Category: PLP 10

mPOL 2023 :)

Wazzup home slices and welcome to my mPOL 2023

Declaration of learning;

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

How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?

Loon Lake

Loon lake was an absolute triumph for me. I laughed, I cried, I loved and lost. Lets head into the post I made about the Loon Lake learning advance so I can talk about how my goals changed the more I worked and my learnings with self-doubt and mental fortitude.

Frozen 3: Olaf Goes to Loon Lake

Summary from the post; 

As this was a Leadership-themed retreat, we did a lot of talk about leadership and how we could be the best versions of ourselves. One of my favourite activities that we did was creating a personal credo, which I think is more easily described as personal affirmations. I found it hard to get past the barrier of self-doubt when trying to list my strengths or talents. I found that reflecting on my personal values helped me see what I was actually good at and what my ideal qualities were.

I was stuck at a point on the wall that I could just not get over. But the amazing guy at the end of the rope would not let me go down. I spent around 15 minutes stuck at that one point on the wall and I felt so bad about holding up the line of people waiting to try the side I was on. He told me that he knew I could do it and that I knew what I needed to do I just had to put my mind to it. I tried SO HARD to climb up and use all my mental strength to conquer the wall, but I failed. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. But I also think I was overwhelmed because of the amount of support I was receiving from my peers. And how a man who I had only known for less than an hour had so much faith in me. So in conclusion, I was able to do a lot of learning and self-reflection during my time at Loon Lake. I hope to carry this experience with me throughout the rest of my life and take full advantage of the opportunities that this trip has opened for me.

Humanities

Out of the 3 humanities projects we have done so far, I think I showcased my best work in the “Ology of Apology” project. Even though it took me quite a few revisions to get to where I wanted it to be. I really enjoyed getting to create the monument with my partners and showing it off at the exhibition was a blast. So lets hop over to that post so I can talk about how I got through the revision process and got to utilize my public speaking skills.

How to Apologize

Summary from the post;

I really enjoyed showing off my Keynote presentation and talking about our monument to all of the passers by at the exhibition. Despite being occasionally quite socially anxious, I actually really enjoy public speaking and commanding a room. So that was really nice for me to get in touch with that part of myself again. 

How can I sharpen my Learning Plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of the year?

First lets review my statement of learning intent,

 

I think that my statement of learning intent has been well upheld for the past semester. And I think that I will be good to stick with it in the upcoming months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the last semester of humanities, I played well to my strengths and I have also turned one of the things I initially wanted to have growth in into a strength, the goal of having my work sound authentically like myself. So now since my growth area looks a little empty, I have decided to add one more area where I wish for growth, timeliness. I am going to pay more attention to getting work handed in on time with no sacrifice in quality. I will do this by using my Things to keep better track of tasks and when they are due. I also want to bump up my goal for maker from an accomplished to an extending. I was basing the accomplished goal off of my grades in maker in the past instead of striving for the best for the future. I believe that I am capable of getting an extending in maker this term so lets see how that pans out.

 

 

 

And to achieve that plan I will use my pre-determined ideal disposition, habits, and systems to my advantage.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my mPOL for 2023. I hope next semester is going to be just as good.

As Always, Brooke.

 

How to Apologize

Well happy new year! 🥳 

It is a brand new year but still the same semester. So lets quickly talk about the project and exhibition that we just finished last year.

Driving Questions

How can we keep apologies for past wrongs alive so they are remembered and not repeated today?

We used the exhibition as a way to educate about the past wrongs we studied. Education is very important in making sure that those past wrongs are properly remembered and accounted for in our society today.

Us grade 10’s were working on a project called “The Ology of Apology” where we studied historical wrongs towards different races of people in Canada’s past. The three main topics we studied were the Chinese head tax, Japanese internment during WW2, and the Komagata Maru incident in 1914. I ended up studying the latter and for an easy explanation of the incident I present to you my Keynote presentation, also known as “Keystone 1: Keynote of Transgression”.

The komagata maru

What does James Cameron’s “Avatar” reveal about our society?

Avatar brought up many themes present in our society today. Themes like militarism, imperialism, colonialism, racism, corporate greed, and such. Avatar magnified these issues as their world is almost an augmented reflection of ours. The Winter Exhibition was themed around this question and each room/area was to tackle one of the themes and how it was represented in the movie and in our topics that we studied. For the Exhibition, I was in the library room that was originally themed to represent racism but had to have a bit of remodelling done.

Our Memorial And The Exhibition 

The monument I created was in collaboration with Ines and Gwen. We had all studied different topics for our first 2 keystones so we wanted our memorial to relate to all 3 subjects. Gwen came up with an excellent idea of a figure breaking down walls to represent combatting racism and discrimination. I suggested that we put cutouts of racist newspapers and notices from the 3 events on the walls to give more meaning to the monument. We accidentally learned that spray paint actually eats styrofoam while trying to paint the walls black. We also were scrounging for paint and other supplies to bring our work to life. It was a work-in-progress up until the verify last minute. I LOVE our finished monument and was very proud to be able to display it at the winter exhibition.

I really enjoyed showing off my Keynote presentation and talking about our monument to all of the passers by at the exhibition. Despite being occasionally quite socially anxious, I actually really enjoy public speaking and commanding a room. So that was really nice for me to get in touch with that part of myself again. 

Conclusion 

After not attending any exhibitions last year, I can say that I think this exhibition was my best one yet. I am very proud of the amount of work I was able to put into this project and the fact that I actually had enough energy to go to the exhibition. Overall a successful semester in Humanities 10.

As Always, Brooke

Frozen 3: Olaf Goes to Loon Lake

*Brrrrrrrr* g-greetings frrom m-my -11º C lloooon lak-k-ke memoriesss

Three layers of pants, two layers of wool socks, two shirts, a sweater, jacket, winter boots, a touque, gloves, and a scarf, welcome to the outfit of the day; Loon Lake edition. I guess my ultimate conclusion from this 5 day field study was that I am not built to survive moderately cold weather. 

Challenging Myself

The three days we had with Pinnacle Pursuits were an amazing opportunity to get to step outside of my comfort zone in ways I usually wouldn’t have access to. One of the things that I think effected me greatly was my experience on the climbing wall. I was stuck at a point on the wall that I could just not get over. My fingers were frozen, my winter boots were slipping, palms sweaty, physical strength was completely zapped, and mentally I was so done and longing to get off the wall. But the amazing guy at the end of the rope would not let me go down. I spent around 15 minutes stuck at that one point on the wall and I felt so bad about holding up the line of people waiting to try the side I was on (again so sorry guys I wanted to come down he would NOT let me). I think after about the 5 minute mark there was no hope left in me that I would ever make it further up the wall, but every time I wanted to quit the guy told me to just focus on the wall and nothing else. He told me that he knew I could do it and that I knew what I needed to do I just had to put my mind to it. I tried SO HARD to climb up and use all my mental strength to conquer the wall, but I failed. We ran out of time and I was at last allowed to return to solid ground (thank god). And all of the sudden the tears that I had been holding in on the wall started to run down my cheeks. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. When trying to figure out why I was crying, I realized quickly that these were not “sad tears”. I think the main reason was because of the exhaustion and physical pain that I was experiencing post-hanging on a wall for 15 minutes. But I also think I was overwhelmed because of the amount of support I was receiving from my peers. And how a man who I had only known for less than an hour had so much faith in me. So special thank you to Brandon because this wouldn’t have happened without him.

My Learnings

As this was a Leadership-themed retreat, we did a lot of talk about leadership and how we could be the best versions of ourselves. One of my favourite activities that we did was creating a personal credo, which I think is more easily described as personal affirmations. I found it hard to get past the barrier of self-doubt when trying to list my strengths or talents. Sometimes it feels wrong to toot one’s own horn per say but in this case that’s exactly what we were trying to do. I found that reflecting on my personal values helped me see what I was actually good at and what my ideal qualities were. We need up making or credos into wallpapers for our devices and I decided to do one for my iPad and one for my phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I chose the photos with a certain aesthetic because I actually wanted to enjoy having them be on my screen every time I open my device. Having those affirmations will help me to become the person I want to be and even though the credo may change every now and again, it will help me keep close to my goals.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, I was able to do a lot of learning and self-reflection during my time at Loon Lake. I hope to carry this experience with me throughout the rest of my life and take full advantage of the opportunities that this trip has opened for me. It was a fun trip and I can’t wait to see how it compares to the PLP 10 DISNEYWORLD TRIP!!!!

As always, Brooke.

Gold in BC?!?

Heyo i’m backkkkkkk.

Long time no see huh? Well if I was a prospector in 1858 then it probably would have been a much longer time until we spoke again! Haha cheesy terrible gold rush joke. But yep that perfectly introduces the topic of this project, the BC gold rush. 

Project intro and Driving Q

How did the discovery of gold shape our province and it’s people?

The gold rush brought the attention of the world to BC for the first time. Thousands of prospectors from all across the globe came to our great province and it has never been the same since. The gold rush caused British to declare BC an official province and brought a huge economy boost to the small settlements that soon turned into bustling cities. It also brought diversity, culture, infrastructure, and exploration to an area largely unpopulated by europeans. So one thing is for sure, without gold, BC would be a totally different place than it is today.

The goal of this project was to 1) learn about the BC gold rushes, 2) learn about the people during these times, and 3) write the story of those people. So without further ado here is a closer look on what I accomplished in this project.

Jewish Migrants in The Gold Rush

My specific topic of research in this project was originally going to be focused on the Europeans that came to BC during the gold rush. But while researching I fell down a rabbit hole of specific Jewish people that made an impact in Victoria during the gold rush. So I decided to focus specifically on the Jewish migrants and the role they played in the gold rush. Some specific people that I researched were Alexander Aaron Phillips, Kady Gambits, and Selim Franklin. They were all business men and pioneers in Victoria in 1858, paving the way and providing important services that allowed Victoria to grow and become a suitable town for the thousands of prospectors who passed through. You can find the complete document of the research and information that I collected on Jewish Migrants by clicking this link. I am very proud of the research that I did so it is  great to be able to share it with you today.

Creation 

So as I briefly mentioned earlier, one of the goals and technically the “final product” of this project was to write a short story of the group of people you researched. The story could be of a real or fictional character and so I decided to create a fictional chatter that was a mash-up of the three individual people that I researched. His name is Jacob Myers and here is a character card to tell you more about him.

So when it actually came down to writing his story I had a rough idea of how I wanted it to start and end. I wanted to show him arriving in Victoria, start his own store, go struggle a little bit, and then settle down and start a family. Here is what my planning looked like using the “3 Act Structure”.

So unfortunately I hit a little bump when writing my story and it didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted. I made sure that I got all of my main points in somewhere but I feel that the last few bits of the story are quote abrupt and don’t have a nice flow to them at all. I would have liked to spend more time adding flavour and depth to the story if I could go back and do it again. But unfortunately sometimes life has its ways where things don’t always go as planned. Anyway I guess I’m still proud that I was able to write the story even though I know that it is nowhere near reaching my quality standards. Here is my short story about a Jewish migrant during BC’s gold rush;

Jacob Myers, Jewish in Victoria

Conclusion

Even though I am not super proud of my story end product, I am very proud of the work I did along the way. My research was thoughtful and deep and I definitely learned a lot about how the gold rush shaped our fine province. And I would say that my planning for the story was also quite good even though the writing itself did not turn out. My next steps are going to be about moving on from this project and trying to put my best foot forward for the next one. Anyway thanks for reading my first blog post of grade 10!!! See you soon!!

As Always, Brooke.