Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my final Humanities project, New Beginnings! In this project we learned about the history of New France (modern day Quebec) and then we made two visuals for one of the parts of New France. The big idea for this project is “What did the establishment of New France mean for all the people involved?”

The first thing for this project that we did was revisit ads and photography. We worked on ads in the Medium is the Message and we worked on photography in Constructing Creative Communication: Herzog. We did a small activity about making an ad for Seycove but thats not really important.

The next class we started watching a video about the history of New France. We were supposed to answer these questions from the video but I thought wasn’t extensive enough. So I decided to just take normal notes. I forgot that the teachers won’t stop the video and explain things… Sooo… I couldn’t function because stress and anxiety and other shtuff. So I didn’t get any notes. So I basically wasted two classes.

I don’t quite remember the specifics but we ended up deciding our people that we are going to research. We could also choose other stuff like the Beaver Trade. I don’t remember what they all were but the one I chose was the Seigneur. They were nobles that got land from the crown. Then they lend it out to people to farm it. Then we got to do research. Yay. I didn’t do all of it. *shrug* Weeelllll its to late nooooow. This is my research:
As you begin your research,  you should gather information from at least three different sources. Split screen with the web and your research document. Always start by copying and pasting the URL for the website first –> Then write the title of this source –> Add 5 – 10 bullet points underneath the source. See below for an example!

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/seigneurial-system
Seigneurial System
Started 1627, stoped 1854
The Seigneur gave a piece of land to a family (tenant or habitant), the family worked it. The family then regularly paid the Seigneur money for the land.
Its purpose was to promote settlement.
The Seigneur had onerous and honorary rights, including the power to make a court of law, operate a mill and grant hunting, fishing and woodcutting licenses.
Seiagneuries (Seiagneuries were also the plots of land that the Seigneur owned) were given to nobles, civil administrators, religious institutions (in return for education and hospital services) and military officers.

https://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1663/1663-07-seignurial.html
Seigneurial System
The tenant farmer was obliged to pay a nominal rent for the land and give one-fourteenth of his grain harvest to the seigneur.
The seigneur was obliged to build and maintain a mill for grinding the grain. He was also responsible for settling disputes and acting as local magistrate upholding French civil law.
The tenant farmer or habitant was not tied to the land. He could move to a different piece of land by selling one lease and buying another.
The seigneurs, who had money, tended to spend it outside the colony on goods from France rather than put it into the economy of the colony.
The seigneurial system worked against economic development in the colony

First People Trade
first ppl in america used trade networks for thousands of years. many first ppl chose to trade with europeans. started trading 1500s or 1600s. Think first trade when some europeon fishers off the coast newfoundland in exchange for fish for furs. trade sometimes helpful, sometimes not. most valuable were the fire or thunder stick, aka gun. also useful steel axe and kettles. first ppl trade was apart if ceremonies, feasting and gift giving. first ppl who got things from trade shared what they got. white men who did these ceremonies who successful. also white men that married first ppl got access to a network of trade. the North West Company did lots of gift giving, and its part of their official costs

during 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, many first ppl did specialized jobs for the fur trade. they got food, translation and helped lead white men. first ppl fur traders were middle men for the trading posts.
So thats what I learned.

The next class was super fun. We watched some videos about nature photography and I really learned a lot. Then we went into the forest and took some great photos. Then we came back and edited them. There isn’t really anything else with that but I just really enjoyed. Oh right, looking back on it I think that was when I was supposed to take my photo for the final product…

The final thing we did before the final product was fun. It was a roleplaying simulation of the fur trade and the different parties. It was stupid though. There was no freedom or creativity. And when I said we should do something else that wasn’t in the rules (which were give something, get something, oh and no one would go above or below the starting price), like try to be efficient and just kill the other parties because we were the only one with guns. It got out of hand. It ended with us breeding beavers and hunting beavers ourselves. With isn’t in the rules of course. Oh and the rules were like one page or something. And it was a group activity. With 4 parties 7 ppl per. Hey it was better than normal Humanities.

Ok I have foreshadowed the final product a bit. (It actually changed mid project from something I forget to this) The final product is two photos with 3 images from the internet with a bit of text. Thats the final product… ok I’m not complaining, I like photography. I actually didn’t take use the photo from the forest. I went to my home and took a photo of a grass field. I then made it look and vibrant like it was the summer. Finally I got images and added them. My first symbol in my first visual in the seigneur himself. I couldn’t find a picture that was a perfect seigneur so I used a noblemen picture instead. I got one that didn’t look too rich, but rich enough to be a seigneur. The second symbol is his crown that he is wearing. It shows not only that he is a wealthy seigneur, but also that he got the land from the king. The third symbol for the first visual is the sign and text on it. It was originally going to say owned but I think sold looks and feels better even if its a little less factual. What I was trying to do with this was like when a house is sold and there is a sign that says sold. The first symbol of the second visual is the country homestead. I got one that looked man made or more man made then usual in this day in age. It also has the animal pen on the side that shows that the people here work for their food. The second symbol is a photo of soil. The third is the wheat. Both of these show how they had to work the land and make food for themselves. This connects to how the habitants (the people the seigneurs rented the land to) had to be strong, tough, and able to take care of themsleves. The sign and text have the label wheat. This was supposed to be the small wooden signs that are in gardens to show what vegetables are where. I would have made it much smaller like in real life but if I did that you couldn’t be able to see it. I preferred my first draft with smaller images but the teacher didn’t. Eh, doesn’t really matter.

The answer to the driving question! (“What did the establishment of New France mean for all the people involved?”) The answer is *drum roll* it meant that they had a people to trade furs, which meant people had jobs, which made places to live, which create cultures, which create a country, Canada, heaven on earth and beautiful and… capitalism, death, trauma, drugs, and other stuff that is not school appropriate and just country stuff. On that note…

See ya around and goodbye,

Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest Humanities project, the Renaissance: a Change Engine. In this project we choose some aspects from the renaissance. The driving question for this project is “What significant developments emerged from the past and how have do they impact us today?”

A fun thing that we did was a Renaissance simulation, which was just us role playing. Thing is it wasn’t Renaissance, it was the feudal system. We were then introduced to the final products. These were our triptych (a set of three associated artistic, literary, or musical works intended to be appreciated together) and the final paragraph. 

Our triptych was something were we chose some parts of the renaissance to research. Then we got some images of them/to represent them and photoshopped them to a background we chose. Left and right panels have images of things from the Renaissance. The middle panel has an image of yourself and images showing the contemporary impact of the other panels. In the left panel I have an image of the Last Supper and Leonardo da Vinci. In the right one I have the printing press and a window with a library outside. The middle panel has an image of me thinking maybe divine right isn’t correct as well as a poster that says science. Once we had all finished our Triptychs, we walked around our class and saw other’s Triptychs.

The other final product that we did was our Final Paragraph. It was an in depth look at one of the things in the Bank. I chose the printing press. I took notes before writing the paragraph and made a good outline. I also talked about it with my teacher and Mom. In our Final Paragraph we needed a topic sentence, evidence that this is the must historical significant, connect that to the present, then you need to restate your claim in a conclusion sentence.

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest Humanities project, Working With Words. In this project we created poetry and just learned about poems in general. The driving question for this project is “How might I construct text that shows who I am right now?” For this project we didn’t actually have groups but instead each class we were given a new random group. One thing (whenever I put brackets after a poem name in this post, its not the actual definition but what the teachers wanted us to do. This could include the definition though so you need to be on your toes).

The first thing we did was look at the adult world connection and why are we learning this. We can skip over that. (its a little boring) But after we were given our groups for the class we started the first activity. We were given a cut up poem and we were to recreate it in any order. The cut up poem we were we were given was My (or the father. I forgot) Father by Fred Wah. It goes like this:

My Father hurt-

Ing at the table

Sitting hurting

At suppertime

Deep inside very

Far down inside

Because I can’t stand the ginger 

In the beef and greens 

He cooked for us tonight 

And years latter tonight

That look on his face

Appears now on mine

My children 

My food

Their food

My father

Their father

Me mine

The father 

Very far

Very very far

Inside

It’s about something along the lines of the father is hurting because the kids are ungrateful and then the kid become father. My groups poem had the same meaning expect with the bit about the kid becoming the father. Then we learned of the final thing we were going to make for this project; an ebook with all the poems we will write. What? We will be writing poetry. Yes we will be. And then we will put it in the ebook with meaning statements and complementary texts. Meaning statements describe what the poem is about and the  complementary texts are either audio, photo, drawing, or text that complements the poem. You want to see my ebook? You’ll have to wait until the end of the post:). We then learned how to read poetry all fancy like. Now that we were “real poets” with our white hair, quills, and tea we can start writing poems. We were assigned two poems to write. A simile one (10 lines, describe your worldview with similes

) and an extended metaphor (6-8 sentences, compare a part of your worldview to something else) poem.

After that I became sick and had to spend the next class at my home. During this time I wrote some Haikus (3, show a change in the third line results from a shift in your worldview) and a found poem (choose a text that reveals something about your worldview that is at least 50/100 words, cut in half, write 3-5 sentences at the end showing how you changed the original text). I got a lot of help writing them with my mother dearest so big thanks to her. The next class I was able to be there and we “painted with words.” Aka we played around with alliteration and assonance. Then we read some poem and then off we go to the next period. But not to quick for the teachers to give us the next poem to do. This time it was a imagery one (using alliteration and assonance, 10-15 lines, describe a part of your worldview that you haven’t discussed before). Next class again I was sick at home. I didn’t do the activity that we did in class so I just wrote the Sound poem (10-15 lines, what is the sound of your worldview ). I found the Sound poem a little stupid because its kind of just sound with little meaning. 

Now I really started working on the ebook and finish the last poems experience poem (15-20 lines, using denotation/connotation, mood, and a specific theme, describe an experience that shaped your worldview), personification poem (10-15 lines, personify worldview itself (this could be your group’s poem or you can write your own) and self-portrait poem (25-30 lines, who are you?). After that I really started working on the ebook and adding pictures and poems to it. Now I think thats about it for now. 

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!`

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest Humanities project, the Outsiders. In this project we read the book “the Outsiders” and learned about worldview. The driving question for this project is what can The Outsiders teach us about worldview? The reason we are learning this is because it allows Us to appreciate novels in a new way through worldview and also so you can get to know your own worldview. The adult world connection for this project was learning about your own worldview and identifying others.   

So unsurprisingly a large part of this project was reading the book the project was named after. All together I do like the Outsiders and its a good book to read on a raining day because its fairly short with only 126 pages. How the schedule was going to be for reading the book was we would read a chapter in class, read one at home, read a chapter in class, etc etc. Now if you know me IRL you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that when we were assigned the second chapter to read, I read that one, then a second, than a third, then the rest of the book. Because of this I never read another assigned chapter. But now, you might be saying, wouldn’t you forget what happened and when the inevitably ask you reflect on it but you could not? Fear not, reader! I thought of that! At the end of each chapter I wrote down a note of what happened in it and a question to ask to my reading group! (What a perfect segway into the next part of this paragraph) . As I just mentioned I had a reading group (who I forget but they were probably just my group members for this project, Charlie, Hannah, Owen, Magnus and Sofia), with whom I discussed with. We asked each others questions and answered them as respectfully as any other teenager (so not much. I remember the loud sounds (note: I am over exaggerating to be funny (haha(did you know for some reason I love brackets)))). One last thing I want to mention about this book is that we had to read it on the iPad. For everything that is good about PLP, I don’t like how sometimes it feels like they use technology just for the sake of using it.

The other half of this project was worldview. So lets talk about it. Our teachers broke worldview into seven parts, geography, time, knowledge, beliefs, values, society and economy. The first activity we did with this was taking a quiz to better learn about our worldview. There isn’t anything interesting to say about these so lets move! We also did a You vs. Who Character Analysis to look into worldview more. To do the You vs. Who Character Analysis we chose a character in the Outsiders, identify four traits they have, find evidence of those traits, and show how those traits correlate to an aspect of worldview. As another way of showing that we understand worldview, we made an individual movie poster. In this movie poster we had to incorporate at least two aspects of worldview. Now we also had to do drafts which I am learning to like, but I have talked about those before so I won’t delve into it here. Anyways, now that we each had a individual poster we wanted to make a group poster like how we did it in an ad this project. We smushed them together, took some more photos, edited sunsets, created a slogan and bam! We had a poster. I found it interesting that they taught us about worldview in this project. I believe now that it’s an important part of oneself and you should be aware of it.

The third part of this project was acting. For this we had to… act. Wow. GG. The part that we were going to perform -wait, sir, why who what when where would you perform? Well I’m glad you asked. We were going to perform at the exhibition, at our school, at 5:30-7:30, in front of whoever came. Now we performed a tableau. A tableau is a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history; a tableau vivant. (thank you google for that one) why group was assigned the act from the Outsiders when Darry was shot dead by police officers. The cast was us… I was Darry, Sofia was Police 1, Hannah was Police 2, Owen was Greaser 1, Magnus was Police 2, and Charlie was a lamppost. The props we had weren’t many but they did include a police car made of cardboard, a paper street that me, Owen, and Magnus made, and some paper trees that someone made. (I wasn’t there) Now you must be asking how did the exhibition go? Like this :], :), :(, D:, DD:, D:, :|. So it went so-so. If you do know me I am Neuro divergent. Because of this I have a hard time dealing with others, loud sounds… nvm this would conversation would go on to long to to put in this already long blog. Here, I’ll give you the best moments, first one: successfully stealing a hat from Andrew, then convincing Luca to let me borrow his switch-comb and then doing some sweet stealth of hand putting it under the hat that I stole from Andrew and then showing him I didn’t have it. We both then walked off but sadly then Luca thought that I put it in my hat so I ran away (I learned when to run from the Gambler) then gave it back. The next best moment was when I was acting like a detective to find some ones iPad. The final one was when me and Brooke were eating pizza together and complaining how we only got three slices. I would do a closing off sentence but this blog is already to long so to the closing end paragraph.

I did like this project and I loved ready the book. I think I did okay for my level of work. If I could change one thing it would be the exhibition. 

See ya around and goodbye , Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest Maker project. This project is divided in two parts, Carr and Herzog, so this is just the second blog post for this project. I was assigned Carr afterwards which you can tell from this post coming out second. Carr is all about my Apple Pencil and learning to draw. The driving question for this project is why is it important to use technology to further improve our ability to communicate and to think creatively? The reason we are learning this is because communication and creativity will be in almost all jobs by 2025 if not already and PLP wants us to prepare for that. The adult world connection is the understanding that we develop as we do the project, not exactly what we are working on specifically. Drawing helps with communication because you can express your thoughts and feelings in a truly unique manor when drawing.

The first thing we did was learn about all the different tools we have in Sketches Pro, the app we are using. My favourite tool is probably the Pencil. I like it because it looks realistic and its easing to sketch out ideas with without making it permanent. The first day was just used to play around and use the different tools. Come to think of it we also played around with patterns. 

My first sketch reflection I did was with drawing my name. What I learned with this is just because someone gives you some feedback, you don’t have to use it and it’ll still look cool. This ties in with something I’m always working on… perfectionism. I love this to be one hundred percent and perfect, but that’s impossible. As long as you feel its good, that’s enough. Though you should often listen to feedback, it can be quite helpful. The next homework piece we had was sketch notes. If you are like how I was and you have no idea what sketch notes are have no fear, for I am hear to tell you. A sketch note is a drawing with text, containers to organize, arrows and drawings. It is like notes, but a sketch. Pretty simple. Speaking of simple, I learned with this reflection that you don’t always need things to be complicated. For example, the sketch notes! They are simple but they can convey their message so well. The second to last assignment we did was… shading! I was so excited to see this because I really want to get better at it! And I feel I have! What we did for this reflection was we chose an object then it drew it and shaded it the best we could. I chose a D20 (a dice with 20 sides) which was pretty hard to draw. What I learned is that it is okay to spend a lot of time working one something, just not always. But choose carefully what you want to put a lot of effort into. Is it really worth it? This time it was because I had a blast! The final piece we had to do was draw a picture we took. This was to express perspective. I took a picture of my hallway and I think it came out really well, though I believe I could have done a better job with the shading. What I learned was the same thing as the last which was just proving it more. But my next homework assignment I get I won’t put as much thought into (maybe this one? (That’s a joke, teachers)). The final piece I did was my Colour Reflection. I have a lot of thought on it: My logo incorporates four things, my initials, a brain, a star, and a heart. The initials are there to show its me. The brain represents how I’m good at critical thinking. The star shows how i am my one person, one of a kind. And finally the heart represents all my emotions I have. Now that I have told you of all the pieces I drew, lets talk about my favourites snapshots for this project!

In this part of my blog I want to talk about my favourite parts of this project. I think I want to make this a recurring theme for my blogs. Need something to trademark™! My first favourite drawing for this project is… my Shading Reflection, the D20! It has my highest regards. I spent about 4 hours on it and I love it even if others don’t. The second favourite is my Perspective Reflection, my hallway! I spent less time on this one and did most of it in a car. My third favourite is my using Colour Reflection. Logo JG! It definitely isn’t the best but I do like it. I could have shaded it but I didn’t get around to it. I did make the representation for it and here is a mini-paragraph about it: My logo incorporates four things, my initials, a brain, a star, and a heart. The initials are there to show its me. The brain represents how I’m good at critical thinking. The star shows how I am my one person, one of a kind. And finally the heart represents all my emotions I have. Now that’s all my favourites for this project.

All together I believe I did great job on this project and loved the drawing. Not only did I like the general project, but I’m also content with my drawings and work in general.

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G.

Summary of Medium is the Message

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my first Humanities project, Medium is the Message!

This project was all about learning and creating ads for real world businesses. The driving question for the project was “how does what we hear, read, and see influence us?” I did the this project with my fellow PLP students, Dylan, Caitlin, Max, Andrew and Jupiter. The business we were assigned was Deep Cove Music, which is a business in Deep Cove that teaches music lessons and sells instruments.

After we learned what the big idea for this project is, we started developing knowledges about different ads. Some key things that we did were our Advertising Photo Journal, a Zoom Interview with a Mr. Hepburn (somebody in Vancouver that is an advertising consultant), and a Historical Media Analysis. Our Advertising Photo Journal was a place where we put pictures of ads that we found in our day to day lives. After we got lots of photos we answered some questions about the them ads. The Zoom Interview was done as a class and we all took notes about the things he had to say. The main thing he taught us was KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. I didn’t like how he put that so I just remembered to keep them simple. Another key thing we did was a Historical Media Analysis. We chose an historical ad and then we analyzed it and answered some questions. The ad I chose was the “How many licks” by Tootsie Roll in 1968.

Then with all the knowledge we have about advertising, we started making ads. The original one I had was not very eye catching and it also had to much information.  I went through quiet a few drafts before I realized this. When I did I changed the the lists that I had to one sentence about their lessons, which was the main product they wanted us to advertise. It looked much better but I could do better. Then I got some feedback about how I should make the photo around the words, but instead the words around the photo. Immediately I changed it by making the photo bigger and touch the sides. I was happy with my final group ad.

 Next we looked over the other ads my group members had made. We look parts that we loved about them and smushed them together. We worked hard on drafts for our Final Group Ad. We sent them to Mr. Hepburn and Deep Cove Music. We got feedback about making the background something in Deep Cove and also to make the formation of the title more interesting. We make the title pop fast. We did have to do drafts but it wasn’t that hard. Then the background. We needed to remove some of it from the photo we had of a guitar. I spent hours doing this because as soon as I completed the task, it deleted the progress. I couldn’t do it. Luckily one of my group members got it and finished my Group Ad. We chose which one we though best and we finished our Final Group Ad.

Now some things I had trouble with in this project were, admittedly, working with my group members. I am not really a team player and I don’t like group projects. I really want to get better at this and I believe I am. This is a big reason I joined PLP, to learn to work with others. Another thing that was challenging was just all the homework we had to remember along with our other classes. I have gotten through it though and I have learned to write homework to do as soon as I get it. Some of the things that wasn’t so hard was staying on task and reminding others to do the same. I remember so many that my group was derailed and I got them back on.

Now on to the answer to the Driving Question: how does what we hear, read, and see influence us? It influences by getting into our brain and sitting in the back of the unconscious. When this happens we will remember it and do what it tells us to do within reason.

Hope this was either helpful or interesting.

Goodbye for now, Judah G!