Monday, April 19, 2010

My Favourite Poem

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.

By John McCrae

This is one of the most popular and memorable war poem every written. The purpose of this poem is it’s greatest quality. I love this poem so much because it really gives you the feeling of the dead people that fought in the war. McCrae wrote this so he could convey his feelings of being a doctor in the war. He has seen so many gruesome, bloody things so he really wanted to share Flanders Fields.  (Row on row) really emphasises the huge number of deaths.(That mark our place) symbolises that the fighters deaths haven’t been ignored because there is a “mark” for the sacrifices that they made. The theme is very similar to the purpose because they are both bringing the idea of the war and Flanders Fields. Some of the literary devises used are literal, imagery, repetition, figurative language and metaphor.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

International Women's Day

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Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell Gilbert was the first know women to pitch baseball in the MLB (Major League Baseball).

Jackie was more than just the first women to pitch baseball in the MLB. Since she was a relieving pitcher that means when the starting pitcher gets tired, she as to take his place. On  April 2, 1931 Jackie’s team Chattanooga Lookouts were planning on playing the New York Yankees in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In the late first inning of the baseball game the starting pitcher was doing terrible and got pulled by the coach, so 17 year old Jackie went in. Jackie’s first pitch was to the baseball great Babe Ruth. The amazing thing was that she struck him out. After Babe got struck out he yelled and complained to the umpire, which got him no where. Next up to bat was another baseball great Lou Gehrig which Jackie also struck out. The stadium roared and the baseball world was shocked to see a women to first, pitch a ball game but to also strike out two baseball greats in a row. The next day Babe went to the paper saying "I don't know what's going to happen if they begin to let women in baseball. Of course, they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball every day." Women were so happy about this great accomplishment, some men were outraged like Babe. Kenesaw Mountain Landis who was the baseball commissioner at that time, voided her contract to the NY Yankees. He also “declared women unfit to play baseball as the game was too strenuous.” Jackie had to step down from baseball in the MLB but continued to play with many other teams.

Jackie’s amazing act of pitching in a MLB game inspired so many females that they could too play baseball and maybe even strike out baseball greats like Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig. Ladies were frowned upon when playing most sports but when Jackie pitched the game she put confidence it so many other ladies in the world!

Sources:

Picture:

http://tinyurl.com/dgy8bb

Writing:

http://tinyurl.com/yfljnom
http://tinyurl.com/ygv6ogv
http://tinyurl.com/yjb7ht9
http://tinyurl.com/pq98lr

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Friday Everything Changed Word Meanings

Can 4 simple words can have so much meaning to a story and in real life. The Friday Everything Changed by Anne Hart.

Identity: To identify how to be the same and equal is very important. This story puts a fine line between how young boys and girls should act and feel. Everyone should be able to feel like that can be unique in there own way. The story shows how young women could not (really) express their own feeling and opinions. Not verbally or physically, it just seemed out of the question to change how each sex acted.

Resilience: The students in the story showed resilience. They showed great strength to put up with all the stereotyping. You may think that the girls showed much greater resilience because of putting up with not being allowed to carry the water bucket. The students and their peers are very strong for putting up the unwritten rules about how they should live.

Balance: Everyone needs some sort of balance in life. This can be like having balance of fun/work or like in the story a balance of equality. The kids in the story are following some kind of unwritten rule, saying that girls have to stay inside and cook with their mothers, while the boys are in the field working with there fathers. Our society and changed a lot by making it normal for people to do whatever they want, in any field of work.

Movement: The movement of people to make each other equal. The young students in Miss. Ralston’s class seem like they are two groups of children when they are all really the same. What says that boys have to sit together at the back of the class while the girls sit at the front. Cant they collaborate and play baseball together?

 

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Friday That Everything Changed

A story with school children really can show how we still are stereotyping sexes.

The teacher Miss.Ralston in The Friday Everything Changed story seems to be like to people in one.I can tell this story is about a small school many years ago. It was more traditional for teacher like Miss.Ralston to be a one sided teacher but she breaks the barrier because yes, she is a fine lady with beautiful nylon stockings. She is a tough teacher, although willing to bend the “unwritten” rules. The girls adore her because she is lady like and the boys do also for trying and strapping hard. Miss.Ralston respects everyone by these rules people sent for her like a perfect lady teacher by also a real person!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Canada’s Geographic Position Charts

 

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In Social Studies class today I did a project on Canada Geographic Position. These graphs show the largest countries areas in the world. The first graph which is a pie chart shows the biggest countries and their area in pie pieces compared to the rest of the countries. The second is a column chart with the biggest counties  compared to each other. Canada is the second biggest country in the world with 9970610 area (Square KM).  Canada also has the longest coastline in the world which is 243,000 kilometres.Canada has over 33,995,000 people living here. The population density is 3.3 inhabitants per square kilometre. That is one of the lowest in the world.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Dealing With Teen Dating Abuse: Matters of Choice. End Story Prediction.

In this blog post I will tell you my prediction for the end of the video Dealing With Teen Dating Abuse: Matters of Choice.

Since Matthew is being really abusive to Megan I think she will just leave and go to Puerto Rico for the summer with Ana. This should be good for their relationship because it will give it time to cool down. Once Megan gets back she tries to avoid Matthew until Matthew finds her at the video store. He is going to act all nice and stuff then they leave the store he will get really mad. Megan tells him to calm down because Matthew is really yelling loud. There is a police officer in the parking lot looking over at them. Megan feels safe since the cop is there so she leaves on goes home. Megan tells her parent’s about what has been happening. They end up calling Matthews parents to tell them about the problem. They admit that they have been putting too much pressure on Matt and are very sorry. Matt ends up apologizing to Megan.

Matthew learns the hard way that you can’t let your anger out on someone else just because you have pressure on yourself. The both of them have learned a very good life lesson.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A Slice of My Life: What Matters to Me

Wow my first blog post with Blogger!! I will tell you a bit about myself, so you know what matters to me, in my life. Family/friends, technology, fun, food are some of the most important.

Friends and family should be a very important part of anyone’s life. They are definitely super special and inspirational in my life. When you have good friends and family you can talk to them about anything and everything. My parents are really amazing because they have done so much for me and my sports. Driving me to my baseball games, coaching, watching and encouraging me to do better are just a few of the many things.

“Look at my cool new app on my Ipod.” That is what you will usually hear someone say walking down the hallway at school. Technology is all around and people use it every day. I am in Digital Immersion at my school which is a program that lets me do certain courses on my laptop. I love using and keeping up with the latest technology because it is exciting and can help you do tasks a lot faster. The Microsoft office suite is the best group of programs because they let you write, present and do a lot of things quickly and simply. It makes your work look really professional and it’s not that hard to do. That is one super suite of programs and there is many, many more. An Ipod is another amazing device that I love all thanks to today’s amazing technology. I may call myself a bit of a technology nerd because when the next best game console or laptop comes out I really want it.

If you don’t have any fun in your life, it would be a very boring, dull, world. Sports are a huge part of my life which I really care about. Lots of people play sports for a variety of reasons. They incorporate fun, exercise and the feeling of belong in group/team. I am currently playing baseball which is really great because it incorporates all of those reasons into one. I love playing video games, they are so intriguing and exhilarating. When you play a video game you feel like you are in the game, with the characters, living the events. Now with today’s advanced graphics it feels even more realistic. I personally believe researching technology is really exciting and fun when others think it is a chore.

You can’t live without food so why not enjoy what you eat. That is why food really matters to me. I love all kinds of different cuisines from all different parts of the world. Some of my favourite foods are smokies, pizza, chicken wings, butter chicken, chowmein, escargot, perogies, Ukrainian sausage, chocolate, grilled cheese sandwiches, sunny side up eggs and so many more. Eating some kind of food you like, obviously tastes good. When I have some amazing foods that I love like escargot or perogies, I feel myself relax and my taste buds dance. Tons of people are scared of trying new and different foods because they worried it will taste bad. It could also be an incredible experience eating that weird snail floating in garlic and butter.

Now that you know a bit about me and what I like, hopefully you will read my future blog posts. Since I am in my school’s Digital Immersion program you will see most of my posts about technology and school. I will also blog about fun things and food.