Everyone is a part of our community 

This is a special headline to me because I think no matter who you are, you are a part of a community. This is because there is a place for everyone, and everyone should feel welcome in our grade 10 community. Community is important because you can include people and make them feel good and welcome. This helped me reset my mindset, making me realize that everyone is so nice in our class and that we don’t have to be separated into different groups- we can all be together and all be friends! Another reason is because we have not a lot of people in our class, so we are more likely to be all one big group. I think this is good because before, I think there were people in the middle of groups and sometimes didn’t know where they belonged ad now we can all be inclusive and we can be happy all together!

What was Loon Lake?

This late November, the PLP 10 class and the PLP 8 class went to Loon Lake. It was a really good experience, at a fun and a nice place. It is owned by UBC, and they are happy to have guests there. They often have retreats for lots of different kinds of people. We went up to build community and bond with our classmates. We did many different activities like low ropes, high ropes, and we spent lots of time with Jono. For the low ropes, we worked on teamwork and team-building skills. We learned how to trust each other and how to be trusted. With Jono, he helped us really know how to trust fall. We did this one activity that I think I will remember forever. We had to stand on top of a table, and then we put another chair on top of the table, and we stood on the chair. We had to ask our catchers if they were ready and then count to three. On three, we let ourselves fall back, worked into our classmates’ arms. It was very scary, but I knew that my classmates were going to catch me. At the top, we were told to make a wish. I made my wish and fell. PLP likes to do field studies because it helps our class grow more community, and we all get to know each other more. I hope I get out of this year’s field study that we are all a team and no matter what, we all have each other’s backs!

VMVs

When I looked back at my Vision, Mission, and Values, I noticed that my strengths of collaboration and communication really connected with the Loon Lake field study. In my VMV, I wrote that I want to “contribute to conversation and stay on task” and also make sure my ideas are heard and connected to the group. During the field study, there were so many moments where I had to work with classmates and actually use these strengths in real ways. For example, on the low ropes, we had to figure out how to cross obstacles, and we could only do it by talking together and trying our ideas. I found myself sharing suggestions and also listening, which made me realize that teamwork doesn’t just happen by accident—you really ne to try. Another part of my VMV says if I don’t understand something, I will ask for help, and I actually had to do that because some of the activities were confusing at first, and I had to ask my group what was going on. This made me feel more confident doing exactly what I said I would do in my VMV.

Trust falls

One meaningful moment for me was the trust fall activity with Jono. I was honestly nervous because it felt high, and I didn’t want to be the only person scared. When I stepped up on the chair, I could feel my heart beating so fast, and I almost wanted to step back down. Everyone was watching and cheering and telling me it would be okay. When I counted to three and fell backwards, it felt so weird because I really had to just let go. When my classmates caught me, it made me feel safe and proud because I didn’t think I could actually do it. That moment taught me that sometimes I doubt myself for no real reason, and I actually can do things even when they feel scary. I think this helped me grow because now I trust my classmates more, and I trust myself more too.

Asking for help

One piece of evidence from my VMV that connects is where I wrote “I will contribute to conversation so we can improve as a group.” This really relates to the low ropes because talking and contributing ideas was basically how we finished the activity. Another piece of evidence is when I wrote that I will ask for help if I don’t understand something, and I actually asked questions during the retreat instead of just standing there. I also took notes in my reflection journal about how nervous I was and how after communicating with my group I actually felt calmer and more confident. These pieces of evidence show that I was really using my VMV in real-life situations, not just on paper.

Communication

Using the PLP success behaviours, I think one strength I showed was communication because I talked with my group and didn’t stay quiet even if I felt nervous. A place I struggled with was self-regulation, especially when I got overwhelmed before doing the trust fall because I almost talked myself out of it. Next time I would try to calm myself earlier and trust that things will be fine. I’m not perfect at this yet, but I can see I’m improving and that makes me feel like I’m actually growing.

Saying my Piece

For the next five days, my goal is to speak at least once during every class discussion in my learning team. This matters because I want to keep improving my communication and confidence, not just during field studies but in regular class time too. I will track this by writing down each time I participate so I actually know I’m doing it.

Personal growth

Overall, this field study changed me because I realized I’m actually someone who can communicate and collaborate even when things feel scary or new. I learned that trusting people makes our class stronger and that I really am part of this community. Most of all, I feel like I grew not just as a learner but as someone who can support others in my class too.

This isn’t your normal blog post. It is for my teacher to make a blog post and post it on his blog! So I will be explaining what that means and what he will be writhing about. The beginning of this project we had to  choose some thins about our blogs that we could teach our teacher. Everyone had to do a different thing to talk about. I chose to do how to comment on a blog and how to use lightbox. Now let’s dive in!

Hello welcome to your guide to work your blog. I will cover how to comment on your friends blog! I will also be covering how to use a plug called light box. Check out some of my classmates how to pages too learn other tools that can help you in the future. Now lets dive in!

💬 Leaving a Comment

1. Go to the home page and find the post you want to comment on.

1. Scroll to the bottom of the post and click Leave a Comment.

1. Type your comment. Make sure it’s kind and respectful always aim to make people feel good.

1. Click Post Comment. Your comment will appear just above the reply box.

Step 1: Activate the Lightbox Plugin

1. Log in to your website dashboard.
2. Go to Plugins → All Plugins.
3. Find Lightbox for Images in the list.
4. Click Activate.
5. Once activated, the plugin will automatically add the lightbox effect to all images and galleries — but only if the images are linked to their media files.

Step 2: Make Sure Images Are Linked to Media Files

If You’re Using the Block Editor:

1. Open the post or page where you want the image.
2. Click on the image block to select it.
3. On the block toolbar above the image, click the Link icon.
4. From the dropdown, select Media File. This ensures the image opens in a lightbox
5. For gallery blocks:
   • Click the gallery block to select it.
   • Click on each individual image in the gallery.
   • In the block settings on the right, set Link To Media File for every image.

If You’re Using the Classic Editor:

1. Open the post or page where you want the image.
2. Click Add Media above the editor to upload a new image or select one from your media library.
3. On the right side, in Attachment Details, find Link To.
4. Select Media File.
5. Click Insert Into Post.
6. For galleries:
   • When inserting a gallery, make sure each image is set to Link To → Media File.

Step 3: Using Lightbox on Your Site

1. Go to your live post or page.
2. Click any image that is linked to a media file.
3. The image should open in a lightbox overlay:
   • The background will darken.
   • The image will appear larger in the center of the screen.
   • If it’s a gallery, use the arrows to scroll through all images in the gallery.

Step 4: Disable Lightbox for a Specific Post or Page (Optional)

1. Open the post or page editor.
2. Look for the Disable lightbox option (usually in the settings sidebar).
3. Check this option to turn off lightbox for that page only.

https://docs.campuspress.com/en/articles/437-lightbox-for-images-plugin

Learning intentions part.2

My last post was also a learning intentions post, but that was about WWII. This one is about habits! In this project, we will be learning about good habits and bad habits. I don’t know a lot about this project so far, but I will in the near future! Now, let’s dive right in!

What I know so far:

I know that there are good habits like making your bed in the morning or doing your homework on time (the last one I need to work on). There are also bad habits like not brushing your teeth in the morning. Or like being late to everything. Those I’m pretty good at. But there are other things that I need to work on. One of them being getting my work on time. 

How this will help me:

Throughout this project, I will be working on myself. One habit I really want to work on is getting work in on time! I am determined to get this post in on time, and I will make it happen! I am also going to be reading a book this project. It is called Atomic Habits by James Clear. I will read his book with intention and not just because we have to. I am going to try to like his writing and try to intertwine his writing with my everyday life. I am also going to be working on some other habits like keeping my room clean. My parents are going to like that! But also doing it for my sake. It might take some time, but I will get there.

What are the habits I need to work on, and how will I do it?

Some of the habits I need to work on are getting my work done on time. I will complete my goal by setting reminders on my iPad and by checking my Showbie often. I will also not forget to take my ADHD medication, and that will help me complete my work in class. Another one of my habits that I want to work on is keeping my room clean. How I will do this is by tidying it every night before I go to bed. I will also put clothes away after I wash them. That means I will fold them and put them in my drawers. 

Bad habits and how I will fix them:

One bad habit is when I’m getting ready in the morning, I don’t put the stuff I use away. I will fix this by putting away what I use as soon as I am done with it. I also need to fix a habit that I have, which is now proofreading. I can fix this by asking the tool on Pages to proofread my work or I can ask my mom to read my work and see if she approves. 

🌟 Pre-Project Blog Post

To start the school year, this post is a little different because we haven’t started this project yet. Instead of reflecting, I’m setting some personal learning intentions. But first, here’s what I know about WWII.

💭 What I Know About WWII

I don’t know everything about WWII, but I know a bit from books, movies, and school. I’ve always found it interesting and can’t wait to learn more.

I know about the Holocaust. Hitler led Germany as a dictator, believed in racism and antisemitism, and wanted a “pure” German race. Jewish people were stripped of rights, jobs, and freedom, and millions were sent to death camps like Auschwitz. Propaganda helped spread lies and hate, convincing many that Jewish people were the problem.

📰 Propaganda

The project question is:

“How do stories, media, and propaganda shape how we remember World War II?”

Propaganda spreads lies and manipulates people using fear and emotion. To explore this, Ella, Siena compared two articles about Harry Potter and I combined them. One from when the first book came out and one written recently.

This is our Harry Potter article:

In this article, it talks about J.K. Rowling’s journey from when she first created Harry Potter to being called a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) by some people. When J.K. Rowling first wrote the Harry Potter books, she was hugely admired by lots of people for her literacy skills, but as we’ve moved along through the years, a lot has changed for the famous author. While she stands up for women’s rights and fairness between both genders, she also expresses certain opinions that not everyone agrees with. She has strong opinions on trans women being recognized as women in full context, which some people believe in and some people don’t. She has criticized some parts of the trans rights movement, particularly legislation and language changes around gender. She first started sharing these opinions on Twitter and on different social media platforms, which made her views well known around the world. Everyone believes in different things, and I agree that some of her statements made sense, but some others I’m not so sure about. She’s gone from the famous creator of Harry Potter to a gender critic, all because of a couple of tweets.

🔍 What I Want to Learn More About

1. The Holocaust — I want to learn more details and how it ended.
2. Pearl Harbor — I want to know why it happened and how the U.S. responded.
3. D-Day — I want to understand why it was such a big turning point.

🎯 My Learning Intention

I want to balance school, sports, and everything else. I’ll try to get work done before sports, stay focused in class, and use my iPad responsibly with “Do Not Disturb” on.I’m really excited for this project — it’s a topic I find interesting, and that makes all the difference!

Thanks for reading! 👋

This was one of my favourite projects in humanities this year. I really liked it because the drawing part. I liked it because I cauldron express my artistic skill.

Driving question: How can researching historical significance of World War 1

Ww1 notes:

Of course we had to take notes so we know what we were reading or watching. I am really proud of my notes because I think I really worked hard on my notes. Here is the link to see my notes:

Story planing:

The first part of every story is planning. You can’t just dive into a book not knowing what you are writing about. My story is called Hubert The Hero. It is about a boy who goes to war with his best friend and get injured then comes back home on medical leave. But when we draw we need something to put our drawings into. So we learned about panels.

The Criteria for the book included:

• A minimum of 1 Splash Panel
• A minimum of 1 Open Panel
• Reverse
• Bleed
• Close-up
• Longshot
• Narratory Blocks containing your narratior 
• Speech Ballons containing dialogue 
• Thought Bubbles containing character thoughts*
• Sound Effects
• Labels and Captions

This is what some of the panels looks like

Finished product:

I am so proud of my book because I worked really hard to draw. It took me about 2 weeks to draw all the images. I didn’t free hand draw all of the images but I traced them. Some of them I free handed. It was hard sometimes to draw but I had to get my work done.

Answer to the driving question:

I think researching World War 1 helps us understand how past conflicts shaped today’s world, including global politics and alliances. It teaches us the dangers of war and the importance of learning from history to prevent future conflicts.

Tpol. AGAIN???

It’s crazy how time flys. Especially when you are working to up your grades! 

Ahh speech 

“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.

🏎️ Driving Question: Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?

Humanities: I think that this is the subject that I think I am most proud of. I think I have grown a lot throughout this year alone. I think I have been more into it than last year. I am also really proud with all the work that I have done throughout this year. I tink the project I am most proud of is the comic book. I am also proud of my name of the nations video. Also with the project that we are wrapping up now called comic quest ww1! I think because I like drawing it has been easier for me to get work done. I have been locking in as some people like to put it! I also am really proud of my drawings because they all look good and they all took lots of time. I have really worked hard this year and I’m feeling good about going into next year.

Maker: At the beginning of the year I don’t think that my work was the best I can do but now I am much more confident in my work that  I have done in the last couple of months.  We have done lots of videos but I think my favourite project was the 7 habits of highly effective teens. It is a book written by Sean covey. At the beginning of the project I thought the book was really bad and kinda weird but after I read it now I’m kinda appreciating the book. It had some good habits that I am trying to use in my everyday life.  

Science: I Love science and all the fun labs we do. I have learned a lot in the past year. Like ionic compounds. I never knew they existed until this year. The spring exhibition just happened and this year it was science themed for the grade 9 class. We were focused on pollination. There were 5 groups all doing different animals. There was the hummingbird, bats, bees, plants, and butterfly’s.

my group was with:

Tyler

Madeline

Liann

Sven

Danny

I think our group was amazing because we had great props and costumes. They were so fun and homemade!

VMV: 

I think all of these are still relevant.

answer to the driving question:

I think my answer to the diving question is I have learned how to stay focused and my adhd medication has helped a lot. I also know how to comeback from things that wasn’t planned. Also I think that I show a good understanding in all my subjects so that is my answer to the driving question thank you the end!

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Most people listen to reply—not to understand. This habit flips that. It’s about really listening before you speak.

Try it every day by:

• Letting a friend or sibling vent without interrupting.
• Asking, “How do you feel about that?” instead of jumping to advice.
• Repeating what someone said to make sure you got it right.

When people feel heard, they’ll respect what you say even more.

Habit 6: Synergize

Two heads are better than one. Synergy means working together to create better solutions than you could on your own.

Try it every day by:

• Teaming up on group projects and actually listening to others’ ideas.
• Asking, “What would you do?” when you’re stuck.
• Seeing differences as strengths, not problems.

Working with others builds trust—and often leads to way better results.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

You can’t be your best if you’re running on empty. This habit is all about self-care and personal growth.

Try it every day by:

• Taking a walk or doing something active.
• Journaling or unplugging for 10 minutes.
• Reading, meditating, or doing something that makes you happy.

Taking care of your body and mind helps you show up better in every area of life.

Part 3

Public Victory

This habit to me means that if you think lose-win then you will let people beat you and you will turn into a pushover. That people think they can walk all over you. But if you think win-lose then you think that there has to be a loser for you to win.

Habit 5: seek first to understand rather than to be understood: n

I think this is a great habit but if you switch it up than

its not so good because if you want people to understand

you but you don’t know what to say than whats the Point. 

Or video: 

We haven’t filmed all of our video yet but i will be posting it in when it is finished!

This was a bit of a confusing one. At first no one understood what was going on. Or how the project was going to look like at the end. 

Unboxing me video:

We made a script about what we where going to say in the video telling a story about what we want to be when we grow up.

Goal tracker:

We had to make a goal tracker and I put lots of goals that we tried to complete. This is my goal tracker:

Book:

The book is called what do you really want? I think it was a good book because it thought me about lots of things that I wouldn’t have been able to do on my own. I think that I grew as a person and I use some of the things 

Managing me video:

I am glad I made this video because I learned a lot about myself. I trying everything in my video is true.

Script: 

Script: 

• Tough / resilient
• Persevere
• Teamwork and friendship

These are some of the traits to become a good hockey player.

Hockey, hockey makes me who I am because I have been playing hockey since I was 5. It has been 10 years this year.  

Hockey could also get me somewhere if I get a scholarship to a university then I could use my money for something else. 

Hockey is my passion, one of my goals is to save money for a car and to travel. Now hockey doesn’t make me money but reffing does! Reffing is a job because you do it and you get paid for it. My goal to save money is because I don’t think my parents will pay for my car.

I would want to have a job that takes me travelling. Like a cruise ship server or cook. After a couple of years doing that I would want to come back and get a real long term job like a midwife or a OBGYN. I would have to do years of university at UBC or any other universities that teach the midwifery program to become a midwife or OBGYN. 

Tough / resilient

When I go through school I need to know how to use some of the skills I learned from hockey. During school I know there will be people that are going to be mean. But I can’t let them bother me. I need to be tough and not let them get the reaction they want. I also need to be resilient. If something doesn’t go my way or something in hard I need to get over it and keep going.

Perseverance 

During school I am also aware that there will be some problems with teachers or projects an I need to be able to persevere through it. I will do this by stoping taking a deep breath and go on a walk if I would like and keep studying or keep working. If there is a problem with a teacher I will seek help and go to the head master or principle. 

Teamwork / friendship 

There will be ups and downs with friends and when there are downs you need to talk with the friend and solve the problem or you can just go away and take a break. But when you are at a new school or place there are also new people that you can make friends with and you can make life long friends. Teamwork is also really important and it can sometimes be hard for people but it is necessary for big group projects because if someone does all the work that one person can feel overwhelmed and the other don’t learn anything.

Conclusion:

I learned a lot about myself in this project and I liked it a lot. Thanks for reading my blog, until next time!

7 habits of highly effective teens! 

Get in the habit:

The first part of the book introduces the habits and classifies them as helpful and hurtful. The 7 habits are:

 Be proactive:

I think this is a good habit to have because being reactive is not the greatest habit to have.

Begin with the end in mind:

I think that if you aren’t aware of the end and you dont know what

its going to look like I think you might end up in a place that you dont want to be in so you should always be aware about the end.

part one of the book:

This section explains that habits good or bad shape the world around us. Covey encourages teens to make good  habits that will help them become more effective and successful. He introduces the idea that being proactive rather than reactive, having a personal mission, and setting goals are key starting points. The section also explains the difference between effective and ineffective behaviours and sets the stage for the seven habits that follow.

The three habits that are above ⬆️ are the first three that the book talks about. I can’t write too much right now but I will write more after in my 2nd blog and 3rd blog. I am exited to post more!