Category: Humanity’s

Hi, welcome to my fourth weekly recap. This recap will be the second final recap for the greatest Canadian project.

Now onto what I learned this week. The majority of this week I spent editing and finalizing my podcast. What that taught me was how important it is to perfect transitions and clean cuts even though mine didn’t end up being perfect. Another thing that I learned working on my podcast is that sometimes things sound worse than they do when recording them and you have to get over that and figure things out. Other than the podcast this week we also watched a the greatest Canadian episode on Tommy Douglas. Watching this gave me a better understanding of storytelling especially the type of storytelling I would need for my podcast. I also learned about a very important part of Canadian history.

Overall this week was very productive I learned a lot. My favourite thing that I learned this week was probably about Tommy Douglas since I found that very intriguing.

What did I learn this week? This week I learned about my new project the greatest Canadian and my last project, project podcast. For my last project last week I learned about the editing process of making a podcast and the music creation process. For my new project, I learned about a 2004 show all about who the greatest Canadian was which was pretty intriguing. I also learned more about terry fox which was also pretty interesting. Finally, I learned about the details of our new project where we are going to have to make an episode of our podcast about who we think is the greatest Canadian. Overall I think this was a very productive week where I learned a lot.

Recently we did a massive project about ethical dimensions. The driving question for that project is How can we present past actions and decisions through images to help us make decisions of what is fair or unjust? For this blog post, what I’m going to be talking about what I think are the three most important milestones. Those milestones are 1, 2, and 4.

The first milestone I’m going to be talking about is milestone one what we had to do for milestone one was we had to find an event within the last 30 years involving indigenous peoples and write a one-page paper explaining the who, what, when, where, and why. For my paper, I talked about what was going on with the Wet’suwet’en barricades and protests. Overall this was an exciting assignment, which I enjoyed because I had already done some research into this topic since it was super interesting.

The second milestone I’m going to be talking about is milestone 2. What we had to do milestone two was we got our groups (mine was me and meg), then we had to pick a topic ours was the Doukhobors. The next step was to do a worksheet that we would fill with the research we had done on our subject. Overall this was a significant milestone that I think was very important because it helped build our understanding of our topic. It was just really interesting to learn more about the Doukhobors (they protested by running around nude).

The last milestone I’m going to be talking about is milestone 4. What we had to do for milestone four was after finishing the images, we had to present them to the class in the form of a keynote presentation. I could have done better in my presentation if I had practiced more. The reason I say that is because I was a little unsure what to say in my presentation, so I felt like I was Stalling in between my words. Other than that, I think we had a good presentation, and our images turned out well.

In conclusion, this was a very interesting project, and I enjoyed reading and learning about Louis Riel and the Doukhobors. If I were to do this project again, I probably would have had better communication with my partner. I would also have helped more with the images because I felt like it wasn’t enough just doing one image. Now finally, the competency’s connect and understand ethical dimensions. I think I meet the competency connect because, throughout the project, I looked at the textbooks and the graphic novel we read through other points of view to help me understand how other people and I understand the texts. I think I meet the competency Understand Ethical Dimensions because I have shown my ability to decide if actions and decisions of the past were fair or unjust. I showed this through my active role in the debate where the discussed if Louis Riel’s execution was just or unjust. I also demonstrated this competency through all of the writing we did about if he was a hero or villain.

Recently, we did the best project ever. That project was about memes and nationalism, but memes are more fun. You may be wondering what the goal of this project was. The driving question was: “How can we use current memes to comment on the significance and consequences of nationalism around the world?” now I got to admit that’s a pretty cool driving question.

Before we were able to make our memes and answer the driving question, we had to complete some milestones that would help us understand it. The three milestones I’m going to be talking about are milestone one, milestone three, and milestone five. I picked each of these milestones because I think each of them were vital parts of being able to complete this project.

One of the biggest reasons I thought milestone one was so important is because it explained what the project was going to be about and then gives you the ability to ask questions about the project that will help you understand it better. What we had to do for milestone one was fill out a form with all of the questions we had. Then in class, we discussed the answers to our questions. The final thing that was so great about this milestone was that we were introduced to our driving question.

The reason why I think milestone three is so important is that it was our first real try at making TikTok’s for school. For this project, we had to make TikTok’s in a small group that followed not just TikTok trends but also Dawkins’s definition of a meme. Just before I talk about the memes, we made I think it would be good if I explained what Dawkins’s definition of a meme was. Dawkin related how memes survive and change over time to natural selection. Now that you know Dawkins’s definition of a meme, let me tell you about the memes I ended up making. The first meme I made was inspired by a TikTok I had seen a few days earlier, and it was of me and my friend Angelo (here it is)

The second TikTok I made was also based off of a TikTok I had seen earlier for this TikTok I used the refresh rate effect to make a cool effect of me leaving the room. (here that meme is)

The final TikTok I made was based on probably one of the most well known TikTok’s in my opinion which is the how boys — how girls —. Ps there is a blog for this post that’s a lot more specific (Here it is)

The final milestone I’m going to be talking about is milestone five. What we had to do for milestone five was finally make our memes about nationalism. I made three memes with three very different formats. Those formats were me and the boys, sponge bob throwing paper in water, and Gru sign format. The reason I chose each of these formats is that I thought they were funny and I could effectively use then to send my message. Now I’m going to talk about each of the specific formats. The first format I’m going to be talking about is the me and the boy’s format. As you can see on the meme, it has the caption me and the boys splitting up Africa, and the image is of four people sitting at a table with a split up Africa on it. I think this meme answers the driving question because it shows how the colonists split up Africa without including them. This is further backed up by the political comic from the same time period that this was inspired by.

The next meme I’m going to be talking about is my Spongebob format meme. As you can see, instead of a normal meme where it’s a still image, this is a short video. That is because, for this project, we had to make one TikTok/video meme. I think this meme answers the driving questions because it shows how with little care, the colonists just took away the Africans rights.

The final meme is my Gru sign format meme. I think this meme answers the driving question because it shows how the Europeans taking over Canada was unexpected, especially because the natives were very peaceful.

In conclusion, I think that this was a very fun project and that I learned tons about nationalism and TikTok (which I had only used one before). Overall this was a great learning experience, and I hope we have more projects like it.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your teacher assigned you the task of making TikTok’s because that’s exactly what our teacher did? Before you start thinking what kind of teacher would give kids an assignment like that I would like to say that there’s more to the assignment than just memes. The reason we are studying memes is because they fit with Darwin’s theory of evolution. How do they fit into Darwin’s theory of evolution? Just like how animals evolve from natural selection so do memes. For example, memes get more popular people to copy them but when they copy them they put their own spin on them. So over time as people copy memes they can change into completely different memes. Now that you know why we made TikToks here they are 

The Mandalorian is an absolutely riveting show that I would recommend to any sci-fi fan. The reason why I recommend this show so highly, is because by the the time you finish the first episode you are hooked. This is because of the amazing characters, thrilling action scenes, and the beautifully crafted story.

The storyline follows Mando, a bounty hunter hired by a former head of the empire to capture some 55 year old creature. He ends up capturing it, and finds out (spoiler alert) it’s actually a young child. That young child is baby Yoda. He then gives baby Yoda to the man that hired him. later Mando decides that that was the wrong decision and breaks baby Yoda out. That sets us up for all of the adventures to come.

I like the characters so much because, not only is the main character (the Mandalorian aka Mando) amazing, so are the side and some throwaway characters. A good example of this is the throwaway character Mythoral from the first episode. The reason I think he is an example of a good throwaway character is because, even though we only see him for around ten minutes, he helps build upon our main character and provides helpful insights into where this show may go in the future. An example of a great side character is the child, or as he is known to the Internet, baby Yoda. I think baby yoda is a great example of a side character because he helps show the soft side of Mando, and he is basically the entire reason the events in this show take place. Now for the main character, the Mandalorian (aka Mando). I think Mando is a great main character because he’s intriguing, and has real depth. A good example of this is his back story, which at this point is mostly unknown, and that is the reason I think it’s so good. I think that’s a good thing because it adds a bit of mystery to his character and makes you come back to learn more.

Another thing that I love about the Mandalorian is the action. I love the action because it keeps you at the edge of your seat, even though you know Mando won’t die (because he’s the main character). A good example of this is the final scene from episode one where Mando and a bounty droid are trying to capture baby Yoda. They get in a battle with some guards. I like this scene specifically because it’s suspenseful, but there’s also some humour. I think this is because it was written by Jon Favreau, who also wrote Iron Man. That movie does some of the same things with action sequences as this movie.

In closing, I strongly recommend this show for any sci-fi fan or someone who just likes entertaining content. If you want to watch it, it’s available for streaming on Disney Plus today.