Athletic Improvements and Progression

Since the start of the year in PE, we have mainly been focussed on the upcoming Athletics Day and its events. Those events are long jump, high jump, discus, shot put, and the sprints, as well as javelin and triple jump for those who chose to compete in the competition area.
The options I chose for competitive were long jump, high jump, triple jump, discus and the 200-metre sprinting event. I chose my events because I feel I excel in those particular ones compared to the others and that I have improved over the past few weeks I have had to learn new techniques.
Since the beginning of the year, I have learnt a new technique for discus and been over a new technique for high jump which I vaguely already knew.
The discus technique was that you stand with your back to the throwing circle before spinning with my right foot around 200 degrees and stepping towards the front of the circle with my left and throwing the discus. When it comes to new techniques with the discus I have also learnt to keep my pointer finger at the very top of the discus, facing '12 o'clock'. The high jump technique was the Frosby Flop, where instead of jumping over the bar using the usual scissor kick, you simply jump over the bar with your dominant foot and attempt to land on your back instead of your feet.
I have been able to enjoy doing all of the activities with my friends in my class and the other we do PE with. It was nice to be able to have the calmer periods of PE rather than 15 laps of the gym at the
beginning of the lesson like we had last year.

Animaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaals View Pointing

We have continued on with the animal's theme and have moved onto animal view pointing, which is basically looking at how the animals we have 'studied', move.

So far we have been playing with a rabbit, a dog and a turtle, as well as a guinea pig and a second dog. The rabbit was a special rabbit that had been rescued, she had one floppy ear, which I believe was the result of an accident and now she can't use that ear, her name was Lightning. As known, the bunny hopped about. But instead of constantly hopping, Lightning put her front legs in front of her and stretches out before moving the back legs up with them into a more comfortable position.

There was also Mr Mitchell's turtle, Yurtle. He was a little rascal who almost sent me into a panic attack because he decided it would be a good idea to crawl under the deck. It was terrifying and the only other person there was Kaela, who thankfully stopped the turtle and brought it out. The turtle seemed faster than I thought it would be, but it still was quite slow. It had very sharp claws and an even sharper beak.

Chloe and Gizzy

Finally, I got to meet Mrs Beer's dog, Gizzy, a short little fluffy thing who is adorably excitable. I and a few others spent most of the period sitting and playing with the dog who couldn't stop moving. Gizzy has short and fast legs, she could only sit down for a moment or two before running around again. It was hilarious to watch as the dog left from leaning and lying down next to a person to go and bark at Mrs Beer.











The next week we got to meet Jakita's guinea pig, George of Durham, a pedigree, who has to have a certificate to state that he is pedigree bred. He's quick to move and has really sharp claws. When he's scared he tends to hide under things, particularly the towel he was brought with. While I am writing this he has pooped on Jakita and Chloe multiple times, thankfully, it isn't messy. Unfortunately, my phone doesn't want to connect and upload the pictures.

On the same day, we got to meet Kaela's dog, Rosie, a scruffy dog who can't stop moving for a moment. It was a bit of an extravaganza, seeing as the dog came fashionably late and then got dressed in a unicorn onesie. That wasn't the end of it though, Kaela had brought treats so she could get the dog to do tricks, as you do. But, when Kaela wasn't paying attention, Chloe opened the treats, intending to give only one accidentally lent down and the dog started eating from the container.

The Slave Trade Triangle

The slave trade triangle is the cycle of trade made with trading slaves, weaponry, and materials like cotton, tobacco and sugar.
The first passage was the link between Europe and Africa, where the Europeans went down to the slave ports in Africa to trade the weaponry. The weaponry would be traded for slaves the African Kings had captured from their enemy tribes. The weaponry that the African kings would gain from trading their enemies would go towards fighting their enemy tribes.
The middle passage went from Africa to the America's where the Europeans took the bought slaves to trade for materials and money in America. The slaves the Europeans bought would be auctioned off for money, which they then used to buy materials such as tobacco, cotton, and sugar.
The Europeans would then take the bought materials back and sell them off to companies and buyers.
I found the topic interesting because we got to briefly look at Christopher Columbus, who is seen as both a murderer and a hero. I always find the flip side or darker side to a story more interesting than the original story told. That may be why I like Greek Mythology and reading the original stories behind Disney movies.

Creative Writing Reflection

For the past week or so we have been doing tasks to do with creative writing, that being the Haiku, Slam Poetry, Sensory Language, Metaphors and Similies, and Language Features blog posts. I have finally finished all of these and have nothing left to do but my reflection on all of this. As an avid reader and sometimes writer of fiction I really enjoy creative writing and the many different faces of it. 

What did I enjoy the most out of the tasks and why?

My favourite task was the Haiku and Sensory Language post challenges. 
I enjoyed the Haiku challenges because of the way it was set. I quite like writing small poems when I'm in the mood. Getting given a prompt and rules of how to do it just made me even more determined to do it the best I could. I love writing about scenes and describing the picture I have in my mind to others and then hearing how they envision what I write is a really amazing thing to see. The difference between the two scenes an author has painted and how two different people see that place is astounding to see. To think that one person can see one thing one way and someone else can see it another will always be the best thing about reading and writing to me.
I appreciated writing using sensory language because it had rules, someone else may tell you that writing shouldn't have any rules and I would usually agree with that, but being able to write with rules and accomplishing that is astonishing because you have created something entirely new while staying within those rules at the same time. Creative writing is one of my favourite parts of my English classes and being able to create an entire business or restaurant or school for a single paragraph is enthralling to me. Because with every story you create something new, you create somewhere new and create someone the world has never seen before. 
Getting back to the topic and stopping my geeking out, Sensory Language and Haiku were my favourites.

What was my least favourite and why?

My least favourite was either Metaphors and Similies or Langauge Features, they both took me a while because of how slow they were and how boring they could be. Except, of course, writing the metaphors and similes, that was my favourite part of both of them.

Gotta love Uncle Rick

What did I learn

From these tasks, I have learnt about the art of subtle referencing others or things using allusion, like Rick Riordan's reference to John Green that I used in my language features blog I did - 

‘Bacchus scratched his stubbly chin. “Ah … yes. John Green.”

“Jason Grace”’

There was also anaphora, where you use repetition at the beginning or inside of the sentence to express a point -

My love will never go.

My love will never fade.

My love will never dissipate.

My love will never leave me.

Slam Poetry

Continuing on with the abundance of English tasks the next was Slam Poetry, where we had to look at some slam poetry competition winners, pick our favourite and discuss why it was our favourite. The one I chose was by a poet named Mohamed Hassan and is called I am Dangerous.

Lollipops

We have been discussing putting on a children's show for some of the children at the primary school right next door. While being on the topic of animals, we have been told to make a children's show that lasts around twenty minutes for children of the age of 5 - 6 years old. During this we were also given a group name for the entire class, seeing as we only have ten people, and we have been named the lollipops, hence the title. We have also been continuing work on kinesthetic response and using space and have been able to get out and do some improvisation around the school.
In the past few weeks, we have also memorising our text for the term,

'Rumour is a pipe,
blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
and of so easy and so plain a stop,
that the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
the still-discordant wavering multitude,
can play upon it'

If the language used didn't make it obvious enough, this is a quote from Shakespeare, to be specific the play, King Henry IV, Part 1. Mrs Clark, our Drama teacher, gave us this text to memorize on the account of whenever we are doing an activity and she yells out 'Text!!', we have to recite the text, no matter what situation we are in.

Heart Attacks

What is a heart attack?

A heart attack is caused by a build-up of cholesterol or fat or other substances in the arteries that feed the heart. After the build-up clears away it leaves a clot, stopping the blood from passing through. This can severely damage the heart. Should the clot block the entirety of the artery the heart becomes starved of oxygen and leads to the cells in the heart muscle dying. This is not the only cause of a heart attack, it can also be caused by, in a rare case, a spasm of the coronary arteries means the coronary arteries tighten and prevent blood from flowing to the heart. Most conditions often don't lead to heart attacks, being temporary and not lasting long. But, in some cases, longer periods and more extreme cases of coronary spasms can lead to a heart attack.

What are the causes of a heart attack?

There are quite a few potential causes for a heart attack, but just because you have or experience one of these causes, it does not ensure you instantly for a heart attack.

• Age, often men over the age of 45 and women over the age of 55 are more at risk of a heart attack than younger people.
• Smoking, tobacco, as well as the secondhand smoke from it, can put you at risk.
• High blood pressure, having high blood pressure can often damage the arteries that feed blood to your heart, putting you at further risk.
• Obesity, cases of obesity often come along with other things such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, high triglyceride levels and other things that can cause a heart attack.
• Diabetes, not producing enough insulin or not responding to the insulin properly can cause your blood sugar levels to rise, increasing the risk of a heart attack.
• Genes, family history of heart attacks can be an obvious giveaway to the genetic transition of a likely heart attack.
• Physical inactivity, people who are known to regularly exercise have a lower blood pressure putting them at less risk than those who don't exercise regularly.
• Stress, some people respond to stress in a way that can induce risk factors for a heart attack.
• Drug usage, those who use stimulation drugs like cocaine or amphetamines are more at risk due to the fact they can trigger the spasm of your coronary arteries.
• A different condition, having other conditions can often put you more risk of a heart attack.
• Alcohol, having alcohol unless in moderation, is likely to put you at risk of a heart attack.

How can you prevent one?

To prevent heart attacks there is both a lot and a little you can do if you are only at risk of a heart attack due to genetics, there is nothing you can do. Let's say someone has a family history of almost no one having heart attacks, but they smoke, are an alcoholic and don't do much physical activity, depending on the severity, they could be at more risk than those only at risk because of genetics.  The only way you can prevent a heart attack is to avoid most of the things named in the list above. That could lead to more damage than any form of genetic transition.

What are the symptoms?

There are quite a few symptoms of a heart attack but they are quite recognizable.

• Pain in the chest, shoulders, jaw, back or stomach, in some cases it is in more places than one
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Fatigue
• Discomfort, tightness, pressure, or squeezing in the chest.
• An irregular heartbeat
• A drop in blood pressure
• Fluid enters the lungs
• Vomiting
• Coughing
• Dizziness
• Face appearing grey
• Restlessness

What kind of treatment is there?

During a heart attack -

In the case that the person having a heart attack ceases breathing, CPR should be started immediately, with the usage of defibrillator if available, but until it is available it is best to start manual chest compressions to either the beat of Staying Alive by the BeeGees or Baby Shark. I have my questions about why they chose Baby Shark of all songs, but I won't complain if it keeps me alive.

After a heart attack -

Most people will have multiple conditions as repercussions of the heart attack. That can make reference to edema, a condition where fluid builds up in the legs and ankles, causing them to swell, congestive heart failure, where your heart will have a much weaker beat, often leaving a person exhausted quickly. There are many repercussions that can affect you after a heart attack, but most of these can be treated to at least improve the condition of the said person.