Alberta was a wild trip with what felt like non-stop driving, endless activities and limited sleep. Despite the minor hardships, I had lots of fun, and I could efficiently complete the final project afterwards. In my last post, “The Power of Place,” I talked a lot about the process of creating the video and milestones. However, I didn’t talk much about the trip itself and how I managed to stay on top of my work.

Throughout the trip, I had to ask questions, think and gather data while managing my impulsivity to have a strong final video. Before the trip, we had done lots of research, so I was working towards set goals.  My thoughts and feelings throughout the journey changed a lot, and even though I didn’t feel like doing work, I thought about how it would help in the future.

 

Being Sick:

Being sick sucks, but it is awful when you are travelling for nine days and have full days of activities.  During the trip, this is what happened to almost everyone. Being sick played a massive toll on me and how I worked. At one point on the journey, I had two sicknesses, and I was feeling horrible. I tried my best, and I still worked on finishing my project. Many people on the trip were sick, and the effect this had on the group was surprising as we always were engaged and intrigued. To actually manage my impulsivity I kept a list of what to do using Things and Pages. Prior to the trip I planned out what I needed and wanted to do, photos & videos, research and interview questions. This had me reaching towards my goals of the project and kept me doing something.

Daily Notes:

The field study wouldn’t be PLP without extra work on top of the project. For ten days, we had daily notes where we wrote about a given prompt. Jokes aside, daily notes were handy and helped keep me keep on track with finishing the project and furthering my understanding of the information. However, even though I benefited from the daily notes, there were days I fell behind, and I felt it didn’t help but hurt me instead. I tried to finish some notes by staying up late at night when I was already not getting enough sleep. These late nights made me very tired and by no means helped my sickness. To not act without forethought I planned my the free time I had and got my work done.

Photos!:I tried to take lots of photos whenever I could. I stayed attentive on the bus and usually didn’t play games. The images didn’t just help in my final project, but they also served as memories of the trip. I regret not taking more videos as I only took four in total, and all of them were time lapses. Photos helped keep me from gaming and stay on task for the projects. Having something to do is good because I usually go down a Brit hole of entertainment and end up spending hours doing no work.

Emotions:

Managing impulsivity on a trip was hard to do, but I thought I did pretty well. However, I wasn’t perfect, and there were many times that my thoughts and feelings didn’t help. I tried to keep my mood as high as possible, as when one person is happy, these emotions are contagious. At some points of the trip, I was so tired, mentally and physically that I just wanted to stop the journey right then and there. I coped through the rest of the journey by realizing my actions and trying my best to fix the problem. In Alberta, since we were all tired and wanted lots more sleep, we did not stay up late or keep each other up.

Throughout our trip to Alberta, we had to do short videos along the way. These videos were challenging with trying to gather information and photos for the final project while still having fun. We had two side videos to complete where we went to Three Valley Lake Chateau ghost town and the Royal Tyrell Museum to film videos. The videos were made quickly within an hour and edited within a week. The week for editing might seem like a more relaxed deadline, but it was equally as stressful as filming. The tight day schedule and late nights left us with working on the bus, which was hard to communicate with each other. The bus was the only place I had a significant amount of time to complete my work. Despite not having wifi, I used the time to edit my videos and finish my work. Getting most of my work done on the bus allowed me to sleep earlier at night and enjoy myself while in Alberta. I wasn’t perfect though, and there were days that I felt could have been way better. At the beginning of the trip we did not know the full extent of the trip so we fooled around watching movies and staying up late. This was a huge mistake because the first few days felt like an eternity. Knowing for next time the field studies are just going to get harder, I need to prepare beforehand and manage my time/ impulsivity on the trips to have a more fun time.

The grade 9 Alberta field study was a fantastic trip despite being sick and tired. I found a balance between enjoying myself and learning on this trip. My emotions and thoughts throughout the journey have changed dramatically, and I know the effects they had on others. I tried to stay positive because it will spread to my classmates. The Alberta field study involved a lot of work with a packed schedule and a lot of driving, but I managed my impulsivity to result in a fun and educational trip.