In the novel, The Giver, the Giver had told Jonas that making choices could be frightening for people. Before that, though, Jonas had suggested that maybe if things had color, they could choose what he wanted, instead of Sameness. The Giver, however, had mentioned that you could make wrong choices, and Jonas had agreed and said, "Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn't matter for a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices of their own." But then again, in our modern day world, people make choices all the time. So just why are they frightening?
Well, the most simplest reason for why making choices would be frightening would be making the wrong choice. That would probably be the most voiced fear when making a choice. Several times, I have said to my parents, "What if I made the wrong choice?" After all, no one likes to make wrong choices-especially if they end up impacting you later in your life. Though the citizens in The Giver might cherish making choices for themselves, it might end up as a disaster later on. Jonas had also said, "What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And what if they chose wrong?" I think that Jonas has a point here. When you marry someone, you usually stay with them your whole life-and in their community, there was no such thing as divorce. The Giver had suggested that it wasn't safe.
Another reason of why The Giver had said that making choices were frightening for people was maybe because they wanted to be the same, and not stand out like an eccentric person. Maybe they were afraid of being unique and different. After all, it mentioned that certain age groups wore certain clothes. Maybe the Elders thought that if someone was rich and someone else was poor, the poorer one wouldn't be jealous. And if someone was jealous, then they might do things they might regret later, so it could also be frightening making choices.
Choices effect your future. If you make the wrong choice, your whole future gets ruined. Just one little choice can affect so much. Maybe that's why it's frightening-you wouldn't want to get your whole career ruined because you made a bad choice, now, would you? I certainly wouldn't. In the book, it mentions a release-and in the earlier chapters, it had described that if you are released, it brings great shame. At the beginning of the book, a pilot had read his route wrong, and flew over the town. The speakers had announced that the Pilot-In-Training was to be released. Such a small mistake, yet it impacted a whole life. Small mistake, big mistake, you would still get released if you happened to break a big rule.
So yes, making choices may be frightening. But nevertheless, making choices is how we learn. If we didn't make mistakes, then the only way we could learn would be the things that others taught us. That's a good way to learn, but that would mean you never got to experience anything, right? After all, half of our experience comes from making mistakes-which comes from making choices. So, in a certain way, making choices can be frightening, but mostly, it is just a way to experience life.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
The Giver Reflection: Would you Want your Future Chosen?
In all honesty, it depends. Sometimes in life, you want things chosen for you while in other parts, you want to make the decision yourself. And at other times, you simply didn't have a choice, like Jonas and his family. But in reality, life isn't that simple. It is never handed out on a silver platter so easily. Instead, life is more like a road, and sometimes there are many roads you could choose to follow, each one ending up with it's own
consequence. Whatever you do, something good or bad comes out of it. Sometimes, you really just don't have a say in your life. Like when I moved to Malaysia, it wasn't by my own choice. I nearly cried for a week when I learnt that I was moving here. I wanted it to be my say whether my family and I moved or not. But alas, that was my dad's decision, and not mine. If I sum it all my feelings and thoughts up though, my answer would be:
No. I wouldn't like to have my future chosen. Why? Because life is about making choices. If we didn't make our choices, we would have to follow someone else's demands. Like how everyone in the community has to do the jobs that the Elder had chosen for them. If you had a gentle nature, you had a job like Nurturer or the Director of the House of Old. If you had imagination, you would be an architect. You had no say at all of what you would want to be when you grew up. That would infuriate me. I generally hate people dictating my life. To me, all the decisions I make are the ones I make for myself, and I would take the consequence for whatever happened because it would be my fault. To have the gift of choosing taken away from me would be like living an empty, gray life with absolutely no excitement.
Also, to me, taking away the ability to make choices is like taking freedom away. After all, isn't freedom about doing what you want? Well, in The Giver, they didn't have a choice. They were only given bikes at the age of nine, and starting at the Eights, you had to do volunteering hours. And everyone in the community had to depend on each other in some way. From what I have read so far, if one person got taken away, such as the Director or Recreation, things would start falling apart. I like to be independent, and not have to rely on someone to do things.
If you were also able to choose your own destiny, you could experience so many more things. The minute you have your future decided, you become biased, and only do things that would help you in your future. That would be all you would ever strive and work for. In other words, you become single-minded. Not knowing your destiny lets you do so many things, like climb mountains, invent things, write a story, and so much more. Life is about making mistakes. If you don't make any, you practically learn nothing. Having others choose your destiny gives you nothing to look forward to. While some people might take that for granted, they would never know what they were missing out. You would think, "I know what I am going to do, have got everything planned out, now what am I to do?"
But even so, sometimes you don't get to choose. Monarchy is passed down, and you have to become King/Queen no matter what. But when you get a choice, think of it as a gift, and not a liability. There are people who want to have the choice to choose their destiny. Many people don't, like slaves. They don't get to choose their destiny. It's controlled by their masters. In The Giver, the people in the community are like slaves that way, and their masters are the Elders. The Elders chooses the people's occupation, love life, children. Those three things are probably what makes up a life most. So I choose to have the privilege to make my own choices. What about you?
Graphic Source:
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
My iMovie Grading
Monday, February 7, 2011
Tutankhamen
For this project, I was partnered up with Jamie to make a video on Tutankhamen, who became Pharaoh at the age of 9. We hope you enjoy it, and learn something about King Tut!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Houston, Texas Reflection
A few weeks ago, my class did a presentation about a city we've lived in and it's geographical luck, establishment and prosperity of civilization. I did mine about Houston, Texas since I had lived there for a little over eleven years. In class now, we are doing a reflection on what we thought we did well, what we could improve on, what we learned from our preparation and presentations from others, and last of all, the analysis of our performance.
I think one thing I did well on the project was probably organizing the way I did my information. I put all the information I needed into bullet points and organized it so that it was in chronological order. I also think that it was neat, and didn't look as if facts were strewn all over the place. I made sure my pictures weren't pixelated and that it stood out on my presentation background.
I think I could improve on my future presentations and projects in many ways. I suppose I could first practice presenting my presentation. When I got called up to the front, I was nervous and I could practically feel my heart pounding. Truth to be told, there was no reason for me to be nervous if I practiced a bit before. Sure, I looked over it a few times, said some lines out loud that I thought was necessary. But I didn't practice the whole thing, and certainly not in front of an audience. Next time, I'll know to do that so I won't have to freak out when it becomes my turn to present my project.
Another thing I could improve on would be speaking more slowly. When I get nervous, I tend to speak fast, and that's what happened to me when I presented the City Connection presentation. I think some people couldn't understand what I was saying. Slowing my speech down is another thing I could practice.
I actually learnt quite a bit from preparing my own presentation and listening to others. When I prepared my presentation, I realized that I never gave much thought to how Houston got started. I knew that Houston was named after Sam Houston, yes, but for almost everything else? Not quite as much. It was interesting learning all these other information while I was working on the project. I learnt from preparing my presentation that John and Augustus Allen founded Houston near Buffalo Bayou. I never even knew Houston was built near Buffalo Bayou!
Something I learned from listening to my classmates presentation is that not one city is the same as another. They all offer different weather, crops, resources, and history. It was interesting learning about new cities-some that I've never heard about.
As for my analysis of my performance, I believe that I did pretty well. I worked my hardest, and believe that I didn't leave out any of the requirements. Despite on what I think I could improve on, I'm proud of my finished presentation. I made sure that the information was accurate-I double checked the information. I used my time wisely, and didn't get distracted doing this presentation. I presented well, even though I may have talked a bit fast. I'm sure it could be improved though, but all in all, I believe that I did pretty well.
You can view my presentation from the link at the bottom. Hope you enjoyed both my reflection, and will learn something from my presentation about Houston, Texas!
Sit back and learn a bit on Houston, Texas. Enjoy!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
My Learning Profile: JJ
On the 12th of January, we got to look at ourselves and our learning profiles. We learned that there were two sides to the brain: The Gestalt(right brain) and The Logic(left side). There are 32 different kinds of profiles, so we tested our eyes, hands, ears, and foot to find out what learning profile we were. Since my eye and hands are right, and my ears and legs are left, that makes my learning profile JJ. Being a learner profile JJ makes me learn best through movement and by focusing on the whole picture, context, and emotional relevance to myself. It also says I interpret language mainly from it's tone, pitch, and rhythm, and an auditory learner that must hear the intention and feelings of the person or information to learn. I also prefer not to follow step-by-step instruction.
I think I learn best when there's nothing to distract me from what I'm doing. I sometimes spend hours on my homework when it should only take me from 15-30 minutes. Being alone in the room would also benefit me, because when certain people come into the same room as me, I randomly remember something else I have to do, and whatever I was doing originally gets left alone. On the paper I received, it says that sitting on the right side several rows back will help me learn better because there, I can hear easily. That won't work as well for me, because when I sit at the very back, I don't pay attention as much. Sitting on the right side works for me, but not several rows back.
According to the paper, I need to do cross-lateral hand and foot play like writing and drawing with my non-dominant hand. I'm also supposed to do Lazy 8's from Brain-Gym and blinking while tracking with eyes-that, I don't get as much. it also tells me to massage the Temporal Mandibular Joint for communication, cross crawls,walking, dancing, soccer, and martial arts like Tai Chi. I probably won't be doing martial arts, dancing, and soccer and time soon, though.
The strategies that would help me learn better is learning how to prioritize. If I could learn how to do that, my school life and home life would be easier. Another strategy is for me to analyze decisions and go through logical reasoning processes. That might be a challenge for me-I'm the kind of person who doesn't think through everything before doing it. And time management, definitely need to work on that. I do other stuff when I'm only supposed to be concentrating on my homework, so it takes longer.
I would like the teachers to know about me is that even though I tend to look at the big picture, I can also focus on really small details. Another thing is, is that I tend to lose my focus, or spaced-out. One moment I'll be paying attention, the next moment, I won't, even though I'll probably look like I'm paying attention. I also have a temper. I can get angry or annoyed easily, even though I try to hide it. I love to read, draw, write, and play the violin. They all help me stop moving around, and concentrate on what I'm doing. When writing, I love to imagine and be creative, so I can write really well when it's free choice-I'll always pick fantasy to write. I also like it when people let emotion in when their talking. It gives me a sense of what they're feeling, and let's me know what's happening-especially if I lose my focus.
Thanks for reading about me, how my brain works, strategies to help myself, and what I would like the teachers to know!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Winter Vacation & 2011 New Years Resolution
- Use my time better
and
- Learn more about history
I put using my time better because I usually slack off and do other stuff. For example, when I have to do a homework, I start some of it, but then do something else that's completely unnecessary. I do that with a lot of stuff, and usually get in trouble for it, because I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Also, if I use my time better, I could get more things done in the day, and not of to defer it to another day. Then when I'm done with all the things I need to do, I could have fun, and not be bothered with the things I haven't finished. I would be more relaxed, and not have as much stress.
My other resolution is to learn more about history. I know that may seem weird at first, but it's a new year, and learning history would be something to look forward to! I've always liked history. After all, history is what made us where we are today. Famous rulers and people like Julius Caesar, King Tut (Tutankhamun), Aristotle, or Socrates all interest me. But, other history apart from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome would be nice to read about. All history are interesting, and it would not only be an educational resolution, but also fun at the same time. In my mind, it's totally worth it.
2010 winter holiday, the last break before 2011. For this winter holiday, I traveled to Taiwan with my family to visit my relatives. They lived mostly in Taipei, so that was were we mainly stayed. From Kuala Lumper to Taipei was a 4 hour 35 minute flight, and there were barley any time difference. For most of the holiday, my cousins had school, so we mainly hanged out after they came back-around 5:00. Christmas, though, was entertaining. My uncle took us out to buy Christmas presents for ourselves, and my 6 year old cousin chose a bat man costume box. When he opened it, it was empty-later, we found out that he had chosen the wrong item. He started to throw a fit, but them my mom told him to put his 1 million cars in there. At least that idea saved us from all the screaming.As for Christmas presents, I didn't exactly ask for anything. My aunts and uncles pestered me about what I wanted, but I told them: "No thanks, I don't want anything this year." I suppose I did get a form of my Christmas present though. My aunt took me shopping, and bought tons of small, useful stuff for me. My mom and dad bought me a book, and my brother gave me a ocean scented candle. They were all wonderful.
On New Years Eve, I stayed up until midnight, where my relatives and I saw the fireworks on Taipei 101 from the window. It was an amazing sight, but it soon ended. After the fireworks, I went back to the computer, and didn't sleep until 4'o clock. My cousins were asleep before me!
Well, here's a recap on my blog post:
My two top resolutions of the year of 2011 is using my time wisely and learning more on history. I hope to learn how to use my time wisely before 6th grade ends, so I can be more prepared for 7th grade. As for learning more history, I can continue on it for the whole year, and also learn more next year to, but it may not be my resolution. I hope you enjoyed learning my New Years resolution and reading about my Christmas break!
Picture Source:
http://ahoyhanoi.blogspot.com/2009_12_12_archive.html
http://triblocal.com/wheaton/files/2010/12/new-years.jpg
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