South Africa 01

So far, we've been thinking of what ways "win" the competition to get The Gates foundation to support our country.

One of the most interesting idea was to interview people from South Africa. We can't fly all the way to South Africa and find someone there, so one of our very lucky chances was the fact that we already had two South Africans in the school!

Mr Ruskovitch has agreed to let Ariel and I interview him one day about the culture and life in South Africa.

We might even consider interviewing Vincent from the 9th Grade to get a younger person's view of South Africa.

So far, I am very interested in the tribes and social groups in South Africa and the single country right in the middle of South Africa.

Current Events: Election

I couldn't get on my blog this week and I wanted to wait for the elections.

So about everybody knows that 馬英九 (i think thats how you write it) Ma Ying Jiu won the election. Many people are very happy about it and they say that Taiwan "has been saved" and there is new hope for a better future for Taiwan.

Ma Ying Jiu won by a margin of more than 2 million votes, a record after more than 8 years.

Even in the counties that Ma Ying Jiu lost by, the margins they lost by were very narrow.

In other words, it was clean sweep for Ma and his party.

Active Leaner - LA

In language arts, I have been allowed to go on to another book different to the one my peers are doing in class. When I had to pick which book to read, I couldn't pick from Nicolas Sparks's The Notebook and the Lord of the Flies.
So I picked both. I started on The Notebook last night and have gone through a quarter of the book. It's really interesting and I've been writing a lot of margin notes about it, meaning I'm an active learner.
I also watched the movie yesterday and that was interesting and sad story, especially the fact that the wife forgot everything they have gone through together and doesn't even know her children or grand-children or even her husband. The husband keeps reading the story of their love life and she's interested but she doesn't know that it's her.
Its really sad.

Person of High Character

I was a person of high character yesterday when I was checking on my homework for Humanities. I was responsible and I looked on Moodle to check what homework was as I had forgotten. I saw [Homework] Friday, March 21 and I thought that there was homework due today. So i quickly looked up South Africa, found some interesting information and start a mind map about it.
I came into class today and found out that it was the homework that we were to start today and it wasn't DUE today.

Reflecting on Student 2.0

When I first got onto the Student 2.0 site, the first post I saw was someone's debut post as an author on this site.
The first paragraph was the first thing that caught my eye. I usually do something I'm really interested in, but then I loose interest or I can't think of anything else.
So I kept on reading and when I came to the third paragraph I found that the author is very similar to me.
She made a good point when she was explain about another person coming up to her and asking to join stories. I could tell that she would have been very disappointed to find out that someone else could do something special to you too, so it's not really "your" thing. I can relate myself to that. I used to be very good at drawing, but when I go to new schools or new places, I find someone better than me at drawing. So I went on to reading and writing books. Then I saw that many of my friends could do that too and they actually finished a novel each when I always had writers block when I find someone better than me. I just want to find something that I am good at. I even used to play the violin, flute, and the piano, but I found people more talented at that than i am.
Then I realized. I always quit when I find that someone could do "my talent" better than me. Even the really rare and exquisite talents that I have of, babysitting my brother or packing boxes in less than an hour, someone could do it better than me.
But why wouldn't I quit it? Well, because I feel hard broken that I'm just too normal and there will always be someone out there who can do it better than me.
But one thing I don't really agree with in this post, is when the speaker gets up and tries so hard to improve their skill.
Many tried hard....and failed. There have only been few lucky ones who get the lead in the end.
So I know now. Life is a game. A game that only those who believe in themselves and can charge the mountain will cross the finish line. Maybe I'm supposed to be the person in the sidelines...cheering everyone else on. (Someone has to cheer ... right?)
I do not believe in myself. It sounds extremely horrible when someone reads this. But its something and no one in the whole wide universe can change.
I do not believe that I can do what Kaelie Giffel did and not listen to others. But I do believe that she will succeed one day. She will inspire others.
I know that I would fail in the end and just be come regular and that's what I want. No one ever can change that. Whatever I do, someone can do better. I've excepted that and I believe it. I may not have the best future but at least I would have a decent one. I'm sick of trying and failing. So I won't even go to trying. Maybe halfway into trying but then I'll hit the dead zone again.

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Active Learner

We have finished all our autobiographies already. Though I haven't received my grade, I feel that I have done a good job on it, using my main connector of "moving" in my life.
But while writing my autobiography, I reflected on what my life was and how everything seemed to come back to moving for my life.
I realized that even sports that I do connect to moving and I was an active learner as I realize how my moods turn out to be while moving all the time.
It felt weird that my life was a web that all went back to moving even if I might move less than others. But it really has effected the way I am today, and it has built me since the time when I moved house while in Singapore.
I learned that I have learned so much from writing ad reflecting on my life and it surprises me sometimes.

Critical Thinker and Problem Solver

During this semester, I have been a critical thinker and problem solver. While completing my homework, I took my time to look back on what I've learned and apply it to the assignment. To do the thinking questions, I had to use my resources to find the answer and sometimes it meant connecting all the information and making it logical.
Also, when I had to draw the borders and make the countries. I had to work hard making sure that the social groups that did not get along with each other were not put together in the same country or side by side.
I then had to write why I placed those borders and the social groups in the countries and what they do.