Take your kid to work day 2023

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Take your kid to work day. I had a great take your kid to work day with my mom. My mom is a prop master in the television/movie industry, and we visited some of the laces that supply and make props for her. 

What are a prop masters responsibilities? Well as the head of the props department she has to coordinate with the other departments. Let’s say as an example that a costume a character is wearing has a wrist gauntlet that shoots a dart, even if the dart is CGI sometimes they want a shot of the dart firing. It’s the prop departments job to build the wrist gauntlet and make sure it fires the dart, they also have to share plans with the costume department to make sure it all fits together. Even something small like that can take a few days to make work. Another part of her job is helping design props. If the prop is simple enough or not specialized then they can make in in-house but if it needs complex moving components or a design cut out of metal (as an example, not just that) then they go to places that do that for them. I was lucky enough to visit IRL creative witch is one of those company’s. Places like IRL creative are almost like private contractors in the industry. The process of these “private contractors” making the props is; my mom and her props team talk with the producers and directors and any other department that might be involved, next they take what the director and producers want and draw it out and map out the dimensions, after that they would take it to somewhere like IRL creative and show them the design, the “private contractors” then would use the machines they have to make the prop. A process this complicated is quite common for making props. When I visited IRL they demonstrated one of the many machine they had and it was very interesting, the machine heated up a sheep of plastic then pressed down over an object to make a mole of it, after it had been pressed down the air was sucked out from under it and it became an air tight mold so the replica was exact. As well as IRL creative I got to visit the Prop Shop. The Prop Shop is a prop wear-house that does rentals. Let’s say a show my mom is working on is filming a airport scene, instead of buying 50 suitcases she can just rent them from somewhere like the Prop Shop. This is often a much more cost effective option making it a more popular option, even if you need the suitcases for an extended amount of time you could do an extended rental witch is still cheaper than buying them. My take your kid to work day was a different experience for me because most of the times I have gone to work with my mom I’ve only gotten to see the props in action and never what goes into making/getting them. For take your kid to work day I had to make a video about my experience (YouTube link at the bottom of the page) and I used IMovie for this. To Make the video I took photos and videos at the workplaces I visited as well as interviewing my mom. I learned a lot about what my mom does for work and it gave me the understanding to follow in my moms footsteps if I wanted (I probably wont, I hear the hours suck.) I think that this was a valuable learning experience and I wish we has it two years in a row because I would love to go to work with my dad who is a on-set painter for the movie/tv industry as well. 

Youtube link- https://youtu.be/3TmQRJmOJl8?feature=shared  

Run a remake- reflection

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Run a remake- reflection. 

For the launch of our project we had to remake a video named “run,” linked here (link.) the criteria was we had to replicate a short film titled Run to the best of our abilities. This was a group project and I worked with three of my class mates (their blogs linked here.) There’s a few aspects to reflect on in this project. One of them being the product itself. The final video was pretty good in my opinion. We had had some shaky camera shots during the first draft but when we revised those got fixed. I think we did a pretty decent job syncing ours to the original and it was only a few seconds off at the end. During Sydneys (who played the main character) acting i think he could’ve smiled a little less while he was getting choked out but I still think he did a great job especially since not everybody is comfortable on camera. The first time we recorded the audio for our video it wasn’t super clear and wasn’t in time with Sydney’s footsteps but after the ground frosted over we were able to re-record the audio  and it was much louder and clear. Another thing to reflect on is the teamwork. James, Sydney, and myself worked quite well together while filming and we also collaborated on ideas to improve the video. Hunter was only present for the re-shoots of our video but he helped out where he could. I personally think four people is one to many for this project, although I’m happy with the work my entire group did and all four of us collaborated well at some points throughout filming one person was just kind of standing around waiting to be useful again. I didn’t play the biggest role in the editing of our video but I tried to help where I could, I think the editing aspect turned out well and the speed of the clips and sound effects added made the final product much better. I also liked the filter that was put on the video to make it appear a little more dark and mysterious because in reality it was quite bright during the filming of the video. One ting we had to deal with during filming is the placement of other groups. Because of the limited area we could film in there were a lot of groups kind of lumped together where we were filming and that made it difficult to film certain shots. There were a few times where we were trying to film the running senes and in the background you could see another group filming there’s so that was a bit of a setback at spots. Although I’m proud to present our final product I think there’s always room for improvement. If we could’ve just gotten our video down by 3 seconds we could’ve matched it with the original and then I would’ve been very satisfied. If you watch the original and our remake side by side they actually are quite similar and almost in sync. A lot of other groups had interesting ideas that were super cool but the didn’t match the original as much and I think my group was on of the groups that did it best. This was only the launch of our project witch I find crazy because we just spent the last 2 weeks working on these videos. 

Run! Remake

How does the geography around us shape who we are and how we live?

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Have you ever hiked 17k with 24 other people, I have. This was our first project of the year and we went to Alberta for it. This was a bit of a change from last year considering our last project of the year was the one we went on a trip for. Our Humanities projects driving question is How has the geography of the west shaped who we are and for Maker our question is How might I use the moving image to tell a story. Even though these were two separate questions for two separate classes they ended up basically being the same. See more about the Maker post here – (link) For the Humanities aspect we were focusing on how the geography around us shaped us. We went to many locations and a big part of the big idea involved the CPR. Did you know that without the CPR we here in BC wouldn’t be a part of the country. The entire reason that B.C. Is in Canada is that the country promised B.C. in ten years they would have a coast to coast railway. They needed the funding from B.C. and our government said yes. 

HUMANITIES WORK FROM THE TRIP.

MULTI-TOUCH BOOK.

The major piece of work we did was our multi-touch book. It has information about most of the locations we visited, as well as the videos we made throughout the trip. It also has my five themes of geography comic life. Our multi touch book was the thing that tied the whole project together. It included both aspects from humanities and maker with the videos being in it. I think the book was an interesting way to have all the different pieces of the project in one place.

FIVE THEMES COMIC LIFE.  

Another part of this big project was the comic life. We made a comic life depicting the five themes of geography; Location, Place, Region, Movement, and Human/Environment interaction. In the comic we had to have a photo we took or drew and it had to represent one of the five themes, we had to make one for each of the five themes. We then had to write something to connect the dots about how that photo represented that theme. Comic life was a cool app I got to learn to use and I hope we get to use it again. 

This project was long and hard (ish) and after all that all though I will miss the fun I had in Alberta I’m happy to say with this blog post finished the project is done. 

The moving image.

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Did you know that Banff was Canada’s first national park? I do because I was there. For our first project this year we went to Alberta to do a field study, this is the post for the maker part of this project. Our driving question is how might we use the moving image to tell a story. Although the two subjects (maker, and humanities) are separate they ended up being pretty intertwined on this project, however we have to make two separate blog posts so here’s the link to the humanities post- (link) For maker we focused on videos. Basically every part of the maker aspect of the project had to do with a video. We learned a little bit about videography at the beginning, we looked at different types of interviews for our interview video, we looked at an example for our at home video, and we also got to see a few different tik toks that we could use the same style of for our tik tok video. 

VIDEOS. 

SILENT VIDEO.

The first video we made was the silent video. We went to Three valley gap château and ghost town for the first night of the trip. The criteria for our silent videos was: story must have a beginning, middle, and end, all group members must be in one shot, at least two different settings for scenes, and two other digital enhancements. In my group I was with my classmates James and Kai. During this video creation we learned how we can use actions and sound effects to tell a story without words My groups video is about a man who losses everything in a saloon and then tries to rob a jewelry store, here it is. 

TIK TOK VIDEO. 

For our tik tok video I worked with my friend Lucas. The contents of this video was basically up to us but it had to represent the west in some way. In our video we are punching each other in the face but every time a punch lands the background changes and we did It at a bunch of different locations. The video helped me with my videography skills because I had to set up and figure out the shots for the video. It was the easiest of all the videos to film and each day I filmed only took 1-2 minuets out of my day. It was a fun video and I had fun filming it, here it is. 

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AT HOME VIDEO. 

The at home video was originally supposed to be about who we our in our place but it just ended up being about what inspires me. I got to think about the things in my environment that inspire me. This video was an opportunity to learn more about my self. Over the summer we all did work based about setting goals and what inspires us to set goals. I talked about how the environment around me inspires me to be active outside. I had to use video editing skills to make the video. It’s easy of telling a story of the west I get to tell the story of myself. 

INVESTIGATIVE VIDEO 

The investigative video was supposed investigate a story or idea about the west. We had to come up with a thesis and this was mine “people come to the west for the views but also the difference of geography.” I interviewed a man from Georgia USA who talked about how he came here because its like nothing he could ever see at home he also said the cultural experience here is different. I found that super interesting because Georgia isn’t that far away its just in the country below us. He mentioned how everyone is much nicer here witch I thought was a stereotype but I guess not. 

This was a awesome project and Alberta was super fun. I’m glad the program I’m in gave me this opportunity.

TPOL 2023

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TPOL 2023. 

Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am 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.

My TPOL will reflect my entire year of learning since September. I think I have come a long way since September. My work has improved so much as well as my ability to learn. I’m a much better student than I was at the start.

At the start ill admit that my work was less than accomplished but as the year went on the standards got higher but my work got better. As a comparison one of my first project the outsiders and my latest the ad for HMSC are right below. 

There are a few things in PLP that frustrate me. For example when we have substitutes that don’t know anything about what we are doing. Something else that frustrates me is when we are not informed about an assignment for an example is when we get assigned something and then not told what it is before its due. For the most part I like the way PLP is formulated but I had a bit of a difficult adjusting at first. 

If I were to change something about the work I have done in grade 8 it would be the drawing portion. Whenever drawing is an element in a project I try to do good but the fact is I’m not super skilled at drawing and thats something I would like to get better at. If I had to change something I would redo all the drawings I’ve done that are linked to a project. Again its not that I didn’t try but the drawings could use some improvement. 

What does my work reveal about me as a learner? In all my work I tend to get right to the point and form more basic sentences which you could also see in my notes. My notes are just whatever was stated or whatever I read with barley any context. Its not the best way of retaining knowledge but i find the simplicity really helps me learn. If someone else were to read my notes I don’t think they could make total sense of them. I think this system works for me but I can’t see it working for someone else unless of course the are the ones righting it. 

One of the projects I’m least proud of is geek out page (below) it met the standers at the time but looking back I realize how truly bad it is. There is just so many spots I could’ve done even the smallest bit better. Also I would just like to point out how bad my old blog theme was. It was way to hard to find anything and although it had pages the pages were hidden in the bottom left corner, over all just not a good theme to pick. The geek out page is about something we are fond of or do a lot. I chose physical activity which id like to say a know a fair amount about but I wrote virtually nothing on. With 100% guarantee I know I could’ve done it so much better. 

The blog… The blog is something I have been working in since the start of school. For every project we do we have to write a blog post reflection. So far I have 11 posts. Each of these posts was better than the one before. I think thats a great example of growth in my learning. As well as the content of each post the grammar and dialect in each post has improved significantly. At the beginning I was forming very basic sentences with bland words. It sounded like a robot had written it. I know some of my posts as the year were a bit choppy but for the most part my blogs have evolved to a higher quality. Another thing about the continuation of the blog post throughout the year is length. The length of each post got longer and more information enriched. You can really see the progress of my learning in the blog. I think I’ve come a far way since the start of the year and I think the best way that has been documented is the blog. 

Why do I think I’m ready for the next grade level? I think I have matured not only as a learner but also a person.  I am continuing in PLP for grade nine so it wont be as much as a massive change as it would be if I were switching to main stream. Throughout the year my work has gotten better to a point where I would say I’m ready for grade nine. As well as being completely able to meet the expectations my work might even exceed expectations ever so often. Now for a second I want to stay away from the facts and go more to am I mentally ready to move on? The answer is obviously! I know I’m not always the most mature person but I can pull my self together when it counts. I know I’m ready for grade nine because of how I’ve evolved throughout the year and completed my grade eight learning journey. 

Well, like my grade eight year this post is wrapping up and its some mixed emotions. I have made many new friends this year and with those friends, memory’s. I am happy to say this year has been great and I cant wait to make more memory’s after the break. 

spring exhibition 2023

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Exhibition reflection. 

This being my second exhibition I had something to compare it to and i think we did a lot better this time. Last time we had about a week to prepare and this time we only had three days. I think having less time actually made it better so we didn’t over complicate it. I really enjoyed showing of my project to family and friends but the most inquisitive people were the ones I didn’t previously know. I think the setup was pretty efficient and went smoothly, much better than last time where they changed it the morning of the exhibition. I had a super helpful group and we all worked together super well on everything. I think my presentation could’ve been a bit more in depth but for the most part I liked what I had to say. I told everyone about how the message of the Hatfield Marine Science Center is to educate kids. The only way that the HMSC advertised before this was putting book marks in the children’s library books. That shows that they actually care about educating the next generation. I really liked having the HMSC as my group for this project and I learned a lot not only about marine life but a little journalism and I got real life experience. This exhibition was great and im proud of my work.

The medium is the message (Oregon 2023)

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link to Oregon 2023 book- https://read.bookcreator.com/ebphURztvkauu48bL2ejnqNuelZ2/XYisQMmWTGCSC9rG9B22uw/cmgYc0Y4QlWWo7Phltvapg

Reflection the medium is the message.  

This project was the first I’ve ever done like it (not only because we went to Oregon.) The learning was a bit different because in my humanities block we were missing half the class. The trip was very fun but I also did some learning. I liked going to the Columbia River Maritime Museum and learning about the bar. It was actually one of the things I found most interesting on the trip. I’m not going to get to in depth but its where the Columbia river meets the Pacific Ocean and the pressure from both sides collide creating massive waves. I thought the project was very interesting learning about the different types of media and even how influence can be so strong from social media that it’s basically mind control (I don’t mean that in the crazy person way.) It was super interesting to talk to the people at Hatfield Marine Science Center but even better we got real world experience to interview someone. I think my project could’ve been better and I wish I pushed myself more but I think this project was a really good learning experience. 

 

Consequences of colonization

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Consequences of colonization 

For this project there was three keystones. Each keystone focused on a different part of colonization. We did these keystones to answer the question “what did colonization mean for all involved?” 

For keystone 1 we had to wright an art chart describing what we knew just by looking at the image we chose for the project. The image I chose was a drawing by C.W. Jeffries called The relief at Fort Vercheres. 

For keystone 2 we had to reinterpret the drawing we chose from a different point of view (that point of view being the first nations point of view.) I reinterpreted mine to have a pile of iriquoi body’s to show that the people at Fort Vercheres were actually the bad guys and not the good ones.

Keystone 3 we made a AR video (augmented reality) using the original drawing beside the reinterpreted drawing and explaining the difference. Over all I think it was a very fun project and i hope to do something like it again. 

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b6NXoB9zmnpfAOKCZJfnm3uw

Mind over matter.

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For this project we focused on matter. We learned about atoms and forms of matter. Our first keystone we learned about qualitative and quantitative observations and mass. For the keystone one project we picked a random object in the class and had to find its mass, density, and volume. As well as those three things we had to write three qualitative properties of it. That was fun because we never actually said what the object was and Ms. Kadi had to guess. For the second keystone we learned about the changes of states of matter. The assignment for keystone two was gummy bear diffusion, we had to come up with a question involving leaving gummy bears overnight in a liquid and the gummy bears absorbing that liquid. Our question was does the amount of water affect the size the gummy bears grow to? Short answer is it does not. The final project was making a video game based on what we learned this unit. In my game you are a glass of water and you want to stay as a glass of water by avoiding the snow witch would turn you into a solid and game over and by avoiding the fire witch would turn you into a gas and game over. This was a fun project and so far I’m enjoying science 8

link to the game -> https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/842240098/

Mpol 2022/23

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We are now halfway through the school year! How exiting! Now all of the PLP program has to do their MPOL (mid-year presentation of learning.) The MPOL is focused on reflecting on your first terms work and seeing how I can improve for next term and grow as a learner. 

The first term went pretty well and I think most of the grade adjusted to high school decently. It’s certainly a different experience than elementary school especially PLP because we do things different than the mainstream students and teachers. I picked a few projects that needed some work and a few that I think went pretty good and I will be showing them to you on this post. 

This is my blog and it has been a project that I have been working on since the start of the school year and I will post on it until I finish high school. There were a few posts that I think showcases me well as a learner and some that were not my best work. On my blogs homepage there are two other pages you can go to. One is labeled geek out and the other is labeled about me. 

I think both these pages are what they were supposed to be and showcase my learning, although I think I could’ve done better on my about me page because it is very basic and not to exiting to read. Going into the second term I plan to make my blog post more exiting to read and intriguing because my previous posts have completed the criteria they were bland for the most part. One of the posts that I enjoyed writing and I think other people would enjoy reading is my making interesting images post.

This is the link to making interesting images. https://www.blog44.ca/maxn/2022/11/28/making-interesting-images/

The next project I’m going to tell you about is actually a smaller part of a big project. The outsiders was one of the first projects that we did and I believe we started it in late September. I did complete the majority of the project as it was supposed to be done but there was a role card for the reading part that I know I could’ve done better on.  

 rushed this specific task and it just ended up looking that way. 

Power play. Power play was one of the more recent projects that I did and I think it was a good representation of well done work. Power play was a project that did learning about the feudal system and the order of power back in those days. It was very interesting to learn about how people lived so long ago. I’m very proud of this project and I think it is some of my best work so far. Since humanities is two subjects (socials and english) I have it this term and next term so I’m wondering if we will do something similar, I don’t mean a similar project in the way of the content that we will be learning but I mean it in the way of the style of project. 

Here is the slideshow. IMG_0883

The follow up to the power play project was the crusades project which we finished right before winter break. I’m just going to straight up say it, it was definitely not my 100% best. It met the criteria but I know I could’ve done so much more. I look back and I can see places were even the smallest change could’ve helped so much. I thought I was trying my best at the time but even a few weeks later I know how much better I could make it. 

The user manual. The user manual was a project that I did simultaneously to the big life journal project and I enjoyed creating the user manual. The user manual was the first project I did in my class called maker. It was a great introduction project to get us all exited about the rest of the school year, or at least the term because unlike humanities it does not continue into semester two. The project was only a few days but it might be the most fun project yet. In the post I did about it I say that it was a great way to learn about yourself and while I was not wrong I think the best way to do that is compare your work today to your old work and you can see how you are changing.

I’m looking forward for lots next semester, especially science. I don’t particularly know lots about science but I’m exited to see what I can learn and do in science class. I’m looking forward to having humanities last block so I have time to wakeup before class and its not the first thing I do In the morning. I do love what my class schedule is like right now but it will be fun to have a change.

Well that concludes my MPOL and I hope you had as much fun reading as I did writing