Author: 080-abuchanan

Core Competencies

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Communicating 

In English 12, we have started to dive into Autoetnography. Through this unit, we are learning how to communicate our thoughts and feeling in a easier way. Through writing and class disscusions, I’ve learned different methods to express my thoughts and feelings in a way that others are able to compreheand and respond too. English has always been a favourtite subject of mine, and I feel as though my journey through the English programs has really built a long lasting skill that I beleive I can take with me to furture dizcoveries.

Creative Thinking

In Drama 11, we learn how to take a script and a character and really break it down to understand what’s going on. We look at what the script gives us, like the lines, stage directions, and how the character interacts with others. But then, through creative thinking, we go even deeper. We imagine things that aren’t written, like what the character’s life was like before the scene or how they’re feeling on the inside. It’s not just about saying the lines, it’s about making choices that bring the character to life in a way that feels real. Sometimes we try different ways of saying a line or moving on stage to see what fits best. Creative thinking helps us take what’s on the page and turn it into something meaningful and original. It’s one of the most fun parts of drama because we get to be imaginative and make the character our own.

 

 

Core Competencies

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Communicating 

Through EFP 11, we explored the book ‘Marrow Thieves’ as a class, Through this story, we learned about the different ways of expressing ourselves and using evidence from the text to back up our statements. Through class discussions, I was able to share my opinion, debate against other classmates and also learn about the thoughts of others. I’ve grown the most in learning how to prove my point, while I used to simply state my thoughts and leave it at that.

English Horror Story_Grade 11.docx

Critical Thinking  

Through Chem 11, I could take skills I have learned from grades 9 and 10, As well as Physics 11, to help me critically solve the questions I was given. This course taught me how to apply other concepts to the main one we were currently learning. Through problem-solving and critical thinking, I am thriving in the science field and am still continuing to learn more and more. I would love to be able to continue to improve this core competency by listening and taking note to others skills and advice.

Stoichiometry vs Experimental Lab_Chem 11.docx

Core Competencies

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Communicating 

In Drama 10, I learned how to act as characters I have never acted before. This was an excellent example of communication, for I needed to learn how to engage my audience, work as a good ensemble member and build strong and healthy relationships with those around me.  

MIDSUMMERS (2024) SHOW VIDEO.mp4 

 

I was able to step outside of my comfort zone with public speaking and act in our school production, MSND. I aspire to better my confidence skills when sharing my ideas with a group.  

Creative Thinking  

In English, I had to write about different hidden themes in movies that we studied. This was a great example of creative thinking, for I had to think outside often box. For that unit, we watched Aladdin. I used imagination and given hints to come up with a hidden meaning for the film.  

Aladdin Essay.docx 

I wrote in an essay that the hidden meaning was escapism, for many characters had no limit to their desires. I hope to learn how to better understand otehrs opinions and openly take in feedback about my work.  

Critical Thinking 

In Math 10, I figured out my learning style and increased my grade from r 79% to 87%. This is a good example of critical thinking for I learned how to ask the write questions and use observations and hints to solve difficult questions. I figured out that I am more of a visual learner than just reading and understanding. I have now improved my implication skills and incorporated other things I have learned into my math class. 

I aspire to better my judgement skills when knowing what to do in certain situations of math. By better understanding the material, I hope to have a more in-depth understanding of this subject.  

Social Responsibility  

This year, I have decided to take Leadership 11. This is my first time taking the class, and I have already been involved in so many more social activities. This is a great exmaple of social responsibility because I have learned how to respectfully and efficiently lead a group of individuals.  

 

We got to help with multiple things, such as going to retirement homes, working with the city of Coquitlam (invasive species removal) and many others. I would like to improve my motivation in this class. I sometimes lack the motivation to be very high in energy and try to get others to participate. I would like to up my energy level when leading activities 

Positive Personal and Cultural Identity  

I decided to take CLE online for this year, we had a unit about how to better take care of ourselves. I think this is a good example of positive personal and cultural identity. I l learned about how important it is to have balance in my live to live happily.  

I also took French 10, where I learned how different languages plays a part in my cultural identity. We had a project where we created little gingerbread men and wrote about how the different cultural played a part in our life.  

I aspire to learn more about myself so i can better my education and personal life.  

 

Positive Awareness and Responsibility  

After doing research in CLE, I was able to identify the different parts of my life that I must improve. These being spending more time with myself and my family as well as learning to let myself not always be perfect.  

 

~{Final Assignment}~

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For my final assignment, I decided to do a data analysis on Canada’s Wildfires. Why exactly did I choose this topic to research? I believe that this issue needs a little more recognition. My overall goal for this project is to spread awareness about Canada’s wildfires, how we can help and the fact that they aren’t always a negative thing. In Canada, the wildfires have improved a lot, the fire levels now are very different to the ones in the past. Sadly, 45% of wildfires are caused by people. And although a large amount of this is natural, it is still affected by the way we treat nature. How? Because people will often leave things out that will catch fire from lightning. How exactly can we help? By reading more on Canada’s fire-safety websites, we can prevent more deadly and destructive fires.

I used many different sites to collect my needed data, some of them included the following:

https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/hzd/wldfrs-en.aspx

https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/ha/nfdb

https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/interactive-map

https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/ha

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/07/05/The-Fire-Future-In-Canada/

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/wildfire-response/what-causes-wildfire#:~:text=Lightning%20activity%20causes%20approximately%2060,the%20result%20of%20illegal%20activities.

https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/report

The site I used the most was the Canadian National Fire Database, which was filled with a lot of information, data and graphs I used for my research. One thing that I learned from this website was that the fire levels in 2023 vs 1995 are very different. In the graphs below, we can see that the fire levels in 1995 are one of the highest at 7.1 million hectares burned. With time, we were able to learn different strategies on how to keep the wildfires at a minimum.

The process of utilizing these sites impacted my understanding of how technology can change and/or help out the world. Websites can help spread information much faster than newspapers might. By using technology, we can spread important messages all throughout the world, changing it for the better!

 

~Information Fluency~ {First Aid}

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First Aid Symbol – Western Safety Sign

I would say I have many passions, but one that I recently discovered and got into was First Aid. Although this might sound like a strange passion, I find it very interesting. I have recently completed my Standard First Aid and CPR course and have started NL,

(National Lifeguarding). I read three separate articles, discussing what First Aid is, why it is important and a more detailed explanation of CPR. The first article was written by Word of Health and spoke about what First Aid is. First Aid is an immediate treatment for someone who is in mild to high discomfort. It can often be used in emergencies right before EMS arrives to take over. In many cases. First Aid bought enough time for the Medical Workers to arrive and save the victim. The second article explained the importance of learning First Aid. In cases where Medical Help would not be able to arrive right away, having a peer or colleague around who is confident in their First Aid skills can be life-saving. People can learn First Aid from the ages of 10 and up. As for the last one, it consisted of a more detailed explanation of CPR. CPR is one of the most important skills someone will learn in FirstAid. When performing CPR, the victim’s heart will be manually pumped. Sending blood to vital organs and prolonging the non-breathing victim’s life. What I do wonder is, Who exactly was the first person to discover CPR? How did they know how it would work?

Sources:

CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). (2007). In World of Anatomy and Physiology. Gale. https://link-gale-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CV2430500097/CIC?u=43dcbs&sid=bookmark-CIC&xid=1c400811

Faucher, M. (2007, October). First in first aid: medical competition focuses on first-responder treatment of battle casualties. The Officer, 83(8), 33+. https://link-gale-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A169876375/CIC?u=43dcbs&sid=bookmark-CIC&xid=ffcda368 

First Aid. (2007). In World of Health. Gale. https://link-gale-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CV2191500480/CIC?u=43dcbs&sid=bookmark-CIC&xid=4440074c 

Break the Fake~2,500 Endangered Seals Found Dead

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More than 2,000 endangered Caspian seals found dead on Russian coast

Topic: Around 2,500 endangered seals found dead off Russian coast

  • This article was posted by the news site “THE HILL” at 9 am on December 5th. It says that 2,500 seals were found dead off the coast of Russia. These seals are endangered, and only 7,000s seals remain in the Caspian Sea. Scientists have still yet to discover the cause of these deaths, but they are digging deeper into it.

  •  The source, “The Hill” is not one of the top reliable sources. They can often be biased when posting articles. But they are a very popular news channel in other countries. After finding out that ‘The Hill’ was not the most reliable source, I did some research myself to see if there were any other sources that had researched this event. I searched the topic on Google and found multiple other sites that published articles about these mysterious deaths, such as CBS News and CNN.

  • Both these articles seem to have a good reputation but have both also posted false information in the past. They are not completely safe and trustworthy sites to use.
  • After checking Snope.com, I found that they had not yet made a post on if this was real or fake. So I resorted to seeing if there were other trustworthy websites making articles on this, and there were. CTV News, ABC News and many others all made articles on the crisis.

In conclusion, I would say that this is true. There are many websites commenting on this scenario, picture evidence and videos online.

~Work Day!~

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On November 2nd, I went to Banting Middle School to learn more about teaching and working with students. This was my previous school, and it was amazing to see all the friendly faces once more!

Throughout the day, I switched classes to experience all three grades, different learning environments and subjects. At Banting, they have teams. Each team consists of 4 classes. I started off with Green Team, 4 french immersion grade 6/7 classes. We started off with 2 blocks of math, where I got the opportunity to help students with their work. I got many questions about high school, and was happy to answer them!

Afterwards, we had a 15-minute snack break, before I accompanied Green Team to P.E. That day, we did The Banting Grind, which is a large flight of stairs that runs through a forested hillside close to the school. Although it was tiring, it was a beautiful day and I ended up enjoying myself.

Following that, we did a small Science Experiment in the Gym! The students were learning more about aircraft, so we did a paper airplane flying contest. The longest one was 20m!

The students had a 50-minute lunch, so during this time. I packed up my bag and moved to Blue Team, which consists of the school’s french 7 and 8’s. Here, I reunited with many of my old friends and I got to teach closer to a level I was more familiar with.

This was the end of my day at Banting!

 

Some Questions…

What did you hear, see, smell, and feel in the work environment on Nov. 2nd? 

  • Hear: The sounds of many students, laughter, lessons in session, silence during work time, footsteps in the hall, the school bell, conversations in between classes
  • See: Middle School students, friends, teachers, classrooms, work, math, trees, nature, computers, whiteboards, assignments, stationery
  • Smell: Sweat after P.E, the wind and trees during the walk, the smell of shoes in the gym, lunches and food, perfume in the changing rooms
  • Feel (Physical): Plastic chairs, wooden desks, pillows on the chairs, smooth whiteboard, rounded markers, keyboards, tress bark, leaves, moss,
  • Feel (Emotional): Happy, nostalgic, stressed, excited, joyful

What other work environments appeal to you: what will you try next? 

I would love to try working in the Medical Field, medicine and first aid definitely catch my eye. I’ve taken Lifeguarding courses as well as standard first-aid. What I haven’t yet done, is work in any medical-based places. I’m hoping that I’ll get the chance to do so one day. The Medical Field might end up being a job a choose to work for.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my post on November 2nd- Work Day!

-A

~Blog Comment Policy~

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Hello, and thank you for checking out my blog!

This is just a quick post on some Commenting Policies. Please be considerate of the users on this site, and to keep your comments appropriate!

Here are a couple of guidelines chosen by myself to help outline this policy:

  • Comments deemed to be spam or solely promotional in nature will be deleted. Including a link to relevant content is permitted.

Any spamming will not be acceptable on posts, comments should be relevant to the post topic.

  • Comments containing language or concepts that could be deemed offensive will be deleted. Note this may include abusive, threatening, offensive, misleading or libellous language.

This is a safe space to post about life in High School, it should be enjoyable and not at all negative. Please keep from saying anything offensive or threatning about my posts.

  • Read the post, then comment.

Comments are supposed to be encouraging and/or helpful. Commentng wihtout knowing what you’re talking about is not at all helpful. If you’re not intrested in the post, and have no reason to read it. Don’t feel the need to comment.

  • Comments that harass other posters will not be tolerated. Please be respectful toward other contributors.

Even though the comment may not be directed towards me or my posts, please be respectful towards other users on this website. Any comments related to abusive language, threats, offensive comments etc. Will not be tolerated.

Example: A post on studying for exams.

“Thank you so much! I have my exams coming up for next month, and this definitely helped! Is it possible for you to write some more posts on related topics?”

-A