Today, my friends and family is an incredibly lucky day for you guys because tonight not only did my Patriots win in overtime and are heading to the super bowl but you will also be blessed with the long overdue EduBlogs Challenge  Finale. In this post I will be reflecting and talking about the amazing experience that ‘twas the EduBlogs challenge.

I went into this challenge stubborn as an ox, I thought it was going to be a breeze and somewhat pointless, but I was wrong as I usually am. These challenges were simple yet difficult, they pushed my thinking, helped me work on my writing, and my blog. My avid participation and hard work during all ten weeks rewarded me with multiple new commenters and readers, and also recognition from EduBlogs itself. Getting the chance to receive multiple comments with feedback and other notes was super cool and helpful as well.

My favourite challenge is a toss up but I would say that the ’Tis the Season blog post was my favourite! It was my favourite because it was a post I was extremely determined to complete and do well, I remember I was extremely chuffed by my hard work and it payed off because I was recognized by EduBlogs and that was pretty cool. This was a seasonal post that consisted of two personal tasks about what made christmas important and awesome, and also a seasonally themed game review. This is a great example of how a fun challenge helped me learn and reflect, whilst helping me work on my writing.

I am filled with gratitude and happiness that we as a class took part in this event. I am extremely surprised as a reflected back on how much I truly did enjoy this challenge!

As every year passes by, as every year does, it is tradition to make a goal for yourself that you will pursue going into the future. A question many of my peers and I have taken into consideration is, how will I as a learner progress by the end of the school year? In this post  I will make it my civil duty to explain to you how I will and have progressed as a learner.

                                                        MY EPIC FAIL

To begin I thought it was only fitting to begin with an epic FAIL, PGP. Through my time in PGP I have found a new appreciation for setting goals, and I feel as though I did not properly use PGP to my full advantage. For this project I read the book, filled out the main forms, worked on think it & ink it, and also completed the dream board. Nevertheless I failed, on many occasions I found myself  untruthfully and half heartedly answering questions and finishing assignments. Many times I completed an assignment without fully comprehending the topic or task. After the completion of this project I reflected and came to the great realization that I need to make a change. Whether you like it or not school is a child’s job and my life for the next few years revolves around school. I have realized that what gives me purpose and excitement is learning and then completing something to the best of my abilities. I will go into the rest of the school year with a sense of desire and possibility. One of my many newly compiled goals is to always find the why and taking advantage of the learning experiences in the classroom and outside. The completion of this goal will help me bring back purpose in projects and will open doors for the future because of further interest. This fail helped me understand and set a goal for myself, this is a true example of a first attempt in learning.

      WHAT WAS THE MOST FUN WORK YOU COMPLETED SO FAR THIS YEAR?

I would confidently say I have many strengths but I also have many, many flaws. One of those flaws is editing and filming. I believe this is a flaw because for a vast majority of the time during (group) filming projects I dont come out of my comfort zone and try the things I struggle with the most. I find that my peers enforce and know who is better at certain aspects so we end up sticking with are strengths instead of developing are weaknesses. The reason I found this project so fun is because I was by myself I was forced to take the reigns and work on the things that I struggled with the most. During the project I found I progressed immensely in editing and filming and all the while had a blast doing it. For the project I went to my Seycove swim meet and filmed my peers and I swimming. It was quite difficult because I had to film multiple shots during the spand of the meet. I found that I actually enjoy filming and editing and cant wait to get more opportunities to do so. This project reminded me how much I love to actually progress and get better at the things I enjoy. It also gave me a goal, my goal for the end of the year is to pursue the things I struggle with the most and convince my group members that I can and will excell and work hard in that job.

Swim Meet Live Event

                                                      BE PASSIONATE 

Scimatics is a class that is very exiting because of recent I have become extremely intrigued and passionate about this particular topic. I believe scimatics requires a certain amount of intensity and focus, something that I find hard to conjure. During these past terms I have become committed and interested in becoming a better scimatics student. This goes back to my belief and goal… with passion comes success! During classes and group projects I have taken the reigns and fully understood the topic. One example of a project that I was very passionate about was my Solar Panel and Trigonometry project. In this project my partner and I worked extremely hard to fully understand the topic and I believe we dove deeper into the world of trig.

Trigonometry is NO Joke

Another example of my resurgence of interest in scimatics is my Algebra Tiles Project. In this project I took a lead role in a group project because I was committed and passionate to understand and create a great project on algebra. I worked on my weaknesses by filming and editing the video, and also worked on turning my strengths into second nature, by finding a creative way to visual display algebra. This year I have excelled immensely in scimatics and I believe my commitment to doing a good job and understanding is the reason why! Going into following projects I would like to continue with a sense of possibility and excitement. I would also love to take a leadership role in other courses and I will do so by bluntly working harder and helping others.

AlGeBrA Tiles

              WHAT PROJECT DID I LEARN THE MOST FROM AND WHY?

This year has been incredibly fun! This year’s projects are a testament to the amount of work are teachers have devoted to us. Yet, when saying that there can only be one best project! This year’s 2019 project oscar goes to…… Cray Cray Yay Yay oral presentation. During the spand of the creation my peers and I where incredibly devoted to finding an answer to the driving question that we believed in. We where also given the infamous curve ball that by today I am sure my teachers have heard enough of. This curve ball came in the form of a notice 3 days before the presentation, that we where not aloud notes. Funnily enough after all the complaining I have came to realize that this notice sent a title wave of anxiousness that taught me a lot about myself and projected my way to my best presentation yet. Having no notes forced me to come up with a common thread and follow through on it. This common thread was to believe in your ideas! When having no notes the best way to remember your ideas is to believe in them, coincidentally I am doing the exact same thing right now! When pursuing my future I will remember this project fondly and remember to always believe in your ideas.

Winter Exhibition 2018

To conclude I would like to thank you for being fantastic teachers and parents and I am extatique to see what the future of my learning has instore for me. I will leave you with a question, my question is… What is a flaw I am not aware of, and how can I work on it?

For the 4th PLP field study of my career we ventured across the board to, Seattle. Seattle is widely recognized as a hub of innovation and culture, and very often compared to Vancouver. Yet, like everyone and everything it has differences, in Seattle I learned and experienced a multitude of things I could have never experienced in my own bubble of happiness. Now it is important to note that like every trip we take in PLP it had a purpose (sadly we weren’t there to tan and drink virgin Pina Coladas). This trip was a mission to prosecute the word Crazy and inquire about the people who are called it.

The Project 

For this trip are project revolved around crazy! The assignment was a group project where we picked 3 people who are seen as crazy and learned more about them. After finding out more we would collect footage and interviews to answer the question. My group was Isy, Kailey, and Maggie, this was a awesome group filled with people willing to work. For this video we picked Dale Chihuly, Bill and Melinda, and last but currently not least Amazon!

      “ How do crazy people affect the way society progresses? ”

During the trip we had to take extreme advantage of the time given to film, because if you did not, you where left in a pickle once back in vancouver. I believe this happened to use on a small scale. An example is we did not have a amazon interview. This is extremely unfortunate because the best way to properly answer any question is with ANSWERS.

A place I discovered crazy was also a place that is known for kindness and giving but just as importantly innovation, this place is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation stands for equality for all and are “impatient optimists”. They believe that with support to live a healthy and productive life, people in poverty will lift there way out.

Reinventing the Toilet 

An example of the crazy innovation and support coming out of the Foundation is the toilet of the future. The researchers envisage a 21st century toilet that will be free of utility connections and could be used anywhere. The purpose of this innovative toilet is to safely dispose and recover excreta. This toilet is used to practically recycle things that would go into the toilet. Millions of people effected by poverty in rural developing countries do not have a safe and hygienic way to go to the washroom.

Ups and Downs

In every project there are ups and downs, in this project I feel asthough there where to many downs. In this project are main flaw was communication and the dreaded Winter break. Because this project landed in a awkward sandwich with school and the break we did not get enough done to succeed before the deadline. We also did not communicate are roles properly and how we were going to produce the amazing work we knew we could. At many times we created a goal and never hit the finish line. Even though the video process was not great, I can speak first hand to the learning and experiences from this project and field study. I believe that wherever you go, the memories and experiences become a part of you, this trip was one for the history books.

Holy smokes it 2019! Welcome back to my blog! Today I will be taking you amazing people on a journey of reflection. In this post I will be reflecting on the CRAZINESS of the 2018 Winter exhibition. This Exhibition was vastly different for ones prior because of the different format of presentation and because of the time and regulations given. For this exhibition we were tasked to create a PechaKucha on “Why does it takes a crazy person to change the world?” and are experiences and learning in Seattle.

Now you must be wondering, Kai what is a Pecha Kucha? A Pecha Kucha is a Presentation Format that must have 20 visual slides that are shown for a duration of 20 seconds each. This presentation formatting keeps each presentation concise and fast-paced.

This is a Pecha Kucha that drew a lot of inspiration out of my peers and I. It’s certainly not the greatest but he was calm and was very pleasant to listen to, he also had a interesting message. What I tried to take from him was his pace and nonchalance.

For this presentation we focused on why it takes a crazy person to change the world. To learn more about this we went to Seattle, a hub of crazy minds changing our world in more ways then one. This trip opened my mind and helped me find a thesis that I believed in, and coincidentally enough it is about believing. This trip really spoke to the importance of field study’s and how it teaches you things that the classroom cannot.

For this presentation I focused on two main topics of conversation Tesla and Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos and Amazon. I used both of them to tie my presentation together with one common thread… believing in your ideas! I chose both these people and company’s because Amazon really impressed me during the trip and I knew Elon and Tesla were supporters of the crazy and conquering the impossible.

It takes a crazy person to change the world! The crazy people that have the audacity to alter the norms do so because of there unwavering belief in there ideas. It is instrumental to remember that everyone has crazy in them, it is your job to find that thing that makes you crazy!

Overall I found this project extremely interesting and useful because it helped every person in the class room work on a pretty common flaw, public speaking. I found that this project also had so much freedom to answer the driving question however you would like. This project is one that I will remember forever because of the constant bumps in the road to success. In the end I personally believe it went better than I ever would have expected. Here’s to the crazy ones!

Hey what’s up? Are you guys pumped for 2019? This is my first blog post of 2019 so let’s make it a good one! This blog post will be a short and simple reflection on the work we have done this unit on algebra tiles. For this project my partner (Lucas) and I created a video and game to teach, and help perfect the skills of algebra with a algebra tile style game called Alge-Ballers.

During this unit my fellow classmates and I have been tirelessly working on perfecting the art of algebra tiles with are fun and simple algebra games. Algebra tiles are square and rectangle shaped tiles that represent numbers and variables. Algebra tiles help the student understand algebra visually. This project was extremely fun and helped me perceive algebra like never before.

                                               Curricular Competencies 

I feel as though I displayed multiple Curricular Competencies during the creation of this project.

The first is developing thinking strategies to solve puzzles and play games. I did this by creating a game with multiple revisions and perfecting, ideas and rules for the game. During these revisions I developed thinking strategies by testing out the game with my partner, Lucas.

Secondly I used mistakes as opportunities to advance learning, I did this by taking a mistake in my game, like having to many lives, and using that to revise and perfect the rules of my game.

Thirdly I solved problems with persistence and a positive disposition, when not being able to solve a problem I used prior knowledge and persistence to solve each problem. When I did not understand algebra tiles at first I worked incredibly hard out of school to fully comprehend the topic.

Lastly I represented mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic form by using algebra tiles (visual) to explain, represent and show my answer to an expression.

This project was extremely eye opening and I believe it will help me in the future because it is a build block to many different topics.