Victor's Blog

Adora Speaking

2010-04-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

Adora says that, most of the time, adults do not listen to kids. They think their own ideas are better, or the children's ideas are too childish. Since they are older, they think they have more wisdom, which makes them think they are better. And, I, think her argument is true except when she says that only people that do bad things are adults, and she never talked about the good things adults did. But it is true that most of the time, adults don't take us seriously, or just don't listen to us. You can't even argue with them; they think their ideas are so much better and they they always say the truth; they are totally closed to argument. Adora is the perfect example of why adults should listen to kids. She is confident, what she says is true, and no adult can say that she is childish. Adults should listen to her and think about what they do. And, finally, change how they act towards kids!

Global Mall

2010-03-10T17:41:00.000-08:00

How did it feel to have more or less money than other people in the class?
It kind of annoyed me because it is unfair. They can have a better health than me just because they had more luck.
How did it feel to see what you could and could not afford at the Global Mall?
Same thing as above, I felt unlucky because some people could afford it.

How many of you could not afford education? What would your lives be like if you could not go to school?
I was in the $1000 group so I could afford education, but it is in a bad school so my life could be ruined.

How would it feel to have to choose between food and health care?
It would be awful because either I die of malnutrition or I die of any small disease. Even if it might be better to choose health care. By choosing a good health care, if you don’t have enough food they could give you some so you don’t die.

How many of you have ever been very sick or gone to a hospital or had friends and family who have? What would your life be like now if you had been unable to get medical care?
I already have been very sick when I was a baby and if there wasn’t any hospital around, I might not have been living today. If there hadn’t been a hospital around when I had small diseases they might have turned into big diseases and I might have died again.

What were the impacts caused by people with fewer Global Mall Dollars, and what were the impacts caused by people with more Global Mall Dollars?
They hardly did any environmental impacts, but I don’t think they can survive till the end of the month. They don’t have a choice and since they are poor they cannot use any non environmental-friendly products.

Discuss the fact that roughly one-fifth of all people worldwide survive on
less than $1 (U.S.) a day – how does this limit their choices, and what are the environmental, social, and global security implications of this?
I think it is impossible to survive with 1 dollar a day because the people that gained 200 dollars a month had no choice and could hardly survive. Imagine if you only won 30 dollars in a month. You can’t afford for health and food. You can only buy things that have no cost. How can a human survive with no food and no health?

When you were choosing what to buy, did you think about the environmental impact? For those of you in the lowest income range, did you have a choice about the environmental impact you produced? If not, how did it feel to
not have a choice?
I was in the $1000 group and I’ll be honest… I hardly thought about the environmental impact. I mostly thought about what way I could survive best which is already hard. To me the most important is how I can survive, not the environment. The $200 group didn’t have a choice for anything and it must have felt awful. They didn’t hurt the environment, but they hurt themselves a lot.

Amy Goodman

2010-03-05T21:19:00.000-08:00

In Citizenship class, we saw a woman named Eve Ensler being interviewed on DemocracyNow. She was talking about how girls in the world were being treated badly even in our days.
Eve Ensler is a global citizen because she is going all around the world to see the problem. She went in Asia, in Africa, in America, and in Western Europe. She is trying to show all around the world how badly girls are treated and she tries to help them.
Girls can end up in bad situations because a girl might not want to do something a man asks, but if it is to not make him feel angry or something like that, she might do it anyway.
The connection with the Story of Stuff is the production part. It shows how poor the people in the production part in the factories are and they make things for us. It is an example of externalizing the costs. We are not paying for what we buy since we hardly pay the people that are making it.

Avatar Questions

2010-02-08T16:44:00.000-08:00

1) The humans are destroying the Navi to get the small mineral that can be sold thousands. They don't care about if they have to destroy the whole civilization to get it. It is like before with the Americas. The conquistadors came in and killed all the natives for the land and the good things they could find on it.
2) As I said in question one, the similar conflict is the conquest of America, where the Europeans came in and destroyed every other civilization.
3) Something that is happening today is the war in Iraq. The Americans are fighting against the local people to gain control over Iraq and gain the oil that is in the country.

The Navi have extreme respect for nature. They have to sing a ritual before killing and don't hurt any plants. They are even linked to nature by their hair. They can connect with it. Nowadays, we totally don't respect nature and destroy it, by cutting rain forests, polluting rivers, Global Warming, and many more nature unfriendly things. If we adapted even a little bit of the attitude of the Navi, like respecting it for example, the Earth wouldn't be warming, and it would be a more pleasant place to live in.

What happened in Haiti?

2010-02-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

Haiti is located at the south of the USA, in the Caribbean sea. It is on a island shared with the Dominican Republic. Haiti speaks French because it was colonized by the French at the time of the colonization of America. The people in Haiti fought to win their freedom. Lately, there was a huge earthquake where at least 50,000 people died; Taiwan went there to help. Taiwan and Haiti are both sovereign nations, Taiwan being independent from China; Haiti being independent from the US.

Citizenship Exam

2010-01-20T19:19:00.001-08:00

A citizen is someone that is legally a part a a community. To be a citizen of a country, you have to be native or naturalized, meaning you have to be native or naturalized, meaning you have to be born in that country or you take a test and reject your old country. You can be a citizen of anything: your house, school, neighborhood, state, country and even the world. Citizens are totally different from subjects. A subject is a consumer, a follower and a victim, while citizens are all the opposite. He is a producer, a leader, and he has control. In a democracy, we elect the president, which means, we are the ones to chose who is going to rule. We also have the right to protest; we are the ones in control. Good citizenry should be practiced in every single community. A good citizen should ask himself “What can I do for my community to create more wealth, knowledge, and justice?” — suggested by Dr. Mike Hartoonian of the University of Minnesota.

To be a good citizen of any small and personal community, you have to do your duties. This is one of the main responsibilities citizens have; do what they have to do. We have duties everywhere. For example, at school, we have to come in time and do our homework. At home, we have to do the chores, go to bad at a reasonable time, and more.
The hardest is to be a good citizen at school. One of the reasons is that we have a lot of duties but the most important reason is that it is easy to discriminate against others.. At school and even in the neighborhood, we easily form cliques, groups of people who share interest and which are really hard to be part of, and enemies or people we don’t like. After that is done, you will close your social boundaries and will start discriminating against others.
Being a citizen of a small community is very hard, because you have few responsibilities and everyone knows you. If you have few duties, it is very easy to tell if you didn’t do one and you easily get a bad reputation.

Being a good citizen of a country is also very hard because you easily start hating a group of people. Our parents, our friends, and the media make us have prejudices by making stereotypes. Then we create a bias or a hidden bias (a bias even we don’t know about), which will give us a discriminatory behavior.
A good way to learn hidden bias is to go to Project Implicit, a website made by Harvard students. Once you discover the bias, either you will reinforce it because of people telling what you think is right, or you will eliminate it with your force of will. If the prejudice becomes too big, then there will be huge acts of discrimination that may reach killing the other race which a genocide like the Holocaust. If you don’t eliminate hidden biases this is what will happen.
At some point, a nation is the same as a small community, to be a good citizen, you have to fulfill your duties and responsibilities. It is easier for students since we don’t have that many, but adults have a lot of complicated ones. Those might include voting, paying taxes, etc...

Next goes being a good citizen of the WORLD. One of our main responsibilities as citizens of the world is to try to stop Global Warming.
Global Warming or GW is, obviously, the warming of the Earth. One of the ways teachers teach us is by using the three Rs, which are: reduce, reuse, recycle.
In my opinion, Global Warming is the most important thing that needs the help of every single citizen all around the world. If we don’t stop it, the human race will eventually be extinguished.

By doing all of the above, you will be a perfect citizen and a great help for all the communities you are part of.
You will also be a boundary crosses like Martin Luther King, a black man who lived in America who crossed the boundary of discrimination, or Gandhi, the Indian man who crossed the boundary of bloody wars. You will have crossed the boundary of perfection.

Resolve

2010-01-18T17:27:00.000-08:00

The story I chose is Resolve. It talks about life in Haiti for someone who is dying of tuberculosis and has nothing left: no friends, no family, no house, and nothing to drink. It talks about how people living in the streets have to do small jobs to even have a small thing to eat.
To me this story is important because it shows how awful life in Haiti is. People are dying on the streets without any help. Even before the earthquake, Haiti needed help and now it’s become worse.
Now the same thing is happening, but the only difference is that it became a hundred times bigger. There are piles of people dead on the ground, they are even blocking the roads. Haiti needs way more help than it needed before.
If we don’t do anything, and without a government for themselves, the people in Haiti will all die or live a life full of misery.
It has to do with Global citizenship because Haiti needs the help of any country that can help. They need houses to be rebuilt, they need a lot of medication, and a lot more help.

Frédéric François Chopin

2009-12-02T22:46:00.000-08:00

a) Romanticism is art in the late 18th century emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.
b) Frederic Chopin played romantic music.
c) Nobody can be totally romantic in nature.
1) Chopin played Romantic music.
2) "Character Pieces" are a staple of Romantic piano music. It is based on a single idea or program. They are characterized by the idea they invoke.
3) "Etudes" are three sets of solo studies for piano played by Chopin. There were 27 overall.
4) Frederic Chopin was a very ill man. He also had a relationship with George Sand, a woman. After she made a comic showing him like a weak man, their relationship ended but their friends tried to keep them together.

Arnold Schoenberg

2009-11-25T17:43:00.000-08:00

1) The understanding of his twelve-tone work has been difficult because of its “revolutionary nature”. He was “subjected to a range of criticism and abuse” – wikipedia
2) His music isn’t used much today, and only listened to by musicians
3) This type of music was mostly used between 1920 and 1940 mostly in Germany
4) It is difficult to find a connection to the past
5) It is absolute music
**$$** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR94CiqtFLs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D54-8RCh1So
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oarPobOc-js
++**++ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR94CiqtFLs (12-tone music)
$$%%$$* Arnold Schoenberg most important contribution to music was the 12-tone music.

a. His most important contribution to music was the twelve-note technique
b. His approach to music was different because his idea was to play all 12 notes of the chromatic scale as much without emphasizing any
c. The influence of his music is waning.

17/11 What did I learn

2009-11-16T17:25:00.000-08:00

Today, in citizenship class, we learned even more about social boundaries and cliques. We learned about how they affect our lives. Ms Sheilah told us that cliques are not always good. They can make people not included feel bad. The main social boundary in our school is language, I think... We also learned about stereotype. Stereotype is when people judge other big groups of people because of what they look like or what they do. Those are the main things we learned today.

Art 8 10/11

2009-11-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

1) The two people I have to describe are two of the workers that were shaping the glass at the beginning. They were both wearing blue T-shirts and black pants. They looked like they were concentrating a lot. One of them was one of the people that had to blow in a tube to make the glass extend. His final goal was to make a kind of glass (to drink in). The other one was making some small animal shapes out of the glass to show us. It was very funny.

2) The glass in Hsinchu is famous because there is a lot of gas and silicon inside. Hsinchu is the Silicon Valley of Taiwan. It is still not as good as the glass in Venice.

What did I learn?

2009-11-09T17:17:00.000-08:00

What I learned today where all the rules and duties that we have as citizens. And, I learned the rules in our class. The main rules we have are:
- no talking out of turn (talk when it is your turn, not when the teacher is talking
- sit up pay attention (makes your listening better)
- respect (same thing as the first one)
- cooperation (work and help others)
And a special rule, no food. Last class, they found a cockroach!

Citizen

2009-11-04T18:46:00.000-08:00

I am a citizen of:
- France
- The World
- HIS
- European Union
- My House
- My Compound

Need For Speed Shift

2009-10-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

OK, so I have this game in the title and unfortunately I got TOTALLY ADDICTED. Oh my god, it is so annoying, I almost can't think of anything except that. Even if I don't play a lot, like a few races per day, it is so fun! So bad Gordon is never here to stop my addiction...

I hate posters!

2009-10-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

Oh my god! We have so many beeping posters due the 9th of November. Like the language arts, which should be huge, and the humanities, a bit smaller. But those teachers also gave us reports on the subject and everything. So much work!

Taipei Tournament

2009-10-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

We did a tournament in Taipei, the third of October. It was pretty fun even if I almost didn't play. We finished 5th out of 7. There were four games. We lost the two first: 4-0 and 2-1, and we won the two last: 4-1 and 3-0. So sad.... I didn't even score. Anyway I played pretty well. So it was fun!

God's Children

2009-06-15T00:26:00.000-07:00

In Language Arts class, we watched a video called "God's Children". It talked about extremely poor families in the Philippines. Some people live in garbage dumps. They live in terrible conditions. Most of the families had >3 kids. Most families hardly had enough food to eat. They couldn't afford rice. Their houses are made of scrap metal and wood; most of the houses don't even have walls. Their health is really low, the water is polluted. If someone gets sick, he dies because they don't have enough money for buying medicine. If something happens, like a typhoon or a landslide, most people would die and their houses would disappear. It is really sad to live under such circumstances.

Poverty

2009-06-10T23:50:00.000-07:00

In India, right now, there are people without houses all over the streets because of over population, so not enough work, houses, and food. Most of them live on road sides, eat less than once a day, and hardly have any clothing. This is how poor India is!

Compare and Contrast

2009-06-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

Book:
The book is way more descriptive and longer. The only thing there is less information about is Weedon Scott before having found White Fang.

Movie:
There is less information, a lot of scenes skipped, only a few added. The movie was very different to the book.

Both:
Most of the characters have the same names in the movie and the book. The characters have the same character also.

White Fang book review

2009-06-01T00:27:00.000-07:00

I think White Fang is a pretty good book with a lot of action. It has a pretty hard vocabulary (for me). I would recommend it to other people because it is a very well known book and I think it is good. I would grade it 8/10

Dogs

2009-05-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

Why humans like dogs?
I don't know. Personally, I don't like them. So I don't really know why other people find them attractive.

The main reason I think is: they can do jobs that humans can't because they are tireless, and a lot of their senses are more developed than ours. But I really don't know why humans like to pet dogs.

Earth Day

2009-04-21T23:25:00.000-07:00

To save the Earth, we should:
- Have the lights turned off as much as possible.
- Walking as much as possible instead of using car.
- No AC or projectors in class.
- Taking very short showers.
- And the most important: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

There are still pirates

2009-04-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

Eleven Somali pirates captured by a French warship are being taken to Kenya for trial. The pirates will be tried under an agreement between the EU and Kenya. The Somalian prime minister said that pirates could only be defeated on land. They would always find ways to escape patrols.

Big Explosion

2009-04-16T17:38:00.002-07:00

Two months ago, there was a big explosion in Kenya because of a truck carrying petrol exploded. More than a hundred and twenty-one people were killed and more got hurt. Near the town of Molo, the tanker crashed spilling petrol over the ground. The people hurried to gather it. The petrol caught alight and the tanker exploded.

2009-04-16T17:38:00.001-07:00

MY PHOTO JOURNAL

Going to School
7:40, time to go to school for a long day of work. I go there with my mom who drives me everyday there through the streets of Hsinchu.
I am lucky because I go there in a car so I don't need to get up too early, and I go there with my mom who’s got enough time to drive me.

Humanities
Every Tuesday and Friday, we got our humanities class. Like in every other class, we, strangely, use laptops. It is interesting, but the problem is that at the end you have so much homework. But it is only the first class in the day, still 3 to go.
The African kids don’t air conditioned class, and they definitely don’t use laptops, they don’t have enough money, they would rather use the money for food.

Sweet Home
I am finally back at home. Time to talk to my grandparents by the computer and also get a snack. I sometimes mess around with a tennis ball, also.
The people in Africa don’t have computers, they don’t eat snacks, and they do the chores instead of playing.

Homework, Cruel Homework
Most days, I have homework. Mostly humanities but also math and science. It is definitely the time I hate the most in the day.
I am even lucky for homework time, because I can use actual material, and after I am done with the homework I don’t have to do anything else, no watering the fields, etc...

Playing Time!
After finishing all my homework, I usually go play basketball with my best friend, or soccer with other people. This is my favorite moment of the day; I love sport!
I have a choice of doing what I want. I don’t have any obligations. When I am done with the work I do anything I want, like playing. I can play on a real field with an actual ball.

Dinner
After all this, I have dinner around 7:00. We sometimes go to the restaurant, sometimes not. I still like my mom’s food the best.
The day I took this picture, I was at the restaurant. I don’t think Africans spend money on restaurants.

Asleep…
After getting washed, reading, and playing, it is time for me to go to bed. Unfortunately, I hate sleeping and my parent make me sleep at 9 o’clock.
The little Africans don’t get washed everyday, they have no books to read, and I think they go to bed much later than 9 because of their chores.

The Culture in the Stories

2009-04-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Story #1
They have to leave the palace early to discover the world.
They believe that animals can always help you.

Story #2
It is not good to hit children even if it is usual there.
Their stories talk about daily lives.
They usually have morals.
You should always follow adults advice.

Story #3
There was magic in this story, the wizards, the magic honey, etc...
There was also two moral.
Laziness is bad.
making friends is important.

Human Rights Activists Hiding

2009-03-29T21:54:00.001-07:00

The human rights activists in Kenya are hiding because of receiving death threats in wake of a scathing United Nations report on extrajudicial police executions.

Policeman Arrests War Crime Suspect, Kenya

2009-03-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

In Kenya, a policeman arrested a man in the coastal city of Mombasa that was suspected to be involved in war crimes in Yugoslavia. The police is now interrogating him.

A Pyramid Has Been Unearthed

2009-03-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

In Egypt, archeologists say that they have unearthed a pyramid older than 4000 years. The discovery was in Saqqara, south of Cairo. The site's known as one of the most famous burial place for rulers of ancient Egypt. It is the 118th pyramid found, it had belonged to queen Sesheshet. All that is left of it is a 5 meter high square base, but the most famous archeologist said the remains had been more than 3 times this height.

New Tomb Found in Egypt

2009-03-20T23:06:00.000-07:00

Archeologist are celebrating their founding, they discovered more than 20 mummies. They might be over 2600 years old, and the items inside the tombs are even older. One sarcophagus is over 4000 years old. For the moment, archeologist only opened one sarcophagus, but they are hoping to find more mummies inside the others. Four of the mummies had a dog buried with them. It is very rare to find a burial site in as good conditions.

Draw Borders

2009-03-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

I used what I learned about geography, economics, and sociology to draw the borders for Kenbrena Webquest because if a country is only mountains, how does it grow food, it would die. If a country is super long, how can you defend it. If it doesn't have rivers, it is almost impossible for it to survive. If there are not any resources, where do you get the money from? If people don't get along, there would be continuous fights which exetremely bad for a it. Any country wouldn't survive if the people that determined the borders didn't care about geography, economics or sociology.

How to Have a Strong Country

2009-03-13T03:01:00.000-07:00

To have a strong country, you don't only need rich people. You need more poor people than reach people actually. If you don't have any poor people, who will go to war, rich people don't want to die for their country. Who will grow food, rich people don't want to do hard manual work. Who will build houses, they don't want to carry too heavy things that might hurt them badly. Without poor, there won't be any hard jobs done. That is why a country needs both, the poor and the rich.

Kenbrena Social Classes

2009-03-12T02:52:00.000-07:00

Some groups get along together and some groups do not because some groups could be jealous of the others or some groups could feel superior. Maybe in the early history, the groups had a fight and they hated each other over generations.
My family makes me think the most about the Franklos because we don't look like any other, but I don't think we are like the Franklos either.

YouTube Blocks Music

2009-03-10T02:50:00.000-07:00

If you are a big fan of watching videos on YouTube... too bad, because they blocked them all. At 18:00 on Monday, thousands of videos started becoming unavailable. YouTube which is owned by Google say that it would cost too much to keep them online. And not only the ones that are uploaded by companies are being blocked but also the ones uploaded by official fans of the site.
Stange...

Policeman Killed

2009-03-10T02:44:00.000-07:00

A police man got killed after responding to an emergency call in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Shots were fired at two officers in the patrol car after being called in Craigavon on Monday. Politicians spoke out about the shooting and paid a tribute to the dead policeman. No one has admitted who carried out the attack which happened 2 days after 2 other soldiers got killed in Antrim

Were Scientists Fair?

2009-03-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

No, I don't think the scientists were fair when they rejected Wegener's hypothesis mainly because he wasn't geologist. It isn't fair because he had evidences — same fossils were found on each side of the Atlantic Ocean, the continents seem to fit together, there is the same kind of rock on each side of the ocean — and he had researched on it a lot so that he knew as much as other geologists. So, just because he isn't geologist, saying that his hypothesis is wrong isn't good.

My Learning of the 5 Themes of Geography

2009-03-06T17:35:00.000-08:00

Geography is the study of the natural features and inhabitants of the Earth.

Right now, I am at home, in Kao Fong Road Lane 194 Alley 8 House 7. I am 15 minutes away from my school, HIS. I am in the living room. My parents are in the room where one of the computers are, they are in front of me. From here, I can see three other houses.

The term physical when we describe a place is the land features around it, the natural things. The term human, is what the humans made, the buildings, the cars, etc... And the cultural is how the humans interact with the geography.

Humans adapt to the environment because we can't just blow off mountains or drown lakes. And we settled near rivers a long time ago for water and food. We change the environment when we cut off trees, when we build houses or factories, and when we make dams. Almost everything we build changes the environment.
Humans depend on the environment for water which is in the rivers, for food, the animals that we hunt, and for many more things. Without the environment we wouldn't be able to live.

Movement always affect because you rarely do not move. During the day, you are always in movement, when you go to school, when you move from class to class, even you go eat dinner.
I interact with the fruits I eat everyday. Some of them are moved from one country to my house, while some of them are just moved from a field, but in anyway it is movement. I interact with the car that brings to school, it is always in movement. And I interact with many more things.

A formal region is a region that has been determined by the government, it is official. A functional region is like the city where people work and the suburbs where people live. A perceptual region is what the region is in your head, how you imagine it.

Resources

2009-03-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

Capital resources: the money you use to produce more wealth. ex: hiring people, building factories.
Human resources: the quantity of people, the skills they have. ex: carpenters, teachers.
Natural resources: the resources that the nature gives you. ex: water, mountains.

Big Winner

2009-03-04T22:54:00.000-08:00

Day 1,
Hello, my name is John, and I am one of the most unlucky and poorest person on this planet. Today, like every day, I am going to sign up for a lottery game like every other day in my life.
I hope I will get money to end my life of beggar. Come on luck! Oh no! I lost again. I have to go back to the streets and continue begging. I hope tomorrow will be my lucky day.

Day 2,
I will try it again today. Please luck... Help me... Yeah!!! I won! My life as a beggar is over now that I won this 1000000000 US$.
I will finally be able to buy myself a house, a car, have some food without asking it to people. My life has a meaning now!

Day 3,
Right now I am on the way to get my money, it is 9:00 AM. I am where I am supposed to get my money.
Why doesn't anyone look happy, what did I do. Who cares. I want my money. «Could I have my money, please?» The guy gave me the money after having show him my ticket. He didn't even talk once.

Day 4,
It is the first I have my my money. I am going to the bank to put my money there. But first, I will go see my friends.
_Oh, hi guys!
_Get out of our way rich man!
I lost all my friends…
I went to the bank and put my money there. Tomorrow, I will buy myself a house and a car, hopefully.

Day 5,
I am on my way to one of the most luxurious houses in the town, Hsinchu. The house is bought now, the car also.
No one is smiling, everyone looks at me badly. I am hated from everybody even my closest friends. Maybe this money wasn't that good to get.

Isolating the Variable

2009-03-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

For the SMASH day, we did an activity where we had to make a small boat and try to make it hold as much weight as it could without sinking.
The activity isolated design as the variable because we started with the same materials, the same rules for everybody and we put the same kind of weight on the boat. We tested the boats on the same water.
The variables that were not controlled were mainly the design, how big you made the boat, where you put the straws. But also where you put the weights, and how you put them.
Every variable affected the outcome!

My Holidays

2009-03-03T02:01:00.000-08:00

For my holidays, I went many times (almost every summer) into a region of Spain called Cataluña.
It is both, formal and perceptional.
The formal part is because it is a real region of Spain. There, the people have their own language, Catalan, but they also speak Spanish; they have to learn both at school. This region also wants to be independent from Spain. So, it is really formal.
The perceptional part is that when I go there, I only think of the coast, where I really go, Salou. The labels in the stores are not written in Spanish, they are written in Catalan. It is a very touristic town. There is the sea, huge hotels. You can meet people from all sorts of countries, the menu in the restaurants is in many different languages. But this happens only in that part of Cataluña. It is also perceptional, then.

Volcanoes....

2009-02-24T00:46:00.000-08:00

About 150 people had to leave their houses for the second year because of a volcano that is 10km from the town started erupting. The Chaiten volcano was said dormant for 9000 years until it woke last May. Thousands of people had left the town as ash covered the ground and went into rivers causing flooding. People had just returned but then they had to leave again because of the eruption on Thursday.

Bushfires

2009-02-24T00:39:00.000-08:00

More people in Australia had to leave their homes because of bushfire that destroyed one house and injured three firefighters. Two weeks ago there was a fire in the state of Victoria that killed 210 people and left thousands of homeless people. Firefighters struggled to keep the fire off, but there are fears that the winds are driving the fires to other places.

Geographic Lens #4

2009-02-24T00:26:00.000-08:00

The video is talking about the geography standards.
It focuses on the content of geography and the skills of geography.
18 content standards are divided into 6 elements: the world in spatial terms, places and regions, physical systems, human systems, environment and society, the uses of geography.
The geographic skills are: asking geographic questions, acquiring geographic information, organizing geographic data, analysis and synthesis, finding answers.

To My Friend's House

2009-02-23T01:18:00.000-08:00

When I go to my friend's house:
I walk outside my home and I see this dog with its ripped T-shirt in front of its owner's garden. I turn left and go for 16m. While walking, I hear birds singing and on the right there is a small garden with pink and red flowers. I turn left again and walk up a small hill for 30m until I see a swimming pool in front of me. I go left again and go along the swimming pool with its palm trees around for 13m; dogs start barking at me. I turn right, around the swimming pool, and go up 75 stairs still hearing the birds singing. After going up, I turn left and go forward for more than 35m, on the sides I see parked cars, gardens, and many flowers of different colors. I stare at my right, and finally I see my friend's house. In the house in front of it, there is an old man cultivating tiny trees; he also has a parrot that his always singing. And then, I look back at my friend's habitation. Over my head, there is a basketball hoop. On the right, there is a ping pong table. On the left, there is a car. And straight ahead, I see light going through his door.
This is what I do, see and hear when I go to his house.

Puzzles and Drift

2009-02-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

In class, we tried to make puzzles. We had pieces of blank paper and had to reproduce an double A4 piece of paper. And then, we had to reproduce a newspaper page.

Continental drift is the moving of continents. The parts of the Earth are arranged in many pieces that come together and move apart. This is the idea of continental drift.

The puzzles related to continental drift because the pieces of a puzzle are a lot like tectonic plates (which make the continental drift), when they are together, they make a whole thing, a piece of paper, or the Earth.

Geography

2009-02-19T02:06:00.000-08:00

The first video talked about how geography affected climate, how the dry season and the monsoon are related to geography. And they tell us that geography in Greek means the description of the Earth.
The second talked about how geography affected people. In different places, they grow different kinds of food, wear different clothing, and live in the different kinds of houses.

What do I like and what do I dislike about this book?

2009-02-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

I liked the way he survived for so many days on his skiff.
I disliked the fact that there was hardly any action, the book was mostly description. I also disliked the main theme of this book, I am not very interested in fishing.
Overall, I didn't like the book because there was really no action for a young person.

World Tour

2009-02-18T21:35:00.000-08:00

We have to make Mr. Carpenter go around the world, and cross twice the equator.
So, I will send him:
- First, you will depart from Taipei (25º 04' 00''N and 121º 33' 06''E) at 10 AM to go to Los Angeles ( 33°55'44"N and 118°24'41"W). The flight will last about 11 hours. You will arrive at 5 AM!!!, because of the time zones. You will spend 5 hours in LA.
- Then, at 10 AM, you will take a 7:30 hours flight to Brazil (3°17'3"S and 60° 4'45"W) which will be the first time you cross the equator. You will arrive there at 21:30, for the same reason, time zones.
- You will spend a night in a five star hotel called Hotel Ariaú.
- At 9 AM, take a flight to Barcelona, Spain ( 41°16'48"N and 2° 4'55"E) with an arrival at 20 o'clock and will stay at the center of the town in Hotel Rivoli Ramblas.
- Then, the next day, you take a flight at 8:30 to Madagascar (13°43'40"S and 48°34'24"E) that will last 8 hours, and you will arrive there at 18:30 AM.
- After 4 hours, you will go to the Northern Territory of Australia ( 12°36'36"S and 130°54'23"E). You will get there at 3 AM and spend more than 1 day in the Travelodge Mirambeena Resort Darwin, another five star hotel.
- The next day at 10, you will go to Hong Kong ( 22°18'42"N and 113°55'48.79"E) in a 4:30 hour flight, and arrive there at 13.
- Then, 5 hours later, you will take the final 1 hour flight back to Taiwan (25º 04' 00''N and 121º 33' 06''E). You will get there by 19, and go home.

I know my flight wasn't too much of visiting. It was more of doing the whole world in a small amount of time and going to the very important places.

Where is the Art Room?

2009-02-16T17:07:00.000-08:00

Absolute Location:
24º 47' 47'' North
120º 56' 34'' East

Relative Location from the entrance of the school:
30m N
20m E
6m N
20m W
And you are in the art room

Geography

2009-02-12T16:07:00.000-08:00

Geography is the study of Earth and its lands, features and inhabitants.

The Old Man and the Sea

2009-02-11T23:25:00.000-08:00

The scene I drew is when the old man caught a tuna when he was fishing for the huge marlin. After catching it, he ate it because he was starving.

Why Is Where Important?

2009-02-10T00:26:00.000-08:00

Where is very important because depending on where you are, you have to change your habits. If you are in Alaska, you won't wear the same clothes as if you were Thailand. If you are in school, you don't do the same things as if you were in a holiday. But it also changes the job you might have. But it would change many more things.
So knowing or telling someone else where you are is very important for yourself and the other person.

Submarine SMASH Day Reflection

2009-02-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

Summarize:
For SMASH day, we tried to make a periscope, the thing submarines use to see above water. We had to see what was inside a box that was on a table, keeping our heads under the table. We were given a cardboard box, 10 pieces of paper (that our group didn't use), 1 meter of tape, and 2 pairs of scissors.

Reflect:
We modified our design only once, first we did a simple way, and then we consolidated our periscope. We knew that we should modify it because usually, the first way isn't the best. We knew what to modify, because we were trying every time we changed a little thing. Everyone gave ideas of how to change it. For example, someone might say that we need to make a part stronger, the other might say where we should put the mirrors, etc...

Tips and Suggestions:
First, do something very simple where you can kind of see what is in the box.
Then, improve it.

What do you think the moral to The Old Man and the Sea is?

2009-02-08T23:32:00.000-08:00

The moral to this story is: The fight between human and nature. How sometimes human win, sometimes nature wins.

Peter's Presentation

2009-02-06T19:57:00.000-08:00

I didn't know about religions and wasn't interested in it, but Peter's presentation was fantastic, and interesting. I couldn't remember much because I didn't know anything before. The thing I could remember the best was the chart of how many percent of people were from each religion. I could remember some of this because I really love math, so I remember pretty well what deals with numbers. I discovered that about: 33% were Christians, 20% were Islamic, 20% nonreligious, 10% Hindu, 6% Buddhist, and only 1% were Jews. I thought much more people were Jews. I forgot some religions but those are the main ones. And that there were three main monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam. So this what I really remembered. And sorry Peter for not being able to remember more.

Nadal Number One

2009-02-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

Nadal, the Spanish tennis player, is the first Spanish man to win the Australian Open. The number one, winner of the French Open, Wimbledon, and the Olympic Games 2008, and now winner of the Australian Open, beat Federer in a wonderful final. The score was 7-5 3-6 7-6 3-6 6-2. It was one of the most beautiful games in the history of tennis. Every point was on the lines, and the two ran like crazy. Now everyone, remember this name: Rafael Nadal.

Hit the Jackpot

2009-02-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

If I won £10,000,000 in the lottery, I would give half of it to the Red Cross, because it is the only one I know, so I guess it is the best.

Write about your luckiest moment

2009-02-03T23:28:00.000-08:00

The luckiest moment in my life was when I was born, but I can't talk about it.
The luckiest moment that I can talk about is when I found my best friends in Spain. I started playing with them when I was seven, and I still play with them.
But I am not a lucky person.

Effective Communicator

2009-02-01T23:13:00.000-08:00

I think Patrick Chen, my friend from G7, is an effective communicator. For me, he is an effective communicator because he speaks loudly and clearly, he looks at people, he answers a lot of questions, and he doesn't stress when he has to talk.

Active Learner

2009-01-19T16:10:00.000-08:00

I plain to improve my active learning in concentrating more during class. Listening better to what the teacher says. Chatting less in class, because I chat a lot, but not using the computer. And when I don't know what the teacher is talking about, I could ask questions, or go search more about it when I come home. I hope I'll be able to improve my active learning!

Reflecions on the Portfolio

2009-01-19T02:08:00.000-08:00

I would like to reflect about the project we did in Language Arts. It is a book report that we had to present orally. The book I chose is the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.
For this project, the learning outcomes I used are: active learner, effective communicator, and critical thinker.

When I read the book, I was an active learner because I like Greek mythology very much, and this book talks about it a lot. When I came home I went to search on the monsters or the gods.
Before doing the book report, I was a critical thinker because I prepared how I would break the book down to make the plot. I was thinking of the next step.
When it was time to present, I think I was an effective communicator, I spoke loud enough, and I said what I had to say.

Murray Wins Again

2009-01-12T16:13:00.000-08:00

The Scottish, 21 years old, #4 world best tennis player, Andy Murray beats Andy Roddick, 6-4 6-2 in 70 minutes, to keep his title at the Qatar Open. There were doubts of him not playing because of a back injury, but he played and won. He is now the favorite for the Melbourne Open, one of the four biggest tennis tournament.

Will he have as much success in 2009 as he had in 2008?

Wall-E

2009-01-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

The animation movie called Wall-E won the Golden Globes, the biggest award after the Oscars, in Los Angeles. Wall-E is a robot that picks up garbage on Earth, while humans left the planet and went in a spaceship because of the pollution on Earth.
To win the competition, it had to beat "Kung Fu Panda" and "Bolt".
And during the same night, a British actress called Kate Winslet won two prices for two different movies.

Slavery Today

2009-01-09T18:35:00.000-08:00

We think of slavery as something that happened long ago. But it is still happening today! Among the huge number of slaves, about 9 million are children. Slavery is when someone is owned by other people and doesn't have freedom, and is forced into an exploitative, humiliating and abusing life. Slavery mainly happens in Africa, large parts of Asia, Middle East, South America, and few parts of Europe. Would you like to be owned by someone?

My Holiday Break and My School Goals for 2009

2009-01-05T16:13:00.000-08:00

My Break:

The first thing I did during my holiday was finishing all the homework I had, the mindmap (humanities), the book report (L.A.), and the math exercises.
Another thing I did after that is going to Japan for 5 days. I went there to ski. The station was called Rusutzu.
The third thing I did is visiting parts of Taiwan. I went to Hualien for 2 days, then to Yilan for 1 day, and finally to Jiufen for another day. I came back on Saturday to play with my friends, and then, it was time to go back to school.

My 2009 Goals:

My first goal is to go play more outside during recess. Because I usually play computer with the other grade 7.

My second goal is to read more books. I don't read a lot. At home, I usually play with my father or my friends. And i'd like to read more to improve my vocabulary, too.

The Culture in the Video

2009-01-05T00:56:00.000-08:00

I learned about Egypt in the video, The Ten Commandments, that we watched during humanities. I learned in what conditions slaves worked. They could hardly drink, they couldn't stop working, or they'd get whipped, and they could only eat when the director of the building site authorized them. The slaves were Hebrews. If you were born Hebrew, then your destiny was to be a slave.
I learn about Ramses before he was king. How he competed Moses to be pharaoh.
And mostly, I learned about Moses. I didn't know that he almost got pharaoh. I didn't know he wasn't raised by his mother, she had to abandon him because the pharaoh had ordered to kill any male Hebrew baby. There was a prophecy that said that a Hebrew would destroy Egypt. So the mother put him in a basket and let the Nile chose where he'd go. The pharaoh's wife found him and raised him like if he had Ramses' brother. He was a prince. And when he discovered he was a Hebrew, he became a slave without anyone telling him to be one. Then he got captured by Ramses who sent him in the desert with just some water.

During the second part of the movie we learned more about slavery in Egypt, how slaves were treated. I learned more about Moses. I saw how a family rescued him when he was in the desert. I learned about how the pharaoh could do whatever he wanted. We saw how Moses heard god and went to help his people, who were slaves. We saw how god destroyed Egypt. How magic stick who transformed into a cobra and fought 2 cobras of the pharaoh and won. How he colored the Nile red with the same stick. How he killed the son of the pharaoh after the Ramses ordered to kill his son.

Research Reflection and the Magic School Bus

2008-12-15T18:33:00.000-08:00

Research Reflections:

For the past month we have been researching body systems on our own.

One good thing about doing it this way is that you find more information. A teacher would give the information necessary. That way you get all the information you find, and this is much more than what the teacher would have said. And it sometimes makes the class more interesting.

One thing I didn't like about doing it this way is that you find a lot of useless information. You waste time. And it is easier to understand or remember something when the whole class is on it and a teacher is explaining, because the teacher would use simple words and try to make the thing interesting.

I think Mrs. Smith planned it this way because that is how most classes work at HIS. And I think she thinks that students like learning individually more than having a teacher talking for the whole class.

One suggestion I have for Mrs. Smith is doing half the class explaining things and the other half working on our own.

Another suggestion I have for Mrs. Smith is doing exercises with lots of questions that wouldn't be so long to answer. Doing about twenty questions easy to answer exercises instead of doing 5 really hard ones.

The Magic School Bus:

Today we watched a video of the Magic School Bus about the digestive system. The bus became really small and went into Arnold's mouth and went through the digestive system, at the large intestine, they went backwards.

One thing that was right in the Magic School Bus was that they put all the main organs of the digestive system.

Another thing that was right is that they didn't forget any part of the mechanical digestion.

One thing that was wrong is that they only talked about the chemical digestion of the stomach. They didn't talk about enzymes. They didn't say the mouth and the small intestine produced chemicals.

Another thing that was wrong is that I don't think gum wouldn't be digested. Because in the movie the gum still wasn't digested in the large intestine.

Early Death in Zoos for Elephants

2008-12-12T23:24:00.000-08:00

According to a new study, zoo elephants live a shorter life than wild elephants. The researchers found that African elephants in zoos die when they are about 19 years old. But those in the wild live until 56 years old. Elephants in zoos die from bad health and often die from being in overweight or stressed. Scientists are telling zoos not to take any more new elephants.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7770000/newsid_7778800/7778874.stm

Win, Draw, Lose

2008-12-12T23:16:00.000-08:00

There were three British soccer teams in the U.E.F.A. Champions League. The teams were: Manchester United, Arsenal, and Celtic. Manchester will stay in the competition after having a draw 2-2 with Aalborg, they are still first of the group. Arsenal are still in, too, even though they lost 2-0 against the F.C. Porto, they stayed second of the group. But Celtic are out even after they won their first game of the competition 2-0 against Villarreal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7770000/newsid_7776700/7776777.stm

Riots in Greece

2008-12-08T00:57:00.000-08:00

There were riots all over Greece because a teenager got shot and killed by a police officer. It happened Saturday in Athens after a group of people started shooting rocks at a police car. Two members of the police got suspended and an investigation started about what really happened.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7770000/newsid_7770000/7770067.stm

Chaos at Airport

2008-12-08T00:43:00.001-08:00

Twenty-one flights have been delayed at Stansted Airport, in the United Kingdom, because environmental campaigners protested. About fifty people though to be from a group called the Plane Stupid, got past security in this airport at about three o'clock in the morning on Monday. The protesters chained themselves in an area near the runway where the public isn't allowed to go. The runway has been closed off and four people got arrested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7770000/newsid_7770600/7770603.stm

Four-Match-Ban

2008-12-06T00:56:00.000-08:00

Patrice Evra, Manchester United's soccer player, got suspended for four games and had to pay £15000 pounds for something that happened last season. He got involved in a big row with some people that work in Chelsea F.C. during the game Manchester United Chelsea F.C., at Chelsea's ground, in April. But he wasn't the only one that got punished. Chelsea had to pay £25000 because they didn't control a member of their staff.

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2626838601703186041&postID=2376083496613118649

Fake Games Consoles

2008-12-06T00:43:00.000-08:00

Officials are worried that people from Britain are buying dangerous consoles from foreign websites. The console might come with a dangerous power adapter. They say that the fake version of Nintendo DS and DS Lite look like the real one, but they could cause injuries. Nintendo says that the safety of kids is the most important and they encourage people to buy the real thing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7760000/newsid_7766400/7766498.stm

Arsenal 2, Chelsea 1

2008-12-01T01:50:00.000-08:00

Arsenal got back on track in the Premier League, by beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, 2-1. Arsenal started losing after an own goal of Johan Djorou, but then two goals of Robin Van Persie in three minutes, turned the game on its head. Now Arsenal is 4th in the Premier League after Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United. Just before, Wayne Rooney scored his 100th goal for Manchester United which made them win Manchester City 1-0. Even after the handball of Christiano Ronaldo that made him directly out.

Gorillas Protection

2008-12-01T01:38:00.000-08:00

In the African country of Cameroon, a new park has been created to protect the gorillas which are close to extinction. There are only 300 Cross River gorillas left and 115 of them are in the Takamanda National Park. The problem comes from hunters and people that cut down forests. Animal Experts say this park will help stop this threat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7750000/newsid_7757200/7757240.stm

Snake Massages!

2008-11-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

Some people have snakes as pets. And imagine having a massage made by snakes. Well, that is what a salon in Israel does. They offer snake massages! It should help relax and ease their aches and pain. Ara Barak came up with the idea after seeing how relaxed people were after touching her pet snakes. Hopefully, the snakes are not poisonous!

Best Way to Teach!

2008-11-29T19:46:00.000-08:00

Friday November 28th, in London, a lucky class got the chance to be taught French by Arsenal's soccer player, Bacary Sagna. He was one of the many players in Arsenal that speak French, so he helped teach the language. But he didn't only teach French, he also taught the kids how to play soccer. Imagine how happy the kids must have been!

The Paper Tower

2008-11-27T16:30:00.000-08:00

For advisory, we did a paper tower that should hold fifty grams. During the activity, The Paper Tower, I was a critical thinker because when the tower was falling, I found a way to make it stand. And we all got a good idea at the beginning.
I was an effective communicator because when I got ideas I told them and everyone in my group listened, I got my message through.
Those are the two student outcomes I showed the most during this activity.

Throwing a Coin

2008-11-19T01:59:00.000-08:00

Didier Drogba, a soccer player that comes from the Ivory coast and plays in Chelsea F.C., an English soccer team, got suspended for three games for throwing a coin into the opposite side's supporters. It happened in a game against Burnley, he was celebrating his goal near the Burnley supporters, a coin was thrown from the crown and he through it back. He won't be able to play against Newcastle, Arsenal, and Bolton.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7730000/newsid_7736000/7736023.stm

Murray Finally Loses

2008-11-17T01:03:00.000-08:00

Last week, the English tennis player, #4, Andy Murray, after his wonderful season, finally lost in semi-finals against the Russian, #5, Nikolay Davydenko, 7-5, 6-2, at Masters Cup Shanghai. In the end the tournament was won by the Serbian, #3, Novak Djokovic, 6-1, 7-5, with his victory against Davydenko.

3 Student Learning Outcomes

2008-11-17T00:50:00.001-08:00

Active Learner: I am an active learner because I speak up and ask questions, clarifications about what we have to do, I do the work well and on time, and I learn and I usually listen to what the teacher says.

Community Contributor: I think I am a community contributor because I help my friends when they need my help, or I bring the stuff if we need any material, and I don't just sit there and do nothing, I help my group.

Problem Solver / Critical Thinker: I am a problem solver because I always find a way to do my work and do it on time, even if I don't find the answer by myself, I ask other people to know, or I ask teachers.

3 Habits

2008-11-10T00:56:00.000-08:00

One of the habits I have and I would like to improve is doing more sport. I still do not do enough compared to when I was in France. Maybe I should join an after school activity in which some of my friends are, that it would be fun and good for me. Or instead of playing computer games, sometimes go out and play some basketball. Or maybe in my Google Calendar, everywhere I put free time go out and play.

Another habit that I kind of already have and would like to improve is to try to get less fat. Well I could improve that by doing more sport, eating less pasta when my mother makes them, do not ask for things that contain a lot of fat at the restaurant, or just by stopping to drink sugary drinks. But I don't really know why I am getting fatter, so I cannot make sure I am improving it.

I think I am the last one, always be honest with people I love, but if I am not I would try to tell my parents everything, or never lie to them, well I do not think I ever lied to them. Or I could just tell them when something troubles me, I know that for almost everything that is going wrong with me they can help me, so I should really try to always be honest to them even if I already am always honest with them.

Effects of Obama in Asia

2008-11-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

I think Barack Obama will affect Asia more than any President of the United States because now is when Asia is the strongest, and it is the right time to affect it.
"Obama said that he wouldn't sell any weapons to Taiwan." My Father.

"From an Asian point of view, we all know how much respect matters and how much we want to respect our leaders, so I think Obama will be someone whom our leadership will want to deal more freely and comfortably with because he brings charisma, intelligence and warmth to the table." Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Neha Sood.

"He gives a sense of hope that he can integrate not only a nation that is fractured, but a world that has become increasingly disintegrated. And I think he will be able to integrate forces in a way that McCain might not have been able to do." Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Jonathan Marshall.

"One, he would disengage in Asia and stop any positive process of negotiations... and my second concern is that it would hurt the economy if he decides to keep jobs at home. Many jobs in my country are outsourced from America, so that would be bad for my country." Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Sanjana Govindan.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/387890/1/.html

Being More Organized

2008-11-03T01:57:00.000-08:00

1) Serena: The benefits of being more organized are that you can work faster and more efficiently.
Andrew: It keeps us tidy and you can find the thing that you organized easily.
Mom: The benefits are that you can do everything faster. When better organized you are, more time you gain.
Dad: You gain a lot of time, you don't waste time and energy and you make less errors.

2) Serena: What prevents people from being more organized is playing games, not sleeping enough, dreaming, etc…
Andrew: what prevents people from being more organized is being lazy.
Mom: What prevents people from being organized is to many things to do, too much work. And things you discover very late.
Dad: Noise and distractions prevent people from being organized.

3)-Remove distractions
-Only focus on your work
-Go somewhere quiet work
-Try hard, don't be lazy
-Do only one work at once

3 Student Learning Outcomes

2008-11-03T01:48:00.000-08:00

The first was that I've been a community contributor because every time Mr. Carpenter didn't put the homework on Moodle I told him so that everyone could see the homework.

The second was that I've been a person of high character because I always completed my homework well and on time. I wasn't doing my work late.

The third was that I've been a effective communicator because I usually answered questions that the teacher asked or I asked questions.

What I Learned From My Table Mates' Blogs

2008-11-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

I learned many things on learning and blogging from my table mates, Patrick, Sandra, Grace, Cherine, Stephanie. I learned that everyone could see your blog even people that shouldn't be seeing it, i learned that when you publish you should take steps before writing it. I learned that working in groups was very important. And I learned what blogging was for, type faster, share, have fun, etc...

Andy Murray wins his fifth competition of the year

2008-10-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

Who:
Andy Murray, an English tennis player.

Where:
St. Petersburg Open.

When:
This Sunday.

What:
Andy Murray won his fifth pretty big competition this year, now he is 4th in the ATP classification.

Why:
Because he is a good player and this year is his lucky year.

Why is he doing so well this year?

Which event does he wants to win the most?

How does he play, what is his playing technique?

Best Footballer?

2008-10-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

Who:
Christiano Ronaldo, Portuguese soccer player playing in the English team, Manchester United.

Where:
All over the world.

When:
This week.

What:
He was elected best soccer player of the year, and might win more rewards.

Why:
He was elected because he scored 42 goals in the Premier League, and his team were first in the Premier League and they also won the U.E.F.A. Champions League, the best tournament in Europe.

How can they tell if he really is the best?

Which is the criterion for this classification?

Why is he the best?

Grading

2008-10-27T19:59:00.000-07:00

Why do you think Mr. Truchon and Mrs. Smith do this?
I think they do this to let students improve, not just give a mark.

Why do you think this might be important in your learning?
It might be important because we learn from our mistakes, so that way we will learn more.

What do you like about this approach?
I like this idea of redoing because if we just forgot something we can put it again without just getting a bad mark.

What do you dislike about this approach?
I dislike the idea of red, yellow, green because when we get a green we don't know if it's a 100% or a 90%. Or when we get a red, we don't know if it's a 0% or a 60%.

Why is it better to get information from a book or an online Encyclopedia than finding a site through a search engine?

2008-10-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

It is better to get information from a book or an encyclopedia because they are usually made by professors or people that know the subject really well. And more people go on encyclopedias, so the information might be better. On a Google search the information might be written by someone that wants to make a joke, or just wanted to write. So the information might be wrong. But there are more search engines so there might be more information, and on some of them the information might be really good. And there less information on one site than on a whole encyclopedia or book, so it might be more organized.

Tottenham Losing and Losing

2008-10-24T01:59:00.000-07:00

Who:
Tottenham soccer team

When:
-

Where:
Italy

What:
Tottenham is last in the Premier League and lost against Udinese, an Italian club, 2-0 in the U.E.F.A. Cup.

Why:
They were not playing in England but in Italy. And they are not playing well this year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7680000/newsid_7688000/7688071.stm?ls

Why are they not playing as well as usual?

How did Udinese play, very well or not really?

Which team will win this cup?

Star's Singing

2008-10-24T01:38:00.000-07:00

Who:
Stars

When:
-

Where:
In space

What:
French astronomers discovered that stars gave off a rhythm, stars are pulsating and throbbing. Each sound is different dependent on their size, age, and what they are made of.

Why:
Because the inside of the star pulsates, it makes like a rhythm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7680000/newsid_7688100/7688137.stm

Why do stars make sounds?

How do stars make those sounds?

Which components can make the star make sounds

Why finding the answer is not the most important

2008-10-23T02:14:00.000-07:00

Finding the answer is not always the most important, understanding is the most important. If you find the answer, it is just the answer for one problem. If you understand the problem and the calculations, and what to do, you might use it every time this calculation will be needed in a problem you will know what to do for the problem. If you know the answer to one problem and you don't understand it then you will never use what you did again even if exactly the same problem comes up, you won't be able to find it. So it is more important to understand your answer even if it is wrong than to have the right answer. So you have to try to make clear and easy explanations and you will have the best answer.

Reflections on Learning

2008-10-21T02:27:00.000-07:00

I learned that parts of learning are skills, knowledge, ideas, and understanding.
I learned that you could put learning into steps.
I learned about Bloom's Taxonomy, all the steps (remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating).
I learned that that there are some study skills to make you more effective in your learning.
I learned that there are very good questions to ask to improve your learning, who, when, where, what, and why.
And I finally learned that blogging is a very, very good way to improve your learning.

Reflections About Blogging

2008-10-21T02:08:00.000-07:00

I learned that I shouldn't say bad things about friends, and that you shouldn't copy and paste.
I also learned that you should be the same online as in the real life, that you should remember that you are in cyberspace, and that you should share things that you are expert in. You should give new information, and you shouldn't comment just to comment, and sometimes you should e-mail instead of writing comments, and that you should respect other people. You should only post when you are not happy, sad, etc...
I also learned that parents should be informed, in view, and interested about you on the internet.
And I learned that there are some good ways to start your comment.

Study Skills

2008-10-21T01:18:00.000-07:00

I already do it:

- I never have a distraction around
- I usually don't stress
- Most of the time, I prepare for exams
- I am self-motivated

I should do it:

- I distract myself
- I don't have a good balance between homework and other activities
- I don't have any study strategies
- I am not a fast reader
- My writing is very slow
- Everything takes me more time that it should
- I am not usually with serious people

The Lab

2008-10-20T01:42:00.000-07:00

Community Contributor:
I've been a community contributor because I helped for the qualitative observations.
I haven't been a community contributor because I didn't help to set the stuff and everything.

Person of High Character:
I've been a person of high character because I wasn't playing or watching videos on my laptop.
I haven't been a person of high character because I didn't take the work very seriously.

Active Learner:
I was an active learner because I listened to everything that Mrs. Smith said.
I wasn't an active learner because I don't remember that well what was our result.

Effective Communicator:
I was an effective communicator because I asked questions.
I wasn't an effective communicator because my group didn't listen to me.

Critical Thinker:
I was a critical thinker because I answered all the questions that were on the sheet.
I wasn't a critical thinker because I didn't find the answer to Mrs. Smith's last question.

Thinking Skills

2008-10-17T01:52:00.000-07:00

Create:
I made a mind map on Mindmeister. It is a creating skill because I created a mind map, I made it.

Evaluate:
I corrected some students in Math, we had to correct them. It is an evaluating skill because I evaluated their work and told them if they had made mistakes.

Skill, Knowledge, Idea

2008-10-13T02:06:00.000-07:00

Skill:
How to type faster. I use it every day when I do my homework.

Knowledge:
I had a dashboard. I use to translate, look for words, and sometimes play.

Idea:
Being angry does not help. I got angry playing cards with my mother because she was so lucky, but by being angry my way to play got worse.