City Connections Reflections

1) What did you do well on the project?
I think that I did my facts well. I knew the historical factors quite well and explained them properly. I also knew the tourist attractions at Marina Bay and could explain things about Pulau Ubin well because I have been there many times.

2) What would you improve for future presentations/projects?
I think I could improve on looking around the room more and making eye contact. I also think I could have found a few more environmental factors and put more info about the factors I already had.

3) What did you learn from your preparation in addition to the presentations of others?
I learnt that a lot people have different styles of making power points and presenting them. Some people always have their eyes glued to the screen while presenting but they have really good information whereas other people have amazing presenting skills but their information could be better and more interesting info.

4) What did you learn from the city presentations of others?

I learned that the population of Ueda-Mao's presentation-is less than 1,000,000 people. I also learned that Melbourne female to male ratio is 50-50. One of the main rivers in Soul, Korea is called the Han River. Guam has a population a little over 1,000. And much more!

5) How did you meet each of the requirements on the rubric?
I couldn't find the rubric on my google docs. I don't think it got shared with me for some reason.

6) What is your analysis of your performance?

I think that I had good info but my power point was a bit short. I could have made my project more enjoyable for my peers like Dylan and Ayaka because they had little prizes to give away. Overall I still think my slide show was pretty good.

Learner Profiles

1. I learn best when......

2. I need to .....

3. The strategies that would help me in my learning....

4. I would like my teachers to know this about me.....

I learn best when I am alone and when I am not under stress. If I am under stress I will most likely shut down and not be able to work. If even under a little bit of stress I will only use my preferred brain side-gestalt side-and completely not use the left side of my brain. If I am alone, there is no distractions. If there is something-a noise or movement-going on around me I will have to figure out what the sound is and where it is coming from. I am also a good learner when I am moving or even tilting my chair. This makes me a profile L and a kinesthetic learner.

I need to be relaxed when I work and to have a clean work space. If I am not relaxed I will not want to work and will try to get as far away to what's bothering me as possible, because then I will be able to concentrate better when I am not thinking about what is bothering me. If my desk is crowded or messy, I will not be as concentrated on my work-or what I am doing. I always need a clear place to put down my sheet of paper or I will not want to work.

Strategies that help me in learning is a break every once in a while so I can stretch and get my mind of work then start again. Something like a stress ball will help me because it gives me a way to move around and not dangerously tilt my chair or walk around and distract people. So I think that would be a good alternative.

Something I would like my teachers to know about me is that when I go to the bathroom about once a class I am just having a break so I can start fresh again and have new ideas to add to m work.

New Year's Resolutions!

My first New Year's resolution is to be less disruptive in all my classes. I think that I have a lot more listening to do and a whole lot of improving space. In band I need to stop talking and/or playing my instrument while Mr.Housego or another member of the band is talking. In Math and Science I just need to concentrate on not talking when we are doing work and stop blurting out. In Humanities I need to work on not talking to my neighbor when Mr.Fischer is talking and not saying inappropriate things in the middle of class. These things I think are important because if I do not improve I will get a bad work habit grade and not a very good comment in my report card.

My second resolution is to not eat candy and not drink any soft drinks.  This is important because I would like to become more fit and hopefully lose some weight. My dad also made a deal with me. If I don't have any candy or pop for the rest of the school year excluding birthday parties, then he will buy me a reward. If I complete the challenge I will get a new basketball, bball shoes, jerseys and shorts.

On Christmas Eve my family went over to our friend's house for dinner. We had ham and kumara. Mom and dad stayed back to talk with the aunties (our friends) a bit longer and Zarina, Robert John and I returned home. Mom and dad took forever to arrive home. Robert John wanted to get us to bed so he said "I will let you open one present, but then you have to go straight to bed" So Zarina and I opened a present, brushed our teeth and jumped into bed. The second we got under our covers the door knob turned and mom and dad pranced in. Even after our deal with Robert John we hopped out of bed to see our parents. Dad had agreed to let us open all our presents on Christmas Eve so I was so excited to see my presents. When I started begging to start opening presents, mom stated that we wouldn't be opening any presents tonight. Then she walked into her room. She came back with her hands behind her back. When she arrived back into the living room she placed three Apple boxes in our hands. We had just received fourth generation ipod touches!

One thing you probably don't know about me is that my brother and I do a lot of insane things to my sister. When my family was flying back to Canada, my siblings and I traveled in economy while our parents were in business class, so they didn't see anything we did.  When our meals came we got baked beans, eggs and sausages. The sausages were airplane food so of course they were oily and felt like rubber. Because of these traits Robert John and I didn't want to eat ours, so we decided to cook up an evil plan against Zarina. '1, 2, 3' Robert John yelled, and suddenly the sausages went flying through the air and were instantaneously rubbing against Zarina's cheeks. 

Collaborating Constructively! (with Mao)

1.The benefits of working with a classmate.
2. Challenges / obstacles which you overcame (tried to overcome).
3. New understandings that you gained about the novel.

I think that when we are writing our literature circles it is very helpful to do it with a peer. The benefits of working with Mao is that she is amazing at literature circles and helped me think of a miraculous question. Since we did the literature circle with a classmate we could get them to check it and add comments and suggestions to make your work better. One of the challenges I overcame was that on Monday night I had no time to finish my connection. I still finished because I woke up early the next morning so our work would be finished by first block Humanities. While working independently I only thought inside the box about some deaths and occurrences in the novel, but while I was doing my literature circle with Mao she pointed out somethings in her work about those deaths like for example the death of Zachariah. He could still be dead but who would know that.


Micah

Literature Circle Discussion #2-True Confessions

1. How your groups discussion helped you better understand the novel? Write about of some of the key ideas from the novel that your group discussed and how these were important to the plot of the story.
My group's discussions helped me understand the book better because some of our passages put together could create a whole new plot to the story. This is important for our own reading benefits because, then we had a whole new spin on the story and that helped me understand it better.


2. Describe some of the connections that you made during your discussion.
In our discussion I didn't make any connections but I made a reaction that also falls under the category of connections. My reaction is about when Captain Jaggery said 'I intend to crush this mutiny before it starts.' he unlocked his gun drawer and took out two muskets and two pistols for himself and similar for Mr.Hollybrass. I immediately thought 'Well what in the world is Captain Jaggery going to do now.'


3. What predictions do you have for the rest of the novel.
In our literature circle #1 we started think about the fact that it is possible that someone gave Charlotte the knife so that that certain sailor or someone else that knew about it could take that knife and stab someone. Then after he was done he would put it back under Charlotte's mattress so she would get accused of killing the murderer's victim. We completed that thought with more information on the previous discussion. 

Math-Blog Post of Symmetry

This is a picture of  the Menara Tower. It has one line of symmetry that goes from the top to the bottom of the tower, exactly through the middle of the plane. It is not exactly symmetrical because there is some satellites and lights on either side of the tower. (It is only the wrong way because I took it like that and I can't turn it around.)

Kelip-Kelip

In the water, the only noise is the tiny waves of the river. The smell is nothing but fresh air. Everything felt was the old wood of the canoe. The only light is the fireflies, still but alive. Their tiny lights flashing. On and off, on and off.

When the boat-man had stopped by a tree Kennedy, Anne, Ayaka and I had all moved over to the side to see the fireflies closer. The boat was uneven and nearly tipping. To be honest I was a bit scared from the fact we were in a boat that could possibility tip over. Although the fireflies were captivating, my eyes were almost closing and I was worn out from all of the things we had done that day so you could say I was tired. The fireflies all stop on leaves and stay for a while so when you are sailing past you see countless amounts of what seems to be Christmas trees along the river bank, the fireflies decorate the trees amazingly and the fireflies are like lights to illuminate the trees like you would never think possible without electricity.

Nevertheless the Kelip-Kelip(fireflies) were my favorite part of the field trip because it was really awesome and even though I had seen them before I did it when I was small so i didn't remember it. According to my mom I would ask her consistently about the fireflies and what they looked like, so she didn't have to tell me.