What did I learn now ?

Well, my project is going good. accept for the fact that it has to be done by tomorrow and it is really hard because I got a late start, but I guess i should have used the time i had to do it, wisely. The project is fun and is coming along good, I have learnt so much about Alexandria, Egypt in this past week. One interesting fact that I learnt about Alexandria was that it is only 2 1/2 hours away from Cairo which is funny because they are the two biggest cities in all of Egypt. Another thing I learnt was that most of Alexandria is one culture. The most important thing I learnt this week was to NEVER WAIST TIME!

Whats happening in Egypt ?

Three sailors died and 17 are still missing after a cargo ship sank off the Red Sea coast of Egypt on Monday shortly after leaving port. The cargo ship under the flag of St. Kitts and Nevis sank because of bad weather. Maj Gen Mamdouh Deraz, head of the Egyptian Red Sea Port, told AP that the Caribbean islands flagged Ibn Battuta sending a distress message early Monday while it was sailing near the Egyptian port city of Safaga in the Red Sea. Six people were rescued when the 5,600 ton Ibn Battuta went down in the sea about 35 miles off the port of Safaga. The ship was carrying a cargo of 6500 tons of silica sand for manufacturing glass and had set sail from the port of Abu Dhunaima near Safaga, on its way to the United Arab Emirates. All that we know is three people are dead and 17 still missing.

Summary.

The beginning of the chapters started with a history class with Ben Ross, the only thing that was different about this history class was that there was more Wave members. There were kids who cut class to join Ben Ross’s class, or should I say “group”. Mr.Ross thought figured that he would carry on with the lesson but, when he stepped into class he saw how prepared they were so he decided to take it a little bit further. The next day Principal Owens called Mr.Ross to his office. Mr.Owens didn’t have anything bad or good to say about the Wave, he just told Mr.Ross that he was hearing good about the Wave and to keep an eye on it. Something weird happened that day, Laurie found a note in the Grapevine office from a junior. This note was made to put in the paper, and it was about how this junior and his friends were getting pressured into joining the Wave by a bunch of seniors. As Laurie finished the note and thought about it deeply she heard a noise and looked outside to see Brian(Senior) and Deutsch(Junior) fighting. After that Laurie and David got into a fight about the Wave and ended up, braking up. Laurie then decides she is going to write something The Grapevine about the wave.

What I think.

I think that something big is going to happen after this. I think that Ben Ross is going take one big turn, and start trying to stop the wave which he won’t be able to do. Then, he will try and get help but the only people that are going to be able to help him are Laurie, and all the people who didn’t join the Wave. But, before that happens I think that David will snap back to his normal self and realise whats going on and be one of the people to help Laurie stop the Wave.

Or I think that Ben Ross is going to go on with being the leader. If he decides to take on, being the leader of the Wave then I think he is going to take really far like getting the kids to beat other kids up. If he does that I think he will get fired from his job but, still be the leader of the Wave.

      Well, today wasn’t a very good for many of the town people because they might close down the mine in 6 weeks, about the middle of February until about the end. I know that they are having a big meeting right now to confirm this so it might not even happen. If it does happen, it’s not going to be good thing because all of the miners with seniority will have to transfer to a mine out of town.

      I think people will miss a lot of things they can do here. Like the freedom we have here, the wild, the trees you see every where you look. The hot summers and staying at the beach till you look like a prune, or a shriveled old granny. People who have lived here for their whole life and who were raised here will miss it the most.

      People who have spent time here, then went back home always have great stories to go home and tell there family. Well if you have lived here your whole life and then had to move away it never turns out good because my cousin lived here since grade three and we are both now in grade eight. He hates it in Winnipeg, he says when you move to a big city you might think it would be fun but it isn’t. He also says you have to be in way earlier then would usually and would have to be way more careful.

 Chapters 5-8 started out with the kids coming into the class room seeing “Strength Through Discipline” on the board wondering what it meant. What Ben Ross started with that was a whole new energy created by discipline. Ben Ross showed them strength by discipline by teaching them to sit properly and with good posture, walk without everything being a riot, and he also taught them the new way he wanted them to answer reply to anything he said. The way Ben Ross had taught them to answer the questions was to stand up by their desk and say Mr. Ross, then what they were going to say. The next day at school he taught them “Strength Through Community”, them salute for the wave and the motto’s. Then Laurie and her mom had a talk and her mother told her that Mr.Ross was brain washing them and manipulate. By the end of Chapter 8 everyone knew the salute, they were given memberships, and some of the memberships had a red x on the back which meant you were a monitor. A monitor was a guy or girl who had to tell Mr.Ross if anyone wasn’t obeying the rules. That the end of that chapter there were kids from other classes joining.

      I thought that these chapters were well written, the way that chapter brought us right into the next half of the story. I liked these chapters because they gave out some intense energy. These chapters were put together well, it thought, like the way that in chapter five was the day after they watched the movie and then by the end of chapter 8 they had other people joining with them as well. I thought that the way the chapters were put together was fast moving but yet it made it so much more intense then if it were to move slower through those chapters.

      I also think that something bigger is going to happen because Ben Ross even said so himself that it was like a drug. I think it is going to get so much more worse than what it actually is. I think that the football team is going to win game and then their coach is going to start using Ben’s methods of teaching. After that I think that all of the teacher are going to agree with it and use the methods too. When all that is done I think people are going to listen outside and inside of school, which is not a good thing

      All through these past and coming up weeks we have been working on a big assignment called smart set. This assignment is to put your self in the future, working for a company. Then you decide that you want build a office somewhere around the world. We then have to pick a place around the world and tell all about it, things like how much it would cost to fly a plaine there and back, geography, transpotation links, how much it would be to buy a house there, etc.

     My Smart Set is about Alexandria Egypt. It is a very hot but, nice place on the coast of the Mediterranean and close to the Nile river on the east. Alexandria has beautiful beaches. The people can almost, always go to the beach because of the temperatures always being so high.

Over all for this assignment i am looking forward but i am also not because the amount of work we have to put in it. But, I like the fact that i am learning something new every day.

     I learnt something pretty neat today, i learnt that solar power is not only environmentally friendly but it is also mammal friendly. Solar powered heaters are very mammally friendly to bats.  The solar power for the heater gives the bats important calories.

     80% of bats in the U.S and Canada die from a fungus, known as Geomyces Genus. Geomyces Genus, makes bats rouse from hibernation more often than normally. When bats rouse certain calories are used for bringing their body temperature back to normal. When bats rouse from a normal hibernation they fly to warmer places, but in a case where they rouse unusual the bats are most likely to starve to death.

     By the solar powered heater, research has shown that on the hibernation patterns of several brown bats has shown that bats can survive the unnatural rousing if their body temperatures were artificially increased. We can also let bats survive if we artificially warmed their caves with the solar powered heaters such as “Bat Box” which runs off solar energy and keeps the hibernated bats warm. When the bats rouse their caves will be warm and easy for them to live in.

      In these coming up weeks, we are going to be starting on a novel called The Wave by Todd Strasser . I think this book is good, because in the back of the book it tells that there is a history teacher named Ben Ross who is teaching a lesson on world war one and two but the students can’t seem to figure out why the germans followed the Nazis. What Ben Ross does is creates a n experamental movement called The Wave. The Waves quickly gathers momentum and before the end of the week the moto of the wave governs the whole school. There are only two students, Laurie Sauders and David Collins, that recognize what the wave really is, and try to stop it before it is too late. Now, that’s what i call a good book.  

      In the first 4 chapter of   The wave I know it is about a teacher named Ben Ross, that is teaches history the history lesson he is teching is World war one and two. Mr.Ross showed the kids a video on the nazis and the consentration camps, showing all the dead bodies, stove ovens burning the dead bodies, and hitler. When some of the kids go to Mr.Ross for questions on this, he can’t answer them. Mr.Ross goes home with the questions on his mind and looks through different kinds of books, we know that Mr.Ross can get very obsessed with a topic. Mr.Ross couldn’t find any of the ansers to the questions so, he figured that he would try out an experment. Thats basically what was in the first few chapters of the book.

      We meet the characters Ben Ross, Laurie Saunders, Amy Smith, Robert Billings, David Collins, and Brian. Ben Ross is the kind of guy that likes to get into something for a long period of time. Amy Smith and Laurie Saunders are the conpetative friends, friends that are always competing. Robert Billing is an outcast, most people think he is weird because he is a loser and his older brother was a straight “A” student. David Collins is a smart jock, and Brian is the dumb jock. I like the characters in this book because they all have a different personalty, wich is good because I have read some books where lots of people act the same about everything. I also like the characters because from what I seem so far m0st of them speak for themselves wich another good thing because if you can’t stand up for yourself, you can’t really do anything. That leaves me with saying that i like the book so far and it is interesting and detailed, only so far yet.

      I searching on the Dvice and I found a blog on a walking robot boom box. I think that is something that only a creative mind could think of. Besides the fact that its a boom box, it is also a robot, which i think is entirely creative.  It is a boom box combined with a AT-AT walker from Star Wars.

      This boom box is old looking, which, means if you like Cd’s there wont be a need for them. It is a boom box which only plays cassette, but it is still really cool. There is also not much information valid on this, so it most likely wont be something that you can purchase, but if you really like try making it yourself.

      If I were to have something like this it would be great because you wouldn’t have to go into one room to listen to music and stay there if you wanted to listen to it, instead you could birng the portable walking boom box into a different room walking around soo everyone is able to hear. Having this kind of technology is useful for people who loves listening to music and who dont like having to sit in a room knowing that if you leave to a new room you have to stop music, un-plug it and carry it to a different room.

      I also think that if anyone where to make it so it ould be an i pod player or cd, that would go out in stores because that would be a great idea. I know that lots of people having a computer to burn cd’s or an i pod.

If you are one of toughs people who love the environment, you might have solar or maybe even wind power to power your house. Do you want to try something else for once? Then try chicken manure. Solar power and wind power, BORING. Now with chicken poop it helps the earth and it funny.

So, chicken manure is a energy source, who knew? in the Netherlands people are planning to power 90,000 houses with the energy source of chicken poop. With so money for a plan to get this system you will have converted about 440,000 tons of chicken poop into about 270 million kilowatt hours per year, now isn’t that just exciting.

I think is a good idea because now there is a new way to power your house without hurting the environment. Also i think if people want there world to be fresh and not try to kill the environment everyone could use this. If they could let the people who want this plan farm there own chickens and use the poop and give it to them every month or so, for a less paying plan. Another reason why i think this is a really good idea is because all of the chicken waste in the world has to go somewhere, and now here is the place it can go. You don’t have to dump it in a pile and wait for it to be composted, just take it to the place and it can be turned into use full power.

The last and most important reason why i like these idea so much is because it can help poor people around the world. They can probably find a way to farm some chickens, and get the poop from the chicken. after they get the poop they can sell it to the people who want chicken poop powered houses.

This week we are have been having a bunch of little contests in our class. Our contests are to see who can find better blogs that we can subscribing to.

The first thing we did was write a post on it and get as much as 3 blogs each, then we figured that most of the blogs we choose haven’t been updated for a long time. So what we ended up doing was having a little vote for topics that we think are more important. We had the choice of animal cruelty, environment, health, war, poverty, child labour, and world news. When it came down to the end of the voting, animal cruelty, animal abuse, and poverty were the last three.

The second thing we did after we got the topics that we wanted to do, we had to find the best blog we could on one of those three topics. We split into groups and as a group we had to find the best blog. Both of the blogs that me and my group found are being used for our rss.

Most of the other blogs that people wanted to use didnt have good quilties like, information, multiple media, links, and how oftn its updated. Since we only had 2 blog so far, we had another little contest to find another good blog. We even had a winning prize, the prize was that who ever found the best blogs (because he was picking 2) gets extra marks on the next assignment. And guess who won? ME!!!! Now I am happy because the next peice of work I do in E.L.A i get more marks then everyone else:)

Well, thats pretty much what is all happening in the classroom these days. Plus the radio plays we did are almost finished!