Honestly, the walk was exactly what I thought it would be like. The walk was hard right from the start. The road twisted and turned and was unrelentingly steep nearly all the way, in a strange way it was almost like a roller coaster track. The people up the front moved to the back within 30 minutes and were replaced by new more motivated people who stayed up the front the entire time. I attempted to stay up the front but about halfway up the pain and the tiredness hit me like a 10-ton truck. I fell back to a few of my other friends who weren't too far behind but it was enough for me to be at a steady pace.
As I was waiting for my other friends to catch up I realized that we'd come out of the treeline and you could see both Greymouth and Runanga, for me this put our small west coast community into a different perspective, I could see where I live, where I've grown up. I could see all the little places that before had been hidden away from me seeing them and in a way it was almost inspiring. After we started walking again there was a lot of complaining about the pain and we made small talk about how we wished we had stayed in the van or trying to find places to hide in the bush so we wouldn't have to walk anymore. Of course, these were all joking comments that were trying to lighten the pain that we all felt.
Eventually, after almost 3 hours we made it to the top. The view was stunning. I could see all the way from Rapahoe to Reefton. You could see the ocean wrapping around the Point Elizabeth hill and if you looked the other way you could see Lake Brunner. The pictures were stunning, to say the least. It was almost like being in a 3D map where you could see whatever you wanted. Running back down was a completely different experience. There was a group of us at the front who sprinted down and made it back to the vans in half an hour. It was painful and tiring but it made the trip so much more fun.
Even though at the start I didn't get why we were doing the climb and I didn't get the metaphor I soon realized why we were there and how it tied back to Year 11 and my schooling. The pain of walking up the mountain relates to the hard work of getting credits and finishing assignments, you want to give up and go back down but then as soon as you get to the top it's 100% worth it. The view correlates with ending Year 11 with excellence and the feeling of pride you get as you see the end.
Thursday 29 November 2018
Thursday 16 August 2018
Researching Firsts
Our latest topic in English is 'Researching Firsts'. We had to chose a question that related to being the first in something eg: who was the first musician?, who was the first person to fly in an air plane?, who was the first to invent ice cream?
My question is: Who first invented makeup? And who was the first to wear it?
I chose this topic because makeup is a big part of today's society and people have so many different opinions on it, some people think that it’s an art form, some think that it’s only for covering up insecurity and some think that it’s bad and nobody should wear it because it’s unnatural. I want to know who invented it and why? Did they use it for rituals or something religious? Was it just to look pretty or was there a deeper meaning?
When we were researching we were told to use information that we found from previous searches to widen our search range. So when I started searching I put in key words (makeup, history, Egypt) to try and find the earliest evidence of makeup, after I looked at a few different websites from that search I'd use different key words from interesting pieces of information that I found and continue trying to research them. I did find that I didn't know what websites were trustworthy and which ones had correct information so I think that that's my next step.
Google search combinations:
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Image of Results:
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Example of a site which was useful that I found in this search:
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egyptians makeup
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What was the first makeup brand?
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Makeup egypt male
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Egypt makeup ores
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Since were also researching in Global Studies we were asked to compared the different ways of researching in the classes. In Global we have a more specific topic so we do a lot more searching for websites that we can trust, I use books from the library that related directly to my topic, I look at websites with correct stats and quotes but in English it's a bit different. I look more at trying to gather as much information as possible so that my doc can have a wide range of stuff to look at and I'm always trying to look at websites that help me to go further into depth.
Thursday 5 July 2018
Making Connections
In class we wrote speeches explaining the connections between The Freedom Writers and The True Diary of a Part Time Indian. The link below takes you to my presentation, it doesn't have my speech but you can see the visual side of it.
Link to presentation
Link to presentation
Thursday 17 May 2018
World War 2 Paragraphs
WW2:
World War 2 was very different to today's war, for example during WW2 there were shortages
in butter, sugar, tires and gasoline, because of this lots of people didn't have any money
or food, some farmers even made butter from the milk they got and sold it on the
black market, they would do anything they could to get money to support their families.
During the war there were blackouts at night, wardens patrolled the streets to make sure that there were no lights that could be seen, people had think heavy curtains to stop any glimmer of light getting through in case it could aid the enemy aircraft. Mother who lost sons were given small flags with gold stars in the middle to put in their windows. Most women got jobs in the war plants working on air-planes, trucks and machinery. The war lasted 4 years, over that time over 60 million people were killed, that was 3% of the population at the time. There were 2 groups in the war, the Axis and the Allies. The Axis Powers had Germany, Italy and Japan, the Allies had Britain, France, Australia, Canada, NZ, India, the Soviet Union, China and the USA.
in butter, sugar, tires and gasoline, because of this lots of people didn't have any money
or food, some farmers even made butter from the milk they got and sold it on the
black market, they would do anything they could to get money to support their families.
During the war there were blackouts at night, wardens patrolled the streets to make sure that there were no lights that could be seen, people had think heavy curtains to stop any glimmer of light getting through in case it could aid the enemy aircraft. Mother who lost sons were given small flags with gold stars in the middle to put in their windows. Most women got jobs in the war plants working on air-planes, trucks and machinery. The war lasted 4 years, over that time over 60 million people were killed, that was 3% of the population at the time. There were 2 groups in the war, the Axis and the Allies. The Axis Powers had Germany, Italy and Japan, the Allies had Britain, France, Australia, Canada, NZ, India, the Soviet Union, China and the USA.
Current Conflict:
Our current war has lasted 10 years but there are no blackouts, no rationing,
no special flags for the mothers who lost sons and the enemy doesn’t have uniforms
so it’s a lot harder to identify. Today’s war is everywhere and surprisingly there are
only 11 countries that aren’t involved with war. In 1991 war broke out in Somalia,
since then 9 other countries have been the victims of war starting in there countries all
still going on today. The biggest difference would be that most people in the world aren't
directly affected, unless you have family fighting in the war it barely affects you.
no special flags for the mothers who lost sons and the enemy doesn’t have uniforms
so it’s a lot harder to identify. Today’s war is everywhere and surprisingly there are
only 11 countries that aren’t involved with war. In 1991 war broke out in Somalia,
since then 9 other countries have been the victims of war starting in there countries all
still going on today. The biggest difference would be that most people in the world aren't
directly affected, unless you have family fighting in the war it barely affects you.
Thursday 10 May 2018
Monday 7 May 2018
Review of Prezi
What did you use Prezi for?
I used Prezi to make a presentation for my character evaluation of Sindy from the movie The Freedom Writers.
How easy was it to use Prezi?
I found that some bits of it were easier to use than others, I had some trouble trying to make new pages where I wanted them and it took me some time to figure out how to put pictures and videos onto it but it was easy enough to change the layout and the design of the whole thing. Logging on was a little confusing but after some help I found where to go.
Did you write straight into Prezi, or use a google doc/slideshow first?
I went straight to Prezi, it was easier for me to draft everything where I wanted it instead of doing my work on say a google doc and then move everything to the Prezi slides, I just wrote a brainstorm for each slide then made each slide into a paragraph and went into more detail.
What were you pleased about with your Prezi?
I liked the design of my Prezi and the colours, I found it easy to change the design of my Prezi so I made it look how I wanted, I thought that it suited the story line of being in the city with all the separate gangs.
Is this the best tool for showcasing your knowledge why/why not?
I'm not sure, I found it fun to use but i'm not sure I would use it again unless it was because we were told, I think that there and simpler things out that I can use that can look just as good. But I wouldn't mind using Prezi again.
Heres my Prezi:
Click here
I used Prezi to make a presentation for my character evaluation of Sindy from the movie The Freedom Writers.
How easy was it to use Prezi?
I found that some bits of it were easier to use than others, I had some trouble trying to make new pages where I wanted them and it took me some time to figure out how to put pictures and videos onto it but it was easy enough to change the layout and the design of the whole thing. Logging on was a little confusing but after some help I found where to go.
Did you write straight into Prezi, or use a google doc/slideshow first?
I went straight to Prezi, it was easier for me to draft everything where I wanted it instead of doing my work on say a google doc and then move everything to the Prezi slides, I just wrote a brainstorm for each slide then made each slide into a paragraph and went into more detail.
What were you pleased about with your Prezi?
I liked the design of my Prezi and the colours, I found it easy to change the design of my Prezi so I made it look how I wanted, I thought that it suited the story line of being in the city with all the separate gangs.
Is this the best tool for showcasing your knowledge why/why not?
I'm not sure, I found it fun to use but i'm not sure I would use it again unless it was because we were told, I think that there and simpler things out that I can use that can look just as good. But I wouldn't mind using Prezi again.
Heres my Prezi:
Click here
Friday 13 April 2018
English Reflection on the Freedom Writers
Erin Gruwell a new teacher to a racially divided school in Los Angeles. When she is assigned to a class full of kids who couldn’t care less about school or getting an education. After a few class incidents mostly fueled by racist comments Ms Gruwell decides to buy a few books for her class, books that she think her students could benefit from, and they do. The books and Ms Gruwell’s class changes the students perspective on the world and how they can change it, students who before thought that they would never live past 20 and be involved with gangs their whole lives suddenly realised that they didn’t have to live like that.
One of the things I liked the most about the film was that it was empowering. I loved it when the students realised that they didn’t have to be have these horrible lives and that getting an education could really help them in the future. It made me think about myself and the different ways that Grey High can connect to the movie.
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