Grade 9 Celebration of Learning

Thinking Core Competency for Power Technology 9

The final project for Power Technology 9 was to take apart and rebuild a small engine and get it to start. Completing this project demonstrated my thinking core competency and my Powertech curricular competency. I demonstrated my critical thinking in the rebuilding stage by putting an engine with lots of small parts together and remembering where they all went. it also showed when i had to answer questions on what each part did and why it did it. I demonstrated my creative thinking when I was working on my second engine, which just wouldn’t start. I had to take it all apart again and go through each piece of the box to think about which part could be the issue, really trying to narrow down the cause to a fuel stem (which is a part that goes into the gas tank to collect fuel and put it into the engine) that had it’s filter gunked up with debris and needed to be cleaned out. In this project, I also showed growth in my Powertech curriculum competencies in applied design and applied skills. For applied design, I had to continuously run tests on the engine, starting it, going back to my workplace, and testing it again, all to find miniscule problems like a spark plug that was too tight. and in the applied skills competency, I demonstrated that by taking apart and rebuilding over a dozen engines. even going as far as to volunteer in the week to help out the Powertech 9 teacher, Mr. Pope, take apart my classmates unfinished assignments to help him get ready for the next semester. Since middle school and for almost all of my life, I’ve had an interest in how things work, like cars, planes, and the like. So when I saw an opportunity to take apart and build my own small engine, I jumped at the cane to explore an uncharted world that was the trades world. Going into it with no experience was scary, especially because it was one of my first classes in high school, but I walked out with a good grade and a whole new outlook on my future.

Communication Core Competency for English 9

I went to Hillcrest Middle School. I was in an out-of-catchment programme called MACC. This was a blessing and a curse because I found a group of like-minded people, but they were also coming from outf-cacatchment. meaning that I had to make completely new friends and connections after going into Centennial. This was harder than I thought, and my first instinct was to not engage, and eventually I cut myself off from a lot of people. So in doing things like a book club presentation for English class, I had opened my horizons and got to actually talk with people about a book that was a mutually liked thing. In doing things like this, I was able to cooperate with my book clubmate to create a fairly good presentation on the book Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I developed collaboration skills when doing things like dividing the tasks between ourselves and giving each other feedback on which part was good and what needed to be fixed, tweaked, or changed. For this project, we were tasked with reading Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, creating a PowerPoint presentation on the topic, and including an activity for the whole class to partake in that also relates to the theme of the book. In this sense, I demonstrated the curricular competency. Comprehension and connection. First, we had to read the book in increments on our own time and agree on a stopping place every week. We would then have a discussion on what happened in the recent chapters and what we think will happen next. After reading the book, we had to comprehend the theme of the book and the message that the author was showing us. Then we had to connect it all together into an activity that the whole class could partake in.

Personal/Social Core Competency for Social Studies 9

In the beginning of almost every class, the teacher goes over a set of class rules. things that should be said, like their policy for phone use or a punishment system for people who misbehave. If you’re lucky, you can get a teacher that has a class participate in the strictness of the policy’s and even what punishment is appropriate for the person who doesn’t follow the rules. My growth in personal and social competency stems from the group choices that we made at the beginning of the semester. Throughout the decision-making process, you could see different people respond with different ideas on how the matter should be handled. You had one side who wanted to not be punished at all for the use of phones in class, and then the other side advocated for at least some form of penalty. During the process, you could see the different opinions, reasonings, and values that each person had, as they each added their own two cents to the conversation. This was of conducting a form of penalty for people who misbehaved at the start of class and having the students decide on it, make up the rules for it, and all agree to it. It proved to be more successful than the teacher just saying, “This is the rule; everyone obeys.” This topic holds true for curricular competency as well. As a lot of the curricular competencies for social studies are based on interpreting, asking questions, and coming to a conclusion (or, in this case, a mutual agreement), this is a big part of the social studies class as a whole.

THIS IS NOT THE ACTUAL CLASS CHARTER AS THE ONE MENTIONED WAS AN ORAL CONTRACT BETWEEN THE TEACHER AND STUDENTS.

Reflecting on My First Year:

This year, I’m most proud of my understanding of what I want to do post-secondary. Going into grade 9, I had little to no idea of what I wanted to do after high school, or even in high school. I didn’t have any sort of idea of what I wanted at all, but after going through a semester and a half, I have learned more about myself and my interests. Starting in semester one with my gamble with the class Powertech. I had no idea what to expect, and I didn’t even know I would like it, but after taking the class, I discovered how much I loved the process of going through engines, taking things apart, and learning about the whole trade side of education. I really had no idea what to expect, and now I have a more solid idea of what I want to do in the future and how I will spend the rest of my high school years.

My favorite educational website this year was Duolingo (Duolingo – The world’s best way to learn a language). This is because I knew that I would be taking Spanish 9 in the second semester, and I knew that that course was something that I should prepare for in advance and not just see how it goes. So, at the beginning of the first semester, I started up my Duolingo account and started a streak for Spanish. This initial boost of learning really helped me out at the start of my second semester, as I was already ahead of the class and was in a good spot to start the course.

My favorite video this year was “History of the Universe, I guess” by Bill Wurtz. The video is a recap of everything that has happened since the big bang. from the formation of the elements to the intricacies of human society, all simplified and put into one 18-minute video. The reason that I liked this video so much is not just because it is very entertaining, but also because it is very informative. In the video, you can make connections to science with protons, neutrons, electrons, and the formation of elements. and you can make connections between social studies and the development of human society, discoveries like Christopher Columbus in 1452, and much more.

My favorite image is an image of a stretched-out polar bear. It seems a bit weird, but there is a reason. The Polar Bear was the first slide in an in-depth presentation that I did on the effects of oil spills on the surrounding environment and how the ecosystem is effected. But the image that I picked of the polar bear wouldn’t fit, so I stretched it out and made it so it filled the slide, creating a little bit of comic relief and a bit of a hook to draw attention to the start of my presentation.

“If you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog, in any fight, the lions will die like a dog. But if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight as a lion.” Napoleon Bonaparte. I have liked this quote ever since I was a kid who did a project on Napoleon in elementary school. In no way does this relate to my own way of life, but it does spell a message that you have to choose the people that you spend your time with or are around and really make sure they are the right people for you. As I said, its hard to make any connections to this quote as I do not participate in any wars, but it’s something cool that was said a long time ago by a cool guy, so I like it.

Duolingo – The world’s best way to learn a languagehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuCn8ux2gbs&t=99s