During our class in tutor today, we did a mini SLC. SLC stands for Student Led Conference, and we took a video or recorded our voice, explaining what we did with our parents at the SLC, and we did in partners. We explained our goals, and talked what we progressed in and we need to work on. This is my copy of SLC student form, which shows what I talked about.

Mini SLC

Overall, I thought I did well with my SLC. Me and Sukran perhaps didn’t speak loud enough, but we could hear each other, and we were both able to tell what we showed to our parents during the real SLC.

Since our second semester of Grade 7 started, we decided to check on our goals again. I haven’t forgotten my goals from semester one , and I am quite sure I have achieved the first two ones. I think I should change my goals completely, because I have achieved them and I need to take a step forward.

(Once again) SMART Goals stand for…

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-based

1. To receive an Academic award at the end of the year

My first goal for this semester, is too receive a Academic Award at the end of the year. An Academic Award, is award that a student receives from the school when they have the highest scores from four or more subjects. I received one last year, and I was really pleased. So this year, I would like to receive the Academic award once more. And in order to receive the award this year, I need to try hard to get scores from the highest band. I really need to work on a few subjects, and I want to try to work on them so I can receive a award

2.  To do homework faster

My second goal is too do my homework faster. When I get a homework and it’s due next week, I wouldn’t do it until the very last day before it’s due. I don’t know why, but when I do it before the deadline, it makes me concentrate more and also makes me work faster. But since I am quite busy after school, I don’t have a lot of time to do my homework on the day it’s assigned, or to take away my sleeping time. And when I actually do the homework about a week before it’s due, I think that I have loads of time and I get distracted easily, such as going on skype and chatting. However, if I don’t have my homework until the day before the due date, I get less time to sleep. So in order for me to have spare time, I should try do my homework as soon I can, and get off all my social network accounts.When I get used to this, I think this will become a habit. From then, my work would be finished earlier. I will like to achieve this goal by next month, march at the longest.

3. Organization skills

My third goal, is too keep organized. Compared to the start of the year, I am more organized, and I do have all my papers sorted into different folders. I also have all my homework written into my diary and google calendar. However, because I receive so many papers and paper assignments from all subjects, I have a hard time keeping my paper without crumpling. Also, my locker is quite a mess with books and my folders from different subjects. I should try to keep everything organized all the time, and my time limit is the end of next month.And once I get organized with my stuff, I wish to stay organized for rest of the year.

During Field Studies, (October 15th to October 29th) each one of us in 7th grade measured or heart rates in an activity we’ve done, or for something else. With the data I collected, I created a chart during science class.

Which activity has the highest HR? Why do you think this is?
I have the highest beat per minute after I’ve run, which is 120 beats. I think it has the highest heart beat, since I ran for a long distance, and because my muscles needed more oxygen which made my heart pump blood faster.

Do you think your readings are reliable? (Explain what ‘reliable’ means in this sentence).
“Reliable-
Consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted”
I do not think my readings are very reliable, since I do not think that the hart rate for ten seconds multiplied by six would give me the accurate answer.

How could you check the reliability of your readings?
We could check our beat per minute in two ways, such as measuring your heart beat for sixty minutes, or measuring it for ten seconds and multiplying it by six. It is possible to do both of them, and see if both have the same answer in the last.

Explain carefully why the activity graph is a bar chart and the recovery graph is a line graph.
If this assessment was to be done in a line graph, it would be harder to read the graph itself. I think it will be hard to see the difference of the heart beat in each activity, and since the bar chart is simpler, it is easier to see the difference of each number.

How might this data be different if your fitness increased?
This data might be completely different, since a fiter persons heart rate would be slower than mine. I am not as fit compared to other people, and since I am not fit, my heart pumps faster because I need more oxygen. People who are mot fit have smaller hearts, different to people who are fit who will have bigger hearts since a heart is a muscle and they have more blood and oxygen.

For our second unit in 7th grade humanities, we looked at countries that used to be colonized by European countries, and how the colonizer affected the country they colonized. There were quite a few different choices, and I decided to do England colonizing Hong Kong. We created a slideshow, and we were supposed to make them colorful, and mostly filled with pictures and no words. After finishing out slideshow, we uploaded our slides to voicethread and recorded our voice explaining what the picture on our slides meant.

For my voicethread, I don’t exactly think that was the best I could do. My voice was too small, and I spoke too fast. But I do think I had quite good information, and I was able to explain what the slides showed, and the connection between England and Hong Kong. I am happy with how my pictures are presented for each slide, and I am happy with the research I’ve done . I am proud with my pictures the most, because I think they are good pictures and they show the connection and influence from England.

What emotions are being shown through the scene?

The film starts off with Charlie Chaplin, and a girl sitting together. The girl looks very depressed, and from her expression, you can see that she is feeling miserable, She also uses her body, to show that she is sad. She slumps her shoulders, and her eyes seem sad, maybe even vacant. She starts to cry halfway through the movie, and Charlie Chaplin realizes her crying, and helps her. He says some encouraging words to her, since she was near to dying.

How are the actors showing the emotions

The actors are showing emotion, by using their face and over reacting to each movement they do. I think they also try to show their emotions by their posture, and also by their facial expressions. The actors also show them by how they touch each other, and many other things more.

Updating world view

I used to think that leaving the tap on ,or using the water as much as I want was okay. After hearing about some people who can’t use water as much as I can, I tried not use water as much as I used to. And then, I am trying to be more careful about using the water, because of March 11th. I really felt sorry for the people who can’t use water, or drink it, so I try to be careful of wasting water:)

Mes réponses:

First Exercise:

1. Emilie is sending a video casette, and a brochure from Saint-Anne,and photos of mountains from near Québec
2.Emilie likes mountain biking, horseback riding, skiing, skating, tennis.
3.What sports they do in San diego, and what sports Leticia does.
4.That she loves sports, and she loves Québec as well

Second Exercise:

1. Likely
2.Unlikely
3.Unlikely
4.Likely
5.Likely
6.Unlikely

Third Exercise:

1. Emilie says, “Salut, Leticia!” to greet her pen pal.

2. She says, “Comment ça va?” to ask her how she is.

3. To ask how the weather is, Emilie says “Quel temps est-ce qu’il fait à San Diego?”.

4. She says, “J’adore…”, “Je…” and “J’aime Beaucoup” to say what her hobbies are.

5. To express her opinion about something, Emilie says “J’adore”, “C’est super” and “J’ai aussi”

6. She says, “Et la Californie, c’est comment?”, “Est-ce qu’il neige à San Diego?” and “Quel temps est-ce qu’il fait à San Diego?” to inquire about California.

7. To say goodbye, Emilie says“A très bientôt”.

Fourth Exercise:

1. Au printemps, Emilie fait de l’équitation et elle joue au tennis.

2. En hiver, elle fait du ski.

3. En automne, elle fait du patin et de la natation.

4. En été, elle fait du deltaplane et de la voile.

1. ‘Emilie fait du ski.’ Moi, non.

2. ‘Elle écoute de la musique.’ Moi aussi.

3. ‘Emilie fait des films avec un caméscope.’ Moi, non.

4. ‘Elle fait de l’équitation.’ Moi, non.

5. ‘Quand il fait trop froid pour sortir, Emilie regarde la télé.’ Moi aussi.

6. ‘Emilie joue au tennis.’ Moi aussi.

During our first tutor period, we talked about SMART Goals. Smart goals are one of the ways where you are able to create/set goals for yourself that are achievable, and in your reach. First, we wrote our future dreams on the white board. Some dreams, I was surprised to see, but I am not sure who wrote it so I thought it was interesting. 

SMART Goals stand for…

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-based

First Goal. To keep organized throughout the year

I always try to keep organized as much as I can, but sometimes I have so much things I need to at once that I lose control of my organization skills. And since we don’t have our diaries this year, I write all my homework on my google calendar, which I am not used to yet. I sometimes forget to do lot’s of things. I will try to achieve this goal by reminding myself often as I can. I will write on my google calendar as also on a diary I bought. Because I like to write more on paper instead of using my computer, I think recording on my computer and writing it down into my diary would remind me better. I also need to keep track of where all my papers are. Since we get lot’s of worksheets and paperwork to do at home, I need to get used to throwing away or file the ones I won’t use. Otherwise, it would be so complicating that I wouldn’t know which paper is which. I am pretty sure I can achieve this goal as soon as I get a hang of it. And once I know what to do to keep organized, I will be much organized than I am right now. And my time limit for this is by the end of next month.

Second Goal. CONCENTRATE!!

Since I was small, I had an habit of dazing off into my own thoughts. And not come back until the end of class. And last year, I always started to think about other things during one class, and would forget about what we were learning. Maybe I dozed off in those classes because I didn’t really like the subject, or it could have been just that my concentration skills weren’t working that day. So, this year I would like to try to concentrate in every subject. Even the ones I don’t like, because those are the ones I need to work on. I can try to concentrate by, paying attention and only think about what we are learning at the time. Because I think once I listen to what we are learning about, it would be quite interesting. I can also try by trying to be more involved in the class. Most times, I don’t try to  to talk much in class, besides the times I really need to talk. So when I start to lose concentration, I can try to listen to the class, and try to be part of the of the class. I also need to pay extra attention during English class, because my future dream is to be an author, and I know English would help me with my future dream. I don’t really have a time limit for this, but by the end of the year, I would at least want it to be a little better.

Third Goal. To think about my dream

I really like to read, and I always been reading a lot. I probably read more than a kid my age would read . And because I love to read, I also loved to write. And so, I wanted to be author from when I was small. I always thought that writing stories would be fun, and I liked to write short stories on my own time. But as my grade got older, I started to find other things interesting or fun. Then, I kind of lost time to write, or even read. My parents who knew I liked to write, often urged me to write more often, but I often had homework or something else so I couldn’t have my time to write anything. And even when I did have time to write, I didn’t want to write so I read instead. And even if I did write, I would never finish the thing I started to write about. Only the times I would write are time such as when I have English homework or when I don’t feel very well and need to write to make me feel better. However, I still have my dream to be best-selling author. So I would like to focus more on my dream, and try my best on my English classes as well I haven’t really set a time limit for this, but I want to at least try to publish a book before I graduate High School. I will try my best!

On Tuesday, my grade went to Ueno zoo and the Tokyo national museum. Before going to the museum, we went to the Ueno zoo for our science project. During science right now, we were looking at animals, and each one of us was supposed to choose one animal to look at. I chose the polar bear, because they were my favorite animal. After staying in the zoo for about two hours, we ate lunch and moved on to the Tokyo national museum for Humanities. At first I didn’t know that we were going to the museum in same day as we were going to the zoo, but I  figured that out when we reached the zoo. I had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed both the museum and the zoo.

In the museum, after I got away from my group and I started to go around the museum with Mimi, Eddie, and Daiki. We left the main museum, and we went to the building next to it where it had more of the whole entire Asia things in there. We looked mainly around the first floor, where we looked at the Qilin. The first floor had one part especially for the Qilin, which I found very interesting. The Qilin is a mythical creature originally from China. It can be mistaken for the Japanese “Kirin”, but it is different.

  I took this picture in Tokyo national museum, and on the card next to it which was explaining what the picture was, it said, “A picture copied from a Chinese book with the note: “A cow gave birth to this animal in 1739 (Qianlong 4) and the emperor has also seen it”. I found this Qilin very interesting because I first didn’t understand what a Qilin was until I read the description, and I found that it looked different from other mythical animals.

I also found lots of Haniwa, which are terracotta figures made out of clay. Haniwa was created during the Kofun period, and they were used for ritual use, and with the deads. I found the Haniwa interesting because I first saw one when I was in fourth grade when we our grade went to a museum near Bashamichi station. It was a Japanese history museum, and when I went there, I found a small clay figurine shaped as a horse. And since then, I always liked Haniwa’s so I found the ones at the museum interesting. Haniwa’s were usually placed on top of tombs of leaders of a clan, but it became more developed and Haniwa’s were placed outside of grave area to guard the tomb. The haniwas that are shown wearing armors were containers for souls. The armor and weapons also showed driving away evil spirits and also protecting rulers from calamity.

A haniwa shaped as a horse, and there were many more.

A haniwa of people dancing. I like this because the faces were interesting.