A few weeks ago, when I had finally finished Day 10 of the SBC (Student Blogging Challenge), I had thought that it was finally over. Little did I know that we had to write a reflective post on our past challenges, or in other words, a summative post. Honestly, I don’t know how I didn’t see it coming because summative blog posts are the norm in PLP (Performance Learning Program).

The SBC is a worldwide challenge in which students can practice their writing skills. However, this year, due to the pandemic, the SBC has been put on hold. Instead, our class has completed the top 10 challenges over the course of a couple weeks. Today I’ll be discussing some of the challenges I have worked on.

What is “Dear Evan Hansen”?

 Day 3 of the SBC was definitely my favourite one. Our class was given the freedom to blog about a topic of our choosing… with a catch. We needed to demonstrate our capability of inserting media such as images, videos, and a PDF into our blog.

 In this post, I discussed my favourite musical, “Dear Evan Hansen”. As mentioned in my post, “The show portrays themes that many people, especially teenagers, resonate with; such as anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts. Although those topics may be unsettling to some, I believe that many of the songs are more light hearted than some may originally think, and that the lyrics do have some important messages such as “You are not alone.”

Fun with Photos… or should I say Teachers?

 For “Day 4” of the Student Blogging Challenge, we were instructed to use a copyright free photo and explain how it connects to an aspect of our worldview… For this post, I have chosen to represent knowledge.” In other words, I had decided to show my worldview through a drawing I made of my French teacher this year.

Music

“Music is everywhere. It’s a universal and important part of culture that people around the globe can listen and connect to, including myself.”

I struggled a lot with Day 6 of the SBC. We were required to write about 3 music related prompts, which I found difficult. Like, I knew what I needed to write, I just struggled with how to write it in a captivating way. At the end of the day, I ended up writing about the clarinet, a music survey, and a playlist of my favourite songs.

Nolan’s Journey to Frog Land – An Emoji Story

“Ah yes, emojis. For Day 7 of the Student Blogging Challenge 2021, we were tasked to write a story based off of emojis. The emojis we had to write a story based off of were randomly chosen using a site called byrdseed.com. I personally find emojis creepy, but I ended up enjoying this challenge far more than I had originally anticipated.” 

Christmas!

“Warm mugs of hot chocolate, the slight chill of morning frost, and bells ringing with joy… Christmas is truly my favourite time of the year.”

Day 9 of the SBC was likely my second most favourite challenge. We had to write about a holiday or festivity we celebrate. If you hadn’t already guessed, I chose to write about Christmas. Within this post, I discuss Christmas crafts, traditions, and religion. Be sure to give it a look!

Art! Art! Art!

Day 10 was not only my most recent post, but also the one I enjoyed writing the most. In this challenge, we were given a free choice to write about a topic of our choosing. I wrote about 3 art pieces I have completed in the past.

Although I feel mostly “burnt out” from all the writing, I do plan to continue blogging in the future. As a PLP learner, it is mandatory to complete summative blog posts follow each project. However, we are also given the freedom to blog about other learning opportunities that we have experienced, which I am personally looking forward to. I feel that there is an important difference in the result, when completing a task because it’s required of you and completing a task because you want to.

In the future, I’m looking forward to blogging about…

  • artwork
  • musical theatre
  • fictional stories
  • holidays and celebrations

Participating in the SBC was quite challenging for me. I’m personally not used to the frequency of writing that was required in order to complete each day. However, I feel that the struggle is part of the learning experience itself, because if every task I complete is easy, I won’t be learning as much as I would if I had struggled. If you have the time and attitude to complete the SBC, I would totally recommend for others to participate in it next year. Thanks for reading!