My New Background

Just a quick random fact, I have actually been to the place where this photo was taken. it is in London. As I used to live in England, and all my family is there, we went back for a holiday, and visited London.

The Berkley Formal

Last night was the Berkley Farewell Formal. Aranui (my team) and a few others helped with decorations, selling tickets, and setting up the tables. I was lucky enough to help with painting and putting up decorations.

The theme this year was 'Boho Bazaar' which is sort of hippie, with peace signs, doves, hearts and hippie vans. I helped paint one of the murals, and put them up, blew up balloons and put them up, and strung the bunting. I was rather annoyed on the night when people started pulling down the balloons that took about half a block to put up, and popping them. Overall, I think the rec. centre looked good.

The dance started at 7:00pm, everyone brought a plate of food for dinner later on. Some of the teachers dressed up, and everyone looked nice. We did dances like the Mambo, Cha Cha, Waltz, Rock 'n' Roll, Cotton Eye Joe, some line dances, and the Macarena. We had to be "escorted" to dinner, and I ended up going with one of my friends.

It was definitely a good night (despite the balloon popping) and I enjoyed myself a lot. It was a nice way to finish off the year.



(As soon as there are photos, I will put them on this post.)

Aranui Focus

Today my team (Aranui) performed our Focus. (Our assembly in a way.) Ours was based on Who We Are, our current UOI topic. We did it on stereotypes in fairy tales. 

We split up into four groups,  each group doing a different fairytale. My group did Sleeping Beauty. There was also Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Snow White. We then had to get rid of as many stereotypes as possible. 

My group turned ours kiwiana. We had the three fairies as three Blackcaps (the New Zealand Cricket team) an ordinary lesbian girl for the princess,who rejects the prince after he saved her life. I quite liked our scene, I think it was original, and I just want to say congratulations to the people in our group who wrote it in practically a night.

The Cinderella group changed to Kiwiella, also kiwinated (if that's a word!) They had a welly (gumboot) for a slipper, the prince was ugly, and also rejected, and Kiwiella stayed single.

Snow White became Sunny and the happy people. The Hunter was female, the main character male, and was also killed, not saved. And instead of dwarfs, they had a village called Happy Village.


Little Red Riding hood turned into Little Red Riding Hat. The main character was male, the granny was the antagonist, and the baking he was going to give to the granny was shop bought, not made by the Mum. 


Everyones scenes were made unique, and un-stereotypical, and I think we did well, considering our limited time frame.


Well Done to everyone!

Blog Action Day 2015

                                         A Ballet dance en pointe.    (not me, that's just the title of the clip.)

This year, for Blog Action Day (click here for more information) the theme is "Raise your Voice", where we choose an issue important to us, and write about it.  I chose to do health issues for dancers. This may seem like a small problem to some, but being a dancer myself, I know it is easy to obtain injuries due to dance.

Pointe Shoes
https://pixabay.com/en/ballet-shoes-
black-dance-ballerina-311217/

Some of the more common injuries due to dance, are around the lower back, shoulders, knees and ankles/feet. This can be caused by long hours of constant practise, which means constant stress on certian parts of your body. the place you dance at, (if it is cold, unless you warm up properly, you can injure your muscles) or the shoes, such as pointe shoes. 
Being 'En Pointe' puts a lot of weight on certain areas of your foot, and this can lead to injuries.
One of these is injuries is called bunions. This happens at the base of your big toe, when the bone structure of your feet has been altered. Your big toe starts to lean into the second toe, changing your foot framework. This is often a genetic thing, but can be from wearing too tight shoes. Pointe shoes have to be tight to support your foot properly, so this can cause bunions.



These injuries can be prevented, by being careful and using good quality shoes. But, my issue is that most professional dancers don't receive proper care when they do get injured. This often cuts there dance careers short, most dancers retire at 30. 

Yes, dancing is hard, and it is their choice to make whether they pursue that career, but so is every other job out there. I think they should still get proper support or care when injured, to prevent future problems that may happen as they get older, and when they retire. 

Also, many dancers have to pay for expensive treatment themselves, or dance on that injury until they earn enough money to pay for it, which only worsens the problem. Can you imagine having a serious injury on your ankle or somewhere else, then having to dance around an hour en pointe? The stress around having to earn enough money? That is what professional dancers have to go through, just to get treatment for an injury.



I think a small portion of money should be set aside for dancers who obtain an injury through dance. This may keep them healthier, and keep them doing what they love for longer.

Bibleography:
http://danz.org.nz/Health%20Issues%20for%20Dancers
http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/dance-injury-prevention.aspx
https://pixabay.com/en/ballet-shoes-black-dance-ballerina-311217/
https://pixabay.com/en/ballet-shoes-black-dance-ballerina-311217/

Exhibition Reflection

Over the eight weeks of Exhibition, I have learnt a lot, and recapped things I already knew, in not only research and presentation, but others such as writing emails to companies, distributing jobs fairly between group members, and more. This has certainly been a learning experience.

I learnt about the Inquiry Cycle, which I had never heard of before. Tuning in was I think a team building exercise, where we learnt each others strengths, weakness's and work ethics. We got to know each other and became a team.
Finding Out was I think one of the most challenging for my group, from splitting jobs, to actually getting the research done, we had a few arguments, but got there in the end. Going Further went smoother, we all got the job done, contributed ideas, and worked well as a team. We found valuable information, that helped later on. From then things went smoother, we got everything done, flowed smoother as a team, and had few hiccups.

On the actual day, I think we could have distributed jobs more evenly, as some didn't explain our Exhibition as others. Although, we were organised, as each of us was in charge of a line of inquiry.

If we ever did this again, I think I could have adjusted to my team members work ethics better, which may have produced a better result.

Overall, we got there in the end, with a few mistakes, but an overall achievement that I think our whole group was proud of.

Exhibition Day

Our Area
Taken by Mrs Hogg

Tested on koala bear
taken by Mrs Hogg

Our Area
Taken by Mrs Hogg

Presenting to people
Taken by Mrs Hogg

Presenting to a parent
Taken by Mrs Hogg

Last Term, on the last Thursday, we presented our exhibition. We had been working hard in groups of three to four people for around six weeks, we had been researching using our Lines of Inquiries, into our set topics. My group did animal testing. We presented through a mural, reports and different information dotted around our area.

We presented Block 3 and 4 to the school who came through and had a look around. We had to focus on engaging the audience by drawing them in to look around your area, getting them to ask questions, and explaining our Exhibition. Also showing off our books, as that is where all our progress, research, and ideas were. 

We then presented in the evening to our parents, grandparents, friends and more, at 3:30. This was the same as presenting to the school, except a different audience, who I found were easier to present to, as they were patient when we were explaining, and understood our topic better, and actually asked us questions and got involved, which my group appreciated.

From Exhibition, I now have some questions that I would like to look further into, such as better alternatives to animal testing, different companies that don't use it, and different ways we can help.

I learnt a lot from this, and am hoping to spread the word on our opinions on animal testing.

Tech Arts

At school, we have rotated on to our next Tech Arts, and my group is in Media. We have recently takens ome Perspective photos, focusing on different ways at looking at things. Tomorrow, we will be sorting out the photos, so I will try to get some of ours, and put them on my blog.


Before changeover, we were in Drama, where we were focusing on Silent Acting and Elements and Techniques in Drama. The Elements are fro creating a good scene, and the Techniques are for a Scene. We looked into famous actors, like Charlie Chaplin, and more modern ones, and discussed the evolution of acting over time.


Next we will be in Music, which I am personally looking forward to.