Author Archives: Masa

8 Humanities Unit 4 – Story of Me Reflection

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cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by ollily

Hi everyone! Over a couple of weeks, our humanities class has been studying what historians do, and was working on an assignment that ‘we’ become as historians and investigate/evaluate the histories of our family. However, since my BGM for my video about the history of my family members is going to be considered as Copyright Infringement, I am not able to embed my video into this :(

Basically, from my knowledge now, a historian is a person/professor who has a well-informed knowledge at a certain period of time such as Medieval periods, or perhaps the time where dinosaurs were existed. The types of history can be Political, Diplomatic, Social, Cultural, Economic and Intellectual. Historians implant a new historical event by carefully investigating using their prior knowledge, but also asks other historians (or even a citizen who does not know anything) to observe so that they can collect different perspectives. Afterwards, they would further research, think of a theory behind and explain it with hard evidences to show the clear reason behind the event occurred.

For our generation project, we had to research a person per generation: our grandparent’s generation, our parent’s generation and our generation. In my case, I investigated my mother’s best-friend’s husband, my mother and myself. We first researched the backgrounds of when they were in our age (13-14), such as the major events, who was born, etc. Based on those facts and our curiosity, we had to create approximately 20 interview questions to interview those people. We had to organize these facts into some sort of presentation. I chose Powtoon, which is a video maker.

During these processes, I have found some challenges, mostly in Powtoon; I could not find a way to change musics at a certain time, and how several texts were larger than I thought of. I also had a hard time to ask my mother because she had some grudge towards her parents. I believe the message for this assignment was the how important Primary and Secondary sources are. Primary sources were basically a person’s picture or objects when they were 13, in this case. Secondary sources were wikipedia facts or events occurred in that time where anyone can research. I couldn’t get any primary sources because the first person from the grandparent’s generation couldn’t find any pictures, and previously mentioned, my mother had some grudge towards her parents so she burned all the pictures of her that her parents took. So I believe if I had more primary sources, the video could have been more realistic.

Technology could have made events occurred in the long time more clear if they existed in the past times. People can easily record what happened, with detail, and unlike paper, it wouldn’t burn over time. However, the problem would be that there will be fewer historians existing in today.

Think before you post, before you comment…

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1.  Are there certain ideas, or social messages, that influence the kinds of photos that girls typically post? How might these attitudes affect the kinds of photo comments girls post amongst themselves?

I believe that the girls want to prove to the world that they are cute/pretty and have a lot of friends. I believe from the comments between the conversion from girls (my estimations), they tell one another that they are cute/pretty and the person who took the photo appreciates/underrating herself compared with others. 

2. Are there certain ideas, or social messages, that influence the kinds of photos that guys typically post? How might these attitudes affect the kinds of photo comments guys post amongst themselves?

I believe that boys does not have any interest to show that they are cool. In case, I believe that we post what we think we want to share to other people. It can be, for instance, a funny scene, or eating ice cream near a shop to show where you are. I think boys doesn’t post that much comments as I have thought of, so I think the attitude of being neutral is shown in it.

3. Are people aware of their online images? Do they try to make themeslves look certain ways? Why or why not?

I believe that people are quite aware of their online images as they attempts to be either cool or pretty so that it shows that they have numerous friends. For instance, selfies are quite common in the girls, showing that they are either stylish or cute.

4. Do we have different expectations for how girls and guys should look or act online? If so, where do we learn these attitudes? If not, why not?

I believe we have different expectations for how girls and boys should look and/or act online. For instance, their comments online. Several girls and boys comment in a way that is quite opposing to what they actually are in real life.

5. How aware are you of how you comment on other people’s photos? Do you think this differs for guys and girls?

I believe I am aware of how I comment on other people’s photos, however, varies depending on the person I am commenting on. If it was my close friends, I comment as if I was talking to them in real life, however, if it was either a friend that I usually don’t talk with or a person with an opposing gender, I am aware of how I comment on their images, as they might react in a different way compared to what I thought of.

8 Drama Unit 2 – Persuasive Speech Reflection

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8A Drama: Impromptu Speech from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

8A Drama: Persuasive Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

Reflecting upon the two speeches above, I anticipate that my Persuasive Topic Speech had a higher quality than the other. The major reason for this choice is the fact that we had numerous time to prepare for our final Persuasive Topic Speech, whereas we had to pick a topic at the place and had only 30 seconds to prepare for our impromptu speech. Another reason is that I have learned my mistakes beforehand, which made me deliver my speech better.

For instance, the modulation of the speech. In my persuasive speech about tax increase, my voice was quite projected that even I can hear what I was saying. My low pitch with a slower pace than my usual speaking suited the topic which was a serious one. By pausing my speech occasionally made the topic serious furthermore. I have emphasized some places, especially in the conclusion where I share my ideas, to convince moreover.

My body posture during this speech was moderate, meaning that my posture was better than my impromptu speech but required more improvement. On the other hand, my gestures using my hands were quite effective than I thought of due to the fact that it expresses the sign of me emphasizing my parts. I don’t think that I didn’t have that much facial expression than what I had thought of. Since my speech was quite serious, maybe I could only show my serious face.

My content was well structured with detailed information that lasted within the time that Mr.Meiklejohn had set. My speech started out with a question instead of a boring “Today I am going to talk about,” and included 3 body parts with detailed points. I also included a point from other perspective. In my case, I added a part that we cannot easily avoid the tax increase.

I should improve on my volume, emphasis, inflection and facial expression. In the video, my volume was too soft. I also believe that I didn’t emphasized that much in my body parts, and inflected on several words.

Here is a student in my class’ speech that was the most persuasive one in my opinion:

8A Drama: Persuasive Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

This speech was quite captivating. Despite his soft volume, his voice was projected and has inflected important words/phrases in his speech. He also had a great speech structure; a unique introduction, interesting body parts and a conclusion with a ending involving us to think about it. He also had a good posture that his voice will project well.

8 Drama – Impromptu Speech Mini Reflection

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8A Drama: Impromptu Speech from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

On February 14th (St.Valentine’s Day…), our class held an impromptu speech. Basically, what we did was each student had to pick a paper with a topic written, in a black top hat. In my case, as seen in the video above, my topic was ‘Snake’. Our Drama Teacher, Mr.Meiklejohn, gave us 30 seconds per student for organizing their speech. After the 30 seconds, we had to talk about the given topic in approximately a minute.

Overall my impromptu speech, in my opinion, was worse than I have expected. Probably this is due to my frailty when I naturally put pressure on myself. However, my volume, projection, pitch and emphasis was better than I have expected. On the other hand, my improvements required for next time would be the organization and the pace with more pauses. As you can have a look at my speech, the topics goes from Harry Potter to effects of a snake venom. I should have linked another topic that would have related between the two topics mentioned above. Since I had a quick pace even I had a time for slowing down along with including minimal pauses, I had to occasionally stop for a second to breath.

8 Visual Art Unit 2 – Digital Character Illustration Reflection

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8 Visual Art Unit 2: Digital Character Illustration

MYP Unit Question: What are stereotypes?

Significant Concept: Stereotypes can be constructed and deconstructed.

Over a couple of weeks, we have been studying about stereotypes, and how it links to racism. Even Disney animations consisted with racial stereotypes. We have investigated different fonts in a video (Font Conference) and discussed what each font’s characteristic was. For our final assessment, we were assigned one specific font and create a character that suits the font. My given font was Playbill, a slight hard one than I thought of, yet it was quite interesting of how the possible origin of the font came from a person named “Buffalo Bill”.

As previously mentioned, my font is called Playbill. It looks like a squished version of Arial. My character is a Western Cowboy, because the origin of the font Buffalo Bill once held a show called “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” which is about a cowboy show. I attempted to plan, design and create a character that personified my font, by investigating images of different parts of a certain cowboy, such as cowboy hats, red bandanas, holsters and boots. And afterwards, I investigated images that can fit together to create the cowboy that personified my font, Playbill. I expressed my picture more by creating different poses and investigate which of the poses that best suited my font.

In my character design, there were clear strengths and weaknesses. My strengths were the color contrasts shown in my character design’s clothing. Using various opacities of the color brown (dark brown, light brown etc) has made the vest and the belt stood out. This supported the attitude/personality of my character design. On the other hand, one of my weaknesses was the hands. As you can see in my painting, the size of the cowboy’s hands and fingers are unequal. Another thing was the fact that the hands didn’t match the character “cowboy” by its small hands.

If I had to do this task again, I would plan various cowboys and see which of the cowboys best suit to my font. Another effective strategy can be choosing a font I am interested as the matter of fact that we were given a font by our art teacher. I should have also drawn clearly, without any gaps between the lines because if you didn’t, the live paint in the Adobe Illustrator will spill over into the background.

In my opinion, I felt the fact that stereotypes aided my development when creating my character. Since my character wasn’t related to racism (like Cooper Black and Bookman Old Style), I was able to plan out my character without any struggles and worries that I might include a piece that would end up being considered as racial. Another reason that stereotypes aided my development is because I exactly knew what elements should be included in a certain stereotype.

8 English – The Outsiders Reflection

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1. Appearances and deception are a common theme in literature, how does Hinton demonstrate this?

In the conversation between Randy and Ponyboy, they were talking about their appearance and how the society is extremely quick to judge the people by the way they look, without getting to know them first.

2. Do narrators always tell the truth? Is Ponyboy a reliable narrator?

Narrators in novels doesn’t always tell the truth due to the fact that since the novel The Outsiders is based on first-person, it doesn’t show other character’s feelings. Ponyboy is a reliable narrator because despite the fact that he once lied to himself, he does not only always express his feelings but also tells how other characters might feel.

3. Is The Outsiders relevant to you? Can you relate to it? Why or why not?

The Outsiders is rather irrelevant to me, however, I have some connection to it. I am like Randy, who looks tough and tuff, but calm and honest from the inside.

4. Should The Outsiders be taught in school? If so, at what grade level?

I believe that The Outsiders should be taught in school, in a range between 6th grade and 10th grade. Since the words are too hard for an elementary student to read and the novel’s protagonist is talking about a group in his age.

5. Who is your favourite character and why? Who is your least favourite? Explain your choice.

My favorite character is Randy, because he looks tough and dangerous, however, he is quite honest, calm and kind. On the other hand, my least favorite character is Dally since he occasionally shows off.

6. Which character impacts you the most? What emotions do you feel for that character? Does he/she remind you of someone else you know? Of yourself?

Johnny impacts me the most, because I feel quite sad for Johnny, and so does he think he’s sad. However, it doesn’t remind me of someone else I know in real life.

8 Humanities – Globalization and Yokohama Reflection

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1) Why did we go to Motomachi Street instead of relying on GoogleMaps? What are the advantages and disadvantages of seeing a place you are mapping with your own eyes?

We went to Motomachi Street instead of relying on Google Maps because visiting the street has more accuracy of the shop’s location than Google Maps. The advantage of seeing a place with my own eyes is the fact that we are able to not only see the structure but the inside of the store. This allows us to create a realistic map compared with a map relying on Google Maps. On the other hand, the disadvantage when mapping with my own eyes is measuring the size of the store. Since it is unlikely to accurately measure the store, we will need to rely the size on Google Maps.

2) What was difficult about hand-drawing your map?

The problem I had when hand-drawing my Motomachi Street map (picture on the top) was the size, as previously mentioned. When I finished the map, I had noticed that some should have been larger/smaller than what I had drawn.

3) What similarities do you see on all the maps? What differences do you see?

I can see that Motomachi Street is included in all the maps. This indicates how Motomachi Street has a significant role in the Motomachi Shopping Street. Without Motomachi Street, the Motomachi Shopping Street would not have been formed. On the other hand, I can detect that the sizes of the stores are all different to one another.

4) Everybody had the same assignment are everyone’s maps should meet the same requirements, but they are all different. Why do they look different?

All of our maps look different because of the keys they had used. For instance, if people were labeling the store made in Japan, some students had used Red as their key for the stores, or probably other colors such as Blue, White and Green. This ‘key’ made everyone’s map look different to one another.

5) What can we learn about all maps? How come there are so many ways that maps present information? Can maps have bias; if so, why?

We can learn the history of a particular place with several maps created in different time periods. For example, Yokohama was shown as a small fishing village from the map created in the Edo period, whereas the Yokohama we live currently is a large popular city from the map created several years ago. Maps present information in numerous ways so that one day you would find a relavent form of a map to present in a presentation. Maps can have bias because you want to make places larger to show a major place than its actual size.

6) What surprised you about the stores on Motomachi Street? Did you find what you were expecting?

I was surprised to the fact that most stores on Motomachi Street were built and created in Japan, which was opposing to what I was expecting (full with foreign shops). On the other hand, I found that there were numerous clothing and jewelry shops, which was what I was expecting before investigating the street.

7) Do a one sentence summary of the effect of Globalization on Yokohama.

Overall, Yokohama had experienced numerous foreign influence, and its influence is still remained in the modern days, such as Chinatown, Motomachi and Yamate Bluff Area.

8) What can maps teach us about history?

As previously mentioned in Question 5, several maps in a certain location but in different time periods can teach us about history, such as Yokohama.

Does copyright hinder or cultivate creativity?

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In my opinion, copyright hinders creativity for producers before/while producing their product, however, cultivates creativity for producers after producing their product. Before/while producing their product, from a producer’s view, they will experience limitations creating their product because of medias they wanted to use were in the fair use policy. However, after they finished creating their product, they will not hope for other pupils using their products without permission much less copying their entire idea. Because of copyright, however, the government protects the producers artifact via copyright, and if someone else takes the idea without permission, they will be arrested (range between a year and three years) or pay a fine (approximately a range between ¥300k and ¥3,000k) for stealing their idea.

8 Physical Education – Handball Assessment

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PART 1. You are required to correct and rewrite the following explanation of the game of handball and then post it on your blog with appropriate headings etc.

Handball (also known as team Handball, etc. Team Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outfield players and a goalkeeper on each team) pass a ball to throw (shoot) it into the goal of the other team. A standard match consists of two periods, 30 minutes each, including a half-time at 15 minutes, and the team who has scored more goals win. Modern handball is usually played indoor, 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. However, the contact is only allowed when the defender is in front of the offensive player. Players can dribble the ball like in basketball and can take 4 3 steps without dribbling. They can also pass using, chest pass, 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 to the opponent’s goal. The next phase is to get into a scoring position. No players are allowed inside the D zone. Faults occur when players are considered as good defense and refractory to the offensive team’s offensive rhythm. Fouls, although, occur when players use excessive force and play is re-started with the opponent’s free throw. Depending on where the player has violated the opponent, the play will probably be re-started with the opponent’s seven meter free throw. Players are  allowed infinite amount of faults, which acts like fouls in basketball. However, if they create excessive forces to the opponents they could end up as a penalty. Penalties requires more punishment compared to a simple free-throw. Penalties include the opponent’s 7-meter penalty shot, two minute suspension if the foul was very menace or it can even end up to completely leave the playing area.

PART 2 You second task is to design 2 drills and post them with explanations and diagrams on your blog. The First drill is a warm up drill suitable for Handball. Name: Catch the Ball! Skills used: Defense, Offense, Shooting, Passing, Goalkeeping, Ball handling.

In this warm up, you will need at least 8 people (at least 4 on each side). The size of the field should be no larger than 25*15m^2. The objective is to bring the ball inside the 6m line (in Handball) from the opponent’s side to your side by either passing the ball over the boundary line, or shooting from the opponent’s side to your side.

However, if the opponents captures you while you attempt to capture the ball, you will be sent to jail. The jail is located at the side of the field (one per side, two in total), and your team mates have to save you by touching you without getting captured by the opponents. 

Once you get the ball inside the 4m line, you have to get out within five seconds, or you will be forced to get to jail.

The Second Drill is a handball skill development drill to develop either passing skills, defensive skills or shooting skills.

Name: Indiana Pass/Shoot Drill

Skills used: Passing, Shooting, Ball Handling.

Here is a diagram for the drill, since it is really complicated: You start at either of the red squares. You pass the ball to the passers (the green circles), while you sprint forward (blue dotted lines). Near the yellow squares, you will receive the pass from the passers you passed. You will continue this until there is no more passers to pass in front of you. You will either dribble or take three steps and shoot from the orange square! Make sure you get your ball immediately because there will be people shooting from behind. Afterwards, you go to the closest red square, and repeat the structure. After few minutes (your choice), you will switch the sides of the red squares in order to shoot from the left side. You should also substitue the passers with other people who were doing the drill.

Have fun!