Keina's Blog

In Humanities class, we learned about Climate Change and Global Warming.

Here is a presentation I made about it.

What I want to Know…Climate Change

And here is the speech I recorded about the question I wanted to know about inside the presentation.

Global Warming Speech

In art class, we were learning how to draw a line drawing. The unit question was “How can we communicate visually?” and the significant concept was “What are the big ideas?” and “What do we want are students to retain for years into the future?”. We were on this unit for about 10-12 weeks. I think this unit was fun and exciting when of course when we drew our final line drawing, but also when we explored different line techniques, how we can make our drawing better, and when we were researching about line drawings further.

The first few weeks we were looking at different line techniques we could use in our line drawing. For example, cross hatching, Stippling, Wood grains, and more.

↑Different Line Techniques

After that, we  compared and contrast Van Gogh’s Drawing and  Albrecht Durer’s drawing on what is happening in the drawing, what is in the foreground, the middle ground, and the back round of each drawing, the line techniques they use, and the similarities and differences. By comparing and contrasting these two works, we learned more about how we can make our art work better.After that we wrote a Art Criticism, by using different pictures of the same artists, and using the same questions we answered in class.

After learning about line line drawings, we started to plan are final line drawing we found different images we can use to plan and put them together to make one final image we could use to draw. I chose a image of a Kyoto bridge, the Tokyo Tower, and the Sakura tree. I chose these images to express Japan, since I’m from Japan.

We didn’t just choose this from the first to use it as a final drawing, we explored different examples we could think of with other images as well so that we have many ideas and be creative for our final drawing. When we finished that,we finally got to start the final drawing on the big piece of paper.

This is the final drawing.

I think the strength in this drawing is the tones I used for my tower and the bridge. I think that I tried my best to use thick lines for things in the front, so it will stand out. For example for the bridge, to show the difference of the pole in the front and the pole in the back, I drew the poles in the front with thick lines. Also, for the Tokyo Tower, same as the bridge I made the line thick for the parts that are facing, and also I made the cross-hatching darker for the front side, to express the tones of the tower when the sun is at the left side. My weakness in this drawing was the Sakura Tree. I struggled quite a lot on how to show the texture for the flower, and I think I wasn’t able to show the tones on the tree that well.

next time when I do the same kind of drawing, I will research more on how to draw with more texture and practice a lot so that I can show my progress on the final drawing, because as I was looking threw my note book, I noticed that I haven’t practiced as much as I can, so when I did my final drawing, I couldn’t show much progress than I would have if I practiced more.

In drama class, we performed 2 speech. The first speech was about our passion (I made a speech about abacus) and the 2nd one was about a given topic either My Neighbourhood, The Best Day of My Life, Fashion, Holidays, and Celebrities. I chose Fashion.

These are the two speeches I have done in class.

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

This is the first speech that I did which is about abacus, my passion. I think for this speech my voice was clear so that everyone can hear, and I think my projection was quite good, but maybe the pace of my speech was a little too fast and I got stuck in some places because I couldn’t fully remember the whole speech. I tried my best to take eye contact, but it was very difficult(maybe because I was nervous) and my facial expression was very tight. For my information because I told quite a few things about how the abacus is structured and what we use for, so I think it would have been better it I have told more about the history so people will understand that the abacus is a very historical equipment.

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

This speech was about a given topic, and I chose the topic Fashion. I think for this one, same as my first speech I think my projection and the volume was good, but I think it would have been better if I had added more expressions to make the speech more memorable for the audience. Also, because I had my cue cards this time,  when I was practicing I think I was prepared more than before, but again because I was nervous I couldn’t have much eye contact as I wanted to. I think I used some gestures, but again, my facial expression was too tight. Also, as I looked at my own speech I noticed that I had my que cards kind of in the front, so II should have hold my cue cards a little at the bottom. I think my information was pretty good because I had some examples of different fashions in Japan, and I think I told the audience some history and how fashion changed over time.

My best speech was the speech I did about fashion because as I said I think I had more information than the other speech and I think I was able to speak more smoothly.

I should improve on making sure I have lots of eye contact and to have more expressions in my voice and my face to make my speech more interesting.

The speech that I like in my class is Layna’s speech. I was about her best holiday.

I like it because she had lots of expressions in her voice and her gestures made the speech memorable. I think that she spoke clearly and also made eye contact with the audience. At the first place she was looking at the que cards frequently, but overall I think she had lots of good eye contacts that made her speech more interesting.

Overall, I think that this unit was a good experience for learning more skills for speaking, and I think that we could use this skills in the future as well.

In Humanities class, we learned about a the Industrial Revolution. We learned about what as it like before, and after the Industrial Revolution, and made a map by drawing what it looked like and added captions to explain different things that happened. For example: Transportation, Children, Pollution, Politics, Diseases, and so on.

Here are the pictures of the map I drew. I think I added more details on the After the Industrial Revolution Map.

Before the IR↓

After the IR↓

In my science class, I made a presentation about Heart. In class we cut the pig’s heart, to investigate different parts of the heart.

I chose this piece of work because this is the work that I most enjoyed making with my friends.  In this presentation we chose to write it in different languages as well because we that then it could represent , International School, and maybe it would show our creativity. Also,  we added pictures so it would we easier to look at it, and tried our best to explain different parts of the heart clearly.

In my PE class we were learning about International Rules football, and how we can interact with other people within sports.

I think that sportsmanship is one of the best ways to interact with other people and the best way to know well about each other. Also, I think it is a good way for people to not fight over, for when they lost or when somebody makes a mistake. I think sportsmanship makes players and the audience feel and think that the sports they’re playing or the sports they’re watching is fun, and makes them think that they want to play, or watch the game again.

Examples of Elements are: Na/Mg/I. Na is Sodium, Mg is Magnesium, and I is Iodine.

Examples of Molecules are: Fe/He/Cr. Fe is Iron, He is Helium, and Cr is Chromium.

Examples of a Compounds are: Water/Salt/Carbon Dioxide. Water can be used to wash things or to drink, salt can be used to cook, and Carbon Dioxide can be used in life jackets for quick deflation, and can also be used to produce soft drinks and soda water.

A physical change is when there has been a change in a state such as ice to water.

A chemical change is when a new chemical or substance is formed. e.g. Magnesium + Hydrochloric Acid = Hydrogent / Dissolving salt in water / Burning wood.

so true. lol

My Digital Story

During this unit we had to make a digital story. Before we actually made the video, we filled in a document called the Digital Storytelling Notes. In this note we had to answer questions that connects to this unit, look at different people’s digital story, and look at what genre of story it was, and the key features like what they are using(music, pictures, message). We also learned about the 7 different elements that makes a good digital story. After that we did a brain storm of what kind of story we should do and investigated a Tool to use. I investigated Keynote. I found out the capability, limitations, ease of use, etc. of Keynote. After that, we did a mid – reflection, and filled out our resources and the timeline.

The Design Cycle

Investigate: My content was about a cat and a dinosaur fighting for the golden cheese. I=This sort had a message to share things. I made this video for little kids like kindergarteners and 1st graders. During the research I think I did well on describing different tools about the capability and the limitations by adding details in one sentence. My weakness was maybe on Task 3 we had to find the key features, but some of them did not have enough explanation. I think I was able to answer all of the questions, so it would help me when making the actual video. About the time management, I think that I used my time wisely when making the video, but maybe because I checked my video at last, I kind of rushed and could not fix it and make it better. What I can do better next time is to check my work carefully soon as possible so I have lots of time to make the video better, and interesting.

Plan: During the plan section I think I made a clear brainstorm that shows what kind of story I would make, and for the resources it says that I will hand draw the images, but I actually decided to se Doozla because since the color is brighter than using color pencil, I thought that the kids will give more attention to the story. About the timeline, I think that I did most of the things in that time, but I think that maybe after the edit section I should have added Proof check.

Create: When is was the time to start making my film, I drew the image as I planned to, but for the narration I think there was no change in the tone of my once, so it was kind of boring, and The place where I recorded my voice, was kind of noisy, so I could not talk loud enough with confidence. Next time when I record, I think I should film in a quiet place, and add different tones in my voice, so it will sound more interesting for the audience.

It was very fun doing this unit, but also very challenging because we got to use our creativity, to make our own story; but we had to research lots of things that will make a good digital story. If we have a chance, I would like to make another that will be better than the one I made this time, that will be more interesting to the audience.

During this unit I think that I have improved my drawing skills, compared to when we started learning line drawing. When I compare my first drawing I drew, with the line drawing in my book, I think I added details in small parts, and shadows to make it realistic. But I think what I can do to make it better, is maybe to not use color pencils all the time when draw, so it looks more artistic. The things that were challenging, was adding curves or shadows to make it look realistic and 3D. The easy things were I think the layout of where to put the writings on this page, or where should I put the images. It was more fun, than easy.

In my Visual Journal, my strength were I think the layout and the fonts because I tried to use lots of different ideas for my fonts that matches the topic of what I am writing about, and for the layout, I think for every page I put the images and the letters in different places, so there is excitement in every page. My Weakness was maybe I used too much images, than drawings. And for me it was a little bit hard to create new fonts, so maybe there was not many variety of fonts in my journal.

For example, for my strength you can see that every page has different types of layout, of where the font is, and where the photos are. For my weakness, on the “Day 4” page, I have only drawn one thing, and it is a little bit small. And overall when you skim through my journal, you can see that for every page I have a picture. Also for the font on the “Day 1” page, I used two fonts, that are very similar, and I also think that I used the block letter font too much.

During this unit, overall I think that maybe I got better than the first drawing I drew at the beginning, but I think that I can get better if I think about putting shadows in certain places, and curves to make it look more realistic. Also, if I used different types of fonts when I write in art, maybe it would more interesting.