Inside The Mind Of Gabi

I’m Thinking About How The Video Killed The Radio Star

June 22, 2018 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

We all have seen music videos, whether we found them on Youtube, on Facebook, or seen them featured on MTV: The Original Music Video Screening Program. If any of you love music as much as I do, we don’t always need a video to go along with a song in order to understand what it means. But sometimes it is refreshing to see what goes on in the entertainer’s mind when they create their music and what story they are trying to tell.

I explored the history and rationale behind MTV and the music video, and decided that they were revolutionary to music culture on a global and basically universal level, but they most definitely made some controversial mistakes along the way.

MTV was a powerful invention in the world of music, and brought a new outlook and challenge to the industry. Although it exposed the world to the music video and their artists, it was ultimately wrong in the initial segregation of the racial differences of the world’s artists. MTV was introduced in 1980, but the music video itself originates from an earlier time, where it was much less successful due to only occasional airings on weekly pop shows on TV stations around the world. There was a shift in the dynamic of music culture; An artist had to be married to the presentation of their song and the song itself, and had to create an engaging way to portray a story in order for the video to be a success. There was a second British Invasion with a new wave of bands from England on MTV, which all seemed to be at a higher caliber than the music in the US.

These artists cast a shadow over the “underground” and “soulful” music of the United States, and many talented African Americans weren’t featured on the programs. There was a fear of conservative, white Americans’ disapproval of “coloured people” being shown on TV, nevertheless being celebrated and listened to. The producers of MTV didn’t want to shock the audiences with “black music” and their talents. All in all, the raw American music was extremely underrepresented and huge artists like Michael Jackson could barely get featured on MTV. He was the Man of the eEighties, and when MTV finally aired his songs, they realized he was the artist that their program didn’t know they needed. He, along with many others, started a revolution for black artists on MTV, and gave a much wider variety of musicians the opportunity to show what they had to offer on TV and in their music.

The Heart of Cuba: A PLP 12 Adventure

June 22, 2018 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

Hola mis amigos! Welcome to another one of my blog posts, this one being a little bit more interesting than usual. You may be wondering why I opened this post in Spanish, the main reason being that for our Grade 12 PLP trip (the last one ever), we travelled to the bright and bustling land of Cuba for TWO WHOLE WEEKS! This trip was fast-paced, eye-opening, and completely unforgettable. It gave me a new lens when I look at the world, and showed me that not everything I hear about or assume is true at all.

In preparation for this trip, we had to actually know what we were going down to study and see. Personally, I knew absolutely nothing about any Cuban history, so I knew I needed to work hard on getting a grasp on the rich knowledge of the country, in order to work on our projects being introduced. In class, we were looking at the Iranian Revolution (in-depth) and actually weren’t introduced to the Cuban Revolution until a while later, basically until we were leaving for our trip. We were told to watch an 8-series documentary called “Cuba Libre”, which was extremely interesting, but simultaneously time consuming. I would have watched them all, if I had more time to do so.

Our projects were all based around the Cuban Revolution and how a movement or struggle can unite a group or people. We were tasked with creating a “coffee-table” styled book, to depict the important events of the Revolution, and tell the story through different historical lenses. It was broken up into chapters, each group creating a different chapter using a different historical lens. Anatolia and I ended up working together for our part of the book, which is both a blessing and a curse. We work well and hard together, but basically only when we are feeling like it. I’ll touch back on this in a bit.

The trip itself was a breathtaking experience with many ups and downs and wild adventures. We were fortunate enough to have an experienced and knowledgable guide, Alastair, travelling with us through the country. This was a huge help when it came to things we didn’t know or had questions about, because he was there to answer with, what seemed like, WIKI articles for just about anything. He also coordinated our whole trip itinerary, and knew the best things to see, places to eat, and things to buy. It was so valuable to have him guide us through Cuba, and reveal all the hidden gems that this underrated country had to offer us.

Let me just say, Cuba is not all you might imagine it to be. If you have ever travelled there, you may have only been to Varadero Beach and explored the resorts and lovely shoreline, or to the capital, Havana, and felt the bustle of the city. There is so much more to Cuba beyond Varadero, obviously, but I never really thought of it. This coastline is what you see advertised in the media, so I assumed that was it. But when we were there, taking a bus from Havana, to Cienfuegos, to Trinidad, to Santa Clara, to Viñales, back to Havana, and then to Varadero Beach, I was alive with wonder, curiosity, and pure amazement of this place around me. Everything we saw was significant to the history in some way, and this was both shocking and brilliant at once.

While on the trip, we were given time to work on our projects (the one that Anatolia and I were working on together). Our first idea for the event we were going to research was the shifts in the Cuban Economy before and after the Cuban Revolution, which was very broad, and not necessarily something either of us were interested in. We also were tasked with looking at this event through a historical significance lens, which I found to be a great lens to be looking through. We slowly started our work reluctantly, and were silently on the lookout for a better topic. This topic ended up right under our feet on the trip on a little outing we took on one of our last days in Havana. We were hiking in the middle of Cuban jungle (it seemed) and were hot, sticky, and on the verge of heat stroke. Alastair was leading us to a real decommissioned bunker used to store weapons during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We we reached the very well hidden house of concrete, Anatolia and I knew this was so much cooler than our previous topic. I knew for sure that this was what I wanted to cover in our book chapter. So we shifted our ideas, research, and information to fit with our new story of how the bunker was a significant piece of Cuban History, and were thriving in our newfound interest.

Because of the fact that we changed our topic so late in the trip, we didn’t have the wide variety of media and visuals that we had hoped for, to add to our book. But with photo and video from everyone else on the trip, we ended up having just enough to create a product that we are both very proud of.

I Came, I Facilitated, I Conquered!

June 12, 2018 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

Recently in PLP, our grading/workload shifted once again, and now we have three new baseline assignments that we need to complete before the end of GRADE 12 HISTORY! This post is all about one of those assignments, a concept called Facilitation Friday which is basically where each of us researches a topic discussed in class. We then are to present a background of the history, and instigate a class fish-bowl discussion based off of inquiry questions we created to share. I used Keynote as my form of visuals, and used many photos while I spoke to successfully et my point across.

Battle Of The Sexes Keynote

This last week in class, we talked about Women and Equality Rights as a part of a growing empowerment movement in the 60’s and 70’s. This is the topic I chose for my Facilitation Friday. I found interest in the fight for equality and the ideologies of the 70’s, being conservative traditional views vs. new age activists. I wanted to know more about the struggle, and be able to at least attempt to put myself in the shoes of the insanely strong and powerful women of the time, who ended up starting the movement that has continued up until now, and most definitely in the future.

Women were feeling very unfulfilled simply looking after the house, feeding the children, and being treated like they were incapable and inferior to men. Despite making up more than half the American population, women were not admitted to colleges at the same rate as men or allowed equal pay or job opportunities. They were suffering through a silent struggle, alone and unhappy. But as these feelings began to spread and voices began to be heard, we saw these concerns become a whole movement to improve and implement equality and anti-discrimination laws.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which states that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” was originally introduced to Congress in 1923 — three years after women gained the right to vote – – yet was never passed by Congress.

The National Organization for Women, which was founded in 1966 and advocated for a “fully equal partnership of the sexes,” soon expressed their support of the ERA and made it a priority of the movement to pass the Amendment. As the feminist wave swept across the country, the support for ERA picked up even more steam. It seemed like there was going to be equal rights for the sexes, until the advancements hit a bump in the road.

Meet Phyllis Schlafly, a staunch conservative woman, with firm beliefs that the ERA was the worst thing to happen to women ever. Schlafly began speaking to the all the white, privileged women who felt that the feminist movement was not for them — women who enjoyed their roles as mothers and housewives, or simply were used to traditional ideals between being a woman or a man. She rallied together anti-ERA women, and instilled to them that the amendment would strip away any protections that women had, like child support and exemption from military drafts.

As Phyllis Schlafly resisted against the movement, the ERA was only three state votes away from being passed, and in order to band together feminists and activists of the nation, the National Women’s Conference was formed. This was a giant protest and activist rally, to let the world know that women were going to fight the system in order to see a change towards their eduction, job opportunities, and rights to control their own bodies.

After the National Women’s conference, many women left feeling empowered and that they had made large advancements for the movement, but this momentum did not lead to more votes for the ERA. The amendment did not go through, and is still not passed even today.

This struggle for equal rights has continued through the decades, and still continues today in our own lives as we see examples such as the countless women’s marches taking place across the world, or the Time’s Up Movement standing up for women and their right to protect their bodies from people who have no right to be there.

After I talked about the history of my topic, and explained why it was a significant event of our history in the western world, I then began a discussion with the class. I was supposed to ask at least three questions for us to ponder as a group, but because of shortages of time, I only got to ask two out of the three.

My original questions were:

How was this movement a success, despite the ERA never being passed in congress? Why was it a significant piece of our past present, and future?
Do we see similar figures to Phyllis Schlafly in politics today? Are they similar in their manipulative natures and appeal to certain groups of people?
Without the movement for Equal Rights for the Sexes, how do you think society would be different? Would we be living like the 50’s housewives, or do you think a movement or revolution would have been inevitable whether it was in the 70’s, 90’s or today? Why or why not?

I enjoyed curating these questions, not only for the class, but for myself to think about as well.

The movement, although not achieving what was set out to achieve, was a large building block in the fight for equal rights of genders. The women of the 60’s and 70’s questioned the government and it’s values, and demanded a change for the betterment of society. They faced opposition that argued that “their lives were perfectly fine and didn’t need to be changed”, but the activists knew that fear was what was driving their movement to a stop. Regardless of whether the ERA was passed in congress or not, it taught women, or any minority, that they have a voice and that if they want to see change in the world, they have to stand up and face the oppression. Unfortunately the ERA has yet to be accepted as an amendment in the United States, but the feminist movement has arisen, and I do not doubt it will be a success for women soon enough.

So, how did my presentation go?

On the day I was scheduled to have my presentation, there were also four of my classmates presenting their own Facilitation Friday topics. Now that may sound like a lot, but our teachers had already established that each presentation is only supposed to last 15 minutes, so we would have plenty of time to get through everyone’s. At least I thought….

By the time it was my turn (at the end), I had 8 minutes to give my 15 minute presentation, and to say the least, I was a bit disappointed. I had worked very hard to understand and feel confident with my topic, and had prepared my notes and presentation to fit the original timeline perfectly. So getting up to present with basically all of the allotted timeline used up was plainly disappointing. Regardless, I swiftly and promptly altered my notes to fit the time I had been given, and I am very proud of the presentation I gave. I think I spoke clearly and informatively, and know that I was very familiar with the topic and felt passion for what I was talking about. I lead the discussion well, and knew exactly which questions I would ask to prompt a good conversation, even in the quick time. Not only was I proud of my work in my own presentation, but I felt I did well contributing to others’ discussions. I felt I could share my thoughts and opinions, and made some good connections to outside sources.

With all of this said, I was expecting a relatively good mark, as I had done the best I could do, and I felt great about the quality of my work. When I received my feedback, it was all positive, but I was left wondering why a received an At Standard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fishing for a better mark because I feel entitled or absolutely deserving, because I’m okay with the mark I received. I would just like to better understand the differentiation between an At Standard mark and an Above Standard. This difference seems to be a bit of a grey area to me; If I am missing out on a higher mark I would be interested to know why.

Anyways, to conclude, although I was unsure of this assignment when it was introduced, I was overall very happy with the effort I put into the work, and was proud of the final product. I think the presentation and discussion left the class with ideas and topics to think about and ponder for themselves, which means that my job was a success!

Actress Turned Princess: The Legacy of Grace Kelly

June 6, 2018 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

I’m finally back with another blog post, this one of extreme interest to me. In class, we are currently discussing 20th century history, recently the 1960’s. So in this post, I’m looking into the life of Princess Grace Kelly, and how her marriage into the royal family of Monaco changed her career in an interesting manner.

We all look up to celebrities (don’t deny it), as they are the ones we watch on TV, hear about on the radio, and read about in every magazine. They are fascinating, entertaining, and secretly everything we want to be. For some, maybe it’s because you want to live in a mansion, or go to award shows every night, or travel around on a private plane, but for others, celebrities are like role models, in that their choices in life inspire us to leave our own legacies on people we impact in our lives.

Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia on November 12, 1929. Her father, John Brendan Kelly, won three Olympic gold medals as part of the U.S. rowing team and owned one of the most successful brick businesses on the East Coast. Her mother, Margaret Katherine Majer, was the first coach of women’s athletic teams at the University of Pennsylvania. Regardless of her family’s sporty background, Grace expressed a passion for performance and the arts as a child, and participated in school and community plays and productions. She had a good introduction to the arts in her family as her two uncles both heavily influenced her; one a performer and the other a winning playwright.

Grace Kelly was a perfect candidate for the world of entertainment; She was gorgeous, talented, and humble. She had it all… except for her parents’ approval of her dreams. Her father was particularly unhappy with her decision to become an actress, and viewed the occupation to be “a slim cut above streetwalker”. Despite this disapproval from her family, Grace continuously built up her reputation as a hopeful actress beginning with her enrolment in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, in New York City. After graduating from the Academy at age 19, Kelly looked for a career on Broadway, but found it difficult. Don Richardson, one of her directors and teachers, later said, “She would never have had a career in the theatre,” because she had “great looks and style, yes, but no vocal horsepower.”

Grace Kelly moved on to become a successful model and Academy Award winning actress. She starred in a large amount of films, many receiving high praise and some Academy Awards. Examples include:

Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock

The Country Girl (1954) George Seaton

To Catch a Thief (1955) Alfred Hitchcock

At this point in her career, Grace was one of the highest paid and most respected actresses in the world. In 1955, she was asked to join the United States Delegation Committee at the Cannes Film Festival in France. During a photo shoot there, she met Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who happened to be searching a wife at the time. If he didn’t produce an heir to the throne, Monaco would become part of France. Of course, they bonded and ended up engaged soon after meeting.

When she became a Princess, Grace Kelly’s acting career was virtually ended, and she could no longer follow her dreams. (This is a similar case to Meghan Markle, who just recently became the Duchess of Sussex. She has basically given up her life as an actress for princess hood.) She was also stripped of her American citizenship, and Prince Rainier banned her films from being played or shown in Monaco.

There were many attempts from Hollywood directors to bring Princess Grace back into the limelight of the film industry. Alfred Hitchcock offered Kelly the lead in his film Marnie in 1962. She was eager, but public outcry in Monaco against her involvement in a film where she would play a kleptomaniac made her reconsider and ultimately reject the project. During her marriage, Kelly was unable to continue her acting career. Though some believe she deeply missed her life as an actress, she often spoke of the many problems inside the film industry: “Hollywood amuses me. Holier-than-thou for the public and unholier-than-the-devil in reality.” Instead, she performed her daily duties as princess and became involved in philanthropic work.

She founded AMADE Mondiale, a Monaco-based non-profit organization that was eventually recognized by the UN as a Non-Governmental organization. It promoted and protected the “moral and physical integrity” and “spiritual well-being of children throughout the world, without distinction of race, nationality or religion and in a spirit of complete political independence.” Grace was also driven to improve arts institutions throughout Monaco, forming the Princess Grace Foundation in 1964 to support local artisans and dreamers. The Princess Grace Foundation-USA was created, after her death, to continue the work she had done throughout her life; assisting emerging theatre, dance and film artists in America. Grace Kelly was one of the first celebrities to support and speak on behalf of La Leche League, an organization that advocates breastfeeding. She also planned yearly Christmas parties for local orphanages and orphaned children.

Grace Kelly was not a shadow of Hollywood, nor was she remotely selfish or ignorant of the problems taking place around her. She was aware, kind, and willing to help the world. At the time of her death, Kelly and one of her daughters, Princess Stéphanie, were in a car when Grace suffered a stroke and steered them both off of the road. Both women were rushed to the hospital on September 13, 1982, where Princess Grace spent 24 hours in a coma before being taken off life support by her husband, at the age of 52. This was a tragedy, not simply for her family, or even Monaco, but for the world. They had lost a shining star, on and off the screen.

Princess Grace remains an admired figure to this day, as she was an example of the actress, princess, and good samaritan all in one. She is what so many young people aspire to achieve, as she truly followed her dreams and got to high places in life. Grace set a high bar for success, and inspires the successful modern woman. Though most of us can only dream of the success she achieved in her career, she has taught women of this era a many thing. Grace was determined to make it on her own, without the help of her family’s wealth or approval (so fight for your dreams ladies!). We can take away her art of negotiation and direction, as she used to direct her own contracts and arguments with companies like MGM, at a time when the studio was the BOSS. And finally, she showed us that it pays to be kind, graceful, and empathetic, because look what came about when she was. I’m not saying that we will all become actresses then princesses, but by using Grace as a distant role model, we can go through life impacting people in positive ways, leaving our own legacy.

Inside The Life Of Gabi: A Snapshot

February 19, 2018 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

I consider myself a pretty interesting person with quite a noteworthy history to look back on already, at age 18. I’m a citizen of two very different countries on two different continents, I’m half French, and I was born on the year of the millennium. These among many other parts of my life have become my own personal history. But how I view my own history can be very different from what my mom sees, or my brother, or my best friend. Experiences can affect us differently, and can sometimes cloud our judgement of certain events.

Here are just some little snapshots from my life 🙂

: I guess one of my first bike lessons

: Baby art classes

: SNOW DAY

: Pappa and I

: My brother’s kitten Riley

: My crazy little kitten, Sox

To carry on our history learning, we switched to looking at our own personal history and chose four different events in our lives to recall and represent in this post. I decided to make a brochure of Gabi’s Most Memorable Moments.

As I look back on four different events that I feel have shaped who I am, I have come to realize that the memories are hazy, or that I simply cannot hope to remember the specifics. Throughout my life, I have relied on the stories those close to me have told, or used pictures to connect the dots for certain events. Once we hear or see these pieces of evidence, we might choose to place our own opinion or bias on what we ‘think’ happened, compared to what actually happened.

I was not too sure about the specifics of my birth, though I have been told a few stories that have stuck with me (see above brochure). To compare my secondary story to my mom’s, who definitely is a primary source, I have conducted a short interview to examine how close our stories match, if not at all.

(Podcast)

Civil Rights Through Historical Lenses

February 13, 2018 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

We have finally finished English 12, after writing our Provincial exam, and have now flipped onto the History 12 side of our PLP course. History is something that everyone knows and considers when moving forwards in their lives…or is it? There are many aspects of history that we do not consider or think about, let alone the several different ways to take a look at historical events themselves.

To start off our journey into history, we were tasked with creating our own definition of what history really is, in small groups. Here’s what we all came up with:

History is often the worst parts of the past that we are able to recognize in the present.
History is a study of the past looked at by a new perspective, often written by the victors
History is a collection of interpreted, undefined events that gives purpose to our lives and our future.
The study of history tells a story of past events based on knowledgeable investigation.
History is the study of the past told through a narration of events. Which, in turn, allows for a dialogue between the past and present, to further establish our knowledge of people and major events.
History is a biography of humanity and our past chronicles made up of what we remember, not what we thought.

After creating this shell, we then were assigned a historical lens, through which the world analyzes history, and put together a short, informative presentation to the class. We explained the type of analysis and gave examples of how to use it, in order to determine what history truly is. So in this post, I am going to be taking a look at a certain point in history, and examining it using these different lenses.

I’m sure many, if not all, of you have heard of the Civil Rights Movement that spread throughout the United States of America in the 1950’s and beyond. There were many different pieces and events that occurred through the years of fighting and protesting, which was started by thousands of African Americans in the U.S. One that I will be analyzing is a certain protest that had a massive impact on the movement, especially towards the push for the African American right to vote, and drastically affected the lives of thousands of people. This was the first March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, known as Bloody Sunday.

Cause and Consequence:
Before Bloody Sunday, the Civil Rights Movement in America had been alive and fighting for years, each event and protest directed at a different cause and hope for social reform. The voting rights of African Americans in the U.S had constantly been a problem, and had become an outlet for discrimination and racism against those who were not considered racially superior. The march known as Bloody Sunday had sprouted from feelings of outrage and oppression due to the lack of rights available to African Americans. It was also sparked by the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was killed by a white officer in a voting rights protest in February of the same year.

Lyndon B Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act in 1965

Fighting back with this march created considerable consequences on the Civil Rights Movement; on March 15, eight days after watching the violence, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented a bill to Congress that would become the Voting Rights Act* of 1965. But this achievement did not come without extreme hardships and losses.

Historical Significance:

On March 7th, 1965, roughly 600 marchers began a journey from Selma to Montgomery, a march organized to promote black voter registration and to protest the killing of a young African American man, Jimmie Lee Jackson. As they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the marchers faced a line of state and local police officers who ordered them to halt and turn around. Leader of the marchers, John Lewis refused their “orders”, and Bloody Sunday commenced. The non-violent protestors were beaten with clubs and clouded with tear gas. They were thrown into cars and chased by officers on horseback. The remaining marchers who were well enough to walk, retreated from the bridge and headed back to their beginning point. This attack left over 50 people hospitalized, and the remaining, mentally scarred. This eye-opening event was televised around the world and many people were appalled at what they were witnessing. Martin Luther King called for civil rights activists to come and support the cause by banding together in Selma for a second march, and eventually a third. Bloody Sunday, and the following marches, are well known in the western world and contributed greatly to the Civil Rights cause and its future endeavours. Bloody Sunday became a reminder of America’s flaws and discrimination, and opened a new direction that the nation could take to create an equal life for all.

Change and Continuity:
This march was a horrific turning point in history, where racial segregation and racial injustice were exposed and televised across the world. People were able to grasp what conditions were truly like in America for those who were not racially superior, and experience the hate and oppression African Americans were facing on a daily basis. It changed the way people looked at Americans, and lead to the second March on Selma, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched along with thousands of others, to the Capitol of Montgomery, Alabama. Although Bloody Sunday was a brutal piece of Civil Rights history, it pushed the movement in a positive direction, and was the spark that contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act later in the year.

Evidence and Interpretation:

Firsthand footage was taken on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7th, 1965. Bloody Sunday took place in front of a lens of a camera, which allowed for us to now have access to an extremely valuable primary source, in order to look back on the historical event. There are also survivors of this brutal event, that share their story and recount their role in history that took place on the bridge in Selma. They continue to bring the event to life, in ways that books or pictures may not. Bloody Sunday was televised, but it was also furiously written about in newspapers, magazines, and other writing platforms. In 1965, Life magazine covered the story and released the truth, from the eyes of those who experienced the march.

: Life magazine’s Bloody Sunday spread

This spread offered 7 million readers the opportunity to see what it meant to be black in America in 1965, something that many had not been able to read before. It featured many images of violence, solidarity, prayer and resilience, which ultimately resulted in a movement of social change. Publishing’s such as the one in Life Magazine give us a way to look back on an event with an objective eye and to see the whole story, and the big picture.

Historical Perspective:
Today, the world is constantly changing and developing, due to technology and an acceptance for diversity and differences throughout the world’s population.

When we look back on events like the Civil Rights Movement and specifically, Bloody Sunday, of course we are appalled at the treatment of humankind, regardless of their race or any other diversification that was used to categorize people in the past. We tend to look at history using judgements from the present and how it would seem if it were happening today. Back in 1965, I’m sure many people would have reacted the same way we do today to the events that occurred on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but there may have been more of a tolerance for that behaviour, as it was not an uncommon occurrence. Looking at Bloody Sunday using historical perspective can give us a better understanding of the time period’s reaction to the event. People were just beginning to figure out how racism was affecting the oppressed in the United States, and many may not have been able to voice their opinions as we are so free to do today. White supremacy still compelled many in the Deep South, and the Civil Rights Movement struggled against most of white America. Bloody Sunday was just one of countless violent events of the time, yet slowly but surely, the terrible losses began resulting in steps forward for the movement.

Ethical Judgements:
After analyzing primary and secondary sources based on the happenings of Bloody Sunday, it is now time to determine my own ethical judgment on the event. It was a terrible, shameful part of the world’s history, but it was simultaneously an event to celebrate the resilience and bravery of those who took part, and ultimately carried on the movement of social awakening and change. It opened the eyes of many across the nation and world, and without it, civil rights may very well not be in the shape and form it is today. It has shown us the worst of humanity, and the strongest who face the terror head-on, for the good of generations to come. So yes, Bloody Sunday helped the the Civil Rights Movement by sparking the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but it also taught us how courage, non-violence, and unity create a strong society.

: Marchers on the third March from Selma to Montgomery

: Martin Luther King Jr marches

: People make their way from Selma to congregate in the Capitol of Montgomery

By using all six historical lenses and thinking like a historian, I have been able to determine my own outlook on Bloody Sunday, and its affects on our history. These steps are crucial in order to properly analyze historical events, and help us to dive deeper and fully understand the “who, what, where, when, why, and how”. It can be difficult to make sense of history, but after this process, it becomes easier to learn about the world’s past, present, and future.

*The Voting Rights Act: It outlawed discriminatory voting laws that had kept black people off the voting rolls and provided for federal examiners to oversee voter registration in areas where voting rights were endangered.

George Orwell’s 1984: Who The Heck Is Julia?

January 20, 2018 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

Happy 2018 everyone, and welcome back to my blog of many (school) things. As winter break began a few weeks ago, we were tasked with reading a very important book in literature history… 1984 by George Orwell. This book tied in with our overall unit, in PLP, of Dystopian versus Utopian worlds and societies. We were to read 1984, and one other contemporary dystopian novel, in order to gain a vast knowledge of dystopian societies and their differences and similarities, using a historical perspective.

The Task:

Pretty much the first class back in school, Ms. Willemse had us compose a bio poem of ourselves, and I knew that it was leading to something much bigger.

Gabi
Kind, enthusiastic, empathetic, creative,
Sister of Jeremi,
Love of travel, animals, and art,
Who feels tired, friendly, and overworked,
Who needs food, sleep, and friendships,
Who fears spiders, plane crashes, and lack of love,
Who gives laughter, advice, and relatively good stories,
Who would like to see the Eiffel Tower, a bowl of butter chicken, and the Queen,
Resident of multiple countries,
Rossignol

Afterwards, we were grouped, and told to write a bio poem of a character from Orwell’s 1984. Our group decided on Julia, as she seemed to have a large spectrum of emotions and sides to her personality. Once we finished, we had been tasked with creating a life-size Julia on paper, and had to fill in her outline with anything that represented her character. We brainstormed her desires, feelings, and ideals, and figured out how we could represent these on her “body”. Once we came up with our ideas, we filled the outline, and used the green screen to make her character come to life.

2D64AB7D-7140-4817-9C91-FE977E745CE8-251at0d

As you can see, we came up with quite a lot:

– Spectacles dangling out of her pocket
-Men printed on her feet
-A red sash around her waist
-A fox on her chest
-Birds in flight in her mind
-A mask in her hand
-An unlocked padlock hanging from her jeans
-A fiery heart
-The setting of a field

Breaking It Down:

Julia’s character in 1984 is quite contradicting of herself. She has strong internal hate for the Party, yet keeps these views to herself, and focusses on her own personal rebellion. She is also free-spirited, and prefers to live in the moment, which is why we gave her “birds for a brain”. Her mindset is practical and set on the “here and now” rather than the future, and follows the beat of her own drum. Julia asks Winston, as he worries about death, “Don’t you enjoy being alive? …I’m real, I’m solid, I’m alive!”(215). She is passionate about the present, and can’t understand why her lover is thinking about anything else. We also chose to draw map lines across her legs, to symbolize the way she neglects the options of others and makes her own path in life.

Julia is silently rebellious towards the party in the way that she continuously engages in sexual relations with large amounts of men, regardless of the rules set against the act. She possesses raging hormones and passion. We gave her a red celibacy sash around her waist, to show that she seems to be following the rules of the Party, but secretly has sex regularly. We put men all over her feet, as she constantly “walks all over them” in the book. She experiences sex with Winston Smith (her lover) and openly admits to sleeping with different members of the Party. This connects to the eye mask that dangles in her hand, representing her secrecy and “mask” that she wears in front of certain people. She seems generally uninterested in rebellion, but her pursuit of sexual relations could be to defy the Government, as an act of small rebellion.

The fox on her chest is to represent her cunning spirit and sly manoeuvring of secrets. She is breaking the rules of loyalty to the Party, by being loyal to her lover Winston, and is not caught for a long while. This ties into the reason we used a padlock on her jeans to represent her disloyalty. Obviously she already rebels against the Party with her sexual partners, but she also shows disloyalty towards Winston. Although she is loyal to Winston, this trust is broken when she is captured by the thought police, and “She betrayed…Winston. Immediately – unreservedly.”(409) The lock is simply to represent the fact that Julia can break her loyalty as easily as you can unlock a padlock. Julia is fiery, yet outwardly displays an optimistic and pragmatic personality. We gave her a heart on fire to show how her heat, passion, and rebellious nature come from within, and is not who she seems to be for the onlooker.

This assignment was very interesting, and really helped me to get to know Julia’s character on another level. I was happy with our outline of her character and thought we nailed her portrayal in the novel. I thought it was a great way to inquire about the major characters in 1984, through creativity and innovation!

Nightmare On PLP Street

December 8, 2017 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

Horror is actually super, duper scary. I legitimately had a nightmare last night that Michael Meyers was chasing me through my house, and I cannot tell you how jittery I am, writing this right now. I honestly didn’t really believe that I would be too affected when we were first introduced to the new Horror Unit in PLP 12. But after sitting through hours of creepy movies, reading horror novels, and even creating our own 30 minute film full of terror, I can now confidently say I am a little bit scarred.

So, instead of recounting all the terrifying tales I have from this unit, I am going to skip directly to where life got a whole lot scarier: The Beginning of the “Horrifying Homemade Horror Movie” (curtesy of PLP 12). When Ms. Willemse and Mr. Hughes first pitched the major project to us, I was a bit confused. We were going to be creating a short film as a whole class, that represents and answers the driving question: “how does horror reflect and comment on our society?” By looking at literature, researching virtually everything, and analyzing historical events and timelines, we were able to conclude that horror is pretty much a reflection of our true inner nature and being.

The Beginning of Production:

So somehow, we were going to have to show this in our own film, and simultaneously work well as a functioning movie production team and make it good. The last time we attempted this project, it didn’t turn out too well. I guess our teachers knew we had all learned from our previous mistakes (take a look at our Macbeth project here), and could apply this learning for round two. As we began signing up for roles, I decided I would apply to be a Screenwriter. I know I enjoy writing and I thought that I would be a good contribution to the script team. As production started, I knew I had underestimated the work that was required from us to get the script done…we had pretty much ONE WEEK to get it written and hand it over to the story boarders.

The Off-Screen Stress of Being a Screenwriter:

Screenwriters are extremely important in film production, as they create the story and script that the whole thing will be based on. Kirby, Tom, Matthew, and I came up with the ideas, characters, and plot. We worked efficiently and unbelievably quickly, to make sure that we didn’t drag the whole production behind. We were on a time crunch at the beginning, and the movie couldn’t begin to be made without what we had to produce. I was very proud of our final product, and had high hopes for what it could be transformed into on screen. That being said, our jobs weren’t complete yet. I still arrived at every scheduled filming time, and continuously offered advice for the direction of the film, as did my fellow scriptwriters. We made great efforts to assist other production departments, yet I felt as though I wasn’t needed much, post writing.

I felt kind of helpless, like I had handed the steering wheel to the next department, and I wasn’t allowed to drive anymore. This got me down during the whole film, as I saw quickly that plans were changing and the story was being altered; I felt very useless. Unfortunately, I didn’t speak up very much about my concerns, and simply questioned how I could help along the way. I realized that there just weren’t things for me to do. But, I honestly felt as though we had a very difficult job, and handled the pressure extremely well. I certainly know we did our very best, and unfortunately it wasn’t fully reflected in the final movie product.

Skill Improvement:

As in every PLP project, there are alway skills and aspects of learning that you’re going to improve on, and some you had no idea you needed to use. During this project, I 100% improved on my time management, as us screenwriters were told we needed to produce six scenes in five days, and came out with a whole script in that same time frame. We maximized every moment we had to get it done, and I’m so happy that I pulled myself together and got it completed. I think I also learned how to make my writing flow a lot better, and transformed it into natural dialogue. Script writing is quite a bit different than just regular writing. You have to build off the fact that there will be real actors saying whatever you give them to say, and if it isn’t naturalized, it sounds pretty awful. We tried to really make it smooth and in sync with the whole ambiance of the story, and I really improved on focussing in my writing style.

The Movie Verdict:

Our film is called “Locked In”, and is based around four high school students who end up in detention on a Friday night. They are tormented by masked figures who are avenging a girl that the students bullied. They are killed one by one in the school, until there is one boy left, and he is spared as a way to remind him of the damage he created; leaving him knowing that he caused the murders was the largest punishment of all.

As we watched the premiere screening of our movie, I immediately realized that we had failed to execute the most important aspect of a horror film: it just wasn’t scary. This sad truth knocked me over like a brick to the face, and it was actually quite depressing. It definitely had the potential to be creepy and horrific, yet we just missed the mark. As always, we focussed too much on how it looked, and the overall drama of production, and somehow overlooked the link between the story and the portrayal onscreen.

Originally, there was enough of a backstory to understand the motives behind the murders, but some of those parts were cut out of the movie (or not filmed), and without them, there wasn’t enough information to understand pretty much the whole movie. It’s small points like these that were crucial to the story, and on my part, I definitely could have communicated better with storyboard and my DRI to get this message across.

So, yes, our movie was flawed, and it ended up straying away a bit from our driving question. But this doesn’t mean that it was a bad movie. So many things went right, and I think we should be celebrating our successes, rather than completely fixating our attention on the things that didn’t go great. It’s hard to work in a huge group, with each individual bringing different ideas and opinions to the table. It’s also hard to listen to everyone, you simply can’t. Working in this environment, you need a small group of representatives who make the final decisions. We attempted this, and yet other people (who weren’t assigned decision makers), still had something to say about everything. This makes it tough on the whole production. I know each and every one of us has officially recognized this error, and will improve on this weakness in the future. I know I will.

What I’ve Learned About Horror:

As I said at the beginning of this post, horror is scary, that’s no secret. But why is it scary? What about the horror genre creeps us out? Horror is a representation of society’s deepest fears and primal natures. All the things we strive to keep hidden are exposed, and social norms are tipped and disturbed. This distorted mirror image of humanity is what terrifies us. In class we also discussed different elements of horror, and discovered the precise points we are scared of.

In the end, horror gives us a chance to look within, and come out more powerful. The more we reflect on our most horrific parts of ourselves, the more we can avoid them, and come out stronger.

Next Time You Shop…

October 10, 2017 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

I think we can all relate to the feeling of craving that brand new Nike sweatshirt that all the celebrities seem to be wearing nowadays. We love the feeling of a new and expensive item of clothing in our hands because, well, I’m not entirely sure. I can say that I, myself, have been caught in this weird mindset of needing the newest and most exciting clothing on the market, and not giving a single thought to where it comes from or what goes into it. I’m not sure many people do. And even though no one acknowledges the fact that many industrial, massive name brands employ international workers in sweatshops, we all know about it. To be honest, its a crazy, controversial problem.

In PLP, we have been preparing for our Grade 12 English Provincial Exam by writing an insane amount of essays, and studying what literary devices are the more powerful and useful. We have also been looking at some examples of satirical content, and were then tasked with creating a visual representation of our own satire. We had to create a movie or powerful image, that touched on a world problem of some kind, and transform it into a satire. So I decided to focus on sweatshop labour for big name brands, and make it a satirical 2 minute movie.

I made a video that, I hope, shows how oblivious and uninformed we can be as humans, when it comes to labelling ourselves as “Human Rights Activists” or “Mega Humanitarians”. I wont go into too much detail, but basically, I wanted to exaggerate the fact that online, we can be powerfully spoken, hidden behind a screen, but in real life, we may have no clue what we are even talking about, and I used human rights as an important example.

Of course, many people stand up to the mistreatment of humankind, and end up boycotting, protesting, and exposing companies and industries linked with sweatshop labour, I have nothing but utter respect for those who do. But I wanted to single out the idea that you cannot call yourself an activist if you aren’t actively supporting a cause and actively making a difference, great or small. If you post on Facebook about how awful humans are being treated by other humans in our world today, and then go and buy a sweater made from the hands of those being brutally forced to work for minuscule wages in crazy conditions, you might want to rethink a few things about your voice and how you portray yourself online versus how you act as a person.

Grade 12 Couldn’t Feel Any Closer…

June 22, 2017 / gabrieller / 0 Comments

For me, talking, or even thinking, about Grade 12 has been a sort of taboo topic for as long as I can remember. It’s the big leagues, the scary part of high school where you actually have to think hard about the rest of your life. I used to look at my last year of high school as the worst part, but as the dreaded year looms over my head, I’ve come to the realization that it’s not as bad as I’ve pictured it for my whole life.

And this is convenient, as we have come to the time of the year where we usually complete our SLC’s. But Willemse and Hughes shifted things up a bit, and instead of a Student Led Conference, we are presenting a TPOL aka our Transitional Presentation of Learning. It’s pretty much the same format, where we speak to our parents and teachers and tell them about the best pieces of work from the year, how we have grown and improved in certain areas, and a goal or two we have. The main difference is that we also have to explain what skills and improvements we have developed that demonstrate, that as a learner, we are prepared to be a Grade 12.

I know that being a part of PLP for three years has really helped me come to this realization that I am more prepared for the shift than I’ve thought in the past. When I heard that the main goal of the TPOL was to show that I’m ready for grade 12, I had to ask myself “Gabi, what makes you sure that you are ready for your last year of high school?”, and my first answer was “Well, you passed all your courses, and you’re pretty organized and smart,”. But as soon as I thought more about it, I knew that I’ve gained so many important skills through PLP that will help me in my future of academics and beyond. With all of the amazing opportunities and experiences that I’ve come across in the last 4 years, I have been exposed to real life, and I can confidently say that I am ready to jump head-first into my senior year.

The Performance Learning Program has taught me that growth is one of the most important parts of learning and improving. If you can see a drastic change (a good change) in someone’’s approach to learning, it shows that they take a great pride in what they do, and care enough to strive to make everything they do even better than the thing before. So with this in mind, I can say that I have demonstrated a growth in my approach to my own learning. I have become someone who is ready and willing to face challenges, regardless of the difficulty, head on! Before joining the program, I never really considered myself one to jump at the opportunity for a challenge or hard task. Through my hard work and growing self-confidence, I have been able to open up to a wider variety of new things and ask myself “Well, why don’t you try it? What’s the worst that could happen?”. I find that I am also able to bounce back from a task that didn’t go the way I first planned, and end up with a final product that is 110% better, an example being our recent Southwest Video Essay. I had trouble getting an idea started, and ended up having a difficult time. But once I got back on my feet with a new and improved idea, I worked extremely hard to complete the task with a fantastic end product, which ended up turning out great!

Miss Atomic Who?!

With all of the good things that have come about in my learning this year, there are always bound to be the few that I need to work on and improve. In this case, I would love to work on stepping up as a leader in class and around my community. I have always been a shy-ish person who is ok being out of the limelight, but I think if I want to excel further, I need to be able to be courageous enough to lead, whether it’s in a group project, or a volunteer position. This quality could very well play a role in my future, and it would benefit me to have mastered it as soon as possible. An example from earlier in the year where I think I should have stepped up as more of a leader, is during the Macbeth Project. Even though most of the management for the project (other kids in my class trying to run it all) was falling apart and I’m not sure I could’ve done much in the end, I wish I would have put my hand up for a leader of a management group or stepped up earlier. Somewhere inside me, I think I am a leader at heart, but I feel nervous to show it, because it may not be what people expect of me. Once I overcome this, I can show that I am a leader, and that I am as able as anyone!

It’s A Macbeth War Zone Over Here!

If there were to be one thing I could go back and change from this year in PLP 11, I would like to go back about a week to the Debate Battle Dome, pretty much for the fact that I wish I spoke up more. In my defence (against myself), the competition was intense and crazy, and getting any words in was a challenge, but even so, I think I should have tried harder. My group and I prepared as much as we possibly could, and yet, there seemed to be a shortage of words on my end, and an endless supply for Matt. S, one of my group members. It felt like there was nothing in my brain, and I think this was due to me hyping myself up with all the things that I could think of that could possibly have gone wrong. For a glimpse into my head while I was mentally prepping myself, thoughts like these were running through my brain: “People could laugh at what I say, I could pass out at the podium, I might be shaking so hard that I end up speaking gibberish”. Yeah it was pretty bad. Because of these negative ideas, I was repulsed to imagine myself speaking at the mic for more than 5 seconds, yet I achieved at least 30 seconds. My point is that I was disappointed afterwards, by the fact that I was coming up with great things to say, as soon as it was all over. I knew I had the confidence in me, but negativity and the scaredy-cat in me won over. I want to change this, so that in the future I can stand up in front of 20, 50, 100 people and express my ideas and arguments. PLP has given me so many public speaking opportunities and I have softened the scared Gabi inside, but I understand that instead of beating myself down, I have to think positively and supportively of myself, in order to break whatever doubts I have.

Be It Resolved That Debates Are… Too Intense!

Recognizing my strengths and areas of improvement are huge steps to taking ownership of my learning and attitude towards my future decisions about my life. If I know what I excel at and what I need to do in order to be a better version of “Gabi”, I can work towards success. PLP has given me the opportunity to learn better than I have in my whole life, and to be honest, I’m not really scared or nervous to be transitioning on into Grade 12. I have confidence, a strong head on my shoulders, and the ability to think critically and creatively. Though I may not know the path I will take, I’ll know who I am, and that is the most important thing.

Wake Up And See The World