The Search for Identity

English Literacy always has its own theme for each school term and for this term our theme is about “The Search for Identity”. We are having our assessment which is reading a fictional book to identify the characters and having a discussion with our team about the story every week with different roles such as Inferencer, Summarizer, Symbolizer, Words Detector and Visualizer. For me, I am reading a book by John Green, Looking for Alaska. Like a quote from John Green about looking for Alaska written: “An only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive”.  That is why identify characters and author meaning in a book is very important. The way story in Looking for Alaska tell is more like a romance novel, but it’s also about a friendship that suffers together in a boarding school. However, in this class, we also create our own poems that inspire by George Ella Lyon who is a girl from Kentucky, United State. I have my own poem which is about “I am from” that related to our theme. This is my poem:

I am from a tricycle,

from Dumex and gruel

I am from the Lumber smooth

I am from the jujube

The java apple whose long gone limbs I remember as if they were my own.

 

I’m from red pocket and Caishen,

from Grandmother and Father

I’m from gathering and sharing,

and from remembering.

 

I’m from spirit told and helping,

and “S’art Jea Nix” that sing along

I’m from Lunar New Year

I’m from the Red Cross sign and Cantonese spiderweb,

family recipe cookies and marine under the river

from a flow of the river from China,

Grandma ends up in Steung Treng

Bracelet of working hard

In my heart, the achieve after Bloodshed

 

Kolab Pailin (Rose of Pailin)

នៅក្នុងថ្នាក់ភាសាខ្មែរ​ ពួកយើងបានសិក្សា អំពីរឿងព្រេងផ្សេងៗ របស់ប្រទេសកម្ពុជា ប៉ុន្តែពួកយើងបាន ផ្ដោតសំខាន់ទៅរឿងមួយដែលមានចំណងជើងថា​​ “កុលាបប៉ៃលិន”។ ហើយនេះជាការសង្ខេបរបស់រឿងនេះៈ
នេះជារឿងរបស់បុរសម្នាក់មានឈ្មោះចិត្រ ដែលឪពុកបានស្លាប់ ហើយត្រូវទៅធ្វើនៅឯខេត្តប៉ៃលិន ជាកម្មករជីករ៉ែ។ ចិត្រជាបុរសឆ្លាត និងបានបម្រើលោកថៅកែយ៉ាងល្អ រួមជាមួយននឹងកូនស្រីដ៏ឆ្លាត​ របស់លោកថៅកែ។ នេះជារឿងដេលនិយាយអំពីសេចក្ដីស្រលាញ់ ដែលខុនវណ្ណះរបស់មនុស្ស ដែលកូនស្រីរបស់សេដ្ឋីប៉ៃលិន ដែលលង់ស្រលាញ់នឹងបុរសដែលធ្វើការឲ្យឪពុករបស់ខ្លួនជាអ្នកជីករ៉ែ។ រឿងនេះក៏បានប្រាប់អំពី ឧបសគ្គ​និង ការក្បត់របស់បាល្ល័តស្រុក ដែលមានឋានៈខ្ពង់ខ្ពស់ ក្នុងសង្គម។

 

In Khmer Literacy, we learned about different old Cambodian stories, but we were more focusing on a story which called “Kolab Pailing” or in English meant “Rose of Pailin”. This is a summary of the story:

It’s a story of a man named “Chet” who his father died and had to go to work at Pailin which is one of the Cambodia provinces as a gem collector. He’s a clever man and had treated his boss perfectly including his intelligent daughter. It’s a story that talks about the love of different class of people which was a daughter of a wealthy family that in love with a man who works for her father as a gem collector. It told the story of struggle and the betray of a high-class people in society.

Traditional Food Exploration

This is a traditional food exploration which we are focusing on explore tradition in Cambodia, story behind each dish, to understand the transformation of Cambodian traditional foods from the past to the present and future and discover and share how food impacts family, society, and culture. To find good answers for our goal, we need to go on the trip and interview some of the professional chefs to see the different perspective from them. As we interviewed them, we found two different definitions of Cambodian food and Khmer food. From a perspective of chef Joannes Riviere who own Cuisine Wat Damnak restaurant in Siem Reap said that “Cambodia food and Khmer food is different. Cambodia food is some kind of food that influenced by other countries but has been eaten in Cambodia a long time ago. For Khmer food is foods or recipe that created by our ancestors themselves.” For chef Kethana who own Sugar Palm restaurant in Siem Reap said that “There are no differences between Cambodia food and Khmer food.” To end our exploration successfully, we had created a blog called “Khmer Cuisine”.

English Literacy, Justice

Literacy has been increase in this past few year. I learnt different type of sentences until paragraphs and now essay. Last year, our class mostly written about descriptive essay and now we are writing argumentative essay. Before starting to write the argumentative essay, we learnt the SDGs goal which was Environmental Justice that were talking about the minority group in Connecticut. Also, we have been assign to have four team which had a different country that is talking about people who are staying in the landfill. Also, we got to know a little bit about the data of civil justice in Southeast Asia. To end the goal, we learnt more about social Justice and how the problems affect us. To come to conclusion of the term, now we are writing a argumentative about our past explorations that are solving problems or somethings related to SDGs goal.

The Three Type of Bond

This is the second term of learning Physical science is about the three bonding. They are Covalent bond, ionic bond and metallic bond. It seems that the name is really different to each other, but the explanation is similar. Ionic bond is a bond that one element give give the electrons to other element. For example, Sodium gives its electron to Chlorine. Covalent bond is a bond that  elements share each other electrons. For instance, Oxygen share electrons with other Oxygen element. Metallic bond is a bond that one element shared electron with other element. For example, Copper and Silver.

Geometry and Ratio

This is the second term of 2018 – 2019. We finished Primary Mathematics 5A book and about to start the new one. For this term, we are learning Geometry and Ratio a lot which give the ideas what it’s like to measure shapes and using ratio as a daily life in the future. For example, if you having a job and you need to manage your money on needs, wants and save which ratio would help. It’s also help comparing the different between things easily especially, gender.

Example of having job and need to be decide in other needs, wants and save

For geometry, we are focusing a lot on finding areas especially for triangles and rectangles. As we start learning geometry, it’s leaning from first by counting grid and later calculation until solving harder and harder problems. Sometimes, it’s hard as it more difficult for the word problems, but that’s things need to be challenge in math. However, solving problems always have technique to solve it easily especially try to understand it at the very first start.

Photography Basic

As I said in the description of me that hobby make me become a great photographer. I like photography in this reality world. In my multimedia class which I learned more basic about photography which is the exposure triangle, it consist Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO. These are basic knowledge that we make our photos better and its editable, but mostly photographers use modes in camera as Aperture mode which easier to be flexible by using it.

 

Shutter speed is one mode in the exposure triangle that mostly used to capture motion. It’s measure in fraction of a second. The higher the shutter speed is, it can captured motion easily, but it’s will bring less light. The lower the shutter speed is, it will bring more light, but can’t easily captured the motion.

Aperture is the size of opening lens that let the lights come through the camera. The wide aperture will has a shallow depth of field. The narrow  aperture will has a deep depth of field which is good for landscape, scenery and long shot. Depth of field is the changes of the background which change into blurry or not.

ISO is how sensitive your camera is to light. Once we have no more choice to let the light come through the camera by changing Aperture or Shutter speed, we would want to increase the ISO. When higher the ISO, the more noise it will create in your photo which make it hard for editing and also it’s don’t look good.

With this technique, it’s will make photo has a good quality with it, but also we technique to take photo and different angle to make it more effective, give more details and showing emotion. Most photographer use Long shot, Full shot, Medium shot, Close up, Extreme close up, Low angle, High angle, Eye level, Dutch angle/tilt, over the shoulder or bird’s eye view.

Full shot
Medium shot
Close up
Extremely close up
Low angle
High angle
Eye level
Bird’s eye view

 

 

 

English Literacy

In Liger, all the students are native Khmer, but we learned English Literacy in our class. In the first term of school year, we focusing on one theme which is about root words and it’s basically about ancient and history of English language which had create from different period of time. We also learn about the timeline of different things happen that related to the language every year. As our school is a based learning school, we also watching different videos, work on some poem and read fiction and non-fiction articles that related to our theme. As I learn through this, I know that some of the English words are from Greek or even Latin. I as a Cambodian student with classmates also correlate the theme to Cambodia language that some of the Khmer words are from French because of the French Colonization in the past. I really enjoy learning this theme.

Mathematics

In mathematics class, we are learning about different things, but in this term mostly we are learning about fraction. It’s one of the lesson from our math book called Primary Mathematics 5A. It’s easy to learn how to calculate different things, but it will be more easy if I practice time to time. Also, In math class, calculation is not a problem, but the hard things to do is word problem which is not my first language. Even though, it is hard for me, but I still love it because it’s challenging with make my brain work faster.

Physical Science

In STEM, we are focusing on one theme which is Physical Science. Now, we are learning about matter. How matters are made and different kind of matter. One things that make up matter is atom. For the last two week of this term, we are learning and researching about atom and what create atom. We knew that atom is the particle that can’t with our naked eyes, but there are quarks that create neutrons and protons inside the atom. Scientist found out that quarks is smallest particle that they have found. There are should be smaller particle than quark, but this the only things we know for now. This lesson is new and make more ideas for our Cambodian students in Liger including me.