To survive high school

For those of you who are year 8 and starting high school next year, it will be a big leap. In a sense, at primary school you are the big fish in the small pond, but next year in year 9 you will be the small fish in the ocean. High school in New Zealand is different to those you may have seen in cartoons.

Because there's no school bully who does wedgies noggies or swirlies. And there are no nerds. Unless that's how some dumb people see you as. At AC, not many use a locker to keep their stuff safe. most of us (including me) carry our stuff round in our bags. Don't worry, high school isn't really any different from primary school, except for the fact that every body will seem allot taller. (And rounder in some cases).

At AC, they are embracive of the Maori culture. That would explain the Marae. That also explains the Whanau house arrangement. In primary school, you may have had red house, yellow house etc. The same thing applies in AC. Except, the house are called Whanau. In AC there are 5 Whanaus: Kaitaataki (yellow), Whaianga (red, and the best because I'm in it), Tirohanga (blue), Kaitoro (green) and Auaha (purple). They all have there own meanings but I don't know them.

On your first day at AC, don't make the silly mistake that me and a few others did and bring every one of your books. Because you won't be doing anything with them for a week. Instead, just brig a refill pad and a pen. Of all your items of stationary, there is one book in particular that you just simply can't lose: your diary. It's basically a record of your learning and passport around the school. No diary, no trip to the toilet!

Apart from that, life at AC is usually pretty strait forward. Just do what you are told and you'll be fine.

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Thankyou letter to Miss Gutschlag

18th November 2011,

505 Alfriston Road

Manurewa

Auckland

Dear Miss Gutschlag,

                                    I wish to thank you for being such a great Social Studies teacher this year. I found you really approachable when I first met you and you seemed to be laid back and relaxed. Though the work was easy and I didn't learn a great deal, what I did learn, I enjoyed.  It was interesting learning about Malawi and the poverty topic. The poverty vortex and the 'rich north poor south devide' was all new to me.

I also liked the fact that you didn't blow a gasket each lesson, even though you were by my standards entitled to. Being able to put up with the  shenanigans of certain people over and over again took some feat! I don't know why you just didn't kick them out.

Anyway, I hope that you stay at AC next year. I'm sure that those crack-pots would have calmed down  by then and will not be disruptive - and some learning to take place for a change. Hopefully I will learn something more. I'm sure I will.

Yours sincerely,

Jacob Benniks

The Memorial

" Keep doing this in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19)

The Memorial is a commemoration of Jesus Christ's death, celebrated by Jehovah's Witnesses between mid March and the beginning of April each year. It is the only event that the Bible commands Christians to celebrate. Worldwide attendance for 2010 was 18.7 million in 236 countries!  

The date of celebration varies from year to year because at the time of Jesus' death, the Jewish lunar calendar was used - not the Gregorian calendar in use today. The actual date of his death on the Jewish calendar was Nisan 14th which this year was 17th April (in 2012 it will be April 5th). The date is determined by the day in that month nearest the full moon.

A month prior to the Memorial, we begin a public invitation campaign to invite as many people as possible to attend (everybody is welcome to attend.)

The Memorial always begins after sundown, which coincides with the Jewish calendar (their day began at sundown). The venue is usually a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses (church), where each individual congregation gathers to celebrate the Memorial. (Congregations located relatively close together share Kingdom Halls, but for the Memorial celebration to accommodate the larger attendance, sometimes a community hall is hired.)

While it is a celebration with wine, the  Memorial isn't celebrated with partying like is so often seen in other celebrations. Rather, it is celebrated in a calm, respectful way, following the same pattern set by Jesus. First, a relevant song is sung and an opening prayer is offered. Second, a Bible-based talk is given about  when and why Jesus held the first Memorial with his disciples on the night before his death. (This is commonly known as the Lord's Supper.) Third, a prayer is given. Fourth, the bread representing Jesus' body is passed around the entire congregation. Similar to passover bread, this is no ordinary bread. It is made without any leaven or yeast because the  Bible often uses the term leaven as a symbol of sin or corruption - certainly not appropriate for a celebration of God's own son! Fifth, another prayer is given. Sixth, the wine symbolising Jesus' blood. But just not any wine will do. The  red wine must be pure and not fortified (Port or sherry, etc) wine representing Jesus' sinless blood. The wine is also passed around the entire congregation. Finally, a song is sung and a prayer is offered to conclude.

Lots do wonder though: Why are we celebrating a death? Because in doing so, Jesus paid with his life for what Adam had lost in the Garden of Eden. What this means for us is that it gives each and everyone of us the prospect of gaining everlasting life here on earth, as was God's original purpose for mankind.    

So if next April you get a knock on the door and someone hands you an invitation to the Memorial celebration in your area, why not come along and check it out?

A Memorial Celebration.

Free Rice screan - shot

Le gâteau au chocolat dix mille calories

In English that reads: 'The ten thousand calorie chocolate cake' - and it's easy to see why. My reason for this sugar-laden monstrosity is that next January, my grand parents will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and I wanted to do something special. I've had that idea in mind for a while now and thought that today would be the day that I make this cake. It consists of  two chocolate cakes, lots of cream, dark cooking chocolate and my special chocolate mousse. However, the cake you see below is just a prototype. I'll most likely make another, revised version.   It didn't exactly take me all day because we went out for about three hours; but, around 2-4 hours. And yes, the process was extremely messy.

If I Could Change School

If I could change school, I'd want better discipline. Why?  There was a lot more respect in schools back in the day when teachers were able to properly discipline students. The students knew that if they disobeyed a school rule, there would be real consequences. Since being taken away from schools due to not being politically correct and fear of mistreatment, the level of respect around has dropped. All the students have to fear is a talking to, which they can easily shrug off, and re-offend.

Bringing proper discipline back to at least high school would help to restore the amount of respect in and out of class. I hope that I don't sound like an evil ogre that wants to inflict pain on people, I'm just trying to emphasise that, if you take away firm discipline (not that there isn't some discipline already there), the students have a lot less to worry about if they break a school rule. However, if firmer discipline was to be brought back, the students who do offend will face punishment, not just verbal. But the question is, what type of firm discipline should be brought back? Well, that's another whole topic in itself.

Anther thing I would change in school would be to have every class attend swimming lessons at a public pool. My reason being that so many young ones in New Zealand drown because they get out of their depth zone and are unable to swim to safety. Also, if lessons are arranged, the school could start up different aqua sporting teams like: Competitive swimming, underwater hockey, water polo, synchronised swimming, and high diving. They could all earn the school prestige and maybe unlock some students' hidden talents! The school wouldn't even have to have a swimming pool built on school property! Really, what school can afford to maintain a pool these days?

One more thing I would change in school would be to have zero tolerance for cell phones and portable music players in class. I hope that I don't sound like a killjoy, but a classroom is for learning and working. Not for texting and listening to music. They are a huge distraction for those possessing them in class, to be focused on their phones, rather than paying attention in class time. By doing that, they're, in the long term, missing out on their education; which leads to unemployment, and the Government having to spend more on unemployment benefits.

Is the internet a dangerous place to work?

In the first place, the Internet was originally designed for use in the U.S military. The whole system at the time had less computing power than an iPod. Today though, the Internet is just about anything but  a military tool.

Today the Internet is used for:  entertainment, work, communication, and information finding. It is hard to imagine the modern world without the Internet.

The Internet allows its users to access vast quantities of information at the push of a button for research, education and fun. It allows for quick communication world wide with family and friends. Also, entertainment, movies, music and games can be viewed and/or downloaded.

But, the Internet does have its dark side. In a way, the Internet has become the new 'toilet door.' Many websites feature pornography and violence or easy access to sites that promote gambling. Others  carry messages of hatred toward minority religious and ethnic groups. Some sites teach how to make bombs, poisons or get involved with terror groups.

Social networks seem like harmless socialisation.  But, there are weirdos out there who disguise themselves to fool unsuspecting users. Internet predators hope to lure a child into an online or even a face-to-face sexual encounter. According to a 2008 survey, 52 percent of teens have given out personal information online to someone they don't know offline including personal photos and/ or physical descriptions of themselves (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)

The Bible provides good advice by warning us not to associate with those who aren't what they seem: Psalms 26:4 "I have not sat with men of untruth. And with those who hide what they are I do not come in."

With regards to cyber bullying, things like hateful and threatening emails and text messages can cause people to become depressed which can lead to suicide. Says the website InternetSafety101.org,

"43% of teens aged 13 to 17 report that they have experienced some sort of cyberbullying in the past year."

Another thing with regards to emails, is spam. It's just junk mail but can contain obscene content, and links to other undesirable web sites.

The Internet, if you know how to use it and what to look out for, it is a really useful tool, as I said earlier. On the other hand, the Internet will probably never be danger free so, be on guard for the dangers and keep an eye out for weirdos.

Review of 'Mind Your Language' (an English comedy from the mid 70s)

At the moment, I'm quite into the old BBC comedies. Why? Because its good, clever, and 'clean.' The clean aspect of this is that my family doesn't tolerate foul language and things like that. Yes, the title 'Mind Your Language' might sound to be an exception. But it isn't. Its not about some foul mouthed bloke. Instead, its about an English language school in the mid 70s. Around when people of all tongues were coming to England for work and a better life. A bit like New Zealand is now.

The main funnies in this show are that the students often miss-hear the teacher's instructions. And there a jokes in it too. One of such goes like this: "Oh my wife's an angel." "You're lucky, mine is still living!"                  Episode 1 season 1 Part 1 ( Top ) Episode 2 season 1 part 2 (Bottom)  

The i-Learn Experiance

When I first heard about the i-learn program, I thought it was just going to be a bogus attempt to get us to learn something. We were to learn about anything we wanted for the next 3 days. Then, present our findings to the others. My thoughts were that we should learn about anything in our own time. And have the option of when and how much we would find out about.

It was all a very dull idea to me until I remembered that I could choose any topic i wanted to study. Because had taken an interest in cars in the last month or so, I had been wondering how the transmission in cars worked. So, I choose car transmission as my topic. That was a good one because: One, I didn't know a lot about car transmission. Two, because there was such a range of information, it was sure to take at least 3 days.

Over all, I guess the i-learn scheme was OK. It was a nice change from school routine.