English blog

FIRST YEAR STUDENTS!

2009-05-26T04:03:00.001-07:00

Dear first year studentsJ

We are now finishing our last few weeks at school and I want to share some words of wisdom that I've learnt throughout my time at Sandvika VGS. The most important thing you should know when you start here is that you need to focus on your studies and try not to be distracted by all the fun stuff you can find on the internet. I know from my own experience that it's hard, but I wish now that I had never started in the first place. You should try to balance it and use it for studies in stead.

What makes Sandvika different from most other schools in Asker and Bærum is that you get to use your computer at all times. It's both positive and negative. Your learning experience will probably be more varied because many of the teachers here like to try out new fancy methods. You will probably like some of it, and dislike other things. Some of the things you should prepare for are a program that's called One Note from Microsoft and blogs. We also use many other applications or programs that most people don't even know existed. Here are some of the examples: Photostory, Glogster, Wikispaces and GoogleDocs.

Good Luck!

If you like English you should definitely chose that for one of your optional classes. If you like it even more maybe you should consider to study abroad your second year? I truly recommend that to everyone, because it's something you'll remember for the rest of your life and it's a good experience to have. Not just to improve your English skills, but you will also get to know a whole other culture, get to meet new interesting people, and most of all get to know yourself better and hopefully come back a little smarter and a little more independent.

Migrant workers

2009-04-21T03:11:00.001-07:00

We just read an excerpt from a novel written by Marina Lewycka called Two caravans. It is about different immigrants were the two first are spending a day in London and the second person is trying to get a job at a farm. The two first people in the story are Andriy and Irina from the Ukraine. They are visiting London for the first time and are overwhelmed by all the different sights. They talk about all the new technology and all the well dressed people and they feel like they don't fit in at all.

The second person in the text is Tomasz who is looking for a new job in England. He finds a job at a farm where he has to catch birds and scrub out the barn. The employer he has to work for has no respect for migrant workers, he's only interested in the foreigners because he doesn't have to pay them as much as the locals.

The main subject in this excerpt is that migrant workers often work black with lower than minimum wages and no safety or rights. Is this really fair? Shouldn't we be thankful for having some people there who wants to do our dirty jobs for low wages? Therefore we should give them enough respect to at least give them minimum wage as long as they follow the rules and do a good job.

The conflict in Northern Ireland

2009-03-25T01:47:00.000-07:00

Northern Ireland is a small country which is a part of United Kingdom, and it lies just above Ireland. They have had many issues throughout the years. I'm going to tell you about the most recent one concerning the riots they've just had.

The troubles is the term that refers to the violence between the nationalist community (roman catholic) and the unionists (principally protestants). The conflict was a result of discrimination nationalist minority by the unionists and the question on whether they should be in the Union or not.

The IRA (the Irish Republican Army) have been using armed campaigns to get Northern Ireland out of British rule to be reunited with Ireland politically. The British army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary has also been involved with the violence.

It's been going both ways, but there has been some critical situations such as the Bloody Sunday in 1972 and the hunger strikes in 1980-81. There has also been some recent activity. The beginning of this month, two police officers were murdered and they suspect members of the IRA. And just yesterday there were an incident involving some torched cars in the catholic area of Belfast which caused some of the main roads to close.

More about the torched cars:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Belfast-Suspected-IRA-Dissidents-Hijack-And-Burn-Cars-According-To-NI-Police/Article/200903415252115?lpos=UK_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15252115_Belfast_Suspected_IRA_Dissidents_Hijack_And_Burn_Cars,_According_To_NI_Police

The British Parliament

2009-03-25T01:07:00.000-07:00

The British parliament bicameral and consists of two houses. It is the upper house which is the house of lords, and the lower house which is the house of commons. The Queen is the third part and she is the head. It has the ultimate power over all political parts of the UK and it's territories.

The House of Lords

Has three types of members. Lord spiritual is the first group which is the senior bishops of the Church of England. The second group is the Lord temporal which is members of the peerage (the people who are noble with titles). The third group is the Law Lords which are the judges that carry out the judicial responsibilities of the house of lords . The members of the house of lords are appointed by the Queen and advised by the prime minister.

The House of Commons

Are democratically elected by the people. Elections are held on different times of the year and they don't have a special period they have to sit, but it has to be within 5 years. The house of commons are divided into different chambers and are located in Westminster in London. All government ministers including the prime minister are members of the house of commons.

One Note

2009-03-24T03:08:00.000-07:00

One Note is this great new program from Microsoft where you can write your notes in a much better organized way. It is an addition in the 2007 version of the Microsoft Office package. What’s great about One Note compared to other notebooks is that you can put all your notes in one place and it lets you search in all your notebooks for one certain word. It also gives you the opportunity to use a pen a write directly on your computer (if your computer has a touchpad with a pen) and it can also recognize your own handwriting.

If you’re on the internet and just want to cut a small piece of the web-page you can just click on the windows button and the S and then it automatically opens in One Note. It also writes down the exact time you pasted it in your document so you don’t have to worry about that.

One Note also has different audio and video functions where you can just click on a button and then record a speech for example. If you have a webcam you can also record a video if you want that. You can also share your notes with your friends or classmates.

So I recommend people to try this program if they want their notebooks more organized in the future.

Martin Luther King jr

2009-03-24T02:36:00.000-07:00

Martin Luther King jr was born January 15th 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. As a young child he had a great learning ability and by the age of 5 he could recite huge bible verses and when he was 6 he started singing gospel. And one time when he went home from church he had heard a priest from out of time holding a great speech so that's when he decided that he one day would be able to use such big words himself.

While growing up he witnessed a lot of racism for instance on the buses it was completely normal for all the black people to have to get up from their seat for white people. This was something he grew a strong dislike of and started to hold speeches on racism and about "the black and the constitution".

Since Martin was extremely smart he was able to start college 3 years earlier than most other people. And he also decided to become a priest so he attended an all black college. This was very stimulating for him so it made him more confident in his believes.

During his college time he read a lot of books and studied really hard. There were especially two people that inspired him the most. The first one was Gandhi and the second one was Thoreau. This is something you might recognize in the way he fought for equal rights for black and white people later in his life.

Martin Luther King is mostly known for his great speeches and his outstanding non-violent way of fighting equal rights for the blacks in America. It’s also a very known fact that he sacrificed his life for this cause when he was assassinated during a speech he held in a motel in Memphis, Tennessee in 68.

Senior Project

2009-03-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

I am going to have my senior project on the great depression and try to compare it to the financial crisis they have especially in the US today. When it comes to one spesific thesis I need to do a bit more research before I know exactly what to focus on. If this is too big or too difficult I might just focus on the great depression and just bring out the most important factors that got them into the situation in the first place.

Watts Riot

2009-03-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Watts riot of 1965 was one of the topics we learned about last Tuesday. It happened in a neighborhood in LA in California. The 60’s had a lot of racism built up and there was this big split between the white and the blacks. This particular incidence started with a guy being arrested for driving under the influence and his brother wanted to take his car home. The highway patrol officer denied him this for some odd reason and that’s why they formed a big mad crowd of people that wanted to start a riot.

It lasted for 6 days and by the time it subsided 34 people had been killed, 1032 injured and 3952 were arrested. The whole area looked like a war zone when it was all over. This has been the biggest riot in LA until 1992.

This is England

2009-02-26T00:11:00.000-08:00

Last class we watched another film that's called This is England. It’s about some teens in England who lives in the punk-rock era. They wear weird clothes and swear a lot. There are a lot of drama involved in their environment and some racism because of all the new immigrants from the different colonies. The group of teens we follow in the film calls themselves skinheads so they do some vandalism and get into fights from time to time. It’s supposed to be from the early 80’s from the working class and right after the Falkland war so there’s a lot of bitterness going on. The main character is a young boy called Shaun who one day meets an older guy and joins their friendly skinhead pack. He changes his whole look and starts partying and gets a much older girlfriend.

I think the film was a little bit weird, but I think it’s a good portrayal of the actual time period and environment it’s supposed to be.

The Falkland War

2009-02-10T01:44:00.000-08:00

The Falkland Islands has been in the middle of sovereignty dispute ever since it first were settled in 1764. They been thrown around between France, Spain, United Kingdom and Argentina and they never seemed to get any peace. In 1862 the British settled there and got protection from the British government. In 1833 the US came and tried to invade the Falkland Islands, they didn't but they opened up an area that Argentina tried to re-establish, but the British forced them to leave.

In the period 1976-1983 Argentina had a period of dictatorship which lead to a devastating economic crisis and oppression of the people. Many people just "disappeared" so they had a coup which gave them a new president. But they still had a bad economy so they wanted the Falkland Islands. So they gave subtle hints to the UN about a possible invasion. The British either didn't get this or they chose not to care so the Argentines thought they didn't really care. So they invaded the Islands.

Who lived there?

The majority are of British descent (approximately 70%), as a result of primarily Scottish and Welsh immigration to the islands. The native-born inhabitants call themselves "Islanders". Outsiders often call Islanders "Kelpers", from the kelp which grows profusely around the islands, but the name is no longer used in the Islands. Those people from the United Kingdom who have obtained Falkland Island status became what are known locally as 'belongers'. A few Islanders are of Frensh and Gibraltarian (such as the Pitalaugas), Portugese and Scandinavan descent. Some are the descendants of whalers who reached the Islands during the last two centuries. Furthermore there is a small minority of South Americans, mainly Chilean origin, and in more recent times many people from Saint Helena have also come to work and live in the Islands. The Falkland Islands have been a centre of English language learning for South Americans.

Why was it important for the UK to keep control of the Islands?

They wanted to defend their own people that lived there.

Why did Argentina want the Islands?

Argentina was in a terrible economical crisis at the time because of a long period of dictatorship.

How did it end?

Argentina surrenderd June 14th 1982.

How many died?

The war lasted 74 days, with 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian Falklanders killed.

What did the people in the UK think about the war?

The British media reported the war in a neutral fashion and referred to "the British troops" and "the Argentinian troops". The two main tabloid papers presentetd opposing viewpoints: The Daily Mirror was decidedly anti-war, whilst The Sun became notorious for its jingoistic and xenophobic headlines, including the 20 April headline "Stick It Up Your Junta!",and was condemned for the "Gotcha" headline following the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano.

Google Earth

2009-02-05T23:44:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday we were supposed to make a tour from Norway on google earth. First we had some troubles finding out how to make a tour, and when we did we didn't know how to write down the places we wanted to visit so it could have moved by itself. We tried just to record and then type the places we wanted to go, but that went to slow so the tour looked really stupid.

I tried to make one at home later, and i managed to make it to move and when I came to the place I wanted I clicked on the pictures so it could be more interesting to watch. So when I just replayed the clips just after I recorded them it looked pretty good. But when I saved it and then watched it, all the pictures dissapeard so it just looked like it just stopped at places that weren't interesting at all. So I would say the whole thing was pointless, and without a good result. I did make a last one at the end where I stopped at the biggest cities and just zoomed in. It didn't look so good either because you just see a big mess of houses spread around.

My hometown

2009-01-27T02:14:00.000-08:00

BÆRUMS VERK

I live at a place called Bærums Verk and it lies in the suburbs of Oslo. If you ever visit, you might think it looks country like or boring, but it's actually a really nice place to live with everything you need close by. We have a little local shopping mall, a lake nearby, a small part of town with old houses that are really neat. We even have our own little waterfall.

Even though it's almost out in the country, it doesn't make us disconnected from the world. We have busses that go every 15 minutes from morning to night that can take us to Oslo or Sandvika that haves Scandinavia’s largest mall, my school and part time job.

My house is an the top of a hill and we have the forrest right behind our house so if we feel like it we can go for a walk in the woods. And because it's on the top of a hill it has great oppourtunities to go sleighriding in the winter if you like that. We also have a small slalom hill called Kolsås bakken wich lies only two stops away from downtown.

If you like museums and stuff like that, we have one too. Back in the days they used to make iron here, so theres a little factory that you can look at in the old part of town. There you can also find some cute little oldfashioned restaurants and small stores where they sell homemade clothes, jewlery, glass and toys.

Timeline Civil War to WW2

2009-01-25T15:23:00.000-08:00

1861 - Lincoln became president and the civil war started

1865 - The civil war ended with victory by North

1869 – Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads are joined, first transcontinental railroad

1870 – Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution gives black the right to vote

1876 – Custer's regiment is wiped out of Sioux Indians at the Little Big Horn River

1882 – US adopts standard time

1886 – Statue of Liberty is given to the USA by France

1890 – The massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends all Indian resistance

1892 – Ellis Island becomes chief immigration station

1898 – Plessy v. Ferguson: Supreme Court decision holds that racial segmentation is constitutional

1903 – Spanish- American War: the USA occupies Cuba an the Philippines

1906 – San Fransisco earthquake

1914 – The First World War begins

1917 - US enters the First World War on April 6^th , 1917

1918 – Armistice ending the First World War is signed on November 11^th , 1918

1919 – Eighteenth Amendment begins Prohibition; Nineteenth Amendment grants women the right to vote; Treaty of Versailles is rejected by the Senate

1927 – Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight

1929 – Stock market crash of October 29 starts the Great Depression

1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as President; New Deal recovery measures are enacted by Congress; Twenty-First Amendment ends Prohibition

1935 – Neutrality Acts passed by Congress

1939 – The Second World War begins; the US declares its neutrality

Together we are stronger!

2009-01-20T13:27:00.000-08:00

Speech by David Cameron.

Is it really true that United Kingdom should be as one, instead of the separations that has happened the last few years or should they go back to the way they used to be when they were on top?

In December 2007 David Cameron held a speech in Edinburgh in Scotland about a union between Scotland and England. He talks about inspiration and how strong Great Britain has become. How much better they can be together than separated. “Better than in perfect union than in perfect divorce “.

In his speech he addresses some earlier facts about Great Britain’s history. Especially the facts about the great things they have accomplished throughout the years. And how much better and stronger they used to be when they were all one. He also looks upon the fact that they would not have been able to become this great and powerful country when separated.

“We must not allow the legitimate and affectionate doubling up of patriotic pride

English and British

Scottish and British

British and proud of it

to be pushed aside by a coarse and casual nationalism.”

On May 1st, our countries marked the three hundredth anniversary of the Act of Union.

Two days later, the SNP, who want to break apart that Union, took office in the Scottish Parliament.

Into the wild

2009-01-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

We just read the book Into the wild by Jon Krakauer. It's about a young man who leaves his life to go to Alaska and live off the wild. But it's also about this very special young man that you feel some kind of connection to. That's what makes the book so compelling to a lot of people. It's not that he goes into the wild, because that makes him look like a fool, it's his thoughts behind the whole journey and the people he meets and the effect he's making on them. After reading the book you get a feeling of almost knowing him and also admire him and all he did.

I really liked the book because it wasn't what I expected in the first place and you find the story more interesting the more you read. And I think that the people that don't like this book either don't agree with Chris' thoughts on life or they don't really feel the connection that some people get while reading it.

I would recommend people to read it if they have big dreams in life and truly admire the people that just can leave everything they have going for them just to persuit that one dream and succeed. Or in this case almost succeeding. And also everyone else because it's a really amazing story that everyone should know about, and because it's all based on a true story makes it all better.

Politics in the United States

2008-12-12T04:15:00.000-08:00

The American government is built up by the Congress (legislative powers), the President (executive powers) and the Supreme Court (judicial powers). And each state have the power over following areas; foreign affairs, defense, monetary policy and trade.

The Congress consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. They have the power to pass law, levy taxes and decide how federal money is to be used.
The President is Head of State, chief executive, commander-in-chief and chief diplomat.
The Supreme Court has nine members and they get appointed for life. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. That means that have the last word when it comes to decide laws.

The two major parties in the US are the Democratic and the Republican party.

The Democratic Party

They have support in the large cities and states on the coasts and among working class and minorities.

Liberal
Supports stronger federal authority
Shape the American society. Example: reduce gap between the rich and the poor
Support welfare programs
Use taxes wisely for the good of the citizens of the US

The Republican Party

They have support in the suburbs of larger cities, heartland of the Midwest, the south and among business people.

Conservative
Against social welfare schemes because they believe that every man shoud be able to take care of himself
Support lower level of taxation
Support lower level of federal spending except on defense

A president (and its vice president) is elected every four year. In order to run, the candidates have to be at least 35 years of age and native-born American citizens. They must have been US-residents for the last 14 years as well.

A presidential election is in fact 51 separate elections (each in every state + District of Columbia) A candidate needs 270 or more electoral votes to gain absolute majority. If a candidate wins in one state, it gets its electoral votes. The number of electoral votes is calculated regarding to how many citizens who reside in that very state.

In the Valley of Elah

2008-10-21T02:25:00.000-07:00

We just watch the movie the Valley of Elah which shows what kind of impact the war can have on young people. It is about a father that finds out that his son is absent without leave and starts to look for him. He finds out that he was found dead, burnt and cut up in pieces close to the local base. This is the second son he lost and he is determined to find out what actually happened to him. During his investigation he discovers some very disturbing new facts. And it makes him understand why his son sent him some pictures and videos that he previously didn't quite understand. This is all after a long research and when he ended up at the base talking to some of his sons friends at the base. They explain some of the videos and the pictures that Mike sent him. And they tell him stories on how they once hit a child because they couldn't stop because they might get shot and killed by someone else. There were also other incidents like that down there, and they also explained what happened in the video were they tortured a guy by poking him in a wound several times when they knew he was in deep pain.

That's what the war can do to people, and after seeing and experiencing such horrible things down there it made it hard for them to go back and adjust to a normal life again. They couldn't separate right from wrong anymore and it made them do horrible things even to people they liked. That's why they were the ones who actually killed Mike. It all started with a little fight and it developed to a big fight where they beat him to death. Then they burnt him and cut him into pieces.This is an example of how sick some people can get after being in a war...

Why the US school system doesn't work properly

2008-10-07T01:56:00.001-07:00

I just watched the movie Lions for Lambs and I was surprised to find out that so many americans are so dumb. Well actually I wasn't really surprised because I've lived in the states and went to school there for a year. I was a senior at a small high school in West Virginia. It made me understand a lot of things about americans and why they have so little knowledge about the rest of the world and why so many are far behind the rest of the world. The problem in many cases is the learning methods. First of all they always use multiple choice tests and also in many cases they also use that in everyday assignmenst. In my point of view this is not a very effective way of learning. It's very easy to cheat and it doesn't make you think for yourself and come up with a critical answer. Another thing about the multiple chioce is that some people might just copy someone else's paper and not even read the quesitons. They also use worksheets that you're only supposed to fill in the blanks. This is not very effective either. You can find the same problem as in the multiple choice assignments because you can just copy someone else's paper and get an A without even thinking or get caught for cheating.

I think you learn more by coming up with your own answers in stead of just filling in blanks. Another good way to learn is to have projects where you have to do your own research and come up with a creative answers. Roleplay and discussions are also good ways to learn because if you have to put yourself in another ones position or make up your own opinion about things makes you think and develop a great communication skill at the same time. I also know that people need different ways to learn and some methods doesn't learn as fast in every way. But I know for sure that you don't learn much from multiple choice or already filled out worksheets, because you don't get the whole picture and you only learn the few things you need to put on the paper and the you forget everything.

The second problem is they're point of veiw of some things. Everything they learn is from the US point of view and they almost don't learn anything about other countries and world geography. Most high school students don't know much about world history or other cultures. And when most of them don't travel much, they get a really narrowminded sight of the world.