Monthly Archives: November 2019

Trials with Different Mallets

Diploma Program, IB Core

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been working on filming videos about my performance on marimba with different mallets. It is a new challenge for me because it is my first time to actually use more advancing equipment to record a music video. As I had mentioned in the previous post, I will be using a special microphone to assist me in recording a better sound quality music video called “RØDE VideoMic Pro” in this CAS experience. The usage of this advanced microphone went quite successful as it is able to record more detailed sounds and make the sound of the marimba smoother and more realistic. The filming process of this CAS experience went successfully and I am able to use this CAS experiment to identify the difference of sounds between mallets throughout my recordings. Overall, I feel like MKA-S7 is the most suitable combination specifically for this piece Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, Prélude, nonetheless, this CAS experience really helps me with having a better sense of how the mallets sound and ultimately improve my marimba performance in the future.

Here are the video recordings for this experience:


Connection Between Political Cartoons and ADH

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Literature

After going through the second unit, political cartoons. I found out there are several similarities that can be compared to our first unit, A Doll’s House. The “tone” is an essential element for both units as it conveys different styles and feeling to the audience. The usage of tone is able to make an argument become more persuasive, which an effective usage of tone is able to use both in political cartoons and role-plays. For instance, several cartoons will provide a quote which very frequently uses punctuation to presents its tone on the argument and increase its persuasiveness to ultimately formulate a better product in both cartoons and plays. Furthermore, symbolization is another similarity between cartoons and plays. Both of these literate and non-literate texts are able to utilize a specific object to create unique implications to support the author’s main points and argument through either cartoons and plays. In conclusion, the two units have been somehow related in terms of the usage of writing techniques, which is able to strengthen their arguments in either the form of cartoon or role-plays.

End of Volleyball Season

Diploma Program, IB Core

The 2019-20 Volleyball ACAMIS tournament has ended just at the end of October. It has been a great session and I am even more thankful to be able to play with every single person in the team. Although the result did not meet our ultimate goal, I am still grateful I was able to give all I have in volleyball throughout the tournament. I had a great tournament and had a lot of great memories. I met some of my old friends from the last ACAMIS tournament and made some amazing saves throughout the game. The only disappointing part of the tournament is that we did not achieve our initial-set goal, which is to win back our first ever champion for the school.

It is somehow disappointing that I did not get a chance to make a “pancake” during the tournament. The reason for that is because I did not want to take any risky try that could possibly lose a point in such an important tournament. I become more mature in the mental aspects to be better on being more “high-pressure resistance” throughout games. Moreover, I realize the importance of how mental resistance connects to physical performance in sports and it is such an essential factor that could alter the performance of an athlete during games. Thus, I became aware of the reality of an athlete. It is hard and intense. Although you put so many efforts during practices, the final performance in the game is still the ultimate determination of how people see you. Whether you practice or not, your performance in the game is still the determining point to make you shine or not.

 

Portfolio Post #2 Political Cartoon Analysis & 1st Timed Writing

IB Lang & Lit, Language


Throughout this unit, we were asked to analyze different types of cartoons and determine the usage of humor under each one of them. For instance, I chose to annotate a cartoon about gender inequality in sports from Liza Donnelly and to analyze it with a formal structural analysis that consists of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I was able to improve my skills in getting in depths to understand the ultimate idea the author is trying to convey. Nonetheless, I did not completely and correctly annotate the cartoon as the comment from the teacher to reveal that the people on the cartoons are actually female not male, which I somehow miss the part and formulate a different thesis statement in my analysis. I learned that I have to work on the implication and interpretation of the actual text in order to correctly formulate a strong and suitable thesis statement for this specific text.

The intention of Liza Donnelly to create these cartoons is to draw attention and raise awareness from the public to focus on global issues around the world, which in this case she focuses on gender inequality for most of her cartoons. Gender inequality has been a serious issue that affects the rights of people to acheive things in society. There are a lot of advocates aiming to promote gender equality in the world such as Malala who aim to advocate young female education in society. In conclusion, it links back to how our group came up with an ultimate statement about Donnelly’s action in this unit, “By utilizing your own strength to raise awareness on social discrimination, you ultimately shape and change the social value in the end”.

Moreover, we did our first “timed writing” during this unit as a practice for paper 1. I think it was quite new for me as the time limit somehow makes me feel like being pressured. I have to do better jobs in organizing the structure of my analysis better within the time limit. It is essential to strike the main argument and create a solid thesis statement to be expressed in the analysis with the help of supplemental paragraphs to strengthen the main idea of the analysis.