❓mPOL 2020❓

Leave a comment

   Hello ladies and gentlepeople and welcome to this years very first presentation of learning. This is only my third time taking part of mPOL’s and I’m much more comfortable with the situation compared to last year. I think that I have a certain boost of confidence this time around having done it twice in the past. Anyway, let’s jump right in!

   This year has been kind of a rollercoaster in each subject and in all honesty, I got dizzy there for a while. We’ve been introduced to many, many topics in each subject and we’ve even revisited some from last year. This especially comes into play with PGP. In the first month or so of school we didn’t really visit the idea of PGP more than a couple of times. This surprised me considering that it’s what I’d think of as one of our staple PLP subjects. That being said we eventually got into our first PGP project. You can read my first PGP portfolio post of the year here. Our first challenge was to reflect on our time spent in Alberta. This didn’t seem like much of a difficult task to begin with but we were asked to closely look at how we balanced our impulsivity throughout the trip. When I began to look back upon how I balanced my work and simultaneously had fun I found it difficult to decide where I needed most growth. I eventually came to the conclusion that there is still a part of me that needs to recognize the importance of managing my impulses, especially in school.

   When we moved on from our first reflection we had our first meeting of the year. At this time we were introduced or shall I say re-introduced to the idea of goal settling. Last year we worked with goal settling in term two and read the book, “What Do You Really Want.” This year we started out with goal ladders and looking closely at the habits of mind that go hand in hand with our personal goals. Looking at the various different habits of mind, I can confidently say that I can improve in each and every area throughout the rest of grade 9. That being said, starting off with one simple goals and sticking with it with the help of a few habits of mind was probably a good start. In my goal ladder I focused in on something that I desperately want to achieve and figured out how I could get there in the next few years. Observing my goal ladder as the weeks have gone by has proved to me that I can stick with a goal and start working towards it as soon as I kickstart my motivation. By the time tPOL’s come around I’d really like to see myself striving for accuracy, especially in school. Habit 6 is a great example of something that can be overlooked. Thinking that striving for accuracy simply means getting to where I want to be can be flawed. I believe that Habit 6 represents what I want my mindset to look like. I want to see myself commit to putting in the effort for everything even if I find it difficult to get myself into the rhythm at first. 

   Speaking of getting into the rhythm of things, lets jump way back to September. We kickstarted the year with our absolutely amazing trip through the Rockies and Alberta. Along the way we had to ask ourselves specific questions concerning identity and the impact it has upon different groups in society. Read all about my project and driving question in my post on the project here. I found that this project was the perfect way to let me gain insight and knowledge on what identity is and how different impacts can change someone, someplace, or something’s identity drastically over long or short periods of time. Moving on into our next unit we took a closer look at the concept of ideas driving change. We began reading Jennifer Donelly’s, “Revolution,” which I thoroughly enjoyed due to the historic mood it provided. We studied different revolutions through the ages and make informative videos explaining how the driving question could be answered with each example. Read my full post on the project here! In the end, I decided that this project really helped me with my video making skills, perhaps more than any other this year.

   Moving on lets dive into some of the other project we’ve done this year. On the flip side of things, there have been multiple occasions this year where I messed up. I’m not afraid to say it and it’s honestly affected me in some good ways as well as bad. To be more in depth on this topic lets start with this years very first big maker project, Running a Remake. The challenge for this project was to recreate our own copies of the short film, “Run.” My post on this project can be found here! Recreating “Run,” was honestly a very difficult task and I found that it really did help me develop my skills in video making. This project is a beyond perfect example of where a better sense of teamwork and interpersonal thinking would’ve been key. I found that with my group, I struggled with that and it might’ve been the reason our final product wasn’t as great as it could’ve been. 

   My next example of a fantastic FAIL was this year’s Student Blogging Challenge. I actually never completed the challenge and in hindsight I really could have done better. I tend to find that when I’m not interested in the topic at hand I lose focus and often forget about certain tasks that go with. I didn’t struggle with this much last year but I’m finding that I can recognize when it’s happening. For the next time I participate in the student blogging challenge, I am determined to keep an open mind and not let my judgemental side take control. Aside from that factor there is also my massive issues with organization. I’ve struggled with keeping organized throughout my entire life and I’ve tried many things to help improve. Since the beginning of grade 8, there has been so much growth in that area. As I go on I sometimes get lazy and put things that I should be paying attention to on the back burner. Working towards becoming a confidently organized individual is a huge goal of mine and I plan to closely consider the habits of mind that can help me get there along the way.

   Star Wars. Where do I even begin. The Story Strikes Back has probably been the biggest project I have completed individually all year and I must say it was no easy task. Let’s begin by saying that there was a lot to unpack with this project so yes I did write an entire two blog posts on it and no I am not proud of my of incapability to write and reflect concisely. You can read all about the project here! We had an amazing task with this exhibition. At first I kept asking myself how the heck I was going to transform my everyday classroom into a planet and yet we still came out the other side with a success. That being said, the journey to that success was rough and very bumpy. I can confidently day that my LAUNCH Journal this time around was a FAIL. I’m striving to achieve more with my next LAUNCH experience because I really didn’t try enough with this one. All in all the FAIL has given me insight that I can’t simply expect to get away with minimal work even if my final product matches standards. Not only does it let my teachers down but I end up hurting myself more than anyone. By not trying my best I brought down my personal standard and that isn’t something I ever want to let happen. 

   Finally let’s talk science! My absolute favourite project in scimatics this year was our chemical bonding animations. You can read my post on it here. Chemistry is not my strong suit but I still enjoyed making my own animations and understanding chemical bonds. I definitely struggled a little bit in the beginning but I began to get a hold on things after a few weeks. This is my best example of keeping my eye on the prize because of my commitment to trying my best to comprehend the science behind it. I’m typically an English and socials kid so some fields of science and math really get me down. I’ve always had a hard time learning based on my personal styles and I find it easier to connect and engage in a humanities classroom verses a that of science and math. With our chemistry video’s things were hands on and had a very creative and imaginative side which I really enjoyed. My definite goal for scimatics the rest of the year is to try and engage myself in each lesson more and more as we go.

   And that’s about it. Congratulations you’ve made it to the end of my third presentation of learning. Now we seem to be forgetting one thing. My question to the teachers. As I mentioned previously, I tend to struggle keeping my thoughts contained or to a minimum. When I write reflections and portfolio posts they almost always exceed 1,000 words which is probably torture for those reading them. My goal for the rest of the year is to write my reflections more concisely and to try and get my point across with fewer words. This doesn’t mean I have to cut the word count in half, it just means that I want to be able to express myself more clearly without going overboard. My question to you is how can I do that? 

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk ✌️

   

   

🛸The Return of This Reflection🛸

Leave a comment

 

  Hello ladies and gentlepeople and welcome back to the late night show with me. No, I’m not anywhere as cool as Stephen Colbert but I’m trying so please, cut me some slack. We are now continuing from where I left off in my last post so if you haven’t read that already, I recommend you go and do so now! 

   To briefly refresh your memory, as a class we were split into 4 groups. Each of these groups were assigned a planet and story to write. Along with those components we also had to create an artifact that represents our part of The Hero’s Journey. As I was the conclusion this was a difficult task for me seeing as our character dies at the climax of the story. You might be confused as to how that even worked and trust me I was too but we eventually figured it out. Anyway, back to my artifact!  Our story evolves around a character called Pudge. At the climax of the story, Pudge is sacrificed in order to save the life of Luke Skywalker himself. In my part of the story, part 7, our protagonist takes the form of a force ghost, a figure commonly seen in the Star Wars universe. Usually force ghosts only appear when Luke, Anakin, Rey, or even Ben Solo are in need of guidance of someone, typically a Jedi master or an influential figure from their past. Since force ghosts are usually only Jedi or main characters, my artifact idea was a little risky. I wrote in the sense that Pudge had moved on to a spiritual form and followed alongside Luke in his training to become a powerful Jedi master. In order to represent this through my maker project, I built a hologram.

   Holograms are very, very common in the Star Wars universe and yet we don’t see many of them hanging around these days. Who am I kidding, Elon Musk probably has a few lying around and simultaneously hidden from the public eye. Back to my hologram. With projects like these, our teachers have us follow what is known as, the LAUNCH Cycle. Last year’s spring exhibition was my very first time using the LAUNCH Cycle for a project and this was only my second time around. That being said, I’m not going to lie to myself in saying that on both these occasions I was very good at keeping up to date and actually following the journal’s steps to success. In recognizing that I don’t do particularly well with keeping up to date on regular repeating assignments, such as literacy circles, I can identify that this LAUNCH process is not one of my strong suits. I undeniably stumbled and went off that tracks for a while during this project but I certainly let myself down in not being able to move forward. All that aside, I’ve made it a goal for my next time using the LAUNCH Cycle, to try even harder and really show the effort in keeping up to date of everything. A great example of an opportunity to do so in Term 2 is Destination Imagination 2020, trust me you’ll be hearing a lot about that soon enough.

   As the night of the exhibition approached at a rapid pace I got closer and closer to finishing my hologram and lets be honest it was really stressing me out. Eventually, after I had completed multiple drafts and worked with different spectrums and images I finished off with a bang and created something that I’m genuinely proud of. Looking at my hologram now and reflecting on the exhibition as a whole I can see where things could’ve used some editing, but nonetheless I’m still very proud. 

The curricular competency for the maker component is “take creative risks.” As I have just reflected upon my LAUNCH Journal and my performance with it this year I would like to jump into the competency side of things. Taking creative risks simply poses us with the question, “how can we use technology to create in new ways?” I feel that with the LAUNCH cycle I didn’t take creative risks in the best way I could have. I was very keen on creating a holographic image but I know that I could have challenged myself more when it came down to it. For instance I could have animated my hologram more or made a recording allowing for the illusion to speak. I recognize that while I did succeed in the end, it was on low standards. Having blue sky again at the next exhibition provides me with a chance to improve and succeed with the LAUNCH cycle and take creative risks more so than this time!

My holographic image (Pudge the Tauntaun)

   Alongside every PLP exhibition project comes the set up and preparation for the big night. I had the responsibility of being my team’s DRI, also known as the “Directly Responsible Individual.” This simply meant that I was in charge of making everything happen smoothly. At least that’s how I determined it this time around. While taking charge in my PLP 9 team was difficult, I like to think that I did well in the position. Add six grade 8’s to the mix and things tend to go awry. Yes, you read that right. Our teachers assigned us six grade 8’s to have in our planet rooms during the exhibition and all it did was leave me another six people to keep on the same page. That’s a bit of a blunt way to put it but nonetheless, I was more stressed handling 13 people, including myself in set up. Setting up took us hours and hours, days actually. We mapped out the room and presentation areas and make plans for decoration that would evidently lead to the recreation of the planet Hoth. Another simply delightful challenge we faced was turning our classroom into a literal ice desert using paper, sheets, lights, and ice. We drove the temperature of the room down by opening all the windows and used LED white lights to bring the room to life. I kid you not this set up took hours and was a serous commitment. In the end our room was surprisingly fantastic and it really looked and felt like you were stuck in the eye of a storm. A cold and wet storm but still. 

  • Hoth Exhibit Set Up

   When it comes down to it, I believe that I did well and I can recognize that with my performance in the curricular competency side of things. We were challenged to answer the driving question, “How might we build an interactive exhibit which explains the hero’s journey?” I am able to identify literary elements and use the proper vocabulary to provide evidence of my understanding’. I am able to create and extend a shared understanding and build upon shared ideas to reach goals. And finally I believe that through the entire process leading up to this exhibition I was able to strongly express and support my opinions using credible evidence. Providing examples of my accomplishments comes in these posts in the form of a reflection. Going ack to my launch process again, I was able to recognize the steps that had to be taken, even in the situations where I fell behind. I have goals for the next exhibition and surprisingly enough I’m not hating the idea of doing another one in a short 5 months. We answered the driving question confidently and took the exhibition by storm. Our exhibit clearly allowed for our guests to understand the hero’s journey and our story, Pudge’s story. 

Here is my LAUNCH Journal in which I kept track of my progress going toward the exhibition!

 With that , I am concluding this long, terrible TED Talk ✌️

   

   

🪐The Story Struck Me Hard🪐

Leave a comment

   Good Morning, good afternoon, good evening! Wherever you are, whenever you are reading this, I feel it is my sole duty to represent the intensity of this portfolio post in just the opening sentences. Now before I get into the nitty gritty, I would like to pleasure you with a clever pun. Enjoy…

What is the internal temperature of a Tauntaun?

Lukewarm 

   Diving into the details of this years Winter Exhibition we shall begin with our project launch and building of knowledge that lead us to an amazing final product! When we initially launched the subject of story telling and literature analysis I honestly didn’t expect for there to be an entire story writing, Star Wars extravaganza awaiting us on the other side. All expectations aside, we dove right in. Starting out with our first milestone, a simple opinion piece, the topic of which, “why is Star Wars still relevant in modern pop culture?” Our task was simply to identify an answer and support our reasoning and logic behind it. As this was our very first milestone, it was important to set the bar for myself and try my best as from there, I could only improve. I think that I did myself a solid in setting a standard that I needed to meet for each of the following steps and I feel that my works speaks for itself in this case.

   Advancing in our understanding of opinion and the importance and overall influence that Star Wars has over modern film and media, we stepped into the basics of story analysis. We began to spend classes discussing the ideas of literature and comprehending the terms used to describe different short stories we were assigned to read. In doing so, I found some of the fiction very interesting, especially that of Ray Bradbury’s, “The Veldt.” All of the stories we read were helpful components in identifying literary terms that would go into our short story charts. Eventually, the building knowledge lead to our final test on literacy analysis. This entire process was one of two vital steps in the completion of our short stories. 

   “The Hero’s Journey,” is a phenomenon in the world of storytelling that was proven and developed by a man named Joseph Campbell. Our example of The Hero’s Journey was the Star Wars saga and the trilogies within. The concept itself explains that all stories follow the same outline. Not exactly an unfamiliar idea but undeniably more complex than a simple beginning, middle, and end. The Hero’s Journey explains the story alongside the main characters development. Using Luke Skywalker as an example, the story begins with a call to adventure. Luke receives a message from Leia through R2-D2 and the story begins. When he complains that he is “late for supper,” he is simply refusing the call, which happens to be the second steppingstone in this storytelling chart. We worked with different examples of The Hero’s Journey over a couple of weeks and eventually were tasked with creating our very own story using it. 

   Our stories, what a subject! In order to not give every single student in my class a heart attack, we were divided into groups. The best part about this particular grouping was that each of the teams were assigned a planet. The Death Star, Endor, Tatooine, or Hoth. Each of these Star Wars planets are filled with seemingly unimportant characters and that gave us so much opportunity. Our initial task was to select an “unimportant,” character from our planet and tell their story. My group decided Hoth was our best fit and we started to brainstorm ideas for a character. When we researched all the scenes on Hoth from the Star Wars movies, we found one very important character that doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the role he played in the overall success of the Resistance against the Empire. This is a character like no other, a vital role in the survival of Luke Skywalker himself, Pudge the Tauntaun. No his name isn’t actually Pudge but this is our story so we named him what we felt was right. Now at this point in my seemingly never ending rambling session you may be confused as to what Pudge did to deserve so much credit. Well, do you remember that scene on Hoth in the Empire Strikes Back? The one where Luke is help captive by a giant abominable snowman, also known as a Wampa. Well if that doesn’t ring any bells  maybe the part where Han Solo slices opened a giant snow lizard horse thingy and stuffs a nearly frozen Luke inside for warmth will. Yeah that things that Han slices open, that’s Pudge. 

   Not to spoil anything, but my group, Meg, Felix, Julia, Angelo, Brenton, Kaden, and I all did an amazing job at creating a story, Pudge’s story and using The Hero’s Journey to do so. On a more reflective side of things, there are undeniably parts of our humanities portion that I could have done better at. Earlier I talked about setting a standard for myself with our first humanities milestone. I’d really like to say that I met that standard with everything but lets face it, I’d be lying to myself. I can confidently say that I worked on this story whole heartedly and it took time to build something that I was proud of, especially being the representer of the stories conclusion. With each group member writing one part of The Hero’s Journey being last was difficult considering that our main character literally dies at the climax. Okay, that’s enough spoilers! I’ll be explaining a lot more in the post linked below!

   Thanks for coming to tonight’s comedy special and we hope to see you again soon ✌️ 

   Click here for part 2! (I’m so sorry for how long these are, concise writing isn’t my strong suit)

🧪There is No Chemistry Between Me and This Project🧪

Leave a comment

 

Hydrogen iodine electron vanadium erbium yttrium oxygen neon! Or shall I say, hi everyone! Welcome back to another scimatics portfolio post. This time around, we’re putting a bit of a spin on things as we dive into everyone’s favourite field of science, chemistry. I say that with a bit of an edge in my voice only because, chemistry is confusing for the most part. But like always, I’m up for a challenge and believe me, this project was amazing race worthy!

   Project Plan & Milestones:

   The first component in completing this project was gaining an understanding of not only our task, but also the basics of chemistry as a base for our learning. We started out like anyone would, with Kahoots! Believe me when I say that these definitely helped me. I’m not typically someone who can read a text and automatically have an understanding of the topic, especially in science and math. With the Kahoots I could pick up on patterns, concepts, and vocabulary used in chemistry. To further our understanding we did some readings and practiced identifying elements, polyatomic ions, multivalent metals, formulas, and both ionic and covalent bonds. Soon enough we began practicing our animation skills, and for most it was simply building upon hat we had already learned. As we got into making our final animations, we began to properly demonstrate ionic and covalent bonds through characterizing polyatomic ions, multivalent metals, and covalent bonds and clear and concise voice overs.

   Big Idea:

   The big idea for this project comes as; The electron arrangement of atoms impacts their chemical nature. With our driving question asking us, “how to atoms and ions act like characters,” we answered this in an animated video. My understanding of the bid idea is that atoms bond and act differently depending on the amount of electrons they brain and which shell they are situated on.

   Communicating:

   The first competency we focused on was communication. “Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon.” I believe I demonstrated and improved with this skill in creating the physical Bohr models to represent atoms, ions, and bonds. Seeing as though I think I’ve improved with this, I know that the source of said improvement is in the vocabulary that I gained. 

   Processing & Analyzing:

   The second competency we worked with was processing and analyzing. “Construct, analyze, and interpret models and/or diagrams.” I did so in each of the milestones. Starting with the creation of of my storyboard that I constructed from the information I had already interpreted over the first couple of weeks. Physically creating and animating Bohr modes allowed for me to interpret information and analyze my work in the multiple drafts completed. On our final test, I demonstrated my ability to do each of these things with my knowledge of chemistry. Finally, in watching my classmates animations, I had to once again interpret their message and analyze how the were choosing to represent it.

   Questioning & Predicting:

The final competency was questioning and predicting. “Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest.” I think the best example of this is my use of cases time. While it’s something I can undeniably improve at I think that in comparison to my other projects this year, I did a decent job. Not to down myself, only to admit to having some room for improvement. This is something of. A goal for the next project we do in this class and I’m setting out to do my best next time around. Other than class time, my final video is another example of this competency. I’m rather proud of the final product and I believe it’s a good, if not the best way of showing my full understanding now, in comparison to the beginning of this project.

 

   Overall this project has been a point of interest and while I found some aspects of it difficult, I know now that I can understand and demonstrate my learning and knowledge of chemistry!

Ciara✌️

🕳Maker 9; An Endless Rabbit Hole You’ll Never Come Back From🕳

Leave a comment

   Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to another episode of metal breakdowns with tonight’s host, yours truly, me. Okay to be fair, I’m tired. I’ve had a lot on my plate lately, so please, no criticism on this posts opening. Please. Now in case you were wondering, which you probably weren’t, I have managed to keep my head above water for the past couple weeks. How? I have absolutely no idea what to tell you. In the past three months we have had by far the busiest term of school I’ve ever experienced. And yes I know, “it only gets harder,” “you’re only in grade 9.” Blah blah blah. Yes I’m in grade 9 but that doesn’t in an way dilute the amount of effort I have to put in on a regular basis. So why am I rambling on and on about the amount of stress that is slowly drowning not only me, but almost every other PLP 9 student? Because of one of the core contributors to said stress! Maker! Now despite the high expectations and pressure we’re put under, I love maker. It’s always so fun and leaves so much wiggle room for creative opportunity. That what I though last year. This year, term 1 to be specific has given us an entirely blank canvas when it comes to creative and skillful development. This has been amazing and had contributed to my growth in this subject so much. To really break it down for you, we’ve been assigned a full out reflection on the term and our performance and growth in the curricular competencies we’ve been working with lately. I’m now going to demonstrate the innate art of full sending it into reflection mode. Enjoy, and don’t forget to fasten your seatbelt because you’re in for a bumpy ride!

qimono / Pixabay

 First up we’re going through the process of explaining the curricular competencies. Taking a first look at what you see below way back in September was a tad intimidating. Considering I was fresh off of summer break, still sporting a tan you can see how now that it’s the beginning of winter and nonetheless almost the new year I’m definitely more confident in my ability to comprehend the meanings of each of the competencies. Each and every one of the videos that I’ll be sharing with you today are ones that I can recognize the peaks and valleys of my performance with the competencies and my growth going forward. Take a look at the photo below and read the “simple,” description for each of the competencies and see how you feel. Now try making a grand total of 10 videos that are supposed to meet and eventually exceed the expectations that follow. Fun isn’t it!

The Beginning:

   I kid you not. PLP teachers have a gift when it comes to launching a project. From last years REM related project to that of this terms most recent Star Wars project. With maker this year we had the experience of creating a video on the spot. Zero preparation. Very little time. A task created solely to show us our improvement later on. Sounds very familiar. We were tasked with creating a four shot film. That basically meant only using four different shots and angles to create a mini movie. This was…well. A disaster. Video making was alway simply compiling a series of clips in iMovie and pressing play. It would always do it for me and that was the extent of my knowledge. I feel as though this was one of the best examples for the beginning stages of being an empowered learner. I leveraged technology in order to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in my learning goals. How so? Looking back upon our video now has given my insight on how the goals I set have come along and what I have done over time to get to where I am now with my skill set and knowledge of video making.

Alberta:

   In both my Alberta posts from earlier this year I ramble on and on about the up and downs of any and all aspects of the trip. In my PGP reflection on the trip I looked back upon my attitude and work ethic whilst in my This Land is Us post I cover everything related to our project on which we worked throughout the entirety of the trip. In Alberta we created a total of three videos each very different. Before embarking on the trip we started mapping out ideas and planning for our ghost town silent films. Working with groups of 5/6 was a beneficial component in the making of this video. While we had what seemed like little time to prepare, I have now learned that a week is plenty. Managing time and working with different technologies to plan and execute our video was definitely something we didn’t do a great job with this time around. In saying that I will credit myself in meetings if not exceeding the competency, computational thinking because of how quickly I had to find and facilitate a solution to our planning and filming fiasco. Getting from the point of confusion and simply “looking around,” for an hour instead of getting down to the nitty gritty and working with what we had was one hell of a transition for me that day. And I’m glad to say that I am still very proud of the work we did.

   Our next video in Alberta was sprung upon us out of nowhere. On our day trip to Drumheller’s  Royal Tyrell Museum we had to create a one minute video in one hour. Seems like a simple task right? Nope. We needed to really gab a hold of our knowledge constructor competency for this one. Our task was to find one artifact that fascinates us and talk about why. I think that the real challenge was finding something to be my topic. I swear ask Anthony who was my partner for this project, I changed artifacts maybe 3 or 4 times before finally deciding on one. Once again, I believe that the competency knowledge constructor is really emphasized in this video and the process that went with solely because of how we needed to apply the information we had already gathered to our video.

   The final video done in Alberta was a the big one. In my This Land is Us post I talk about the process for the video and the entire project as a whole so check it out. While doing this video I feel that I found solutions to the many obstacles I faced. Whether I displayed empowered learning or innovative designing didn’t really matter because I feel that as we went through the many different stages in making this video, I showed all of them. At different points in the pre and post production I was faced with obstacles relating to my preparation or my use of technology and resources. During the production on our trip, I had to manage multiple other components all the while having fun which proved my ability to be an empowered learner. I talk a lot about this in my recent PGP post regarding Alberta as a whole. 

Humanities & Maker:

   When we started our Revolutions Through The Ages project we knew that research would be a massive contributor to both our collective and individual success. In making four videos each on a different revolution all the while highlighting cause and consequence I believe that I strongly represented a creative communicator. In my portfolio post regarding the project I talk a lot about the competencies that we worked on. Aside from the project as a whole, I believe that in each of the videos I had to change from time to time. For example, the French Revolution video we made involved acting and the idea of creating a mini movie. In doing so I believe that I used a variety of technologies to solve problems in ways that that utilize tools and resources provided. We not only had to research deeper into the topic to accurately represent historical figures such as Marie Antoinette and Napoleon Bonaparte. I can confidently say that with each of these videos I demonstrated my abilities as an empowered learner and creative communicator with room to grow but still enough to meet expectations.

   Run was our big video project in maker this past term. We worked for weeks in each of the production stages all in order to create a carbon copy of the short film, “Run.” In my post on this specific project I talk about the process itself and the final product so go and check it out. For now I want to simply go over how I met and fluctuated a lot with the competencies for this project. Using different technologies to enhance our videos was a huge part of the production from the beginning to the very end. I felt that as an individual I worked well with finding new solutions when problems arose. In the production stage particularly, I believe that I contributed to the video’s success in figuring out the logistical side of things considering the set, time, and directing. Despite this I do clearly recognize that in the earlier stages of the pre-production I was a little bit below my personal standards. I do believe that the competency best represented through my process as a learner for this project is the innovative designer.

PGP/Careers:

   The final video that I tackled this term was that of the Take Your Kid to Work Day event. In my post on the day and my experience as a whole I talk about my answers to the driving questions and I dive deep into my understanding of the working world, now what I’ve experienced parts of it first hand. With this video I believe that I was a total knowledge constructor. I know that by now I’m getting carried away with these competencies but I’m very excited at this point. This video was a huge challenge for me as I went to a hospital, specifically a cardio ICU where confidentiality is taken extremely seriously, leaving me with very little to work with. I somehow found a way to find solution to these issues and ended up with a stellar video that I’m very proud of. I really represented a knowledge constructor here because of how I leveraged the technology and resources I had to communicate and send a clear message to my audiences.

TeroVesalainen / Pixabay

   This is it. I have learned an insane amount of things from this course in the past few months, most, if not all of which will go on to help me later on. I fell that I confidently represented my learning and reflection of my growth in this post so its best to wrap it up! 

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk ✌️

🗝Ra Ra Revolution🗝

Leave a comment

Hello world and welcome back to my blog for yet another post. This time is different I assure you. You see this post is all about our most recent humanities project, Revolutions Through the Ages. I like to identify as a history and literature nerd so please excuse the amount of utter excitement that I am presenting as I write this. Ok now for the nitty gritty! This time around our driving question asked us, “how do ideas drive change?” This certainly was a new concept for us as we hadn’t really studied the idea of what drives change in a while. That didn’t stop us from diving in head first. For each of our projects we focus ourselves around both the driving question and the curricular competencies. So I’m trying out a new way of formatting these posts to allow you to get a better look at my understanding and growth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cause & Consequence:

   Starting off strong let’s cover what this really means. Understanding the who what when where and why of a historical event is a big deal especially when your overall task is to create a video in which you would offer said information in immense detail. Admittedly when we started off our video wasn’t the strongest and we didn’t really have a clear way of showing our understanding of the causes and consequences that came from the French Revolution. I felt as though I understood the reasoning for the French Revolution and what it caused in the end and further thereafter but struggled with the presentation of it. Defining the cause came easy because when you understand where the idea for a revolution came from its easy to show it, especially with the format of video we chose the first time around. As we got to our third video I began to easily see the recognition of the consequences that came after the revolution in question. The third being the Russian revolution there was a lot of resemblance between the three we had studied. I wonder why! Oh wait, we learned this. Crane Brinton’s theory of the structure of revolutions allowed for me to recognize the connection between all of the revolutions we studied. And I got a better understanding of how I could represent cause and consequence in my final video. When we talked about the incubation stage in each of our videos I feel that I got better and better at recognizing the defining factors leading up to the ultimate crisis stage. Overall I feel that I can now identify the cause and consequence and present it in a way that is easy for an audience to comprehend. 


Evidence:

    This largely comes into play when we talk about my final video. We decided to go a little off the map and take a risk in choosing our own, particularly recent revolution. This required a ton of research and in doing so I had to carefully sift through articles, websites, and videos that were not necessarily offering false information, instead it was biased. In choosing to study The Troubles in Ireland, a recent rebellion that only took place roughly 30 years ago there’s still has a lot of unsettled tension causing many sources to be particularly biased in the information they give. I think that aside from the general research itself the evidence of our understanding for each revolution was evident in each of our videos getting better and better as we improved our skills. 


Create and Extend Shared Understanding:

   With my group mates, Holly, Grace, and Finn, I felt like we could use one another for our skills in each video while simultaneously pushing each other to our limits with all kinds of challenges. Having half the group being moderately to extremely extroverted and the other half being very introverted was no problem and worked to our benefit. On any day, we’d come together and discuss our findings in research, innovation, and revision. In doing so we found ways to bounce off one another with new ideas evidently changing the dynamic of our group to benefit us in the long run. With each of our videos we tried to mix things up a little. Myself and Holly would typically be highlighted in the video while Finn and Grace worked behind the scenes on post production work. Sharing our ideas allowed us to extend and gain insight on ourselves and how we work in a group. I definitely see an improvement in my group work this time around which is fantastic and I’m glad to see that in myself.


Text Comprehension & Appreciation:

   Finally, we talk about the novel. Jennifer Donnelly’s, “Revolution,” is a fiction novel based on the events of the French Revolution. The story takes place in present day following the teenager life of Andi Alpers as she struggles to find her way through depression and addiction following the death of her younger brother. This part of the project was rather enjoyable as the book was actually quite captivating. Or at least that’s what I thought until some major plot twists took place. Sorry, no spoilers. Anyway, alongside the physical reading aspect we had to write a creative reflection at the end of the novel study. I say write because I chose to write my own short story from the viewpoint of Truman Alpers, the deceased brother of the main character. everyone had the option to choose whatever they please to represent their text comprehension and their overall appreciation of the books contribution to our studies. I think that I did an outstanding job with this. I’m not trying to brag or sound snobby I just was really proud of the work I did. I think that my creative reflection was strong and very personal. Nonetheless I can confidently say that I improved with this competency mostly because whenever we get assigned a book for class I typically find it to be an easy read or one that is not captivating to my personal style. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Videos:

   Ok I promise its almost over! In talking about the curricular competencies and reflecting on how I feel I performed and improved with some, if not all of these, I realized I neglected to show my groups masterpieces to begin with. Getting right into it, we studied the French, American, and Russian revolutions in class and made videos for each, describing the cause and consequence using evidence from our notes, sited sources, and background knowledge. Starting out, making these video was a very difficult task. To write, film, and edit a video is one thing. Doing it in under a week is another. We somehow got through the three weeks almost smoothly if it weren’t for some small bumps in the road. I really enjoyed the history part of this project as it was honestly very interesting to get a deeper understanding of how a revolution really works. And lets be real here. Two months ago if you’d asked me the cause of the American revolution was I would probably have answered with a sarcastic comment regarding George Washington and his slaves. By the end of each week I’d learned something new and been able to represent it in a stellar video. My personal favourite to create was the American revolution rap video. Yes you read that right. Rap video. I think that we did a very good job with this video and it was definitely the most enjoyable. And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Our final video! For our fourth and final video we chose to study The Troubles. This was a revolution that took pace in Northern Ireland around 30 years ago making it very recent compared to the others. In creating this final video we had to conduct all of our won research and innovate our ideas in order to succeed. I believe that we did so and I was really proud of the video in the end. Aside from my horrible voice because yes, we of course decided it was a great idea to make another rap video! Anyway ladies and gents, that’s it for today because my brain hurts from thinking to much!

 

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk ✌️

🎃SBC Week 4: Choice🎃

Leave a comment

Hi guys and welcome back to my blog! This week is so exciting as it is almost Halloween, one of my personal favourite holidays, of course we all know that nothing beats Christmas. Just kidding you’re entitled to your own opinions. Anyway as the years scariest day approaches at a rapid pace I’d like to use this weeks choice based challenge to talk about Halloween or more specifically fears in general. Now I was originally going to use this week for catch up and dial down the excitement for this post but where’s the fun in that! To really dive into my topic for today I’m simply going to talk about some fears and what fear really is. 

Pexels / Pixabay

   Everyone has them, something that haunts them in their everyday lives. I have friends who are scared of heights, flying, spiders, fireworks, and even bees. I myself have a rather odd but really quite sensible fear of the ocean. While every persons fears may vary there is a huge difference between a fear and a phobia. Phobias are also known as irrational fears and usually have an effect on people causing them to be inexplicably scared of a particular thing or situation. A fear is much different as it feels so much more real. When your adrenaline starts pumping due to fear induced emotions your very likely to do one of three things. Run, hide, or freeze. The sense of fear comes when your brain recognizes the impending danger something can oppose and has very little reaction time whereas a phobia is the set belief of something trying to harm you. When we are young our parents or guardians may cause a phobia to arise especially if for example they highlighted their irrational fear of spiders. This is simply one of the main causes of a phobia in a young child. Having examples set for them early on can cause a chain reaction and result in the passing down of a phobia. Fears are once again, vastly different. You cant inherit a fear from your family members it comes on its own. Most fears are born out of a bad situation or life threatening event. Deciphering the difference between the two can be very easy if you put another person in a situation that would typically cause a rush of fear induced adrenaline.

Wokandapix / Pixabay

   Talking on a more personal note, I’m scared to death by the ocean. Funny enough this is a fear not a phobia. Not being able to see what’s below me or having something touch my foot while I’m swimming is horrifying. I have had panic attacks whilst in the ocean, minor of course but still relevant. It’s story time, buckle up and enjoy! So this summer my family took a trip to Maui. We went to the island in the peak of summer and nearing turtle season. It was gorgeous and I loved almost every minute of it. On our second day there my dad tried to take me and my brother and sister snorkelling in shallow waters with a sandbar so that we could see clearly and stand up comfortably. The minute I set foot in the water I cracked. My siblings and dad started laughing as I leaped out of the water in panic when a small school of fish swam right by my face. It was terrifying, I swear I started hyperventilating. After that great experience I refused to go snorkelling for the rest of the trip. While my entire fear is based off of not being able to see what’s beneath me I realized that seeing everything isn’t much better. A few days went by, we hiked a volcano, ate to much ice cream, and went to some of the best beaches in the world (without snorkelling of course). Soon enough it was time for a road trip across the island. We stopped along at some cool beaches including a beautiful black rock beach known for the coral reef that spreads across the shoreline. Surprise, this was a snorkelling stop. I refused to go into the water because of the huge rocks and coral habitats filled with fish, turtles, and all kinds of sea life. Somehow I was convinced to give it another go and i made it out roughly 50 meters from shore when the waves kicked in. There was so much coral and fish below me and I couldn’t stand because I couldn’t see the bottom. This is where that dump of adrenaline kicked it and I began to panic. Being in the ocean far away from shore, I couldn’t hide, or swim very far at a rush. I ended up freezing which was not ideal as the water became very murky with all of the wave action. I eventually made it to shore after a lot of effort and its safe to say I will not be snorkelling for a long time.

   Anyway happy Halloween everyone and don’t let your fears, or phobias get to you! 

Ciara ✌️👻

🏞Alberta 2019, a Portfolio Post🏞

Leave a comment

Hello ladies and gents and welcome to this years first PGP portfolio post extravaganza. You are one heck of a lucky reader as you will be her as I dive into the details of my overall experience whilst in Alberta with my class in September. As this is a PGP post I’m really talking about how I worked and learned on he trip and how my habits of mind came into play throughout the trip. So what are habits of mind? Last year we covered all things to do with our growth mindset and how we can further build them upwards by using our mental skills and trying better to understand what we need to improve on. Every grade really focuses on one or two habits of mind. As a ninth grader, we are working on our basic impulsivity especially in class. In order to get an idea of where we really are with this we were assigned a reflection in which we would analyze our work ethic and habits in Alberta. So why would we choose our trip, wouldn’t we be more distracted when travelling than in class? I think not. When we are taken on these trips it is our number one goal to learn as much as we can despite our specific projects or groups. Our challenge is to always be listening, always be curious, and always be intuitive in every location. That’s basically all I need to look at. How impulsive was I during our trip? How did I manage learning in a multitude of different locations daily, going from one to the other at fast paces? How can this been seen and proven by looking at my work ethic and portfolio from the trip?

   Our itinerary for this trip was insanity. We somehow managed to get though every stop enjoyably and the entire experience was amazing. As you may have already read from my earlier post for our main project we did whilst in Alberta, we were split into seven groups for our videos. I was part of the wildlife group and had ample opportunities to gather information surrounding my driving question most of which involved being outdoors or in environments with a higher population of wildlife unlike downtown Calgary, an ideal place for groups such as tourism, students, or business people. I am someone who absorbs information a little differently than what would be considered normal. I tend to take a lot of photos that remind me or are specific to what I learned. While most of my peers take notes, or draw out their findings I only take photos, video, and recordings. That is one of the reasons I think interviewing strangers is one of my strengths. When branching from one topic to another I can instinctively come up with more questions on the spot. I have loads of proof of this method and how well it works for me. I think that the defining reason for this working so well with my learning style involves my listening skills and awareness of my surroundings. Here are a few examples of how I managed to gather a bunch of information at all kinds of locations, some of which weren’t even assigned to my group.

   Aside form our humanities video project, we made another two videos both for maker. One of which we started to plan for a week in advance by writing up a storyboard and call sheet for our groups. My group mates, Kaden, Noah, Kaia, and Grace, and I decided to go with a horror movie theme for our movie. With the location where we did the filming being a heritage ghost town we had plenty of ideas for a plot. Of course being immature 14 year olds we went with the classic satanic cult/purge storyline. We planned out our scenes and our locations for each. Having never seen the ghost town in person we didn’t really know what it was going to look like until we arrived. With the set up and amount of opportunities we had with each space we had to revise our ideas and change things up to adapt to the vibe of the town and the unfortunate weather. With this project I was excited from the start. When we first came up with our idea for a plot I was so pumped for the filming and I really put a lot of effort into the video. When we got to the ghost town I was already very exhausted and I find it hardest to concentrate and really put myself into activities with a focused mind when I’m feeling that way. I honestly don’t know why I was so tired I mean I’d had almost 2 solid hours of sleep while we were travelling in the morning. Nonetheless I persevered and found that for the first time I was really determined to give the project my all despite my exhaustion. Here’s our final product, something I’m very proud of especially for the first real video we’d done.

   Next up we have more humanities talk! Sorry to be enthusiastic but my absolute favourite stops on this entire trip were humanities based and were places in which I gathered a lot of data going towards my final video. the best days of the trip in my personal opinion spanned from the 17-21st of September. Honestly, I just looked at our itinerary for reference and I can’t even express how awesome this trip was. Obviously the previously mentioned days were my favourite but I still loved the rest. And yes, for whichever of my teachers is reading this right now that does include the morning you made us get up super early and go to Moraine Lake. That lake was insanely gorgeous so thank you. Anyways, I simply wanted to talk about how I managed to constantly be ready to learn whenever possible as well as enjoy the scenery and vibe of the trip at the same time. My best examples come from Beakerhead, Studio Bell, and Heritage Park. Being your resident music student, visiting studio bell was amazing. I really just loved this stop because of the museums instrument displays where I got to go play and listen to music, specifically Canadian music while doing a a scavenger hunt. Second to Studio Bell is Heritage Park. I absolutely loved this day because we spent a solid few hours in Calgarys heritage park which was almost like a method acting version of the ghost town. I say this because there we people within the park that made it seem like we had really ben transported back in time to the late 19th- early 20th century. There was everything from horse drawn carriages, boats, and trains, to a fully operating amusement park. Not even kidding I’m talking ferris wheel, carousel, bumper car amusement park. Aside from the insane amount of fun I had in heritage park we also learned about the building of what is now Calgary. I used a lot of the information I gathered here in my video and I found all of it really interesting. Finally, Beakerhead. In Calgary, there is an annually held arts and science festival in which artists from all over Alberta and some other provinces showcase some of the most extravagant art and performances I’ve ever seen. On the first night we walked around Calgary’s public library enjoying some live displays of light based art, something I found very cool. There was a lot of method and culture that went into the pieces especially using the spaces in the park and library  with an extremely creative view. The second night of Beakerhead loved so much. There was fashion shows, fires shows, mechanical sharks, fire breathing dragons, and insane 20ft tall sculptures. Surprisingly enough, I once again managed to find some piece of information that went into my final video and let me remind you, I was in the wildlife group. The only wildlife we actually saw was a stray cat, some crows, and a rabbit. 

   Finally I have to mention the one project that I didn’t really put as much effort into and I’ve figured out why. When we visited the Royal Tyrell Museum we were assigned a short informational video based on the data we gather from one exhibit. Being at the museum was really exciting and brought out a lot of my rather unfocused traits. My overall excitably can be the downfall to some of my work and this surely happened at the museum. We went from hiking through the badlands to exploring the massive museum in what seemed like no time at all and I realize looking back upon my effort for the video that I was a little distracted. Nonetheless I still completed the project meeting all the criteria it’s simply that I knew I could’ve done better if I’d had a better handle on my impulsivity and overall mindset that particular day.


Last year in Oregon I was much different. I looked back upon all of my portfolio posts from last year when reorganizing my blog and I have really picked up on the amount of growth I’ve had since last year. Yes, I do regularly lose focus or get caught up in something else instead of what’s going on in class. That is something I really hope to work towards improving on this year. When we talk about the habits of mind we typically refer to them by grade but I personally think of them as a way of individually looking at ourselves and recognizing what needs work. By the time my m-POL rolls around this year I want to be able to show my improvement from the goals I’m setting because of this post. PGP forces me to reflect on everything I do and it will continue to do so until I do it instinctively. I can easily say that in Alberta I had an amazing time even though we had to be at school at 6:15 on a Sunday. I like to think that between 70-80% of the time I was attentive as to what was going on school wise while also being able to enjoy myself alongside my peers. I recognize that there were definitely times where I could’ve done more or worked harder but I can’t go back and fix that now, I can only move forward and strive to be better.

🔗SBC 2019 Week 3: Creative Commons🔗

Leave a comment

Welcome back! This weeks challenge teaches us how to legally, safely, and properly use and credit online images without the risk of copyright. I honesty think that this is one of our generations most valuable lessons. Growing up in an age of technology is tricky especially when you’re uneducated on topic such as copyright safety. In the past year we have worked to really drill these simple rules and strategies into our brains and I have to give credit to last years similar challenge that taught me how to use copyright free images properly in any and all of my posts. Anyway, as per usual there are a few tasks for this challenge. Step 1, I’m going to show you one of my own photos that I took and edited myself. This is a simple way of getting us to use our tools and strategies to create our own masterpieces. Step 2 is a little more complex for a new participant in SBC. The task is to use our knowledge with copyright and Creative Commons to find a copyright free image and give it the proper credit in our post. Finally the last step to this challenge is to create a picture prompt using images we find online. 

   Lately my class has been experimenting with the newest IOS updates on our iPads and myself being someone who love editing photos, I’ve been trying our some new techniques with the apps like Snapseed or simply the photos editing tools. Last year I typically edited every photo I felt its was necessary for and I chose to stick with more traditional techniques and filters. This year I am challenging myself to work with new, more unorthodox editing tools. In the photos below I branched out and tried to recreate a trend online using reflections and making the reflected side look almost like a painting. I tried my best but please feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below!

Here’s my personally edited photo!

Now for the guessing game! Enjoy!

In the slideshow below there are a series of copyright free images I’ve used to help you identify my favourite sport! Good luck and remember to leave your guess in the comments below

 

 

 

Ciara ✌️

🏃🏻‍♂️Run…& Don’t Look Back🏃🏻‍♂️

Leave a comment

All I can say is it made us jump too. Nah I’m just kidding, only a few of us screamed whilst watching that video for the first time. I should probably introduce the topic that goes along with said video as I realize I have neglected to do so. Maker has been a bit of a rollercoaster for the first few months of school. Last year we focused on working with still images. Not only editing photos but learning to take a photo that looks beautiful and represents the moment or setting in which it was taken. This year however we are working with the ever difficult task of creating videos. We started out small, learning shots and practicing our craft with a four shot film. On our field study to Alberta we made a mini movie with a set group that would give us more creative opportunity. Alongside our first Alberta video came a one minute informational video that we were surprised with. Since then we’ve made multiple other videos including our final video from our trip and three other videos in humanities. So this project was kinda a big deal. With all the practice we had and the timing of the project. Our teacher decided to challenge us to recreate the video above to perfection. Obviously the expectations were high because recreating a 1 minute and 6 second video was mapped out over 3/4 weeks. I will say it, this was an extremely difficult task. Being the first time we really needed to follow every step to succeed it was challenging. Let’s dive in!

KELLEPICS / Pixabay

   For each and every project I’ve done in any PLP class, the launch is awesome. We walked into class and were introduced to the Meyers Briggs test. What exactly does this mean? Over time, scientists made it fact that there are a set 16 personality types. The Meyers Briggs test is a method of deciphering which of said personalities you fall under. https://www.16personalities.com is a website that offers the test for free. As a part of our initial launch into this project we completed the test an recorded two of the listed strengths and weaknesses of which we related most to. My personality is defined under the Protagonist category which I completely agree with. In completing this assignment I was able to better recognize my place in any group.

   As previously mentioned, this was the first video which we needed to fully complete each step early on in order to be successful in the long run. The first part of this journey was our creation, or should I say recreation on the screenplay. When constructing a screenplay we needed to account for every single shot in this film and almost perfectly describe the settings, actions, sounds, and aesthetic the scene presented. I will admit it, we did not succeed. Making a screenplay is a daunting task and starting out we hadn’t had any experience with it and we needed some practice. Thankfully we persevered and eventually finished our version of the screenplay. As we went on through the project, getting past the pre-production stages I noticed the impact our screenplay had and how if we had gone back and revised for a better version, we would’ve been more productive later on. As you can see our screenplay definitely could’ve used some work and I think that if we had addressed the issues we would have also had a stronger screenplay.

   The next step through the pre-production stage is the storyboard. This is a more physical version of the screenplay. It’s where we put what we have in to action with a drawn out, or animated plan. We chose to use keynote and animated each shot based off of what we had seen in the original video and what we had to work with from our screenplay. Observing and working with a Tory board is one thing but the overall work that goes into making one helps for you to gain a different perspective of how you can format or revise what is written on your screenplay. It’s more or less a visual but carbon copy of your screenplay, one that you can use for visual aids instead of simply reading off the script. Switching to a more biased note, I honestly prefer to use a detailed screenplay and drop the storyboard. Since the beginning of this project we’ve made multiple other videos in humanities, surely a post to look forwards to. In making each of those I found that working with a detailed, carefully scripted screenplay is much easier and less time consuming.

   The final step in the pre-production process is the call sheet. Yes, I am talking about the same call sheets used for blockbuster films and Emmy- awarded TV shows. Just like any other production we needed a call sheet. Working in a group of three may seem easier than a larger group of 6 for example but things can be just as easily miscommunicated. Making our call sheet involved mapping out dates on which we could film, assigning tasks to each individual, and deciding locations and costumes. It seems pretty much useless because why couldn’t you just ask your group mates. Nope, this is beyond vital. Communication has been a pillar of every single group project I’ve ever done and those where the communication is badly handled end up weary and below expectations in the long run. In our call sheet, we included locations, costumes, assignments, roles, and meeting times. 

   With the completion of the pre-production we quickly moved into filming. Considering the setting of the original video we had a very big advantage having a woodsy trail quite literally in our backyards. When filming I found that we looked back upon our screenplay for reference not as often as I would’ve though we would. We tended to use the original video for reference when we weren’t sure of a shot or angle. This did end up working well for us but wasn’t the idea. If we’d had a stronger pre-production we would’ve benefitted and so would our results. When we finished our first round of filming it had been raining all week 24/7. Not exactly what you could call abnormal for Vancouver but it was not helpful and slowed us down in the process. We ended up reshooting every piece of footage the next week when the weather finally turned around. This was and unfortunate and we really could’ve planned out our filming dates better with our call sheet by recording the weather.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   Talking more along the lines of our curricular competencies I can say that I’ve defiantly learned a thing or two. Computational thinking is something I didn’t feel all that familiar with when first reading the project plan. As we went through the pre-production a ton of problems began popping up as soon as we’d completed the screenplay. In trying to solve these to what was then the best of our ability, we discovered new methods of revising ad complete in tasks using our technology. Working with iPads alongside other devices in this project proved very helpful in the long run. Using said methods undeniably improved our work and allowed for us to try new things when problem solving, especially as a team. Next up we have innovative thinking. This is not so new, the again neither was the first one. Wording things differently has opened up a newer perspective of these competencies this year for sure. With innovative thinking, we simply had to bring our research and ideas to life through critiques, revisions, and the sharing of ideas as a group. I think that this time around we could have definitely done better. Whether that meant setting our differences aside or trying new methods of communication we tried and for the most part succeeded. On the flip side, I strongly believe that the way that each of us worked conflicted in minor ways, causing delays and arguments in the process. Finally we have knowledge constructing. This basically means that we had to find ways of gathering information through different sources so that we could have a strong final product. I can confidently say that we accomplished this with ease as most of our research materials were handed to us. That didn’t do it for us, it just made it easier. We still had to constructively decide what to rely on and which to work with for a banger final copy.

   In conclusion we finished strong with an “almost carbon copy,” of the video. What I took from this experience will help me throughout the rest of high school and while most of it takes plenty of practice, we are doing so in almost every subject. Valuable lessons like the importance of a detailed screenplay and call sheet, to time management as a group will be taken into account during all future video related projects. Working with technologies such as iPads and the tools they offer have opened up so much creative freedom and opportunity and this project presented us with a new set of tools. I believe that while some of the process was rocky and could have undeniably been better, we still ended up with a strong finish!

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk ✌️