Reading Log #2

Title: Same Love

Artist: Ryan Lewis and Macklemore

Text Type: Song

Date Finished: 14/04/17

When you think of the words ‘Same Love’ what comes to mind? Well ‘Same Love’ is a song about love, respect and equality to all. This is a song by Ryan Lewis and Macklemore that hit number 11 on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ in the United States and was released in February 2012.

It got me thinking about how most people are treated these days for being who they are. Everyone deserves to feel and share love no matter what race gender or sexual orientation you are. Just because your skin colour is different or your sexuality is different; people in this society think it’s ok to treat each other differently. Yes we’re all different but that doesn’t give anyone any right to treat one another poorly; it quotes “ We don’t have acceptance for ‘em” referring to how most people in this world don’t accept some people for being gay, bisexual and all the other different sexualities. Day after day people get judged for being different but no one’s perfect people tend to judge others because it makes them feel good about themselves but it’s mostly because they’ve been treated badly themselves.

An important lesson to learn from this song is no matter who are there are people in this world that will accept you for who you are; it may take longer than you expect but they will come around eventually. In the song it quotes “ Strip away the fear underneath it’s all the same” pretty much saying there’s no need to be afraid to be who you are because in reality we are all the same yet different in our own ways. ‘Love is patient, love is kind’ love isn’t something you rush but something that takes a lot of time and if it’s done right it can be the most amazing thing you’ve ever experienced.

This song explores ideas which are important to society today because this is giving people an sight about everyone being equal. Some people grow up being certain of their sexuality but others not so much and for most people it takes longer to realise who they really are. This song is relevant to my generation because during this time in life changes becomes a big thing; as people start to figure who they really are. Some people I know tend to be judged for being a different sexuality to others; sometimes it’s hard to cope with it as it just makes you feel uncomfortable about it. People tend to hide their sexuality for a very long time because they are scared of the different reactions they might get from people that they love and are just scared in general for people thinking differently about them. In my opinion it’s important to feel comfortable in your own skin and if that means changing sexualities then that’s what needs to happen and yes there will be haters and their rude comments like in the song it quotes “ We call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board” but you need to realise that you’re probably not the only one in this situation and if you come out then it’ll make others comfortable to come out and together you can all show your haters that you love being who are and nothing will change that.

We live in a world where you get judged on the littlest things. It’s important that we give ourselves the treatment we need in order to keep ourselves satisfied with ourselves and i that means opening up to becoming whole different person then let it be. But don’t ever let thoughts of other get the best of you because in the end it’s your life not theirs.

Reading Log #1

Hidden Figures

Title: Hidden Figures

Director: Theodore Melfi

Text Type: Film

Date Finished: 12 March 2017

This film is about three intelligent women who work for NASA ‘Human Computers’. Somewhere around the 19th century the Harvard College Observatory hired a group of to help with studying ways to safely send a human to the moon and get them back or to launch a rocket.

This film gave me an insight to racism and. The film ‘Hidden Figures’ displays black and whites working in their own kind of area with whites working in a well built and flash building while blacks were working in the basement in some rusted old building. For example In the film they classed the black women as ‘human computers’ meaning they were really smart with whatever their specialty was and also during the film the men who worked at NASA were the type to work on all the tough things they thought women couldn’t handle. Even up till now people still think that whites are better than blacks with separating the blacks and whites from working with each other and even when the black women are asked to work within the white area with the other white men in the building and in the film when the workers wanted a coffee break they had a coffee maker for the whites and then when blacks wanted a coffee they only had a budget jug that no else touched and was labeled coloured only. This goes to show that after all the years slavery was around and the divide with whites and blacks people around the world still think it’s ok to have it around and that some people think it’s important to feel important with having to own and boss around people for fun because they want to be noticed.

One other idea that caught my attention was how the men treated the women as if they weren’t fit for the job and being real sexist. In the film this was displayed with women working as what they called ‘human computers’ seeing as the men thought that women weren’t capable of helping out with the technical stuff but later on in the film Katherine Johnson, played by Taraji P. Henson, when she helps calculate how to safely launch the rocket ship into space and was more accurate with her calculations than her fellow work mates missed out on calculating. In my opinion I think that women are capable of doing what men do because in my life I have done plenty things that men couldn’t do and so for Katherine Johnson to take the lead and show her fellow work mates that she is capable to do what she did was a way to let men know that women are capable of doing whatever men can.

English Goal 2017

My goal for English this year is to pass NCEA Level 1 endorsed with Merit

PBL Evaluation

Something that my group did well was get the work done when it was needed to be done and putting in the effort into making the presentation and then being able to organise things with Principal. We also did some critical thinking about how we were suppose to make a big difference because most of the things we were coming up with weren't all that helpful.

In a way I think that my group could have done a lot but seeing as though some of us were absent most days made things hard for us to communicate and work together as a team. But in my group ended up achieving most of what we wanted to.

Well we haven't really had done much seeing as though it isn't official until next year because we have organised to meet up with the board of trustees. But in a way this will allow students to feel comfortable and safe at school and for them to feel good about themselves.

Start working hard from the beginning because I found that my group mucked around a lot but we also had trouble trying to come up with an idea that would make an impact. Also be more focused because they were a lot of off task conversations going on and not slacking off

How I feel about working in a group is that with the right amount of people in the group you could a lot of work done but then not having enough or too much would just cause things to be done at a slower pace. But working in a group is alright but if there is going to be any absences then the rest of the group need to pull through and make an effort into getting things done.

PBL was definitely something new and it was a great challenge for most of us and it also taught us something. I reckon it was something good for everyone to take part in and it was also a better way of learning but it would have been nice to be done in classes and have a longer period of time to complete it.

Something I did well was pull through when my group was away most of the time. For example I did most of what I could individually and then getting things organised like meeting and trying my best to meet deadlines.

Something I've learnt was that it's important for everyone to feel comfortable in their own skin and being able to give everyone the opportunity to express who they really are. I've also learnt that you are needed to be focused if you want to get things done to a high standard.

Gender Equality Presentation

The link below will let you access the Presentation we created.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1N6Xpb1xJ5Gpq_EeTlgPVC20g0CDI2AQoDhZEnVVIcRI/edit

Statement Written for the Board of Trustees - PBL

Dear Board of Trustees,

The year 10s are currently doing Project -Based Learning and the driving inquiry question is ”How can we improve or enrich the lives of others?”

Iris, Gemma and I from 10Ai have decided to base our project on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights.

We are requesting that Hornby High School remove gender labels from uniforms. For example instead of having the “Boys and Girls” heading above images of the uniform, it would be replaced by “Uniform”.

We are doing this because we want Hornby High School students to feel comfortable in what they wear and allow them to feel safe at school. We feel this action will support any student who maybe struggling with their gender, and we hope by simply taking away gender titles it will allow more acceptance of the LGBT community.

We hope this statement will move the board to consider this change for Hornby High School.

Yours sincerely

Lavisha Tatu

Iris Taramai

Gemma Van Dorp

Project Based Learning Log

Date: 01/12/16

Today I have emailed Mr Sutton asking if I was able to see him about what our aim is during this Project. He hasn’t replied yet but hopefully he will soon. Sent Mr Sutton the email explaining what was were wanting to do. Him not replying as soon as I wanted him to but he is a busy man.

Date:  30/11/16

Went to talk to Miss Aitken and ask for help about the project. She suggested we talk to Mr Sutton about what we were planning to do. Emailing Mr Sutton and asking to talk to him about the project. We got a decent amount of work done but we are still behind with a lot of things and need to keep working hard to get at certain point for us to feel like we’re getting somewhere with our project.

Date: 02/12/16

Mr Sutton had replied to the email i had written yet i failed to see him at interval and what’s disappointing is this whole week I have done most of the work but we still have a lot of things to do.

Date: 06/12/16

I prepared a statement for Mr Sutton and the Board and worked through my my log and posting things onto my blog. I wasn’t able to do as much seeing as my group members weren’t here but I managed to do all that i could.

Date: 07/12/16

I completed the statement that was needed to be presented to the Board of Trustees. We have given it to Mr Sutton to present to the Board but he is also wanting us to present to them on the 13th of February. We were fast and efficient with work today and have gotten most things down but we are still behind on a lot of things.