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

 1. My best speech was my persuasive speech because there were time to really think about the content of the speech, and also the ways to deliver the speech. Although my speech was mostly  an information speech (which it was meant to be that way) just to make it a “bad speech”, I don’t think my audiences have understood that part. I think it was quite effective to use props, since it would add more impression to my speech, but I could work on how I could use these props smoothly.
2. I should improve on not being nervous because this would give a very bad impression on my speech. My voice would be shaking, which would cause the lack of volume and projection in my voice, and the lack of clarity. The ways I could improve this is to practice practice and practice (like what Mr.C always says).

8C Drama: Persuasive Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.
3. Another speech which was captivating was Kate’s because she had a very nice hook, about princesses and how dreams could go over the top. Her voice had clarity, and also the correct pauses. Also, her speech had good evidences. She seem to know what she is talking about. Most importantly, she seems to believe in what she say, which in my opinion, is very important for a speech.

8C Drama: Impromptu Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

As many of you readers may or may not know, copyright law is used to protect works in the form of visuals and sound. This includes images, musics, dances, and performances. It prevents people form using it and presenting it their as their own work.

In my opinion, I think copyright law have both hindered and cultivated creativity itself, especially online. Without the copyright law, people may have more freedom in creating their work with more variety of materials. With more variety of materials, people can create different varieties of things, which supports our common understanding in creativity. But without the copyright law, a work does not belong to anybody and everyone may use it to make money, which is a bad way of using the situations without copyright law. Even the most talented creators cannot make money out of their own work, and they may have to stop creating. The people who have used other peoples work for money would not have more works or creations to sell, since creators have stopped creating. This would cause people stopping to be creative. This is when people go too far without the copyright law.

But with the copyright law, it would seem like we do not have  as much materials available to creators, and ideas would not grow as much according to our common understanding of creativity. But this could be one of the times when the TALENTED creators live. In my opinion, the true creativity does not get limited by rules or laws like copyright. Creators may be challenged using the copyright law, and create better things with limited amount of materials. This is when people are tested on their “thinking skills”, not how good your materials are. Also the concept of “fair use” have allowed creators to use copyrighted works as their materials, which would give them more chances in creating good things. And when things are copyrighted, the creator is allowed to make money out of it, which can let the creator to access to wider varieties of materials available. But sometimes people have crossed the line. Now copyright law has been extended to many years even after the creator’s death. Companies have used this to make a lot of money, which would change the meaning of creativity.

Over all, the copyright law have both hindered and cultivated creativity. In my opinion I think it is best if the balance between copyright or not is even. I think the best thing to do is to have both copyright law and fair use policy exist at the same time. The creativity of the creators online or offline could be challenged because of the limits in their materials, but also they could make money out of their work to create better works for the society.

This year, is my last year in middle school, and semester 1 have already passed. For my semester 2 this year, our tutor class shave decided we should be setting goals for ourselves before we graduate MS.

Goal 1: Sleep for at least 8 hours a day.

Now that I have realized, I usually don’t sleep enough in my daily schedule, so for my personal health (so I can come to school everyday), I would need to start changing my daily habits.

Goal 2: Make sure I UNDERSTAND everything I learn.

Now that I have learnt so much in school, I thought now it is the time that I KEEP all these things and USE it in my future works.

Goal 3: Have a goal for future.

My dreams have been changing every year (perhaps every semester) in the MS, and I’ve been thinking to decide on 1 before I start to have the opportunities to choose my classes.

Goal 4: Perhaps, try to add VOLUME into my works?

As I said in my art reflection, my abstract art turned from 2D to 3D, AREA to VOLUME. I would try to take all my works to another stage, where I could explore a lot more than required. Instead of taking my assessments as a classwork, I would take it as my personal work, as an artwork. I would expect more varieties of audiences(not only the teachers) and make it readable(and a little more ENTERTAINING)

and finally, have fun.

During English class, we had a chance to create a book trailer of one of the books we have read recently. I chose the book “The Giver” by Louis Lowry, a winner of the Newbery Medal. This novel is about a boy named Jonas, who lives in a world he once thought to be “perfect”. When he is selected as the “receiver of the memory”, he discovers the secrets that lie beneath his perfect world. What is the secret? and what will he do? Read to find out!

Here is the book trailer.

And my Shelfari Shelf is somewhere in the sidebar. —————————->

In english, we have chosen a poem from the Poetry 180 site, and did a presentation to analyze, compare the poem to another story, and relate it with ourselves. I will be reviewing 4 of my classmates’ presentation.

Hye-won Shin – Before the world intruded

Hye-won started the presentation by reading  it to the class while showing us the poems. She began with what she thought about the poem itself, and then compared it with several different quotes. I thought it was interesting how she was comparing her poem to some quotes while other people had compared it with poems and stories. Some of the quotes she had chosen were “Challenges can lift you higher” and “Growing up hurts”. These quotes have deep meanings (Which I will not get into) and it had a lot of impact on us. Then Hye-won showed us a video she made, about a boy named Jack and how he changes throughout his childhood. One thing that gave me the most impression was how she ended the presentation by the theme of “After the world intruded”, which is like wrapping up the poem itself. (If you know what I mean)

Marshall Vail – Sidekicks

The poem, Sidekicks had described how the sidekicks of most stories were never recognized, while the hero takes the spotlight by himself. Marshall’s presentation for this poem was pretty straight forward. He shared his opinion about this poem, which he thought he did not like it since it was depressing in a way. He analyzed the poem by dividing it into 4 different parts, which was very clear to understand.

Markus Mui – Fast Break

Markus’ poem, Fast Break, was about the process of fast break in a basket ball game. Although I’m not a big fan of basket ball, and I don’t understand it a lot, but Markus had explained what a fast break is so it was clear for us to understand. He also talked about the literary features included, and there were a lot of imageries. At the end he shared a poem he wrote as a response to this, which had the same topic about basketball, and which I thought was interesting enough since it is too similar to the “Fast Break”.

Eva Walkembach – Tuesday 9:00 a.m.

I personally like this poem, because it is interesting how the men and women on fire, drowning, and freezing cannot help each other, even if their situations can cancel out each other’s pain. Eva had pointed out this situation at the bus stop can also describe the natural disasters happening around the world, which made me wonder, why can’t these disasters cancel each other out, for example flood canceling the drought. I liked how she included a lot of her own opinions and viewpoints about this poem while analyzing it.