Category: Uncategorized

Introduction: 

Welcome to another blog post! This time, I studied the Holocaust and the second world war, and read the book, “Maus” by Art Spiegleman. Going into this project, I already knew a lot about the Holocaust, and the whole time period for that matter, however, I learned a lot of new things through personal first person stories, documentaries, and a symposium. The driving question for the project was: “How can multi-modal communication enhance our ability to humanize and understand complex issues?”

History of Antisemitism:

To start this unit, my class learned a lot about the dark history of antisemitism. During one notable class, our teacher, Ms. Madsen, brought in one of her friends who is Jewish, and has family that lived through the Holocaust. She told her family’s story to us and it was a very effective way to learn. One key point I took away from this project is that stories help the process of learning a lot. Hearing this women talk about her family’s story was very helpful for me to picture what it looked like during the time, and what the traumatic consequences looked like for her and her family.

Symposium:

During the latter stages of this project, my class and I drove to UBC to attend a Holocaust symposium. It was a great experience for everyone who went, and we all learned a lot. There were intelligent professors and first and second hand survivors speaking about their experiences with the Holocaust. The courage it took some of these people to stand up in front of hundreds of spectators to talk about their experiences with the Holocaust is incredible and I am so greatful they took time out of their day to share with us. One highlight was a Jewish man named Dan Schubert who’s great grandmother lived through the Holocaust as a teenager. Schubert made a short film documentary called Martha, about his great grandmothers experiences in the Holocaust. There was also a first hand account from a women named Mariette Doduck who surviuved the Holocaust as a Jewish child. The symposium was a great experience and I took a lot away from it. 

Maus Essay: 

The final assignment of this project was to write an essay after reading the book “Maus”. Maus was a fantastic graphic novel that told the story of the Holocaust according to the author’s father, Valdek Spiegelman. The story was very intriguing and becuase it started years before the second world war, and worked its way to Valdek’s death. Our task was relatively simple. We wrote an essay about the book before starting the exhibiton tasks. This was the assignment I think I did least well on, because my focus was more aimed at the exhibition and BCFP.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this project a lot and I learned a lot of new things. The Holocaust is a very hard, sensitive, and dark topic to cover, however, through storytelling, and seeing in new and different perspectives, I was able to enjoy acquiring lots of new knowledge in this area.

Hello and welcome back to the last blog post of the year. To end the year for BCFP and Humanities, we had an exhibition project combining the two subjects. The driving question for the project was: How can multi-modal communication enhance our ability to humanize and understand complex issues?

Although the teachers added a lot of changes to the final product pretty close to the exhibition, I think we all did a really good job. The project was to be done in pairs so my friend Declan and I worked together. The upstanders we chose for our project were Paul Rusesabagina and Peter Bryce. We chose to make our station hotel themed because during the Rwandan genocide, Paul Rusesabagina housed over 1,200 victims who would have been killed in the streets, in his hotel. We chose to have our hotel site in File Hils, Ontario, becuase that is where Peter Bryce saved many Indigenous children through giving honest health checks at residential schools and demanding government action.

 

In my opinion, our station looked great. We had a cardboard hotel, a water jug, a candy bowl, Indigenous artifacts, and nice hotel lobby music playing from a speaker. On top of this, Declan and I were dressed nicely with formal pants, white shirts, blue ties, and Jordan’s for shoes. I think the appearance of ourselves and our station was fantastic, and we received many compliments for it. Once again, considering that we didn’t have as much time as usual to prepare for the exhibition, everyone in our PLP 11 class did a fantastic job presenting their projects to the public.

In conclusion, learning about our chosen upstanders and their roles in history was inspiring and fascinating. Knowing that one person can save so many lives is incredible. Next exhibition, I hope to do a little more research and gathering of information becuase there were times leading up to this exhibition where we were scrambling and needing to do a lot of work in a little bit of time. Hopefully next time we get earlier notice, but after this exhibiton, my class and I have proved that we are well capable of producing good quality work for the eye’s of the public with not much notice at all. Even the following day with the non PLP BCFP class, Declan and I made improvements and enjoyed presenting our project to people even more. Although two back to back exhibiton days can be stressful, I was completely fine with it, and enjoyed presenting to my peers and teachers. Next year I aim to better when it comes to presenting information at an exhibition, however this year I think my partner and I did pretty well all around.

tPOL 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.”

Introduction:

Over the last school year I completed many assignments and projects that proved my ability as a learner. Today, I hope to show this ability, while answering the driving question:

How can you showcase evidence to demonstrate that PLP Success Behaviours have prepared you to advance to the next grade?

Statement of Learning Intent:

This year I would like to grow in as many areas as possible. Being new to PLP, I will have a lot to learn in all areas over the course of this year which is great,
however, there are definitely certain skill sets that I already know I need to work on. The first area of growth I have in mind for is participation. Usually even if I
have something to say or I know the answer to a particular question I don’t normally raise my hand. I know that participation is a good way to learn because it
keeps you engaged in the topic. Another area I would like to improve in this year is communication. Since I am new to PLP, I don’t know how to communicate as
well as others with technology. I hope to improve in the area by asking people to show me, and learn on my own. I am excited to start learning in PLP this year.

Success Behaviours:

• Agency
• Communication and Collaboration
• Engagement

Agency: 

Throughout the school year, my agency skills were highlighted quite a bit. I presented my evidence of agency best in the Manhattan Project in the fall. For this project, I was fortunate enough to get to fly to New Mexico with my classmates and teachers to learn about the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. It was a fantastic learning experience for everyone who went and did not disappoint. When we were back at home working on our final products with our groups, I showed agency in taking and offering feedback, making revisions. The final product for this project was to make a digital book about the Manhattan Project, and my group had the idea of making our’s like it was Oppenheimer’s journal. While making our book, I was the designated editor with the job also of making my own chapter. I showed my agency skills when I made the revisions and feedback my peers gave to me, while also giving them feedback too. It also took lots of agency to plan out what we would do in New Mexico to contribute to our peers back at home. We had to plan out what shots we take for when we went to museums and historic sites.Overall, this was a great project to start the year, and my group achieved a mark of proficiency.

Another time I showcased my agency skills was in our Fear Factor project. I loved learning about the cold war this year, so I was excited to hear that we would do two major projects on this topic to display our learning. I displayed my agency skills when we were instructed to use a Zettlekasten to organize our work. Using a Zettlekasten was extremely helpful and is something I will use in future references. I displayed my ability to keep and show my evidence of learning throughout the long project when I  did this.

Communication and Collaboration:

Throughout the whole year in PLP 11, I can confidently say that I was a trusted, reliable team member when working in groups. I showed this in the Manhattan Project in the fall, but also in the Who Cares and Why Bother? project in the spring. Although Canadian politics is a very confusing and complicated system, I now understand it much better, in result of this project. I displayed my communication and collaboration skills when I worked with my group because just like before, in the Manhattan Project, whatever task I was given by my group, I completed in a timely matter, to the best of my ability. My group chose to make our final product in a form of a live action video, in which we acted out the “Behind the scenes” of Canadian elections. I researched, edited, revised, and played the part of whatever my group needed. I think this year I did a great job showing my communication and collaboration skills.

Engagement

In Humanities and BCFP this school year, engagement was not my sharpest knife. Listening to my teachers and peers has always been something I have struggled with, however I tried my best. In the Fear Factor project, overall I think I did well, however there were many times where I would catch myself staring into space, thinking about other things, or just not being able to fully listen to my teacher. There were some classes where we would have a lecture from a teacher, or watch an hour long informative video where I would lose concentration often, and in result not be able to contribute to the class and participate. This is definitely something I will continue to work on, carrying on. Although I have had trouble in this realm, I did find some success when taking notes while watching the Cold War documentary, and participating in the socratic seminars. In conclusion, I will continue to aim to get better at this skill.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, this year went well. Although it got a bit hectic toward the middle/end, I learned so much in each class, and growed a lot as a learner. Moving forward, next year in PLP, I will aim more of my focus on engagement and making sure I participate more in class. It will help me tremendously in the long run, and improve my current work. I will also shift my focus onto being prepared for school everyday, by reviewing each days notes and work before I go to school, attend tutorial sessions more often, and ask the teachers for support when I don’t understand something. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my tPOL, and have a nice day.

Introduction:

Welcome back to another blog post, and this time, again, we go back to the 1940’s to study the cold war. The driving question of the whole unit was: How has fear been used as a political, defensive, and cultural tool to shape our society? However, for our final product of the project, we got to make our own driving question, and mine was: How did nuclear weapons influence government and political decisions?

Zettlekasten

One of the main ways we learned things this unit, was by keeping a Zettlekasten, which contains fleeting, permanent, and literature notes. Every video we watched or book we read for this project was documented in our Zettlekasten, and were handy to go back to for reference. Zettlekastens are so good to have because of how organized the format of it is, and how all your information is in a unique, but effective style, and in one place, labeled. Having a Zettlekasten helped me quite a bit throughout this unit, and is definitely something I will use moving on.

The Final Product

The way I displayed my learning in this project, was by making an informative video, to answer the driving question I made. I chose to make a video because this year I have improved a lot with my editing and film making skills. I used a program I am familiar with, Capcut, to make an 8 minute video with images and videos relating to my topic, with me narrating the whole time. I enjoyed making the video and researching for it, since the cold war is such an interesting time period and topic. Some of the sources that helped me the most, were the Netflix documentary series: Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War. We watched some of these long episodes in class, and took notes. While completing my final product, I kept on going back to information I learned from this documentary series. The people interviewed, and facts displayed, were really helpful to include in my own project, and made me glad that I took so many notes and remembered to go back and watch those episodes. Other sources included Wikipedia, and World History Encyclopedia, that gave much information to work off of. My video is now available on youtube right here

Answer to the Driving Question

Through completing this project I have had much time to think about the driving project and how it can be answered. In case you forgot, the driving question is: How has fear been used as a political, defensive, and cultural tool to shape our society? My answer is that fear has been a multifaceted force in shaping societies, serving as a political, defensive, and cultural tool. Politically, fear has been used by leaders to control populations, enforce law, and gain respect from others. It can be used to justify military actions, or influence policy decisions. Defensively, fear prompts individuals and societies to take precautions against threats, such as McCarthyism and the Red Scare, in the United States. Culturally, fear can start social problems by uniting groups against perceived threats and influencing norms and values. Since the dawn of time, fear has been used in all kinds of ways, and is highlighted in the cold war. I am glad I got to learn about this time period and conflict because of how interesting it is, and I now walk away from this project with so many more skills learned and information taken in than before.

Welcome to another blog post and the driving question for this project was: How do we convince young people that they should vote? To demonstrate our learning, we had a group project involving four people where we made a video about the Canadian Government structure.

Lord of the Flies

The first task we did in this project, was read the classic book, Lord of the Flies. Since it is such a thoughtful and in depth book, there was a lot to talk about in class discussions. This book was great to kickoff a unit about politics because it has so many metaphors and similarities with the real world of politics.

Political Issues for Young People

The next step we took in this unit was to look at some political issues that affect us young people. We looked into which Canadian political parties favoured our certain opinions and ideals and got us thinking about which party we would want to vote for.

Canadian Government 101

For the main part of this project, we were assigned, in groups, to make an informative video about the Canadian government structure. My group’s video was mostly a live action with each of us playing different parts, showing the behind the scenes of voting, and the stages of the election. After we put our video together, the next stage of the project was to make a presentation in which we made a highly engaging introduction that I wrote, an informative part for structure in the middle, and a trivial kahoot quiz.

government vid 3

Overall, this was a really good project, and if more young people saw my group’s presentation, I would like to think that it would definitely encourage them to vote when they come of age. Completing this project and learning this unit gave me a lot of new, different perspectives, and broadened my knowledge of Canadian politics and government structure.

Who cares and why bother? My answer to this question is simply because young people are so clearly affected by many political issues that could possibly be fixed or changed, depending on who they, alongside many other likeminded individuals vote for. Voting is so important for young people because, after all, it is how we get our voices and opinions heard in this very busy and loud world.

Hello and welcome back to another blog post. The project we did this time was called “The Great Debaters” where we picked a topic that interested us, and debated someone on it. This was very fun project to do because I got to debate my friend Declan on the topic, “Be it resolved that money can buy happiness.” I argued the affirmative and Declan argued the negative.

You can watch the full debate here ⬇️

Driving Question: How can we use a formal debate to convince an audience we’re right?

The Best Mountain Ever

The first assignment within this project was convincing paragraph with the prompt of: “The best ____ ever” I chose to write about Whistler being the best mountain ever. We worked on this assignment for a few weeks working on proper paragraph structure, adding things that evoked ethos and pathos, and making the piece as convincing as possible.

Research Page

The next part of this project was to produce a research page. It was to consist of a few reliable sources that we could get information from for our debates. I came across a few articles with important studies and a very good informative Youtube video. The purpose of this research page was to make sure we were getting real facts and studies through trustable sources.

Final Draft

The next stage of this project was to finalize your speeches. I wrote my opening statements, potential rebuttal points, and final remarks. After a couple weeks of perfecting and getting feedback on my work, it was time to start practicing the oral part of this project. As the exhibition day got closer, I kept on reviewing and practicing delivering my debate. When the day itself came, I did my best against my opponent, but fell short in at the very end.

Answer to the Driving Question:

In conclusion, you can use a formal debate to convince an audience you’re right by researching a topic very thoroughly, being prepared to listen to your opponent and critically think about a subject, and lastly, being confident enough in yourself and  your reasoning.

Welcome to my first official blog post. As a new PLP student, there couldn’t have been a warmer welcome than 9 long days in New Mexico. Overall, this project has been an excellent experience that I will definitely never forget. From getting to stand on the test site of the first nuclear bomb, to venturing hundreds of feet down the largest cavern in America, this PLP project could be defined as a life changing expedition for my fellow classmates, teachers and I, but at the same time a legendary, top-notch learning experience that not many other students will ever get to go through when learning about the cold war. My group for this project included: Carter, Hannah, Colton, Faith, Makenna, and myself. I am very grateful for this group because everyone did their job to the best of their ability.

Atomic Journal

At the beginning of this project, we learned about historical significance and were given an assignment of where we were to pick a meaningful event and argue why it was historically significant. For mine, I chose World War 2.

C-E-R

When I handed this assignment in the first time, it needed a lot of restructuring and edits. I made the corrections, though, and moved on from the assignment.

The next part of this project for me was going on the New Mexico field study. Getting to see the trinity site and all the museums was so fun and such a great experience to have lived. There were so many great parts about this trip but the highlights definitely would have to include Carlsbad Cavern, White Sands, and Sandia Peak. I think that getting to go to New Mexico for this project really brought it to life and gave us more learning opportunities.

Once we got back from New Mexico, our group started to really work steadily on our book. Our theme is “Oppenheimer’s Notebook” and the chapter I completed was on the creation of  Los Alamos.

My Chapter

After we finished your book, we did a group reflection. The assignment was to make a pie chart to do with the participation of our group members. We also wrote a reflection after. It didn’t take me too long to finish the assignment and was an informative overlook of our participation.

After that, we had another assignment but this time was an essay reflecting on Oppenheimer’s speech he gave to other scientists in 1945 after the drop of the atomic bombs. I think I am capable of better work, but I am continuing to make edits on it.

Oppenheimers Speech

The last assignment we had to do under this project was read an essay called “The Road to Berlin” and answer some questions on it. I read it aloud with several of my peers and answered the questions. The essay was very deep and could definitely be part of a book by the way it sounds.

Road to Berlin

This was definitely the best possible start I could have to PLP because the project was so interesting and getting to go to New Mexico made it even better!