Being a student at Seycove Secondary School, I was gratefully given the decision to join the Performance Learning Program in my grade nine year. The Performance Learning Program is a program that integrates project based learning into the classroom, and utilizes iPads to immensely greaten our resources and learning abilities. With little to no hesitation in my mind as a young high school student, I signed up not knowing how significantly the program would alter my life. Throughout my first two full years in the program, I vastly improved my skills in writing, critical thinking, creating high quality video, speaking to strangers and large crowds, and a great deal more.
This pattern of learning has continued and expanded in the course of this year as we have been learning about the First World War through intelligently designed projects and assignments that can all be found on my blog. These projects and assignments required strong critical thinking, and left us with a greater understanding of the topic than what would be acquired in a standard English and social studies classroom. With the build up of all the learning achieved throughout the beginning of the year, a final project was soon to come. In December, we were assigned to create an immersive presentation to represent Canada’s growing identity as a nation before, throughout, and after the First World War. This presentation was to be completed in groups, and each group focused on a time frame within the war. The group had to prepare scripts and costumes, and had to create an interesting and realistic setting of their time frame for people to experience. This could all be done with ease due to the fact we had achieved previous in-depth learning.
My group focused on World War I, being in the muddy trenches and fearing death every day. I had been nominated by the group to guide the spectators through the experience, and did so acting as a General of the army. The spectators were extremely amazed by how intelligently every group had put together their experiences, and how they relayed a strong message. I strongly look forward to the future learning and experiences I will achieve in the next year.