The Earth day was on April 22. Earth day is a festival which tells people to protect our beautiful planet, such as saving energy, saving water, reducing the various pollutions. On that day, people will try their best to do something for the planet tat we are living in. So in our school, from grade 6 to grade 11, were willing to do a project which could protect the earth.

On that day, people from different grades were divided into groups. We walked around in groups and saw a lot od creative projects which could protect the earth, such as vampire energy, bags made from t-shirt, planting flowers and so on. I didn’t do a project, because our project failed before the earth day.

I was in a group of five people with Dabin, Victoria, Sophie and Sheila. We were doing the energy maker. What energy maker is that we were going to make energy from lemons and potatoes. Why we want to make it? Because in China there are so many potatoes be planted, but they are a lot, so some of them will be wasted. So we were thinking that if we can make energy from the potatoes, then we can use the potatoes been wasted to make energy.

But after the experiment of making energy from lemons and potatoes had been successful, Mr. T said it is not a project, it is just an experiment, and also we don’t have enough time to do it. Maybe it is, it is an experiment, but it is a way to protect the earth, actually it is a little bit similar to the making energy from riding the bicycle, but making energy from lemons and potatoes are way more difficult. Next time, we are going to have a more creative project for the LLTC, and complete it very well, not going to be like this time.

From my point of view, LLTC is a very good project for us to improve our creative thinking. I didn’t do it very well this year, and I’m leaving this year, but if I have a similar project in my rest of life, I will do it pretty well. Anyway, thank you Mr. T

On the Friday, 15 people in our class used couple of different ways to present the culture. I chose to do the presentation to this task.

I made a power point to present this project. I explained what culture is and had a short introduction about The Serpent’s Children, a little bit background information of Laurence Yep. And also I did some research about my culture such as Chinese culture and some traditions of Sichuan and Chengdu. Also I used one slide to introduce the People’s Park in Chengdu. That one is my favorite slide, because People’s Park is the place where I was growing up, it is a friend of mine.

I think the performance was not pretty good, because it was not well prepared on the board in the classroom, maybe because I didn’t check after I made the power point，so next time I have to check everything I did after I made it. And I also think that I need to find more things from the boob which can relate to my culture.

I really like Jack’s Prezi. It is very detailed and he did a lot of research. And also his Prezi is very creative, so maybe next I can do it more creatively. Or I can put more pictures to explain the things that I want to present instead of typing a lot of context.

Furthermore, I need to prove my presentation skills, so I have to work hard in Ms. Gonzalez presentation class.

On 17th of September, we rode on the bus for four hours and we arrived at Wenchuan, where had got destroyed by the earthquake in 2008. On 12^th of May n 2008, the earthquake magnitude was 8.0, it was a really high magnitude. 690227 people died in that earthquake, 374643 people got injured and 17923 people cannot be found in the earthquake. We went to the earthquake museum of Wenchuan. The museum exhibits amount of pictures which were taken during the earthquake and some videos of the earthquake. I also saw some reports about that earthquake which were written by the rescuers about how many people they had found in that day and how many people got injured. I could see blood on all the reports, and I could imagine how the rescuers wrote the reports, they might write on a piece of stone or wrote it on ruins. When I was in the museum, I could still recall what I was doing when the earthquake happened, and I could still felt the sadness from the earthquake. The museum let me recall so many things, so I had a feeling which I couldn’t describe it.

After we finished the museum, we went to a random plaza in the Yingxiu town, we played the electrical rolling car there, and it was great! And also we did some shopping there. At last we arrived at the inn where we were going to live for the first night.

It was a private inn which built by a local family called Erma, so the name of the inn called Ermarenjia. I really like the style of the inn, it was all made of wood, and when you walked in, it was like a puzzle, at the beginning I couldn’t find the way to my room. My room was on the roof, so it had good view when I looked out from the windows. There was a big table in front on my room with chairs around it, so we sat together and had a chats there. We also could climb up the roof of my room, because there was a ladder laded on the roof, so we climbed up, I though I could see the whole town. We went to a Yang’s family in the afternoon; Mr. Yang introduced his house which was built by his ancestors. He also introduced the undergrounded water-net; the water net transports the water all around his house. At night, it was pretty cold on the roof and so many bugs and flies, so I couldn’t sleep well.

On the second day, we took another four hours bus to Heishui. After we arrived there we went to a monastery. A man who got a master on the Buda leaded us walked around the monastery and introduced many things about the Buda. In the evening, we had traditional Tibetan food for supper. We ate yack meat and the Tibetan traditional tea.

The third day, we went to the mount Dagu. It was a high altitude place; the altitude was 4752 meters high. On that mountain we yelled I need oxygen all the time. But it was really beautiful there. In the evening, we went a park to dance with the Tibetan people in the Tibetan traditional dance, but couples of minutes later, me and Sheila started playing with the Tibetan children, and teach them some games we played in the primary schools. And then Ian joined us, the children asked Ian where he comes from, after they knew that he is from Korea, all the girls got really cray about it. And then they asked Ian to teach them dance. So Ian got pretty popular there, all the girls got crazy about him.

The trip was only four days long, but we learnt a lot about Buda and know Tibetan culture much better. I like this trip so much; it was totally different form the trip which I went with my parents. I hope we can a trip like this again.

We work as a class or a group every day, but it is important for us to be an independent learner.

First, to be an independent learner need to do the work without the help from others. An independent learner needs to do the work himself, not get the ideas or suggestions from others. An independent needs to think by himself and has his own study direction. Sometimes the ideas from others do not give a good way for me for studying, so I think I need to do the work myself, and have my own studying direction.

Second, being an independent learner need to control his own learning. First, I need to how to control my own learning, like I need to find the best way for me to study. And then I need to know what do need to learn. Because from my opinion, the best study way for each person doesn’t come from friends or teachers or parents, it comes from me. Because I know myself better than anyone else. So I need to control my own study way.

And then it is important for me to practice more if I want to be an independent learner. I need to work harder, because I need to work without the help from others, so I need to practice more and get the answer which I want myself. And I need to practice in a right way or my work will get even worse.

So it is so hard to become an independent learner, I need t change a lot to be an independent learner. I will try my best an independent learner and hope I can get better when I become an independent learner.

I’m reading the “Serpent’s Children” this book. This book is written by the author who called Laurence Yep. Laurence Yep is an America born Chinese, his family is from Hong Kong, but he was born in San Francisco. He live in the China town in San Francisco for a long time, and he went to an international school for primary school. He said‘I’m too American to fit in China town, but I’m too Chinese to fi in anywhere else.” Actually he is living in a family which has half American culture and half Chines culture, but according to his book that he had written, I think Chines culture affected him more.

The Serpent’s Children is talking about the story between a brother and a sister. And the whole collection is about the Chinese history. So I think Chinese culture affected him more. All characters in this book are Chinese. Like in our mind, being a serpent’s child is not that lucky, it’s so poor. But the girl in the book doesn’t think like that, she feels good to be a serpent’s child, she thinks it is cool and proud to a serpent’s child.

I think Chinese culture is really important to him. There is a book called Dragon Gate which is written by Laurence Yep. And there is a story which is separated in China for a long time. Maybe his idea came from that story. An the whole collection is called Golden Mountain, it seems like a symbol of China, because gold is the symbol of lucky in China.

And I also like the sentence which he said’ I’m too American to fit in China town, but I’m too Chinese to fit anywhere else.” So from here we can no that Chinese culture is more important to him.

Everyone has a different learning style or profile. Some of them are good, but some of them are bad. Like a lot of my friends are “thinkers”. They spend a long time on thinking, and they feel it is difficult to make decision.

OK, let’s talk about my attributes. I’m caring of course. I love animals, I try to save every life in the universe, even if it is only a little insect, because I think every life has a reason for appearing in the world. And we know a person who is caring shows empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others, and has a personal commitment to service, they make a positive different to the lives of others and to the environment.

I am also courageous. I am not so brave, but I have the courage to try anything that I think it is safe. I can still remember once I was in a hotel of Macau, and there was an amusement park for the little kids. There was slide, and the angle of the slide was 90 degrees. No one wanted to try, because it was so scary, and no one wanted to try the weird slide. After a few seconds thinking, I said “let me try.” I went up the stairs and slide down. The feeling was fantastic! After my try, all of the children in the amusement park all tried it one by one. And another thing, when we were in Chiangmai, there was a kind of fruit called passion fruit. All of the people who traveled with us together didn’t want to try the fruit, because it looks disgusting. But I tried, it was very sour, but I think it was not that bad, at least I had tasted it before.

I am not knowledgeable, I think I should spend ore time on reading books. However I like to read magazines, such as Yilin, Readers, Siweiyuzhihui and so on. Otherwise I am not good at thinking, because I think thinking wastes a lot of time. But sometimes thinking is so important. So I should train myself on thinking, and I ca become wiser and wiser.

About the Debate’s Topic

On May 21^st, Jan, Claudia and Sibel had a debate with students in grade eleven, the resolution was a Chinese public school education better than an American public school education.

Some people think that an American public school education is better than a Chinese school education, because they think that Chinese public schools education put too much pressure on students, and give them less freedom. They have so much homework to do, that they have no time to play. But a lot of people think children are supposed to play. On the other hand, some people think that a Chinese public school education is better than an Americana public school education, because Chinese public schools provide children with more knowledge and information. This education makes children knowledgeable.

From my point of view, I am in the middle, because I think the two kinds of education have different advantages. For an American public school education, students get more freedom. Their weekends can be planned by themselves and they get less homework than Chinese students. Most of their homework is working on crafts to improve their skills. American teachers think encouragement is the goal for helping children learn faster. On the other hand, Chinese teachers think only criticism can make children improve quicklier. American public schools education teaches students that teamwork is more important than their own study. But Chinese public school education tells children they are only successful if they depend on themselves.

However, for the conscientious students, a Chinese public school education is more fitting for them. The Chinese teachers will focus on your work every day. You have no choice, because you only have to work and focus on your study the whole time. Moreover, Chinese public schools education provides more knowledge to students. For example, the level of Chinese public schools grade three is the same as the level of American public schools grade five. Teachers in China give deeper knowledge to students than American teachers at the same time. So students can learn more in China.

This is what I think foe an American public school education and a Chinese public school education. In conclusion, the two different kinds of education have different advantages. There is no comparison between these two education.

It’s sunny today, teachers decide to go picnic in a mountain. They bring a lot of snacks and drinks; they also bring some chairs and foldable tables to make sure that they have something to sit on or take a break.

Forests around the mountain, the sunlight travels through the leaves like the golden treasures dropped on the ground. Suddenly, the sky is covered by dark cloud, and it seems like it’s going to rain. It does not lighten, but the ferocious wind blow strongly and the sound is terrible. But they are glad because they can face it together.

After Alice drank the weird water, she became smaller and smaller, she was only a- finger’s tall. She was happy that she was so tiny, because she could go everywhere with her tiny body. She went to the market to buy a toy slide for herself. She went into a forest with her slide. Suddenly, a turkey came forward to her. She was not afraid of the huge turkey, so the turkey looked at her weirdly. She brought some food for the turkeys, but the food was even bigger than Alice. After the turkey ate the food, Alice changed back.