Je suis si excite!!!

If you're wondering what 'Je suis si excite' means, it's French for 'I'm so excited.' And I am - really excited! Another thing you might be wondering is why I chose French. I mean, why not Italian, or Spanish, or Japanese? Well, I chose French because next week I am going to do a French workshop with Madison, as part of the student-led workshops.

I've wanted to learn French for ages, and I've heard of lots of different websites but I never found the time. Now I'm going to be learning with Madison, a student who has been studying French for her Passion Project. And, like I said before, I'm REALLY EXCITED! 

I don't really know why I want to learn French, of all languages. I don't have any French heritage or anything. Pretty much the only connection I have with France is that I do ballet, and all the moves are in French, and ballet originated in France and all that. Also, my older cousin Madison (not the Madison who's going to be taking the workshop) went to France last year, and she had the most AWESOME time. I was so jealous!

Anyway, I know a bit of basic French - Bonjour, Au revior, je, suis, si, excite, oui, non, maines, maman, papa. But I can't wait to learn more!

My Story

I didn't just call this post "My Story" because I am writing a story, and it's mine. I called it My Story because that's an example of the type of book I'm writing. I don't know if you've ever read the My Story series, but they're really, really good. They're all diaries, set in the past. The ones I'm most interested in are the ones set in the Tudor times, like...

Lady Jane Grey 

Elizabeth

Henry VIII's wives

Anne Boleyn and Me

Bloody Tower

And now I'm writing a historical fiction novel in the form of a diary. I don't know what it's called yet, because for some reason I always put the title of the story last. But I can tell you this. The years it's set in are 1533 to 1536 (Tudor times). The main character is called Annabelle Richmond, and she's aged 11 - 14 as the years go on. 

I started at 2 January 1533, and, by skipping days as diaries do, I'm now on the 25 January 1533 (the day that dear Henry VIII got married to him doomed second wife, Anne Boleyn).

I want to get the writing side of it done as soon as possible so that there's plenty of time for me to think about the publishing side of things, and so I can start on a new Passion Project hopefully at the end of this term.

I did some more research on those lovely Tudors today after I had done some writing, mainly about Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, (cousin of his fifth wife) and her EXECUTION!!!

This project is really beneficial. I'm learning so much while still having fun, I'm learning to manage my time well, I'm learning research skills, I'm learning task commitment, AND I'm practicing my writing! And all of it ties into one big passion, probably the academic passion I'm most passionate about: 

WRITING A DIARY ABOUT THE TUDOR TIMES. 

Passion Project Progress

Mwahahahahaha (laugh of Henry the Eighth)

As you know, for my Passion Project I am studying History (Tudors) to make a Horrible Histories type of book. The research is coming along, but boy, are those guys evil! And I thought I knew just how cruel and spoilt Henry the Eighth was. If you'll believe it, he had his own whipping boy when he was a kid, who got punished every time Henry did something wrong! Unfair or what? I also learnt that the Tudors were dirty old weasels. Henry's daughter Elizabeth the First had a bath once every three months, and people thought she was some kind of hygiene freak! I'm learning lots about the Tudor family tree. One of the things is that our current Queen, Elizabeth the Second, is actually RELATED to dear old Henry! The lines are vague, but yes, they are distantly related. I looked it up and found a Yahoo answer (don't worry, I cross-referenced) that told me exactly how they were related. I would put  the answer on here, but it's really confusing. Basically, Elizabeth, Henry's daughter, was succeeded by her cousin James the First, who was also related to Henry. His granddaughter Sophia married into the Hanover line (the current English line are descendants of Hanovers) and produced George the First. Charles the Second, James the First's grandson, had no children so next in line was his brother then he had kids and blah-de-blah and so on, and then Parliament took it all back to James the First, hence George the First, and then along came Elizabeth the Second. 
Told you it was confusing! 
And now I'm thinking of altering what I'm doing a little. Instead of making a book like Horrible Histories, I'm going to write a historical fiction story, like the My Story series. All this research is still crucial, as it's important to know as much as possible about the period of time you're writing historical fiction about. 

Reflections

The four cornerstones at Enrich are Concept Curriculum, Mental Edge, Passion/Talent, and Affective Domain. I've mentioned them a million times in my posts. And I've got a hundred and seventeen of them. We all know what they are and what they mean. At Enrich, we do activities to learn about the cornerstones. And those activities are usually fun. (Usually...)
We've done lots even in this first term (yes, it is nearly over. How very sad) and today we had to reflect on them. There was a paper copy and a digital copy, and we had to fill out the four boxes, one for each cornerstone, saying what activities we did to learn about that cornerstone and why we did it. Sorry if I'm boring you. I do try and make my posts exciting, but no luck - yet (heh heh heh....) I did a digital version, and it was pretty easy (once the gigglers I was working beside got themselves sorted and on with it!).
Here is my copy of the Term One reflection: (Sorry if it's a bit hard to read).

Sheep Drama

Remember the post titled ABC Drama? Well, that was a drama game, but it was only one of the many we're going to be doing this year.

Today we played four more, and they were really fun! I'll only describe one today. It was a game where three people sat in a line on the 'stage.' One of them said a word. BORING! But wait - it gets better. Then the next in line had to say another word. Patience, it does get better! And the words had to knit together to make a story — but each person was only allowed to say one word at a time. 

Here's an example:

Person 1: Yesterday

Person 2: I

Person 3: Went

1: To 

2: The 

3: Shops 

1: And 

2: I 

3: Bought 

1: A 

2: Sheep. (End of sentence.)

3: And 

1: The

2: Sheep 

3: Was 

1: Hairy. (End of  sentence.)

 2: I was

PERSON 2 YOU ARE OUT! 

Then another person takes the place of Person 2. Get it? The game was really, really fun, but it also got us thinking. Whenever we got too slow, Nicola would clap her hands impatiently, and we'd snap back to fast mode!

Passion Proposals

Bonjour, mon bon personnes!

Oops, sorry, that's French for 'Greetings, my good people!' (I'm thinking of learning French.)
So... PASSION PROJECTS!!! I have a crystal clear idea of what I am going to do, and I have filled out the proposal sheet. What I would like to do is...
I would like to study history. Not that boring-doring stuff they drum into you at school, like heir to the throne, rightful ruler, blah-de-blah-de-blah-blah-blah. No, I mean I want to learn more about that beast of a man, King Henry VIII, and him ordering to have people's heads chopped off, including two of his own six wives! Old nutter. And about the TORTURE DEVICES and the Tower of London and the many burnings, ordered by the oh-so-lovely Queen Mary I. Sounds good to me!
Once I've taken down loads of notes about the Tudor times, as that is the particular area that I will be studying, I'll make it into a sort of report thing, or maybe a book, because that sort of ties in with my OTHER passion, which is writing. Cool, right?
I still have to have a conference with Darryn, to see if he'll let me do my Passion project, so fingers crossed!

ABC Drama

No, I am not talking about trying to teach a dramatic toddler the ABC, I'm talking about the game we played with the marvelous Nicola!

Hands up if you know the alphabet? Whoa, too many hands! Okay, let me try again. Hands up who doesn't know the alphabet?
...................................................................................................................................................................
Okay, so its pretty obvious that 98 percent of us know how the alphabet goes. So the following game should be easy, right? WRONG! 
Am I boring you? Because it feels a little like I'm boring you. Can you see a pattern? Ding dong, can't you see it already? Epic, nobody can see this pattern. Flobberworms, this is DEFINITELY boring. Gaaah, this is infuriating! 
To stop my head blowing up, I'll just tell you the pattern. Nice and simple.
Go back to the first letter of every sentence. This how they go: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Strangely enough, there's the alphabet!
So do you know how the game works? Imagine a conversation between me and my dear old brother Noah.
Me: Alright, want to play chess?
Noah: Bah, no way.
Me: Come on, you used to love chess!
Noah: Duh, not anymore.
Me: in a silly French accent: Eet ees boring, just sitting here talking about it!
Noah: Flips. Let's do flips on the trampoline instead.
Me: Gah, alright.
Noah: Hooray!

Get the picture?
Nicola told us that some people can just do this as if they're having a completely normal conversation. She said its fun to watch. 
Go on, why not have a game with your friends? You only have ten seconds to think of a sentence. Once you're good at that, cut it down to five seconds. If you keep cutting it down, eventually you'll be pros!