Jared's Blog

For class, we were to pick a movie and talk about what the target audience was in our opinion and how it affected that target audience, I chose the movie “Cast Away.” Down below is my response about the movie and feel free to comment on this post to let me know what you thought about it and if you agree or disagree with my statement.

For my movie impact, I chose the movie “Cast Away” featuring Tom Hanks. The reason I chose this movie is because it really spoke out to me of how quickly things can happen without you expecting it and how even though he was gone for about 4 years, he still remembered his life and the people in it. The target audience for this movie in my opinion would be young adults around the age of 20 and 30. The reason I say this is because around this age, it is when people start considering travelling and possibly getting married. This movie is all about a man whose plane crashes and he survives on an island for about four years. I think this movie shows how something can happen so unexpectedly and how you are taking risks all the time and I feel that it also shows how strongly he felt for his wife which is exactly why I think the target audience for this movie was around the age of 20 and 30. I feel this movie appealed very well to this target audience because Tom Hanks is playing the role of a man around the age of 30 and I think because of this, it spoke out to this audience way more. I really enjoyed watching this movie because it really gives the audiences a clear picture of how people can survive from a normal day routine to having nothing and living by yourself.

Image Source- Cast Away   

For science, we were learning about automated machines and how they affect the world they are around. For any of you that do not know what an aut0mated machine is, it is a machine that has taken over peoples work. They are usually in a form of a robot or any technology created to do the same work as a human. We were then asked to think of an automated machine and talk about it’s affects on the world and the people that use and work around them. I chose to do my presentation on “Movie theatre ticket dispensers.” This is an automated machine that is used in movie theatres that customers can use to get their tickets to the movie they desire instead of waiting in line to get their tickets from an employee at the movie theatres front desk. With all of the information we collected, we had to create a presentation using the website called “Prezi.” Also, we had to create a brochure informing our classmates about all the affects this automated machine has on the world. Down below is my prezi about my thoughts on how this automated machine has affected to world and the people that use and work around them. Feel free to comment on this post to let me know what you thought of my presentation.

For language, we were learning about different types of poems. The one poem that we were studying was called “Slam Poetry.” For any of you that have never heard of slam poetry, it is when you create a poem that does not have to rhyme and you are trying to get your point across and persuading your audience. Down below is m y slam poem on “It’s A Small World.” I hope you enjoy it and feel free to comment to tell me what you thought of it.

Imagine a place with water and land,

The deserts and beaches are full of sand.

So many people, you have to shout,

With all of the countries you have to shout.

And all of the space,

It’s a wonderful taste,

Get ready to brace,

Here it comes…

India, China, Canada too,

Don’t forget Madagascar, just to name a few,

The 2 percent ice takes up some of the space,

And water and land take up… the rest.

It’s a temptation I can’t resist,

There are so many countries; it’s such a great list,

So don’t be afraid to travel far,

All you need is a simple car.

So now you know about the world,

And all of the countries near and far,

No matter if it’s hot or cold,

This Earth isn’t shy, it’s “BOLD!”

Image Source- Flickrcc

During language, we are learning about different types of writing. The type of writing that my grade was working on was called an “Editorial.” I liked working with this type of writing because you are writing as if you are the publisher of a newspaper. While writing and editorial, you can put your own ideas in and you are to explain your reasons why you think your argument is the right choice. Our teacher gave us two choices that we could write about. They were both related to health. The one was about how the media affects the amount and level of physical activity young adolescents get and the other was about how the media affects how young adolescents when they are considering buying food products. I chose to write my editorial on how the media affect syoung people when thy are considering buying food products. Down below is my editorial about my opinion on how the media affects young adolescents about buying and eating food products. Feel free to comment on this post to let me know what you thought of it. This would be very much appreciated.

How The Media Affects Young People When They are Eating and Buying Food Products

Have you ever noticed that what kids want when they are hungry is unhealthy junk food? They never seem to stop and think about what this food they are eating can do to them. The cause of this; the “Media.” Television and even the internet can persuade young adolescents and young children that eating and buying junk food is alright. Are they right? Absolutely Not!

                In the past and still today, the media has become a larger part of people’s lives, and is now a greater impact on children on how they choose to eat. Television viewers sit in front of the television or the computer absorb false information about what to eat. One main reason why I think media is a bad influence on children everywhere is because when kids are listening to the media about what to eat; they are going to start believing it. Many years down the road for these children, this bad influence can lead to a life of obesity. As a matter of fact, 20% of young adolescents are now overweight and it is increasing at an incredible rate. This major problem can be solved very quickly by just making a small change in the child’s lifestyle; watch and use the television and the computer less.

                Another reason why the media is a bad influence on young children is because they always seem to follow what their friends do, or in this case, eat. If one child is persuaded by the media and ends up bringing this product to school, their friends may try a piece and they might end up buying it as well. Just by one child being persuaded by the media can lead to multiple children buying and eating unhealthy foods. I know when my friends have a food that looks good, I will want to try it so the next time my parents go grocery shopping, I will try to get my parents to buy this product. While doing this, I am not paying attention to the ingredients and what this produce can do to me. Some foods say they are low in in calories but if you look at the ingredients, it may be low in calories but this product is usually very unhealthy and is probably fattening anyway. Again, watching less television and spending less time on the computer can solve this problem.

                Some people say that it’s alright if the media is pretty much lying to young adolescents because it is just one meal or one snack. I do not agree with these people because if the consumer enjoys the product, there are great odds they are going to purchase and buy it again. I know from past experiences, if I bought a food product and I liked it, I was bound to buy it again. These people don’t see what this food can do to them. For example, in eleven chips of a plain “Lay’s” bag of potato chips, there are 160 calories and 10 grams of fat all together. Usually, when people start eating out of a bag of chips, they will probably end up eating more than eleven chips. Imagine how many calories and how much fat you are consuming after eating 22 or 33 chips. This is definitely not healthy!

                One last major problem that the media can do to what children choose to eat is the complete opposite as my first argument. Instead of the media persuading us to eat unhealthy junk food, they could persuade us to eat less. You know how they always show really skinny people who are modeling their product; this could make children look at themselves and not like what they see. After seeing how happy those fit models are, it may persuade them to not eat as much or even just to stop eating just to look like them. This is not a good cause. In 2002, 1.5% of ages 15-24 in Canada had an eating disorder. This percentage may look low but that is only from ages 15-24, and is only in Canada. Imagine what the percentage would be with all age groups put together in the whole world. This is why it is very important to really look deep into what the media is telling you because they could be persuading you to eat or buy something that is very unhealthy for you.

                The media has had a very large effect on how young adolescents buy and eat food. Whether they can make a choice to eat unhealthy food or not eat at all because of the people they see in the advertisements, it still affects them. I think that this is a terrible problem out in the world today and something needs to be done about it. As I said before, friends will follow others if they like what their eating or doing, so I say get out there and make healthy lifestyle choices because you never know, you could be the leader of multiples of healthy lifestyles of people around you.

 Image Source- Pen

For health, we were required to write a rap song or a PSA on eating healthy. My friends Dawson, Alex, Quinn and I chose to write a rap song. We used the song “Where Them Girls At” as a model for our song. The link below is our rap song. Feel free to comment on it to tell us what you thought of it. I hope you enjoy it!
Complete WTCA

In geography class, we were assigned to do seminars, For those that do not know what seminars are, it is when you get a chapter and you are to present that chapter to the class in a presentation. My group used the website www.prezi.com. Our chapter was on”Barriers to Migration.” This is where immigrants want to migrate to a new country but there a re barriers such as physical barriers or procedural barriers you have to get through in order to enter the country. If you watch our presentation below you will learn about barriers to migration. Feel free to comment on this post to tell me what you thought of it.

For language, we had to write a cold write persuasive piece. For my grade, we were writing editorials. I wrote mine on why I think school lunches should be earlier. Down below is my persuasive piece. Feel free to comment and tell me what you think I could improve on the next time I am going to write an editorial.

Why Lunch at School Should Be Earlier

            Are you hungry before lunch while attending school? I agree with the fact that many students during school time are very hungry before lunch. Maybe they ate breakfast late or didn’t eat breakfast at all. This could be solved in a very easy, simple change; earlier lunches. This would help out a lot because the students are hungry, the last block of the school day is too short, and kids don’t have to get up all the time during class to go get a snack. All of this may be true but is it worth it? Yes!

            In my opinion, earlier lunches could have a large impact on how the students learn. For example, when someone is hungry, they are more focussed on waiting to eat their food instead of listening to what their teaching is telling them to do. I know when I am hungry; I am more focussed on what I am going to eat, instead of paying attention to whatever I am doing. By the cause of this, students may miss what they have to do for homework that night, or any major assignments they may want to start working on. Then again, earlier lunches could solve this problem.

            Another reason why I think lunches at school should be earlier is because since the first block is so long, it cuts the last block down to 50 minutes which ‘is not enough time to actually get deep into a subject. This does not as much affect the students as it does the teachers. I believe they do not have enough time to get into a subject and tech the lesson to the best of their ability because the time length just isn’t long enough. Once again, having an earlier lunch could solve this problem.

            My last major argument why I think lunches should be earlier while at school is that kids aren’t always getting up from their seats to get a snack. Whole leaving their seat, they may miss something very important about that lesson and may not hear assigned work. Some people may say that the lunches should be later around 12:00 because that is about the time we eat on the weekends. I do not agree with them because if you are just sitting there, you are going to get very hungry because that’s what you are always thinking of.

            As I said earlier on, one simple, little change could make a difference in every student’s school life because once they make that change, students will not be hungry and they will be able to be fully focussed on whatever they are learning in class. This is just my opinion of why I think that school lunches should be earlier, but what is yours

Sincerely, Jared

Image Source- School Bus

In french class, we were to create a casse-croute or a restaurant. We were required to have menu along with an idea, a concept and a slogan. My partner was Alex  We completed our presentation using a website called www.prezi.com. Down below is our prezi of our casse-croute. Feel free to comment and tell us what you thought of it.

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While spending time on the computers, we used Google Earth and a website called Where In The World. This website is very unique as it gives you pictures that you can find on Google Earth and it gives you clues of where to find it. We experimented this website today and I chose to find a place in Bima Bay, Indonesia. Here is a screen shot of what I found on Google Earth.

          Here is some information on Bima Bay, Indonesia incase you have never heard of this location before.

~ This location is on the island of Sumbawa.

~ This Bay has a vaiety of different resources such as the Bima Bay Harbour along with the island of Kambing Island.

~ Located in Indonesia.

I find this location very interesting as I have never heard of this Bay before now. This is one of the spots where I would like to visit becasuse it seems very unique as you can see in the landscape from a birds eye view off of Google Earth. Try out this website above if you are looking for a challenge on Google Earth. Good Luck.

For class, we watched a video called a “Year in review.” This is when someone takes important topics to themthat had happened in let’s say 2011, and they put them in a one minute video, or in my case; 37 to remind people of the big events that had happened in the past year. We then had to make our own video for class. I really enjoyed making this video because it reminded me what good and not so good events happened this year. Up above is my video on the year ”2011 Year In Review.”

Now that you have seen my video, it is time for me to explain why I chose those images to put in my video. Most of the topics I could just think of off the top of head but there was a limit we could have for images which was 15. If you really try you could probably think of 15 topics but I found it really hard sinse a lot of things good and bad happened in the past year of 2011. I chose my piuctures based on if I thought they were important. To start it off, I chose the earthquake/tsunami that happened in Japan last March break because over that time, I was in Jamaica and some people there thought that the water was going to travel over to their country. This affected me alot. The royal wedding was another big event for me because when I was younger, I had babysitters that imagrated from England and it just kind of came to me that this is a big event so yes, I did wake up early enough to watch the wedding. Those are the two topics that I knew I was going to use right from the start. Feel free to leave any comments to tell me what you thought.

Now it is time to move onto the question which is-

What was the most world changing event of 2011?

In my opinion, I think they were all very interesting and important but if I had to choose just one, it would probably be the earthquake/tsunami that happened over the last March break in Japan. The reason I say that this is the most world changing event of 2011 is because if you know or not, this nuclear power plant was located right on the coast of the ocean and when the earthquake hit and the tsunami hit, there was a nuclear explosion at the plant,  and a lot of radioactive acid got into the ocean which got everyone worrying that it was going to affect our oceans water and possibly our land. The news spread so fast that the day after it happened, it was already in Jamaica and that’s pretty fast considering most people in Japan wouldn’t have found out about it for a while if you did not live close to the nuclear power plant. One other reason why I state that this topic was the most world changing event of 2011 was that we know that the radioactive acid has already made it to the other side of the world because they are finding furniture such as couches and kitchen appliances like fridges on the coast of Miami and in British Columbia. Since these items have already traveled across the ocean, we know for a fact that this acid has traveled across as well. This could cause many problems with our environment as it could kill anything in it’s path such as animals, fish and more importantly, it could end up killing humans living on the land of the radioactive acid water coasts. I am very lucky to be living in the center of two countries because I am a fare way away from our oceans so it is very unlikely it would affect my community that I live in. As a matter of fact, I did my current events (This is when you pick a current topic and you go in front of the class and talk about it) on how the government of Japan and environmental specialists were having thoughts about how they might close the power plant down for good and not even try to clean it up because it will take approximately decades to clean up the mess . I feel, in my opinion that in the 37 seconds of my video, it was the picture that really stood out to me and it really got me wondering how I could help these people in need that have been having trouble after this horrible explosion.

Thankyou for watching my video on my “Year In 37 Seconds” and for reading my opinion on the most world changing event of 2011. This is just ‘my’ opinion, what is ‘yours?’ Fell free to comment on this post to tell me your thoughts about what you think was the most world changing event of 2011.

Image Source- 2011