January 27, 2020

Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth!

Hello! This is my first post about Macbeth, but definitely not the last. We are starting a new thing called “This Week I Learned” aka a TWIL post. We are learning a lot of new content Macbeth related, but also 1950’s related! So much new information has entered my brain in the past week, and I’m going to share it with you and the connections between Macbeth and the 1950s!

In grade 9 I did a project on the yin and yang and Taoism in Star Wars (learning portfolio post linked here.) Why am I telling you this you ask? Well the themes I learnt about during that project and what I took away from it still lives with me today. Yin and yang touches on the questions about good and bad. What’s good? What’s bad? Are they the same thing? Do they compliment each other? This touches on our driving question for this project “Using Shakespeares Macbeth and the history of the 1950’s, how can we use film to explore the theme of appearance vs reality and comment on what’s changed and whats stayed the same?” The theme of good and bad in Macbeth and the 1950’s is very visible to me. Let me explain both sides of it.

1950s

We learnt a lot about the beginning of the Cold War, how it started, and the power involved. Also just post war, before the Cold War. Here are some of my notes, incase you want to read a very detailed and long amount of information connected to pre Cold War. If not, let me give you a very mini run down of a few (not all, that would be a long blog post) major things that happened and its consequences.

YALTA CONFERENCE

There was the Yalta conference which was where Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Stalin all met up to discuss how the post world war will work and how they will handle it. This was quite significant as it later caused a lot of problems. This comes into the theme of good and bad/appearance vs reality. They were discussing peace, and had good intentions, yet it still caused conflict in the long run. To connect it to Macbeth, although he murdered King Duncan, he had good intentions. Good intentions don’t always lead to good outcomes though, and we see that in both Macbeth and the 1950s.

THE UN

The UN is created, this is made for the specific reason of world peace. There are 5 permanent members, and 10 elected non permanent members. Something significant that came from the creation of the UN is what they made Germany do. Germany was put to cleaning up the mess they made, and along with that their was the Neurobeurg trial which was the trial that led to the executions of many Germans who had high powers in the concentration camps and overall german crimes. Is killing the answer to killing? What’s good and bad? Was killing them the right thing to do? I think they made the right decision at the time, but I don’t know if it would be the same consequence now compared to the 50s. This connects to Macbeth a little bit by asking, was King Duncans murder the right thing to do?

MACBETH

Macbeth is all about power. Power leads to so many questions and so much confusion. Who should get it? Who’s better? Are they doing their job right? We ask ourselves these questions while reading Macbeth. In act 1, we hear a lot of quotes that fit into the theme of good vs bad/appearance vs reality perfectly.

QUOTE #1

“Fair is foul and foul is fair.” This is all about how appearance can be not what it seems. Is fair foul? Is foul fair? Are they the same thing? All that is good to someone, is foul to another. Looks can be deceiving is something we learn in Macbeth. An example in the book that kind of visualizes this quote is when Macbeth murders King Duncan. He’s killing him, but for a good reason? He wants to take the power, but not for an evil reason (that we know of.) Does the fact Macbeth will probably be a good king, balance out the fact he killed someone for it? I personally think no, King Duncan was doing perfectly fine at being the king, but if he was bad at his job and treated his people poorly, would the murder be justified? What fair is foul and foul is fair…

QUOTE #2

“There is no art to find the minds construction in the face.” This is my favourite quote from the play so far. It relates to how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth could act normal (less normal for Macbeth) around King Duncan, when they both knew they were going to kill him tonight. There isn’t an instruction sheet, or rules to figuring out how someone is feeling/thinking from their face, and that’s what makes life interesting. This relates to the Yalta conference. Stalin was there, and even though he said he wanted peace, how were Churchill and Roosevelt supposed to know later on he would go against them? There is no art to find the minds construction in the face.

OVERALL

Even though Macbeth and post war/Cold War were in dramatically different time frames, the overall themes in both connect well. This shows humans don’t really ever change deep down. The actual situations aren’t identical obviously, but the good vs bad theme, appearance vs reality theme, and the power thirsty individuals all make the 1950s and the 1500’s look more similar than we initially think they are.

January 20, 2020

Atomic Habits!

Hello, hope you all are doing well. You may be confused by the title, “Atomic Habits”… let me explain! Atomic Habits is a book written by James Clear, and it’s all about how tiny changes can have remarkable results! We were assigned to read this book for PGP (personal growth plan) and write a reflective blog post. Before I get into the content, here’s a little run through about the author.

JAMES CLEAR

Meet James Clear! He is obviously the author of Atomic Habits, and he tells an amazing story in the beginning of the book.
He was severely injured in high school to the point of being put into a coma, and then having to re learn basic things like walking etc. Very intense and scary, especially as a teenager who just wants a simple and happy life. He was very passionate about baseball and wanted to pursue it after high school but felt hopeless as he was so injured and lost his placement on the team. Fast forward after years of hard work, he was at a good university playing baseball on the schools team. He talks about how even though it was just university baseball, he felt accomplished as he had to basically restart after his accident. There’s plenty more to the story, but that is a quick summary.

“We all deal with setbacks but in the long run, the quality of our lives depend on the quality of our habits.” This quote said by Clear himself really gives a great perspective on life and how no matter what happens, with attention to detail and hard work, you can get anywhere… And I think thats a great start to the book.

BEFORE THE STAGES

Something I really like about this book is that it isn’t overwhelming. Clear believes getting 1% better everyday is the best way to do it as 1% everyday builds up ending in success. Its not that easy though, theres plenty in between that one sentence. “Habits are compound interest of self improvement” says Clear in the book. I read this book over a few days, and left a few weeks after to test out some habit setting. While reading, I took notes because if I’m going to read a book like this I want to make sure I have a deep understanding. I took notes on quotes, valuable sentences, and just the overall understanding of the chapter. So, lets get into the 4 laws!

1st LAW: MAKE IT OBVIOUS

There are 4 steps to changing your behaviour and habits. Ask yourself, “how can I make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying?” So lets start at the first one. The first step to creating a new habit or destroying an old one Is to be aware. Habits are something you do without thinking about, so how are you going to notice them without paying attention? It’s always easier to repeat a bad habit then start a new good habit. Something you start do while reading this book, is you stop and reflect on whats benefiting you and whats not. Clear explains in these chapters that habits form for a reason, they’re is always a cue (or multiple) that trigger a habit to form.

What is a bad habit in your life? Staying up late? Biting your nails? Mines getting my homework done at realty weird and stressful times, for no reason…
I will do homework so last minute.. all the time…which is okay because a lot of the times my work is the same as if I was to do it at a normal time, but it’s deep down not okay because of the stress it causes. I wish I could get all my work done right after school, so I can enjoy the rest of my day. Its procrastination that dictates this habit of putting things off, so while reading this whole book that’s something I really focus on trying to fix.

2nd LAW: MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE

Something I really like about this book is that its not only just opinions and quotes, they’re actual facts in it that help you understand the concepts better. Dopamine is something he talks about a lot in this section. We create and retreat habits because it brings us dopamine. Where dopamine is connected to an opportunity, our motivation to act rises. Think of an outcome you want but have never done because the experience is painful? Clear uses the example of going to the gym, you want the outcomes of a nice body and healthy life, but you don’t actually do it because its not attractive. This law’s concept is you basically need to convince yourself that a habit you are setting is attractive. It’s all about the anticipation of a reward, which he calls a dopamine spike.

This law really made sense to me as I kind of have been doing this my whole life. I’m very rewards based and if I don’t connect something positive and exciting to a not fun task, I honestly won’t do it without a great struggle. For example, this book. I like reading yeah, but books like this are a little different as they aren’t fiction, and I have to actually understand things and take notes.

The goal is less for enjoyment compared to outcomes and knowledge. Anyways, to make myself really excited and happy to read this book and take notes, I bought myself a paper copy and took notes on paper. Someone may not see any difference from reading it on an iPad and taking notes on there compared to paper book and paper notes, but I do. The enjoyment and satisfaction I get from reading paper books and writing with pencil makes the process of reading a 300 page book enjoyable. I associated a positive feeling to getting this assignment done, and it created an attractive habit of reading and note taking over the past month or so.

3rd LAW: MAKE IT EASY

Ah, humans. We love simple and easy stuff. Clear talking about this reminded me of a quote by my favourite man alive, Bill Gates. “Hire a lazy person to do a difficult job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

Clear believes if a habit is challenging to do, we aren’t going to do it. We need to make it as simple, easy, and planned as we can to keep us motivated. Something really interesting he talks about is that you shouldn’t be asking how long it takes to form a habit, but you should be asking how many times it takes to form it. It’s all about repetition. An analogy he uses is “making your habits simple and easy is like unbending a water hose.” You can use a hose while it’s bent, but it’s just causing tension and a bigger temptation to give up. Why not just, unbend the water hose… that’s exactly what he wants us to do with our habits. Remove the tension.

Things you can do to remove the tension to not want to do it and the worry is just, prepare. The more friction you remove from a habit the more likely you are to do it. Prime your environment. Something I’ve discovered and recently re-enforced myself to do more is to always clean my room before school, so when I get home I have a clean and ready space to get my homework done. If my rooms messy I end up avoiding cleaning AND homework which makes it all worse.

4th LAW: MAKE IT SATISFYING

Ah I loved this part of the book. Why? Because it resigned with me so well. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a hard time getting stuff done if their isn’t a “reward” or positive outcome. This could mean having a bath after homework or bringing a cup of tea to school to make me excited for my classes. “What is immediately rewarding is repeated.” We are more likely to do something if it’s satisfying, and the satisfaction part is very personal to you. Mine examples are tea and baths, someone else’s may be watching a movie or going to a friends house. To continue with a habit, you need to feel satisfied and even just a little but of success. This keeps your brain happy and motivated.

There’s obviously the polar opposite of being rewarding which is being punished too. “What is immediately punished is avoided.” When doing a bad habit, align it with something negative. If there is a negative feeling or consequences attached, we are less likely to do it. Make it UNsatisfying! This comes in later with the habit contract, but I’ll explain that in a bit.

The FORMS

We had forms to complete after or during reading the book. Let me explain..

Here’s the habit contract. This is here to help us solidify a habit we want to create, by connecting it to a consequence and having someone watching over us. Someone watching + a consequence = new habit being repeated. Mine was the habit I’ve been talking about this whole post, starting work right away after school. I have to pay my mom now 1 dollar every time she sees me doing something that’s not homework after school, when I have work to do. This doesn’t seem like a lot but If I was to break this habit everyday, it would add up. I started this about 20ish days ago and the two weeks i’ve been in school, it’s honestly been better. Not perfect, but improving.

There were also other little forms like the habit stacker, and habit tracker. These were good to do because they kind of turn your ideas and wants into something real. Writing it down makes you accountable for it.

OVERALL

This book was genuinely enjoyable and helpful, and I’ve already recommended it to multiple people I know. Clear does an amazing job at breaking down and explaining habits, and why we do them which in the long run solves a lot of problems. Understanding why you do something is one of the first steps to fixing it or improving it. We are all human, and we can’t feel too guilty for having bad habits, but we can fix them. I love his use of the word ATOMIC as it represents how little actions end up with great results.

“Thats the power of atomic habits. Tiny changes. Remarkable Results”

I will continue to work on my habits I’ve started, and knowing PGP there will definitely be more to this book then just this post so don’t be surprised if their is an update post on my progress!! Even after only about 20 days, my overall life experience has improved. It’s the small things like getting work done after-school, or making tea in the morning for me that honestly change my days for the better.

January 16, 2020

The Beat Goes on…

Hello! This blog post is going to be about poetry, specifically beat poetry. Beat poetry was a literary movement started by a group of authors who did sort of avant guard style of poetry, meaning they started going against norms and exploring American politics, rules, culture, etc. This began in the 50s post war era.

Before I get too into everything, here was the driving question for this unit.

“HOW CAN WE USE POETRY TO REFLECT OUR PERSPECTIVES ON PEOPLE, PLACES, ISSUES, AND BELIEFS?”

This driving question shaped the whole project.

THEIR BEAT POETRY

So why did we study this and what did we do with it? We started focusing on the 50s era to see what we were working with, then studied poetry from the Beat Generation, as well as literary devices. We would read poetry from beat poets like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and discuss them in the class which was a very valuable experience. A poem that stood out to me as it was one of the first ones we read was “A Supermarket in California by Ginsberg” which is linked right there. Take a look at it if you want to see an example of a beat poets writing, it’s a very interesting poem.

AMIRI BARAKA

A milestone we worked on prior to the actual big project was studying an individual poet. Mine was Amiri Baraka. We had to learn about their life/worldview, and talk about one of their poems.

I wont talk too much about him as there is a full essay right below this about him that I wrote but this assignment was very important. It focused on the circular competency HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE. A big thing about beat poets was their story prior to poetry. How did they end up here? Why do they have the perspectives they have? These things are discovered through researching the individuals past, what they experienced while growing up, any crises they had, their family life etc. I believe my essay does a good job at explaining the different perspectives he had, as he was a man of many beliefs, constantly changing, and I did my best to explain why he did that and what influenced it.

The HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE side of poetry is one of my favourite parts about the Beat Generation and people involved because its genuinely fascinating to me. Seeing how a piece of someone’s life story can almost be fully interpreted by a poem that has absolutely nothing to do with their life. Someone’s poem about suppose, uh… a piece of concrete, could have an underlying meaning about some sort of childhood trauma they had or a good memory they remember. I like how words can do that, and its all about their perspective.

DAILY WRITING

Studying poetry, poets, and the techniques involved in poetry set us up for successful unit of writing. One of my favourite things from this unit was that every morning as class started we would have a topic to write about, and we could write about it in any way we wanted. It was supposed to be imperfect and not too thought out, which is something I rarely do when it comes to writing so it was a good activity to help me get out of my comfort zone. Here are some of my writings from these writing prompts.

This activity demonstrated the competency CREATE. This whole daily writing activity was about developing and focusing on our literacy skills. Finding out how we like to write, speak and what we want to represent in our text. From poetry to just free writing, this competency was constantly used and ill mention it more later on.

THE CANTINA

So, why are we writing this poetry? The winter exhibition! This year’s winter exhibition was Star Wars themed (because of the new movie release) and we wanted to create an awesome combination of Star Wars and the Beat Generation. Our specific Star Wars theme was the Cantina on the planet of Tatooine, which you may be wondering, why? Trust me, there are more connections to The Cantina and beat poetry than you think. The Cantina is a place where the rebels and outcasts would go to hang out. That’s basically what beat poetry was about. Rebelling against the normal and talking about things that were going on that could be controversial. People in The Cantina and people in the Beat Generation both weren’t afraid of being ridiculed and being different.

Anyways, we decided on creating The Cantina in the weight room, and have everyone perform 2 acts (around 2-3 minutes each act) of beat poetry! We split the task of turning an ugly weight room into a beautiful and authentic cantina into 4 groups. Atmosphere, food, music and decor which was my group. My group was Giorgia, Isabelle, Kai, Tamara and me! We did plenty of planning, and I’m very proud of the overall outcome. I was in charge of the tables (alongside with kai) creating the sign, and overall managing. No one really stepped up as the main leader in the beginning which was okay as we all had individual tasks, but when the night came I became more vocal and decided I’d lead if no one else was going to. It was important for me to do this as there were many unanswered questions everyone had and someone had to answer them. Things like where does this go, what are we doing with this, do you need this, were questions I had to decide and solve for all night long. It was challenging but when it comes to exhibitions, I am used to doing that.

MY BEAT POETRY

Lastly, for the timeline of this project was the actual performance of poetry. But, what did I perform? Throughout the month or so of studying beat poetry, we all were writing poems. It was a sort of do it on your own time in your own way thing which I really enjoyed and hadn’t experienced in a while. I wrote poetry during the whole unit, but wasn’t too happy with it as poetry isn’t my strongest suit, but when we were assigned to create a poetry book, I had to really get down to business.

Being honest, poetry isn’t something I’m confident in at all. I feel quite goofy writing it and have a hard time writing about emotion specifically. I feel confident writing about facts and opinions, but when it comes to emotion and being vulnerable in writing, I get a little scared. So, I wrote. A lot. A lot a lot. Tens and tens of poems. I had to get comfortable writing poetry and the only way to do it was to DO IT! I wrote and re wrote until I felt confident in around 8 poems to put into my book. Here it is.

I’m very proud of it, and I feel my poems represent me well. I’m not saying they are amazing or outstanding, but for me and my writing skills I am proud of them. They are unfiltered, honest, and goofy, which is okay! I was so scared of them being cringe to read but that’s literally was poetry is. Not every one is going to like every poem you write and thats okay! I used the competency CREATE the whole time I wrote this book. I used the literary devices we studied, and as well explored things beyond that. I really had to focus on what I wanted to represent in each poem, and once I did that they would just come to me.

THE PERFORMANCE

Here is a short video of my act #2 performance.

This was a kind of terrifying experience as a) I’m reading poetry I’ve written, and b) so many people were staring at me. But once I read a few lines, and saw smiles on peoples faces, I felt okay. I had to be confident in my writing and know it was all okay. The poems I read in this act are both included in my book.

OVERALL REFLECTION

Ive reflected on stuff individually already in each section of this post, but for an overall reflection I believe this was a very important unit. I talk about this a lot but writing isn’t something I’ve ever been confident in, so every time we do a writing based unit, it is very helpful. I know I can make things look pretty, but I want to also be able to write. And not just write, write with a meaning and reason. I believe my writing skills have improved because of this unit, and I’m leaving this unit with a strong understanding of both competencies, and a new found respect of poetry.

Before I finish off this post, I need to mention this as it was the highlight of the whole unit. A lady I’ve never seen in my life before came up to me after my act 2 and complimented my poetry and asked me if I write often. I told her besides school assignments, no, and she told me I should write more and that she really liked my poetry. I was feeling really scared after act 2 as I didn’t know if people liked my writing, so this really meant a lot to me. Someone genuinely enjoyed my poetry, and that makes this whole unit worth it x10.

November 22, 2019

That English 11 Book

Hello blog! Last month we started the classic high school assignment, reading Lord of the Flies. I’ve always wondered what grade I’d read this book in, and the time finally came! I’m a total nerd when it comes to survival stories, I love them, always have.

So, I was excited when this project came around. I was a little nervous though as this project was fully English based, and I don’t have the easier time with writing, but I was excited to improve my writing skills. Our last project was very history based, so it’s always nice to switch it up! Anyways, the driving question of this project is…

“WHAT IS THE ROLE OF TRIBALISM IN SOCIETY”

The outline for this project was reading the book, doing writing prompts/journal entries, choosing a tribe to do a project on, relating the tribe to the book, taking a book analysis test, and then presenting a keynote. To switch it up, I’m going to show you the final product of this project first, then explain all the work I and my classmates did to get there.

You have no idea what this means, let me explain from the start.

READING AND WRITING

Once we began reading the book, deadlines were set and assignments were assigned. Every week we had a certain to chapter to read to, and a journal entry with a given prompt to write about. While reading I took notes, which was helpful while writing because I had exact events and quotes written down. Here are some of my journal entries.

In this category of the project we worked with the curricular competency READING AND PERSONAL TEXT RESPONSE. The whole goal of reading this book was to understand the concepts and themes behind it, and we did that through group discussions and writing. Writing helped me further developed the ideas in my head which made the outcome better. Something I realized while reading and writing about this book is that its not just a survival story, its a theme about humans that’s told THROUGH the survival story. The boys, the island, the conch, were all just things Goulding used to express his beliefs.

Here’s a little video on the summary of LOTF Incase you haven’t read it but want to know the plot!

STARTING THE PROJECT

So, as I mentioned earlier we had to create a presentation. But on what? We had to choose a tribe to compare to LOTF and with that, we had to answer the driving question. My group Adlih, Lucas, and Giorgia, and I decided on doing Hells Angels as our tribe choice.

We were a little worried at first when we started researching, because honesty there isn’t much information about them on the internet. A lot of the articles about them are very brief and kind of too picture perfect to be true. They are a tribe related to a lot of suspected crime and such, so its hard to find definite facts about them. But, we researched plenty and developed a good base of information. Here is some research we did!

We then split up the presentation between us four. Lucas was on overall research, Giorgia was on tackling the driving question, and Adlih and I split up the task of relating it to the book. I focused on the theme of how people are always looking for a sense of belonging, and Adlih focused on how humans look for a sense of protection and hierarchy. These are two themes we came up with by using the competency UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTION AND INTENT. This means through research and reading of the book we recognized the understood the roles and themes being shown. I wont go too the actual presentation as I have footage of the actual presentation, which I will show below. The evidence for this competency is the actual presentation which I showed earlier.

PRESENTING THE PROJECT

So you’ve seen the video, but let me show you the deck of keynote slides we used! We all tried to choose photos that represent what we are saying well. These match up with the slides shown in the video.

Developing this project was surprisingly challenging. I thought because we had spent so much time on the book, and because we had so much research that it would be easy. I was wrong, the actual thinking part of this project and coming up with ideas and way it connects to the book, was hard. But, after much much thinking and talking about the book and Hells angels, we came up with points we felt were solid.

THE TEST

I know, I know, a test in PLP… Crazy. It wasn’t a regular test, more of just a timed assignment. We knew it was going to be 3 quotes from LOTF and we had to choose 2 to analyze. We had to talk about the plot surrounding the quote, the theme/significance of the quote, and any other connectors. I was nervous for the test but I knew I’d be okay because of my understanding of the book. So, here’s my responses on the test!

Being honest, I felt pretty confident while writing this test. I know I’m not the greatest writer ever, but I felt the points I was making were good and highlighted my LITERARY IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS skills. (The bolded means curricular competency.) I feel a deep understanding of the characters and themes in the book and I hope it paid off in my test!

OVERALL

This was a very interesting and engaging project. Tribalism is something Ive never really thought about, so looking at it this much in a small period of time was a really big eye opener. I feel a strong understanding of tribalism in this. I also feel like I strengthened my writing process.

Lord of the Flies was honestly a really good book, and I have one thing to say before I go… Simon was the best character in the book. Bye bye!

November 2, 2019

New Mexico!

Hello blog! Been a while. I’m back with a post about the trip I went on a little while ago, all the way down in New Mexico! This trip was a history based field study, but there was just as much fun as learning.

This post will be focused on the stuff we don’t normally talk about too much when it comes to field studies, which is exciting! Let’s get right into it.

What did we do?

Replica of the Plutonium in an Atomic Bomb!

Before I get into the behind the scenes of the trip, let me tell you a little bit about the trip. Our main focus was the Manhattan Project, so we went to places like Los Alamos, the Trinity Site, multiple nuclear history museums, and many more amazing places with amazing opportunities. For the arts/culture side of it, we went to Meow Wolf, and the spectacular International Balloon Fiesta!

All photo and video on this post are taken by me!

The Behind the Scenes!

We’ve been asked to discuss this driving question,

“How did you think flexibly to create, imagine, and innovate while taking responsible risks to complete your project and enjoy yourself?”

Which I think is a great question as it’s a side of Field Studies we don’t necessarily focus on normally. I’m going to go through a few examples that I think highlight this driving question for me personally.

THE INTERVIEWS

Interviewing has always been something that F R E A K S me out. It’s known by everyone in my class and we are all used to it. I’ve always gotten over my fear enough to conduct about 1-2 interviews a trip, but I never enjoyed it. I normally discuss this topic in all my field study blog posts as its a reoccurring issue but something changed this trip. This trip, I took responsible risks (risks for me at least!) by asking for more interviews than I necessarily needed. I recorded 3 interviews for my project, but talked to many more people than this, for the only reason of getting over this fear.

It isn’t the actual recording or interviewing part that freaks me out, its the fear of going up to someone I’ve never met and hoping they are open to me talking to me/record them. So, this trip I thought long and hard about these fears and decided they weren’t going to hold back the knowledge I could be learning by talking to people on this trip. This was a ONCE in a lifetime trip, so why not take advantage of that and learn as much as I can?

So, why is this important you ask? By the middle of the trip, I actually started enjoying talking to random people. It went from being a scary chore I needed to do for my project, to an enjoyable conversation. I started looking at it in a new perspective and focused on the fact these people WANT to talk to us, and WANT to share what they know. They have so much knowledge that I don’t have, its self sabotaging to not talk to them, just because I’m scared. I’m very proud of these interviews as it is a artifact of my growth and overcoming fear.

THE VIDEO

Every trip I always take lots of videos, but never really do anything with them. But, it was different this trip. I wanted to create more than just the assigned project. So, I took videos of everything I could. It isn’t a factual video focused on the Manhattan Project, its more on the activities, and the people who participated. I wanted to highlight my favourite part of the trips, but… with a little history in it.

The beginning of the video is the intro of a song that samples Oppenheimer’s famous speech titled “The Decision to Drop the Bomb.” I wasn’t going to add anything history based into the short video, but this speech was constantly running through my head no matter what we were doing so I felt I needed to include it. The thing that fascinates me the most about the whole Manhattan project is the decision to drop it, and the impacts, which is what the speech is about. So, heres the video. It’s short, but thats just my personal editing style when its not a school project video!

OVERALL

I felt a strong sense of creativity, curiosity, and joy during this trip and I hope my photos and videos highlight that. I was proud of myself this trip for not letting my fears take over, and for the fact I could run on little sleep and still pay attention and enjoy the days! I also am glad I took so many photos and videos, as that’s my passion when it comes to these trips. For the next trip I would like to focus a little more on the prep pre-trip as I felt my prep was weak. It all ended up working out, but I think a little more preparation would have helped me out a little more.

Thanks to the teachers for planning and taking us on this trip, it was genuinely mind blowing.

June 25, 2019

Job Shadow Time!

Ah my time has come for the classic job shadow project! I took part in this a few weeks ago. When I was first assigned a job shadow I instantly thought of what I wanted to do. Job shadow a photographer! This is a job I think about often for my future, but never know if I actually want to pursue it. This comes from fear of doing a job that isn’t a basic job like a doctor, teacher, engineer, etc. Being a photographer often comes along with running mostly everything yourself which is the opposite normal jobs, where you have people working for you or you’re working for people.So, I contacted Sherri Koop! Sherri is a Portrait Photographer who gets hired to take pictures of families, events, and individual headshots. I have always wanted to see what a day in the life as a photographer is, so I was really excited to do this. Here is some of her work.

I personally love taking photos of people, so Sherri has always been a strong inspiration for me and my photography. Sherri has taken many photos of my family and I though out the years and I have always wondered how she gets amazing photos every time, so I knew I had to do her for the job shadow.

THE DAY!

After contacting and talking with Sherri, she let me know we were doing a shoot with the lovely ladies and gentlemen that work with Selema Noon! I was excited but nervous as we all know I get scared of talking to new people, but it was all good once we were there. Sherri took photos from 9:30-12:00, and I had the job of holding the reflector. A lot of the time using a reflector isn’t necessary if the lighting is good, but this day the sun was out so I was basically a sun blocker! It felt nice having a small job to do, and it also meant I was standing basically in the photo hearing everything Sherri was directing people to do, and seeing how she does her job.

I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it and tried to soak up as information as I could!

WHAT DID I LEARN?

I was really interested prior to the shoot on how Sherri directs the people in the photos. Every. Single. Photo. That Ive seen of Sherri’s, the people look beautiful. No matter age, hair color, clothing they are wearing, or gender, everyone looks amazing in her pictures. This is really important as people are paying her for photos, and they should like how they look in them. So, I payed attention to the details. I noticed that things like the slightest lean forward, or opening of the eyes makes or breaks a photo. Small things like that are so important!

A big thing that Sherri taught me is that photography isn’t just about charging a cost for the photo, its also for the time connected to taking and editing it, and what they are going to use the photos for. There is so much stuff behind the cost and usages of photos, it blew my mind. I never thought about this as you just assume costs are for someone actually taking the photo, but that’s only one part of it.

I also payed attention to how long and how she got through such a large group of people. I thought taking a good photo of one person would take a while, but she had a strategic way of getting through over like 10 people in under 3 hours! Amazing.

SHERRIS POV

I asked Sherri some questions about being a photographer, and here are her answers.

Q: What classes/schools/programs did you take that helped you get where you are now?

A: This is not a simple answer! My interest in photography began in elementary school and then kick-started when I took a photography class in high school. From there, my post secondary education took me in the direction of music. Once I landed my first “real job” I started night classes to become an accountant, thinking this would provide me with the most stable future. Fast forward many years, I was working in senior management in telecommunications and enrolled in the Langara Professional Imaging Program, taking night classes to feed my need for something creative. I worked on the weekends to build my portfolio while exploring the idea of leaving my day job. When I decided to leave the corporate world, I applied for and received a small business government grant. This grant gave me 9 months to write and deliver a comprehensive business plan. The culmination of all these things helped me launch my business and ultimately get me to where I am today. The moral of the story is, work hard and move in the direction of doing something that fuels your passion.

Q: What’s the best part about your job?

A: The best part of my job is that I am doing something I love to do. This is extremely fulfilling. I have also met and photographed some incredible people along the way. Human connection is what inspires me more than anything else and human connection is also necessary for a good portrait, so I consider myself very fortunate to be doing what I do.

Q: What’s the worst part about your job?

Sherri’s website! Linked in beginning of post

A: What I like least about my job is having to do the tasks necessary in order to run a successful business. This includes things like bookkeeping, taxes, writing quotes and contracts, organizing files, editing, and marketing. I am happiest when I am out in the field doing what I love – making photographs. I could do without the rest, although without the rest, I wouldn’t have a business.

Q: What’s the typical schedule/work hours for your job?

A: As a freelancer, there is no typical schedule/work hours which is both a blessing and a curse. I love the flexibility and freedom although at times I do wish I had a more structured and predictable work schedule

Q: What inspired you to become a photographer?

A: One of my instructors at Langara really inspired me to create meaningful work which ultimately ignited a passion in me to become a full-time freelancer. I also realized after many years in the corporate world, that I wanted a career that was more personally fulfilling.

MOVING ON…

Sherri gave me an amazing experience this day, and I am so grateful for it. This really helped me clarify or replace my assumptions having to do with portrait photography, and showed me its even more amazing than I thought. This whole blog post is a big reflection on this day, and I’m happy it was an assignment because I most likely wouldn’t have had this experience without it. I loved this project and I wish I could thank Sherri 100 more times! Thank you Sherri!!!!!!

June 25, 2019

Circle Around BC!

Welcome! This blog post is about the Circle Around BC trip I took a part of in may! We went into this trip knowing the driving question, “How can you convince your neighbor that their life is not complete until they’ve experienced what you’ve experienced.” So, as someone who hasn’t explored much of BC besides south east areas like Nelson, I was very excited to do a circle around a very historically important area. We created many artifacts from the trip, but first I’m going to give you a run down on the trip, then dive into the Exhibition and Podcast!

THE ACTUAL CIRCLE

As you can see on this map here we started from Vancouver, went up Cariboo road, stopped at Prince George, drove up to Nass Valley, then to Prince Rupert and took a long ferry ride to Vancouver island which we then travelled back to North Vancouver from. It was a two week trip and was genuinely an amazing experience. I can’t break down these 2 weeks in a section of a blog post, so I’m going to talk about some of the biggest learning experiences and turning points in my learning.

PORT OF PRINCE RUPERT: Being honest, I was not excited to go to this because I was like eh, boring port stuff… But I remembered to how we needed to keep our minds open to all new information during the trip so I went ready to learn. I was beyond surprised to how interesting and amazing the story of the port is. The people working there talked a lot about trade and that’s really what interested me. They discussed the trade going on now, and the trade in First Nations. I then realized that trade was everywhere on this trip. This port brought together all my ideas into something I was happy with which ended up being my topic for the podcast and exhibition! Ill explain all of this more in detail in the exhibition part of this post.

BARKERVILLE: This part of the trip stood out for me because we basically lived in the 1800s for 2 days. Besides having iPads/phones and being dressed like 2019 teenagers, the experience was very authentic. From the skits that were preformed, the buildings, and actors working there, it felt like I went back in time. I don’t know any time in my life where I’ve done something like this. We were immersed into the gold rush and it felt like we were there. I’d recommend this to anyone learning about the 1800s in BC!

NASS VALLEY: When people ask me what the most beautiful part of the trip was, I tell them Nas Valley. This is where the Nisga’a people live and thrive. They have a treaty signed with the government that lets them have their own government and control over the area. The community and culture in Nas Valley is just as beautiful as the mountains, water, and volcanic rock! This was the first time I’d been in an area this large with mostly only First Nations living there, and it was amazing. If you’re ever near Nisga’a, do stop and take a look at there wonderful area!

Beside some specific places, the overall trip opened my eyes to lots of the perspectives in British Columbia that I wouldn’t have heard in just Vancouver. BC has so many stories and culture intertwined in the trees, ground, ocean, and buildings, and not many people recognize that. From First Nations to now, there are thousands of stories of BC that people need to hear. That’s why we created the podcasts and exhibition to open the eyes of BC to everyone and inspire them to take a deeper look at our province.

THE PODCAST

This was a smaller assignment in this whole unit, but still very important. This was the first step to our exhibition project. The goal for this podcast was to tell the story of how you came to the conclusion you did. For mine, it’s the story of trade in B.C, and how important trade is to B.C.I noticed this throughout all 3 phases of the trip, and took note of all of it. Going back to the driving question, I needed to share with my neighbors on how important trade is to B.C. We all live life in B.C. doing our own thing but never think about how we live and how our province is thriving. It’s because of trade. Trade isn’t just a simple thing that happens at ports, it has stories and thousands of years connected to it. Trade doesn’t just happen in B.C. it IS B.C! In this podcast I explain how I came to realize this.

The podcast surprised me. I was quite happy with it and felt lost on where to revise, but after long conversations with the teachers I knew where I had to fix things. This whole overall podcast taught me that even if you feel something is great, that’s not going to be what everyone else thinks all the time, and that’s ok! It’s about taking the surprised-ness, and working even harder to make it better.

THE EXHIBITION

The exhibition night! For my project I painted a map of B.C. and all of the trade routes we saw on the trip. It is split it up into 3 time periods which also represent the phases of our trip. 8000 BC – 1700s (First Nations.) 1700s-1950s (Fur Trade, Gold Rush.) 1950s-2019 (Ports in our Province.) These titles are really important as they are what makes the map make sense. I made this as a visual representation of all the notes I took on the trip of the trade routes I saw.

There are so many more trade routes in B.C. but these are the specific ones I myself took note of at museums, by asking questions, and just looking around! I had fun explaining my project to people who asked about it, as not many people know much about B.C. besides Vancouver!!!

I’m really happy with how my artifact came out, and how the overall room ended up looking. Everyone in the class was very passionate about their topics and this exhibition which made the overall experience a lot better. We came to creating our artifacts using the launch cycle which was helpful on organizing our ideas! It also makes the reflecting process easier as It can show you where you succeed and failed. I think I did well in creating a creative visual representation of my answer to the driving question and I’m proud of myself.

The exhibition luckily all came together, but I definitely did do it pretty last minute. While this is ok as I’m happy with the end product, I wish I had started actually building and painting earlier. Beside my own procrastination, I felt the launch cycle slowed me down a little. I found myself wanted to skip steps as I didn’t feel they were important, but I didn’t as I know I’m being marked on the process of creating just as much as the end product.

I walked away from this exhibition with a deeper understanding and love for our home province British Columbia. Without being in PLP I wouldn’t have this. I have never met anyone who has explored B.C. as much as my class, and that’s not a good thing! People need to realize they don’t need to go to Europe or America to see new things, we have it right in our backyard. The culture and history is so deep and beautiful, and it deserves to be recognized just as much as places around the world. I genuinely am grateful I have heard so many stories and facts about B.C. in during this unit, and that I learnt so much about trade. I’m proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone while choosing topics to focus on (trade.) I could have chosen something artistic or more creative, but I chose industry basically, which was really fun! I think it was definitely the passion I had for my topic which made my project and learning thrive.

June 17, 2019

3/5 of Highschool

Being honest, grade 10 was crazy. Crazy in a crazy way. Lots of ups and downs, and lots of new lessons being learned. I’m walking out of this year as a stronger student. So, what happened this year that makes me feel this way?

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THING I TOOK AWAY FROM THIS YEAR?

My goal since grade eight has been to find a balance between my school work and personal life. Every single presentation like this one I have mentioned that specific goal. This has been one of the most frustrating and confusing things I’ve dealt with. This year I started growing a better understanding on how to actually handle and achieve this goal which made solving it way simpler. So, what do I mean by all of this?

I’ve been so stuck on this question I’ve made for myself about balance, I never thought deeply about what I’m actually asking from myself. I’d say PGP taught me this but it more inspired me to just THINK, I needed to think more. The task of making sure you have a perfectly balanced life is pretty impossible. Life, school, and everything else in between is unpredictable and completely unfair. But its okay! It’s not about making sure If perfectly balanced, its how you deal with the work when it comes to you. When things come at me in every which way, it’s about the mindset you’re in, organization you have, and your determination level. Once you’ve done that, it’s important to respect yourself when you’re working. The process of creating is just as important as the end product. This is where the balance comes in, if you get your work done in an enjoyable and stress free way, then the work side of life doesn’t feel so heavy.

WHAT AM I PROUD OF AND WHY

I created quite a few artifacts this year that I’m really proud of but these 3 really stand out to me because they all remind me of important things. I think its important to look at your strengths just as much as things you should improve on as this creates a healthy perspective on yourself. Make sure you’re improving, but also reflect on the good and appreciate your hard work! At least for me!

OVERCOMING FEAR: WW2 podcast. As everyone knows, I strongly dislike interviewing people. It’s been something that has scared me since I can remember. I get this weird sick nervous feeing when I talk to new people, and it’s not something I can control, but it’s something I can fight. That’s why this project was a big milestone for me. Emily and I drove out to Port Moody to interview a WW2 veteran named Svend!

When we were assigned this I instantly was like yeah I’ll just get my other group members to do it, I’ll find a way out of it. But as the time to interview him came closer I became clearer than If I don’t go, we wont have an interview. So after many conversations with Ms. Maxwell and my mom, I decided to go. I was so nervous but I knew it would be ok, and it was. He was a lovely man and it was a great experience. The end product of this podcast is something I’m very proud of and I know I wouldn’t be happy with it If I hadn’t gone out of my comfort zone and done the interview.

PERSISTENCE: Phone plan project: This project seemed pretty normal in the beginning but when I tell you I was wrong, I was so wrong. For some reason this math messed with my head and it took me weeks to understand it. Asking questions, revising, drafts, etc…. I spent quite a few nights trying to take all this data from real world situations and form in into a well made math project. I genuinely had never been prouder of myself once I presented my project and had done all the math correctly. I persevered and I never gave up even when I was confused and frustrated and that is why I’m proud of this project.

A DRIVE TO CREATE: Movie trailer: I talked about this project in my last MPOL, but I’m just going over it one more time because it genuinely is my favourite thing I’ve ever made. I went into this project with such a strong drive to create something I am happy with. I wrote the script, filmed, directed, and edited the whole trailer, and was totally happy with doing all of it. I felt in my element during this project and I think the director role in projects is somewhere where I thrive because I honestly enjoy what I’m doing. We also had a large amount of creative freedom which also contributes to the fact that I really enjoyed this project. I hope in the future I get to do more projects like this.

GRADE 11 GOAL

As PLP is only 2/8 of my classes next year, I need to make sure I take all the tools I learned in the last three years of PLP into regular classes like pre-calc, econ, and even things like art and yearbook! Just because I don’t have my PLP teachers making sure I’m getting where I want to go, doesn’t mean I can’t get the grades I want. I need to be my own PGP. What I mean by that is, take the form we filled out in the beginning of the year of the grades we want and how we are going to get them for example. I need to do that for my non PLP classes and I need to be the teacher in that situation making /sure I’m learning and achieving what my goal is. I need the PLP in me to stand out in all my classes.

Grade 10 grew me for the better, and I’m going to miss having most of my classes in PLP.

June 11, 2019

The WinderWow!

Welcome to the world of the WinderWow! This is a product my friend and I created in science class. The goal of this project was to create something that generated energy from either water or wind. No solar panels, and no help from humans to create the energy. We created the WinderWow which is a mini wind mill that can charge up to 7 phones a day! So, heres the video we made to advertise our product!

THE VIDEO

MIND MAP!

Heres a classic science class mind map to show some things I learnt!

CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES!

This project was really challenging as our product had to go through many prototypes, and many revisions. Something I would fix if I was to revise this video would be to fix my wording from watts per day to watt hours because well… Watts per day and Watts per hour doesn’t exist! So, what am I proud of? This is where the circular competencies come in!

REASONING AND MODELLING: I had to thoroughly analyze and apply Scientific ideas to this project as thats what the whole goal if it is! I had to visualize my ideas and use everything I had to make them real. I went out of my comfort zone and came up with an idea (the model magic around the handle) that no one else had done and tested and revised it until it was good.

UNDERSTANDING AND SOLVING: To hand in a project that actually makes sense, I had to understand the science of the project. I did this through taking notes and questioning myself in the beginning of the unit. Here are some of my notes…

COMMUNICATING AND REPRESENTING: In the video we explain why we created the WinderWow, and why it’s important. Through advertising techniques we communicate the message we want to get through in the video! We use scientific vocabulary to make sure we can convince the buyers and our teacher!

CONNECTING AND REFLECTING: I engaged myself in the problem solving this project. An example is when our wind mill wouldn’t move because of the off balance centre, I started testing things we could do to fix it. I tried so many things but the thing that ended up working was adding weight on the end of 3/8 of the propellers!

Overall, this project was fun yet challenging and taught me a lot about something we see everyday, ENERGY!

June 11, 2019

A Letter To My Past Self

Hello! Welcome to my first and sadly last blog post about my Personal Growth Plan. This is a class I participated in this year! It focuses on productivity, the 7 habits of a highly effective teen, and organization. It seemed a little intimidating at first but after 9 months of it, I can say it affected me positively. To end off this class with a bang, we were assigned the TIME MACHINE project! This is basically an artifact that you would want your past self to see and learn from. So, lets get into what I created!

THE VIDEO!

WHAT DID I LEARN?

I created this short video about what I wished grade 8 and 9 knew. I took the task of a “time machine” quite literally as I did a letter to my past self, but it’s what felt the best to create. While writing the script I put down in point form the main 3 points I wanted to get across, my work environment, organization, and preparation/planning. I wrote out exactly what habits I wish I knew before grade 10, and habits from the two books we read especially “7 Habits of a Highly Effective Teen” stood out for me in each point I wanted to make. I talk about the Habits that stuck with me the most like being proactive, and beginning with end in mind. Through all the books, worksheets, podcasts, and sketches I did connected to PGP, I can honestly say everything I say in the video is genuine. Its not stuff that always sounds good, its not stuff that will give me a good mark, its stuff that actually helps me on a daily basis.

WHAT MY VIDEO MEANS…

The biggest thing I walked into PGP with was that I wanted to create a work routine than gets the work done efficiently, and enjoyably. I normally end up with work I’m happy with, but I never enjoy the process I have to get there. Things
like procrastination, late nights, early mornings, busy after schools, etc were all caused from my lack of organization, planning, and not having a healthy workspace. Through all of PGP I took parts and pieces of what I learnt and molded it to my working style, and it ended up with a nice and efficient work routine. I learnt this year that the process of creating is just as important as the final product!

MOVING FORWARD

I’m going to lots of work to do in the future, if its school connected, family connected, work connected, it’s always going to be there. So why not create a routine that makes the process as enjoyable as having a great end product? PGP made me get my stuff together and figure out that exact problem, and I can confidently say I believe my video shows that. I’m happy I took PGP seriously, and that I went into it with a drive, because I’m not sure I would have gotten as much out of if I didn’t.