Video⬆️(You want to read this for an understanding first)
On August 6th, 1945 at 8:15 am the U.S. B-29 Flying Fortress Named Enola Gay dropped the first ever atomic bomb on the costal Japanese city Hiroshima. This project was about how the world has changed since that day.
Our driving question was “How did the development of the atomic bomb alter the world we live in today?” Now this post isn’t really about the project itself, it’s actually about my learning during this project. So what did I learn?
World War Two is something I have always been interested in, while I find history quite enjoyable my favourite history subsection so to speak had always been the World Wars. I feel (and I’m sure this is true of many) that I always retain information and stay a lot more engaged when I care about the topic. I found the paying attention in class part of this project quite easy, now I’m aware that’s no crazy feat but that is definitely something I struggle with so its a win regardless.
Learning about Oppenheimer and the bomb’s creation was quite interesting to me but the part I found the most interesting was the moral dilemmas that were experienced and worked through. Oppenheimer’s “I am become death” speech was very interesting to see and It showed the effect of what creating such a power could do to a person. In the future if I have the opportunity I would definitely like to focus on the morals of an event, whatever that event may be.
The final product of our project was a animated explainer video to answer the driving question. Within that we had a smaller individual driving question we came up with to have our subtopic to focus on. My subtopic was the medical advancements that were derived from such a devastating and destructive weapon. By no means was I trying to make light of the atrocity of Hiroshima, I was trying to focus on how even from the worst of the worst can come good. I personally thought that the topic itself was good but I think I could’ve been more prepared when doing my research. It was quite thorough and focused solely on my subtopic, I would’ve liked to have more connections to the over all theme but I feel I still hit the mark.
If I had more time I would’ve made every single slide and excellent drawing to animate but as the clock ticked down so did the amount of time put into each scene. Near the end the animations became more boring and not as unique but I do not think they fell beneath the standard.
In the end it was a very fun project that I really enjoyed and it seems I have said that in a lot of these outros recently which means maybe im just liking my learning more! I hope that’s the case. Anywho I hope you liked reading at least as much as I liked spending my Tuesday night writing this. Goodbye for now!
I think we all knew that Canada isn’t the 51st state, but why is that, how are we our own? For the final project and spring exhibition this year that’s exactly what we talked about.
This project started off strong with another way to take notes… shocker PLP is introducing yet another way to keep track of ideas but who am I to complain when most of the time I do my projects but can’t even remember in what application I did so… Zettelkasten wasn’t even that bad I just found it strange that they would introduce yet another way to take notes after we spent so much time using and learning smart brevity. I think my Zettelkasten was alright but I could’ve cared more to be quite frank. I’d like to continue using Zettelkasten because I find we sometimes do projects that reference ones from the past so I believe in at least my PLP career it will be quite useful.
We also did a conversation highlight where we were supposed to record a conversation and choose highlights from it to post to Showbie. I did have a conversation however I did neither record it or post anything to Showbie so I took a fail on that portion of the project.
My speech😬. The speech in my opinion was actually alright but it could’ve been more prepared and rehearsed, I think it was more about the delivery than the content. I actually do enjoy public speaking and I’m a little upset of the turn out of that portion of the project, I wish I would’ve done better but I mean you live you learn, not much I can do about that. I would love to have the opportunity for another chance in the future as I find that speaking is actually a strength of mine.
The final.. the last thing we did for this project and pretty much for the year was the exhibition. Pared with a Canadian themed flash mob we created “skits” about a topic from Canadian history. My group chose the 1956 Suez crisis which I found quite lucky because I already had a knowledge base on it from my speech that was not that long ago (a few days.) in my opinion the exhibition was my best work of the project and while in the past I haven’t always contributed a ton to my exhibition group I feel I did my fare share for the group. It was really fun and I know that’s many disliked the flash mob but I actually enjoyed it. For those who know me it might come as a shock but I actually do like preforming (that was a joke if you don’t know me, I’m not shy in the least bit) and although others felt like it was torture I can say it was one of the best parts of the project in my eyes.
In the end this project was not my proudest of the year and Im honestly kind of ashamed of some of my work. I’d like to strive for better in the future and I hope I get the chance to try doing a speech again with an improved delivery. Who am I to complain the year is almost over and this being my last post of grade 10 is sentimental, I thank you all for coming on the journey of my grade 10 academic endeavours. For the very last time in grade 10 thank you and goodbye🥲.
This is a reflection of how I have grown as a learner since the start of the school year, so lets take a look at my learning journey.
As the year went on I advanced as a learner and I feel I started to care more about the work, as an example let me compare my “who cares why bother” videos and my change makers video.
For the who cares why bother videos although I was the one in the videos I did essentially nothing, the planning writing and editing was done by my group and I didn’t even care to fully memorize the lines and read of a script and it was quite evident in the videos. However for my change makers video I was quite enthusiastic on learning how to create good videos without the help of the other film geniuses in the class. I am very proud of the outcome of this project although I think I was more invested in the project because we were in Florida at Disney World but I’d like to keep that enthusiasm up for future projects.
I’d like to touch on my vision, mission, values statements as I think it would be a great way to demonstrate if I have hit my learning goals or not.
One of my main goals this year was get better at math and while I did end up understanding more than last year I was not able to bring my grade up to the desired level, however I am not failing so a win is a win. My mission was to be consistant with my work, seek help, and balance my priorities. Despite the outcome I feel I did do those things and had a pretty decent school year. Balancing my priorities is a big one because of how invested in sports I am but I have tried to make sure my school work is always in on time and for the most part I think I have been mostly successful in distributing my time between commitments.
Throughout the year we have done many a project through the different PLP classes and I’d like to talk about the hits and misses of this year.
Hit: Ology Of Apology
For this project we created memorials to recognize an atrocitie of Canada’s past. I had the Chinese Head Tax and created a walk-through memorial that demonstrated the oppression the Chinese immigrants faced. I thought that this project went quite well and the group I had had a pretty equally distributed workload. I though this project was quite interesting and I really do love learning about history, it happens to be my favourite sub-subject in school because it isn’t its own class and falls under the social studies category. I really liked this project and I thought it very much so broadened my Canadian historical knowledge.
Miss: Swipe Right For Tradegy
This one I also quite liked but sadly for me it was a miss because I wasn’t able to be there for the performance. I got quite sick that day and didn’t come to school at all. While I thought it was a very neat way to do a project basically entirely leaving it up to the groups I also thought it was unstructured at some points. In the end it really came together but again I wasnt present so I can’t really say im proud of it.
Hit: Healthy Ever After
I really enjoyed the healthy ever project, I find that videos tend to be my favourite type of project to do. It was really easy to feel inspired for it because physical activity is something I really like doing. I think that video is probably the most well reasearched and though out thing I have put together all year and I just really need to find a way to transfer that passion over to topics I dont find as interesting or fun to learn about such as the Atomic Habits project, which is a nice segway to the next “miss.”
Miss: Atomic Habits
I can’t lie this is probably my least favourite project of the year. I dont have an issue with habits or trying to change habits but I thought it was a bit of a strange this to do a project on but I can see where the teachers were coming from on it. I didn’t try my hardest and barely got the book done on time. I have a much harder time putting effort in on project I dont care about as much but regardless I think my board game turned out all right. It went through many different staged of development and didn’t look its best for most the creation process. If I could change one thing from this year it would be to go back and make it much better, possibly even come up with a different idea for the project.
Blog posts:
In my opinion over the course of this year my blog post. Have definelty developed into being more entertaining and eye catching which had been a problem for me in the past. At the start of the year they were basically boring chunks of words that explained what I did and a few things I took away from the project, which is fine if you are a boring lifeless person but I am not. I started encorperationg hooks and fun lines that made the blogposts enjoyable to read and it made them not sound so forcefully created. As an example Ill give you the starting line of the first blog post of the year compared to one more recent one.
The start: What role did the conflict of World War Two play in shaping Canadian identity? Well it… actually.. we will talk about that in a little bit.
The end (of the year not the post): How did we use a satirical radio play to communicate the shits in Canadian society following WWll? Well obviously with our voices but lets dive a little deeper than that.
Now at the surface these titles may look similar but the first one was just me saying the driving question then saying I’d address it later whereas the newer one added in a comedic line to try to get the reader invested.
I really don’t think many people are reading these blog post for their own enjoyment however I do think that this would be a great reasoruce for a college application so I will continue to strive for nothing less than perfection when it comes to my PLP reflective blog posts.
Now here are some of my favourite posts this year:
Most people who will be reading or lisenteing to this know me enough by now to know what my biggest struggle is. Every report card I have had since the early years has had the same theme, Max shows great potential but he needs to stay focused and sadly I can quite confidently say that my report card this year will say the same thing. It’s not like I dont get my work done because I do its just that if getting distracted in class made me money I’d be the richest man alive. If you were to find me anywhere in the classroom it would be at my friends desks talking instead of working. I know I have to work on this and I will continue to do so.
Well after all that its time to answer the driving question: “Why do you feel you are ready to move to the next grade?” And after some consideration I think I have the answer. I dont think I will be ready until I am actually in grade 11 and I believe the summer plays a huge part in the development of me as a learner. I know this isn’t how it is for most others but let me explain. I tend to live in the moment for the most part and while I feel like my grade 10 life is complete I wont be ready for grade 11 until grade 11 because I need the time over the summer to fully realize the year I have just been through, it happens to me every year and I am never ready until the first day of school when I can look back and go wow I just did a full year of school took time off and had a great summer and now I really am on that next level. I dont know if that makes sense to anyone but honesty is the best policy and I’d rather say how I feel than make up some fake statement about how I was ready the moment I handed in my last peice of work this year.
Phew, now that my tPOL is done your tears of joy that its over can finally be let out. All jokes aside I’ve had many people tell me I’m not the same person I was at the start of the year and I agree and to all of those who helped me on that journey I am greatful. Grade 10 me is practically no more so for almost the last time, thank you and goodbye.
Have you ever gone to Disney world for 9 days for school? Crazy idea I know but not only was it really fun but it was also educational. If you want to know how then keep reading.
We went to Disney Word Orlando from May 2nd to the 10th And it was the best PLP trip I have been on yet. Our project focused on “change makers” and how Walt Disney was truly one of the greatest change makers. I was in the People Power group for this project and we had the driving question of “how does creativity and collaboration lead to unforgettable experiences” and within that we had to find our own focus. I came up with “How do teams across careers work together to design entire immersive lands—and how do guests experience that sense of actually being in another world?”
Everyone made a video showing an answer to their own question and that demonstrated their learning, I was proud of mine and liked it but there were a few things I could’ve done better. For one the mic could’ve been placed farther away from my neck during interviews and my intro, it needed up distorting the audio and making it loud and grainy. Another thing (not quite about the video) is that during the movie night I was fully confident I had memorized my small speaking part for the intro having recited it from memory just before but as I get to the front of the audience I couldn’t remember my first line so I’d like to be more prepared in the future.
I’d imagine you’re at least the smallest bit interested in this project if you’ve continued to read this long so I want to share some other learning evidence I have from this project. Beneath are both my Walt Disney smart brevity and investigation chart which helped in different ways. The Walt Disney smart brevity was created to help develop a base understanding of Walt Disney and his ideas to help with the project while in the park. The Investigation chart helped narrow down what exactly I wanted to focus on for this project and as sated above I landed on an idea centred around guest experience.
Now Im sure you’re just dying to see this video by now but real quickly How do teams across careers work together to design entire immersive lands—and how do guests experience that sense of actually being in another world? Well Disney creates unforgettable experiences by treating the entire park like a stage. Creative teams design the world, and cast members bring it to life by staying fully in character. It’s that level of collaboration—from big ideas to the smallest actions—that keeps the illusion alive and makes the magic feel real.
Ok now finally just because you’re definitely exited to see it by now, the video-
“Wow so you really went to Disney World and learned stuff!?” Yes that’s exactly what happened and now you know how. 10/10 trip would do again. Goodbye for now.
How did we use a satirical radio play to communicate the shits in Canadian society following WWll? Well obviously with our voices but lets dive a little deeper than that.
For this project we had to create a radio play as well as some notes and a paragraph about the movie Pleasantville and it was actually quite fun! We started with a bunch of videos of post WWll Canada and we used those as base knowledge for the radio which was set in that time period. The notes were nothing special but still another chance to improve my note taking skills for all future projects, I also did learn some interesting things.
I was absent from class during the actual watching of the movie so I was unable to write a paragraph about it, I was going to rent it but my dad didn’t want me to🤦♂️. I did however read some notes on the movie and even though it wasn’t nearly helpful as watching the movie it still gave me the right idea for the vibe we were going for.
The main part of this project was the writing and preforming of the radio play and I was one of the commercial writers for the play. There were 5 acts with two scenes in each act and after every act there were two commercials that increasingly got raunchier as the world in the radio play was changing. This was my favourite part of the project and I had a lot of fun writing my commercial. The skills U used were slightly different than all the other writing I’ve done in my PLP career and it was more creative i’d say. I think this really helped develop my creative writing skills and I’m excited to do more in the future.
How do we use a satirical radio play to communicate the shifts in Canadian society following WWll? We used a satirical radio play to show how post-WWll Canada was shifting by mocking old values and showing how things got weirder over time. The scenes and ads slowly got more unhinged, just like the society they reflected.
I was unable to be there for the actual play itself therefore I have no speaking part in it but give it a listen anyways! It was a fun project and I hope to do more like it in the future. Thank you and goodbye.
For this DI tournament our destination really was imagination. It took place on a hot sunny day and I really was imaging that I was outside enjoying it, ok ok all jokes aside lets reflect.
Its safe to say DI although a useful learning experience is generally frowned upon by the students competing and teachers organizing. Don’t get me wrong it was fun and the teamwork and creative skills I developed will definitely benefit me in the future but c’mon it was a Saturday that we all spent at school doing work to some extent.
This tournament was quite a change for my team from the last one. The regional tournament was a sad experience for my group, nothing really worked and we were lacking in most departments but I’m happy to say this one was quite the opposite. Last time my groups machine failed and some group members broke out into laughter but this time I don’t think it could’ve gone better. The lead up wasn’t much different, I’d even say we were less rehearsed than last time but something just changed and we managed to get through it and prosper.
There were a few things that worked for us. Now that its over I can say it but the whole day was supposed to be very structured and my group had a day that focused more on fun and we just kinda “locked in” so to speak when it was time. Everyone was accountable for themselves which in a way added up to a collective group accountability and I mean I can’t really say much more than we just tried as much as we could and it worked.
There was maybe the slightest room for improvement in the way that I didn’t meet up quite on time for our first rehearsal of the day but my group wasn’t too upset and we moved on. In the future across all projects I would like to recognize that its not just my time but also my groups time I could be wasting.
I think we came really far not only as a team but people as well and I’m proud of everyone and the work they put in that lead us to first place in our challenge and instant challenge. Go Carnival Crooks!
How can you live a life that is healthy ever after? Well my class was tasked with answering that question through video format and I came to a conclusion!
My start to this project was a few days late after returning from a spring break trip a few days after school started but other than that it was smooth. Physical activity has always been something I love and so I liked the idea of this project.
My focus for this project was physical activity and I decided to create the “Ultimate fitness plan” which consisted of 5 steps to become healthier through eating and working out.
Here’s the actual video itself-
For the project we had to complete a workbook which has our overall idea and also the steps to completing our product. I honestly did put as much effort as I should’ve into the workbook and I feel like I would have benefited more if I did. The workbook itself was a great way to track ideas and it also payed out how to get to a final product quite well.
Apparently this project relates to the PLP programs upcoming trip to Disney World although I’m not quite sure how that will work so I can’t really say much on that topic.
We had to do lots of research for this project and I did it in a way I wasn’t really used to. Instead of having a topic and researching it I had to do my research and kind of build my topic around that and for that new look on how to do things I’m grateful.
Over all this project sort of played to my strengths and that’s why I enjoyed it so much so I definitely had fun doing it and I hope for more like it in the future.
I recently learned how to “finance my future” and now I have to reflect so lets begin.
There were two parts to this project first was a investing simulator called investopidea simulator and the second was a presentation on the financial aspects off a topic. The topic that my partner and I chose was purchasing a house. I actually found this project quite fun and engaging despite hating all aspects of working with numbers and I think our final product wasn’t too bad.
Ill admit I could’ve payed a bit more attention to my investopida account but at the same time it was quite glitchy and made it very difficult to do anything with it. The stocks and trading part I didn’t fully grasp but none the less I still acquired a basic knowledge of investing which I have no doubt will come in handy some time.
My presentation on the financial aspects off buying a house was put together in a short amount of time but regardless I would say it tuned out pretty decent. For the presentation we researched the steps you would have to take to buy a house and we broke them town into simple enough chunks of writing. One thing I wish I did differently was have less writing on the slides because although still being understandable it made it less engaging and slightly harder to process. Again another thing I see myself using in the future if I can ever afford a home here.
The thing that helped me understand finances during this project was how fund it was and the assignments we had were actually interesting enough for me to care about doing. What I didn’t quite get all the way was the investing and trading of stocks but I wouldn’t really say I was left with unanswered questions.
During whatever career I end up having in the future I just worry that I wont be the most financially literate and aware and that I might make a mistake at some point. To fix this I’m going to just suck it up and do my research no matter how boring I might find it.
Over all this was a very fun project and made the learning enjoyable to do and it also provided me with skills I can use in the future and for that I am thankful.
How can we keep an apology alive so the wrongs of the past are remembered and not repeated today? Well that was the driving question for the most recent humanities 10 project I did.
We studied a few of the wrongdoings of Canada’s past and were each assigned one to design and create a memorial for. I got assigned the Chinese head tax and with my group re created a memorial for the event that lasted between 1885 and 1923.
This was a fun project and although sad at some times I also enjoyed learning about the history of these events. One thing we did right after getting our topic assigned was create a smart brevity note on the topic and I think my smart brevity skills have come quite a far way since we first started them. Going forward I would probably try to follow less of a formula and try to use different axioms.
The actual creation and design of my memorial model was a bit chaotic and so there weren’t really any blueprints just more verbal plans and some drawings that wouldn’t make sense to anyone but me and my group. Regardless I would say it came out well and it gas voted the best in one of three categories I just can’t quite remember which one. I have a photo of It though! Going forward I think the creative skills I developed some more will be helpful in the future in similar projects and life overall.
We keep an apology alive by actively remembering, educating others, and creating spaces like memorials where history is acknowledged instead of forgotten.
This project was a good sendoff to spring break despite the sad topics and I actually enjoyed it and I hope to do more like it In the future.
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.
Yet again were doing this a little past halfway through the year but lets reflect on this 5/8 of the year!
The first project of the year (as you can imagine) was not my best work of grade 10. Entitled “the world needs more Canada” we had to create a multi paragraph composition which is essentially an essay with a different name. Although not being bad work by any means the first project after summer break ends is always going to be slightly sub-par (for me at least.) Sometimes you just need to ease into the school year, ya know? If I were to re-do it I would probably just try to make it sound more professional. I find that a lot of my writing has a conversational aspect to it and sometimes its just not the place for it and I need to really keep that in mind when I’m writing something important and professional. Below is a link to the multi paragraph composition but we haven’t really done any essays since so I don’t have much to compare it to.
My favourite project of the year this far is “swipe right for tragedy” which is the Romeo and Juliet modern parody project we just recently completed and It also is a good demonstration of my attempted academic comeback. There wasn’t too much actual learning “evidence” from this project because a big portion was reading the play and the other part was writing the parody but regardless I can still reflect on it. I have really tried to lock-in so to speak when it comes to my school work and the old me would’ve probably just looked up a summary of the play but I actually did the reading and I almost enjoyed it too! The creation of the parody was the most fun I have had at school in a while and I really liked doing it. The worst part of this project is the fact that I wasn’t there for the actual presentation of the play because I was very sick. Other than the part that I missed the day that the whole project was working towards it was awesome!
I think that in the past my work has always been just kinda there in the way that it just wasn’t very interesting and tedious to read or watch. This year I have really tried to care about my work even if I’m not interested in or passionate about the topic and I think it’s showing a little bit. As I look back at things like my podcast about why the world needs more Canada or my business card I notice that Im getting better with every project instead of kinda just saying in place like I was in grade 9. This is of course not to say that I don’t have good and bad moments and that every single piece of work is better than the last but just the overall all quality seems to be increasing. As an example of that I would like to compare my WW2 essay to the Louie Reil essay I did at the end of grade 9.
Mentor for a day was the careers project I just did before the one I am currently on and I am proud of the work I did for it. The point of the project was to shadow and interview someone who has a job you are interested in and I chose firefighting because that is something I can definitely see myself doing. Although I couldn’t shadow a firefighter for a full day I still got a tour of the fire station and an interview which was just as great. I think my work was pretty solid across the board for this project, we did a smart brevity note that I am pretty content with and the audio reflection I made is definitely the best audio I have created for a project thus far. It’s a lot easier for me (for everyone I’m sure) to put out better work if I’m actually interested in or intrigued by a topic for a project and since I literally got to choose what career to write about my work came out pretty good. I think the smart brevity was professional and clear and the audio reflection didn’t actually hurt my ears to listen back to. Linked below are both the smart brevity not and the audio reflection
How can I continue to grow in my collaboration with others? I personally don’t mind working with others, in fact I even prefer it sometimes. I feel for the most part I’m a pretty easy person to work with and I try to listen to others’ ideas even if I don’t necessarily agree with them but we can all improve, nobody’s perfect. Going forward I would like to maybe give my trust that my team members will do there part a bit more because sometimes I can get annoying by constantly bringing it up until they do it.
Well this year (so far) has definitely been a learning journey and I (almost) can’t wait for to see what the rest of the year has in store academically for me!
