Arts & Design--Go to an Exhibition with my friend

on March, 8th 2009 I went to the Nanjing Museum with my friend Rita. It's a museum which has lots of exhibitions . It's one of the earliest museum in China, it covers lots of Chinese culture. We are chinese. We have responsible to know the culture more about our own country.

The museum is at the NO.321 Zhongshan East road, near the moon lake. Rita and i live at the moon lake so we went there in ten minutes by Bus No.59. We chose that museum because it's a integrated museum.This is the ticket for the museum. We can get the ticket from the entrance freely.

We saw a lot of exhibitions in the museum and my favourtie exhibition was the Chinese jade exhibition. All the jade here are from the ancient China. They are very precious.This is my favourite artwork.It's a jade pendant With dragon. It was from the eastern Jin dynasty ,A.D 4th century . It was unearthed in the Dengfushan site, Nanjing, Jiangsu.

When i saw this art work, i was shocked by the skill the worker used to make this pendant. It shows the great skill of the workers in the ancient China. I was proud of my country , we have lots of precious antiques but some of them were stolen or robbed by the foreigners . We must protect our own antiques.

The procedure of making jades are very difficult. We must remember that the jade is full of the workers' hard work.

The journey to the museum was amazing, I won't forget it.

Personal Health--Physical Activity

Snooker

I am a boy who loves sports very well. Doing sports is good for us. It can help us to keep fit and lose weight. Although I don’t need to lose my weight, I think I can become stronger and healthier if I do some exercises very often. I love playing basketball. Basketball match is always full of passion. I also love playing soccer and I enjoy the feeling of score.

six months ago, I began to love playing Snooker. I often watched the Snooker match on TV. Although I didn’t know any of the rules of snooker, I gradually understood some elementary knowledge. A contestant must alternately pocket a red ball and then a colored ball into the holes by hitting them with a white one. Otherwise he would lose the chance to continue. Finally, the referee would calculate the sum according to the different points for each ball. The players are very elegant and look free. To my surprise, the contestants were proficient in playing it. After a while, I found the secret. Every time before shooting, they would consider a while. They should not only carefully select a well-positioned red ball (or colored ball) according to the white ball’s present position, but also know where the white ball would be located after it shot the other ball into the hole. Only in this way could he go on shooting. How difficult it is!

At the beginning, I was just a rookie of playing Snooker. I couldn’t hold the cue and I didn’t know the rules. I couldn’t use the cue to hit the ball, sometimes the cue hit nothing. I felt very upset but I never gave up. I didn’t believe that I couldn’t play Snooker very well. I attended the Snooker club. There are many excellent players in the club and they were willing to teach me how to play Snooker. I felt very happy. They taught me how to hold the cue and how to put power into the cue to hit the ball. Few days later, I can hit the ball into the hole directly. Then they told me the rules of Snooker, if players don’t obey the rules, they will lost points. They also told me how to use angles to hit the ball. Now I can play it pretty well.

When I played Snooker I suddenly felt that life was just like playing snooker. If you would like to succeed in your life, you must know not only your present goal, but also your next one. However, what had I done? I entered GCA, just like that hitting a colored ball into the hole. But where was my white ball? Where was my next red ball? I never thought over those. To succeed in life, I also should achieve more and more goals, never stop .

From then on, I studied very hard. Meanwhile, like those meticulous snooker contestants, I seize my present goal, and ponder over my next one as well. I thought my life will be more easier in the future .

Education & Career Planning-- School Club (piano club)

At the very beginning of this term, our school asks our students to organize some clubs for ourselves to do after-school activities. I want to attend the piano club and become the leader of the club. I told my teachers my idea and they all agree with me and encourage me to complete this dream. I am a musical boy and I can play lots of musical instrument. I like playing the piano best and I have played the piano for 10 years. I am very confident that I can organize the club successfully.

There are nearly 10 students attend my piano club. Some of them can play the piano a little bit and there is a boy who can play the piano as well as me. Also there are some students who cannot play the piano but want to learn how to play. My task is very difficult. I want the students feel happy when they are at my piano club. We played and learned the piano every Tuesday and Thursday. The boy who can play the piano as well as me is Raymond from 11-C. We become friends and we often have some bouts on the piano. It is called 'Piano Fight'. The other club members always admire us. When Raymond and I finish the bout, it's time for me to teach some rookies. Although their skills are not very good but they are very interested in playing the piano. It is very important. The attitude leads the result. The rookies can play a little and they feel very happy and I felt successful.

At the break time, I usually thought about my club. I feel that responsibility is very important for me and I become more and more responsible after leading the club. The process I teach others is a way to pay it forward. I taught the students how to play the piano and they practice according to my teaching. Usually they cannot achieve the goal I set for them , but I need to be patient and tell them to try again, help them not afraid of playing the piano. They finally find some fun from playing the piano. We enjoyed ourselves in the music. Music makes us calm down and become peaceful. Music is full of magic and it can change our mood easily. We become friends with the piano. I told the club members that they must put their mood into the piano song so that the audience can be attracted. If the audience can realize what you think and your mood from your song, you are successful.

In semester 2 , the club activity was also held by me twice a month, we communicate here and exchange good songs. We are really having fun here.

Leading the piano club is great experience for me. I become more and more responsible and patient. I build good relationship with some students from other classes and they all thought I am a helpful people and feel happy during the club time. I feel really happy because I can give others happiness during the piano. I will never forget the experience I lead the piano club.

Community Involvement & Employability Skills

During the first term , our teachers asked us to do some volunteer work. At the very beginning , we all feel confused because none of us know how to do and where to do. Our planning teacher Ms. Bartell told us some places to volunteer work and she also said that we can do volunteer work for our teacher. We thought that was a good idea. But at that time, none of our teacher had volunteer work for us to do. We felt a little bit upset but we believe one day we can get some volunteer work. We think we should do something freely for others. It is a great chance for us to improve our personality.

Soon, the chance came. Our school have a drama play every year and our English teacher Ms. Mitschrich is in charge of this activity. She needed some student to help her set up the stage and the background for the show. I attended the volunteer activity. During November and December I went to school on Saturday for the volunteer work with my classmates. We worked 2 hours each day. Ms. Mitschrich always bought us some chocolate to increase our work rate. If we were tired, we stop to have some chocolate, then continue our work.

At the first week, it is the week of our school’s basketball championship, 4 other school come to our school to have a championship of 3 days. Ms. Mitschrich asked us to draw a big poster for our school basketball team. They need our encouragement. I worked with other two girls. We first chose a yellow board paper and then we used orange paint to draw on the paper. We drew a player is shooting the basketball. We wrote a slogan on the poster as well to cheer our basketball team up. After that, we bring the poster to the GYM and hold it to encourage our players.

From the second week , we began our set of the stage, there is also a girl in my group. Our task is to use the board paper to make some leaves and put the leaves on the plastic rope. We first cut the oval shape from the green paper and then we cut the top of the leaves , we stapled the top of the leaves to make the leaves more realistic and 3D. Finally we used stapler to staple all the leaves on the plastic rope. There were almost 300 leaves and it took us 3 weeks to finish it.

On the day which the play was shown, all the student come to the theater to watch the play. The show is ‘Taming of the Shrew’which was written by Shakespere. I said proudly to my classmates: look! That tree is made by me! They all said the tree was very realistic. The show was very successful. I felt very happy because my work worked.

This volunteer experience is very meaningful for me, I hope I can have more and more chance to do volunteer work in the future.

Arts & Design--Go to an Exhibition with Ms.Hadley's class

On one Thursday in the November, our class went to Nanjing University to see the exhibition of Wu Weishan, a famous artist in China.



My favorite artwork is Laozi, a Chinese philosopher who is traditionally regarded as the founder of Taoism. Taoism is a principal philosophy and system of religion of China based on the teachings of Laozi in the6th century b.c.Lao zi was so famous for his wisdom that tales developed around his life. Wu Weishan uses his outstanding making skills, make this artwork very different.




Laozi is the pinyin Romanization for the Chinese characters which mean "Old Master." Laozi is also known as Lao Tan ("Old Tan") in early Chinese sources (see Romanization systems for Chinese terms). Laozi became a principal figure in institutionalized religious forms of Daoism. He was often associated with many transformations and incarnations of the dao itself.


The story of Laozi has taken on strong religious overtones since the Han dynasty. As Daoism took root, Laozi was recognized as a god. Belief in the revelation of the Dao from the divine Laozi resulted in the formation of the Way of the Celestial Master, the first organized religious Daoist sect. In later mature Daoist tradition, Laozi came to be seen as a personification of Dao. He is said to have undergone numerous "transformations", or taken on various guises in various incarnations throughout history to initiate the faithful in the Way. Religious Daoism often holds that the "Old Master" did not disappear after writing the Daodejing, but rather traveled to India to reveal the Dao.

When I saw this sculpture, I was shocked by the skill that the artist use. The artwork is so outstanding that I could not move my eyes away from the sculpture. I like this sculpture very much because the artist doesn’t only focus on the contour ,but also focus on the spirit of Laozi, he represent knowledge and many good idea and policies for the government. Although he is riding , he is thinking as well , I can felt that he is thinking a very difficult problem.






This exhibition is very interesting i think , I saw a lot of good artwork and I translate for our Art teacher, Ms.Hadley, the curator introduce each sculpture very clearly and I learnt a lot. I finally get the signature of Wu weishan and I saw him but I didn’t take a photo with him, what a pity!

Cultural Awareness--With Grade 12 Mentors

On the 28th of December, we went to Lucky star to have a Mexican dinner with 2 grade 12 students, Peggy and Laura. I am the leader of this group.

With out the 2 two grade 12 students, there are 9 students in my group. They are Evelyn, Abby, Penny, Oliver, Gerry, Laurence, Kevin, Maria and me.

The restaurant is on the opposite of the Golden Eagle Shopping Center, on the 2nd floor of the Golden Wheel Shopping Center.

We choose Mexican food because all the members in our group thought that Mexican food is very delicate and delicious.The price there is not very high and the environment there is very good.
The manners on table are very remarkable for me.

In Mexico, guests are expected to keep theirhands on the table during a meal.I ate 2 dishes, one piece of steak with mashed potato and roast chicken wings with French fries. They are both very delicious.

When I ate the steak, I feel very relaxed because I can use the knife and the fork very easily and I can cut the steak very easily.

That’s really an enjoyable time for me. When I ate the mushroom soup, it is very special; we should use the spoon to ladle the soup from left to right. The French fries smell very good. Mexico food is totally different from Chinese food, Mexicans don’t use chopsticks to eat food, and they use forks and knives. There are some Chinese people and some foreigners in this restaurant.

The service is very convenient and the waitresses are very helpful.

I will recommend other people to eat there because this restaurant have a good atmosphere and the service is excellent.

I took a picture with a beautiful waitress there. There service is so good that I could not stop telling.

The meal is fantastic.

GUEST ARTIST

This Monday we had a lecture of landscape architecture from Zhao Bing. He is the professor of the Nanjing Forestry University and a landscape architect.

All the students from GCA came to the lecture hall to listen to the lecture. We were all very excited because we could see an expert on landscape architecture. He is outstanding on his career. He used PPT to give us the speech and he was very humorous.

He first asked us we know how much about the landscape gardens. All the students felt embarrassed because we know nothing about that. He said we knew that we don't have some profession knowledge about the landscape gardens. He wanted to give us a good lesson.

He taught us mainly about the landscape gardens of Suzhou. The Lingering Garden was listed from the first as cultural relics of national importance in 1961. With an area of 23,310 square meters, it is celebrated for its artistic way of dealing with the spaces between various kinds of architectural form. Buildings make up one third of the total area of the garden, the hall of which being the most remarkable in Suzhou. The garden is separated into the middle, eastern, northern and western parts. The ancestral temple and the house lie to the south of the garden.

With a history of more than 2,500 years, the ancient city of Suzhou, boasting splendid scenery, rich cultural heritage and abundant agricultural products, is situated in the Lower Yangtze basin by the side of lake tai. Ever since the founding of Suzhou as the capital of the Wu Kingdom in 514 B.C., it has been the political, economic and cultural center of the region.As a place famed for its well-known scholars, successful merchants, great architects and distinguished artists, Suzhou provides favorable conditions for the creation and development of classical gardens.

He also said that there are two main kinds of Chinese landscape garden .One of them is the royal garden; it is a place for the Emperor to have a rest and enjoy himself. The other is the private garden. It belongs to the wealthy people and they enjoyed themselves there.

It was a great experience for me to learn about the art of the landscape garden.I love landscape gardens.I love a kind of simple but meaningful live.If I can sleep in the garden for one night,talk about our lives with my friends.That would be a wonderful time to enjoy. Professor Zhao is very eruditely and he made us understand him very well.I love the lecture.