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! 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!
How do we use a satirical radio play to communicate the shifts in Canadian society following WWII?
We demonstrated our understanding and learning by creating a radio play. We all worked together to create a script that touched on both satire and historical things. This project was a big improvement from the mess that was our Romeo and Juliet project; it was much more organised. This is because of the way the script was written; a production team made an outline before, and then we wrote each scene in smaller groups. Next time I think that I would want to focus on adding more historical details because although it did make fun of some 1950s stereotypes, there weren’t enough historical details to truly show our understanding.
The competency we focused on was 🧐 Analysing: I can analyse ideas and make supported conclusions. Making conclusions informed by textual elements, including significant sources over time.
I demonstrated this with my textbook notes, which you can read through this link.
I’m very proud of them as they show a complete understanding.
The content we focused on was creating a thoughtful, satirical text for a live audience in the form of a radio play, and I have to say I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to accomplish this, but we did. You can watch it here.
Onto my VMV!
Self Regulation:
In regard to this, the only thing I can think of saying is WE ARE SO BACK. Throughout this project I got my assignments done in a timely manner without burning out completely! I did get quite stressed at points, but I was able to work through it. I gave myself grace when I was on the music trip and unable to complete everything on time. I also didn’t take on every responsibility I could, which definitely helped, which I will talk about later on. 3/3
Conduct and Integrity
I worked very well in a group on the project. It was easy for me to work with Aidan and Kennedy because everyone did their bit, unlike other groups I’ve been in in the past. I was a positive example and reliably helped a peer who didn’t understand assignments with their work. 3/3
Engagement
I wasn’t able to take the leadership role I wanted because I was away for the time that the storyline would have been developed, but I didn’t give up and not try to be a leader for the rest of the project because of this. Instead, I worked as the DRI within my group of 3 to make sure we were on track, and when the opportunity arose, I took the role of narrator. This was a great way for me to play to my strengths because I’m used to singing on mic because of the number of choirs I’m in. I was very happy to give myself the extra work of being in every scene if it meant being more involved and important to the process and outcome. 3/3
In our most recent project, we were focused on health literacy. In this day and age this topic is more important than ever, so I was very excited for this project. But before we get into the learning, let’s take a closer look at the new format of learning we used for this project!
Challenge-based learning. What the heck is that? It’s similar but not the same as project-based learning. From what I understand, the biggest difference is how much control the learners have over what they study. I really enjoyed the chance to push myself and drive my own learning in this project, because, as I talked about in my MPoL, I learn best when I get to learn about topics I care about, so this was a really great experience for me. Here’s how I learned about my topic through the challenge-based learning project.
Engaging!
So, at the beginning of this project, we got to pick between 3 topics: physical health, mental health, and health literacy. Being the psychology-obsessed person I am, I obviously picked mental health. We then created guiding questions and chose a challenge, which turns the question into a call to action.
Here’s my question:
How can we learn about different mental health illnesses like anxiety and depression so we can spread awareness and erase stigma?
I picked this question because I think that the vast majority of hate of any kind comes from misunderstanding. In a time where it feels like there is more misinformation than ever, hate is spreading faster than ever. Mental health and mental illnesses are one of the topics that are under this threat the most and one of the topics most likely to hurt people when they are misinformed, so I thought that it was very important to focus on this question.
This is my challenge:
To encourage others to educate themselves on how struggling with mental illness can make life harder for other people so that more people know how to properly support the people around them, creating a chain of empathy and understanding.
I am all about kindness and learning, and when you pair those 2 together, you can create some really great things. This was my opportunity to showcase this.
Investigate my eventual statement plus the questions bubble thing.
The next step was to investigate, which I did. We started by asking questions about anything we thought we’d need to know to answer our own questions. These were some of mine.
We then researched these. I did this by interviewing a youth worker and watching TED Talks. As this was a short project, we didn’t do a tonne of research, especially because most of us already knew a basic answer to the questions we asked. Eventually this was synthesised into this statement about my research.
“Mental illness is still a taboo topic that many people feel uncomfortable talking about. This creates a system of avoidance, as people would rather dumb down the experiences of those who have mental illnesses than truly understand. Mental health isn’t visible like physical health is, which makes it easier for people to say that people are just making it up. When this shame culture is created, it makes those who are struggling less likely to ask for help. By sharing and talking about experiences with mental illness, people can be educated to approach the topic with empathy instead of judgement.”
I am very happy with the amount of research I got done in this time period and was excited to transfer it to video form.
Act
Finally, we got to the act part. This is where you take your big idea, your questions, and the learning you did and transform it into something that can spread the message of your learning. We were asked to make a short (meaning like 2ish minutes) long video to communicate our findings.
As you can see, this is not the most polished thing I’ve ever made, but it wasn’t really supposed to be. Since this was such a short project, I focused on the learning instead, and I am very proud of this. Something else I’m proud of is the animations in this video. I have never used Canva before but managed to figure it out on my own very quickly. I’m excited to see where this new skill can take me in the future.
Here’s the full workbook I completed:
Lastly, let’s look at my VMV.
VMV
Self-Regulations
While in my last project for Maker, I gave myself too much slack; the fear of not getting better in this one caused me to forget to take care of myself. I did still manage to take breaks but often got consumed with the stress of trying to be better to a point where I couldn’t even take a minute without stressing about school. I did maintain balance with my other activities and reached out for support but failed to manage my stress and anxiety, so I think I get a 2/3 for self-regulation.
Conduct and Integrity.
I was so, so, so happy to work with the group I did for this project. Normally a group work hater, it turns out it doesn’t suck so much when you can rely on the people you’re working with. While this wasn’t a group project, we did a lot of group brainstorming and critique, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team. 3/3
Engagement
As I talked about earlier, this project was really great for me because I got to pick something that I care about. I regularly participated in class, and as I pushed myself more after the disappointment of the podcast project, I showed growth. 3/3
Finally, this is the reflect, document, and share part of our project. If this work that I’ve done makes one person stop to think about this issue, my purpose has been fulfilled.
I’m back with another DI blog post, and sadly this is likely the last one I will ever write. ☹️
However, I do have some great things to report on regarding the provincial Destination Imagination tournament. As stated before, I wasn’t able to be there for the regional tournament, and sadly I wasn’t able to be there for the provincial one either due to the Seycove Senior Music trip. This doesn’t mean I couldn’t contribute; it just means that I had to get creative with how I could. As stated in my first post, the first step I took to making sure I was involved was adding the AI character into the script and recording my voice. Even if I wasn’t there, I was in a way.
I found it difficult throughout this project to figure out how much to involve myself. On one hand, I was going to be away for both tournaments, and it was important to me to give our grade 9s the space to be leaders, and on the other, I am an overachiever. Let’s take a closer look:
What went well:
Giving other people the space to lead. I’ve known myself to be pushy in the past in group projects because my groups didn’t have what it took to create something I’d be proud of. This year I was lucky to be with a group that I could trust to contribute meaningfully instead of disappearing the second something needed to be done. This completely changed the way I think about group work; finally, I could rely on my group members!
I figured out how to be a part of the group while not being there. As part of our solution, my group made up an AI character that I voiced. They then played a recording of my voice at the tournament, which the appraisers loved and kept me involved.
I rewrote our script when we looked at our scores after regionals and realised that our technobabble depictor. While Finn made a robot for us (shout-out to Finn for making a robot in like 5 days), I rewrote our story to include it. This was another good way for me to contribute when I couldn’t actually be there.
Areas for Improvement:
contributing more, earlier on. At the beginning of DI, I was working on a lot in other classes, which meant I didn’t contribute as much as I could have. Next time I would try to meet up with my group more at the beginning. We struggled with our story a bit, which took up valuable time, and I wish we had finished it earlier so we would have had more time on the go.
My own confidence. At points I didn’t share my ideas because I was worried that they would be considered silly or stupid. If I hadn’t done this, I could have been a better role model, and our presentation could have been better.
Considering all the elements from the beginning. A big part of our feedback from the first tournament was that we were missing our technobabble depictor. Obviously missing an entire component impacts your score a lot. If we had considered this earlier, we could have taken the time to understand what we were supposed to make. Instead we went full steam ahead with other elements.
I think my group as a whole could have more flexibility. Even though we talked about it in our team contract, at points group members (including me) weren’t as open to others ideas as we could have been.
Overall, this year’s DI run was a big point of growth for me. It showed me how to take a step back, how to contribute what I can and know my limits, connect with people across grades, manage a capable team, and continue to gain confidence when sharing my ideas.
Thank you so much to all my group members, I couldn’t have asked for a better team!!!!
