The past few weeks have been really stressful for PLP students because we had a lot of work to do. We were working on a World War I project, which was really important to me. I had always wanted to learn about the world wars but never had the chance. This project became my favorite, not just in PLP but in all of my school years. I’ve always been interested in old mysteries and wars, and World War I has both, so I found it very interesting.

Even though I enjoyed the project, I think it could have been planned out better. The learning part went by very quickly, which was good, but I feel we needed more time to work on our comic books. If we had about a week less of learning and more time to focus on our projects, it would have been better. I’m not sure if others felt the same way, but I think more time for the project would have made it even better.

The comic book part of the project was especially exciting. It let us be creative while using what we learned about World War I. But with the tight schedule, it was hard to balance the research and the creative work. With more time, I think I could have made my comic book even more detailed and interesting.

The group talks and working together were really valuable parts of the project. Hearing different perspectives and working as a team helped me understand the war better. Despite the stress, these interactions made the project more enjoyable and informative.

In the end, even though it was a stressful time, the World War I project was a great experience and very memorable for me. It made me more interested in history and showed me how important it is to balance learning with creative work.

Thanks for reading

“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.”

I have been completing work on time for almost the whole school year with only a few slips here and there. I think this is important for next year because it will prepare me for better grades and help me develop good habits. I can continue to do this by avoiding procrastination and other bad habits. To maintain this habit, I can use calendar apps or productivity tools like Things to stay organized and on track. With consistent work, I believe I can have a successful next school year.

One great habit I have is making sure I bring everything I need to school each day. For example, I always have a fully charged iPad, pencils, paper, and other necessary supplies. This is important because you need these tools to stay on track and be prepared for class. Without these items, I would have to ask around for either a charger or a pencil, which would distract me and make it harder to focus on what the teacher is talking about. Staying organized and having what I need helps me pay attention and keep up with the lessons.

I’ve been good this year about using my iPad properly and not for gaming. Last year, it was tough to stay off the games since using iPads was new to me. Avoiding games made a big difference in my schoolwork. I became more productive both in class and at home. I finished my assignments on time, my grades improved, and I could focus better during lessons, which helped me understand the projects more. Overall, staying off games helped me develop better study habits and manage my time more effectively

World war 1 project was influential because I had been wanting to learn about the world wars but was never taught. This was my favourite project, not only of PLP but also of all my school career. Ive always. Been fascinated in old mysteries or wars. World war 1 had both mysteries and war so I found it very fascinating. This project I felt could have been spaces out a bit better, with about a week less learning and more time to work on our comic books. IM not sure if other people felt the same way but the learning went very fast in a good way but I feel like we still needed more time for the actual project part of it.

Destination Imagination really got us ready for what’s coming next year. At the beginning, we weren’t totally ready, but somehow, we made it happen. When the second round rolled in, we were much better prepared, mainly because all our group members were on board. But looking back, one thing I’d change about the project is partnering up with the grade 10s. It was a hassle trying to sync our schedules, either skipping our own classes or dragging everyone to tutorial sessions. If we had stuck with our own grades, planning during class time would’ve been a lot easier.

I feel like I’m ready for grade 10 for many reasons. For starters, last year I set a few goals for myself for this school year. One of my main goals was to finish my assignments early, and I have achieved this goal with only a few late assignments throughout the entire year, both in the first and second semesters. I was able to accomplish this by using the app “Things,” which helped me a lot this school year, and I plan to keep using it in the future. Another important goal I had was to stay focused during class without getting distracted. I made this possible by listening to music when it was appropriate and not sitting with my chatty friends. These strategies really helped me concentrate better and get my work done more efficiently. Overall, I do feel like I’m ready for grade 10. The biggest reason I feel confident about this is because I’ve successfully met the goals I set for myself and have developed better habits and time management skills.

Thank you for listening to my Tpol of 2024

We are the bean Town Buddies, a fanstastic DI group filled with awesome people such as Aidan Mallie, Lucas Mcgee, Daniel Boglari, Susan E, and Francis Rawlings.

The past few months with Destination Imagination have been chaotic but beneficial, as I developed skills in communication, collaboration, problem solving, and time management. Despite experiencing stress, frustration, and anxiety, I found the experience valuable in expanding my knowledge and life skills. We were under a huge time crunch, so it made it very stressful. There are 4 sections that you could work in, however I did the “Going the Distance” challenge. Our main goal was to make a machine that could launch a bean bag 2 different ways with dimensions under 20″ by 20″. Along side that, you have to have a story including the machine in it. Ours was a wacky story, it included a horse, an evil tech-man, 2 friends and a person without a phone.

This project has brought me to face my fears and do stuff I’ve never done before. At one point I though we were never going to finish and we ended getting it done last second. I also worked with people ive never met which was weird at first until I got to know them. This project was different than the others because I thought I had so much time, but it started getting closer and closer by the minute making me realize how little time I had and started working on it.

During our presentation on the day, we were not fully prepared because I was the only person that knew there lines. However it all went smoothly even though we were improvising. I wish my group came to more tutorial times because that is the only time we had to work on it and none of my group showed up to it.

Regarding no one showing up, I need to work on my communication. We had been contacting each other through our iPads, and since we don’t take our iPads anywhere but school, we cant communicate very well. We can fix this by adding our phone numbers to our group chat. That way we can be more responsive and have accurate feedback on what happening.

I think DI is a very fun project. The reason I say is and not was is because its still going, right after spring break we will have to go straight back to preparing because we are hosting the Nationals right here in seycove. So far, I have learned so much from DI and look forward to whats to come.

When we first started this project I had no idea what crazy things Jeremy Murphy was going to get into.

This semester we built a “frankenstuffie”. A frankenstuffie is created by sewing together multiple stuffed animals to make a hideous creature. For example, mine started as a meerkat, a dog, and a dragon.  For short, he is a Drameerdog, pronounced “Dur-meer-dog”, but I call him Jeremy Murphy. In addition to making the stuffy, we had to create a story and a video representing the life of our frankenstuffie. The life of Jeremy is very complicated. To make a long story short, he was made in a Norwegian lab, then sent to America because he stole from a store. In America he stole the world’s biggest diamond. When he didn’t get caught he decided to spy on Norway for designing him as such an oddball, and he ended up bombing their headquarters so no more frankenstuffies could be made.

I also learned how to sew during this project, which is a good life skill I didn’t have. We used basic sewing techniques to sew the different body parts of the animals together to make our frankenstuffie.

During the design of the story we learned story structure. I found this helpful because I didn’t know what story structure was before. To help understand what story structure is, we watched some Pixar Shorts and had to name both the structure of the story as well as the theme.

MY FULL VIDEO:

RPReplay_Final1710460655

There are four steps to creating a successful frankenstuffie and story. Number one, create your character, for me I saw a meerkat body. When I was looking for different attachments for it, I found a dog’s head that fit it perfectly, so I decided to use that. And since you need three different animals, I decided to add a dragon’s tail. The next step in creating a successful frankenstuffie is building your plot. This includes thinking about how he was made, who his family is, what he likes and so on. For mine, he was built in a Norwegian lab, and didn’t have any family and he liked being a thief. Then he set out on a mission, and so on. You also need to design a theme. Guess mine at the end!

However before I actually started to write my story, we had to make a hero’s journey, and select one of the journeys to make a full story. There are 7 parts of a hero’s journey. I chose “Tests allies’ Enemies Part 2”. I chose this because he had to either meet a bad guy or have something bad happen to him. Something bad happened to Jeremy when he forgot the diamond. 

Once we finished our entire story it was time to start our video. I made my video using Keynote, so it was all animations and no real world stuff. I started my video off with Jeremy Murphy leaving the lab where he was fabricated. My first slide wasn’t very good because I didn’t know how to use Keynote, however when I played around with it and learned how to use it better. When I ended he blew up the place where he was made, and my skills in this were a lot better. I have learned so many Keynote techniques, and I feel much more confident with it.

Overall, I think this project was fun and full of good learning. If I was to do this again, I would skip the writing learning and go straight to the writing so I could improve my first draft. I feel like I do better when I try first and then learn from what I do wrong.

Here is a link to my padlet, you can comment what you think my theme is! https://padlet.com/sebastianh22/jeremy-murphy-ymxy9mqt0nbxt2yu

For the last project of the semester we were focusing on Louis Riel. We were learning about him and how he was helping the métis from losing their land to the Canadians. The first part of the project we had to learn how to make small words into big words, for example, good, could be great. So we learned how to make proper sentences and not run on sentences. After that we watched a few videos about Louis Riel, one of them being the Heritage Minutes video of this last few words before death. A few things he loved were the Métis and his god. 

After we learned about Louis Riel, we moved on to our first draft of writing. We had to write about the portrayals of Louis Riel, and what happened during his lifespan. My first draft had many improvements to be made, however my next draft was almost perfect. I had around 6 revisions for 3 paragraphs. Which in my opinion is not a lot for the second draft, meaning I was ahead of a lot of the class. 

My final draft was a success I wrote everything according to the criteria. Here is my final draft:                                   

                                        Louis Riel: Hero or Rebel?

Louis Riel has been portrayed in many ways, many Métis thought he was a hero, others, a government official, but to most people a mad man. Louis Riel was a hero to many Métis, by fighting and leading at Red River Rebellion, (1869-1870). The Canadians were raiding the Métis land and Riel was trying to defend it without the use of violence. He was slightly successful, he fled to Fort Gary (Winnipeg), however the Canadians now wanted to capture him. This made the British happy, because they viewed him as a criminal. The british were cheering on the Canadians to capture Louis Riel.

There has been many things made for Louis Riel, however the statues is what the majority of the public focus on. Some statues make him look strong,  but a handful of them made Riel look terrible.  Lemay and Gaboury’s statue made him look like he was trapped in a “cage” and was naked, showing him as weak. Joyal’s Louis Riel statue, more recently sculpted (1996) made Louis Riel look tall, he was holding the Métis bill of rights which made him look powerful and even intelligent. These statues have been very controversial. There was so much controversy, that the british thought of the Métis as invaders.

Since Thomas Scott, a Irish Protestant, who moved to the Canadians party, was rebelling against the Métis government, he was executed by a firing team. Once Louis Riel surrendered himself he was hung for the murder of Thomas Scott. Although he was a criminal for killing Thomas Scott the Métis really liked Louis Riel for helping the Métis keep their land. Overall, portrayals of Louis Riel have changed, because people are now realizing how much more good than bad he has done. Everyone has their own perception of Louis Riel. The Métis don’t like the fact that Louis Riel killed Thomas Scott, however, he was just adhere to what he cared about the most, the Métis people, his God, and himself.

Overall, this was a great finish too my semester, considering I have not done english that semester. I liked the fact that we actually got to learn how to write before we actually had to finish our paragraphs. I think this was a well paced project considering I didn’t feel stressed. If I had the chance I would do this project or something like it again.

This past month we have been working tirelessly to finish a project representing a revolution.

In the first week of the project we found out what we were doing, we were doing Rube Goldberg machines based on ancient revolutions, and we were doing the Meiji Revolution. Our first task was to get familiar with our revolutions so we made an infographic. After that, we got straight into building our Rube Goldberg machines. The first part of our machine was where a car would knock over books, and that represented the naval warships of America forcing the Japanese to open their ports. After that, we made a pulley system representing the rise of the new emperor Meiji and the fall of the old emperor. Once we finished building the pulley, we moved on to the dominos, the dominos represented the wars and conflicts the Meiji went through. Once the dominos were done, we made a “wrecking ball” representing the government swinging into new ideas, The wrecking ball hits a green ball that goes to my part. My part was a lego old style Japanese temple, which the ball roles through, then falls into a modern building representing the modernization of Japan. After that there is a ramp that represents the struggles that Japan went through. Then, a ball would roll through it and hit a rock which would turn on a light, representing the new ideas of Japan.

Once the exhibition started, the first few times it didnt work, however it started getting more consistent. I was the one setting it up most times so I was getting tired near the end of the exhibition. I think overall this project was a huge success because I like building physical products and we got to do that for a month straight. This was my favourite part of PLP so far.

Documentary

For the past 3 weeks, I have been working on a horror/thriller film with some of my friends. It was hard to get started, however, we finished it right on time.

The film we made was called the dark, it was about a man who was scared of the dark, then he went to a therapist, the therapist recommended exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is when you have a phobia of something and have to go do it or see it. For this man, it was The dark. So he went down to his basement, looked around for a second, then saw something behind him in the mirror. When he looked around, he thought it was all in his head. So then he put some laundry in the machine while he was down there. When he went up, he heard loud and big footsteps, however, it was only his child back from school. So he made sure no monsters were following him up the stairs and then right there a loud scream in front of him grabbed him and pulled him down the stairs. Then he suddenly woke up in his bed panting, and then it zoomed out, and the monster was seen in the mirror. (Video Link at The Bottom Of Page)

We had 2 weeks to make The Dark. To start the process of making the film, we had to make a script and storyboard. We ended up doing that in 2 days, therefore staying on track. The next chunk of it was filming at Seycove. We got a whole bunch of movement shots, like walking indoors, the therapist giving advice, and many others. However, we decided to switch up the roles therefore making us redo the entire movie. With only one week remaining, we got straight to work at one of my group mates’ houses. There was a perfect basement, perfect office-type area, and almost perfect everything. So we started with the therapist scene (I was the therapist)
We made the area look cozy and office-like, and then we started filming, it took around 5 shots to get it good. After the therapist scene we filmed him going downstairs and “seeing something in the mirror” This shot went smoothly only taking 2 attempts. Then we went to the laundry machine to get the ding of when it started. Once he went upstairs, we filmed his son getting home from school, and then the monster appearing in front of him. That was all we could film for the day, however, that was most of the film. The following day we worked on sound and editing. Once we finished the clips we went back to the house to get him waking up in the bed scene. Once all of that was completed, it was a matter of editing, which went by smoothly.

Overall I really liked this project because it brought our inner imagination out, as we have been more guided by the teachers for the last few videos we made. I would do this project again if I had the chance.

Video Link To The Dark

This year we went to Loon Lake. Loon Lake is a place you take classes and do out door activities. When we first got there we got comfy and get set up for the night and then went to dinner. The food here was great. The first meal we had was garlic bread and lasagna. The next day we worked with Jono. Jono is the owner of Loon Lake, he was the person that taught us inside about many different things like, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership and much more. However, the first real activity we did was archery. I was pretty good at archery. There were 3 levels, one close, one medium, and one far. I did all of the, however the medium was my favourite. We found out our sleeping group a week , so we already knew where to go.

The next day we did another Jono session. After that we went to the climbing wall. I was last to go and almost made it to the top. After that, we went and did a scavenger hunt with puzzles. It was similar to the “amazing race”. We got last, however we had a very fun time. There was 7 puzzles, one of them involving water that was freezing cold.

When we had our sessions with Jono we learned tons. This trip changed my life in many ways. I learned that I am brave, which means I can do much more now. I also learned about thinking before you act. We learned that you think with your mind, feel with your hands, then think should I do this, with your heart. This strategy has helped me prevent conflicts with my friends, family, and others. I have also made good decisions in other places, like shopping and not spending as much money.

For the final idea, I’ll be answering the driving question, “How do the choices we make set our future path?” I think based on what we learned, we have to make the choice of who we are. Whether that is a Leader, a follower, or a bystander. I think I am a follower at this stage in my life but I would like to be a leader in the near future.

When I received the invitation to visit my mums work, a mixture of curiosity and excitement surged through me.

Every year grade 9s across Canada participate in an event called take your kids to work day. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like, your parents take you to their work. My mum works at BC Centre for Ability where they help children from 1-5 years of age with disabilities. They help them with things like walking, talking, climbing stairs, and other skills.

While I was there, I saw the room where my mum works with the children, (the children thought I was awesome). I learned about how if a child’s feet are spread wider, it means their balance skills are not as strong.

While we were there, I was filming a video of the day in a life of my mums work. I was showcasing how my mum works and what her office looks like. I even got to interview a nice mum of the child she was helping! (You can watch the video, the link is at the bottom of this post.)

Overall I think this job would suit me well. I found the kids funny, and the desk work didn’t look too difficult. My mums coworkers were super nice. I think this could be a possibility for my career. Thank you for reading my blog post.

Youtube Video:

Every year in PLP we go on a field school. This year’s was very different, once I stepped on that bus, there was no going back. 55km of hiking later, I’ve arrived home.

This year we went to the Rocky Mountains. We had to answer our driving question, How has the geography of the West shaped who we are? We have been thinking about that question for a while, and even interviewed people to ask their opinions on it. We made up our own questions and made an “investigative video” based on what we learned from the strangers. (You can see it in my multi touch book!)

The 5 themes that we were learning about are, Location, Place, Human-environment interaction, Movement, and Region.

I learned that in the Rocky Mountains, they have bridges that go over highways so animals can safely walk across it! ⬇️ (Human Environment Interaction)

Another cool thing I learned is that the Rocky Mountains have many near-extinct animals that they take care of, for example, snails! They love to live in natural hot springs (sulpher). We ended up going to the hot springs and seeing them! (Region)⬇️This is the hot springs in the cave. There are snails in here but they are really hard to spot. This place is very cool to tourists but even cooler to anyone that knows about it. Way back when, there were two men, gold mining. However, they didn’t find gold, the men found a hole that smelled weird so they dug down and found this cool, natural hot spring. They thought it was super cool so they made it their business. Every day many people would come by to take a dip in the water for a small charge. However, they closed down in 1992.

To wrap this trip up, we went on loads of hikes, went to tons and tons of national parks, and even saw a bear! If I were to rate this trip on a scale from 1-10, I would have given it an 8, if there was a little less hiking I would have liked it more.

Here is a link to my multi-touch book, it includes an in-depth reflection on this trip. ⬇️