BAND - POWER OF THE VOID

The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides ( silence) an exceptional education that challenges each student to develop (silence) the attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become a highly sucessful, spirited, socially responsible global citizen.

I feel like adding a silence after the word 'provides' and 'develop' creates the best tention. When you add a VOID after provides and develop, the audience might have questions about what the school provides, and what each student develop, and would feel nervous and tense. The tention would be building up inside the audience, waiting for the reader to read on the ISKL Misson Statement. In visual art, the tention was built up from audience also by making them keep interest in it, and keep wondering. For example, in the movie 'Jurassic Park,' the tention was built up by questions like: 'When is the T-rex coming?' or 'what's the T-rex going to do?' With paintings, there was a red dot in the middle of many green dots, and that made the red dot stand out more (to me). I kept asking myself: ' What is the red dot doing there?' Today at school, we read a story that also had tention inside it, and then talked about it. I realized that there were so many void around us that created tention and that I hadn't really thought deeply about it until now. I feel that I can understand it now, and I will think about it more than before. I'm gald we studied tention, or power of the void in band.

Building a Snowman!

During the Winter holidays, I visited South Korea, which is my home country. When I stepped out of the airport, it was freezing. I could feel the wind that was as sharp as a blade surrounding me, and I could see pure white, clean snow falling from the sky. I decided that I would make a snowman before I went back to Malaysia, and smiled at the thought of a finished snowman.

One morning, at my grandmother's house, I looked outside, and found the garden filled with snow, snow, and more snow, and it was still snowing! I suddenly remembered that yesterday, the Korean news had said that it would be snowing 25~30 cm thick, and that in Korea, we would be having a white Christmas this year! (2009) It was very rare in Korea to snow this much, so I was shocked. 'I guess the reporter told us the truth',I thought. I asked my aunt if we could go to the mall, but she said we had to stay at home because the road was stuck with snow. She also told me that everyone used the subway to go to work. I was so bored and upset... and was mad at snow for not letting me have some fun.

"Julie?" My aunt called. "Julie, do you want to build a snowman with me in the garden?" I sat up straight, not listening to the TV at all. Would I like to build a snowman? Yes please!

"Of course I do!" I shouted back. "I do, I do, I do!" I put on my thickest pants and long-sleeve shirts, along with 2 coats (really warm ones), a hat, a scarf, gloves and my boots. Even then, it was so cold. My aunt was already outside, making the body of the snowman, and I started making the head, too. Even though I tried to make the head bigger, the snow wouldn't stick. 'What if I spray water in the snow? Will the snow stick?' I thought, and went inside to get some water. As I sprayed water on the snow, It melted and stuck together, so it was easier to roll the snowhead much more bigger. Then, we put the head and body together. The snowman was almost finished and it looked short and chubby. 

"Something missing?" Asked my aunt. I looked and realized that I hadn't put any eyes, nose, mouth and a hat! First of all, I asked my aunt if I could have some beans. She brought me them and I put the black beans for the mouth, eyes, and a extra tie, and the white-red bean for the nose. Next, I picked up some branches that had fallen beneath the trees, and used them as arms and hands for the snowman. Lastly, I took off my penguin hat and put in on it. It fit perfectly and the snowman looked so cute! I lay down and made snowangels with my aunt next it. It was cool! (In both ways!)

It turned out to be that I had a great time because of snow! Thank you very much, snow! (Even though I don't want you to come this much in the next Winter in 2010~2011!) I loved building a snowman- I think it was the best winter ever! I hope I get to make a bigger one next time.

THE END

THE PAST HALF OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

BY: JULIE

For the past half of the school year, I have learned new things and new skills. One of the new skills that that I have gained was in band. My band teacher, Mr.Housego, asked me if I would like to play the bass clarinet for one trimester. I wanted to have a go on it, and also wanted an experience, so I said 'yes'. The bass clarinet was challenging for me and I think that was a new skill I learned: how to play the bass clarinet and also, how to try something challenging. I also think that I picked a good choice of accepting Mr.Housego's suggestion.Now, I can play the bass clarinet better than when I first played it!

Another challenge I handled was the lockers and combinations. At first, I was not used to lockers and I couldn't open them very well. To make it more challenging, there were also P.E. and band lockers and I thought: 'Wow, I 'm never going to memorize all of these combinatins!' For the first week or so, I had to bring my planner which had my combinations written on it to everywhere. Then, I slowly got used to the lockers and I soon remembered every single combination and that really surprised me. Now I'm doing fine with my lockers, and for me, it's not a challenge anymore.

A skill I want to learn is in art. I want to learn how to do modeling with clay, which we will be learning. I really have fun in art because I can show my ideas, draw them, and do everything freely. I positively contributed to the 6th grade community by being a responsible student. From ISKL Melawati to ISKL Ampang was a great change for me and especially, we had much more responsibility. At first, all the responsibility I had was too heavy for me. However, as time flew by and I got used to being a middle school student, it wasn't a big, heavy bag anymore! I realized that it was just what I needed to do in my normal life, only a little more! I think that my responsibility is going to get heavier as I get older, but, I promised myself that I'll try my best.

I have set two goals for the new year and the next 6 months. One of them I really want to accomplish is mandarin. I am currently taking mandarin classes as an elective at school, and I enjoy them. I hope I'll get more and more better and by the time when it's the summer holidays again, that I'll be a lot better at mandarin than I am right now. I am planning to revise more at home that I am doing currently by using my mandarin notebook, or asking help from my tuition teacher. Another goal I want to accomplish is about Humanities. I want to become a better writer and reader. I believe that if I want to become a better writer, I have to become a better reader so that I can imagine more exciting stories to write. To accomplish this goal, I'm going to borrow more challenging books from the library and also ask friends and teachers and also my parents for writing advice. I think 2010 will be a wonderful school year!