Vietnam War (Timeline):
From 1883: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos was ruled by France as French Indochina.
As Germany invaded France in WWII, Japan took over Vietnam.
1945: Japan was defeated. The Vietnam communists -- the Vietminh, led by Ho Chi Minh, took over Vietnam.
British and Chinese troops reclaimed Vietnam for the French, but the communists retaliated. The French then set up a State of Vietnam under Bao Dai to oppose the communists.
In 1954, the warring parties agreed to split Vietnam into the North under Ho Chi Minh and the South under Bao Dai.
1965: The Vietminh-backed Viet Cong started a rebellion in the South. The USA began to bomb North Vietnam while the USSR and China supplied them with arms.
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Naturalist E-Learning Task
This is my research on the natural habitat of mockingbirds. Mockingbirds are distributed throughout North America. They like living in various landscapes and gardens near houses in urban areas. They also like farmlands, edges of open woods and streamside thickets in the rural areas. They are very aggressive towards anything that gets too close to their nesting territory. I think that Maycomb's houses was equally spaced out and not too close to each other, so the Mockingbirds would choose to live on the trees. Maycomb would also have wild fruit producing plants such as holly, pokeberry, blackberry, sumac and Virginia creeper, as the Mockingbirds eat them.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Multiple Intelligences ( E- Learning Task 2)
I think that the Multiple Intelligences test can help students find out their strengths and weaknesses, which would be essential for learning. This would help them find the correct subject for them. For example, a student could be in a Math Special Programme but he does not know whether that is the course for him. With the Multiple Intelligences test, the student can not only know his weaknesses but his strengths too. Many children show gifts in the other intelligences besides mathematics and linguistic aspect. They may be artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, or even entrepreneurs. Many of them could be labelled as “Learning Disabled” or even with Dyslexia. That is why Multiple Intelligences test is very useful.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Last lesson of the afternoon
1)
What are the persona’s feeling described in the first three stanzas of the poem?
He is feeling furious. He used the words “quarry of knowledge ” to show that he has a vast knowledge but it can also mean that the poet is the predator and the students are the prey and he is hunting them. The poet used the phrase “I am sick” to tell us that he is tired of the students but it can also mean that he has an illness and not mean that he is tired of teaching the pupils. The poet used the pun “I will not” to tell us that he does not have any desire to teach his students but it can also mean that he does not want to teach his students.
2)
The poet used the metaphor “unruly hounds” to refer to his students as they are rowdy and restless during his class. “My last drop of fuel” tells us that the persona has only a last drop of energy left and cannot continue or dpes not want to continue. The poet used the metaphor “several insults of blotted pages” to tell us that his students’ works were an insult to his intelligence and does not deserved to be marked by him as he felt that they did not respect him enough to give him better quality of work.
The two words, “apart” and “start” are associated to tell us that the students does not want to learn which causes the persona’s frustration and anger. Then the poet used the words “of, of ,of” to make the poem more dramatic and gives the poem a very frustrated mood. The words “soul “ and “toll” are used to emphasize that the poet is very angry and it is tiring.
3)
How is the tone of anger illustrated in this poem?
The poet used the diction in “leash” to show that he is trying to pull the students back into the classroom like an owner pulling his dog on a leash which shows that the persona is furious.
The poet had also used the diction “hounds” to suggest that the students were behaving like hounds , unruly , happy go lucky and restless.
“brunt” shows us that the persona is not able to withstand the pressure from the work and uses “brunt” to show a forceful image and that he tired of teaching his hopeless students. Finally, the poet uses “scrawl” instead of write to show the slipshod work the students gave him, and that they are driving him up the wall.
What are the persona’s feeling described in the first three stanzas of the poem?
He is feeling furious. He used the words “quarry of knowledge ” to show that he has a vast knowledge but it can also mean that the poet is the predator and the students are the prey and he is hunting them. The poet used the phrase “I am sick” to tell us that he is tired of the students but it can also mean that he has an illness and not mean that he is tired of teaching the pupils. The poet used the pun “I will not” to tell us that he does not have any desire to teach his students but it can also mean that he does not want to teach his students.
2)
The poet used the metaphor “unruly hounds” to refer to his students as they are rowdy and restless during his class. “My last drop of fuel” tells us that the persona has only a last drop of energy left and cannot continue or dpes not want to continue. The poet used the metaphor “several insults of blotted pages” to tell us that his students’ works were an insult to his intelligence and does not deserved to be marked by him as he felt that they did not respect him enough to give him better quality of work.
The two words, “apart” and “start” are associated to tell us that the students does not want to learn which causes the persona’s frustration and anger. Then the poet used the words “of, of ,of” to make the poem more dramatic and gives the poem a very frustrated mood. The words “soul “ and “toll” are used to emphasize that the poet is very angry and it is tiring.
3)
How is the tone of anger illustrated in this poem?
The poet used the diction in “leash” to show that he is trying to pull the students back into the classroom like an owner pulling his dog on a leash which shows that the persona is furious.
The poet had also used the diction “hounds” to suggest that the students were behaving like hounds , unruly , happy go lucky and restless.
“brunt” shows us that the persona is not able to withstand the pressure from the work and uses “brunt” to show a forceful image and that he tired of teaching his hopeless students. Finally, the poet uses “scrawl” instead of write to show the slipshod work the students gave him, and that they are driving him up the wall.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
My Favorite food is preserved vegetable, also known as Kim Chi in Korea and 泡菜 in china. It is preserved in Jars and normally water with bacteria is used. It comes in all kinds of colours and varieties, and tastes. Most Chinese preserved vegetables stink, while I am not so sure about other countries’. It is a by-product of the fermentation process. However, you will not bother much about the stink and looks of it when you muster up all your courage to taste it. It can be salty, sweet, or unbearably sour or spicy, sometimes all four at once! They make up an important part of the authentic Korean meal. It lets out a big “CRUNCH!” when it is chewed on, and that is a big part of the enjoyment. It is slick on your tongue, and slides down your throat smoothly. Sweet or sour, it is really tasty. It does not matter what type of vegetables you use, as the taste is more or less the same when you use spices to preserve it ,as the spices are all really strong-flavoured and a little bit spicy. They cover up all the original taste of the vegetables.
Picture from http://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2005/12/ugly_but_tasty.html
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
English E-learning lesson 2
I chose Mark Strand as my favourite poet is because he can communicate his feelings through poems exceptionally well. You can feel what he is feeling through his poems. Something like sleeping could mean a lot to him. An example is "Sleeping with One Eye Open". He expresses his feelings through the fear of war breaking out again. Many other poets all speak about things that do not mean much and are "bland".Now i will talk about his biography.
Mark Strand was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada. His early years were spent in North America, while much of his teenage years were spent in South and Central America. In 1957, he earned his B.A. from Antioch College in Ohio. Strand then studied painting under Josef Albers at Yale University where he earned a B.F.A in 1959. On a Fulbright Scholarship, Strand studied nineteenth-century Italian poetry in Italy during 1960-1961. He attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop the following year and earned a Master of Fine Arts in 1962. In 1965 he spent a year in Brazil as a Fulbright Lecturer.[citation needed] Strand has since taught at many universities and published eleven books of poetry, in addition to translations from the poetry of Rafael Alberti and Carlos Drummond de Andrade, among others. In 1997, he left Johns Hopkins University to accept the Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professorship of Social Thought at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Since 2006, Mark Strand teaches literature and creative writing at Columbia University, NYC.
In 1981, Strand was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress during the 1990-1991 term. Strand has received numerous awards including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1987 and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1999 for Blizzard of One.
[edit] Awards
• Fulbright Fellowship (1960-1961)
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (1979)
• MacArthur Fellowship (1987)
• Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1990-1991)
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry (1992)
• Bollingen Prize (1993)
• Pulitzer Prize (1999)
• Wallace Stevens Award (2004)
• Here are the 3 poems made by him:
• Blizzard of One
• It could be said, even here, that what remains of the self
Unwinds into a vanishing light, and thins like dust, and heads
To a place where knowing and nothing pass into each other, and through;
That it moves, unwinding still, beyond the vault of brightness ended,
And continues to a place which may never be found, where the unsayable,
Finally, once more is uttered, but lightly, quickly, like random rain
That passes in sleep, that one imagines passes in sleep.
What remains of the self unwinds and unwinds, for none
Of the boundaries holds – neither the shapeless one between us,
Nor the one that falls between your body and your voice. Joseph,
Dear Joseph, those sudden reminders of your having been – the places
And times whose greatest life was the one you gave them – now appear
Like ghosts in your wake. What remains of the self unwinds
Beyond us, for whom time is only a measure of meanwhile
And the future no more than et cetera et cetera ... but fast and forever.
Black Sea
•
One clear night while the others slept, I climbed
the stairs to the roof of the house and under a sky
strewn with stars I gazed at the sea, at the spread of it,
the rolling crests of it raked by the wind, becoming
like bits of lace tossed in the air. I stood in the long
whispering night, waiting for something, a sign, the approach
of a distant light, and I imagined you coming closer,
the dark waves of your hair mingling with the sea,
and the dark became desire, and desire the arriving light.
The nearness, the momentary warmth of you as I stood
on that lonely height watching the slow swells of the sea
break on the shore and turn briefly into glass and disappear ...
Why did I believe you would come out of nowhere? Why with all
that the world offers would you come only because I was here?
• Extracted from: http://waywiser-press.com/strand.html
• Biography from :www.wikipedia.org/Mark_Strand/
• Chenyang
Mark Strand was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada. His early years were spent in North America, while much of his teenage years were spent in South and Central America. In 1957, he earned his B.A. from Antioch College in Ohio. Strand then studied painting under Josef Albers at Yale University where he earned a B.F.A in 1959. On a Fulbright Scholarship, Strand studied nineteenth-century Italian poetry in Italy during 1960-1961. He attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop the following year and earned a Master of Fine Arts in 1962. In 1965 he spent a year in Brazil as a Fulbright Lecturer.[citation needed] Strand has since taught at many universities and published eleven books of poetry, in addition to translations from the poetry of Rafael Alberti and Carlos Drummond de Andrade, among others. In 1997, he left Johns Hopkins University to accept the Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professorship of Social Thought at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Since 2006, Mark Strand teaches literature and creative writing at Columbia University, NYC.
In 1981, Strand was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress during the 1990-1991 term. Strand has received numerous awards including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1987 and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1999 for Blizzard of One.
[edit] Awards
• Fulbright Fellowship (1960-1961)
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (1979)
• MacArthur Fellowship (1987)
• Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1990-1991)
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry (1992)
• Bollingen Prize (1993)
• Pulitzer Prize (1999)
• Wallace Stevens Award (2004)
• Here are the 3 poems made by him:
• Blizzard of One
• It could be said, even here, that what remains of the self
Unwinds into a vanishing light, and thins like dust, and heads
To a place where knowing and nothing pass into each other, and through;
That it moves, unwinding still, beyond the vault of brightness ended,
And continues to a place which may never be found, where the unsayable,
Finally, once more is uttered, but lightly, quickly, like random rain
That passes in sleep, that one imagines passes in sleep.
What remains of the self unwinds and unwinds, for none
Of the boundaries holds – neither the shapeless one between us,
Nor the one that falls between your body and your voice. Joseph,
Dear Joseph, those sudden reminders of your having been – the places
And times whose greatest life was the one you gave them – now appear
Like ghosts in your wake. What remains of the self unwinds
Beyond us, for whom time is only a measure of meanwhile
And the future no more than et cetera et cetera ... but fast and forever.
Black Sea
•
One clear night while the others slept, I climbed
the stairs to the roof of the house and under a sky
strewn with stars I gazed at the sea, at the spread of it,
the rolling crests of it raked by the wind, becoming
like bits of lace tossed in the air. I stood in the long
whispering night, waiting for something, a sign, the approach
of a distant light, and I imagined you coming closer,
the dark waves of your hair mingling with the sea,
and the dark became desire, and desire the arriving light.
The nearness, the momentary warmth of you as I stood
on that lonely height watching the slow swells of the sea
break on the shore and turn briefly into glass and disappear ...
Why did I believe you would come out of nowhere? Why with all
that the world offers would you come only because I was here?
• Extracted from: http://waywiser-press.com/strand.html
• Biography from :www.wikipedia.org/Mark_Strand/
• Chenyang
Sunday, June 28, 2009
English Home-Learning( Lesson 1)
Hello everyone, this is the poem I have chosen :
"
I want you to know
one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
if little by little you stop loving me
one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
if little by little you stop loving me
Well, now,
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine
"
The author has used figurative language in the following ways:
Personification--
"wrinkled body of the log",
"my love feeds on your love"
"if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me",
climbs up to your lips to seek me",
"my roots will set off
to seek another land."
to seek another land."
The author chose to use personification
as it makes two seemingly impossible
objects/actions/etc. seem possible.
I like this poem , mainly because the use of
the language is different from some other
poems that I have read.It makes the meaning
of the poem seem obvious to those who do not
really understand poems( which includes me).
Some other poems just state very deep sentences
which makes it difficult to understand. Another
reason is that it does not include violence, or any
other inappropriate content in it, and has a very
"mellow" atmosphere. It expresses its meaning
in a very smooth way. Anyone would understand
the meaning of this poem. It does not give off any
hint of racism, sexism, or any other inappropriate
moral values.This is my reasons for liking the poem.
Credits
"If You Forget Me" by Pablo Neruda
By Chenyang
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