tPol 2024

Kaia WLeave a comment
  • introductions
  • tPol declaration 

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.

 

  • agency

*key focus for my grade

For agency, I have both strengths and room for growth.

sets realistic goals and self-assesses using criteria to achieve them

I think that this is the most important area under agency for me, since it connects to setting goals for all of the competencies. I struggle with this because a lot of the time I set unrealistic and not SMART goals. This is something I can keep improving on as I continue on to future grades. To get better at this, I want to take the time to set goals that are actually SMART. As well, my Goal Tracker from grade 9 summer learning helped me a lot, so I think that whenever I set a goal I would like to reflect back on it. On top of using the acronym SMART, I can use techniques like making a goal ladder, with each individual step needed to complete my goal. Also, I can time block it, since if it is on my schedule it’s more likely to happen and get support from my family, because I often just say “I don’t feel like it” and don’t do it. Another thing that I think would be helpful for me is adding a reward to motivate me to complete my goal.

Similar to this, like I discussed in my mPol, I struggle a lot with perfectionism because I set my standards so high I don’t even know where to start since nothing seems good enough. For the last two months I have been trying to have more reasonable standards for myself. 

shows resilience and persistence in the face of challenges and setbacks

This is definitely one of my biggest strengths for agency and overall. I have always been very perseverant and determined. I almost always am able to find a way to overcome challenges. A really good example of my perseverance this year was the Thrill us project. After a lot of planning my group decided we were ready to film. However when we looked back on our clips the next day, nothing was good at all. However, we revised our plans and were determined to film it better. Because for this perseverance, we were able to try again and end up with something we were all proud of.

demonstrates initiative in seeking help when needed

 This is the final growth for me in agency. I have definitely improved on this a lot more, becoming more comfortable asking for clarification. As well, if I am overwhelmed and stressed in a group project I usually just ignore it and do all the work myself and don’t get any support. However, in DI, the grade 10s in my group did not do any work and the other two people in my group weren’t going to be able to attend so I was very stressed that I was going to have to do all the work and present with people who didn’t know anything. I decided to talk to my team leader Ms. McWilliam and she helped take the pressure and work off of me. 

 

  • preparation

*another class focus

comes to class prepared to learn and ready to participate

arrives on time and ready to learn at the bell

These were the main points emphasized for my class, which I think I am already really good at. Because of my systems, I remember to charge my iPad every night and always pack my water bottle right before I leave when I get my lunch and snacks.

Though sometimes I have to rush to be ready to leave my house in time, I am consistently on time and make sure to get from class to class before the bell. As well, I’m am not just physically ready but mentally ready. I have had a lot of opportunities to improve on that this year. For example, in our Frankenstuffies project when we were reading leviathan, we started every class by getting out our books and reading. Most recently, in our WW1 project, once we started our comics, as soon as I got into class, I pulled out my ipad and worked on my drawings.

utilizes organizational tools such as Things, Calendar, and other tools to stay on top of assignments

This is one of my areas for growths. I have been wanting to make this a system for a while, however I haven’t improved on this. To make this goal easier to achieve, I think having a linked calendar or reminders list so that I can enter to do’s on either my ipad OR my phone. That way, if I don’t have time before class ends I can jot down what to do as I go to my next class or before the next bell goes without having to pull out my iPad out.

 

  • communication and collaboration

*one of my personal focuses

demonstrates independence and self-advocacy by communicating directly with teachers (not relying on parents to communicate with teachers)

This is something I have gotten really good at, since I miss a lot of school always being sick, or having appointments. This connects to student agency, as I make sure to be the one to take charge of my learning and speak straight to my teachers. I can improve by contacting my teachers as soon as I know am going to be absent so that I have more time to catch up on work.

is a reliable and trusted team member during group work

Last but not least is collaboration and pulling my weight. This has always been a strength for me, but I have had some very challenging teamwork experiences with others who struggle this. Like I mentioned earlier, I had a really difficult team dynamic in DI, in terms of both collaboration and communication. The main reason my group didn’t work well together is because of our lack of communication. We assigned separate tasks to everyone without discusses our ideas or expectations for the results or even deadlines. This led to some people being lost and having to improvise what to do and being really overwhelmed. This resulted in Plato:

When we revised between tournaments we worked together to improve Plato and he ended up looking much better. In the future, I could improve my team leadership by ensuring my teams commit to meeting times, have clear expectations of results and set deadlines. And if team members still don’t contribute then I can seek support from teachers sooner than later.

In conclusion I think that I am ready to advance to the next grade level. I have showcased evidence to demonstrate how PLP success behaviours have helped me grow on both my strengths and weaknesses. I have improved and learned a lot this year and I can’t wait for everything to come next year. Thank you!

snails, slugs and nationalism

Kaia WLeave a comment

When France sneezes, Europe catches a cold.

This is a metaphor for what I  learned about in our latest project, about nationalism. The driving question for this project was how “has Nationalism’s influence shaped the global structure?”

Our project started, with snails and slugs. Since research was going to be a key part in this project, we first learned how to cite sources, by practicing using articles about these gastropods. Everyone individually wrote a short paragraph with some information, citing where each source came from after every sentence or fact. Here is mine:

Next time I think I could make sure to proof read it, because there were several mistakes. However, this was very helpful for me to learn how to provide credit in an organized way, as we began research.

First, we watched and hypothetically took notes on a video as a class, however it was too faced paced for a lot of us to keep up. As well, my keyboard starting glitching 5 minutes in, and my writing to text didn’t go very well. This is how my notes turned out:

The quality of this video was important to note and reflect on, as we also focused on how to make a good video, our end project. We watched a few other videos after this and then started our individual research.

To guide our research, everyone developed 6 questions: who, what, where, when, why and how. To do this, we first made a list of questions for 5 minutes and then chose and refined them to narrow it down to those 6. Here are my questions:

– Who were the most significant figures in French nationalism?

– What were the most significant events affecting French nationalism in the 19th and 20th century?

I found it hard to find resources that answered my specific questions, but I eventually found lots of info, which I organized into this chart, with citations of course! One of the main things I learned was what nationalism actually is, since I didn’t know before and I was still confused throughout the beginning of the project of whether it’s a concept or an event. This relates to the cause and consequence, because the ideas of nationalism result in nationalistic actions. Watch my video below to find out more!

Next, we wrote a script outline. I made my really brief and had a separate script because I didn’t know it should all be combined. Anyways, I found this part easier, because I just had to transfer the research into proper sentences and I like writing. As well, I used the chart below to start thinking about the visuals I would use in my video.

Finally, I began making my video. I used Keynote to animate some scenes, Procreate to draw cartoons for these animations or for other visuals, flipaclip to make some stop motions and online images. As well, I recorded a voice over. Then I lined everything up and edited it in Capcut, adding a few sound effects and background music too.

Here is my final video:

The main thing I would improve on is the audio of me speaking. I was talking quietly when I recorded it, which lead to my voice sounding unstable and unsteady. As well, I made a few mispronunciations on accident (like nationalisbsmsms and monacarcy). Being more careful on my tone and pronunciation is something I can remember for the future. As well, choosing a more upbeat background song to keep the video interesting and not make everyone fall asleep.

In conclusion, I learned a lot. I expanded my understanding of Nationalism in France and how it has effected the world, even today. Thank you for reading, that’s all!

mPol 2024

Kaia WLeave a comment

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.

Over the year so far I have learned a lot, but in this blogpost I am going to just focus on 3 main areas.

TEAMWORK
First, I think that through both FAILS and successes I have really improved on Teamwork. The most challenging situation of teamwork for me was during DI. My group struggled to work well together as a team in a lot of ways. First of all, my team struggled with communication. In Basecamp, nobody ever responded to each other and some people would get sick or be away for over a week with no explanation. As well, we didn’t really brainstorm ideas for certain aspects of our challenge together so they didn’t turn out as well as they could have.

Another problem was that the grade 10s in my group did not do their share of work; in fact, they barely did any work at all. This led to everything being loaded on to me and the two other grade 9s. I found this very stressful throughout the whole project, however I didn’t really do anything about it. When I found out that those two helpful group members were at first both not able to come to the provincial DI tournament, I went to speak to my team leader as soon as possible to get support. I think that in future situations similar to this, I would go ask for help sooner, because it helped me feel much less stressed knowing that I only needed to do my share of the work. DI might have been stressful during the process, but after reflecting on the experience, it was a very important project that helped me grow as a learner.
An example of when teamwork went really well was during the “Thrill us” project. For this project, we got to pick our own groups. This made teamwork easier for me because I could choose people that I connect with and work really well with. We had similar ideas that we put together first into a storyboard and then into a film.

The day after the first filming attempt, we looked back over our videos and realized they weren’t good quality shots and that we needed to revise. Having a group that worked well together was important for this because we had more motivation to redo it and do so efficiently. We slightly edited our storyline to make it more clear and also reduced the number of spoken lines because the previous lines had just taken away from the eerie atmosphere we were trying to create. We also reflected on how to improve the shots, including the angles and lighting. Because of this, our second video went much better. From there, we found sounds to match our video and edited everything together. All of us were able to create a movie that we were proud of.

However, since it’s not always possible to pick our own groups, an important takeaway for me to remember is to try to find at least one person I can connect to in a group, like Alva and Aiya for the “Thrill us” project or Evelyn and Alex in DI.
In general, PLP really encourages me to improve on my teamwork since we do a lot of group projects and sit in random seating. This helps me prepare for the world outside of school, because I am not always going to be with people I work well with or like.
PREPARATION & ORGANIZATION
I think that I am really good at being prepared and organized, however I still have goals that would help me improve. I find it really helpful to have systems to keep myself prepared for school. Every night, I plug my iPad in before bed so that it will be charged for the morning. When I pack my backpack, I put my iPad in and then go downstairs where I pack my food and make sure my water bottle is full before packing it as well. Though I don’t usually drink all of my water before class, if I do, I make sure to fill it up during the break between classes. To manage my homework I sometimes write down what needs to be done and any extra details in Notes on my phone. However, sometimes I forget to look at the notes or just try to remember everything in my head without making a note. Instead, I would like to use an app like Things or Reminders or Calendar. That way I can get a notification to remind me. As well, in some of those apps, I’m able to time block out when I will work on each task. I think that this will help me manage my time better to make sure I work on everything, especially the parts I’m not looking forward to. I find that I can spend too much time working on something, or even just procrastinating because I’m worried it won’t be good enough or it’s not meeting my high standards for myself. This ties in with my last area of growth.
PROCRASTINATION/PERFECTIONISM
Procrastination due to my perfectionism happens a lot and I would like to set goals and systems to help with this. As I said above, sometimes I won’t even be able to begin work because I can’t figure out how to start, whether it’s the first sentence not sounding right, or the layout of a design not looking right or something else. To overcome this, I will set an amount of time that I have to work on it and just try something – try it all y’all – even if it’s not perfect. As well, I could try skipping ahead from the first sentence and working on a different part or try finding inspo for a design. It’s also important for me to remember that I can get support from my family and teachers.
In conclusion, I have grown and learned a lot so far this year and I still have more goals for the rest of the year to continue to improve as a learner. That’s all, thank you!
Posted in pol

Ursula

Kaia WLeave a comment

Have you ever met a bird that is also a pig, giraffe and bear/dog thing and has a rainbow tail? It’s not as ugly as it sounds, in fact, Ursula is very coquette with her bow.

As I was saying, she’s very aesthetic and gorgeous (and sideways for some reason).

In our latest humanities project, we have been answering the driving question of How do we as writers make our message clear and engaging to an audience?

To do this, we first started by reading the book Leviathan, by Scott Westerfield. Every week while reading this book we also had a quiz about the previous reading section and then had a discussion in small groups, where we asked both closed and open ended questions. I think that this was helpful for understanding the book because me and others found it kind of confusing and these conversations also gave everyone the ability to share different perspectives on the book. 

While we were reading the book, we also created Frankenstuffies – stuffed animals made of body parts of other stuffed animals. I used some stuffies that I found on Facebook marketplace since I have emotional attachement issues to my own :P. To make Ursula, I used the already falling off head of a bear/dog, a giraffe neck, a pig’s body, the wings and feet of an owl and a tail from a rainbow poodle. Then I sewed everything together and added a pink bow around her neck, because Ursula has a deep love for fashion. Here is a video of the process of making my frankenstuffie.

After making our stuffies, everyone started planning out their stories. To begin, we wrote short stories about our characters. Before starting the actual writing process, we first filled in character files:

After developing our characters, we created a plot overview with a format called the hero’s journey. I think that this was really helpful because it made it easier to think of ideas because I knew what part of a story to write in each section. Both of these organizers helped me learn how to plan out a story better because in the past I’m not always sure what to plan out. This is my hero’s journey planner:

Along with that, we wrote theme statements for our stories, try to guess my theme in the padlet at the end.

Next, we chose a section out of the hero’s journey and started writing our stories about it, which I mostly enjoyed because I really like writing. However, my first draft was over 3 000 words and it had to be shortened to 1 000 words max. Here is my first and final drafts:

Ursula Story Draft

Ursula Story Final

After writing the stories, we starting planning to turn the short stories into a little movie. To do this, we created storyboards. This is my storyboard.

Then I started making the video. First, I found all my backgrounds on mainly Pinterest. Then I removed the background off photos of Ursula and added them on top of the background images and animated the characters in Keynote. As well, I used some 3D models online and took photos of them at the right angle. Then, I recorded the talking audio and added music from Capcut, where I edited everything together. Here is my video:

In conclusion, this was a really fun but also challenging project. This project was really important for helping me improve on my clear and effective storytelling, through both writing and video. Here is my padlet, try to guess the theme of my story!

https://padlet.com/KaiaWagner/rise-of-the-frankenstuffies-kaia-w-hzo6gfxd5iol0f2q

That’s all for this post

Kaia out hehe

The PortRIEL of Louis Riel

Kaia WLeave a comment

Have you ever been hung? Me neither (well maybe you have and you’re a ghost?), but Louis Riel has.

Yeah well um anyways…

In our last Humanities project of the semester, we answered the driving question “How has the portrayal of Riel changed over time?” We all created multi-paragraph compositions. This project consisted of two parts, learning about Louis Riel and improving our writing skills. 

To improve our writing skills, we first worked on Frayer models, which are helpful for understanding words. We also described the 5 senses of some words (feel, taste, smell, hear, see). As well, we practiced elaborating by writing a few sentences about why voting is an important civic duty. Here are a few of my Frayer models.

 

On the history side, to launch the project, we first did a human timeline. Some people in the class held a piece of paper with a historical event on it and then we rearranged them into order from past to present. After that we started learning about the Red River Colony and made a timeline with some of the events that happened. Here is my timeline.

To learn about different portrayals of Louis Riel, we looked at 3 different statues of him.

The first one outside the Legislative Building of Manitoba was made by Marcien Lemay and Étienne Gaboury in 1973.  However the portrayal of him in this statue was too controversial and after about 20 years it was replaced by a different statue, made by Miguel Joyal. Finally a third statue by John Nugent sat near the provincial Legislative Building before being put into storage in an art gallery. We wrote down some observations about each statue on the board. Here is some of what my partner for this activity and I wrote. 

Another text that shows different portrayals of Louis Riel is Historica Canada’s Heritage Minute. After watching this video, everyone wrote individual paragraphs about how Louis Riel is portrayed in it. Here is my paragraph.

After all of this, we combined our history knowledge and writing skills and wrote three paragraphs to answer the driving question. Here is my final multi-paragraph composition.

In conclusion, I learned a lot about Louis Riel and the Métis and their changing portrayals over time. That’s all for this post!

“Let them eat c̶a̶k̶e̶ brioche!” – Winter Exhibition 2023

Kaia WLeave a comment

Bonjour! 

Our final project of 2024, that we presented in the Winter Exhibition was about revolutions!

To start this project we read the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, which is actually a metaphor for the Russian Revolution. This book is about animals who revolt against their farmer and take over the farm, led by the pigs, who later start to act like humans and walk on their hind legs. We also participated in book chats, like discussion questions that we talked about in smaller groups. Here are some of the quotes and questions I prepared for one of the book chats.

Discussion Questions

We also learned about Crane Briton’s anatomy of a revolution, which is 4 stages that revolutions generally follow, Incubation, Moderate, Crisis and Recovery. To better understand this, we all made creative diagrams to represent the stages. I decided to compare it to the process of making and eating a pizza. Here it is:

After this we were put into groups based on what revolution everyone would like to learn about specifically. I got to do the French Revolution which was the one I was the most interested in, because I know a lot in the language but I don’t know very much about French culture. To begin, everyone separately researched their Revolution and created an infographic about it, organized by each stage of the revolution. I think that this was a very important step of the project for me, because I learned a lot that helped further in the project, like when I wrote the script or was presenting at the exhibition or just needed to look back to remember details. Here is my Infographic.

After this, everyone in the group shared their infographics and we made a list of the 6 or 7 most significant events during the revolution and then our group combined everyone’s ideas together to choose the 7 key events and a metaphor to represent them. Next, we started planning our Metaphor Machine, a Rube Goldberg machine with each part symbolizing an event from our revolution. My part was the execution of King Louis XVI and the end of the monarchy. To present this, a marble knocked the King piece and a few other pieces off of a chess board, just like how when you kill a piece in chess you remove them from the board. I had a few struggles making sure it was strong and didn’t keep falling apart, but in the end it worked okay. As well, I also had the task for writing a script and was the director of the documentary.  I think I could have made sure that everyone was doing their parts for the documentary and ensured everything was done really well and in time and overseeing the process a bit more, because other than a bit at the exhibition, I actually never really got to see the full documentary.

To prepare for the exhibition, we made documents to plan food and costumes. We had baguette and brie and gouda (not a French cheese which is very offensive apparently ;P). For my costume, I was Marie Antoinette, King Louis’s wife. My friend and group member, Alva, was the king and Mika was the pope. Everyone else represented people from different social classes. Marie Antoinette was known for her funky hair styles, so I recreated this using a pearl necklace and feathers from when I used to have chickens!

We also had a few fun facts like ‘Marie Antoinette didn’t actually say let them eat cake, she said let them eat brioche (a sweet bread)’ and some not so fun facts like ‘A group of printing apprentinces massacred every cat they could find, and on trial the cats were guilty of witchcraft and hanged.’

During the exhibition, our set up and decor and food was pretty good, however our machine kept not working and breaking, and in the end we just kind of gave up. Next time, I think we could have had more back up plans for problem solving or tested it more if there was time. In conclusion I learned a lot about the French revolution and its effects. That’s all for this post!

Kaia out 😛

Grandma – Thriller reflection

Kaia WLeave a comment

Have you ever been decapitated and cooked in your grandma’s pot?

Well a few weeks ago, to continue on the thriller project, we got to create our own thrillers! Before actually starting to plan and make our own movies, we watched several mentor videos. By watching these videos we learned what makes a good thriller. One of the main things I learned was the 3C’s, Contract, Clock and Crucible. Contract is an implied promise at the start of what is going to happen or be solved or fufilled by the end. Clock is the feeling of pressure due to the lack and speed of time. Crucible is the challenges, often of increasing difficulty. We also learned 8 key concepts that contribute to creating an amazing thriller. Having a lot of suspense builds anticipation and keeps the viewer engaged and thinking of what will happen. Thrillers should include a main character – the hero and an enemy, either a real person or just an idea or feeling or problem, as well as sometimes a sidekick for the hero. Including plot twists (unexpected events), red herrings (false alarms or clues), cliffhangers (endings or cuts that leave the viewer without explanation or conclusion of what happened or will happen next) and an exciting climax are also very important parts of making an excellent thriller.

After learning about thrillers, we started to create our own, in small groups and I worked with Alva and Aiya (amazing group members!). After brainstorming, we put together our main idea and created a title, logline and plot overview for our movie. 

TITLE: time for dinner

LOGLINE: On a dark night, Antonio tries to find his missing girlfriend, only to find her where he would have never expected.

PLOT OVERVIEW: (1) There is a TV with a news report about a cannibalistic kidnapper and then the scene cuts to Bella and Antonio, on a late evening stroll down a dim alley. (2) Antonio stops to tie his shoe and while he is looking down, a cane comes out of the bush and pulls Bella into it. (3) Antonio finishes tying his shoe and looks up, realizing his girlfriend is gone. (4) He screams her name and immediately starts running and searching for her, when he trips and falls, landing right beside a severed hand. (5) He manages to get up and keeps running, until he finds her necklace caught on the branch of a bush beside a pathway and looks up at the house and gasps, as he sees a high heel on the porch. (6) He approaches the house with an anxious and confused and knocks on the door and an old woman opens the door a moment later – his grandma. (7) She takes him for dinner and lifts the plate cover to reveal his girlfriend’s head.

After this, we worked on character development. Here are the 3 character charts we filled out.

Next, I created a storyboard and included the timing and audio and angles so that we would be organized for filming and editing. 

After all the planning, we filmed all our clips, however the next day going over our videos, we realized that the clips had weird lighting, angles and audio and in general didn’t look or sound good or professional. As well, Aiya as Antonio looked very weird and funny. So we revised the plot overview and changed the script so that there was no talking, because many of the mentor texts that we liked were the same way. We also changed our film’s title to Grandma, to imply that the old woman seen was actually the main character’s grandmother, without saying so in the film. We re-filmed everything, specifically making sure that the audio and lighting were better. We decided to wait a bit longer before filming so that it would be darker without having to change the exposure. The rain was not planned but I think that it actually really contributed to the dark creepy atmosphere. This time we were all much happier with the quality of our videos. Alva and Aiya found music and sound effects and then me and Alva edited the videos and audio together. I think that our revisions and reflections helped us create a really good horror movie! This is our final video:

In conclusion, this was both a super educational and fun (I love moviemaking) project! And our film was so good that we even traumatized our other friend to walk down that alley in the dark anymore ;P That’s all for this post.

Kaia out!

Loon Lake

Kaia WLeave a comment

Have you ever fallen off a chair? What about off of a chair that’s on top of a table? Well I have, but thankfully I had a team of people who I trusted to catch me!

About a week ago, almost all of the PLP grade 9’s went on a trip to Loon Lake to build leadership and teamwork skills and answer the question “how do the choices we make set our future path?” 

We arrived on Monday afternoon and started by meeting Jono and some of his Pinnacle Pursuits team and doing some ice-breaker activities, which helped me already learn more about my peers. After dinner, we were put into our rooms in the Student Centre. Other than having no lock on our door, the creepy red glow from the exit sign in the dark and about 15 girls sharing a washroom with 3 mirrors and 2 see-through showers, it was a very cozy and warm and comfortable place to stay. Along with becoming closer with people I didn’t know as well before the trip, I definitely also became closer to my friends who I shared a room with!

Anyways, the next 3 days went by really quickly because of all of the fun and engaging actitvities we did, but it also feels like way longer than a few days because I learned so much. This consisted of both outside and inside team building and leadership activities and sessions.

Some of the outdoor activities we did were rock-climbing, orienteering, shelter building, low and high ropes course. During rock-climbing, I think everyone was really supportive and encouraging of each other. A specific example of this is when I was climbing up the easy side, however I couldn’t figure out how to get past the big bulge near the top. Syd, Alva and Maddie had also done the same side as me so they helped me a lot by telling me where to put my feet and hands next, and I managed to get to the top! During the crate stacking challenge on the high ropes course, my entire group collaborated to beat the record of how many crates stacked and we got to 18! At first I wasn’t super confident of whether I wanted to go up or not, but I got the answer to the trivia question (the capital of Yukon) right because nobody else knew, so I decided to go up because being really light and having smallish feet would be helpful for stacking the crates. At first while it was still low to the ground, others added to the stack or passed them to me. Unfortunately, once we got higher we had two problems, which we worked together to solve. First of all, nobody could reach the top or reach my hand and I didn’t think that I would be able to catch them. However, Nate was able to throw them really high and in the perfect place so that I could catch them by their handle. Our other issue was that the two stacks started to lean apart, so people at the bottom basically hugged the stack to keep it together. We continued using this strategy to continue until 18 crates (we didn’t have time to keep going any further). During this activity we also improved on our communication, because we had to communicate strategies, tips on how to catch the crates, asking people to hold the crates together, switching if people got tired and yelling “heads” if a crate was falling.

Inside, we did many sessions with Jono, where we learned about 5 main categories: Internal Talk, Clear Communication, Social Awareness, Emotional Intelligence and Leadership. We also filled out a workbook during these sessions and did some activities. One of the main types of activities that we did was trust falls and not just the normal type. One way that we did trust falls was called Willow in the wind. About 8 people make a tight circle around you and then you fall and they push or pass you around or across the circle. At first I was kind of nervous and uncomfortable, but after other people had turns and the more times I did it, I became more comfortable and trusting of everyone. The biggest trust fall that we did, which I mentioned at the start, was falling off of a chair which was on top of a table into 7 people (and more people to hold the chair). This trust fall required a lot of teamwork and communication to make sure that everything stayed in place and was aligned and that everyone was ready so that the person falling didn’t get hurt. I was one of the last people to go, so I had seen everyone get caught (mostly) and everyone said that it wasn’t painful at all. As well, this was pretty much at the end of the week, so I trusted everyone to catch me, however I was still really scared to fall. The first time that everyone said they were ready I didn’t fall, but after everyone encouraged me and also told me to close my eyes, I fell and it was completely fine. I think that the trust falls helped me to trust everyone more.

One of the things we filled out in our booklets was a little questionnaire to determine what type of leader you are (Challenger, Inspirer, Enabler, Modeler or Encourager). On the first page I answered 30 questions on a scale from 1-5 and then added up my score and my highest score meant that I am an Enabler. I found this activity really helpful, because I’m an overachiever and I like to do a lot of work myself, but now I know how to be a better leader for my specific leadership type. Enablers are good at respecting all group members and promote cooperation , which I think I have always done, but Enablers also involve others in discussions and responsibilities which I can improve on. I decided to make this my goal for what I am going to remember and implement when I return to Seycove. My goal is to use my strengths as an Enabler to be a better leader and involve and support others in the work.

On the final (half) day of Loon Lake, during the morning we worked on preparing a mini exhibition for our parents (which we presented after lunch before going home). My group focused on how pairing your passions with your strengths creates a zone where you are really motivated and a great leader. We created a poster to show this and a short script to speak about our poster and what we learned in this section. 

In conclusion I have learned a lot about teamwork and leadership, gotten to know and trust my classmates a lot more and grown as a person. And I had a lot of fun on this trip (we even had a dance and karaoke party on the last night) too! I’m so grateful to have had such an amazing experience! That’s all for this post!

Kaia out!

Take Someone Else’s Kid To Work Day

Kaia WLeave a comment

Bonjour!

Welcome back to another blog post – this time it’s about the amazing experience I had last week, for Take Our Kids to Work Day. Since neither of my parents have jobs that I can come along with, I went with my friend Alva and her mom to a horse farm in Langley, which is part of Urban Horse Project, the non-profit organization that her mom works for. The goal of the organization is to support people of all ages to interact with horses and the surrounding nature, while also learning and building their confidence, leadership and teamwork. As well, horses are very emotional and therapeutic animals, especially the calm and gentle and sweet horses chosen specifically for this program.

Throughout the day we got to spend a lot of time with the 6 horses at the farm (and we also met a super friendly and adorable puppy and two goats and saw some birds and the chickens) as well as doing lots of chores. One of the first things I learned was how to prepare a brush kit. I learned the names and the types of brushes and what they’re for/how to use them, and Alva and I brushed one of the horses. I also learned the four blind spots of a horse (behind them, on top of them, under them, and their forehead). After that, we scooped their manure out of their enclosure. We also fed them their lunch/dinner and refilled their hay nets. To end the day (other then a quick stop at IKEA for a snack :P), we walked to see the rest of the horse pasture, where we interviewed and had a lovely conversation with Nancy, the co-founder and Executive Director of Urban Horse Project, which you can watch in the video below. This video also includes my reflections on my experience at Urban Horse Project.

I am very grateful to have been able to come along for this opportunity and I had the best time with the sweet horsies! Thank you again to Alva and her mom and Nancy and Urban Horse Project! That’s all for this post!

Kaia out

Run!

Kaia WLeave a comment

Bonjour!

Over the past two weeks in Maker we did another video project, this time recreating a short horror film called “Run.” My group for this project was Sunny, Aidan and Ryan, and I think that we worked well together to create our own very similar version to the original film and then improve even more for our second attempt. 

Before starting the actual filming process, we planned everything out. We decided who would be what character and their costumes and props. I made a list of shots that included the action shown, the angle and the amount of time, and Sunny drew a storyboard. Here is the storyboard:

While filming, we had a few challenges. One problem was that one of our group members forgot a tuque, however he found one in the lost and found. We also had to work around other people on the trails. This helped me learn how to work around obstacles that weren’t planned. After filming all of our clips, I edited the video together and Sunny did the audio. While editing, I had a lot of problems with the clips being too short, so I had to slow them down, which made it look kind of weird. This is our final video, Run 1:

This is some of the critique I gave myself for our final video:

As well, we also gave critique in this format for the other groups. This helped me remember and also learn more about how to give helpful and constructive feedback, especially because sometimes I find it hard to tell people what I think needs to be improved.

After the critiquing process, we got to try again to remake the original video, now with more experience and things to improve on. To prepare, I went over the video list and made sure the lengths were all right and made a list of what everyone needed to bring. While filming, I checked the videos right away to ensure that they were the right angle and length. While editing, I added the original video into CapCut and split it into each clip and then added our videos as overlays, which I think was a good way make sure the timing was perfect. I think that the learning and reflecting processes of this project were really important to creating our actual final video, Run 2:

In conclusion, this was both a fun and educational project.  I learned more video making techniques, as well as sound making. That’s all for this post!

Kaia out