“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”

As the year goes on, I learn more and more every day. What’s a better way to reflect on that learning but to write a blog post about it, AND to write another blog post with the prior reflection involved? Anyway, I am going to show and tell you what I learned and what I liked, and didn’t like.

Now, first thing I am going to talk about is my most recent finished project. Our frankenstuffies! That’s right, and I am not going to critique this project in particular! I’ll do that with a different project, so let me just be happy for one second.

Now, my frankenstuffy project took a lot of time. I spent a few hours putting together and editing a masterpiece of a video. I am very proud of my dedication and determination to get it done, which I honestly thought I wouldn’t be able to do within the due date. But I did! And I’m proud of myself for doing it.
I learned more about editing, and drawing simple images very very quick. It may come in handy for a future job id like to pursue (storyboard artist)

Hello, and welcome back to my blog! This time, we did something very very special. This time, we ripped animals apart limb from limb and stuck them back together, creating a BEAST!
Of course, I’m over-exaggerating, but don’t leave just yet! There are more interesting things to come. After all, these are frankenstuffies!!
To start, my crazy wacky humanities teachers introduced this project to us using AI and a book called “Leviathan” (if you haven’t read it you totally should). And so we began creating our creatures after reading the book. People had to sew together stuffies and create an entire new monster! For me, I did a wolf mixed with an octopus. So many legs!!

Anyway, after this, we were instructed to make a mini movie featuring our disfigured mistakes of god. While most people did live action, I did a mix of live action and drawings! Super fun, right? No, super time consuming! While the end product was probably the best thing I’ve ever produced, it took me a long while to complete. Worth it, though.

You know what, you’re probably wondering what my story was about. Was it a romance? A comedy? An adventure in which a wolf-octopus hybrid searches for the equivalent of god in their universe and murders him? Well, you’d be right if you chose the latter. If you’re SUPER curious, here’s a link to my video!

Now that you’ve seen and watched my beautiful masterpiece, you can question your own existence!

Now, PLP teachers ask me what I’ve learned. And, well, I’ve learned quite a bit. Mostly I’ve learned more about CapCut, the editing software I use, but I’ve also learned how to work more efficiently and effectively. Working on this took a lot of time, but had I done it last year, it would’ve taken twice as long! So, I suppose I’ve worked more on time management over the years? Who knows, but I do know that while this did take a while, it’s amazing.

Hello, and welcome back to my blog. Today, I will be talking about DI (Aka Destination Imagination). It was a fun time, a stressful time. But now it’s over, at least until April 6th, when we will be presenting provincially. Fun!
While me and my group prepare for the provincials, I will be writing this blog and reflecting about how we did, what we did, and how I felt during the experience. Hold on, because this is going to be a long one.

At the beginning of the day, at 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday (and I’m not joking!) I had to get up and be at school. Of course, I showed up at 9:10, but luckily our presentation wouldn’t be for another 4 hours, so I was safe. I walked into the Quire room and said hello to my group members, and sat and rehearsed my lines… which I didn’t even get to say during our presentation!
Now, everything went good overall during our presentation to judges, but there was one issue. People took my lines, and I was just standing there the entire time! I wish I was able to say my lines, but I kept getting talked over. And apparently it was… very, very noticeable. Whatever, no biggie. Luckily, since these are the regionals and not the provincials, this is kind of just a practice round and I can talk everything over with my group before we present.
Anywho. I stood on some planks to help one of my team-members saw it, and brought some materials.
Unfortunately, though, my team members didn’t use any of the things I brought for the presentation. I brought a smoke machine, helmets, amongst other things, and on the last day, they decided that they didn’t need any of it. Hmm, okay, I’m fine with it.
After a few hours of practicing my lines and perfecting them, we went to present. Safe to say I was anxious, mean, I was presenting right in front of my parents. Luckily we were fine, but.. my team members kind of dragged me around, which I really didn’t like. In general, actually, I don’t like people touching me. I couldn’t say anything though, because we were in the middle of a presentation, so I kind of just… went with it. Luckily I don’t think anyone noticed that, but it was still a bit embarrassing for me.

And, actually, we got first place in senior fine arts! Our group did, anyway. It was pretty nerve racking stepping up to get our ribbons in front of so many people. Very nerve racking… but fun! I put it up beside my other achievements, but that’s besides the point. I wonder if we’ll win provincials, let’s hope so!

Hello, and welcome back to my blog! Today we’re getting a bit historical; and looking at some work I did on the subject of Louis Riel.
We’ve been studying who Louis Riel was when he was alive; but mostly on what Canadians perspectives were on him in both the past and the future. By looking at a few sources, I’ve gotten my answer. But that will come at the conclusion of the post. For now, we’re going to reflect on the work that I did.

Now, in total I wrote 3 paragraphs on Louis Riel. Mainly about how he was portrayed by artists in Sculptures. If you’re curious, here are the sculptures I took a look at.

Cool sculptures! Anyway, I used these examples in my post to think up of some ideas of what the artists wanted to portray. And, by looking at these sculptures, It’s pretty easy to know what the artists were going for, But I digress.

Now, what did I learn? Well, I learned a lot of things, mainly about Louis Riel, but also a lot about Métis history. While it was centred around Louis Riel, I was still learning about other Canadians involved, that be they were on Riel’s side or not. I was also learning how to pick out important information amongst side info that I didn’t really need. It comes in handy when note-taking.

A good representation of my learning can actually be seen in this image. Here’s my before and after of what my Riel paragraphs looked like.

Before..

And after!

In conclusion, I think I’ve written some pretty good paragraphs. I worked hard on this project, and working hard is half the battle. The other half is doing research and practice.

Hello, and welcome back to my blog! Today, we will be talking about my SECOND EVER winter exhibition… This time, instead of being on the topic of a movie, we are on the topic of real life events, but in metaphors!!

You see, for this exhibition, we had to prepare a Rube Goldberg machine to present. Don’t know what that is? I’ll tell you! A Rube Goldberg machine is basically a complicated machine that is made to do a simple task, usually with basic household items (pans, straws, spoons). Say, you are wanting to turn on/off a light. You can easily make a Rube Goldberg machine to do that for you!

IMG_2180
Now that you know what a Rube Goldberg machine is, I can explain to you what group we were.

A long time ago, in 1911, the Xinhai revolution started. It didn’t last for long, but it was historical enough for us to make an entire machine about it! And, wow, it was complicated. When we first started this project, I didn’t even know where to start. So, I didn’t! For an entire week! But luckily, I was able to figure it out at some point. Due to an unfortunate lack of easy-to-understand information on the revolution, I had to do a lot of research. But it was worth it in the end.

The exhibition lasted 5:30-around 8. We had to stand for the entire time, which was rather painful. But, luckily, I didn’t die! Which is super cool and awesomesauce. I, by far, ate the most of our own chocolates. But, that’s okay. Chocolates are meant to be enjoyed anyway.

 

Now, enough with the exhibition talk, let’s talk about the real reason why I made this post in the first place. To reflect on what I learnt. So, Hazel, what did you learn? Well, I learned a lot about revolutions… but I also learned how to better work as a team. Though my group was not perfect, I’m sure they also learned how to work better as a team altogether. Even though they completely forgot about my part in out documentary… oh, did I tell you we made a documentary? Yeah, it was pretty great, but I was only in it once so… all I’m saying is that it would have been better if I was in it more!

At 5:00AM, my dad gets up to go to work in North Vancouver every day, right beside the brewery! What a lucky guy. Once he says goodbye to his beautiful and precious daughter he zooms away in either his sports car, or in his SUV. Once he arrives at work, he says hello to no one, because he gets there first. 

The very first thing he does is open up his computer, and make a double espresso and reviews all the emails he’s gotten overnight, because someone is emailing at 1AM, and 2AM, and 3AM…

After he does that, he goes to check out a building at 7-9AM to do a BG review. He basically just reviews buildings to find problems and solutions to those problems so their buildings don’t explode. Depending on what he’s doing, he’ll check the structure of the building for signs of building distress, or inspecting for any water damage or concrete damage. After checking everything out, my dad writes a report and sends it in to the building problems.

 

On a more fun note, my dad once looked at a building where the elevator stopped working. And instead of going down, like how they usually fall in movies, it fell up. And smooshed like an accordion. 

Another time, a building in Toronto exploded, and my dad had to help EMS workers go into the building and show them where it was safe so they could collect the bodies. Unfortunately, it was a gas explosion.

Another time, my dad had to investigate why a building’s roof collapsed. Luckily, no one was actually hurt in that one. But there was a woman who was sitting on the roof at the time, and she got buried in dirt. Luckily she was okay!

Now; moral of the story, engineering, though it doesn’t sound super exciting.. actually is a very thrilling and exciting job to have at times! It is tough, but it is rewarding. I have done work at my dads job before, and in my personal experience it wasn’t too amazing because I was just cleaning windows, so it really depends on what you do. 

 

My dad, Brennan Vollering, founded Sense engineering in 2014 with his work buddy, Ted Denniston. They have been running this engineering company since then, setting up locations in multiple other provinces and cities. But what does the average structural engineer do in his day? This Bring Your Kid to Work Day presentation will show you everything that he does in just a single project.

To show you what he does at his work, I’ve put up a slideshow! Here it is:

In one of our PLP classes, we were given a week to remake a short horror film, called run. The link to the original movie is right here! It’s only about a minute and 30 seconds long.

 

Anyway, onto why I made this post in the first place… the remake! We were given the task to remake the short movie run, with minimal filming knowledge and experience… and if im being honest, it was very fun. Though I hadn’t done much in the first phase of the filming and editing, I did help in the second. BUT, we are also not talking about the remake of the remake (which we did do!). We are talking about the regular old remake.

Now, for the beginning of our remake, it was a Wednesday. We were ordered just the day before to bring costumes and props, to make the film look as similar as possible to the original. I wasn’t an actor in the first section of filming, in fact, I was supposed to be filming, but that role was quickly taken from me by another person in my group. Shame!

The next day, on Thursday, I wasn’t in class. I had to stay home that day due to medical difficulties. Fortunately, I am better now… not really but I’m getting there- but I wasn’t able to help edit or film the rest of the video. Big bummer. Anywho, I was there for the next week of filming! Which was the remake of the remake.. but that’s not this blog’s subject!

Thank you for reading this short summarization of my remake video!

 

Hello! Welcome to the second part of my Alberta trip posts! If you came from the first post, welcome back! If you just got here, GO BACK AND READ THE FIRST ONE!!

Anywho. While my first Alberta blog post was about the videos I made, this one is about my book! And you’re probably wondering: “You made a BOOK?!” And my answer is yes! Not officially published in book stores, but we’re getting there! My 25+ page long book is about what i did on the Alberta trip, and how i documented almost everything I did. Before reading, I suggest you read my book!

Now that you’ve read my book, and know what I am talking about, its time to talk about it.

The first few pages, (Specifically pages 1-9) Are generally introduction pages, about what geography means and what made and makes the west. Fun fact, I actually messed up the page of contents, and I have 29 pages, not 27. So please ignore that.

For the next-next few pages, it talks about the places I went to (The next 15 pages)

When I started these parts of the book, it was day 2 of the trip. When I finished? About 2 weeks after. This book took a very long time to complete this book, just so you know. SO YOUD BETTER ENJOY IT!!!! These pages were supposed to have 1 picture on the picture parts, but I added multiple. So… I was practically exceeding! Practically…

and for the last pages, 25 through 28, there were my videos. My trip videos, to be exact. And if you already read my last blog post, you’d know that I had already talked about my trip videos! And if I hadn’t told you yet, I’m going to tell you now, that the videos were my favourite part about the trip. It wasn’t the Golden skybridge, nor any of the other fun places we went to… (aside from the hot springs by that huge mountain. That was the best, but worst feeling in my life when I first went there.) The videos were extremely fun for me, and I could honestly talk about them all day, but I need to finish this post, so…

And, to answer the driving question… how has the west shaped who we are? Well, in my book, there are lots of examples of this. From the people to the mountains, I could  only choose one thing, and that thing… is trains. Trains were a very important way to transport not only people, but goods and services all around Canada. It was quick, at least, it was quicker than anything else they had at the time, and it was.. simple?
The railway system was also a big part of Alberta’s history, due to the railway system pretty much making Alberta what it is today. Cool, right?

Now, the end of my blog post. As I’m sitting in bed writing this, I’m rethinking of everything that happened during my Alberta trip. Would I have rather stayed home? At the time, yes, but now I realize that this trip was important. Not only important for my learning, but also important for my legs. Because I really need exercise. And I got to do it! My back and my legs hurt for most of the trip but at least I was fit, right?

Hello! Welcome back to my blog, and if you’ve never been here before, hello! I am Hazel, and this is my blog.

The beginning of this year was tough. The toughest part was definitely travelling to Alberta. I was scared of leaving my family for such a long time, even though it was only for a week. But, i am typing this now, so I’m obviously alive and well. Enough rambling, lets get on with the trip, shall we?

As soon as we made it to our first stop, we got to work. Our first stop was.. Two valley gap. The ghost town! Definitely one of my favourite stops out of the many. The first thing we were required to do was look around the town. Get our bearing before we had to do our first video; our silent video! Our silent video was probably the second most fun for me (and my group, since this was a group video). Our silent video was about a murder in a bank, and its a comedy! I will share it soon…

The silent video took about an hour or so the finish filming, and after that, we went inside of our hotel… it was a spooky hotel, thats fro sure. We had nachos and salsa, and i went to bed happy…

The second video we worked on was our investigative video. You’re probably thinking, “wait… what is that?” Well, im going to tell you!

While we were at Alberta, we were supposed to take interviews. We were supposed to interview people, basically on why they came to Alberta! I am not the best at interviewing people, so I got some help… but I did end up doing both my interviews.

One of my interviews was done in the Columbia ice fields, and the second was done in the Revelstoke Railway Museum. I was supposed to do an interview at the golden skybridge, but plans were altered.

 

And, of course, my final video… my favourite video! My fun tiktok video! My TikTok video definitely took the most drawing effort, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. While people were filing themselves doing dances, I just… took selfies of myself! I didn’t work on my TikTok video for the entire time, aside from taking photos. And when I got home, I began to draw! That’s right! One of my videos includes DRAWING!!! Because I DRAW and I AM AN ARTIST!!! How cool is that??
Anyway. My TikTok video was definitely the most loved by my teachers, I even got an exceeding grade… check it out!

And there we have it. My videos… all very cool, and very creative videos… I have one question for you now! Which one was your favourite?

Keep an eye out for my second blog post about Alberta! It should be coming out by Tuesday next week…

As the school year comes to an end, I have a lot to reflect on. This was my first year of high school, the only year in which I did not know what to expect. During the year, I learned more and more as time went on and expectations changed.

What are you most proud of and why?

While writing online for a lot of other projects and work, i developed my own hobby for writing my own stories. I was also very proud of my Middle Ages project, that was actually my favourite project from last year. 

Where did you see the most growth?

I got more comfortable and learned a bunch of new apps i hadn’t even heard of before. It’s allowed me to broaden my horizons and lets me present my work better. It also allows me to get more creative. I am also a way more comfortable sharing my work with adults, though still not so much with my peers. 

What skills would you like to work on next year?

I would like to get better at summarizing all my notes. I do well at note taking, but they are always long and dont usually get to the point quick enough. I would also love to be able to talk to my peers better.

The work that didn’t go well for you, what can you learn from that?

Even though i got the best grade on it, i did not like my imme system characters drawings and writing. I got a rainbow on it but i do not think i deserved that, because it was sketchy and I didn’t even try that hard on the writing. 

What frustrates you most in school?

Not being able to understand work even after its been explained to me time and time again. I also get annoyed by not understanding something everyone else seems to understand. I also get annoyed by not knowing what to write when I’m typing out a blog post.

I know that I have a good work ethic because I care about the quality of my work so much that it stresses me out. I also believe that I have good work habits because I start my work as soon as I receive it. I complete my work on time and take the time to do revisions as well before I submit it. The way I allocate time during my projects allows me to revise, take suggestions and finish on time.