Bullying

Everyone has witnessed or bullied someone before. A time when I witnessed bullying was last year at my old school. My old school was split up to popular, average, and the weird groups. I was in the average group. Usually the popular and average groups never got teased but the weird group did. There was one boy in particular called Tom, (he wasn't actually called Tom, this is just so people wouldn't know who he is) who almost everyone used to tease and call him names (but I didn't). 

Whenever he touched something, people would say, "Don't touch that! Tom put cooties on it," or "Tom touched you! You have cooties now." Whenever Tom heard this he would try to act as if it didn't bother him but you could tell that it actually did. When we had to work in groups, no one wanted to work with him. The teacher always had to put Tom in a group and everyone in the group would usually not let him do or touch anything. The odd thing was that when my friend asked the people who were teasing Tom if they believed in cooties, they all said no. 

This kept on going for the whole year. The worst thing was that when people teased and called Tom names in front of a teacher, the teacher didn't even care and never did anything. Tom never told on anyone to the teacher because if he did, he knew that he would be called a "tattle-tale" and a lot of people would dislike him even more. Tom tried asked the people teasing him to stop a few times but they always just kept teasing and calling him names. No one knew who started this but there was no reason to. Tom didn't have a problem, he was normal sized, he didn't act like a girl, and he was okay in all subjects. The good thing was that he did have a few friends. 

Now that I looked back at the situation, I think that I should helped Tom. It was unfair how people bullied him. I guess that I was just afraid of being teased if I stood up for Tom. I could have also told the people bullying him to stop being mean or I could have told a teacher. There were many things that I could do instead of ignoring the situation. Next time I see someone being bullied, I will try to help them.

Two goals that I have for this year to make ISKL a better place are:

- I will not bully anyone in any way.

- If I see someone being bullied, I will try to help them.

Graphic Citation:

http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~jgamble/

A Time I Showed Courage

A time I showed courage was when my family and I were on a holiday in Redang. Redang is an island off the east coast of Malaysia and is famous for snorkeling. My family and I went there for three days and two nights.

On the first day of our trip, we got our snorkels and went for open-sea snorkeling. We got to swim in the middle of the ocean and see a lot of amazing fish. There were small fish and big fish, shy fish and confident fish. The only bad thing was that the sea water was very, very salty. The next day we went for two snorkeling trips. The first one was in the morning at a marine park and the second was a afternoon open-sea snorkeling. They were both really fun and exciting, but the excitement doesn't end there.

In the evening of the second day, my family and I were walking on the beach. It was a low tide and my sisters and I decided to go out to the sea. We were nearly there when a slipped and fell. I reached out to grab something and cut my hand on a coral. It was a really small but deep cut. I quickly washed the cut in water and it soon stopped bleeding. It didn't hurt but my parents insisted that I went to the hotel's first aid room.

We had to wait for a long time before it was our turn. When the doctor saw my hand, he said that I would need to get stitches within 24 hours or I might get an infection! Getting an infection would mean that it would hurt twice as much when I got stitches. Both my sisters have had stitches before and told me that it hurt. I was really afraid and didn't want to feel any pain. In the end I still got the stitches.

The doctor told me that only the injections would hurt, and it did. I could feel the needle going through my skin. After the injections, I had to wait for a few minutes for the injections to work. When I couldn't feel my hand anymore, the doctor gave me two stitches. He also gave me bandages and pain killers and I was free to go. The doctor told me that I wasn't aloud to get my hand wet for a week. Back in the hotel room my sisters kept asking me is it hurt and I told them the truth, yes, it hurt a lot! I managed cry or scream when I got my stitches and I felt really proud of myself for being able to tell the doctor to give me stitches. The next day, my family and I went back to Kuala Lumpur and my hand didn't hurt anymore.

My experience of getting stitches helps me whenever I have to get other injections. I would always tell myself that it couldn't hurt more than receiving stitches. I am now braver because of them. My conclusion is that it was a good but painful experience.


Graphic Citation:
http://www.plan-a-destination-wedding.com/bavaro-princess-wedding-package.html

Understanding the Past

How can understanding the past, help us understand our world?

Understanding the past helps us understand the world we live in now much better. Have you ever wondered how humans looked like 3 million years ago? Have you ever thought about how we make tools like knifes and swords? Without the past, we might never know or understand why. 

Another thing that makes understanding t he past important is our beliefs. If we didn't understand the past, it would be very hard to be religious. Most, if not all, religions are to do with the past. By understanding the past, we can understand the religions better.

Understanding the past means that we can also learn from it. We learn a lot from the past to help us understand our world better. We take things like spears to understand how to hunt. We study the mistakes and the wrong that ancient humans did, so that we won't make the same mistakes.

Understanding the past is like understanding a map. It can help us and guide us into the future. But sometimes, there are missing pieces in the map. We will have guess what to do. Sometimes we do not guess right and take the wrong path, but that is okay. We can retrace our steps and go another way. That way, people of the future will know what way was right. 

Understanding the past will help us understand what kind of world we are living in.

Historian, Archeologist, or Geographer

                                  

If I had to choose to be either a archeologist, historian, or a geographer it would be a historian. But it is not because I really like to write down history but because the other two jobs kind of scares me. Like an archeologist. They dig up bones and find plates and books that someone used a long, long time ago. I find it a little creepy to dig up and find a skull of a person who died. Most people would say, what's so scary about being a geographer? Well I think that it is scary because you would be standing, lets say in a desert. You study about your surroundings and find that the ancient egyptians used to be buried here! That would be scary. So that leaves me with the historian.

A historian is someone who studies and writes about history. I think that it will be best for me to be a historian out of the three social scientist because I prefer to stay indoors. For a archeologist and a geographer, they have to go out almost all day to do their job. I also think that the historian is the best match for me because I like learning about history. I especially like learning about all the silly things that people used to think was real, like witchcraft. I always ask myself, where did they get those ideas from? Another reason why I want to be a historian is because I like reading books. I don't get bored of sitting around and reading or writing all day. 

If I had to be a social scientist, I would choose to be a HISTORIAN.

                         

Graphic Citation:

http://www.dynamicearthwebquest.com/process.htm

http://www.insmogandthunder.com/historian.html

Introduction

My name is Josephine. I come from Singapore but I am currently living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I go to middle school at ISKL. I have been in Kuala Lumpur for 7 years now. Before coming here, I lived in Singapore for 3 years. There are five people in my family, my dad, my mom, my two older sisters, and me.

The last three books that I have read are:

- The Rope Trick by Lloyd Alexander

- A Little Princess by Frances Hodson Burnett

- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

The last movie that I saw was Avatar. Avatar was directed by James Cameron. It is a really nice show. The plants in the show were amazing!

My academic goal this year is to improve my grammar skills and to get good grades (A or above) for all my subjects.

My social goal this year is to make a lot of new friends. I also want to try to be nice to everyone, even if I don't know them.

My favorite vacation memory was when my family and I went to Redang for snorkeling. We got to see a lot of cool and unusual fish. We also got to swim in the middle of the ocean! My family and I stayed in redang for 3 days and 2 nights.

Five adjectives that can describe me are:

- Organized

- Impatient

- Sensible

- Nice

- Quiet

Thanks for reading my first blog post.

Graphic Citation:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Animated-Flag-Singapore.gif

http://www.sherv.net/word-emoticons.html