HOW TO THROW A SHOTPUT I GUESS

Shotput 

For this task I chose shotput because it's an athletics event I'm reasonably interested in, and I've represented Canterbury for shotput, represented my primary school at it, and although I haven't done anything for Hornby High I got 1st for girls shotput in Year 8 (along with discus but oh well). 

Shotput involves 'putting' a heavy sphere called the 'shot' as far as possible. The shot is around 4kg for women in Olympic-grade but for my year group we 'put' under 1kg. 

The proper technique of shotput:

- The shot is held in the base of your fingers, spread slightly apart

- Your head should be in a cocked position

- Eyes to the ceiling

- When putting, the shot should remain tucked into your neck, and using your triceps, fingers and arm muscles you should push the shot as far as possible without throwing it.  

- Keep your elbow high while you put, finishing the put with a flick of the wrist. 

THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE TRIANGLE

CRITICAL LITERACY MATRIX (a critical literacy task, obviously) 🌈

Video One: Sensodyne

Question 1.
Whose views are excluded or privileged in the text?
The views of the customers/users of Sensodyne are excluded, we do not get to see their opinions on the product, only that of Alison Crane's.
Question 2. 
What genre does this text belong to?
-Advertisements
-Persuasive
-Information report

Question 3. 
What does the author/writer want us to know?
The author wants us to know that Sensodyne ProNamel is a great product, that you should buy it, and it actually works.


Video Two: Palmolive

Question 1.
How are the characters constructed in this ad?
The characters are constructed to have smooth, silky, amazing hair after using the advertised shampoo. The director cast them to have long hair and look pretty for advertising purposes, kind of like a subliminal message saying, if you use your shampoo, you're going to look as beautiful as these models do. 

Question 2.
What different interpretations of the ad are possible?
The view that you are not beautiful unless you have long, brown and smooth hair like the models have in the advertisement, and if you have natural curly hair you are not beautiful. I also found the lack of woman/men of colour in this advertisement rude and non inclusive. 

_______

The Hare and the Tortoise (read below) http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/pdfs/aesop/the_hare_the_tortoise.pdf

Question 1. 

Who is the most likely audience of this text and why?
I believe the most likely audience of this text would have to be younger children as it is an Aesop's Fable, written for kids specifically. The text used basic word and structure that you would expect in a children's story... nevertheless it's still my second-favourite Aesop's fable. 

Question 2.
What do the words suggest?
The words suggest that you are still capable of success even if you taking things slower than someone who might be quicker, but careless.  

______



Take Me To Church | Hozier

Question 1.
How would the song be different if it were told in another time, place, culture etc?
This song is about being a member of LGBTQ+ community.
Throughout history, being homosexual was definitely not accepted, unlike how it is today. I think that if this song was released prior to the 21st century - or even prior to the 2010's, really - it wouldn't be as liked as it is now because the song supports being a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
This is an opinion which has been widely regarded as completely wrong: people prior to the 21st century said that if you were homosexual, you should go to jail. Today it is very different, the LGBTQ+ community is very widely accepted especially in Gen X and Millennial culture which is the audience that the artist of this aimed at. 
If this song was released in a different country such as Iran or Russia, it would be very, very controversial as being homosexual is a crime in those places. It would be seen as a negative song which is very wrong in my opinion.

Question 2.
How does the text depict age, gender, cultural groups?
The song depicts LGBTQ+ people, particularly gay people, as a group of people who many people don't like. My interpretation of the song is, the quote "Take Me To Church' is like a f**k you to anti-gay people, or a sarcastic phrase. It's like Hozier is challenging anti-gay people to take him to church to be deprived of his "sins". Despite this, the song depicts LGBTQ+ people as normal, everyday people that should not be hated just because they love someone. 

LOVE IS LOVE 🌈🌈🌈

✨ YOUR HUMAN RIGHTS (a digital learning object) ✨

Over the past two periods, our learning outcome has been to work towards the completion of a Digital Learning Object (DLO) displaying all of the human rights. This is my poster I created on Piktochart, it took little time to do and I'm super proud of how it turned out.

What did I already know?
Going into this topic, I knew a couple of human rights such as the right to live safely and the right to have food. But, honestly, that was it. Now I know many more. In fact, my next steps are to use flash cards to help me remember all of my rights, as I believe they are a very, very important thing to remember as a human in the present world. 

What did I find interesting?
I found it interesting that the human rights aren't even imposed by law yet in all countries and nations of the world. I feel like they would make a profound difference if everyone on Earth believed by them and went by them, but I believe it would be very difficult to get everyone onboard because of the current tension between today's countries.
Other than that I found the fact that before the human rights declaration was created and the United Nations were formed, there were actually people who weren't allowed to assemble in the streets or have the right to relax.
But, as I learned, there are still many people in some countries who do not have these rights. I feel like, as a citizen of a well-developed country, I take things for granted sometimes.
Visiting Indonesia just over a month ago proved to influence my perspective of the world and poverty, but studying this topic of human rights definitely changed it and I now see that, no, not every human- not even most of the world - follow these human rights the United Nations declared those many years ago to improve the world. And look where we are now. 

What I would change?
I wish I had learnt my human rights earlier. I didn't even think about learning my human rights until a few months ago, and even then, I put it off until we finally studied it. It's pretty bad that after fourteen years I'm only just learning the basic rights humans are granted at birth.

What am I wondering?
I'm wondering, just how much would the world improve if these 30 human rights had to be obeyed by law. Would we still have wars? Would people still be discriminated for their race and gender and sexuality? And if the United Nations even mentioned imposing the human rights by law publicly, how would people react? What would happen to North Korea, would they obey? There are so many questions I have that will remain unanswered for probably my entire lifetime.

DANCE IN PERFORMING ARTS💃

Parris Goebel

Research task. 15.02.18.

1.Who is Parris Goebel? 
Parris Goebel is a 27-year old New Zealand choreography, best known for her role in the 3x award-winning dance crew, The Royal Family. 

2. Where did she grow up? 
Parris was born in Manurewa, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand to parents Brett and LeAnn Goebel. Something I found interesting is that her mother LeAnn, is of Scottish, Samoan, and Chinese descent.
Interested in dance from a young age, Parris soon began dance lessons at the age of 10 before going on to form the ReQuest dance group five years later.

3. How/when did she study dance?

Parris studied at Auckland Girls Grammar School, before dropping out at the age of 15 to focus on dance; and incredibly, she predominantly taught herself. In an interview with the NZ Herald, Parris explained, quote, "I tried finding the right studio but didn't feel at home anywhere. I was always on my own journey." I find this to be very inspiring, it simply proves that you don't have to go to the best or fanciest mentor in order to be successful.

And how successful Parris became....
At the age of 27, she owns her own dance company - The Palace Dance Studio in Auckland - is married, won gold at the World Hip Hop Championships with her ReQuest dance group, has choreographed for musicians such as Justin Bieber (including the hit single Sorry, which currently stands at the 3rd most viewed YouTube video of all time) and published her own book titled Young Queen. It's truly remarkable that we have such an inspiring, iconic queen named Parris Goebel representing New Zealand at dance, choreography, directing, acting, and singing. You go girl! 💖

___________________

The Royal Family

1. Who are the Royal Family?
The Royal Family is a dance crew founded in Penrose, New Zealand, by Parris Goebel. 

2. What competitions have they performed at/won?Having gone on to perform at many world-wide competitions, including at the World of Dance competition in Los Angeles in 2015. With these performances came plenty of awards, including the gold award at the World Hip Hop Dance Championships THREE YEARS IN A ROW. Other awards the Royal Family have won include silver at the World Hip Hop Dance Championship in 2015. The extended Royal Family group, The Royal Family Varsity group, won bronze at the World Hip Hop Dance Competition.

3. What famous singers have they danced for?
The Royal Family, and Parris Goebel herself, have danced for many famous singers including Justin Bieber, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Ciara, Little Mix, Nicki Minaj, Big Bang, Black-Pink, and many others. 

MY CRITICAL LITERACY COURSE RECAP 📖

What do you think Critical literacy is?

Critical literacy is about seeing things from a different perspective.. inferring and reading between the lines to fish out the subliminal messages behind a text, film, advertisement, or music, and interpret that for yourself. It's about really looking deeper into a text to search for hidden information, basically.

What did you learn during Critical Literacy?

I learnt some questions I can ask myself while reading, listening to music, etc, to help myself understand the true meanings and possibly try to understand the author's perspective. I also learnt what Critical Literacy is as a whole: I haven't properly studied it, although I have subconsciously taken time to search for subliminal messages in song lyrics and Disney films after learning about the dark meanings behind certain songs (whoops, my inner conspiracy theorist is coming out). 

What did you find challenging about critical literacy?

There were some texts, ads, and songs that I thought, no way, there is no meaning behind this whatsoever, it's just jumbled-up-garbage. That was really during the introduction to it. So, at the start, it was pretty difficult to actually find the hidden information (whether it was collaboratively or independently) but as the crash course progressed I found it to become easier and easier which is (hopefully) a good thing. I still find some things difficult to interpret however, such as the more simple texts. For example, the story "butterflies" I posted earlier was pretty difficult for me to interpret. 

How will you use Critical Literacy skills in real life?

I will continue using Critical Literacy skills when I'm listening to music, watching films, and reading books. One thing I particularly want to do is watch a Disney film, listen to 'Hotel California' by Guns 'n' Roses (there's a heck ton of secret, hidden messages in this song that I want to interpret for myself) and re-read 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' with a different perspective that this course helped me to find. 

What are you looking forward to in English this year?

I'm looking forward to starting the new Novel Study: I definitely enjoying studying 'Wonder', and after this course, I think I'll have even more questions I can ask about the text. I'm also looking forward to continuing critical literacy if we do a film study. Oh, and I'm looking forward to reading another Shakespeare play/book to expand my knowledge. Basically, I'm looking forward to everything! 

I KILL BUTTERFLIES (a critical literacy task) 🦋

After reading the text and having a class discussion, I think that this story is about the different perspectives Maoris and Pakeha have. In this story, I believe that the teacher comes from a better upbringing in contrast to the small family. There was subtle evidence pointing to this throughout the story including:

• The way the grandparents spoke. They spoke in short, fast sentences with incorrect grammar and minimal complex words. At first I thought they might not know English as well as the granddaughter as if they were raised in a Maori village (I noted that the author was known particularly for the use of Maori culture in her stories, the information about the author was pretty helpful). However after a short class discussion I agreed that perhaps the grandparents did not have a good upbringing and dropped out of school possibly due to poverty or the war, judging by the time period this was written in. We estimated it to be written around the 1940's-1950's. 
• The grandparents grew their own food rather than buying it. This is perhaps because they could not afford it. 
• The quote "Because you see, your teacher, she buy all her cabbages from the supermarket and that's why." The quote was useful because I was able to interpret the story further. It also supported the idea that the family is not as wealthy as the teacher. 

THE WAY I INTERPRET THE STORY
The teacher can afford to buy her cabbages from the supermarket, unlike the grandparents. She did not understand that the girl kills the butterflies to keep them away from the cabbages her grandparents use as their primary food source.
The story was written in a way to, when explored further, let the reader know that everyone has their own perspective of something and we should not discriminate against someone for it.
But in this particular case, it was the Maori family's perspective in contrast to the wealthier Pakeha teacher. 

INTRODUCTION TO GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 🔬

A double-helix
 strand of DNA

During the first four weeks of Year 10, 10Sp has been working on Genetics and Evolution in Science - a subject I was quite looking forward to last year, simply based on the fact I knew what a mitochondria is. But going into this I've learnt that there is a lot more to cells, genetics, genes, DNA, and reproduction than what I thought.

What are genes, and what is DNA? Did you know that DNA stands for deoxynucleic acid? I didn't. You may be familiar with the 'double-helix' shaped strand of DNA, those tiny little strands that contain genetic instructions, for the development, and furthermore, the function, of living things. A DNA strand that contains instructions for /control a specific feature such as eye colour is called a gene. Genes are responsible for telling the human body how to make proteins, which determine the function and structure of cells. They are inherited from your parents. 

DNA and it's location
DNA is located inside the nucleus of the cell - the nucleus is known as the 'boss' as it coordinates the activities of the cell. Chromosomes, for which you inherit 23 from each parent (making 46 in total) are made from DNA strands. They look a bit like this > 

Chromosones, Pair 23, and Karyotypes
Focusing a bit more on chromosones, we did an activity based on Karyotypes. Karyotypes is basically a picture of the chromosomes a cell hosts, used to look for abnormalities. For example, a result of a condition caused by chromosome abnormality is down's syndrome. This condition is caused by an extra '21' chromosome. 

For the task we had to match each side of the chromosome to another by matching their banding, size, shape, etc. Chromosomes aren't exactly identical but they look very similar to not only its second half of the pair, but the other chromosomes, making this task pretty difficult. 

If you know anything about chromosomes you must know about pair 23. Pair 23 is your sex chromosome - the pair of chromosomes that determine your gender. For males, the pair is made up of an x and y chromosome. For females, both sides of the pair are x chromosomes.

Answers to the questions listed:

1. There are 46 chromosomes found in the typical human cell. 

2. 23 chromosomes are inherited from your mother, and 23 chromosomes are inherited from your father.

YOUCUBED PROGRAMME RECAP

The Importance of Struggle from YouCubed on Vimeo.

During our first two weeks of Year 10 math with Mr Werder, we have been watching and taking part in the YouCubed programme, run by Jo Boaler from Stanford University.  YouCubed provides a series of fun videos explaining encouraging facts about maths and the human brain.

"Struggle is important" is one of these facts. I learnt that when you are working on a difficult maths problem, this is actually creating or strengthening pathways in your brain which ultimately make you better at math itself. I really enjoyed learning about this because more times than not, when I faced with a difficult problem, I tend to sometimes give up or enlist help in somebody else. Now I have motivation to actually complete maths problems and not give up, knowing that it's actually making my brain stronger, which is something I think everyone should strive to achieve at my age. 

CRITICAL LITERACY VOCAB + CROSSWORD :)

Task: Write definitions in your own words for the following vocabulary words. Present your word creatively. 

Words:

Bias

Source

Agenda

Authority

Credible

Reliable

Perspective

Manipulate

Which of these websites are real news sites and which are fake news sites? 

Visit each site and make notes on:

• What does the website look like?
• What photos is it using?
• What headlines are they sharing?
• Do you think it is a factual website, or satirical website?

The Onion: fake

Giveaways: "Hawaii considering raising smoking age to 100"

The Shovel: fake

Giveaways: "Man shaves 1/7 seconds off 2 hour flight by standing up when the plane lands"

The Daily Mash: fake

Giveaways: "Five ways to get to sleep when 2 bottles of Merlot isn't cutting it"

NY Times: real

Giveaways: I know it's a real website. Duh. 

The Daily Mail: real

Giveaways: Yeah, it's a real website. 

Daily Telegraph: real

Giveaways: 100% sure this is a website. 

The Civillian: fake

Giveaways: "Nation to begin process of hiding Palmerston North for Harry and Meghan visit."

The Herald: real

It's a damn website, okay?

MY FIRST WEEK OF YEAR 10 ART 🎨🖌️

The first full (well, kind of) week of Year 10 is coming to an end and it's time for my first blog post to recap all of it. More specifically, recapping my art classes so far.

So in art we have been starting off the semester with some tonal notes, shading, and just playing around with some shapes and textures. 

31st January 2019

On the first day I spent my lesson just having a go at drawing some ideas, this included some facial structure, and furthermore, the faces, which were inspired by some comic book styles I combined and altered over time to make what I call my "cartoon style". 

I also spent just a bit of my time on sketching from reference, which to be honest I wasn't too proud of, I feel like I should have taken my time more and played around with how dark or light I wanted the lines, especially on the figurine drawing you see on the left of the page. The truck on the right bottom of the page was from reference too, I experimented with what style I was going to use and just quickly sketched out a simple structure, but I didn't end up finishing this truck and that's why it's so messy. 

Other than that I really was just drawing what was on my mind. I think I'm okay at drawing eyes and so I quickly produced one of those - it's messy and just about every feature of it is looking a bit 'off' but it's probably the best thing on the page in my opinion. Next time I need to take my time and use lighter lines, thinner strokes, etc. 

You'll notice a few examples of shading, this was really just to fill the page, I think I'm okay at it but I feel as though if I took my time that the finished product would have turned out much better.

1st February 2019

Onto the next page and next lesson, this was a lesson where Whaea instructed us not to use our erasers and work through our mistakes. We were to focus on our shading and some tonal notes. Again I'm not too proud of this work but I ended up with a few things to help me out next time. 

I just played around with some simple shading and not really focusing on the finished product which is probably one of my weaknesses in art, I get lost in just playing around and don't actually finish anything.... like, anything at all. Look in my sketchbooks (I don't use them anymore, but in 2016-17 I drew practically everyday) and you'll see plenty of unfinished drawings and comics. 

With the shading I also played around with a few different textures - crosshatching, little circles (I'm sure this technique has a name but I don't know it). I don't think this was the smartest idea as I still hadn't even finished more than one circle. 

The shadows and squares are what I'm least proud of. I've hardly used proper shadows in my work before as I typically draw cartoons or portraits. This was really my first time using them and so they don't look fantastic... or remotely good.. but this was good for my first time and I still have so much to learn, so I'm going to stay positive and say that I'm proud for my first attempt. 

Questions

Have I improved with my shading?

I think I've improved a little bit at least, considering I haven't done it in so long. 

Do you understand that drawing using structure can help you draw better?

I definitely understand this, I can see the difference in my sketches when I use structure under them vs. when I don't use structure. By the way, structure is the use of light, gentle lines underneath your work, this is useful for pretty much all artists especially beginners.

What are you going to work on going forward in pencil drawing in and out of class?

I'm going to focus more on my shading and shadows at home and in class, taking my time, and using structure a lot more in my drawings as I have really noticed the difference in my drawings. 

SECRET MESSAGES?! (a critical literacy task)

What aspects of the story was Andrea interested in?
She was interested in the secret messages in stories that people didn't tell her - what she had to find out for herself and interpret it. 

What did the ad imply with this big diamond ring?
- That love is purely measured on the quality and cost of what one gives one another, and that the man always has to buy it for the woman (sexism). While the ad did not directly imply this, it is a popular interpretation of what many jewellery ads are like these days. 

With critical literacy, can students have their own answer?
Yes. In this aspect of English, it would be concerning if all students had the exact same interpretation of the same ad as we all come from different cultures, beliefs, religions, etc. It is expected that there are many different opinions and interpretations of a text, video, etc. 

What is subtext?
Subtext is our own interpretation of what we don't see, almost like a hidden message that you have to decode, except that we all may have different answers (which are all correct!)

What does Andrea compare critical literacy to? 
The golden lasso of truth from Wonder Woman; being able to decode and interpret your definition of "the truth". 

How can critical literacy be compared to your life outside of school?
So you can infer these subtext messages in all categories of media: video games, films, advertisements (this is a very predominant one) speeches, etc, especially in an age where media is all around us. 

AM I A BRAIN-DEAD TEEN?! 🧠 (a critical literacy task)

What makes this video convincing?

1. The editing (making it seem like a real doctor's office, the use of green screens, the news on television format
2. The interviews with the doctor - the use of medical talk
3. The behaviour being very real and relatable.

Who published this video?
I guess it is a group who is helping to motivate teenagers to do better in their life... or a comedy group.
Answer: It's a satirical fake news organisation whose videos are meant to look realistic but be funny, called "The Onion". 

How are teenagers portrayed in this clip?
The girl is portrayed as very stereotypical teenager, that is only capable of texting, lying in her bed, rolling her eyes, etc, etc. I personally believe it's a negative stereotype because that may be all that adults and elderly people think of teenagers.

Why has the director cast them this way?
I think the whole purpose of the video was to entertain audiences, making fun of a stereotype that teenagers are addicted to social media and... well, not much else. The director cast the characters into the video for realism (the doctor is a good example of this), and for humour. 

In whose interest is this text?
Parents, teenagers, grandparents, aunties, uncles, and other people who have 13-18 year-olds in their families. Teachers may also be interested in this.

Who is real in this text?
Despite not a single character portrayed in the video being real, it sure does happen to seem very real, and in our class discussion most of us agreed that the doctor's role seemed very realistic because of the language used, the doctor's office he was in, etc, etc. The first time I watched the video online, I actually believed it to be real up until the part when the teenager is euthanised... that's just a tad too inhumane for today's society, at least in New Zealand. 
We also talked about how easy it would be to manipulate audiences into thinking that a certain character is real... one point Mrs Handley brought up is that if she dressed a random person off the street in a Hornby High uniform, and got them to speak as if they actually attended the school, how real it would be to most people.

What social realities does this video portray?
The video explores the ideology that most teenagers are addicted to social media, and texting, often ignore their parents and roll their eyes at them, do not like school...  among other things. However, the creators of the video have added a witty twist to it (the idea that the teenager is brain-dead, only capable of rolling eyes and texting) for satirical purposes all while remaining very realistic at the same time. 

A/N: I am definitely looking to improve my critical literacy school as I've hardly really looked into it before.... feel free to leave your feedback in the comments, and I'll make sure to take them into consideration! Thanks :)