Science....etc

Today, we had a science test which was quite easy if you looked at the questions carefully. I went through and actually found a few errors in the questions (those questions were later omitted).
Also, after school, we had a rehearsal for the Silas Marner play. it is starting to come together now, and we met in our backstage groups to discuss scenery, costumes, lighting, sound etc. I even got to be in the sound recording for some of the scenes.

Today, I watched an episode of Reach for the Top on Knowledge Network. It was really cool to see, because I could answer the majority of questions. It was all trivia, and I'm confident about my hopes of joining the Churchill team next year and the year after next.

can't wait for tomorrow's dress rehearsal. i'd say that the dress rehearsal will be quite beneficial. I will also be judging the aesthetic appeal of our powerpoint under large projection (some parts were illegible on the small screen)

183

Today's "highlight" was having to write a math test right after running langara. Well, it wasn't so bad as I had thought it would be (the effects of Langara don't show right away. they usually show up in the evening, which is right now; I am typing this blog right now with agony in all my joints.) My langara time was the best of the year so far, 10:55. However, I was still unable to break my record in grade 8, which was 10:26.
After school, we had a English Play session in the drama studio. We got to meet in our backstage crew groups, and it was actually really productive (mainly because the grade 11 mentors were there)

182

today, I reviewed for the final math test of the term. I basically went through the entire textbook, covering almost every single topic. I have to maintain my 100% average in Mr. Nakamoto's class, which is obviously a huge accomplishment.

so, today was quiet and uneventful. I decided to take the day off despite the numerous tasks waiting in hand because I just wanted to defy common sense: doing nothing for one day. Apparently I could defy common sense because the urge to prepare for next school day's math test on basically everything on the book overcame me. After all, it would be a good chance to prepare for the final.

179

Today we rehearsed our parts for the Silas Marner play. Most of us have our lines basically memorized. I lack just a few sentences. The play still isn't coming together as we'd hoped yet, but that's just part of the process.

181

So we had our YPI run-through test today. It was a valuable experience because we knew exactly what to fix in our presentations. I think tha tthe groups who didn't have their presentation prepared on time missed out on a great opportunity.
Tomorrow we have the big storytelling presentation in the morning and in the afternoon. We are going to be retelling Churchill's past to the alumni that are going to visit the school tomorrow.

right now, i'm really glad that I've presented socials the week before. Apparently, the majority of my classmates are juggling one more item than I am right now. YPI: I am actually not as stressed out now. We've got our thing mostly done, and nigel just needs to send in his slides. According to him, we should "chilll" but that's extremely hard right now.

Today I watched an extremely boring baseball game between two teams that I don't even recall now. I think one of them was Oakland. Anyways, the scoring was low, the players were obviously bored too, and there was no productivity (pitching was horrible, e.g.).

180

The following week is going to be hectic. There's the YPI, storytelling, and Silas marner Play: all of which we are presenting to a large audience, coming up. Good thing our socials research group got rid of the crytozoology presentation by presenting second. So the long weekend for me is not just relaxation, it is about finalizing the YPI powerpoint and scripts, my part for the storytelling group, and learning all my lines in the play by heart.

We had our socials cryptozoology project today. Our group focused on research and creating an outline for our powerpoint presentation. It was quite productive. We've also got so much on hand right now. SS, YPI, Science test, storytelling....

mentorship debrief

Today, during our mentorship project, we simply relaxed for half the class because we've got everything all done except for a few minor tweaks here and there. I allowed my mentees to politely join other groups and observe other projects. So much easier for me.

179

Today we had a run-through "off-book" for our English play. In fact many people haven't yet memorized their lines, including myself. Now that we realize the deadline is near, I'm sure we'll work with more sense of urgency.

...

Today, I got my part in the Silas Marner play: Mr. Macey. I really liked his lines, as he was the keen and observant person who had speeches that reflected moral values and deep thought. We also had to make a project on an invention for French. Not sure how that's gonna turn out yet.

178

Today I made our French project presentation, on videotape. Our group got together, and we filmed this awesome advertisement for this levitating solar shoe. We worked from 2-8, and finished it up using Windows Movie Maker. Now, I'm extremely tired.

177

Today, I found that 7 more people have joined my group, and that's good.
I went on to find other google features today, and investigated their open source API codes plus a google Lab product called Google Suggest. Google Suggest offers real-time suggestions while I am searching. For example, if I wanted to type hockey, Google suggest would "suggest" hockey fights, hockey canada, hockey night in canada, hockey pool, etc... It is great if you have a vague idea of what you're trying to find but aren't really sure.

176

Today we had a chaotic storytellings session. It consisted of people not cooperating, shouting out random and irrelevant information and now I seriously doubt that we're going to pull it off.
I also found out that out of the 130 people I invited to the Pre-IB google group, 24 members have already accepted. I hope that this will grow into something big, which will just be awesome.

175

Today, while we were working on our socials projects in the computer lab, I came across YET ANOTHER GREAT GOOGLE PRODUCT (man, google just keeps getting better, eh?) that allows for easy, in-sync collaboration on text-based projects such as reports, summaries, outlines etc. The Google Docs and Spreadsheets program is basically Microsoft Word and Excel online, plus they have a great collaboration feauture that allows multiple users to edit the document simultaneously. By using Google Documents, our group was able to quickly finish our powerpoint outline with each person contributing his part. (Our members were seated in different parts of the lab, you see)
I also made a Google Group for the upcoming 07-08 Pre-IB community. I obtained the email list from Mrs. Willard, and the group will be up and functional in no time.

175

Today I explored more features of the new Google Earth beta. I found that Google Earth could be combined with Google Sketchup. I could create models of buildings and then submit it to Google Earth so that buildings can be viewed in 3D.
I also looked for summer volunteer opportunities. I applied to become a volunteer at Science World and at VanDusen botanical gardens.

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Here's a summary of my first two mentorship sessions.

Instead of having four sessions to work with my mentees, I had only two due to extraneous reasons. That meant I had a lot of catching up to do, and I think I managed that pretty well.

During the first session, I got to know my mentees and introduced them to my topic, which is Biotechnology. Overall, they were quite intentive, but they were often distracted. Then , by chance, I got their attention again when I talked about making websites. They had almost no idea how to make a website, so I suggested that we present our project in webpage form. I kept their attention by teaching them my meagre knowledge of HTML formatting. I made a plan to learn more about HTML myself by next session. I also gave them assignments so that they could familiarize themselves with my topic.

By the second session, I decided that making a webpage from scratch using HTML codes is simply going to take too long and detract from the original purpose of the project, so I did some hunting on the web and found an awesome Google product called Google Pages. It basically formats the website for you, while you can upload up to 100MB of stuff on to your personal site. I suggested this to my mentees, one of whom (Andrew) had a google account. He quickly signed up for the Google Pages and service and finished the website outline in no time. The website manager is simple and easy to use, and that's a great way to present our information. Anyways, during the session, I taught my mentees some more about my project, this time going into more detail. My mentees also established a outline of the project (what we're going to cover). The other mentee, Anderson, started working on the first few sections in our outline for homework.