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

I'm proud of my great nation, as Canada is quite obviously the best country in the world, I think that the piece i'm most fond of is the city presentation, in which I explain what lead to the prominence of Nanaimo (My actual hometown is Qualicum Beach, but the limited information led to a change). I'm proud of it because I love my second home, and it was relatively challenging to find such copious amounts of info about Nanaimo.


2. What were your greatest challenges? Explain.

I've always had a problem when despite loitering on a point of an hour, somebody still doesn't get it, this has been a frequent occurence for me, as perhaps my explanations are a little too high minded for some people to comprehend, not helped by the fact that I can speak at a million miles a minute.

3. Reflecting on your growth this year, what did you learn about yourself as a learner?
I might be patronizing at times, and that could hinder my collaborative results, but I thought that I've improved upon that and my collaborative skills, though there is still work to be done.

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

a) Behavior

Could be improved
Satisfactory-YES
Perfect - the model student

Explanation:

I think that occasionally, I can be patronizing and arrogant, but I like to think that I'm improving upon those areas and my work this year has merited at least a satisfactory.

b) Participation

None
Satisfactory
Actively participate in class_Yes

Explanation:I like to get involved in class discussions and like to think that my opinions for the most part are valid and contribute to our arguments and discussions.

c) Organization

Needs serious help
Satisfactory-Yes
I'm super organized

d) Effort

Needs serious help
Satisfactory
I always go above and beyond what is required._Yes


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

Goal 1 - In Grade 7, I plan to to be more tolerant of people who don't understand a concept, and help them understand as opposed to patronizing them.


Goal 2 - In Grade 7, I plan to be a better team player in certain group situations, by which I mean when I'm not with Alex.


6.Is there any more information about yourself that you would like the teachers to know?
Not really.

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

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


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?

Jonas says this because he believes in equality, and that everyone should be equal, and so therefore everything should be in color so everyone will have equal viewing rights and thus have taken a step to equality, though equality is, for the most part, a lie to control the masses, there is some validity in the ideal that everyone should, to some extent, get equal rights, this is jusst a step towards such an ideal.

1. Would you want your future to be decided by others ? Why or Why not?

No, I wouldn't because I would have no way of knowing, for the most part, why they did that, and as they aren't me, they wouldn't know what was best for me. Though at the same time, this works against itself as I, perchance wouldn't know what was best for me either, as admittedly, I am young and my decisions don't always work as well for me as I previously thought they might have.
2. How do you feel about the "standard practices" and "rituals" in the community?

I don't, as for them, it's merely day-to-day life, but to us, it's a step further into a dystopian society that alienates itself from what we believe is needed for a society to function. I feel somewhat sad, though it's only the vestiges of an emotion, as some things, like "releasing" seem as grim as some torture practices.
3. Why is interdependence fostered in the community?

Because everyone believes that they cannot function on their own, and needs a greater power, or being to look up to. Without this, they have nobody to rely on, except themselves, and they obviously don't trust themselves, so they trust "The Council" instead.

On the first day of Christmas Mr. Thomas gave to me..... A chance to grade other people's Imovies!

In class, we were given the task to grade everyone's presentations and here are the people I graded and how;

Sheta+Akira+Lily

Alex+PJ

Vicky+Camila

Aidan+Kathleen

I graded them as following; https://docs.google.com/a/iskl.edu.my/Doc?docid=0AU5CEPhugPZWZGQ0YnMyc3ZfNjVmN3o5cDVneA&hl=en follow this link to find out!

This project can only be described as laborious. Though annoying, there were some upsides to this project besides working with Allison. I liked the editing and computerized aspects of this project as they really were both relatively fun and simple, and of course I love technology and it's associated works. The scriptwriting, sadly, was not fun, and took many rewrites to become at least passable. I had some overall enjoyment of this project, however it was mingled in with plenty of boredom.

The Nanaimo presentation

1) What you believe you did well on the project?

I like to think that first of all, my information was sound. Most information on Nanaimo was found on on websites and StastCan due to extremely limited resources the school provided. The stats and statements are all double and even triple checked before I actually put them into the final draft. The city of Nanaimo website was surprisingly lax in information, thus prompting me to resort to backwater websites about said subject, though painstaking, these sites proved reliable.

2) What you would improve for future presentations/projects?

I had some issue in this case with the common problem of memorization, though I did indeed practice meticulously, it seemed to slip whence I got up front of the class. Though perhaps the blame partially lies on me for not practicing enough, or in front of people, but at the same time, I think this has happened to everyone. Another thing to add, my images didn't transfer well to the big screen, or rather, they didn't adapt to the file necessary to be played on said screen.

3) What did you learn from your preparation (for your presentation) in addition to the presentations of others?

I certainly learned through some of the presentations to move your hands to represent different things and move around like you know what you're doing, even if your movements are completely improvised. Any try to emphasize points and things of importance, like a large populace and major exports.

4) What is your analysis of your performance?

If I had to rate it, maybe a 7 out of 10, mostly for my written presentation as opposed to my iffy oral presentation. I liked the info and how the pictures were there seamlessly as opposed to over the text, the technical aspect of my presentation was a little screwed up though. I should have listened to Mr. Thomas and saved the presentation as a video file for an easier upload to Google Docs.

Perhaps I learn best when given tasks one at a time, as opposed to all at once. I learn best when given the prospect of doodling. Yes, doodling. I want the ability to have fun while learning, perhaps taking an occasional recess, if you will. Apparently, I learn better when on the right side of the room, looking towards the front, as my both my paramount eye and ear are accessed more easily. However, I'm easily distracted by most things both easily and for a long time. It's very easy to forget spelling rules so it would certainly help to be constantly reminded and corrected in set field.

I need to stop procrastinating, in all honesty, I put off this post because I looked at flickr, there? You happy? I have the need to fidget and fiddle with everything incessantly. I have a unhealthy need to put things off, and like I said in my last post, that one of my resolutions was to be more focused on the task at hand. But I'll stop procrastinating next month. You see what I did there? Ya know, because procrastinating is when you put something off but I said...... Never mind. But that aside, I really would like to remove all distractions and I'd love to be more organized, yes, really.

Strategies that would help are sitting to the right to access both my dominant ear and eye. This would help me listen better as well as see better, thus giving me the opportunity to be more active as I know what is happening around me. I could see diagrams and instructions more clearly as well as hear you. This would draw my attention towards you, as opposed to say, what Harry is doing with that piece of tac.

I would like my teachers to know that I have issues focusing for longer periods of time, and that will happen most of all when I'm on the internet as I have the tools to goof off with friends and by myself. Like I just did. That aside, I don't want to use my dominant sides as an excuse, but it would be better for me to sit on the right hand side of the class, thus accessing both my dominant ear and eye. I also might do well to occupy myself with something temporarily, like a piece of clay, or my chair. At the same time, this is tantamount to me shouting "I'm bored!" in your face, unless it's only temporary. I would like something to fiddle with, in short.

2011

Well, first of all, I'm happy to say that 've survived yet another year! Sadly, I'm back for more, whether I like it or not. But, I might as well accept what it is and get on with it, normally, I'll take a tedious educational approach to the normally tedious pastime of blogging. That would be one of my resolutions for the year, acting casual, not because people will actually read this, or most blogs, but because while I'm sitting there, on the Blogger board of broken links, maybe somebody will actually take notice of this change, take notice, but not care, and that's really half the battle, isn't it? It'll give a better feel to my blog, though I would never have any need for this resolution if we were allowed to vlog. Anyway, my next goal would have to be to stop procrastinating, or at least cut down on it. This, as obvious as it is, would come under managing my time better and the extremely broad field of "Orginization". As I'm only 12, I'll cut myself some slack as my attention span isn't very long, or at least not as long as it should be, but I doubt anything'll actually happen with regards to that, but it would help me make time for both my movies, helping me reach project deadlines, and schoolwork, again assisting my getting the work in on time, or at least, the majority of the time. This might be done by removing distractions like magazines, pillows, couches, and some websites (Damn you Flickr!).

Flight of the Gibbon, euphoria, to say the least. It's a zip-line located in a private park high in the mountains of Chiang Mai. It's claim to fame is that it was featured on an early season of "The Amazing Race". Though it was our second time there, the advertising enforced our memories of an astounding time, one of the best experiences we ever felt. It defies human nature, to jump into the abyss, but man is it fun! Swinging half a kilometer hundreds of feet above the forest floor is exhilarating. The wind, blowing through your hair, my camera, swinging from it's strap, and me, screaming like an idiot. The complete course was miles long, ending with a rappel down 120 feet. Let me tell you, that is really damn scary. But all that aside, the ride started with an hour long car ride out of our hotel, on the way, we met the rest of our group. Our "gang" so to speak, consisted of a game developer for Activision, a producer of "Just for Laughs, Gags!", a trainer for Wells Fargo, and a website designer who was in charge of something called "Blink".

The drive, uneventful as it was, gave me time to finish my book, "Fighting Them on the Beaches", the story of operations leading up to "Overlord", or the allied invasion of France. But I digress, once we got there, we began the arduous hike up to a waterfall, one which we stayed at for literally one minute, if not less, a total of half an hour was wasted on the hike up, both ways. We drove for another half an hour before reaching the actual zipline. Once there, there was no turning back. I was the second last to go, in front of only my Dad. That was awesome. No other thoughts entered my mind as the instructor removed my clip. At one point, I nearly dropped my camera, but luckily, as it fell, my strap caught and jerked it towards me.

Around the platform 4 mark, our guide stopped us, he had seen something we hadn't. It's called Flight of the Gibbons for nothing. He had seen something that wasn't spotted much, a gibbon. Despite being called "Flight of the Gibbon", gibbons are only spotted around once every month. It was certainly something special, the mother had a mono-colored beige pelt, whilst her baby's was dappled with lighter spots, creating a somewhat spotted pelt. Nearing the end of our zip-line experience, we crossed a bridge to the final platform. Let me say, that I will never rappel that thing again. We then had a meager dinner of rice, curry, and coke, if that's even a dinner. A great experience, it helped us become closer as a family and have a great time, definitely a highlight of my vacation.