Mayalife

During English class, we learned about Instructional Writing. An Instructional Writing are usually used in recipes and procedures to make them easier to read and simpler. We tried this method on our PE assignment. Our PE assignment was to make our own strategy on Capture the Flag and present it in a way that grade 6 students would want to read and would understand.  Here is the link to my overall piece. Puzzling Trees

With Ms Clifford, my English teacher, we discussed on the main points of a  Instructional Writing. And these are examples of what we found:

• Aim
• Short numbered  steps
• A picture to show the overall

As we discussed, with an aim, the reader would know what was the overall result in following the steps. If we did not have any aim, the reader would not know what the steps are for and people would not buy your recipe book or read your blog post. Another thing that was very important was the short numbered steps. With short steps, the reader is able to read easily the directions and would know which part of it they are at. In class we were also talking about dot points or numbers. In the end, we decided that numbers would be better for the reader to follow. Finally having a picture in the writing would make your writing stand out. For example, if you were writing a recipe for a cake. You should have a big picture of your cake so it would be eye catching and the readers might want to try making one with your recipe. Even though I found Instructional Writing rather difficult, I think it was a great challenge to try a different technique instead the same old essay style. From now on, I would try to work on other Instructional Writing too!

In the past few weeks of class, we learned about Asteroid rocks and how companies were making plans to mine them. As an assessment, we had to make a poster on it and write down if we agree or disagree.

I think I did a pretty good job on telling the audience good and the bad part about mining. Also, I think my poster was rather attractive than my other posters I did in the year. I took time to choose a nice layout and had some small points like the gold stars representing the space.  One final point I think I did well in was the persuading. I was able to persuade my audience in asteroid mining. My poster was very effective in sight, in knowledge and quality so in conclusion, I did pretty well as I gained high marks for it and all of the words were original.

During our music classes, we had a discussion on the Koto piece called “Rokudan”. This piece is played by the three main Japanese instruments, the Shakuhachi, the Shamisen and of course the Koto. As a assignment for the unit, we had to write a paragraph on what makes “Rokudan” sound Japanese. If you have never heard of “Rokudan”, this is the piece. 

I think that the sound itself was very Japanese because there was a vibration every time a note was played. This vibration could only be made on both Japanese instruments and Chinese instruments. But what makes it different from the Chinese instruments is the tuning. One of the most common tuning in the Koto pieces we talked about was the “Hirajyoshi”. This “Hirajyoshi” tuning has a original taste in it and would be pretty much rare in the Western music industry. Another point I realised was the “Ato-oshi”. This technique matches the tuning and notes of the Koto and would probably not be used in the Western instruments too.

Don’t know what is Ato-oshi ? Have a look at this one!

In the start of the unit, we made a wordle describing our values in English class. Then, at the end of the unit, we made another wordle. Although the picture isn’t good, it stills shows the words clearly about my values.

My first wordle

My Older Wordle

As you can see, there were quite a few differences in the two wordles. One of the main word in my first wordle was “Reliable”. But in my second one, it said “Positive”. This shows that I started to become trust worthly than the start of the semester. Another point I realised was that the word “Loyal” became bigger than before.

Our values change because of small incidents and conflict we have with each other everyday. For example, you found out that your friend told your secrets to others. Then, you might feel that “Trust” is more important than loyal. As we go through different experiences in our lives, it shapes our personality in some way. This is why everybody is different and unique in a way.

Last thursday,we had a special music performance by three different musicians to introduce our ne w unit. Our new unit is about different sounds and tones representing different cultures and countries. The unit question is ”What makes music sound like it belongs to a particular part of the world?”. The three musicians, played the koto, shamisen and the shakuhachi. 

Which of the instruments did you like the best? Why? Did something surprise you?

I liked the shakuhachi the best. This is because I was pretty touched by the beautiful sounds and tunes played by the shakuhachi. Thus, I didn’t expect people long ago in Japan to play the shakuhachi. Another thing I was amazed by how it was made of bamboo. I didn’t know that with bamboo, you can make such nice sounds.

Which piece of music did you like the best? How did it make you feel? What did you like about it? What made the music sound “Japanese?” 

I liked the piece called “Deep Forest” written by the shakuhachi player. This was played with a koto and shakuhachi duet. It really reminded me of the forest. Especially. the melody was very clean and easy to understand so it was a very memorable performance to the grade. Another thing I really liked was the loud and soft in the piece. It really matched the song and the audience’s feeling and it felt really Japanese.

In PE class our new unit was Dance. We tried different just dances during the class and also made up a dinner dance originated from youtube. As our assignment, we had to make a dinner dance in a group of six and make a changed gundam style dance in pairs.

For my dinner dance, I contributed about 35-40% of my dance moves. During class, I cotinued to try different dance moves that were simple, easy and matched the song. Although my group members thought my dance moves were sily, some agreed to do them. Some examples of moves I contributed was the running move, the slide away from the table and the last cat hand. I think I did a good job choosing the right moves that matches the rhythm and music even though it was sometimes a little too showy. I personally thought that my group could have done better if we had more enthusiasm. A few of my group members, Tomoka and Mihela were really great dancers but if they had been more enthusiastic, I believe they could be hundred times better. Anna was sometimes distractive but she showed interest in the steps while we experimented them. Arunansu was really helpful as he edited the music and took a video of us dancing. Thus, he continuously focused on the dinner dance and was a respective leader for our group. I think Kate was really cheerful and always manage to get everybody together when ever distracted. She also created strait forward steps and described them clearly so everyone understands. Without her cheerful and strait forward character, my group would have been a disaster.

In my creative Gundam Style dance, I think I contributed 50% of the moves. My partner Kate and I were equally creative and managed to form a unique dance using the arms and legs. One of my most favourite dance move is the robotic hand movement. I created this move by watching a Japanese idol group called “Perfume”. These three girls sing and dance like they are androids or robots which I find very unique and facinating. Altogether I think we did a pretty good job working together. We both tried our best in practices and did extra practices online too.

In conclusion, my top three qualities of a good performance is:

1. Sycnronization
2. Organisation
3. Expressions

• Sycnronization

• Expressions

Even if you are really skilled at dancing and if you don’t have any expressions at all, your dance wouldn’t be as entertaining as you’ll think it would be. Especially if you dance on a big stage, everyone would focus on your face. Most dancers are good at feeling the theme of the dances, that’s why their faces and body matches the theme. As a group member, I tried to keep everyone smiling during the dance but it didn’t turn out well. The other members looked like stone during the dance and seemed like the dance was so boring and they didn’t want to do it. If I was going to do this again, I would tell everyone directly so that everyone would smile and the dance would look a little more professional.

For this assignment, first we learned about how the interior and exterior of a location can change the main focus of our picture. And how we can set the scene like the time, season and the object in the foreground middle ground and background. I wanted to do a drawing to show the contrasts of the foreground, mid ground and background.

I decided to draw a picture of a girl painting in a art studio looking out to a window. I selected this from my variety of choices in my planning sheet. Then, I drew some sample of how to place the girl in the picture. After a few tries, I decided to have the girl as the main focus of the picture. She is positioned at the left hand bottom corner. The picture shows her looking out to the scenery outside the window and trying to do a landscape painting.

When I was shading the hair of the girl, I was drawing only bunches of hair like in Japanese comics. My teacher advised me to draw thinner strands of hair. I drew lots of fine lines with more shading on the tip of the head.

Another new technique I learned was random hatching. I couldn’t draw my trees well so I approached my art teacher and he taught me how to use random hatching to shade the tress. I tried it on some trees and it did turn out pretty well. I used the same technique on different type of trees.

While drawing the fountain in the mid ground, I used stipple to show the water flowing out from the fountain. For the concrete fountain, I used hatching to make gradation.

I am most satisfied with my bench in the mid ground. For my bench, I used a mix of hatching and cross hatching to create the texture and value of a ordinary wooden bench.

The most difficult part was the flooring in the art studio. I had to show different patterns on the wooden floor and the depth of the floor. The width of the floor panels are broader when closer to the fore ground. I personally think that I failed on the shading and detail for the flooring. This is because I didn’t plan properly with the thickness of my lines.

I think I need to plan more in details and the picture I chose was a little too difficult for a beginner like me. Next time I would like to try a picture of a scenery. Another part I should improve on is the different density of light.

During my Drama class, we are learning about giving speeches. We did small activities to improve our projection skills. For our assignment, we had to do two small speeches. One on our favourite  item or color and a topic either best day of my life, fashion,holidays or celebrities for the other. As my topic for my first speech, I chose blue because it was a simple but general topic that had many descriptions. For my other speech, I chose Fashion as my topic. Since I thought fashion was too general, I decided to talk about Korean Fashion in my speech. For this second speech, we had to talk about one to two minutes in total. If you haven’t seen my first speech, have a look at this:

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

In this speech, I was able to start in a interesting start and managed to catch the audience’s attention but it wasn’t for long. I was really nervous when I did this speech so it wasn’t the best I could do. I stammered a lot and had some problems with my que cards. On the other hand, I think I did well in my projection of my voice. I was able to speak loud so the audience could hear, my pace was understandable and I think I did have some emphasis.Actually I was glad that I used a little hand gesture and looked at the different audiences.If I was going todo this assignments again, I would improve more on my pitch. My voice was at the same tone throughout the speech so I really need to work on that. Another thing I need to improve on is my emphasis. I had some but it wasn’t enough to catch a real life audience’s attention. Although I have a lot of problems with my speech this time, I will try even harder on my speech the next time.

Now, this is my second speech on Korean Fashion.

7A Drama: Given Topic Speech from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

In this speech I think I did better. I was able to show more confidence in my voice and  projection. If I was to do this again, I would try harder to remember my scipt better because most of the time I was looking at my que cards.

During my Drama class, we are learning about giving speeches. We did small activities to improve our projection skills. For our assignment, we had to do a small speech on our favourite  item or color. As my topic, I chose blue because it was a simple but general topic that had many descriptions.Here is my speech.

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

I was really nervous when I did this speech so it wasn’t the best I could do. I stammered a lot and had some problems with my que cards. On the other hand, I think I did well in my projection of my voice. I was able to speak loud so the audience could hear, my pace was understandable and I think I did have some emphasis. If I was going todo this assignments again, I would improve more on my pitch. My voice was at the same tone throughout the speech so I really need to work on that. Another thing I need to improve on is my emphasis. I had some but it wasn’t enough to catch a real life audience’s attention. Although I have a lot of problems with my speech this time, I will try even harder on my speech the next time.

SLC Maya