This I believe...

So in class, we were told to read or listen to some essays on a website called; This I Believe. I chose the essay " Creating Our Own Happiness" from the "Humor and Laughter" section. This essay focuses on the point of Happiness. Happiness is not granted to you, you MAKE happiness for yourself, no matter how miserable your life may get. In the narrator's essay, he tells a story of him in his car, at an intersection, listening to the radio when he sees a couple huddled together at a bus stop, in the cold winds of winter and pities them. He looks closer and sees that they're smiling and laughing, his pity quickly turns to envy as he understands that they are making their own happiness despite their current state. I really liked this essay because one, I like to be happy and not sad all the time, so this is a strategy I might use to cheer me up when I'm bored and two, I like the Idea of happiness and how it can happen anywhere and in any situation.

Summary of a part of "Odysseus" in 50 or less words.

After escaping from the land of the lotus eaters, They find themselves in the territory of the vicious man-eating cyclops, Polyphemus. While trapped, Odysseus tricked the giant, then blinded him, allowing time for them to escape safely.

Greek Myths Movie Reflection

On your blog, reflect on the Greek myths seen today in class. Which story did you enjoy the most? Why? Was it the characters or the story that you enjoyed? In thinking of the themes in these stories, what do they have in common?


Today in class, we watched two different Greek myths transformed into modern day movies; Theseus and The Minotaur, and Daedalus and Icarus. I actually enjoyed Theseus and the Minotaur better than the other movie, maybe due to the fact that there was quite some action in it, and since I've always like mythological creatures, I was also quite interested at the Minotaur. Despite the fact that I like the characters in the story, I enjoyed the story itself much more. It contains the basic same elements as the other story, yes it seems more intensified. It had mild DEPRESSION in it, quite a lot of action, and the fact that a character wants to do something that benefits others, but in the end, directly or indirectly, he does something emotionally harmful to himself (Icarus Falling, and King Aegeus falling off a cliff thinking Theseus had died). This story may also be somewhat of a fable (the way the movie showed it), as the movie emphasizes the fact that the Minotaur may look like a beast, but on the inside, it also has emotions, a personality, and love. I saw connections between this, and many other movies I've watched; King Kong, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and also a fairly recent movie, Super 8.

Bio poem.

Owen
Curious, Keen, ready-to-learn, and enthusiastic
Who is Brother of nobody, is an only child.
Who loves Mom, Dad, and Loads of other things!
Who feels happy when around friends, sad when they move, and happy again when new friends come,
Who needs to be more organized, his family, and of course, loads of friends.
Who gives help, Lots of love, and whenever possible.
Who fears zombies, the dark, and angry teachers, angry parents and all other angry adults.
Who would like to see himself more organized, and the world trying harder to achieve peace
Who shares new ideas, new ways of dong things, and, whatever that's new that he can get his hands on.
Who is a certified scuba diver, a good student, and an excellent creator
WHo is a resident of 3Kiapeng, Jalan Kiapeng, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Ooi

Bali Diving Day 2- Padang bai

So the next day was basically the same, except where we were diving, at this place called Padang Bai (yes, they spell it B-A-I, not
B-A-Y, strange, right?). Again, I woke up to find myself in a completely different place. This time, I realized that I was at a place that resembled a fishing village, but with relatively fancy cafés instead of people selling fish, and diving boats instead of fishing boats. Again, I geared up, walked across the beach to the boat, tried and failed to shake all the sand stuck in my boots and wetsuit out, got in the boat, and when everybody else was in the boat, we were ready to start diving!

the dive site itself was a little disappointing, just a 20 meter sandy bottom dive site, but as we went deeper down, I was amazed, there was actually a wreck there, originally, I thought it was just a rock, or some dark coral, but there was WAY more than that...So everything was like an average dive, but we did see a load of new things. The morning dive we did, was especially interesting. It was relaxing, we just floated on top of these abandoned fishing traps (more like homes now) that looked like nets with HUGE holes in them, and they were all stiff, not just waving about. pictures should give you a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about. so as we glided along, we finally spotted something really cool- a few lion fish, cruising just below, our dive instructor took a few moments to snap a few pictures, and that's when we spotted ANOTHER lion fish swimming upside-down, not far from the first.

After that, interesting things just get spotted, on after the other, like we're in some crazy slide show with the speed set to 100! Immediately after the lion fish, we spotted a cuttlefish, lazily swimming around a piece of coral (was he searching for food?) unfortunately, it also spotted us, and tried to put some distance between itself and the divers pursuing it (meaning us), we attempted to follow, but hastily backed away when we saw it put itself in a position we knew to be agressive. following that, we came across a porcupine fish (puffer fish with SPIKED ALL OVER ITS BODY), which was also too quick for us to hang around it, except to take some pictures. And, to add to all that, we saw a small moray eel sticking its head out of a rock.

The second dive wasn't altogether interesting, but we did see a fair few eels, including a black ribbon eel, quite a few nudibranch, and a scorpionfish, and that was basically it for day 2 of diving.The pictures I include should give a pretty good idea of what everything looks likes..

Bali Diving

After an exhausting and frankly painful first day of officially being in Bali, Indonesia, we finally got to get into the water and swim with some fishes; Scuba Diving. The day started off pretty normally for a tourist living in a hotel; wake up, eat breakfast, go out, then start the day's activity. BUt for the rest of the day, things were different, VERY different. First, before we start our journey to our dive site, we met up with the dive instructor that would be guiding us through four day of diving; Murfi Chen. His whole family were into the diving business, but his father also opened a restaurant in front of their dive shop. We hung out at Murfi's place for a while, getting ready everything, choosing our wetsuits, our BCD's (buoyancy control device) and also a Dive camera that we used to take all our photos.Then, we were ready.
The total time to the Tulamben wreck diving site was about three hours, although I hardly felt it, as I was sleeping (Hey! don't blame me, it was eight in the morning, and I slept at like twelve the previous night!). But the change in the atmosphere was HUGE. From tall buildings and tourists all happily shopping around to trees and mountains and sea view all around.We then walked for a bit and reached the place we were going to gear up and go in. Once all our dive equipment was set and working, we DESCENDED TO THE DEPTHS. It was a shore dive, so we slowly and gradually went down a slope. When we hit around ten meters, It was paradise. First, we saw a small patch of sand where some garden eels were lazily sticking out of the sand, we swam over them, casting a big shadow and scaring them back into the sand, only to be surrounded by around five batfish, curiously observing us as we make our way to the wreck. Not far off, we were able to spot a GINORMOUS tornado of jackfish. I've only ever seen a school of them, well, you know? You get new things every dive. Altogether, the two dives at Tulamben's USS liberty WWII cargo ship wreck was the most relaxing out of the eight of the whole trip.
The first dive In the morning, was concentrates at the front of the ship, there, we just gently drifted in and out of the wreck, seeing smaller things, like sweetlips and more batfish, and the coral growing around the wreck. But the second dive ater lunch, was much more interesting; we went to the cargo hold of the ship. There, we actually saw more things IN the wreck than out, although some weirdo kid went ahead and held onto a turtles shell- NOT a good idea, as dive-masters can still express their anger underwater. Overall, That Dive was one of the Most relaxing dive of all.

BALI

So yeah... Not been blogging for a long time, haven't talked to anybody from school in a long time, but hey! everybody's having fun...I guess... So yeah! over last week, I went to Bali for diving, I heard It's one of the best wreck diving sites in the world. What? did you think I would sit around at home, in front of a TV or my computer and do nothing productive for a solid two months? Ok, I admit, that would be nice, But I DID NOT regret going to bali.

The moment the plane touched down, I had a feeling that the trip was going to be good, that was before My head felt like it was going to explode, note to self, Do NOT lie down completely horizontally and sleep in a plane, gives you a massive headache. wasn't really interesting for the rest of the day, we had a massive lunch in this traditional looking indonesian restaurant, now, I expected the menu to be full of stuff like nasi lemak, and I did not expect Burgers on the Menu. After checking in to the room, and sleeping off the headache for an hour or two, we (meaning my dad and I, as My mom was in taiwan) went walking around the nearby stores, and eventually found a way to the beach. We then found our ay back to the room, hung out for like an hour in the room, then went out to eat a really tasty Japanese restaurant. That was basically day one.

THE END IS NEAR........................

1. What piece of work and learning are you most proud? Explain.

I completed many pieces of work this year, but probably my favorite piece if work is the Egyptian diary, where we took the place of an ancient Egyptian person, and wrote three diary entries about daily lives, what we did, what we ate, free time activities, more or less how we lived our lives. I enjoyed, and felt really proud of this project, as I put a lot of planning into it (as my friends' and my stories had connections to each other's) and I put a lot of effort into it, trying to find better words, making the sentence length vary, trying to put humor into it, all took time to think through. To make me even prouder of that diary, I succeeded in what I had tried to do.

2. What were your greatest challenges? Explain.

Humanities dosen't challenge me much, writing and learning about ancient civilizations were relatively easy to me, writing other stories with no actual basis is a little harder, as I have to create my own guideline to write by, but the literature circles (lit circles for short) we had to do, were nightmares. Although I get relatively good marks on these, I almost always worked harder than usual at these, in the lit circles, there, again, had the easy part and the hard parts. Finding important passages, were on the borderline between normal and hard for me, as (due to reading so much Harry Potter books) I thought that every passage can contribute to the story. Finding vocabulary, a breeze, as my vocabulary is ever increasing, and I am always finding new words. However, writing a question, and answering it by myself, challenged me greatly. I was always good at answering questions, but writing questions, was kind of difficult as I did not really had any questions (this was, again, due to reading the harry potter series so much, as J.K Rowling always put clues in the story, for example, something that happened during the second book wasn't mentioned until the sixth book) but when do have a question, answering it would become easy.


3. Reflecting on your growth this year, what did you learn about yourself as a learner?

I only really started to work with others keenly this year, before, I preferred to work alone. This year, I found out that liked to
work with others much more, possibly because I see that it is actually more beneficial to me and my partner, and also because I just like o work with others, as I receive constant feedback from my peers, and I also get to enjoy hanging around (still beneficially) with my friends.

4. To evaluate your work habits, choose 1 of the following from each category (and provide explanations):

the choice which is CAPITALIZED is the one I choose


a) Behavior

Could be improved

SATISFACTORY

Perfect - the model student

Explanation: I can't say that anybody was a model student, perfect in every way, nobody is perfect, as they say. I always know where to draw my line, and never to cross that line. Even so, I did not try to get other people to act in the same way, only saying a quick "Guys! Listen!" to try and get their attention, but my personal behavior is one with an I'm-going-to-do-what-it-takes-to-be-a-good-student attitude.


b) Participation

None

SATISFACTORY

Actively participate in class

Explanation: I was never really a quiet student, but I'm also not the type of student that is so participative that it gets kind of annoying as you never get the chance of answering correctly, I'm kind of at the "quarter" mark. I only speak when spoken to, so I give a chance to everybody that wants to answer.



c) Organization

Needs serious help

SATISFACTORY

I'm super organized

Explanation: Actually, where I am now is on the borderline of being super organized. I can manage my work and everything, I keep everything in separate folders, and memorized my schedule and everything. In that sense, I am super organized. However my work space is kind of messy; folders here, loose papers over there, oh! a pencil over here! it's a wonder that I could find everything in time for class!



d) Effort

Needs serious help

SATISFACTORY

I always go above and beyond what is required.

Explanation: This time, I think that I am on the edge of "satisfactory" and "I always go above and beyond what is required.". As I have said before, I always want to try my best, even if I can't do it, I'll try. But I sometimes wish I would try a little harder, as a lot of my mistakes involve me being careless.




5. Based upon your reflections, write two personal learning goals for Grade 7 next year.


Goal 1 -
In Grade 7, I plan to try to be more focused on the task at hand, as I have said before, I sometimes am careless with my work.

Goal 2 -

In Grade 7, I plan to get a little more organized with my locker, and with my timetable, as I have said that I don't really care about my locker.


6. Is there any more information about yourself that you would like the teachers to know?

Actually, there is one thing that the teachers need to know about me; I sometimes can't resist to just whisper a comment to one of my fellow students, but I have tried to grow out of this, and I think I am improving at NOT talking.


7. What was your favorite activity lesson in Humanities this year? What did you enjoy about it?

My favorite activity this year were probably the six tic-tac-toe projects that we accomplished this year, a fire narrative about how early humans discovered fire, an Imovie of a trailer for a movie based on the book "call it courage", and a small diorama displaying how early humans lived, and how their homes and things would have looked like, except in miniature, was the three tasks we did at the start of the year. Towards the end of the year, we did another three projects. These were the Greek architectural essay, where we wrote about an architectural achievement that the Greeks accomplished, an Imovie about a Greek leader (in our case Alexander The Great) and a timeline consisting of eighteen events that happened during Greece's history.
I enjoyed these activities because they all allowed us to imagine, and to create, something I always liked, and also a chance to cooperate constructively with our peers and friends.


8. What activity do you wish we could have spent more time on?

I think our teacher planned everything out pretty nicely, never doing the same type of activities right after we finished one, but I hoped that we would be doing more of the "tic-tac-toe" projects, or creating Imovies, or things similar to those.


9. Finally, cast your minds back to the first few months of middle school (when you arrived in Grade 6 ) what "Words of
Wisdom" or "Advice" could you pass on to the Class of 2018?

There aren't really much I have to say to the students taking our place as sixth graders. Us kids just normally go with the flow. But one bit of advice I do want to give the class of 2018, is BE READY FOR ANYTHING, AND WHEN I SAY ANYTHING, I MEAN ANYTHING, EVERYTHING'S ABOUT TO CHANGE, AND STAY ON TOP OF THINGS!! which is what I had to figure out by myself, as long as they follow this general rules, sixth grade's going to be a breeze, at least it did for me...

BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!!!

SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE ENTIRE SERIES, OR DO NOT INTEND TO FINISH THE SERIES, ALTHOUGH I DOUBT THAT IS POSSIBLE IF YOU'VE ALREADY START READING.

As you may have seen in the picture, I chose a series of books; the Harry potter series. During our student led conferences, our parents had a chance to meet up with our teachers, and when meeting Mr. Fischer, we talked about how us kids can learn better through reading. Below are some questions we answered about this topic.

Title: Harry Potter and the... Sorcerer's stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, Deathly hallows

Author: J.K. Rowling


1. This book made me think about ...

I have ALWAYS enjoyed the harry potter books, due to the fascinating "Harry Potter Franchise" outside the books, the Story, how I could almost feel that I was in the book itself, and the way everything was perfectly planned. IF you've read the entire series, you'll notice that almost every little detail counts like Draco Malfoy buying the "hand of glory" in the second book, the hand does not appear until the sixth book, and plays a major role in the storyline. Everything made me feel as if Mrs. Rowling had planned the entire series out even before she wrote the first book. This Book made me think about planning more carefully before writing a story.

2. This book challenged me as a reader by ...

Remember what I said about almost every little detail counts in this book? Well, After reading the entire Harry Potter series, I got used to it, and learnt not to ask too many questions, knowing that if I read on, They will be answered. That little habit forced me to apply that same skill to other books, which may be a different format altogether. That also made writing literature circe questions quite hard, as I don't ask many questions. But I'm sure I'll learn from those mistakes.

3. Don't read this book if ...

I don't think anybody should not read this book. It seems like it is perfect book for people of all ages. But it my be a more difficult read for people that likes to understand every single detail and is easy to guess how everything can affect the story.

lit circle blog post 4

Freedom,Love, Choice. These are just some of the things that these "utopians" are missing out on, But in these two chapters, Jonas starts to break free from the life this said-to-be utopian environment, and moving closer to what we experience every day. In these couple of chapters, Jonas starts to make many different choices.

Jonas transmits memories to Gabriel, Meaning that He cares for Gabe. He may have lost those memories, but as you may have notice, people who transmit memories to another show some well, love towards each other, Rosemary being the Giver's daughter, and Jonas, who get along quite well, both receive memories from the Giver.

Another example of this theory, is Jonas giving memories to Gabriel, maybe because Jonas wants Gabriel to experience these good feelings , because Jonas Cares for Gabe. Making a connection here, but if anybody reads the Harry Potter series, (if you haven't, you seriously should) you'll find a lot of comments about how love is really important. What I'm trying to get through, is that Jonas has taken the choice of love, he can love.

Another Thing that Jonas Had choose was the eating of the pill that he needed to take at the beginning of each day, was maybe because Jonas realized ( although it did not say in the book) that he wanted love, but the pills were stopping it.

Lit circle response to question.

So, in Humanities, we started another five weeks of lit circles, and this time, I got the book "The Giver", by this guy called Louis Lowry, So it's about this guy, Jonas, who lives in a Utopia (perfect) society, and all of a sudden, he gets chosen to be the "receiver of memories", a really rare job that only one person gets. But, enough on the story, just read the book, The discussion question I chose today, was: Would you want your future to be decided by others ? Why or Why not? well, I have not got a fixed answer, as there are both good, and negative reasons for why and why not

I chose "it is a good idea to let others choose my future" as a good thing , think,how Are we going to live our lives? I think it would be ideal for others to decided by others, is, Everything would be planned out, there can be no flaw in my life's plan, Nothing could go wrong, not if everything was carefully planned. No thinking required, If I just live according to the plan.

But on the other hand, I think that my life shouldn't be planned out by other people, I think It is up to me to think for myself, what job would best suit me best? What am I going to do with my life? I don't think anybody for myself, How would you like it if You didn't like fish, but you only are interested in knowing more only just before the ceremony of twelves, you might have gotten stuck with fish hatchery person, when you wanted to be a nurturer. That would really mess the rest of your life up...

Peer evaluation i movie

I- Movie Presentation

Group members: Harjot, Samuel

Pharaoh: Tutankhamun Final Grade 24 /30

Your movie should be approximately 3 minutes in length ( no more than 4 minutes)

Content Rubric
Introduction~ A description of the pharaoh is relevant, factual and correct. Time he/she ruled is correct.		4
Pharaoh’s accomplishments ~ Clearly explains the important contributions the pharaoh made during his/her rule.		4
Architectural Achievements ~Clearly describes and explains the important buildings/monuments that were built during this time. Explain how evidence of their religious beliefs is shown in these buildings.			3

Skills Rubric
images ~ All images are relevant, interesting and of good quality (saved properly as a jpg). Images match narration throughout.	5
Narration ~ Voices are clear, loud and fluent with good intonation. It is obvious you have practiced your part before recording. No background noise.		4
Transitions & Effects ~ Subtle transitions between the parts of the presentation are used throughout. Any effects used only enhance the message and are compatible with the image content.		4

I- Movie Presentation

Group members: John, Na Young

Pharaoh:Khufu Final Grade 26 /30

Your movie should be approximately 3 minutes in length ( no more than 4 minutes)

Content Rubric
Introduction~ A description of the pharaoh is relevant, factual and correct. Time he/she ruled is correct.		4
Pharaoh’s accomplishments ~ Clearly explains the important contributions the pharaoh made during his/her rule.	5
Architectural Achievements ~Clearly describes and explains the important buildings/monuments that were built during this time. Explain how evidence of their religious beliefs is shown in these buildings.	5

Skills Rubric
images ~ All images are relevant, interesting and of good quality (saved properly as a jpg). Images match narration throughout.	5
Narration ~ Voices are clear, loud and fluent with good intonation. It is obvious you have practiced your part before recording. No background noise.		4
Transitions & Effects ~ Subtle transitions between the parts of the presentation are used throughout. Any effects used only enhance the message and are compatible with the image content.			3

Notes:

I- Movie Presentation

Group members: Adam and Joseph

Pharaoh: senusret the first Final Grade 26 /30

Your movie should be approximately 3 minutes in length ( no more than 4 minutes)

Content Rubric
Introduction~ A description of the pharaoh is relevant, factual and correct. Time he/she ruled is correct.		4
Pharaoh’s accomplishments ~ Clearly explains the important contributions the pharaoh made during his/her rule.	5
Architectural Achievements ~Clearly describes and explains the important buildings/monuments that were built during this time. Explain how evidence of their religious beliefs is shown in these buildings.	5

Skills Rubric
images ~ All images are relevant, interesting and of good quality (saved properly as a jpg). Images match narration throughout.	5
Narration ~ Voices are clear, loud and fluent with good intonation. It is obvious you have practiced your part before recording. No background noise.		4
Transitions & Effects ~ Subtle transitions between the parts of the presentation are used throughout. Any effects used only enhance the message and are compatible with the image content.			3

I- Movie Presentation

Group members: Stephanie and Kennedy

Pharaoh: Hatshepsut Final Grade 25/30

Your movie should be approximately 3 minutes in length ( no more than 4 minutes)

Content Rubric
Introduction~ A description of the pharaoh is relevant, factual and correct. Time he/she ruled is correct.		4
Pharaoh’s accomplishments ~ Clearly explains the important contributions the pharaoh made		4
and explains the important buildings/monuments that were built during this time. Explain how evidence of their religious beliefs is shown in these buildings.	4

Skills Rubric
images ~ All images are relevant, interesting and of good quality (saved properly as a jpg). Images match narration throughout.	5
Narration ~ Voices are clear, loud and fluent with good intonation. It is obvious you have practiced your part before recording. No background noise.			3
Transitions & Effects ~ Subtle transitions between the parts of the presentation are used throughout. Any effects used only enhance the message and are compatible with the image content.	5

So yeah... that's the grading sheet that I filled in. They were about Adam, Joseph, John, Na Young, Harjot, Samuel, Stephanie, and Kennedy's I movie presentations. The paragraphs below show what I think of their work:

Harjot and Samuel's presentation: Tutankhamen.

Tutankhamen, a well known Egyptian pharaoh that had cast a curse upon his tomb to take revenge upon tomb raiders. Harjot and Samuel put a lot of effort into putting together an I-movie to teach class 6B blue more about him. altogether, I think that they a pretty good job on their presentation, the time period in which their pharaoh ruled in, King Tut's accomplishments were clearly explained, and the movie was put together so that everything made sense.

Even with all the successes, they also had some faults they need to improve on, like they needed to give a bit more information on architectural accomplishments of king Tut. Also, they forgot to put MLA citation format for their bibliography (which, I admit, not a lot of people did, me included).

John and Na young's presentation: King Khufu

What worked well? basically everything! I mean, those guys were great! The voices were clear, the information was really helpful, and the pictures were clear and they even went into really elaborate descriptions about Khufu's pyramid. But one small improvement I think they could have made, is that maybe Na young could speak a little louder, and that John could speak a little softer, that way, the volume of their voices are more equal.

Not being the maker of the film, I really cannot tell what conflicts were in their partnership, and what worked well, so I can only say what worked well in the presentation and movie and what didn't.

Adam and Joseph's presentation: Senusret the first

So out of all the presentations, I guess this one has the clearest recordings, Joseph and Adam worked well together, watching them as somebody that's not from their group, I couldn't see quarrels among them, and I could see that they both participated in making the I movie ,taking leadership when needed to. But what didn't work well, was that in the movie, there were certain people *glare at somebody* that were talking while Joseph and Adam were recording.And also, Joseph's recordings were clear, except that they aren't loud enough, but altogether, it was a good presentation.

Stephanie and Kennedy's presentation: Nefertiti

The final I movie I an going to review is Stephanie and Kennedy's. They, for some reason seem to be the only group who did queen Nefertiti, but it was pretty good, clear pictures, recordings, information and a good presentation altogether. However, their recording method wasn't very effective; they tried to record the whole movie all in one recording, if they messed up on one small bit, then they have to re-record the whole movie again, that wasts a lot of time. I don't think they argued in their partnership,so they seemed to work smoothly.