In this day and age freedom is a hot topic. Hubert H. Humphrey, the 38th vice president of the United States, once said:
“Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.” -Hubert H. Humphrey
Our next project is about just that. Well, it’s about debate and a bunch of topics that are related to freedom. Welcome to our winter exhibition project, The Great Debaters.
We started this project by watching the movie “The Great Debaters.” It was a really good film, and I loved the story, but most importantly, it showed us what it will take for us to be good debaters (of course we’re not debating Harvard, but I’ll try to prepare like I’m going to). I realized that there is a lot more behind the debate than I thought. It’s going to take a lot of preparation, teamwork, and critical thinking to be successful.
I’m really excited to flex my preparation/research muscles for this project. I’ve been working really hard on them for a really long time, so I think this is a great place for me to play to my strengths. I’m a little worried about the teamwork piece because I haven’t done a group project since our last project in humanities last year. I’m trying to stay on the bright side, but I can see the possibility of people not pulling their weight too much for me to ignore it.
Hello and welcome back to another one of my blog posts. The project I am going to reflect on today set up the course it is a part of (BC First Peoples) and had us explore why it is important. This project was mostly a review of what we have already learned about the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada, but it brought new meaning as we were able to talk about these topics in a more mature way.
At the beginning of this project we learned about the concepts of two-eyed seeing and the First Peoples’ principles of learning. Both of these concepts can be applied to how we will learn throughout this course for the rest of the year. I was glad we learned about them this early. At first I found them hard to wrap my head around, as it is hard to look at things from both a new perspective and your existing one, but by the end of the first week I felt that I had a complete and deep understanding of both topics and will be able to apply both to my future learning.
The part of this project that I am most proud of is the writing I did at the end of it and the semantic map I created. Something I struggle with sometimes is communicating my whole understanding through to the work I create, but this time I was successful in my communication. I think that both of these pieces of work are examples of nuanced, cogent, and original work. This is because of how this project was timed compared to the Manhattan Project. All of the benchmarks were due about a week after the ones for the MP, meaning I could apply what I learned about what did and didn’t work for me on those and apply that to how I approached this project.
Welcome back to the Fallout Project! The last time I posted about this, this project was just beginning, but now it’s done. I’m so, so excited to share what I’ve learned.
Let’s start where we left off, with my learning intention. In my intention I talked about how I was going to connect this project to our Manhattan Project. At that point, the plan was to create a companion piece related to the videos we created in the Manhattan Project. I also outlined how I wanted to improve my communication skills as outlined in my VMV. Even if the project path changed throughout this project (more on that later), I definitely worked on my communication through other ways in this project. Even though I didn’t create the semantic map as I had planned, I was able to communicate my understanding really well in our seminar discussions and through the synthesis reflection I created after reading the book Fallout (more on both of these later). I did this by planning ahead and creating outlines for both. By preparing ahead of time and getting my thoughts organized before communicating them, I was able to show my whole understanding. I will continue to do this in future projects and build on this skill by using time blocking to make sure I always have time to create these outlines.
But now, what changed? And what did we learn? About halfway through this project our teachers re-evaluated how we would communicate our thinking and what we would create at the end of this project. They decided that we could communicate our understanding just as well through our project pitches and that creating the companion pieces would be too stressful, so they decided that our project pitches would be considered instead. I am forever grateful; shoutouts to Ms. Willemse and Mr. Edel—you’re the best. Keep reading to figure out how I learned about the Cold War and the culture of fear it created.
Socratic Seminars
The first part of this project that I want to talk about is the Socratic seminars that we participated in. A Socratic seminar is a group discussion centred around 1 question. The seminars we did were “fishbowl” style, meaning there were two circles of people (one inside of the other). When you’re on the outside, you can’t talk, and you evaluate your partner who is in the circle. When you’re in the circle, you participate in the discussion.
We had a total of three discussions, and I really enjoyed each one. Having multiple discussions allowed me to grow in my seminar skills, and I noticed a lot of growth from the first one to the last one. Before each seminar I created a “cheat sheet,” like our teachers recommended. This is the outline I talked about earlier. Creating this really helped me be ready for the seminar and make the points I wanted to. I created a total of 3 cheat sheets, and I’m very proud of how much they improved. I also worked a lot on how much I participated. If you participate in seminars too much, other people may feel frustrated because they didn’t have the chance to participate. I definitely worked on encouraging my classmates and making space. Even though if you look at how much I participated on paper, it looks like I talked the most at the last one; most of those comments were actually encouraging comments to my classmates.
The Book
The second thing that we did was read the book Fallout by Todd Strasser. I’ll be honest, at the beginning of this book I didn’t like it at all. It’s a middle grade book, so I was worried about gaining a deep understanding from it. I honestly felt like this even after I finished the book. It wasn’t until I reflected on the book that I felt that it had really added to my understanding. The book is about a family who has a bomb shelter built during the Cold War. It alternates between chapters set in the past, where no nuclear war has occurred, and the present, where the Soviet Union has bombed the states. The contrast between these chapters is jarring and a good example of what this book does well. It immerses you. You can only learn so much from dates and lists of names. Reading about the experiences of these characters, even if they were fictional, really helped me understand how deep fear in the Cold War went. It is also an interesting take on how human nature impacts our fears. Something I wrote about in my synthesis was “The word ‘Russian’ shows up 30 times in the chapters outside of the bunker and only 8 times when they are inside (the shelter).” You can read more about how fallout changed my perspective on fear in my synthesis piece here.
Going back to the pitch I mentioned earlier, what was it about anyway? My pitch was about how nuclear science hasn’t been developed as much as it could have been because of the fear related to anything related to nuclear weapons. The pitch itself changed a lot as I made it as we listened to lectures and I did my own research. When I originally created the pitch, I wasn’t really clear on what impact fear had and how to tie that in. Through growing my understanding about MAD (mutually assured deterrence) and the arms race, I was able to refine my pitch. Something interesting that really helped with this was this article, which you can read my notes of here. This was written by a man who lived through the Cold War, and he spoke on why nuclear energy is feared to the degree that it is. By learning about the fear the Cold War created around nuclear energy (something I already knew a lot about from our last project), I was able to truly understand this fear factor. When I thought about the Cold War before and the fear it created, I thought of it as something of the past. By applying the knowledge I had about the current fear of nuclear energy with the new knowledge of how that fear was created in the first place, I was able to get a full understanding of how the Cold War and the culture of fear it created impact us to this day. By gaining this understanding, I was able to create a better project pitch (though I wish I had worked on it just a bit more; I think it can still communicate my understanding better than it currently does).
Going Back to the Driving Question
So how did fear shape the politics, culture, and beliefs of the Cold War world—and how does its influence still shape us today? The Cold War changed the world forever. The fear it created through creating an “us vs them” mentality and propaganda about communism is still noticeable in our own society (like how we still think of Russians as “the bad guys”). Political moves like the creation of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan furthered this us vs. them mentality and created even more fear. The fact that an entire war could be fought because of fear is a testament to how powerful human fear is. Having this understanding makes me curious about how fear will play out in our world going forward. We don’t live in an entirely peaceful time, and it seems like everyone is fearful for the future and what will happen. How will our own fear impact our own futures?
Final Thoughts
This project helped me grow as a thinker, creator, and learner. I grew as a thinker as I took notes in class and participated in our seminars, pushing myself to gain a deeper understanding. I grew as a creator when I let my imagination run wild when creating my pitch. I grew as a learner as I wrote my synthesis and pushed myself to see this topic from a variety of different perspectives. Overall I feel that I have grown more in this project than I have in any project in a long time. I hope that by applying the learning I did here (outlines, picking topics that interest me, and continuing to work on communication as a whole), I can grow more in every project this year.
Our next project in BCFP is going to span the whole year so I’m really excited to start this project. The first chunk of it will focus on anthropological perspectives which opens a lot of ways to think and engage with our learning. At one point I wanted to be an anthropologist so this is right up my alley. I hope that I can expand on my previous knowledge on bias, worldview, and culture. An example of an idea I hope to expand on from a previous project is the analyzing I did in our Louis Riel project in grade 9 where we looked into how he was portrayed in statues and what that said about the sculptor.
What I Know so Far
I’m excited to apply this understanding to this project with a bigger picture perspective. Now that I’m in grade 11, I have the chance to truly create a deep understanding. I fully intend to take that opportunity. Today in the launch, I learned to really make sure that I don’t make assumptions. For context, we were looking at photos of uncommon objects and trying to look at them from an anthropological perspective. I made some pretty good hypothesis about the out of context photo my group got, but when we looked at all of the photos as a class I made some inaccurate guesses when I didn’t have a lot of time to look over them.
My Goals Looking Forward
My goal as an anthropological thinker is to become better at understanding and fully comprehending the other perspectives and practices even when they differ from what I gravitate towards. I intended to work on keeping an open mind even if my gut reaction is strong towards one perspective. In the last project my intention was to try to find my own place in working towards truth and reconciliation and that is still true. I hope that the anthropological mindset can help me find new ways to do this.
Hello! I’m back. Yesterday we started our new project Fallout (squared, but it won’t let me add the little 2). It is very connected to our last project, as it is all about the Cold War. We are actually going to create something that is connected to our Manhattan Project project. My topic was how nuclear science was originally created with the intent for destruction, but now it can be used to save the world. I learned about how nuclear science could be used to help solve climate change, and in this project I hope to learn more about why it has‘n’t been used (spoiler alert: it’s because it scares people). I set myself up really well for this project without even knowing it because I already have a bunch of research that I wasn’t able to use in the last project that applies to this one!
In this project I will investigate how the fear around anything nuclear has prevented humanity from continuing to discover what nuclear science can do to help people. I touched on this briefly in my Manhattan Project video, and I can’t wait to explore this more with a focus on the environment and nuclear power. I will communicate this in a semantic map. This is a medium I used for my last BCFP project, and I think that it’s a great option because it really lets me get all my understanding out there. My topic involves a lot of differing opinions and connections between ideas, so I think that a semantic map is the best way to show my understanding.
By picking a medium that works for me, I can keep working on my communication goal. I’ve mentioned in previous polls and posts that I often have what I think is a really sophisticated understanding of something, but it doesn’t transfer to my learning evidence completely. I also hope to better outline this project since my main takeaway from the last one was that I made my outline too cramped and couldn’t follow it. I will take a better look at my calendar this time and block out time to work on stuff so that that doesn’t happen again.
Hello and welcome back to another one of my blog posts. The project I am going to reflect on today set up the course it is a part of (BC First Peoples) and had us explore why it is important. This project was mostly a review of what we have already learned about the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada, but it brought new meaning as we were able to talk about these topics in a more mature way.
At the beginning of this project we learned about the concepts of two-eyed seeing and the First Peoples’ principles of learning. Both of these concepts can be applied to how we will learn throughout this course for the rest of the year. I was glad we learned about them this early. At first I found them hard to wrap my head around, as it is hard to look at things from both a new perspective and your existing one, but by the end of the first week I felt that I had a complete and deep understanding of both topics and will be able to apply both to my future learning.
The part of this project that I am most proud of is the writing I did at the end of it and the semantic map I created. Something I struggle with sometimes is communicating my whole understanding through to the work I create, but this time I was successful in my communication. I think that both of these pieces of work are examples of nuanced, cogent, and original work. This is because of how this project was timed compared to the Manhattan Project. All of the benchmarks were due about a week after the ones for the MP, meaning I could apply what I learned about what did and didn’t work for me on those and apply that to how I approached this project.
Welcome back to the Manhattan Project, our first project of the year which was all about the creation of the atomic bomb and the impact that this event had on the world. The topic I chose was related to the environmental side of this issue because that’s what I’m passionate about. I actually had a lot of fun learning about how nuclear science and power divide a lot of people. I realized this when I started researching and creating my Zettelkasten. I hope that through my video I can help more people be less scared of nuclear science since there is so much stigma around the topic.
I didn’t know what to think at the start of this project. To be totally honest, I don’t have much of an interest in nuclear science, but this project proved to me that you can find something that interests you in any topic. By finding a facet of the topic that was interesting to me, I was able to make it meaningful to me.
A success I had was using all of the productivity tools I had available to me. By doing this I was much less stressed than I have been in the past while creating projects. I did this by creating to-do lists in Things and working at the library (I did this with friends, which helped a lot!). and using rewards like getting to watch TV when I finished what I needed to.
My struggle with this project was not completely setting myself up for success. I set myself up to fail when I set very short deadlines within my project outline (our first big assignment). I lacked the foresight to realize that with deadlines that short I was setting myself up to fall behind them. While I did finish them by the dates set by my teachers, I was often stressing about not finishing assignments well before then. Next time I hope that I can set myself up to create a great quality project without as much stress.
So after all of this, I think that this was a great first project. I found a new appreciation for a topic that I thought I wouldn’t care about at all. While I did face challenges with self-doubt and organizations, I did much better than I have in the past. I improved my skills in animating and thinking about issues from all sides of an argument. Next time I will apply the strengths I worked on (storytelling through other mediums, time management, and keeping an open mind) and continue to work on my stretches (self-confidence and setting myself up properly) to create an even better product.
Wow! I can’t believe we’re back already! Summer really slipped away from me. Now we are back and I feel more ready then ever to tackle a new school year!
Our first project of this year will be the manhattan project. I promise we aren’t making nuclear bombs, we are just learning about ones that were made and their impact on the world. PLP will not be destroying the world anytime soon.
I was actually excited to start this project because I got to learn about atomic theory and Chernobyl in science 10 and I found it really interesting there. I hope that I can add to my knowledge about this topic.
To get started on this project we made 2 literature notes, one on the topic of our choice and one on the book we are reading for this project, Hiroshima by John Hersey. I am so excited continue to read this book and I think that this book is going to really help me grow my understanding of the topics that we will cover in this project. The first chapter has already captured my attention in a way other books haven’t before. I picked this video by CrashCourse for my choice note and I think it will be very helpful later as I now already have an idea of how the creation of the bomb happened and why it was dropped.
In this project I hope that I can use the productivity and organization skills I worked on over the summer. I spent a lot of time organizing my workspace and reshaping my mindset this summer. I also hope that settling into the new year doesn’t impact my performance because I think that this project will really set the tone for the rest of the year.
I am really nervous and excited at the same time for the project. On one hand it’s a really interesting topic and I can’t wait to learn more, and on the other hand I know that this will be our hardest year yet I don’t know how I’m going to handle the intensity of this course as all of my other courses get harder.I also often struggle with fully telling the stories I want to when using video to tell them. By the end of maker last year I was doing better, and I’m hoping that I have retained those skills.
Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert of 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 giving me feedback I can use to improve as a learner.
It is hard to believe that another year has already passed. It feels like last September was just a week ago. This year I have grown, learned, and reflected more than ever. In this TPOL we will explore this, and I will prove to you that I am ready for grade 11.
Throughout this year I have been reflecting on my VMV—my vision, mission, and values. The statement I wrote at the start of the year stated:
To impact myself and those around me positively, I always show up as the person who will do that. I remove unnecessary stressors so that I’m always available to take care of myself and be kind to others. I am a person who makes sure that my mental health and physical health are properly prioritized (i.e., going to peer-to-peer support groups like Gals and Pals, swimming, and singing in choir) while still maintaining high grades that will gain me access to a well-regarded post-secondary institution. I stay connected to my community by singing in our school choirs and impacting this community positively by being a role model to younger students. I stay devoted to myself before anyone else, because at the end of the day, I am all I have, so I must serve myself and the people around me in a way that aligns with my values.
I have mostly fulfilled this. Of course I can’t be perfect, but I have taken the steps to be the best version of me so that I can be there for myself and others. I try my best and realize that I can only do so much. I have stayed connected to the choir community, stayed devoted to myself, and maintained my grades, which writing out makes me realize how much I really have put in this year. That’s not to say that I have always felt balanced and well and happy. It’s been far from easy, especially as some of the people I care for most have definitely not had great years. This has caused me to put an immense amount of pressure on myself, and at points I have felt quite helpless. The only reason I got through this was my support system. Had I not had all of them, I don’t know where I would be right now, but it definitely wouldn’t be as self-assured and successful as I am right now.
There were also 3 sections that I chose to focus on: engagement, self-regulation, and conduct and integrity. As you may recall, at my MPoL, I calculated my average for demonstrating each of these success behaviours in our projects overall. I talked about how I hoped to improve my averages before my TPoL. Sadly they have not improved, but in fact they have dropped. However, though my average may have dropped, I have grown more in this semester than the calculations show. I have ended this semester with an 80% in self regulation, and 93% in conduct and integrity and engagement. Since these stats haven’t changed much, in this pol I have chosen to focus more on the my vision and mission sections of my VMV.
(a rating in a blog post)
A year ago, looking at these numbers would have made my stomach drop and spun me into a spiral. I am not the me of last year anymore, though.
Every year I pick a word to live by. In my last TPOL, I expressed my desire to be resilient in grade 10. I think that this shift in mindset perfectly expresses this.
So sure this demonstrates growth, this demonstrates learning, but how can I reflect on my experiences from this year to prove that I am ready for grade 11? There are 3 projects this year that we have done that I think can help with this. They are what I think is the best work I have created this year, maybe even in all of school. They are examples of how I am able to use my time wisely, find topics that interest me, and connect my ideas to make deep, insightful work.
In the Juno Beach project, I demonstrated my ability to learn from past errors. In the first project we did this year, I felt I didn’t create the best work I could because of planning issues and a bad outline. I took the lesson I learned from this and created possibly the best writing I have ever created.
Screenshot
In the Change Makers project, I demonstrated how I continue to push myself to use different media to customize my project. I have never been someone who likes to edit videos. I have made this known for a very long time. I just don’t like things I’m not good at. What was different this time was the passion I had for my idea. Even though I’m not great at editing, because I cared so much about my idea and the story I was telling, I made a great video. Watch it here:
In our most recent project, “Definitely NOT the 51st State!” I showed my ability to adapt my learning style by quickly learning to use the Zettlekasten system thoroughly. By using this system so well, by the time that we were ready to create our speeches, I could just use one of my permanent notes as the basis. Because of this, I then had the time to revise my speech a total of 5 full times and almost fully memorize it, which made it more impactful and easy to deliver. I have always enjoyed public speaking, and this project showed me that I have the skills to be good at it.
Overall, I am very happy with my progress. I have done my best and done well. That’s all I or anyone else can ask of me. I look forward to this summer where I will be focusing on “experience” and this fall where I will be focusing on “diligence”.
How do creativity, collaboration, technology, influence, and design create experiences that change how we see and engage with the world?
This is the question we set out to answer for our project, Change Makers. This is a big question, and this was a big project (the highlight obviously being a week in Walt Disney World), and finally, after a month and a half of learning, I’m ready to share what I found out.
In this project we explored the driving question and how people with ideas considered “crazy,” like Walt Disney himself, change the world. This project was also another challenge-based learning project, which is a little different than our normal project-based learning projects (though, of course, this was project-based as well).
For this project we were asked to create our own video in one of 4 categories while on our field study. I was part of the People Power group, which was incredible, as I truly believe that people are what make Disney’s stories come to life. I came up with this statement to drive my learning: At Disney, the real magic happens throughout the connections between cast members and guests. These interactions don’t just reflect people’s past experiences with Disney—they help them create new memories and inspire them to create their own happily ever after.
I picked this for many reasons, but mostly for 2 big ones. The first reason was that I wanted to go deeper into why Disney represents childhood and dreaming for so many people, as I’m interested in psychology, and since this is a careers project, I was looking for a way to connect this project to what I’d like to do in my future. The second one was more personal, less academic, and definitely a little silly, but I knew that if I focused on this, I could interview characters while in the park and meet them. I knew that this would bring a special touch to my video that my classmates might not have thought of. Maybe this idea started as something a little ridiculous or embarrassing, but this year I’ve been learning more and more about how doing things that others might consider embarrassing opens more and more doors, so in the end I consider this a very good idea, as it sets my video apart.
Watch my video here!
As I mentioned before, and as I’m sure you noticed in my video, this project involved a field study at Walt Disney World in Florida. I can say without a doubt that this was my most successful field study yet. I connected well with classmates, stayed on track, was prepared, and, of course, I stayed hydrated. Before we left, we all made goals and agreements for how we would act on this field study, and I definitely followed through. Even before the trip started, when choosing meals, I picked the options that would be the most filling so that I would stay energized throughout the day. I packed thoroughly for the Floridian sun. The week before we left was a chaotic one with many deadlines, but looking back I am grateful that it was because without that push from my teachers I wouldn’t have been nearly as successful.
Finally, we hosted a film night where each group presented a video of all of their videos together. I unfortunately could not attend, but that does not mean I wasn’t involved. In our first meeting as a big group, I took charge and delegated all of the tasks that needed to be completed. I also wrote the script.
Last but not least, let’s again take a look at my VMV.
Self-Regulation 3/3 May has been a chaotic time for me, but as the school year comes to a close, I seem to be finally figuring out self-regulation again. Though this project was stressful at times, it was the good kind of stress that helps me get stuff done.
Conduct and Integrity: 3/3 Throughout this project, especially the field school, I responsibly showed up for my classmates. I was a leader in my group and was always willing to lend a hand to other students with filming, brainstorming (I heard NEKOOO HELP ME PLEASE more than once), or just knowing what we were doing next.
Engagement: 3/3 It wasn’t hard to be engaged in this project, as it was about Disney, and I love Disney. I was always engaged both in class and out of it in Florida. I have also demonstrated growth through this blog post.
Thank you again to all the teachers, parents, and my fellow classmates who helped make this trip and project happen. Until next time!
