Hello and welcome back to my blog! Today I will be speaking about a Project called “Revolutions Through the Ages” we did in class. We focused on making different videos for all the revolutions we studied. For example, when studying the French Revolution my group made a song.

My group consisted of Malaika, Owen, Emily, and myself. For each video we chose a different role to play a role in making the video.

Our first curricular competency is Cause and Consequence. Cause and Consequence was represented in every one of our videos. Cause and consequence applies for every one of these videos. For example in the French Revolution, the king and queen were living in a palace and the population was dirt poor. The people weren’t happy. Then, this caused certain things to happen. One of these things would be the many riots and the women’s march, and the Storming of Bastilles. After it all was over, the consequence was the king queen, and their sons were killed. I believe I was extremely accomplished in this competency. I could directly pinpoint how the actions or individuals affected the Revolution and how they were either the cause or consequence.

Our next curricular competency was Evidence. We also represented this in every one of our videos. We looked at many sources including, the keynotes we would look at in class, explain everything animated videos, more keynotes, and research on our on time. As a consequence of all this research we were able to thoroughly understand each and every Revolution allowing us to make the videos as good as possible. It allowed us to focus more on the filming portion and getting the right angles versus worrying about what happens in the revolution. We also did an activity in class where we rotated around different tables looking at different types of sources and seeing if they were reliable or not, why and why not. I believe I did pretty good in this competency. I didn’t do very much research beyond the class research we did and doing this could have helped me get my head around some revolutions. But from the research we did in class I got as much knowledge as possible and understood the Revolution to the best of my abilities.

For our third Curricular competency we had to Create and Extend shared Understanding. Let’s be honest, not every group was going to get along with EVERY SINGLE decision made on how to split up the jobs, which revolution to do (for the final video), or which shots to film and when.  In order to have as little confusion as possible we split up the jobs for each revolution extremely early in the project so we could refer to it in the future. When it came to film making we had to each give our idea on where to film, when, and which angles to get, or else we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. This helped because we could all agree on one persons idea like a democracy, or what we often did was film both ideas and then either use both in two different scenes or pick the idea that came out better. I believe I was very good at this competency. I would regularly voice my opinion and allow other to as well. I would try to also find the best filming angle or revolution to do at what time.

Our fourth Competency was Text Comprehension and Appreciation Strategies. When reading or listening to text it was often difficult to stay concentrated. Especially, when reading the book “Revolution” by Jennifer Donnelly. I had some strategies to keep me focused. I would take notes so if I veered off I could go back to them and review them. I would also listen to the audio book (if applicable) so there would always be something playing in my ear that my brain had to focus in and it would be harmed to get less concentrated. I think that I did ‘ok’ in this competency. I definitely got off track sometimes and it was hard for me to stay focused.

In the revolutions were studies there were several times when Ideas drove change. Take the Agricultural Revolution for example. Everybody had to plant seeds by hand, the seeds were thrown in clumps and birds often got to them before the could grow. To fix this, a man by the name of Jethro Tull came. He had the idea of the seed drill. “BAP! BAP!” This idea completely changed agricultural. The seed drill only needed to be operated by one man and accomplished much more. This quickly changed the whole scene. This is just one of the many ways ideas drove Change.

Overall, I am very happy with my groups videos overall. I believe due to time restraints we did the best job we could for every video. My personal favourite was the first one of the French Revolution. We put a lot of time and effort into making that video especially syncing the lines with the audio.

My least favourite video was the Russian Revolution. We didn’t really have much time to complete it and we did not manage our time well at all. I feel like we were scrambling a lot to get it don’t especially at the last minute.

When it came to making the video I feel like i did an excellent job.  Some of my pros are making sure everybody’s opinion is heard and see what they want to do. I am also kind of good at acting. I believe i can work on time management when filming. I tend to procrastinate and get work done late.

Thanks for visiting my blog again and I will see you next time.