Tomoka's blog

In  PE class we were playing capture the flag. Then we were talking what makes a good game. Then we have to make a poster that has aim, strategies, tips, and other helpful things.  MY poster was kind of not good but after I used instructional writing, I think I did it well and I am really proud of it. To look at the poster click the PE.

I hope you enjoyed it.

I did a project in EAl. My topic is about disabled people. I made a commercial to make everyone that there is discrimination for disabled people.

In english class, we read a book called House of on the mango street. We just read it like one third of it but I really enjoy it. There are questions so I will answer it in bullet points

1. What makes the author sound angry in the first paragraph?

• She said only negative thing about people
• She said THEY which sound like it is comparing her and other people

2. What does she think people are afraid of when they come to her neighbourhood – how do you know?

• She said that they think we are dangerous
• she also said that they think we will attack them with knives.

3. What do you think “All brown all around, we are safe” means?

• Everyone is same like her so it is safe
• Maybe most of the people are colored that you feel safe

4. Why does she get scared going into a different neighbourhood?

• She doesn’t want to be looked like weird
• she is afraid that they might avoid her

5. What literary devices does Sandra Cisneros use in this vignette? Make notes about the effect these may have on the reader.

• SHe uses “all brown all around” to actually tell what the character is like
• she doesn’t tell straight and tell clues to make readers think
• She says They or ATTACk something that is really effective word.

We made a wordle in english class at the beggining of the year and at the middle end of the year. Then we have to see what is diffrence between them. The questions are:

1. How are they different?
2. Why do our values change? What influences our values?
3. Take a photo of your wordles, or create a link if you still have them on your computer, and post them on your blog.

I think how it was diffrent is the choice of the words. The beggining of the year, I didn’t really write lots of words but at the end of the year, I actually used lots of words and some really effecting words  so I think the diffrence is the wise diffrence of the choise of the word.

I think how our values change is when you experience thing much more. If you didn’t experience lots of things, you will not have many values but after you experienced something further, you will understand the vlaues and I think that is how your values change and that is how your values get ingluenced.

In our music class, we are learning about the differences between music from all around the world. I wrote a blog post about it. We listened to a piece called Rokudan No Shirabe and I was thinking about the reason why it sounded like japanese.

In Rokudan No Shirabe, the tuning is in a traditional Japanese tuning called Hirajoshi. Most of the first begginer’s music is played in this tuning.This made the instruments and the sound like it is from japan. ALso, in koto there are lots of techniques. There are  Ato-Oshi, Shans’ , Sha Shas’ (two Shans’) . These sound funny but this is ACTUALLY the techniques for koto. Ato oshi is when you have to press the left hand string after you play the song. Sha Sha is when you have to play 2 strings at the same time for 2 time . I think how the string’s techniques, the sound and the instruments is what that make everything like it belongs to japan.

In one special day, we used our music class to listen to special guest, Miyama, and Mr.Patterson playing  Japanese Music. There were shakuhachi, shamisen and koto. Mr. Patterson did shamisen, Miyama did Koto, and the special guest did shakuhachi. We did this because, our unit 3 question is ”What makes music sound like it belongs to a particular part of the world?”

We have to choose which instruments did I like the best. I chose (drum)… None. It doesn’t mean I hate it. It means every thing sounded good that I can’t choose which one is the best. The reason why is because Koto is familiar but it sounds diffrent when each people plays so I like koto. Also shamisen sounds really impressive and intresting so I also like koto. Last, shakuhachi was really wonderful so I like shakuhachi. I can’t decide really with is great. But for me, I think everyone sounded different, sounded cooperative and I think I compare to each other.

Something surprised me when I figured out that there is diffrent kind of shakuhachi. I always thought there is only one kind of shakuhachi but it looks like there is lots and lots of shakuhachi. During the performances, there were so many songs the songs are :

Classical koto/shamisen/shakuhachi trio – Eghigo Jishi
Shakuhachi solo – Honkyoku
Koto/shakuhachi duet – Kaze no Uta (Song of the Wind)
Koto solo – Gensokyoku (Fantasy)
Koto/shakuhachi duet – Deep Forest

I liked the Kaze no Uta because there were many diffrent type of sound in the shakuhachi like brizzardish sound fluent sound and other kind. I listened while I was closing my eye and it made me feel relaxed and I should have been really relaxed unless the people behind me were chatting about doctor who. But other than that I like it.

I think this related to japanese because japanese music is not clearly like european music so it is kind of get clear then blurry and get loud  and soft then harsh and soft. So I think this is the reason why it sound like it belongs to japan and also it uses lots of japanese nature so it is like part of japan.

In PE class, we had a unit about dance. At the beggining, we started learning how to dance gangnam style from just dance 4. After ward, we looked at an dancing scene in a movie called Beetle Juice. This influenced everyone to choose a song, then make a creative dancing with a group.  Then, we chose to do second half of Gangnam style creativly with a partner. My dance group was with Anna, Mihaela, Arunansu, Kate, Maya, Spencer, and Jack. The partner for Gangnam style is Mihaela.

Dinner dance song has to be something classic so we chose to do the famous (drum)…. MACARENA! Then, Kate said that she has a song she love. It is Black eye pea I got a feeling. Then, we had an idea that we should jam them. After ward, we chose that our theme should be about muppet that is controlled by some one. We chose Spencer and Jack should be the one who control rest of us. In the dance, I created the part when you have to slide out and twirl around. I think I didn’t really contribute in the creativity moves. For me, I think my dance only contributed 5% out of whole dance. Next ime, I should really pay attention and be cooperative with my group. Also, if I had an idea, I shouldn’t have hide it. I actually regret that I kept it secret so if I get to do again, I will try not to be shy and tell some ideas. The team really worked creatively and had lots of fun. I think we really had organization but the problem is that me, Mihaela, and anna sometimes talk at the rest time and sometimes when Kate, Maya and Arunansu are talking about new step, we didn’t participate. I think we should had been much more better team mate. Also, when they asked for ideas we just stand there just listening and not giving ideas. Also, no offense but sometimes, maya and kate kind of went to other group and goofed around. Having fun is ok but I think we had too much goofing around. Next time, I think we should tell each other to pay attention. But overall, I think every one did really good job!! NICE JOB EVERY ONE WHOHOOO!!!

Gangnam style dance was really fun. Me and mihaela participated and practiced lot. The beginning of the dance is combination from just dance 4 and then I had an idea of using ball so we did it. Then mihaela thought of doing slide out and do macarena. Suddenly, we had an idea of using our game that we always do to a dancing movement. It is when we try to get a ball but there is only one ball so we fight. After ward, we did the same thing as the just dance 4. I think we really participated really because we even had sleep over just to work on it. We also practiced at pe time, and  talked about it in Skype. But I think we have to concentrate because, during the weird movement, we felt uncomfortable and also, we giggled while we were dancing. If we have another chance to do it, I want to do kind of serious  Not deadly serious but not like too giggly. But over all I think we did good job! NICE JOB! LET’S CELEBRATE!!

We have to answer an question said What makes a good performance?, What were your top 3 qualities if you had to rank them in order of value?, How did you address these in your dances?

There is an mind map that has all the idea for dances.

I think what make good performance is  Flow, Energy, and it isn’t in the list but having fun. Even though you have energy and flow, if you are not having fun, the audience will not have fun because of your body action, face, and the mood. So if you are having fun, audience will have fun too. That’s why I think having fun is important than anything else. In the dance, we had lots of fun during performing and practising. And when we did horse back dance, we try to put lots of energy jumping. I think it wasn’t too flow but it was actually flow and I am proud of it. YAY!  So this is my dances. Thank you for reading

In tutor, we have to explain what is SLC, and what did I do. Basically it is a little summary. SLC stands for Student Led Confrence. Then we have to make a voice recording about it. I did it but I think I should improve it by making my volume a bit low, details and etc. I think I did good when I gave some examples. This is the recording. Hope you enjoy….. except it might be hard to hear a bit and DONT” MAKE THE VOLUME REALLY HIGH!

In drama class, we had to have a 1 minute speech about what you like. Well I chose a TV show name….. MERLIN!!!!! It is my favorite TV show. If you are fan, high five. If you are not I highly recommend you to watch it. So here is the speech! Hope you enjoy.

I think I did a pretty good job on this speech because I gave who the character is, what happened, what is going on, and other characters. But the only problem is I kind of forgot what to say, I was moving my body, also I thought we are supposed to look at audience not camera so I need to fix this. So that means, I have to fix my position, practice, and etc. But overall I think I really did good job. HIGH FIVE TO ME!!! So now I told you about merlin, if you are intrested please watch it. Thank You

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