Magazine Page

For the past few weeks in art, we have been working in groups of three or four, working towards creating magazine pages. We started by drawing up thumbnail sketches of possible layouts, and looking at tutorials showing how to do particular things like change font and add photos etc, before using Adobe Illustrator to create magazine pages based on a combined version of all our group member's sketches.

Does your design reflect your thumbnail sketches so far?
I believe so. We've changed certain things as they didn't work/look the way we had hoped they would, but the general placing of images and text is the same.

Does your design reflect the feeling of your topic?
My groups topic was originally theatre, but we have since then changed it to 'the arts'- which makes it much easier to incorporate our own artwork when it comes to that. We haven't decided on how we are going to display our art or some of the photos, but so far the writing we have on the page reflects our topic. It doesn't fully quite yet, but it will.

Do you know where your leading lines are?
Yes, the page on the right of our layout is a mix of both photos and writing with very noticeable leading lines.

Do you know what your focal point is?
Our focal point is our heading, which says 'Mahi Toi', translating to art in English, and is on the middle of the left page.

Have you played around with layering your visuals?
We haven't yet, but we are strongly considering trying to layer some of our prints, and also partially tinting fragments of photos on our page.

Is there a 'thing' you want to know how to do, but don't? Have you googled it or asked?
Regarding the tinting, we didn't know how to do it on Illustrator to do with, but we soon realised we could do this by creating boxes the same colour as the background of our text, and changing the level of transparency.

How does this help your learning?
It shows all the skills and techniques we have been learning throughout this first semester, such as using leading lines and focal points. By incorporating out artwork it also shows the different forms of art we've been looking at such as Michael Mew and mixed media, Sonja Terk Delaunay and orphism, and more.

The following photos (and video featuring Molly) are... Pretty much mistakes we made along the way. There were many, Many, mistakes.

This is what our page looks like right now-

Maths- Area and Perimeter

What were the main mathematical concepts that you learned or that we discussed in class?

For the past four or so weeks, we have been looking at perimeter and area (but mostly area). We've looked at multiple problems as a group that relate to area. We looked at problems where we have to find the area of all sorts of shapes (triangles, rectangles, trapeziums, circles etc), the area of compound shapes, and more.

This was one of the first problems we looked at. It was mostly trial and error to find the right answers. We drew a lot of different sized squares with different perimeters.

For the first question in this problem, we first had to find the radius -which was 10- and then the area of the circle -pi x r2 (pi times radius squared). Our group then divided it by 4 to find what a quarter of the area was. Once we had done that, we talk a quarter of the area away to get the answer. The second and third questions were slightly harder.

We also made presentations explaining the formulas used to fins the areas of different shapes, along with where we use area in day-to-day life. 

Describe a mistake or a misconception you or a classmate made. What did you learn from it?

I made the mistake of using the diameter to find the area of a circle instead of the radius a couple of times. I also forgot that after you times the base by the height to find the area of a triangle that you half it afterwards. Other then that, I didn't make too many mistakes.

Migration Writing

Essay Writing Structure

The -ing Start

Starting a sentence with a word ending in the letters -ing.

Deciding, Speaking, Seeing, Grasping, Rising, Looking, Holding, Emerging, Taking, Talking, Shouting, Signalling, Analysing, Running, Walking, Thinking, Sprinting, Anticipating

Examples in a sentence:

Walking at a faster pace than usual, I made my way to class.

Darting my eyes around the room, I spot two possible exits, one on either side of the room.

The Better Quote Paragraph Structure

Clever paragraph structure for revealing why one idea is superior to another.

-Deliver your key idea

-Quote an expert and then in the following sentence tell us what they mean by this

-Quote expert two and tell us what they mean

-In 2-3 sentences say why quote 2 is superior, more challenging, more insightful than quote 1 and why.

Example of a better quote paragraph structure-

The act of unwinding a child and harvesting their organs without giving them any say is wrong and dehumanising. 'I was never going to amount to much anyway, but now, statistically speaking, there's a better chance that some part of me will go on to greatness somewhere in the world. I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless' -Samson Ward. What he means when he says this is the fact his parents chose to unwind him proves he wasn't worth the effort, but if someone else who gets a part of him goes on to do incredible things, then at least he technically did something useful in the end. However, many others entirely disagree with Samson's logic. (To be finished)

Quickly, the class made their way to the auditorium.
During the Second World War, 85 million people lost their lives.
Stunned, he stumbled backwards, taking a few moments to regain his balance.
Blinding me with it's light, the sun emerged from the clouds.
When the bell finally rang, we all ran to the gym, excited to start training.

Critical Literacy questions

Critical Literacy- Unwind
What is the text about?

The book ‘Unwind’ takes place after something called ‘The Heartland War’, a war of two (but technically three) sides; pro-life and pro-choice. In order to stop the ongoing war, what was left of the American military brought together both sides and came up with a compromise. They passed a bill which allowed parents of unwanted children to euthanize their kids once they were between the ages if 14 and 18, which is called Unwinding. ‘Unwinding’ is the process of harvesting all usable body parts from someone (while they’re still awake), and donating them to other people.

Which positions, voices and interests are at play in this text?

Neal Shushterman has included many people’s views in this book, many different people
with very different opinions and circumstances. He’s included the POV’s of children who’s parents
are unwinding them, the parents of those children, children who are being unwound who live in State
Homes, people who believe it is a good thing and those who very strongly believe it is a bad thing.

What genre does this text belong to?
This novel is a dystopian novel, as it is about a society in the near future where there is great injustice,
this injustice being the minor fact they murder children and harvest their organs and other body parts.

Making Boomerangs

Making Boomerangs
For the past week or so in Creative Tech/Wood tech, we have been designing and creating boomerangs. Using grid paper we first measured out and drew a box the shape the same size as the piece of timber we were using. 

We then looked at photos of other boomerangs and came up with a design. From their we drew our design onto the wood and cut it out using a band saw, before using files and sand paper to smooth the edges and make sure it was the right shape.

From their we drew our design onto the wood, and cut it out using a band saw, before using files and sand paper to smooth the edges and make sure it was the right shape.

Essay Writing Struture

Number 5 - the Adverb Start

Adverb- a word used to describe a verb

Curiously, Quickly, Rapidly, Importantly, Technically, Firstly, Secondly, Lastly, Often, Remarkably, Similarly, Significantly, Surprisingly, Readily

-Comma always goes right after adverb

Examples in a sentence-

Unsurprisingly, Miss Richardson was late for class.

Unnervingly, there are more life forms living on the surface of your skin than there are people on this planet.

Interestingly, otters hold hands when they sleep to stop themselves from drifting apart.

Number 6 - Preposition Sentence Starters

Preposition- a word which indicates movement of position

In, Against, Before, Between, Over, Behind, Within, Under, Below, At, For, Throughout, Near, About, Off, Out, Above, Prior

Examples in a sentence-

Within the year 2017, 378 people in New Zealand were killed in car crashes.

On September 1st 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, France and Britain declaring war on Germany only two days later.

Compare and Contrast Paragraph

A classic paragraph structure for talking about two similar ideas and saying how they are different.

-Deliver your key idea

-Write 2-3 sentences giving your first example

-In contrast, write 2-3 sentences giving your second example. Begin with phrases like: In contrast, In comparison, Conversely, Whereas, Alternatively, At the same time, Similarly.

-Write 2 sentences telling us why the difference between these two things is important/significant.

Example of a compare and contrast paragraph-

Connor Lassiter and Levi Jedediah Calder, two main characters from the book series 'Unwind' by Neal Shushterman, have both shown a large amount of character development throughout the first book, but in very different ways. Connor -who at the beginning of this book is a quite violent boy, quick to make impulsive decisions and start fights- learns to control his anger and in the process develops strong leadership skills. He also learns to think before he acts. His opinion on unwinding, however, doesn't change throughout the story, and he continues to believe it is a terrible act. Lev, on the other hand, has gone from being a young child who believes the concept of tithing and unwinding is acceptable, to being entirely against it. Lev even goes as far as to attempt a terrorist attack at a building where children were to be unwound in order to stop it. During his time with the character Cy-Fi, he also gained some extremely helpful survival skills. They both change as people drastically throughout the book, but in very different ways.

Number 8- the -ed Start
-ed word- a word ending with the letters ed
 Committed, Undaunted, Determined, Forced, Gifted, Blighted, Thrilled, Delighted, Blessed, Overpowered, Defeated, Bewildered, Drafted, Scared, Terrified, Surprised, Unsurprised, Foreshadowed, Haunted

Examples in a sentence-
Terrified of what might happen next, the girl took a deep breath before continuing forward.
Surprised by the number of people who showed up, his nerves began to grow.
Determined to improve, the football team began practising more frequently.

Number 11- the W-Start
A sentence starting with a word beginning with W
When, Who, While, Where, What, Whereas, Whilst, Why

Examples in a sentence-
What started as a bad idea, had now become even worse.
While most people think human euthanization is wrong, others disagree. (Unwind)


Adverb start-
Strangely, cats have more toes on their front paws than they do on their back paws.

Preposition sentence starter-
During the industrial revolution, gang activity in Birmingham went up considerably.

-ed start-
Stunned, he stumbled backwards, taking a few moments to regain his balance.

W-start-
While most of my friends play netball, I prefer football.

Unihoc

1. On a scale of 1-10, rate yourself on how well you participated in the previous esson. 1 being not at all, 10 being the whole time. On a scale of 1-10, regarding participation I'd rate myself a ten (Not skill wise though)
2. Why did you rate yourself the way you did? I rated myself a to for participation because I participated in all the drills and games of Unihoc
3. What do you think you did well? I think I was pretty decent with my passing, alright at dribbling, and I got better at stopping the ball through out the lesson.
4. What skills did you use to accomplish passing and dribbling? For passing, it's important to have both hands on the stick and to push the ball not hit or whack the ball, as it gives you more control and accuracy.
5. What do you think you need to improve upon for next time? What strategies will you use? It's a bit harder to stop some of the balls we were using due to their shape, but pointing the bottom of the stick slightly downwards prevented the ball from bouncing and rolling away uncontrollably.

Stem Cell Research

                                                                 

Migration- Push and Pull Factors

Click the link below to see my simple show video on migration and push and pull factors

https://videos.mysimpleshow.com/lYGWqqNbDk

This term in social studies, we are looking at the topic 'migration'. I'm finding this topic quite interesting, and from some of the things we have done in class regarding migration, have learnt we have a very diverse class with backgrounds from all over the globe. I'm looking forward to finding out more about reasons for migration, and the impact it has on both immigrants and people who are indigenous to the countries where people are migrating to.

UNWIND Abandonment and Morality

Abandonment

Definition: the act of abandoning someone or something (leaving someone or something)

 Abandonment is a reasonably large and reoccurring theme in the book 'Unwind'. By parents signing the forms to unwind their children, they are also abandoning them, and all responsibilities they have for their child, such as looking after them and making sure they are healthy, happy, and safe.

Connor, Risa, and Roland are all characters who have experienced abandonment on a slightly higher level. Connor was not only abandoned by his family, but also abandoned by his girlfriend Ariana, who promised to stick by him and go with him when he went AWOL (ran away to avoid being inevitably killed).

Risa was abandoned by her State Home, her headmaster, and all the others who were in charge of keeping her safe and giving her a home. They showed her how little they thought of her by signing the Unwind papers, and all because of 'budget cuts'.

Roland's situation is the worst out of all three characters in my opinion. It almost makes you feel sorry for him. Almost. When his stepdad hit (more like beat up) Roland'd mother, Roland stood up for her and hurt his stepdad in revenge. And yet, his mother took her husband's side, her husband getting a warning, and Roland being sent to get unwound.

Morality 

Definition: Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour

Who has the right to take another person's life, and decide who deserves to live and who deserves to die?

The value of human life, what's right vs what's wrong, who has the right to take another's life.

These are all part of one giant theme, the most important and easily recognisable theme in the story- morality. Unwind is based on right vs wrong. For example, the Heartland War -the war which resulted in unwinding becoming a legal and mostly socially acceptable way of getting rid of unwanted children. The Heartland war was a war between pro-life and pro-choice. The pro life side of the war consisted of people who believed abortion is wrong, and pro choice is the side which believed that woman should be able to make that choice for themselves.

Risa encounters a situation which raises this question. Does her headmaster have the right to decide who gets to live, and who's life is more valuable based on their skillset? I don't think he does. I don't think anyone does. Or Connor, for instance- should his parents have the ability, and do they have the right to make the choice to kill their son? And finally, Lev. His parents pushed the belief that he was born to die onto him to such an extent, and at such a young age, that he began to believe it. Do his parents, or his church, or even whatever higher power he believes in have the right to say he doesn't deserve to live? No.