PDD Project 2 Presentation

So here is my presentation. Sorry I couldn't get this up earlier, I haven't had much time lately plus managing to upload this was a difficult task. I don't have a video camera either so I had to use my phone (sorry about the quality). So yeah, click here to view the video.

2nd Project Process

Project Proposal

Research/Tutorial Links

Project Rubric

Project 2 Second Week Reflection

Yes.. I know, I missed the reflection for the first week. That is because there wasn't really anything to reflect about. We didn't have school on on Monday (or Tuesday... I forget) and also Talissa's (one of my classmates) dad came in and did a presentation. I guess I did set up my survey at home to gather the information about which logo's people like the best but that was about it.

Basically what I did this week was I made everyone do my survey and I collected all the results. I tallied (don't tally me banana) all the results and started to learn how to use the program. Overall I think it was a pretty good week.

Project 1 Presentation Video

Here is the video of our presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6GsgXJ-y7Z6bFNqcnNNX1k2SVE/edit?usp=sharing

Project 1 FINAL REFLECTION

So on friday 2 weeks ago, Jarrod and I presented our project. The project went really well, everything went smoothly and no misshapes happened. For the play, we recorded our voices so we wouldn't have to actually act out live. I think this was a great idea because if we actually said the things live, there would be more of a chance that one of us would mess up during the presentation. And because of the many things we had to do to actually get all the things done on time, we really didn't have any time to practice. In fact, we finished making all the things the night before. We had someone record our presentation so that video will be up here soon. Below are some pictures of our finished product:

So for the actual reflection itself...

I think my biggest learning throughout the whole project was problem solving. During the process of completing our project, we came across many problems. Some of them include forgetting what we did during the week while writing weekly reflections, putting too much glue while gluing on the layers, getting the measurements for the frame incorrect several times and much more. My partner and I had to think of ways to get around these problems, even if it was very difficult because if we didn't solve these problem, we wouldn't be able to get our project done.

One of our biggest challenges was time and scheduling. This was a big challenge because we couldn't paint and work on the things until we got the frame done because we needed to know how big the handles for the layers would be. So that was basically until the week and a half before. Jarrod and I always went to his house after school and worked on the project to make sure we got it done on time, but because of our different schedule, we couldn't always do this.

Our proposal, in my opinion, went really well. We got it finished within the first week or so and conferencing went really smoothly. Okay.. we had a few mishaps here and there but we were able to fix them. During the project, I thought that my work habits in class could have been a bit better, but I still think I did pretty good in overall. Every single week I did my reflections and archived my process so I think I did a good job of that. For the reflections themselves, I think I could have done a better job providing examples on what I said in the reflection... an example of this is any of my weekly reflections (haha). For the peer review, I think that all my feedback was honest and I tried not to sugar coat any of my feedback because feedback is something that is there because you need improvement, not just to get nice comments for your project. I thought our presentation went very well (other than the fact that I got absolutely humiliated, but I guess that was inevitable). We were able to explain our process and our little talk before we showed our project went really well without any mishaps. Also at the end we were able to answer all the questions thrown at us without any trouble. I would say in the end that we achieved all our goals pretty well. We were able to finish all of the things we set out to do in the beginning. I thought we could have maybe done a little better on the time management because we kind of rushed to get everything done at the last week but we were able to get it done so I guess it was fine. That's probably the biggest thing I would like to improve on for my next project.

So in overall, I think this project was a success. Thanks for reading and the video of our presentation will be up soon.

2nd Project Proposal

We have started our 2nd project! For anyone that is interested, click here to view my second proposal. Note : rubric is not included.

Week 4 Reflection (May 5th - 9th)

This week was a great week, as we were able to get a lot done. On Monday, I finished my weekly reflection for the previous week and after that, I worked on the peer review survey while my partner worked on the project. I had to get the survey done because we would have the peer reviews on Thursday and we decided it would be good for Ms. Lees to go over the survey before we would present it to our peers. So on Tuesday, I finished up the peer review survey and had Ms. Lees check over it. She said that everything was fine except for one question, which she didn't really understand. That was my fault because that was one of the questions I wrote out. I guess next time, I have to make my questions more clear and easy to understand. After Ms. Lees reviewed our survey, I worked on the project for the rest of class. Thursday was peer review day, so our teacher (we had a substitute that day) put us into groups so we could share our project, ask questions and get feedback. I got a good amount of feedback and I thought the questions my partner and I prepared worked really well. On Friday, we needed to finish things up because we would all be presenting next week, so my partner and I went to the Shop at our school during lunch and got one of the teachers to cut out the bottom of the frame for us. We would not have been able to do this on our own so special thanks goes out to the teacher. Then during class I worked on the project. During the week at home, I finished painting my background and during the weekend, my partner said he would put together the frame at home. 

 One of the finished backgrounds 

Just some things.... 

PDD 9 First Project Survey

Hey guys! Please take the time to fill out this survey. It's about my first genius hour project. Thanks!

Week 3 Project Reflection (April 28 - May 1st)

On Monday, Jarrod and I were a bit behind on assignments so we worked on catching up. Also after we caught up, Jarrod drew out the 2nd background so I could paint it at home. On Tuesday, we worked on drawing the characters and the layers we need for the painting. Thursday, Ms Lee's said that we needed to get peer reviews done soon so I started to work on the survey that we would use for our peer review. This was hard because first I had to summarize our project in short form and then think of the questions we would ask for our review. This week, I felt like I was able to get a lot done. I think I worked really well and I was really focused. Also throughout the week at home, I worked on painting the background. The pictures below show the things we did throughout the week. 

Creativity Discussion Follow-Up Assignment

So on Friday, we had a class discussion on whether creativity was a good or bad thing. (For more info on this, click here)

 During the discussion, one of our classmates made a good point. He said that everyone could be compared on a "bell curve" for adapting innovative ideas. So for example, the people at the starting end of the bell would be the ones that would agree and easily accept change and innovative ideas. Then there were the people on the curve who were the average, and it would depend whether they would accept the change or not. Then the people on the bottom end of the curve would be the ones who wouldn't really agree to change.

So for our assignment, we would have to decide where our we, our school, our school district and our teacher (yes.. our teacher) was on the bell curve. Also we have to decide what is one thing that we would change about our education system or our own educational path so far, if you could, and why. If we would not change anything – explain our reasoning as well.

For me, I think I would accept innovative change, but not easily and not right away. I probably wouldn't accept it right away, I would have to think about it and ask myself  "Is this really better or not?" 

I think that our school is pretty easily acceptant to innovative ideas... I mean just look at all the different electives we have. (and don't forget innovation week)

I honestly don't know that much, if anything about our school district. (But I do know it's a group of important people..) So I can't really answer this. 

And for our teacher..... 
I think she is on the side of accepting new things pretty well. She's always open to new ideas and it seems like she accepts them pretty well.

If I could change anything about our education system, it would be that the number of people in each class would get smaller. I find that sometimes it's hard to get help from teachers because there are lots of other kids in the class who also need help at the same time that I need help. Also I think it would help me focus more in class because sometimes, the class gets pretty noisy because there are lots of people talking. They may not be making a lot of noise, but because there are lots of people in the class, it gets pretty noisy.

April 22st to 25 Project Reflection

So this week was just another normal week. We did not have class on Monday because it was Easter. On Tuesday, we worked on commenting on Mr Solarz's class projects. We had pick one of the projects the students did and comment on it. (For more info on this assignment, click here.) We did not have class on Wednesday because of the block order. On Thursday, while Jarrod drew out the main character in the story, I cut out all the handles we would use to show our painting. We made these handles out of cardboard and because one strip of cardboard per handle would be too flimsy, we would used 2 or 3 per handle. So in total, we needed 22 cardboard strips. After that, I had a bit of time left in class so I started my proposal for my second project. Sorry, but I can't tell you what it's about just yet :). On Friday, we had a class discussion on whether being creative was better than being conformative. We watched a few video's and then started discussing. (For more info on this, click here.)

In overall, I thought I could have worked better and got more things done this week. Also next week, I will have to start painting the backgrounds for our painting.

My Comment on Mr Solarz's Class Project

Click Here to View Comment

April 14 to 17 Overview

So this week was just another normal week at our class. We were able to work on our projects the whole time. For the whole week until halfway through Thursday's class, I worked on finishing the story, while Jarrod drew out the backgrounds. Once we were done what we were doing, for the last little bit of class, we used photoshop to create what our individual parts of the painting would look like.

Overall, I thought I worked well throughout the week. I focused well and didn't get distracted much and as a result, I was able to get a lot done.

April 8th to 11th Overview

This week all we did was continue to work on projects..

On Tuesday (April 8th), we worked on our story plan by planning out the paint layers, objects and backgrounds that we are going to create. In our story, we need this one crucial object and we couldn't think of that object... So we decided to think of the object by scribbling and observing what we could make out as objects in the scribble...

Yes this is what we really did, we weren't just fooling around...

On Thursday (April 10th), I started writing out the story while my partner started to draw out the backgrounds. Since it was a double block day, I actually finished a good part of the story. I also thought I worked really well that day. 

On Friday (April 11th), I continued writing the story while Jarrod finished up drawing the backgrounds.

Overall throughout the week I thought I focused well and I thought I was really productive. My partner and I were able to get a lot done and hopefully we can work this well next week. 

Redesigning the Classroom!

  This week in PDD class, our teacher got us into the "back to school" rhythm by giving us our first Challenge Task. This took the whole week and that is why there are no reflections on my project... we had no time to work on them. For the group I was in, our task was to redesign the room. We could either be a part of this or be a part of promoting the PDD class because we need more students to participate in the course for it to run next year. So basically we were "professional architects" and we had to redesign our room for our teacher because we have a new thing in our room called a "Smart Board". Anyways, for more info on the task itself, either go to Ms Lee's blog (link on the right of the page) or click here.

 We have to do both a individual and group reflection for this task. This is my individual and the group reflection will be at the bottom of the page.

 For the first step, Identifying the problem, I would give myself a 4. For this stage, I rated myself on more like understanding the problem, because our teacher already "identified" the problem. I understood the problem well but at times I would have to ask my peers or my teacher when I didn't understand something. For our second step, we brainstormed / researched or gathered information to break down the problem. I'd give myself a 2 or 1 cause cause our group (and I) didn't really do anything to break down the problem. We didn't really think of a floor plan at first, so our original model wasn't even to scale. Our third step was to redefine or clarify the problem or gather more information. We didn't really have to redesign or clarify the problem cause our teacher, as the "stakeholder" came up to us and said she wanted some things changed and added, so that basically redefined and clarified the problem. Our next task was to decide a plan of action (“Dream It” / “Design It“ Stage). At first we did pretty bad on this because our first design wasn't even to scale of the room. So we redid our design and actually measured every major thing in the room so we had a scale in our design. Then the next day we drew out the design and we made the major things out of cardboard paper to scale of what we measured. Even though I got distracted a little bit, I think I did well on this stage so I would give myself a 4. The last step was to actually carry out our plan and physically redesign the room. On this stage, I would rate myself a 4 out of 5. Honestly, I don't think it was my very best performance because during the stage where we actually moved all the furniture and things in the room, I got distracted at times and I would go off task. Otherwise, while actually designing the room and on the other stages, I was on task for the most part. I think I understood the task pretty well and I was actively engaged and participated in the task. I think I can improve next time by not getting distracted and going off task so much and maybe focusing a bit more. From this problem based challenge, I learned that designing a product that fits a problem can be very difficult. I experienced this first hand while working on this task.

For a video of the group reflection, click here.

Project Reflection - First Week

The first week of working on our first project has come to an end. So that means.... reflection time! Yay!...

During this week, we worked on our proposal that would get us all started on our projects. This is probably one of the most, if not the most important step in creating our project. This step plans out what you are going to exactly do throughout creating your project and you must explain your rationale or why you did this type of project. You also must have a timeline on how you are going to do things and your project also must have a research component. (For more info, click here).  After you finish your proposal, you have to conference with the teacher and get approval that your proposal is good. We have conferenced with our teacher but we have not had enough time left in class so she didn't look through our whole proposal, but we can get started on the things she already looked through.

The proposal process took up pretty much the whole week so Jarrod and I only just got to start our projects today... 

That is a pretty embarrassing thumbnail... 

Let me guess.. After you read the last paragraph, you probably asked "So what does the proposal look like?So here is our proposal... (Whatever is in Gray font is part of our proposal).

PDD Proposal 1:  Interchangeable Art 

Rationale:  

Why Jarrod wants to do this project/project idea:  

  For our first project Hyun and I(Jarrod) would like to ponder the idea of fabricating layered, interchangeable artwork. I myself was interested in doing this project because I have wanted to improve my art ability, however I want to do it in a different way. I remember going to Stanley Park once, and this man was selling paintings. These paintings looked three dimensional, however with a closer look I saw that it was layers over layers giving it a three dimensional effect. I then thought, people get bored of the same thing, and what if you want to keep one part of a painting and change the rest, so I thought it would be interesting if you could change parts. 

 Hyun’s reason/ rationale on why he would like to do this project:

  When Jarrod told me about this idea, I found it hard to understand at first but after he explained it to me more deeply and with more detail, I understood the idea and thought to myself “Wow thats cool”. He took the idea of just painting on just one piece of paper or one canvas to adding different parts to the painting to modify the look to however you want. Also, I knew that new skills or approaches to learning was one of the options our projects had to connect to. I was always interested in art, but I never really took it seriously or spent much time on it, so that would somewhat be learning a new skills. Also I’ve never been in any drama classes or play productions so writing out a play would definitely mean learning a new skill for me.  

How we will present/AOI/our audience

That led to my last thought, how about using this to create a "puppet" show as our presentation. This will not be a puppet show, but more of a play using silhouettes made of wood. With this project Hyun and I will learn how to fabricate a model, different kinds of art, and how to write a play. In our project we will learn new skills (are the skills listed or outlined somewhere? or will it be evolving with your initial research step) and we will approach learning in a unique way.  Our audience is people interested in new ways to create art- so you are essentially creating a new medium for art. This may or may not include mixed media and audience interaction. Our audience also includes people who enjoy watching plays, or who enjoy writing plays.

Why Jarrod chose Hyun as a partner:

  I chose Hyun as a partner as this will be a difficult project to complete on my own. It is also good to have another person to bounce ideas off of when writing a story, and doing art because it gives a unique perspective. We are also friends, and have worked together before, so I know that we will work well together.

Reasons why Hyun chose Jarrod as his partner

  I chose Jarrod as my partner because he told my about his idea a few days ago and I thought it was a really cool idea. I had other ideas but I wanted to save them for maybe later projects and Jarrod could help me get through all the new things with doing a project in genius hour. Other reasons are probably because he’s one of my closest friends and he did offer for me to work with him. 

Our Plan:

1. Ask woodshop teachers if we can have access to woodshop on Thursday March 13th during lunch. If we do not have access to woodshop, we will use Jarrods dads tools for the frame and improvise with the parts of the paintings by using cardboard. When you are nearing this time - see me about how to approach. 

2.Create prototype of painting frame and research how to write a play. (3 days)

3.During Flex work on building the frame, In class work on story. (2 weeks)

4.Research how to paint different layers.(2 days)

5.Finish story, finish frame. (1 week)

6.Make different layers/characters for the art and work on canvas background.(2 weeks)

7.Finish layers/characters.(2 week)

8.Practice play.(1 week)

9.Present 

Resources we need  

-Access to woodshop

-Wood 

-Canvas

-Paint

-Laptop

-Resource on the internet (good quality internet connection)

-Video Camera 

Recording Process

We will be archiving our process by taping ourselves on a video camera throughout the week. We will also post it on our blogs and we plan on making short reports daily if possible.

We will present what we learned and did, and then we will show our “Puppet Show”/Play.

 In my opinion, Jarrod and I worked well throughout the week. We got our proposal done as fast and thoroughly as we could so we could get as much time to work on our projects, even though we only got one day this week to work on it... Still, it payed off because we got to be the first ones to conference with the teacher.

Until next time!

P.S... Please don't play the video over and over again.. I personally think that video is pretty embarrassing to me because I was really awkward while I was filming..

Projects Have Begun!

We have started our first project proposals! Stay tuned for more things to come....

Personality Survey Thoughts

  On tuesday in genius hour class, we did a survey that decided what type of personality we were. We did the free version of the test, then we took a look at our results. (If you would like to take the test yourself, click here).

  So the results I got were ESPF and ESTP. You're probably asking "what in the world does that mean?" Well, here are the definitions (these are from the survey results on the website):

1.ESFP

If your closest personality type is ESFP then you are an action-oriented people person. You seek to live life to the full, and enjoy applying your people-skills (and other practical skills) to achieve a tangible benefit for people. You have a strong sense of immediacy or urgency - realizing what needs to be done now - and are probably often urging your colleagues to stop talking and get on with doing something.

2.ESTP

If your closest personality type is ESTP then you are an action oriented problem solver. You enjoy getting things done, and taking action to solve practical problems. You are in your element when there is a crisis requiring urgent action, which you are able to resolve. If you have any particular skills (e.g. sports, crafts or sales) then you enjoy applying those skills to reach a tangible goal (winning a game, making a sale, or building something tangible).

Also there was some other analysis that the website did...

  When I looked at the results, honestly I thought that they were very accurate. I would say that the ESFP is more accurate to my real personality than the ESTP. It's true that I like to live my life to the fullest and I think I do have a strong sense of urgency or immediacy. Although, my life also fits the ESTP description because I do use particular skills to reach a tangible goal. An example of that is I play hockey on a team and I use my skills as a hockey player to help my team win.

  This could help later in this course because lets say you're doing like a group project or you're working in partners. Looking at the class results, you can learn more about what the person or people you're working with. Later on in life, this could help because you may think you know yourself well but you can find out more things about yourself that you didn't know at all.

  Looking at everyone else's results, I think the test was mostly accurate for everyone in the class. Maybe there were a few people that I didn't really know what they're personality was like, but for the people I did know, I would say that the test results were accurate. Nothing really surprised me. 

The Class Results

Paper Folding Activity Reflection

  So earlier last week during PDD class, we did some activities. But the one that stood out to me the most was the paper folding one. So basically what we did was first we all folded a piece of paper in half. Oh and before I say anything else, I should mention that we had to go through this whole process with our eyes closed. So after we folded the paper in half, we had to fold it in half again. Then she told us to make a triangle with the paper. After that, we had to tear apart the lower right corner of the paper. Once we did all those steps, we were allowed to open our eyes and compare our paper with everyone else's.

  My first impression was that most of our papers, if not, all were different. This had everyone really confused because we were all given the same instructions, but we all got different results. I was also confused, but I wasn't really surprised. I actually kind of expected this because the instructions our teacher gave us weren't really specific. She didn't say which way to fold the paper in half, or exactly how to make the triangle. The part about the triangle really got to me because I didn't really know how to make the triangle. I ended up with a triangle that had a brim and I basically just folded the corners over. The teacher commented on this because I guess by making a triangle with a brim I was going off on my own a bit and not completely following the instructions.

  I think the purpose of the activity was to show that everyone has different ways of thinking. Also if one person has a different thinking process than you, that doesn't necessarily mean that they have the "right" way of thinking and that you have to change your thinking process to match theirs. I think that was the reason why we had our eyes closed. We couldn't see what everyone else was doing to check if ours was same or different from other people's.

  Personally, I liked the activity and found it a pretty cool one too. Later on we eventually put ours all up on the wall.. sorry for not having a visual of that. I was going to take a picture with the iPads we had in our class, but just that's me being clumsy and forgetting to do stuff. If you would like a picture, click the link on the right of my page under "useful links" that says "Jarrod's Blog". So that's basically all I have to say for this post. Thanks for reading!

Gift Giving Experience Activity Video Reflection

 Hey everyone! This is my reflection for the activity we did last Thursday in class. The activity was that we had to follow along a video with a printout we filled out and this was all about redesigning the "gift giving" experience. Basically we would ask our partner questions, find a problem and create a solution for that problem.. Literally, create one. We didn't really have great materials to create our solution/prototype. If you want more info on this activity, click here.

Honesty,  I don't like the fact that we had to record our reflection. It just feels really awkward and I can't really talk well when I'm recorded. I don't think my reflection was as good as it could be, mainly because I didn't write it out or type it. Oh well, sometimes you have to step outside of your comfort zone.

Anyways, here's my reflection. I hope you enjoy!
 

What Inspires Me

What Inspires Me

This is a picture that inspires me. I chose this picture because I really like hockey and I think what the picture says is true. Also what the picture says can relate to just life in general, not just hockey. In anything you do, you have to prove yourself, and its only up to you to do it. This picture really motivates and inspires me to do the best I can in anything (especially hockey) that I do. 

*Photo credits go to Google Images