Ken's Blog

I will be comparing “Let it Be”- The Beatles and “Heart and Soul”- The Cleftones. (The Cleftones being the 50’s example and The Beatles being the 60’s example. They both use the 1, 4 and 5 key progression which was very popular and still is popular nowadays.

The Cleftones (50’s example)

The Cleftones

Herbie Cox

William McClane

Berman Patterson

Warren Corbin

“Heart and Soul” is a moderately fast song (staccato). Meaning that the notes were very short and gave the feeling that it was a happy song. The 50’s was a year were people were talking about the good things about life and how good everything was.

In the lyrics, it tells us how happy they were and how well things were going. So it was completely different to the 60’s music although they were still some 50’s songs in the 60’s.

The Beatles (60’s example)

The Beatles

* George Harrison – lead guitar, backing vocals

* John Lennon – Fender Bass VI, backing vocals

* Paul McCartney – lead and backing vocals, piano, maracas

* Ringo Starr – drums

Additional musicians

* Billy Preston – keyboards

* Linda McCartney – backing vocals (on single release only)

* Uncredited performers – two trumpets, two trombones, tenor saxophone, cellos

“Let it Be” is a moderately slow song (legato). Legato meaning very smooth and attached notes. It is one of the slow songs compared to when The Beatles first came out. When The Beatles came out in the 50’s it was a lot different to The Beatles in the 60’s. When it first came out, The Beatles had a moderately fast beat (staccato). Staccato meaning that the beats in the song were very short and detached. But then as time progressed, The Beatles became a slower song and had more of a meaning behind it. Such as one song was made for the Vietnam war and it was all to do with peace and how we should think about the others that are more unfortunate than us.

If we look more carefully at the words in this song we find out that it is one of the songs that really have a meaning behind it. For example the title of the song, Let it Be. We can tell that it means straight away that is is going to be a slow song. Let it Be meaning that we have to sometimes take in what happened to us and we just have to forget about the past. And that if we don’t forget about what happened, we won’t go far in life.

Conclusion

From this we now know that music has changed over time and that in the 50’s it wasn’t really focused on the bad things but it was all focused on the good things. While in the 60’s, it was really focused more on somewhere else in the world and on how lucky we are.

Part 1

Handball (also known as team Austrian team handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (five outfield players and a goalkeeper on each team) pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team. A standard match consists of 4 quarters of 15 minutes, and the first team to score 3 goals wins. Modern handball is usually played inside a gymnasium, but outdoor variants exist in the forms of field handball. The game is quite fast and includes body contact, as the defenders try to stop the attackers from approaching the goal. Players can dribble the ball like in basketball and can take 3 steps. They can also pass using, chest pass and bounce pass. Players are only allowed to be in possession of the ball for 3 seconds before either passing or shooting at goal. The game has different phases. Firstly a team needs to gain possession of the ball and this usually occurs with the goalkeeper. The objective is to turn defence into attack. The next phase is moving the ball back away from the opponents goal and to your own goal. The next phase is to get into a scoring position. No players are allowed inside the D zone. Fouls occur when players use excessive force and play is re-started with a free throw. Players are allowed to tackle as many times as they wish.

Part 2

Warm Up

 The warm up I will be talking about is the warm up we do fairly often in class. It is the game where there are roughly two people it and what they have to do is to dribble the ball (the three step rule applying) and tag the people who are not it. Then when they are it they just do what the taggers did. You usually need a good amount of space and preferably bibs just to keep organised on who’s it. This warmup will get your heart rate up in no time since the taggers are constantly chasing you as well as the people running away  from them.

Skills

In this skill drill you will need a ball and a goal. You will stand in a line of around fours and you will dribble the ball and pass it. When you get close to the goal you are free to shoot and maybe put in some tricks you might use in a game for practice. This warm up will get you ready for a match.

I think my overall slides were designed well. I used different combinations to make the slides look more interesting. Such as to arrange the colours and pictures in a different way (perhaps rearrange the positioning). I also could have made the slides look better by making some pictures fit the whole slide. I think my volume was good since I heard myself quite clearly in the recording. My pace was also good but I paused sometimes which was bad. As I said before, I could hear myself pretty clearly which meant my projection was good. I think everyone heard me clearly. I think I could have worked on my introduction and my conclusion a bit more. It was a bit unorganised and I didn’t really know what to exactly stay. Next time I would like to actually rehearse exactly what I’m going to say to get more comfortable for the actual time when you have to present. In the Design Cycle, I had some strengths and weaknesses. One of my strengths was that I researched about rugby quite thoroughly so that I could provide the facts. One of my weaknesses was that I was not too organised of what I was going to say. There are obviously some parts I need to improve such as to organise a bit more.

DAY 1

Areas of interaction: Community & Service
•How do we live in relation to each other?
•How can I contribute to the community?
•How can I help others?

-Departed Haneda Airport and flew to Niseko Airport (roughly 2 hours)

-Took a bus from Niseko Airport to N.A.C (roughly 2 hours)

-From N.A.C hiked to campsite

On the first day of Field Studies we didn’t contribute too much to the community since it was our first day and the we travelled the most so we didn’t do too much on that day. Although we set up the tents for each other in the campsite and we made our dinner for that night. We helped our friends and our friends helped us and this demonstrated about how we help each other. We also made our tents and made our food ourselves for a change since we are used to our parents doing it for us all the time. It was a good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed that day. We had trouble setting up so the supervisors and our tutors helped us out, We also had a chance to go to the onsen and that was very relaxing too. The onsen was not too far away from the campsite so it was fairly convenient.

DAY 2

Areas of interaction: Community & Service
•How do we live in relation to each other?
•How can I contribute to the community?
•How can I help others?

-Buffet for breakfast

-Hiked in the morning

-Visited the International School

-Went to the school for flower arrangements

-Helped out the farm

-New hotel

So we got up in our tents and had breakfast. It was basically sandwich and there were several toppings you could put in your sandwich. Then we went on a short hike around the campsite. After that we went to the International school of Hokkaido. We met Mr.Reynolds and we ate lunch there. Next, we went to a Japanese school and we made flower arrangements. Finally, we went to the farm to help take down the green house. This is an example of contributing to the community. After helping out, we carved out pumpkins for fun and made jack o’lanterns. Then we went on the bus and drove to the new hotel. When we got to the hotel we were arranged into groups and those groups depended on what room you were going to stay in. We also went to the hotels onsen which was very nice.

DAY 3

Areas of interaction: Community & Service
•How do we live in relation to each other?
•How can I contribute to the community?
•How can I help others?

-Kayaking

-Hiking around the mountain

We got up as usual and had breakfast. We quickly went to N.A.C and got prepared for the Kayak. We got our wet suits on at N.A.C and went on a 1 hour bus ride to the lake. When we arrived there we chose a partner and a kayak. Then the instructors dragged the kayak into the lake and then off we went. Some part of our kayak was broken so we were not able to be as fast as the other groups and the tides sometimes affected our route. This led the instructor to help us by attaching a rope on to our kayak. He did this several times because we were always so slow. It was raining heavily as well and I think I got a cold because of that too. After we stopped at the island we hiked around it for a bit and had sandwich for lunch. Then we kayaked back where we came from and then we went on the bus to go back to the hotel. As soon as we arrived there we all immediately went to the onsen.

DAY 4

Areas of interaction: Community & Service
•How do we live in relation to each other?
•How can I contribute to the community?
•How can I help others?

-Water rafting

-Mountain Biking

On Day 4, it was supposed to be mountain biking first but it got changed around so water rafting was in the morning and mountain biking was in the afternoon. So we went to N.A.C again and got all ready for water rafting. We put our wet suits and life jackets on. We also had to bring a helmet and a paddle. Different to the kayak, the bus ride to get there was only about 15 minutes. When we got to the river it was freezing. We had to all carry the raft down the slope and in the river. After that was over we stopped at a restaurant and had lunch. Then we went back on the bus to go back to N.A.C. When we arrived, we got ready for mountain biking. We mountain biked for about 40km and there were some steep hills that you had to go up so it was very tough sometimes. The first half was mainly going up hill and the second half was going down hill.

DAY 5

Areas of interaction: Community & Service
•How do we live in relation to each other?
•How can I contribute to the community?
•How can I help others?

-Packing our luggage

-Bus ride from the hotel to Niseko Airport

-Flew to Haneda Aiport (2 hours)

Day 5 was the final day and it was once again mostly traveling and packing. We packed our bags in the morning and we had to leave our rooms spotless. Once we did that we went on the bus and went to Niseko Airport. Then we had to wait in line for quite a bid because there were so many people lining up. After around 30 minute wait we started to walk to the boarding gate. After that, we went on the plane and I just slept for a few hours. Then we arrived at Haneda airport and some of us caught a bus to go to Y.C.A.T. After 25 minutes on the bus I was in Y.C.A.T and I walked home.

The poem “Biscuit” by Jane Kenyon. Jane Kenyon was an American poet and translator, unfortunately she passed away in 1995. This poem is recommended for all ages no matter how old you are. It makes you think about how innocent pets are and that how nice pets are so that you give them almost anything because of how nice they are. This poem is listed number 55 in the “Poetry 180” web site and I chose it because I like pets as well and the I liked the title as well since I too like biscuits. This poem is like a normal poem in which you describe something, the dog in this case. I thought it was easy to understand because it was a short poem but actually I found out that it is harder to understand if it is a short poem.

So the title explains a little bit about the poem “Biscuits”. There are biscuits involved in this poem and it basically explains about the bond between us humans and pets are very close together and how we get so close to pets we are sometimes too nice. You can tell this because the dog finished the bowl so that he would be able to get a biscuit for a reward. Then the dog asks for bread and he knows that he is going to get bread because the dog and it’s owner are so attached.

So this theme is basically about love. It is about how close we are to pets and as said before about the bond between us and pets. Pets are now usually classified as a family member because we look after them just like your child if you had one. This also reminds me of my pet when I had one and it is a good remembrance. This poem reminds us about how important pets are to us.

I don’t read poems that often so it was very interesting to read one. I advise this poem to readers any age and it is a enjoyable poem to read. It was interesting on analysing the poem although the poem was simple and didn’t have metaphors, similes and personification.

Health, Fitness and Wellness Assessment Task

Grade 8- What is Health? What is fitness? What are the components of Health Related Fitness?How can and why should you test your fitness? What types of fitness test have you used? How can we compare our results with other people?  How did you do these tests?What are some of the problems of using the BMI as a standard test?

Health can mean multiple meanings. It can mean being healthy in a physical, mental, and social way. As you can probably tell, being physically healthy means to be “not too fat not too skinny” – Geva Marcus. It is also important to not suggest that deciding that they’re not healthy just by looking at their appearance. For example, they might look a bit overweight but in their lifestyle they might be healthy enough to live life. Being mentally healthy is important too. Mental health is associated to not be too stressed out and also have a balanced life such as to not stay too much in the house all the time and sometimes spend outside of the house running around and taking fresh air. Social healthiness is important to you too. Socialising and playing with your friends is also vital of being healthy. Not interacting with your friends on the weekends for example isn’t being socially healthy. Social and Mental healthiness also connects as well since going outside is socialising and being mentally healthy since you can relax and enjoy the outdoors while playing and talking to friends too.

Fitness is the condition of being physically fit and healthy. Being physically fit and healthy means working out often and thinks about what and how much they eat. You have to make sure that you work often because at some stage you can easily become unhealthy since you haven’t worked out for a while.

There are a few components of Health Related Fitness,

• Cardiovascular Endurance – is the ability of your heart vessels to supply oxygen to your muscles while exercising

• Muscular Strength – is the ability to generate force against an object

• Muscular Endurance – is how long your muscle can keep on working while exercising

• Flexibility -  How far your joints can move and the movement of your joints

• Body Compostion – is the amount of muscle, bone density and fat you have

You should test your fitness because it is really good to know where you are at among other people, maybe not just to your self but to think about if you are in a good position or that you have to think about becoming more healthy. There are a lot of ways to test your fitness but I think the most common way is to perhaps run for how ever long you want to and measure the times and then search the web for an average time for that distance and look at where you are just by comparing the times. You can of course improve your times by just running more often and motivate yourself too such as self-talking and other strategies are out there. I used this technique to test my fitness.

We can compare results with other people by comparing results and you can also check the web to see the average of what you’ve done for that age category as I said above. But you shouldn’t think that you have to be the best since some people are more fit than you and you should know that. Some people might be good at muscular strength but they might be not that good at flexibility. You always have a something that your good at and something that you need to work on so just focus on improving on what you need to improve.

There are some problems using the online BMI test. The main problem pf the BMI test is that it basically measures your height and weight and it calculates where you are at among the people. The problem here is that muscle is nearly as heavy as fat but it will still say that you are overweight because of your muscles. So it is quite inaccurate and you should take in mind that it does record muscles as well for weight.

Overall, I learned a lot about fitness and how it is and will be important to us in the future.

Smart Goals

1. To work on my muscular strength. Perhaps to weigh weights more often and try to my best

2. To go out and run more often since I hardly do that

3. To also work on my flexibility by stretching daily

This is the presentation we did for World Religon:

How the Earth was made?

The earth was created by a human. He was the first one to exist in the whole universe, and he is still somewhere in the Earth controlling the time, gravity, and how the space is moving. He created time, and separated it to days, hours, minutes, seconds, and nanoseconds, to create a space where humans can live. The Creator is in the form of a child, and is existing in the Earth. We have been respecting our Creator, which has been existing from the first DAY of the Earth, which means he is Day 1.

What happens when a person dies?

Day 1 has been controlling a human’s ages, based on their everyday life. Humans can die in any age, caused by sickness, or being aged. When a person dies, people with a clean life, who has been trusted and is honest, is able to reincarnate and live another life as a different human being.
People who has been lying, and was not trustworthy, are sent to hell, where you live in the underworld. You will get punishments from Day 1 according to how much lies you have made, and other bad stuff you have done.