Hello and welcome back to my blog. Today I will be showing you a quick learning intention on an upcoming project in my PLP English class; Debate. I will talk to you about why I think we may be doing this project, what is important to me about debate, and what it will take for me to become a great debater.

To hit it off, we watched a movie centred around debate; The Great Debaters. In this movie, the students stood up against injustice against them; using their intellect and words in attempt to make change. This movie taught us not only about the importance of debate and possible skills we could demonstrate; but also about how all voices and opinions deserve to be heard. This was an effective way to hit off a project, as it gave us a hindsight into what we would be learning,

Now comes the important question of: Why do I think we’re doing debate?
Learning about debate is important; even if you do not plan on having a job that would require you to debate at all. The reason for this is to not only sharpen your public speaking skills, which is important for presentations at work or job interviews among other things; but it can also help with your ability to get points across more efficiently and effectively, making you an easier person to work with during projects. Circling back to my point about public speaking, it can help you be far less shy about speaking in front of a crowd or group; which many students struggle with.

I personally do not struggle speaking in front of a crowd, although I do stutter occasionally- making my speech harder to understand for some. This is something that I would like to work on during this project, hopefully getting better at not tripping up on my own words, alongside making my speeches easier for the masses to understand. It will be difficult to become an effective debater; in fact, it will be quite the challenge- But I believe that with the support of my teachers and peers, I could very well be very good at it; with enough practice and help.

Thank you for reading my blog post, have a good day.

I didn’t even know I had to make this until yesterday so I’m doing it now.

Hello and welcome to my blog. Today I will be talking about the Fallout project I did, reflecting on it as an entirety and taking into consideration what I might want to change or even what I may have liked. To fully understand this post, I suggest taking a peek at my Fallout Learning Intention Post first. Okay let’s get into it.

Learning Intention Post

First, let’s reflect on my Learning Intention Post- first and foremost, the project took a total left turn and we never even got to actually do the project that we said we were going to do- In my case the slam poetry. Instead, we simply created a Pitch Form; where we totally laid out what we were going to do, what our sources were going to be, what it was going to be centred around; etc etc. Since we never really got around to doing our “intention”, it’s hard for me to comment much on it- aside from the Pitch Form that we did.

The Pitch form that I did was okay. I finished it alongside our Fallout book (which I’ll talk about in a second) and I can’t say that I would make any changes to it aside from probably finishing some bits of it in better time so I could get some feedback on it, but I got feedback regardless- so it’s okay. Aside from that there’s nothing much I really liked about my work- it was fine. Nothing notable.

Reading Fallout

Now let’s talk about the book I read. We were told to read a book called “Fallout”, which I reluctantly did; and this book would be the base of multiple “Socratic Seminars”. What’s a Socratic Seminar? Well, it’s basically everyone sitting in a circle with someone else sitting directly behind them, and they swap seats and exchange information every once in a while; while discussing a main topic within the inner circle. That’s pretty much it; and we would do the exact same format of discussion throughout this project, where we would discuss a thought provoking question about the book like “How does Fallout represent aspects of the Cold War” or something.

All in all the book was fine, definitely not something I’d ever willingly choose to read but since this was an assignment I had no choice in the matter. I definitely enjoyed the Socratic seminars more- especially since I did well with them (at least I think I did), although I definitely didn’t like how crammed I was into a circle with like 40 other people in it.

We were also assigned to write an essay about the book but I haven’t started that yet, so maybe you’ll see it whenever I do start it. Alright I need to go, goodbye.

Hello and welcome back to my blog. Today I will be talking briefly about a new project that we are starting in BCFP, and it has something to do with learning anthropology and observing indigenous communities in the past and today.

I understood pretty little about Anthropology before the launch. I mean, I know it has something to do with mammals… and the observation of them, but other than that I have little to no knowledge on the job or what people even do.

But after the launch and going on a little journey in the library (I was supposed to go outside but I didn’t bring a coat so I was forced to go observe the library by my teacher) I have learnt that anthropology is much more than just observation or sitting around in the forest, it’s about putting a puzzle together- and making educated synopsis’s about the environment that you are investigating. I drew a picture of a “artifact” and wrote in detail what I thought it may be (it was really just a book, but for this activity I had to pretend I knew nothing about the environment I was in) and made statements on what I thought the book could be used for.

I don’t really have a desire to learn Anthropology outside of this class, although I would like to take my observation skills to the next level. I could do this by making observational comments during discussion, and to maybe practice in my own time if I really want to do well in this class. I could also discuss with other class members during periods of discussion to hear their point of view on the subject, to hear different perspectives and to broaden my horizons.

Ok that’s the end of my blog post bye

Hello and welcome back to my blog. I need to make this SUPER QUICK because I’m SUPER BUSY but today we will be talking about my video! Specifically on the nuclear weaponry used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, more specifically than that- radiation sickness!

We were commanded to do this as part of a project where we took notes on the progress of the Manhattan Project- and decide on what we want to make an animated explainer video on. The animated explainer video is supposed to be made in keynote- an app similar to PowerPoint but with more content and flexibility. Now, Hazel- how would you EVER make an animated video on just an app like PowerPoint?! Well, that’s for me to be too lazy to explain and for you to wonder about for the rest of your days…

Alright onto what I did. I did my video on the effects of Radiation- specifically the kind produced by a nuclear weapon like the ones used in this specific instance! What effects it had on survivors- and why that was so. The video isn’t much of a looker since I was a liiiitle rushed BUT. here it is, in all its glory!

Now what would you improve on? What would you change… well. The reason as to why I was late on posting this (as you might’ve noticed) is because I was super confused and had no clue where to start and how to animate on Keynote in the first place, which brings me to my FIRST THING ID CHANGE- preparation. I KNEW that we were making an animation on keynote and I KNEW I didn’t know how to animate on said app, but I didn’t ask any questions anyway! I thought it would be all fine and dandy- until my teacher left for a week and I couldn’t get any help- which was a big fat bummer. But hey, I’m doing it now- right?!
What do I like? Well, sure- I could say my stuttering or beautiful voice of the angels- but I actually like my illustrations the most. The animation choices are cool too I guess, but I don’t want to flatter myself too much.

Okay I need to go now, GOODBYE!!!!

Hello and welcome back to my blog! Again I’m SUPER BUSY SO I NEED TO MAKE THIS QUICK but this is a learning intention post about our new project which is about the Cold War! I won’t be getting into the Cold War itself since I know very little about it, BUT I will talk to you about what I want to learn, intend on improving on and reflecting on my VMV for examples of what I’d like to do. Okay okay LETS GO

You may recall that I was doing a project on a topic quite similar to this, about Hiroshima and Nagasaki!
If you haven’t already, I suggest reading the blog post I did on it before reading this one.

As I was saying… reflecting on my VMV, I mention wanting to be on time with handing things in- now is a very good time to practice this with a new project beginning. Oh, but Hazel- how will you do this? Good question- and as much as I’d like to be lazy and just say “I’ll figure that out later” I can’t do that- so I’ll explain it to you in as much detail as possible.

I will first get clarification from my teachers about the assignment at hand- then I’ll work on it. If I get distracted or too busy and end up not completing it on time- I’ll ask for some lenience and get my next assignment in on time… hopefully. I’ve actually been pretty on top of my work as of late, so I think this will be okay…ish… for me.

Hazel, what do you really want to learn from this project? How will you add it to your work?
I will take this opportunity to not only learn more about nuclear weaponry, which I based my last project around- but to also be more confident in my public speaking skills- which will be tied in via what I plan on doing this project on.

Hazel, what do you want to do your project on? Hey, what even ARE we doing for the project?

I have been informed that we are able to do ANYTHING we’d like to do for our final project, that be a sculpture or an art piece or a presentation- WHATEVER! So, my plan for what I’d like to do which has to connect to my initial project on the Manhattan Project- SLAM POETRY ABOUT THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONRY.

Hear me out, it’s a SUPER GOOD IDEA. It’ll make you think on not only the gravity of nuclear weapons, but the emotions and TRAGEDY and DESTRUCTION they cause. Nothing positive, that’s for sure- and I want to convey that in my slam poetry. This is also me broadening my senses since I’ve never done poetry, let alone slam poetry- so I’m very excited to try something new.

How will this tie into my previous project, you ask? Well, I plan on doing it on the effects of nuclear warfare- moreso the fear factor and destruction of the subject rather than focusing on a specific nuclear event- Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’ll talk about the entire subject of the destruction of nuclear warfare as a whole- using my notes and work from my last project as a sort of pedestal for new information to be showcased.

Okay I need to go now but thank you for reading, BYE!!!

Hello, and welcome back to my blog. The summer has ended, and work is beginning… Over the summer, I should’ve spent my time mapping out an intricate plan on how to escape my house and cross the boarder to sell bananas on the side of the road in Mexico, but I digress.

Today, I will be creating what my oh so marvellous teacher Ms. Willemse would call a “Intention Learning Portfolio Post”. What is that? Well, I could only assume it’s about intending to learn, or something along the lines of that. We essentially need to explain what we know about the project we’re studying; which in my case is the Manhattan project, and alongside it explain our intentions for learning alongside our personal thoughts.

So that’s what I’ll do in this blog post. Despite my extremely limited knowledge of the Manhattan project, I know enough to hopefully explain a bit of it to one who’s never heard of it before, or also has limited knowledge like me.

As for the Manhattan project, I know a bit about its subject matter. That it was the very first atomic bomb ever created, and that it was also very silent when it was tested and used; unbeknownst to those who it was used on, who of which were the people of Japan. The bombs created by the Manhattan project, known as “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” were both dropped on Japan, and were the only nuclear bombs to ever actually be used on a country. One fact I also recall is the aftermath having even worse effects on survivors- the lack of food, radiation poisoning, lack of doctors- things were awfully bleak even after the bombs had been dropped.

What I want to learn from this project is, well, more about the Manhattan project, of course- since I actually find it quite interesting, alongside past projects about conflicts around the world. And for part of this project, we’ve been told to create an animation explaining the Manhattan project; and the lessons it’s left on this world even today. What’s changed about the creations of nuclear weapons, and how did the Manhattan project affect these changes? As for something specific that I’d like to learn- I’d like to learn more about the bombs creation and who specifically was involved. How did this affect the people involved? Were there any specific revolutionary changes to bombs and the use of them in war afterward?

“Hazel, are you excited for this project?”… Now, ever since grade 9 I have not been excited for any work I’m given. I enjoy the subject matter much more than other projects we’ve done, yes- but am I excited to not only read a book, but to also painstakingly write Zettelkasten note, after Zettelkasten note… which, I’ll be honest- I don’t even really understand the difference between a Zettelkasten note and a regular note, it’s all just NOTES!!! I didn’t know there were a BAJILLION DIFFERENT KINDS of notes, and some of them were better than others!! THEY ARE NOTES!!!
Anyway, I’m not particularly excited about this project per se… but I do think I will enjoy it a bit more than the average project I get- which I usually don’t like.

Okay, that’s it for my beautiful beautiful blog post. Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you on the flip side!!

Hello and welcome back to my blog… hopefully for the last time for 3 months!! Yes, it is almost the end of the year (thank god) and soon I will be able to screw off for 3 months without anyone hearing from me until September. I can’t wait… I can’t wait…

Anyway. While I bite the skin off my fingers let’s talk about what I am being forced to talk about here, the Spring exhibition and what we did to prepare for it. You’re probably asking, what was the Spring exhibition!?! Well, the spring exhibition had us trying to answer this driving question: “What is Canadian identity”? In case you don’t know what his means, we were essentially trying to figure out what makes Canadians Canadian. My answer was “Oh well it’s on their ID” but that not an acceptable answer!!! What makes a Canadian a Canadian, their diversity? Sense of community? Some other thing I can’t think of right now??

I see, I see. While this seems straightforward, it wasn’t. We had to watch documentaries, read books, listen to speeches.. and we had to take NOTES TOO!!! IT WAS AWFUL!!!!! So I didn’t take any notes haha. But that’s besides the point; Amongst all this work we also had to do more public speaking courses, which was fine because I don’t give a crap about what other people think about me or how stupid I make myself look in front of everyone.

Okay let’s get into the yummy juicy part, which is the exhibition. We were ordered to pick from a list of the upmost Canadian topics, and theme our exhibition table around it. Of course my group chose terry fox because it’s interesting, man!!! And very positive!! We need more positivity in our lives!!
We dressed up in our running gear, got our Gatorade, painted our signs and we were prepared. The most amazing setup had been created, and it was beautiful. We did a lot of signholding and standing and talking to people, and yeah. It was super amazing and cool and stuff.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WOULD CHANGE??? The reflection is where the real learning is, they say… well, I would’ve changed the fact that I had my period while we were doing this, but other than that it went pretty smoothly. I think. You’d have to ask my group members about their opinions on it but…. It went well for ME, at least.

Okay yeah that’s it GOODBYYYE GOODBYEEE

^ I’m not in this photo because I was in the bathroom. But try to imagine my beautiful face right beside the pedestal with the year on it.

Hello and welcome back to my blog! Today I will be yapping in your ears about a recent maker project everyone has been working on; the “Changemakers” project! This project is different from any other we have seen before, since the driving question is up to you to create! That’s right, the driving question isn’t actually being made by the teachers, since when the end of the year nears, they slack off and don’t try just as hard. (I’m joking)

We started off this project by first, talking about the trip to Disneyworld. While this is the most interesting part, I’m going to skip over the entire thing because I didn’t go to Disneyworld and it wouldn’t make sense if I talked about a trip I didn’t even go on, so I’ll just talk about the replacement trip we were given; Capilano suspension bridge. That’s right, the people that didn’t go to Disneyworld still had to do work, so it was compensated for by sending us to some bridge in the forest. Which I’m totally good with by the way, hell I probably prefer it, going to magic world in Florida is not particularly somewhere I ever want to be.
We were instructed to interview people and make a video. Where’s my video? It’s at the bottom of this post, of course!

After filming ourselves interviewing people, alongside some pictures of the views; we were instructed to create a video. Like I said, it’s a work in progress; for me at least but everyone else’s videos looked great. 10/10 I thought they were so awesome sauce.

The final thing we were told to do for this project was to present our work! Shout out to the world “this is my work and it’s super cool and you should look at it”!!!! The only way to do this was by doing a film festival where all the parents that paid for these trips could see what their lovely children got out of the experience, and be very proud of them. We were all put in groups based off of our video themes, and we had to make a compilation of our videos; alongside this we needed to bring decorations and snacks (which isn’t a super big deal but I’ll bring it up anyway). We gracefully presented, and that was that.

Now, for what I would change or keep; I thought that this project went pretty well. I mean, I didn’t go on the weeklong trip so it was a pretty tiny project for me, but for everyone else I could see why it’s a bigger deal. I can’t really say much on what I would change about the project itself because I wasn’t really included in the bigger chunk of it, but I can’t say what I would change about my work.

I would change the fact that I never worked on my video when I was supposed to and now I have an unfinished video sitting in my files. Am I going to finish it? I mean, I’ll try to; I don’t know why these PLP videos have suddenly become my worst enemy, but they are… AND I HATE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay thanks for checking out my blog again bye

Hello, and welcome back to my blog 4x! Today, I will be talking briefly about a recent project we in PLP 10 preformed, a satirical radio play taking place in post-WWII. You may think it’s more WWII related since it’s in the projects driving question (which I will get to in a bit) but, not really.
“A satirical radio play? Taking place in the 1940s? Well, this sounds similar!” Yes, it’s true, the plays storyline takes much inspiration from the movie “Pleasantville”, which aside from one being a show and the other being a radio play, they’re pretty much the same thing. Before I get too off topic, let us get into how exactly this project came to be.

I’m pretty sure that my humanities teacher loves history. I mean, she’s a history teacher so I was kind of expecting her to be, but I digress. We were instructed to take notes while watching a documentary on post-WWII Canadian events, and then think up of ways to incorporate little references to it in our play; alongside considering the driving question:

How do we use a satirical radio play to communicate the shifts in Canadian society following WWII?

I didn’t take any notes, but I do happen to recall a few key events such as Newfoundland joining Canada and stuff. After this, we were all put into groups. People directing the play, people doing sound effects, people who have roles in the play and then people doing advertisements. I was a lucky duck and got to do an advertisements on Tv dinners. You know, those things that people used to buy in the 1950s all the way up until the 2000s when people realized they were horrible for you (who could’ve known, right?). This task was simple enough, at least for me. I whipped up a script and put sound effects in there and that was that, right? Well, I also had to preform this advertisement in front of an audience on YouTube. Wait a minute, you’re streaming this live? On YouTube???? Yes, I didn’t know this all too well but; our class was on livestream in front of a few people on YouTube, like parents and anyone else who cared enough to watch teenagers preform an educational play.
We went through a few test-runs to see if everyone knew what they were doing, and then finally the day had come for us to present, and it went fine. Really, I don’t have a lot to say about the day itself other than that everyone did a great job and it was decently funny at times. But, how would I say that I did? Any improvements I could make?
Yeah, I could improve on actually taking notes when I’m supposed to. Focus is a struggle for me in class, and I know if my parents see this in text they’d kill me, but I usually spend my time listening and drawing, instead of listening and writing notes. Drawing while listening to something else keeps me sharp…!!! And, I would probably fall asleep if I had to listen to a documentary on WWII for an hour while taking notes. You would too, right?!?!?!
I really do like how efficient I was when it came to getting work done. I finished my script quickly, faster than my other group members; and took criticism and suggested revisions and applied them to my work. Obviously my script was pretty much already flawless because I’m 100% perfect and make no mistakes, but seeking advice from peers is okay sometimes.. in case I made a silly mistake…

Well, that’s all for this blog post today. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you later.

Hello, and welcome back to my blog. Expect more posts this month because I was lazy all the other months prior and I’m late on a bunch of stuff, but that’s besides the point. Today, I will talk to you about your finances.  Before you run away and cry, I should specify!! This isn’t actual financing, it’s fictional financing!

Now, you may be asking yourself “what does that even mean?? Please tell me!!!!” And to this I will reply telling you to calm down and that it’s not that serious. I will tell you now what exactly I mean by fictional financing.

I have a teacher named Mr. May, and he thinks that our class is irresponsible with money (that’s a joke) so, he decided that it would only be right to teach us all how to save money for the inevitable end of our lives, college! (That’s also a joke)

Now, we all scratched our heads at this. What’s saving? What’s a college? I don’t understand. Well, Mr. May gently took our hands and lead us through how to save for our futures, how to be smart with money, and even how to choose what credit card would be the best fit for our lifestyles. I don’t know about everyone else in that class, but I was reasonably confused, I didn’t know there were so many credit card types… but we learn something new every day.

Enough of the nitty gritty in between stuff, i‘ll actually get to the point. Mr. May instructed us to create a presentation on how to effectively handle our money in multiple different ways and situations. Now, if you could’ve guessed, I didn’t do it on time and instead did it two weeks after the due date, and it wasn’t very great. But I’ll get to my critique on my work in a little bit after I explain how exactly we were supposed to create a presentation.

We were all given a subject. That be in a group or alone, we all were supposed to present a slideshow on how to effectively shape for or futures, like what jobs to look for, how to save and how to find affordable housing in this day and age. I was chosen to do something about saving for college. Now, after all this hard work of doing research, how do I think I did on my presentation?

Quite honestly, there is little I really like about it. Especially since, and I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t really try on it. Sure, I did the research and stuff, but when it came to writing the presentation it lacks professionalism. Although, the graphics I used are pretty cute, and I like that I decided to put personality into it, instead of it being boring and bland. Here, take a look for yourself:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGhWQoARwM/EVGnQQYTzOtg1zaSC3Ccsw/edit?utm_content=DAGhWQoARwM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton 

Now, I’ve got to hurry and work on a multitude of other late work. Thank you for sticking around!!