One of the main things I learnt about instructional writing, was that it just couldn’t all be words. There also has to be visuals with it, or most people will not want to read it even before they start to read it. Before my assignment was handed back, there were a lot of words and only one small visual. And, the font that our class chose together was very hard to read. Fonts are another thing that I find very important. If the font is very hard to read, I wouldn’t want to read it.

The use of bullet points and numbering each steps are also very important as well. When you use bullet points to write down steps, it is not that bad, though it does seem a little hard to read. So, I think that numbering the steps is much better. I also find that it seems much clearer, when there are headings and sub-headings in bold. Sub headings do make it seem more neat, and I think it is very easy to read.

My asteroid mining poster

I thought I did quite well with this poster project, though I had a little bit of trouble with finding out the information. But I still think, that it was researched quite well, and had good amount of information. I wrote about the Pro’s and Con’s, and that took me a long time to think about because I was not sure with them. The pictures aren’t that bad, and they do show what asteroid mining is, though I missed out on the sources which I should have done. I also hate how the pictures and text looks extremely awkward since there is more text than writing. Overall, I enjoyed this poster making project and hope to make a poster again.

In Rokudan no Shirabe, it is tuned to traditional Japanese tuning, “平調子(Hirajoushi)” (D, G A Bb D Eb G A Bb D Eb G A), scale. The tuning is one of the reasons why the piece sounds Japanese, since it has a strong and direct sound that particularly sound Japanese. As mentioned above, there are also many techniques that also make the music sound even more Japanese other than the tuning. These techniques, suck as “後押し(Ato-oshi)” is a sound you create by pushing down the string on the left hand side, next to the bridge, and after you finish the playing the notes to make the sound waver. Shan’s, when you strike the string with your middle finger, and Sha Sha, two shan’s together, and Sha Sha Ten’s, playing Sha Sha and then hit another string with your thumb, are all techniques that make creates a interesting effect and shows that the music is Japanese. These skills creates a music which you can identify by listening, shows the existence of Japanese music, and puts the life into music. Traditional Japanese music is, and sounds very direct to me, very clear. It has pauses, and has a beat which can change. I find it sound very calming, and it has a really beautiful sound to it.

Frist Wordle

The picture above, is my first wordle, and as it is shown, there are quite a lot of words. Some words are very big, and some words are quite small, and hard to see. The words that are big, I have typed them in many times to show how important it is for me. The words such as “Friendship” and “Family” are very big, and these two words are representing how important relationship is for me. All these words have something connected to relationship, and since relationship is a very precious thing for me, all these values I written here is linked to it. I also have words such as “Knowledge” and “Wisdom” very big, because having knowledge or having the wisdom to do anything will never do any bad. It wil always be useful, and these two words are one of the words I wish that could represent me.

Second Wordle

This is the one I have created after the unit. Comparing this to the first one, it is very easy to see, that there are fewer words. Some of the words that are big are the same, though there are words that weren’t shown in the first one, shown quite large. On this one, the biggest word is “Honesty”. This is because, I hate to lie, and hate being lied to. And I have not written this word on my first one, possibly since I have the word “Truth” in it, but for the second one, I thought honesty had a deeper meaning for me. Lots of the words I have written here, are again, connected to relationships, since I watched “The Power of One”, and that showed me how relationship was so powerful between the black people, and also since I read a book called “Journey to Jo’burg” a story about a black girl who went to Jo’burg with her brother, and showing their tight bond. With the book, I also wrote a story about one of the characters,Grace, who her brother gets taken by the police, and I wrote a story about that part. There is also “Courage”, quite big, because I think these black people, were very courageous, and had pride in their culture and themselves. Though it is very hard to see, I have also written “Accepting”, very small, right next to “Bravery”.  I have written “Accepting”, because I think every person has to accept anyones culture or heritage, in order to have any kind connection.

With my second wordle, there is more of the words that are more encouraging, and I find more powerful. My first one, is more just about me, and not looking at the outside. It seems as if I wrote values that I really wanted to be, and what strength would be needed. To me, it’s more hard, and I can’t find out why I wrote some of the words. My second one, maybe because I wrote this only a few weeks ago, I know why I wrote each word, and these words seem more softer. My values definitely changed after the Apartheid unit, because I saw the importance of connecting to one another. Human beings can’t live by theirsleves, and everyone needs someone to live. And our last unit, really taught me that.

Our values, is influenced by what we think is beautiful, or what we think is powerful. Mine is what I think that is very powerful, and important to me. I think lots of people’s are influenced by are own personal experiences, and it is very important.

Out of all the three instruments, I really liked the Shamisen. I find it a very interesting instrument, since it creates such a echoey sound that you wouldn’t normally hear. It isn’t just echoey, but also it is a kind of sound that you want to hear for a long time. The sounds of Shamisen also fit in very nicely with the Koto and Shakuhachi and gives a different melody that gives me shrills. I would like to try the shamisen once, but then, I do like the sounds of Koto which I play, so if I were able to have a chance, I would like to play the Shamisen. The shape, and also the shamisen itself is very absorbing, and the way its created with skin, I think seems very appealing. Though I knew what the Shamisen was and also knew some people who played it, I actually never heard it together in harmony with the Shakuhachi and Koto, so I thought it all sounded beautiful.

I liked all pieces, though I really liked how Kaze no Uta (Sound of the winds) sounded. It was very light, and it made me feel like all sorts of different winds. The The melody of the two sounded really beautiful, and I enjoyed listening to all of the different sounds it created. It was a really soft song, and it made me feel really calm.

The music sounded Japanese, since the sound of what the instrument created is not a sound which you can hear from a western instrument. A western instrument, sounds more softer compared to the Koto or Shakuhachi or Shamisen. These Japanese instruments, give a edgy sound, that sounds really straight. I do not know how to explain them well, but they give a really straight and clear sound that you wouldn’t hear with a western instrument. It echoes,and gives a really hollow sound that gives you the feeling of relaxation and as if you’re surrounded by the nature. It makes you feel calm, and the tuning sounds so calming, that I really love how the Japanese instruments sound.

For me and Maya’s Gangnam style dance, each one of us created one half. Even though we had quite a lot of time during class, me and Maya didn’t go so smoothly with the process during class, so we worked on it outside of class. With the first and second moves, I created it, and it was actually very random. But we both agreed on it, so we chose those two, and then Maya created the next few moves. After that, we got really stuck. We were thinking of different moves at the same time, when we noticed that it actually fit in, and we put that in too. So for that part, me and Maya both just happened to do something that fit, and we created that part together. Then with the chorus, we did it with both of us putting each others ideas and creating the last part.                                                                                             With the Dinner dance, it was mostly me and Maya who created the moves. Jack and Spencer had their own dance, and Arunansu was helping us giving ideas and he also helped us make some dance moves better. Anna, Mihaela, and Tomoka, did offer some ideas, but they did not really go with the song, so we did try to ask them for more, but they did’t seem to have more, so mostly Maya and me created the dance moves with help from Arunansu. The very first move of Macarena, it was me and Maya together who created the dance, and the last part was Arunansu. When we changed the song to “I gotta feeling” , we did the moves all together since we got stuck for a while. Though I thought quite well with contributing, I think I could have talked to more people for the dance moves than instead of just creating them with the three of us.

Our group got quite a bit stuck while choosing the song, and that took about one week. While that was happening, I made a document and made sure of all the songs that everybody was saying, and with the document I made sure that I wrote everything that we needed to make sure of. With that, I think that everybody knew where the homework was and what we were working on during the class. I also gave ideas out, when some people were having trouble with the dance moves, and watched just dance videos with everybody so we could adapt those moves and use them. At some parts, I got really distracted, and I went to join the other group to dance, which I think made the other people distracted too.

Top 3 qualities:

1. Flow

I think flow is very important to create good performance, because if there isn’t flow in a performance, it will not have good quality. Flow makes the dance look very good, and organized so I think it is very important to have smooth moves. Even if the dance moves are very good, it will not look good without the flow.

2. Sycnronization

Everyone has to be synchronized, to make the dance look good. With synchronization, it will make the dance and everybody well structured and ordered. Synchronization shows how much you practiced as well, I think, and even if you’re not a really good dancer like me, it will make the whole group much better.

3. Organization

Dance, and anything else  basically needs to be organized to make it the best it possibly can be. Organization keeps track of everything, and it keeps everybody know what to do and have a clear understanding of what they need to do.

I think our group was able to adress all of these, mostly. We really practiced with our dance a lot, by making sure none of us stumble during the performance, and we also made sure of all the moves and what er do when the songs change. It may be since we didn’t use much space, but I think we had a lot of flow and we didn’t have trouble with switching into different positions. I think all of us were quite synchronized with one another, since we knew what we all of us were doing and we had the same moves. I think this shows how much we practiced. Our team really tried to be organized, by keeping everything on the document and checking it every week. We also reminded each other of homework, and we wrote down all of the moves on paper and also on the document where everybody could check.

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

I think I spoke in a voice level where most people in the room could hear. I am not sure if I was able to project my voice well, or if it was clear, but I do think my classmates understood what I was saying. I did not change my voice level at all, and I am pretty sure it was just monotone. I did stumble quite a bit, and I think I said the same things over and over again, since I completely forgot my script and rambled on about random things. My speech was a little less than one minutes, about 59 seconds. Even though the change is just a second or so, I could have made it so much louder, if I talked more slowly. Since I have a habit of talking very fast, and with people not understanding what I am saying, I should try to speek slower. If I had spoked slower while my one minute speech, I think it would have gone over one minute. I should really work on speaking slower, instead of just babbling in a speed where nobody understands what I am saying. If I do projest my voice louder and use emphasis on some words, I think it would make my speech better.

During my speech, I did not have any pauses. And when I did, it was when I stammered or forgot what I was going to say next. And since I speak very fast, I usually don’t speak with any pauses, which affected my speech. I just spoke nonstop, with no emotions or emphasis in any of my words. I should think about when to stop to make it more dramatic instead of when I am trying to breathe or make a random thing to say. I really need to work on speed, projecting voice, emphasis, and also tone.

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.

The first chapter is online, and the book itself would be coming out by May 31st!!

This is a excerpt of the Son of Sobek!

Chlorine poster, taken by Mr. Lorimer

Compared to my classmates, I have not written down as much. However, I think I chose good topics, and was also able to explain them. I may have forgotten to write about some things, and I also do not think the layout looks very good either. I have bigger pictures than words, since on my last poster, all I had were words. So this time, I decided to have a fair amount of both words and pictures. I am also glad I did not forget to add the links to pictures and sources, and I had also used Easybib for my bibliography. Overall, I think did a pretty well, and I am quite pleased with it besides the layout.

If I had another chance to do this poster, I would want to use my time more wisely and have the poster ready before the class it’s due. I also think this poster shows that my organization was not very good for this project, since if I were organized,  I would not have to hand out my poster crumpled or bended on the sides. And the layout looks quite terrible, which shows I was hurrying to finish this and my sources look out of place. I would have want to think more of the layout, and also my organization skills.