HI DAD

Just want to make a shout out to my AWESOME dad, happy Father's Day! Oh, wait, that's just been, hasn't it? Oh well, that's not the main point of this post anyway.

You know for our Affective Domain studies on a gifted individual (I'm doing Albert Einstein. I've made a blog about it previously - if you haven't read it already then do so now) how there's certain criteria that we have to meet? Well, one of them is "Information and pictures about any coaches or mentors they may have had." Now, Albert Einstein didn't have any major coaches or mentors that I know of, but his interest in Physics was triggered by his Father, who showed him a pocket compass one time. Albert was curious and started to explore the reasons and the science behind compasses, and from then on he started doing experiments just for funsies, and as he did this he began to show a talent for Mathematics and Physics. 

So, the Albert Einstein you know of today - the genius, the mastermind, the brainiac - MAY not be as successful as he is now if it weren't for his dear old pa. 

I'm Such A Little Bookworm

Yes, it's true - I am very much the bookworm.  I literally walk around banging into things because my nose is stuck in a book, most likely involving war, murder or supernatural themes. Here are a few of my favorites:

What If They Find Us? by Kathy Clark
The Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling
Light As a Feather, Stiff As a Board by Zoe Aarsen
Twilight By Stephanie Meyer
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

But anyway, that's not actually what this post is about. Today we had Round 2 of the teacher-led workshops. I'm in Word Patterns with the amazing Nicola, and today we were making crosswords.

Who would have known how absolutely frustrating this task could be! I mean, all you have to do is choose a theme, put in some words and make them fit together, and add some clues, right? WRONG!

On the second sheet I went back and back to the first mini-crossword, the theme for which was Sport. It was originally Dance but that didn't work so I rubbed it off and started again. I did this many times until finally I had finished the first mini-crossword with the theme Sports. One of the words was Emily because that was the only thing that would fit... hey, for all we know, there' a famous swimmer or runner or discus-thrower or whatever called Emily!

For the last five minutes or so we played a game on the iPads called Bookworm. It's highly addictive and VERY educational, I assure you. Look it up on the app store and download it, you'll have your eyes glued to your iPad/iPod/iPhone/Tablet/Android/You Get The Idea for the rest of your LIFE!

Mwahahahahahahahaha.

SUCCESS!!!

I can't believe it! I've kicked that chess leader board in the BUTT after our chess session today! Usually I dread playing chess, and I'll tell you why...

At the start of the year, the names were placed randomly on the board. And I just happened to be at the very bottom. Just by coincidence. But I suppose SOMEBODY has got to be at the bottom, don't they?
But then again, this was turning into a problem for me. I would only ever move one or two spots up at a time and then I'd move back down the following week and so on. My mum came in one sharing night and saw me at the bottom of the board and started ranting. "You've seriously let your game slip, don't you care about your education, chess is SO important, if you played your brother at home more you'd be better," etc, etc. I still never really did anything about it though, until today.

Just another Monday. The music blared, we all raced down to the mat. Darryn took the roll, we went over the day plan. Sorted ourselves into groups for workshops. The student email got handed over to the same people as last week. Then...
"Chess!"
Oh no, oh no. All of my friends were already paired up, and so I had to challenge somebody I hardly knew. I looked up and down the leader board, from the top to the bottom. All the good spots were reserved by all the really good chess players that I'd have no chance of beating. But somewhere on the board, kind of in the middle, but still pretty high up, I saw a familiar name. "Whatever, he goes to my school, he's not a complete stranger," I thought. With a small sigh, I challenged him and we started the game.

I knew I was off to a good start when I took his queen right near the start. I lured him over with my rook, but by the time he realized that he couldn't take me because I was protected, it was too late, he was over there anyway. I moved my pawn forward - if he didn't move his queen, it would get taken. But he'll move his queen away, I told myself. Don't get your hopes up.
But, miraculously, he DIDN'T move his queen away! He moved a pawn or a bishop or something and realized what he had done only as he lifted his hand off the pawn or the bishop, whatever it was. I moved forward, grinning, and took his queen. Then, it was only a matter of time as I moved my queen to his king and maneuvered him into CHECKMATE!

Way to Go, Einstein!

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but for Affective Domain we have to study a gifted adult. I am studying Albert Einstein, a.k.a Abnormally Insanely Intelligent Human Life Form. He mainly excelled in Mathematics and Physics, which is pretty much exactly opposite from me. He actually failed in French in his entrance exams for the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich! And several other subjects! But he did really really well in his Physics and Mathematics exam. 
He was born on the 14th of March 1879 (which makes him a Pisces like me!) in Ulm, Germany. Yeah, weird name, but then cities in Germany often have weird names. 
He was Jewish. That is something that deeply interested me. I never actually knew that. Another thing that really interested me was that one his papers was published in a science journal called Annalen der Physik. Hey, another weird name!
But then I suppose, if you think about it in a different way, Einstein was a bit of a weird guy...