Justin Kominar

  Last week our civics class had a guest speaker. His name is Justin Kominar. He works with computers and web design. His job sounds interesting but it isn't something I would want to do to be completely honest.
   Justin has a very interesting sounding job but I know it isn't the job for me. The reason I say this is because I get frustrated with computers really fast. So I don't really think I'd be any good at the job. Like it would be a really cool job to have if you're really into computers and designing websites. I do truly appreciate the people who have this job because they designed the sites that I use like Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter.
  I thought that Mr Kominar was a very good guest speaker. He knew what he was talking about and answered all questions with the answers people were looking for. Overall it was a good presentation.

Christopher Graves

  Last week my grade 10 civics class had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about his job. His name was Christopher Graves. Mr.Graves works for a charity called Project Hope. Project Hope is a charity that raises money for orphans and widows in Africa.
   I think this would be an amazing job to have. I love the feeling of helping people and knowing that I'm doing something to make somebody's life better. I feel like it would honestly be a job that would e easy to enjoy getting up and going to every morning.
  Project Hope is an amazing organization, because of it orphans the opportunity to go to school each year. They have brought orphans back to Canada to go to University and give them the opportunity to have an education. The kids enjoy going to school and learning while we complain about it every day.

Melissa Durrell

  Melissa Durrell came to speak to my grade 10 civics class a little about her job yesterday. She started out in journalism. She spend 15 years in journalism. She decided that journalism wasn't something she wanted to do forever so she then moved into politics.Melissa has been a politician for two years.
  The day of a journalist sounds very long and repetitive but it sounds interesting. I think I would probably like it. It would be a cool job to have especially as a first real job. I think I would like hearing all these stories and being involved in putting them out there. Journalism could be a possible career choice for me.
  I don't think being a politician would be a good job for me because politics don't interest me in any way. Melissa seemed passionate about her job so she clearly enjoys it. It could be an interesting job if politics are something that interest you.
  I think Melissa Durrell was a good guest speaker. She knew her information well and she spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. Her presentation was interesting. The only thing I think she could have avoided was apologizing that her slides weren't as good as they could have been.

Why To Kill A Mockingbird

I had to do a final summative on the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. I decided to create a tumblr page to show how the novel has impacted pop culture today and some of the references to the book in pop culture. The link is below :)

http://whytokillamockingbird.tumblr.com/

Elora Fergus Edge U16AA

Edge Wins Gold

Waterloo- Elora Fergus Edge wins gold at Ontario AA Provincials 2013.

  On Sunday February 28, 2013, Elora Fergus Edge ringette team won gold at AA provincials in Waterloo Ontario.

  The team played eight games over a period of four days. Six out of the eight games were won.

  The gold medal game was extremely close. Elora Fergus Edge beat Waterloo Wildfire 6 to 5. Ashley Flemming,  one of the referees stated, "It was a good clean game of ringette and I was very impressed."

  The girls worked hard all year at practices and dryland sessions which paid off in the long run in a gold medal and the opportunity to go to Nationals as Team Ontario in New brunswick.

  Both coaches were impressed with how their teams performed. Edge coach David Page stated, "I'm so proud of my girls and I am honored that I will be taking this team to Nationals!"  

  Elora Fergus Edge U16AA team was an overall successful team all year receiving a medal in every tournament they played in including the most important tournament of the year which was provincials where they succeeded in winning a gold medal. 

Standardized Testing: Why Do We Need It?

I personally dislike writing tests like this because they stress me out and I'm probably not the only one who gets stressed over them either. I think they are good to see where the students are at in English and Math but they shouldn't count for marks. I know OCA is just a test to see where you are in English because you're coming from middle school and it is a good test so you know what will be expected of you in grade 9 English class. Grade 9 EQAO is used for marks in Math class which I don't think is fair because some people get stressed on tests and actually do worse than they know they can. I know it doesn't affect marks by a lot but it could put someone into the position of failing right before exams. In grade 10 all students are forced to take the literacy test. If you don't get above a certain grade you can't graduate until you do or take a course to get the credit to graduate. This is not fair because a student who gets 90% in English class could fail somehow because of something stupid and have to take it again in grade 11. Overall I think these standardized tests are dumb and unnecessary. They should be used to see how the student is going not for marks.

 

 

TEDx Experience

I went to TEDx Waterloo on Wednesday March 29, 2013. I found it extremely interesting what issues people have faced in their lives. I liked how there was a 9 year old that talked about saving the oceans because she had a good message and it was something she was very passionate about and you could tell by the way she presented her information. One of my favourite talks was Holly Painter she kept me interested the whole time. I think the event was well run overall but it was a little unorganized at some points. I left at around 3:00 pm because I was tired and getting bored. I think after lunch everyone started getting tired because lunch was too long. There was a lot crammed in one day so I think maybe having less talks or shorter talks would be a good idea for next time.






Here's the link to the TEDxWaterloo website:
http://tedxwaterloo.com/