Anyway, what makes you want to study down in Victoria after high school versus in Queensland? (I’m genuinely curious.)Well I lived in the suburbs of Melbourne just outside the city for a few years when I was little, I've been visiting there just about every christmas holidays and all of my extended family is over there. I really like the idea of independence (moving from QLD) while not being cut off to family and places I'm familiar with. Once I started doing some
Awesome work in starting our first QCE Journey Journal! :) I reckon starting it now is an awesome idea. Do you have favourite VCE/HSC Journey Journals from the ones you've read through?Haha, thanks. Out of the ones I've read so far, my favourites would have to be colline's and Erupeta's VCE Journals, and r1ckworthy's and angewina_naguen's HSC journals. Regarding electives, we've already done two last semester, Digital Innovations, which I elected to do in place of a LOTE (hence the reason I'm confused about why I'm doing Spanish this sem), and HPE (not really an elective, but more a semester long course). For the arts, though, I'm pretty sure that it's one term per unit, so I'd be doing visual this term and one of dance, media, music and drama next term (fingers crossed for music). The collage really is a piece of work, but I fear that I'll find a way to muck even tracing up.
Cool subjects. You said your electives are chosen for you - do you have other ones coming up?
P.S. That collage looks awesome. Also: "I procrastinate by looking at education-related resources" - big feels. 😂
I love the "About Me" section! Do you get up to much outside of school? Are you interested in sport and music? What is your second least favourite food? Would love to get to know more about you as a person.Asking the hard questions. I get up to regrettably little outside of school; I'm not even sure if you could count piano lessons, because my teacher lives next door. I tried a season of cricket and enjoyed it even though I was quite bad, so I'll pick that up again this season. Second least favourite food would probably be fried dim-sims (I tried to make them once and burnt them terribly, so I wasn't too keen thereafter).
Can't wait to read some more updates! I commend you for starting so early!
Asking the hard questions. I get up to regrettably little outside of school; I'm not even sure if you could count piano lessons, because my teacher lives next door.
I tried a season of cricket and enjoyed it even though I was quite bad, so I'll pick that up again this season.
Wow! That's super convenient! What kind of pieces do you like to play? It is preparation for piano exams or a concert, or is it more for fun?Only started lessons a few weeks ago with one lesson per week, so it'll be a while before I'll be able to play anything more advanced than the renowned classic, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (with correct phrasing and dynamics, mind you 8)). Always loved messing around on the keyboard and have been wanting lessons for ages, so having a piano teacher next-door was a pleasant surprise. Trying to get into the school band next year but I'm unsure if the position will be filled already.
Never really tried cricket. I guess I always found it boring to watch. (Do you enjoy watching other people play?) Do you prefer batting or fielding? I would certainly struggle to catch or hit a ball as small as a cricket ball lol. Give me a long-distance run or swim any day!
What's the go with the languages competition? What does it involve?So, pretty much, I get handed a template for a speech in Spanish, fill in the spaces with names, ages, descriptors and so forth to match me, and present it in front of two judges at Griffith Uni. Really had no reason for doing it, but I decided that I wanted to do stuff so I won't look back and wish I was more involved with school. Today I just joined this STEM competition, which sounded fun; every week there's a challenge related to a STEM discipline and you compete against other schools. I needed a team of three, but all of my friends except one weren't very enthused. He said he might know some people wanting to do it, so fingers-crossed.
So, pretty much, I get handed a template for a speech in Spanish, fill in the spaces with names, ages, descriptors and so forth to match me, and present it in front of two judges at Griffith Uni. Really had no reason for doing it, but I decided that I wanted to do stuff so I won't look back and wish I was more involved with school. Today I just joined this STEM competition, which sounded fun; every week there's a challenge related to a STEM discipline and you compete against other schools. I needed a team of three, but all of my friends except one weren't very enthused. He said he might know some people wanting to do it, so fingers-crossed.
Congrats on your score for Maths!Thanks!
Thanks!
How's your week been since? ✌️It's been alright! Mostly I've been deliberating over whether or not to go for head prefect because the application's due tomorrow, but I really don't know if I'll be able to speak in front of loads of people. There's also a vote which is pretty much based entirely on popularity. Might be looking forward to applying for a senior position, though (once I participate in more school events and gain some leadership experience to put down).
How have your last couple of weeks been, SlowandSteady? :)I’ve been wanting to update this, but there was no internet except for my phone data and typing this out on there would be a huge pain.
As for what’s been happening in school:The best way to get good at writing creatively is to practice. If you know that you're expected to write to a prompt in six minutes, why not pick a prompt a day and write for six minutes? It won't take up much of your time and should definitely improve your writing quality.
English – After submitting my persuasive on one hour’s sleep, I’ve moved on to creative writing and this entire unit is really disagreeing with me :( I just really struggle to think of an idea under pressure. We’ve been doing this thing in class where we’re given a prompt and we need to just write for 6 minutes. Lately, I haven’t been writing anything for them. I just can’t think of anything good and it’s really frustrating. The assessment will be exactly the same: we’re given a prompt and we just have to write. A 500 word short story is due on Monday; I have the weekend, so I should be fine.
Good luck picking electives! The things you do in Year 9 won't majorly affect your life, so choose things that you think you'll genuinely enjoy! You'll like school better and probably find the homework less mind numbing.Thanks so much! I'll definitely try and get some practice in next week. The problem lies mostly in actually thinking of an idea that doesn't sound bad in my mind (quite the feat) and putting pen to paper. Never thought about externalising; that's a fantastic piece of advice!
What are you learning towards most?
The best way to get good at writing creatively is to practice. If you know that you're expected to write to a prompt in six minutes, why not pick a prompt a day and write for six minutes? It won't take up much of your time and should definitely improve your writing quality.
I saw a post literallylauren made a little while ago with some tips about creative writing (not that I can find it now :-\), and the things that she said (that you will hear time and time again) are to show not tell and to make the internal external.
Show not tell.
Rather than saying: "She was angry."
Try: "With tense shoulders, she clenched her fists as her stoic gaze rested upon..."
Making the interal external.
Rather than saying: "She was angry."
Try: "The volcano within her boiled and bubbled, threatening to explode. And when it did, hot dangerous lava would come flying in every direction."
Using a mixture of these two ideas and heaps of practice completely changed my writing. I hope it agrees with you a little more before you finish the unit!
<3
Thanks so much! I'll definitely try and get some practice in next week. The problem lies mostly in actually thinking of an idea that doesn't sound bad in my mind (quite the feat) and putting pen to paper. Never thought about externalising; that's a fantastic piece of advice!Draft, draft, draft! The first copy of my creative writing is awful. There's a couple of good bits mixed in with a whole bunch of filler words and sloppiness. No one has to read that copy, the copy where everything in my head, no matter how it sounds to me, goes down on the paper. You can always refine it later.
I ended up going with Digital Innovations and Digital Technology as my two electives, having already handed in the application. Straight after that I had second thoughts as to whether I should have done Spanish because of the mark I got today (yay) and how disappointed the teacher was when I told her I wasn't doing it (one of the nicest teachers I've ever had, but boy can she lay the guilt on).
Oh well.
How's life, SlowandSteady
Hey SlowandSteady, What's been happening? ;D Have you heard any more about your subjects for next year?
It's nice to hear back from you!!!
Pretty darn good if I don't say so myself. A lot has happened while I was taking a break from AN (mostly me realising the fact that the site is more a source of motivation/inspiration to me than it is a distraction :P). I'll be in Year 9 next year, which is pretty exciting (electives, yay!). I'll definitely be checking out your work experience guide for later on in the year as well ;D Speaking of electives…
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The most recent ones I've learned are Le Courant Limpide by Burgmüller and Jazzin' Around by Martha Mier. Can finally play the former at full speed (176bpm) after practising for a while :) I'm also going to do a duet with one of my teacher's other students (can't recall the name of the piece). Other than that I've just been doing some theory and attempting to play songs that I hear from movies and games by ear. I'm struggling a bit with sight reading, but I think it's just something that improves with practise.
About NAPLAN, I forgot to mention that I won't instantly get kicked out, but will have to do extra homework and another LAN exam afterwards. If I mess up that one, I'll move to a regular class. Hopefully I won't have to worry about that down the track.
Planning on volunteering with my local Leo's Club. They're in the process of setting up fundraising events for the bushfires and the sponsoring of a child with cancer. I'll be going back to more meetings to learn more about I'd be doing specifically, but all in all they seem like a nice bunch and I'd just be happy to help out where needed.
I feel like debating is something I'll have to study for in order to not make an arse of myself haha. I'm pretty indifferent about a lot of things, so hopefully researching/arguing about relevant issues will help me form my own opinion on them.
Thanks for the well wishes and have a nice year also ;D