Crochet - Lesson 4

Lesson 4 - April
Click HERE for all of the photos for this project!

Since I will be continuing crochet, I felt it would be best if I just do a collective reflection at the end of these two years, a bit like what I am doing for my flute and violin classes.

Here are some photos from my final lesson (for this project) :

Looking forward to posting about future projects!
-Rebecca

Crochet - Lesson 3

Click HERE for lesson one and HERE for lesson two!

Lesson 3 - April
So as mentioned last time, this time I learned how to switch colors on each of the rows. It was actually quite easy, just "yarn over" with the new color when finishing a row, instead of using the original color to finish the stitch.

(again this really doesn't make sense I know... I will try to get videos or still photos up to demonstrate this)

Here is the bag after this lesson!

Final update soon!
-Rebecca

Spanish Class

Activity: Spanish Class
Date: April 6 - 10
Time: 2-4 pm (2 hours a day, 5 days)
Type:Group (friends)
Organization: Modern Spanish Language Center (www.modernspanish.hk/)

Hours:  10 hours - Creative

So my friends and I decided to spend the Easter break learning Spanish.

Since it was a quick crash course, we learned the very basics, such as numbers, colors and basic verbs.

Here are my reflections!

1) Increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth
This was a brand new experience for me as I have no skills or experience in Spanish (unless you count Dora the Explorer, which you really shouldn't). Thus, participating in this crash course in Spanish helped me to understand my strengths and weaknesses, as well as my areas of growth.

During the crash course, I quickly learned that while pronunciation of the words wasn't that big of a problem for me, as Spanish seems to be one of the languages that is pronounced how the word is written (unlike English and its many odd spelling rules that aren't followed half the time). Also many of the words looks similar to their English counterparts, making it easier to guess the meaning behind many of the words.

However, the challenging part came in conjugating the verbs, as unlike in English, the ending to a verb changes based on who is speaking (I'll talk about this more in the next learning outcome)

Hard at work!

2) Undertaken new challenges or an extension of an existing one  
As mentioned before, the decision to learn Spanish was a new challenge for me, as I had no experience prior to the course.

In particular, conjugating verbs was very difficult for me, as there is no equivilent in English or Manderian.
While some where easy and followed consistent rules (such as replace the "r" with an "o" for "I" verbs) , such as for the root verb "hablar" (to speak):

English              Spanish            Verb used

I	Yo	hablo
You	Tú	hablas
He/She/It	él/ella/Ud.	habla
We	nosotros	hablamos
Us	vosotros	habláis
His/ Her / Its	ellos/ellas/Uds	hablan

Others, such as for "ir" (to go or to leave) were much harder and didn't seem to follow the rules at all!

English              Spanish            Verb used

I	Yo	voy
You	Tú	vas
He/She/It	él/ella/Ud.	va
We	nosotros	vamos
Us	vosotros	vais
His/ Her / Its	ellos/ellas/Uds	van

Final photo with our teacher, Oralia!

6) Engaged with issues of global importance
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, with about 405,000,000 people or 6.15% of the world's population. By learning the basics in this new language, I was opening myself to learn more about other cultures and how they think due to their language (language being one of the Ways of Knowing in ToK after all!)

This crash course in Spanish encouraged me to look into learning Spanish in the future.
As I am already fluent in English and spoken Mandarin Chinese ( my reading and writing in Chinese still needs a lot of work before I can be considered "fluent" and there is also the difference between simplified and traditional characters etc ) if I keep on learning Spanish, I will be able to communicate with over a quarter of the world's people in their native language!

Why is this an issue of global impotance? Well Nelson Mandela put it best:

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."

-Rebecca

Crochet class- Lesson 2

This is the continuation of the first one (which can be found HERE)

Lesson 2 - March
I started out this lesson by crocheting the 1st row on the bag's sides, which was much easier than last time, since after the practice I did at home, I could crochet a stitch relatively quickly, accurately, and easily without constantly having to undo and redo my work because my hook was placed in the wrong stitch or got caught on the yarn. 

This lead to my stitches becoming more neat, as I could properly count the number of stitches I did without having to constantly having to stop and correct my mistakes!

Some tips I found about crocheting are:

• Holding the yarn taught in the left hand makes "yarning over" (hooking the yarn with the hook) makes creating the stitch MUCH easier as the yarn doesn't pop out of the hook when you are pulling it through the loops
• Angling the hook down when you pull the yarn through the loops makes it less likely that you will catch the loops as you pull through.
• When creating a double crochet, the loops don't need to be that large, only about 1cm in length
• Chain stitches look neater if they are made as small and tightly as possible.

(I realized that this makes no sense so I decided to film myself crocheting, thinking that might help explain it...)

... And realized that my hand was in the way and I am going way too fast for any of that to be seen (who would have thought that this was only after 4 hours worth of classes! I am a pretty good learner if I do say so myself :P)

(...and the video doesn't work for some reason...)

(maybe I'll post photos later)

After this lesson, I had finished the first 7 rows of my bag. Next lesson? Adding a different color!

-Rebecca

Y11 & Y13 Parents meeting

Activity: Y11 & Y13 Parents evening
Date: 
Time: 3 + 1 hours
Type: School
Organization: School Event

Hours:  4 hours - Service

I am combining these two together, since the learning outcomes are the same (and also since the Y13 meeting was very short, since most students had already planned out university things etc)

4) Worked collaboratively with others
During the two events, I worked collaboratively with my classmates to help serve refreshments to the parents, students and teachers throughout the meeting. I was also there to greet parents, show them the way to the indoor gym where the meeting was being held (instead of the hall like the last one)

At the end of the events, I helped to collect the name tags, stack the tables and chairs, take down signs, return the refreshment box and electric kettles back to the staff room etc... to restore the gym back to its original state so that it could be used by the PE teachers the next morning.

5) Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities 
I showed perseverance through these parents evenings as I continued to stay after school to volunteer for them. While many students were there to help with the Y9 options evening, only about 5 volunteered for the Y11 one, and only 3 (including me) were present for the Y13 parents evening. For all of the parent evening,  we stayed behind not only for the event to serve refreshments, but also to clean up afterward, which demonstrated my commitment to the activity.

Helper selfie! (we didn't take any photos while clearing the stuff up...)

- Rebecca



 

Crochet class - Lesson 1

Activity: Crochet class
Date: March - April
Time:2 hours per lesson (4 lessons)
Type: Individual
Organization: 編愛毛 (The Heart Knitting Company Tel. 2811 2287)

Hours:  8 hours - Creative

I am going to write this up like I did with the golf or the newspaper club one, with a page or two talking about what I did, and a reflections page at the end, since there is a lot to say. 

Also many of the photos were taken at home since it would be really disrespectful and awkward to keep pulling out my phone to take photos!

Lesson 1 - March
This was the first time I have ever crocheted before, so this was a brand new experience for me.
First of all,  I learned how to correctly hold the crochet hook and yarn:

I learned how to 3 different types of crochet stitches:

- "braid" stitch ~ 編織 (chain stitch in English)
- "short needle"~ 短針 (single crochet or double crochet, depends on which system is used)
- "long needle" ~ 長針 (double crochet or triple crochet (same as above, it depends))

Using these stitches, I was able to start practicing using some scrap yarn. During this time, I learned how to figure out where to put the hook to start a new row (each stitch forms a "v" shape and the hook has to go beneath BOTH of them, which is challenging when your stitches aren't very neat), how to count and increase the number of stitches in a row, how to start a new row using a different number of chain stitches at the start etc... (there was a lot to learn since I was a complete novice!)

I continued to do one row of single crochet stitches followed by one row of double crochet
stitches. As you can see, the stitches become much neater the more I practiced!

Eventually, I went on to crocheting with a pattern! This is the base for a small bag that I would be making! Since I was using a Japanese pattern, it had symbols that corresponded to different types of stitches, rather than a written out pattern, which meant learning which symbols meant what ( it was made much easier with the "cheat sheet" I had :P)

Each of the X represents a single crochet, circle in a chain stitch etc

Once I was done making the base, the lesson was over, and I was given the task of practicing my single and double crochet stitches. 

Will post more later! 
-Rebecca

KCCIS Sports day

Activity: KCCIS Sports Day
Date: March 13th
Time: from 9 am to 2 pm
Type: School event
Organization: School

Hours: 3 hours - Action
             2 hours - Service 


2) Undertaken new challenges or an extension of an existing one
I volunteered to help with announcing during sports day, which was completely new to me. This was an exciting challenge, as while I am a pretty talkative person with people I know, public speaking still makes me really nervous, and these anouncements were being publically anonced to everyone in the school!

Luckily, I had the help and guidance from a teacher and student who did it last year, which was very thankful for!

4) Worked collaboratively with others
 It goes without saying, but such a large school event required working together with a LOT of people, from the teachers and students calculating the scores, to helping students find their events, to the people at each of the stations helping to run the events etc. 

Since I was at the anouncing desk with another classmate, there was often one running between stations to get information that needed to be anounced while the other stayed back to give the second call for event. This required collaboration as we needed to ensure that there was always at least one person at the desk at all times.

This was made harder by the fact that we both had events to go to, but in the end we were able to make everything run smoothly! 

(albeit with a little hiccup at the start with a teacher not realizing the paper was distances not time, so the person with the larger number would win. Luckily the mistake was spotted before the announcement!)

5) Shown perseverance and commitment in my activities 
I got to the school bright and early to help the teachers take attendance and help the students find out which bus they would be going on. Once I got to the sports ground, I helped teachers with attendance taking and finding or calling missing students.

During the event, I was one of three students doing all of the anouncing, from the events ("Final call for under 12 boys 100 meters!") to general announcements ("This is a general reminder to please keep off the track as a race is about to start!") to the winners of the races and events (where I might have horribly butchered peoples names...)

I also was responsible for getting updates to each of the event stations, helping point students in the right direction, getting the results from the teachers calculating to the award station where students would pick up their medals (which required a lot more running) .  
 
While the event ended at 1 pm, I stayed behind to help clean up and move all of the supplies, banners, cheer leading gear, forms, tables etc back to the school bus. This required commitment and perseverance on my part, as I was working for 5 hours straight from the morning to afternoon.

All of this and I still had time to squeeze in a 100m, 400m and 4x100m relay race! (I didn't win any though... at least I persevered to the finish!)
 

-Rebecca

History Bee and Bowl

Activity: History Bee and Bowl
Date: January ~  February (on Mondays) + March
Time: about 15 min a week  (+ the day of the event)
Type: School
Organization: School club (History Bee and Bowl - Hong Kong division)

Hours: 2 hours - Service

2) Undertaken new challenges or an extension of an existing one

While this was my second time taking part in a History bowl (a team event with 5 rounds) it was my first time doing the History bee (single person event, trying to be the first to 8 points , more info on website). 

This meant that while I could give advice to the younger years on the bowl (ie. don't hit the buzzer directly after the other team gets the question wrong in the first 2 rounds, since they can't answer again, meaning you can get more information without any cost or don't just pass on the 3rd round if you don't know the answer, since you can discuss with your team mates that round or it is better err on the side of being slightly vague than too specific, since if you are to vague you get prompted, where as if you are too specific, your answer is just rejected if slightly incorrect ), I was unable to help with the history bee.

Although we had a meeting to discuss the History Bee rules and have a practice round, the Bee was  was my first time participating in it and an interesting challenge I undertook!

4) Worked collaboratively with others

Before and on the day of the event, I routinely helped quiz the younger middle school division, the junior varsity group and even the varsity group with questions from former quiz packets found on the website. I also found and shared a website that had quick summaries of the most common answers to questions asked in a history bowl (naqt.com/YouGottaKnow/). 

This was incredibly helpful, as it helped us find out which subjects we were weaker at and gave us a starting point to start exploring! During the competition, I had to work together with my team (I didn't count the time I was competing since it isn't CAS. I only counted the time I was helping test my fellow team mates and younger years)

This was the Middle school finals! (my school team is on the right)

8) Developed new skills or increased expertise in an established area 

This event not only helped to teach me how to work with younger students, but it also encoraged me to learn about different people and things in history not taught in school such as various pharaohs, world leaders and dictators, American civil war battles, Hindu gods and heroes, famous paintings, technology etc (basically if it happened in history, it can be asked! We even got questions about Occupy Central and the invention of calculus!)

Our school's team!

The results?
- Middle school division: 1st Place! (one student got second place in the Bee)
- Junior varsity division: Semi-finals (one student got 6th place, another got 12th place in the Bee)
- Varsity division (my division): 3rd place ( I got 4th place in the Bee and qualified for the Asian division bee in Thailand!)


-Rebecca