Magical Moment

My magical moment was when I scored a freekkick and won in the final match of my soccer league.
It felt like winning a gold medal at a world cup for me. I felt so relieved and joyful when my teammates all came running to me and started hugging me. Winning the final game felt like achieving one of my most important goals. It was the best moment of my life that I would never forget.

Magical moment

My magical moment was when I got my iPod almost 1 and a half years ago. At that time I've been wanting one for almost two years so when I finally got it I was super happy! 

Very lucky moments!

You are both very lucky to have such rare magical moments in your lives, Karn and Shallon! Thank you for sharing them.

My Magical Moment

My Magical Moment was when I traveled to Brazil for a gymnastics competition. It had been my first time traveling to a 3rd world country all by myself. I was excited to go because i knew about the beautiful weather and how it was sunny everyday! The weather in B.C. was rain all the time so I needed a change. Once I got there I didn't regret going one bit. I absolutely loved it! Before comp we went to the beach walked around a bit and then rested.  Anyways I will never forget going there and I hope to go back sometime soon!

My Magical Moment

Everyone goes through something special in their lives, which is unforgettable, so did I. When I was very young I had found out that I have a twin brother. Overtime we started getting the same interest in things like playing soccer, or football. Having a twin is a cool and special feeling who looks exactly like you. Having a twin can make life much, more entertaining and enjoyable. The most fun part about being a twin is seeing people react and seeing people getting confused trying to figure out who’s who. It’s a pretty cool feeling of having a twin who enjoys the same thing as myself. I am really lucky to have a twin which is a different experience and not many people go through.    

My Opinion on Slam Poetry.

For those of you who don't know Zaccheus Jackson or "Zack" came to perform slam poetry at Fraser heights, Slam poetry or Spoken word is becoming more common in todays society as it is a way to express your emotions in a healthy way. During Zach's presentation he told us some great stories especially those on his Struggle with addiction and how slam poetry gave him a positive outlet and changed his life. After Zach recited his poems, I understood why Slam Poetry had risen to such popularity as it displays a lot of similarity to rap which is also quite popular.
   My personal opinion on Slam Poetry is that it is an great form of protestant art because it is healthy and non violent I believe that slam poetry will rise to an even greater level of fame in the next decade.

1. What did you think of Zack's performance at Fraser Heights? 

 What I thought of Zack's performance was that it was entertaining and interesting. I liked how he talked about his personal life and rapped about it. It was almost like he was a professional rapper.  But, the first thing he started talking about was his personal life. He said that he was homeless on the streets for at least 6 months and told himself he needed to change. The next bad thing that happened was he became addicted to drugs and was an addict. He got arrested a couple times for drinking and went to jail. His cellmate was released from prison at the time so he had to cook for himself.

  He moved to another cell with a different person, and his cellmate expected him to cook for him because he didn't know how to cook. Zack said he knew how to cook but not very well but he was forced to cook for his new partner.  He made spaghetti for his partner and he didn't like how many onions he put in for him. He got in a fight with him and argued about it. Zack said it didn't matter how many onions he put in as long as he was grateful. Afterwards, he was moved back to his old cell where he wrote his first poem without paper just in his head. He remembered it by heart and never forgot it.


He also talked about how one day he was walking and he came across this place where he could recite poems.  On the sign it said "Grand Slam Poet" and he walked right in, went on stage, and recited his poem. He was very nervous and after the performance, he ran straight out the room and all the way home. But, eventually that became his job and now he does it for a living. Sometimes, he wonders how he got his job, but he said if he didn't go in there and recite that poem in front of everyone, to this day he would still be on the streets addicted to drugs and homeless.

Zacks Performance

Zach's performance was really great. I learned many things about him and why he had joined slam poetry. Now I am going to share the facts Zack shared with us. The first thing that Zack shared was that he was homeless around 6 months, then Zack told himself that he needs to change in life so that he wouldn’t be homeless anymore. When he was on the streets he used to be an addict but now he isn’t. Zack said he went to jail and in jail he wrote his first poem thing. When he was in jail, he moved to a low security prison, which had a TV, video games and not a lot of guards. Zack had to be the cook in that prison because the other cook was released from prison. One day Zack was making his spaghetti and another guy said he didn’t like his spaghetti because of the amount of onions he put in. Zack watched a lot of TV when he was younger so instead of talking to guy he started a fight with him. After the fight Zack had to leave the nice prison and had to go back to the other jail where he had came from. He was put in a small room, which had a very thin blanket, a window, which stared at a brick wall, and a LED light which was on for 24 hours. He started going crazy in his little cell after six days so he decided to make a poem, which he wrote in his mind and remembered it by heart. 

Zack never wrote this poem on a piece of paper. The first time Zack performed this poem was at a café, before he performed he asked what a poetry slam was and so the guy explained it to him and when he was finished Zack decided to perform. Now Zack has a Successful job, which he really enjoys      

Current events~ one thing I would change about school~ Priya

If I could change one thing about highschool I would change the grading system to something that is less of the teachers opinion and more on how much you learn and understand.

 

I want to change this because i've noticed that sometimes when someone has a really great intelligence in a certain subject they get a lower mark than someone who has a lower intelligence in this subject, that is an unfair system to work with and won't help you actually know how your doing. Also when you get homework and tests it mainly supports your memorization not your full understanding. If our system is like this it will be really hard to get into the university of your wishes, because you got a low grade on this subject which technically means your bad at this subject, even though you are not bad at it. Maybe you want to be a scientist when you grow up but you can't get into a good university for it because you got a C in science. You also got this C because you had after school activities which sometimes interrupted your class so you couldn't do your homework and you got bad on a test because you didn't have enough time to understand the subject; in the end you end up being a low rate scientist or not a scientist at all.

CURRENT EVENTS POST #3

The topic I chose to write about is how students would change high school if they could based on an article written on Huff Post Teen.  The article gathers Twitter comments made by teens and reveals students' opinions regarding high school and their suggestions on how to improve it.  They make comments about what should be taught at school,  how good the cafeteria food is, school starting too early and other statements.  In my essay I will talk about whether I agree or disagree with some of the students' opinions and state my point of view on various comments. 

Emily states that she would like it if students never had to finish anything, but realizes that this isn't how life works.  She thinks that "The real world sucks".  I think that sometimes too.  It would be nice if students didn't have to complete assignments and meet deadlines, but this doesn't prepare you for the real world.  What kind of a person would you become if you were never required to complete anything?  I don't think you would be able to hold down a job for instance.  You wouldn't be able to complete any tasks that your boss asks of you.  How would you earn money to live?  Learning how to complete a task is a good thing and students should master this skill as much as possible.

Isabel Song comments that she would like to have a class that teaches life skills.  I completely agree.  It would be so valuable to learn for instance, how to make friends, how to keep friends, how to get along with others, how to cook and mend things.  Starting in elementary school and through high school useful things that would help in everyday life should be taught.  I like Isabel's idea about how to be the best you can be that would be really helpful in your life. 

  

I agree with Danny Fratella who says that schools don't offer the courses that would help him in obtaining a career.  In addition, I think it would be useful if we could take online courses.  This would be helpful for someone like me who only goes to school for half a day.  If I could take some of the courses which I missed then I wouldn't fall so behind on my learning.  Students could take courses that interested them, i.e. fashion illustration or designing furniture, etc. 

In conclusion, some of the students had good ideas, but in reality they wouldn't work well.  Other ideas were very good and if they were incorporated into our school system, it would be an improvement.  I especially like the suggestion that schools teach more life skills, after all, these types of courses would be most beneficial to students in their everyday life. 

The website where I got my information was:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/high-school-changes_n_4844338.html?utm_hp_ref=tw  

Current events

In the article "14 things that are outdated  in 21st century schools", the author argues that many things that we think is  normal in our schools,such as phones computers, computer labs should be banned. In this current event post I will explain why technology is good for our schools. 

  These people don't understand that banning wifi,phones and computer labs/computers would make learning much harder because we can't really search up the things that would aid us in our assinments or projects during school hours. Not trying to be mean but these are the kind of people who where raised without technology. These people do not understand that technology is very important in the 21 century. 

    The other half are the more understanding people who are more up to date people. They understand that technology is really useful and really isn't the wrost possible thing in the world. I do understand that it can easily be used for bad things and can cause distractions in the class. But if you change  the rules a bit, like any other classroom rules, that texting in class is bad, then you would be fine.

     All but 1, which is #8, unhealthy food in cafeterias. I really don't see why they don't sell unhealthy food in the cafeterias like pizza and burgers. Not selling junk food in our cafeterias wouldn't make a difference because we have many stores beside our school that has candy and other things like Quiznos, dddn, and subway. But back to technolgy. You can do so much more with technology, teachers could show videos and other things relevant to the lesson. We could do a lot more with technology compared with books and paper that's all of the things schools currently have. Technology is all around us, why would people make such a big deal about it.

Current Events Blogpost #3 What I Would Change About Highschool

The Hufffington Post article linked on the humanities blog shows the response of 20 teens via twitter when asked what they would change about highschool. Schedule changes were common as well as an equal focus on fine arts that is given to athletics. I thought a lot about what I would change in Highschool and although shortening school hours  seemed like it would be a lot easier it wasn't a revolutionary idea and truthfully it was only encouraging us to be more lazy and that wouldn't help us when we got to university one day or even in a trade long hours are a part of life and we have to learn how to deal with them. so what could we change about highschool? Well I have an Idea.

   Research  has shown that each and every individual of any language or race has a learning style that falls under one of the following three categories Kinetic, Auditory, and Visual. Each teacher has a learning and teaching style that primarily falls under one of these categories as well so I propose that we separate students and teachers by the following categories ie Math-Visual or Science-Auditory.
Each person would learn in their categories until grade 10 and then in grade 11 and 12 mixed classrooms so that they develop the ability to work and learn in all environments.

    I personally believe that this will help us learn the basics in an environment that caters to our learning needs a lot better, However switching to a mixed environment for the last two years of highschool will help ensure that we are not left shocked upon entering the "real world" after graduating.

  

Current Events Post # 3

         Things That Are, Or Should Be, Obsolete in School's Today

Recently many blogs have posted very intriguing ideas and thoughts about the things that are obsolete or should be obsolete in schools these days. I agree with most of these facts but I want to add a couple of ideas to the list.

 There were several obsolete things that I agreed with on the list. One main idea that I agreed with was that starting school too early in the morning is obsolete. Many athletes and students who have to stay up till late doing homework, sports, and different kind of extra curriculum activities might have difficulty concentrating in class the next morning. It is very obsolete to start school too early in the morning for the students might not have enough energy or concentration to show their best work. Not only for the students, but it would be a benefit for the teachers to be able to prepare their lesson for the students in this extra time. Many researches have shown that students should be given at least a 30-50 minutes of extra time to rest before the school starts. 

Another idea I agree with are that teachers who don't share what they do are obsolete. If teachers, who are teaching us all over the world, aren't learning anymore, than they shouldn't have the authority to teach us. Teachers as well as students should be showing each other through blogs, emails, or posts, that they are constantly learning new stuff. I also agree with the fact that all students getting the same is definitely obsolete. Almost everyone has hobbies or subjects that they are really excelled at, but schools usually try to force you to excel in all subjects. This is not a good idea, because for some students it might seem like a torture to be forced to do what you are bad at rather than excel more in what you're good at. The age of students shouldn't matter much in school and there should be classes that is made up of students who might have the same interests and hobbies regardless the age difference.

I disagree with some of these facts. For example, I disagree that unhealthy food at the cafeteria is obsolete. The reason that many schools have hamburgers, fries, and fast food is because the students enjoy eating them, not the teachers. It should be our choice to pick what we want at the cafeteria instead of having completely organic foods and vegetables like some school. It is true that organic food would give you a lot of nutrition and knowledge about the benefits of eating nutritional food. However, it is not a good way to force students who might not enjoy eating nutritional food to do so. It would be a good idea to have both fast food and organic food in the cafeteria. Also, the idea of making students put food on their own dishes and wash their own dishes is not a good idea. School is a place where we come to learn about different kinds of subjects and find what we are interested in. It is not a place to get students to clean their dishes for us to learn about growing up and responsibility. We should learn to clean dishes and learn about growing up at our house from our parents rather than going to school to learn about it. It really wouldn't be enjoyable to be cleaning dishes at school when we could be learning new avenues that we never discovered.

 I want to add to this list that making PSR, personality responsibility, 70% of your whole P.E. grade is obsolete. Many schools are making personal responsibility which includes not being late, sportsmanship, participation, and communication as most of the P.E. grade. I personally think this is obsolete, because in this case, P.E. which is a abbreviation for physical education, is basically concentrating more on the mental or sociable side than the physical side . If based on the PSR grade evaluation like in Fraser Heights, you don't have to be good at all in sports to get a good grade, for fitness and athletic skills are only 10-20% of your overall mark. It shouldn't be called physical education if they are trying to make the subject more based on someone's responsibility rather than there athletic side. It is true that athletes should have a lot of responsibility with them but it just doesn't make sense to evaluate students on the PSR when P.E. is suppose to be a physical subject.

 Based on this list Fraser Heights is a very modern school because it tries to build mostly around the students. There is barely any obsolete things in Fraser Heights for they allow students to have freedom and try what they enjoy or have interests in. For example, Fraser Heights is working on using technology in most of the classes, so the students learn a new way of learning. This is a very important way for we need to learn how to use technology not only to text and call but to learn new stuff through them.

 In brief, this list was very detailed and shows that schools should have more reality in them. I agreed with most of these ideas and it was very interesting to read them and think about them. 

Current Events Response Blog Post- Should Women's Ice Hockey be In The Olympics?

This response is based off of the article I found linked on the Hum 8 blog.
The article states that there was rumours circulating on the removal of Women's Ice Hockey from the Olympics. Even though the Olympic committee has released a statement that they don't plan on eliminating the sport anytime soon, This article describes the arguments of why having this sport in the Olympics could be positive and negative.
 
 There is many benefits to having Women's Ice Hockey. Such as the amount of profit it provides to the Olympics and the publicity it gets through social media. So why would they be trying to remove it? Well many people believe that since there are very few strong countries in this sport since it has not been developed thoroughly worldwide just like softball after Beijing 2008 was removed due to the same concept.

On the other hand many countries have certain pinpointed areas of strength in which they succeed tremendously. So essentially it is unnecessary to cancel out an entire sport simply because there aren't enough players , as time goes by the sport will develop and removing this sport is only postponing it's inevitable return.

Furthermore In my Opinion Women's Ice Hockey should not be removed from the Olympics because it would be contradictory to many other sports which have not developed far enough to cause a massive amount of competition.

CURRENT EVENTS #2

Should women's hockey stay in the Olympics?

The debate about whether women's hockey should stay in the Olympics is an ongoing debate.  For those who want the game to stay, they say it needs time to grow and eventually more countries will embrace the sport.  For those who want it to go, they say it's imbalanced because the top two teams are always Canada and the U.S.A.  The other countries have a long ways to go before catching up with the abilities of North American players.

Rene Fasel, International Ice Hockey Federation President and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman are two people who would like to see Women's Hockey stay in the Olympics.   Canada and the U.S.A. already have female hockey players who are the best and they're still improving.  The rest of the world is miles behind which means that they have a lot of catching up to do.  Sochi, Russia hosted the fifth Olympics that had women's hockey as a sport.  Canada has won the gold medal three times and the U.S. once.  Proponents of eliminating women's hockey from the Games argue that this sport is not competitive because it's always Canada and the U.S. that end up winning.  It seems like the other countries don't stand much of a chance unless they do something drastic to improve their game.

Fasel states that European hockey is not what it should be, but it has improved.  He notes that it took Switzerland 60 - 70 years to finally beat Canada at the Olympics for the first time in Torino, Italy.  He feels we need to exercise a lot of patience with women's hockey and draw attention to it.  It is a sport that deserves attention.  Over the years, more and more countries have sent female hockey teams to the Olympics which is a sign that things are improving.  There are currently 8 teams in the Olympics, but Fasel would like to see this grow to 10 teams.

In conclusion, I think women's hockey should stay in the Olympics because it is a sport that women are progressively becoming more interested in.  The general public is also interested in this sport, especially North Americans.  If it were to be removed from the Olympics, it would stifle the growth of the sport since the Olympics draws a lot of attention to women's hockey.  The Olympics promotes its growth because it is mostly an amateur sport.  It is critical that women's hockey remains an Olympic event.  It will take much patience, but women's hockey will grow worldwide in time.   

 I got my information here

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sochi/iihf-president-women-s-hockey-will-never-be-out-of-olympics-1.1691364

Communal dining in restaurants ~ Priya

There is a recommendation for restaurants to have long tables to sit at, instead of our regular booths or tables, so we can support further communication with our fellow residents. There are many pros and cons to this idea.

Some of the pros to this idea are that you will be able to know more about our fellow resident. BC Living says "...dining with our peers provides the opportunities to engage in conversations that let us bond and learn from one another. It’s a chance to share information as well as feelings of belonging. It also fosters better manners." Communal dining will also make "Vancouver a friendlier city" CBC News says. Basically the hopes for communal dining is for Vancouver to become a better place with more communication and support for travellers trying to find a nice,and friendly place to visit.

The cons to communal dining is the lack of privacy. "Most people like to go to a restaurant with the people they know and talk to the people they know." CBC News says. The cost for restaurants to change their tables is another thing we need to consider tables aren't free and no restaurant wants to pay for new tables and make a new layout for their restaurant just because of a recommendation. Communal dining also might make people feel uncomfortable eating in front of strangers; the stranger might be someone rude, or messy, or annoying. You never know who your going to sit with.

I don't think communal dining is a good idea because when I go to a restaurant I go to spend time with my family and friends not strangers, I'm sure me and any other people prefer to eat with only the company they came with. Communal dining might end up with more take out (if restaurant allows takeouts) than eating in. If I'm having a birthday and came to eat at a restaurant I don't want some annoying nobody to be sitting in front or beside me doing whatever, or if the restaurant gives some sort of birthday treat to be singing happy birthday. Also often when someone eats at a table it is left with a mess on it nobody want to be eating by or on a messy table, or have a worker cleaning the table right beside you.

Current events/ The icar?

On Tuesday one of the biggest companies (Apple) announced that they are creating a car that uses your iPhone to control the car like choosing songs, using the internet and many more things that u can use your phone for. Apple teamed up with Ferrari, Mercedes, and Volvo to create an app that allows you to use your iPhone for the icar, this app is called carplay. "iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction" said Greg joswaik Vice President of iPhone and iOS marketing. Users of the icar can press the steering wheel and then Siri is activated you can make calls using voice 

commands.The  app will also anticipate the drivers destination. The new car play app will be an update for iOS 7, it works with iPhones 5s,5c and 5

 

   The companies which will enable carplay will be BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan Motor Company, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota Motor Corp are also set to offer CarPlay in the future.

So it will not be an official car but it will be in future cars at the retails listed above in the future 

I got my information from this website 

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/icar-arrived-apple-launches-car-070104772.html

Current Events Post #2

                    Dining with Strangers?

How would you feel dining with complete strangers that you don't know at a restaurant? Starting from 2012 , Vancouver has been trying to encourage restaurants to offer more "long tables". This means that restaurants won't have separate tables but offer communal conversation tables to make Vancouver a more welcoming city and friendlier city. 

  Many high acknowledged people are remarking that Vancouver should be a more acknowledged city and the communal conversation tables is a great way.  The benefits of eating with strangers is that it would let the people bond with each other, practice our social interaction, and fosters our manner. Coun Andrea Reimer said that if Vancouver wants to be more engaged than the city should set up these communal conversation tables. However, this is not just what the city can do, for it falls on the residents. Citizens think that sitting in a restaurant eating with strangers build up a more brighter city and would also help the city become friendlier. This idea would also be a new culture to Vancouver. Many people are trying to persuade the city to encourage restaurants to lay out the format of the long tables. Immigrants that have just immigrated to Vancouver, would feel more welcome if they walk in a restaurant to see long tables set out for people to have conversations. 

  Despite the fact that many popular restaurants have set up this long tables, the B.C. Restaurant Association said, " it is a good idea, but I doubt it will change." Many people want to encourage the city to use this long tables but they don't want to force the restaurants. Citizens that are antisocial think communal dining is like a restaurant with no open seats. They strongly disagree against this idea of eating with random strangers especially because they want to be by themselves. Some people say that communal dining is like cramming up in one long table with strangers which makes you extremely uncomfortable. Many people might think that this is a good way to enlighten and engage the citizens of Vancouver, but it may not be the best way for some people.

  In brief, I disagree with the communal dining for I am extremely shy to strangers and eating with strangers would make me extremely uncomfortable. The way of communal dining wouldn't let me enjoy the food because I would be too distracted by the people going in and out. It also isn't a very happy thought to be all crammed in with people in one long table. I am not a very sociable person when it comes to strangers . This whole communal dining would kind of feel like a game of musical chairs, of people who are done the meal going in and new diners coming in. If I was forced to sit at a restaurant with strangers, it would feel like a dinner party with people coming in unannounced. I rather enjoy a quiet meal with some of my close friend or my family.

Articles I found help on:  http://www.bonappetit.com/columns/nitpicker-columns/article/i-m-sick-of-communal-dining
http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/britishcolumbia/story/1.2524317
http://www.vancouversun.com/Dining+with+strangers+among+recommendations+make+Vancouver+more+engaged/9451336/story.html

Can somebody tell me what the hw is the paper fell out of my binder 

Current events revised (Priya)

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/#!/content/1.2490618

A photographer named Wayne Martin Belger made some cameras, that are made out of human remains. He believes that art can help us cope with death, and that when we die our body can be turned into art which can connect us to the dead. Because he thinks this he made cameras made of human remains.

"Third eye camera" is a camera made from a 150 year old skull that Belger got from a doctor. He made this because  "[he] wanted to take this beautiful object of decay and photograph the beauty of decay."

"The heart" is another camera made by Belger. This camera is made from a fetus's heart. It allows Belger to connect himself with the dead. When he was 20 he found out he had a twin brother who died at birth. With this camera he photographs woman before they have a baby. "I've yet to have a negative response," he says.

 It's really amazing how a camera made with human remains can do this. 

Mental Toughness Revised

In my new version of mental toughness, I thought it would be an improvement to relate the article to me and my experiences as an elite gymnast.  I realized that I need mental toughness everyday at the gym.  It's one thing to train while you're relaxed, but completely different when you're competing and there is stress coming from different directions.  During a competition I worry about not doing well and this makes me anxious.  I also worry about falling which will bring my ranking down and this causes me stress.  But, I try not to think about being scared and nervous.  I just remember how many times I've practiced my skills and try and trust that it's enough to help me do well.  I tell myself being brave is the key.  Being scared does not prevent my knees from wobbling while I'm on the beam for instance.  I have to be strong and put on my bravest face blocking out all my fears.


The article talks about how you need mental toughness just to get through each day of training.  Boy, can I relate to that!  Training 5.5 hours/day, 5 or 6 days/day can become pretty repetitive and you need a tough mind to get you through it.  Sometimes I go to gym with sore muscles or I haven't slept enough and feel tired.  Even worse is when you get injured.  I've always said the true test of how strong an athlete is is when they get injured.  I broke my big toe once and I would go to gym wanting to fully train, but couldn't.  I had to let my toe heal, all I could do was conditioning.  I'm rearing to go, but I'm stopped dead in my tracks.  It takes so much perseverance and patience to see yourself through an injury and then return to full training.  It can be a long and frustrating process.  Mind over matter is the key.

There are days that I'd rather stay in school and catch up on homework, attend classes or finish a project, but I have to go to gym.  It's a constant battle, I want to be a full-time student, but can't.  I have to leave my academic goals of doing well in school somewhat on the back burner.  I'm constantly torn about where I should focus my energy.  I've even toyed with the idea of quitting gymnastics in order to be a better student.  To resolve all these internal conflicts and stay on course and never give up, I have to be extremely mentally tough.  And so, I continue in my quest for excellence as a gymnast. 


http://www.thesportinmind.com/articles/what-is-mental-toughness-and-why-do-you-need-it/

http://www.mdsports.net/docs/mentaltoughnessgymnastics.pdf

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/exercises/mental-toughness-in-sports-why-exercising-your-mind-will-help-you-excel.html#b

current events revised

Current events   Response to report cards changes in Surrey 

I think this isn’t a good idea to take out grades and just tell the student where he’s/she’s at in school. The student may or may not fall behind thinking that teachers are not going to give letter grades. Students may not push themselves to study harder and like I had said before they might fail or fall behind. This program has some pros as well. It can give parents and their child/children a better understanding about where they stand in learning so they can get a tutor to give extra assistance or ask the teacher for support. The other thing is that they should inform parents and ask them what they want. 

 This new program may be a good idea but for myself I still want letter grades. Some parents might think it’s a good idea but I think they should ask every parent for their opinion 

CURRENT EVENTS REVISED

                               'No stadium, no match'

With only less than 5 months left for the World Cup to be held in Brazil, there has been a lot of issues and delays in renovations for the stadium. Many people including the secretary general of the sport's governor body and the FIFA group are remarking that without any stadium there can't be any games.

  This is a serious problem because the first game of the World Cup is on June 26 and the progress is not looking too good. FIFA has now given the Brazil constructors a new deadline of February 18 to show a marked improvement of the arena. The stadium is understood to be 90% completed by now but there hasn't been any progress since the end of November when it was 88% completed.

   Work on this arena has already also been halted and delayed when a local judge intervened that all these workers were at a serious risk of being killed. The secretary general known as Valcke is continuing to say that they don't need to see a completed arena by February 18 but there needs to be more progress being done.

  Luis Fernandes, executive secretary of Brazil's Ministry of Sport agreed to Valcke's criticism telling the workers: " If the pace of work at the stadium in Curitiba is kept as it is , then it would not be ready to host the world cup." Lots of high generals and secretaries are agreeing to this world and is demanding a improvement in progress by February 18. Brazil has said they would keep that in mind and guarantee to finish the arena in time to host the games.

  One major problem Brazil is having because of the construction of the World Cup is the workers dying. Lately, five workers had died on the World Cup construction site. This is one major problem that has been delaying the progress of the stadium and should go in to consideration.

 In my opinion, I think that Brazil is pretty behind in progress to finish the stadium in less than 5 months. I agree to Valcke's criticism but I believe that Brazil will finish the arena in time to hold all the games for the World Cup. However, I think that FIFA and Brazil should both consider the risk of these workers dying because of them trying to finish this stadium in time to hold the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I am worrying that these poor workers shouldn't have to be in risk of losing their life to finish the stadium.

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Current events

In Grand forks just the other day a bunch of innocent horses were taken to be rescued. The owner of the horses had a abused and starved 12 poor creatures. Only 8 had been able to he rescued because 2 had sadly passed on. I think that people who are not responsible shouldn't be able to have animals for this reason. The animals have to suffer when they have done nothing wrong and if people no they are not capable thy should sell, adopt out or call somebody for help. This kind of problem has been happening all over the word and I STRONGLY believe that animal cruelty had to stop. 

~kalaya

Current Events

Today in class we read about a article to change the way of evaluating students. This article is saying that instead of giving students report cards the school should offer more help on projects and tests.

 

   About 39 schools have already changed into this new system to help their students have a better understanding on what there doing. Antonio Vendramin, prince of George Vanier Elementary school also gave his thoughts on this new system. He described that letter grades make it easy for parents to keep track of their children. However, he think that they limit students and parents interact over education. Most people agree with this word but some do not.

 

   This new system would allow students to know what there doing and how they can be better at it. However, report cards would allow the students and parents to keep track on exactly how well their children is doing. This new system wouldn't exactly tell which level the students is working on.

 

  In brief, I think the report cards is a better choice to evaluate students. For if the students do not try hard in school. The report card tells exactly the results of the students work. We have kept report cards for as long as I remember and I think we should keep it that way.

Report card changes in Surrey?!

There is an article which talks about the surrey school districts proposal to eliminate the traditional letter grade system in favour of a "constructive feedback" approach. On one had said program can eliminate pressure felt on achieving letter grades and simply allow students to focus on becoming better as a whole without superficial means and additional motives. However on the other hand this could back fire and have students living with a hear no evil see no evil principle. As crazy as it may seem students will feel much more reality with the words "You're getting a C" than you need to work on...etc. Both methods have value as well as flaws but in my opinion students have been working under the letter grade system for so many years  that putting an abrupt stop to it will have many set backs and just cause a lot of trouble, If something isn't broken why should we go out of our way causing controversy trying to change it?!

In my opinion both systems have value but I am pro letter grades!

Current Events

​​​Current events  ​​Response to report cards changes in Surrey

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​​I think this isn’t a good idea to take out grades and just tell the student where he’s/she’s at in school. The student may or may not fall behind thinking that teachers are not going to give letter grades so the student might fail or fall behind. Students and parents wouldn’t have the conversations about their kid’s grades and might not push the student to study as well as before.But this program has some pros as well. It can give parents a better understanding about where their child stands in learning so they can get a tutor to assist them in the areas they need help in.

 

The student will have more pressure knowing where his/her errors are. This new program is a good idea but they should ask parents first.     ​​​

Current Events

I have found an article about mental toughness and how athletes deal with all the stress while competing.
There was one tennis player who made two mistakes and almost lost the game because of it. But he came back strong and won the game. This is an example of mental toughness when you lose and you're determined to do better. The athlete stays so focused so they can win the next time.


When you have mental toughness you usually use your strengths and abilities. Such as when you go to compete at a competition your nervous because you didn't get enough time to warm up but you've practiced you're routines a bunch of times in your head so you go out there and you use your mental toughness!  Such as in basketball the anxiety may get to you once in awhile if you miss a basket and your team is losing, you feel like your not good and you've let your team down. But you need self-motivation and mental toughness to push through and believe in yourself and say I can do this! If you fail a lot of times be determined and hungry to come back for more. Besides, we're only human and humans make mistakes all the time!


Thanks!



http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/exercises/mental-toughness-in-sports-why-exercising-your-mind-will-help-you-excel.html#b

Artical

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/#!/content/1.2490618

I read this news about a man who makes cameras out of human remains, that do mysterious things.

I think it is very creepy and unnatural to be making cameras out of human remains. Sure it's amazing to have mysterious cameras that do mysterious things but I just think it's dead wrong. I don't think it's right to see or talk or have anything to do with the dead. Or to have a camera that's whole purpose is to take pictures with decay... Human decay. There's a point why we can't already see or talk to them, I don't know what the point is, I just know there is one. Also making these cameras out of human remains! Yuck! Why would you touch those. Just let both the body and soul rest in peace. I'm not sure about you but i don't want my body to turn into an unnatural creepy camera. I'd rather have my body burnt to ash like normal people, than turned into a camera. I don't want to be a camera! I don't want anyone else to be a camera either! That just creepy.

A human heart and a human brain as a camera, that is quite creative. But very, very disgusting. What I get from a human making a heart and a skull camera is pure creepy obsession.

I also think it's immpossible for the living to be connected to the dead. Unless while dying or near when your born.

This is only my opinion I don't mean to insult anyone by it.

My Process and Reflections
Question #5 for passion project/Genius Hour (Proposal)

Today I watched some videos on cake decorating with fondant.  I learned a technique on how to move fondant from the counter to the cake without ripping it.  You take a rolling pin and roll the fondant up and onto the cake.  It makes transporting the fondant much easier.  Also it's a good idea to put down a piece of wax paper or parchment paper before rolling the fondant as this will prevent it from sticking to the counter.  

I also watched how you can make completely inedible parts of a cake just for decoration i.e. castle towers made of paper towel rolls covered in fondant.  I also saw how fondant could be embossed using pieces of rubber that had designs etched into it.  For eg. the castle cake was embossed with a rock-like texture for its walls.  The castle door was embossed with a wood design to make the castle door look more realistic. 

If you want the fondant to stay on the cake easier you can frost the cake with any type of icing and this acts like glue to adhere the fondant to the cake.  I also went onto the Wilton website and I read about some of the techniques on how to smooth out the fondant. You can use your hands, or you can use an easy-glide smoother to take out air bubbles and creases from the cake. Then you trim off the excess fondant with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter.  These are only some of the helpful tips I learned.  I can hardly wait to try this on my own fondant and cake.


Failures:

If the fondant is not very smooth it will be thin and will have some imperfections showing.  Such as lumps and uneven layers.

If you roll the fondant too much it will tear and crack.  If the fondant is too damaged it is best to scrap it and start a new piece.

Don't wet your fingers with water as this will cause the fondant to tear and crack even more!

Try to put your cake in cardboard boxes instead of in the fridge, this will avoid the cake from sweating.

Thanks for reading!