Recently, 112 students from Grade 7 took a trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand from the 6th of May, to the 11th of May. I was one of them, staying in the Maekok River Village Resort. Through the week that I was there, I have been taught many a thing, such as team-building, rock climbing, archery, and how to survive in the jungle. As well as being able to communicate with the different people from different places around the resort. I have gone and did some service with a couple of local children, who have taught me more than I would have taught them. All while having a bucket load of fun. My peers pushed me further and further towards my goals of becoming an international citizen. Incredible one of the few words I can use to describe this trip.

Whenever I think of something in deep thought (like what I am doing right now), I link it to some of the attributes of the IB profile. Such as if I just helped someone finish their work, I would use the attributes Communicator, and Caring because I communicated to somebody on how to help them, and I cared for them and actually helped them. Reflecting on the trip, I used the attributes Inquirer, and Communicator. Inquiring is just natural for me, and I represented it a lot throughout, always trying to learn more. For example, I wanted to know what a tiny pepper tasted like. My instructor warned me that it was very very spicy, and I still put it in my mouth. It was like my tongue was melting. I couldn’t taste anything an hour later, but I learned a valuable lesson nonetheless. In the rock climbing activity, I had finished the course, but then I decided to do it blindfolded. It was exhilarating. To be a communicator, I had to try and relay information to the children at the local school I did service at, and it worked through different methods of sign language, and a combination of the little English they knew, and the little Thai that I knew. It worked out fine in the end. There were many other attributes incorporated, but these 2 were the ones that stood out the most.

I got to know many new people on this trip. Most of them younger than me, but some of them much older than me. The first of which are the children at the community and service site. One of which is a young lad, around 8 or 9 years old, whose name was Sahka. He was very cheerful, and had a great sense of humor. He taught me how to create a very loud noisemaker with just one sheet of paper, as well as teaching me how to do many different arts and crafts with again, just a sheet of paper. I met a great instructor as well, a man named Ronan. He was very agile, was very helpful, had a massive sense of humor, and overall a great person. I feel that these people inspired me the most.

Nature has helped me along the way, and I have grown to appreciate it a lot. The first time I learned to appreciate nature was when I realized how many bugs there were, yet there were so few that actually tried to harm you. I learned that nature had reached an equilibrium, and that all of the harmless bugs kept the other ones in check. The second time was when my group was doing jungle survival, I learned how much you could actually do with just a saw, 2 machetes, and a lot of bamboo. I could cook using it, I could make a shelter with it as well. I realized how much nature can provide for us, as long as we can conserve. The third time that I learned to respect nature was when I took a 3 kilometer hike to the Lahu hill tribe. I quickly found out that no matter what, nature still surrounds us. I remembered Hong Kong, and you can still see nature even though massive spires of concrete and glass soar past the sky. The occasional tree. Or the small plant seeking sunshine creeping out of the gutter. An old stone wall covered in moss. Even mildew in a shower drain. This has made me humbler about how much humans have done, yet nature still envelops us.

Throughout all of the trip, I have realized that I have not seen as much of the world as I have thought. I find that I have just lived in a bubble of my own security. Only now have I reached out and seen what the real world is like. I have challenged myself, and pushed myself beyond limits that I ever imagined. I met so many people, and had such a great time. I now still yearn to return to that beautiful place in Thailand, and do everything else that I still have not done.

On the stress and learning graph (on a scale of 1-5, 1 being too easy, 5 being brain explosion), I would be a 2.7. I had learned about this topic before. The challenging part of this unit was the number crunching. Of course I can do it, its just that I am a problem solver, and it gets boring easily. I always did my homework at home, and checked it over, as well as studying for the test that was coming up. I liked all of the group work that we did.

Coming Attractions:

A documentary which explains the Wong Tai Sin Temple

A website detailing exactly what is happening

https://sites.google.com/a/cdnis.edu.hk/jonathan-s-design-folder/

This is my Ifolio for the Patterns unit this semester. I liked that there were many ne

w ideas that I could explore, and that there were many mind numbing challenges. What I didn’t like was that we didn’t have many exercises that weren’t group work, and that is a bit of a problem for me. I learned that the best way

to do things isn’t always the direct and most straightforward way. I don’t really have many questions though. The studying of patterns could help my life when I get a job. These would help me predict things in life.

I have successfully discovered a new type of Bird! Its name is Minutulus exercitus. It lives anywhere where there are termites and grass plains. I have made a model of it, and it has its strengths and weaknesses. I find that it has a good build, and exaggerates the parts where it needs to the most well. However, the color is patchy in some areas, and the environment is collapsing quite quickly. The work that I did was quite well spaced out in the sense of time. The time was effective because I drew my focus away from anything other than my work. I did work at home as well. I did manage my time well overall. Here’s some advice for the fellow ornithologist one rank (Grade 6) below me, remember to do all of your research properly. I guess I would get a 5/6 for crit. C.

Before the Christmas holiday, our class (7F) worked on a unit that involved the study of Shi Huang Di, the first emperor. There are many skills that I learnt from this, one of them is team-work, I sometimes had to deal with some situations that stressed me out a bit, and I learned from it. I also learned how to use in-text citations. My evidence is an excerpt from my essay on Shi Huang Di.

“Qin Shi Huang Di buried people alive if they didn’t agree with him. (Dowling)”

I liked working in a group because we can all share ideas and say what we want to do. However, I don’t like working in a group because everyone argues with each other and nothing gets done.

In math study of algebra and patterns, I am looking at Human Ingenuity as my Area of interaction because there are time when that people need to change things for example patterns.

For all of you who have watched the Lorax, NOT the new movie, the cartoon. You know what happened to the world and that the Once-ler greatly regrets it. Hong Kong is washing away the same as in the movie. On Lantau island, there used to be a beautiful bay and mangrove forest sitting at the right tip of the island. Now all that has become is a huge concrete block on which Disneyland now sits. And there used to be the breeding grounds of the White Dolphins on the leftmost tip of Lantau, but now all that is left is a soot streaked runway and terminal, with polluted water going as far as the eye can see. And the turtles on the south side of Lamma Island in Turtle Cove are all completely wiped out. Closer to home (my home), there is a natural coral reef which housed the most exotic kinds of crabs, fish, and sea horses. Now a barren fake beach. But what’s left in HK? The dolphins are still here, but forced to move down south to Tai O. But their fate is almost sealed, for there is a bridge coming from Lantau to China. The dolphins have nowhere left to go. It’s sad. But what now? What can we do? Well, our new AOI (Area of Interaction) is environments, and we are doing what we can to stop the degeneration of our environment. A new battle has started right on our doorstep. Ocean Park is expanding what it has, and is about to cover the last hill that is still untouched. Environments are linked to the things that we are studying and taking action at in school and out of school by showing how the natural environment can change so quickly and swiftly, and is extremely delicate, and that the man-made environment is slowly taking over the Earth. I hope you people who look at my blog take some action.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing’s going to get better, it’s not.”

-Dr. Suess

Approches to learning are very important because these include life skills that help you survive. Such as communication, integrity, and thinking. These skills help you change and adapt to the world that is constantly changing with us. These life skills help you get out of tough situations, and will help if there ever is a disaster.