On 2013, May 6th to 10th (some 11th), almost all of grade 7 and 8 went to the experience week trip. But the few people who stayed had to go to school and do community and service. I was one of those people. So what I did basically was I did volunteer in a grade 1 classroom. I did things to help the teacher and classroom assistance there. Such as cut paper, help children with math, read out spelling quiz words, etc. I think that during the time I was helping the grade 1 class, I was being a caring and a communicator. I was being caring by helping those children who called out for me to help them. And I was being a communicator by telling them how to do the task assigned to them. I think that I got to learn 25 new names, all from the grade 1 class I was in. The students I remembered the easiest-ly was the ones who I was nearest the most, the troublemakers, those who were nice, and the memorable ones. I remember that when I was giving individual help to this one student. He had some attention issues but other than that, he’s a really smart student. Everything I tried so far hadn’t worked on him. So I got really frustrated, then… I got an idea. I bet him that I could beat him, I could finish it faster. And it worked, he started working really fast. I got a piece of paper and then raced with him. In the end I thought that it was an interesting experience, helping little kids, getting to know the life of a lower school teacher.

1)    Pictures/videos from the class website

The substitute didn’t allow us to take any photos.

2)    Do you agree with the jury’s verdict? Why or why not? Include at least 5 facts from evidence that was presented during the trial.

I don’t agree with the jury’s verdict, because I think that one of the jury’s members is biased. I think that the prosecution made very good points for their job. They questioned are judgement/decision making. They said if we can’t see the spaces between matter, how did we see the iron in the cereal? But we answered them already 3 times and they STILL didn’t get it. And then I remember that one class member was like “I SUPPORT KMT OK?”. And Mr. K said “don’t let your personal feelings get involved.” So I think that wasn’t  very good.

3)    What was your job? Explain how you fulfilled your responsibilities.

I did the investigations, I contributed to the google doc presentation.

4)    If you could do a different job during the court case, which would you have volunteered for and why?

I think I would choose to be a stenophrager, I wouldn’t be a lawyer because my decision in arguments may not be the best. I couldn’t have been in the jury because I think I’m biased. I could be a ballif, but rather not be. But if I’m a Stenophrager I can take detailed notes of what happened.

5)    Explain one or more thing you learned about KMT during the investigations.

I learned a lot, like how to do scientific method, there was iron in cereal, etc.

6)    Explain how you improved as a scientist during the KMT investigations and the trial.

I think I greatly improved as a scientist because I had practice with the scientific method, having the purpose, hypothesis, materials, procedure, etc. I know how to relate informations to graphs and give my reason for it.

I think that I was a 4 1/2 on the stress level. I found that everyone had already learned a lot about our unit because of the extra homework and or tutors, but I did not no anything about the unit, so most of the things we learned were stressful. I feel that this unit was very challenging. I don’t think that I had enough effort, I didn’t study hard enough. I should’ve studied more. Next time I will study harder. Some of the activities I liked doing was watching the videos, and doing some of the math journal activities.

I have only just done one thing. Donate to some sort of Christmas giveaway thing at school. Basically what we do is we buy food and other useful items. But you had to bring things that wouldn’t expire quickly (or not at all), such as cans of food, water, rice, etc. I brought a can of fruit. I would’ve brought more, but I forgot about it. Now what I have to do is go a community and service OUTSIDE of school. I plan on doing some sort of… I dunno… Something convenient for me.

Look at my behind the scenes HERE! Watch this space for my Hong Kong Heritage Mosque. You can watch my progress here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think that the Drop Everything and Design day was kinda boring. The teachers were talking and after a while of just sitting and listening I got bored. But other then that, I think that today was interesting. We had to research about “The Mosque”. And I came up with 2 research questions, so I’m glad I did. I like how they had more then one teacher talk to tell us stuff.  I wish that Mr. Larson would add more jokes when he was talking to us to make it more funny. What if we didn’t have this meeting in the library, what if we had this meeting somewhere else? Or in our individual classrooms, I feel that it was very squishy inside of the library pit.

What I liked the most is when “Motor Mouth” helped/told me the answers to the warm ups and other claswork. What I didn’t like was the HOMEWORK, it seems to be harder compared to classwork without the one on one help with “Motor Mouth” a.k.a. Nathan. I think the thing I learned really well is input and output tables. I don’t think I have any questions left, Nathan helped me understand everything. You can help count patterns in real life.

Strengths:
-It lives in flocks (there is a greater strength in numbers)
-sharp talons (to dig under ground for shelter)
-big beck (to chew it’s prey)
-big chest (more air)
-large eyes (acute vision)

Reflecting on the process:
I think that my work outside of class wasn’t used very well…. I thought that we would have a lot of time to work on the bird in class, so I thought I didn’t have to really do anything else during the weekend. I also thought that since I finished the major part of the bird (the body), I could relax because that major part was finished. But since I procrastinated, I didn’t really get a chance to finish making my bird. So I had to switch to drawing. Overall, I don’t think I used my time very effectively. So next time, if I had to start over, I think that I would want to use my time more effectively. To do that, I think that I would, create a schedule for my creation of a bird. Like… “On friday finish creating body of bird On Weekend finish creating the legs wings tails… etc.” If I had to self assess me for criteria C, I think that I would choose 3.

During this unit, we learned about Shi Huang di, the first emperor of china. I think that I’ve learned a few skills left and right here and then. Like a few things I’ve learned is how to tell the if a source is primary or secondary. Like for example if it the source was “made at the time”, then it’s primary, but if it was not made at the time, then it’s secondary. I think that if I hadn’t learnt this skill I wouldn’t have been able to get my “7″ in one of my humanities exam. So thank Ms Kirchner . I also learned how to tell if a source is reliable or not, like if there is obvious bias in it. Like for example King John did a lot of bad things in his life time, he offended a lot of religious people. So a lot of christians, jews, etc, didn’t like him. So when he got a lot of negative thoughts about him.

Student

I don’t think preparing for the SLLR helped me understand about myself, well because mostly… I already know myself pretty well. The most challenging part of the SLLR was mostly explaining my learning, I was pretty nervous about the SLLR. But in the end it wasn’t that bad, it was actually ok. If I did the SLLR again (I will in grade 7), I would try to add everything in the SLLR because I  missed a couple things this time. The best part of the SLLR was when it was finally over. I was so relived that the SLLR was finally over because I was nervous. But overall it was a worthwhile experience.

Parent

Julian was a confident leader in his Student Led Learning Review.  I enjoyed playing the math game as much as Julian did. Games are a fun way to learn! I was surprised to find out that the students had to organize their own activities for their Learning Review. I really liked how Julian planned his SLLR agenda and was able to show how he connected with his learning

Julian has shown improvement in his organization and his speaking skills. Julian seemed well planned and knew what to do to lead me through his Learning Review. For his speaking skills, he was patient and answered any questions I had about his learning. His strength lies in his computer skills. He is always teaching me something new about technology!

As Julian explained how his writing process worked, I was thinking that it would be a good idea to see an example of his writing. I would like Julian to continue working on his time management skills, asking more questions about what he is learning and just being more positive all around.