In our drama class, we had a unit about puppetry. First we practiced things about different types of voices. Then we had a to get into the final group for doing the puppet show. We also had to pick the epic story to choose as the story to tell. Our group was Spencer, Jack, Arunansu and me and the story we choose to do was the story found by Spencer about how a bakers dozen is 13. Then we had to make the puppet and then preform in front of kindergarten, 2nd graders and 5th graders.
The puppet show went well I think but the puppet show could have been a lot better. Last week we had a run through of each of our puppet shows and I think there was a few changes to the final puppet show. First of all, all of us updated their character voices to match the person they are performing with. I sort of forgot to change my voice so it was a bit of a fail. Also some of us moved our puppets a lot more so it was very different. I think it would be a lot better if we added more character voices more clearly and amplify our voices more. Also maybe if we move a bit more then we did in the show it would be a lot better. The construction of the puppet went well but I think it would be better if I made the puppet a bit bigger because apparently it was a bit small. Also, I think if I made the puppet a bit more sturdy the arms wouldn’t be a bit flimsy so it would be better by a lot. One really awesome thing about the puppet show is the fact that we can make the kids laugh. One lame thing about the puppet show is having to move the puppet around because it wasn’t really fun to do so.
Overall I think the puppet show went quite well and I was okay but not really perfect.
In technology class, we were assigned a task to create a whole class theme park. We were assigned groups to decide a specific theme for each group and then we had to make a specific building for our specific theme. My group members were Tomoka, Mihaela and maya. Our group topic for this theme park is called Old Town. Old Town is referring to buildings that have been made in the past, for instance my building the Parthenon. To make this project, we had to use a game called Minecraft. Minecraft is a game that is in 3D blocks so using Minecraft to build a building is pretty useful. My building, the Parthenon, is not only a building for sightseeing but also, in the Parthenon I added a sort of museum style place so there are signs with artwork in the Parthenon. The Significant Concept for this unit is “How we solve problems depends on the conditions of the environment and group dynamics.” and the unit question for this unit is “What does cooperation and collaboration look like?”
In the beginning of this project, we had to create these “tests” which is some yes or no questions relating to if I did a good job on my project or what I can improve. After that we needed to choose with the whole class which is the best test questions. The tests that we are going to use are questions like is my structure creative, eye-catching or is the size appropriate. Judging by the looks of the questions and the look of my building I think I built my building really well because my building is somewhat creative. Also, because my building is the biggest in our groups buildings, I think my building is pretty eye-catching and I think my building is designed well. My building is in the appropriate size as it’s not too big but my building isn’t that small and I think the scale is appropriate. My building does indeed match the ancient greece theme because my building is from ancient greece, though it still stands today. In my opinion I think my building is really well made and my building also matches completely to the plan that I made before making the actual building on Minecraft. Lastly I think my theme for the building is consistent.
I think I can definitely improve on the Parthenon because the Parthenon doesn’t look in it’s best. I can’t make my building bigger because it is a bit big so I can’t really put in the details that are on the top of the roof, but I can improve the museum itself. I only used signs and pictures for the museum and I think I can add in sculptures somehow and make the museum seem more interesting. I also think I should some sort of surrounding with the Parthenon (with the greek features) so I can make the Parthenon seem more interesting as well and make the building more eye-catching. The types of Surroundings I can have is like a hill because the Parthenon and the city with the Parthenon was on the hill, and I can also had some small greek looking buildings that were around the Parthenon. Otherwise I feel as though my building is pretty well made and I think most of the improvements are just sub-improvements and is not as important as the finished product.
Throughout all of the technology projects we had, we had this thing called the design Cycle. The design cycle is sort of like steps that we have to use to get to the end of the project. The design cycle consists of 5 different stages: The first being called Investigate, which is the stage where we investigate about the topic of Minecraft and Investigate about what kind of building we will make. The next stage is called Design where we design about the building we are going to make. Also we will design the theme park for our group. The third stage is called plan where we decide our timeline for the creating our project. The plan stage is really short and should take only one class time. The fourth stage for this project is called create. The create stage is where we build the actual building we decided to build and take screenshots of our progress. The final stage in this project is called the evaluate. The evaluate stage is the stage where we right a conclusion about How we progress throughout the project. The evaluate stage is also another very short stage because all we do is write the conclusion. I think I did well on the investigate stage because when we were investigating about Minecraft and the building we made, I investigated a good amount of information. But, I think I can add a bit more information. For the design stage I think I also did well because we made exactly how are group part of the theme park will look like and we decided as a group that thats the best one. The design ended up to be a bit too long so maybe we could’ve shift it in a way that we still have the same shape but not as long. The plan stage was really easy and I also think I did well. This is because I decided on the steps that I need and I followed the steps when I was making the Parthenon. The plan stage was pretty easy but I might of been able to add more detail. The create stage was also good because I followed the steps and only made a few changes to my plan. I also think the Parthenon is pretty well built. There are some places in the Parthenon that could have improvement but overall it was a good build.
Overall I think I did a really good job on this project. I used the design cycle really well and I have all my notes on the proper document used to keep all our notes. Also, I think I did a good job on this evaluation for the project because I put as many facts I can into it and I put as much detail into it as I can.
We made an instructional writing piece for our PE class and we had edited later on in english class. At first when we created the instructional writing piece I thought you didn’t need a lot of pictures but after editing the piece I learned that pictures are really important because it explains the reader what the final product looks like. I also learned that headings and sub headings is really important in instructional writing because than the reader will know what he or she is reading.
Instructional writing also has to be very organized so the reader is interested in what he or she is reading. One of the teachers said that instructional writing is like writing a recipe for some food which will help me make more instructional writings in the future.
We had to create a poster about asteroid mining and whether we should do it or not. I think I did a pretty good job in this assignment because I explained about all of the benefits and problems about asteroid mining. I included in my poster the benefits, problems, facts and the conclusion about asteroid mining. This makes my poster very factual. My poster in intended to looked jagged to show they are asteroids. The planning sheet had plenty of planning so when I was making my poster, I knew exactly what to make in my poster. Then after that all I had to do was create my poster which was quite successful. I think I did an overall good job on this poster, including creating the poster and planning the poster. I think I definitely deserve the score that I got, which was and 8/8.
In the first week of english class we had to make a wordle about our values. After a few units about racism and such, we had to create another wordle about are values and compare them. My first woordle had peacefulness, friendly, safety, caring and family (and Johan) as my most important values. However, when I look at my second woordle, it has family, positive, friends, caring, tolerant, fair and others as its most important value. My value in the beginning of the year changed to what I think now. This is because we had a unit about racism which changed how I think. However I did forget to include some things in my second woordle, for instance safety. Our values change because our way of thinking might change. If you researched about racism and other sad things like slavery, you might feel more sad for those people and your way of thinking might change, thus altering your values. Some things that influence our values is something we have heard of or seen, most likely if the thing is a sad thing that happened, even if its not about you. This can also include maybe something you have experienced.
Rokudan is a koto music piece. We listened to the song Rokudan in japanese class, and I am here to discuss what makes it sound japanese? First of all Rokudan is japanese because of the title because rokudan sounds like japanese words. Besides the title the techniques that you use in Rokudan is japanese. For instance the move ato-oshi (after press), is more common on japanese music. Ato-oshi is where you press after you play the string making it sound a bit wavy. This also includes other techniques used in Rokudan. These techniques give more flow and feeling compared to the music we hear in other countries. Also the slow and steadiness of Rokudan sounds japanese as well because japanese music is more slow and steady compared to other music. The tuning of Rokudan makes the song sound more japanese. the tuning of Rokudan is Hira-Joshi as the most basic tuning for koto, and if you play the tuning from top to bottom it sounds more japanese by having a more minor scale sound to the tuning.
In koto class we had a start off for the 3rd unit ”What makes music sound like it belongs to a particular part of the world?”. where two of our teachers and our teachers friends played the koto, shamisen and the shakuhachi.
The instrument that I liked best would probably be the shamisen. I like the koto as well but I think shamisen beats the koto because its really light and it only has a few strings, this makes it a lot easier compared to the koto. Also to play the shamisen you have to move your left hand to change the note, and you have a large pick. Of course when you change the note there is a wave of sound that is going lower of higher which I think is nice. During the short lesson, I didn’t really get that surprised because we were introduced to the shamisen a while ago and I play the koto. The shakuhachi looks more like a flute so that didn’t surprise me at all. The music piece that I liked the best would be the first piece that the teachers played called Eghigo Jishi, which is a koto, shamisen and shakuhachi trio. I liked it because it made me feel more calm about anything that was worrying me in the day and it wasn’t a very rapid song like what we sometimes play. I think what made the music sound more japanese is the way the strings are played and the order of the notes. Also the fact that there was singing in the song that sounded very japanese makes the music sound more japanese.
In Pe class we had to make two different dances, one dance is with a partner where we had to change half of gangnam style into our own dance, and the other dance is to create a completely new dance where we have to dance around a dinner table of some sorts. The second dance is called dinner dance. The Gangnam style dance is with a partner, and the dinner dance is with in a group of eight and it had to be one minute and thirty seconds long. The dinner dance song we used was deadmau5 ghosts n stuff, donkey kong intro version, and we used harlem shake. I think I did well on the Gangnam style dance but the dinner dance was not very successful
For the dinner dance I only thought of around 5% of the dance, most of the dance was created by my other group members. Two of them made most of the dance, and two others made some of the dance, and I made only some slight parts of the dance, only some of the details. The first thing I created was the one hand circle motion after doing the two hand circle motion and crouching at the same time on the dinner table near the beginning of the dance. Thats basically all I did for the dinner dance, so I did not Contribute as much. For the Gangnam style dance, I created more different dance moves my partner, Arunansu, thought of more ideas. I thought of the first bouncing and moving my hands up and down, I also thought of all the train part. After that I thought of the Drinking tea part, and when we were doing the galloping for the Gangnam style I thought of doing the flying motion with the hands, and I thought of the last dance move before the korean bird move. So I thought of about half of the moves so I contribute a lot.
Now while we were practicing we had some problems with group members fooling around. During dinner dance practice some of our group members start to get distracted and do something else or our whole team gets distracted by the other team. In this position all I did was try to get my team members to work by telling them to come back and lets continue our dance. I don’t think what I did was very useful because some of my team members comes back to practice and others just keep on getting distracted. I think I should of done a lot more instead of just calling there name so we could do better in our actual dance. The Gangnam style dance had no problems because Arunansu is like me and likes to get things done.
While we were practicing our dances we made a mid map about the topic “what makes a good performance”, and for the dinner dance here is the top three most important things we included. The first important aspect we included was humour, we added this in the dance by having harlem shake and tying our shoes in the middle of the dance. The second thing we added in the dance was use of space by going on the table around the table using dance moves. Energy is the third thing in our dance because we were really energetic when we were performing. For the Gangnam style dance the first thing would be Skill because when we were doing the dance we didn’t make much mistakes and we did the most of the moves properly. The second thing would be synchronization because me and Arunansu were quite synchronized to each other and to the music. The final thing would be attention to detail. This is because when we were creating our moves we were adding more detail into the moves.
I think I did a pretty good job with Gangnam style and I think I could do better in my dinner dance.
At school, we had a day called Student Led Conference (SLC). During SLC we have our parents come after school and we have to talk about one piece work on every single subject. We already completed the real SLC and this is a voice recording of another SLC. We had to work with a partner and choose 4 different subjects and our three goals that I had and talk about them. Aru, my partner was being my so called “father”. This is my voice recording of my second SLC.
I think I did a pretty good job on this speech overall, although I was stuttering and making a few mistakes in this speech. In this speech you want to add a lot of the modulation devices. The modulation devices mean volume, projection, pitch, pace, pause, emphasis and inflection. I think I did well on emphasis because I had a lot of different emphasis in my speech. I think the weakest modulation device that I had is pace because I talked in a very fast pace at times and I sometimes forget to slow down when speaking. I think my posture and facial expression was ok but can be better and all the information is related to the topic. I think overall my speech and my modulation devices that I used made my speech an effective speech.
We also had a second speech that we had to preform and it is about 3 minutes long supposed to be about a given topic, and my topic is Holidays.
Although we had palm cards, I was stuttering and making a few mistakes in this speech. In this speech you want to add a lot of the modulation devices as well. The modulation devices mean volume, projection, pitch, pace, pause, emphasis and inflection. I think I did well on Emphasis as well because I had some emphasis in my speech. I think the weakest modulation device that I had is pace as well because I was talking quite fast. I think my facial expression helps and shows more expression and my posture wasn’t that good because I kept moving around. I also used palm cards quite well so I can keep the flow of my speech going. I think all my information was related to the topic so I did good. Overall I think I could do this speech a lot better but it is a good speech.
Me best Speech was the first 1 minute speech because I had less mistakes and I was more confident with it. I should improve on my pace because I need to slow down when talking or else no one will understand what I am saying. I also think I need to improve on my posture so I don’t keep moving because that might get me and my audience distracted.
Another speech that was captivating was Arunansu’s 1 minute Speech because he had good emphasis like me and he was talking as though he knew a lot about the topic.
