The Alex blog

P.E. Fitness Unit

In P.E. we are meant to set fitness goods based on sports you play and things you do in life. I’d say I want to improve on is my fiscal strength because my main sport is baseball. Because the positions I play don’t involve that much running because I play Pitcher and catcher the most. Another thing I want to work on is being quick because in base ball its not about running for long distances but its running from base to base and being quick.

Music Japanese Music Experience

In this weeks music class we listened to some traditional japanese music that involved the Koto, Shamisen and the Shakuhachi. The Koto is a Japanese string instrument with 13 strings. The instrument is unusual for a stringed instrument, as it is not held, but instead laid on the ground. To play the Koto, the person kneels beside it and plays it sort of like a guitar. The Shamisen is a is very much like a guitar, but with only 3 strings, and is played like a guitar. The Shakuhachi is a flute-like instrument with eight holes and is played similarly to a flute.

The instrument I liked the most was the shakuhachi because it had such an odd sound compared to the other instruments. The way that the shakuhachi complemented the sounds of the other two instruments was amazing considering they sound a lot different from each other.

The music that was performed really gave me an image about traditional Japan. Music is such a powerful thing, it can remind you about old memories and different places depending on how the music sounds.

The composition we listened to is called Rokoudan. The reason that the Rokoudan sounds japanese is: The Rokoudan is a traditional piece written over 300 years ago. The scale used for the piece is named hira-joshi and is made from the notes D,G,A,Bb, and Eb.This tuning is meant to give a darker feeling then normal music. Another reason I think that it sounds japanese is te types of techniques it uses that are named Shan, Sha Sha, Koroin, and Ato Oshi.

I was shocked to find that I really liked some of the music. I really did not expect to. I particularly liked the Deep Forest performance, because I really liked the way that the Shakuhachi and Koto sounded together.

write a paragraph about what makes Rokudan sound Japanese (techniques, scales, instruments, and tunings) and post it on your blog. You can refer to some of the techniques discussed and also to the Hira-joshi tuning.

Art Line Drawing Reflection

In Art class we are working on a line drawing. We are doing it with multiple styles of drawing and we are only allowed to use one pen. We have been doing this project for about a month now and this is what I have made.

In my drawing I think I used a lot of different drawing techniques to help me represent what I wanted to draw. I really like the fact that my drawing has no black spots in it and that most of it is actually filled in. I think one major thing I would like to improve is the water because it doesn’t look that realistic and I think I could have represented it better. I think the hardest part about this was drawing the bear and deciding how to represent different things such as the hill and for the leaves. Something thing that I think was good is the fact that I made the sky have some detail and not leave it plain.

I think this this was a fun project and it really made us think about what to use for different things in the drawing, and thats what I mainly focused on while doing this project. I also think it was a good project to choose because it really limited us to think outside of the box and make good distions and still creating a nice drawing.

Drama Speeches

In Drama class were working on speeches. So far we have done two speeches in this unit. The first was more of an introduction where we could talk about whatever we wanted and it only had to be one minute in length. The second one was on a given topic and it had to be about 3 minutes in length.

In looking at the video of my one-minute speech, I thought my volume was good. My pitch was moderate and did not change much throughout the speech. I thought my pace was good. I did not seem to speak either too quickly or too slowly and my pauses were appropriate. I thought my posture was OK, although I did sway side-to-side a bit. I also moved hands quite a lot and made fists which was distracting. My facial expression was good.

In looking at my three-minute speech, I think that my volume was good and my pitch was again moderate – as it also didn’t change that much. My pace was good and easy to understand and my pauses were timed right. I think my posture was good because I was standing up straight but i occasionally swayed side to side. My hand movements were still there like the last speech, but they didn’t happen as much.

I think my best speech was my second one on the given topic. It was better because of how much more detailed it was compared to my first speech. My second speech was a lot longer and I also delivered everything I wanted to, unlike my first speech, where I forgot some of the things I wanted to say.

In the future, I think I should try to improve on my speech delivery, because, in reviewing both of my speeches, I tended to talk over and repeat myself. I also, need to be aware of what I do with my hands because I look kind of weird when I’m moving my hands in front of me and then behind me over and over again. Another thing I think I could have improved on was not saying the same thing more than once.  I found myself in a few cases saying what I had said before but just rephrasing it.

In looking at some of my other classmates speeches, I thought that Toshi’s was well done. Toshi did a good job of delivering the speech. He looked at the camera, maintained good posture, did not have any distracting body movements and new his material well. He also had good volume and pace.

Drama 1 Min Speech

7B Drama: 1 Min Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

I think that my speech was pretty good. I think that I had a good intro and I presented it well. I think i spoke clearly with a nice pace and it was easy to understand what I was saying. Something that weren’t so good was that a stuttered a bit and forgot a whole paragraph on what I was going to say. I think most of my content was relevant and it helped me deliver what I wanted to deliver. My hand gestures were unnecessary and I found my self correcting my self at times.

Science Poster

In Science class we got a project to make a poster on a element and this is what my poster looks like.

I like the fact about my poster on how it looks by it being all white looking very formal and also it has a lot of picture to make it look nice. I think the content looks the best for it seems to be good size and it contains most of the key information.

I think one of the major thing that is bad is the periodic table and it not that clear. Also i wish i had reprinted some stuff because its quite cramped. I think some of the content could have been better because most of it does talk about the actual element and talks about the alloys more.

I really enjoyed this project because i thought i gave us a wide variety of stuff to learn about and giving a lot of freedom of choice while also being really specific. I think the only problum was their was only so many popular elements to choose from some people got elements that are really hard to research.

Bullying

In tutor we are discussing about bulling.

The first question is. What is bullying?

Bullying is a aggressive behavior happening all around the world especially in school. The behavior makes people hurtful and making them stick out to others. It seems to be mostly repetitive in till its to much.

Some different types of bullying:

• Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:Teasing
• Name-calling
• Inappropriate sexual comments
• Taunting
• Threatening to cause harm
• Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:Leaving someone out on purpose
• Telling other children not to be friends with someone
• Spreading rumors about someone
• Embarrassing someone in public

What stargazes are there to cope with bullying.

• Ignoring
• Get a adult to stop it
• Get Proof

Minecraft Building Project

I am fairly pleased with the Parthenon that my teammate and I built for this project. Although it is lacking in some detail and it is not exactly to scale, it still gives a good impression about the building.
We built our building using half stone slabs. This allowed us to add more detail and make it more to size. For example, we would not have been able to make the roof look correct if we had used full size stones. I like the detail that we added on the entryway and that it has the appearance of an arch. If I were to change anything about the building, I would make the roof extend out more from the columns. I think this would look better. If I had more time, I would have added a second room and another door. This would have been more accurate to the real building.

Tech Movie

Decision Making

What factors influence our decision making?

• Peers
• Religion
• Environment
• Government
• Media
• Brain
• Family
• Wealth
• Popularity
• Beliefs
• Consequences
• People Around You
• Mushroom