Hello and welcome or welcome back to my blog!

Today I am going to be talking about my first field study with PLP! Yes despite all odds, we went on a trip! This trip was to Loon Lake. In this post, I will be reflecting on the whole experience, including photos, and a recap of all of the things we did.

Read more →

Hello and welcome or welcome back to my blog!

Recently in class, we have been doing a poetry unit! The driving question for this project was “How might I construct text that shows who I am right now?” During this project, we focused on al, things poetry. From how to read poetry, to how to present it well, we really learned it all.

Read more →

Hello and welcome or welcome back to my blog!

Todays post is going to be for my mPOL. mPOL stands for mid year presentation of learning. You basically present your learning to a teacher and your parents. This post will be me going through and reflecting on my learning. I am going to be covering maker, scimatics and humanities. I will tell you what I think I did well at, and what I didn’t do well at. 

“You don’t learn from experience, you learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

Before we start our presentation, we must take the POL declaration. 

“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.”

This semester, there were some things that I was good at, and some things that I definitely could have done better. Here are some examples from each subject.

HUMANITIES

Humanities. A mix of both social studies and English. This semester, we had to do 3 different projects. They were: Medium is the Message, The outsiders, and Working with Words. Medium is the Message was our first project. We were taught about advertising techniques, how advertisements are created and more. We even had to make an advertisement for a real business in our community! This project was fun but also a little stressful. This was because the stress of having to send our final advertisment to the owner of the business was looming over our heads while we tried to finish our group ad. I think we could have worked on our teamwork skills a little bit better, but table 3 mafia still stands to be one of the best groups that I have worked with! If you want to lean more about this project, click here. 

This was my personal add that I made for the business.

The outsiders was our second project. I liked this one a bit more, because I had sort of gotten used to PLP. We had to read the book The Outsiders, and create things like a tableaux, a movie poster, and a movie trailer for the outsiders in 2021! This project was a little bit easier for me, because a lot of this project was done in a group with people that I was used to, and so we would just laugh and joke around, and it was never really that aquard. I wasnt ever really stressed during this project, because we had a lot of time to get things done. The only stressful part was probably when we had to present our tableaux at the winter exhibition. This was stressful because we had to set up all of our stuff in 3 hours. We had to make an American flag last minute, remember scripts, and so much more. Although it was stressful, it thought me how to stay calm under pressure, and I wouldn’t take back that experience. This project helped me with my communication skills, because I had to talk to an audience before we presented our tableaux. It also taught me what the exhibitions are like, and how to make rescissions on the fly. If you would like to hear more about this project, click here.

here is my group and I after the exhibition.

Working with words was the most recent humanities project. I really struggled with this project. I didn’t finish some of my poems on time, and I am still struggling with finishing my poetry book. This project was also fun though. We got to play around with different types of poems, and we also got a new group to work with every class. This meant that we got to talk with different people every single time. On the last day of the project, we got into groups and randomly selected the type of poem that our group had to make. We had 20 minutes. Then we combined with another group, and then created one big great poem. We presented those poems and some self portrait poems that some people volunteered to read. 

Throughout the semester, I think my ability to turn in my work in on time went from ok to good, then to me still struggling now to turn things in.

SCIMATICS

Scimatics is a mix of science and math. This semester, we had to complete three projects. They were: Fractions of your time, Tectonic Chances and Laser Laws. Fractions of your time was the first project. This was when we were still getting the hang of being in PLP, and using our iPads. This project was fairly easy, with not a lot of stressful parts. We were asked to create a numbers document that had multiple columns. In those columns, we had different activities listed, and the days if the week. The activities had things like: ipad time for school, youtube, swimming, tiktok and more. We were also asked to create pie charts that compared one activity to another.  This project was a good introduction to scimatics for me, because we did some math, but then we also learned how to use notability, numbers, and this also helped with learning how to navigate basecamp and Showbie. If you would like to learn more about this project, click here.

The second project was tectonic chances. We had to create a board game that involved probability. Before this project, I didn’t realize that probability is literally everywhere. Rolling a dice? Probability. Pulling a card from a deck of cards? Probability. Spinning a spinner? Probability. It is literally everywhere! We also had to do a lot of work in the textbook to learn about plate tectonics and how they are formed, how they move and more. This part was a little bit of a struggle for me because I am not a fan of the building knowledge section of the project, because I don’t like just doing workbooks, I like creating things. Since I didnt have much motivation to finish the workbooks, I handed them in late but at least I got the work done. I was very on task most of the time during this project because my partner Sydney and I tried to get it done quickly while still making our project look good. If you would like to read more about this project, click here.

here is my finished board game.

The last project of the semester was Laser Laws. This was probably the project that I did the worst in. At the start, when we were doing the science part of the building knowledge, I didn’t do the first package, then did most of the other ones. Then, when we got to the math building knowledge, I did about half of what I was supposed to do in total. The main part of the project was building the laser display. At the start, when we were making the shape, some group members were not doing work, and only 3 people ended up doing all of the calculations. When we got to building the actual laser display, more people pitched in and helped. This part was the most fun, because we were creating things, and our project was the only with a roof on it. I think that it looked really cool. I think that I should try to complete all of my scimatics work on time, and contribute more to the project. If you want to learn more about this project, click here. 

Here is a photo of the finished laser display.

MAKER

For this semester, we did 3 projects. They were: Becoming a PLP Learner, constructing creative communication, and the geek out blogging challenge. Becoming a PLP learner was a project all about us. We learned to use a ton of apps on our iPads, along with making various things like a memoji with a laptop that had stickers, a user manual, and a physical representation of how we worked in a team. We also did a thing called the BLJ or big life journal. The user manual was written in 3rd person, and it included information about us. How to contact us, What we do outside of school, and what to do for specific situations. The physical representation had to be made out of specific things from a specific bucket. We also had a limit. Example – one index card, one plastic bag, 3 pipe cleaners, 10cm of tape. Mine was a campfire. During this project, I turned in my work on time most of the time, but sometimes I would forget. If you want to learn more about this project, click here.

Here is my finished laptop memoji.

Constructing creative communication was our second project. We were split into two groups, Carr and Herzog, and did 5 classes with that group (I was in Carr). Then the Carr group switched with the Herzog group, and Herzog became Carr. Carr was the drawing group. We learned a lot of different techniques, and even met graphic designer Chloe Divine. While with Carr, I found that I got homework for Carr done fairly easily, because I really like drawing, even if I am terrible at it. I find that it is something that I can do to distract me when I am really bored. Herzog was the photography group. We learned a ton of different techniques to take awesome photos. We also learned how to use the app Snapseed to edit our photos. I found that it was more difficult to get homework done for the Herzog group. I still don’t fully know why, but it might be that I didn’t like photography as much, or I just wasn’t very motivated. One thing that this project did teach me was all of the different Things that you can do with your Apple Pencil and your camera. This project also taught me how to use multiple different apps, and unlock some new skills. If you would like to learn more about this project, click here.

Here is my favourite photo that I took from the Herzog group.

Geek out blog challenge and Destination Imagination were the last project that we did for maker in the 2021/22 school year. We were asked to write four blog posts on a topic of our choice. This was supposed to be something that we were passionate about, and for me the that topic was crochet. This was a fairly easy for me because I was writing about something that I loved. You may be wondering what Destination Imagination or DI is. It is a competition where groups of up to seven people come up with a challenge solution. While working on our geek out challenge, we were also brainstorming ideas for our challenge solution. I can’t say much, but we really needed to be more productive during the time we were given to plan for DI, because we don’t have much more class time to work on it, and we still have to do so, so much more. I think that this should be a wake up call to my group, because we need to work on better communication skills, and we really need to plan more meetings, even if not all members are present. 

Throughout this semester, one thing that became clear to me was that I really need to work on my focus skills, and I need to work on motivating myself to get things done on time. I think that having a schedule would be helpful for this. I also think that I need to work on communicating my ideas to my group members, and I think that my whole group needs to work on communication more with each other, so we can get things done efficiently and effectively. 

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading, and I will see you in the next post!

Byeee

-Keira

Hello and welcome or welcome back to my blog!
Today I am going to be answering some commonly asked questions I get about crochet. Some of these are questions that my friends have asked me, and some are questions that I think people might have.

How did you start crocheting?

I started crocheting by watching a two hour youtube video. This was the only video that I watched, and although it taught me quite a few techniques, I think that I should have also found a video that thought me how to do some other basic stitches.

How long does it take you to make things?

This depends on what you are crocheting and how big or small it is. The quickest thing I have made that actually looked good was around 20 minutes. Other projects can take an hour, a day, a week, or a month. Once again, it all depends on what you are crocheting and the size.

Can you bring your crochet hook on an airplane?

Believe it or not, you actually can! I tested this when I went to Edmonton over winter break. Whenever I go through airport security, something always happens, from the random check to accidentally putting a bottle of conditioner in my carry on. I was nervous that they wouldn’t let me through with it (the crochet hook), so I put it in my toiletries bag so that they could see it.

What do you need to start crocheting?

All you need is a ball of yarn or wool, a crochet hook, scissors, and something to teach you, weather it is a person or a youtube video. To make sure your crochet hook it the right size, check the ball of wool or yarn, and there should be a little image with a crochet hook, and a number. On the packaging of crochet hooks, it says the size.

That’s all for now!
Thanks for reading!
bye!