Hello and welcome back to another year of PLP! Surprisingly, I’m still here they couldn’t get rid of me. Our first humanities project was about why the world needs more Canada (why is our country awesome). This was prefaced with: the rest of your projects will be all about bashing Canada so we thought we’d start with something positive. This project was joined with maker so we wrote essays that we later turned into podcasts that you can listen to here:

During September we mostly focused on building our knowledge in English, how Canada presents itself on the world stage and current events in general. I really liked how we built our knowledge in a variety of ways because if we had just focused on one of these things I would have been bored out of my mind.

I’m an English lover. It’s always been a class I really enjoy so I was really excited when we had some separate days just for it as humanities normally combines the two. We analyzed a bunch of short stories and talked about them together. My favourite was Bread by Margret Atwood as I’ve read her work before. Something about her work makes you find a new meaning in a piece every time you read it. Having this in the project made me a lot more interested in it, meaning I put in a lot more effort than I would have otherwise.
Here’s how I dissected bread:

We also focused on current events. We were assigned to watch the national. This was surprisingly not as boring as I thought it would be (though my mum was the most excited about this). We also led thinking Thursday discussions where we would bring in our favourite story from the week and discuss it with a random group. Throughout the discussion process, I stayed very engaged, encouraging classmates to participate both when I was leading and when I was listening. I was prepared for the discussions because reliably watched the national. My own topic was new AI coming to hospitals in Toronto that lets healthcare workers. As I learn to live with ADHD (as in how I’m figuring out how to accommodate myself and find systems that work for me) I’ve realized that picking topics that I relate to helps me stay engaged and WANTING to learn more. I liked this because I’m looking into a career in healthcare and this could directly impact me later in my life!

The last piece of evidence I will touch on is the big one, the essay (or multi-paragraph composition). I struggled with outlining this because I was on a weekend trip and I thought I could outline it. I forgot that there is little to no cell service or wifi in the Cariboo so I ended up at the place I could get the best cell service. A tiny bench on the ranch we were staying on. Note: the Cariboo is cold in the evening in fall. At least I had a nice view.

My outline steered me wrong and if I had thought ahead and done it earlier I could have relaxed on this vacation. Luckily I did figure out how to get my essay working (I think) but I could have saved myself a lot of time by doing this organizer the right way the first time.

This project focused on the questioning core competency. I think I did really well with this because I am a person who is a questioner. Even to the point of why are we even doing this sometimes. I demonstrated this through the thinking Thursday’s especially.

Now, you’re probably wondering what my answer to the driving question is. I think it’s a complicated question. “Canada” is so broad with so many people with so many opinions that we’re unable to define as one thing that the world might need more of. If you think that all of Canada and the people that live in can be labeled as one thing, maybe relook at that because you’re probably stereotyping. When I look at my own topic (IEPs and Academic Accommodations) I think the world does need more Canada. This is one way we are ahead.  Canada is often thought of as a good country, and don’t get me wrong I think that’s true but we still have a lot of room to grow.  Overall, in many ways the world does need more Canada but in someways it doesn’t.

Overall I think this project went ok. It could have been better but I’m giving myself grace as it was the first one and I am still getting used to the linear system having 8 classes at once). I’ve had a lot of successes in this project and I know what I have to build on for the next one.
Keep an eye out for the related maker post!