SOI

At our SOI lunch meetings and advisory for the past few weeks we have been watching the documentary "Food Inc." which is about the American food industry. We have also been discussing how the problems in our food industry effect our culture as a whole. This documentary has motivated me to be more careful when choosing what I eat. I do not agree with much of the treatment of animals in the American food industry nor do I agree with the mass production techniques and the various health hazards created through these processes. Because of this, in many ways this documentary will help shape the decisions i make in for the rest of my life.

Greek Club

Unfortunately, in the past few weeks i have been unable to attend Greek Club meetings because I needed extra time after school to keep up with lab work in chemistry and physics. I know that my time away has been detrimental to my ability to achieve my goals in Greek club, but I have set new short term goals to bring myself back on track. For the next two weeks, i will work to translate passages i have missed in our classes and learn the second and third declensions. I know that if i do this work, i will be back on par with my fellow Greek students. I recognise that not going to Greek club for multiple weeks in a row will force me to do more work to resume my studies, but i had to keep on track with my responsibilities in my classes and i have learned how to manage my time better for lab work better because of it. Through this experience, i believe i will further achieve learning outcome number 5, to show perseverance and commitment to my activities. This is because even though i have missed a few weeks of Greek club meetings because of school work, i have exerted greater effort trying to catch up. This shows that I am determined to continue with this activity for the rest of the school year.

MUN

In MUN this past week I have been writing my position paper. In the process of writing and researching this paper on Macedonia's position on alternative methods of financing development. I feel that i have achieved my original goals of improving my researching skills, my debating skills, and my teamwork skills in the process of writing this paper. I have improved my ability to quickly determine useful sources and gather substantial and supportive information from them. I suspect that my debating and teamwork skills will improve further in the weeks to come because i will be debating amongst my peers to support our country's positions on alternative methods of financing development. Looking back now, I am proud of the amount of effort i put in my country's position paper and I believe that this level of effort shows through the paper i wrote. I was nervous about writing it before hand because I had never done MUN before, but learning the process and writing the paper has proved to be a valuable experience.

Greek Club

Last week, a Sturgis alumnus visited our Greek class to help demonstrate how its believed ancient Greeks would have pronounced their words and sentences. When i first heard this, i was not certain how this would help me achieve my goals in Greek club, but then i thought about it more closely. In our ToK class we learned about languages, and how the differences in how they sound could affect our perception. After hearing the alumnus speak, hearing how enchanting the Greek tonality and meter was, I thought back to when we read Antigone in English class. Would my perception of some of the techniques used such as catharsis be different if i heard it in the original Ancient Greek? Indeed, this was a valuable opportunity for me to enhance my knowledge of ancient Greek culture.

MUN

In MUN today i learned how to write my position paper. Writing these papers are an essential part of my duty as a member of the Eco-Fin committee. I will be writing mine on topic A: Alternative Methods of financing development. In order to write this position paper i will need to research about my country, Macedonia, and about the topic i need to write about. In the process of writing this position paper (and debating about it in the future) i hope to improve my researching skills, my debating skills, and my teamwork skills. I will do this by researching about my country and accomplishing one of my major goals of learning about international topics. Also, my debating skills will increase through our afterschool debates we will hold after our position papers are done. Lastly, my teamwork skills will increase throughout the entire process because I need to be able to communicate effectively with and work with my partner for the Eco-Fin Committee, Jade.

Chili Making

I was really surprised by how much i accomplished in our Chili making fundraiser. I not only learned how to make Chili, but i also learned multiple aspects of cooking i had never attempted before. For example, i had never used a grill prior to that day. We all had a great time that day, working together to make this massive amount of chili to raise money for our prom. I also learned some Cape Cod history when we went on our hike after lunch. Through this activity, I felt that i had learned how to cook better, a skill i will most definitely benefit from in life. Even more importantly, I learned how to work productively with my peers. I have attached some photos that demonstrate this teamwork, the skills i learned through this activity, and the historical hike that Mr. Hyer took us on.

MUN

For this year in MUN I will be working with Jade on the Eco-Financial committee for Macedonia. The country paper for Macedonia has been finished now, so our position papers are due January 11th. In these past weeks, my knowledge of Macedonia has increased greatly, helping me accomplish my goal of learning more about foreign policy. My knowledge will increase even further when I help write our position paper on Eco-Fin topics.