In this year’s spring exhibition, the grade 10s, 11s and 12s all collaborated together to showcase a project called “Cray, Cray Yay! Yay!”.

What Makes Someone A Community Impact Maker?

We first began with an introduction to the term “crazy ones” through an advertisement for Apple Inc. created by Steve Jobs in the 2000s. After developing a strong definition as a class, we went along and watched three consecutive movies that all represented one or more so-called “crazy ones”. Those movies were Hidden Figures, Amadeus and Gandhi. After we reached the end of a movie, we conducted a Socratic Seminar to showcase our detailed understanding as well as deeper thoughts and connections we might have made. Compared to the Socratic seminars held last semester, I would say that I’ve gained improvement in this area but not as much as I was hoping for. I would love to participate in more next year as I believe that they are a great way of getting me out of my comfort zone in expressing thoughts and opinions in-front of my peers. 

Next we got into our individual products. We each chose someone who we considered to be a “Community Impact Maker”, which is essentially a “crazy one” but on a slightly lesser scale. We would also be personally interviewing and inviting these impact makers to our exhibition, so we gave them a name that would sound less controversial. 

I decided to base my project on David Foster, the founder of the Harvest Project (and not the famous music producer). In choosing him, I found out so much about how big of a role this organization plays in our community. I gained the most knowledge through my
interview with Joe McGuinness, the Community Engagement Coordinator at Harvest Project. I learned lots about their history and their continued impact today, as well as struggles they have faced as a foundation through obstacles such as COVID-19. 

Finally, let’s get onto the creation itself. Our class was tasked with creating a portrait to represent our Community Impact Makers. From the beginning, I knew that I wanted the main focus of my portrait to be a lot more symbolic rather than showing many details of David Foster’s physical appearance. From that, it meant that I would keep it more simplistic to not distract the audience from the main focus. In my portrait, I wanted to represent the slogan at Harvest Project: “Extending a hand up, not a hand out”. To portray this, I wanted a hand to be pulling another out of a “black hole” which could be seen as poverty or whatever challenges one of Harvest Project’s clients may face. As you can see from my original design, I was hoping to use hands made out of styrofoam as I felt that they would look the most realistic. In the end, I had to use latex gloves that I would stuff with tissue paper that ultimately turned out better than the styrofoam would have.

Once our portraits were done, we had a limited time to prepare the set up for our areas. Everyone’s presentations were separated into different categories: Environment, Business, Arts, Athletics and Service. As the Service section of the gym, my group had a good challenge in decorating an area with this broad
topic. However, we were all quite happy with the way it turned out and managed to have everything fit the theme, even the food. We had Lemon-aid, Caring Cookies and Purposeful Popcorn. Cheesy I know, but it worked!

Overall, I believe that this exhibition was actually one of my best. I showed the right level leadership with my exhibition group and broke a small barrier within my speech comfort zone in both the exhibition and Socratic seminars. Through this project, I’ve come to learn that a Community Impact Maker is not just someone who’s done something to impact the community, but also how they’ve inspired others to do the same. This is why I couldn’t have
picked a better person to base my project on, as it was more than just about David Foster’s legacy, but how a dozen staff and hundreds of volunteers continue to help countless individuals and families in a number of different ways every year.

*video*

Well hello there, welcome to another one of my blog posts. As you’ve seen above, this last project was quite interesting, and clearly required a lot of collaboration as the whole class was in on it. 

“How might we create a compelling vision of “Macbeth” set in the 1950s?”

This project started like any other, we’re given the spiel of what we should be expecting, which includes the new driving question (as seen above). We were then taught the knowledge necessary to completing the final product of this project, which was compiled of two separate topics –  The Cold War and infamous play Macbeth. By the time our final film production is compete, we would’ve ultimately connected the two topics to compile them into one engaging story and production. In order to learn about these two subjects, we were given a series of lectures on the Cold War, and read the play, as well as watched a film based on it for inspiration.

Now onto the film process. Out of all the projects I’ve done in PLP, this one has been the most difficult for me. Less on the content and assignments themselves (although they were still challenging), but because I had the most difficulty in trying to find my place in this project. I didn’t get to participate in this project as much as I had hoped in order to begin to achieve the goals I had set out in my mPOL. Although, I regret not applying for a bigger role, as head for one of the departments for example. 

The role I was given in the production was Sound Assistant, working with Noah who was head of the department. The placings weren’t very relevant however, because our roles and jobs were the same. Our camera guy made a last-minute decision to not need a boom mic, so instead of focusing on the sounds while on set, we only focused on the sounds that would be added during post-production. We annotated the whole script to figure out places where certain sounds could be added. I then wrote up a list in Basecamp to put all the sounds needed in one place. Finally, we found/created some of the sounds that we’d like to be used. 

The competency I decided to focus on was Collaborating, previously mentioned in my mPOL. This meant that I would be able to not only work well with others, but also take on a leading role. As I said before, I really regret not applying for a bigger role, as it would’ve enabled me to accomplish this competency much more successfully. Being Sound Assistant allowed me to collaborate and lead to a certain level, but not nearly at the level I had hoped to be. Another competency I could’ve focused on was that of Communicating, which would’ve been effective in a big acting role but there were complications that lead to me not applying for one. 

Despite the tough situation, one thing I learned and made sure to keep in mind during the entirety of this project was to focus on the things I could control. I may not have been able to have as big of a role in this production, but there were other things we were being graded on. That’s why I tried to focus largely on the writing portion of this project – my Zettlekasten as well as an Act Quest on the Macbeth play. 

Now onto the Act Quest, this was an analysis written on the first three acts of the play Macbeth. This assignment was first assigned to be written up in class under a certain time constraint, where we had to discuss the play in regards to theme, plot and character. I was decently happy with my first attempt, but it was not exactly what our teacher was looking for and I still could’ve done much better. I wasn’t specific enough when it came to the plot and took the wrong approach when I chose to connect the play’s theme to something in our world, when I should’ve stuck to that of the play and connected it to us as readers. As I was determined to get the highest grade possible in this assignment, I went to the teacher a few times before/after school to achieve a better understanding of what she was looking for, in order to make my text the best it could be. If you’d like to read my final Act Quest, click on the accordion bellow. 

Although this may have been a tough project, it was a memorable one. It is quite exciting to think of the fact that our class created a whole movie…and the acting wasn’t that bad either ;). Not only that, but I did also learn a valuable lesson – choosing to focus on what was within my own control, those of which I thought went pretty successfully. However, if I were to do a project like this again, I would certainly apply for a bigger role in the production or as an actor. 

Hi there, welcome to another blog post. My class and I just completed one of the shortest projects we’ve ever done. Nonetheless, it was quite enjoyable and taught me a lot. The most important part of this project was where we learned about how to analyze music through the language that it used – tone, poetic devices and overall meaning of the song. For our final product, we did so with five songs of our choice that reflected an aspect of our lives. Hence, why our project’s driving question is “How can we use music to represent texts and ourselves?”. 

After learning about 40 poetic devices through a couple quizzes, we practiced analyzing the tone of poetry and songs. We then applied it in an assignment for a favourite song of our choice. As far as analyzing music goes, I think I started off well – but improved much more in my next analysis. 

The next analysis’ intention was to get more of an insight into what our teacher was looking for in our final products. When thinking about this assignment, I had a song that came to my mind immediately – I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. After receiving a lot of positive feedback from my peers and teacher, I went on to revise it a little and include it as part of my “Playlist of My Life”. If you’d like to read it, click here. If not, you can also click the accordion bellow for a summary. 

As I said, this analysis compared to my last one was a major improvement. Although the biggest difference was mentioning poetic devices, I was able to go much more in depth in my second one’s meaning and how it reflected an aspect of my life – which is what I think was a big strength when it came to that analysis. This piece of writing was also one of my favourites out of my 5 songs and was a very good start. Although, I still think incorporating poetic devices wasn’t the strongest quite yet. Especially since one of the one’s I mentioned was just repetition, which is in practically every song out there because it makes them much catchier and easier to memorize. 

My least favourite analysis was that of Rolling in The Deep. Although this time I did much better at including poetic devices, it was the song I connected with the least. The only meaning I have to it is the fact that it reminds me of when I was little, and is still one of my all-time favourite songs. What I really enjoyed about my other analyses was how deeply I was able to explain how they reflected an important aspect of my life, and this one was lacking that. When I listened to this song when I was younger, I never seemed to feel the sense of anger that I noticed in analyzing the lyrics – which is why I think I don’t have as clear of a connection to it. 

Finally, the last analysis that I will be discussing was arguably my best out of all 5, which was “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. I believe it was a very good analysis all around – MJ was a big part of my life in terms of music, as well as the important event in which I connected to it. I was also able to analyze the true meaning/intention of the song and more naturally integrate poetic devices which added further to the effect the song had on listeners. I even suggested that the whole thing in which the song is addressed to (evil lurking) could even be an entire metaphor in itself to an aspect of society or someone’s life – one example could be overworking and stress.

Although I don’t have an issue with it, one thing I was pretty proud of when it came to this project was my work ethic. I wasn’t able to be at school for a week – which equivalents to over a third of the project. Nonetheless, I stayed on top of all the activities that were done in class. Additionally, I planned to do all four analyses that I had left in four days (one for each day) and managed to accomplish that goal on time. I was pretty happy about it as I usually spend way too much time than is necessary, especially on things that include writing – and that wouldn’t have been possible since I had activities and work in the majority of those days. 

I’ve always felt a little uncomfortable while speaking in front of people, but I think this project’s final presentation has shown improvement in that area. I was well spoken, knew the majority of my presentation by heart and managed to keep my audience engaged with a fun game of bingo while still not having it distract them from my presentation. Although, these final products were pretty personal which was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I enjoyed the challenge.

In conclusion, to answer the driving question “How can we use music to represent texts and ourselves?”, I think I did a pretty good job answering it. I chose songs that represented an important part of my life, and identified poetic devices as well as included my own outlook on each song’s meaning. I believe that this project already shows my improvement in critical thinking and analyzing skills since the last project. Our last project had to do with art, but this one did too – and it took me the different aspects from this project to realize how meaningful the stories behind some of my favourite songs are, and I’ll of course never look at music the same.

PS: Here are the links to the other analyses that I didn’t mention – “Rocket Man” and “Vogue”.