Monthly Archives: June 2022

Reflections

TPOL Post

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Hello teachers and parents, and welcome to my TPOL. In this presentation, I’ll talk about my growth this year, and how I’m ready for grade 10. Moreover, I’ll talk about the core competencies, and how I’ve achieved on those this year. 

The driving question is: “Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?”.

I feel ready because I’ve grown a lot this year, and I’ve learned many key skills. For example, this year we learned about film, and how to conduct interviews. Furthermore, I learned about establishing historical significance, and learning about different point of views. 

“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”

First, I’m going to talk about my growth in Scimatics.

Scimatics:

In Scimatics this year, we learned about many different topics. From exponents, to chemistry, to Rube Goldberg machines, to learning about reproduction. Moreover, I learned many different skills, such as working with others, communicating, and using time wisely. 

The project that I struggled with the most had to be “game of exponent laws”. The math was tough to understand, and I found it difficult to work with my partner. Eventually, I understood the math by watching YouTube videos, and by asking Mr. gross. And as for the issues with my partner, I learned a valuable lesson to communicate better with others when doing a group project. 

My strengths this year in Scimatics this year were communicating my ideas to others. For example, I’m good at creating video presentations and doing in-class presentations. I’ve also improved in my ability to work with others. A good example of this was in my “metaphor machines” project, because I collaborated well with my group, and I generated ideas of my own. 

As for my growth, I really improved my math skills throughout the year. Also, I got better at understanding concepts quicker and more thoroughly. A good example of this was in the “mitosis vs meiosis” project. I showed this by creating a good video that explained the differences and similarities between the two processes. I did this by reading the workbook, and using google to research these topics. 

As for support in this class, I need to be able to manage my schedule, so that I’m able to complete assignments on time. Also, I need to take advantage of the time that I do have. 

Humanities:

We did lots of cool projects in humanities this year, such as revolutions on trial, case for a nation, war to end all wars, and most recently, the exhibition. 

One of my biggest “FAILS” this year was when I was doing the “Revolutions on Trial” project. We were presenting our revolutions and it was my turn to present my team’s evidence, and I forgot to take off my mask, so my speaking was really quiet. So my argument wasn’t as effective as it could’ve been, but we ended up winning the trial anyways.

My strengths in humanities this year were leadership, and being able to take charge for my group. Also, I was really organized with my work, and met due dates regularly. Also, I’m a good communicator, as I’m able to keep in touch with my group members out of school time. 

One of my goals earlier in the year was improving my blog posts. I wanted to add more media and be more expressive. I also wanted to write more un-related blog posts that further enhanced my blog. Now at the end of the year, I’d say that I’ve accomplished most of these skills. 

My goal earlier in the year was to reach an extending grade. I would say that I’ve pretty much accomplished that. In some competencies I’ve extended, and some I’ve accomplished. But, I think that was a good goal to have because it really pushed me to get better. 

Now to talk about Maker.

Maker:

We did some pretty challenging in maker 9 this year, such as Destination Imagination, Vibrant video, my first film, and believe in good. 

Did all the work you completed this year meet your standards?

Yeah, I would say so, I had many tough projects in maker so completing them felt really good. I was most proud when I finished DI, considering how much time and work I had put in. My team had presented a good solution, and we placed pretty good. Furthermore, in the First film project, I was really proud with my final doc. I had spent all those hours filming, editing, and interviewing. Also, I had gone through lots of revising and redoing, so it felt good to finish that project as well. 

My strengths in maker this year were being a innovative designer and being a collaborator. For example, in DI I created a very good set for our presentation. Also during DI, I communicated well with my group on different to-dos, and due dates. I showed innovative design by creating the set in DI, as my set was on wheels, and could turn around easily.

Here’s a video of my set in action:

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My goals at the start of the year, were to become a more artistic learner. For example, by drawing more often, making more creative designs, and by becoming better with technology. For example, in my assessment choice boards for “believe in good”, I used many artistic aspects.

My goal at the beginning of the year was an accomplished grade. 

I would say that I achieved a grade in-between a accomplished and extending. 

In summation, this year has been lots of fun, with new projects, and learning new skills. I feel as though I have accomplished most of my goals that I set earlier in the year. These include communication with others, improving my blog posts, and creating more artistic work. I demonstrated this through DI, and through my choice board activities in “believe in good”. This year brought upon new frontiers, with our first learning advance, and DI being in person. I’ve also learned many new skills, such as filmmaking, establishing historical significance, and telling the right story. 

I hope you all enjoyed my TPOL!

Group Project, Reflections

Spring Exhibition 2022

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. Today’s post is about the PLP spring exhibition. For the exhibition, we were tasked with showing how we got into PLP as a 7th grader. I was tasked with the conclusion, so I showed how all of our understandings came together. The driving question in this project was: “What is a PLP learner?”. A PLP learner is someone who’s open to critique, someone  who can work well others, and someone who can adapt to different circumstances. 

The first thing we did was assign stations. I was assigned the conclusion, and my partners were Nolan, Hannah, Cooper, Xander, Julian, Alfie, and Brooke. 

We started things off with a brainstorming activity:

We had brainstormed some pretty good ideas, such as doing an instant challenge, having skittles as our food, and displaying our documentaries on a projector. All of which were included in the actual exhibition. Next, we had to formulate our ideas into a “pitch form”, which we would present to the class. 

We then curated our first draft of the pitch form. The main requirement for the pitch form was that the grade 8s had to understand them easily. Since, there would be grade 8’s in our station. So, at first the grade 8s had trouble understanding our pitch form. We then revised and revised till it was readable for the grade 8’s.

Here’s what the final pitch form looked like:

Another task that we had was creating an “exhibition layout”.  The purpose of this milestone was to visualize what our room would look like, and how much space we would have for different things. Just like the pitch form, this layout had to be clear enough, so that the grade 8’s could understand.

Here’s what our final layout looked like:

As the date of the exhibition loomed, we built our sets for our room. This included building clouds, putting up streamers, setting up our projector, and creating the “reflection station”, and instant challenge station. 

Then the day came, we rushed to set up our stations. I was at the instant challenge station with cooper. We ran a challenge where guests had to create a cup pyramid using a “rubber band/string thing”, that lifted the cups up. Originally, we were gonna have the guests compete against the grade 8’s, but due to time reasons, we had the guests attempt to do it as fast as possible. The record was 22 seconds! During exhibition night, we were also allowed time to see the other grade’s presentations. I found some to be very interesting, (I also really liked the food they had). 

In summation, I really enjoyed my second ever exhibition. I would say that this one was harder than the first, because it required a lot more preparation. Also, I liked how we had more say in what our station included, I thought mine was cool. Even though it was a lot of work, it was worth it to be able to present to friends and family!

Thanks for reading this post!

Pages, Reflections, Scimatics

Time is Money post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve completed in Scimatics 9. This project is called “time is money”, and is all about conducting a buiseness and predicting your earnings over time using linear equations. The driving question in this project is: “How can we predict our finances for the future?”. We can do this by using linear graphs and equations. Also, by identifying the determining factors of your buiseness, such as wage, expenses, and startup costs. 

To begin the project, we had to choose our buiseness. In Showbie, we commented our top 3 choices, mine were selling prawns, collecting bottles, and power washing. In the end, I chose power washing as my buiseness. 

We then had to determine our expenses, wages, and startup costs for our buiseness. We organized this in a numbers spreadsheet. 

Here’s my spreadsheet:

After creating the spreadsheet, we took the data and put it in a equation. This equation would determine our initial profit from this buiseness. 

Here’s my equation:

In the equation, y= total earnings, x= time, and b= initial startup costs. Since I had such a big startup cost, my initial profit was -635.5$. However, I still didn’t know how long it would take me to break even. Or how much I would make in a typical work year. 

To determine those numbers, we took the results from the equation, and put them in a graph. 

Here’s what my graph looked like:

Using the graph, I determined that it would take me around 43 hours of work to break even. And that in a work year of around 1700 hours, I would make 25,000$. 

Now for the curricular competencies. 

Understanding and solving:

I accomplished this skill. During class time, i spent most of my time on task, however, there were some times where I was off task. Furthermore, I completed most of my assignments on time, except for the khan academy quizzes, as it took me awhile to understand the concepts. 

Communicating and representing:

I extended in this skill. My equations was accurate and descriptive. Also, my graphs we’re clear, and demonstrated profit over a year, and how many hours it would take to break even. Furthermore, these were clearly demonstrated and explained in my video. 

Connecting and reflecting:

I extended this skill. In my video, I compared my buiseness to a career at McDonald’s, and how much you would make over a year. I also clearly explained how my buiseness affects the environment. My business uses gas, so I predicted that my buiseness negatively affects the environment over time. 

Now for the final product, the video. 

In the video, we had to explain our buiseness, whether it would be successful, and how it affects the environment. I created mine in iMovie, and added voiceover underneath the images I was showing. 

To summarize, I had lots of fun in this project, as it was cool to simulate y own buiseness. However, my buiseness didn’t turn out to be that good, cause I only made 25,000$ a year. In contrast, a job at a grocery store would pay much more. Furthermore, I was really proud of my final video, I thought it explained my buiseness really well. 

Thanks for reading this post! 

Individual Project, Maker, Reflections

First Film post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog. It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and a lot has happened in PLP 9. Today I’ll be talking about the project we just finished in Maker 9. This project is called “my first film”, and was all about documentaries. In the end, we created our own documentary, on a topic of interest. The driving question was: “How can I engage and entertain an audience using my video and storytelling skills?”. You can do this by using interviews, b-roll, multiple angles, and many other skills. 

To start this project off, we conducted our own interviews. We were split into groups, and we chose a topic and specific set of questions. Our topic was: “does pineapple belong on pizza?”. Over that weekend, we had to interview a family member or friend and record it. I interviewed my friend Tyler. After we each conducted an interview, we brought our clips together, and created one big video. This assignment was really helpful, cause it was our first crack at interviewing, and it tested our video making skills.

During the entirety of the project, we watched a “doc a day”. While we watched these docs, we answered questions about them. It really helped us in getting ideas for our documentaries.

Then, it was time to determine our documentary topics. We filled out this interest brief sheet, to get some ideas:

I chose to do my doc on granite falls, since I live really close to it, and it’s something I’m interested in. I focused on the falls’s history, and how its changed over the years.

Here’s a picture of granite falls:

The first step was to create our treatment and Logline. A treatment and Logline are breif descriptions that specifically explain your topic. 

Here’s what my treatment and Logline looked like:

After we completed the treatment and Logline, we created our screenplays. A screenplay breaks down each shot, and what’s in the shot. So it was an outline of what our final documentary would look like. 

Here’s what the first draft of my screenplay looked like:

My first draft was good, put it needed a few fine tunes. I needed to add more detail on how the falls are currently used, and give examples. So I got to work on my second draft:

We then created our storyboards:

In this storyboard, we started to envision our shots and what the doc would look like. We also had to include the different camera angles that we planned on using.

Now for the documentary….

We started by organizing interviews, and beginning to film our shots. It was a tough process to plan an interview, as I had to find a time that worked for me and my interviewees. But, it wasn’t that tough to organize film time, as granite falls is pretty close to my house. 

After we handed in our rough cuts, we did a peer critique activity. At that point, my doc wasn’t fully completed so most of my critique was pretty straight forward. However, I was told that I only had a middle and end, and I was missing an intro. Also, that I had to connect the topic to myself, and what the falls meant to me… 

Then I began to craft the final cut…..

I took the critique and used it to improve upon my documentary:

To summarize, I learned lots about videography and filmmaking in this project. Those skills are really important to me as a learner, since we’ll be building of these skills next year. I also really enjoyed making my documentary. It was cool to teach others about the areas around me. The toughest part in this project was the editing, it was really tough to sync everything together.

Thanks for reading!