Sewell Peak Climb

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.

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:	Image of Results:	Example of a site which was useful that I found in this search:
egyptians makeup		https://makeup.lovetoknow.com/ethnic-beauty/who-invented-makeup
What was the first makeup brand?		https://www.quora.com/When-was-the-first-makeup-brand-created
Makeup egypt male		https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/ancient-egyptian-cosmetics.htm
Egypt makeup ores		https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_cosmetics_in_ancient_Egypt

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.

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

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

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.

Englsih Rowdy & Junior Poster 4

English Rowdy & Junior Poster 3

English Rowdy & Junior Poster 2

English Rowdy & Junior Poster 1

English Rowdy & Junior Friendship

Phase One:

Rowdy and Junior’s friendship starts off solid, they've been best friends since they were born and they
consider each other brothers, they protect each other from the horrible things in their worlds,
Rowdy protects Junior from all the bullies, he helps his confidence and makes him tougher,
he tells him the truth and gets Junior through tough times. ‘“It’s not like anybody’s going to notice if you go away”
he said. “So you might as well gut it out.” this is something Rowdy says to Junior after his dog has to be shot,
this shows the type of relationship between Rowdy and Junior. Junior helps Rowdy in a different way,
he lets Rowdy come around to his house nearly everyday to get away from his abusive father and he takes
his mind off all the horrible things in his life by reading comics with him and making him laugh.
They do this to on instinct, they've done this their whole lives, supporting each other and making each other
feel safe and happy, they share secrets with each other that they feel like they couldn’t share with anyone else
because they know that they could never betray each other.

Phase Two:

In the next stage of their friendship they seem to hate each other, it’s a big jump from being best friends to
not talking at all but their pride gets in the way of them apologising. Rowdy feels betrayed by Junior because
he moved schools and left Rowdy behind, of course Junior didn’t want to leave Rowdy and offered him to
come with him to Rearden but Rowdy’s anger issues got the best of him and he decided instead of accepting
Junior’s decision he lashes out and makes Junior feel scared and small therefore not wanting to be
around Rowdy. Since Rowdy refuses to go around to Junior’s house he gets beaten more often by his father
leaving him angry and hurt and trying to bottle all his emotions up. Junior is effected in a different way,
he doesn’t have Rowdy to stick up for him anymore and he loses a lot of his confidence which makes
it even harder for him moving to a new school, he doesn’t go out in the Res anymore because he’s scared of
being beaten up and called a traitor.

Snake Writing

Success criteria:
1. We can brainstorm ideas together
2. We can develop a 3-5 paragraph description of a moment in time individually
3. We can share our writing with peers and with the teacher, focusing on what we are pleased with
4. We can co-construct the learning for week 2 in English as a class.

Brainstorm:

Stanley

snek

SNAKE

SNACK

Snake

Somebody smuggled a snake into the country. The police want to capture any snakes they find, because their venom can cause you to go bald and age 173% faster. They have a whole team of policemen and one woman (she was dead inside thinking about how close she was to losing her precious hair), to capture the snake, but four of the men have already been bitten and lost their hair, (the snake is gay but likes men more, that’s why he targeted the policemen and not the woman). Now they were even more determined than ever to capture the evil snake.

The snake managed to evade capture for days, but finally the police created a trap that the snake was sure to fall into. It was a large wooden box, just like the snake loved. They planned to cover the snake with white and yellow sheets to subdue and kill it, but it ripped through the yellow one, so the police had to quickly throw it onto the floor and resort to only using the remaining one. They grabbed the snake, despite their fear of losing any hair they had left, and managed to wrap it in the sheet.

Once the police had killed the snake and mourned their hair, they tracked the person who had smuggled it into the country. They had to hack into many systems and search through many countries, but eventually they discovered that it wasn’t just one man who had smuggled in the snake; it was a secret, underground organisation. It was called the Illuminati, and they were breeding new and improved snakes, because they loved them. The snake was a top-secret undercover agent for the Illuminati, he went by many code names, including: Stanley, Snek, Snack, Snake and Snake Daddy.

Once the policemen contacted the Illuminati, the organisation promised to exchange secrets as long as the police reveal to the public that they existed, or that they were experimenting on snakes. The police agreed, and the Illuminati disclosed that the four men, who looked creepily similar (especially now that they were bald,) were actually clones. They also revealed that over two million men become bald thanks to the venom every year. However the Illuminati traded for the snake blood, since it could permanently cure the baldness caused by the snake venom.

(also illuminati confirmed this is a true story)

English My Visual Mihi

English - The Hero's Journey

Hunt for the Wilderpeople - The Hero’s Journey

You will need to complete this table to show how a section of the films fits into each stage of the ‘Hero Cycle.’ You will need to show that you have an in-depth understanding of the cycle and be able to clearly explain your reasoning with supporting evidence from the film.

I am looking for full sentences, detailed descriptions and your best effort.

Ordinary World

Special World

Ordinary World

The Hero Cycle Stages	What does this stage involve?	Explain (in detail) which part of the film fits into each stage and how - this will need to be a paragraph for each.
The Ordinary World	The world the hero lives in before the adventure.	Before he comes to the farm and he lives in society
The Call to Adventure	When the hero faces challenge	When Bella dies
The Refusal of the Call	The Refusal of the Call is the stage where the hero turns down the challenge that they are faced with because they do not believe that they are upto the task or that they are worthy of it.	When he refuses to go back to child welfare
Meeting the Mentor		When Hector finds Ricky in the bush and twists his ankle
Crossing the Threshold		When they start camping in the bush
Tests, Allies and Enemies		In Hunt for the Wilderpeople, the stage Tests, Allies and Enemies, can be identified as several of the challenges that Ricky and Uncle Hec face, including several enemies and allies that they meet along the way. One test that Uncle Hec and Ricky face together is when they meet the trampers in the hut. The trampers believe that Hec has kidnapped Ricky and a fight breaks out between them. These people are also classed as their enemies, along with the two police officers who are hunting them. Allies, or friends, that Ricky and Uncle Hec make are the girl and her father that Ricky stays with and Psycho Sam who offers them a place to sleep and the use of his car.
The Supreme Ordeal		The car chase
The Reward		When they spend 5 months in the bush without getting caught
The Road Back		When the get caught and taken back to society
The Resurrection		When they get put in new homes and then meet up again
The Return with the Elixir		When they go back in the bush to find their bird