Significance of My Chinese Name

My Chinese name is 杨应超. When　I was young, I heard that my name was suppose to mean for me to ”超过“　or to surpass most other people in doing things. Also I heard that my Chinese name was suppose to mean that I would be like ”超人“ or in English superman.

Favourite Memory of Chinese New Year

My favourite memory of Chinese New Year was last year's activity at my uncle's home. We had reunion dinner together with all our family where we, the younger generation ate first while we waited for more relatives to arrive. The food smelled heavenly and looked delicious. More importantly the food tasted as good as always, standards never drop even as years go by. It was a great time for me to catch up with cousins that i hardly met as we live very far away from each other. We would tease each other and we will all enjoy the time together. As most of my cousins are older than me, I would also always ask them different questions. These activities improves family ties and also bring up the Chinese New Year atmosphere where we are "团团圆圆" which means to unite as a family.

My Identity

1. My identities are being a Buddhist, a gamer and a student. First of all being a Buddhist started of ever since I could read and talk. I was influenced by my parents or even my whole family since they are all Buddhist. Seeing that i would always go to Buddhist temples to pray, I gradually treated myself as a Buddhist. I started serious gaming when I was in Primary 5, I would spend most of my time playing games which in turn would get scoldings from parents. Although I am not fully a hardcore gamer, I still treat myself as a gamer because it is a big part of my life. Being a student started officially as I got into primary school education where studying became at least 75% of my life.
2.

All Summer in a Day Assignment

The school children should be held responsible for Margot's treatment. As nine year old children they should have been mature enough to know that when there is a newcomer they should all the more welcome him/her warmly instead of treating her as an absolute outsider. Just because of the fact that she was new, her words were treated as nonsense even when the scientists also said the sun was going to appear. The children have absolute no respect for Margot. This immaturity of the children caused Margot to be treated as an outsider instead of a schoolmate.

If I were a part of the school children, I would choose to at least trust Margot since she had more memories of the Sun than me and most of the other children. No matter how unbelievable her words were I would still try my best to trust her, a sign of acceptance to her as a schoolmate at least. And in the end we would be able to enjoy the embrace of the Sun's warmth together as friends, instead of enjoying what we thought was not real and the only believer would miss it. Also, if we made friends with Margot, Margot would also be willing to share with us more descriptions of the Sun, which would benefit both parties.

Collaboration Reflection

I collaborated intensely and at length with my projects group. Our group had 5 people, with me included in the 5. We put in lots of effort in the project, assigning each of us different types of task. We would meet up almost 2 times every week and bring all our completed task together for suggestions by our mentor and also from each other. If the completed item was not up to standard we would come together as a group to help brush up this item to meet our mentor's level of standard. Meeting up was not easy as we all come from different CCAs so we had to find extra time to meet up.

I actually learnt that I would really work well with a group that has the same interests as me. Where most of our ideas would come together in unison. Although there might be slight differences, those are small obstacles for us to clear, training us up to be able to handle bigger obstacles iin life as we grow up. I do not work well with people with different interests with me for I cannot change my opinions easily.

Reflection on Comic Strip Activity

I enjoyed the "Comic Strip Activity as it keeps me constantly entertained. It was much better than normal essay writing as it allowed me to express my thoughts simply by using pictures. Apart from being entertained, this "Comic Strip" activity allows us to utilise the narrative elements to create comic strip. I would try to create a comic strip for every essay I write in the future, either as ACE or just for fun.

1)I chose this particular pictures to show the immaturity of a young boy who does not think before he talks. The wilderness to further emphasize the importance of having a thinking mind because in the wild, anything may happen, one has to be able to have critical thinking skills. Basics like thinking before one should talk should be already inside a person's head if he or she wishes to survive in the wilderness.

2)These images helped me to continue the "honey story" to the boy being scared of the bees and bear that he ran off, leaving his honey behind, "sharing" it. Especially the boy living near the wilderness should have a thinking mind so that he may go hunting or even defend himself from an animal attack.

3)I used the wilderness as the setting to show that if you did not think before you talk, there would be consequences.
The Character would be a young, immature boy who did not think before he spoke, therefore almost met a mishap.
My plot would be a boy that decided not to share his honey with anyone even if he had to die, but in the end still gave up his honey for his life.
The climax would be when the boy met the bees and the bear.

Learning Goals

My learning goal of 2011 is to improve my vocabulary. Because I myself feel that the words used in my compositions are too simple, it does not give an impact to the reader. Most of my words are of primary school standard, taking in to new hieghts would be my goal this year. Also, i want to improve my vocabulary so that I can explain my thoughts in comprehensions more clearly. For example for questions which ask me to explain how I feel or how the writer feels. Apart from LA work, improving my vocabulary would allow me to write better for IH.

The Most Valuable

The most valuable thing I learned last year in Language Arts is the comprehension skills that Mr. Lundberg taught us. Comprehension is one of the major components in our LA tests. And I would say I did improve and so improving my LA results. Also learning all those comprehension skills, I improved my analysing skills in everything I do which involves daily activities. Therefore comprehension skills is the most valuable to me because it has helped me in both school life and my daily life outside school.

My Favourite Book.

My favourite book is "The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time" By Mark Haddon.

I chose this book as a favourite because I like how it allows me to picture the small actions done by Christopher to show his curiosity and how he acts humourously as a dectective. Being is a 15 year-old boy which has Asperger's Syndrome and is very good in math, allowing him to solve mysteries much easier. Although he might not be able to relate well to his surrounding as well as normal people, he gets very curious after finding his neighbour's dog dead. This somehow surprised me because I thought that he would feel uneasy whenever it comes to relating with other people's business.

Here is a link to "The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3437.The_Curious_Incident_of_the_Dog_in_the_Night_time

IN-CLASS ONLINE LESSON #1 (Part Two)

2. Have you ever been part of a group of people who were unkind to one or some individuals? What was the circumstance? How did you act? What did you feel?

Yes, i have been part of a group of people who were unkind to an individual. At that point of time this particular individual was named as a "retard". Just because he reacts to thing differently from most people, he was discriminated to such an extend. I encouraged them to stop teasing him because it would not do any of the two parties any good. Most importantly it would hurt the victim's confidence, which is an important thing in our lives. I felt guilty and useless at the same time as I could not even do anything to help my schoolmate.

IN-CLASS ONLINE LESSON #1 (Part One)

The Little Boy and the Old Man by Shel Silverstein

Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.

This poem has taught me that we as members of the society should treat everyone equally. No matter how young how old, how poor how rich, all should be treated the same. Because all of them have their own pride and dignity.

Shel Silverstein's Poem Answers

1) The boy and the old man although have a big age gap, experience the same problems of not getting as much attention as most other people.
2) Shel Silverstein used assonance and rhyming to make the poem sound more synchronised to relate the old man the the young boy's similar points.


1) Yes i feel that this poem is humorous because the main part of the poem is where the character is complaining about a dirty room which he find familiar but do not know was his, but in the end was told by another person that the dirty room was his, so all along he was complaining about himself.
2) Shamelessness has been highlighted in this poem, blaming others before finding out he was the one at fault.


1) The irony is that when the clown wants his audience to laugh they feel bored, but when the clown seeks sympathy everyone just laughs at him.
2) Shel Silverstein conveyed that our lives are filled with difficulties which happen when we were not expecting them to, for example things may happen the total opposite from what you have expected.
3) Shel Silverstein used hyperbole to exaggerate the number of people that was affected by Cloony The Clown's seek for sympathy.

Answers To Big Fish

1) The phrase "a big fish in a small pond" to me means: A powerful person in a insignificant environment.
2) Edward Bloom's purpose for telling the tale of the big fish and the wedding ring is to tell the audience that the only way to get a woman you love is to marry her.
3) When William was young he felt that his father's tales were fascinating, but as he gets older he thinks that his father was using the tale to show off his experience and were already too outdated.
4) Edward wants to remind his son to catch his own "fish" or to find his true love.
5) The tale reveals that Edward and William were very close when William was young, but as William gets older, their relationship gets unstable.
6) Telling a story this way allows the reader to easily discover that the story is a fiction but brings much excitement. Because most parts of the story are either not realistic or is over exaggerated.
7) Yes, bending or exaggerating the truth for the purpose of conveying an entertaining story undercuts the believability of a story. Yes, a tale is less valid than a straight reportage of the facts, because a tale maybe customised or edited in any ways the author likes, but a straight report shows the exact fact from the actual happening.