Ahhh, Here we are back with yet another blog post. This time its on Who is the Greatest Canadian with a twist!

Allow me to explain…

In this project we made a podcast episode that answered our driving questions and supported our opinions.

The Driving question of the project was “Who is The Greatest Canadian?” The twist was, we had to relate it to the theme of our podcast. Mine being style and fashion. So my real personalized driving question was “Who is The Greatest Canadian in Regards To Style and Fashion”

Now you might be wondering who this person actually is. Right? Well its Drake. You can check out my reasoning and facts behind this opinion in my Basecamp post!

Instead of walking you through the project I want to reflect in this post.

I would first like to talk about which parts of the project were the most important in regards to my learning.

The First one was Watching an Episode of Why Terry Fox is the greatest Canadian. This episode allowed my to imagine an end result. It showed me in what direction my teacher wanted this project to go and it showed me how to structure an episode. We took notes on this episode, did a story spine and much more so we could fully wrap our heads around how to structure a podcast.

Another extremely important part of the project was the Research tab in our numbers document. In this tab we did research on our greatest Canadian. Where he’s from, where he is born, how he got famous etc. Although very basic and recurrent in almost every project this helped me so much because I had a good foundation as to what I was talking about. When filming my podcast episode I referred to this tab so many times because it had so much info about Drake. I was able to give background info on Drake and transition that into my supporting arguments all with the help of this research tab.

The penultimate takeaway is that I should have focused on my script more. I thought the script was kind of irrelevant to me as I was going for a more of a co-host vibe and it was improve/conversation based. So, I ignored it and “half-a**ed” it. The came back to haunt me because when I was recording my final podcast it would have been much more helpful and way less time consuming if I knew exactly what I needed to say. I would have been more efficient AND consistent with my answers.

My final takeaway is the peer critique was so helpful. Why? Well, I know what Ms. Maxwell likes, I know what is going to get me a sun, rainbow etc. I know her standards because I have been her student for a while now. But, getting feedback from classmates allowed me to see what “outsiders” thought of my podcast and what they thought I should fix/change. They gave a different perspective on things and it was really helpful. Some of them gave similar feedback to Ms. Maxwells’s which showed me that that was a prevalent issue. For Example, both Ciara and Ms Maxwell told me that the structure of my podcast episode wasn’t clear. This helped me understand that if both of them have a hard time identifying the structure than its a big issue. Brenton and Ms. Maxwell also mentioned that there were some mixing issues. My volume levels were inconsistent. This showed me that the issue was “urgent” or in need of attention so I added all my voice to one track, and the same for Mattia’s voices, and the music. Therefore it would be consistent.

Finally I would like to talk about the competencies. The competencies for this project were…

Comprehending Text: Through textbook readings, and research I am able to understand the material and create a podcast episode in relation to the driving question.

Establish Historical Significance: By establishing how Drake is significant I am able to show a deeper understanding of the subject and provide answers that are deeper.

Empowered Learner: How might I use technology to construct knowledge?

I was able to Comprehend Text in in this project in many ways. During the span of the project we often did group readings with comprehension questions. This allowed us to think about what we just read and “comprehend” what we just read. We did one particular reading about if American culture impact “being Canadian”. These were the questions we were asked to talk about.This also helped us out while making our podcast episodes, because based on what we were saying people would have questions. Right? So it helped us “cover every base” and leave no room for questions to be asked because it was so clear.

I was able to establish significance in many ways during this project. My biggest challenge was establishing why Drake is significant to Canada. I was able to identify why he is significant in the world or to the USA, but why Canada? Well, we completed a worksheet in class that helped me do just that. The worksheet really made me think, “what has Drake done that makes him the greatest Canadian?” How profound, how durable, how important, and how relevant were all the things Drake has done?

I was able to be an empowered learner this project by using technology to construct knowledge. There were many times were I used technology to my advantage and to empower me. I learned how to use numbers, how to add voice nots, links, I learned that there are MLA citation tools and methods I can use to make my life easier. My biggest feat of technology was learning how to use garage band. I had never used garage band in my life and now I am pretty much an expert. Through watching youtube videos, asking peers, and learning as a class I learned all the insides, outsides and everything in between of the app. This came into handy especially when having to edit my podcast episode with all the mixing etc.

So in conclusion,  Drake is the greatest Canadian for the way he brought Canada to the world. Through his work with charity’s, and the way he has impacted several different communities, music, and fashion Drake is the greatest Canadian.

Cya next time!