The mini ‘Blue Sky’ project is basically practice and preparation for our FLIGHT classes big ‘Blue Sky’ project showcased later in June. This year, our theme was the magical world of Harry Potter, and I think our class did a great job with it!
To begin the journey of the project, we started by brainstorming our inquiry questions. The questions of course needed to follow the baseline theme of Harry Potter! We submitted three questions in hopes of getting one approved so we could get our physical project started.
My question was “How Would Harry Potter Be Different if They Lived a Modern Day Lifestyle.” My goal with this question was to be able to get creative, which is exactly what I did. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to create a project that would allow me to write creatively. I’m very proud of this question and project because it definitely met that goal.
As a class, we had to create posters with our inquiry questions and project details – including a timeline, materials, other miscellaneous details – and display them for critique, of course. On the critique side of things, I feel like nobody took it seriously and I honestly got some very weird and silly feedback. “Good job Tat” definitely wouldn’t help my project process, and neither would “Nice timeline”, so I decided to instead confide in my family members for ideas and inspiration.
My family gave me a few ideas about the timeline to make it more reasonable, but other than that they said it was a great project that would reflect my strengths and help me work a bit on my weaknesses. I decided I was happy with my project outline and began to move forward.
I did end up altering my project a bit. I decided to focus on creating one single book rather than scripts and videos because
- I had no experience writing script and personally enjoyed fictional writing more.
- Videography is not a hobby nor a talent of mine
- I wasn’t totally dedicated and passionate about my original plan
Due to those points above, I decided to stick with what I love to do, writing fiction and short stories. I think that the decision I made definitely improved my project because I enjoyed the idea more!
Once I had my *final* project plans and everything along with a greenlight from my teachers, it was time to get to work. I planned to recreate a segment of J.K Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” story, so I knew I would be busy writing for the weeks to come.
Due to my beginner’s knowledge about Harry Potter, I had to read a little, so I found a PDF of the first book and got reading. I made notes beside segments of text with what my personal reactions to the events would be, how I think I could modernize each thing, etc. I think this was a huge success and really helped me in the long run with the project because living in the 21st century, I was literally the perfect character to take writing inspiration from!
After collecting all my ideas and inspirations, I had to actually write the book itself. I began on paper – big mistake because it was easy to lose the paper or wreck it—and looking back at the writing, you could tell it was very rough. The ideas weren’t always creative enough, and it was a major revision required piece of writing.
I went through TENS of drafts, no joke, but because I loved writing it was really fun! I was always testing myself to make a better, more futuristic idea. Personally, my favourite idea was the drone system. Instead of Harry getting letters from owls, I used drones, and I think it really turned out great.
Writing for hours on end a day was certainly difficult. Constantly changing things around and editing made my work a lot better, though it definitely made it shorter than I originally wanted. My goal in the beginning was to rewrite the whole 250 pages of the first book, but in reality I only finished up with eight chapters. I had to understand that the quality of the ideas and writing itself was more important than the quantity of the page count. There were a few moments where I doubted myself because I saw that I only had a certain amount of pages, and I got discouraged. Beginning to believe I couldn’t do it, I knew I needed to look into my growth mindset. Telling myself I could create an amazing short story rather than a mediocre long story really helped myself calm down, and taking breaks to read over my work also helped so I was sure of my ideas. Being confident in the final writing piece was the most important aspect that I had to focus on, so that’s what I decided to do.
When I finally finished writing after a strong two weeks of over three hours a day, I was SO relieved. Even though it was really fun, it was exhausting and I was glad to be done. The final product was planned to be wrapped up all nice in a leather bound book, so I got some leather material, leather string and a bunch of DIY inspiration off of Pinterest.
Binding the book was the biggest struggle of the product because it was incredibly difficult. Printing out the pages was hard because I had to search around the printer settings to find the right book layout, and the fonts kept messing about and glitching. I used thick (67 lb) paper that was slightly tinted beige so it had an older looking aesthetic. The older vibe within the book was inspired by the Hogwarts library, because I thought it looked cool and balanced out the modern and futuristic story.
After I printed the paper, I had to fold each and every piece, which required lots of time, and resulted in a few paper cuts! Once that was done, I had to sew the pages into the leather, and it hurt because I continuously would prick my fingers and hands. It didn’t end up staying together after the exhibition so I think for next time I will take more time with the construction because I rushed through it.
My project was now complete, and for my display I also created a short slideshow of images from creating the final product.
My exhibition group was Kate, Claire, Adam, Quinn and Spencer. We set up at the race track table and we were inspired to recreate the Great Hall in Hogwarts. Our group wanted a Great Hall at Christmas time vibe, so we set up Christmas lights, drew a large snowy window on the white board, and set up the table with food. Having Mrs. Pye bring us a chocolate fountain definitely made our area so much better! One of our main group struggles was that many members forgot to bring the materials we needed, so we were scrambling on the last day. Next time I think we need to communicate better with who’s bringing what so that doesn’t happen again.
Overall, I think our setup was organized and looked great. Our projects all turned out well and looked amazing and we all worked as a group to create everything.
For the next Blue Sky project, I know that I need to ask a question that will display and showcase my strengths and hobbies because I think that is one of the main reasons my project was so successful. I’m really impressed by my determination and growth mindset that is developing more and more within every project, and I noticed that it definitely grew during this Harry Potter story. I also think that my presentation anxiety diminished during the exhibition because I was excited and proud about my overall product and I wanted to share it with the world.
I do think that for next time I need to use my time a bit more wisely so I could write more and make the book even better, but I have to say I’m generally really proud about what I accomplished with my mini Blue Sky and I can’t wait for the big one in June.
Until next time,
My Pretty Blog.