Hi, my name is Sofia Bequer Zayas. I was born in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba. My family and I moved to Canada when I was 3 years old. As of right now we live in Duncan, BC. I have a dog, and two brothers. My favourite colour is probably light pink or red. I love to travel and I hope that in the future I can travel lots. Some places I want to go is Spain, Brazil, Greece, Italy, Costa rica, and Columbia. I really just want to travel the world. When im older i would like to be something in the medical field.
Get to know me
Hello my name is Nathan. I was born on September 30th, 2010 in Richmond BC. I have no brothers or sisters. I moved to Victoria when I was 3 months old. My mom stayed with my grandparents for the first few months and then I finally moved home. When I was 6 years old my parents enrolled me in Karate. Since then I have earned my full black belt with the opportunity to upgrade to a 2nd degree blackbelt. The journey was not as easy as I thought it would be. I have been playing hockey since I was 7 years old and it is my dream to make it into the NHL. In hockey I play goalie my favorite goalie is Marc Andre Fleury. My parents say I’m not a picky eater but I do have favorite foods that I could eat all the time. My favorite food is chicken wings. I also really like spicy food because I grew up having all sorts of spicy foods. Both my mom and dad love spicy food and I got my first introduction to spice when I was really young. Previous to this year I hadn’t travelled very much outside of North America. This year was the furthest I have ever been in the world was when I went to Australia for my aunts wedding.
all about Viv
my names Vivienne but I prefer Viv I was born on January 21 2010, I was born in Edmonton but moved when I was really little. I have a cat dixie but I call him bean, my favourite subject is socials, I listen too a lot of music like Tyler, the creator, $uisideboy$, billie eilish and lil peep. some hobbies I have are redecorating my room a lot, shopping, going on super long walks, collecting little things for my room, playing dress to impress with my friends and collect the long daisy’s for my dad. I went to private school (Westmont) for 10 years then switched to Colquitz last year at winter break. I used too spend a lot of time out in Sooke because my best friend Jordyn lived out there and over the summer I got too fly out too Edmonton too go see her. one day I wish too either design rooms or too do something else I don’t really know yet
All about Emma!
Hello, my name is Emma. I am 14 years old and was born on May 20th 2010. I have lived in Victoria my whole life with my mom, dad and brother William who is in grade 12 also at Brookes Westshore. I am a golfer who has been playing since I was 3 years old. My whole family all golfs as my mom works as a golf pro and my dad played on tour years ago. So golf is in my blood. In my free time I enjoy going the golf course, being with friends, going shopping and hanging out with my brother Will. My dream one day is to either become a D1 golfer and eventually play on the LPGA tour. Some personality traits that I think best describe me are active, determined, focused and loyal. If I had to pick a place to travel I would either pick Las Vegas because it is one of my favourite places ever or Georgia so I can play Augusta National where the masters is played.
Get to know me – Adrien
My name is Adrien Mills, I’m 14 years old and was born June 1st 2010. I was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but after a couple years moved to Edmonton, Alberta. I lived there for 5 years and spent most of my childhood there. Five years later, we moved to Montréal. our experience there wasn’t great because we moved there right around when Covid started. But 2 years later, we moved to Vancouver island and have finally settled. My dream is to go to France, because having lived in Montréal, I’ve wanted to see how the French culture differs. I also want to go to Japan, because my mom went there as a teenager, and she says it’s just so amazing, and I’ve heard many good things about it.
All about Silvana
Hi, my name is Silvana but my friends call me Syl or Silvi , I am 14 years old and my birthday is on april 20th I really love my birthday because I always travel with my group of friends to Santa Marta, a city in Colombia with beach , I was born and I have lived in Bogota-Colombia my whole life, I have 1 sister, and 2 dogs. My favorite sport is horse riding, I have been practicing it since I was 7 years old, My favorite hobbies are reading, baking cookies, and spending time with my friends and family, and learning new languages, right now I am learning how to speak Italian, I love to travel, and my favorite place in the world is London, my favorite movie is 5 feet apart you, I love watching sunsets and going to the beach my favorite subject in school is science, right now I am a boarding student, I came here to Canada to experience new thing and make more friends, but I love my school in Colombia and all my friends right there, my favorite food is Sushi or a poke bowl, but I love Colombian food and i would not change it for nothing, I love arepa with cheese, and my favorite drink is Colombian coffee, which is the best in the world,
Some things about me!
Hi! My name is Valentina but I rather be called Val because I feel like people are mad at me if they call me Valentina, I´m 15 years old and my birthday is on June 17th, my mom is brazilian and my dad is mexican so.. I´m mexican-brazilian! I have 1 brother, his name is Diego and I also have a dog, her name is Lola, she is a pomeranian, I currently speak 3 languages which are: spanish, portuguese and english, my favorite color is navy blue and my favorite flowers are the lavenders, some of my hobbies are learning new things, playing volleyball, reading, cooking, talking and spending time with my friends and family, right now I am a boarding student in Brookes Westshore (Victoria, BC) and, I am having a great time!! I came to Canada to improve my english, make new friends and become more independant, other thing that I love since I was a little girl is science and anything related to medicine, I hope to one day become a doctor but right now, I will just take all the opportunities I have to keep improving and making my dream of becoming a doctor come true.
About Archie
My name is Archie and i am 13 years old.
I was Born on October 18 , 2010 in Chisinau, Moldova. Before Brookes Westshore, I went to CML the newly built middle school in Langford. The thing i love most is basketball. I am very passionate about the sport I play for “The Grind” which is a tier 1 basketball team in Victoria. My dream is to play in NXTPRO Puma Circuit which is a tournament held all over the USA for the U16-17 age range. Another thing i am passionate about is shoes. I love collecting shoes and selling them. My favorite type of shoe is Jordan Fours. I know nearly every colorway and i love the way they look.
All about me
Hi, My name is Ipri. I was born on January the 7th in Nigeria. I am 14 years old and I like to play football. I have 2 brothers and a sister. I enjoy making music, and I like Doritos. I am also a competitive swimmer.
Thank you,
Ipri.
My introduction
Hi my name is Sophia, I was born in Toronto, Ontario on November 27th 2010, I moved to Victoria when i was 4 years old. I have a little brother who also goes to Brookes, and 1 year old dog named Campbell. I was named after the italian model Sophia loren. My favourite colours are navy blue and light pink. My favourite things to do are train my dog, watch movies, and visit my horse. I love to travel and in the future I hope to travel more around Europe and I would like to move there. I would love to become a lawyer of some sort in the future, possibly a patent lawyer in the science and medical field.
My introduction
Hi! My name is Alexa Castro, I was born in Mexico city on June 21st 2010. I have a little brother who was born when I turned three years old. When my brother was born, we moved to a city called Cuernavaca, which is like an hour away from Mexico city. When I turned eleven years old, my parents decided that Mexico wasn’t safe anymore, so they decided to move to Canada. I have a dog, her name is Lila. She is a rescued dog from Mexico, so we don’t know what breed she is. I still haven’t decided what I wanna do when I grow up, but i’ll figure it out, I really like to travel so i’m gonna travel a lot. I like to play sports, like rugby, volleyball, basketball, and sometimes I like to play soccer with my brother and dad.
Get to know me???????
My name is Maya van Kempen, I was born November 22, 2010, and I’ve lived in Victoria all my life, I love traveling and going on vacations, I play soccer (my fav sport) I’ve been at Brookes for one year, I have 3 cats Hanky, Mochi, and Milo, I love sleeping and watching movies, my dream is to go to Miami, I love rainy days, my dream car is either a dodge charger or a dodge challenger, I love sitting outside and looking up at the stars, I like camping and going to the golf islands in my dad’s boat, we usually do a 7-day trip and cruise around, I visit my family often, and i just learned how to surf.
A get to know me
My name is Suzy. I was born on December 14th 2010. I grew up in Port Moody and moved to Langford four years ago. I was born in the same hospital as Lyla. I have a husky named Zulie. I love taking photos of flowers and observing mushrooms. I love art and biology. I also love watching movies, camping, and star gazing. My dream is to own a house with a huge backyard with a pond and all sorts of plants away from the city and spend all my time in the forest taking photos of plants and mushrooms.
This is me, not you, I am Lyla
My name is Lyla Jane Wittig, I was born in the Newestminster hospital when i was a baby, I lived in North Vancouver for most of my life and moved here about a year and a half ago when i was twelve and a half. I have a dog named Jax, he is a cavadoodle and he is ABSOLUTELY AMAZINGLY CUTE!!! My favourite subject is obviously English, but if it wasn’t it would be PHE. My mom is an artist and a contact lense sales rep, and my dad is the owner of 2 cafés here on the island. I really like suzy who I call Snoogie Woogie, I wrote that just to embarrass her. (Ur welcome Suzy.) My favourite teacher is obviously Mr. MacKnight, but if it weren’t it would be Mr. T. I have mostly hazel green eyes, but because of my wired dad and his genetics as I get older either 1 or both of them will most likely become a blue green colour. (Thx dad). Yeah…I love my dog. And I am out of ideas, but as a fun fact as I am writing this the draft was last saved at 10:44:38 am.
My Introduction!
Hello! My name is Avery Adamschek. I was born in Vancouver on May 20th, 2010. My family and I moved to Victoria when I was around 3-4 years old to be with the rest of my family. I have a dog, Kona. He is a labradoodle which is a Labrador and doodle mixed. My favourite colour is light pink because it reminds me of my favourite flowers which are peonies. My dream is to move to Paris when I’m older. Paris is rich in culture and art, two things I love. I also think it has a lot of amazing job opportunities. I love fashion, vogue, shopping, poems, and tea! I love to visit new places, especially when it’s a city.
Self Introduction
Hi everyone, my name is Laila, and I am fourteen years old. I am from Victoria, but my dad is from Iran so, I am also half Persian. I used to go to a school called Artscalibre Academy. My mom was the art teacher there. It was great, but Brookes is better. Some of my interests include; music, art, food, being active, , nature, and reading books. In the future I hope to study Biology, animal sciences, or a related field, and maybe become a veterinary doctor.
Welcome to the MYP4 English 9 Class Blog
We will use this blog for Independent Reading journal entries, for Personal Writing, and for occasional responses to the literature we study together and to our class discussions and activities. All of the writing you do on this blog is part of what I call “piano practice”: the ungraded work that improves your skills and produces better results on your assessments.
This is not Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. You need to edit and proofread your writing. You need to use standard English and follow the conventions of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Comments on this blog must be specific, kind, and helpful.
You will learn a tremendous amount by reading each other’s work. Sometimes you will think, “Ah, that’s really good, I could do that, too.” At other times you will think, “Ah yes, I make that same mistake, but I usually don’t notice it in my own writing.” Or you may think, “Wow, my writing is better than I thought.” Together, we can learn faster and make more progress.
Sample IRJE #3: block quotation without dialogue
Gordon Bowker’s James Joyce: A Biography describes a man who, though he may have been a great writer, was a terrible husband and father. In 1907 Joyce is 25 years old. He is living in Rome on a negligible salary as a bank clerk, supplemented by funds borrowed from his brother. He has a young son, and his wife is pregnant. He is constantly eluding creditors, falling behind in his rent, and moving his family from one shabby apartment to another. He decides to leave Rome, and gives notice to his employer. On his last day of work,
he drew a month’s salary (250 lire) at the bank and went on a farewell spree—a drunken adieu to the Eternal City, which he had come to consider ‘vulgar’ and ‘whorish.’ When [he was] suitably drunk, two congenial bar-flies took him to a backstreet and relieved him of his bulging wallet. He returned home penniless and completely soaked from an evening downpour. (p. 165)
Many have questioned the ethics of enjoying art created by people who have been misogynists, rapists, racists, or fascists, for example. It seems difficult to reconcile beautiful art with such ugly behaviour. In Joyce’s case, such questions have been asked, but in this instance the behaviour is not only bad, but stupid—and this raises a slightly different question. How is it possible for someone like Joyce—who read, wrote, and spoke several languages fluently, and whose work, whatever you think of it, is undeniably brilliant—how is it possible for such an obviously intelligent man to make such stupid choices? If intelligence did not save Joyce from making stupid choices, what about us? What can save us from making stupid choices?
Toni Morrison on books
Sample IRJE #2: “We was attacked!”
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of English school boys are evacuated by plane from a war zone, but the plane crashes on a remote tropical island, and the only adult with them—the pilot—is killed. Soon after they meet, Ralph and Piggy argue about what happened to the pilot of their airplane, and we see right away that Piggy is more of a thinker than Ralph:
“He must have flown off after he dropped us. He couldn’t land here. Not in a place with wheels.”
“We was attacked!”
“He’ll be back all right.”
The fat boy shook his head.
“When we was coming down I looked through one of them windows. I saw the other part of the plane. There were flames coming out of it.” (p. 8)
Whereas Ralph unthinkingly believes that everything will work out for the best (“’He’ll be back all right’”), Piggy has kept his eyes open during the crash and is brave enough to speak the frightening truth: there are no adults left to take care of them.
Sample IRJE #1: “You reason like a block of cheese.”
In The Viscount of Bragelonne, by Alexander Dumas, the old soldier, d’Artagnan, proposes a business opportunity to Planchet, who was his squire in their younger days but who now owns a prosperous candy shop in Paris. D’Artagnan’s idea is to raise a small army and restore Charles II, rightful King of England, to his throne. Planchet is reluctant to invest without understanding more about d’Artagnan’s plans.
“Since you are proposing a business deal, I have the right to discuss it,” says Planchet.
“Discuss, Planchet; from discussion comes light.”
“Well then, since I have your permission, I would like to point out that in England they have, first of all, a Parliament.”
“Yes. And then?”
“And then, an Army.”
“Good. Anything else?”
“And then, the people themselves.”
“Is that all?”
“The people of England, who consented to the overthrow and execution of the late King, father of Charles II, will never agree to put the son back on the throne.”
“Planchet, my friend” said d’Artagnan, “you reason like a block of cheese.” (p. 417)
In French, the line is more beautiful: “Planchet, mon ami, tu raisonnes comme un fromage.” It made me laugh out loud the first time I read it, and it reminded me of something my French friend Christian said to me years ago when he noticed that I was wearing a new shirt: “Tu es beau comme un camion.” “You are as handsome as a truck.”