Willowbank Wildlife Reserve

 It was the 4th of June; we, the students of 11 ESOL went to the Willowbank Wildlife Resort to prepare for our reading assessment.

After our first period class, we went to our classroom in B-block to assemble. Miss Briggs started a headcount to check our attendance and we made our way to Willowbank.
Upon arriving, we were divided in three groups with different teachers leading us, our group went inside and saw the eels. After that, we went to the deer yard where the fallow deer are, we saw some swans on our way.
Next, we saw different birds; the geese, pukeko and the emus and shortly after we went to see the wallabies and many more animals.
We all met in one place after that, we went inside the kea enclosure to study about the kea. We met Rachel who taught us what the keas are, what they eat and about their peaking orders. Some keas even flew and rested on top of my classmates' heads. Afterwards, we went to the nocturnal house to see the kiwis, we gathered in one spot because we saw two walking. They look really small.

We all finished our tour by answering the questions in our booklet, we went around more time and spent the rest of our time in the cafe to eat and answer. The bus arrived and we all went back feeling very satisfied with our trip.

The Kea

   The Kea is a type of parrot found in the South Island of New Zealand. They are known for being one of the most intelligent birds.

 Their name was based on their in-flight call "Keee ah." Keas are medium fast flyers, they fly 40 kilometres per hour. They weigh 800 grams but they can lift more than a kilogram. Their lifespans differ depending on their environment and lifestyle. Keas living in the wild live from approximately 5 to 25 years, keas living in captivity can live up to 50 years.
   No one knows why they are intelligent, it can somehow be explained because they are part of the parrot genealogy. They test things with their beak and they are the most aggressive when they are being fed. Keas don't hunt for food however they are after bugs.
  Males keas act tough on other males and they like to play with female keas. They don't migrate to other countries, they usually live in the lower part of the South Island mountains. Their natural predators are hawks.

solo performance research.

Group Performance Evaluation

Shareable link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jcvdxBB2K22QLqD2WHGpvzN-Q6gICU6f
- What was your given grade? Were you happy with it?
  My group's grade is still on moderation, but in my very honest opinion, I might get merit.
- What were the challenges of working in a group?
  I am a person who would prefer working solo because I don't really think that there is something I could contribute other than my voice. We also had a hard time picking for a song, the song we have performed wasn't the song we had originally planned and I just agreed because they just started working on it. As the vocalist, I had a hard time trying to feel the song due to some personal experience.
- What did you enjoy most about this task?
  We didn't really stress much about this performance but that didn't mean we didn't dedicate ourselves to this performance. I also enjoyed how I learned a bit about working in a group. I also liked how the stage was set up during the performances in the auditorium.

soundtrack of my life.

Group Performance Blog

1. Song Choice

 Our song of choice is Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur, this song is one of our three options that would be suitable for a performance group of three.

2. Person working with

 I will be working on the vocal, Mathyis will work on the piano and Josiah will be on the guitar tabs.

3. Meaning and Composers 

Arthur personally said that "it literally relates to a lot of people as it tells a story." he also said, "The inspiration was to look at someone's life and the path through it with a partner. Some of it is personal and some of it is inspired by people around me as well as imagining what life is in the other peoples' relationships."

The song was written by James Arthur himself, along with Neil Ormandy and Steve Solomon.

18 February 2019

- We had a few conflicts with our choice of song, I am a vocalist who is struggling with the lower notes. Arthur's song is a bit low for my range and I think trying to adjust to the song's pitch would ruin the song overall. The two have decided to transpose the range higher that would fit for my range.

- For this week, I want us to have progress on the instrumental of the song in terms of transposing it. It's a bit difficult for Mathyis but we will work hard on that. 

English Learning Goals

For this school year 2019, I've made a list of goals for the whole year as time progresses.
I'm aiming to improve my spelling and vocabulary in terms of writing. I also hope that I'll be able to improve more in my writing skills.
I also want to improve in speaking, I want to be able to speak in front of an audience without feeling scared.
I also want to open myself more to more topics for the year and I want to explore more about myself as a try to aim for improvement and excellence.