May Day is in 2 days (Friday) and I'm really nervous! Tomorrow, the school is going to the Maui Theater for dress-rehearsal. I love the theater and I'm really excited to be performing in it. Everyone has worked really hard to make May Day perfect and I know it will pay off. The 8th grade girls have to braid their hair tonight (for Friday) and my hair is going to look like an afro, but it will be cool to see all of our costumes together. We are performing "Where in the World Are the Whales", our pre-show dance, "Jonah Lomu E
Last weekend, I went over to Oahu for HSA States at Ala Moana Bowls. The waves weren't that big and it was really crowded on the practice days before the contest. I saw a lot of my friends from the outer islands and everything was really fun. Thursday was the first day of the contest. My brother surfed 5 rounds that day and made it into the finals. I watched him all day and it was really cool to see him place 2nd out of 40 other boys. It was my turn on Friday and I didn't surf until 2:30PM. So, my dad, my brother, and I went went to Kewalos for a warm up session. We headed back to the contest and I still had 4 hours left to wait. I focused all day and got 1st in the semis. In the final, I didn't get the biggest and best waves and I placed 2nd. I was super bummed and wanted to win, but I was glad to get 2nd. We went home the next day and I got to sleep in after waking up at 5:00AM for 5 mornings in a row!
Mr. Hill (JP's dad) asked the 8th grade girls to create an iPad iMovie for the Live Auction showing all the students using their iPads. We started the iMovie a couple days in advance so that we could finish before the auction. Nicole, Chanel, and I worked with a couple students, asking them questions and taking pictures, while Krizhna and Erin worked with different students. This way, we used our time efficiently and got every thing done in time. After getting all the film and photos, we put the iMovie together. Krizhna is genius with iMovies and iPads and she played a huge part in making the iMovie perfect. The iMovie looks awesome and I can't wait to show it to Mr. Hill and everyone who goes to the Live Auction!
The Ulysses movie reminded me of an old film. A lot of short stories that were included in the book, were left out of the movie. Some of the lighting was really bad in a couple scenes too. The Adventures of Ulysses is such a great book that I thought a big company would have remade the movie with the better technology that we have today.
Tomorrow (February 22), Sacred Hearts is going to be having an open house! I will not be able to make it because I'm catching a flight to the Big Island this afternoon. I'm going to do a surf shoot for an NSSA (National Scholastic Surfing Association) Nationals issue for a magazine, with my best friend. We are putting together the classroom today and it's already turning out super cool! I wish my classmates luck in presenting our classroom and curriculum on Saturday! :)
Sacred Hearts School started a fully-organic garden on our campus recently! It took a while to get the right compost and soil, but finally we got a really healthy and balanced mixture. We planted in early February and every grade has their own plot, with different plants, that they are personally responsible for. The whole class has been going to the garden everyday to water and observe the plants and they're growing super fast and looking really healthesterday, we found aphids and white flies on some of our plants. Mr. Mason (the math and science teacher) has been working on an organic concoction to get rid of them. I hope we can figure something out soon and get them out of the garden!!!
Last weekend, the class went to the Ulalena Theater to perform 'Where in the World Are the Whales' with Steve Grimes, for the Whale Tales convention. I was two minutes late and the class went backstage without me. With that, I wandered around the theater looking for them for 20 minutes. Finally, Ms. Enriquez came and found me and brought me backstage. I wasn't really nervous, but I could tell that the class was. Once we got on stage, everything came naturally and it was really fun experience!
May Day interviews came as a surprise to me. I think I made it a way bigger deal than it really was. The whole class learned the greeting chant, Oli Aloha, for our interview. The interview was a test to help Ms. Enriquez figure out what position we should have in the May Day court. None of us had any idea what questions we were going to be asked. I'm "sworn to secrecy", but the questions were really interesting and really made me think about my answers. We will find out the results next week Thursday and I'm really excited!
This week was really busy! The day after the learning journey to Kamehameha school, we embarked back to the other side for ‘All That Jazz’ with Halie Loren at the MACC (Maui Arts and Cultural Center). Halie was really energetic on stage and it was fun to watch her sing jazz because she was so passionate about it. After singing a few songs to us, she started telling us about where she came from and how she got here! She did a few renditions of songs in jazz and a couple different genres. Then, Halie gave us the opportunity to ask her a few questions. Most of the questions were really basic like her favorite song, where she lived, and her favorite place (which she said was Maui). She sang another song and then said goodbye. It was a short but interesting learning journey about jazz.
On Wednesday, the crew members of the 8th and 7th grade went on a learning journey to Kamehameha School to teach fourth graders about the Hokule’a and our curriculum for this year. When we got to Kamehameha, it was pouring and the students greeted us with umbrellas. Our school did a Hawaiian chant asking for permission to enter, the fourth graders replied with an interesting chant granting us permission and saying hello. Once inside, each of us talked about things like our website, the blogs, I Am From poems, the curriculum, and more. It was really cool to see the kids’ faces light up when we talked about something they were interested in. After we did the major presentation, the teachers split us up into individual groups and I enjoyed showing a few students about the process of planting our garden. Time went by really quickly and before we knew it, it was time for us to depart back to school. My favorite part of the whole trip was the Kamehameha School’s chant because it was really intriguing to see how connected they all were to Hawaiian tradition. Thank you, Kamehameha for the wonderful experience!
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