I chose music to look at the thing in three different perspectives, which are gender, classes, and race. I chose a song called CHE.R.RY by YUI. This song is about a girl who fell in love with a boy and she is waiting for contact from a boy who she likes.

First, when I see this song from boys’ view, I think some boys will be confused with this song, because this song is about love. I don’t think boys will like songs that are talking about love. I also think that this song is a song that boys don’t want, and it sounds girly. Girls might agree to this song, and they would think this is agreeable. However, looking from boys’ lens, I think boys will think this is uneasy to agree. I also think that boys will think it is not a song to listen from boys view. Looking from class lens, I think that this song is agreeable. From rich peoples’ view, I think this would be agreeable song. Looking from poor peoples’ view, I think this song is agreeable even though you are not rich. I think this way because even though you are in different class, something should be similar about love, and I think waiting for a contact is similar thing in everyone, especially Japanese girls. Looking from lens of race, I think there will be different thoughts. For example, this song is written by Japanese girl, so it should show that Japanese girls think this way. However, from lens of race, I think people in U.S. would think different, like they might think that waiting for a contact from a boy who you like would be boring, so they might contact from them; however, in Japan, some people might be too shy to contact from themselves so they might be waiting for e-mail or call from boys who they like.

I think there are more opinions about this song, because even though you look through some specific lenses, your thoughts are based on what you see and think. To be more specific, even if you take your lens and put gender (in my case, boys) lens on, my thoughts should have my opinion about how boys think. For example, I said “I think some boys will be confused with this song, because this song is about love.” this is because I think that boys usually don’t like songs about love, but there might be some boys who like songs about love. I would like to see this song in other ways by improving my knowledge and other things that affects my lens.

Lyrics: (Original is Japanese, but this is translated into English)
Too see original Japanese lyrics, click here.
Listen to the song: cherry-yui.mp3

It shakes in my hand
It was becoming to my small braveness
I didn’t like those smiley faces on e-mail
But if it’s from you, I feel happy

I heard that you shouldn’t reply e-mail as fast as you can
But I can’t do that

…I love him ah ah ah ah

I fell in love, maybe you haven’t realized
I wish on the starry night? CHE.R.RY
~message sent by you from my finger tips

Cherry blossom have bloomed
If I was able to change what you saw just now with what I can see from my window,

I would like a message from you
I can believe even if it’s lie

…I love him ah ah ah ah

I fell in love, maybe you haven’t realized
I wish on the starry night? CHE.R.RY
~message sent by you from my finger tips

The sweetened fruit is better; I want to grow it from small conversation ah ah ah ah

Beginning of love
My heart beats
I am waiting for you forever
I am going to send message with spring’s cold wind

I fell in love, maybe you haven’t realized
I wish on the starry night? CHE.R.RY
~message sent by you from my finger tips

Mr. R talked about HTML in class, but only few people took notes about it.
I thought it would be better to just have it on the blog, so I made a page called “HTML”
If you want to, you can copy those HTML from my page.
There are HTML about word like bolding etc. and about links.

Enjoy!

Last thing…
I deleted those HTML that I had because it was wrong.
I don’t know why, but I couldn’t fix them.
They are in the HTML page, so you can check it any time you want.

In my English class, I had a project about the Lord of the Flies. There were several choices of what my class and I can do. I chose to create a T-shirt. When I was creating a T-shirt, I was a Self-directed learner because I demonstrated competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills. I can demonstrate competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills, by planning how I am going to finish my project on time. In the other English lesson, our class started to read book called the Lord of the Flies before this project. For reading book, I wasn’t being Critical thinker but I think I need to be a critical thinker, because if I were a critical thinker, I was building meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. However, I wasn’t building meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information, because even though I had problems about understanding the story, I didn’t use any knowledge that I have or information that I learn.

In my own words, this means that I am managing time to finish my assignment and organize other assignments that I received from other classes, so I don’t have to rush in the last minute. I had a piece of writing that was attached to my T-shirt, so that represents what I mean. By finishing my writing on time, I organized assignments and finished it on time. Next time when I am doing project like this, I will read and check what you need in order to finish the project. The reason is because I had a trouble with the supplies that I needed. I had to get fabric paint, but I wasn’t very clear about getting it, so I accidentally used my permanent marker. However, even though I wasn’t clear, I didn’t ask question about fabric paint, so I should have asked and check if you must use fabric paint and where you can get it. If I read the assignment sheet and asked question quickly, I didn’t had any problem about making T-shirt. If I can make T-shirt once again, I will do things that I said like read and check information about the project, ask if you have any problems or questions, and make sure I have finished the project correctly. Finishing my project on time shows that I was being a self-directed learner, and I was able to demonstrated competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills.

However, even though I was beings self-directed learner for my project, I was not an Effective Communicator in the first class meeting that my class did before we started to read Lord of the Flies. During this meeting, I was not a student that listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight. The reason why is because I was listening, but not the whole time, and I did not try to communicate with other people to get everyone involved in this meeting. To me, this ESLR means to communicate with others to trade information and listen to people and ask question so that everyone keep communicating with each other. From all the things that I said, I can be a self-directed learner but I can’t be an effective communicator.

Overall, even though I had problems creating the T-shirt, I felt I was average for preparing and creating T-shirt, because I finished the project on time. I also presented in the class on time, and I was prepared enough to make the T-shirt except for the fabric paint. I think I did well on T-shirt itself. For ESLRs, I think self-directed learner will go along with the project, because if I was not self-directed learner, I couldn’t finish this project on time. However, I think critical thinker goes well with project because if I can’t think critically, I think I could not think any creative ideas about T-shirt.

In my own words, this means that I use my knowledge and new information that I get from teacher, and solve problem. However, I didn’t try to solve problems using my knowledge or new information. I also didn’t use any information that was given in class, and I didn’t ask any questions teachers or friends to understand things that I could not understand. This book included a lot of difficult vocabulary, and it was confusing. I think I should have used my prior knowledge and new information so I can understand. I also think I should have connected to something in my real life when I read some interesting chapters or scenes so that I could get better understanding about the chapters or scenes and get new ideas from that chapter or scene.

Next time when I read book in the English class, if I don’t understand something, I will ask question or use any source to understand things in books. If I am going to read a book that has a lot of difficult vocabulary and if the book is confusing, I will try to do things that I said like connect to my own real life, use my prior knowledge, use new information, and get new information from other people. I think if I had used prior knowledge and use new information, I had better understanding and I think I did better on other assignments related to this book.

Overall, I felt I was doing badly in understanding information about the story. However, I had fun reading book so I kept up with reading even though I was moving house and I couldn’t keep up with everyone in my class one time. So I think I was doing fine with reading book except for understanding the story. From this experience, I will try to understand with next book.