Friday, March 25, 2011

34th Post (Canada and China)

File:Flag of Canada merged with the Flag of China.jpg
Good to see you again bloggers! Today, a bunch of students from China came to our school to learn the culture of Canada and the English language for the rest of the school year. Two students from China are in our class, and will be learning with us. It's very exciting! For my next Geography assignment, I will be going to the CIA World Factbook, and I will be comparing and contrasting three pieces of information about China and Canada, and then saying something about it.  Click here for the assignment information! Here's my assignment, I hope you enjoy it!

After looking at the CIA World Factbook website, I have found three things that I would like to compare, contrast and talk about. One thing that I compared with Canada and China is that in China, 740 000 people are living with HIV or AIDS and 26 000 died since 2009 while in Canada, 68 000 people are living with HIV or Aids and less than 1000 died since 2009. It's sad that more people in China are living with HIV or AIDS, I wonder if part of why more people in China have HIV or AIDS is because Canada has better health care than China's health care.
     Another thing that I compared with Canada and China is that the age structure in kids that are aged from 0-14 years are 15.7% in Canada. However, in China, the age structure in kids that are aged from 0-14 years are 17.6%. It's really sad that in China, part of the law is that you only can keep one child, and if you have more children in the future, you would have to give the children up for adoption. It's really sad, I would be really devastated and scared if I was given up for adoption or if I were the parent having to give up the rest of my children up for adoption. 
     The other thing that I compared with Canada and China is that since this year, the average age that men are in China are 34.9 years old. However, the average age that men are in Canada are 39.8 years old. The average age that women are in male are 36.2 years old. However, the average age that women are in  Canada are 42.1 years old. Finally, the average age for men and women combined in China are 35.5 years old. However, the average age that men and women combined in China are 41 years old. I don't understand why decimals have to be included in the ages. It should've been rounded. I kind of thought that the average ages would be around the mid-thirties to the early fourties. I don't know why, but I just felt like I thought that. 

There you have it, my Geography assignment is complete. If you have a chance to look at the CIA World Factbook website, you should go and check it out, it's pretty cool. It's also a book, so you should get this year's edition at your local book store. You can compare things from many different countries from there. Please feel free to comment. Thank you, and have a great weekend!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

33rd Post (Faces of the World)

I hope you had an excellent March Break bloggers! History has ended for my class, and now we are starting Geography! I'm really excited for Geography this year, and the first Geography blog assignment that I have to do is so cool. My assignment is about the idea of changing the human face, and I have to analyze and research about the idea. I'll be answering a few questions about what I've found out. Click here for the assignment information.  Here's my assignment!

Part A:  In my own words, “Globalization” is the unification or integration of countries around the world for a purpose, or when all countries around the world coming together and becoming one for a purpose. For example, the United Nations.  This is the Online Dictionary definition of "Globalization". 

 Part B:  One person would go by making these faces by taking a bunch of faces, each with different ethnic origins and skin colours, and this person would use the latest technology that's ever been created, and have all the faces combined to make one face, making it The Face of Tomorrow. Facial identities change over generations, because much more people are born each day, and the man and the woman who made the baby are different from each other. For example, the man could be  a black man, and the woman could be a white woman. So, even more faces with different ethnic origins and skin colours are revealed, and The Face of Tomorrow changes over generations. 

 Part C: One thing that I found interesting visiting "The Face of Tomorrow" website was that when all the faces from one particular city are combined to make that one face, the face is not an actual or real face, it's just a ghost. That interested me so much, because the combined face seemed really life-like it's impossible that it's not a real person from that particular city's face. 
     Another thing that I found interesting visiting "The Face of Tomorrow" website was that for each particular city, you can get a poster, showing all of the faces used in this project from that particular city in the middle of the poster, and on the sides, they showed the male combined face and the female combined face, and I feel like when I looked at all the faces, and then look at the combined faces, it seems like each face from the particular city has a little bit of a resemblance to the male combined face, and the female comined face.
     The other thing that I found interesting visiting "The Face of Tomorrow website was that they take different cities around the world that will have a great diversity while comparing combined faces from at least four different cities which I found pretty cool, and some combined faces from different cities kind of looked alike. So far, they combined faces from a lot of different cities, and more will be revealed on the website pretty soon, which will mean that there will be an even more ethnic origins and skin colours revealed on the website. It will also mean that there will be even more comparisons from combined faces from at least four different cities. What a cool website. I recommend you should come and check it out! 

  Part D:
 This is what I think represents "The Face of Tomorrow" the most. Two reasons why I think this represents "The Face of Tomorrow", because I think this addresses the effects of  globalization on identity the most, and the faces combined to make this face were a blend of different ethnic origins, genders and skin colours. Most people living in the world I believe are Chinese people, so when I selected my faces to make this face at Face Research, the most faces I selected were Chinese. I also selected faces with darker skin tones as well as people with people with lighter skin tones. I didn't select all the faces given, but I selected a few that I thought when comibining the faces to make that one, that face would address the effects of globalization on identity the most. I also think this is "The Face of Tomorrow", because I just predict that most people's faces would look like this in the future with a mixed tone and complexions sort if like that that face. More people though will be born with different identities, and the effects of globalization on identity will change in future generations, so I wonder what "The Face of Tomorrow" will be when I'm eighty years old.

Part E:  I don't really have a face in mind that represents myself, my nationality and my family, because I didn't really think of any face. I'll keep you posted. One thing about my own identity that is shown the world by my face is my lips and my eyebrows, because I got those features from my grandfather who was French. Another thing about my own identity that is shown the world by my face is that I have a freckle face and a fair complexion that I get from both my parents who are Irish and Scottish. 

There you have it, my first ever Geography assignment is complete! Please feel free to comment. Thank you, and have a good day!       

Friday, March 11, 2011

32nd Post (DigLitCircs Discussion #6)

Hello again bloggers. We have come to the LAST Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles for Sketches by Eric Walters. This is so sad! I've had so much fun discussing the book Sketches by Eric Walters with my peers as well as peers in Oshawa. I would like to thank Andrianna, Karran, Arianna, Haneen, Sara and Hannah for discussing Sketches by Eric Walters with me. I really had fun with you guys discussing the book, agreeing on one thing, disagreeing on another thing. Some discussions, we had up to thirty comments. We've had some great times during our awesome discussions. I hope you guys enjoyed the book as much as I did! Sara will be posting the question for the last discussion! Click here for Sara's discussion so far! I know that this last discussion is going to be awesome as usual and will end us off with a bang. Thank you for staying tuned to all of the Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles discussion for Sketches by Eric Walters. I highly recommend that you read Sketches or any other book by Eric Walters, they're amazing! Thank you, and enjoy March Break 2011!  

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

31st Post (History Fair Reflection)

This is my third post that I posted today bloggers! I'm busy as a bee! So as you may know already, our school had the History Fair last friday. We have to do a 4,3,2,1 reflection about the History Fair. It's been a while since I did a 4,3,2,1 on my blog. Click here for the assignment information! Here it is, I hope you enjoy it!

4 Most interesting things you learned about your topic.
One interesting thing that I learned about my topic was that the Aboriginals invented gum, and what they would do was that they would take sticky sap off a spruce tree and they would just chew it, and that was called Spruce Gum until the the 1800's when sugar was added and was just called gum. I thought that was really cool, and lots of people still use gum today, they even chew it at school, hoping they won't get caught.
     Another interesting thing I learned about my topic was that to make syringes, they would use the bladder from a small animal, usually a squirrel as well as a hollow bird bone to get medicine inside a human being. I thought it was disgusting, but at the same time, I thought it was fascinating how the Aboriginals would use almost anything to help them survive on their own land.
     The third interesting thing I learned about my topic was that they would use different kinds of snowshoes for different types of snow. For example, snowshoes that have pointed tips were the best selection for walking over snowy land with lots of vegetation. I didn't think that the Aboriginals made that many types of snowshoes, I thought there was only one designed pair of snowshoes for every kind of snow. To me, that seemed very cool.
     The last interesting thing that I learned about my topic was that the Aboriginals grew many different varieties of corn, and it's true. We eat corn in many ways, there's plain corn in a bowl, creamed corn. corn on the cob, popcorn, etc. I love corn, you can eat in different ways, and to have learned that the Aboriginals grew it first makes my love for corn even better. I'm so happy to have done this topic, and I learned so much from it, and I hope everyone else learned something about it as well.

3 Things you felt proud of on the day during the fair.
One thing I felt proud of on the day during the fair was my ability to answer questions. I was worried that I was going to flop on that, because I'm kind of a quiet person, but I felt like I answered the questions fine, and I'm proud of myself for that instead of being upset and stressed about it.
     Another thing I felt proud of on the day during the fair was the many times I presented my speech to students as well as teachers and judges. I felt like people understood what I was talking about and that I provoked emotion in my speech, and I think that the speech definitely enhanced my presentation a lot, and I'm proud of that.
     The last thing I felt proud of on the day during the fair was that I made it to the Regional Fair at the Ottawa War Museum. Out of one hundered and sixteen projects, twenty four from our school move on to Regionals, and I was one of them. I didn't expect it at all that I'm going to Regionals, and I feel extremely proud of myself for all the hard work and time and effort that was put into this presentation, and making it to the Regionals definately makes me feel proud, and I'm happy to have accomplished it after being stressed out about it.

2 Specific researching or presentation techniques that were helpful to make your project so wonderful.
One specific researching or presentation technique that was helpful to make my project so wonderful was that I found two books at an Ottawa Pulbic Library that really helped me a lot, and I got a ton of information from those two books. One book was named, A Native American Thought of It: Amazing Inventions and Innovations By: Rocky Landon and David MacDonald. The other book was named, Native North American Wisdom and Gifts By: Bobbie Kalman. I'm happy to have gotten those books. I also found this website, Click Here! and that helped me a lot too. I'm happy to have found that website, I got a lot of information from there too.
     The other specific researching or presentation techniques that were helpful to make my presentation so wonderful was that I imangine myself winning the lottery, and what that does is that I get nervous to super excited to present my project. I used this trick every time I have a music performance as well, and it works, so I'm happy I did that before I started presenting.

1 Suggestion to make the History Fair even better in the future.
One suggestion that I have to make the History Fair even better in the future is that we should look at other people's projects, because didn't get a chance to look at what other people did, because either they haven't been judged enough to look around or they didn't have permission to look around, and looking around is a nice break from standing there talking about your project in one place for two straight periods, so that would be my suggestion.

There you have it, my History Fair 4,3,2,1 is complete! Please feel free to check out the video of my History Fair presentation on my blog which is two posts down, and make sure to check out the video of me singing which is one post down. Please feel free to comment. Thank you, and have a good night. Three more school days left until March Break!  

30th Post (My Black History Month Performance Video)

We have reached 30 posts so far, that's a lot, and there's still more to come! Exactly a week ago, we had our Black History Month assembly at our school organized by my teacher, Miss Pollock, and let me just say, it was the best Black History Month assembly ever, and I'm so happy to have been part of it! I sang the song "God Bless the Child" originally done by a singer named Billie Holiday who was a black woman. Here's the video of me singing, and I hope you enjoy it! Playing the piano for me in this video is my music teacher, Mrs. Laszlo, and playing the drums is Will in my class. I'd like to thank her and Miss Pollock for making this all possible! Thank you, and have a good day! Like I said before, we're getting closer and closer until getting our week off!

29th Post (History Fair Presentation Video)

Ello again bloggers. Last Friday, my school had the History Fair, and all the grade sevens and eights were competing. In the History Fair, you had to pick a topic involving History, and make a three- sided poster board, speech and a three-dimensional item about your topic, and you had to present it to the class. My project was on Native Inventions that we still use today, and for my speech I was a Native girl talking about the different inventions and how we helped the Europeans survive on their land, but in return, they took our land. My project got selected to go to the Regional History Fair at the Ottawa War Museum on April 20th. Wish me luck! Here's my presentation, I hope you enjoy it and learn something from it! Thank you for watching it, and have a good day! We're getting close to March Break! 

Sunday, March 6, 2011

28th Blog (DigLitCircs Discussion #5)

Good day blogger mates! We have come to the fifth discussion of our Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles for Sketches by Eric Walters. Arianna from Oshawa will be our host for this discussion. Click here for Arianna's discussion so far! To think, after this discussion, we'll have our last ever discussion of our Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles for Sketches by Eric Walters. So sad, we still have this discussion and next discussion though, so keep making these discussions thought-provoking and beautiful! I know this discussion is going to be another awesome one! Remember, stay tuned to all the Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles for Sketches by Eric Walters! Thank you, discuss and have a great Sunday night before you go back to school tomorrow!