Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Historia de Infancia

Once upon a time, an armadillo who liked to sing. Every day, he went to a river that had frogs and frogs sang.

"I want to sing," spoke the armadillo.

"Armadillos can not sing!" Frogs responded

One day, a group of crickets was next to his house. The crickets sang and armadillo was very jealous.

"I want to sing," said the armadillo.

"Armadillos can not sing!" crickets spoke.

One day, a man carrying a cage with many canaries. Canaries sang very loud and armadillo was sad.

"I want to sing," said the armadillo.

"Armadillos can not sing!" Canaries spoke.

One day, the armadillo was for a sorcerer and wept.

"I want to sing!" Armadillo shouted.

"Yeah. But if I have a good voice for you, I have to kill you." The sorcerer said.

"I do not care! I do all the things you want"

After killing the armadillo, armadillo sorcerer turned into a beautiful instrument and gave it to the best musician. Finally, the armadillo can sing forever.



About the Author -

My name is Dana Zamat. I'm American and I'm 13 years old. I live in Brazil for 3 years. I like to play soccer and read. I was born in the United States.


Monday, May 12, 2014

Taylor Mali poem reflection



Taylor Mali recently visited our school and spoke about the importance of speaking confidently. It was amazing that he had come to our school and it was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Honestly, I learned more from his mini lesson about speaking than I have in my life. Mr. Mali spread the message of speaking assuredly. He told us not to speak softly, to articulate, and to not lean on anything. I believe this is great advice that public speakers should follow. It is something that is essential because otherwise you will look unprofessional. For this video I used the following images for multiple reasons. First I used them to create an image in one's mind when watching this video. Also I used some of these images to exaggerate the message I was trying to send throughout the poem; the importance of laughing at yourself. 

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Belly Dancing Reflection

From my experience I believe a fusion is a mix of two objects. In this case, it is a mix of two dances that have aspects that work well together. In this case we did a fusion of Hip Hop and Belly Dancing which included facets from both dances. I really liked this dance because it required a lot of hip movement and it was a lot of fun to do. I think because we did the hip movements it did create an Arabic feel to it. I didn't like how there was no hand movements that we practiced. I think if the teacher would have included more of the Mediterranean hand movements it would have made it much better. It would overall look more polished. The part of the song that I didn't like that much was the towards the end when you go down and then put your hands up. I don't think that made it look better at all and I believe there were other things that could've been included there. I really liked the part of the dance where we would turn and immediately put our elbows to our heads because I think that looked very good. It had both a belly dancing and hip hop feel to it and I would love to use it in my own choreography. I found many differences in this dance that were different in our other dances. For example, when we did our Hip Hop unit I think it was a little more depending on the exact steps. In the Belly/Hip fusion it was more dependant on the movement you did with your body rather than just in your feet. Another difference that I found was that in this dance your hands were constantly moving when in the other units (ie. English Ballroom Dancing) where our hands were kept on our sides. Another change that I noticed was the fact that our dance could be portrayed with only one person, when in other dances that we have done, for example the Wizard of Oz, our group dances, were all with multiple people that worked together to create a dance.  Overall, I really liked this fusion of dance and how it worked together and I think it was much different from all of the other dances we have done.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Lyric Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3rgqNBz0M4&feature=share&list=PLyYEYDZM6caILdaH3zvijHoiLInU5m_2b&index=3

For my Stepping up to the Stage class we had to pick a song that we like and preform it. The only catch was that we couldn't sing it, but instead we had to preform it like a poem or monologue. We also had to use our body to portray most of the words sang in the lyrics. Furthermore, we had to change our tone at least three times in the song. Another thing that also made it difficult was the fact that we had to say it in a perspective different than the actual song.

I think my speech went fairly well. I did all the movements I wanted to and more. For example there were some parts that I just decided to add a movement. I also changed my voice three times which I thought was very good since I thought I would struggle with that. Also we were required to have a prop or use something in the room and  I completed this task. I pointed to the windows which I thought was a good idea. One thing that I would like to change was the fact that sometimes I read the lyrics in the same rhythm, therefore making it boring. I would really like to break that habit because it doesn't sound proffesional and it makes it seem like I'm nervous.

Overall, I think I did a good job of completing what was asked of me but I can still work on my rhythm.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Portuguese Artifact

             Portuguese Corrections


We have recently done a test in Portuguese. This test was about how to compare phrases using irregular and regular verbs. When we had first learned this lesson, I didn't know anything about it. I thought I wouldn't do well in the test, so I went after school to see if Ms. Rebello could teach me some easier ways to understand how to make these sentences. I stayed after school, and I think thats what helped me achieve the grade that I got. I received a 100% and I was very proud of myself. I think I really did a good job with this test. I think the core values that I achieved in this class were responsibility because I felt that I was very responsible when I went after school to see the teacher. I was very happy with my grade and I hope to achieve more grades like this. In the future, I will began this habit of going to see my teachers after school because it has really helped me in the past.


Monday, April 7, 2014

Core Values


I believe this year the core value that I excelled in was responsibility because of multiple things. For example, once I get an assignment I would do it that day, so that I would have time for the next day to do homework. I would never do that last year, and I would always leave things for the next day. I also think I also am doing better in responsibility because I have been studying a lot more for tests and spending my time more on academic things. On the other hand, I believe that this year I really need to improve on critical thinking because I always have trouble with that. I think its because I always memorize the facts but I never think ahead of those facts. Especially in science I need to work in it because on every test there is critical thinking needed in order to receive an A. Also this skill is required for High School, and if I acquire this skill now it will benefit me later. Overall, this year I think I improved on my responsibility, but I still need to work on my critical thinking.