Introduction
For those who don’t know, the International Teen Life Project is a project that our class, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Cartagena (Colombia), and Broadway (Virginia) are working on. The purpose of this project is to learn how other teenagers live in other parts of the globe. To store our information, we have a wiki. CLICK HERE to check it out. The point of this blog post is to introduce our class, our school, our community, and ourselves. We also have to put down problems and concerns that face Canada today.
Myself
My name is Derek. My class and I are taking part in the International Teen Life Project as you have just learned. I have many interests like writing, volleyball, badminton, table tennis, curling, archery, and hanging out with friends.
My Class
There are about seventeen kids in my class and they have very different personalities. There are the very rare quiet people and there are the most common talkative people. There are the people who try hard and the people that don’t care as much. There are the sporty people and the people who support the game. Either way, being in my class is one of the best things about going to school.
My School
There are about 165-170 kids in my school. It’s not very much, but I like how everything isn’t crowded as much as you would expect in a big city. The surprising thing is, my school goes from kinder garden to grade twelve, and that’s how you know that this is a small town. This school is also part of the Frontier School Division along with towns like Cranberry Portage and Moose Lake. I like Frontier School Division because we go on many trips through out the year. So, my school is pretty nice for a small town, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My Community
I live in a nice, small community in northern Manitoba. The population is about 750 or more. Since I live in a community that is up north, we see lots of snow in the wintertime. We also have very nice summers, though. I bet they aren’t as nice as they are in Kuala Lumpur, but we live. I am not sure the warmest temperature here, but I am pretty sure that the coldest temperature here was around –45 degrees Celsius. That leads me to another thing. In Canada, we measure our temperature by Celsius, not by Fahrenheit. I really love my home town and even though it can get boring at times, it is still a great place to live.
Concerns that Face Canada
Global Warming
I think that global warming affects everybody, not just Canada. I think that Al Gore really took on the subject well in the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”. When we watched it in class, I was really shocked how much energy we waste and how much pollution we cause. I was also surprised when little things such as recycling and changing your regular light bulb to a fluorescent light bulb can add up. If we did these things and more, we could stop or at least slow down global warming.
Smoking
Again, smoking affects everybody, not just Canada. Maybe some people more than other people, but still. Everybody is affected. When people buy cigarettes or cigars, they know that what they are doing could kill them, but the power of addiction can rule any sensible person. Not only do they risk their own lives, but they risk the lives of the people around them when they smoke. Then, there is something that really confuses me.
Cigars and cigarettes make a big profit, and a lot of it goes to the government. The government then builds roads and buildings and all other sorts of things with profit from cigarettes and cigars. If people stop smoking, less profit will go to the government that builds the roads and buildings. When you think about it, the government could find another way to make money. Until then, I guess stores almost everywhere will still sell cigars and cigarettes.
Weather Conditions
Lately, the weather has been really cold in some parts of Canada. In my community, it is just a bit of a pain. On the highway, though, people have been evacuating their vehicles and freezing to death, literally. I know, it is very sad, but there is nothing you can really do about it. Luckily, the weather today has gotten better compared to other days last week. Unfortunately, the weather is supposed to get colder again.
Conclusion
I hope you learned a lot about me, my school, my town, and Canada. I can tell that this is going to be a fun unit and I hope many more units like this come soon.
8 responses so far ↓
1 steve92 // Jan 19, 2007 at 12:01 am
Hey! I’m Steve. Thanks for the comment and this intro is really great. I really would like to work with you guys for this project. Yours is awesome! Bye!
Steve
2 Paulina // Jan 19, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Hi Derek,I am Paulina, a student at the George Washington school in Cartagena, Colombia.I think that global warming is really affecting our Earth.The poles will soon melt and some cities along the coasts suach as Cartagena will disappear from the map because they will be under water. Can you tell me what was the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” about.
3 Juliana // Jan 22, 2007 at 7:32 am
Hi derek, I am also concerned about global warming. Pollution is destroying our ozone layer wich is leting the sun melt the earth! What do you think about it? Well here were I live there are so much cars that pollut our air. Well here were I live last year had been really really hot it was horrible. But now this new year the weather has been perfect at the morning their is a very good cold breeze and at the afternoon the hot sun wich I like and at night it is very cool. I like it a lot. Well I hope you see my coment! bye
4 Pau I // Jan 22, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Hi, Derek! My name is Paula and I’m from Colegio Jorge Washington in Cartagena, Colombia. Global warming is also an issue that I’m interested in a lot and I want to do my project about that. I think global warming is very different in Canada and in Colombia because Canada is nearer to the North Pole and colder while Colombia is near the Equator and more tropical. In Colombia there is always a hot climate and I’d like to know how global warming has affected.
5 jiwon // Jan 25, 2007 at 7:07 am
Hey, This is Sarah in Mr. R’s class (KL). Thank you for visiting my blog. Through this post, I learned many things about you. And there are many things I would like to talk to you about too.
Global warming seems like a big issue all around the world. You said that we can help the world by doing small things such as ‘recycling and changing your regular light bulb to a fluorescent light bulb’. And I think many people know that. But why aren’t they ‘recycling and changing regular light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs’? Because they are lazy? But we will all die eventually if we don’t start doing something for this.
Smoking is one of the most important problems as well. Sure, there are some benefits of smoking, they can actually help the government to improve the lives of people. But I don’t think it is right for any governments to build stuffs by selling drugs like cigar to people because smoking kills people and what is the point of building the roads and highways when millions of people die?
I never thought about this problem, weather condition before. I think this problem has a very close relationship with global warming and I think that if people care a little more about the environment, this wouldn’t be a big problem.
I hope you will come and visit my blog again to talk more about these problems. Bye.
My blog address: http://jiwon.learnerblogs.org
6 adrianl // Jan 25, 2007 at 7:15 am
Hey Derek, I’m Adrian from Mr. Raidana’s class in Malaysia. You’ve already seen by blog at http://adrianl.learnerblogs.org. Since I live in Malaysia and it’s pretty warm here, I can’t believe you guys in Canada can get temperatures as low as -45 degrees Celsius. Personally, I wouldn’t mind getting some cooler weather since Malaysia’s day temperature is about 25-35 degrees Celsius.
Anyway, I think that it was a good idea for your teacher to show “An Inconvenient Truth” since it brings about awareness of the state of our planet. Also, as you said, all of these little things such as just changing the type of light bulb we use can make a difference in our world. The good news though is that scientists believe that if we continue to release the same amount of destructive gases into the ozone layer as we are now, the ozone will be able to repair itself. They estimate it could take about fifty years or more for the ozone layer to return to its condition in the 1970’s, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If you want to learn more, you can check out these sites.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1050495.stm
http://www.abc.net.au/science/planetslayer/greenhouse_qa_ozone_1.htm
7 Sam // Feb 23, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Hey Derek Im Sam. I totally agree I mean look at the world now………. The earth has been getting dirtier by the minute. This year I’m doin a report on recycling and the ozone layer. So I saw this site and checked it out. After all the comments you got abot the ozone layer, and recycling ,and helping the earth I was anxious to reply! I’d like you to know That you are not the only one who wants to help.We all do! But I wanted to let you know that by making this it helps a lot of people to see that the world is in danger! It made me feel happy to know that someone else cares about the earth as much as I do! I showed my family and friends this site a while ago and they agree that you are doing the right thing! So Great job!!
8 Sam // Feb 23, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Oh! And If you could do anything to inform me more I would love that! Thank You!!!!
Leave a Comment