http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajCYQL8ouqw
-Beatles, Let It Be

I have chosen two completely different songs from the 50s and 60s. For the 50′s I chose Elvis Presley’s song the Jail house Rock. From the 60s I chose the Beatles song Let it be. I decided to compare these two songs because at the time these two songs were very famous and I felt that these two song had a very different feeling to it. I also chose these song because they were sang by the famous artist at the time. Elvis Presley was the king of rock in 1950s, and the Beatles ruled the music world back in the 1960s when they were formed as a group in Liverpool.

Looking at these very different two songs I can already tell that songs have very a different mood and type of feeling to it as mentioned before. The Jail House Rock  by Elvis has a very quick tempo and its very up beat. It is fast and exciting and is a good song for dancing. If I was in the 50′s listening to it, I would have had the feeling of ready to go to a party with my friends. The lyrics to this song is very different each time. The instruments used in this songs are guitar, drums and keyboard and many more. I believe all these instruments are electric. The structure of this songs is very simple. I really like Jailhouse Rock because it has a fun beat and and the lyrics are really fun to read and is over a fun song.

The song by the beatles I chose was Let it be. Compared to the song Jailhouse Rock this song has a much more gentle feeling. This is very slow and smooth. To me this song makes me feel calm and relaxed because of its tempo is very smooth and slow. When the songs start the instrument used is piano, but when it gets the chorus part the drum joins in. As the song goes in further the rest of the instrument joins in, like guitar, keyboards, bass and such. By all these instruments there were a solo. In this song, “Let it be” is repeated the most. The parts were let it be is said is where the chorus would usually be. The structure of the song is very like the songs in our days right now. It would have an intro, bridge then chorus and such.

By looking at these comparison I can tell that they were differences and similarity between the two songs written in different time periods. Similarity between the two songs will be that it sometimes uses the same instruments. Both guitar were electric and keyboard, drums were used,vocal obviously was used. Both songs had an solo part by all the instruments used in the song. The main difference between these songs are that the lyrics are of course different and the mood and feeling to it is very different. Jailhouse Rock has many different lyrics throughout the whole song to make a whole song. However, let it be only repeats the ‘Let It Be’ part and never the whole line. I think this comparison taught me a lot about how music was back in the 1950s and 1960s. By comparing the two songs I was able to show how different some things were in the other time period, even though it was only couple of years apart from each other.

Yolen plays with the words and in this case, the names “Cinder elephant, Sleeping tubby, Snow weight”, in the first verse, which shows how different princesses are from reality. With their beautiful faces, skinny and elegant, like a barbie doll, those princesses are perfect,  gorgeous and surreal. In reality they starve themselves to death, force their body into a wasp waisted shape and fling them selves down the stairs.

In the last verse where it says “everything round is good, the sun, wheels, cookies and the princesses” made me think how ironic it is that we presume cookies and wheels are good but the fat princesses are another story. It made me think about our definition of beauty and what we really think it is. How come having skinny people on the edge of death are beautiful yet people who eat 3 meals day and are healthy – fat and ugly?

Yolen makes you think how there is not yet a teller, a listener an even a world out there that would realize how wrong we are. Yet in her last line ” everything round is good ….the princesses” (last verse) that maybe one day it’ll change and maybe one day it’ll be good. Like the sun, wheels and the cookies.

This poem is very tragic.  The fairytale titles are all changed with different words to describe being fat. The Yolen has clearly either personally experienced, or witnessed accounts of people not being accepted because of their weight.

This picture of Snow White, or Snow Weight as Yolen would say, shows how the real Princess could look like if she was in our world.

Jane Yolen used repetition many times in the poem giving it a good flow to it. Yolen used it at the beginning of each stanza (I am thinking of a fairy tale), the constant use of fairy tale titles, and at the end where she started many lines with the phrase “for a”. A comical poem, making people laugh, as well as learning the fact that in the fairytale world, there is not fat princess. If the Princess’ were in our world, they would be skinny looking barbie dolls. Why couldn’t there be a fat fairy tale character? Because being fat is not bad. You can still be as beautiful as a fairy tale princess

私はのんき

私うたがうまい

私れいせい

私おしゃれなない

ゆうめいではない

たまにたんき

たまにくらい

私が好きなもの

白いゆき

青うみ

赤くて大きなゆうひ

私が　きらいなも

おいがおおきい

ひといじわ

ひとうまらない

まい日テレビおみる

たいていギターをひく

たまにりようりする

でも本をすきは

やってみたいこと

エベレストをみたい

カナダに行きたい

金もちになるために

If I had to do this poem again, I would have double checked, asked the teacher for more help, and try and make it the best it can be.

The information I included in my poem was all relevant and best discribes me, my interests, my future wishes and others.

I didn’t write “WATASHI” over and over, so I guess that made my poem look more professional. The bad thing is that many of my sentences don’t make sense so that is a bad thing

Over all, I thought I could have done better, but this was quite a hard project.

3) If the ball hits the goal keeper’s hand and goes outside of the court, how is play resumed?
The ball stays in possession of the goalies team and it starts from a goalie throw in.
4) Can players pass the ball to their own goalkeeper?
No you can’t, you loose possession of the ball and you have to give the ball to the other team.
5) What will happen if the defensive players go inside the 6m line to defend a shot?
If they do it to gain advantage they get penalized, and if they have the ball or knock the ball out of the players hand they have to give up possession of the ball.
6) What is a “fast throw-off”?
Modern Handball introduced the “fast throw-off.” It is when the play will be immediately restarted by the referees as soon as the attacking team fulfills its requirements. Many teams use this rule to score easy goals before the opposition has time to set up defense.
7) Please identify the differences between basketball and handball rules and explain them.
dribbling – you can only dribble 3 times in  handball and in basketball you can have unlimited dribbling
steps(pivoting) - In handball you are only allowed to step three times and then dribble three times and then stay still with the ball. But as soon as you stop moving you have three seconds to pass the ball to someone else. In basketball you are allowed to have some steps but then you don’t have any specific time of when to throw the ball to a person on your team.
Throw-offs - A throw-off in handball takes place from the center of the court. The thrower must touch the middle line with one foot and all the other offensive players must stay in their half until the referee restarts the game. The defending players must keep a distance of at least three meters to the thrower.
Ball size – the handball ball is smaller
Number of fouls allowed - Unlike in basketball, where players are allowed to commit only 5 – 6 fouls in a game , handball players are allowed an unlimited number of faults, which are considered good defence to the attacking team’s rhythm.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deathtiny42/5051604019/

From the beginning of the year, my English was not the best it could be. Now, when I look back, I have improved very much. Out every thing Miss Clifford taught my class and me, I am more knowledgeable with my communication and creative writing.

The first text we read this year was Two Weeks With the Queen. In this book, I analyzed that many people were homophobic which means to be afraid or hate gays. And it after we finished the book when I understood that homosexuals are not necessarily violent or a horrible person but they can be a normal, kind and caring person. They have a heart and a brain. The just have different opinions.

The second text we studied was Journey to Jo’burg. I think that this project was the most interesting. In this text, we studied Apartheid in South Africa. I had taken in so much from this book. Many chapters left me with tears, happiness and sometimes confusion. I was especially shocked to discover what others can do to one another. Example the chapter, “Time of fire”, it described what the government and police did to normal children around my age, that chapter was actually a true event. We watched a movie about Apartheid and it was called Power of One. I have learnt what racism and hate can cause serious damage to one another. It causes conflict then war, then genocide. A task we had to do in this unit was to write a magazine article. I was glad with the magazine about racism in schools.

The final text we read was the House on Mango Street. I have become more aware about woman’s lack of rights and roles as well as growing up in poverty. A task we had to do on the duration of this unit was the vignette analysis. I have improved on my analysis skills, by reading a vignette and what I could take out of it.

Compared to other years, I think this year English was both challenging but enjoyable. I will miss my english class and teacher. I am honored to have such good friends to work with during class, and especially having Miss Clifford as our English Teacher. I am grateful that I am more knowledgeable and aware of what others can do to each other.

Before

After

Before

After

In Science class we did a oral presentation over voicethread, and my topic was the escalator. In the beginning I did not work on this project a lot, and so later on in the project, I was struggling with my information that I was going use in my presentation. But towards the end I think I did a fine job. A day before it was due, I recorded my presentation but I think It was a bit to long than the actual length that it was supposed to be. In the end I think I did alright and get an okay score!