reflections...

This week's blog assignment requires you to write a 200 word reflection on the LA lessons covered so far. In your reflection, you may include the following points:

• what you have learnt/gained in the LA programme up to this point;
• what you like about the programme;
• the change(s) that you hope to see in the programme; and
• a lesson that you particularly enjoyed and why

from the LA lessons so far, i have basically picked up the skills and the criteria to write a good short story. i have also had a better understanding on too kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee. the criteria part has taught me what defines a good short story, and know an incomplete short story when i see one.

i like the LA program a lot because it condenses literature and English into one subject, thus making it very easy to study, and a lot more interesting than just plain English or plain Literature, which requires us to 'mug' more than learn.

yet i hope that the lesson can be more interesting if we get to opt for the book that we want to study on. this will give us the initiative to read the story more on our own than just reading for the sake of reading the book. thus, the book can be completed at faster pace and will be more convenient for the teacher if he/she wants to elaborate on the book.

I particularly enjoyed the lesson when we were expected to write a story. this made me think harder on how to express that particular character and i myself also have to know basically what this character is like and so on. but the bad part is i could not condense all of the characters traits in the same exert.

t1 wk 5

As you step inside that enclosed court, you are immediately greeted by the musty smell of shoes, rubber and sweat, a tell-tale sign that someone has used it not too long ago. the lines of red seem to mock you everytime you miss a shot and the tin sounds sonorously as if laughing at your precision.

Sometimes, that place seems like a place to have fun, but other times, during the competition,

it makes you sweat profuesly despite the cooling air-conditioner. the boxes at the sides seem like two eyes sometimes, staring at you.

yet, the most interesting thing in the court is the permanent black streaks on the side walls, created when the dirt-covered balls rub against the walls at high speeds. it is almost like these streaks tell the age and the maintenence of the court itself, an interesting feature in the court which is almost white all over.

the last thing that is special would be the wire netting above the highest line. this netting is as irritating as a mosquito, sucking up all the balls that belong to others. Balls that get stuck between the wires are never picked, waiting till another ball knocks them out from the other side.

charecterisation, story exerpt

On the surface, Reborn may look like an ordinary home tutor, but he is actually a hitman, training the 10^th Vongola boss to be a proper mafia boss. He may look a lot like a baby, but that is due to his pacifier, as he is one of the archebalengo.

Reborn heard from tsuna’s mother that there would be a parents meeting the next day, Reborn, all cooped up in the house because of his previous fiascos, was dying to hhave some fun. When everyone else was asleep, he drew out the plans for the next day.

The next day, a student fell extremely sick, and had to be escorted by the teacher to the sick bay. Not wanting to waste the chance, Reborn promptly got dressed in his best suit and pretended to be a relief teacher.

After gaining the trust of the gullible parents by writing overly-complex questions with no answers on the board, reborn was ready to have his fun. Slowly, he asked the students one by one for the answer, and if they could not give one, Reborn threw bombs at them.

Later on, the bombing game was starting to get old. Reborn then claimed that it was time to raise their IQ the scientific way. Once again, after providing nonsensical evidence that if they were put in an electrical chair, they would grow smarter, Reborn continued with his torturous game.

After a while, the parents were aware of his tricks and eventually managed to chase him out. But Reborn did not care, he had had his fair share of fun, and now it was time to go back home.

the place that means the most to me? that is not a very difficult question, and it is the squash court in school. it may only seem to be a place thatis for exercise only, but it has brought me a lot of happy memories.

Firstly, the 2010 trials, I beat all the sec 2 students in squash, sequring me a sweet solid place in the nationals, earning me much valuable experience that stills help me in my current competitions. this is also the place where i made most of my friends, although most were sec 2 instead of sec 1, but nonetheless they were good friends i could rely on.

this was also the place i spent a big portion of my holidays, since school was out and there was no trouble to go home, i spent even more time in the court, further improving and the results showed in competitions.

but after saying this much, how does this link to my identity. basically, it links to my identity because it is the only thing that sets me apart from others, because i am proud to say i am the only one in sec one last year that played it competetively, and my constant absence during the first few weeks because of the nationals has set me apart from others.

E-learning on 24th Jan comic strip

i have selected the theme of 'discrimination' and the plot is about a piece of burnt pizzas in a town of uncooked pizzas, though neither one is very edible, the uncooked ones stilll think they are supirior.
i mostly chose city as the background, and enhances the fact that this is a real-life problem.

my main character is a black pizza, otherwisw a negro in real life, the rest white, or caucasions, discriminate the black through speech and ostrasiation.

B. i used differnt backgrounds to highlight that this is happening everywhere,

week 2 post

this song is trying to convey the message that the world we live in has many problems, like chemical warfare,terrorism, wars and the heavy use of propaganda when they sang 'the wars going on but the reasons undercover.' and 'wrong information always shown by the media. So they are trying to tell us that there is only one world, which is slowly dying, and we have to treasure it, because we will not have a second chance.
the part that has the most impact on me is the part 'Overseas yeah we tryin to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin In the USA the big CIA the Bloodz and the Crips and the KKK', this part has a big impact on me because it is a bold direct critic to the USA government about how they are trying so hard to stop terrorism overseas that they are neglecting the local threat. this is however, true to a certain extent, as the USA has used a lot of effort to curd the Afghanistan threat. they may not be able to keep its order.

to kill a mockingbird

After reading the book 'to kill a mockingbird' by Harper Lee, it has left a big impact on me. first, let me start with a short summary.

Jem and 'scout', who are siblings, live in an old town called maycomb. In the town there is a rundown old house belonging to the infamous 'Boo' Radley, a negro who was rumoured to be extremely dangerous. As a result, nobody in maycomb dared to even take a step into his house. Also, 'Boo' almost never came out of his house, so Jem and 'scout' had never seen him before.

Their father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer in the town. Unlike most of the folks in Maycomb, Atticus is not prejudiced towards Negros, and even acts as an attorney for the negro criminal Tom Robinson. this earned him the name 'nigger-lover', but despite that, he still tries his best to protect Tom.

Close to the end of the story, when Jem and 'Scout' were in big danger, their ironic saviour was Boo Radley, the negro they used to tease and disturb. this changed the views towards Negros in Macomb. Boo Radley also shows himself once again.

This story has left quite an impression on me. Maybe most of us as Singaporeans do not know much about prejudice against Negros or ostracising because of skin colour. this is because of the government's effort to make Singapore multi-racial. But in the west, as it seems, most people are prejudiced against Negros not because they did anything bad or committed any grave sin, the are only prejudiced because of simply what they are. Almost everyone in America is biased towards whites, the have places exclusively for whites, jobs which only whites can take up, schools which only whites can go. this system is also poisoning the minds of younger generations because these measures will really make them think that they are superior to the Negros, so unless someone breaks this chain, the endless cycle will continue