Tuesday, 28th of April, 2009.

Today was a very disappointing day. Mr. Sparks gave us the grades for our journal, it was very depressing. This isn't my level, i deserve a better mark. I was having trouble opening blogger at home so i would write up my entries in a book then i would go over to my grandparents house from time to time and i would type them all up and that is where i am right now.When Mr. Sparks saw my journal, i didn't type up the entries yet. This wasn't fair at all because i know that the grade i got isn't my standard.

Ten minutes of class time was wasted because we were talking about the journals. Once those ten minutes were up, i continued my research. Again, i used brainpop. I worked quite well because i tried to stay on taks at all times and i tried to make most of the time we had left. I watched some video's while taking notes. They are quite useful. I really need to research about education. I found a few good things about it but almost all the information is the same as the information in the books. In our last lesson in the lab i will work on education and hopefully i will find excelent information.

Monday, 27th of April, 2009.

Today Mr. Sparks announced that this will be the last week of research, we will start to plan the essay next week. This was terrifying news. I think we need more time ! We should continue research and when we come back from the school trips we start to plan for our essay. Today we were allowed to research on the world wide web. I used brainpop. I researched about Egyptian Pharohs. This category falls under Government & Law and Religion because a Pharoh is the most important person in Politics and Religion. Next lesson i am planning on working on education because i seriously need information !

Sunday, 26th of April, 2009.

Today was another great day for me. I used the websites Mrs. Fletcher gave us. One of the sites had the names of most of the Egyptian gods and information about them. There were about 29 gods. I worked so so hard ! I wrote about all 29 of them. In the end, i realized that each god was connected to the other. I also discovered that gods who were brothers and sisters were also husband and wife sometimes. I was looking through my folder today and realized that i need to research more on education. Hopefully that is what i will do next lesson.

Thursday, 23rd of April, 2009.

Today i worked so hard. I used the new websites that Mrs. Fletcher gave us. They are excelet resources. Today i worked on Religion. I learned about what happens to an egyptian when he dies, especially when its an important Egyptian. I learned about mummification. Also the way i found this information is very interesting. I was playing an educational game while taking notes about it. Not only was i having fun, i was also not taking. I wrote 4 note cards. Hopfully next week i'll work as good as i did today.

Tuesday, 21 of April, 2009.

Today was a good day ! Mrs. Fletcher introduced us to some new websites we can use. It was about time this happened because i'm getting sick of Grolier and Britanica. Because of this interuption, 10 minutes of our class time was lost but for a good cause. This lesson i didn't wast my time talking to the people around me. Instead, I summarized the last paragraph about government & law that i was supposed to do yesterday.Once i was done doing that, i checked out the websites . There wasn't a lot of time left to start to work on them so i just looked around. I found a couple of good websites that i'll use next lesson.

Monday, 20th of April, 2009.

Today the lab we usually worked in was booked for another class so we had to move to another lab. In that lab i was sitting next to Al-Dana, Al-Jawhara and Shakeer. Shakeer isn't our favorite person because we always get into tiny stupid arguments but i had to deal with it. Since we didn't work in that lab before, it took the computer AGES to log on. Once it did my computer kept restarting alone so i had to move to another lab that i never worked in before also . This computer also took ages to go on. Once it was on and working there was about 7 minutes of the lesson left. Because of the delays, i only wrote 2 sentences which was dissapointing. I need to use all the time i have. Hopefully next lesson we will be working in our usual lab.

Sunday, 19th of April, 2009.

Today wasn't such a bad day. When the class first started i talked every now and then. Because my whole row was talking Mr. Sparks moved Al-Jawhara and replaced her with Abdulrahman. I think that was a good idea although i do enjoy having her sitting next to me. Now that she moved, i worked better and so did she. I wrote about 2 note cards also about government & law. This site is very useful. It contains so much information about this topic. I still have one more paragraph to summarize. Hopefully i will finish summarizing it tomorrow.

Thursday, 16 of April, 2009.

Today was one of my worst days ever. I was messing around the whole class. I couldn't stop talking. Al-Dana, Al-Jawhara and I were very noisy. This isn't my usual behavior. Because of my behavior, i didn't work very well. I wrote only 1 note card which isn't very pleasing about government & law. Although i didn't do so well today in my work, the information i found is great. I have been seeking for information about the egyptian government and law and i ended up finding what i was looking for ! Hopefully i will work better next week.

Tuesday,14 of April, 2009.

Today was the first day for us in the Multimedia lab. When we got there Mrs. Fletcher first showed us how to make a shortcut of a web page that contained online encyclopedia's and websites we had to use. To access some of these websites we need to have an account. The school has payed to sign up and has created an account that all the students can use. This web page had the user names and passwords of each of the websites . Later on, we started to look through Grolier and Britannica. Since we spent most of the time logging on [ which took about 10 minutes ] setting up the shortcut and logging on to the websites, we didn't get time to do a lot of work. I researched about the topic i didn't have a lot of information about which was government & law. Finally ! I found some really good information about it. Though i didn't really get to work, i wrote about 1 note card. Next time i will use the text i found and continue taking notes from it .

Monday,13 of April, 2009.

Today was the final day we would get in the library. I asked the other students in my class that are doing Egypt what books they recommend i should use that has good information. They gave me a couple of books. The books were excellent. They contained so much information that i didn't have time to take note of it all. The way i worked today was great ! I wrote about 4 note cards with excellent information. I think that i might have to come in the library during my own time and finish note taking from this book. I think that i will also find some pretty useful information on the internet.

Sunday, 12 of April, 2009.

Today we spent about 10 minutes in class discussing our journals and if we need more time in the library or not. We ended up deciding that we would spend the rest of this period and next period in the library. When we got there i used one of the encyclopedia's . I found information about religion, government & law, and education. My work wasn't very effective today. I didn't write a lot of information but i got some . I was on task most of the time but i sometimes talked with my friends. I need to work on government & law. I can barely find any information in the books about it. Hopefully when we go to the labs i will find information about it.

Thursday, 2 of April, 2009.

Today is the last lesson for us in the library. Only now i realised that the books have some very useful information that i may not find on the Internet. I think we need more time in the library. Again today i used the encyclopedia's and found information about all 3 characteristics. I made a few notes about each one but there is so much more information i found that i need to take notes from. Mr. Sparks said that when we get back from the holiday we will meet in his room and discuss what's going to happen next. We may get some more time in the library which i think is a great idea. Most of us didn't realise the the encyclopedia contained information we can use until recently.

Tuesday, 31 of March, 2009.

Today was the second last lesson in the library. Only today i realised that there are encyclopedia's i can use. There were so many different encyclopedia's, i didn't know which one to choose. I searched them one by one and found some really good information. The encyclopedia had things i haven't read before in the other books. I made a lot of notes about all three characteristics. I worked excellent today. Also the fact that i was sitting alone helped me to stay on task all of the time.

Monday, 30 of March, 2009.

Today was one of our last lessons in the library. I decided to use on of the Arabic books about Egypt. I tried to read the text then translate it English but it was hard for me. I didn't understand most of the words so i gave up. I took an English book instead. I worked on religion today. I found some good notes. Most of the information is repeated in all the books. I need some new information about religion. Today was a good day for me. I worked quite well and wrote about 2 note cards.

Sunday, 29 of March, 2009.

We were told that this will be the last week for us to work in the library so i had to use most of my time to finish up using the books for research. I found a really good book about education. I took my things and sat alone in a table so that i could take notes. My friends came and joined me which i knew would cause a distraction for me .I didn't work so well today because the group was talking, i couldn't help but to join in. This affected the way i worked quite a lot because i wasted my time talking instead of note-taking. I ended up writing about one note card which wasn't too bad but i could do better. Also quantity doesn't matter quite a lot, the quality does. You may have 10 note cards of garbage or 4 not cards with really good information which is better.

Thursday, 26 of March, 2009.

Today we continued to research in the library. When i was looking for a good book i found the book that i used once before but i couldn't find it again. Because i didn't work so well today i decided to sit next to someone that i wouldn't talk to. I worked very well today, in fact i worked better than i usually work. I took some good notes and by the end of the day i wrote 2 note cards about education and 1 not card about religion. I think that sitting alone or with someone i won't talk to is a good idea because when i do i work very well. From now on i will sit alone so that the quality of my work is good.

Tuesday, 24 of March, 2009.

Once again we went to the library to continue with the research. When we got there i used the book i was using last lesson. Today i decided to sit with all of my friends which wasn't such a good idea. We talked quite a lot that Mr. Sparks had to separate some of us. What he did was a good idea because i ended up working. I didn't work so well today because of the talking but i managed to do some work. I only wrote half a note card which was very disappointing for me. This isn't my usual work, i can do better. Tomorrow I'll sit alone or with someone that doesn't talk a lot so that i can work.

Monday, 23rd of March, 2009.

Today we went back to the library again to do some more research. I was planning on continuing with the same books i was using yesterday about government & law but the books were no where to be found. Instead i found another book about Pharaohs. This topic falls under 2 characteristics : Government & Law and Religion. I found some very useful information that can be used for both characteristics. I worked quite well today. I was sitting with a group of my friends but we didn't waste our time talking. We did get off task once or twice but we were working most of the time. I ended up with 2 note cards with very good information. The class time finished and i was still not done taking notes from this book. Hopefully next lesson i will continue using the same book and this time this book won't go missing.

Sunday, 22nd of March, 2009.

During class today i had a difficulty in finding good books about government & law. I have found information for all of the other characteristics except for government & law. I asked Mr. Sparks to help me find a good book about it. We had managed to find a few. I managed to find some information about the government but very little about law. I found out that religion affects the government & law because kings are known to be live representatives of the gods and they are the ones who make the laws. All of the information i found about law doesn't really answer my research questions. I think i might have to make up some new guiding questions.

Thursday, 19th of march, 2009.

Today there were 3 classes working in the library once again. When i got in, i took the books i used last time. I was planning on working on a table alone but my friends came and joined me. The noise level was too loud for me so i took my books and moved away to the table in the back corner of the library. When i was all alone i got a chance to start working. Half way through the period some grade 8 students that i know sat on the same table. They couldn't stop blabbing. It was very irritating. I thought of moving away but what's the point? Everyone i'll go i'll find people talking. I had to deal with the noise level and try to work my best. I didn't do so well today. Hopefully next week the library is quieter. Only then i'll get a chance to work better.

Tuesday, 17th of March, 2009.

Today Mr. Sparks announced that we will be working in the library for the next 2 weeks and that we should come to the library right away instead of going to his class first. When i got to the library it was much more calmer then yesterday. I found some new books to use. Today i moved from the subject education to religion. I found some really good information about this topic. Although the Egyptian religion is very complicated and some of the information made no sense at all to me . I tried my best to try and understand it. There were some new sophisticated words in the text that i couldn't understand. I had to use the glossary to find out what they were. Some of the world couldn't be found there so i used a dictionary. When i did, it made the idea behind the text clearer to me. Over all i wrote about 2 cards today.

Monday, 16th of March, 2009.

Today we worked in the library again. This time there were 3 classes working in the library which made things harder. The noise level was quite loud and hard to work in. I took the book i needed and worked in a corner alone. I tried as hard as i could to avoid any distractions. I continued using the book i used last time because it had some very useful information that i can use. I wrote another note card about education and i wrote one about religion. I didn't work so well today because of the noise level. I hope that the next lesson isn't this noisy. Its hard for me to work in a loud place. I need peace and quite in order for me to do my work very well. Also i was late to class today. My punishment was to stay during lunch time and write an essay about why i shouldn't be late. That was a terrible experience. I don't want to go through it again so next time i won't be late hopefully.

Sunday 15th of March, 2009.

Today is the first day for us to work in the library. When we got their everyone rushed to the corner with the books about Ancient Civilizations and got the books they wanted. since there were too many people, i waited patiently until people started to go away. By that time all of the good books about Egypt were taken by the other students. I found a really good book that talks about Egyptian education. I really wanted to use my time wisely so i decided to sit with just a single friend so that i don't waste my time talking. The plan worked because i ended up writing 3 note cards.