This week we were given the assignment to do a blog that was written about how chapters 16 ~ 18 relate to the themes of freedom and choice. I have a few statements, one of them being that to us, the life that Jonas is living is horrible, but to him, it is normal. Another one of my statements being that in these chapters Jonas had to make some choices which reflected on the future. These chapters both show examples of freedom and choice, but here are mine.

First of all in this book there is hardly any freedom at all. No one has any choice in life, everything is handed to them. For us, that may sound horrible, but to their community it is normal. That is how everyone was brought up, there is no other way to live. But for Jonas and the Giver it is another story. Since they have the memories from way back, they can see how life really was before sameness. This is when Jonas starts to make choices and has more freedom. Jonas sees difference so he will be able to choose what is best for him. That is when he starts to have freedom in life. Jonas also has to make some choices of his own. The Giver wants him to escape, but it is Jonas' choice if he really wants to run away, to go to the real world.

The Gestalt Side: Profile L

Everyone has different ways of learning. I was taught this the other day when Mr. Whiting came into our class to show us learning profile. I found that I was profile, which is proved to be Eistein's profile. Although I am profile L, I need lots of improvements to help learn better and understand well in class.

There are many ways to learn well but the best way that I learn is to have my dominant eye and ear, which is my on my right side facing the board, and the speaker. In my humanities, I have the perfect spot because my right ear and eye are facing the front of the room. I learned that when I move in class, it helps me understand when I am reading, writing, communicating with others. There are many things I do in class that prove I am Profile L such as rocking on my chair. I am always doing this, all my teachers and even my mum get annoyed by it but I just can't stop! I also click my pens, or take the cap off and put it back on. Now this, people get annoyed, but like I said, it helps me to listen and concentrate better. When I am relaxed, I communicate, see, hear better. Like I said, there are many ways people learn well, but these are the ways that I learn best.

With being a Profile L, you have many disadvantages, so there are things I need to do to help in school and at home. One of the things I should do is play Lazy 8's with my finger on the table. You draw 8's on the table with out taking your finger off the table, but while doing this you are looking at the speaker. There are also many other ways to learn effectively rather always just getting distracted.

As you can see there are many ways to so learn well whether it's where your sitting or playing games with a pen a paper. You can learn effectively but it can be hard sometimes, there are some disadvantages to being an L gestalt learner. But at the end of the day, I am glad I am a L learner, even though there are some bad things to it.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year

"A New Year's resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous"- A New Year's resolution. Nobody is perfect, and thats why we have new years resolutions. To make our selves a better person, to make our life easier. A New year's resolution is a goal that you want to achieve by the end of the year. Thousands of people all over the world make these goals every year, and I'm one of them.

2010 had been a great year for me, but all of that could be even better in 2011. One of my goals for this year is to get all my homework completed in under an hour, with few exceptions. I know that many people have a goal to get more organized but I think that I really need to step it up. Usually what happens is I come home, and I go upstairs to do my homework. I will go straight to the computer although not all my homework is needed a computer. This is when I get distracted. I then take a long time finish even one assignment. So far middle school has been great, but one thing the seventh graders warned us about was the homework. Compared to elementary school, we have a lot of homework, but since we are half way through 6th grade, I guess we are used to it. This will keep me organized at school as well as at home. When my homework is done in an hour or less, then I can have all the free time I want. Not only that but the next day I am sure that all my homework has been done the night before so I don’t have to take time out of my lunch to do any assignment. Which means that I will not only complete my homework in a short amount of time, I will also have few or maybe even no late work. I like this goal because it impacts a lot on how well I do in school, and I would like to bring my grade up to at least an A. And I hope that this goal will help.

My next goal is about my room. I would like to try to keep it clean all year. I know that it is not going to be clean every second of the day, but at least for half of it. My room is usually messy and most of the time my maid cleans it up. This year, I would like to try and give her one less job to do. This way my maid is less tired at the end of the day. My mum says a clean room is a clear mind. And I think she’s right. Most people who have a messy room are not very organized and are inefficient. But when waking up to a clean room keeps your mind clear and open. Having a clean room will help me in a lot of ways. First of all it will help me achieve my first goal. It will also help my maid, my mother and my siblings. My mum and maid will have less work to do. And with me waking up to a clean room, I am happier in the mornings so this will create less trouble for me and my family. With my things in place and toys in order, my mother will never need to tell me to go clean my room.

“Is it recording?” I asked “Almost, just hold on a second” Jed said.  “Can we please practice one more time?” I told him. “Fine” He said. Jed and I had been friends for many years now, my parents actually knew their family before I was even born. Although I was a year older than him, we always have the greatest times together. This was our 3rd christmas back in Australia since we were overseas, we usually come back every 2 years. We were almost ready to record our video for the song Just a Dream by Nelly. I liked this song a lot but   Jed didn’t know anything about it, infact I didn’t think he had ever heard the song before. We were both wearing his brothers jackets, some flat caps and a pair of green ray-bans. “Ok, you ready?” He asked. He looked nervous, so I assured him that I was ready. “Go!” He whispered and crawled into place. As the music started to play, we slowly go into the camera’s frame. Although we didn’t have a choreographed dance we still did our best. 

Later that day, we showed everyone. Jed was so proud of it that he put it on youtube. Now everyone can see our amazing video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYWlLl2HnGw&feature=player_embedded

http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:New+Year's+resolution&sa=X&ei=QXIqTYfAGcXVrQeb68GYDA&ved=0CBUQkAE

This is my Zeitgeist of 2010, enjoy!

Good, Bad, or Ugly

Throughout this week and last week, we have been having Lit Circles with a twist. We have been collaborating with partners or in groups to create a lit circle. For this assignment, there are good, and bad sides to it. There are quite a few benefits that I would like to tell you about. There are also some challenges I'd like to share. And, well, what did I really get out of it? You will read about all these when you read this post.

When we did this Lit circle, I found that there are many benefits thats helped me through it. One of them was not having to do all the work. In this activity you were not responsible for doing all the work. You also had an advantage by having others being able to help you. For example, if you were ever stuck, you could always ask for some help. And if something went wrong, then you can blame EVERYONE. You would never be alone. Another thing that I found good was having people to keep you grounded, your partners helped you get work done on time, such as a due date. They also gave you constructive criticism. As you can see, there are many benefits, and advantages, but there is also some downsides to this assignment.


Although I liked this assignment best out of all other Lit circles, there were still quite a few challenges to it. To start off, one of the things I thought was challenging was being in different locations. For example, over the week end, it would be hard to work on the project, if you didn't meet them somewhere. Although people were only responsible for 1/2 or 1/3 of the work, sometimes you might have done more work than you were suppose to because of your classmates. Another hard thing with this was when writing, sometimes you want to do more, but you can only do an amount of work, for instance, you could not do other people's work because then they don't do any of it! Sometimes it would also be hard to communicate effectively because we couldn't talk over the weekend, which is why google docs is a very good tool to use on these assignments.


As you can see, this assignment was great, but had some disadvantages. Some things helped me a lot. Yet some made it even harder. 

Hatchet

Hatchet. This is the tittle of the book I have been reading for literature circles. For me this book is very interesting, there is lots of action, mystery, and survival guiding tips. Well, some question Mr. Thomas had for us, such as How did your discussion help your understanding of the novel? He also wanted to know some connections we made with the book. Another question that Mr. Thomas asked had been What Do You Predict Will Happen in the Book? 

How did my discussion with my group help my understanding? Well, did it? In my opinion, I think it did, well, most of it at least. In the discussion, I thought it was very helpful to see other people perspectives on the book. The questions also answered that I had never really thought about until then What foreshadows are given in this story. It also gave me a chance to hear many different answers. After hearing other people perspectives on the book, it gave me lots to think about.

 I think that it is much easier to make connection with this book because the boy, Brian is described about the same age and he lives in a modern world. One of the connections I made with the book was when Brian is trying to call for help using the radio. It is not working, the boy gets so frustrated that he starts screaming into the radio. Then, he finds out that he needs to turn off HIS mike to hear anyone else. This has happened to me many times. Well, not the pilot dying or anything, but the trying so hard then falling back down again. It's like working your whole life to climb a huge mountain, then falling from the top of the mountain. OK maybe the situation that Brian was in wasn't life or death, but it was intense because you are thinking, NO NO NO! You have to answer the radio! But then after, you find what Brian really did wrong, and a sigh of relief comes through your body. In my opinion, after this happens, you feel pretty stupid, don't you?

Predictions. Everyone has different ones but I think that this book is going to have a happy ending. Well, almost a happy ending, I think this book will end like Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry. I think that Brian is going to meet trouble along the way, in the woods. But, remember, he does have the hatchet. The hatchet has to tie into the story. Everyone has different predictions, but how good are they?

Many people think that the literature circle are a waste of time, like I did, but now I have realized that Mr. Thomas set us this assignment because he wants us to go deeper into our thoughts, and share them with other people, see what they think of it, debate, not argue, debate over statements. I have found that it is actually worth the time and effort I have put into them.