Developing the Leaders Around You

The Law of Magnetism: “Who You Are is Who You Attract”

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership” – Harvey Firestone

The law of magnetism refers to leaders attracting other leaders. Leaders attract other leaders because it takes a leader to know a leader, it takes a leader to show a leader, and it takes a leader to grow a leader. The law of magnetism goes a little bit more in-depth on this concept. I believe it means what type of leader and person you are, that type of leader you will attract. This refers to not only how they lead and their characteristics, but also how strong and effective they are as a leader. The better-quality leader you have, the better-quality leaders you will attract.

I chose the law of magnetism as the concept for session one because I think it is a very important concept to learn. Without leaders, your team will not function, so gaining more good leaders into your team would be very effective. In situations where I lead, I tend to not lead too much and hope that other people will do most of the leading. However, from this concept, I learned that leaders won’t come to my group or team unless there already is good leadership in my team. This means I need to be a good leader in order for other good leaders to join my team.

In the future, I will try my best to lead to the best of my abilities as much as possible. I will still let my group members lead as well, but I won’t just sit back and hope others do the leading. I will lead to the best of my abilities so other good leaders join my group or team.

 

People who affect momentum

This concept refers to the people who affect the momentum in a group. There are momentum breakers, which say and do things that stop momentum. They cause the progress that has been made and is still going to stop. There are momentum takers who say and do things that sap momentum. These people slowly cause the momentum to come to a halt over time. There are momentum fakers who say and do things that stage momentum. These people create fake momentum. For a short period of time, it will look like there is momentum and progress is being made, but really there is not. Finally, there are momentum makers. They say and do things that start momentum. This is who you should aim to be, because they create momentum and progress, and move the team along.

I chose to go deeper into this concept because I need to become a momentum maker. Once in a while, I start momentum, but often I am a momentum breaker, taker, or faker. Sometimes I think of an idea tell the group, without having actually thought it through. Then we start working on this idea, it looks like we are making progress, but we are not as the idea collapses when the team realizes its faults.

In the future, I will definitely strive to become a momentum maker, so I can start real progress within my team. For example, during leadership/cultural event planning. I will think of ideas and discuss them with the group to create real momentum.

 

Work on yourself more than you work on others

The idea of working on yourself more than you work on others is based on the concept of working on yourself before you work on others. Leaders go first! The concept is about your own development and improvement. Most of your leadership challenges start with you, and most of your leadership changes start with you. It is important to develop yourself more than others, this way when you develop the leaders around you, you can teach them more and model to them.

I chose this concept to go deeper into because it’s something that I try to do a lot. I always try to develop as much as possible both by myself and with someone else teaching. However, sometimes I forget about developing and improving myself as a leader. This is something I really need to work on as I am not a great leader yet, meaning I need to develop myself even more.

I will apply this concept in the future by remembering to teach myself first before and more than others. For example, when an announcement needs to be made for something my group and I are planning. Instead of encouraging others to take the risk and make the announcement in front of the class, I should develop myself more often, and do the announcement myself.

 

I motivate

The concept I motivate is about different ways a mentor or leader can become more empowering and motivating. Some of these are the following. Believing in people and feeling they are an organization’s most appreciable asset; Desiring to raise others above your own level of leadership; Allowing others the freedom of personality and process; Handing off the leadership baton to a teammate and rooting for them, and more. The concept mentions that it’s wonderful when people believe in leaders, but it’s more wonderful when leaders believe in people.

I chose this concept because I feel like there are many ways, I can improve with it. I do try to motivate and encourage team members; however, after looking through the list of ways to become an empowering leader, I noticed that I was not doing many of the ways very well and not intentionally. I believe it is important to have a motivated team, thus why I chose this concept.

In the future, I will apply this principle by doing as many ways as I can to be an empowering and motivating leader. I can do this in many group situations other than leadership class. I can motivate people when planning events, but also when working on school projects, when someone is struggling and needs support, and just in everyday life. This seems like a very important skill to have for me.

Categories: Uncategorized

Final In-Depth Post

Ben’s In-Depth Night Blog Post

I have spent the past couple of months learning and practicing animation. This journey has been very fun for me, and I have enjoyed learning something new. I have worked a lot on animation and made multiple shorter animations in the past couple of months. I am very proud of my progress, and although I am still not amazing at animation, I am definitely better then I was when I first started. I am also thankful to have had my mentor Simon to teach me about animation.

This is the animation I created to display here today. My In-Depth was about animation not drawing, so try not to judge the drawings to much. The are a few changes I would have made looking back it now, and a lot more changes if I would have spent more time on it, but overall I am still happy with what I completed.

Originally this was meant to just be the intro of the animation. However, the process of creating this was very time consuming and this is all I got done. I needed to learn the skills I used before I could make this, so I worked on this for roughly 2 weeks. I worked on it for 30 to 60 minutes a day, and for the past 3 days I have been working on this for 2 to 5 hours each day. In the future I might continue this animation, and try to finish it. My plans for it were to have parts of a soccer game happen and the game is for a big trophy. Even though this is not everything I wanted this animation to be, I still am proud of my efforts.

If you have any comments or questions, comment them on this post and I will try to reply as quick as possible.

In-Depth Blog Post #6

Since the last blog post, I mainly have been working on my final post. I have occasionally been practicing some certain animation skills, but my main focus is my final post, as I feel it might take me quite some time to do. I have run into a few problems since the last post but wanting to finish my final project to see how much I have improved has motivated me to get through those problems.

I have also been staying in touch with my mentor and getting tips and tricks from him. Simon has continued to help me improve my animation skills and he is always there to give me feedback on my animations. He has been helping me a lot this year, so I cannot wait to show him my final project.

Since my in-depth is animation, for my final post I am creating an animation using skills I have learned throughout the year. It is quite difficult to do, and takes a lot of time to animate, but I am steadily making progress. The drawings in my animation are also not the greatest, as I am not very good at drawing, but in the end my in-depth is animation not drawing. I am taking a lot of risks in my final animation; I am trying skills and using ideas I have never tried before. I am going to continue to work hard on my final animation, and I can’t wait for all of you to see what I have done.

No matter how good or bad my final animation is, I will be proud of myself for trying my best and for all my improvement throughout the year.

Categories: Uncategorized

Ecological Footprint

The Plan.

After filling out a questionnaire, I found out my ecological footprint is quite high, at 10.07 hectares. This seemed to be quite high as when I compared it to my fellow classmates, my footprint was bigger. Evans footprint was just a bit smaller at 9.35 hectares, while Devon’s footprint was much smaller then mine at 6.75 hectares.

Ten actions that increase the size of my footprint are…

  1. Taking 3 to 6-minute showers.
  2. Not using any water saving devices.
  3. Wearing mostly new clothes.
  4. Not wearing roughly half the clothes in my closet.
  5. Creating a relatively large amount of garbage everyday.
  6. Using a lot of disposable items.
  7. Using the car as my main transportation method.
  8. Playing a lot of sports so a lot of land is used for fields and rinks, which I use to play sports.
  9. Spending a lot of time on a computer/TV.
  10. Only eating some organic/BC grown food.

5 actions I will do to reduce my footprint and why…

  1. I will take 1 to 2 minute showers. I will do this because when I shower, I feel like I am just standing there a lot of the time, and I am wasting water and time in the shower. I feel like this is an action I can easily do.
  2. I will try to produce only enough garbage to fit into 1 cup rather than one shoe box every day. I will do this because I think that I create more waste than necessary. I feel that when I blow my nose I use more tissues then I need, and I could create less waste by using reusable items. I feel like this action could be easily done.
  3. I will try to use the car less often, and instead walk, run or bike to my nearby destinations. I will do this because I have enough time, so it is not like I am in a hurry, so I can just walk. Also, I feel like I need some more exercise and fresh air anyway. This action should not be to hard during these times anyway, as I am not going anywhere.
  4. I will spend less time on my computer and in front of my TV. I spend a lot of time on my computer doing homework, but a lot of the time on my TV is unnecessary. I will do this because I feel that I spend to much time in front of screens, and I should do other things like going outside instead. This action will be more difficult in my opinion, because I am quite hooked on some video games, but I believe I can improve this action.
  5. I will encourage my parents to buy more organic and BC grown food. I will do this because I feel like we need to support local farmers. Also, when my parents go to stores, they do not pay to much attention to what exactly they are buying so I will make them aware and tell them to buy more local and organic food.

How I can improve on these actions…

  1. When I go in the shower, I will try to be efficient and not waste time. I can try to use a timer for the first couple of times I try this, and then in the future, I will have the routine down and hopefully it will be easy for me to shower in 1 to 2 minutes.
  2. I will create less waste by trying to be conservative with tissues, etc. When I spill water on the counter, I’ll use a towel to clean it up, rather than tissues of sorts. I will also try to waste less paper, and use more re-usable items to hopefully create only a cup of garbage each day.
  3. I will use the car less often by walking to places more, and also getting my bike out of the shed, and using it for transportation. Also, right now during these times, I will not really be going to many places, so this action should be easy to improve.
  4. I will spend less time on my computer and TV, by trying to do my homework on my computer more efficiently and not getting distracted. When I am using electronics for my own leisure, I might set a timer and stop using the electronic when the timer is over.
  5. I will encourage my parents to buy more organic and local food by making them aware of what they are buying. This way they will most likely think about what they are buying when shopping at grocery stores, and then they might make the choice to buy local and/or organic.

The Reflection.

A change that was easy to make for me was reducing my shower time. Setting a timer for the first few times and then getting into the routine of showering quickly really worked for me. I was being more efficient with my time in the shower, which led to me having more time in general. I will definitely continue doing this action. Another change that was easy for me to make, was using the car less often. I have not been going to many places if any at all, so I really did not need to use the car.

A change that was difficult for me to make was reducing my screen time. I had a lot of trouble reducing the time I spent in front of my computer, because homework I had to do for my classes did not really become less. I did have some success in reducing my time in front of the TV though, as I do think I reduced my time playing video games by roughly a quarter.

An obstacle I encountered happened because of COVID-19. When my mom or dad went to the grocery store, they couldn’t always buy organic or BC grown food, as much of the food was out of stock, so the could not always choose what type of food they bought. Also, I had an obstacle when reducing my waste. I few times I produced more then a cup of waste because my cat likes to puke and I had to clean up the puke with paper towels.

In the future I will continue to reduce my ecological footprint. I will continue to have success in reducing my shower time, and I will keep attempting the other actions I chose to improve and perhaps even more.

Categories: Uncategorized

In-Depth Post #5

Since the last post I have not gotten as much done as I wanted to for in depth, but I still made some progress. I have continued to practice my animation skills, while trying to stay motivated. Last post I set myself a goal to animate an object. I achieved this goal, but I didn’t do everything I had in mind. This is the animation (click on it to watch).

I am okay with my progress, but by next post I hope to have advanced my skills a lot more.

Questions for post #5:

1. What kinds of learning opportunities does the mentor provide to expose you to new learning?

My mentor is constantly giving me new learning opportunities and helping me learn new skills. Over email, my mentor sends links to videos and websites very often, that are very useful to further my growth. He also gives me tips and teaches me animation from his own knowledge too.

2. What kinds of learning opportunities exist to reinforce new learning?

Other than the links and websites my mentor sends me, I often find my own resources that help me advance a current skill or task I am working on. If I am trying to animate something in particular, I can use both my mentor and online resources to reinforce my learning.

3. What kinds of opportunities exist that might accelerate learning?

Although websites, books, and videos help me learn new skills and improve technical aspects of animation, the main way/opportunity to accelerate my learning is just from practice. The more I practice animation, the quicker my learning will be and the faster I will improve.

4. When you get together what do you talk about?

When my mentor and I used to get together before the pandemic, and when we get together over email and other online resources, we talk about my drawings and animations, and how I can improve. We also talk about his animations and how he started to get into animation. I have learned a lot from our discussions about both animation and my mentor.

5. What is going particularly well in your mentoring relationship right now?

Something that is going very well is that whenever I have a question or need feedback, I always have someone who can help me. My mentor and I usually communicate over email, and when I ask for feedback or I ask a question, my mentor usually responds within a day. This is very useful for our mentoring relationship, as it is good for me to have someone I can talk about my work with. This also helps me accelerate my learning.

6. What are you learning about one another?

I have learned a lot about my mentor. I have learned that he has a wife and a kid. I also learned all about his background, what he likes about animation, and all of his past animation experience. This has really helped strengthen our mentoring relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: Uncategorized

Digital Literacy Assignment reflection #4: PTI Synthesis

English assignment #2: PTI synthesis about expectation.

PTI Synthesis

After reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, my class and I were required to write am essay/synthesis about it. Our job was to connect the expectations set upon Junior (the main character) in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the expectation set upon Sherman Alexie in his life, and the expectations in our own lives.

Criteria Met:

Communication and Collaboration:

4. I constructively build upon or synthesize the ideas of my peers.

Before I started my synthesis, I had a discussion with one of my classmates about expectations that were put upon Junior in the novel. I came up with an analogy about Juniors life and expectations and my classmate added onto it with his own idea. I then built onto his idea constructively, and included my analogy in my assignment.

Digital Citizenship:

15. My work demonstrates a positive, productive, and empathetic worldview.

I tried my best to keep my work positive and not harsh, but still realistic. The synthesis was about a controversial topic and had some personal parts as well. I tried to approach the synthesis from different perspectives and I was curious about the topic. The worldview on this essay was very empathetic and I tried to find out how expectations affect our lives and the world positively, not just negatively.

 

Digital Literacy Assignment Reflection #2: Reproduction Info-Graphic

Science Assignment: Reproduction Info-Graphic

Reproduction info-graphic

In this project, everybody was assigned a different organism. We then would research and create an info-graphic about the reproduction of our organism. I was assigned the Burmese Python. I researched about the reproduction of the Burmese Python, and I then created an info-graphic about it.

Criteria Met:

Creativity, Innovation, Technology Operations and Concepts:

5. I enhance the impact of my research or presentation through creative use of technology.

Using technology creatively impacted both my presentation (info-graphic), and my research. The use of technology allowed me to find in-depth and engaging research. It also allowed me to improve the design of my info-graphic. I was able to add images, charts, shapes, and other design aspects to improve the flow and engagement of my info graphic. This enhanced the impact of my info-graphic, as it improved design aspects and engagement of it, which allowed my peers to learn more about the reproduction of a Burmese python.

7. I design my work with consideration given to aesthetics and design, such as consistent color schemes, symmetry or organization of visual elements, and overall layout.

When designing my info-graphic, I tried my best to all of my important research included in it, while still making it look good. I had to put a lot of consideration into what the overall layout of the info-graphic would be like, so I would be able to fit everything I wanted to. I also needed to consider how I would make my research more engaging, so I used aesthetics and designs such as charts and images. I also tried to keep an interesting color scheme, and I also considered how the design of my info-graphic would keep all of the information and images organized.

 

 

Digital Literacy Assignment Reflection #3: ZIP

English Assignment #1: ZIP

ZIP Research

ZIP Video

ZIP Annotated Bibliography

ZIP is an inquiry based project, where we come up with a question/topic, answer it, and create an artifact that represents our learning. This project is called ZIP because it is really fast. We had just over a week to do this entire project. This included our research, the creation of the artifact, and the annotated bibliography. My inquiry question was What Factors Lead to Soccer Being Played All Over the World. While researching, I also a similar question in mind, which was Why is Soccer the Most Popular Sport in the World. I did extensive research on my question and I then created a video to show my learning.

Criteria Met:

Communication and Collaboration:

3. I respond to the work or ideas of my peers in a way that is compassionate and productive.

We presented our ZIP projects by going around the room and spending roughly 8 minutes at each persons project. While we were learning about the persons topic/inquiry question we needed to fill out a sheet for feedback.  I tried my best to respond to the work of my peers on the sheet nicely, while still giving them feedback on what they should improve. I would say that my feedback was both compassionate and productive.

Creativity, Innovation, Technology Operations and Concepts:

6. I determine and use the most effective medium to present my work.

ZIP is a very inquiry based project. We got to choose many things for the project, and one of those was the way we present our work. The only restriction was that it wasn’t a speech type presentation, and it had to fit the time limit. I determined that the most effective way to present my work would be as a video or slideshow with a voice over. I used Macromedia flash 8 to add images and small animations into the presentation, and I then recorded a voice over over top of it. I believed this would be the most effective medium because it allowed people to learn both visually and from hearing.

8. I challenge myself to increase my technological literacy by working with apps, software, or mediums that I have not used in the past.

When creating my artifact of learning for my project, I wanted to create a video/slideshow with a voice over. I had never done this before, so I wanted to challenge myself to increase my technological literacy by trying it out. The main app I used was Macromedia Flash 8, which I had not used for this purpose before and I now am starting to use more. I also had to d a voice over which I did using a software on my computer. I had not used this mediums in the past for this purpose, so it was a real challenge, but I am glad I did it.

Research and Information Literacy:

9. I critically assess research sources for Currency, Reliability, Authority, and Purpose.

While creating our project, we needed to make an annotated bibliography/works cited. When doing this I was checking my sources for their currency, reliability, authority, and purpose. I was needed to check this because when properly citing my sources I needed to know this information. This helped me make sure my sources were current, reliable, authoritative, and purposeful, which overall improved the quality of my research.

Digital Literacy Assignment Reflection #1: PTI Presentation

Socials Assignment: Part Time Indian (PTI) Presentation

PTI Powerpoint

PTI Script and Research

Before we read Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, our class was put into multiple groups. We all received a topic that related to the book, and were asked to do research on the topic, as well as to create a PowerPoint presentation about it. My group and I got the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as our topic. After doing extensive research, my group decided to present our PowerPoint in a debate format to add some engagement to our presentation.

Criteria Met:

Communication and Collaboration:

1.I use digital spaces to plan and execute collaborative projects with my peers.

In this project, my class was split into groups of 4. As we were creating a PowerPoint presentation, we used PowerPoint online to collaboratively work on creating it. We also used other digital spaces, such as Word Online, so all of our groups research would be together. We used even more different digital spaces such as outlook to effectively communicate with each other. Using this digital spaces, we collaboratively planned and executed our final presentation.

Research and Information Literacy:

11.I go beyond google and use databases to find scholarly research sources.

When doing this project, we mostly used databases to do our research. We found databases on the Gleneagle library, and the database we used the most was Gale Canada in Context. This database allowed us to bet a Canadian perspective on our topic, and it also allowed us access to scholarly research sources.

12.I look at controversial issues or topics from opposed perspectives to gain a more complete understanding.

Out topic of the truth and reconciliation commission was very controversial. It got us asking many questions like should we try to reconcile with the first nations, how can we make up for what happened in the past, and should we even give the first nation anything? To help us get a better understanding of these questions and our topic, we created our presentation in a debate style. Different people argued different sides of the topic, so we could get multiple perspectives on it, and get a better understanding of different worldviews.

Digital Citizenship:

13.I attribute credit to ideas that are not my own by preparing a Bibliography/Works Cited and by using in-text citation.

On the second to last slide on our PowerPoint (see top for link), we have all of our research sources properly cited. This gives credit for some of our ideas. Also, on the last slide, we have all the links for our images.