Journal (project)

Planning phase: I basically took notes from various sites on the pros and cons of each government system. It was a little hard to understand since I'm not a politician myself, but I got the hang of it later on. Planning phase was probably the hardest one for me, because I couldn't figure out a way on presenting my ideas.

Retrieving phase: Looking for information was easy, but there were some very complex words. There were many sentences I couldn't understand just because of the wording. Ethan helped me on this, I'm still in the process of fully learning these words, but I have already learnt many new definitions. It took some time to find information I needed.

Processing phase: Like I said definitions were a struggle for me. Since I had Google at my fingertips I used it to my full advantage. As I was processing all this information, it was just clicking together, I was getting it. I felt success, I felt more confident in my project, it was looking better already.

Creating phase: I stuck to a PowerPoint pros and cons presentation. It was fairly easy, but expanding on these little points will be a struggle for me. It's a challenge, I purposely challenged myself because now is the time to learn. I am here to improve myself and challenging myself is the best way to go for me.

Evaluating phase: I feel like I have created something I am proud of. I have struggled in socials, but still I have created something that represents it. I feel like I did a good job, my work has paid off. Now I just have to present it, which is not one of my strengths. I feel confident in my project and I think I will get a good mark.

Day 17 (part 1 of project)

  My project is based on government and economy. Which government/economic system would be best for our developing Island? So far I have been writing down notes on different government systems, how they affect the economy and the people. I'm trying to relate governments and economy as much as possible, but one of my challenges is how a democratic economy would work. The other governments like monarchy and communismn are easy, due to the fact that the government is solely controlling the economy, where as in a democracy it is decided by the people. It's hard for me to predict and visualize a democratic economy. I could looks at countries close to full democracy such as Norway which could help. Relating has helped me understand economic corruption through a monarchy. Mr. Dewinitz gave me an example of Louis XIV, and how he lead France to economic corruption after spending all of the peoples money on himself. After that my ideas started to flow. Sometimes I need these little boosts to get my mind flowing, like a jumpstart. Currently I'm trying to decide on how I am going present my subject, how I will engage the audience. I was thinking of doing a PowerPoint presentation with pictures and short sentences. Instead of reading of the screen, I am going to put a short sentence on the slide and explain in detail about the subject. I have been noting pros and cons of these governments. I'm struggling with the  amount of content on the economy part compared to the government. I'm still working on how a government will affect the economy as I don't have a full understanding of it.

Day 16

  Today I came late, but the class was focusing on math, which is one of my easier subjects. I challenged myself, I tried not to use my calculator, but only used it when absolutely needed. I think one of my reasons why I'm mainly better at math is because of my grandpa. My grandpa was a teacher in the army of India before he came to Canada. He was an influence on me for learning math. Everyday after school for around an hour, he used to give me complex math questions, mainly number problems. That built my strength of multiplication, division , addition and subtraction, the foundations of math. I took action today to challenge myself to build better habits, like not using my calculator as much. These little adjustments will hopefully help me learn, and approach questions differently. For example, not using my calculator helps me focus on building my mental math skills, and in my opinion using your skills instead of artificial skills is the best way to go. I got some answers wrong too, little mistakes is what challenges my learning. For example, sometimes I will forget to carry the one or, not look at the symbol of aproach (+, %, x, -). I need to slow myself down, many teachers have commented on my work as rushed, and this is the time to fix it. Like I said, approaching my learning with little steps will better help my overall learning. Today was also project day one.

I already had my question in mind because I thought of it in my spare time at home. Since I was enrolled in Social Studies, I focused on government and economy. This was one of my biggest interests in socials, but also one area I have struggled with. I chose this topic to not only educate myself but to educate others. I want my presentation to be engaging with the audience, to make them think.

Day 13

 Today we focused on math, it was pretty

easy, because of my interest in math. Since I was breezing through all of this math, I helped my table buddy Arsh, he was having trouble and I helped him relate. For example the paper said 3 cups  of flour for 24 muffins. We needed to make 12 muffins, he was having trouble dividing the cups. I made him picture he had $3, and we needed to see how many $.50 could fit into $3. Then he understood and lightbulb went on in his head. I took my perspective of the dividing and gave it to him, I related the fractions to real life. I felt most proud of this today, I helped someone who needed it. Ethan was also very proud of Arsh and I, he kept saying "I trained them well," bragging to others. During our muffin making Kidus was struggling with mixing the ingredients together and I thought of how Rocky Balboa went through the pain of training, I know it has nothing to do with baking, but sometimes my mind just wonders off. So I played the Rocky theme music for Kidus. It motivated him but also I made others laugh. I like making others happy, it makes me happy!

Story

  One day a boy named Harsh was walking out of camp past curphiw. While the clueless boy was walking away from the camp in the plateau, he heard some noises in the forest. Harsh, the curious boy he was, walked into the forest, only minutes away from camp. As the boy walked into the dark, misty forest, Harsh heard sticks cracking, louder and louder as he was getting closer. The boy walked with extreme silence, until he fell into a hole. It was a trap. The boy was panicking, and as soon as he turned around he spotted a half eaten, pale skinned dead body. Harsh was screaming for help, and then a dark brown, torn clothed zombie jumped on the frightened young boy. The next morning, the boy's mother searched all over for him. The mother found footsteps leading into the forest, as she followed the steps she spotted her son, but this time he was crying blood with his half eaten face and red eyes.

Moral of story: Don't leave camp past curphiw. 

Day 12

  Today we were presented with an activity on building shelters, with news paper and tape. These shelters have to withstand wind and water, but we also had to preserve our skittles used. Skittles were traded in for extra news paper or tape, and were represented as sustainability. I was in a group with Kidus, Adrian and Brayden. I presented the idea of a Tipi, which was used by the Cree, Apachi, Black Foot native groups. I remembered this from Socials class, The People Of The Plains used transportable shelters, also known as Tipis. We all agreed to the Tipi, teamwork and communication were necessary in this group building activity and we had a good flow going. As we were building we were discussing on how we were going to make the structure more stable. We really didn't care about our skittles, but that was the deciding point of us being second. We were confident in our structure, but as soon as we got to the water station, our Tipi fell apart. The challenge was fun, and you know what they say, first the worst, second the best!

Day 10

  Today one of the main points that I think will help me improve is the reading comprehension activities, that were presented today by Jennah. One of my strong points during reading are connections. Connections are always something I work on, which is basically relating two or more things. Like I have said in my other blog posts, I am always trying to work on relating/connections. While I read books I do get stuck sometimes, but when I do, I read the sentence over and over if I don't understand what is happening. There is one big part missing in my reading which will help me a lot, and that is inferencing. I have noticed this in my mom, she often gets stuck and then keeps repeating the question or sentence over and over without thinking. She does not inference at all, and that made me realize I do the same thing as her. That is also why I never ask her for help on homework. I also just realized that I used a connection without knowing to help me inference, I guess my thinking is already improving.