update: tagboard

heyy.
update from cheryl here.
i have no idea how to put tagboard into blogger's skins, so click after the end of every post [theres a link] to go to the tagboard. or simply go www.njc_jh1-09.cbox.ws to tag! :D

CHERYL<3 JH101

Summary- Jane Goodall

Jane's love for nature led her to become a woman pioneer in the area of wildlife study and conservation. She started of as a secretary in Africa when she was in her twenties. Opportunity came knocking when an anthropologist Louis Leaky were digging nearby. She went to meet them and fortunately, Leaky hired her as his secretary. Surprisingly, more opportunities came and Leaky, after observing her performance, thought Jane might be better as a project member as he wanted someone with little training so as to have a objective view on the subject. Jane was chosen to begin the Chimpanzees project in Tanzania, and her study was funded by Leaky. She has been doing it for more than 38 years. Jane, the director of Research at Gombe since 1967, has inspired a television series and children's books. She has set up many projects and lessons on protecting animals, environment, constructed homes for injured or orphaned chimps and founded a global institute for study and conservation of apes.

(143 words)

Carissa JH101 <3

What you see is only what you think you see.

Hello everyone!

I'm sure you're all quite relieved now that your Time Capsule Assignment is done.
Take a short breather! :)
Hope you'll all have a good weekend and will manage to get some rest.

Sad to say, it seems like I'm the only one writing here!
Come on, you should all try to make this platform more alive!!!

Alright, here's what I have to say...
Remember I mentioned in class during the lesson when I showed you the video on "old America" versus modern America?
I started off with: What you see if only what you think you see.
Many of you said this is all about having perspective, that we should not judge a book by its cover etc.

Here's a short story which is very telling.
Let me share it with you. :)

Remember, many a times, there's more beneath the surface of things, and we shouldn't be too quick to judge. At least, we can always try not to. :)

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Do You Judge People Too Quickly?You May Be Wrong
June 26, 2009

Once upon a time there was one storyteller. After getting tired of telling old fabricated stories, he left his house in search of a real life story.He reached a village and took a cottage for rent. After roaming in the village throughout the month, in search of true story, the storyteller couldn't find one. Disappointed, he decided to stop his search.

The next day, while sitting in the cottage, he suddenly heard a voice - a woman was yelling at someone. The voice was coming from the big wall behind his cottage.He tried to hear the conversation; it sounded like the woman was abusing her daughter-in-law. The storyteller didn't like it but he was happy to finally get his story. Listening to the conversations each day he added them to his story. Though he couldn't see the characters of his story, he started hating the Mother-in-law, as she seemed to be villain.Now it was time to finalize the end of the story. But before he did, the storyteller wanted to see the characters once, so he climbed the wall.

There he saw the mother-in-law sitting in a wheelchair. It seemed she was handicapped and that the daughter-in-law was resting nearby.He saw the old lady trying to get a food item lying on the table near her chair. But because of her condition, she couldn't reach it and the daughter-in-law looked like she was enjoying the old lady's helplessness.Suddenly the old lady fell from the chair and started abusing her daughter in-law.The storyteller went back and quickly changed the ending of the story and was stunned at how different it was compared to what he originally thought it would be.Truly he had found both a real life story and a real life lesson.

Lesson: Never judge a situation unless you know all the aspects well. Sometimes you can't imagine your distance from the reality.

--- Copyright © 2009 Kamlesh Kharteta

http://www.motivateus.com/stories/do-you-judge.htm

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Yours,
Ms Wang

Just a low-down on the upcoming LA work!

Hello my dears,

Here is a summary of what is to happen next week for LA:

1) LA files - I want them all in by Tuesday. All 3 booklets (for Term 3) must be inside the file + all the extra worksheets/handouts that I have prepared for you (they all should be completed!).

2) Unit Booklet 4 - Pg 3 Mini Class Presentations. This is a group effort - as a group you must research on that personality/character assigned to you, then come up with a Powerpoint slideshow presentation to tell your classmates about who this person is. You can talk about his/her childhood, her achievements, any specific/important contributions that he/she had, any peculiar habits etc., anything significant about him/her - basically anything you find interesting at all. Each member to have 3 minutes to speak.
--> I have already given you all (JH103 - you should have collected from Ying Hang) the Oral Presentation Rubric, which has all the pointers about how to give a good oral presentation written clearly on it. Please refer to that when you are preparing your presentation. I have already mentioned most of the points when I went through oral presentation tips with you after your Nobel Prize speeches last term.
--> This is to prepare you for your Time Capsule Oral Presentation on Week 5. While this Pg 3 mini presentation is just a practice (i.e. ungraded), the one in Week 5 will be graded (20%).
--> I will be giving you all Peer Evaluation forms to "grade" and give comments to your classmates during class practice so that everyone can learn from one another. :) The graded oral presentation will only be assessed by me.

3) Time Capsule Written Assignment - DEADLINE: 25 September, this coming Friday, 1pm. There will be NO EXTENSION of the DEADLINE. I will look at your drafts/entertain any questions etc. until Wednesday, 23/9/09. After that, you have to "wrap things up" on your own. Give me a good piece of work, okay? :)

4) PLEASE GO TO THE LA COLUMN on the JH1 NOTICEBOARD and WORK ON THE WEEKLY PUZZLES!!!

5) This LA (READING) BLOG will be a channel through which I can reach out to all my 3 classes - so please check this regularly. :) And, where are your entries on the book that you were supposed to have read during the September holidays? Many of you haven't written/posted anything!!

Yours "naggingly",
Ms Wang :)

Change of Template and Deletion of Tagboard

Hello all,

I'm sorry - I've accidentally/unknowingly deleted the tagboard when I changed the template of this blog. I wanted one with the comment box so I could leave comments on your entries, and all of you can do the same for your peers.

Please, can someone put the tagboard back on? - It's not that urgent, but I'm sure you'll all want/enjoy a tagboard. :)

Thanks,
Ms Wang

Lord of the Flies

The book that I read was the Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The plot of the story revolves around the story of a few British boys stranded on an island after a plane crash. They elect a leader whose name is Ralph. He tries to come up with a few plans to govern the others. However, there is another person who goes against the rules and his name is Jack. Jack wanted to create a tribe of himself. He consolidated all the other boys to create a clan that mainly focused on their instinct, hunting. On the other hand, a boy nicknamed Piggy thinks from a more practical point of view. He and Ralph try to work together to sustain a signal fire that would at least give them a chance of survival. Unfortunately, Jack thinks that the slim chance of surviving was negligible and did not want to work together but decided to go hunting instead. In the end, Ralph’s only ally, Piggy dies after one of Jack’s tribe members kill him. Ralph is then forced to move across the island with no place of refuge and the constant terrorism of Jack’s tribe.
The structure of the plot embodies a deeper meaning. It is that there is a fine line between peace and pandemonium. Without a proper governing body, a place would not be able to run smoothly. In a society, there has to be people who base their lives on reason and those on instinct. Reason helps to run a certain place logically and gets things done properly. Instinct allows for a higher chance of survival such as hunting. All in all, the most important thing here is moderation. Everything must be done in moderation. Too much or too little of a certain thing and the results could be catastrophic.


Brendan Tan
Jh103

The story I read was 'The Clay Marble' written by Minfong Ho. It's mainly about a little girl named Dara who was forced to leave her peaceful home in Cambodia(it was at war) to take shelter at the refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border. She makes new friends, one named Jantu where they have alot of fun together and Dara learns a lot of things from her. However, when bombings start taking place at the border, Dara is unfortunately separated from her family due to all the chaos. She is now only left with Jantu and an injured baby boy. With Jantu having to go to the hospital, Dara set off on her journey in search of her parents. Jantu gave Dara a clay marble for courage and strength before Dara left, claiming it to be magic. This story is very saddening but it certainly brings out the friendship two people can have between them. You can really feel the character's feelings and anxiety when they are helpless. It's a very good book with a very exciting plot. :):)


Lim Huizhen
JH106

Escaping into the night =3

This book is thrilling! I literaly could not put it down once I started on it. Really. This story is about a girl, Halina. She and her friend, Batya, escaped from their ghetto into the forest (Halina's mother was not so lucky, as the Nazis went to her factory and ordered them to go to a pit where they shot all of them. However, Batya escaped narrowly.), where there were scouts and partisans who helped them to hide. They hid in the underground for a long time. Sometimes, the men had to go out on raids to get food from the nearby villages, who were sometimes patrolled by the Nazis. Halina and Batya volunteered to go on a raid once, and they accidentally went into a Nazi soldier's house. If you would like to know about what happened to them there and after that, read the book! The author settles herself into the protagonist's character very snugly. She writes the story in a way that you really can imagine yourself in the protagonist, Halina's, shoes and see the story unfolding right before your eyes. There is also a lot of suspense and twists in it. Also, yo can feel the fear of the Jews in hiding, their worries, and even the evilness of te Nazis. Although some people may turn away from this book as they think it may be gory, it does have a soft spot to it, like all things do. Halina experiences love for the first time in the form of crushes, and she even got her first kiss from a boy there. It is really amazing how things can turn so lovely in such a horrible situation. I really like this book as I am interested in the Holocaust, but for people who do not like war, jus empathise with the Jews, how they were discriminated and their strong faith that God will help them.

Rating for Escaping into the Night by D. Dina Friedman (In my perspective): ***** Good book! I really wish it was longer!

Note: This book is somewhat like Anne Frank's Diary, but it is not. Anne Frank hid up, Halina hid underground. They are a world apart. (:

Done by:
Sarah Tong JH106(:

A Wonderful Post

I read 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. It's mainly about a Jewish family [the Frank family] going into hiding during Hitler's [you know, the guy who hated Jews and tried to kill them all off] regime. The diary is mainly about how a teenage girl [Anne Frank] is coping with life in hiding. She, like all other teens, argues with her family, and experiences normal teenage emotions such as love, anger, longing, hatred, annoyance, happiness, and relief. Her exciting life in a hideout is expressed through strong words, dialogue and personal feelings. She talked quite a lot about how lucky she was to still be alive while other Jews out there were being killed by the thousand. Although she and her family were eventually discovered and sent to concentration camps, this diary was left in the hiding place, found and kept by friends of the Frank family, waiting for one of the Franks to claim it. Otto Frank, Anne's father, the only one who survived, read through the diary, understanding his daughter's feelings through their time in hiding, edited certain unwanted parts, and published it.
I recommend this book to those who want to understand the life of a Jew during Hitler's regime and especially want to find out how people in hiding coped with limited resources and having to stay silent for fear of being discovered.
* The book includes strong feelings, and 'sick thoughts', as you may put it. [Well, that's what it is, really. Just warning you before you read it.]

The Awesomest Person There Is In All Universes,
Sumithri V
from The Awesomest Class In All Universes,
JH106

I wrote a poem about the book
Could you please take a look?:
Adolf Hitler's persecution of Jews,
Really was all over the news.
So the Frank family went to hide,
Just to be safe, to stay alive.
Anne had a diary to keep her thoughts,
Of how she coped with life, how Jews fought,
For their existence, for their lives,
For their children, husbands and wives.
Young Anne viewed it all,
From the little window on the wall.
Witnessing death, witnessing escape,
Witnessing the Nazis banging down a Jew family's gate.
Eventually captured and passed away,
Young Anne died on a sad, sad day.
In early March 1945,
A deadly illness took her life.

I hope you liked the poem you just read,
It just came off the top of my head.
[Or should it be mind?]
So here I sign,
Sincerely me,
Sumithri V.

The book that i read was 'The Clay Marble' by MinFong Ho.
It is about a girl who was one of the thousands of refugees during the Cambodia war. Her mother, her older brother and herself were all at the refugee camp when the war caused her to be separated from her mother and older brother. She was then left to survive on her own when she was only twelve years old.
What i really liked about the story was that there was a lot of dialogs and many self thoughts that helped me better understand what that character was feeling. The writer also made used of a lot of descriptive phrases and words to bring out the atmosphere of war. This story touched my heart with the heart warming friendship shared between two girls.

I strongly recommend it.

Jacqueline.
Jh106.

creater of the blog; 1st post.

heyy, people.

its the creater of this blog here.
please don't change any settings unless permission from Miss Wang, tyvm.
when you place entries, please leave your name and class.
and, get the Login ID [email] and password from your LA teacher.

THE CREATER<3