...Free Spirit...: September 2007

Time flies when you're having fun....

Ok I have officially 3 weeks of classes left until study leave! Wow! How time flies! I'm really enjoying this trimester! All my subjects are really awesome!

About Linda getting a dog, we have found a bichon frieze puppy that we like from some dog people, and we are getting her next week after we come back from holiday in Rotarua! We will be going for 4 days starting Thursday, so I only have 2 days of uni next week! It is near the end of the year and although I'm enjoying my subjects heaps I am getting a bit tired, so a holiday would be great!
The Puppy's name is Lola, we named her after Mum's best friend who's daughter I was named after! Will take lots of photos after we pick her up on the 30th September! :)
Linda is officially on holiday now. She's very happy!

Have been studying genetics heaps, have a test coming up in a few weeks time! Brrr my brain!! We are covering molecular biology at the moment. It's fine, although I prefer real genetics with punnet squares and things like that.

In english we just finished studying 'The Real Inspector Hound' play by Tom Stoppard and yesterday we got to watch a version of it in the lecture, performed by some drama students! So fun!! Have to read two novels for english this weekend... :)
(I still can't believe I get to read classic books and call it 'study'!)

Speaking of reading, before bed I have a habit of either reading or watching Sherlock Holmes Mysteries. I am addicted to them, just as I'm addicted to rice crackers, flavoured sour cream and chilli. Yes I am addicted to rice crackers and yes I am nuts! :)

Me and my obsession with Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, both books and DVDs!! Watching Sherlock Holmes (in Russian)'Hound of the Baskervilles' on the lap top for the... I don't keep track of how many times I've seen it already but I never get bored of it! :)

Linda's project for yr 9 modula -design. It's a make up bag. So nice! Well done Linda! I love the purple butterflies! :)

Just finished my turoring session with Kelly. I haven't had one for over a week because she had exams. I missed tutoring her! They are doing creative writing essays about a well known person. I so remember doing that! ;) Memories...!!

The Global Festival

Last Sunday a Global Dance Festival was held at Te Papa. Mum performed a gupsy dance and Linda performed a dance called 'Snegurochka' meaning Snow Princess. There were dances performed from all over the world like China, Samoa, Ireland etc. Unfortunately it was pretty dark in the theatre so there aren't that many good photos. Here are some that did turn out...

Getting ready to go to Te Papa

Linda...

Snegurochka Linda

Waiting for the concert to start...

Mum in her gypsy costume before the performance

Irish dancers- love their sparkly costumes! :)

Chinese dancers

Abstract

Gypsy dance in Abstract

The house...

Dad is repainting the house. These are some photos of what it looks like before it is painted. (by the way the roof is already painted, it used to be brown) Will post more photos up after it's painted! At the moment it looks like a carrot!!

The from the back yard

The Door to....

Oooo! The tree gives a gothic effect... :)

Living room window... Dad is that you on the left??! :)

My room! (on the right)

Reflections on students…

Just thinking about the various students that I’ve ever helped over the years with their school or uni work. It’s just so fascinating to observe how students can be so different!(I was helping someone with their psychology assignment yesterday and that inspired me to think about this)

I have come to the conclusion that the students that want to learn are the easiest and most pleasurable to teach, listening to every single word and asking questions for clarification and advancement of knowledge. In contrast, students that are not keen on learning are the more challenging as you always have to think of ways to keep them interested and motivated. These methods do not always work. Also there are some students that don’t ‘trust’ the help that they are receiving- they are a challenge to teach also. These are just some of the general catagories of students that I have come across so far.

I remember my first ‘teaching’ experience in primary school when I used to take reading with the juniors when I was a senior. I also remember my first student who I ever ‘taught’ when I was at college. She will probably be reading this, so I just want to say that I will always remember you as my first ever student. You were a pleasure to teach, Selene!

Life's Ambitions

...just thougt I'd write them down. Some of these are long term and some are long term...

-graduate with Bachelor of Science
-do post graduate study (Honors hopefully)
-graduate from teachers college
-become a teacher at Sacred Heart College
-become HOD Science at Sacred Heart College
-later on in life after many years of experience start my own school

...things to say...

What a week! So glad it is over, I feel so tired! On Wednesday I had my bio lab which was a great disappointment. Last week we mated flies and were expecting to observe their offspring. But we had absolutely none, not even eggs! After examining our flies it turned out that we only had female flies left in the bottle and all the males had died! So disappointing.

Our new lecturer for genetics is so dull!! So far this term I’ve only had interesting lecturers for my subjects so I wasn’t used to falling asleep in class. Now it’s a snooze. By the way my theory about lecturers still holds true: The interesting lecturers supply students with the full lecture notes (on the computer) because they know that students will come to class anyway. On the other hand the dull lecturers tend to not give full lecture notes and make you write your own or make you ‘fill in the gaps’ because if they gave full lecture notes no one would come to class! This theory holds true for biology lecturers. Following this theory I suspected that we would have a dull lecturer when I looked on blackboard and found that we get only lecture outlines for the last few weeks of genetics. Yesterday my hypothesis was confirmed (unfortunately).

English was a bit frustrating yesterday. We got a new lecturer again. For English they change every couple of days and so far they’ve all been interesting. However the new one this time was so hard to listen to, it drove me absolutely nuts!

On the other hand marine bio is still great, I love it and all our lecturers are really interesting! Our current lecturer is great, so interesting to listen to! We learn really interesting things and it really inspires my interest in marine biology! I was pleased with my test mark that we got back. I think that I definitely want to take another marine bio paper next year, it’s really great! J (Just a random note here that our lecturer looks like Paul McCartney!)

Linda had Mrs Blackburn for science yesterday because their teacher decided to be away, so her class had science in Mrs Blackburn’s classroom E3. She asked Linda about me. Yeay she remembers me :)!!

In 2005 (7^th form) the school had one computer projector (like the ones they use at uni for lectures, with big screens connected to computers) which was in E25 our physics room. According to Linda they now have way more in various classrooms including E3. That is so good! It will be so much easier for students and teachers! Whiteboards are really weird to write neatly on (my opinion) and when light reflects off it it’s really hard for students to read stuff off it. So yes since one of my life ambitions is to teach at SHC this improvement would be very beneficial. I hate writing on whiteboards! Chalkboards were way better, but we only had them in primary school. The world of advancing technology moves so fast!

So glad it is the weekend now! I really need a break, luckily I only have an English essay to write so I can have (or at least try to have) a relatively peaceful weekend…I hope….

On Sunday there will be a global dance festival on at Te Papa and my mum and Linda will be performing! Will post more about it afterwards!

Wellington Zoo

Emu... I think!
On Sunday me and family went to Wellington Zoo. I haven't been there since 2005 when we went there for our 7th form bio trip. Brought back memories! Me, Anita and Jasmine had a fantastic time that day! Linda's friend Clarinda came with our family. My favourite animals at the zoo are normally the merecats (reminds me of Timon from the Lion King!) but this time there weren't any! :( There has been a lot of renivation going on so it has changed a bit since I was there last time. We had a great time!! I want to go again!!! :):):)

This is not your typical bouncy 'Tigger' !

Bears

Giraffes are beautiful creatures! When we came it was their feeding time so we got to feed them branches of leaves!

Sooo cute!! What a long tung!

Elegant

Gorgious

The sign is pretty self explanitory

Have a look at this monkey (above, don't you walk away from me!!) and ape (below). Here is a bio exam question for you:

What is the main physical difference between monkeys and apes?

I remember on our yr 13 bio trip Mr Marston asked me and Anita this and it took us ages to figuire it out! (note that at the time our brains were fried because we just had our mock exams the previous day!)