Does Your School Even Care About You?

chihsi22Leave a comment

You can tell a lot about what each school values the most by looking at what they write about. So how do you know if your school values your achievements more than your health and safety?

Do you think that your school cares about you? Well, one way to check may be to take a look at the health and safety regulations at the school. For reference, here are 3 handbooks from different international schools in Asia. Even though they are all international schools and all in Asia, there are still big differences in not only the amount of information they write about student health, but what they thought was the “main point” (what parts they thought were important enough to include).

KAS Handbook

Standards of Safety: 

One thing that is noticed when you open up the KAS handbook is that it places a rather harsh/heavy spotlight on academics and academic honesty that student health and safety sometimes takes a backseat.

Immediately from the table of contents page, academics is seen to be the main topic in multiple sections of the handbook, (sections 3, 5, 12, 14, 16, 17) while safety only gets 1 (section 9). As you flip to section 9, you then notice that the handbook actually only has 1 page documenting the procedures that the school takes in case of an emergency.

Only things like fires, earthquakes, and school cancellations are featured.

Even then, the course of action to be taken for each incident only includes a brief description. For example, the instructions of what to do in case of a emergency reads, “Any Emergency / Safety concerns should be directed immediately to the Superintendent’s office for review and follow up.” If there is an urgent matter that needs to be taken care of, it seems to be a waste of precious time to have to first review and then follow up on the situation before taking action. 

Physical Health: 

Section 9.2 is the only direct reference to student health and safety, which is disappointing when compared to the fact that the handbook has 21 overall sections. The section basically just says that the school would inform parents in case there are outbreaks of infectious diseases and that parents should not allow their kids to go to school if they so happen to be contagious (with no specified diseases).

NOWHERE in that section does it sound like the school cares for the students as individuals, but instead, they seem to care for the student population as a whole and only as a whole.

NOWHERE in that section does it talk about the health of individual students and where they can seek help from the school.

NOWHERE in that section does it talk about how students can seek guidance or help for physical pain, let alone emotional distress.

In a section about student health and safety, there is nothing on how a student should seek help for their own health and safety.

Mental Health: 

However, since KAS organizes their handbook by section, it’s easy to see in the table of contents that KAS does include some bits and pieces of extra information for how students can take care of their health whether it be physically, like what to do when you contract a disease (section 9.2), or mentally.

Oh look, when you flip to section 16, there’s a nice surprise!

Section 16.1 “Guidance and Counseling”.

Maybe they’ll finally talk about how students can take care of their mental health… But wait! Would you look at that. It’s counseling…for academic needs. Even the first description of what KAS counselors do is academically centered. “Counselors are vital members of the education team. They help all students in the areas of academic achievement…”

Not centered around the mental health of the students.

Clearly KAS’s main priority is not safety. So, what exactly is their main priority then?

Academics: 

Well, by taking a look at the titles of KAS’ academic sections, you get the clear feeling that their main focus isn’t just academics and getting the perfect grades/credits needed for graduation, but instead, their main focus seems to be making sure the student is creating work that is representative of them. In Section 3: Expected Student Learning Outcome, the whole emphasis on academics in the KAS handbook is made clear. There is a reason the school gives so much information about graduation requirements and what IB classes you need to take; it is preparing you for the rest of your life.

The focus on academics at KAS is not to force students to get perfect grades, but to develop them into being independent thinkers. Being an independent thinker includes all the things in Section 3, such as being critical thinkers, active learners, and effective communicators. This is why sections discussing academics like Section 16: Academic Dishonesty (a section that’s somewhat ironically longer than that of student safety) is included in the KAS handbook.

Since KAS wants students to take charge of their own learning and apply those skills beyond high school, it stresses the importance of academics throughout the handbook. The section on student safety and health may be brief and concise (and wayyyyyy shorter than the pages of academic guidelines) because this handbook’s main focus is to emphasize the importance of academics and academic honesty in its students’ futures.

SCIS Handbook

Standards of Safety: 

Similar to KAS, in the SCIS ECE Handbook, the table of contents lays out the information of the handbook in sections, making it easy for the readers to quickly skim through the handbook and find what they’re looking for. One distinct difference between the handbook of SCIS and KAS from the start is that there are significantly less sections for the SCIS handbook (7) compared the KAS (21). They’ve condensed everything they needed to say into 7 sections of importance, one of which includes student safety.

This handbook is by far the most detailed out of the 3 in terms of student health.

Physical Health: 

The school discusses what the school is going to do for both the student and the parent in case their student gets sick or has an illness. There is a detailed course of action and guidelines for what the parents/kids should do which not only shows the school’s concern for the individual students, but for the student population.

The school lists specific illnesses that prohibits specific students to come to school in order to ensure the health of both the individual student and protection of the student body. For example, “Fever: A child with a fever of over 99 F/37.2 C or more will be sent home. The child may return when fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medicines.” The way this handbook deals with health by giving the course of action they are going to take makes them appear as to care more about their students as opposed to KAS.

The level of detail and research provided indicates to the readers that the school has actually thought about what will be best for the student’s recovery.

Mental Health: 

There is also a plan for what the school plans to do when kids deal with non-physical issues, such as separation anxiety. Although not a prominent issue, especially with kids in high school, SCIS makes it a point to include that younger kids dealing with separation anxiety will be reassured of their parents’ return and that it is the job of the teacher to ease separation anxiety.

KAS has very little information about what to do in case a student’s physical health deteriorates, let alone have information about what to do when students are dealing with mental or psychological health issues, such as separation anxiety for younger kids.

SCIS puts a lot of focus and care into ensuring that the students of their school are not only physically fit, but also mentally fit to be in school and this is shown through the attention to detail in their handbook.

Academics: 

At SCIS, their dedication to student health can even be seen in their academics section of the handbook. In multiple places, the emphasis is put on making sure the students are not burdened by academics, but instead, developing healthy habits.

This is similar to KAS’ idea of setting students up to become contributing citizens of society. Both schools aim, through academics, to shape inquiring, knowledgeable and caring students who positively contribute to their communities. 

AISHK Handbook

Standards of Safety: 

The AISHK handbook requires people to take a closer look at each part of the book because even though there is a table of contents, the parts are not divided into numbered sections, making it hard to find the parts about student safety and academics. The interesting about the safety section of this handbook is that the content is very different.

KAS and SCIS took the idea of student health and safety as to only attain to keeping students safe from illnesses and what to do in case there is a medical emergency. However, AISHK only provides a generalized plan of what the school will do in the case of an emergency, “Your child will be taken to the nearest public hospital, unless you have instructed us otherwise.”

There is no mention of what kind of emergency or what kind of illnesses will be serious enough to warrant the school to bring the student there.

Instead, they have 2 options; the school nurse or the hospital. 

Food Safety: 

That’s not even the most interesting part. AISHK puts the spotlight on food safety when talking about student health, something neither KAS or SCIS have even touched on. Their section on food allergies and their food catering’s daily hygiene/sanitization is the most detailed out of the 3 handbooks.

Things that have not been mentioned in the other 2 handbooks, such as “Identification of high-risk foods and replacement with other nutritious foods” and  “Awareness of craft materials that can cause risk e.g. egg cartons, milk containers, peanut butter jars” are brought up for the first time and draws attention especially to helping kids with allergies stay away from their triggers. 

Formatting of Safety Section: 

Another unique addition to their safety section is that when they finally do talk about diseases, it is set up in a simple chart that simply states the name of the disease and if/how long the student needs to stay at home. The chart is easily understandable and keeps information concise, unlike KAS and SCIS, who both wrote about diseases in paragraph format, making it harder to parents to find information quickly.

Although the handbook does set rules in place for the teachers to impose less than a certain amount of homework in order to avoid stressing the students, it seems as if the main focus of this school is letting kids explore their passions.

Sports and Activities: 

In their handbook, unlike KAS and SCIS, AISHK has a lot more information about sports and extracurricular activities for the students, encouraging them to become involved in what interests them. There is not such an emphasis on building character through academic learning, but instead, they focus on building character through the sportsmanship and sense of team that comes along with sports.

“We expect every person representing AISHK to be excellent ambassadors for our school.”

AISHK wants the students to be good people that set a good reputation for the morals that the school teaches, whether it be building character through academics or building character through sports.

Takeaway From All Handbooks

Perhaps what each school values the most, whether it be academics, art, or athletics, affects how much the school writes about safety in their annual handbook.

Perhaps the school expects you to know how to take good care of yourself that rules for safety should be common sense.

Perhaps these schools just want you to focus on being a independent thinker instead of being constantly worried over if you’re following safety guidelines.

 

However boring you may think student handbooks are to read, they are still able to provide a lot of information that not only ensures that students are becoming good citizens, but also that they are remaining safe while doing so. Schools want you to be the best person you can be, but the way they aim to achieve that and the lengths they will go to bring out the best version of you, that is what differs so greatly between schools.

And that is why different handbooks exist; to fit what each school expects from their students.

Unit 6 Intro to Chemistry Reflection

chihsi22Leave a comment

How much did you know about Chemistry when we started? When we first started, all I really knew about chemistry was from our short unit last year. Even then, I forgot a lot of what we learned. I really only knew a little bit about chemical reactions and the periodic table. I feel like after this unit, I really learned a lot more about chemistry, but I know there’s still so much more that chemistry offers and we haven’t gotten into yet.

What learner profile best describes your approach to this unit? I think the learner profile that describes my approach in this unit is open minded. This unit was pretty different from the other units we did throughout the year, so it was a bit hard to understand what was going on at first. However, as the unit went on, I learned how to be open to this topic (chemistry) and that helped me to learn.

Considering you will have Chemistry next year in G9–how will you prepare for the class over the summer?
What is one goal you will set for yourself for the Chemistry class next year? I think I have a lot to learn over the summer, especially about chemistry, and that’s what this unit taught me. There’s so many different things like moles, atoms, balanced equations, these things are all going to be in next year’s classes, so it would be nice for me to learn what they are over the summer. I think I want to set the goal of having a good basis of understanding for chemistry (knowing the basics of most common elements and how they react/relate to each other).

Relationship & Identity – A Lantern’s Light Graphic Novel

chihsi22Leave a comment

Personal Graphic Novel – A Lantern’s Light”







Graphic Novel TIEA:

In the book American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang shows how other people’s words at an early age can change one’s behavior towards other people through Jin’s childhood relationship with his classmates and teacher. When Jin transfers to his new school, he is one of the only Asians in his class and unfortunately, Jin notices that his classmates are only focused on stereotypes. “Rumors began to circulate that Suzy and I were arranged to be married on her thirteenth birthday. We avoided each other as much as possible.” (31). His classmates don’t like Jin because his culture is not like theirs and since they feel that Jin is very different from them due to his race, they come up with stereotypes that further isolate Jin from them. They do not want anything to do with him or know very much about his culture, which is why they make hurtful comments to Jin. Their relationship (making rude comments towards Jin) stems off of hate from the classmates, which causes Jin to feel self conscious about his Asian heritage. From the moment he stepped into class, he was already subjected to the underlying racism that exists in American culture from his classmates. These rumors are based off of stereotypes that Chinese people are still very primitive in their ways and since neither Suzy or Jin wants to be associated with something so negative, they avoided each other, in turn, avoiding that specific stereotype. Jin is being exposed to stereotypes and racism from classmates and teachers early on and this type of interaction leaves a mental scar that stays with him, not just for that day, but for years to come. These types of interactions where the teacher and classmate assume he eats dogs makes him try his hardest to avoid fulfilling the Asian stereotypes that they expect him to satisfy, so anything that deals with Asian culture, even if it’s something as simple and as innocent as interacting with another Asian classmate, Jin avoids it. The rumors are ignorant to the point where it’s outright racist, but since Jin is so young, this is all he is used to and all he knows.From that point on, Jin has unconsciously decided he wants nothing to do with Asians because just a few seconds later, he avoids contact with the only other Asian in the class, Suzy, for the rest of the year. Due to other people’s hatred of Asian culture, Jin was also influenced because he believes all the negative rumors his classmates have told him, and doesn’t want to be associated as Asian anymore. Without even noticing, Jin’s perception of Asians, especially himself, has been affected by the negative rumors that surrounded him at a vulnerable age. It took away his behavior and identity as an Asian because it made him feel like there was no place for Asians in America. What his classmates said heavily influenced his life and the way he portrays himself to others.

MLA citation: Yang, Gene. American Born Chinese. First Second, 2006.

Illustrator TIEA: 

In the graphic novel American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien use recurring characters and choice in color in order to emphasize meaning behind Jin’s transformation to the audience. Jin was so caught up in wanting to feel like an American that he betrayed Wei Chen’s trust, but still felt no remorse when he went to sleep at night. In the illustration, Jin dreams that the herb woman that told him he could be anything he wants to be if he sells his soul, came back and transformed Jin into what he desires to be. (Yang, Pien, 194). In the page, Jin’s transformation to an American is made all the more prominent by a physical depiction of the contrast between Jin’s old body, and Jin as an American. From the picture, the use of the woman from his childhood, it shows the audience that Jin is willing to do anything to become an American because then he will be what he has always wanted to be. When Jin was young, his perception of the woman was that she was crazy to think he would do something as drastic as sell his soul in order to become a transformer. However, when the woman comes back in his life, this time as a dream, the difference in how Jin used to think and what Jin thinks now is made more clear to the audience because now, Jin is willing to do anything to become American, including losing his identity as an Asian. Although Jin thought he would never do something like sell his soul, after seeing Jin transform into an American, the idea that Jin didn’t sell his soul, but rather, lost a part of it is given to the audience by how quickly Jin made the decision to forget his Asian identity. The black background gives off the effect that the readers are now in Jin’s mind and they can see all the things that he desires most. In his mind, Jin has turned himself into what he’s always wanted to be. The readers are able to see how drastic the difference between what Jin sees himself as and what Jin desires for others to see him as because the illustrator chose to gradually change the colors of Jin’s face on the same page until he was blonde and his eyes were blue. To be able to see the process of transforming through his hair color, the audience is shown the contrast between Jin’s 2 identities. The first is Jin’s identity as an Asian, shown on the left, before his transition. His second identity is the American part of him, his desire to look like how everyone else around him looks and how he feels like American on the inside, but doesn’t look like one. The contrast in the colors highlights to the audience how the different the 2 cultures/identities within Jin are. It shows how different Jin desires to be from his Asian heritage and since the black background conveys the idea that the readers are in Jin’s mind, it’s almost as if the audience is able to see how Jin’s 2 identities are fighting with each other in his mind to be “Jin’s true identity”. Jin’s mind is confused as to whether he is Asian or whether he is American because although it is obvious that he is physically Asian, Jin feels and relates more towards his American identity, so putting his physical transformation between both identities on the same page is emphasizing to the readers that Jin doesn’t want to be Asian anymore because he feels more like an American. By only describing the mental change in Jin would not be able to show how much his mindset on being an Asian has changed, but through an illustration of physical change in Jin, the contrast in Jin is much more prominent.

MLA citation: Yang, G., Lark, P. American Born Chinese. First Second, 2006.

Discussion Documents: 

Discussion Prep. Document 1:

 

Discussion Prep. Document 2:

 

Discussion Prep. Document 3:

KASの学生インタビュー

chihsi227 Comments

We’re supposed to conduct an interview in Japanese, one student is the reporter (Cheyenne) and one student is the person being interviewed (Paula). We have time to prepare questions for each person to answer on a subject. In my interview, I was assigned to the topic of talking about students, so Cheyenne asked me questions about how I felt about the students at KAS, their English abilities, and what they want to be when they grow up.

Expressing Yourself Through Words – 15 Minutes of Fame Poetry Summative

chihsi22Leave a comment

Poetry is a lot of things. For some, it’s a way of expressing themselves. It’s storytelling without all the unnecessary words. It can mean anything you want it to mean. It’s complicated but so simple. That’s the beauty of poetry.

For every person that reads those words, it takes on different meaning and form that is unique to each individual. People can spend hours analyzing and annotating a single poem and still never know what exactly the author is trying to tell the readers. Or maybe the author’s intent was right in front of our faces the whole time and we just overcomplicated the entire theme of the poem. Maybe the author meant for the readers to decide the meaning of the poem for themselves. Who knows? It’s poetry. Use the words to find yourself, then maybe other people can find you.

Two Poem Annotation: 

Pleasures of Ordinary Life Annotation:

 

Phenomenal Woman Annotation:

Two TIEA Paragraphs:

Pleasures of Ordinary Life TIEA:

In Pleasures of Ordinary Life, Judith Viorst uses first person point of view/perspective to inspire readers to learn how to find happiness in the small and ordinary things. Viorst draws from her own personal experiences and failures in life that have led her to being content in a life that’s not as she envisioned by saying,

It seems the woman I’ve turned out to be

Is not the heorine of some grand story.

But happiness arrived in new disguises:

Sun lighting a child’s hair. A friend’s embrace. (14-15, 9-10).

Viorst chooses to use words like “I’ve” in order to be able to talk about her own personal experiences which allow her to establish trust with the reader. Since Viorst is using first person perspective to discuss the dreams she had that didn’t come true,the readers feel like the author can relate to the sadness that comes along with realising they didn’t become who they wanted to be. After she has established trust with the readers that she understands their disappointment with themselves, she changes the topic and in line 9-10, instills motivation by discussing how she gradually found happiness in simple things like a sun lighting a child’s hair or just a friend’s hug. She is able to inspire readers to find happiness in their own lives because by discussing her own broken dreams, the readers feel as if she’s been in their position before and if she has been able to be content in her life as it is now, then the readers can also be like her and be happy in the small things. She gives them hope that failure or not succeeding doesn’t mean they can’t be happy.

Viorst, Judith. “Pleasures of Ordinary Life,” Poem Hunter. 3, January, 2003. Wed. 19 April, 2018.

 

Phenomenal Woman TIEA:

In Phenomenal Woman, Maya Angelou uses imagery to empower women to feel proud of themselves and feel comfortable in their own skin, no matter what they look like. Angelou talks about how although she doesn’t have the physical attributes that people would label as pretty, men and women find themselves being drawn into the aura her attributes give off, saying

It’s the fire in my eyes,

And the flash of my teeth,

And the joy in my feet.

I’m a woman.

Phenomenally. (22-23, 25-27).

Angelou is first able to draw the reader’s attention to her running list of physical features because the detailed description of each trait makes the readers give more thought to the meaning of each line. However Angelou uses imagery in an interesting way that gives each trait a deeper meaning than just being a detailed description, she uses imagery to empower women. In the first line of evidence, the author of course does not literally mean she has fire in her eyes, but wants to bring out the amount of passion and fight that she has sand needs to have in order to fight against the prejudice she faces from being a woman. The second line is talking about the brightness and confidence that emits from the radiance of her smile. When she looks at you, because of the confidence in her smile, she brightens up the room like a flash of light. When you read the third line, you are able to feel the aura that she gives off when she dances. Since Angelou uses descriptive words like ‘joy in my feet,’ the readers know immediately that she looks happy when she dances and she’s able to influence people around her to also share her excitement when they see her dance. Angelou is telling people through the depth of her imagery that it’s not the physical features themselves that make her attractive, but the way her confidence and self-love seeps through her features and makes them attractive. It’s not her eyes that are attractive, but the passion in her eyes.

Angelou, Maya. “Phenomenal Woman.” Poetry Foundation. 1995. Web. 23 April, 2018.

Two Compare and Contrast TIEA Paragraphs:

Compare:

In Pleasures of Ordinary Life by Judith Viorst and Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou, both authors use first person point of view to inspire their audiences to feel a certain way. Viorst and Angelou both mention their past experiences with feeling like failure and learning to embrace what it means to be a woman in order to build a level of trust with the readers before talking about how they’ve moved on or realised the true meaning of beauty.

But I have learned to find the poetry

In what my hands can touch, my eyes can see. (Viorst, line 16-17).

But they can’t touch

My inner mystery. (Angelou, line 33-34).

In the first 2 lines Viorst starts to talk about how she has overcome her feelings of being a failure and has gradually learned to find the poetry. She’s using poetry as a metaphor for happiness, because often times, like happiness, it’s a lot harder to write poetry when you’re forcing yourself to write. It’s the same with happiness, a lot harder to find when you are forcing yourself to be happy or find happiness.  Instead, Viorst is saying in the second line that she has learned how to let the words and the poem come naturally to her. She no longer racks her brain to force words out onto paper, but feels the poetry in the moment. If she sees something she feels overcome with motivational to write about, then she will write because it’s something she wants to do. It’s her way of saying she will feel happiness in the moment instead of trying to fake her joy. The author uses first person perspective throughout the 2 lines, which ties the concept of being happy to her poetry. This is done well by using first person point of view as she talks about poetry, but then as she talks about feeling inspired to write, the subject becomes more vague, switching to talk about both poetry and happiness while keeping the first person point perspective. The audience sees how she was inspired by poetry to not force herself to feel upbeat and are also inspired to be content in whatever they feel, whether it’s sad, joyful, anger, or any other emotion. The and 2nd author, Angelou, also uses first person point of view to inspire woman to focus on more than just looks using her own experiences. The 3rd and 4th lines are referring to how people wonder how she is beautiful without having the standard beauty ideals. Angelou tries to get the point across to the readers that her “inner mystery” or what makes her special is not on the outside, but on the inside. Since so many people have wanted to tear down her self esteem by saying she’s not physically pretty or has features that fit the normalised idea of pretty, she wants the readers to know she is not phased by what they comment about her her appearance because they can’t touch her soul, and that’s what makes her pretty, but above all, it’s what makes her phenomenal. Readers are inspired by her poem because she uses her personal experience to empower women to embrace their inner beauty.  

 

Contrast:

In the poem Pleasures of Ordinary Life by Judith Viorst and Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou, the authors use poetic devices such as rhyming and repetition differently in order to serve different intents. In Pleasures of Ordinary Life, Viorst uses a clear cut rhyme scheme of ABABB throughout the entirety of the poem to tie in the idea of pursuing a content fulfilled life through all stanzas.

It’s time to make things good, not just make do.

It’s time to stop complaining and pursue (Viorst, line 4-5).

Since she keeps going back to this idea of wanting to pursue a life where she’s content in the ordinary, the best way to help the readers remember and take note of this concept is to bring it up over and over again. However, she achieves this not by using repetition, but by Rhyming helps the readers to remember the poem better because it gives the poem a beat that makes the poem easy to read. Viorst takes advantage of the recurrence of sounds that occur in rhyming to present a recurrence of the same ideas because the music of rhyme helps readers to remember. rhyming instead. Then using rhyme, she continuously talks about getting herself out of the funk, in the poem, and talks about it twice already in the evidence. In Phenomenal Woman, Angelou uses repetition along with rhyme in order to get the readers to take note of the big idea, so she repeats the same rhyme over and over throughout the poem saying,

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal Woman,

That’s me. (Angelou, line 11-13).

The idea of being unapologetically a woman is repeated through the whole poem, but the part that readers pay attention to is the rhyme that is repeated in each stanza. Angelou takes a different approach from Viorst and instead of changing the rhyme constantly, she uses the same repeated rhyme to help her emphasise the point that she is an unbelievable woman. Through rhyming, the author is able to create a pattern that she repeats in order to create meaning. It is because repetition creates a sense of hope for the readers in this poem, that Angelou continues to use the same rhyme. The readers are bombarded with the recurrence of these lines, especially the word “phenomenal”, which leads them to feel as if maybe the author wants them to remember she is phenomenal/women are phenomenal. Angelou stresses the idea that women are not just unique and amazing, but they are so much more powerful than that, they are phenomenal.  

Inspirational Poem – All I Hear:

They laugh and say

“We’re not laughing at you, we’re laughing with you.”

But it feels like they’re just trying to downplay,

In a way,

The judgement behind those words.

I scoff and pretend I’m not the same, but

Am I like them?

 

Every word that comes out of her lips, clouded by the faint sound of her foreign accent.

Her words hold the weight of the world,

The finality in leaving,

The pain of starting over,

But all I hear is broken English.

Am I like them?

 

How dare I be ashamed when she was the bridge between two cultures,

And her words were like the stories of the travelers who crossed the bridge.

Stories I never heard.

Words I never bothered to listen to.

Am I like them?

 

She could’ve spoken in every other language,

She could’ve told me everything.

But I preferred the deafening silence.

I am like them.

I don’t want to be.

I won’t be.

Inspirational Poem Slideshow:

 

Hope Imagery Flipgrid:

 

Hope Imagery Poem – Hope Makes Us Believe:

My hope feels like the soft red cloth that wraps your neck like a cape.

My hope tastes like the endless boxes of cereal kids go through in their relentless search for that one toy.

My hope looks like the thousands of people, young and old, all marching for their rights.

My hope smells like the disinfectant of hospitals as parents wait an eternity for their comatose child to wake.

My hope sounds like the rhythmic pattern of feet against pavement long after practice has ended.

My hope is for people to hold onto their hopefulness (because it’s the only reason they try).

Unit Reflection – Waves/Musical Instruments

chihsi22Leave a comment

What was the hardest part of this task? Easiest? I think the hardest part of this task is figuring out your dependent variables and how you’re going to measure them. For me, I didn’t really want to do anything with frequency because I thought everyone would do it, so I decided to measure amplitude. However, I didn’t really know what units amplitude used, especially since it’s measured in meters. I had to do some research about how to measure of amplitude using digital apps and digital measures. I thought the easiest part was making the instrument because it was actually fun, so it didn’t feel like work.

One of the Approaches to Learning (ATL) suggested for Science in the MYP is stated below:

Social skills–Practise giving feedback on the design of experimental methods

Discuss the statement above as you reflect on your planning and building of your instrument. I thought the way that this summative was designed, it gave a lot of room for others to reflect on our instrument and for us to reflect on our instrument. By having to explain to the class and give a demonstration, I think the students were given a chance to think about what they wanted their variables to be and how they wanted the class to view their experiment. It makes people really think about what they want to do in their experiment if they know other people will listen to them talk about it.

How successful was your instrument in the 5 tests? Which test(s), if any, did your instrument fail? Be honest! Discuss your ideas on how to improve your instrument. I think my instrument didn’t do very well in holding up throughout the whole of the project. The cardboard that held up the instrument was too flimsy to keep holding up the milk bottles, so we had to make some adjustments to the design of the instrument in order to help support the weight of the bottles and take pressure off of the thin piece of cardboard. We ended up having to cut foam and put it underneath the glass bottles.

Discuss why you built the instrument you did? Do you play a similar instrument? Was it an instrument you thought would be easy to be successful building, intrigued or challenged you? I play piano and violin, but it wasn’t really like them. It’s probably most similar to the piano however, the mechanics work differently. I would like to explore wind instruments like the flute Paul made because it seemed to work really well.

Poetic Devices In Songs

chihsi22Leave a comment

In this assignment, we’re trying to find the many different types of literary devices that artists usually use in song in order to enhance their message or to make things sound better. Poetic devices is often used in modern day music, but we often don’t realize it because it is so engrained into our understanding and expectations of music.  The lyrics of these songs can sometimes sound like a poem because of the use of poetic devices. We made a video in which you will be able to see examples of different poetic devices in modern music. 

Imitation Poetry

chihsi22Leave a comment

The Imitation Poetry assignment is a series of poems that I annotated and imitated (the format/style it was written in). When writing the imitations of these poems, we thought about the poetic structure the author used, their word choices, and the significance of that topic to the author. The 5 poems are I wrote below are only just the original 5, but with my own twist/personal experiences substituted instead. 4 of the poems are “normal” poems and are what you normally expect a poem to look and sound like. The 5th poem, however, is a two-voice poem and takes you through 2 different author’s viewpoints on the same topic at once. This allows the readers to compare and contrast the experiences and tone of the authors and understand why using two-voice poetry enhanced the poem.

“If I were in Charge of the World”

Annotation – ‘If I were in Charge of the World’:

 

Poem – ‘If I were Brave’:

If I were brave,
I’d climb Mount Everest,
travel to Egypt,
let myself fall from the highest roller coaster,
and get lost in the Grand Canyon.

If I were brave,
there’d be no failure,
or what ifs,
and life would be more than just existence.

If I were brave,
you wouldn’t have regrets.
You wouldn’t have separate.
You wouldn’t have boundaries.
Or “I’m not good enoughs”.
We would all be enough.

If I were brave,
then someone who has worked so hard to be rid of who they are,
then someone who sails across seas in search of a better future,
then a dreamer,
can be brave
(too).

 

Photostory – ‘If I were Brave’:

“Where I’m From”

Annotation – ‘Where I’m From’:

 

Poem – ‘Where I’m From’:

I am from glue sticks,
from Elmer’s and the untwisted caps.
I am from the broken fountain
(constant, alluring,
it sounded like silence).
I am from the flowering citrus,
the California redwood
whose shadow kept me cool on the unbearingly hot summer days.

I’m from airports and laser tag,
from America and Taiwan.
I’m from the “Then what happened”
and the “Go look at the stars.”,
from the death trap window and the magic door.
I’m from dreaded Sunday mornings
with hidden books
and a ten commandments poster.

I’m from Valley Oak Park and Arden Dimick Library,
cherry icees and black beanbags.
From the personality my brother lost to the expectations,
the silence my mom kept to save her charade.

Over the Pacific Ocean, the plane wavered,
lights flickered,
illuminating shadows of doubt,
wondering what would’ve turned out different.

I am from those moments.
Roots dug before they grew,
fallen oranges from the flowers.

 

Photostory – ‘Where I’m From’:

“Ode to Family Photographs”

Annotation ‘Ode to Family Photographs’:

 

Poem – ‘Ode to Memories’:
This is the white frame, and these are the smiles.
This is the laminated cover, and this is the old style.
The colors seem to fade over time.

This is a word, the first you ever said,
and this is the bullfighting pen of a bed.
The jokes seem to lose their hilarity.

This is my half of a friendship necklace.
This is the concert ticket from out night of being reckless.
The spark of excitement simmers down.

This is a memory of my life,
and the fuzziness returning just as soon as I remember.
The details are lost but aren’t they supposed to return.

This is our first dance,
and this is a broken lightsaber.
This is my brother dressed in layers upon layers,
ready to push his sled down.

I forget as soon as I remember.
The details of events are jumbled.
Nothing seems to make sense.

But memories are all we have left to hold on to.
What else can we do but grasp tightly onto your past
when pictures don’t serve you justice.
My memory is the only thing that will remember you.

“Sick” – List Poems

Annotation – ‘Sick’:

 

Poem – ‘A Vast Library’:
When you walk through the doors,

When you walk through the doors,
and the air conditioning roars,
you start your journey.
Start to see.
Be free.

Wander the aisles,
scan through bookshelves,
search awhile
and find cookbooks,
schoolbooks,
hymnbooks,
scrapbooks,
guidebooks,
textbooks.
On the lookout.

Wondering where the blue book
that you read beside the brook
was misfiled.

“Lunch Rooms” – Two-Voice Poems

Annotation – ‘Lunch Rooms’:

 

Two-Voice Poem Audio – ‘Fruits’ Paula and Yvonne:

 

Two-Voice Poem – ‘Fruits’ Paula and Yvonne: