Hello again! You might find the title of this post a little strange. (Can I just sentence there? Is a comma called for?) Me and my friends Erin and Indy just recorded our final song and photo essay.

Did you watch it? Does the title make more sense now? If you hadn’t guessed, mine is the part with some apologizing in it. This song is supposed to represent our transition from grade 7 to 8. I have to say, mine wasn’t the easiest. I go to a different school than all my friends. I didn’t have a lot before, but I had 3 or 4 good ones. I do know one person at this new school, and we have become pretty good friends. I wasn’t a supper confident person before, but after switching schools something happened. I didn’t make any new friends, which made me really doubt myself. Because of this… well, I kinda feel like everybody’s judging me. This sounds a bit ridiculous. It drives me crazy, but now I can’t talk properly. At least every 3 sentences has “sorry” in it. Just for being myself.

And thank you for reading the weekly edition of “oops, uh, sorry, *ahem, uh.” 😉 anyways, this is just me sharing my beautiful transition. In reality, it wasn’t that bad. I do have some friends now, the ones in this video as a matter of fact!

Anyways… Here is the driving question: Who or what has challenged your worldview in the transition from elementary school to high school?

I think that this is a pretty good and serious question, which I’m not sure I have an answer to. I really wanted to say my parents, but I’m not sure. I think that in the end, it’s me. I can’t make myself conversate with people at school. It bothers me when I can’t fix problems, and this is one of them. I’ve tried so hard to act as though I don’t care, but it doesn’t work. I wish to be like one of my friends, or anybody else, who doesn’t get embarrassed.

OMG!!! I keep coming back to this.

Well, let’s get on with some Milestones!

A very important Milestone was the worldview MindNode. I’m actually kind of impressed with how I did on this milestone. I got a bit stumped at some point, but other than that it was pretty good.

As you probably guessed, this is a mind map that I made. It outlines all the aspects of my worldview, and how they effect my daily life. I really enjoyed making this, and realizing how I am who I am. I think that a lot of the things my parents are “on board” with, I am too. I am a pretty feministy person, and I think this comes back to how my moms raised me. I am very sure that everyone should be equal.

The next step in this project was to write our individual song lyrics. I really like writing and poems. I’m very impressed with the lyrics of my other group members, but we’ll get to that later. I tried really hard to talk about my transition, and how my life has changed. Let’s give it a look!

(That’s great, it starts with a school change
Friends and teachers, and no games.
And hard work is al-ways.

Lonely lunch breaks, good friends stay the same
We are a team here,
Can’t get away from here
Group challenges, team work, unfair, good work
The ladder starts to clatter
With a fear of height, down, height
Judgment with older grades, really there are no games
Teachers looking out for you, work at every turn
Crowded hallways, lots of people
And expectations breathing down your neck.

Day by day, embarrassed , blushing, ears red, eyes down
Don’t know what to say, yes, no, sorry
Uh oh, overflow, uncomfortable, sorry
But it’ll do, save yourself, serve yourself
Time serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Nothing to say at the time right, right
You vitriolic, neurotic, slam fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched

It’s the end of my world as I know it
It’s the end of my world as I know it
It’s the end of my world as I know it, and I feel fine

Six o’clock, wake up hour, jump out of bed for the shower
Early up, hurry now, bleary eyed, rats nest
Parents ride to work now, eat quick, out the door
Panic starts to escalate, all calm incinerate
Changed school, changed lives, step down, step down
Don’t know what to do, uh oh
This might be it, counterfeit, do you know what’s real
A fake life, fake life, fake life of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline

It’s the end of my world as I know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of my world as I know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of my world as I know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
I feel fine (I feel fine)

Finally it’s getting better, no pain, fun games
Learning life in good school, nothing left to rule
Good friends, fun projects and different teachers
Proud of hard work, blog posts, memories, boom
You symbiotic, periodic, every day, right, right

It’s the end of my world as I know it (time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of my world as I know it (time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of my world as I know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone))

I cut out some of the chorus, just because it repeats so much.

I think my favourite part of this is how it kind of tells a story throughout the lyrics. Along the way it starts with how I had some trouble fitting in in high school. Then it goes to my daily morning routine, and finally how now I have some friends. I think in writing this song I answered the driving question very well. I also like how I talk about all the aspects of my life that have made me who I am. An example is that my parents ride to work. They do this for exercise, but also to get 2 less cars on the road. They are very big environmentalists, and this has made me consider not getting my driving licence.

A Milestone after this —not directly but…— was the group song lyrics. This was actually a pretty cool Milestone. Me and my friends, who I was in a group with, kind of smooshed our songs together to get 1 final song. These lyrics included key parts form all of our songs. See the video up above to hear them!

Create: What literacy skills am I using to write, speak, and represent in the texts I create? 

Cause and Consequence: Who or what influenced events to occur and what were the consequences of those events? 

While writing the details of all the Milestones I was talking about earlier, I should say that I was focusing on these competencies.

Well, in case you didn’t follow what I was talking about, *wink, wink* I’ll write about it again here.

1. I analyzed the original song by highlighting, circling and more.
2. I counted syllables, and tried to make my song have the same rhythm that the original one did.
3. When there were some parts in the song I didn’t understand, I used a (online) dictionary to look them up.
4. I tried to understand the deeper meanings of the song
5. I broke the song into parts, and tried to comprehend each of the sections.
6. I was a bit confused at the start. When he says “time I had some time alone” I just figured he was saying time twice for the sake of it. After listening to it over and over I realized that he was saying more “it’s time that I had some time alone” which makes a lot more sense.

Now for the Cause and Consequence competency I actually didn’t understand that a consequence could be a good thing. When I was little and did something bad, my mom would always say “there will be consequences!” It was always said as a dangerous thing. Our teacher, Ms. Maxwell, actually explained this, and MY MIND WAS BLOWN!

I really think that Cause and Consequence came into play much later in the project. I did try to feature it in the lyrics, but better examples is the keynote we just made. It was about manners and etiquette. It talks about how the middle class in the Renaissance wanted to impress their higher peers. They then wrote books on how to have good table manners.

I think that if we did this project again, I would really try to focus on the Cause and Competence competency from the start. I didn’t realize that the lyrics had to be focused on this. I tried to write my lyrics in regard to the driving question, but not this competency.

In Conclusion, (ooooo, fancy word!)I really enjoyed this project. I learned a lot about how just 1 person (Martin Luther) can change how we perceived the most powerful thing at the time. I really enjoyed learning about the scientific revolution, and all the different scientists

– Kate

P.S. The thing that I think I took from the project is this: “It takes a crazy mind and willingness to do anything to improve the world, even the slightest bit.