In-Depth Presentation

 

Hello Guests

Welcome to my In-Depth Presentation. This year I decided to skateboard because I saw it as a fun opportunity to learn something new.  As a kid I always saw the older kids at the skatepark do tricks and just ride skateboards and I thought it was so cool. At the age of 8 I tried getting into skateboarding but it just didn’t feel right.

This year I decided to try skateboarding again. I am so glad I did because skateboarding for me now has become a peaceful and fun way to get around rather than walking. A bad thing about skateboarding is that it can only be used on concrete and not dirt so I still prefer to use my bike because it can be used anywhere. Even though it can only be used on concrete I definitely recommend you give it a try. The fear of not having something to hold onto while riding, will quickly disappear once you can ride it and realize how fun it is.

 

Flipping Skateboard while jumping on it Click Here to See Video

This task was by far the easiest of all my tasks. The whole idea at first was a bit sketchy; however, as soon as I overcame this feeling the task was quite easy. I fell down twice when trying it on concrete. I then attempted to do this on the carpet and it was much easier. I got used to the motion and then when I could do it 100% of the time on carpet I went on concrete and tried again. As soon as I tried on concrete again it was the easiest thing to do.

 

Falling of the Sidewalk on Skateboard (Angle 1) Click Here to See Video

Falling of the Sidewalk on Skateboard (Angle 2) Click Here to See Video

This task was very weird for me. It took me multiple days to get comfortable with just the idea of doing this task. It was such an awkward thing to do. At one of my sessions with my mentor, my mentor held my hands so I could do the motion successfully and get a feel for it. After this session it was my responsibility to practice myself. Thanks to my one friend practicing this move was not that difficult.

 

Riding Right Foot 180° turn continue to ride on Left Foot Clcik Here to See Video

This was my hardest task of all and I still cannot do it correctly or as fluid as I would like. This task needed a bunch of basic components to be mastered in order to put them together into one move. I first got comfortable with making stationary 180° turns. After this I continued to get used to riding on my right and left foot. Once I had all these components down I had to put them together. The hardest part was putting them together and making them smooth. I quickly learned that making a turn in motion such as a 180° was quite difficult. This was the hardest part of putting them together as the take off at the end was quite simple.

 

Riding Down a Hill Click Here to See Video

At the beginning of my mentoring sessions, I had an overall idea of how to ride a skateboard. I specifically, needed help with putting my knowledge into practice. After 15min of practice with my mentor I was already riding the skateboard relatively comfortably. After I practiced riding a lot, riding down hills really is a matter of your speed, balance, and the type of skateboard you have. The type of skateboard I used in the video didn’t have great bearings meaning it went quite slow so it was easy to control. The other type of skateboard I have called a cruiser is way to difficult to use on hills for me at the moment is because it picks up speed very quickly and requires a much better balance.

 

Thank you so much for reading my post.

Enjoy the rest of your night.

Please leave any comments or questions at the bottom.

 

In-Depth Post #5

Even with the pandemic preventing me from seeing my mentor, I still continue to practice. I don’t practice as often as I used to because it is hard to get out and go to a park where I can just ride my skateboard to my heart’s content, as well as because of safety. 

My friend who had lent me his skateboard needed his skateboard back because of the pandemic and he wanted to go out once in a while and ride by himself; because of this, I have been focusing on just riding comfortably on my right and left foot with my own skateboard. My skateboard is a cruiser so I can’t practice any of my tricks, but I am definitely getting better at riding and now it’s so easy and fun to just put the skateboard down and take off, feeling the wind just rush past you. 

As I continue to skateboard, I keep finding small things to tweak or improve upon. At the moment I am working on making my takeoff as well as when I bring my foot onto and off the board more smooth and fluid. This is proving to be quite difficult because of the environment as well as the type of skateboard I have. When I bought my skateboard from my mentor’s shop he gave me really good wheels as well as bearings which improve how fast and often you have to push to build up more speed. Thanks to my mentor giving me such good deals and equipment for my skateboard I need big open spaces with long stretches to be able to ride. I normally go to Gates park and ride around on the paved path around the park; however, as time goes by it seems that more and more people keep coming outside and walk on the path. The amount is not so much that I cannot ride but it is annoying as I keep having to stop or slow down to avoid other people. This proves to make my practicing even harder because all the stopping and slowing down ruins the smoothness and fluidity of my movements.

With the pandemic as it continues, I have been unable to meet with my mentor and it has gotten harder to communicate as my mentor is still quite busy. This is quite sad and frustrating because I would have benefited from meeting with my mentor as I still have a lot to learn from him. This means that I am not able to answer the in-depth questions required for this post; however, I will do my best to talk about a few things relating to the questions.

Before the pandemic, I was meeting with my mentor and we would go on rides together and each time we would go on a new path, providing me with new experiences and improving my skills with riding. This helped accelerate my learning because it got me to adapt to things faster and improve my awareness of my surroundings, making me have to look down less and be able to be more observant. When we were together we would talk about skateboarding and tips as well as my mentor told me stories and his experiences with skateboarding.

Skateboarding has definitely become one of the things that help me relax and it has become super fun and enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this as some future Talons students’ in-depth project.

In-Depth Post #4

I have been having a blast going on outings with my friends skateboarding and teaching them how to skateboard. By teaching others how to ride a skateboard I also gain knowledge on how to practice more efficiently and effectively while watching others learn. By teaching others it also helps me demonstrate my knowledge of the skill and help me gain greater insight and depth into skateboarding while assuring myself of the skill and my capability to perform the skill.  I also use this time when I am hanging out with my friends to practice in a way that is more fun instead of going riding/practicing in the alleyway near my house.

I have continued to practice at least 2-3 times a week whether that means going to a park or just practicing near my house. To update how I have been practicing I start off with just riding on my right and left foot and consistently developing my riding skills making my motions look more smooth and controlled. After I ride around for a bit I practice each of the moves my mentor has shown me. As I have mentioned before in my last post I am able to flip the board while jumping onto it 100% of the time so that is a win. I have recently accomplished the task of having the board parallel on the sidewalk and falling down and riding from it. I am now trying to get that to be 100% as well. The big thing I need to work on is to continue to work on my transition from riding from my right foot spinning the board 180° and then riding with my left. I can quite easily do each of the moves by themselves but I need to keep practicing the fluidity of the transfer. 

At the start of spring break, I went out with my mentor to his skateboard shop near the Burquitlam station. There I spent some time making my own skateboard, although it is a different style it is still a skateboard. The style I got is called a cruiser and it was 150$ thanks to the discount my mentor gave me. As it is a different style and it is a cruiser, I consider it to be a beast compared to the regular style skateboard due to the fact that the bearings, wheels, trucks, and deck are all better than the skateboard I have currently been practicing on. It picks up speed a lot faster and is harder to control because it requires a bigger control of one’s balance then the other skateboard did. This will surely keep me busy as it will help me improve my balance and overall riding skills. 

 

1. What has been my most difficult mentoring challenge so far?  Why?

The hardest challenge as mentioned in my last post is finding the time and place to meet with my mentor to practice my skills. It is also hard to meet with my mentor because we both live different lives and our responsibilities are different which means the times we are capable of arranging dates to meet are all over the place. This is also a challenge because it is hard to ask for help when I need it because my mentor is quite busy having to manage his skateboard shop, being a pastor and having to take care of his family. I understand that he is volunteering his time and although this is annoying I need to just keep dealing with it, in order to continue working with my mentor and continue working and learning small things by myself.

 

2. What is working well? Why?

At my last meeting with my mentor when we went to his shop, my mentor and I engaged in an interesting conversation about the COVID-19 pandemic as well as my progress skateboarding and he continued to give me more tips and ideas on how to fix my problems and challenges when skateboarding. I asked questions such as how to increase the rate of turns, speed, and how to fix my problem of falling off the sidewalk correctly and how to prevent my wheels from getting caught. My mentor gave me solutions such as when falling down from the sidewalk maybe the sidewalk is too low or try to turn faster when u fall. To increase my speed and rate or turn my mentor just said to lean more into it and to turn faster and to increase speed it just comes with practice as well as fluidity between each push.

 

3. What could be working better?  How can you make sure this happens?

Hopefully, once the COVID-19 pandemic has died down and people are less stressed I hope to go skateboarding with my mentor 1 on 1, to gain more understanding of how fluid motions can and should be for optimal results. Communicating with my mentor and asking questions is all I can do at the moment but skateboarding with him will surely help me improve. I will work hard to hopefully arrange a day when I can accomplish this. 

In-Depth Post #3

I have continued to practice roughly 2-3 times a week since my first meeting with my mentor. My skills are certainly improving as I increase my fluidity of movements as well as balance. I have reached a 100% accuracy when I jump on the board while flipping the board as I jump. I am currently still working on the transition from riding on my right foot to my left foot as the 180° turn is still difficult for me to do without motion. I have gotten quite close to accomplishing the task of falling off the sidewalks; however, I seem to always get my back wheels stuck or it seems that I am not turning/rotating enough. These will surely be questions I ask my mentor as soon as he is available. 

In my practice by myself, I have come to notice that I veer to the right when I am skateboarding on my left foot. So, I decided to find a solution to this myself. I realized that the reason I veer to the right is that, I am pushing with my right foot, which results in my balance to shift ever so slightly to my right side. To solve this problem I came up with the idea to place my foot over the screws like normal, but to place my foot a bit to the opposite side of whichever foot I am riding with. If I am pushing with my right foot, my foot on the board will be slightly left and vise versa. As I mentioned before in my last post, balance is a major factor when riding a skateboard and improving your balance early on will surely help you in the future when you are skateboarding.  

My relationship with my mentor has been growing as we have arranged a day in early spring break for me to come to visit his skateboarding shop, where I might get a skateboard of my own. Our conversations grow deeper and more focused, as each lesson goes on, resulting in the number of tips and feedback I get from my mentor increasing as well as my rate of fixing mistakes early on.

My mentor has been especially helpful as he has continued to give me tips and help me get better. I would also like to acknowledge my friend Dominik whose skateboard I am currently using, as whenever we hang out we have conversations about how my skateboarding lessons are and he always volunteers to help me with some of my moves. I have also just begun teaching Prabigya, Max, Anysia, Lauren, and Kate how to ride a skateboard. Throughout all of these experiences with getting help from my mentor and Dominik and from teaching some of my friends how to ride a skateboard, I feel as though I am growing and learning very quickly and will possibly be able to learn other moves in time for in-depth. 

 

What learning challenges emerged? 

Some of the biggest learning challenges that occurred is finding the time and place to meet with my mentor as my mentor runs a skateboarding shop in Burnaby, is a pastor and is a husband and needs to take care of his family. Amongst his busy schedule, it is hard to find time to meet with him, so a lot of our interactions have been text messages rather than face to face. This means it is harder to ask for tips on improvement or get feedback on how to improve or ask questions on how to fix problems. Due to this, I decided to consult my friend Dominik for help as he is available more often.  

 

What went particularly well during your mentoring sessions?

When we meet face to face, it is much easier to ask questions and get help, rather than texting. This means that our overall communication increases resulting in me learning more effectively and efficiently. During our mentoring sessions, I find it easier the environment much better because just having someone there to watch you and point out areas for improvement is a lot of help rather than having to spend a long time trying to figure it out yourself. I believe the thing that has been working the best during our sessions is our communication as well as how my mentor teaches me. He will show you the move, then guide you through the move, then help you perform the move once, then you practice it for some time by yourself, while my mentor watches you and gives you tips while you practice. 

 

What three strategies could improve the quality of your mentoring interactions?

The first strategy to improve our mentoring interactions can be to text my mentor more often as we don’t meet face to face as much. By texting more often and asking for help I can continue to develop our relationship. By texting more often we will both become more comfortable with each other and this will lead to us being able to have deeper conversations during ur meetings much easier and more naturally. 

Secondly, my mentor’s life is quite busy and it is hard to arrange meetings because of his schedule. It is quite annoying as we have not been able to meet many times in person because of our differing schedules. To solve this, I believe the best strategy I can use would be to increase the length of our meetings. We meet at least once or twice a month, so by increasing the time of our meetings I can get more out of each meeting, while still managing with having only a few meetings a month. This will also allow for more time for deeper conversations to develop and greater amounts of insight to be learned. 

Finally, the last strategy I can use to improve our mentoring interactions can be to focus on listening to what my mentor says as well as adding my own opinions to the conversation to make it more meaningful. Such as if he tells me to fix something, instead of just fixing it or trying to fix it can ask for an explanation on why and how to fix the problem. As well as gain more insight into what kind of things might cause problems such as the ones he asks me to fix. By listening and engaging in deep conversations I will be able to get more out of our meetings and gain greater insight into riding a skateboard. Knowing the hows of riding a skateboard is good, but knowing the whys make the experience much better. 

In-Depth Post #2

The meeting started with my mentor showing me some of the things I could look forward to, once I accomplish some of the basic steps to reaching those goals. We went over things like basic riding methods. As this was my first formal lesson on how to ride a skateboard I had already had some of the methods and theories down on how to ride a skateboard; however, I never knew how to execute/apply each method and theory. We began by me practicing how to get on and off the skateboard while maintaining the correct placement for my feet. After I could do this comfortably we moved onto adding a little push and then getting on. Once I got comfortable with 1 push and getting on we progressively increased the number of pushes until I could ride. Thanks to my mentor’s help and guidance I was riding on my left foot within roughly 15 minutes. After I could ride decently on my left foot, my mentor wanted me to start with the skateboard backward, staring on my right foot giving a few pushes and then turning the skateboard 180° and then switch to pushing with my left. Don’t worry this sounds complicated but the steps are not too difficult. Putting each step together is hard. After I spent some time on this my mentor said I should practice this at home and we moved on. To finish the lesson my mentor showed me some tricks such as flipping the skateboard while jumping on it and one where the skateboard is parallel with the crosswalk and you turn the skateboard while on it and ride off of the sidewalk

One of the best tips he gave firstly and foremost was to focus on balance. Just by improving my balance I improved my overall skateboarding abilities. You might say this is obvious but many skateboarders when they begin to learn don’t learn the correct way to balance. They rush and don’t know the correct way to balance and then they begin to develop bad habits. Resulting in them spending extra time focusing on fixing mistakes that could have easily been avoided.

My mentor started skateboarding when he was 5 years old and had continued skateboarding for the rest of his life. He is now 40 years old and has 35 years of experience. Throughout these 35 years, he had developed some mad skills and had become a professional skateboarder. He now is a husband and teaches his kids how to skateboard as well as runs classes and teaches kids how to skateboard. I am not formally taking one of his classes but he teaches me the same way he would any of his students. His teaching methods are in a way monkey see, monkey do. He shows you the skills and shows you the steps to get there and then he will observe and correct you if he sees u doing something that will lead to bad habits. The first time you attempt it he will guide you through the process and a few more times if you require help but afterward all you need to do is practice yourself. I believe his teachings methods resemble our autonomous learner model. You get the resources and the things you need to learn the skill, someone will show you how to use the resources and then all you must do is practice and work on the skill yourself. 

In-Depth Introductory Post

When I heard about In-depth this year my mind quickly jumped saying learn how to do a flip flat. I love being able to do flips on the trampoline so I thought it would be so much fun to be able to do a flip flat. This idea, however, was too hard because of the availability of a personal mentor. I spent a few days pondering what to do and I found myself reliving my childhood. 

As a child, I learned how to ride a bike, scooter, and rollerblade. Although I never could ride a skateboard. I remember spending time watching teenagers and highschoolers do such cool tricks at the skatepark on a skateboard. The whole idea of a skateboard sounded so cool. The way it flipped, the way you could right it forward or backward, using either leg and even the idea of turning. I admired those who could ride a skateboard and I once tried to learn how but it never felt right.

For my in-depth project this year, I have chosen to focus on learning how to ride a skateboard, specifically how to ride using my left or right foot. I hope to be able to complete this task of learning to ride a skateboard to achieve my goal of being able to add this to my list of other things I can ride using my legs. 

This year my mentor is an adult who is actually a professional skateboarder and owns a skateboard shop. From him, I am hoping to learn how to ride a skateboard using either my left or right foot. I will be meeting with my mentor 2-3 times a month starting in February. I will be practicing how to ride a skateboard by myself whenever I spare time to make sure I can look confident and feel confident when riding the skateboard. I will be presenting my skateboarding skills by giving them a presentation of me riding the skateboard outside while having a table with items to represent my progress on this adventure.

Career Interview

Thematic Statement #1:

Technology can fail more than you can

 

Thematic Statement #2:

Best way to deal with stress is to plan so much that you can’t become stressed

 

Thematic Statement #3:

You must be prepared not for yourself but for others

 

Eminent Introductory Blog Post

Henry “Box” Brown was an enslaved man who shipped himself to freedom in a wooden box.

In 1815, a child named Henry Box Brown was born into slavery and had loving parents and his mother was a Christian. In the short time, she had with her son before they were separated she taught him the ways of the Christian life and how to lead a Christian life even in the worst of situations and circumstances.

 

At the age of 15, he was sent to Richmond to work in a Tobacco factory. His life was miserable and was filled with drugs, although he had it better than most of his fellow peers. Little did he know that although his life was horrible now and was going to get worse, God was still looking out for him and that he was eventually going to escape to a life of freedom in a wooden crate. 

 

In 1848, Henry Box Brown had a family of his own. A wife, 3 young children, and another child on the way. Sadly this was the year that his family had been separated. His wife and their children were shackled and chained and sent away to a plantation in North Carolina. He never got a chance to properly say goodbye to his family as he watched 350 slaves including his family slowly fade away in the distance as they parted and never saw each other again. 

 

Several months of mourning this huge loss, he had become a determined man to escape slavery. He was a man of faith and a member of the Baptist church choir. With this, he resolved that he would escape slavery and he could accomplish this with his faith in christ because “with God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26. 

 

With this resolve, he began planning his escape. He requested help from his friend, James Caesar Anthony Smith a free black man from the church who knew a white man named Samuel A. Smith who had the connections to help get Henry Bow Brown out of slavery. Samuel A. Smith contacted a man in Philadelphia who was an abolitionist and a member of the anti-slavery society named James Miller McKim. With the help of James Smith, Samuel Smith, and James McKim, they devised a plan to ship Henry Box Brown to Philadelphia in a wooden crate by train. Henry Box Brown had been shipped in a wooden box on March 23rd, 1849. It was a strenuous and painful 27-hour journey as the box had been turned upside down and he did not have enough food and water but at the end of the journey it was worth the price for Freedom. In Philadelphia, he became an abolitionist to help those in similar situations as he once was. 

Once the press had found out about the story of Henry Box Brown they were conflicted and didn’t know what to do. Tell the story to the public and risk other people attempting the same thing to escape slavery or withhold the truth. In the end, they shared Henry Box Brown’s story and this impacted plenty of people in slavery as they had the inspiration to find creative ways to escape slavery or even try the same thing. As well as to never give up no matter how lost and hopeless it might seem. Henry Box Brown will forever be known as the black who escaped to freedom in a wooden box. 

 

Henry Box Brown and I share a big aspect that has shaped both our lives and that would be the fact that we are both black males with a strong faith in Jesus Christ. This causes us to have a will to never give up in those mighty storms in our lives because as I mentioned earlier, “with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26. Although something that might have been a little difficult to connect to would be his life in slavery, at the end of the day we shared the same values and beliefs so it had become quite easy. Henry Box Brown had an unshakeable faith which he developed in his life through the storms in his life and I would like to emulate him and continue to develop my unshakeable faith in Christ Jesus although I would like to do it sooner then he did, because once you have a strong faith in Christ it feels as though you are unstoppable and it helps you to lead a great life for God’s glory. 

 

References:

https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/boxbrown/summary.html

https://www.pbs.org/black-culture/shows/list/underground-railroad/stories-freedom/henry-box-brown/

https://www.biography.com/activist/henry-box-brown

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Box_Brown

 

 

Interesting Site:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/henry-box-brown-biography-quotes-facts.html

Universities

 

UBC

 

Cost

Tuition: 4,995.79$

Housing Utilities: 9,600$ – 14,400$

Groceries & Food: 3,000$

British Columbia Medical Services Plan basic health insurance: 650$

Book & Supplies: 1,200$

Clothing, Personal Care & Miscellaneous Expenses: 3,000$

Temporary Accommodation: 500$

Prerequisites

• • Graduation from high school
  • Minimum of 70% in Grade 11 or Grade 12 English (or their equivalents)
  • At least six academic/non-academic Grade 12 courses (recommended, but not required)

 

• Grade 12 Requirements

 

• • • • English Studies 12
      • Pre-Calculus 12 (minimum 67%)
      • Anatomy and Physiology 12 (Biology 12), Chemistry 12, or Physics 12

 

• Grade 11 Requirements

 

• • • Any English Language Arts 11 or any English First Peoples 11
    • A Language 11 or waiver 
    • Chemistry 11
    • Physics 11
    • Pre-Calculus 11 or Foundations of Mathematics 12

Reputation/Stats

• 2nd in Canada (2020) 
• 34th in the world (2020)

Location

Vancouver, British Columbia

Structure

Co-op available, but no honors

McGill University

 

Cost 

Tuition: 7,940.10$

Society & other fees: 456.62$

Student Services/ Athletics & Recreation: 619.14$

Registration/ Transcripts & Diploma/General Administrative Charges: 347.39$

Copyright fee: 28.20$

Information Technology Charge: 246.90$

SSMU Health & Dental Insurance*:345.00$

 

TOTAL FEES: 9,983.95$

 

Prerequisites 

• Bachelor’s Degree in a subject closely related to the one selected for graduate work. 
• High Academic Achievement: 

The minimum Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is 3.0 out of a possible 4.0, or a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.2 out of 4.0 in the last two years of full-time studies. In some departments, however, a higher CGPA is required for admission. 

• Proficiency in English

 

Reputation/Stats

• 3rd in Canada (2020) 
• 42nd in the world (2020) 

 

Location

Montreal, Quebec

Structure

No Co-op, but honors available

 

Harvard

 

Cost

Tuition cost for one year: $46,340 

Room: $10,927 

Board (food): $6,755

In US currency

Prerequisites

“There is no single academic path we expect all students to follow, but the strongest applicants take the most rigorous secondary school curricula available to them. An ideal four-year preparatory program includes four years of English, with extensive practice in writing; four years of math; four years of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and an advanced course in one of these subjects; three years of history, including American and European history; and four years of one foreign language.”

Reputation/Stats

• 7th in the world (2020) 
• 5th in the United States (2020)

 

Location 

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Structure

No Co-op, but honors available