Field study

Climbing Higher Together – Our Loon Lake Retreat 🧗‍♀️

I had a lot of stuff at Loon Lake to make it feel like home, my books, my music, my friends and *sigh* my sister. Yes we travelled with the grade 8’s and 16 of my classmates to Loon Lake.

Loon Lake?

Loon Lake is a short 2 and half hour drive away and well I mean it’s not as far as Alberta. We were told we would be going to Loon lake in the beginning of November and all we were really told was that the food was an amazing and well honestly that was the most hyped up thing but it was a very unique experience.

PLP comes to Loon Lake to do a program called “Pinnacle Pursuits” where we have all the volunteers help with activities during the days and then we talk with the guy that started it all.. Jono.  Something Pinnacle Pursuits like to focus on is joining everyone together and even though most of us are pretty close we still have little groups and cliques among us. Our goal this trip was to stop that and to all be one big class. I had hoped that this would be achieved and my goal for this week was to try new things with new people, starting a conversation with someone I may not have or sitting somewhere else instead of my usual friends.

VMV Connections:

My mission  on my VMV (vision, mission, values) was never stop learning and to grow into the nest version of myself and I felt that this trip was a great way to act on it. The whole point of our Jono sessions were to better ourselves and to goal set which was another big point on my VMV.

agency: I feel I used my student agency on this field study by taking ownership and responsibility for my own action as we were on a PLP trip where we are representing the school. Leading to the main thing in agency which I felt was goal setting, I was constantly setting goals for myself and acting on them and I am carrying that out now even when not on the trip setting goals and expectations.
Critical Thinking: In my life I never realized how much I use my head to make decisions and how much I think things through  when doing anything. On our Loon Lake retreat during a Jono talk we did an exercise where the was a head poster on a wall, a heart and a gut poster (like the body parts). The exercise was that he would say various situations (a lot of which had to do with DI) and we would walk over to whichever one we would use to make our decision. For example “Your group member is being bullied by another one of your group members what do you do?” I would walk over to gut because what am I feeling in my gut to make this choice. During almost all of the situations I stayed at head, even when he said walk in a pattern of what you would go to then walk to what your would do next I still stayed at head and that might be because I am an overt hiker and tend to put to much thought into things but I found that very interesting.
engagement: I struggle sometimes to engage in group discussions of activities unless of course it’s a competition (and as I have learned from this trip I am highly competitive). I really started to come out of my shell in group activities and later on a few discussions that we would have. I feel I mainly felt this in the trustfall exercise we partook in and I will explain more about that below.

Trustfalling

Everyone’s heard of trustfalling but have you heard of claiming on to a chair to get onto a table to get on  another chair that’s on the table and fall into your classmates arms? Well ya I hadn’t either until we did it in a Jono session.

At the start of the session we were doing some partner trustfalls but as the class went on it turned into much more after being explained what we were doing I decided to do something that was waaay out of my usual comfort zone and that was going first. I don’t know what possessed me to decide to go first but it for sure was fun. Because I was going first I didn’t know what it would be like to do the fall and when I started to climb up I felt a million nerves rushing through my body and when I fell all I felt after was adrenaline. I am glad I went first I tried something new and engaged with my class in a way I definitely wouldn’t have before. I definitely trusted my classmates and I also felt great knowing they trusted me too.

Tightrope

Walking on a rope that is digging into your feet while being supported by 2 classmates is not for the weak.

This was later on in the week and I must have felt pretty brave again and wanted to show I was dedicated to proving my engagement and went first again. This was not as a scary if I am being honest and it just hurt more on my feet. We all had to pull the rope very tight and be a unit and group to work together to help.

We talked about these points in our mini very last minute exhibition and those points were:

TRUST

UNITY

EMPATHY

Our Learning Evidence

This was a poster I made showing things I like to do and it supposed to be a montage of about 30 things and well I drew 5 because I didn’t have time to worm on it and instead I wrote our big poster but people were still kind enough to leave a message on my board :).

This was our duotang (which I haven’t used in forever) that we kept all our workbook stuff in and our goal setting. We did various activities with these an documented the aftermath down to keep progress.

Reflection On Trip:

DQ 🏎️ Question/Answer:

How did this field study change you as a learner and as a community member?

I feel this trip really helped me realize what its like to be apart of a bigger team and community and that the connections and special bonds made on this trip will carry on through future projects that we will work on together. I also feel I can trust that group of people more easily than before like if you had told me before that trip that I would be falling into a bunch of there arms and my life depended on them kinda I would NOT believe you.  Overall I feel this trip forever changed me as a member of this PLP class and I can’t wait to see what we do with what we learned.

Thank you so much for reading! Stay posted for my next post! 💕

Reaching Our Peak Potential! (Trying At Least) 🏔️🥾🎥

Ill never complain about Quarry Rock again!!!

Hey everyone! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything because it’s a new year, I am now in grade 9!

So as you may or may not know last year the grade 8’s went on a trip to Oregon and I was not one of them because I was in Bali! Here is my blog post on that: My Class Was Ore-Gone But I Was In Bali!

I promise I’m going somewhere with this- So each year the grade 9’s go on a trip to Alberta at the start of the year! So yes! I have just had my first ever PLP trip!

Our DQ 🍦🏎️:

Although we did go to Dairy Queen this trip (and it was delicious) our actual driving question was, “How can we become the best version of ourselves?” The main part of this project that focused on answering this question was our 10 essentials video that you will see if you continue reading!

Back To The Starting Line…

Ok so that was a bit of information to throw on a person in a span of 15 seconds, to start off and give you a clear view of what I’m trying to say I’ll start from the beginning.

In July we received an email about us being able to go to Alberta and of course I was very excited! When we got back to school in September we immediately started doing assignments and projects and readings that may be related to what we will be doing in Alberta. We would be doing practice interviews on our peers and we would be focusing on how to find a story in a conversation. 

My Practice Interview With Cole

Banner In The Sky 📖🚩

This was a reading that we did in humanities about a boy climbing the mountain his father died on. This was a lot about conquering your goals and not listening to what others say and this may just be me but I didn’t really like the book. The ending wasn’t as satisfying as it needed to be and at some point whilst I was reading I got superrrrr bored (Im not saying that Mr.Harris has bad taste in books). I can relate this back to our Alberta trip by thinking how the character in this boom used a strong mindset to get through tough situations just like how we had to whilst powering through the tougher hikes.

My Craft notes on this book: Banner In The Sky Book Notes

Our Videos/ Video Making 🎥

Video making was a very big theme on this project because we were going to be making a Vox Pop video, a silent video/movie and a “TikTok trend” video.

TikTok Trend

The TikTok Trend video is where we take a viral travel trend and we make it our own of Alberta. The goals of this were to include the views of the amazing places we would see and to make it our own! Although this part of the videos was an individual project we could still do it with people as long as we all have different videos in the end. 

I did this trend with my amazing friend Maya!

Silent Film

The silent film is something we made in the ghost town at the 3 valley gap. We made these on our first day so even though we were all really tired we still all had amazing videos at the end! The goals for this video was for it to be silent and black and white and be able to tell a story without any words! I learned from this part of the project how important it is when you have no words to be more dramatic with motions and being overly emotional.

My group for this part of the project was: (click the names to see their blog!)

Chloe
Brooklyn
Maya

Vox Pop

A Vox Pop is a kind of video where you ask people on the street or just walk up to them and ask them questions. Vox Pop means “Voice of the people” and whilst we were in Alberta we were tasked with making a video on the 10 essentials of life. We would basically walk up to people and be friendly then we would lead into us asking if we could interview them for a school project. These interviews really helped me become more confident with speaking and with talking to new people and I found it really cool to see the end product of what I could take from all of these interviews to make my final result.

My group for this video that we did during the entire trip was: (click their names!!!)

Brooklyn
Ian
Marcus

Alberta! 🏔️

So now that I have filled your head with a bunch of information of what i have learned and what we did, I wanted to talk about some of my highlights and what was super fun! (Prepare for lots of photos) Also if you want to see even better photos go to PLP’s Instagram (run by Ms. Kadi 💕👍)

The Hikes:

A VERYYY big part of this trip was the amount of hikes that we went on some were shorter than others and some were more tiring but every single one was definitely worth it.

 

Lake Louise

Sulfur Mountain

Moraine Lake

Johnston Canyon

Lake Louise

Other things that weren’t hikes…:

We did a lot more than just hiking as well! We went to the golden skybridge we went in the Banff hot springs and we stopped at so many more places too! One of my favourites was definitely the golden skybridge and the coaster there because it gave me an adrenaline rush and I love those!

Banff Hot Springs

Ink pods 

3 Valley Gap Ghost Town

Tea House on Lake Louise

Glass Skywalk

Everyday…

Everyday was a challenge we would wake up pretty early and go down for breakfast (sometimes earlier if you had breakfast duty). Then after we would all pack up into the bus and the van and head to our destination which was usually a hike or a cool museum. I had so much fun at all of our destinations and then at the end of a long day we would go back and sit in the hotel lobby or whatever and do a reflection work book where we would talk about our feelings and what we hope to do the next day! Here is it:

We have never looked more like iPad kids… the amount of stares I bet we got… 😶 

Conclusion: 

A big part of this project was all about us and trying to reach our peak potential which means being the best version of ourselves which is like what we were learning about in our 10 essentials and I feel like I really did reach my peak potential of this trip! From keeping a strong mindset through the hikes to being a responsible and respectful classmate even out of the class room. I really loved this project because we traveled for one but we also did a lot of group work! Something I feel like my groups could work on (specifically my 10 essential group) is equal participation. Like our class norm “Equal participation equal dedication” Although we all got it done I feel there were times where we could’ve all worked together more. And I do know that I have been told that sometimes I can seem intimidating  and because I’m willing to do more work my other group members let me so in the future I will give more people opportunities to do work. In conclusion this was my favourite part of the year so far and I cant wait for our next trip!

Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope to see you next time! And stay posted for my next post! 👍

My Class Was Ore-Gone, But I Was In Bali!

This is my Bali adventure book! I will explain more about this below, but feel free to read!

Hi everyone! I know this post might look different from some of the others about Oregon but that’s simply because I didn’t go to Oregon (I know I missed my first PLP field study 🥲) Instead I was somewhere much much farther away… BALI!!! 💕

🏎️ Driving Question: How Does Language Inspire Adventure?

Even though I was away that didn’t stop me from wanting to figure out the answer to our driving question “How does language inspire adventure?”. For me I interpret this question quite literally such as an actual language inspiring us to go on an adventure!
  Interpreting this question literally can be like how does actual speaking language inspire adventure? My answer to this is that the idea of discovering or learning new languages is such a fun and captivating idea that lots of people travel so that they can maybe try out a new language they have learned or even try to learn a new language while away. Have you ever hosted an international student? Well I have hosted 6 and the reasons they all decided to travel to Canada was to learn more English! (And also the western lifestyle but language was number 1!). I find this amazing how a language can convince you to leave your family and friends in another country and travel somewhere new completely! Thats an adventure alright!

Adventure:

A question we were asked at the very beginning of this project was what does adventure mean to ourselves? I found this a really hard question to interpret but as the project has gone on I have found it easier to come up with an answer! 

The meaning of adventure to me is going somewhere, doing something that maybe you haven’t done before or is outside your comfort zone. Adventure isn’t always a physical thing as well it can also be an adventure in your head such as a captivating book or a dream.

What does adventure mean to you? (You can tell me in the comments)! 😋

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What makes an advertisement and advertisement? What about an advertisement appeals to you? This is what we learned prior to leaving for Oregon. We learned and explored design protocols, made some ads of our own and found what actually drew our attention from advertisement so that we can imply them ourselves into our own!

Quarry Rock! (Launch 🚀)

I love hiking! Like if your friends with me you would have to put up with me and you going on hikes and walks together all the time. So when I heard that our launch activity would be hiking Quarry Rock and creating a advertisement for that place I was very excited!

During the hike we were tasked with taking pictures of our surroundings, people, the view! Anything you would be able to use for your advertisement! With whatever you photo or photos you may have chosen you need a catchphrase or slogan that goes with your advertisement mine was “BE A QUARRY ROCKSTAR!” You’ll see why in a bit…

There it is! This is my final version of my Quarry Rock ad. As you can see the play on words of being a rockstar… The amazing models in ad are Brooklyn and Elsa here are their blog links so you can see their learning portfolio!

Brooklyn 😍

Elsa 😍

Week Before:

The week before my class went to Oregon I was already away in Bali! Instead of packing my rubber boots and my flashlights I instead had to pack a lot of Indian dresses…

Yep! I was in Bali for a wedding but not any normal wedding an Indian wedding (Which is so much better)! That week before I had just come off a 35 hour journey of 2 flights and a 15 hour layover in Manila. 

Lol I don’t know why I’m holding the water bottle up (its not that interesting) 😅

Wedding 🥳

This wedding is where I learnt so much about my own culture and how much there is I didn’t even know about! Such as traditions, foods and dances! Indian weddings usually last a few days because there is so much to do! I can’t even imagine a wedding with only one day now… The reason there are so many days is because there are many blessings and parties that actually take a while.

The wedding I attended lasted 3 days and there was a total of 5 celebrations. The first night was a welcoming party! There was dancing, food, speeches and more dancing! The morning after was  a Puja (Pooh-jua) a Puja is a blessing ceremony where we put  yellow turmeric paste all over the bride and groom! Then later in the evening there is one more blessing ceremony which was veryyy long (I may have gotten bored…). The next day the actual wedding was held and during that is when the bride walks down the aisle and meets the groom on the other side. During this is another tradition where the kids on the brides side (Including me!) have to try to steal the grooms shoes after he takes them off as he enters the chapel, the grooms side is supposed to protect the shoes from us by either hiding them running away with them and anything else except locking them up in a safe or a room. Spoiler! We succeeded and I had to chase one of the groomsmen through the hotel but it was fun 😂! The last celebration was a party! And a really big one! It started at 7:00pm and ended at 3:00am!!! It was a big dance with speeches and a lot of loud music! It was definitely my favourite, very chaotic but very fun!

          

Touring Bali!

We spent a whole week touring Bali!!! I am not going to re-cap the whole thing because I kinda made a whole book to do that for me 😅

I can give you a small summary which will probably turn out to be a paragraph in the end but who cares!
So we toured around 17 places!!! How did we do that in one week? You may be thinking… well we had to get used to a pretty strange schedule, Wake up at 7:00 or 8:00am then go down for breakfast and leave straight after! We would usually be in the car for around 1 hour to 1 and a half hours just driving to all the different places (it was a good way for us to catch up on sleep) we would then go out for dinner and then get back at the hotel at around 10:00pm. We did this for 5 days 🥲… Overall I had an amazing time and if you want have a flip around my book! I think its interesting (well I hope it is…)

Scroll To The Top! Thats My Book! ⬆️

My Revisions 🔄

Feedback = After I got my feedback I realized that there was so much I missed and that going forward I need to check my work so much more and get multiple people to review it before I submit. I used this feedback given to me by fully reading the notes and corrections she wanted me to fix. I then noticed that my link to my blog was not working at all! I figured out how to fix it and I also got a few people to read over my book to make sure my grammar and spelling was all good!

Reflection: 

Wow! This has been my favourite trip I have ever done! I loved how we were able to experience and learn so much more about Balinese culture and even my own Indian culture. I feel like I have a better understanding now of Balinese people and culture and I definitely learned a lot while visiting. I hope I will get to experience more trips like this in the future and be able to record everything like how I did with this trio and my adventure book!

Thanks you so much for reading! Stay posted for my next post! 👍