Hello readers. We have just finished our 1st maker project of the year and it has been one that I have long been waiting for. As soon as I joined PLP, Destination Imagination was a main project in PLP and all of my peers had something to say about it as they had done it in grade 8. Unfortunately, I did not get to try it out in grade 9 due to covid but this year, it happened, and I’m going to share with you my experience of the process and destination of the project.
Destination Imagination (DI) is a school competition in which teams work together in a category and put on a performance that they prepare for in the weeks or months has coming up to it. We would also have to do an instant challenge in which we would not know what it was and would be a random activity whether it was building, improv, or idea based.
We started by choosing the category in which we were going to partake in. There were 4 different categories so the class was split into 4 groups. I was put into the improv group with Annie, Quinn, Jakub, and Logan. Before we even started working, there was a large rule book which we looked at for the long list of instructions and rules. For the challenge, we had to research 10 different festivals and be prepared for any one of them to be chosen to be implemented into our performance. We had to do so while completing a goal given to us at the start of the challenge. Ex. We have to have to transport a toxic substance while at the Kwita Izina Festival where you name Gorillas. We could also use 10 boxes as props or building blocks at the event itself. During practice, we would research and gain deeper understandings of our festival as well as perform mock performances of what might happen at the competition. We created a booklet of some key and unique facts of the festival that we could use to show our understanding of the festival at the event and worked on possible scenarios and basic storylines that we could use for different festivals.
After months of performing dress rehearsals and practicing instant challenges at school, we finally reached the day’s leading up to our performance at St. George’s. These were less stressful for the Improv group as all we needed to make was a sign whereas the other teams needed to complete every last prop for their own performance. Here was our official performance:
I thought that DI definitely helped me with my team building skills as well as shining light to my ideas that we had to make on the spot in the planning phase and in the performance. This was one of my strengths on my learning plan and I thought I was able to make it work most of time but could have been better prepared in our early dress rehearsals. Luckily, that’s what dress rehearsals are for, and I felt I did well on the day of our performance.
My favourite part in DI was the actual day of the event when all of our time, research, and practice was put to work, especially since I thought our performance was one of the better ones we had done amongst regular practice and dress rehearsals. We finished 3rd (out of 4) but was still proud of the work I did at the event. I do wish I had done a little bit more research on my festivals as I did not go further than my preliminary research to get some extra info. Although my festival did not get picked, if it did, I would have liked to known some more specific or unique details to really show our understanding of the festival.
I think part of the problem I struggled with and everyone may have as well, was the fact that the date seemed so far away but was upon us quicker than anyone thought. But with march break, our field studies, and the lack of urgency, the date was suddenly a week before the competition and the final stages and procedures were to be put forward to ensure everyone was ready for the event.
Overall, I’m glad I got to experience DI as it was a long awaited projects spoken frequently among peers and friends. My expectations were low based on the reviews, but it ended up being quite a good experience and one that I hope I will remember for a while.
Thank you for reading this blog post and I hope you have a great rest of your day!