In khmer class we observe how different books have different components to them, for example, some books (Khmer) doesn’t have a synopsis or acknowledgement. We also learned about writing a research paper and sources we can use.
Physics
We are currently learning about static equilibrium, friction and inclined planes. During the learning of concepts, I know new words like unbalanced force, static friction, kinetic friction, f_max and static equilibrium. We also used Khan Academy to practice those skills in general or when preparing for a quiz/test in addition to review questions given by our facilitator.
This is one of the questions we did:
Inclined planes: **Hard problem** A box of mass M = 10 Kg rests on a 35° inclined plane with the horizontal. A string is used to keep the box in equilibrium(this means all the forces are balanced). The string makes an angle of 25 ° with the inclined plane. The coefficient of friction between the box and the inclined plane is 0.3.
Draw the forces acting on the box, including all components.
Determine the tension force applied to the string. (You may find that you have two equations with two unknowns…think about what you usually have to do in this kind of situation.)
We are currently learning about static equilibrium, friction and inclined planes. During the learning of concepts, I know new words like unbalanced force, static friction, kinetic friction, f_max and static equilibrium. We also used Khan Academy to practice those skills in general or when preparing for a quiz/test in addition to review questions given by our facilitator.
First PSAT
Since the start of the school year I’ve been working on the SAT prep using Khan Academy for both math and literacy. For my first PSAT, I felt very nervous although I know that this is just to measure my progress and what I need to focus on. For the math section, I found most of the questions hard since I’ve never learned them before and got them wrong, but in result I have more to practice and learn to prepare for my next PSAT.
“Coming of Age” Narrative
“I’m thirteen now; it’s been five years since I arrived Liger as a lost and confused young girl. Five years since I made more than 50 friends because we have the juniors now. I’ve learned how to cook, clean, look after myself and manage my time. This isn’t the end yet, I still have many more steps and time for me to develop from a seed to a tree and be able to give out fruits. This means that I have to be determined, to work hard in order to become successful then give out those knowledge and help other people in my country, Cambodia.”
This is an excerpt from my narrative where I talked about changes that were kind of hard for me to adapt to. During this writing process I learned about parallel sentences, comma usage, being descriptive and precise.
2017 ISPPMUN
This year’s theme for the ISPPMUN was “Collaboration Not Confrontation”. I was in the General Assembly 3 (GA3) as the delegate of Algeria with many other students from different schools from Phnom Penh, Siem Riep and Vietnam. The three focused topics in my committee were the questions of Suitable Working Conditions and Worker’s Rights, Gender Wage Gap, and Combating Hate Groups. Going to the conference grounded helped me feeling more confident when debating or writing resolutions but it was affected when I found out I was the main submitter for my teams resolution (The question of gender wage gap). My first time going up to the podium to read all the operative clauses and answer questions from any delegate in the room was terrifying for me, but I believe this could help with my future MUNs and debating events. I learned a lot from this experience and am looking forward to joining more in the near future.
2015 ISPPMUN
This is my first time joining an MUN. We had to learn not to use personal pronounces, research on topics and country’s position and debate. For me, it was hard sometimes to stay with my country’s position because I personally may not agree with the choices when writing a resolution, but I had to because of my country’s position. I also learn how to write a resolution, it’s when countries get together to find solutions that everybody will agree on. In a resolution, we have to have six perambulator clauses, which are historical actions the UN have attempted to do (doesn’t matter if they success or not). We also need six operative clauses, which are the solutions the countries come up with and agrees on as a group. After writing the resolutions, everybody in the room will debate on them, that includes suggestions for change, strike the clause(s) or agree on. Overall it was an amazing experience for to me to join something like this because of how much I learned from it, but also having fun at the same time like making new friends or getting to share my ideas/listening to other’s ideas as well. This is something I would like to do more in the future.
Waste Management
I was in exploration called Waste Management. In this class we were learning about waste problems in our community and finding solutions to it by creating a business to help benefit both us and the community. Our idea for the business was taking trash from households, markets, restaurants and schools. For organic waste we want to make compost with it then sell to farmers, for other trash we want to recycle some and sell some. Before opening the business, we wrote a feasibility study. We were put into small groups of three to four to work on different parts of the feasibility. We needed a lot of information from the community to write the feasibility study. So, we went into the village to ask people about their trash issues and what they want. During this exploration I learned about TELOS. Its stands for technology, economy, legal, organization or operation and schedule feasibility.
On Wednesday 30th of December, the final week of this exploration, we had a Sharation. Sharation is when we invite people from outside of school to share about what we’ve learned or final product of our exploration to them. We presented our feasibility study and about our exploration, but most of time we spent on finishing the feasibility.
This is our feasibility study if you want to take a look at it:
(PDF of feasibility)
PPYFF
Sopheak an I are in one of the groups that joined the Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival also known as PPYFF. Sopheak and I switch job to make it fair, so sometimes I do the cameraman and she’s the boom mic person and vise versa. My favorite parts of making the movie were decorating the scenes especially the witch scene and writing the screenplay. Our challenge was the dog, Harry, he was one of the actors and it’s hard telling a dog what to do. I really enjoy making the movie and would like to make more.
Here’s our movie
And here’s the link to the PPYFF Youtube channel if you want to see the other movies:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCriNwK9F5evuFgMPbf4sfmw
Minister Day
There was a group of 50 to 60 people from the Ministry of Education and school directors from Phnom Penh came to our school. There were five groups of students presenting. The groups were VIP(visitor information palace), English/Khmer literacy, Recruitment and Science. I was in the VIP team where two of the six students will give a tour of the school to the ministers and school heads. I gave two tours. It’s kind of hard at first because it was my first time giving a tour in Khmer. I would forget the translation for some words and don’t know how to answer some of the questions. It was also very to explain a word like Exploration in khmer because there’s no translation for it. I think I did better the second time because from what I learn from the first I did it is don’t read what you memorized from the script but say what you memorized.
Year one notebook reflection
I’ve learned in Liger for three years now. I believe that my writing way back in 2012 was not so great and hard to understand. I spelled a lot of words wrong. For example I wrote comprehesion cheeks instead of comprehension checks or us instead of use. Some of the sentences in my writing don’t really make sense. For example my favorite strategies I will us is show or act it out and ask khmer teacher or friends. Now, I think
that my grammar has improved. Back in the first year I learned about helping verbs by using the CHAD B. SWIM chart but now I learned a different strategy by using the verb to be, verb to have and verb to do chart.This is an example of an explanation from my 2015 binder about an idiom called back to square one “Back to square one means that you failed at something you wanted to accomplish or succeed at, so now you have to start over.” I feel like this sentence has better grammar compared to the 2012 sentence. My level on the guided reading books was E, F, I, J and K but now my level is around W. Also my handwriting has improved a little bit by now because it is more organized than before.