Month: March 2016

My D.I. Catastrophe, Not Yours

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D.I. stands for Destination Imagination which is a tournament that includes the whole world in multiple challenges including think on the spot instant challenges.

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This is a picture when I was stressed out, well we all were.

I should probably start from the beginning just because that’s closer to the end.

It all started in this one class where we took a survey on the things we liked to do then we handed the survey in and waited. When they had been evaluated our class had been split into 4 groups for each challenge. My challenge with my group was the structural challenge. Are challenge was basically make and instrument under 175 grams and has to support wait and be a certain height and part of it has to wrap around a support post. That’s not all of it though we also have to incorporate a story. We worked on it a long time and we thought it was pretty good the weight was right and so was the height. Finally when the day came to go into the tournament for regionals we ran into a problem while signing in. The weight was way off on measurement and we had cut down on weight quickly. That’s why I was so stressed out.

With the help of another group we literally put a whole in it.

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We checked to see if it was light enough but it wasn’t, it was still a little bit over the weight. We kept working on it and kept going. Then we used a multi tool to cut it as much as possible and then finally literally we snapped it in half and we knew that had to be light enough which it was. We signed in with just minutes to go. Then we got to talk to this person who asked us some questions.

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We finished with that, and now it was time for our presentation. We did the short skit really well and everything was looking up until the very end where we had to put the weights on top of the instrument. The board that held the weights wouldn’t balance and the time ran out.

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Alex is the one in the picture said it was the longest 8 minutes of his life.

We still had to do our instant challenge which was at 1:00 so we had lunch and walked over to the Dairy Queen across the street, then finally the time came. We did our instant challenge and we thought we did well with just barely finishing on time. The last thing we did was go to the award ceremony which was pretty good because Seycove (my school) won quite a few awards and one of the groups won a special award. Remember that was my catastrophe not yours.

My Saxaphone Skills, Not Yours

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I don’t really talk about this much but I play the Saxaphone. It all started when I was choosing my classes and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to  join band or not, so I asked my parents they said it would be good and they thought that I should do it and that I should talk to my piano teacher about (our family’s are friends) me playing the Saxaphone and she thought that would be great because she played the Saxaphone so she could get me a little prepared before school started. I went and started renting a Tenor Saxaphone and started practicing with my piano teacher I learned the basic notes and finally school came and I learned as I went along and the band teacher told the Tenors that if one of us could switch to Alto Saxaphone it would help the bands sound. I said that I would do it, so she said that she’d let me borrow her alto Saxaphone after it had been sanitized until I traded in my Tenor for an Alto.

That’s basically how it started but anyways this is mainly about something different. I have this Saxaphone teacher that I go to after school on Wednesdays and we work on the songs that I have in band then we work on things that is want to learn. Not to long ago we started working on “Epic Sax Guy”  just because it was catchy and most people know it. Within the first lesson with my teacher I learned it by ear and could sort of play it. I realized that some of the notes were off so I fixed it and I now play it decently.

Be ready for more Saxaphone Skills posts.

 

My SLC, Not Yours

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If you don’t know what an SLC is it is a Student Led Conference which replaces a Parent Teacher Interview. Our class has to make a script with 3 topics, these are them Work Most Proud of, Work that shows Growth, and Evidence of a growth mindset.

This is what I’m going to do.

My work that I am most proud of was My Star Wars project just because it showed that not all experiments are succesful. Mine was not succesful which was a success for me just because I learned something new and in my opinion that is a success.

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My work that shows growth are my blog posts. I chose my Blog posts because they have gotten longer, they went from around 250 words a post to about 400 or 500 words a post on average . That shows that I am becoming a stronger writer and I have more to say, thinking more broadly, and I am going into more detail, and me becoming a stronger writer shows my growth.

Last but not least, evidence of a growth mindset. My evidence takes place at the DI tournament and we found out that our instruments weight was off by a long shot, but we didn’t give up we kept going we tried to cut down as much wait as possible, we put a whole in it, that wasn’t enough, we only had a couple minutes left to sign in but we kept going, so we cut it so much that it snapped in half, it was finally enough. We signed in and did our presentation, the only problem was that we couldn’t get the instrument to balance the wood on top of to hold the weight, Alex kept going he didn’t stop trying because he wanted complete this challenge like the rest of us. In the end he couldn’t balance it which wasn’t very good but it showed that we never stopped, we kept moving forward. It made me think of the speech in the latest Rocky(Not Creed, Rocky)

 

“The world ain’t all. Sunshine and rainbows.
Its a very mean and nasty place,
and I don’t care how tough you are,
it will beat you to your knees
and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.
But it ain’t about how hard you hit,
it’s about how hard you can get hit
and keep moving forward.
How much you can take and keep moving forward.
That’s how winning is done!
-Rocky Balboa

Here’s the Video

Act 1 Scene 2, Julius Caesar (My Lines, Not yours)

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We had an interesting experience transferring the Shakespeare play into something of our own. I personally hate doing plays (The main reason I didn’t join drama) so this was horrific news when I found out about it (Oh yeah the reason why I hate it is because it makes me really stressed out and if you don’t me I am always stressed). Basically what we had to do was pick a scene from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and modernize the script into how we are making it. At first we wanted to do stereotypical Starbucks girls, but that would have made people laugh and its supposed to be a tragedy not a comedy. So we quickly changed it to Highschool jocks. At one point we had to do Rock Paper Scissors over who got a part and I won so I got to be a homeless person, I was pretty satisfied with my role because I got to say “Beware the Ides of March” in modern language, Which is “Watch out for March 15th”, basically.

We worked hard on the script and thought up what the costumes were going to look like, I got to wear my super baggy hoodie that my mom hates, I don’t really care for the colour but it’s super comfy. We made good props and when the final day came we did pretty good and nobody forgot there lines which was good.

After we finished the play Ms. Willemse (If you don’t know, she’s our teacher) had this Idea that maybe we should do the plays in front of the parents which she thought was great but a lot of people didn’t like the Idea. We were going to do it but it got postponed for a while then she said we weren’t going to do it and everybody was relieved.

This is our script (I don’t expect you to read the whole thing or any of it for that matter because it’s over a 1000 words)

Act I Scene II

Setting: Sand Dollars

Sand Dollars
–

Characters:
Caesar= Julian Caesar= Alex
Brutus= Brock= Robbie
Antony=Anthony= Will
Soothsayer= Hobo= Ethan =Jim Prescott
Calpurnia=Cristina = Tatum
Cassius=Chuck= Angela

Props
-Empty can
-Coins
-Plastic coffee cup X6
-Toy cash register
-Counter or shelf (we could use a table from school)
-Table cloths that match the colours in the logo (Angela might be able to provide that)

Strong Visuals
-Creative Commons
-High-Res
-Edit/Improve the pictures
-Tell a story
-creativity➡️not generic
-coherence
-adds to the scene (theme)➡️destiny
GUYS IT WAS NOT ME ON VISUALS
Script
-Update language to modern
-Sense of theme➡️destiny
-Reflect original characters, tone
-Realistic

Script:

Welcome to a modernized version of a scene from William Shaskpere’s “Julius Caesar.” This Act one Scene two.

Starbucks.
Enter Julian,Brock, Anthony
start at top stage right, walk as group to centre stage
walk in quietly talking
Anthony : Shut up, guys! Julian is talking.
Julian : Yeah guys, listen for a sec. Where’s Cristina?

enter Cristina

Cristina : I’m here, sorry, my latte wasn’t vegan. Disgusting.
Julian : Guys, let’s go stand near the entrance, the Uber will be here soon to pick us up and take us to the basketball court. And Cristina, come here. I have to ask you something.
Cristina: Okay!
-Cristina walks over to Julian (front stage left)- Group walks towards front stage right
Cristina: What’s up?
Julian: You know the huge math exam coming up?
Cristina: Yeah, of course! I’ve been freaking out all weekend about studying!
When Brock takes the test, give him a cheat sheet or something with some wrong answers.
Cristina: A cheat sheet? What if he doesn’t take it?
Julian: Trust me, he’ll take it. He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Anyways, we’re both up for team captain, and it requires top grades. If he fails the test and I ace it, I’m pretty sure I’m guaranteed to be the next captain.
Cristina: Okay, I guess I’ll work on it. I don’t think Brock will have a chance, but make sure you study hard because I’m not risking suspension if you don’t try to ace your own test.
Julian : Thanks. Trust me, I’ll be fine.
Julian looks to group
Julian: I think I see the Uber, let’s go.

-group walks out of Sand Dollars to top stage left.-

Enter Hobo centre stage.

Hobo : Hey, kids.
-everyone looks at hobo strangely, then ignores him and continues with their conversation.-
Hobo: Helloooo? Are your ears working?
Julian : What do you want? Money? Sorry, I just spent my last dollar.
Hobo : I don’t want your money, kid. I’m just here to give you a warning, watch out for the 15th of March! -winks-
Julian: (laughs) I think you’re just crazy. Does somebody have a dollar for this poor man?
Cristina: Guys, I think that’s supposed to be a fortune or something. I saw something on fortunes on This documentary one time 3 years ago. It was weird.
Anthony: It’s not a fortune, he’s just weird. Let’s go.
Hobo: You’ll thank me later!
Brock : (throws dollar in Hobo’s cup) See you at school, I think I’m gonna stay behind. I saw one of my friends from the basketball team in there.
Anthony: Okay, see you later.
Exit, Cristina Anthony, and Julian

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Brock renters Sand Dollars
Enter Chuck
Chuck : Hey, Brock! Over here!
-Brock walks over to his friend, centre stage.
Brock : Hey Chuck.
Chuck : You studied for the exam? Apparently it’s worth like, 75 percent of our grade. Brock : Yeah, dude. I still have to cover a few concepts but I should be ok. You?
Chuck : I’m all good, that stuff comes naturally to me.
Brock: Wow, lucky. I have to study my butt off.
Chuck: Are you okay? You’ve seemed stressed since Julian became interested in being captain of the basketball team, and if you fail the exam, coach may not play you in the next big game, or consider you for captain.
Brock : I know, I know. And trust me, I’m not stressed about Julian. He’s only up for captain because of the popularity. If I look stressed, it’s not for that reason, I’ve just been stressed out about life lately. You know, parents and stuff.
Chuck :Wow bro, you’re deeper than the Pacific Ocean. I get it. You’re also smart, so don’t beat yourself up over whatever it is. You’re a good guy, bro. The team needs you. Ignore the stress, and just make sure you do well on that exam.
Brock : Yeah, my confidence isn’t all that great lately. My only accomplishments are through basketball and our team. I’m not smart or anything, I can only dribble a rubber ball.
Chuck : Stay positive man. You can do more than just play basketball. You need to gain some confidence.

—————————————————————————

Brock : What are you even talking about? I’m known as a dumb jock, that’s it.
Chuck : I can help you be more than that, we can study for the test together. I can’t promise a miracle though.
Brock: Thanks bro, you’re a lifesaver.

—————————————————————————

A basketball court.
Enter Anthony, Julian, Cristina clapping for Julian while he shoots baskets.
Brock : Why are they cheering? He’s shooting from the free throw line. Cristina could get that in.
Cristina: Hey!
Brock: Well sorry, but you’re not all that athletic.
Chuck: I think they decided to make Julian the basketball captain. Sorry bro, I know you didn’t want that to happen.
Brock : Already? Coach was supposed to decide next week! He’s not ready, he only likes basketball because it brings major popularity. He’s not passionate and doesn’t care about the school’s reputation like I do!
Chuck: Apparently Coach sent out an email. He said he thinks that Julian is the type of lead this team needs. What are you gonna do? He’s going to ruin our team. You have to figure something out.
Brock: Maybe, but I’m not sure. You know I would do it in a heartbeat if it would help the team, even if it means I’d be kicked off, but I don’t want to mess up my friendship with Julian. He’s a good guy, even though he’s selfish.
Chuck : I know that you would do anything for the team, so here’s your chance to prove it. Friends come and go, ball is life.

—————————————————————————

A public place.(The basketball court)
Chuck : You know, we’re not that different than Julian. Sure, he’s popular and now he’s captain, but I think he’s just a normal guy.
Brock: (laugh) Right. If we were equal, I’m sure you’d be captain, and he wouldn’t be so popular.
Chuck: We may not be the same as him socially, but basketball wise, we are, if not better. In fact, in the summer when we were at camp, I played a few games with him, one on one. He totally sucked, he played like a third grader. He took a free throw and the ball bounced back and hit him straight on the forehead. How does someone like that become captain?
STOP HERE.
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