Profile A

     In humanities, we learned about learning profiles again. This is because learning profiles can sometimes change, just like how peoples personalities can change too. When I did the learning profile test, I found out that I am still an A. This means that my eye, ear, hand and foot work well under stress but I might have difficulty seeing the big picture instead of focusing on the details.

     Being a profile A means that I should sit on the left side of the room so that I can access my right ear easily. I know that I am right ear dominant because we did a test in class. For me, when I pick up the phone, I would usually bring it up to my right ear. Another test we did was that imagine that someone is talking on the other side of the door. You want to know what they are saying so you go up to the door and put your ear on it. When I acted that out, I put my right ear on the door confirming that I am right ear dominant. It is important that I can access my right ear easily because it means that I can hear the teacher better. I also learn best when I focus on the details. I process by analysis, verbalization and writing. Being a profile A also means that I like and have the ability to follow step-by-step visual and auditory instructions. I learn best from oral and written communication. This means that I am not very creative or emotional and can sometimes be unsympathetic towards others. I think that all of this is very true because I like to follow detailed instructions. I also like it when there is only one correct answer. 

     I should be encouraged to understand information from a whole perspective and should also be allowed some time for my ideas to generate. I need to learn how to not always ignore and dismiss my ideas to quickly. This happens to me very frequently especially in humanities. When we are have to write a story but not told what to write about, I get ideas but most of them I would ignore. This makes my writing less creative and in other words, my imaginative stories are usually very dull. I also need to trust my instincts more as most of the time, my movements would be planned. This means that I don't like to improvise because I would have to trust my instincts. To help me with this, I should try to draw blindfolded because I would not be able to see what I was drawing in result forcing me to follow my instincts.

Strategies that would help me learn include trying freeform painting and writing poems that don't rhyme. Freeform painting would help me because it would help me to trust my instincts and to use my imagination. In freeform painting, there are no rules and your results can never be wrong. Freeform painting also allows me to show my emotion through the artwork. For example, if I was sad then I might paint using black, grey, and brown but if I was happy, I would use bright colors like yellow and green. Freeform painting will help me be more creative and show my emotions more and this would help me to write better stories in humanities. Writing poems that don't rhyme can also help me a lot. It will help me to be more imaginative and it will improve my writing. It will help me to be more imaginative because there are no rules and I could write about anything. Even if it doesn't make sense to others, it is okay. This means that I can use a lot of imagination. By writing poems, I am also improving my writing because I am practicing my writing skills and practice make perfect.

     I would like my teachers to know that though I am suppose to try to use my imagination more, I do not like to be imaginative or creative. I like it when I have specific instructions to follow. The thing that I dislike the most is when teachers give instructions that are not clear. It is annoying because you know that they want you to do something in a specific way but you don't exactly understand what they want you to do. Another thing that I would like teachers to know is that I don't like to perform (acting/drama). I don't like to because I am always not sure if what I was doing correct or not and think it is embarrassing.

Graphic Citation:

http://qwickstep.com/search/learning-brain.html

http://www.sacredheartsns.net/poetry/

Take a Stand

Hundreds of public libraries in the United Kingdom are threatened to close down due to the lack of people visiting them. This makes the government feel that there are no need for the libraries and that they are a waste of space. The budget needed to sustain the libraries are high so they think that it will be more advantageous to use the land for something else. Fortunately, many people are protesting at all corners of the nation causing the government to reconsider their decisions. 

I strongly disagree with closing of libraries in the United Kingdom. Libraries not only let people read books for free but also let them have internet access. Some people cannot afford to buy books for themselves and rely on public libraries for reading materials. Others who don't have internet where they live and come to libraries to do research for school projects and assignments. Closing down libraries means preventing people from reading and making it harder for them to excel in school.
Reading is very important in life because it can teach us what is right and what is wrong. History is written in books and when we read them, we can know not to make the same mistakes as people in the past did, reading makes us wiser.
Books are also a source of inspiration. It causes people to think and question, and without these traits, we will never move forward in life. Many inventors read books to help them figure out how things function and how to improve them but without the books, they won’t be able to create new machines to make life easier.
Reading is also entertaining and educational for both children and adults. When you read, your vocabulary expands and you become better at writing stories and essays. Studies have shown that people who read all four types of reading materials, books, magazines, newspapers, and encyclopedias, scored higher than those who don't read. Books can be entertaining and a better way to past time than watching television as well. To some people, books are who they confined to when they are stress and want to escape reality. Taking away libraries is like taking away a friend to them. Public libraries benefit people a lot and it is wrong to close them down.

"To read is to fly; it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experiences and the fruits of many inquiries." - A. C. Grayling

Reference:

http://www.wisbechmuseum.org.uk/collections_libraries.htm

Five Objects

If you could only have five items for the rest of your life, what would they be? A book? A stuffed animal, an iPod, or perhaps even candy? These objects can be almost anything but they will show who you are and what you value. For me, the five items that I would choose are a bracelet, my bookshelf, a metal box with my stationary inside, my sticker-covered bible, and my clarinet.

When I was around nine years old, my cousin, Jasmine, gave me the rose bracelet. This bracelet reminds me of my extended family because all my female cousins and my sisters have one. It shows that we are all connected somehow as there are exactly six flowers on the bracelet, each one representing a family. The rose bracelet also symbolizes my great-grandmother, who is 98 and still alive, because she loves plants and has them in pots outside her front door. Whenever I go visit my great-grandmother, I would see flowers blooming despite the weather and the season and it will cheer me up, because it looks like a rainbow exploded on her porch.

My bookshelf is also another significant object to me. The bookshelf at the corner of my room is filled with books which I used to read when I was a little girl. Some of them were given to me as a present and some I bought. When you look at it, you can see how I started to read, mostly about fairies and princesses, and how the books start to become thicker and less childish. The shelf holds many memories of my past and my journey through life. Sometimes when I am bored, I would just select a random book from the shelf and start reading it. Each book has a special meaning and story behind it and they are all very precious to me.

A metal box painted to look a little rusty is another object which is important to me. I keep all my stationery supplies in it and for those of you who don't know this, I have a weird hobby of collecting unusual pens, pencils, highlighters etc. I keep all of my unused stationery in the box and sometimes give it to people as presents.  The box itself is also important as my mom gave it to me for Christmas and it was painted by one of her friends. My sisters also have similar boxes with different designs.

When I was eight, my parents bought me a bible which I still have today. I like this particular bible because it is dark blue, my favorite color, and slender instead of wide. My bible is also covered in stickers which I pasted on when I first got it. It is important to me because it teaches me valuable lessons that reminds me of my experiences, actions, and attitudes and how they should be.

The last object that I would chose is my new clarinet. The clarinet is really important to me because I spent years trying to find the right instrument for me. When I was seven, I learnt the guitar for a year before moving on to two years of piano, later playing the violin. When I started middle school, I chose to learn the clarinet. Like every instrument before, I hated it and regretted picking it up. However, I quickly learnt that the practicing was worth it and found that I was starting to enjoy it. I hope that playing the clarinet will stay with throughout my life, and that I will just keep getting better.  

A bracelet, a bookshelf, a metal box, bible, and clarinet might not seem like special objects when alone, but together, they clearly represent something... ME!

My Name, Josephine

Josephine. An ordinary name for an ordinary girl like me. As like many others in the world, I was named after my parents' friend in hopes that I would grow to become similar to her.

When I was younger, I absolutely hated my name because I thought it was too long to write and wasn't feminine enough. I often used to wish that my parents had named me something more "princessy and girly" like Rose or Crystal. Though I disliked being called Josephine, I hated it even more when my friends called me Jo-Jo or Josie when they got to lazy to say my whole name, as if I wasn’t important enough for others to take a few moments to acknowledge me properly. But as I grew older, I became very glad and thankful that my parents had decided to call me Josephine, a name that sounds mature and responsible, like I can be trusted to do important tasks.

My name, Josephine, is an artist’s paint pallet; full of different colors and mixes, hard to describe using only one word. If you look closely at it, you can see my personality written all over the name. Sometimes, if I am familiar with the person, I’m relaxed and friendly like the letter ‘J’, written with a casual flick of the wrist. ‘O’, a letter that is completely closed up represents me when I meet someone for the first time, reserved and distant.

Josephine also means “God will increase his blessings,” although, my parents didn't name me Josephine because of what it meant. This was an unexpected coincidence because my family and I are Christians and we believe in God. I think it is special how my name shows not only what I believe in but also my personality and what I want to be like, mature and responsible, as if it were created especially for me. Josephine. An ordinary name which represents an ordinary girl like me.

Like an artist’s paint pallet; full of different colors and mixes, hard to describe using only one word

Reference:
http://mobile-phones.com.pk/wallpapers/Artistic/Paint-Splatter-w4689

Failure is Success

Once when I was surfing the internet, I stumbled across the quote "Failure is success if we learn from it" by Malcolm Forbes. This quote stood out to me at that time because I was always afraid of making mistakes, therefor I was shy and very silent in class. I never raised my hand to answer any question even if I certain I knew the right solution. When I read what Malcolm Forbes said, I realized that  it was okay to make a few mistakes now and again, that nobody's perfect. From then on, I made an effort to participate and speak up more during school and if I made a mistake, I would figure out what I did wrong and never do it again. I learned to trust my instincts and take risks when I wasn't sure. I can really connect with this quote and I think that it has impacted my life a lot.

Greek Myth Trailer

For humanities, we had to create a trailer for either a greek, chinese, australian aboriginal, or an egyptian myth. I chose to do it about a greek myth. Here is where I got my pictures and music.

Reflections and Comments on Sixth Grade

This year in sixth grade has gone by so fast and I feel I have accomplished and learned so much. It has been a year of changes, freedom, and responsibility. I have made many new friends and been though lots of exiting adventures like Malaysia Week. For our final blog post, we were asked to answer some questions in well-structured paragraphs. 


What piece of work and learning are you most proud of? Explain.
The work that I am most proud of this year would be the Egyptian Diaries which was part of the Ancient Egypt unit. For this project, we had to write three diary entries about the daily life of a ancient egyptian. Each of us got specific jobs to write about and I got a peasant/farmer. I am proud of my final work because it was really hard for me to think in the same point of view as a peasant. Also, I didn't know anything about farmers, what tools they used, or what they were like. To create a successful diary entry, I had to think like a farmer and how happy I would be if my crops this year were good and abundant. I am proud of what I have managed to accomplish though I do think that I could have improved my work by adding more voice to it.


What was your greatest challenge? Explain.
My greatest challenge would be the Ancient Civilization Tic-Tac-Toe which I work with Abhi and Tiffany on. We decided to each do one project so I did the Travel Webpage. At first, I thought that it would be really easy to to create a fifteen-day educational tour to China but it wasn't. I found it really difficult to find tourist attractions that were a reasonable distance from one another. Also, I had to research to find out what the opening and closing time was for each of the places we were going to and make sure that the tour was also fun and interesting.


Reflecting on your growth this year, what did you learn about yourself as a learner?
Something I learnt about myself this year as I learner would be that I work better in a quiet environment where I can concentrate without distraction. I say this because I noticed that my work, especially my writing, have less mistakes and get a better grade when I'm not distracted and can focus just on what I am doing. Another thing I learnt about myself would be that if I approach an assignment or a new idea in a positive attitude (although I may not like it), I would enjoy what I am doing more and at the same time learn better and end out liking what I did not before. As a learner, I think that I can improve by using my time more efficiantly. I think this because many of the work and assignments we do, like literature circles, requires me to think and explain my ideas and that is sometimes time consuming.


Behavior: 
Could be improved
Satisfactory
Perfect- the model student


I think that my behavior is perfect because I behave well when the teachers are around and when they are not.


Participation:
None
Satisfactory
Actively participate in class


I feel that my participation in class is satisfactory, not the best but not the worst either. I think this because I do participate in class discussions but only when I know what I am saying is correct and I don't  participate when I do not know the answer.


Organization:
Needs serious help
Satisfactory
I'm super organized


I evaluated myself as super organized because I always keep my locker and binder clean. I also organize my time so that I can do all my homework before it is due.


Effort:
Needs serous help
Satisfactory
I always go above and beyond what is required


I think that I am in between satisfactory and always going above and beyond what is required because I only sometimes go above and beyond what is required.


Based upon your reflections, write two personal learning goals for seventh grade.


1. My first goal is to participate more in class. This goal is important and will help me improve because by participating in class discussions will mean that I will always be paying attention when the teacher or my peers are talking.


2. My second goal for seventh grade is to always go above and beyond what is required. I want to be above satisfactory for my effort because it will help me to get better grades.


Is there more information about yourself that you would like the teachers to know?
There isn't actually anything that I would like the teachers to know except that I really, really don't like it when teachers tell me to write a story without giving me a topic to write about. I don't like it because first of all, I am not creative so I find it difficult to find a topic to write about, and secondly, I don't like writing stories (I prefer essays).


What was your favorite activity lesson in Humanities this year? What did you enjoy about it?
My favorite lesson this year would be the Tic-Tac-Toe because we got to choose our and what assignments we wanted to do. In my opinion, it is much better to let us decide who what we want to do for our assignments because then we can choose what we want to do based on our talents, for example if you are good at drawing, then you can make a comic strip.


What activity do you wish we could have spent more time on?
I think that we should spend more time on the narrative and less time on the ancient egyptian diaries. We should spend more time on the imaginative narrative because it would have helped us a lot with our ancient egyptian diaries. I still remember that when you (Mr. Thomas) read our imaginative narratives, you said that most of them were just sequences of events and not a story. If we had worked more on the narratives and gotten it right the first time, then we wouldn't take such a long time to finish our ancient egyptian diaries.


Finally, cast your minds back to the first few months of middle school. What advice would you give the class of 2018?
An advice that I would tell the cast of 2018 is to always do your work ahead of time, never leave it to the last minute. I have never experienced this but your grade will go down if you don't hand in an assignment on time. Also, I would advice the class of 2018 to use their planners because not many teachers update moodle.

Jonas' Letter

Dear Father,

     By the time you read this letter, I will be on my way to Elsewhere. It was a hard decision to make, leaving everyone behind, but I had to. I can't live in world with no colors or feelings, not anymore. I know that you don't understand what I am saying. You think that you do have feelings, but you are wrong. What you and everyone else in the community feel is very shallow and easy to resolve. True feelings and emotions are not like that. Also, I want to live in a world where people love me. Remember the time when I asked you and mother if you loved me? You told me that love was a word so meaningless that it has become nearly obsolete and to use more precise language next time. You had no idea how much that hurt me, but of course, I don't blame you for you didn't know any better.
    There so much that I have learnt that I want to share with everyone and feelings are just one of them. Color is also something that I want to share with you and everyone else. When I turned twelve and received my assignment as the new receiver of memories, the Chief Elder said that I had the capacity to see beyond. What she meant was that I could see color, which is a quality that everything has. We do not have this in the community but we should because color is so beautiful and it makes things special and unique. Have you noticed how everything in the community is so similar? It is because of the sameness that we chose to have a long, long time ago. Now everything is the same, no one can be unique in how they look or what they do anymore. I am going to change that.

     I also want you to know that I have taken Gabriel with me on my journey to Elsewhere. If I didn't you would have killed him. Yes father, I know that releasing someone means killing him or her. I saw you murder the new born twin a few weeks ago and all I have to say about that is how could you kill innocent people and be okay with that? They have done nothing wrong and you take their chance of living away from them. This is one of the reasons why I had to leave. I needed to stop the community from killing the innocent. Please, stop murdering people. It is not right and everyone should have the chance to live.
     Thank The Giver for me because he has helped me understand so much and to gain wisdom. The Giver comforted me when I felt pain and gave me happiness. Tell Asher and Fiona that I am sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to them in person and that I will miss them. Lastly, thank Lily and Mother for everything that they have done for me.

     I have learned so much from my training as the new receiver of memories and I wish to share it with everyone in the community. Like The Giver said before, "The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It is the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared." That is what I'm trying to do now and someday, I hope that you will thank me for this.

                                                                                   Sincerely,

                                                                                           Jonas

Freedom and Choices

For the past few weeks, I have been reading The Giver in humanities. The main character, Jonas, lives in a utopian community where everything is decided for them. Now, Jonas has started to feel that the community is unfair and wants to have more freedom and choices. We were asked to write two or more well structured paragraphs about how the quote below and the rest of chapter 16-18 relate to the theme of freedom and choice.

Quote:

"Gabriel's breathing was even and deep. Jonas liked having him there, though he felt guilty about the secret. Each night he gave memories to Gabriel: memories of boat rides and picnics in the sun; memories of soft rainfall against windowpanes; memories of dancing bare-footed on a damp lawn.

"Gabe?"

The new child stirred slightly in his sleep, Jonas looked over at him.

"There could be love" Jonas whispered.

In the novel The Giver, the theme is freedom and choices. The quote above and chapters 16-18 are connected to that theme. They relate to the theme of freedom and choice in several different ways.

First of all, the quote mentions that Jonas has been giving Gabriel memories for the past few nights. Jonas was not suppose to do that because Gabriel was not the receiver of memory so it was against the rules. Jonas ignored the rule and still gave him nice and calming memories. This shows that Jonas is experiencing some freedom because he is breaking the rules of the community. Another example of freedom in that quote was when Jonas did not take his pill the next morning. The pills were meant to prevent stirrings which is actually the feeling of wanting and love. When Jonas threw his pill away, that was freedom. He did what he wanted to and not what somebody else told him to do.

Chapters 16-18 also related a lot to the theme freedom and choice. For example in chapter 17, there was an unscheduled holiday and Jonas could do whatever he want as long as he didn't break any of the rules in the community. Jonas chose to go and find Asher. This proves that even though there is not much freedom and choice in the community, there is some. Another example of freedom was in chapter 18 when The Giver told Jonas about Rosemary. Rosemary was the receiver of memories in training but she was unsuccessful. Unlike Jonas, she had the choice of asking for release and Rosemary asked it after five weeks of training. The last example of choice in chapters 16-18 is that Jonas lied to his parents after he asked his parents if they loved him. Jonas' parents told him, "You used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become almost obsolete." After that, they asked him if he understood why it was inappropriate to use the word love. Jonas lied by saying, "Yes, thank you, I understand." He had the choice not to lie but Jonas chose to lie.

Freedom and choice are very important because without it, you are not living your life. You are just living the life that someone else wants you to live. I believe that everyone should have the freedom and choice to do whatever they want.

Graphic Citations:

http://umattr.info/

http://www.clipartof.com/details/clipart/5839.html

Comments

This week, we were supposed to comment on other people's blog post. I commented on Nathaly's and Tiffany's blogs.

Nathaly's Blog

Tiffany's blog

Why is Making Choices Frightening to the Community?

In humanities, I am reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. In the novel, everything is chosen for the community. Nobody has to make any decisions except for the elders.

Why does The Giver say that making choices would be frightening for people?

In the novel, The Giver told Jonas that making choices will be frightening for people. When he said this, I think that he was referring to important decisions that can impact your whole life. The Giver said this for several reasons. The first reason is because the people had never had to make a important decision for themselves before. Not even their in choosing their jobs. In the novel, nobody gets to chose their jobs because the elders choose it for them. The community doesn't even get to chose simple things like their comfort animal or if they want to cut their hair or not. It will be frightening to them to wake up one morning and suddenly have to be independent in everything that they do. The people have never been independent and they are uncomfortable with making choices.

Another reason is because I think that the people in Jonas' community is scared to make big mistakes. They know that it can result in release and they don't want that, so all their lives they have been careful and listened to their parents, teachers, and the elders. In the beginning of the book, a pilot misread the directions of where to fly to, causing a lot of confusion, and in result, he had been released. If the people had to make decisions, they will make mistakes at some point in their lives. There was no doubt in that and because the people are afraid, they never tried making decisions for themselves.

The last reason why The Giver said that it would be frightening to the people to make decisions is because they don't want to be different from other people. In the community, because the people don't have to choose anything, everyone is similar in what they look like and what they do. In the novel, it says that before tuning ten, all the little girls have to wear hair ribbons. Also, depending on how old you are, you get specific types of clothes. They had strict rules about when you eat and when you start your volunteer hours. People in the community are always similar in how they look and what they do to others their age. If they had to made choices, everyone would choose different things which will make them unique and special. I think that the people might be afraid of being different.

Graphic Citations:

http://www.startbeingyourbest.com/2009/04/life-design-wrapup/

Would You Chose Your Own Future?

In humanities, we are doing literature circles on a Utopia unit. Half the class are reading The White Mountains by John Christopher and the other half are reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. I am reading The Giver which is about a boy named Jonas. In his community everything is controlled and decided by the elders. Their families, food, names, even their futures are chosen for the people in the community.

Would you want your future to be decided by others? Why or Why not?

I would not like to have my future completely decided for me. I would want some advice and suggestions from my parent, teachers, or friends on what they think would be the best future for me. This is because I don't think that anyone is wise enough to make a decision that will effect everything about somebody's future alone. You will always need help from others. Even in The Giver there are a group of people deciding someone's future, not just one person. This is important because when others share their ideas with you, it might not be something that you have ever considered. Unlike The Giver, I would like to be part of the group deciding my future. I want to help decide my future because I want to have a job that interests me.

Another reason why I want to decide my own future is because if I make a wrong choice, I have to blame myself and not someone else. I think this is good because if I blame someone for making a bad decision for me, it would be very hard for me to forgive them. In The Giver, the people just send an appeal to the elders if they don't like their jobs. For us it is not that easy because we will get angry and upset if we don't get a job that we want. It is because we have feelings but the community in The Giver doesn't. I want to decide my own future because I don't want to be angry or upset at someone even if I know that it is not their fault. Also, I do not want another person to feel guilty or feel like they ruined my life.

The last reason why I want to decide my own future is because it is a decision that I want to make even if I do need others opinions to help me. I don't want to live a life that someone else chose for me. I want to live my life. In The Giver, they don't get to chose their lives and Jonas is starting to feel that it is unfair. I don't want to feel like Jonas, like I am forced to do something. Also, I only have one life to live, I will not get a second life.

"It's my life
It's now or never

I ain't gonna live forever

I just wanna live while I'm alive

It's my life!"

It's My Life by Bon Jovi

Graphic Citations:

http://americanauthorsa.wikispaces.com/OFOTCN+Combine

http://www.etsy.com/error.php?error_id=8

iMovie Grading

For Humanities, we had to grade our classmates and our own iMovies. Each were about a different pharaoh. The five different pharaohs are Hatshepsut, Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, Khufu, and Ramesese II.

Here is the link to my iMovie Rubric:

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AbNPFxNmlX-sZDd3czJxcl8zM2d4dzgyeHhn&hl=en&authkey=CIaEoNsG

Hatshepsut Imovie

Above is my group's imovie about Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh. Enjoy!

City Connection Reflection

A few weeks ago, we were learning about what makes countries successful or not. There was a simple answer to this which is geography. Where a country is in the world plays a big role in their economy and warfare. Our project was to research about a country which you have lived in and create and present a presentation on why your country is geographically lucky. I did mine on Singapore, a country with no natural resources but is still successful.

What do you believe that you did well on the project?

I think that I did well on the appearance of my presentation. I chose a background which was not distracting for the audience, a font that was easy to read, and a font color that was readable against the background. The background you choose is very important because asides from making the presentation look more appealing, it can also distract the audience. For example, if you have a colorful background with lots of animation and pictures, the audience is most likely to pay attention to the background instead of listening to you speak. This is bad because there is no point in presenting if no one is going to listen and learn something from you. Choosing a font that is easy to read and a readable font color are also important because the information that you put on a slide are the key points in your presentation. They are the facts that you would want your audience to remember. Also, if the audience doesn't understand something you said, they might look at the slides, which will be no use to them if they cannot read it. I thought that I did a good job on picking a reasonable background, font, and font color for y presentation.

What would you do to improve for future presentations/projects?

One thing that I thought I didn't do very well was presenting. When it was my turn to present, I was a little nervous so I think that I talked too quietly and too quickly. This is bad because it makes it harder for others to hear what I was trying to say. The next time I present something, I need to speak with a clear, loud voice so that everyone can hear and understand. During my presentation, I also think that I might have left out a few details about Singapore. This was because I was rushing because I wanted my presentation to be over. This is a mistake that I will need to fix next time because the details that I missed could have been important. The next time I have to present something, I will learn from my mistakes and speak loudly, clearly, and not rush.

What did you learn from your preparation (for your presentation) in addition to the presentations of others?

I learned a lot of new and interesting facts about Singapore while I was preparing for my presentation. One of the things that I learnt was that a long time ago, Singapore had a few natural resources. Though Singapore had very little, they still had a few small crops and wild animals to survive on. Another thing that I learned from preparing for my presentation was that the Singapore port was one of the busiest ports in the world. This means that Singapore gets a lot of profit from it. One thing that I learned from watching my peers' presentations was to have a note card with important facts on it while presenting. Some people in the class did not have a note card and forgot what to say. This was embarrassing for them and made the audience lose interest in the presentation. When I compared the presentations of students with note card and the one without, I realized that even though the note card looked small and not useful, it made a huge difference.

What is your analysis of your performance?

I think that I did a fairly good job on my presentation. I think this because I thought that I had interesting facts that supported the reasons why Singapore was geographically lucky. When my presentation was done, I also checked the rubric to make sure that I didn't miss out on anything. I thought that I did an okay job in presenting, only having a few mistakes of pronunciation and speaking a little to softly. I thought that I did well in explaining what Singapore does to make it a successful nation. Though my presentation may have a few mistakes, I think that I did a fairly good job.

Link to My Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/a/iskl.edu.my/present/edit?id=0AbNPFxNmlX-sZDd3czJxcl84Zzl4MnM0aG4&hl=en&authkey=CLDjzZQC

Graphic Citations:

http://images.clipartof.com/small/218855-Royalty-Free-RF-Clipart-Illustration-Of-A-Happy-Globe-Character-Waving.jpg

http://www.clipartof.com/gallery/clipart/megaphone.html

My Learning Profile

     On the 12th of January we learned about learning profiles. We learned that everyone has not only a dominent brain but also a dominent eye, ear, hand, and foot. People with a dominant right brain are gestalt and people with a dominant left brain are logical. As I thought, I was left brain dominant. Everything else is right dominant which makes me profile A. This means that when I am stressed, my eye, ear, hand and foot still all work. It also means that I have difficulty seeing the big picture and that I focus on the details.

     Being a profile A means that I should sit on the left side of the room so that I can access my right ear easily. I know that I am right ear dominant because we did a test in class. For me, when I pick up the phone, I would usually bring it up to my right ear. Another test we did was that imagine that someone is talking on the other side of the door. You want to know what they are saying so you go up to the door and put your ear on it. When I acted that out, I put my right ear on the door confirming that I am right ear dominant. It is important that I can access my right ear easily because it means that I can hear the teacher better. I also learn best when I focus on the details. I process by analysis, verbalization and writing. Being a profile A also means that I like and have the ability to follow step-by-step visual and auditory instructions. I learn best from oral and written communication. This means that I am not very creative or emotional. I think that is very true because I like to follow instructions. I also like it when there is only one correct answer. Because I am a visual and auditory learner, this can mean that I might find it hard to excel at physical education. 

     I should be encouraged to understand information from a whole perspective. I should also allow time for my ideas to generate. I need to learn how to not always ignore and dismiss my ideas to quickly. This happens to me very frequently especially in humanities. When we are have to write a story but not told what to write about, I get ideas but most of them I would ignore. This would make what I write about less creative and in other words, more boring. I also need to trust my instincts more. Sometimes, my movements would be planned. This means that I don't like to improvise because I would have to trust my instincts. To help me trust my instincts, I could try to draw blindfolded because I would not be able to see what I was drawing in result forcing me to follow my instincts.

Strategies that would help me learn include trying freeform painting and writing poems that don't rhyme. Freeform painting would help me because it would help me to trust my instincts and to use my imagination. In freeform painting, there are no rules and your results can never be wrong. Freeform painting also allows me to show my emotion through the artwork. For example, if I was sad then I might paint using black, grey, and brown but if I was happy, I would use bright colors like yellow and green. Freeform painting will help me be more creative and show my emotions more and this would help me to write better stories in humanities. Writing poems that don't rhyme can also help me a lot. It will help me to be more imaginative and it will improve my writing. It will help me to be more imaginative because there are no rules and I could write about anything. Even if it doesn't make sense to others, it is okay. This means that I can use a lot of imagination. By writing poems, I am also improving my writing because I am practicing my writing skills and practice make perfect.

     I would like my teachers to know that though I am suppose to try to use my imagination more, I do not like to be imaginative or creative. I like it when I have specific instructions to follow. Though I like to have instructions, the thing that I dislike the most is when teachers give instructions that are not clear. It is annoying because you know that they want you to do something in a specific way but you don't exactly understand what they want you to do. Another thing that I would like teachers, especially Mr. Smith and Ms. Thomson to know is that I don't like to perform what to the class. I don't like to because I am always not sure if what I was doing correct or not. I also don't like it because I think it is embarrassing when you make a mistake.

Graphic Citation:

http://qwickstep.com/search/learning-brain.html

http://www.sacredheartsns.net/poetry/