Another Presentation down... 200 to go!

A few days ago, our class presented presentations on cities/towns/places we have lived in before. Using the internet, we all got our research and facts together, making 21 amazing presentations! Mine was on a smaller city based in Indonesia...

I believe the best thing I did on my presentation was the graphics and design, the layout, mostly. The graphics were clear and showed where the island was in the world and where Pekanbaru is in Sumatra (the island.) The design was spread out, fit and it was all spaced from one another. Overall, the graphics and design was the best I probably did.

For future presentations, I should bring notecards so my oral in the presentation is done well. Reading off the screen is not a good thing to do in a presentation since, well, the audience can read off the screen! The presenter should be fully ready, knows what to say and runs the presentation smoothly. I wasn't fully ready, still worrying about my presentation, thinking of what to say and running the presentation nervously. Notecards and more information is probably the key to my next presentations.

I learned to have some notes written for my oral from another's presentation. He had notes on the presentation itself, to sum up the important things on the slide. Another is to have some interesting facts that are still on the subject. It kept people entertained instead of yawning because of your fully-factual presentation.

I think that my performance was odd but OK. Because I didn't know what to say, I read off the screen, probably making some classmates bored. My city was a smaller one and there were less facts that weren't very interesting. I kept hesitating because I wanted to stop reading off the screen but didn't know what to say, making it more awkward for myself and everyone else. They were just waiting, staring at me to go on. But, now I know one of the keys to presentations: NOTECARDS.

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0Af9rSXv2Lhs2ZGRodDlnejhfMThkY3p6ZGtmaw&hl=en&authkey=COzdqNkM

Happy New Years! Who's got a resolution?

Hi, it's Dhabitah reporting for the first time in 2011. Enough with the reporting, it's time to get down to my New Years.

Like every new year, people make resolutions for the year to try to complete. My own 2 resolutions is to find happiness in anything I do and to go in confidently to any situation. For finding happiness, I guess it's because to look negative on every situation, it really dulls the world to your view. To even look negative on something, it brings down the mood a lot to me. It's like when I have to go to an event I don't like, I don't smile, I don't move around much, I'm like a rock. All this makes my own mood turn into a rock, even my personality at that particular event that I don't enjoy.

My other resolution is going confidently into any situation, which works. Like on my holiday, I wanted to try something but I wasn't fully confident about it. Sometimes I get pushed into something I don't want to do like try a new food that I know I wouldn't like. Turns out, I actually didn't like it. Of course, trying new things is nice but I would like to do it with myself being OK with it.

My holiday on the other hand... It was... normal. I visited some family, went to a themepark, had a little bit of fun, stayed up late and got to see friends. I got reminded of summer in a way, staying up until 6 AM with my friend, the internet, and sleeping until after lunch. Visiting family and going to the beach, teasing eachother and suffocating eachother in water via banana boat. I watched movies again and again, laughing at the movie "Grown Ups" with Chris Rock and Adam Sandler in it. But my Christmas was spent at Genting Highlands and its themepark.

The themepark was spectacular and the type of put your heart in your mouth. But maybe that's because I don't go to many great themeparks. Just the other day, I was hearing about a better themepark but I've never been to it. My favorite ride and probably the only thrilling ride I went on was the Flying Coaster. I passed it, looking at the people screaming in terror, horror and just screaming and laughing for the fun of it. It was Christmas Eve and there were lots of people rushing around. My sisters started pushing me into going and I thought it looked fun... Kind of. Even though we had wrist bracelets, we still had to pay 10 RM for this ride for each person and we got onto the seat. Nah, it was more like a bed. I was the shortest height possible on the ride so I climbed up another and I started panicking. Then, they closed the casket and I was more terrified as I was now lying on my stomach, gripping the handles as hard as I could. I heard a loud click and the Flying Coaster was going up slowly. I started trying to talk to my sisters who were already too occupied. I saw a woman and she saw my face which pretty much got her thinking: "I'm not going on that ride." I regretted it just a little as I shut my eyes, clenched the handles that were far from me and was too upset to scream. I was trying to open my eyes but I spun upside down, clenching the handles tighter. There were some sharp turns and I was panicking, thinking of if I let go, I would hit the metal casket in pain. Once it was done, I was shaking as I got off and my sisters were laughing at me while 'comforting' me. People looked at me, pitying me, and I simply shrugged, my hands still shaking just a bit. But it was fun and I'll be ready next time. I think. :)

A Zeitgeist of the first 6 months in 6th grade.

L for Lucky

On Tuesday, Mr.Whiting came and visited Mrs.Narsiman's class, Purple. He had started talking about learning profiles, how you work best. Everyone took tests to figure out how their body worked, like if you used your right hand. You're either gestalt or logical in your brain, better with your right or left hand, what ear do you use to hear, what eye do you use to look at things and what leg/foot you would use to do something. I'm gestalt and I have everything on my right. I'm Profile L.

I learn best when I fidget while during work. I can't really sit still while during work that well. I either have to play with my hands, or scribble with my pencil, whether it's swinging my feet or just tapping my hands, it helps me work better. I focus on the whole picture often, not putting it bit by bit, breaking it down. I keep my emotional relevance to myself because I'm uncomfortable sharing and telling others about it.

I need to move around when I'm processing something in my mind. I need to be alone and have everything quiet when I'm thinking of new ideas, I also need to do this when I'm under stress. I don't enjoy step-by-step instructions and I also imagine the end results first and than doing what suits the end result.

The strategies that would help me learn is to sit where I can process anything in my mind internally, somewhere quiet and without disrupting any others. A balance of crafts and skills would be great and keep me steady. Some activities that would work for me is Lazy 8's and Thinking Caps, blinking while tracking with my eyes, martial arts, sports, writing and drawing the non-dominant hand and basically moving around helps me.

I would like my teacher to know that I'm not any help when I'm under stress. I can't access any of my senses, they are completely shut off. I can't read without not remembering it in a couple of hours, I have to scream in my own room for 3 hours at the most to iron out my stress. But when I'm relaxed, I can do work easily. I can access logic/gestalt integration more than any other gestalt profiles.

Working With Alex

This week, for our 3rd literature circle on Charlotte Doyle, I worked with Alex. The benefit of working with a classmate was having less work than usual, because we shared the same amount. Usually, it's 2 of everything on the literature circle. But now, it's 1 of everything with a classmate, which is the least a real literature circle has ever been. There's also the feedback, you can get feedback from your classmate a little quicker than Mrs.Narsiman and more than once. Mrs.Narsiman has tons of literature circles to grade and she has to read a literature circle last so you might have to wait until midnight for her to give you feedback. Your partner has plenty of time to grade on your work.

The challenge I tried to overcome was writing a 3/3 passage. Alex has experience and knowledge about getting full marks on the literature circle because he sends his literature circles in for feedback, I've barely gotten any feedback. It takes me at least 30 minutes to write 6 sentences in a passage. But this literature circle, Alex gave me feedback and put in his expertise a little too much, I told him to stop editing my passage.

New understandings about the novel I gained were about Hollybrass and Jaggery. Hollybrass seems to hesitate a lot but never disobeys.  When he finally disobeys Jaggery, his existence is gone. Everyone may hate Jaggery but don't dare to speak up to him about their hatred for him. Plus, the crew did what they were told for their jobs. Hollybrass is used for the cruel orders.

A Charlotte Doyle Literature Circle

The discussion went fairly well today, as we had all listened, contributed and participated in our group. We all had a good understanding went we came, all fully prepared as well. As we went around, sharing our passages, questions & responses, connections and vocabulary, we had small talks and advice for each other. We stayed on topic and were able to get an excellent understanding of the book. We got ideas to do better responses for our next literature circles. We asked each other questions and interrogated each other.

We made connections to our groups' responses, sharing our thoughts and ideas about it. I had seen that Natalie had written about the same thing as I had on our passages. Our connections were mostly based on ourselves and other types of media we had seen similar things in. We made connections to each other as well about how well we knew the book and how we interpret it as.

I predict that the future discussions with my group will be much better due to us having a great first discussion. Discussions usually get better through each discussion, as we learn to get better at participating well.

Malaysia's Development

Malaysia is the 43rd most populated country in the world. It is a tropical country, bordered by Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, on land.  Over the waters, it is bordered by Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. It is separated in to two parts, West Malaysia and East Malaysia, it has 13 states and three federal territories. Malaysia has one of the best economical records. Their natural resources and geographical location help in their economy as well.
Malaysia is a great place to trade due to The Strait of Malacca, the most important trade route in the world, in between Malacca and Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia is known for its natural resources. Once, Malaysia was even the biggest producer of palm oil, tin and rubber in the world. The trade route (Strait of Malacca) and manufacturing are two of the big economy money makers, our trades going international. Malaysia offers natural agricultural resources, the most valuable is petroleum (that's why Petronas even exists.) Tourism is starting to win over manufacturing, the government is trying to do that, which is why they made the campaign of tourism. Malaysia Truly Asia. Malaysia also has its land helping with its development.

Malaysia is the 66th largest country (land.) With being near the equator, Malaysia is hot and humid through out the year. The rainfall is 2000 mm (yearly) and the average temperature is 27 degrees Celsius. There are two wind monsoons, the South West Monsoon and the North East Monsoon. With all this rain, the soil is good, resulting in a great farming source.

In trade, Malaysia is starting to receive technology from other countries. Malaysia is one of the biggest exporters of semiconductor devices, electrical devices, and information, communication products. The Malaysian Armed Forces uses high tech weapons (designed and made by other countries) and local military weapons.

Malaysia develops through its natural resources through trade and the geographical land also helps the natural resources grow. This is how it helps develop Malaysia.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia