My Home City-San Diego

1) What you believe you did on the project.....

Well, I think overall my presentation was okay, but I added too much additional information and not enough needed information. It took me a while to convince myself that San Diego "home heating" was not necessary in this project. So I took it out, and replaced it with San Diego sports teams! Better than home heating, but still not important. I had four slides of assigned information and three slides of information I decided to add.

2) What would you improve for future presentations/projects?

In future presentations I would try to concentrate on the needed facts and not get carried away with the additional material. I have to be careful with the opposite, too. I only need basic facts and for some areas, I had a little too much detail, but in others I didn't add enough. An even amount of information would be easier to memorize and present in front of the class.

3) What did you learn in the preparation of this presentation in addition to the presentations of others?

I learned so much about my home city that I never knew before, just by doing this presentation. That's probably one of the reasons we had to do it, other than analyzing progress in development. Sometimes we may think because we are from a certain place, we already know all we need to about it, but that's not always the case. I've lived in San Diego for about 9 years, but was still ignorant about many things that have been going around me all my life. I knew San Diego was a pretty popular tourist destination, but did I ever know how it came to be that way? No, but digging in deeper in the resources and history of San Diego made me realize just how clueless I had been about the place I call home!



4) What is your analysis of your performance?

I think the information I had was okay, but lacked a little more history on why people chose San Diego as a settlement. Before the presentation, I was pretty sure I didn't need to worry about the presenting too much, but when I got up to present in front of 20 people waiting for me to do something interesting, I wasn't as positive. My brain froze and relied on my eyes to provide them the information by just keeping them fixed on the board the whole time. I knew I couldn't do that, but I still glanced at it more often than I should have. Maybe if I had practiced my presentation in front of a family member, I could've been more prepared and the presentation could have been better.

If you're curious about what my presentation looks like, take a look at it here:

https://docs.google.com/a/iskl.edu.my/present/edit?id=0AZ0UqHZQtP7PZGNmZjJkYzNfMjNkNzludjNnaw&hl=en&pli=1

My Resolution(s) For 2011

One of my resolutions for the new year of 2011 is to spend more time with my family. The winter break has allowed me to think about this, since I had no school or homework to worry about. I noticed I haven't talked with my sisters so much before the break, and it made me realize I spent more time with them during one week of vacation compared to one entire school trimester. Family is really important as you're growing up, and years without spending time without family are years you aren't ever getting back. If I'm ever going to grow up, I'm going to do it having fun with my family!

Another resolution I have for 2011 is to learn to clean up my room. I'm sure every child knows what a messy room looks like: un-made bed, papers all over the floor, books left.... everywhere! I make a mess and leave it behind, too lazy to clean it up and think, "I'll clean it up later," but I never get around to it until my mom's fifth reminder. Lately, I've been picking up things that I drop, emptying the contents of my pencil sharpener in the trashcan, and not the floor. (I don't usually empty it out on the floor.... not on purpose!)


I spent the majority of my winter break at home, but I didn't spend all of it here. My family and I drove to Singapore, and stayed there for four days. The hotel was too small for a family of five, but that was okay as long as we didn't attempt to live in it. We had to eat out and do the fun things we intended to do somewhere else. Visiting the zoo, for example. We also went on the Singapore Flyer, which was really interesting as you can see the city of Singapore from sky-high.

Here's the view from the Singapore Flyer:

My family and I loved the zoo! It was fun to just walk around and look at all the different animals. Here are some pictures of the animals I took pictures of:

Singapore was a really good experience for me and my family, since we don't travel often. Seeing a new place was definitely exciting, and spending time with my family was also fun!

Zeitgeist-2010

2010 has been such a brilliant year, we will really miss you. It's really sad you have to leave, but I think your time here has been well spent. Now, let's have fun in 2011!

Learning Profiles-What Am I?

1. I learn best when.....
My profile suggested that I learned best when everything is in order, lined up and neat. Sometimes I may be that way, like have my papers in a certain order so it's easier to find them or have my books categorized. They never stay that way for long, though. I mess the order up and don't really care, so I have to disagree with my profile because when I try to be neat I end up disorganized again. I like it that way, though. It makes it more natural. So I suppose that I learn best with some order, but I don't mind surprises!

2. I need to.....
Try to concentrate on the big picture more. When I am stressed, I have trouble using the gestalt side of my brain, which is the "go-with-the-flow" side. I guess when I'm stressed out I need all the details in front of me so I don't have to stretch my mind more than it already it is. I can't think clearly when there are too many things on my mind, and if there's a visible order to things then I can access it without thinking too much about it.

3. The strategies that would help me with my learning.....
Strategies that would help me with my learning would be a basic sequence as a structure. I don't need every single detail drawn out for me, but to have some sort of visible order would be easier for me. Some classes I have allow me to walk into the class and know what to do with just a glance at the board, and I'm okay with that. I only want that kind of order in a few classes though, if my life gets too organized then I might start to feel a little bored.

4. I would like my teachers to know this about me.....
I like things with a sequence but if things get too orderly, I might not learn as well as I could be. Sometimes I enjoy having no idea what direction the class is going to take, but if I'm completely clueless, then it will take some of the fun out of it.

Collaborative Lit. Circles

1. The benefits of working with a classmate:
     The benefits of working with a classmate is that you could go to them for help when you're stuck, or confused.  Also, you could see their opinions and questions, and gain ideas from them.  For example, I didn't know what to choose as my question, but looking at my partner's passages and questions, I formed one in my mind quite easily.


2. Challenges and obstacles which you overcame (tried to overcome):
     One challenge I faced was when one of my partners couldn't get onto their account, therefore not being able to get onto our literature circle.  I didn't know this until the day before it was due, and was stressing about how I thought he wasn't doing any work.  I overcame this by working on the literature circle at school, and finding out my partner had done the work but not on the actual literature circle.  So they just moved their work onto it and everything was fine.


3. New understandings you gained about the novel:
     Using my partners' questions, I could understand the novel better by seeing it through their perspective.  Their connections and questions injected new thoughts about Charlotte into my brain, about how she was similar to them, and us.  I also learned that Charlotte was going through more changes than I thought she was through the book; not just by becoming braver and having an experience on a ship.  She's changing from a girl to a woman.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Lit. Circle #1

1. How my group discussion helped out understanding of the novel:

My group discussion helped me understand this novel better by voicing their opinions about the passages they chose, and explaining why they chose it. Seeing the book from their perspective really helped me understand it better, because sometimes they noticed certain things I didn't.

2. Connections we made during our discussion:

During our discussion, some of our predictions were based on connections to other books. We predicted Captain Jaggery wasn't such a good person, because of our experience with other books. Usually when a mysterious character is kind to the main character, they have a dark secret and is trying to get closer to them without revealing that secret.

3. Predictions:

Our group made some predictions about many characters in the book, especially Captain Jaggery. He is a very mysterious person, and although he seems nice, it may be an act to get Charlotte to trust him. Zachariah, her first friend, has some strange things to say about him, too. We also predict Charlotte will get executed at the end of the book for murdering someone.

Country Developement-Guns, Germs, and Steel

"Why do white people have so much cargo, but we New Guineans have so little?" -Yali, a New Guinean politician.

Professor Jared Diamond wrote the book Guns, Germs, and Steel. Last Friday all three 6th grade teams: 6A, 6B, and 6C watched a National Geographic Documentary based on that book. At first Professor Diamond had no idea what to say in answer to Yali's question, but after some research in New Guinea, he found an answer.

Professor Diamond thought geography led to America's wealth, as well as Eurasian countries. The New Guineans' didn't have the same resources as Malaysia did to grow into the country we are now, so why is it that Australia and New Zealand became technologically advanced and wealthy when located in the same region as Papua New Guinea?

I think the people who live in different places also play a big role in the development of their countries. If they are willing to work extra hard and use their brains for more than just simple survival, then they can go farther than people who aren't ready to leave their hunting and gathering ways.

Australia and New Zealand probably got better resources from trading, there were more people around to trade with and more groups to be friendly with than in a small country like New Guinea. So Professor Diamond was correct that geography was important in the development of a country. Also, New Guinea didn't have crops that were high in nutrients, like other countries did. They didn't have any docile animals, either, like cows or sheep.




http://www.refugees.org/countryreports.aspx?__VIEWSTATE=dDwtOTMxNDcwOTk7O2w8Q291bnRyeUREOkdvQnV0dG9uOz4%2BUwqzZxIYLI0SfZCZue2XtA0UFEQ%3D&cid=709&subm=&ssm=&map=

http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.islands.australia.php

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookHomeInternal/138891/