My very first sport was soccer, I played soccer since I was 7. I played for a team and was not amazing at it due to my height and speed, I wasn’t very fast but I had decent fundamentals. Once I reached grade 6 it kicked in that soccer was not for me, I wasn’t that good so I decided to look at other sports I could do, when I reached grade 7 my friend Isaac introduced me to basketball, and as soon as I tried it I loved it and everything that came with it. Isaac taught me the fundamentals he showed me how to shoot the ball and how to do a proper layup, the rest all came naturally because of my height. Since grade 7 I have improved drastically and my dribbling and shooting have gotten much better, I still think that there is so much more I can learn and many things I can still improve on.
Author: Hassan
IRJE#8
In the book 1984, by George Orwell, Orwell is talking about how humans are not perfect and make mistakes he says
The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one’s love upon other human individuals. (P. 142).
when reading this I thought about how the quote is suggesting that people cannot be perfect and life involves excepting and acknowledging all the mistakes that you have made, this made me think about how no one can be perfect and how we all have to accept what we do wrong in life. the quote not only mentions that but also talks about how having connections with people and friendships being maintained are also important, lastly, the quote talks about heartbreaks and defeats especially when you have a particularly deep connection with someone, it also explains how your hardships may affect you by giving your love to someone.
Song by Sir John Suckling
The beginning of the poem starts with the question” Why so pale and wan, fond lover?”. which caught my attention, The following phrase reads, “Prithee, why so pale?” it gave me an idea of how the speaker was thinking and how he tries to find out why the person acts so hopeless and unhappy. The poem’s second part, which reveals the person asking the question, is when I started to think about the lover who may be going through unrequited love or rejection. the writer emphasizes the lover’s pain in the poem and acknowledges the pain of loving someone who doesn’t feel the same way about you. he explains at the end of the poem that the lover’s sadness is excessive and unnecessary. The final phrases of the poem show the encouragement that the lover is receiving and that they should find someone else and forget about their past. As the poem came to a close, I felt that it expressed a message to forget about our past and look to the future in search of something even better. They advise the lover to find other connections with someone else rather than looking at their current situation.
PW#7
During the weekend instead of going to Tofino i decided to practice and get ready to play basketball at a higher level Because i knew i would be going to the states to play, on Saturday i practiced for 4 hours and trained with my friend Gino, we ran through, dribbling, shooting and finishing drills and ended up with a full sweated shirt after the workout, i could see in the workout what things i needed to work on and what things i was already good at, when Sunday came up i let my house at 8:45 and went to the outdoor basketball court near my house, i practiced all the things that i thought i could improve on while focusing carefully on the details and trying my hardest on every drill. at the end of the workout i felt really good about myself and was happy to not have gone to Tofino and instead used my time usefully in a way that could help me in the future.
Personal response
After watching the movie Romeo and Juliet, I felt different towards the story, when hearing it before, I thought it was only a love story but it went on to the extreme it was not only about love but about hatred and violence which causes all of the problems that occur, it highlights the tragic struggle between two families that cannot get along and shows how powerful love is and how far people are willing to go for it.
I also felt that some parts of the movie were unrealistic. for example after Juliet had drunk the potion her family immediately thought she was dead but didn’t even decide to check if her heart was still beating. Although some parts felt unrealistic i know that Shakespeare response was not focused on that but on the connection of two people and i felt it was interesting to see how far they could take it.
IRJE #7
In The Outsider by S.E Hinton Ponyboy and Johnny have ongoing tension and rivalry with the Socs, which is a gang, the socs are part of the wealthy side in the town while the greasers which is Ponyboy and his friends are from the less expensive area, often the socs find it fun to bully and harass the greasers which who won’t stand down to prove their toughness
We get jumped by the Socs. I’m not sure how many of them there were–four or five, I guess–but there were just two of us.(pp. 25)
This quote states the violence that occurred between ponyboy and his friends and the socs and how the socs jumped the greasers looking down on them because of their status.
Brave New World PR
When I first started to read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, I was confused about what was happening. I thought that for sure we would never actually be reading a book like that, but we were. What really helped me understand the book was when we reflected on it in class and from their lots of my questions were answered. The book made me reflect on our world and the similarities and differences between them. Although sometimes I was surprised to see what I was reading, I am still happy to have read this book and had a chance to look at another world, the main similarities that I found were firstly addiction in the book you can see that when anyone felt pain or just wanted to have fun they would take a drug called soma similar to this world, when people want to get rid of sadness or pain, and also just want to have fun they take drugs such as Alcohol. Another thing that is similar is social isolation, social isolation is when people feel loneliness and isolation and it happens a lot in our world. Just like in our world people feel lonely even though they have social media and technology in the book for example john, in the book you can see that he is hoping to find a connection with a real human and not with people that are programmed he also struggled lots to fit in with the society because he was different. In conclusion, I was glad to have read this book and I am glad that I was able to reflect on it.
PW#6
Last week i went to basketball provincials in Langley with the grade 11s and 12s we played very well but ended up in 7th place at the end the very first game was a blow out and we ended up winning by 20 points, the next day was the second game and we played well its just that we couldn’t get our offense right and kept getting turnovers which ended with us loosing, the day after that was the third game and as we got on the bus ready to leave the bus wouldn’t start and everyone was going crazy luckly we were able to get a taxi to pick us up but it was just not the same, all our hype and all the energy was not there, we ened up losing the game by 3 points and it was a very sad game considering that we could have easily won.We walked in the gym for our very last game and it was very emotional for the grade 12s because it was there very last game,they all walked on the court and tryed there hardest getting us the win by 30 on the team that was ranked 5th place, and that was the end to our trip and our season on the basketball team after 4 long hard months of training.
IRJE #6
In the book im reading Called Born A Crime, By Trevor Noah, Patricia, Noah’s sister who is the middle child is unwanted by her dad and gets sent to live in a hut with 14 other children that are also unwanted,She lived there for a while then after she turned 21 her aunt got sick and she had to go back to Soweta, after that she starts working and all of her income is given to the family.
“living under my grandmother’s roof, she wasn’t allowed to keep her own wages. As a secretary, my mom was bringing home more money than anyone else, and my grandmother insisted it all go to the family. The family needed a radio, an oven, and a refrigerator, and it was my mom’s job to provide it” (p. 66)
After reading this line i thought about how my great grandma is depended on by her family in Kenya and she is still working to this day to provide money for her family so they can pay rent eat food or even just get new things for their houses.
Personal writing #5
Last weekend the basketball team at Brookes went to the south islands tournament the games were very long and tiring but we fought through and tried our hardest even though we had to balance school work and basketball, the first game was a breeze the team we played was very terrible they were all very uncoordinated and we won easily not even trying we won that game by around 70 points, the next day we got up and were ready to face off a good team and we ended up winning again by over 50 points, it was finally the day for the very last game determining if we would be number 1 in south islands or not. I remember walking into the gym with full confidence ready to win this game just like my life depended on it. In the beginning, the game was close we were up 15, 20 the eventually 50 we ended the game with another win to our record making us get first place on the south islands side and moving us forward to play islands next week, vs much harder competition, I looked around the gym and at my team looking happy and proud that we were number 1 and also ready to play our next game.
BNW ¶
In the book brave new world by Aldous Huxley, the book begins with the Director of Hatcheries giving a tour to some students of the factory and the way it produces the humans and how it sets them up for their roles in that world. The world in the book is called the world state and it is highly advanced in technology and is very futuristic but very different from our world today. Also In the world state men were the only ones in charge and women could not say anything to anyone, unlike the world, we live in today.
“one could see that for all lupus and purple eyes she was uncommonly pretty. Henry! Her smile flashed readily at him—a row of coral teeth. Charming, charming murmured the director, and, giving her two or three little pats, receiving in exchange a rather deferential smile for himself”
When reading this part of the book I noticed how only the men could do anything they wanted as shown when it talks about how he gave her three little pats, this made me reflect on the world we live in today and how if someone did that in my world the consequences would be a savior and they could be charged with sexual harassment and end up in jail.
Willingham, Ch. 5
When reading Chapter 5 of the book “Outsmart Your Brain” by Daniel Willingham I noticed that there are many things that I have been doing wrong such as just reading and highlighting, before I read the book I would always just read any text and guess what the most important parts of the book were so I could highlight them but when reading the book it said,
” how can you be sure that you are a good judge of what is important enough to highlight as you read the content of a topic you know little about for the first time.”
After reading this I now understand that you can’t just highlight random parts and think that they are important, instead, you could use the SQ3R method which is proven to improve comprehension.
Another thing I learned from this book is that a main factor to success when reading, for example, an article is taking notes as you go on. In the book, it says
“taking notes helps keep you mentally on task, and the notes will help you refresh your memory later.”
This line helped me understand why taking notes was very important, and why Mr. Macknight always tells us to take notes in class and when reading chapters in books. Something else I got from the book was that you cannot read quickly because when reading fast you don’t comprehend or understand what is going on the book says” speed reading is not a thing.” when I read this part of the book I understood that it takes time to read especially if you are taking notes and trying to take out all the useful information. It states
” if you skim difficult, unfamiliar material, you won’t understand it very well”
when reading this line helped me understand why reading quickly is not useful and cannot benefit you.
In conclusion chapter 5 of the book contained very useful information that I didn’t know before and it helped me understand more about taking notes reading and time management when reading.
Personal Writing
My winter break days
During the winter break, the main thing I focused on was basketball and fitness, every day I woke up at 6 am and got ready to go to the gym, it usually would take around 1 hour and a half in the gym. After the gym I would walk back home and get ready to eat breakfast, after breakfast I would study for 2 hours then hit the basketball courts, at the basketball gym I would focus on my ball handling for 30 minutes, my finishing for 45 minutes and end off by doing shooting drills. after I’m done with my shooting drills I would hope to play some pick up which is basically where a bunch of random people is placed on two teams for 3 on 3 or 4 or 4s, during this time the main focus for me was to use the skill work that I have been practicing in a game moment by doing this it would ensure that in a real game, I would be able to take those same moves and shots and make them. After I was finished id come home and get lunch, following lunch would be another study session for an hour just catching up on work and doing my 15 minutes of reading. By that time it would be around 3:30 and I would get ready for another session at the basketball court, id go over and take 50 free throws, do some footwork drills and run lines until about 4:30. once the sun went down head home to get dinner, This would be my routine almost every day during the break.
Term 1 final reflection
I learned from the feedback that i didn’t use that much literary techniques while explaining the effects that i observe when reading the passages. i noticed that i could have been more detailed and explained how it connected to the techniques that were taught to us.For next time i will reflect on what i have written while explaining what techniques were used to write the poem.
Utopia
My ideal society would include equality and happiness for everyone, no one would be homeless or starve around the world it would be completely different from the world we live in now. There would be jobs for everyone, also everyone would be paid equal wages but only if they graduate, University and colleges would be very affordable for people, everyone would have 3 chances in life and if they do something stupid that could usually get them arrested it would just erase 1 of there chances, once all 3 chances are gone then they would be sent to jail. There would be no plastic in the world and everything would be made naturally from resources from nature. Another big factor would be that all drugs, alcohol, and all guns would be band so that there are no shootings and no deaths from drug overdoses. People would also be allowed to travel anywhere around the world without any form of ID specifically a passport, plane tickets would be at a very low cost and everything would be run by electricity so that there would be no gasoline and only electric cars. I believe that if my ideal society would be true then life would be much easier for everyone and no one would suffer again.
IRJE#4
I am reading the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.d Salinger the chapter 5 of the book talks about Holden eating dinner at the dining hall with his friends, then they all get ready to go on the bus and when everyone is getting ready holden goes outside and makes a snowball
It says” while he was doing it, I went over to my window and opened it and packed a snowball with my bare hands. The snow was very good for packing. I didn’t throw it at anything, though I started to throw it at a car that was parked across the street I changed my mind.” (pg.41)
When I read this part in the book I thought about last winter when I and my friend were all packing snow with our hands and throwing it at cars for fun, and also when we got into trouble with the security around the mall for throwing it at a moving car.
IRJE #3
I am reading the catcher and the rye by J.D Salinger in the book talks about a boy named holden who is having a hard time in school flunking all the exams and failing almost all his classes. In the book, he talks about how his brother died and you can see that because his brother died he is still going through depression and sadness that’s why he can’t pay attention in school.
He says “I wrote about my brother’s Allies baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was. My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder’s Mitt. He was left-handed.”
he also says “He’s dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You’d have liked him. He was 2 years younger than I was and about fifty times as intelligent.” (pg.45)
When reading these lines I thought about my grandma and how she had died from cancer a couple of years ago. I thought about how she was always there for me and how she was also an incredibly happy intelligent person. After the first couple weeks of her being gone and disappearing from my life, I really couldn’t do everything the same and I couldn’t even pay attention during classes, I would have many sleepless nights thinking about her until I finally took control of myself though about what she would say if she was still alive. These lines made me really understand what the character felt and it made me have a good connection with him because I knew what he was going through.
Scary experience PW #2
I recalled a scary experience that happened last year in winter when it snowed, it all started with me and my 2 friends Tariq and Abdul trying to catch the bus to go to this golf course to go sledding. We were all at the bus stop and it had been about 45 minutes of us waiting. Then we saw a police car and they drove past us telling us to throw a snowball at their car as we threw it at their car my friends decided that because we are waiting we should just throw snowballs at all the cars in the area as they drove by, we started pinning down cars and throwing snowballs at cars, people at the bus stop saw us having fun and decided to join us, as we all threw them at cars we realized that some people started getting upset one lady particularly, she pulled over to the side of the road and go out of her car screaming and yelling at all of us, she threatened to call the police and me and my friends just laughed it off thinking that she wouldn’t do anything. We decided to leave the bus stop and just walk instead. as we walked we heard sirens and 2 police officers got out of their car coming towards us to ask us questions. They were very upset with us and asked us to not do that again especially because it can distract drivers when they are driving. After a while they let us go and we left the scene deciding to never throw a snowball at a car again.
IRJE #2: It’s Kind Of A Funny Story
In the book it’s kind of a funny story, by Ned Vizzini, Craig the main character gets depressed and stressed from his school and he stops eating and sleeping, he faces major stress and even reverts to killing himself, but he thinks about it and just can’t, one night he is super stressed and starts looking through his mom’s books and finds a number called a suicide hotline, he calls the number and they tell him to go to the hospital he goes to get checked out because he knows he has a problem, he reaches the hospital without telling his mom and he thinks about how he is gonna call her and tell her where he is while they are asking Him questions and testing him to see if he is okay, he finally gets the courage to call his mom and struggles to say hello
Hi mom I’m in the hospital. No hey, mom are you sitting down? Hey, mom” I say when I hear her groan hello. “How are you?” “Craig! Where are you? I just—you just woke me up and you are not in bed! Are you okay?” I’m okay.” “Are you at Aarons?” “uh . . .” I suck air through my teeth. “No, mom. I am not at Aaron’s “where are you?” “I, Uh . . .I freaked out last night, and I was feeling really bad, and I, um, I checked myself into Argenon Hospital.” “Oh, my goodness.” she stops and hitches her breath. I hear her sit down, and exhale. “You…. are you okay.” “well, I mean—I wanted to kill myself.” “Oh, Craig.” There is no crying, but I hear her put her face in her hands (pg.167, 168)
This shows how Craig failed to call his mom and struggled to talk to her because he was afraid but in the end, he overcomes his fear and tells he where and what happened even if she doesn’t take it well.
What happens During a basketball game PW #1
During a basketball game, there are 5 positions et for each player. The Point guard, Shooting guard, Small forward, Power forward, and Center the positions you get usually depends on your size and your skill, the position I play is center, during the game I set screens for the point guard and roll, when you roll your cutting to the basket and it helps with getting opened and scoring. The point guard is supposed to dribble the ball down the court looking for an open person or an open chance to call out a play. When the point guard calls the play all the players should react to it and move around to their positions that they practiced, if the defense reacts to there fist option then they move to the second, and if they react to the second they move to the third option. The first option is usually passing to the shooting guard whole will run around the screen set by the power forward, depending on how your play is, your second and third option is always different. The most consistent shooter on the team is the shooting guard, he takes most of the shots during the game, and the center and power forward box out every time there is a ball getting shot. the center posts up which is pushing on the defender and the power forward drives the ball in the paint.
They Shall Not Grow Old, All Quiet on the Western Front and “Soldier’s Home.” response
They Shall Not Grow Old, All Quiet on the Western Front and “Soldier’s Home.” All have many similarities and all have a very sad story to tell. The three of them all have their own different stories to tell about their experiences in the war and how it felt to be involved in such terrible times. Even though they were different stories they all had the same type of experiences for example. In the movie it showed all of the experiences in photos and in the other two stories this was how there lifestyle was and it wasn’t different for anyone, they all felt the same feeling in the war and all had the same disconnection to their old life knowing it would never be the same again. The only differences were that each of them had a different way of telling their story, facing their difficulties and experiences and talking about how their life was during and after the war, In conclusion, I think I have gained lots of knowledge from all three different stories/ perspectives of WW1 as well as understanding more on how terrible it was to fight in the war.
English: IRJE #1 Its Kind Of A Funny Story
In the book it’s kind of a funny story, by Ned Vizzini, Craig talks about how he was very smart in his other high school and how he was determined to succeed in life, he studies day and night, and he thought he was very smart compared to the other kids until he joins Brooklyn high school for high-achieving kids who are aiming for Harvard. When he starts at his new school, he starts to feel depressed cause he realizes he is not the most brilliant kid anymore.
He says on pp.49-50 “so why am I so depressed? That’s the million-dollar question, baby, the tootsie Roll question; not even the owl knows the answer to that one. I don’t know either. All I know is the chronology. Two years ago, I got into one of the best high schools in Manhattan: Executive Pre-Professional High School. It’s a new school set up to create the leaders of tomorrow; corporate internships are mandatory; the higher-ups of Merrill Lynch come and speak to classes and distribute travel mugs and stuff.
This shows that Craig was depressed because he was not one of the smartest kids in his school anymore and he started struggling with things.
Comparison of Krebs and Baummer
When reading and analyzing the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and the short story Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway I noticed many similarities and differences between the two kinds of literature. Paul Baummer from All Quiet on the Western Front and Harold Kerbs From Soldier’s Home both fought during WW1 on different sides. The most obvious this that is common in both stories is that both men faced trauma and trouble living life normally after their experience in the conflict of war. We can see that the book about Paul Baummer explains how his full war experience was including his time at home but the other book about Harold Krebs only talks about his time at home.
What was different between Krebs and Baummer was that Krebs found that the energy that he felt in the state of life or death was making him want to go back to fight but Baummer wanted to stay home or not even come home because his mother was sick.a similarity that they had was when Krebs also explains that he has nothing to do at home and he is no use to anyone, for example, on page 2 it says “ reading on the front porch until he became board” this shows that Krebs didn’t have anything to do and he was just wandering around bored.
comparably in All Quiet on the Western Front Paul is also very bored and has nothing to do when he gets home because after the war there is nothing for him to do, he can’t work nor go back to school, and nothing can be the same ever again and Paul knows that for example:” on chapter 7 Paul talks about opening his books at home that he use to be able to read but he just can’t read them or connect to them as he use to before”.
Another thing that was similar between them is that their fathers always wanted to know about the war but neither Krebs nor Paul can answer it because of the traumatic war experience that they had, it is evident that what they both faced was very scary for them and affected the mentally and emotionally affecting their lives. this caused them to have distant relationships with their loved ones nor make new connections with others because of their difficulty communicating, in conclusion, we see that both characters struggled with returning to their old lives.
My response to All Quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on the Western Front, E. M. Remarque was a very emotional story that gave me a feel for how it was to be a soldier in the war, Paul Baummer who was the main character was a normal high school teenager that enjoyed life hanging with his friends, playing games and just having fun. Then out of know where he was called to help the Germans in war with all his friends alongside him, Paul talks about his time before being called to war as a very fun and relaxing time, He talks about how he used to lay in the field with his friends and relax ” We take off our caps and lay them down beside us. The wind plays with our hair; it plays with our words and thoughts.” (pg.8) This shows that when Paul was with his friends, he had lots of good times relaxing and having fun. During this part of the book, I realized Paul was only 2 or 3 years older than me and it showed how much pain he felt and how his surroundings and his attitude changed throughout the book.
Later on, in the book (chapter 7) Paul talks about how he gets on leave for 6 weeks, he thinks about his friends not knowing if they will survive during his time off, when Paul reaches home he tries to get back to his old self and tries to connect with his family but he just can’t, it’s not the same anymore “I one shelf is filled with the books I used to read, I wanted to think myself back into that time. It is still in the room, I feel it at once, the walls have preserved it.”(pg.170) This shows that when Paul went home he couldn’t go back to his old ways or even talk to his family about what happened because he went through lots of trauma and they wouldn’t understand unless they experienced it for themselves, Paul also knew that he couldn’t just go back home and make everything fine again.
In conclusion All Quiet on the Western Front, by E. M. Remarque was a very interesting but very sad and emotional story with lots of lives being lost and lots of teenagers that had to go fight for their country in war, the book ends with Paul dying and I feel that because of the book I Now have a good understanding of what the soldiers went through to help there countries and the trauma that all the young soldiers faces.
Hello, my name is Hassan i was born in Victoria, i like enjoy being active and playing basketball in my free time. This year i hope to do better in english class and understand it more.