Another post Alberta? You betcha! But this one is a little bit different. Our driving question for this one is pretty specific, How did I persist and manage my impulsivity on this field study in order to question, think, and gather data to complete your project and enjoy yourself? Lets get into it.

As most of you know, I’m 100%, full on, no doubt, an extrovert. I love talking to people, having fun, laughing, making my friends laugh. So going to a different province for 9 days with all of my friends, you can see how maybe I wouldn’t be that focused. But in some places I surprised myself and I’m going to explain my highs and lows of this trip. Highs being when I really out-did myself in learning, collecting data, asking questions, where even I surprised myself! But lows meaning places were I could’ve done better, where I should’ve been more focused, why I wasn’t focused and what I can do better next field study. 

The first pit stop at The Last Spike, was a tough one because first we had all just come out of the van and bus and were pretty hyped up for the trip. This is where I could’ve been more focused, our first example of the evening. The area was pretty open, and instead of taking it as a learning opportunity I saw it as a “talking to friends who were in the bus because I was in the van” opportunity. Ms. Maxwell asked me a couple questions, and even though I answered them, I wasn’t fully paying attention to my surroundings. I wasn’t even taking pictures, and in my later assignments I had to borrow my classmates pictures from there. The only time where I really tuned in was when I went into the gift shop, because my peoples group project could benefit from me asking a couple questions. I got my information, but looking at the bigger picture, I realize even throughout the whole trip, even if it doesn’t benefit my project, I should still pay attention, because it could come in handy later. 

The information I got from the gift shop went into my final Alberta Video, and if you want to see it click here.. 

One place I really connected with was at Studio Bell . It made me feel at home and at peace and I think when I feel good about a place, I tend to focus more. My only goal is to feel good about every place, so I get the maximum amount of information! I’ve played many instruments in the past and I still play them now. Music has always been a huge part of my life because to me its my safe place for me, somewhere that I can escape when I need to calm down. I play piano and drums but I used to play flute, violin, and viola.

I’ve played piano the longest so thats why I have a really special connection with the instrument. Studio Bell was an amazing experience for me because its where all musicians should go at least once in their lives. I loved the place because it taught me more about not just the instruments I play, but music itself. If I could do a blog post on just music, boy oh boy you’d be sitting here for DAYS! But really, using music in a educational way, showed me a creative side I never knew I had. For example for one of my projects, instead of finding a beat or making a parody of a song, I wrote and composed a whole beat with lyrics just for the project. I think it turned out amazingly, with the help of my group, Emily, Gabe and Owen! Click here if you want to take a listen! 

Changing the topic, drastically, from creativity and music to education and DINOSAURS! How cool is that!  Yeah. I know. Well we got to experience Dino’s first-hand by visiting the Royal Tyrell Museum , right in the heart of Drumheller. The museum was packed with lots of information, unfortunately for me, I was distracted. The first walk through was basically just me looking at exhibits, pictures, statues, sculptures and artifacts, not actually really processing what they meant or what the readings said. If I saw another classmate walking through I went and talked to them, which ruined my learning experience and theirs. But one exhibit made an impact, I actually stood there and read it and I found it very interesting. Lucky for me, our next assignment was to pick an exhibit and make a short documentary on it. I immediately ran through the museum, because of limited time, and I even interviewed a stranger! This point in the trip was the best learning experience for me because it really brought out my learning, educational side, that was sleeping! Not only did I learn a lot about my ammonite, but I learnt how to communicate to others during an interview and I achieved in interviewing my first stranger! If you want to take a peek at my video click here!

Lots of drama happened on this trip, not that the teachers would know! But I was fairly into the middle of it and that was another thing that kept me from learning. I was so caught up in who likes who that I actually felt like I was living in a sitcom! Well maybe not, but I could’ve regulated myself to stay away from all that while I was learning. Not being in the know of the latest gossip can be the worst in a social status way, but it comes at a very expensive price when learning is the other option. 

I feel that there were definitely times that I felt I could’ve been a better student and really dug deep into my learning instincts. A balance between having fun and learning is hard, so that’s being added to my goals list for this year, and the rest of my life. 

Ending on a high note, a time where I felt really good about my learning situation, was in the Ghost Town, because I knew I had a limited amount of time to film with my group, and we definitely achieved our goal of filming that day. And we focused a lot to get this done, not just in the production part, but also in post-production part. Editing, music, sound effects, all played a huge part in this film. So see for yourself, if it really does live up to all the expectations I’m talking about!

Enjoy.

~Malaika