The Saskatchewan government made a bunch of big mistakes like building extra P3 (private schools) and getting rid of some important public assets. Then, to earn the money back that they wasted, they’re cutting budgets for workers, increasing taxes, cutting education funds, reducing funding to regional parks, and they would have stopped funding libraries if it weren’t for all he protests and petitions created by people in Saskatchewan.

It would have been much better for the economy if they had only increased taxes, but instead they stopped funding many public services which is very damaging to people in Saskatchewan; it’s increasing our debt and deficits.

The Saskatchewan government can’t manage their taxing correctly. They have made tax cuts for rich corporations, and increased tax for the less fortunate, hard-working people who need the money more. Instead of raising the taxes for law-abiding citizens, they could have worked harder on fixing loopholes in the tax laws, or at least finding the people who are exploiting them. They need to crack down on those people who are avoiding taxes and exploiting them, rather than hurting the people who are working hard.

Tom Graham, the president of CUPE, says, “Wall seems to have little idea what to do about it other than cut services and workers’ pay cheques. Instead, the government should focus on growing and diversifying the economy, and maintaining the spending power of Saskatchewan people instead of putting people out of work.”

Some economists have predicted that the Saskatchewan government could easily balance our budget within a few years without having to make all of these budget/funding cuts by spreading out and increasing revenue and making the taxing system fairer.

I think that the government needs to change their way of thinking and find a new way to earn the money back that they blew. It’s frustrating to think that our government is taxing us unfairly and trying to take away our libraries, schools, busses, etc. just so they can go and spend it all on stuff that we don’t need.

Sask Party budget punishes working families for government’s mismanagement while rewarding corporations, says CUPE

I think that in today’s society, we have to be much more careful with the kind of news we read and photos/videos we look at. There were some incidents involving photoshop in the past; Stalin, for example, took people out of his photos when they fell out of his favour. However, more people have access to photoshopping software now than ever before, and it’s becoming easier to use. Because of this, it’s important to be able to decipher what is fake news and what is genuine. There are many new technologies being developed to make it easier to fake photos and videos, therefore, people in our society have to be watchful when it comes to the types of articles we read and photos/videos we look at since they’ve become so easy to fake.

For our ELA project, we created 6 word memoirs that represented who we are. Basically, we had to come up with sentences that had only 6 words that were supposed to represent who we are. Some are metaphors/similes, some have alliteration, some don’t have anything.

My ELA project was to make a visualization about a book I’ve chosen to read. I’ve recently been reading through the Harry Potter series, and I just finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This book is absolutely fascinating, I couldn’t stop reading it. There were so many parts of the book that I wanted to recreate for the cover, it was hard to decide. I’m not going to say exactly what I did for the front; it’s kind of a spoiler. This project was a lot of fun to do, but sometimes I felt like I wanted to snap my iPad in half out of rage since some of the tools I was using just didn’t work. Then, when we finished, we did an audio recording of a reflection we made. It should be in my blog, and the link is right here: https://swaggerswoog.edublogs.org

Reflecting on the fact that you studied and did some online research to learn about Shakespeare and specifically the play of Romeo and Juliet before we started reading it together, what are your thoughts on that process or method of beginning this text study?

I feel that it really helped me understand what each of the characters are like. It helped me understand what the overall play would be like as well based on what kind of topic and characters it had. It also helped me get a good idea of how long it would take, so I could prepare for the kinds of things we did. It’s a great idea to get the kids to study the play on their own, because everyone learns differently, so they can all research things in their own way. Similarly, it’s a good idea to have questions for them to do. Some students may not know what they should be researching and could get lost, so it’s good to have questions for them so they know what they should be figuring out.

How do you think it changed your experience of Romeo and Juliet, having studied it and learned so much about it before reading it together? Give one specific example to help support your perspective.

I find that all the research really helped me understand what was going to happen in the play, so that it would be easier to understand while going through it. I wouldn’t have to ask any questions about what the characters were doing and why they were doing it. However, it took away some of the fun of reading a story. There weren’t any surprises or plot twists, because we studied so much that I knew exactly what was going to happen.

Would you recommend for other students in the future to go through the step of studying Shakespeare and the play elements before reading it? Explain the reasoning for your answer. Pick one – yes you’d recommend it or no you wouldn’t.

I would say yes, it’s a good idea. It would take a much longer time to do the play without any background knowledge since everyone would be asking so many questions about what was happening, and lots of people would still be confused after questions were answered. The only downside I can see is that it makes the play much less enjoyable. If everyone knows exactly what happens, there’s no shock value in the play and it becomes much more dull.

You journalled as Romeo immediately after he killed Tybalt and lost his friend Mercutio. Explain how you felt completing that journalling, first person writing: challenging, easy enough, a breeze? Explain what about it made it this way for you?

I feel that it was pretty challenging. The first part was easy since there were so many things to talk about, but after a while, I really had to stretch out my material. I think that my journal would sound a lot nicer if I hadn’t had to include 500+ words, maybe 330+ would be enough, but I understand that some people wouldn’t be able to include all the information that they want to talk about in just 330 words.

Our debates: You’ve completed many other debates before, you’d shared. How was this debate any different from the others you’ve done previously, or was it different? If it was, in what way was it different? What parts of the planning work helped prepare you for the actual exchange of the debate?

The last big debate I can remember was our debate in health class. That debate was a lot less organized. Instead of having opening statements, rebuttals, and such, we just talked back and fourth. I feel that our health debate was also much calmer. Nobody said anything out of hand, and nobody became flustered of uncomfortable. It was much more formal and up-tight than this debate was. We also had to plan out our last debate along with this one, which is a good thing. If nobody planned their debates, people would begin forgetting what their points were and the debates would be, frankly, a lot less interesting. If everyone’s planned out what they’re going to say, it flows much smoother and the points are clearer and more understandable.

How do you feel your performance of your debate related to your preparation of the debate?
(Ex: I prepared a lot but performed poorly; it might have been because….. )
(Ex: I didn’t prepare much, but performed really well; it might have been because….)

I prepared a lot, and I think I did really well. I put much time and thought into what I was going to say, and what my opponent would say so that I could have a strong rebuttal. I also pin-pointed my strongest ideas, and the ones that related most to my topic. Then, after saying all of them, I proceeded to my more vague points. I did this so that all of the information I was throwing out would seem overwhelming.

What new elements of developing a presentation have you learned from preparing your Comparison Project? List two specific elements you tried that were different from what you’ve done before and how you felt they worked for you in the end.

I learned that I shouldn’t be talking in first person when preforming a presentation. I should talk in the third person instead of saying things like, “I will tell you… I’m going to show you… I’m going to compare…” I also learned that I need to credit my sources when finding a picture; to copy and paste the image address into the PowerPoint. It was also a very helpful experience because I learned how to do a lot of new things in PowerPoint, such as having different coloured slides.

Are you becoming more comfortable with speaking projects and activities? Explain.

I was always pretty comfortable with talking in front of an audience. However, I feel like I’ve learned more about myself by watching videos about how I present things, so I will know how to improve and to try stopping myself from making the same mistakes in the future.

 Romeo + Juliet Response

William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) is a movie based on the text, The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. The movie is set in modern times, however, the characters use old English in their scripts. I thought this was fairly confusing, and off-putting as well; it was strange for me since I would rather have a movie set all in the past, or all in the future, not a mix in between. On the contrary, this aspect makes the movie stand out more than many others, since it’s such a new concept.

I didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I might have, since it’s difficult to understand what the characters are trying to say. This may be because I was listening to the movie somewhat quietly, or because we didn’t have subtitles turned on. However, when we turned on the subtitles, I could understand what the characters were saying fluently. Although it was strange hearing them talk in old English, I thought it was interesting nonetheless. I feel that the movie followed the Shakespearian type of production closely and they pulled it off much cleaner than I thought they would. So, I would have to say that they were accurate in most of their portrayals of the story.

I believe the movie should have been directed differently than it was. The director didn’t put emphasis on things that I thought were fairly important, and stressed things that I figured weren’t that crucial to the plotline. There were also some cinematic errors in the film, an example would be when Romeo had just gotten out of the pool and, in the next second, had already climbed onto the top of the balcony. I also felt that some parts, like Mercutio’s death, were executed poorly. If someone hadn’t known the story line, they would probably be confused about how Mercutio died. It doesn’t do a very good job of showing that Tybalt killed him, and he did it by stabbing under Romeo’s arm. It merely shows Tybalt, and then Mercutio’s shirt, then he’s screaming in agony; you don’t see the attack at all.

This day is one of the worst I have ever experienced. Juliet, my one true love, joined with me in marriage, I was so happy. I thought our marriage could fix the bond between our two families. But alas, not yet a day later, I’d gone and done something horrible. Poor old Mercutio was killed by Tybalt… and it was all my fault. What did brave Mercutio do to deserve this? It was just a silly party. If I had only told him how I felt, or if I had only joined in the fight. I was so enraged about my friend… I killed Tybalt. I was a fool. Why did I have to kill him? Everything could have gone so nicely, I could have halted the feud and tightened the bond between our families; but I killed Tybalt. I should never had tried to break them up. If I had just let them fight, perhaps Mercutio would never have been surprised by me, he may have been able to defeat Tybalt. Even after Mercutio’s death, I could have stopped all the fighting by sparing Tybalt. It’s all my fault. I was weak, I couldn’t stop Tybalt. Then I killed him. Why was I so foolish?
What will become of Juliet? Will she hate me? I killed her cousin, how could she ever forgive me for what I’ve done? No, we’re in love… surely she will stay with me, but even if she does, what will the Capulets think of me? I killed Tybalt… their dear Tybalt. They’ll never come to accept my love for Juliet after what I’d done. Oh, what if the prince finds me? I’ll be put to death no later than the sun will set. We should just run away. Juliet and I… we’ll escape town. What am I saying? They’ll look for me. They’ll find me and Juliet… The prince, the Capulets, what have I done? If Juliet can’t forgive me, who can? I just want to get away with Juliet… I wish I could have done something. I wish I hadn’t been so blind.

What will my fellow Montagues think? No doubt Benvolio now hates me for what I’ve done. I let Mercutio die, so what will my family think of me? I’m a traitor in their eyes, a murderer. Would they hate me for letting Mercutio die, or will they be proud of me for killing Tybalt? I can’t picture which is worse. I can’t imagine, my own family, congratulating me for bringing about my own demise. They’d never accept my love for Juliet either.

I need to find Juliet. If anything, I can apologize to her. It is the very least I can do after disgracing her family, not to mention my own. Somehow, if she still loves me, we can get away together. Our names mean nothing anymore, we can run away together, start a new family, and we’ll never speak of the Montagues or Capulets ever again. Oh, but what about the Friar, and the nurse? They’ll be worried sick if we disappear, they will think we’ve been executed. Perhaps we could just tell them our plans, they would support us… I hope. I don’t want to live in hiding, in fear of being found and executed. What am I ever going to do?

I read the novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. By J.K. Rowling. In the book, Harry is in his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At the beginning of the book, it is shown that a dangerous criminal has escaped from an extremely high-security magical prison, called Azkaban. Harry finds out that the dangerous criminal, Sirius Black, has escaped. Later, Harry overhears that Sirius is most likely chasing after him, looking for blood. The book explores Harry’s journey throughout the school year and his worries about Sirus and the Dementors; which are the cold, bloodthirsty guards of Azkaban. However, many things in the book aren’t what they appear to be…

In my opinion, this book was told somewhat differently than the others. Personally, I found the middle of the story fairly boring. The introduction was pretty good, but the middle section was fairly boring. In contrast, I thought the ending was incredible. There were so many questions raised during the middle of the story, I was getting confused, and I wasn’t very invested in the story. However, all of my questions were answered in the ending, and let me tell you, it’s not what I was expecting. So, in my opinion, the middle is uninteresting, but staying to the end is definitely worth it.

I love how J.K. Rowling creates her novels. Her stories are easy to understand, they’re well thought-out, funny at times, well put together, and overall, they’re really interesting. There are so many questions that I just have to know the answers to, so I can’t put the book down. I probably came up with at least 15 different scenarios the the story could end, and none of them were right. That’s another thing I love about her writing; it’s unpredictable. I hate reading books where I can predict the endings 10 pages in. This book left me wondering how all the pieces fit together, and finding out all the answers was incredibly satisfying. I really love her style of writing.