Coming a MM (milimeter) closer to knowing myself

Mr. Whitting and Mrs. Narsiman both enter the classroom. They hand us sheets with weird figures drawn on them, two eyes, two eye sockets, two ears, two hands, two legs. They explain about the brain, how our brains have two hemispheres. The right, which controls the left side of the body, and the left side, which controls the right. Kids who had health or are doing health, all groan in unision and some even hiss to their neighbor "I already know what I am, we did this in health!" the people who haven't done this, look around awkwardly and pretend to know what is going on. Mr. Whitting explains more about the brain and how we shut down if go through too much stress. We all did the little tests, and each of us got one of the profiles that were piled into a black binder. Mine was MM.

I learn from metaphors, examples, and associations. I look and listen for intention and emotion. I am also highly intuitive, often I will do things that just feel right, not knowing the truth or the reasoning behind my decision. I am also very physically and emotionally expressive. The best way to talk to me, is by me turning my head to my left ear, and rather looking at the person, I must listen to the tone, pitch, and rhythm. I learn best when I am moving and I need to see the whole context, or the whole picture and having an emotional relevance to myself before I actually have it best learnt.

I learn best when I move around. I am a kinesthetic learner so I must move around. I was suggested to do Lazy 8's during while I am sitting. It will help if I do cross lateral movements, cross crawl, and Hook Ups from Brain Gym. I can learn well by focusing the whole picture, context and emotional relevance to self. I must be able to see, hear, move or verbalize the whole context before learning the details. I must be moving myself to help me think (it will most likely be my hands)

I often will understand the main idea, but I might have a great trouble seeing and communicating the details. I have trouble following step by step instructions, I will tend to follow my intuition and do what seems apropriate. I will often start imagining what will happen in the end rather than thinking about it. My movemens tend to be relaxed and energetic when I am relaxed, but when I'm stressed, I willbe cautious, clumsy and stuck.

My teacheres should know, I have difficulty with pennmanship, but I benefit from fine motor, hand-eye coordinations as well. My left eye reads right to left, I may have trouble reading or writting langues that move from left to right like English. I may reverse or tanspose letters/numbers.

A Bloody Collage

Picasso made a collage based on the attack of Guernica, a village where women and children mainly lived. Guernica was bombed by the Germans however and Picasso painted this picture to show everyone what's it's like to get bombed.

My thoughts on this picture is everything looks really confusing. I mean you can't see what exactly is going on and everything is distorted. So I wondered why everything was messy and everything is very distorted. Than I realized, if your city was getting bombed, than wouldn't everything be really confusing? You would have people screaming and running for their lives, you'd have dead people on the street, injured people everywhere. So I think that the chaotic feel to this painting is because Picasso wanted to show everyone what it would be like to get bombed.

The painting Guernica, gives off a really weird feeling. It gives off a sort of disturbing feeling. I think that feeling comes from the facial expressions from the people and than it just makes you feel really weird. Also the other feeling it gives off is more of a intruding feeling. I feel like I don't really belong, and I feel like this isn't something I should be looking at. I think I feel this because of the distorted people, like they're different and I'm just here watching.

One of the questions I had was 'How did people feel in Picasso's time when they first saw this?' Often in times in history, when people saw things they didn't like or disagreed with, they destroyed it, or hated the person who created it. People who saw this, and disagreed with what they saw, like they thought "Oh it's not that bad, and what we're doing is right, those people deserved what we doing to them". People would think that because everyone had an opinion in the war. So what did those people think?

The most interesting thing in this painting, is the facial expressions. Everyone has a certain facial expression, confusion, uncertainty, surprised. Even the horse has a surprised look on it's face. Picasso probably put this like this because in a bombing, everyone would be very surprised and confused and really scared.

Picasso did an amazing job potraying the scene of a bombing. He was able to collide everything and make it look scary and confused. He maked an amazing job in showing the facial expressions and I think that this is a wonderful painting.

Regretting Past, Changing Future

This is a story of a man named Jesús Colón. Jesús Colón was on a subway. He's a black, Hispanic, and he's living in a racist time period. He sees a white young lady, with two young children, and a baby. He knows what he should do. He should help the young lady. But he doesn't. He rushes right past them, as he rushes out of the problem that he could've helped. I believe that he should've helped even if he may have gotten in trouble.

Jesús Colón is black and he's Hispanic which is a way he describes himself. He is living in a racist time and that's exactly how he described himself. He also described the young blonde woman as white, and as a woman. This was what held him back from helping her. The fact that he was worried she would call the police on him because it was late at night, she was alone with three children, she was white, and he was black. However he didn't not stop to help her off the train worrying about himself, because he may have gotten in trouble or the lady may have thought something of it rather than actually him helping her. He was being selfish and put himself in front of her and didn't want to get in trouble instead of taking an chance and helping her.

The skin color in this time period was a big barrier to everyone. Black people were segregated from white people so I understand why he wouldn't help her. He may have been worried that she would've gotten the wrong idea that he was trying to help her, she might have thought that he was being to friendly. So the skin color was one of the reasons he didn't help, but I think that he should've tried to see past that even though the larger society says that because of someone's skin color they will either be accepted into society or not be accepted and the blacks at this time did not feel accepted.

Jesús Colón regrets not helping the lady out of the subway. He didn't make the right choice. It's the thought that counts to at least bothered to help her and what I think is, I don't think she would've acted racist in front of her own children because what if they copied her to their friends or repeated some of the words that she said to him. So I think that he made the wrong choice in rushing off and not helping her. He knows he didn't make the right choice and he wishes he could've done something to help her.

If Jesús Colón were white would my answer be different in how he reacted? No, if he rushed off without even helping her than that would be just wrong. Jesús Colón's dilemma was that he was black and she was white, so she might have thought something different, but if he were white and she were white than he should help her, because they are the same race and she might not think anything of except for the fact that he's trying to help her.

I think that the victims in this story are the woman and Jesús Colón. But more of Colón because first of all he wouldn't help her because he was worried she might call the police on her and he was black so she might think something else rather than he was trying to helper her. The woman was a victim not so much because she had trouble getting off the train and he didn't help her. The Larger Society victimized them because if there were no racial problems, he wouldn't think or even worry about him being black and there wouldn't be a problem helping her. But everyone thinks of racism then people worry about it and they hate one another because of people's skin color.

I chose this photo because it's a photo of the 'Larger Society' and what we have here is a group of black people in a restaurant. There are no white people because white people wouldn't go into that restaurant during this particular time because of racial problems. So this represents the Larger Society and right now the Larger Society doesn't allow black people to mix with white people.

This is related to the story we read in class called 'The Blokes' by Alan Gibbons. Hashim was not accepted into The Blokes because he was a foreigner. The Blokes represent the Larger Society because what they say goes "What the Blokes say goes" and so the Larger Society are the white people, they think that they are the greatest rather than being equal. So Hashim represents the other races, different and non-white. When they aren't accepted they don't do anything because they are powerless unlike the Larger Society. The kids who keep their heads down, and don't say anything represent the people who could make a change but don't. John, Hashim's friend, represents the people who do make a change in the society and help the 'Hashim's".

This story is connected in my life because, when I was in third grade, we would all play together at recess. My friends and I always stuck together and we would go into different groups to play games. There was one girl, who didn't fit in. She told "out of the world" lies and we all knew that she was lying. One day she decided to hang out with my friends and she was telling us all about how she could do flips off a bar. My friends and she were having an arguement. I said nothing and they were still arguing and I told my friends to shut up about her. I didn't stop and "rush off the bus" I stopped and "helped the lady" I feel really good about this and after that I heard the girl say, "Rachel is a really great friend" I still feel pretty good about what I said over 4 years ago.

URL: http://ltcsociety.in/files/2009/08/ltcs.jpg

Forgiveness is the Power

Forgiveness is Power
November 27 2010

Fatmire Feka was separated from her brother and sister ten years ago. It's been 10 years and she has released the idea that they might just be alive. She and her mother think that they have been shot because their uncle was shot in the shoulder and doesn't remember who it was, or if her siblings were killed. I believe she is a hero.

Fatmire Feka has one remarkable personality trait. The power to forgive. Because of her past, of someone helping her and teaching her about forgiveness rather than hatred and anger, she wants to forgive everyone. But the problem is, not matter how hard she wants to forgive, she doesn't know who to forgive. This is a heroic act of hers and I think that if this were me, I don't think I'd ever be able to forgive so this is amazing what she's doing. Also in the Bible, because I'm Christian, there is a verse that many preachers and bishops like to quote. I don't know where to find it, but the quote is 'Turn the other cheek' I believe Jesus said this to his disciples. These are powerful words, when you turn the other cheek, I think it means to not fight back, and forgive. Though sometimes it may be hard.

This story is connected to the story we read in class called 'The Blokes' by Alan Gibbons. There was a boy named Hashim and The Blokes blackmailed Hashim's friend John, into destroying Hashim's school project, his village. When John did so, he felt awful and like a horrible friend. Hashim did not hate John or The Blokes. He did not fight back. He forgave everyone and he was then called the strongest link by his friend John. Fatmire Feka hasn't gone around saying she wants to hurt the person who killed her sister and brother, not because she doesn't know who it was, but because she wants to seek to forgive them. She and Hashim are amazing people, who seeked refugee from somewhere and have came into people's lives and changed them, for good. That's what makes them both heroes.

This is related to my life because sometimes, when I mess up, or I hurt people's feelings, I want forgiveness. I would say I'm sorry and I would want them to forgive me. Although sometimes I don't exactly show it but I would want it. Fatmire Feka although has been able to seek forgiveness even though it was hard and she is a hero for that and if we all were able to forgive and turn the other cheek, I think we would have so much more peace in the world.

I chose this photo because it shows someone's hands in a prayer position. When you pray, in my culture, what you do is you thank God for all the blessings, than you ask for forgiveness in all your sins, like if you lied, cheated, or stole, than you ask for forgiveness with all your heart. So this reminded me of someone asking for forgiveness.

Artist: Unknown

Painting: Unknown

URL: http://wendyusuallywanders.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/forgiveness.jpg

The Visual Poem

We watched a visual poem in Humanities about two people, Jason Van Genderen and Shane Emmett who live in Sydney, Australia, and New York City, New York. They went around taking pictures of the city around them but they only used words to describe how both of the cities are connected. We all watched the simple street words transformed into powerful words.

In the beginning we learned about how both New York City and Sydney are completely different cities, they are separated by an ocean. They are on different sides of the world and are even different time zones. They are each different. But are they really? They have people who live and have families. They each have poverty in their cities, homeless people, they have children, adults, grandparents and animals who live in one city. So why is it just sea that divides us? In the poem that we had, it talked about how we aren't just two little separate islands with our own stories and disconnected from one another. Rather we are one massive "continent" that Donne refers to. Both Donne and Van Genderen have suggested that mankind is interconnected and have used continent as a metaphor to show that we are all united. Although we each have our own stories and lives, we can share this one another. 'No man is an island entire of itself: every man is a continent, a part of a main.' Van.... said that we all have stories and that wherever we go, there will be someone with a unique back round, personality, and family. So while we are interconnected, we cannot forget the people who don't have as much as we have. Even though they may be invisible and as we walk by them we need to accept that they are humans just like

This poem is like an opposite of the story "The Blokes" , a short story by Alan , this was their problem. They could not accept the fact that they aren't the great continent while everyone else is just a little island out in the ocean. They.... don't realize that we are millions of people, hundreds of races, many different faces, one human species. I think that they think that they are the best out of everyone and that's what gets to them to do the mean things they do. The pride. They pull strings and that's what makes them think that they are the best and that they are super and that they are the greatest.

I chose this photo because if you take a first glance at it, it shows just a man's face, but if you take a closer look than you see more people. The face represents the 'Continent' "No man is an entire island of itself; every man is a piece of the main" and the people there represent the people, that's us, who make up the island.

My blog post shows that this video is encouraging us to relate to others no matter who they are and why they are that way and everything like this.

10 things I like about Me

Converse, a house T-shirt, ipod, running shoes, a crafted box, seashell, music sheet, and a US Olympic sweatshirt. This is me in 10 objects!


My red house T-shirt is really important to me. Tt represents which house I am in, Tupai. It shows my support to the school and it's important that I don't lose it, because I used this T-shirt in 6th grade. ISKL is important to me because it's one of my favorite schools. I have been 4 schools so far. It's one of my favorites because I like how this school has good beliefs the school encourages us to think creatively, reason critically, live ethically, collaborate constructively and communicate effectively it also values, kindness, honesty, and respect. This makes ISKL is very friendly and surrounds you with a feeling like you j ust ate a warm brownie and ice cream. When I first came here, I was very nervous. My brothers had told me Middle School was going to be terrifying and extraordinarily exhausting. I got over these anxieties by the first week of school. All the teachers were helpful and everyone was very friendly.

I chose to put my black converse in my photo since Converse is one of my favorite shoes. they are light-weight, stylish, and they go with almost anything. The converse you see in the photo were my first converse. They were hand-me downs from one of my friends in Hong Kong. I used them in 5th grade and I used them sometimes in 6th grade. One of my friends here at ISKL gave me colorful laces to string on. So these shoes connect me with my friend in Hong Kong who was one of my best friends to another friend here in Malaysia.

I have tennis shoes on top of the converse since I really enjoy sports. I like running. Unfortunately running in the heat is not easy. When I run, I look forward to competition. I love to have competition. I love the gloating feeling I get when I win but of course I shake hands with the competitor. I love the energy I use take off and beat the person next to me. I just love that! My favorite sport is Softball. The reason I like softball is because in softball, you use a lot of your muscles. You use you're hands to catch, pitch, and bat. You use your legs as well. So it's really convenient to have some tennis shoes on your feet during a sport. I like these tennis shoes because, they have cool colors and they are very comfortable. I bought these tennis shoes over the summer in the US.

Next to the shoes is a box. My sister bought this box for me in China. I like this box because I love the colors on it, it's very useful to keep coins in there and small things in it. Half my family is now out of the home and in College or out in the world, so getting this gift was really special to me since my siblings are away from home. My siblings don’t get me gifts from where they travel. The only thing they bring back are hugs and stories. They say that they can’t afford to bring me gifts and that their suitcases are so full they can’t bring me any gifts.

Sitting near the box, is an ipod shuffle. This was my first ipod shuffle and I used it so many times in 6th grade. I got this for my 12 birthday. I had been using a CD player all my life when I wanted to listen to music, or I would just go on to Youtube so I could listen to songs that I didn't have. This ipod shuffle was my brother’s old ipod, but he didn’t use it. So I kept asking for it. Finally on my birthday, I found it sitting on the table. I was extremely surprised. I thought my brother would never give it up. I was so excited I could barely eat my breakfast. My brother had some songs I didn’t want I had to take the time to re-sync it. I like to listen to all kinds of music. I used to listen to oldies as a little kid. I still do sometimes when the pop music today just doesn’t cut it. I love to listen to Queen and Beatles the most.

I have a seashell because my mother is from California, and she loves the beach. I grew up to love the beach as well. So I got the seashell near a river at my old home in Maryland during the summer. The seashell reminded me of the sea so I kept it. Maryland was the last American state I had lived in before we moved to Asia. My family were sitting by the Chesapeake River, we were eating crab at a local crab restaurant. I found the seashell on our way to the car. This always takes me back to the warm mosquito infested summers. The sight of murky water in the bay. The sound of true Marylanders cracking open their red soft shell crab. The feeling of crab guts oozing out on your hands. The taste of the salty, old bay seasoning, which is a seasoning you use on crab. It flavors up the warm, buttery crab. When I look at the shell, I can smell, taste, and hear all those things.

Underneath everything is a sheet of music. In my culture, music is a really big thing. All of my family have played an instrument before. Some of us don't play anymore. So this was a choir sheet I had gotten last year. I love to sing. I love going to choir and learning more about music and how to be a better singer. Most people, when they hear of choir, they laugh. It does sound kind of funny when you say "I'm going to choir next" but music is a big thing for my family. I don't want to become famous, I just want to sing for fun. My favorite part of singing is when it’s at first unison but then, when you break up into harmony, it’s sounds amazing. Often times I get goosebumps listening to alto or soprano. I also love when you do a round, or also known as a Cannon. I love the crisscrossing melodies. Another thing I love about singing is when you see a high note on the sheet and you think to yourself “that’s so high!” and then you hit the note perfectly, you feel light-headed but you know you sounded great and it sounded great with the lower part.

I have a sweatshirt in the photo as well. This was my brother's sweatshirt, I just outgrew my old one, so I got his. This was a sweatshirt from the winter Olympics in Utah. It took place in 2002 and I just like wearing the sweatshirt because it's old and comfortable, and I keep it as a memento. There was a matching hat, I just couldn't find it. There is something about wearing my brother’s jacket connects us together. It’s a brother and sister bond. We both don’t get along often. But this special jacket reminds me how we both are siblings and we need to care for each other.

Last object is a stuffed Beluga. A Beluga is a type of dolphin. It's white and it's small. This is my oldest stuffed animal I have. I got it around age 6 or 5. I got it in Utah at Park City because we used to live in Utah. It was a cold day I think, and my Mom took me to a toy shop that was shutting down. She let me and my brothers buy something. My brother Joseph, had bought some crayons that when you colored with them, the color shined. I bought the beluga. Now that I look back, I had named the dolphin countless of names. In fact, it took me about the whole car ride home to settle on a name. I was 6, so I didn't know when I was 12 I would kick myself internally for not naming it something else. I named it Fluffy. It's a dolphin. It's not supposed to be "fluffy" but it was a stuffed animal. It had to be ‘Fluffy’. It squeaks too.

Who would’ve thought, that 10 objects would be able to describe my past and my present?

Matt Harding response

I think that Matt Harding has a very creative, energetic, original, and globalized idea. I think it's great that he goes around dancing a really goofy dance. Past the smiles, I think this is a really great way to connect people to the world. I bet some people who watch this on youtube would be very interested about this clip. It's a great way to show people how people in the next country or halfway across the world act just like us. I'm American, I grew up in America for most my life. I thought it was cool that someone in Australia had the same moves that I did when I danced. I've never even been to Australia. I hope that even if our homes are far apart, we all live different lifestyles, that one day, we'll come together instead of being strangers, we can help each other when we need it.