Exhibition

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An Above Average Post About Personal and Professional Success

Hidden within the pages of many books are the secrets to transforming your life. While self-help literature dates back to 2800 BCE, today’s powerful memoirs and guides are unlocking new potential within anyone strong enough to brave the pages. Dive in to discover how these contemporary reads can set you on the path to personal and professional success.

With this project being presented at the spring exhibition 2024, this marks my final post in the Performance Learning Program. With university just around the corner, I want to take this opportunity to reflect on our final project. As we wrap up this final project and prepare to move on to new ventures and struggles, I hope I can squeeze one last lesson out of high school.

Our final project in PLP 12 was called Page to Practice®, and as you might’ve been able to guess, it was about taking lessons learned from books of our choice and putting them into practice in our lives. The book I chose from our list was Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

The climax of this project was at the spring exhibition 2024, PLP-Con, where us PLP 12s held a discussion panel much like those found at Comic-Con and other conventions. The idea of this panel was to answer the driving question:

💸What can we learn from authors about achieving personal and professional success?🏎️

Obviously, to get these lessons and share them with everyone at the exhibition we needed to read our book. Beneath is my review of Shoe Dog, where I give it ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Shoe Dog" by Phil Knight is a compelling memoir that offers an in-depth look into the struggles and triumphs of building Nike from the ground up. The book provides a fascinating narrative about the early days of Nike, filled with detailed retellings of the challenges Knight faced and the victories he achieved along the way.

Knight’s storytelling is engaging and well-written, effectively conveying the emotional rollercoaster he experienced in transforming Nike into a global, household brand. His sincere reflections and honesty about his personal flaws and questionable decisions add a relatable human element to the story.

However, while the book is dense in interesting storytelling, it does fall short on delivering significant business or leadership lessons. The lessons are there, but they require some analysis to uncover and are not as explicitly laid out as one might hope. For those looking for direct business insights, this may be a drawback.

That said, the book excels in illustrating the importance of perseverance, passion, and authenticity. Knight’s journey is an inspiring example of pursuing one’s vision despite obstacles and skepticism from others. The historical details and Nike facts are an added bonus, making it an engaging read for fans of the brand and those with their own “Crazy Ideas”.

I recommend "Shoe Dog" to Nike fans, non-fiction enthusiasts, and aspiring entrepreneurs. Nike fans will love the detailed history and brand trivia, non-fiction readers will appreciate the honest and engaging storytelling, and those with their own "Crazy Idea" will find inspiration in Knight's restless pursuit of his vision despite numerous obstacles.

Applying Lessons Learned

From the Book

One of the key lessons I learned from Shoe Dog was the importance of perseverance and resilience in the face of challenges. Phil Knight’s journey was filled with obstacles, from financial difficulties to intense competition. Inspired by his determination, I have decided to apply the following lessons to my own future.

1. Embrace Failure and Learn from It

Knight’s numerous setbacks, from financial struggles to production issues, taught him valuable lessons. Viewing failures as opportunities for growth can lead to better decision-making and resilience.

2. Build a Strong Team

Success is rarely a solo journey. Knight’s success with Nike was deeply intertwined with the talented and dedicated team he assembled. Surrounding yourself with passionate, skilled individuals can amplify your efforts and lead to greater success.

3. Stay True to Your Vision

Despite numerous challenges, Knight remained loyal to his vision for Nike. Having a clear, unwavering vision can guide you through difficult times and keep you focused on long-term goals.

4. Innovate and Take Risks

Knight’s willingness to innovate and take “calculated” risks played a crucial role in Nike’s success. Being open to new ideas and willing to step out of your comfort zone can lead to breakthroughs and significant achievements.

These insights from “Shoe Dog” provide a map for navigating the intricacies of both personal and professional life, emphasizing perseverance, teamwork, vision, and innovation as cornerstones of success.

From the Project

Working on this project also taught me a lot about the power of teamwork and collaboration. Our group (Myself, but Dries, Jonny, Annie, and Jordan) had diverse books, strengths, and perspectives, which we leveraged to create an interesting panel presentation. This experience emphasized the idea that personal and professional success is rarely achieved alone. By working together and supporting one another, we were able to produce a final product that was greater than the sum of its parts.

This is my notes card that I was cleverly hiding behind my name tag 😏

Whether I got to say them or not, the lessons or topics from the card above were what I deemed to be the most prevalent and impactful/important lessons one could take forward in life, considering our panel’s theme of “Motivation and Success in the Workplace.”

Exhibition Night

Everyone was nervous on the night of the exhibition, but we knew our parts and spent years honing our skills to keep a discussion going. Unfortunately, we were first up for the night, meaning that our audience was the smallest, not having many questions for us at the end of our discussion. Our moderator (Nathan) did an incredible job keeping the discussion lively with his interjections and questions and calling the end of the discussion. Our members went back and forth throughout our discussion, discussing several subjects on which our books had common or contrasting views. However, I found that a large chunk of the discussion was about topics that Shoe Dog didn’t mention or that I wasn’t prepared to speak about. When I found my time to speak, I think I delivered the lessons I extracted from Shoe Dog quite faithfully and fluently.

The lessons I learned through Shoe Dog and from the books my classmates read were not just theoretical; they were practical strategies that we can apply to achieve our goals. This project was a fitting culmination of our time in PLP, encapsulating the growth, creativity, and resilience that have stuck with us on our journey.

As I prepare to graduate and embark on new adventures, I am grateful for the experiences and skills I have gained through this program. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this incredible journey. Here’s to the future and all the opportunities it holds!

Keenan, signing off.

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An Average Post About Feminism (and the Winter Exhibition 2023)

In a world constantly pushing for ideological upheaval, the battle between feminism and masculism isn’t just a clash of opinions, but a necessary battle that must continue in order for equality to form.

This was the main idea behind my exhibition project, which was a piece of conceptual art designed to get the observer to think about the past, present, and future of gender roles in society.

This was my station on exhibition night. Here you can see the art piece and artist’s statement on the right, with the balloons that viewers could add or pop on the ledge of the whiteboard.

My art piece aimed to bridge the views of feminists and masculists to demonstrate the ideal societal dynamic in a way that someone on both sides of the coin can understand equally. Through the people that I interacted with over the course of exhibition night, I think that I was successful in my effort to make my art piece this way, having people from diverse perspectives come and ask about my art. I do wish that we had been placed in a higher traffic area, as we were placed sort of out of the way at the end a hallway that few people walked through.

My art focus for this project was not on the ideas of feminism but instead, on the powerful effect that they can and needs to have on society in order to achieve real equality. I incorporated the interactive aspect of my art piece with the idea of using the art as an analogy for the real world. I wanted the people to see two sides of a conflict, and how they can work together to create a successful resolution. When doing this, I wanted to make sure that the person interacting with my art knew that it isn’t easy, though. That’s why I chose to use balloons that would be near impossible to perfectly balance.

In Vox by Christina Dalcher, the book that my group for the exhibition read, the patriarchy rules with an iron fist, dragging the women down, much like the blue balloons do in my art, but the reverse can also be true. If we, or even the world of Vox overcorrect after overcoming the oppression of one gender, then the sides will have flipped and the new group in power will be just as bad as the last one. The ending of this vicious cycle is embedded right in the middle of it.

Overall I’m proud of the thinking and work that was put into this project, especially how I was able to incorporate the physical interactiveness of my art to show people how complex and difficult to resolve and far reaching the issue of gender equality really is.

 

 

 

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An Average Post About School

A Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Framework À La Hierarchy Of Needs - eLearning Industry

School has its issues. Everywhere you look, there is an imperfect school system. So does a perfect school system exist? I don’t think so, but we can get pretty close. In the modern world, kids are on their phones all the time right? Clearly we like our phones, so why not incorporate it into our schools? Here at Seycove, we do a pretty good job utilizing these tools to keep curiosity fresh and work a little more enjoyable. This is what I presented at our Spring Exhibition this year. We were tasked with analyzing our current school system, and coming up with ways to improve the system with the objective of creating more engaged and informed citizens.

Questions Stock Photos, Royalty Free Questions Images | Depositphotos
What is technologically enhanced learning?

Technology-enhanced learning refers to the use of technology, such as digital tools, physical technology and online platforms, to enhance teaching and learning experiences by allowing students to learn in a way that is more of their own. It encompasses various resources like online courses, educational apps, and interactive whiteboards that aim to improve learning outcomes and develop crucial digital skills.

What are the benefits of technologically enhanced learning?

Technologically enhanced learning benefits Canadian schools by increasing engagement, personalizing education, providing access to vast resources, fostering global connections, and developing essential digital literacy and 21st-century skills, ultimately empowering students to thrive in a technology-driven world.

 

My project is not only focused on technology, but also providing new, hands on learning environments for learners. This is similar to the field studies we do in PLP, but the idea was for them to be far more frequent and local. The main idea with this is to engage students by providing new environments, where a student will be invited to be aware of their surroundings and be engaged in the situation.

What are the benefits of experiential learning?

Experiential learning offers the benefits of active engagement, practical application, and personalized experiences, fostering deeper understanding, skill development, and increased motivation. By providing hands-on, immersive experiences, it enhances memory retention, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and the ability to transfer knowledge to real-world contexts, ultimately leading to a more meaningful and effective learning journey.

The biggest part that I, someone who has experienced technology in this way can confidently say that access to things like the internet in the classroom is an incredible tool for enabling curiosity. The other big part for me, is that I don’t have to use my awful handwriting, instead, I get to type, which is also faster.

No matter who you are, you probably have a phone or a tablet or maybe a laptop that you enjoy using for different purposes. That enjoyment does transfer to school or work to some degree, and this causes people to be more engaged in the activities that they take part in.

How does this all create more informed and engaged citizens?

I’m glad you asked. The way that you engage with society and gather information heavily depends on if you have the motivation or reason to do so. Someone who is determined to learn in school, is far more likely to have the drive to contribute to society later on. This also applies to curiosity. The current system does not foster creativity, as characterized by Logan in his project, School Kills Curiosity. Having technology that students are familiar with, and are more than willing to use helps boost engagement.

“Children often struggle to stay on task or interested, particularly if it is not interactive. One of the main benefits of technology is that it can make even the most mundane school tasks more engaging, which will help your students to stay focused. This is particularly poignant when we consider the earlier point of just how comfortable and normalized technology has become for young kids nowadays.” (Emma Cullen What is technology enhanced learning?)

Students who develop 21st century skills and are engaged in their community and school while growing up develop more sophisticated skills and thought processes, resulting in citizens who are naturally more active in society, whether it be as voters, or just developing humanity in one way or another.

Anyway, I think its time I give a little info about the exhibition now that you have an idea about what my project focuses on.

The Metaverse Is on the Way: Here's What You Need to Know - CNET

My project for the exhibition was a short Virtual Reality experience that I created using Unreal Engine. the idea of the experience was to give visitors a short insight into the experiences of many students who end up unengaged in class, with the experience designed to be bland, dreary, and have aspects of “zoning out”.

This is a screenshot of the Unreal editor showing the first scene that I wanted to show people at the exhibition. This scene is of an empty classroom, to show that the student is off in their own headspace, and there is white noise in the background to reinforce this fact within the visitor. The lights of the scene are rather prison like, showing the students attitude towards school.

The next scene worked while I was creating it, but unfortunately there were some fatal migraine-inducing visual bugs when running it off of the headset, so I had to cut it out of the exhibition product, but I still spent a couple of hours on it so I’m showing it here.

This is a frame you could see while wearing the VR set. This environment is designed to be a nice forest area where you can relax with the birds chirping in the background. This is a representation of a more engaging environment a student might find themselves in if this program was implemented.

I had two iPads on the desk next to me displaying articles pertaining to my project as well, the first being the aforementioned “What is technology enhanced learning?“, and the second being “The benefits of learning outside the classroom“. These articles were there to mostly serve as props for my spiel, but I pointed them out while talking so that the visitors could read more if they wanted to (this includes you, reader).

Overall, I think that the exhibition went over pretty well. I developed a pitch early on with my pre-established knowledge, and people clearly thought that my pitch was pretty good, because I came second place in the somewhat convoluted vote at the end. All in all, I think that creating this product and research was a test of my skills and perseverance, (especially the random errors while trying to import and export my project) and was a somewhat enjoyable experience trying to learn something new while under a tight time constraint!!!!

Thanks for reading this far,

Keenan

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An Average Post About mPOL 2023

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.

In this year’s mPOL, I want to shift focus. In the past couple years, my POLs were mainly focused on my struggle with procrastination, but lately I feel like I have the habits and strength to overcome the struggles that I put myself through. This year, I want to focus on something that I feel really helped me from the first couple years of PLP. This being specific feedback on each assignments. My goal for the second half of the year is to improve the quality of my work by making a habit of asking for feedback from my teachers or peers when I feel that I need a little something for my work to be up to standard.

 

While preparing for this mPOL, I reviewed my learning plan to see what I had in mind for improvement at the start of the year, and I could see quickly that it needed to change. While reviewing the learning plan from the start of this year, I found that it wasn’t very focused on anything. The main thing that i felt needed to be stated, was that I think that I no longer need to keep my focus on procrastination. It may sometimes still be a problem for me, but I think that I’m ready to focus on new things. While revising my learning plan, I decided that much of my work could use revisions, just like the learning plan. But the problem here is that hindsight is always in 20/20 right? That’s just me looking back much later and using knowledge that was gained far later than when the work was done to begin with. So what’s the solution?
Feedback.

Feedback is something that can be very helpful and can point out what’s missing in your knowledge or work, allowing you to correct it before it becomes a bigger problem. In the last 2 years of PLP, I’ve felt a distinct lack of this very thing, and have decided that this is the best and most efficient way to improve the quality of my learning and work.

A great example of when I could have used some feedback from others was during the winter exhibition. This is because, as stated in my blog post about the topic, I felt that there were many things that I needed to consider while translating my idea into play form that I did not. The main issue I found with my presentation was that the audience might have a hard time understanding what the specifics of the scene meant, as there were minimal props and my play was not long enough to establish these things. If I had consulted someone else with my ideas, I think that we may have came up with a way to make my section of the play much more comprehensive to the audience.

I think that this solution is applicable to almost every single assignment that we do, and that sometimes there will be feedback given to me, but I think that having more than that is important to me reaching my full potential as a learner.

This post started with my chosen solution, not the only one, and I want to recognize that asking for feedback is not the only way that I can increase the quality of my work. Other methods for increasing my work’s quality is to simply use the tools that are given to me. One of the tools that is given to us as students is the rubric for an assignment. A good mark isn’t the only thing that determines the quality of work, but it helps quite a bit. But this brings me to why I chose the solution I did. I felt that throughout my thinking the best solution to help me grow as a person and a learner is to make use of the people around me and ask for feedback when I feel it may benefit me or my work.

The final way that I would like to build on my habits and learning this year is by asking more questions. In my science related classes, I find that I haven no problem asking for clarification or help when I don’t understand something. I think this is because of the way I think, but it works out great for me in those classes. I want to bring that skill into my life in other regards and be able to ask for help and such in any situation.

 

Thank you for coming to my mPOL.

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An Average Post About a Winter Exhibition

Hello, and welcome back to my blog, today we’re going to talk about our most recent event, the PLP Winter Exhibition. This event was pretty big because we were finally able to host it inside again. Unfortunately there was no food or drinks though.

The driving question this time was “How can we create a public memory of past wrongs so they are not repeated today?” This question mentions a “public memory” which refers to the circulation of recollections of members of a certain community as defined by Matthew Houdek and Kendall R. Phillips. In our case, the public memory is a memorial, which would refer to a place or structure created to commemorate or remember a significant event. During this project, we learned about 3 different events in Vancouver’s history where some form of discrimination occurred.

The first being the Komagata Maru, and event in history where the Canadian government issued a law called the Continuous journey act causing all sorts of trouble with a certain ship in Vancouver’s port.

The specifics on the event of the Komagata Maru can be found here, in my post about it.

The second event we learned about was the Chinese Oppression in BC. We focused most from the construction of the railways to the Second World War.

And last but certainly not least was the Japanese internment in BC during WWII. This was the topic of my groups project for the exhibition.

For each of these different events we went on a field trip to various areas to get first hand experience in memorials and culture of the affected groups. This way of learning really helped me personally because it gave me a personal connection to each of the events that not only helped me remember some information on each one, but also helped me understand what made a successful memorial because I could take on the role as spectator. For example I found the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen gardens where you went to new areas often to be an much more enjoyable experience than the first half of the Nikkei Cultural centre where it was almost exclusively writing on the wall.

The Winter Exhibition. Oh boy. This was an experience. Now the way I’m talking about it might make it sound terrible, but it really wasn’t all that bad. We had the room arranged so each group got a 6th of the room’s space. We had a corner halfway through the visitors journey. During the exhibition I noticed that our text based way of explaining our project only worked for a handful of people.

Our project was on the Japanese internment during WWII, we decided to make a statue that reflected a shadow onto a large wall at night, signifying the large part of life the Japanese Canadian parents had to keep in the shadows, hidden from their children so they could live a happy life.

This was the statue we made. It doesn’t specifically depict anything, except for a hard working Japanese Canadian. To my group it looked like a farmer or a soldier but it could look like something completely different to you. But the thing they most all have in common is that they work hard and push through tough times.

Earlier I mentioned that out text based descriptions didn’t really work for most people. This is probably because they weren’t interested or they figured it wasn’t important. We tried to circumvent this problem during the exhibition with some improv changes to our pitch where we would tell the visitor that the may not have to read the first 2 paragraphs because we were placed after the other Japanese Internment group. We explained it by saying the other group likely other already explained the content. This is the kind of place we needed to use our teamwork skills. This is because not only did we have to make changes midway through our exhibition we also needed to make sure everyone knew what they were going to say. Another part of the teamwork part we didn’t do too well was communicating outside of school. We were using an iMessage group chat to message each other about the project but most of the time it went unused and we failed to communicate some extra ideas that may have made the final cut.

 

Now this exhibition may have seemed pretty laid back so far, but the was a vote going on between each team from each event. Now in my group I don’t think we were too concerned with the votes, and I think it was better that way. But the results of the voting were clearly biased, but when the votes were counted we found that probably about 60% of the ballots all voted for the first option from each category. This is probably something like what this article is talking about. Now I can still hold my pride high and say that we would have won it if not for the poorly designed ballots I think that we could have presented our project a lot better. I think the biggest culprit of our democratic failure was our large amounts of text. If we had spent some more time refining the paragraphs and making them look slightly less intimidating then filled in the blanks ourselves when the visitor asked a question we could have had many more votes.

 

If I were to pitch this to a city hall or propose it as a real monument I would most likely not change much about our pitch. I’m proud of the way we explained the metaphoric value of the shadow and the interpretations of the mysterious figure at the same time and think it might even have a chance of being a real thing. But I don’t think thats going to happen. I have better things to do with my life like binging series upon series on Netflix.

To give credit where credit is due, this was my group, unfortunately I didn’t come up with this whole thing myself, and I owe it to my team members: Sophia, Josh, and last (and maybe least? Just kidding) Nate.

Finally, we come full circle and I get to answer the driving question. “How can we create a public memory of past wrongs so they are not repeated today?” And I think that the best answer I can give to that is to choose the right event for the job. You will always want to take something local, or something the people you need or want to affect will all associate with. It gives them the kind of sense that they have experienced it or if they have a distant relative that experienced the event they will care more or be more interested in general.

 

Thanks for coming along with me on my extra long rant today, peace

Keenan

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An average post about a weird exhibition

So far, 2020 has been a train wreck. And we need to keep on moving despite that, and this was one of things that came from that.

Spring Exhibition 2020

This exhibition was different, there’s no question there. And for a while, there was no ideas for how to make the exhibition happen. Then, we started using Zoom for online classes and began learning all the great features it has. Anyway, onto the explanation of my groups project/s

When we were told that the exhibition would be held on zoom, we were all confused. But we didn’t have to worry too much, because our amazing teachers were there for us! They had a plan set up and if we got stuck on something they gave us some ideas to kick start our brains.

Anyway we were given a choice of the 14 UN’s sustainability goals. Although my group was focused on water (goals 6 and 14) my project was more about goal 12. Goal 12 was about responsible consumption.

My project idea was a more sustainable shower head to reduce water waste. My product was designed for most people around the world who I’ve in areas with accessible fresh water who want to be more sustainable with no extra effort on their part. Just put on the shower head and your saving water!

Here’s a rough idea of what the product would look like.

Our preparations for the exhibition were all over the place. We were struggling at the beginning for inspiration then we thought of some small ideas for the presentation of our projects and they just kept rolling out. We decided on having a short quiz in which we would ask questions regarding the specific problems we were addressing with our products. But before that, we needed an introduction, and what better way to start off a presentation about water than swimming onto camera! We had an intro to the problems with the sustainability goals our group worked on and an outro saying some things you can do to help the issues yourself.

 

I hope that you reading this will take steps in the future or already are taking steps to prevent ocean pollution, water waste, and sanitization issues around the world. Until next year!

Keenan

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An average post about the winter exhibition

Hey again! It’s been a while since I posted but lest get into this explanation! In short the winter exhibition is an event for everyone in PLP to participate in a themed 2 hour showcase of whatever product you created. I made a possible design for a practical lightsaber for every day use (this year was Star Wars themed). To make this product though, we had to go through the L.A.U.N.C.H cycle.

 

The first thing that you have to do in this cycle isn’t go to the l phase. It’s actually that you have to find a question that you want to answer at the end of this project. My question was “how might we design a practical lightsaber for everyday use?”.

The first phase is L the L means Look, Listen, and Learn. This mean to look into, and learn more about the question that you want to answer, for example if I were to make a lightsaber design (like I did) I would do research on lightsaber designs and find practical ones that could be re-created in real life.

 

The second phase (A) means “ask tons of questions” in this phase you ask questions about your question or how you might make your product work. On my project I might have asked “how scientifically accurate is the lightsaber?” Or something to that effect.

In the third phase (the U phase) was all about understanding the problem or process. This meant trying to understand your question to the best of your ability and really start thinking about what your product is going to look like.

The fourth phase (N) is the one where you brainstorm a bunch of ideas for a final product and finally choose one. I might have had “investigate why blaster bolts bounce off of lightsabers and if it is scientifically accurate”.

This is an illustration of what happens in this phase

The fifth and second last phase was the C phase. The c phase was where you created your first physical prototype. This was mine!

Here’s a photo of the first prototype that I made in an app called shapr 3D

In the final phase (the H phase) we looked what was wrong and right with our first prototype and fixed the mistakes and improved on the good points. And example of this for me was that my first prototype was very uncomfortable to hold, so, I fixed that.

This is an image of the revised prototype that I created (also in shapr 3D)

 

Now that I’ve told you about the launch cycle and what I did with it, I can tell you about the exhibition! The exhibition was a great time all around. We got to show everyone there (a few hundred people) what we had created over the past few months. All the students at the exhibition had their own project similar to mine. We were split up in the school into multiple planets. There was Endor Tatooine (the best) the Death Star, and Hoth. I was on Tatooine as you probably already guessed. During the prep week leading up to the exhibition we tried to make our “planet” as much like the actual one in the Star Wars movies As much as possible For example we brought in heaters to make our room hotter (like a desert planet would be).

The day of the the exhibition was definitely the most hectic. We were all over the place trying to make our area look the best it could look. We even brought food! The food at the exhibition was all based off of something from Star Wars. for example I brought in a drink (cream soda) but told everyone it was a drink from Star Wars called bantha-blood-fizz. Overall the experience was great so maybe I wont be as nervous for it next year!

Here are some curricular competencies used in this project

Innovative thinker: this competency is proof of you using many sources to complete and verify your data and product. I think that I used many sources to find the information and tools that I needed to complete this project.

Computational thinker: this competency s all about the strategies you used to learn most effectively. I think that I used lots of strategies some more effective than others but I still used many.

Creative communicator: this final competency was all about showing your creativity in a creative way. I think that I’ve used many ways to show my creativity in this project and am proud of the way it turned out.

 

This is the last section of this post! Before I go I figured I’d show you my LAUNCH journal. This was something that we did while going through the phases to remember what we did.

 

 

Here’s a link to my laser maze project that was also at the winter exhibition [click here]. Byeee!!

 

Keenan

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An Average Post About Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Avatar

Literary Criticism: Macbeth Act 2, Scene 1 - Bianca Montagnese

Despite being written over 400 years ago, Macbeth remains a timeless and powerful work that continues to be performed and studied around the world. Its themes of power, ambition, and guilt are just as relevant today as they were in Shakespeare’s time, and its enduring popularity is a testament to its enduring appeal.

During this project, we read and analyzed the play “Macbeth” with the objective of determining how Shakespeare is still relevant today using the core themes of the play. We learned about the people of the time, as well as the beliefs of the time. One of these beliefs was in an absolute world order, which is represented by this graphic.

I found that, if I believed in this absolute order, the play would be much more interesting, which is almost identical to media we in our modern era where we enjoy watching movies and shows about people breaking norms of all kinds.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth and James Cameron’s Avatar both explore the theme of the corrupting influence of power. In Macbeth, the character of Macbeth is initially a noble and brave warrior, but as he becomes more powerful, his ambition consumes him and he becomes willing to do whatever it takes to hold onto that power, even if it means committing horrific deeds. Similarly, in Avatar, the human characters, driven by their desire for resources and power, seek to exploit and destroy the alien world of Pandora and its inhabitants. Both stories show how power can corrupt and lead individuals to make selfish and destructive decisions.

Both Macbeth and Avatar also explore the theme of guilt and the consequences of one’s actions. Throughout the play, Macbeth is haunted by the ghosts of those he has killed and is consumed by guilt as he becomes more isolated from the people he once cared about. In Avatar, the main character Jake Sully initially goes along with the humans’ plans to exploit Pandora, but eventually comes to understand the harm they are causing and feels guilt for his role in it. Both stories show how guilt can drive individuals to try to right their wrongs and make amends for their actions.

The themes of power, ambition, and guilt in both Macbeth and Avatar demonstrate how these issues continue to be relevant and impactful in modern society. Both stories serve as cautionary tales about the dangers of unchecked ambition and the importance of considering the consequences of one’s actions.

At the winter exhibition this year, our class presented our modern adapted version of one of the scenes from Macbeth, while focusing on one of the themes that we identified in both Avatar and Macbeth. I chose act II scene I.

This performance was rather disappointing to me, as I had a great story that I wanted to portray to the audience, but I felt that the lack of props and time really restricted my ability to set the scene for my performance and show the audience my story.

If you really want to watch my performance, it’s attached below.

Another reason for this being a FAIL in my book was the lack of preparation that I gave myself. for this final performance of the project, I found that if I were to do this sort of thing again I would need to think much more about the performance from the audience’s point of view, which was where I found this play to be at its weakest.

My story anyway, was about a playwright in England, who worked under a famous man known as Shakespeare. Our main character, Quakespeare, heard from a fortuneteller that he was going to become great. While fully believing in this prophecy of sorts, he became impatient. He wanted to become great right at that moment, so he decided he would kill his famous superior and as second in line at the theatre, take it over in all its glory. When my scene starts, Quakespeare has just left his home to enact his plan on the highly dedicated Shakespeare who was staying at his theatre late to finish writing his newest masterpiece. While making his way to the theatre, Quakespeare runs into one of the actors from their theatre, and they exchange a few words as seen in the video above. Our characters take their leave and Quakespeare makes a short speech before going to murder Shakespeare, and the scene ends.

The timeless themes in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, such as power, ambition, and guilt, reveal a lot about our society today.

One of the main themes in the play is the corrupting influence of power. Macbeth starts off as a noble and brave warrior, but as he becomes more powerful, his ambition consumes him and he becomes willing to do whatever it takes to hold onto that power, even if it means committing horrible actions. This theme is still relevant today, as we see examples of people in positions of power acting corruptly or abusing their power for personal gain.

The theme of ambition is also timeless, as it is human nature to desire success and to strive for more. However, Macbeth’s ambition ultimately leads to his downfall, as he becomes consumed by his desire for power and lets it consume him. This serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked ambition and the importance of maintaining a sense of morality.

Finally, the theme of guilt and the consequences of one’s actions is also timeless. In the play, Macbeth is haunted by the ghosts of those he has killed and is consumed by guilt as he becomes more isolated from the people he once cared about. This theme is relevant today, as we see the importance of taking responsibility for our actions and the consequences that can come from not doing so.

Overall, the timeless themes in Macbeth reveal a lot about the human condition and the dangers of unchecked ambition, the corrupting influence of power, and the importance of taking responsibility for one’s actions.

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An Average Post About Impact

Hello and welcome to the exciting final post of this school year. This post will be about our humanities project that was showcased at the PLP spring exhibition, titled “Cray Cray Yay Yay”.

This project had us find someone we were interested in on the north shore from the past or present time that has had or will have an impact on North Vancouver. My choice of person was Alfred Wallace, who was an important figure in the development of North Vancouver.

Here you can see my short write up that was on my table at the exhibition.

The goal of this project was to research and share your impact maker’s importance at the spring exhibition where we invited parents as well as the impact maker themselves, or if they were no longer alive we invited someone close to our impact maker. If you took the time to read my brief explanation of my impact maker above, you would know that Alfred Wallace was the founder of Burrard Dry Dock, which was a massive dry dock in Burrard Inlet. The person that I invited to the exhibition was Paul Hebson, who is the VP and GM of the Vancouver Drydock Co. which is owned by Seaspan and is located partially on the land that Wallace’s drydock was located, where the original drydock was several times larger than the current drydock. This is not just because the land in North Vancouver, especially on the waterfront. The other reason for the drydock being so much smaller nowadays is because of the use case for the drydock. Back when the Wallace family owned the drydock, mostly in the war times like WWI and II, the docks were used to construct navy ships very quickly, and navy boats being as big as they are, they needed a lot of space to be worked on. But that’s not it, because of the efficiency of the drydock, they were able to construct multiple ships at the same time.

Here you can see my portrait, which depicts Alfred Wallace. You can probably spot some of the important decisions I had to make while creating this portrait. The first and most obvious one, the face, or lack thereof. This decision was the start of my thought process for the portrait because as hard as I searched, there are no recorded photos of Wallace (probably due to the lack of cameras during his lifetime). This decision was also reinforced by the fact that Wallace is mostly known for the boats that were produced at his drydock rather than his person. That is the next important part of this drawing. The silhouette is made up of boats because of hit boat building reputation, and each boat was chosen because they were very similar to or the same model as the ships that were built on Wallace’s drydock (the Queen of Tsawwassen was one of them). The last important choice that you might notice in this video is that the water is a somewhat odd colour. This was done to make the scene look like a storm, indicating the hard times that Wallace went through throughout his life, especially WWI.

Presenting this at the exhibition was a lot of fun because I got to tell everyone about the cool things that I learned not just about Alfred Wallace, but also about the development of the North Shore as well as how drydocks work thanks to my tour of the drydocks.

 

Thanks for reading this far!

Later!