Category Archives: English 8

Starting Our Project

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I am doing my Valient Ventures project with Teresa Yu. We are going to be singing songs, and putting them on Youtube and Facebook. On the first week, I went to the Conference room to practice singing Love Story, which is the first song we are going to sing. At first it felt weird, even though I was alone, probably because it was so silent and empty there. But after a while, I started singing really well, without any nervousness in it.
https://docs.google.com/a/kas.kh.edu.tw/document/d/1OpTySZCtlEUUqu9QZ47xt0XZsAOhrTFufoP-O81Y9Lc/edit
^Above is the link to the lyrics for Love Story, and the parts we have.

On Monday, there wasn’t any school because of the Moon Festival, so I went to Teresa’s house to practice with her. We practiced for about an hour. When I was about to go, we did a quick video of us singing (not the one we’re going to post on Youtube), but the music was way too loud, and you could barely hear us. When we heard each other singing in real life, not the video, it sounded way louder than the music. I think it was because the microphone in the computer was right next to the speaker or something.

On the second week of doing my Valient Ventures, I practiced singing by myself downstairs on a bench between the courtyards, because the Conference Room was locked. It wasn’t that bad outside, there wasn’t any sun where I was sitting, and there was a nice breeze blowing around. But it was still kind of weird, especially with people walking by every 5 minutes. I feel like they think I’m skipping class or something.

Breaking News! Murder of a Soc!

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Soc “Robert” Bob Sheldon was stabbed in the back last week in the park by a greaser, Johnny Cade, at 2:30 in the morning. Cade was charged for manslaughter. Cade and his friend Ponyboy Curtis, were jumped by Sheldon, Randy Adderson, and some other Socs, because they thought they were picking up their girls. They almost drowned Ponyboy in a fountain, Johnny, completely terrified, stabbed Bob in the back with his switchblade, killing him. The other Socs fled from the scene soon after. Randy claims that it was entirely their fault, and not Johnny’s, but still charged Johnny for manslaughter. Sherri “Cherry” Valance, Bob’s girlfriend, says that Bob was drunk at the time, and he and the boys were looking for a fight when they took her home. Johnny died a hero when he and Ponyboy ran into the flaming church that they had took refuge in to hide from the cops, and saved five kids inside.
Johnny Cade, 16, and Ponyboy Curtis, 14, are both members of the Greasers gang. They get into less trouble compared to the other members. Both were described to be good people, especially compared to the rest of the gang. Bob Sheldon was described by some to be a typical Soc, but Cherry Valance and Randy Adderson say otherwise. “He just wanted for someone to say ‘No’ to him. To have somebody lay down the law, set the limits, to give him something solid to stand on. But his parents spoiled him rotten,” Adderson says. Cherry says, “He wasn’t just any boy. He had something that made people follow him, something that marked him different, maybe a little better, than the crowd.”
After Bob’s death, the people who knew him learned more about life and people. Not all Socs are what people think. Not all greasers are what people think. Life is precious only because it ends.

Visiting Canada!

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So the first place in Canada my mom, dad, brother and I go to is Toronto. We met a tour group there, and it was a three day tour from Toronto to Québec City. We visited many sites including the CN Tower, and even ate at the Revolving Diner at the top. I bought a lot of things, two heart shaped plastic crystal-like keychains, two BC flags, a huge Canada flag and a lot of candy.
After that, we went with another tour group to go to Niagara Falls. We went on a boat in raincoats and rode right under Niagara Falls. We got really really wet, and it was super windy. We even had this device we could listen to that tells us stuff about Niagara Falls.
After that, we flew to Vancouver and lived in a hotel for 10 days. We didn’t go anywhere special, we just went to the supermarket, went to the mall, but I was really happy to be back in Vancouver that I didn’t even care.

Rhyme Time!

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I was really really bored during the summer one day. My mom wanted me to stop watching television or use my computer. I didn’t want to clean my room, so I just decided to write something. So I wrote two rhyming poems about the rain. I really like making my poems rhyme for some reason. I feel like its easier than making it not rhyme. I’m really weird that way.

RAIN

I hate rain
Rain is a pain
Expecially if it was a great day
to go out and play
I’m stuck in the house
with my pet mouse
my mother
and my annoying little brother
Can’t go to school
nor to the pool
I listen to the tap tap of the rain
that’s stuck inside of my brain
wishing I could go out
but the rain will not stop, no doubt

STUCK INSIDE

It’s still raining outside
the forecast had lied
“Please stop this rain Posiedon,” I prayed.
Unfortunately, he did not come to my aid.
I couldn’t go to anyone’s house
So I watched people outside get doused
I watched from binoculars, feeling like a spy
When suddenly, rain stopped falling from the sky

Some of this isn’t actually true. I didn’t really want to go outside that much, and I wouldn’t bother Lord Poseidon with some dumb request like that.

Practicing and Filming For Skits

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I have learnt that making skits isn’t much easier than movies. They’re much shorter, but they’re pretty much the same when we film. It’s really hard to find a good place to film that looks like an actual hospital. And there’s no green or blue wall anywhere either. And none of our bedrooms are empty enough to be good hospital rooms. I learnt that our time management wasn’t really good. We could have film during lunch, afterschool, or before school, but we didn’t. We relied too much on the time we have on Fridays. Our next step is to finish filming any part that might need improvement. I need to finish editing before we know for sure if we still need to film. We practiced our lines and filmed. We hope we will be finished with our project by next week. It took us two weeks to finish the dialogue. And it took a whole month for us to finally finish filming. Because there were a lot of times when there’s no Valiant Ventures. But during that time we practice at home. We checked over what we filmed on the document. We made what we filmed red. We communicated really well. We talked in real life, chatted on facebook and gmail, and also sent emails.

My group fo our second Valient Ventures project is me, Nanako, and Teresa. Our project was in progress for about 10 weeks or more. Our project is two make many skits that are about 3 minutes long. But we only managed to make one, the Doctor one. We were supposed to type the dialogue then film it. We pretty much finished filming and it went better than last time I think. I think it went well because we actually knew what was going on this time. And we finished pretty fast too. Our dialogue was great because it was funny and complete. I feel like we really challenged ourselves. Because it was hard, the filming part. We had to prepare and get the angle right for the camera. We had to set up props and make sure nobody is going to walk by. We could have done a lot of things differently. We could have practiced more at home. We could have worn the same clothes everytime. I could have tried to look a bit more like an old lady and make my voice like an old lady, not a pirate. We could have filmed during lunch, after-school, or before school. But all that could be a lot of work, and it would take time for us to change clothes. But if we filmed more we could have finished more than one skit.

Even though we had many difficulties, I still thought that this project was very fun and enjoyable.

Here we are practicing-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS8s_0jhYoE
Here is out document-https://docs.google.com/a/kas.kh.edu.tw/document/d/13biuhwVBaVrFCGCmOUJYWUb20fMAIXGT3EApbrSwhmY/view

The Black Hole in the Ground

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I looked at my watch, 9:00, it was lights out soon. I put my books away. I swiftly climbed into the top bunk and wrapped myself in my blanket.
But the call never came, we were used to Carlos screaming lights out and to stop talking, but he was silent.
“Carlos?” I called. He didn’t answer. It really wasn’t like him to be late. We looked to where he always stood, by the lights. Carlos was not there. Phoebe and Rafe, the closest to Carlos, claimed that they didn’t see him anywhere.
He wasn’t anywhere to be found. Kira and Dorothy ran to find Ms. Nun.
We finally gave up went to bed. I could still hear teachers walking around trying to find Carlos. I finally fell asleep.
I was walking around the camp library finding a book on Mount Everest. It was for a scavenger hunt. We were to start on separate things. For example, a Monarch butterfly, the Loch Ness Monster, or the Great Wall of China. Most of the information was in the library. I walked down the corridor with my fingers running over the spines of books. I got to W for Neville Winston. I tugged at the book but it was stuck. I managed to pry it out. A plume of dust exploded into my face and I dropped the book. THUD! The sound echoed through the whole library. The once quiet, but always with some talking and laughter, had turned into complete quietness. Suddenly the world dimmed. I could see through the window that the outside had turned dark. I couldn’t hear anything else except for the thud echoing throughout the library. The world was bathed with purple light. Everything was black and purple. Only me and the book had colour. Then a black hole ripped open the floor. An air of cold was being sucked into it. The book fell through it. And so did I.
I woke up panting. It was still nighttime. I glanced at my watch. 5:05. I remembered the scavenger hunt. It’s still going on. But that…that never happened. Our group never had to find anything about Everest. But…was…was that how Carlos disappeared? Falling through a black hole? I thought. I immediately thought otherwise. Anyone would have saw the room turn black and purple. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I went back to sleep.
We got through our daily routine as usual. I didn’t mention the dream to anyone. It was just too weird. Then the news came. Bad news. Drew had been in the library and had suddenly disappeared. I stared at Ms. Nun. She disappeared? In the LIBRARY? That was where I had my dream!
We all went back to bed. Still thinking about the mysterious disappearance of Carlos and Drew.
I was walking down the corridor in the library again. I was looking for a book on volcanoes. I pulled on the book on the shelf. It was stuck. Annoyed, I pulled hard. I pulled it free but I fell backward. BONG! It echoed around the quiet room. I got up dazed, then the room darkened and filled with purple light. What was happening? A black hole opened in the floor. I screamed and stumbled backwards. I dropped the book and got sucked in.
I sat up and looked around. It was nighttime. I looked at my watch, 5:05. Wait…5:05 AGAIN? This is starting to get weird.
Then I remembered when I was 10, I had a dream of a car crash. And that was after my uncle was in a car crash. I had thought that was really normal. Because it made sense that I would dream of a car crash after that. And car crashes were common. Not like black holes opening in the floor.
After lunch, at 4:30, when we were supposed to work on the scavenger hunt to 5:30, I followed my friend Vanessa to the library, looking for a book on flowers.
“I wonder what will be in the book!” Vanessa said, excited, “A chestnut? Maybe then we’ll have to look in the trees!”
“Yeah, I hope so.” Then I froze. I remembered my two dreams about disappearing into a hole. Then Carlos and Drew’s disappearance. Then I remembered in the 2nd dream how I had dropped the book.
“What? What’s wrong?” Vanessa asked me.
“No no, I’m fine,” I said quickly, “I’m going to see how the other teams are doing, I’m just going to take a look,” I winked, “and maybe cause some havoc.”
“Oh sure! Go Cassandra!” Vanessa grinned.
I went to C for Isabella Chloe. I looked at the floor. A book. Not just any book. A book on VOLCANOES, the exact book that I had dropped in my dream. I picked it up and shoved it back in the shelf. I pulled out a different book, it wasn’t stuck. I ran down to find the book on Mount Everest. It wasn’t there. I realized that once you find the book you want, the black hole will appear. The dreams were REAL. They were what really happened to Drew and Carlos. I gasped. VANESSA!! I raced to the place where the flower book should be. It wasn’t there. And neither was Vanessa.
I ran to find the librarian, “She’s gone! She’s gone!”
“Calm down, who is gone?”
“V-Vanessa!!”
“Another child? I’ll call the others. I think it’s time we call the authorities!”
I went to bed, scared about having another dream. I knew what it was going to be about. Vanessa going down the hole. I realized that nobody could see the room turning black and purple. Only the person in trouble. Then I realized how everytime I had woken up at 5:05. What did that look like? SOS. They needed help. Well duh! Of course they do! I had to help them, but how? I fell asleep, exhausted.
I walked down the corridor with Cassandra, finding a book on flowers. We had a short conversation and Cassandra left. I found the book and pulled. It was stuck. I pulled harder and I stumbled. The room turned quiet, dark, and it filled with purple light, “Hello? Cassandra? Are you behind this?” I yelled, “This isn’t funny! Stop it!” A black hole appeared at my feet and I fell through it. But the dream continued, I was in a place I had never been to before. It looked almost like the Nether in Minecraft. But it was pretty cold. I saw a black haired boy with a bright blue hoodie running off into the distance, “Carlos?” He turned around.
I woke up at 5:05 again. I realized that Vanessa, Carlos, and Drew had disappeared at about 5:00. I had a plan. I fell back asleep.
At 4:50 I went to the library and looked for a book on trees. I pulled and just as I thought, it was stuck. I stepped to the side. And pulled sideways, so I wouldn’t fall backward when it came free. The book gave way and I dropped it. The air turned cold. THe library became quiet. The room dimmed and filled with purple light. A black hole ripped open the floor and cold air rushed into it. I walked backwards, holding onto the bookshelf. Just as I had hoped, the black hole wouldn’t close until something got sucked in. I yelled, “Vanessa? Carlos? Drew?”
“Cassandra?” Vanessa yelled back.
“Yeah it’s me! See the black hole?”
“Yes!”
“Okay! Are Carlos and Drew with you?”
“No, I’ll find them! I know where they are!” I heard her running off.
A minute later Vanessa appeared through the hole with Carlos and Drew.

What It Means To Be a Communicator

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To be a communicator means to be someone who tells others about their ideas. You also to listen to other people’s ideas and not make fun of them. We also have to help each other when we need help. Like for homework assignments or projects. When you’re playing a sport, it’s really important to be a communicator. You have to work as a team and tell each other your plans and ideas on how to win.

I am a communicative learner because I use different languages (English and Mandarin) to express myself and I listen to other people’s ideas. Like when we were choosing a game to play as our final project, Sydney wanted Double Tag and we agreed. When we play games like basketball, soccer or capture the flag, we have to work together to win. Like in capture the flag, we planned to have one person who’s good at sports to run towards the flag. Then because everyone thinks that that person’s going to take the flag for himself and he or she’s not like a diversion, most of the people will run after him. Then we all run in and one of us grabs the flag and we run for it.

I can improve by maybe talking more when we do projects together. Because I’m always the one who just sits there quietly and agrees with everyone. This is why Mr.V only lets us have one computer when we do assignments with computers in groups. So that we would TALK.

As I said, I think the area I need improvement is when I’m working in a group. Like for the health project on the nervous system I barely talked. All I said was that there’s no ink in the marker. And I just nodded my head. Also I think that I should ask more questions during class. Because I almost never ask the teacher and always ask my friends for some reason.

This is why you should be a good communicator.