So just recently I’ve made a great video about Canada’s great natural surroundings and it’s wonderful culture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So with out further or due I’ll share the video with all of you.

IMG_4972-10acq23

So I used imovie to make it, and I filmed it outdoors, and what’s a better place than in the beautiful Deep Cove! I decided to tell the story with an up close shot of a beautiful mini-waterfall I found, and then a direct view shot of my face twice talking. The process of the creation of this video was interesting and challenging as I wanted it to be a perfect video, so I had many, many drafts, but that’s ok when the end outcome is looking good.

The reason I chose my story was because I really enjoy the outdoors, and in general it’s one of my favourite things. Since we live in such a beautiful place, I decided it would be a great idea to really get out there and film!

In the end I had lots of revision and learning and had fun doing it. I hope I get another opportunity to do an outdoor-based project again soon!

So it’s that time of the year, the Student Led Conferences and I’m going to talk about some great things throughout this start of the year, here are the reflections so far!

Work I am most proud of:

Very recently the whole class was working really hard putting together their DI projects and fine tuning them to make sure they were great for regionals! I am proud of my group because we had fun with it, rehearsed before time and had good acting. I felt this payed off when I found out we got first place and actually beat St. George’s team which was the team of the school we were competing at!

We completed the work together and by pushing hard in a short amount of time, I learnt that you always need to be prepared and keep your spirits up, even when you feel discouraged. I’m proud of this work because I feel that I put effort into this project and I my self planned my role and helped our team achieve DI goals. Here’s a link if you want to read more about that:

DI Regionals 2K17

 

An Example of my learning:

A few weeks ago the PLP class visited a beautiful warm sunny place called Orlando, Florida, to study about Walt Disney and the Imagineers special way to bring theme parks to life as well as studying what astronauts went through in training and in space at The Kennedy Space Centre and the ATX astronaut training experience, More about Florida here:

Florida was crazy! (In a good way)

I must say, it really entrigued me and made me think and research even on my own. I really feel it showed my learning because I spent more time and made way more effort to really let myself absorb all this information. I have compared my learning from the start of Seattle (our first field school) to Florida. In Seattle I felt I was learning but I could really apply myself way further and if I did that I could reach new and better things and goals. You can read more about Seattle here:

Throwback to Seattle!

My Growth Mindset

In PLP Humanities we had to read the book “Alice in Wonderland”, please tell me you’ve heard of it before, anyways after we read the book we had to write an Essay on our choice of two different topics, read about it here:

Alice and wonderland in an essay!

1) How does Carroll create a real imaginary world for his reader?
2) How are readers/viewers drawn to imaginary worlds?

I wrote my Essay on the first topic and it felt really bare, not because I didn’t fully finish it, it was because I didn’t support and reinforce my statement, which I have learned from both Ms Willemse and Mr Featherstone is very, very important, you need it to prove something and to conclude something. I felt I learned a lot more about that after I finished the Essay, that I need that, because it is a skill and I have a open growth mindset to do that because it applies to almost everything, University, Interviews, Etc. So now I have the mindset for the next time I have something like that, and I can use those skills precisely and properly! Here’s a picture of our “Good Copy” essays which I learned and expanded on. 

Three Goals:

Lastly I have three goals for the rest of the year that I will constantly be thinking about and applying to my work. One is to improve my open-ness, by that I mean I will be way more open to new suggestions and comments as well as feed back and expand my growth mindset, another goal is to keep working hard on my writing skills and to take all the critique and feedback I can, and my last goal is to ask lots and lots of questions to make sure I can exceed my learning.

I hope you really heard me out on my reflections of my work and I will keep striving to do my best work for the rest of the year!

 

Hello I am Quinn Helgason from the PLP learning program and I am going to tell you about my experience and learning from this project. First let me introduce my team, we got selected to do the Top Secret Scientific Challenge and here’s the video below (a little more explanatory)

This challenge seemed really interesting and intriguing so I was definately eager to start this. Ok back to my team, our team name is H2.0 don’t ask why but if you ask me it sounds kinda cool, the people also in this group with me include: Tyler Newell, Will Buckingham, Makyla Slater, and Ruby Gilson. Our story is set in world war III (hasn’t happened, yet?) in a rebel spy headquarters, when evil robots are trying to take over our base (in a nutshell).

Anyways we went to regionals and I think we did a great job! But I know we can still improve waay more, we just need to keep pushing and we already have a ton of new ideas for Provincials! Below is a picture of our scoring coming first place in our category! Go Seycove!

 

Right there at the top Seycove Secondary! I’m definitely looking forward to provincials and I wish all the othe teams good luck! Woooo DI!

 

 

 

 

 

Recently the PLP learning program class has been learning and reading to write our very own essays, these essays consisted of two different topic questions you could choose: 1) How does Carroll create a real imaginary world for his reader?
2) How are readers/viewers drawn to imaginary worlds?

My Essay was based on the first question and the worst part was that I didn’t finish it, after loads of critique I realized I was worrying to much on the length of the paragraph and not the strength. The strength of the pargraph is way more important as I reinforces your statement, giving you a better place and overall statement. What I concluded in my essay was that this Alice and wonderland book was almost a form of escapism, it really drew you into the imaginary world.

Here is a picture of the Essay if you wanted to read it and I really learned in this that making a strong point is highly important!

 

Continue reading →

So here’s Florida, at the Walt Disney World, beautiful huh? They say it’s the place where happiness is bountiful.

Florida was one of the best trips yet and here’s some great evidence!

So we visited every park in Disney World, keep in mind that one Disney Land can fit in one of the Disney World parking lots! Huge place!

Here was my view when I first entered the famous “Magic Kingdom” park, crowded but an almost more medieval world, close to imaginary.

Another Great photo of the Walt and Mickey statue right infront of Cinderellas Castle.

Now we also did some great field School work and play time in the Universal Orlando Studios, it was a great park, lots of character but what it lacked in imagination it replaced with thrill.

Another greal expierience was at the Disney Animal Kingdom, now this park was filled with lots of animals, trees and themed rides that brought out a lot of real and imaginary feelings such as a safari truck/jeep ride that took you through the jungle filled with real animals and multiple biomes.

 

Now this ride “Expedition Everest” was my favourite ride in the Animal Kingdom, Fast, thrilling drops and turns and also some backstory and theme, for example when you are in the line queue you are examining photos of Everest, and mock up equipment and the important people to help you make your journey etc.

Next up is EPCOT, Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, which was in my view one of the less exiting parks had lots to offer. The world showcase was one of the coolest parts, a whole variety of countries ex. Germany, France, China and even Canada!

The next place we went to was the Kennedy Space Centre, it really amazed me. As you can see above was the first thing I saw when I walked in, multiple rockets, some replicas, and some real. It was a really cool experience because we learnt about the things the astronauts went through and all the amazing parts of space, and the best part was when we got to speak and take pictures with an actual astronaut! Very cool day.

So that just about sums up the best parts of Florida, I learnt many great things and had a great time while at it!