Grade 8 only has two days left and so, so much has happened this year. We started grade 8 for a start and we completed our first DI challenge. We went to Oregon and presented our tableaus on The Tempest. We created an ad for a local business and for a business in Oregon through a process of trial and error and feedback from peers. We learned about religions. But this is not a recap of what we did this year, this is a recap of how we grew and how we learned this year. So to start things off, let’s talk about humanities.

Humanities: For humanities this year we did everything, from creating ads, to recreating a play from Shakespeare through tableaus set in New France. But everything we did was all connected to worldview. Worldview was the focus for humanities. Every driving question we had was related about how we look at the world and how we can understand how others saw the world. We started the year with our advertisements. In this project we were split into groups and given a local company. We would then interview them about what they would want to be advertised and other clarifying questions about their business. My group, Finn, Kaia, and Lauren, were going to be making ads for Cafe Orso, a local cafe in Deep Cove. After we got the info we wanted, we would make our ads. We went through many revisions and had many group feedback sessions and just when I felt like I was finished with my ad, we went on a trip to Pound & Grain. Pound & Grain is a digital creative agency with a head quarters in Vancouver. At Pound & Grain we learned all about how much thought goes into every inch of an ad. Every coulor means something and I used that in my final ad. The blue is supposed to show how Cafe Orso is a relaxing place to get work done or grab a coffee. Soon enough we were going to make an ad for a company in Oregon. My new group, Jude, Meg, Kaia, and Tom were making ads for Clark’s Restaurant, a restaurant on the side of a road somewhere in Oregon. We went through the same process of revision and feedback until we finally had an ad we could show the business.

But we didn’t get a break from projects for a while. We went right into a religion unit. We learned about the worldview of 6 religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. After learning about the customs and traditions of each religion, we were given yet another group and a religion to research. My group was given Buddhism and we began to create a poster to show the worldview of Buddhism. After 3 or four revisions, we had a poster that was ready to be presented at the Winter Exhibition. After Winter Break, we were put into the history of our world, starting with the Crusades. We read a book about the crusades and how the Christians and the Muslim both thought they were fighting evil for the greater good. After that we were given the lyrics to a song called “Its The End of the World as we know it”. We then had to change the lyrics so that it reflected my trastition from Elementary to Secondary school. My song was mainly focused on how I was scared the workload was going to be overwhelming. After this we had to pick an explorer and make a comic book about their life. My group’s person was Blackbeard. Our book was all about his escape from the authority as he made his famed blockade of Charleston. I am most proud of a shattering image of Blackbeard’s life flashing before his life before he dies. Soon enough though, we were deep into the Tempest, and we spent a couple of weeks watching the Tempest. While this was happening we were learning about the colonization of New France. We learned about the ups and downs and how it affected the people and the world then and now. Soon we were given an act and had to create a tableau about New France using lines and characters from The Tempest. That wrapped up our year for Humanities. I learned about worldview and how there are many points of view to one simple problem. If I could improve one thing however, it would be my time management and productivity. I think I spent too much time wasting time or not using time productively. I think this stretches to all the subjects but I still have to talk about those.

Our first draft Draft 2 Draft No. 3 Our final product

Scimatics: Scimatics wasn’t the best of subjects for me. I did get good grades and I think I did well in class, but I began to fall behind in math. In math we learned about Integers, multiplying fractions, algebra and much more. I have already learned about this in Elementary School and this was just recap for me. But I began to fall behind in the fractions unit and had to struggle to catch up for the rest of the year. Science was different. We learned about the different diseases and bacteria, and in term 2 and 3 we learned about light and waves of energy. Soon after that we started learning about the human eye and how it works. My favourite part of the year was when we dissected a sheep’s eye. It was super gross but really helped me understand how the eye worked and I got to see an eye in person so that was really cool. After that we started to research a slideshow about a telescope. My group researched the Spitzer Telescope and made a model of it in Minecraft.

PGP: Oh we did a lot of things I wasn’t fond of in PGP this year. We started with the “What do I Really Want” book and continued the trend of productivity with learning about Things and Time-blocking. After that we started another book called “7 habits of highly effective teens”. I was at first sceptical about this book but it grew on me and I was really interested and intrigued about it. After that we started Time Machine. The Time Machine was a way of showing that if we could say something to our past self we could show them something we learned from PGP. Time Machine was the best time for me. I kind of let it run to the last week and had to rush to make it. I actually had a finished Time Machine and was ready to hand it in when I accidentally pressed the wrong button and messed everything up. I ended up having to make an even more rushed Time Machine so it wasn’t the best project I had made.

Maker: Maker was a great year right until Blue Sky. Maker was mainly DI and I had a ton of fun with DI. I got the challenge I wanted and my group worked fairly well together. We did get top three finishes in both regionals and Provincials but we kind of procrastinated and our solution was kind of rushed. After that though Maker was all about Blue Sky and I am going to be honest, but Blue Sky is not one of my strengths. I started out with having trouble understanding what we were doing. Once I solved that problem though I had trouble coming up with an idea on what I was going to do. Then once I did that definitely bit off more than I could chew and over shot on my goals. I had too complex of an idea and now I am scrambling to finish it. But other than the whole Blue Sky thing, it’s been a pretty good year for Maker.

That wraps up my tpol and my first year of high school. Any questions?