In humanities, we are starting a project that focuses on poetry and its connection to storytelling. Throughout this project, we will explore what a story really is and why stories are so meaningful to people. We will look at how poetry can tell stories in emotional and creative ways, even when it uses very few words. The project will also help us understand why stories have such a strong impact on how we think, feel, and understand the world around us. By the end, we will be learning about the different ways stories and poetry can be used, shared, and interpreted in our everyday lives, both in school and beyond.
Story is important. And Story is everywhere.Ā
We will (hopefully) be reading The Hunger Games and then analyzing the story telling, literary devices and other things that make the book so powerful. Iām excited for that because I really enjoy The Hunger Games and I will hopefully gain another perspective by taking a closer look at the book than I might have before.Ā
VMV:
I will use my vision mission and values to keep myself on track and accountable for my learning. For this project, Iām going to focus on using my class time wisely and staying engaged and focused during lessons. I want to learn more about stories and poetry and take the time to explore any topics I donāt fully understand. Iāll use my Agency by asking for help when I need it, handing in my assignments on time, and using feedbackĀ
I know that this is a rather short post, but itās kind of hard to write about something you haven’t done yet. Thanks for reading.
This project was something I had been looking forward to learn about for a very long time. Iām happy to say that I really enjoyed this project and learned lots. This is going to be a rather long post because we did a lot during this project and it was our theme for this years winter exhibition!Ā
The main theme: š£
The main theme for this project was (obviously) WWII. Our main idea was to look at (and make) some examples of media that remembers WWII. We watched two movies, looked at lots of propaganda, made our own propaganda, and compared recent history with some events of WWII. All of these things were to help us answer the driving question of our project which is āHow do stories, media, and propaganda shape how we remember World War II?ā We discussed a lot about perspective and how the side the media is taking can manipulate the audience into feeling a certain way.Ā
Driving Question: āšļøHow do Stories, Media, and Propaganda Shape How we Remember World War II?šļøā
Stories, media, and propaganda play a huge role in how we remember World War II because most people now didnāt experience it firsthand, and only have the opportunity to learn about it using the media that has been created. Stories help make the war feel personal. Memoirs, novels, and interviews focus on individual soldiers, families, or survivors, which makes the war easier to understand and emotionally connect to. However, these stories usually show only one perspective, so some experiences get more attention than others while some are left out.
How did Europe let it happen? š
This was an activity to start off our project. We were told to make an infographic of the main reasons why WWII happened. The four main factors were the Treaty of Versailles, apeasement, the Great Depression, and expansionism. When WWI ended, Germany was punished severely by the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty made Germany take full blame for WWI and made them pay for damages which amounted to roughly 44 billion Canadian dollars. When Hitler started to become more aggressive, they let him get what he wanted in hopes that appeasement would be enough to hold off another war. (Spoiler alert, it only made him bolder). The Great Depression hit Germany harder than most countries, which allowed Hitler to rise to power by promising the angry and humiliated German people that he was going to fix everything. Most of the other countries were to busy with their own problems to notice Hitler slowly rebuilding his army. Italy, Japan, and Germany were all interested in expansionism. They all wanted more land and power for their countries. This eventually led to the allies not being able to ignore Hitler and his aggressive actions anymore and led to the start of WWII.
Then and now remembrance activity:šļø
Our next task was to see how the remembrance of historical events changes over time. We were tasked with finding an old article on a historical event of our choosing (my group with Brooklyn and Carmyn chose 911 as our event), and then compare the old article to a new article of the same topic and see how the remembrance changed. This helped us get into the habit of noticing how time can change the story or even how our thoughts and feelings can change about an event.
Propaganda was used during the war to influence how people thought and felt. Governments used posters, radio, and film to build support for the war, boost morale, and portray enemies in a negative way. Even after the war, some of these ideas stuck, shaping long term attitudes and memories about who was āgood,ā who was ābad,ā and why the war was fought.Ā
I wanted my propaganda to be original and well thought out, so I did some research on some actual propaganda that was featured in Sweden. My propaganda poster is something that the Swedish government would have been reminding Swedish citizens throughout the whole war. Sweden declared neutral for the entirety of WWII, so their main concern was preventing espionage at the hands of the public. When the war broke out in 1939, The Swedish Advertising Association offered its services to the information agency in connection with possible propaganda campaigns. At this point, neutrality was very vulnerable in Sweden so the government wanted as little chatter as possible.
Ā The background symbolizes Swedens national colours and maintaining pride. āHĆ„ll KƤftenā means ākeep your mouth shutā, which would have been a common term during those times. āEn Svensk Tiger.ā The word āsvenskā means āSwedenā or āswedeā, and ātigerā has a double meaning, ātigaā which means to ākeep ones mouth shutā. So the meaning of the Swedish tiger is directly āa swede keeps their mouth shutā. I really liked this symbolism and it is still a popular saying in Sweden. The government was very serious about the public not relaying important or sensitive information that could potentially get back to the Axis powers or the Allies.
Media, especially films, documentaries, and newsreels, shape strong images of the war. Movies usually simplify events into clear heroes and villains, which can make history easier to follow but sometimes less accurate. For example, many films focus on battles involving certain countries, which can make it seem like those were the only important parts of the war.
Dunkirk:āļøšŖ
I really enjoyed this movie, it was intense, the soundtrack was incredible, the acting was really good, and the overall theme was captured really nicely. I liked the way that there were three separate stories that sort of molded together in the end. In the beginning, it was hard to follow along but it became clearer the more you watched. I think this movie did a good job in representing the stressful situation France and Britain was in, but not so much in giving background information, and insight into what the Germans were doing and even talking about Franceās contributions (which is ridiculous because the whole thing happened in France). The movie definitely portrayed Britain as the āgood guysā and had a bit of British propaganda in it. It highlighted the struggles but also the victories that British troops endured during that time.Ā
(For a little overview of what the movie is about): The Dunkirk evacuation happened during World War II in 1940. Allied soldiers from Britain and France were surrounded by German forces in northern France. Hundreds of thousands of troops were rescued by military ships and civilian boats and taken across the English Channel to Britain. This evacuation helped save the soldiers so they could continue fighting later in the war.
Jojo Rabbit:š
This was the perfect movie to represent propaganda and control. Jojo Rabbit is a movie about a young boy living in Nazi Germany during World War II. He strongly believes in Nazi ideas at the start, mostly because thatās all he has been taught. Jojo is portrayed as the Nazis biggest supporter, he has lots of posters and propaganda pieces in his room and his imaginary friend is Hitler.The movie mixes humour with serious topics and focuses on themes like propaganda, growing up, and learning to see others differently. The story takes place near the end of the war, when Germany is starting to lose and the Nazi government is still controlling people through strict rules and fear. Children were trained in Nazi beliefs through school and the Hitler Youth, and Jewish people were being hunted, forced into hiding, or taken away. Fear was used to control and force society into obedience.
Our winter exhibition was a little bit different this year. Since Avatar: Fire and Ash came out very close to the exhibition date, the teachers wanted to make the theme Avatar. At first it was a bit difficult to relate WWII to Avatar but we actually found a few connections to make. My groups theme was Technology, Innovation, and Consequence of WWII and Avatar.Ā
To make connections between the two, we chose the spitfire and the ikran (both flying technologies used by the āgood guysā). The main connection is how both in WWII and Avatar, propaganda was used to manipulate how the audience feels about certain sides of the story.Ā
Our group was very successful at improvising and making last minute changes. We had a group member be sick the day of, we had mishaps with lighting, and room decor changes. We managed to push past the bumps and preform really well. We got lots of compliments saying that we were all very engaging, interesting, respectful, polite, and most importantly, we knew what we were talking about and were all very knowledgeable on the subject and could answer peopleās questions.Ā
āYou donāt rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.ā – James Clear
This project was for my first PGP (personal growth plan) class. For the project we read the book Atomic Habits by James clear. Atomic Habits by James Clear is about how small habits make a big difference over time. Tiny actions, when done consistently, add up and can completely change your life. Normally self-help books like this donāt do it for me, but since James Clear starts his book by going over his personal experience with a life changing injury when he was in high-school, I felt more inclined to listen to what he had to say because he had brought himself back from his injury and proved that his āsystemsā worked.Ā
While reading the book, I noticed that James Clear really encouraged the idea of small changes. He didnāt want people to be making drastic and massive changes in their lives in order to see progress, but instead preached the idea of making small changes to your routine and slowly building small habits to create systems. I think that idea is much more palatable and makes you more inclined to try something that isnāt super intimidating. I liked that idea a lot because it actually made sense to me and I felt like it was easier to put into action in my own life. James clear has 4 main tricks to keep in mind when trying to build a habit system: Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. By incorporating these things, I found it much easier to lock in and stay committed to my new habits.Ā
šļøāHow can improving by just 1% each day help me take responsibility for my learning, strengthen my habits, and create balance and purpose in my future career and life?āšļø
Atomic Habits 1% videoĀ
Our final product for the project was to create a short video of us incorporating our new habits and systems for a week. I chose to grow my time management skills and get into the habit of not leaving homework to the last minute. To create my video, every time I did homework, I would film what I did to limit distractions, make my workplace optimal, and how I kept focus for the whole time. Then I edited it into a short 2 minute video and explained how James Clears methods helped me build up a new habit system.Ā
Personal growth: VMV
In for my personal growth goal, I chose to work on the agency and self regulation aspect of my VMV. I started to realize that the reason I was constantly feeling stressed was because of the fact that my motivation to do work and to use my allocated time was very low. I decided that I needed to change my time management skills for the better.
Thank you for reading my post, and seeing my progress with time management throughout this project.
āTo take risks, both physically and with my learning.ā
Overview:
We went to loon lake which is around the maple ridge area, to grow as a team. Our teachers thought that before the trip we were rather cliquey and kept to our groups. We did many team building and problem solving activities to build trust and unity within our class. PLP does field studies to help us learn in a different environment and to grow together. I went into the field study with the hope of taking more risks with my learning. I hoped to be more comfortable in the classroom environment to speak up and contribute more in the discussions. I also wanted to grow closer with my classmates on the trip.Ā
VMV:
VMV Collaboration Statement: āI will work on asking for help when I need it and using the resources I have available to answer my questions. I am going to communicate to the people around me, whenever I am frustrated or needing a break.ā
In loon lake I used my communication skills a lot. I was able to put it into action frequently in all the different aspects of the trip. I used communication in the classroom discussion areas the most. When we did discussions and lessons, I raised my hand, asked questions, answered questions, and shared stories and ideas. I went into the trip with an open mind and it allowed me to really focus on certain aspects of learning that I wanted to improve during the trip. When we did physical challenges it allowed me to practice communication skills in a slightly more chaotic setting. Some of our challenges required one of the group members to be blindfolded, so there was a lot of directing going on. Brooklyn and I were in a group with two grade eights, so we already had the role of āteam leaderā ish, but I think this made us or at least me, feel like we needed to set a good example and couldnāt go overboard with yelling and screaming or bad sportsmanship. I stayed calm and made sure not to stress anyone out and also stay positive especially when someone made a mistake.Ā
Meaningful moment(s):
I learned a lot this trip so it will be hard to break down. I had a couple breakthrough moments when I learned something either about myself or about us as a grade 10 team. I think that one of the most memorable moments was when Jono asked us about something that happened in our lives that changed us as people now. Almost everyone gave examples of something meaningful and personal, and it felt very safe and trusting in that moment. I realized that everyone has their own struggles and how that no one judged. This small discussion really made me think differently about our class and how everyone is so supportive.Ā
Learning Signals: Strengths and Struggles
Strengths
I think I did a really good job at branching out of my comfort zone and collaborating with new people and or making conversation with people I wouldnāt normally. Iād like to think that IĀ grew closer to everyone on this trip and made some new connections. I felt like I tried to be more of a leader in the group and contributed much more than normal. The physical challenges allowed me to kind of take the lead and share ideas.Ā
Struggles
I am being 100% honest when I say that I am really proud of myself and donāt think that I struggled too much on the loon lake field study.
The Big Takeaway:Ā
This trip got all of us closer together with the key ideas of trust, empathy, and unity. Trust is important in creating a safe and supportive community. Empathy builds trust and makes everyone feel welcome and heard when they share personal information. Before loon lake we were a bit cliquey and stuck to our own groups but during, we found out that we work so much better as a group and when we work together!
Teachers spend most of thier time helping others learn, but what happens when the roles get reversed and they become the learners? In this post, you will read all about my latest project in maker; Teach a Teacher.
Driving Question šļø: How can I enhance the storytelling present in my learning portfolio?
Main idea:Ā
In this project, our task was to make a step by step tutorial on a feature on our blog that enhances it. When we were finished with our tutorial, we had a conference with Mr. Harris and teach him our feature. Everyone had to teach something different, so I decided to make a tutorial on the Abowman animal widget feature. I think it is something that enhances my blog by making it interactive with my audience. It is fun and simple to do, but it makes the experience better.
I really enjoy fiddling around with my blog to make small changes and just to overall find cool and interesting things to make my blog more engaging for my audience. I really like the widget feature because you can add many different types of widgets and each type can do something entirely different.Ā
Although this was a rather short project, it helped me use my video skills to make a simple, easy to follow, and engaging tutorial. I also used my presentation skills to teach and showcase how to use and add a animal widget to your blog.Ā
In class we are learning about the idea that history is written by the victors and how that changes the way WWII is remembered. Ā
What I already know about WWII:
Iām very interested in that time period so Iāve already taken it upon myself to learn about WWII. Iāve read a couple books like The Book Thief, I Survived: D-day (quite a while ago), Cilkas Journey, and a couple of other ones that I cant remember. Im also really into war movies, so ive watched Pearl Harbour, the Forgotten Battle, All the Light We Cannot See, and a couple WWI movies. I personally think that wars are the most interesting parts of human history so Iām excited for this project. I quite enjoyed our project on WWI, and learned a lot so Iām hoping this project will be just as good!
My Learning intention for this project:
I want to be able to further my learning about WWII and also be very active and engaged in class. I find it a lot easier to enjoy learning when its about something that Iām interested in, or that I already know a bit about.Ā
In my Vision Mission and Values, I mention agency, GRIT, and self-regulation. I will use my vision mission and values to keep me accountable of my learning and I will try to make the most of this project to grow as a learner and be one more step closer to fulfilling my mission. This project I will focus on using my class time appropriately and make sure that I am engaged and focused in class. I hope to learn more about the time period and fully explore the topics that I donāt understand. I will use my Agency to seek help whenever I donāt understand or need help, making sure my assignments are handed in on time, and accepting feedback and using the feedback to extend my work. I will use GRIT to take risks with my learning, and work past any speed bumps in my learning with renewed effort. I will Self Regulate and take breaks when I need them. I will use communication to give kind, specific, and constructive feedback to my peers.
Hello and welcome to my blog. This is one of the last few posts of my grade 9 year. I Hope you enjoy. This is my favourite humanities project weāve had before and definitely the proudest Iāve been of my work.
I really loved this project because I learnt a lot about WWI. Before this project I had never been interested in WWI, preferring to learn about WWII. But now that Iāve spent some time learning about it, Iāve started to take matters into my own hands, by watching movies/videos, and reading about WWI.Ā
In this project we were tasked with making a factual, interesting, and original story. Then we had to draw it and make the story into a comic book. I think that because I was much more interested in the subject and topic of the learning I enjoyed it a lot more than our previous project. I really stretched myself with my drawings and am really proud of my comic. I am not a very artistic person, so my drawings are somewhere I really stretched myself. I was super engaged and loved all the videos and media we learnt from during class. I think its safe to say, I loved this project! I also pushed myself and presented an entire presentation by myself because my two group members were away.Ā
The Story Board:
This was the first stage of the comic. I had already came up with a story idea and I was keen to stick to it. My story follows the life of a 19 year old boy, Tom Callaghan, a Toronto citizen in 1915 who enlists in the army, but gets rejected due to his poor eyesight. But he is given one last option: the decoding group. My story is kind of a mix of love, drama, and factual fiction.Ā
The Comic:
This was by far the hardest part of the project but it was super rewarding to get done and I am really proud of my final product! Iām not an artist but I made my minimal skill work out. Iām not sure how to get my comic into my blog but if I find out how I will show you.
Hello and welcome to my blog! In this post I will take you through the first ever science themed PLP exhibition! This exhibition was very different to the ones I was used to. There was a schedule for visitors and we didnāt get any breaks. I liked it a bit better than the original type of exhibition because it didnāt leave any room for mishaps with the schedule and stuff like that.Ā
Pollination: The Theme
The theme for this exhibition is pollinators of B.C! My group was in charge of the bats! Bats in bc donāt actually pollinate, so that proved a slight challenge but we pushed through and did our best. We made lots of fun interactive elements and games. Our first task was to make a food web. Our food web surrounded bats, we had bats predators and food sources. It was put together with hand made drawings from all of my group members and really added the final touch.Ā
Ā This project was super important because it was the first ever science exhibition! It was all about pollinators in B.C. The exhibition was pretty fun and I think I did a really good job. I didnāt shy away from all the people coming to our booth and at the end of the night my voice was raw from talking! During the actual exhibition, I think I put in my best effort. Iām really proud of myself and think myself and my group did really well by educating the public about B.C bats!
I know this was a pretty short post, but thank you for reading!
(I WILL ADD SOME PHOTOS WHEN I HAVE ACCESS TO THEM)
Hello and welcome back to my blog! For this post, you will learn all about the confederation of Canada. In humanities, we did a short project all about why the different Canadian provinces should/should not join the confederation. This was a pretty short project So this post might be a little shorter than usual.
Nationalism VS. Patriotism:
The launch activity was to take notes on nationalism and patriotism. Then we had to distinguish between the two. We watched some very interesting videos on the matter and also some of the most famous Canadian videos. Like for example, the Molson āI am Canadianā add. It really shows how you can both be proud of your country but also respectful. Thats the difference between nationalism and patriotism; nationalism is when you think that your country is the best and any country that has different values, laws, or beliefs is wrong. But patriotism is when you think your country is the best and you love your country but donāt go around saying that other countries are wrong if they donāt agree with yours. I made some very interesting notes on the consequences of nationalism. Take a look!
My group consisted of Carmyn and Ian. We did a draw in class and our group got Nova Scotia! Over the next few days, we took vigorous notes on what Nova Scotia was like BEFORE the confederation. We learnt about their population, government, industries, etcā¦ Once we finished our notes we brainstormed ideas for our final product: The Confederation Video! In our video we had to talk about why Nova Scotia should or should or should not join the confederation. After a lot of debating we decided our video should be like a professional debate. In the video two men, Charles Tupper (Carmyn) and Joseph Howe (Me) would be debating back and forth weather the province of Nova Scotia would join the confederation. The moderator (Ian) would be making points and the final decision.Ā
āHow has Nationalismās influence shaped the global structure? Moreover, how has Nationalism impacted the establishment of Canada as a nation?ā
Nationalism has shaped the global structure by encouraging people with shared culture, language, or history to form their own nations, instead of complaining that other countries werenāt right. This led to the fall of empires and the rise of many independent countries, changing the world map. While it united some groups, it also caused conflicts when different groups competed for land or power. In Canadaās case, nationalism helped bring the colonies together. People began to feel proud of their shared identity, different from Britain and the U.S., which led to Confederation in 1867. French-Canadian nationalism also played a role by pushing for the protection of language and culture. So, nationalism helped Canada become a united and independent nation in its own unique way.
Filming:Ā
Since our video was set like a debate, we needed a plain background and a judges stand/podium. Once we roamed the school for a bit, we found the perfect filming locationā¦ the library! Unfortunately for us, the library was also being used by multiple other groups. This proved some problems and got quite frustrating at times, because we needed to film but we couldnāt because other groups were either using the space or props we needed. But in the end we got there! Take a look at our final product:Ā
Thanks for reading (and watching)! I hope you enjoyed learning all about this project.Ā
Hello and welcome to my blog! This post is all about chemistry! Chemistry is everywhere. Everything and everyone is made up of atoms. Atoms make up elements which are also everywhere. ā„
The first bit of our project was learning all about compounds and the periodic table. Our first task was to learn about Lewis diagrams and Bohr diagrams. Ā
Bohr Diagram:
Think of it like a mini solar system. It shows all the electrons in an atom. Electrons are drawn in energy levels (or shells) around the nucleus (which has protons and neutrons). Each shell can only hold a certain number of electrons:
1st shell: 2 electrons
2nd shell: 8 electrons
3rd shell: 18 electrons (but often shown with 8 in basic diagrams)
Lewis Diagram (also called Lewis Dot Structure):
This one is wayyyy easier to understand. Only shows valence electrons (electrons in the outer shell). These electrons are important for bonding with other atoms. The symbol of the element is written, and dots are placed around it to show the valence electrons.
The next part of the journey was learning about ionic compounds and polyatomic ions. This part was pretty tricky for me because you have to do some math and converting of electrons. (I wont wright down how to do the conversions and all that because itās pretty complicated to explain in words). After we became masters with all the elements, compounds and diagrams, we put all of our learning into a peace of art. First we chose an element: then we answered the driving question based on our element.Ā
āWhat impact do elements and compounds have on modern day society?ā
My element is bismuth. What is bismuth? On the periodic table bismuth is a post transition metal, meaning it is located on the far right side of the periodic table. But thatās not nearly interesting enough. Letās talk about the uses and itās significance. Bismuth has many medical uses like stopping infection, minimizing unwanted bacteria and fungus, and itās most significant use in Pepto-Bismol. This ingredient is what gives the medicine its pink colour and its powerful stomach-soothing effects. When ingested, bismuth subsalicylate works in a few ways: it coats the stomach lining, it has mild anti-inflammatory properties (thanks to the salicylate part), and can reduce ulcers. Historically mistaken for lead or tin because of itās appearance, bismuth gained recognition for its unique properties, especially its low toxicity compared to other heavy metals.
Now that you know about the impacts of bismuth in modern society, Iām going to tell you all about how we incorporated all those facts into a piece of art!Ā
Cyanotype artwork:Ā
For the final part of our project we made a piece of artwork with cyanotype. The artwork was related to which element we chose, in my case, bismuth. When we were finished with the artwork, we did a exhibition displaying all of our different artworks and a little bit about each element we chose. To create a cyanotype artwork you need: To coat a piece of fabric or paper in cyanotype, put cut out pieces of what you want your art to display and then let it rest in the sun, once itās done you rinse it out and then let it dry and then boom you hear you have it, cyanotype art! Once we made our artwork, we were off to the art exhibition. It consisted of multiple different classes and multiple different grades.
Thanks for reading this post! I really liked this project because I learnt a lot about chemistry! I hadnāt known much about the subject until now. Anyways, stay tuned for more posts!
