Speech Draft

Hi everyone. Have you ever found yourself wishing you could disappear - blending into the background - during that critical moment. You’ve found yourself thinking, “Please don’t let the teacher ask me, let it be someone else - I don’t think I can do it?” If so, you lack self-confidence. But do you know what self confidence is?

We will be discussing five key factors of self confidence.

First, not being afraid to start helps with self confidence because after you start what you are doing just gets easier and easier. Then after awhile you will feel more confident doing this new thing and all you had to do was start.

Second, to believe in your abilities. Believing in your abilities to do something is a key factor in gaining self confidence because if you don not believe in yourself to do something even if you could do it you will not be able to. For example when you wake up in the morning and you do not want to get out of bed, even though you physically could get out of bed in your had to but you end up telling yourself that you're tired to do so.

Third, is to practice what you want to do or accomplish. Practicing a skill will help you feel more confident doing it next time you do it. For example you are about to write a math test and you studied lots the day before you are naturally feeling confident about taking the test because you practiced. But on the other hand if you forgot to study for the test and you're about to write it you might be scared or nervous because you did not practice.

Fourth, having a supportive environment. Having a supportive environment when trying to build confidence can really help because if you do fail you have others to help you up and motivate you to try again. For example if you are trying to get a new job and you have parents supporting you even if you do not get the job you will still have someone looking out for you.

Lastly, perspective. Having perspective can help by looking at the situation or your goal in a different way to make it more manageable to compete. For example say you want to climb a mountain at first you might say “how am i ever going to get to the top”. Instead you could say “every step you take you get one closer to the top”.

By not being afraid to start, believing in your abilities, practicing, finding a supportive environment and having prospective you can stop saying “I don’t think I can” and start saying “I know I can”.

If Students were the Teachers...

What if students designed their own schools? Not as in structurally, but as in independent learning.

First things first, it sounded a lot like Genius Hour. 

I did not understand how it was as if students designed their own schools. The students still had to follow a strict plan of schedules and deadlines. Instead of Genius Hour, it seemed like Genius Day! There was very little difference between the two programs, except for the fact that "school" lasted for the entire day. There was no sense of freedom whatsoever. This new school still had an unchangeable schedule, the same amount of time, and teachers still present. If one wanted to design a school, wouldn't they have the choice whether to have a flexible schedule for the students, or possibly different ways of learning? Instead, the only thing that changed were the subjects. 

   I'm probably being too harsh on the restrictions. The benefits of having self-taught classes are just as good as Genius Hour's. Cooperation, discussion, independent work, and troubleshooting are certainly good abilities to have. The idea of a student created school is interesting, but to really be a "school", you would really need to have more choices.

speech draft 2

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1II8y8LgQE7yC_Qk3fMhAcidr0w-BdxAMftwYB35bF-k/edit

If students Designed Their Own School

When I looked at the title of this video, my first thought was that it wasn't a very good idea. Especially since it's an entire semester. Our class did something similar to this but we only did it for about a month. Al though it would be much easier for the teachers to get paid and do nothing, the students will have to teach themselves the courses that they had to take. such as the Sciences, Art, the Orientation, and the Collective Endeavor. Teachers are hired for one reason, to teach the students to become smarter in a certain profession. Even though there is advanced technology right now, not all of the answers are online. That's is why teachers are there to help them, not mentor and coach them. Also, the students think that it is a good idea if there is no report cards, no tests, no quizzes. If there are no grades, how are you going to know how much you improved. Also, without any tests, students will think they can slack off and pass the course by doing nothing. This is why I think this project is not a very good idea and a very big gamble as Principal Marianne Young also stated.

Speech Draft

https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#my-drive
https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#my-drive

Speech Draft

Eddy Leung
Humanities 8

“I like smiling, smiling’s my Favorite”

How many of you have watched the movie “Elf” with Will Ferrell? And do you know what his favorite thing to do is? It's smiling! Every opportunity he gets, he smiles because smiling benefits him and the people around him. Right now you might ask “how could smiling be good for me?” Well to name a few, when you smile it increases your health by lowering your blood pressure and stress and more, it's also natural drug by giving you serotonin and endorphins and pain killers , and smiling makes you better looking. Also, smiling doesn’t only affect you, but the people around you. Smiling is contagious, when you smile people around you want to smile because it’s a natural instinct and you know what happens when someone smiles, they get all the benefits along with it. It’s a win win situation.

At this point of my speech you all should be smiling right now and if you’re just putting on a fake smile just so you can get all of the amazing benefits, it’s not going to work. Putting on a fake smile can be worse than putting on a poker face. It has been proven that if you put on a fake
smile, you end up gloomier than ever You know how when you go to Starbucks and the employees greet you with a “how do you do” and a cheerful smile? You think they are smiling because they love seeing customers? No, they are smiling because their boss told them to and at the end of the day it just kills their mood. Also, if you make a fake smile while you’re already upset, it can result in more harmful things. However women suffer from this way more than men do because Mother Nature made us in the way that women are more emotionally expressive than men.

This is why I am telling you to smile and follow Buddy the Elf’s ways, to smile any time you can. If you need a reminder, write one on your hand, leave a sticky note on your forehead, do whatever it takes even if you have to dress up like an elf. Because as One Direction once said "that's what makes you beautiful"

SPOOCH DREFT

What is art? To me, it’s a form of expression. What are video games? Engaging and expressive, and pretty fun, to boot. But video games? As art? It’s not as far as a stretch as you’d think.
 
Hi, my name is Alayna and I like video games as much as the next person. I want to try and clear the reputation of video games being considered violent and “mind-numbing”. How might one do this? Start thinking of ways video games could be portrayed as art. Surely some games out there must have a hidden meaning, an underlying theme, or just fantastic art and music.

Speech Draft

The Pros and Cons of Composting

Have you ever noticed our new organics cart and why it’s there?  It’s because of something new called composting. Composting isn't really new per say but I don’t think any of you have ever really thought about it. Composting is a great way of recycling organic matter and it turns all our food scraps into soil; although it does have its pros and cons.

There are lots of advantages of composting. It diverts organic material away from landfills because landfills are starting to overflow and also as yard waste decomposes in landfills it can generate methane gas which could explode if heated. There are also economic benefits. By composting you are saving money by not buying as many trash bags and it reduces the costs for transporting waste to landfills. If you’re composting at home it can also enrich your soil so that you don’t need to buy any fertilizer.

Although good things do come with disadvantages. For example it takes a lot of work and time to maintain the right temperature and wait for it to slowly decompose and there’s also a high cost to shred the materials so it decomposes properly in a community compost site. The biggest problem would probably be the odour that comes from composting; it can attract cats, mice and raccoons. It could also attract lots of insects like flies, ants and sometimes even termites. These problems can quickly be solved though by not putting in meat,dairy or oil products to avoid odour or pests.

Lots of communities are now starting to compost. Surrey, Burnaby and Vancouver are all encouraging people to compost. In Surrey we now have the green bins where we put all our food scraps and they later get transported to the Richmond Fraser soil and fibre which is a composting facility that takes all our food scraps and turns it into soil or mulch for selling.

Many people haven’t really thought of composting but as the landfills overflow and more pollutants are being spread into the air the best we can do for our trash is compost. Sure, there are a lot of disadvantages, but if you can overlook them you’ll realize that it’s a good idea. It’s great that the community started composting and I hope that we will continue.

Video Killed the Radio Star (a comparison)

Our homework today was to watch two videos.

A song by the name of "Video Killed the Radio Star", and a parody/faithful update "Digital Life". What they are trying to convey in the original is that we relied too much on media and television. I felt that these lines show this.

"In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone too far"

"Rewritten by machine and new technology, and now I understand the problems you can see."

"We hear the [music] playback and it seems so long ago."

This line specifically tells us how fast technology was, and is still developing.

Music Video Response "video killed the radio star"

Today’s homework was to watch a music video on Ms. Lees blog called “Digital Life”. It was about how the internet developed over the years, how we use it now and some facts about it.  The music video was a parody of a song called video killed the radio star. I thought that the video was a fun way to teach people about facts about the internet without losing their attention  Also the video made learning in a more visual and entertain. Overall I thought the video was very well done and very entertaining. 

Digital Life Response

The video that the history teacher made was telling us the impact of technology. It is true that in our generation we heavily rely on our electronics and that we would be lost without them.

 Digital life has changed everyone’s life, nowadays everyone is joined into social media and are always trying to see what they’re friends are doing or trying to grab many people’s attention on Facebook or twitter, for example people post the most random of photos or they post at least 2 photos a day on Instagram. Instead of using books to research we always rely on Google and Wikipedia for all the answers. Kids are using IPads and even phones which were supposed to be a privilege when we got older but now everyone has it and it seems normal. Also most of their toys are kind of like robots because they can talk back to you and walk; when I was little I don’t remember having any of those things. Our grammar skills has also deteriorated since we started texting, everything we text is always simplified and we’re so used to it that it affects how we write and sometimes how we speak.

The second video which was “video killed the radio star” by the Buggles which I thought was about the advance in technology which became more popular making us forget about the old technology. It made me think that technology is advancing everyday and what is already made today is only the first step, there could be newer and better things being made and people will always want what is best. I thought that both videos were really interesting and made me think a lot about the technology today.

Digital Life Video

Digital Life

This video is teaching us that in are generation, we rely on are electronics for everything! Digital Life has changed who we are. Before, people would talk to each other in person, or use there brains and look things up in the dictionary. Now, if we don't know something we use "Google" to give all are answers and instead of talking to someone in person, we prefer a thing called "texting". I enjoyed watching this video because it wasn't a boring, informative video that makes you lose interest. It was upbeat and informative at the same time which made you want to listen and it also processes in your brain better.

People now a days think if they get a new pair of shoes, or are hanging with there friends they need to Instagram it right away. Guilty is charged towards me for doing this! When i'm with my friends, we like to take pictures and usually one of those pictures end up on Instagram. Digital life has also made students grammar bad. We use words like "legit", "idk" and teachers favorites, "ur" and "u". when we text these words all the time, it ends up being an automatic thing for us to write it down when were in English class! then your teacher will say to you "WOW, were using allot of slang today!" Digital life has defiantly changed are lives, but it's are job as students to use it respectfully.

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT!

The 2 clips that Ms. Lees showed us on her blog were both based on electronics. One of them was about how these devices has drastically changed our lives. The other one was hard to decipher on what he was trying to explain to us. The thing is that electronics has made our lives so much better and easier. Like the first video said " we have had internet since 1992" and hasn't that made our lives the best thing ever since? As the second video stated " it is as if we are becoming a new species of humans, like a cyborg species. We are growing and evolving with our new technology, we are no longer just humans". This was said because technology has made our lives incredible and it will keep getting better.

Digital Life Response

This clip has brought many thoughts to mind. As she says during the entire video, Digital Life has changed who we are which is true. Everybody texts and calls and face times, back in the day, you had to talk to them face to face. We are pathetic. We have adapted to electronics, we have relied on them for our daily work. When we need an answer there is Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo and unlimited amount of resources. Resource after Resource that we all talk for granted.

Laziness is the thing that kills us the most. And electronics aren't helping. Although it is making our lives better and easier, we are letting it take over our lives. It has even taken away our grammar. Using slang such as "sux" and "gr8" and the most common one of all " LOL". These are all very neat things and are very useful, however they are making us soulless. We can use electronics but use it cautiously and respect them.