my expectations compare to my performance, and what evidence do I have to show I’m ready to graduate?

What Project do I Feel I Succeeded in the Most?

Throughout this entire year there have been so many projects and I feel differently about each and every one. One that really stood out to me happened quite recently. Not only was it a project but there was a exhibition as well. The project I am most proud of is our WW1 project. On this project I think I learned a lot of new skills as I usually do with projects but I also think I put some skills to the test. I’m always learning new skills from projects but when am I going to put them to the test? Well this project really pushed what I could do and made me demonstrate what kind of learner I am. Going into this project I had just spent a week in Mexico which meant I was behind when I came back. The skill I think I put to the test was time management. Obviously I was behind, but day after day I worked hard at school and home to get all the past assignments in and also the final presentation, which was the comic. In the end, just around the exhibition, I had everything done and ready just in time. Then the exhibition hit and I would say my table group and I did an amazing job presenting our work. The feeling of presenting Everything after a long project is the best and it felt like such a relief and pay off that I came into the project late and and came out of the project on time. Some key skills I think I built on in this project are teamwork, collaboration, and art. Some skills I think I put to the test are communication, time management etc.

What Project Did I Learn From my Mistakes the Most?

 

Despite most projects having a good outcome for the most part, there have definitely been some that I was not as proud of or didn’t value as much in the big picture. I like to view my “failed” projects as mistakes to learn from, I’ve noticed a pattern in my projects that always after a poor project is one I value which shows that I’m only learning from each one. In this case, the one I am least proud of has got to be my frankenstuffie project. That project just didn’t go well for me. I talked a little bit about this one in my mPOL actually, but even now its still what I’m least proud of. Given the amount of time we had to do work and make the final video I really don’t think I succeeded well. We had to read a novel in which I kept postponing And didn’t even finish it. Then all of a sudden I had to make a video and I was extremely underprerppeared. I also waited a bit to long to start the video as well, which also had a greater effect. My final video was weak and didn’t demonstrate who I am as a learner in my opinion. Looking back it might even be the project I’m least proud of even compared to some grade 8 projects. At the time of the project I was trying to get better at time management but I didn’t really know what I was doing and didn’t have much discipline towards the project. Some skills that I already knew that I didn’t follow were: Communication, Prioritization, and Time management. Looking more on the bigger outcome of this project is me being a better learner and I think that all the downs of this project have only helped my future ones. I think without this my WW1 project would have been worse since that one relayed on time management for me to catch up. Another example is Nationalism project. Without having a somewhat bad video for my frankenstuffie project I don’t think my nationalism project would have been nearly as good. Now that I’m done talking about where I did good and bad I want to talk a bit about how my expectations compare to all this.

How do my Expectations Compare to my Performance?

As usual, at the beginning of the year everyone made a learning plan, including myself. I remember aiming for a proficient in all subjects which I somewhat achieved. Some skills I wanted to work on were focus, teamwork, presenting, and time management. Being 100% honest I don’t think my focus has improved much at all, I stated that I wanted to make better seating choices but I never really saw that take off and that is 100% my fault. I should have been more aware that I should follow the goals I set and stick to what my expectations for myself are. Under the category of goals and self assessment in the PLP learning behaviours I would say that focusing is a goal I set and didn’t achieve in a sense because, again of my seating choices which seems to be my biggest struggle. Also in the PLP success behaviours form I stated I made growth in reflection, I would say reflecting on work is something that comes in close ties with advancing and time management, leaving enough room for improvement is always good. Lastly I think I have grown tremendously on outside of school working and being able to manage my time, this is by far the biggest thing I’ve worked on this year and it’s gonna stay with me forever.

What Evidence Do I Have to Show I’m Ready to Graduate? (Conclusion)

With everything I learned this year, I think It has been my biggest year in growth since I was born, it may not have been the year with the most success, or wins, but for me, I learned that learning and growing on skills is what makes me the learner I am now. As for evidence that I can show to support this, I think that’s all in my blog posts and most past projects. In the PLP success form, evidence I can use to support the points I made earlier is where I am now, who I am now, and  the type of learner I have become since September. All of this is the outcome of me following PLPs expectations to be a successful learner. I think that without PLP I would not be anywhere close to where I am now, the amount of opportunities to improve as a learner this program gives is why I’m where I am now. And that is why I believe I am ready to graduate to Grade 10

Thank you for reading/listening!

“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.”

Introduction

This is my 3rd presentation of leaning since I stated high school. As I look back there is so much to reflect on, this goes from everything I learnt, the challenged I’ve overcome, and the skills I’ve further developed. Enjoy!

How Far I’ve Come

Grade 9 has been a massive year in growth for me, making mistakes has helped me grow in many different ways to become the proud learner I am now. When I look back at how scared I was to finally be going into grade 9 I would have never thought I would be where I am now. I am so grateful that I am in PLP because without it, my grade 9 year so far, would be completely different. Looking back to the grade 8/9 summer, I remember being really anxious about grade 9 and thinking it was this massive obstacle that would be difficult to overcome. To me, it didn’t seem right that I was already in grade 9. So, now that I look back, I am starting to realize that the fear and anxiety I had to be in grade 9 is actually what gave me the motivation and drive to be the best I could this year. In my head I thought it was going to be very difficult and scary so I irked hard to surround myself with the right people and role models to make sure I was going to succeed. Now that you know how I felt at the beginning of the year, compared to now, I am going to talk more about the in between and the projects that I failed in and succeeded in.

 

What Project Was I Least Proud of And Why?

This year has been filled with countless projects, and I feel I did differently on each one but there is one project that stands out to me as the one I am least proud of, but has helped me the most, and that is the Frankenstuffie Project. This project took place recently, from the end of winter break to the beginning of spring break. This project started with us taking apart 3 stuffies to make a  frankenstuffie, I think I did good with that but where things really started to fall apart for me was when we had to read a book called leviathan, I was constantly falling behind, and unable to really keep up and understand how it even related to our project. I didn’t even end up finishing the book and did just alright on the mini tests we had every 10 chapters. I think that this really served as a wake up call to me, telling me I have to pay more attention to what we are doing and spend less time goofing around. The biggest lesson I think I learned in relation to falling behind in the book was that it had a greater impact over time. For example, If I’m only reading 5 chapters a week and we are supposed to be reading 10, It may seem alright at first but over the span of a few weeks all of a sudden I am really behind and this can apply to basically everything else in life, If you stay on track, you wont fall behind.

Later on in the project we had to make a backstory for our stuffy and eventually make a video, I think I did really well with the backstory but didn’t really think about how easy it would be to put into a video, in the end I think the video was a learning experience in its self, but I think I could have done better, I made a blog post reflection on this project that I will link below. Now that I have talked about where I think I “Failed”, I will now talk about where I think I did my best.

What Project am I Most Proud of?

The project I am most proud of has got to be the Metaphor Machines project. The project was so rich in information and history which was perfect for me cause that is my favourite thing to learn about. Not only was what we were learning about right up until my alley, but we also got to present it in the most interesting way at the Winter Exhibition. The project started with us learning about some basic history and some basic metaphors. After getting a handle on what we were learning about, we all had to pick a revolution to study and use for our final presentation which I will talk more about later. I choose the Irish Revolution, also known as Easter Rising since it took place on Easter. I was put in a group with 7 other classmates, We all spent time studying the history of the revolution individually and then working together and sharing what we all learned. The final presentation at the exhibition was going to be a giant Rube Goldberg Machine, the size of a wall. We were all so exited and got straight to work. I remember there being the perfect balance between fun and work. I also think teamwork was something we all built on since we needed 7 people working hard together to build the machine. We had maybe a month to work on the machine before the exhibition and that was my favourite month of the entire school year just because of how much it fit my learning styling and how well my team and I worked together. We were a little bit behind my the time the exhibition was near but we all worked together to get it done just in time.

 

The exhibition itself went amazing, our machine surprisingly worked quite well and everyone did their part to make sure we had a nice stand for the parents to come and visit. We served food and each had a part to talk about when the machine was working. But, how does the machine connect to the Irish Revolution, Every person, had a section in the machine which was a metaphor for that section of the revolution timeline and for more information on that you can read my blog post on that project. So what did I take away from this project. I think the biggest skill I built on here, was teamwork, but there are many others such as, communication, leadership, consistency, construction, and so much more. Now that I’ve talked about my best and worst project, lets see how they compare to the expectations I set myself at the beginning of the year on my learning plan.

My Learning Plan

At the beginning of the school year everybody made a learning plan basically explaining your expectations for yourself for the rest of the school year. In my Learning Plan I talked a lot about my struggles and where I could grow on depending on the subject. There were categories including preparation, self-regulation, engagement, and more. I wanted to mainly improve on already existing skills but also create and start to master some new ones. I wanted to try and get proficient in all my classes which I think I achieved well. I am also think about my grade on what I think I should have got in my head not just on paper. 

Conclusion 

Over this year I have had plenty of ups and downs in my growth and learning level but in the end everything I have gone through this year has made me the learner I am today. And with that, thank you for reading my MPOL for grade 9.

Thank You!

The Process

Have you ever turned a stuffy into a mutated stuffy? I have, and for this project we did so much more. The project started by me bringing in 3 stuffies to school to take apart and sew together in a mutated way. I didn’t end up getting that far in school so I did the majority of sewing at home. The final frankenstuffie had the body of a bear and the head of a bird with a massive hat from a yeti on his head. After the stuffie was done I started working on a graphic organizer for my new stuffie. The graphic organizer helped me make a story for my stuffie in 7 parts. After that, I picked my favourite part from the graphic organizer and made a story board, describing that part in further detail. The story board acted out how my final film would go for my stuffie which I started working on shortly after. My film ended up being about 3 minutes long. After I was done my video all I had to do is put it in my blog post which you are reading right now, then link it to a QR code for people to scan.

What Did I Learn?

Throughout the project I didn’t find that much stuff difficult until I had to make the video. We went over a few techniques in class but for the most part I had no idea how to start or even what to do. After some experimenting with different apps I finally made a scene in flipa clip and practiced with the app a bit to try and figure it out. Figuring out what to do and making one scene already took up a lot of time and I knew I had to find a better way to make my video. Eventually I started to use stock images on keynote and then add my green screened characters to make smoother, more colourful scenes. I ended up using this for most of the film but also tried a few other techniques including puppet-pals and procreate to add some drawings. I even made a animated, cartoon version of my frankenstuffie to make it more interesting. One thing I find very cool is that as the video goes on, you can see my skills improve. When I finished my video, just before spring break I was so relived and I was also very proud of it. I was pretty nervous when I first heard we had to make a video  our frankenstuffie a few weeks earlier but then just like that, it was over and way easier then I thought. Not only was it easier, but I gained a tremendous amount of skills from the whole project, not just the video.

Where Was I The Strongest?

I’ve talked a lot about what I found difficult and how I grew from it as a learner but I haven’t talked about what I think I did well in personally. Despite the video being difficult for me, I found making the graphic organizer and storyboard to be quite a good fit for how I learn and I didn’t struggle much. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the video, I just mean it took a bit more effort to understand the process. With the graphic organizer and storyboard, I found it really interesting to create a story based completely of something I created, or more fundamentally, my imagination. It was like a creative outlet for me to just create a in depth, engaging, story.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I enjoyed this project a lot, It allowed me to be super creative in different ways and also problem solve. Some skills I learnt and grew on are animating, problem solving, drawing, telling a good story, and writing.

Thank you for reading my Blog Post!

Introduction

DI is a very challenging, problem solving, diverse project with multiple presentations and multiple schools participating. DI started back just before winter break and is still happening right now. This post will focus on what we did with a basic timeline but most importantly, what I learned and the skills I gained or built on. 

The Process

The start of DI was just before winter break and not much happened, we only had a few classes of it and we were mostly focused on other projects. After winter break is when it really started to pick up, we had DI Classes everyday and we started to gain a understanding of what we had to do. We were all put into groups of 6 or 7 and those would be our groups for the rest of DI. At the beginning of January we watched some videos of DI groups that made it to nationals and Mr. Harris, our divisions teacher, started to explain some stuff about what we were doing. My group and a few others were all in the art category. We learned that we had to do a skit/play on a story we can make up but it has to include a reimagined art, visual element, kinetic art, and some more guidelines to follow. My group and I decided to make our play about a art museum robbery with a painting that is a reimagined artwork, a weapon that is kinetic and also some team choice elements that we all decided on together. Over the next few months we made a script and worked as much as we could in class but if I’m going to be honest, we didn’t get much done at all and before we knew it, the semester was over. With a change in classes, we had no in school time to work on it, which forced us to meet up outside of school. In our heads that sounded like a good idea but it was almost impossible to get everyone to show up and only had a few successful meetings. We ended up making the set on our last few days and we definitely waited to long. Before we knew it the 2 months were up and DI was just around the corner.

DI Day

For the actual day of DI we were all given a room to rehearse and keep our props and set. we had a few hours to rehearse and sort everything out but not only would we have to present our play we also would have to do a instant challenge at some point throughout the day. When our instant challenge came around we basically were just given a task but we are not actually allowed to talk about it until the project is over so I cant write about it in this post. After our instant challenge, we had about 1 hour more of rehearsals and then it was here, the big performance. We did our absolute best and ended up actually winning a award for the art category, we got 3rd place which I am proud about.

Back to the final performance, I am really proud and impressed by how fast we all worked together and made a entertaining final performance, maybe we didn’t get #1 but we still as much as we could in the few hours of rehearsal. For upcoming performances I am definitely gonna focus more on better planning and still getting work done, even if the whole group isn’t there, a effort can still be made by who does show up.

Conclusion

In conclusion, DI seemed really hard at first but ended up being quite easy in the end. With a team of 6 I would say we did very good on that final day because we had to work fast and come up with ideas while still making sure they give our play good quality. I learnt a lot of new skills during this project including time management, teamwork, communication, and leadership. Thank you for reading my Blog Post!