Creating Cards of Confederation – Say That 10 Times Fast

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Cards of Confederation! Never coming to stores near you. Recently in humanities, my business partner, Blondie, and I created a card game involving Canadian nationalism and the confederation. 

After learning what nationalism was we had to find a “current” event that showed aspects of it. I ended up choosing an article about the difference between Canadian’s views on nationalism and the United States view. It also talked about Justin Trudeau saying when the country’s population no longer trusts their government (ie, public institutions), they start to look for their own answers on how to address the problems that the country is facing like lack of jobs/resources, high inflation, government corruption, etc. Some examples of what people might start considering as solutions are closing borders to immigrants (immigrants could take their jobs/housing, and compete in other ways with the citizens); stop trading goods with other nations and more. You can check out the article here! https://globalnews.ca/news/4745341/canada-nationalism-surveys/

To even further deepen our learning of confederation we created our very own simulation of how Canadas confederation came to be. Our class got split up into groups of 3 and each was assigned one of the following colonies: Canada West, Canada East, Newfound Land, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. Blondie, Jessie and I got PEI, and together we thought of what conditions we wanted the confederation to grant and what we could bring to it. At the final confederation meeting we pitched our needs and they were met. So then we officially joined the confederation. You can read my reflection on the simulation:

The last thing we were doing in this project was making our board games. We were split into partners and like I said above I was with Blondie. Blondie had an amazing idea of making a card game. The point of our card game was to join the confederation by fulfilling your requirement card.  You can read more about our game in the rules:

Here are some pictures of the game in action and how it looked like set up.

The driving question of this project was what did nationalism mean for people around Canada. Based on what I have learned from this project, my opinion is…

Nationalism is a group of people with the same ideas, culture, beliefs, values, ideologies etc. It is a sense of belonging between people that create a nation. Nationalism had different effects on each group of people in Canada. For the Indigenous people it was bad news since the people in confederation were white which was looked upon as the superior race. So the Indigenous people and culture were crushed by confederation. In order for colonies to keep growing settlers and colonizers stole Indigenous peoples land to build on without permission. Settlers started creating new infrastructure to help unify the colonies like a transcontinental railway. The railway was a critical part of trade and travel across Canada. Nationalism allowed settlers to feel unified with a shared identity. For colonizers nationalism meant making sure everyone was on the same page as them and reinforcing their control to make sure everyone had the same views on nationalism.

Thanks for reading have a nice day! ❤️

Full Steam Ahead 🚂

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Toot toot..!

In Humanities Ms. Madsen led a project called Full Steam Ahead. We learned about the Industrial Revolution and its impacts on society. The final result was for us to present a slam poem about a chosen impact of the Industrial Revolution. It could be about the consequences of urbanization, the impacts on the workers, environmental consequences and more. 

The first thing we did was deepen our understanding of the Industrial Revolution. We started by reading through some textbook pages and watching videos. Our first keystone was to create two graphic organizers. One about the steam engine and the other of three important innovations that came from the Revolution. 

 

I am not super proud of my steam engine graphic organizer because I got confused about what to put in underlying conditions. 

The second keystone was to write a formal paragraph about a focus of the industrial revolution impacts that interested us. We could choose from this list: 

– the environmental consequences of the Industrial Revolution

– the consequences of urbanization

– the consequences for workers

– the impact on and consequences for war

– the impact on children

– select a specific technological innovation and focus on its impact

I was stuck between the consequences for workers and environmental consequences. I almost did the workers but settled on writing about the environment. The environmental impacts was probably the easiest one to talk about. 

This project was all about the process, I had to create multiple drafts of my paragraph. I started off writing about what I knew and want I needed to know. Then I headed off to start my paragraph. My peers and teachers helped critique my paragraph to make it the best it could be. In the end, I had about 3 drafts. This was my finished result!

“The Industrial Revolution was the starting place of many great things, but it also had drawbacks such as its negative impact on our environment. First off, the burning of fossil fuels like oil, natural gasses and coal resulted in a lot of air pollution. For example, coal which was the main fuel source of the Industrial Revolution, and was used to power the steam engine and factories, created a large amount of soot to be spewed out, in addition to significant amounts of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gasses made the Earth go above normal temperatures, which in turn, impacted the world’s natural biodiversity of both plants and animals and lead to the mutation or extinction of some species. In addition, other toxic threats to plants and animals were heavy metals like lead. Scientists claim that the “Industrial Revolution caused an epidemic of metal intoxication” (source), and the impact continues even into today. Not only did lead make its way into the rivers and other water sources, but so did raw sewage that came from the factories. This was due to the fact they did not have effective protection in the plumbing system to keep the sewage from mixing with water, and unfortunately, people drank the polluted water unknowingly. Also, since machines were replacing human labour, people moved from rural areas to the cities. This made the demand for houses higher, but there was limited land to build on, and so trees got cut down. People also wanted lumber to build, as there was a need for more factories, houses and farmlands were expanding which all resulted in deforestation. Given all these factors, it is said that the Industrial Revolution is one of the reasons climate change began. In the end, while great inventions and advances and enhancements in technology came about from the Industrial Revolution, one must not forget the environmental impacts and sacrifices that came as a result as well.”

I am proud of my paragraph and I do feel like revising it over and over again made it way better and had more of a flow. 

Finally, we moved on to the part I had been dreading.. writing the slam poem. To present what we learned the knowledge we gathered had to be converted into a slam poem. The slam poem would be about the focus we chose as well. I did not know what a slam poem was, I knew it was more like a story-like poem but I had never heard one. In class we watched a video of Shane Koyczan presentinghis poem “To This Day”.  Well watching it I picked up on some characteristics he used to capture his audiences attention. He starts with a little story then slowly eases into his poem. He speeds up at intense parts and raises his voice which creates different moods for each part of his poem he is talking about.

 

 

I had to find a way to make sure I presented my slam poem as powerfully as I could.

Just like my paragraph, I had to revise my poem several times. I am not a huge fan of poetry so it took me a little while to figure out how to make it rhyme and flow.

I called my poem “What Are We Doing?” and this is how it turned out:

I do not like presenting so when I heard that we had to present our poem in front of the whole class I internally freaked out. But on the day off I decided I should just get it over with so I volunteered myself to go 4th! Even though I spoke a bit fast I am proud of myself for taking the jump to be one of the first people. 

The driving question of this project was “How can slam poetry help us connect to issues?”  At the start, I kind of wondered why we had to write a slam poem about the industrial revolution because I didn’t think a poem about coal was going to pull on many heartstrings. But the more I understood the project the more I understood why the end result was going to be a slam poem. Slam poetry allows people to talk about a message they want to share in passionate, and captivating ways. Many people use slam poetry to bring society’s issues to light. Instead of just reading that ice bergs are melting and skimming past article on a newspaper slam poetry channels people’s emotions that they feel to others and it resonates with the audience.

Bye! ❤️

It’s Mpol Season!

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“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.” – PLP POL declaration 

Hellooo everyone it is the time of year that mPols arise. Yipee..!

At the beginning of every year we have to write out a learning plan about what we hope to achieve over the year. At the top there is something called the “Statement of Learning Intent” and again, its about what we strive to get better at. When I read my grade 9 learning intent and my grade 8 learning intent I find it funny that the grade 9 learning intent is kind of just an upgraded version of it. In both I said I wanted to get better at voicing my opinions in groups. I think I am better at that but only when it’s with people I know, or are a little comfortable with. When I was in a group with no one I knew I kept to myself and did not do much. In grade 8 I said I would ask clarifying questions and go to tutorial more. I am doing that! Win for me, and it definitely does help since it’s a more work friendly environment I get more work done.

This year my goal was and still is to not get distracted. It is a pretty basic goal but it is a necessary skill. Being distracted has made me drag on projects that could be done in 30 minutes to being done in an hour and a half instead. That’s why when I write a blog post I usually brain storm it out on paper since paper doesn’t have any apps I can get distracted by. I originally wrote this mPol on my pad then quickly switched to paper and wrote the whole thing out in a notebook. Writing my ideas on paper is one of the habits I wrote I wanted acquire in my learning plan. A part of the learning plan is talking about systems, habits and disposions you want to work on.

Maker:

In maker I stated that I wanted to challenge myself by thinking out of the box. The projects we had were all about creating videos and setting successful goals. 

I do not like setting goals at all, I find I always repeat the same thing over and over. Anytime I have to list my hobbies I repeat the same things. For example we had to write a paragraph about a goal we achieved. I didn’t want to talk about baking or photography but I couldn’t think of anything. I ended up choosing to write it about skiing which I wasn’t super happy about but I was proud of acknowledging that I have to try thinking about other things.

I am also proud of the documentary I created about racism for the vibrant videos project. During this project I got a little lost and stressed about how it would end up. Since we couldn’t just have someone talking for our whole video we needed B-roll which is just overlaying images to add to the story, but since I didn’t know what my interviewees answers would be I was not able to take any since I didn’t know what they would be about. Also, racism is a hard topic to find media that relates to it; a theme like sustainability of nature is easy because you could show the forest. So, I ended up having to draw most of my B-roll. It was difficult not knowing what was happening and not having a firm hold on my project. I did not think I was going to finish my video how I wanted to since I edited it quite slow but I actually did finish it on time and I was content with how it looked. When I got my final grade and I was very happy with myself and I felt successful! I just have to keep in mind to not freak out when I don’t really know what I am doing so I can stay level headed. Because once I cloud my mind with worries and doubts it will be harder to focus and succeed. 

Science:

I was a bit scared for science this year since it used to be scimatics so I didn’t know what to expect. I actually had a lot of fun in science and didn’t struggle as much as I thought I would. In my learning plan I said I find science terminology confusing and that I would research them when I didn’t understand. Luckily, I didn’t have too! Ms Kadi created presentations that clearly explained most of the topics and terminology so if I ever need a refresher I could look back on those. I also wrote notes in class and I doubted I would ever use them but surprisingly I actually did as well. 

Essential Elements:

The assignment was to create a interactive game to teach someone about the periodic table. You could create it on scratch or keynote. I have a bad history with scratch and can never figure out how to use it. It was one of the things I failed at in grade 8. Yet I decided to challenge myself to do it on scratch because you can’t learn how to do things by hiding from them. But that was a bad idea since I failed again. I kept coding and coding so the backdrop wouldn’t disappear and my sprites would stop bouncing off the walls. Soon enough it was time to hand it in and at I still wasn’t done. So at 10pm I decided restart the whole thing on Keynote. As much as I wanted to prove I could use scratch I made it on keynote in no time. I’m proud of myself for trying to stretch myself but next time I’ll just try to make a decision to switch earlier in the day.

Humanities:

In my learning plan I said I wanted to work on my stamina and perseverance when I look for resources. Also, to try to use more advanced vocabulary and seek feedback on projects. I think I definitely achieved those goals when I created a multi touch e-book. It feels like ages since I went on the Alberta trip and looking back on book we had to create I am reminded of I dreaded working on it, but also how proud I am.

The Power Of Geography

 The more I progressed as I wrote the book the more I struggled answering questions. Especially when I had to answer about personal connections of places we visited. Some areas we visited I had 0 connections to, or very small ones which made me have to do extra research. Writing the book was very draining and I doubted that I would ever finish it and even if I did it would look bad; and that is a fixed mindset which is what I don’t want. Now I wonder how do I fix the fixed mindsets I get? I honestly don’t know, but I just need to remember to tell myself I always pull through and finish what I started.

Conclusion 

I looked over what I wanted to grow in for each subject and I think underlying each growth goal the main thing I want to work on is strengthening my research skills. The reason I struggle with research is because I never know where to look, and even when I find stuff I don’t know what to take out of it. My next steps to grow and get better at researching is to create mind maps and pull important quotes from each article I read. Then when I think I have enough I will read through it all and relate it to what I’m working on. Also, instead of just looking at the first few things that pop up and skimming through articles I will read through them throughly and not judge them by first glance.

Grade 9 is going by so fast soon enough it will be my TPol.

Goodbye and thank you!

I Picked Out Tiny Children From a Cauldron

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Welcome back to my epic adventures in the world of science. In this particular project it was all about electricity. Ms Kadi mapped out the plan of the adventure that I followed along with. My mission of the trip was to find out “How does electricity help shape our society and how can we generate it more sustainably?” But before I headed on my expedition I had to learn about a source of energy of my choosing. It could differ from renewable sources like wind energy, hydro electricity etc or non renewable sources like fossil fuels. I chose to learn about solar energy and created a graphic organizer of the knowledge I collected:

My fellow friends also created some too, Dr Blondie made hers on nuclear energy where I learned it’s one of the lowest carbon producing energy sources and it causes far fewer deaths.  

Then we had to figure out how protons and electrons interact with each other to produce static electricity. Remember when balloons made your hair stand up when you rubbed them on your head? Well, as you rubbed the balloon on your head it transferred electrons from your hair to the balloon causing the balloon to be negatively charged. Then with a pop can we did a little experiment to see if you could move a pop can with a balloon that had been rubbed on you hair. I still don’t understand how it worked so I have to figure that out. Here is some footage of how it happened:

We also learned how to measure voltages and amps, we experimented with different items to see what were insulators and conductors. No surprise here objects like pennies, screws, paper clips, etc conducted electricity but things like wood, plastic, and styrofoam did not. The reason for that was because things like screws and paper clips are metals that allow electrons to flow through easily unlike styrofoam which does not allow electricity to move through at all since it has no free electrons.

Sofia, Gwen and I also created circuits with batteries and tested out series and parallel circuits. A series circuit is a simple path for electrons to follow along to a resistor (s). But a parallel circuit has two or more parallel paths for electrons to go through. Here are two examples of how the circuits look like:

This is a series circuit which is less reliable because if one part of it gets broken the whole thing stops working. This is a parallel circuit which works better because even if a part malfunctions energy can still carry on and charge the other parts.

We created some of our own circuits and powered lightbulbs with them like this one:
It was very bright and eventually burnt out (rip lil buddy)

Now to the fun stuff, creating a game that was very similar to the well known game operation. Our game could look like whatever we wanted, for example my friend did Lighting McQueen and pulled out car parts. With materials like a light, a buzzer, tweezers and more I created a board game that works 75% of the time. I had 0 clue what I was going to make my board game look like. But after countless minutes of thinking I settled on creating a witches cauldron that I would pick mushrooms, rat tails, eyeballs and children out of.

The first thing I did was cut holes in the top of my box and add the tinfoil. The tinfoil went on the underside of the lid and I folded it over the rims of the hole so the tweezers could hit it easier when they tried to get the pieces out. Then, I added a light and a buzzer that would vibrate and light up the box when the tinfoil got touched.  Finally I added the tweezers and was done! Luckily enough mine worked first try and this is how it ended up looking:

This is the underside:


This is the top:

Everyday we use electricity, without it we wouldn’t have iPads, phones, computers etc. We wouldn’t be able to use home appliances, we wouldn’t have working traffic lights to guide cars. Electricity charges our everyday life and the more we learn about different energy sources and the more we understand how to use them the more sustainable energy can become. I always thought nuclear energy was very harmful but after we learned about I realized it’s not that bad we just need a way to store it properly. As I learned about solar energy I found that the creation of solar panels is not good for the environment and heavy metals get leached out. So, if people keep researching and finding ways to solve these problems our energy can be cleaner and more efficient.

Goodbye everyone this is my last science 9 blogpost 🙁

I had a very fun time in science and we ended it off with making delicious s’mores!

 

The Quest of Making a Stop Motion

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Once upon a time Sofia and I were in class. We had a quest to create a stop motion. After countless minutes of thinking of what to make our stop motion video about we decided to replicate a Harry Potter scene. Together, well mostly Sofia, we scavenged the bins of lego for supplies. Eventually we gathered enough materials to start our video. We hopped over to the library to start “filming”. After 2 days of countless work we finally finished. This is how it ended up:

Storm The Barricades

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Was the Haitian Revolution effective or ineffective..? Well that’s what I’m here to find out. This project was all about revolutions, more specifically the Haitian, French, Russian, and American revolutions. The original end result of this project was supposed to be a live court trial with two opposing sides arguing about one of the revolutions mentioned above, but it did not end like that…

Let’s start from the beginning of the project; the first thing we did was learn more about how revolutions are structured. We had experienced our own revolution in Nation X, but there are many ways a revolution can be triggered, for example, by an economic crisis, weak or incompetent rulers, government corruption, the sense of being wronged and more.

In class we talked about the Crane Briton theory, and this theory compares revolutions with disease or sickness, like a fever, in that a revolution starts with an ‘incubation’ stage which is when symptoms start to show. And then like a fever, it gets progressively worse (moderate/crisis stage) until your body wins the fight and it goes back down (recovery stage). Also, many can agree nobody wants a fever to start with. To demonstrate our understanding we were asked to create our own representation of Crane Briton’s theory.

Then we got to the point when each person officially picked their revolution to represent in court. If you couldn’t tell by the opening sentence I was chosen to do the Haitian revolution. This is a bit of a sensitive revolution because it is about enslaved people. Keira, Daniel, Sofia, Gwen and Blondie were also picked alongside me. Mr. Harris kindly left links to primary source documents full of information about the Haitian Revolution. Then we put what we thought was the most important information into the graphic organizer. I am proud of mine but I still think I could have made the information on it a bit more detailed and had stronger points. But I did my best with what I could understand.

After that we got to know if we were going to fight for whether the revolution was ineffective or effective for the mock court trial. My group was assigned to fight for the ineffective point of view. Together we gathered evidence that we collected in our affidavit. We had to craft arguments that showed why the Haitian Revolution didn’t improve the circumstances for the people of Haiti 🇭🇹. To be honest I feel like I could have helped gather more information and tried to dive deeper into the research. Whenever I looked for information it had already been used and that made me feel discouraged and at a loss of what to do. Upon reflection, I agree with my friend Gwen, in that I think some of our arguments were just repeated in different ways.

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At this point in the project things started changing. Recently, we had a substitute because Mr. Harris went on a short break to take care of his wife and newborn baby. The substitute was fine at directing the class but many things were happening. The exhibition for Avatar was soon, and we wanted to have a live mock court trial with an audience for this project which would require a lot of set up. Since everything was happening so soon, we had a lot of work to do, which was even harder without our real teacher. So, as a class we had to adapt, and with the help of Mrs. Maxwell, we decided we would create a video of us presenting our evidence about why the revolution was effective or non-effective. Our inspiration was the TV show, Court Cam, and you can check out the video we watched here: https://youtu.be/IkMAZYkwwtI.

After the affidavit was finished, we started creating the script for our video. When that was done we went to the vortex to film our video. It only took a few takes and we were done faster than I thought. I got the lucky role of being the editor of the video since I didn’t want actually be in it. In the end this was our mock court trial video: https://youtu.be/xrQrhkiJDPc

Originally, we had two pieces of evidence and a witness for our evidence that we presented at court; however, our witness’s argument could potentially sound like it was promoting slavery which is not what we wanted and slavery is something that should never be promoted. So we immediately did some edits. When I was quickly trying to edit using  Capcut, it was being very glitchy, so it was very hard to cut some parts out and add text. As I watch the video now I can see so many flaws (eg. the subtitles didn’t get added in and the start of the witness being called to stand did not get cropped out). I know they are not too noticeable, but I feel as if I let my team down because I was the editor. Note to self: double-check your work every-time. 

The driving question for this project was “How did revolutions bring down empires and change societies around the world?” Simply put, revolutions surface in the face of a crisis. They involve organized movements that may involve aggressive actions to gain and overthrow the government. The point of revolting is to create change when it feels like the government is being unfair. Britannica states that “Revolutions can sweep away the old order. Unlike coups and rebellions, revolutions can cause radical changes in the institutions of government and bring about basic changes in society as a whole.” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/collective-violence/Coups-rebellions-and-revolutions) When people have a sense of being wronged and feel like their needs aren’t being met they want a change in the government. Revolutions can start as a result of a change in people’s beliefs and values, or they can end with a change of values and beliefs. Suffice it to say, we wouldn’t be where we are today without revolutions.

Avatar Winter Exhibition ❄️

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Woah, it’s my first post of 2023, yet I am reflecting on the project and winter exhibition from 2022. In class we watched the movie Avatar, which came out in 2009, and did you know it took 15 years to complete the movie? It was worth it though because Avatar was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 3.

Now, there are definitely a lot of layers to this movie and as a class, after watching it, we pulled themes from the movie that we felt related to the real world. Then we each picked one theme to create a short documentary about. The themes to choose from were:

Augmented Reality

Imperialism + Colonialism

Corporate Greed (Corporate interests outweighing local rights)

Sustainability/Destruction of Natural Environment over Humanity’s interests

Racism – Lack of understanding for different cultures/ways of being

Militarism

Spirituality/Beliefs

Exploration – Terrestrially/Space Travel

Connection Community/Culturally

Oppression – Forced Evictions

Originally, I chose the theme corporate greed, but after a couple of classes I realized I wouldn’t be able to create a video around it, so Mackenzie and I chose to switch themes from corporate greed to racism. After I switched I started brainstorming ideas for my film and I knew I wanted my documentary to show how racism affects peoples’ lives and shapes their identity.

Every film needs a story board to get one’s ideas out, but in our videos we needed to have b-roll, and without having an interview done yet I didn’t know what my b-roll would be (b-roll is basically just images that are presented on the screen that help tell the story.) As a result my storyboard ended up unfinished.

Since I was done planning my film I needed to find an interviewee who had experienced racism. I started thinking of people I could interview but got stumped, then I thought I could ask my dad; however, I really wanted to hear from someone new or who I didn’t know much about. Luckily, my mom reached out to her friend and colleague named Shelly and I ended up securing an interview with her. Although, this did change the whole direction of my documentary. Shelly is a teacher so when I knew I was going to interview her I changed some of my interview questions to be more directed to schools and how kids can be better educated about racism.

I am thankful for Shelley opening up and sharing her experiences with me. What immediately struck me was how surprised I was to hear her stories and how racism is more common than I thought and how it can come in many forms. What stood out most was that even in Shelly’s many years of teaching she has not seen many people stand up against racism.

Upon reflection, this project has helped deepen my understanding of my role and responsibility in fighting against and interrupting patterns of racism. Even if it is awkward to try and take a stand to interrupt racism it is important to let people know they aren’t alone. Another thing that grounded me is hearing that her first experience with racism was at my age. I thought it was more adults experiencing racism, as that is what I have seen more on the news. Shelly and I talked about how it’s only been the last few years that racism has been intentionally addressed at schools. Our conversation reminded me I am not immune.

After I interviewed Shelly I was quickly off to start editing my final video on the app called Capcut. It took me a few days to finish it but I finally did! Here it is:

Of course there was an exhibition right around the corner and all the different themes were represented. In the racism group there were Susan, Mackenzie, Dylan, Sofia, Silas, Keira and myself.

Every movie theme had their own room where their work would be showcased. Each room also had a different setting, and while I forgot to take photos of most of them here are some examples:

Because the racism group was quite big we got split up into two groups; Sofia, Dylan, Keira and I got to decorate and present in the back of the library and the other half presented in the front. To keep the exhibition fun and engaging we had to create a game for our room. Since there were 2 racism groups we decided to make the games similar but we also wanted to make things purposely more difficult and with less advantages for one of them. The Blue Room’s (my group) game was going to be more difficult than the Anything But Blue Room, which was in the front of the library where Susan, Silas, and Mackenzie were. This was to demonstrate the inequality of society and how people with differences are treated as lesser. Our room had the disadvantage and it related to the driving theme of our room which was: James Cameron’s fantasy world of Avatar reveals that often times, people of different races are oppressed.

Before we started decorating the actual room we needed a layout. But we didn’t create it on our own. During particular classes we were given the opportunity to collaborate with some of the grade 8s. The grade 8s in my group were Tate, Caelum, Lucas, Gabby, and Hazel. I am not super familiar about what they had to create, but from what I know they decorated a shoe box to represent a theme from Avatar just like our documentaries did. Of course, all the grade 8s in our group chose the theme racism.

The grade 9s also painted viewing boxes that we put our iPads in, so the sound would be projected in the box. On the day of, we pulled our room together and it ended up looking pretty good in my opinion. It was kind of hard to take photos of our room since everything was quite busy but here are a few photos from the exhibition: My friend Gwen and I with our boxes!

Overall, I am proud of what we pulled off, as this project was go, go, go and I narrowly got everything done on time. I enjoyed working with the grade 8s and they did a great job at the exhibition. I am going to finally address the driving question of the project: “What does James Cameron’s fantasy world of Avatar reveal about our society today?” First of all, Avatar reminds us that society is full of inequality, for instance, many people with power think they have all the control. This is seen in the movie when Colonel Miles Quaritch doesn’t listen to any of the scientists who think making the Na’Vi move locations and ruining the environment is wrong. His greed for obtaining the unobtanium, which is an expensive mineral, to make money is something we see in our society regularly. For example, often in politics it’s hard to know or trust who is telling the truth as often it appears certain politicians are greedy for power or wealth. Sometimes we question whether they acknowledge the voice of everyday citizens and so conflict happens. An additional example of comparing Avatar to today’s social inequality is that it also could be seen that the dominant culture (humans) think it automatically has the power to get the minority (the Na’Vi)  to conform and adjust to their ways.

Another real life connection I can make is to the Coastal Gaslink pipeline situation. The Wet’suwet’en’s humans rights are being violated by the construction of the pipeline. The Wet’suwet’en people were offered no prior consent that the pipeline was going to be built on their land which shows the disrespect to indigenous people. A similar thing happens in Avatar, where the humans wanted to get the unobtanium and had not asked permission or consent to do so. The humans ended up killing many Na’Vi and destroying nature by forcing their way to get to the unobtanium which was also located under the home tree where the Na’Vi were living at the time. The prioritization of human interest over the sustainability of our environment is also seen with the Wet’suwet’en, as explained in the article, Canada: Construction of pipeline on Indigenous territory endangers land defenders which states that one of their last source of clean water and salmon spawning grounds is the The Wedzin Kwa River, may be comprised by the pipeline.

The same themes that are shown in the first movie Avatar are also continued in the second movie called Avatar: The Way Of The Water which came out December 16th, 2022. In Avatar: The Way Of The Water the humans killed the Tulkan. They killed the Tulkun to get a single dose of a fluid that stops aging that’s worth 80 million dollars. Then they left the Tulkun in the ocean along with their equipment used to kill it. This is similar to when they wanted to get the unobtanium for the money. This is another example of prioritizing what humans want over sustaining the environment and its natural resources.

To wrap up the project we went to the movie theatres to watch the new Avatar in the theatres 8:30 am. We, as in all PLP classes (minus a few people who didn’t go) it was a very full theatre but I enjoyed watching the movie and hanging put with my friend’s afterwards. Thank you for reading!

Becoming an Amazing Cinematographer

Maker 🎨Leave a Comment on Becoming an Amazing Cinematographer

You know the block buster moves like Star Wars, Titanic, Avatar and others? Well guess what, I made some movies just as good as those. 

How I became so talented was through a project in maker called Everyone Has A Story. Throughout the project I had to create many videos using different shots and angles. Let’s dive in to my journey of becoming an epic film maker! 

The first video I had to create was about what inspires you. We had to create a video on clips telling a story about the things we like to do and how they inspire us. To help brainstorm ideas for the video we filled out this sheet that was all about ourselves and what we like doing, our talents and skills etc! 

This definitely did help me create my video, one thing I would change is that I think I could have told more of a story throughout it. If you would like to watch my video here it is!

The next video we had to create was about telling a goal getters story! Besides just making videos in this project we also read a book called “What Do You Really Want”. There is a section in the book all about kids achieving a goal. We could make our video about one of those goals or our own goal getter story. I wrote mine about skiing. 

For the video we had to make it a silent film on the app clips. But it wasn’t on your own it was a group project! I was with Sydney, Keaton, and Keenan and we chose to do our video about Sydney’s goal getter story. Her story was about creating a Wanda costume for halloween which you will see in our video:

We had to take a little pause on maker because of the mini exhibition we were having for our books we made about the geography of the west! You can read more about it in my other post called Wandering Around The West.

After we finished that we got right back on track with a new assignment that actually wasn’t a video it was a goal ladder! I wrote my goal ladder about wanting to achieve practicing piano efficiently. Practicing piano is more of a habit then a goal so I think to make it more of a goal I could have said I want to know all my scales by heart and I could have tied in practicing that way!

Finally the last video we had to make could either be about how to set goals, how to be a goal getter, or how to stay on track. Again, we made this video in a group! My group was Keira, Frankie, and Jasper. We chose to do our video about how to set goals and used the acronym S.M.A.R.T which you can learn more about in our video:

All great movie makers have to reflect so I am going to reflect on the driving question: “How can I use my video skills to tell a story?”. To tell a story you have to have a beginning middle and end! Also, with the different skills I have learned like editing, collaborating, and different angles it can enhance the story as well. I still need to work on getting better at telling a story but I know if I make storyboards that are easy to understand to help me I can do it. 

Stay tuned to see what more amazing movies I create! I bet they will be in the movie theatres soon enough. Thanks for reading!

All I Wanted Was Some Lemonade.. But Then I Died

Humanities 🗺Leave a Comment on All I Wanted Was Some Lemonade.. But Then I Died

“As the dust settled slowly the bodies came into view… all marked with bright pink sticky notes saying death.”

09/24/1786

Hello, I am Kira, A peasant at the bottom of Nation X, at least for now I am. My fellow peasants and I have been forced to write 100 words of how our life is going with the pencils we sharpened. There is trash everywhere and we have to pick it up as for we are the trash collectors cleaning up the garbage wealthier groups have left.  

Our nation has 4 groups, group A, group B, group C and group D. Group A is where I am, we are the peasants who slave away. Group B own the store that sells the food and goods. Group C is the law enforcement that runs the jail. Finally we have group D the kings and queen they rule over us all and decide what happens to us all. 

I am quite new to this society I’m not really sure what’s going on.. but we have got the news for today.

I’m not aloud to talk to groups C and D without them acknowledging us first I also can’t even walk in their territory. This makes me scared to talk to anyone as for I don’t want to go to jail. The day is almost over but I want to buy something from the store. There is lemonade and various goods like Smarties and other things. Yet I don’t think I’m going to able to I only have a dollar as my pay. 

It is almost curfew I must go, I am not sure I will sleep though as for I have heard freedom will come. Good bye diary. 

09/25/1786

My group has told me to not go along with our tasks which I find is a bit dangerous. We are rebelling against our king and the law I wonder what will happen. I do like not having to write 100 words about my life and having to pick up germy trash. 

We got the paper for the day again and I’m a bit shocked. Nation x is out of cash because groups C and D have been ruthless and haven’t thought of all the cash they are spending. Group A and B now have to pay 1$ for tax now.. and all I get as my pay is 1$! Somehow I was stolen from yesterday so I am still very very poor. 

I’m going to attach the news paper again so you can read more.

Not much is going on today no one is really caring that we haven’t done our tasks. My friend blondie said she heard that group C and D wanted to meet with us and wonder what for..

I’m getting a bit sleepy I will update you, diary, about what tomorrow brings. 

09/26/1786 

Today was very chaotic, I am not feeling my best.. this world is coming down on me. Blondie, Keira and I sent a note to group D asking if we could have the right to walk around freely. Thankfully they thought about it and now we are allowed to walk around nation x wherever we want!

Even though The king agreed to let us wander anywhere we want he is really getting on my nerves. In the papers there is always a paragraph about how amazing he is (he’s such a ninnyhammer). Speaking of the papers here is todays:

 

Everything is becoming more pricey, luckily we have been given 2 dollars a day instead of one. I know it doesn’t sound like much but it makes me feel better having a bit more money in my pocket. (Not that I can buy anything though the food prices keep being raised!). I am worried about what the stores going to end up having. 

Also, we are still not doing our task and not many people have noticed which is a bit funky to me.

One of my fellow citizens tried to over run the jail by stealing the sign and making it just a lonely building. He succeed for a few minutes till he was caught.. then put to jail. The jail doesn’t do much because group C always forgets to keep an eye on it so people just escape. I’ve never been put in jail and I don’t plan to be. 

Oh my I forgot to say the most important thing I heard all day.. I was going on a little walk around the store and I heard:  “the sewer system is busted and waste has started to pile up. Some members of our community have begun to get sick.” I am very nervous for tomorrow I don’t know how much longer I will last. Goodbye diary see you tomorrow. 

09/27/1786

I can’t bear this any longer, this is my last diary entry before I pick my fate. I have been sold to group B, the only difference from my old group is that I don’t have to sit on the ground anymore.  I don’t do anything here in group B the store has ran out of goods and the only things that are being sold are the weapons group D holds within their territory.  

I keep hearing whispers among the different groups. Everyone is going to circle around group D and attack. I am worried this isn’t going to end well. Throughout the whispers I also hear that Group D has the cure to the disease that has been spreading like crazy. Oh yea.. I had the disease and was but into isolation. Luckily the queen gave me the cure and I am now healthy. 

In the news article I read that Nation Y is making moves towards us. I am not sure what that means but that will not effect me for much longer. Dear diary, today I am going to end my life. My companion Keira and I are going in seek of a weapon to un-alive ourselves, wish us luck. Oh and if you want here is the last news article I will read well I’m still here.

We did it! Keira and I asked the jail guard to stab us and after a little convincing they obliged. It feels strange to be dead but now I don’t have to worry about my responsibilities in the society; not that I did them though. 

Things are getting heated, I think everyone is going to swarm group D soon. The king and queen have left leaving only one member of group D left to fend for themselves. I am writing this as it happens before my eyes. They are surging forwards now.. it is very graphic. I think someone bonked a persons shoulder.. how violent. 

As the dust settled slowly the bodies came into view… all marked with bright pink sticky notes saying  death. Im glad I died instead of being trampled on in that fight;  Nation X has fallen apart it is now Nation Y. My eye caught a glimpse of this paper its a bit blood stained and it is the last news that the king sent out. Even with the disease killing people the king still talks about how great he is, oh well.

 Almost everyone has died and I think I want to explore the world as a ghost now. I also want some lemonade because I never got any before I died. Goodbye for real diary and thank you for being here I hope one day someone will read you and hear about my life in Nation X. 

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Wow that was kind of difficult to write but also very fun. I forgot a little bit of how the days went so it took me a while to remember. What you just ready was the diary of my life in a simulation we had for humanities! This was just the start of our project so stay tuned for my next blog post for humanities. (Spoiler its about revolutions). 

I wasn’t able to take many photos but here are some! 

  • The money we used

Thank you for reading bye bye ❤️

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