During this assignment we were asked to select a character in the novel and decorate it with pictures and objects to represent the character. I decided I wanted to make mine about the main character Brent Bishop, in the novel, Whirligig. I wanted to make this shoe project about him as he had many changes and impacts in his life. That leads me on to my theme. The theme I choose to make my shoe about is Brents recovery. Brent was under the influence of alcohol while driving and he felt very sad to the point where he took his hands of the wheel and tried to kill himself. Comes the next day and he’s killed and innocent driver who in Brents eyes “had it all”. And the victims mother didn’t decide to press charges but send Brent on a journey around the United States building whirligigs alone. This is what most of my shoe is around, the guilt, the fact he wanted to kill himself, and so on.
Throughout my grade 9 year I have done multiple assignments using communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, positive and cultural identity, social responsibility, and personal awareness and responsibility. All of these skills are very important although during this assignment I used creative thinking in this assignment in many ways such as generating ideas. I also can develop small ideas into full grown projects and this is a perfect example of this project. When starting off with this project I only had a theme and idea, but when I developed this small idea into a much larger one it turned out well. Another skill I have learned is the ability to use deliberate strategies for quieting my conscious mind. I can do this skill in many ways such as walking away, taking a break from thinking, and taking deep breaths. All of these skills are very important in your work/school life or your relationships at home.
Although I did a very good job on this project there is always opportunity to improve and step it up. And during this project I could’ve done a better job of trying out more ideas and themes. I had multiple big projects and I did rush it a bit. But it’s in the past so I can’t change that but I can change my future projects. I will always remind myself to make sure I’ve thought of every possible scenario and idea so I can create the best work of my abilities.
During this assignment we we’re asked to find a poem and take a basic poem and make our version/make it better. The group that I was in we decided to change around half the poem as well as add expression, clapping, and snapping. Once we had time to practice it we we’re asked to present it in front of our class. We used many skills and core competencies during this assignment although one that stood out to me was our ability to creatively think and work. We as a group did a good job of generating many ideas many good and a few not so good. Our group was full of creative people and I wasn’t able to create all the original ideas but I was able to build from other peoples ideas. This is a very important skill that can be carried over into any job where you need to creatively think and solve problems. I’ve learned a lot during this project and in the near future I can use my positivity and past experiences to further improve my work.
Throughout my grade 9 year I have done multiple assignments using communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, positive and cultural identity, social responsibility, and personal awareness and responsibility. All of these skills are very important although during this assignment we only used creative thinking and communication. We needed to communicate our ideas to each other as well as memorize our poem. Without these skills we wouldn’t be able to the job we did. Communication is arguably the most important competency and being able to ask simple and direct questions to our group partners as well as be and active listener to your fellow group partners is very important. It’s also very important to positively collaborate, plan and create something great. I represented this skill while we we’re creating this project, I would actively listen and share my personal opinion politely. This skill is huge and it can be applied to any situation where you and someone else are communicating.
Although we did a very good job on this project there is always opportunity to improve and step it up. And during this project we could’ve done a better job of trying out more ideas with our poem. We only had one day to create, practice, and present but I feel if we spent more time critically thinking about ideas we could’ve done better. But it’s in the past so I can’t change that but I can change my future projects. I will always remind myself to make sure I’ve thought of every possible scenario and idea so I can create the best work of my abilities.
During this project we had to choose a specific animal that lives in British Columbia and research and get a deeper understanding of the importance of interconnections between these animals and there habitat. And we had to compare the traditional practices of the First People of BC to current species uses and sustainability. In this project we choose the Black Tailed-Deer. Josh and I worked on this project together and we represented many skills during this project although the main skills we used were critical thinking, and social responsibility. Although the assignment was a little small we were able to learn a lot about the Black Tailed-Deer that we didn’t know such as it’s Latin or scientific name, habitat, how they depend on other species and resources, and when there are to many or too little of one species how does this affect others in the food chain. We also learned how to properly format our document in a professional form, this skill is very important for later on in high school and university. Finally, we learned how to use good sites and to find the difference between viable information and nonviable information.
As I said earlier Josh and I have learned many different and important skills throughout this assignment but the most important one too use was critical thinking. Being able to critically think can enhance our thinking and presentation skills and thinking clearly and systematically can deeply improve the way we express our ideas. During this project we represented critical thinking by asking open-ended questions to help get good information. We also can analyze evidence from different perspectives, we did this by researching how the Black Tailed-Deer relied on nature; trees, grass, rivers etc. for sustainability and if we were to take one of those main components that the Black Tailed-Deer would go extinct. So, then we realized that other animals and plants rely on the Black Tailed-Deer to stay alive so, if they went extinct it would affect on of the Black Tailed-Deer’s predators. Josh and I also learned that our assumptions and beliefs can vary depending on our religions and beliefs, we represented this skill when the question asked “Are the First Peoples of BC still utilizing this resource, and if so are the traditional ways still being done today, and without a doubt I thought how would they still use the same methods because our world is so advanced and it has changed a lot since when they used hunt to stay alive. But after time and research I realized that there are very few people but there are people who do these traditional practices that have been passed on for a very long time. The final skill we learned was the ability to find the difference between facts, interpretations, opinions and judgments. During this project we really focused on using many viable sites to find which information is false or accurate. We also avoided sites like Wikipedia, Daily Hive, Buzzfeed etc.
Although we did a lot well we still made some mistakes and there were things we could improve on. one thing I noticed was my preparation although I was able to finish it on time I feel like if I started it a few days earlier I would have had time to take my time with it, think about what I want to say and then say it. This skill is very important as I can apply it to university and high school as well as almost any job I get. But at the end of the day me and my group member are proud of what we have accomplished during this project and I would do it again if we could.
As we were learning and researching about the Industrial Revolution we learned that a lot of inventions were made and some we still use to this day, so in the spirit of that we were assigned to create our own invention that was fairly realistic and people would want to buy. We first had to brainstorm ideas, around 20, and then we picked 3-5 that we liked the most. After the whole process we ended up with sunglasses that would produce energy like solar panels, but there was one main flaw which was that you couldn’t use them year round because they were based off of sunlight. So, then we needed to make and invention that you could use year round and in any climate, and finally we came up with Power Step. Power Step is a gel pair of gel insoles that you would put into your shoes that by impact on the ground will charge any device that it can wirelessly connect to through Bluetooth. Here’s how it would work, by they six main pressure points on your foot (the balls of your feet and your heel) we would put spring technology in so when you stepped down the springs would press down and collapse by the force of a step. When the springs close down they produce energy which will connect to the wireless piece via THW wires. Then once it has reached the wireless piece it will transmit energy to the device of your choice.
We used a lot of skills and competencies, but the one that we felt most impacted us was our communication skills. In any group project communication is needed and depending on how well you can communicate with your group members will possibly change our mark. Although I did a lot of talking during this project I was able to see both sides of an argument and respect the others opinion which is a key life skill. Me and my group members were also able to split the work evenly among and I took responsibility for some roles and tasks in this group. This project was also a good representation of the work and effort I always put into these projects. We also were able to come up with a design or a plan and carry it out and although we didn’t win the most we still feel like the effort and work that went into this did in fact pay off. When we were giving our sales pitch to customers we were also connecting and engaging with other students and teachers.
As a group of three we could improve a few things. Although this wasn’t a setback it ended up in some group members doing more of the work then normal. During this project me and one of my group members were responsible for more of the workload and the reason for this is our other group member was sick on the day we had time to work on it and never really made the time back up. Another thing we could have improved on which wasn’t in the criteria was a prototype. Although this wasn’t asked for many teachers and staff such as Mr. Rud, Mr. Clerkson and Mr. Sun said “you should have a prototype” or “people love to see these inventions”. And one of our group members did do a very in depth drawing we decided by the end that if we had a prototype we would have won.
Almost every day after school I spend at least 2 hours playing or practicing soccer. I play soccer for CMFSC (Coquitliam Metro Ford Soccer Club) our practices and games are at Coquitlam Town Centre or École Dr. Charles Best Secondary School. I am so proud with how far I have come when it comes to soccer I started when I was 4 years old and I still play to this day. One characteristic that has really shown throughout my soccer career is competitiveness. Over the years of playing soccer I have learned the importance of aggression and competitiveness. These qualities can be applied to your day to day workplace or even at home. Soccer has taught me so many different and small skills, but one of the main skills that has really impacted my life is determination and dedication. Over the years I have spent time outside of school, when nobody is watching and practiced on my own. This is a good skill that I can apply to almost any aspect of my life. Being able to be devoted and loyal to one task can teach you so much even if its just completing homework, or trying to learn algebra being able to stay focused no matter what the circumstances. Another hugely important skill that I have learned from playing soccer for years is leadership. Leadership is such and important skill as it can change a workplace from a decent production rate/ work rate to a phenomenal work ethic. I learned a lot of leadership skills during my time playing soccer since I turned eleven I have always been very vocal on the field, and I’m always motivating our teammates. One of my greatest accomplishments with leadership and soccer was only a few weeks ago. About a month ago we played a good team in our league (North Vancouver Football Club) and by the first half they were up 4-1 now normally in soccer you cannot comeback from a score like this but at half time we calmed down thought long and hard about what we can improve on and they we went back out, we stayed positive throughout the game and ended up coming back and scoring six goals in one half and the final score was 7-5 full time. A leadership quote that really speaks to me is “Leadership is the capacity, to translate vision into reality” this really speaks to me and a leader can motivate others to stay positive and keep working. Although I’m not good enough to go pro in soccer I will take all the qualities and skills from soccer and apply them into my day to day life. Over the years soccer has brought so much joy and fun to me during the fun times and the hard times. I’m really glad I play soccer.
After doing hours of research I came across a site that took me through the steps of finding a possible career. It went through various steps such as, going through my passions, strengths and favorite classes. Once I was finished, I realized I was into video editing which I have been doing for a while and when I googled it, I realized you can make a living from video editing. This is good as I care more about what do, rather than caring about how much some job pays. For this job I will at least need to go to university to get my bachelor’s degree, although they say they networks and television shows care more about experience over degree, I’ll still go to university. This is because over time you learn new skills and tricks that you would have never learn otherwise. If you didn’t know already a video editor is someone who takes a video and manipulates and rearranges it. I have already done this myself on YouTube. As of right now I use a program called Adobe After Effects 2019, this program is well known in the community as one of the best editing software out there, another competitor is Sony Vegas Pro 17, Vegas is easier to learn on and isn’t as complex but in the long run you don’t have as many features as you do on After Effects.
(picture of what a project on after effects looks like)
Since I have chosen video editing as my career, I need to find ways to connect and interact with others, and in the end to find out more about my chosen career. One way I can do this is by going to workshops. Workshops will show you the basics all the way through to the hardest of the hardest. One of the greatest aspects of workshops is most of them are online meaning I could just type in “video editing workshops” and a ton of helpful results will come up. Another way is our best friend YouTube, YouTube gives you tutorials for anything, at anytime, anywhere, for free. These have already helped me when learning hard concepts of my own editing. Another way to get help on your chosen career is to find experts in your area. You could do this by going on Upwork. Upwork is a website for hiring people this is good as you can find their social medias and then send a message about some tips and tricks on whatever it is you need help with.
This is the type of video editing I’m into. With that being said, most likely I won’t get paid to do something like this. Although learning to edit like this will give me the skills in the future to maybe give me and edge over other editors or even get a better pay. Although this edit is short it takes many hours of work to line up the clips with music, get cinematics etc.
In the past few weeks we have learned about the french moved to “new france” aka Quebec and what their settlements look like. In this assignment, we looked at how to make a safe and realistic model of a settlement that would last a long time. We thought it would be a great idea to find some ideas of how they did it back then, and after a few hours of work we stumbled across the Fort Langley National Historic site. This was exactly what we were looking for. We noticed some things about this fort that made it stand out to us, it also gave us a few ideas when it comes to layout of your fort, location and the nearby natural resources. During this project me and my group partner Connor F. learned the importance of group working and splitting the work evenly. Since we choose to make it on minecraft we had to also learn a lot of communication skills that aren’t taught much.
Me and Connor were working on this project we learned the values of scrolling through the internet and finding other people’s ideas, and example of this would be when we found Fort Langley, this gave us so many good ideas. Fort Langley didn’t just give us good ideas and trick to apply to our fort but it also gave us stellar ideas to build off of and improve upon. When making our Fort we had some problems with our location we wanted it to be private but safe, having a lot of trees or built in a forest would make the fort hard to find but when having trees close to your wall the enemies can use them to knock down your wall, sneak up on you, or even climb the trees to get a better understanding of where to make their break in from. So by using online resources and a few realistic models we were able to solve these pretty much straight forward problems. We wanted our fort to give and edge when it came to making it safe and being able to collaborate with my group, we could generate ideas fairly fast but when talking to other groups it gave us some insights on new and surprising ideas. To reach our full potential work ethic we worked with headphones on and tried to separate ourselves from all the nearby distractions. This would make it so we could be all alone, so we could be as creative as possible. Me and my group partner were pretty passionate about this project, and we managed to stay focus and at work for the whole time, we were both dedicated and didn’t want to let each other down.
Although we did well on this project there’s always room for improvement. One of the ways we could improve is our start, we start off not really knowing how we would do this, where (geographically) we would make it, what made forts good and what didn’t. The second way we could improve was by splitting our strengths with our work. What I mean by this is I did a bit more of the fort design, layout, and building, while connor did more of the writing aspect. I am not very creative, and i don’t properly know how to research so wasn’t a problem i just think we could have gotten and even better result.
(Actual assignment)
Minecraft Video Link
Why did you leave Europe to come to New France/Canada?
As French explorers, we were sent by the King to accomplish one main goal of improving and expanding, our country. The most significant reasons as to why we moved here, are economical. This land is home to many materials which can’t be found in Europe, which tremendously increases their value. These materials include Atlantic cod, minerals, and most importantly, furs. The fur trade was extremely important to France and was one of the main factors in their economy. Establishing a fort in New France, allowed us to trade steel and weapons to the indigenous for fur, which was extremely valuable in Europe.
Why did you choose the area to build your fort?
We built our fort on a very flat landscape, for numerous reasons. First off, in the era these forts were built, it was very difficult to build on uneven mountain like terrain, because we didn’t have access to modern construction technology. Therefore, we felt as though it was easier, and more realistic to build on predominantly flat terrain. Also, building our fort on flat terrain, away from forests and other most hiding places, gives us a tactical advantage. The reason for this, is we’ll be able to see all of our enemies coming, narrowing the likelihood of any sort of attack which we aren’t prepared for.
Why are the people that are out in the wilderness trapping furs going to be attracted to trading with your fort?
Our fort is hidden but in an area near loads of animals and near a river. People wanted to trade with us because we have a lot of valuable materials. Since we had come from France, we could take over the metals and materials from France that would go for a fortune in Canada, just like how furs are more valuable in Europe.
How are you going to survive, {what will you need to bring and do to survive?}
For survival, our forts have been stocked with all of the materials we need, to make ourselves almost as self–sustainable as the actual France.This would include many tools, and iron. Even though theiron we’d be bringing isn’t as important to our survival immediately, it is a valuable trade item. This would mean we’d be able to acquire many other valuable items, without having to ship them from France.Also, we would have to be prepared for the harsh weather conditions, and foreign diseases. We’d do this by forming an alliance with an indigenous tribe, to ensure that our village could sustain the difference in environment.
What are the potential dangers, obstructions, problems, etc. to your fort?
For potential dangers, there would be two main concerns; weather, and enemies. Building a fort in new weather conditions would be difficult, especially when the conditions are Canadian. Also, as our fort is under construction, we would be nearly defenseless against an attack from our enemies. After we’ve settled down, enemies would still pose a threat to our colony, though it wouldn’t be as great, since we’d have the upper hand because of our fort.
What are the potential benefits to your fort due to its location?
The location of our fort would make survival easier. One reason is it is near a river, so we’d have easy access to water. Also, we aren’t as vulnerable to attack because of the location of the trees near our fort. They are far enough away, so that we have enough time to see our enemies coming, though they are close enough, that they hide our fort.
How does geography affect where/how your fort was located/built?
When we were building our fort, we wanted to have it close to a river, so that we had easy access to water and transportation. Also, the rivers make for easier hunting, for two reasons. First, there are fish in the river, and second, animals need a source of water, which draws them to the river, so we know that hunting them will be easier. Also, there are forests nearby, so we can use the trees to hide, as well as wood for building.
How will your fort be self-sustainable?
In order to be completely self–sustainable, we must not rely on anyone else, or any other external factors to survive. This means that we must gather food, be able to survive the conditions, and the various diseases on our own. To accomplish this, we first must try to develop a form of sustainable agriculture, because it is risky to rely on animals as your sole source of food. Also, we must learn how to treat all of the local diseases, because is we don’t know how, they will spread throughout the whole community, and wipe our colony out.
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