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Math: Geometry

As given by the title, this portfolio piece for math this round (2nd round) is about geometry! There were a few lessons about fractions that we needed to cover, so the first week was spent finishing that up and then we got into geometry.

In class, we learned how to find the area and perimeter of different shapes. It started off with simple shapes like squares and triangles then we went into circles and some other shapes. Those shapes just looked complex and weird, but nevertheless, they were still shapes. Finding the area or perimeter of simple shapes were simple and straightforward, but with made-up and complex shapes, we needed to something else, so we learned how to divide them into smaller simpler shapes and then find its perimeter or area. Just like last round, after each lesson, we split into groups to do math problems to put our knowledge of math to the test and also just for practice. There were also other in-class activities, we had the usual options whenever we finish work early which still included Khan Academy, and sometimes games.

Near the end of the round, we learned about ratios which I thought was fun. And then came round 3. Round 2 math was great. I enjoyed learning about geometry, a bit of fractions, and a bit of ratios! The next round is coming up and I hope that it’ll be fun, too.

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Technology/Multimedia: Photography Basics

If you read my “About Me” page, then you would know the things I enjoy doing regarding photography and writing. The three things we focused on this round were the Pixar Story Structure, Photography Basics, and Videography Basics.

We started the round off by learning about Pixar’s story structure and then using them to create our very own stories. The way I look at the story structure is that it’s divided into 5 main parts which goes in the following order, Once upon a time, Everyday, One day, Because of that, and Until finally. These parts have names that are explanitory to what they each do. The first three parts are the introduction and then the problem or event comes in, and that builds up until the “Until finally” which is obviously the concluding point of the story. Now, you probably know that I love writing and that fiction stories are my favorite to write. Using this story structure, I created my own story which was based off another story, or project as I’d call, I wrote in year 1. But the story was too long, so I ended it with a cliffhanger. At the end of class that day, we shared our stories and identified the story structure. You can find the story at the end of this post and feel free to leave comments or suggestions in the comments. I personally enjoyed “rewriting” the story.

 

Moving on, photography. We learned the basics of photography. It included the exposure triangle and types of camera shots. The exposure is made out of three smaller parts, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Our facilitator explained to us what they each do and how it affects our photos. We learned about (probably all) the types of camera shots and how we are supposed to take them. Not only did we learn about them, but we were also given chances to try taking those shots ourselves. There was a scavenger hunt. We were required to take the types of shots we were taught and that was fun.

On the last week of multimedia this round, we acquired some knowledge (a dramatic word choice, I know) of videography. Basically, we learned how to properly take videos, two types of microphones, how to use them, A-rolls and B-rolls. Being steady, zooming and panning correctly, were all key parts to taking great videos. The two types of microphones we learned about were the shotgun and the lavalier microphones. We learned on how to set them up and discussed on which one to use in certain situations, which one was good for interviews and which one was good for other things. After learning what A-rolls and B-rolls are, we watched videos and identified them. Like the photography basics lesson, we practiced.

It was a great round as always. I loved learning about photography and videography as well as Pixar’s story structure and practicing the skills we were taught on our own.

Link for the story I wrote: http://bit.ly/2QBwmU2

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English Literacy: Social and Environmental Injustice/Argumentative Essay

In my last post about English Literacy, I forgot to mention that each year in this class, there will be at least one student product which is usually a piece of writing considering it’s literacy class and that we do a lot of writing. The theme for Literacy this round was Social and Environmental Injustice. The goal for the round was to create an argumentative essay which I think was the student product for this year, but I might be wrong. Writing an argumentative essay was a big thing which is why I think it is the student product. There may be more than one student product this year, but I’m not sure. This round, it was similar to last round. A lot of reading and writing. What I really want to talk about is the argumentative essay.

For the first half of the round, we did a lot of learning on Social and Environmental Injustice which means we learned a lot of about unfair things happening in the world related to society and the environment. Some of the unfair things were pollution-related problems and conflicts. At the halfway point of the round, we started our argumentative essays. We spent the first week learning how to write an argumentative essay while doing research then we just worked on the essay. For our essays, we were required to either write about an SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) or a past exploration. I chose to write about one of SDGs and that was SDG #14, Life Below Water. One fact about me is that I love the ocean very much. It’s so important and wonderful and fascinating. Many problems in the oceans have arisen in the past few decades. And the effects of those problems are devastating. One of those many problems was whaling. I didn’t know what whaling was before I started the essay research, but I felt like I wanted to write about it, so I chose whaling. Whaling is the hunting and killing of whales for the materials they provide. The last two weeks of this round was spent doing research, writing, and polishing the argumentative essay and I don’t have much else to say. So, I will leave a link for my argumentative essay at the end of this post for anyone who wants to read it. This round of literacy might be one of the best so far because I’m proud of myself for writing an argumentative essay about a topic that really interests me. Thank you for reading!

Argumentative Essay, “Why Whaling Needs to Be Banned”: http://bit.ly/2ThKGiS

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Khmer Literacy: Reading Fictional tales

This round in Khmer Literacy, we surprisingly did a lot of reading. We read more than last round and that was what we did for most of the round. From what I remember, we read two major stories, both of which were longer than 50 pdf pages. The two stories are quite popular and well-known in Cambodia and they are Kolab Pailin and Pkar Sropoun. 

Kolab Pailin or កុលាបប៉ៃលិន translates to “The Rose of Pailin” or “Pailin’s Rose” and the title itself contains “Pailin” which is the name of one of the 25 provinces in Cambodia. The story was about a poor boy not too young or old who lost his father and then trying to live life on his own. He left his home, and went from Battambang to Pailin for a job that he applied for and also to live there. There, many problems arose which included getting along with the people that he worked for or with. He would soon solve those problems and get along with the people there and even fall in love with his boss’s daughter. I don’t want to spoil the story too much for anyone who haven’t it, so if you want to know what really or what else happened, read it.

Pkar Sropoun or ផ្កាស្រពោន translates to something along the line of  “Melancholic Flower”. This story is about a relationship between a boy and a girl. Their relationship was fine, but the girl’s mom didn’t want her to be with him because she saw him as a different person than he actually was and also because he was poor. The mom had a friend and she wanted her daughter to marry her friend’s son just because he was rich. Many problems arose and the story ends in a tragedy. You should read it, it’s good in my opinion. That was round 2 and I really enjoyed reading those two stories and I thank you for reading this post about me reading those two stories!

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Math: Fractions

My friend, Chhay, working on Khan Academy.

In the first round of math this year, we didn’t focus on anything specific since it was the beginning of the year and also because we had a new math teacher. Most of the round was spent learning fractions. The other part was spent reviewing. In the first few weeks, we reviewed a bit on last year’s math, did a little bit of pre-algebra and we made posters that said “Make the most of your learning” to remind students to do so in class. Then we turned to fractions. We had a short review of fractions and then dove deeper into it. It wasn’t that different from last year’s fractions, except that we learned new complex and useful concepts which included multiplying fractions. Other than just learning about fractions, we did many activities in class related to it. Most of the time at the beginning of every class, we would get grouped to do exercises in the workbook together. When we finished, we would either play fun games or work on this free-learning website called Khan academy. This round was like an introduction to what we will be doing in math this year and I had lots of fun in reviewing and catching up on all the things we did in math last year as well as learning new concepts related to fractions. There are many new lessons yet to come in the following rounds and I look forward to them.

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Technology and Multimedia: Programs and Algorithms

If you read my post about this round’s physical science, then you know that there are only 3 weeks of this essential in each round rather than 6. This essential aims to improve our use of technology and multimedia. In this round, we focused on 3 different things; researching skills, adobe programs, and programs and algorithms. The first week was the week that we improved our researching skills. We learned what is a research, how to research, identify primary and secondary sources, and a lot more. After learning learning about researching skills, we practiced by picking a topic, coming up with research questions on it, and doing a bit of research on it. In the second week, we had students with experience on adobe programs share and teach the class about them. If you read my changing Cambodia post, then you know that I am in the design team and that we use the adobe program inDesign, but I didn’t choose to teach the class about it considering that many people in the junior cohort already know and that they were willing to teach the class. Instead, I chose to teach Lightroom Classic CC and that was because I use it to edit photos a lot and that not as many people know about it as inDesign. Throughout the week, we learned about 3 different adobe programs which were inDesign, Photoshop, and Lightroom. We then used all the things we learned from the lessons to make a poster out of the research we did in the first week. For the last week of this essential in this round, we learned about programs and algorithms. We learned what programs are and did an activity which was sort of like a program simulation. The class was divided into groups of 3 and in each group, each person had different duties. There was the computer, there was the one that gave instructions to the computer, and there was the one that wrote down the instructions. Our facilitator gave us pictures which were needed to be drawn. The instruction reader would need to tell the computer to draw using specific instructions and computer would just do it without talking. The note-taker, wrote down the instructions after they were said. We took turns being different people and doing different things. The activity was both fun and educational. At the end of the week, we learned about algorithms, what they are and looked at different types of them. We were then given a crime mystery. It was simple, we had to find out when a statue at a museum was stolen between Monday 8 AM and Tuesday 8 AM. The class was divided into groups to find out the most efficient way or algorithm to solve the mystery and it was the divide and conquer algorithm. I had lots of fun learning about technology and multimedia as well as doing educational activities related to them and I look forward to the upcoming rounds with that holds the amazing lessons about this essential.

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Khmer Literacy: Poetry

My friend, Chornson, doing research.

So for the second half of last year, our Khmer literacy teacher split us into groups based off the houses we lived in at Liger to create poems. I was in a group with 3 other boys and we wrote 3 poems. One was about what you should and shouldn’t do in school, the other was about deforestation, and the other one was about alcoholic beverages. At around the same time, the seniors worked on a book about Khmer poetry which contained lessons on how to write different types of Khmer poems and poems they wrote themselves. At the beginning of this round, our teacher decided that we, juniors also create a book relating to Khmer poetry, so what we did for most of the round was write poems. Each student was given a type of Khmer poem and they had to write. My type of poem was “ពាក្យ ប្រាំមួយ” which translates into “Six words” and I wrote a poem of that type about the ocean and its problems. At the end of this post, you can find links to both this poem and the other 3 poems which I and 3 other boys created last year as mentioned earlier. I apologize if you do not speak the Khmer language because the poems are in Khmer. For next round, we are going to get into the book design of our junior poetry book and hopefully have it done somewhere in December. This round was a great start to creating our first Khmer Poetry Book.

The Phare performance on the first day of our trip.

There was an event I got to partake in an called the Khmer Literature Festival at the end of this round. So the Khmer literature festival is an event that takes place in a province in Cambodia every year with the theme of that province. Anyone can join and it is where people learn and celebrate Khmer literature. It is full of activities such as book-reading, interviews, and lectures. Last year, it took place in Siem Reap and this year it took place in Battambang. It lasted from the 21st to the 24th of September; Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The first day was a poem-reading competition. 3 of our juniors participated and they were the youngest participators in the competition. Everyone also else had more time to prepare while our students had less than a week. Despite that, 2 of the juniors that participated got first place. All three students did very well however, they wrote and sang beautiful poems. On the second day, there was a discussion about the stories of Battambang, an interview with three Khmer writers, a presentation of graphic design, a book fair and a circus performance. In the book fair, our students sold the senior’s poetry book and it went surprisingly better than we expected. The book was printed in a rush, hence there were a few mistakes and not all poems the seniors wrote were in that book, so I think there will be another edition or part of this book coming soon. I really enjoyed the circus performance. The circus is called “Phare” and their performances are breathtaking and stunning. On the last day, our seniors went to a school to show and talk about the poetry book they created. Overall, I really enjoyed taking part in this event and learning more about Khmer literature as well as Battambang and its stories.

 

My group’s poems: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15cPfq0rIElnJuqFlZM4uZMz8ibEyI_C88OdeoSQbwFU/edit?usp=sharing

My poem about the ocean: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yJwRwEorVi82FN5_V8qrpA24JhFF4UuzdySTN7-97zc/edit?usp=sharing

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English Literacy: Etymology

For each round of English literacy this year, there will be a theme. This round’s theme was Etymology which is the study of the origins of words and how they’ve changed throughout history. At the beginning of every week on Mondays, we were each given a homework packet which was required to be completed before the week after. These homework packets contained root words, their definitions and origins, 10 words which contain the root words, and a few exercises based off them. When the following week came, we would have an assessment on the homework packet and given another one to complete. Throughout the round, we learned about the history of the English language, its origin, its influences, and how it’s evolved overtime. There were many activities related to it; one of which was creating videos that taught people the root words we were studying. Along with that, we also did a lot of other things. We read at least a text every week and most of the texts required us to complete the activities that came with it which included writing. Sometimes, we would also discuss after reading. We read about 9/11, the black death, William Shakespeare, Mahatma Gandhi, and many more. Somewhere in the second half of the round, we wrote a mini personal narrative about a memory with our family members; if you want to look at mine, there will be a link to it at the end of this post. We also made videos about famous people and why their work should be honored. In literacy, our facilitator tries to find and use as many great resources as we can and I am grateful for that. For the last two weeks of literacy, we read ‘Poison’ by Roald Dahl and completed a hyperdoc which is a document that contains many great resources for something in order to improve the learning experience, in this case, the resources were for the story ‘Poison’. This round was a great first round of English literacy and I learned a lot about the history of the English language as well as many other things. I think what will happen next round is we will develop more on our mini personal narrative, but I’m not sure. If you want to get updated with all the things we will be doing next round then you can do so by visiting this blog every once in a while.

Mini personal narrative: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QAGOsmkZMPa32BtDg-F6T6lON3v1P9gorbyGEkhjDJs/edit?usp=sharing

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Physical Science: Matter

This year, there will only be 3 weeks of physical science instead of 6 in each round because normally there are 4 hours of essentials everyday and we have 5 essentials this year which means that we have to split an essential in half to fit all of it in; the other three weeks are for technology and multimedia. Despite that, we still had a great time learning the subject. This round, we focused mainly on matter. In the first half of the 3 weeks, we got into the basics of matter, what it is, then we went deeper into properties of matter, the types of properties, what they are, change in matter, and the types of change. We also learned how to identify them. The first week was like an introduction. On the second half of the 3 weeks, we looked into the building blocks of matter; atoms. We learned what matter is made of, the particles that make up atoms, and the parts of an atom. We spent the last week researching different topics related to physical science in groups and then presenting it. My group’s topics were quarks and atomic force. So quarks are the smallest building blocks of matter; they make up protons and neutrons which are the particles that make up the nucleus. The nucleus is the center of an atom, and the atom is what makes up matter. Atomic force is force that takes place in atoms, as said in the name itself. Even though we only had 3 weeks of physical science, we still learned a lot about some of the things related to it and I hope that we will keep doing so in the upcoming rounds.

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Geography Book Design

If you haven’t read my “Changing Cambodia 2017-2018” post, I highly suggest that you do so to avoid any confusion that you might have and fully understand what is happening in this very post of my learning. The first exploration of this year was a continuation of a project that was created last year, the Cambodian Geography Book. It was the last exploration that would finish the entire project. In this last part of the project, we had two new students join us on finishing the book; we had 10 students. We spent the first few weeks putting all the provinces in Cambodia together and going over the content. Before our last school year ended, we met and came up with an idea that not only would make the book more interesting and exciting for the readers, but also input our students’ voice inside the book. The idea was to turn boring sentences into visuals that would give them as much information as reading it. These plug-ins were called graphics and there were four types of them which were student/explorer’s observation, did you know, watch out, and traditional beliefs. You can already tell what they are by their names. Throughout the 7 weeks, we met with our facilitator every single week, set goals, and talked about how we were doing on the book. We also came up with new ideas to improve and change the graphics due to some small problems. For the last few weeks, we went through all the designs as well as the content one last time, checked for consistency and changed a few things. That was the longest process of making the book and it was really frustrating, but we made through it and I’m proud of everyone in the exploration. The book will be printed somewhere around the end of October or early November before 2018 ends, but despite that, I cannot wait for everyone to pick up and read this book. It was created by 12 year old students from the Liger Leadership Academy for the world to read and know about Cambodia. Honestly, this was a great start to the rest of the year and I really enjoyed it.