The Ladder of Inference

The Ladder of Inference. What is it? The Ladder of Inference is how you create judgements, good and bad. There are seven steps to the ladder. The first step is, Data I can observe and experiences I've had (as a video would capture them). Next, Data I select from what I observe. Followed by, Meanings I add based on my cultural, family beliefs, personal beliefs or actions. After, Assumptions I make based on meaning I added to my "data". Next, Conclusions I make.Then, My beliefs about the world. Fianally, Actions I take based on my beliefs. These steps happen in seconds; sometimes we don't even it's happening. For example, you see some one on the street asking for money. You notice they have a dog and are wearing very dirty clothes and smell bad. You might think this person is a drug addict and that they should have thought about what they should have done in before to not end up on the street. You decide not to give them money because you think they will just spend it on drugs and alcohol. You know that the reason most people end up on the streets is, they didn't make great choices in life. finally you decide not to give them money. Since you made this desision in seconds, you didn't realized that the person on the street got there because he came back from a war, but his wife and the rest of his family left him so he didn't have any money left and had to beg on the street to buy food. You should always be aware of the ladder or you make desisions like this.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Character analysis

Character: Rubeus Hagrid

Have you ever heard the saying "don't judge a book by its cover?" People judge each other this way as well. People underestimate Hagrid because he got expelled from Hogwarts school of witch craft and wizardly on his third year for some unknown reason, but Dumbledore saw something in him and let him stay and be the games keeper, and do important jobs. This is the book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" by J.K. Rowling a world renowned author. It is about a boy named Harry Potter who's parents died when he was little and how he is being raised by his aunt and uncle who were not very nice to him because they kept a really big secret from him. They didn't want Harry to become a wizard and they thought that if they made his life as normal as possible he wouldn't become a wizard like his parents. When Harry discovered the secret he then realized why is aunt and uncle are so cruel. He then questioned what the giant Rubeus Hagrid told him about being a wizard. Rubeus Hagrid is one of the most trustworthy, sneaky, and friendly people you will ever meet at Hogwarts.

Hagrid is trustworthy because he was the only one Dumbledore could trust to get Harry from his home after his parents were killed. Another example of this trait is, when Harry wasn't getting his letter for Hogwarts and the Dursley's kept making them move. Hagrid kept making sure that the letter would find Harry no matter where the Dursley's hid him no matter what. Hagrid realized Harry wasn't getting his letter and took him away and brought him to Diagon ally. While they were there, Hagrid had to pick something very important up for Dumbledore from Gringotts, the bank for wizards.

Next, Hagrid is sneaky because one night he went to the town near Hogwarts and went to the local pub. While he was there, he met a strange man in a hood. This man told Hagrid that if he played a game of cards and won he could get a dragon egg. Hagrid had always wanted a dragon egg even though they were illegal. During the game the strange man kept buying Hagrid alcohol, which made Hagrid talk, and Hagrid told him about the Philosopher stone and how to get past Fluffy the 3 headed dog. Since he had won the game the strange man gave the dragon egg to Hagrid. For many days Hagrid kept the dragon undetected until Ron, Harry and Hermione told him he would have to give the dragon away. Hagrid was devastated. Another reason why Hagrid is sneaky is, when Hagrid came to get Harry from the Dursley's he used magic on Dudley to turn him into a pig, but all he did was put a tail on him. Hagrid is not really supposed to use magic because he is technically not a wizard anymore. He is only allowed to do magic under the order of Dumbledore.

Hagrid is sneaky, but he sometimes says to much. In this case, the one time Harry, Ron and Hermione went to Hagrid's hut, he accidentally told them about the philosopher's stone, and Nicholas Flammel the creator of the Philosopher's stone. He stopped when he realized he had said too much because they weren't supposed to know about it.

Hagrid is one of the friendliest people you will ever meet because he makes friends so easily. He made friends with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. He invites them for tea on the days they don't have school. They talk about a many of things such as, school work, and Quidditch. Hagrid and Harry are very good friends, especially since Hagrid was the one that brought Harry from his house to the Dursley's, then 12 years later they saved him from the Dursley's to bring him into the wizarding world.

By the end of the book, it is clear that Hagrid is trustworthy, sneaky, and friendly because of all the important tasks Dumbledore gave him, he kept a dragon egg, and he makes friend very easily. These traits affects the story because if Dumbledore could not trust Hagrid, he would have been left stranded with no place to go, and the night Harry's parents died the one person Dumbledore trusted to complete the job was Hagrid, or if he wasn't sneaky he could not have used magic to bring Harry to Diagon alley. On a number of occasions Hagrid has shown that his trustworthiness has payed off. I believe Hagrid acts the way he does so that Dumbledore will keep letting him stay at Hogwarts and because he thinks he has something to prove that he is not the kid that got expelled from Hogwarts.

Kids who play on sports teams do better in life.

Right now in class we are talking about statements. Mine is 'kids who play sports do better in life'. We have to state our opinion and where we land on a value chart. The place I land on the value chart is just past neutral on the side to strongly agree because some kids who are on sports team will have more homework. They have to manage their time to get their homework done. I think it also makes them work harder because their parents/teachers (depending on where they are doing the sport, whether at school or after school) might remove them from the team so they can raise their grade. Kids who do sports are also more detirmend in their school work. One thing I disagree with about what I just said is some kids take advantage of sports and come up with excuses not to do their homework, it's then reflected in their marks. 

I do not fully agree with this statement because some kids who choose to do sports, aren't as good and they won't make it very far if they only focuse on this sport, but no matter what they do they can't get better. I think the only reason people think that kids who play on sports teams are going to do better in life is that they think they will be a superstar later on and make millions of money. This is not true because I believe about 15% of kids that do sports will not go into a national league.

This my opinion so far on 'Kids who play sports do better in life.'

What it is a Like Living in Canada

Our teacher told us that we should write about what it is like to live in Canada and what I like about living here.

In my opinion Canada is a beautiful place to live because we have many parks, mountains, beautiful lakes, and forests.

My favourite place in Canada is where I live, which is Northern Ontario in a small town called New Liskeard. We only have a population of 10,000 or so. Everybody in New Liskeard basically know each other because of living in a small town.

My favourite seasons living in the North are summer and winter because that's when I can play/do my favourite sports, waterskiing, and snowmobiling/Snowmobile racing. For me waterskiing is something I have the prevelage to do because I have a cottage near a beautiful lake with amazing people. I like to do all sorts of waterskiing like, slalom ski (one ski), waterski jumping (is kind of like ski jumping you do in the winter, but you are getting towed behind a boat then you hit the jump and go flying) it's really fun, trick skiing (you have either one or two skis and you do tricks on them like going backwards and stuff) and, wakeboarding (it's like snowboarding because you have two feet stuck together on a board. The only difference is, is you are getting towed behind a boat on water). Snowmobiling and snowmobile racing are some of my favourite things to do in the winter because you get to go outside, find some fresh powder (fluffy snow), and play. Snowmobiling you also get to spend time with your family,u and friends. Snowmobile racing on the other hand is a bit different because you go to different places in Ontario and Québec, and you race around a circle-ish track, while going over jumps trying to be the first one to finish the race. Snowmobile racing is also known as Snowcross. What my favourite part about it is, is you get to meet amazing people, who then become your friends. The staff are also really nice.

Living in Canada is a prevelage because we are a free country so we don't really have any terrorism. We are also very lucky that we don't have to scrounge for food and water. Also because both girls and boys get to go to school and we don't have things like slaves in stuff. (I hope this doesn't hurt anyone becasue if it does let me know in the comments and I can change it)

In Canada we have different provinces and territories, and some of my favourite ones are British Columbia also known as BC. Alberta is also great, so is Manitoba, and Québec.

BC is located on the very west side of Canada. It is right next to the ocean. BC has many great things about it, such as the mountains, and the ocean because their mountains are great for skiing on and really fun to go snowmobiling. In BC they are home to many amazing parks, the Vancouver aquarium, and the Canadian Rockies. BC just held the 2010 Olympics games.

Next Alberta. Alberta is the next province east of BC. Alberta is also home to many spectacular parks, the dinosaur provincial park, it's really cool because they have a museum and it has a lot of dinosaur skeletons. The Calgary stampede is one of the most common things you would here if people talked bout Alberta because it is one of Canada's biggest stampedes every year. The west Edmonton mall is home to one of the biggest indoor waterparks. It has a wavepool, slides, kidee pool, and a regular pool. Plus the mall includes a spot where they put on shows with animals. Alberta has also hosted the Olympics.

Manitoba is the province just west of Ontario. Manitoba also has astounding parks. It has many museums like the Manitoba museum, and the Royal Aviation museum of Western Canada. Manitoba also has a few forts such as Fort Garry, Prince of Wales Fort, and Fort Rouge. Manitoba has hosted the Pan Am games, and uses the pool for a many of things.

Last but not least Québec. Québec is just to the east of Ontario and has the most population of people who speak French. Québec in the winter has something they call 'Le Carnival d'hiver' in English it's the winter carnival. It's a big deal in Québec because they celebrate winter and have fun. Some of the attractions include, the international snow sculpture competition, really cool night parades, and ice canoe races as a few examples. They even have a mascot named 'Bonhomme'. He's basically a giant snowman. Québec also has other attractions like Old Québec, Montmorency Falls, Château Frontenac,  the battlefields park, Colisée Pepsi (Pepsi arena in English which is a hockey rink), and also an armoury.

These are the things I like about living in Canada, why I like living living here, and great places to visit if you ever come.

This is snowcross. I am the one who has the Orange coat.

Character Development

Georgina Watanala is always at school on time. She is involved with every school sport, and extra curricular activity, such as student council. Everyone likes her becasue she is always helpful with any project. When one of her friends or anyone in her school needs advice they ask her.

On day Georgina was doin her school work and the school bully came up to her. Even though she is popular and smart she still gets picked on. Since she is shy to show some emotions she doesn't tell anyone whether she is getting bullied because one time she told a teacher when someone was picking on her she told a teacher, and that teacher told the principal. The principal then told her parents. Since she didn't like talking about things like that her parents were a little mad.

After school and on weekends Georgina works at sport check. She always does what she is told. Georgina likes working at sport check because she gets free sporting stuff, and gets to see Nathan. (Georgina really likes Nathan and fantasizes of having him as her boyfriend) Georgina is the managers assistant. Which she is really proud of because she worked really hard, but what she doesn't know is her dad paid the manager of the store to promote Georgina to be the assistant manager. 

Georgina was talking to a rude customer one day at the store and the customer was being very rude and was swearing a lot. The customers name was Jeff. He kept making Georgina return things he tried on because he "hated" what he was trying, but really he just wanted her to get mad and yell at her so he could make a complaint. So Georgina had to keep her cool. After a while she told Nathan to go deal with Jeff. So Nathan went to go talk to him and Jeff yelled at him and said, "fudge you man. I'm going to tell your boss." Georgina came back to see what was going on and told Jeff to leave this store and never come back.

My Top Traits in a Friend

1. Compassionate

2. Trustworthy

3. Reliable

4. Funny

5. Loyal

6. Kind

7. Sympathetic

8. Honest

9. Unique

10. Authentic

11. At least a little bit athletic

These are not in order.

Mindset: Fixed Vs. Growth

In the past few days our class has been working on mindsets. we have been watching videos with Carol Dweck, a Physiologist, and another video with Will Smith. We have also read some articles by, Maria Popova, a Bulgarian writer.

There are two different types of mindsets. Fixed and Growth. These two mindsets are what am going to talk about. I think it is important for you to figure out what kind of mindset you have then try to improve after.

A fixed mindset is when someone thinks they are the best at everything, and when they fail they feel bad and don't want to try again. They want to look cool and smart, so they will lie about whatever it is so people will think they are smarter and better then they are. People who have a fixed mindset will never believe they have a fixed mindset because they will not admit they are stupid.

When someone has a fixed mindset they think that when work is too hard they will give up and try something easier. If they are having trouble they will most likely not ask the teacher for help. They will keep saying things like "I can't", "I will never be good at this", and many other things.

A person with a fixed mindset will believe everyone is born with a certain intelligence and that they can't change it.

I think I have a fixed mindset towards art because I can get better, but I don't put the efforts into trying. I just wing it because I will get frustrated and just say 'That will do'.

A growth mindset is when someone knows they can always improve what they are doing because they know they can keep working towards a goal they have set and once they have reached this goal they will set another goal and try to achieve that one. Also when someone with a growth mindset when they fail they will keep on trying until they are able to complete the task no matter what other people think or say. 

Someone who has a growth mindset will never give up, they will keep saying to them selves, "I CAN DO THIS!", "I will finish this no matter what", "I don't care what other people say I CAN DO THIS!", and "I will keep practicing until I am good at 'whatever it is'".

I believe I have a growth mindset towards some hobbies and subjects in school such as, sports, math language, and other things. I believe I have a growth mindset towards sports because I know I can always improve and when I mess up I keep trying to get better at what I messed up. People think I go hard core, but I am trying my best at what ever it is.

Carol Dweck did a study on Grade 5 students to see what affects they would have. The students that got praised for their intelligence were most likely to in the end choose the easier puzzles then the ones who were praised on working hard to solve the puzzles. I think that the reason why the students who got praised for their intelligence went back to the easier because they know they can excel the easy puzzles and don't want to try hard and look bad when they can't finish the puzzle easily. The students who were praised for their hard work when asked what puzzles they would like to continue doing they chose the harder ones because they wanted the challenge.

I believe anyone can have a growth mindset if they try.