South Korea and Pakistan are 2 totally different countries. Korea’s capital is Seoul,  people who live there are Korean. Korea is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. 3.7% of its population is unemployed. Pakistan’s capital is Islamabad, people who live there speak Urdu or English. 5.6% of the populations is unemployed in Pakistan. South Korea joined the UN in 1991 whereas Pakistan joined 44 before in 1947. South Korea’s natural resources are coal, graphite, hyper power. Pakistan’s natural resources are  extensive natural gases, limited petroleum, poor quality coal, iron ore, copper, salt, and limestone. South Korea is independent, it used to be a Monarchy, but not anymore. South Korea’s economy is better than Pakistan. Pakistan is a really poor country. 22.3% of Pakistan’s population is under poverty line. (Which means that they are officially in poverty.) Pakistan has a really good relationship with China because they both have a common enemy, which is India. The only similarity between Pakistan and South Korea is that they are both located in Asia.

Last week, there was a school trip to Chiang Mai, I was unable to go, so I had to do community and service at school. On the first two days, I went to reception A and helped out with teaching the  students.  When they did not know how to spell a word, I would sound out each letter for them, and they would understand what I was saying. When the students need help with gluing, I would help them. When they asked for something, I would give it to them. Since Ms Usher lost her voice, I had to sing for the class. During the third day, I was sent to the Art Room to help out Ms Ho. I cut paper for 2 hours, re wired the wires, and cleaned out the stalk room. The stalk room was very messy, I was asked to organize it. There were many insects and bugs, dead and alive. One of my assignments were to kill and wash out all the bugs. Fortunately, I was saved by another one of the helpers working with me. On Thursday, I was sent to Grade 2, I made copies of paper as I was working as a CA. Afterwards, Ms Mafnus wanted me to draw out the images she has showed me on her Pinterest account. I was asked to draw out 3 posters and one chart. On the last day, I was still working as a CA with the Grade 2s. I had to cut out 620 pieces of coloured paper, create heart and circle templates for the kids, and help the 2A with creating their Mother’s Day card. I needed to cut out more paper for the card and help them with the glue gun as they are not allowed to use it.

I think that one of the best learner profile attributes that resembled me during this week is being open-minded. I think that I did and tried many things I did not want to do. (ie: cleaning up dead insects) I was open to everything I was asked to do, and I tried my best to do that job as much as I disliked it. Another attribute that describes me during community and service is being a risk taker. Since I was working as a CA, I was able to help students with their work and do the things they weren’t able to do. I felt like a leader, and a student at the same time.

I agree with the verdict because the prosecution side has proven that the salt and ice lab was not true, it only takes one flaw to prove that the KMT is not true. The KMT is not true because the ice melted and the temperature of the ice went lower. This does not make sense. Secondly, one of the defense member of the defense did not know the rules  KMT. He had time to find out for the next court day, but he did not. If he does not know what the rules of KMT are, then how is he supposed to be supporting KMT? Third, some members of the defense does not know what they are talking about, they do not answer the questions they have been asked, in fact they’re arguments collapses on themselves. Lastly, the defense side had 3 non credible scientist, who did not answer the questions that are asked and said something that was against KMT. (For example: “Particles don’t move in random motion.” According to KMT, particles do move in constant motion.) I was a jury member during this court case, my job is to take notes and decided at the end whether prosecution or defense wins the court case. There were only 2 members of the prosecution in the jury team, the rest are people from the defense. I fur filed my responsibilities by telling the jury team why and how I think that the prosecution side should’ve won the court case. The jury team was really accepting and not biased. I was also an expert witness where I had to talk about how the salt and melting ice lab proves KMT wrong. I think that I did not do well during this as I did not think about what oppositions there were to my argument. I would like to try to be a lawyer next time, I wouldn’t be focused on the dates of the experiment because the results would still be the same. I would be more focused on trying to prove KMT not true. The lawyers spent 10 minutes talking about the dates when so many questions could be asked. I learned that the KMT can be easily proven wrong. There can be a whole lot of evidence proving that the KMT is true, but once there is one piece of evidence not supporting the KMT, then logically, the KMT will not make sense. During the investigations, I became a better scientist because I cleaned everything up, I made sure I followed the procedure, and when I did part of the procedure wrong, I would redo the lab to make sure I have the correct information.

On the stress and learning chart, I’d give myself a 4 because I found this unit pretty easy. I struggled with the 7-8 questions on the test, but everything else was fine. The fraction and decimal equations were simple to calculate as long as I remembered the rule on how to do so. A challenging thing about this unit was trying to calculate fractions with algebra. I found it confusing since I had to do the opposite operation to the other side of the equation. At first, I thought I would get a really low mark for Criteria D, but I practiced with my friends on reflecting about how the answer is reasonable. That’s why I got a higher mark. I liked the 10 by 10 grid activity because it gave me a deeper understanding of how to divide bigger decimals into smaller ones.

After doing this unit, I learned to use time efficiently with my presentations, especially when you have the advantage of the Spring break. Handing my Prezi on time was no problem at all. It was just that the length of my presentation was too long. I shortened it a bit, but I couldn’t do more. I need to work on my creativity skills though. I had one picture for pretty much every slide, and some slides have a lot talking. The voiceover doesn’t balance out the pictures.
I liked that we could get feedback for my presentation from our classmates during class time because the audience that is supposed to be watching the video are grade 7s. I liked how we were able to write our thoughts and questions in the double entry journal for The Other Side of Truth, it gave me a deeper understanding of the book, and it helped me when I needed to pick a question for my summative task. I disliked using the voiceover in Prezi, but the application itself is great.
If I could do this one more time, I would add more visuals and soft music playing in the background. I would make my presentation shorter and take out some of the words. I wouldn’t use Prezi for the voiceovers, I would do export it to iMovie (if I can do that) and do my voiceover there, so the process of putting my voiceovers into my Prezi would be easier and faster.

Click here to go to my process journal for the Hong Kong Heritage Project.

I learned how to use similes and metaphors inside my story. I learned how to put it inside my story without making it too “unnatural”. Without the feedback from my peers, I wouldn’t be able to make my story as good as what I have now. At first, I didn’t know what to do for my ending because there were so many possibilities and there wasn’t really an ending to it in real life. My peers told me to keep the ending a cliffhanger. I thought that that was a pretty good idea, so I used it in my short story.

I think that if I could do my presentation over again,  I would want to engage the audience more by asking them more questions. I want to connect my story to their lives and make them experience what I was too.

I think I need to work on my environment. I think that I need a more detailed explanation on my environment, with what predators there are in my environment. Even though I used tables,  I should make my information on it a little more clear by connecting it to the environment a little more. I think that my I had a lot of structural and behavioral adaptions and they were pretty clear too. I think that I did a lot of work at school and outside of school. I did not leave my work until the last minute, so I might be able to add more ways of communicating my bird (other than a diagram). I could’ve made more detail with my bird since I could’ve submitted my work later in the evening. I think I did manage my time well, but I could’ve did more at the end after I finished every I had in mind. I think that for criterion C I would give myself a 5/6 because I put a lot of effort with my tables and the information inside it. I could’ve made more connections to the environment, that’s why I didn’t give myself a 6/6.

• What did you like most about our Patterns unit?
• What did you like least?
• What do you think you learned really well?
• What questions do you still have?
• Why is the study of Patterns important? How has it or can it help you in life?

During the patterns unit, I liked the handshake problem the most because it was engaging and it was the problem that was closest to being a real life problem. I liked the way the problem would make us think another direction, but we end up going back and adding on the the question. I didn’t like the paper folding problem because I was trying to find the solution for 45 minutes with no hope of getting the answer correct. I didn’t like the first Criterion B test because even the 5-6 questions were difficult for me. When I looked at the answer key, I noticed that the answers were really simple and easy, I just didn’t catch them when I was doing the test. I think that I learned how to use input and output tables really well, but I still have problems finding the actual rule. I know how to graph my work with the data put on my input and output table. I think that the study of patterns are important because patterns help us predict what number will come  next and it helps with solving problems that involve predicting numbers to come next.

My research skills were pretty good during this unit because I researched with a lot of sources just in case one of them were not reliable. I used a newspaper, some websites, and some databases. I cited all my sources and put in text citations in my essay. I used notecards to help me document my findings.
Working with my group was amazing. Some of us worked really well together. We had challenges but my group mates and I overcame them together. I think that I worked well with my group because I sent paragraphs of writing to my group mates even when we were not working at school. I helped one of my group members write their script when they were absent.
When we were presenting, I spoke with a clear voice, but I did not look at the audience enough. I need to make sure that I look at the audience more next time and also say more background about Shi Huang Di before we started.