Derek!

It’s Been a While

First of all, I’d like to say that it has been a very long time since I  wrote a blog post. We have been busy working on the ITL Project that we didn’t really have  time to write a blog post. Mind you, we still are working on our ITL Projects and I can’t wait until we see the final results.

 The Snow is Melting

Anyways, it has been a nice spring break here. The snow is actually melting!! We have been through a harsh winter this year, so it’s nice that the snow is melting for that reason. It’s also nice because last year, my brother and I bought a trampoline and had a fun time jumping on it last year, so I can’t wait to set it up and jump on it again.

 Back to School

Now that spring break is just about over, it’s time to go to school…again. But, school has been fun lately because we are working on the video part of the ITL Project. It has been taking some time in school, so thats a plus. Also, it gives you a break from writing things down all the time.

 My Spring Break

Well, my spring break hasn’t been all that fun. I basically stayed inside the whole time. I guess I was a bit lazy. The only thing that was different than any other day was that I got a hair cut. No big deal. But, things are going to get better, since I don’t feel as lazy anymore .

Conclusion

As I said before, we had a good spring break here in Snow Lake. Well, I guess all good things must come to an end.

How was your spring break?

THE END

Introduction

Exams start tomorrow and I am really nervous. I have been studying since 3:30 and I’m just about pooped. In case you were wondering, here are my exams:

Social Studies

January 30^th, 2007

English Language Arts

January 31^st, 2007

Mathematics

February 1^st, 2007

Science

February 2^nd, 2007

Conclusion

I am really nervous for these exams. I guess all I can do is study more and hope for the best!!

P.S. I’m glad I already had my Home Economics exam

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.

Hey! I’m back at school and I am strangely happy about it. It is nice to actually wake up and do something in the morning instead of watching television like a zombie. The thing that stinks, though, is that there is a big french assignment that is due soon. Well, I’m running out of time now. I’m just glad I’m back.

The Beginning.

Mr.Fisher gave us a photography assignment, which involved partners. As we were getting our partners, I was just sitting there. Dustin asked me if I had a partner. Of course, I said no. He asked me if I wanted to be partners with him. This was unexpected, but I had nobody else. I said that I would be partners with him. Then, Mr.Fisher said that we had to take some pictures, basically play time.

Play Time!!

Dustin and I took turns taking pictures. I had it one day and Dustin had it the next. Then one day, we went to the computer lab to edit our photos. Mr.Fisher said to explore using all different kinds of effects. Dustin and I, though, usually morphed our photos way too much. Days later, Mr.Fisher said that we had to focus on a theme. Play time was over.

What Was Our Theme?

We went through many changes with our theme. First our theme was nature. Then we found ourselves playing with the effects too much. That isn’t nature. So we decided to do an emotion. Our choices were between fear and anger. This was because we had a picture that suited fear and one that suited anger. We liked the one that suited anger more, but we didn’t know how to make the other ones like that. Then I thought, why don’t we do orange? I said that to Dustin and I’m pretty sure he loved it. So our theme was orange.

What Did We Do With the Photos?

None of our pictures were naturally orange, so we used effects to make them orange. We also used a lot of effects. Then, Mr.Fisher advised us to take pictures of things that are actually orange. So after school, I took pictures of things that are orange. At school the next day, we put them on the computer and worked on them. We thought we were done with our photos, and put them on a website called flickr. Flickr is a website where you can either put pictures on there or look at other peoples photos. Then, I decided I wanted to edit some of them the next day. So I did and them put them back on.

Today…

I went on flickr today. I looked at what our class put in. I also looked at my photos. When I looked at my photos, some of them just didn’t look right. So, I deleted them. Then, to get it over with, I named them. They are pretty lame names, so they will probably be changed. For example, there is “Stand Out” and “Pottery Clay”. As I was naming them, I slowly realized that these pictures didn’t look real. I knew this was because we put way too many effects on these photographs. To take advantage of this, I changed the theme to orange fiction. The official theme, I can finally say, is “Orange Fiction”. Then, I looked at the other peoples photographs again because I had nothing else to do.

What’s Left?

All that’s left of this photography assignment is to describe our photographs. Yes, we’re almost done. I can’t wait ’till we are done with this photography assignment. This means we are going to do more fun things with Mr.Fisher!!

Some of Our Photos.

Today, we are going to look at The Veldt story again. It was a really wierd story because the house could do anything for the people that lived in it. After that is break. I’m probably just going to sit there like always. After break is Social Studies. We are going to go in the computer lab to work on our individual projects on Feudal Europe (Middle Ages). My project is on Knights. To look at other project ideas in my class, go to www.jhkclassplans.pbwiki.com

Then it’s lunch time!! My favourite time of the day! Then it’s home economics. We are reviewing on how to sew a two and four hole button. I can’t even make a knot! After that, we’re going to have break. Finally, we will have math class. We are reviewing on angles and such. After that. it’s home time!!!

Hey!! I survived the fifth day of school! Isn’t that exciting. Well, not really. It’s just like another day of school. So today, I did the regular things we usually did for the other four days we had of school. We talked about text in E.L.A (english language arts). In social studies, I worked on a couple of questions. Some of the kids were playing SIMS 4 because Mr.Fisher wanted to teach us about different societies and how to make one successful. We did mental math also. I hate mental math!! It is so annoying! This time around, he allows us to write down the question, but still do it in our heads. I’m really glad I got out of 20 on it. It’s the first one of the year, so I’m very proud of myself. Also in math, we had to do geometry. It was basically a review on angles. Well, I guess that sums up my day at school. (Sorry I don’t have anything else to talk about today )

And that ends another blog post…I’ll write soon.