Category: 2018 – 2019

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How to be Happy When You Can’t Use Your Devices

Being controlled by parents about using technology devices is one of the hardest things for teenagers. Every day, we play games like Fortnite, Rules of Survival, Minecraft, Candy Crush and more. We use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok daily. 45% of 2,750 teenagers that were surveyed, admitted bringing their mobiles to bed, according to the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC). Isn’t that crazy about how people addicted to their technology devices? 

Well, in the past my parents have stopped me from using technology devices for three days because of the harmful screens that hurt my eyes. Have you ever imagine what it feels like to have your phone, computer, and even television away from you? I felt like I was trapped in a room with no electricity and internet which was really monotonous. That is what I’ve faced and because of that, now I’m going to help you overcome that problem by finding happiness without technology.

Daydream

Since you were born until now, I believe that you have at least daydreamed once. Can you recall what it feels like to daydream? From what I remember, from the last time that I fantasized was that I felt peaceful and pleased. As stated by the Psychologies magazine, “Like playing a film in our heads, daydreams can change our mood, they can relax or entertain us”. This shows that daydreaming can bring contentment to our mood. Therefore, why don’t you use this difficult time to enter a reverie about something that you enjoy, something that would make you satisfied? 

Doing daydreaming can somehow divert you from the problem you’re facing. Now, let’s use a situation as an example. In our case, let’s say your parents stop you from using devices for a day. You don’t know what to do. So, you use that time to daydream about getting rich, for example. You first started by dreaming about becoming a billionaire, after that you continue to dream about what you want to do in that case. You then get satisfied with what you’re thinking, so you want to keep going on with what you are imagining. By doing that you will forget about the terrible time you’re facing. This is how daydreaming help you to find happiness without technology. 

Now, to daydream peacefully, you might want to find somewhere that is comfortable. One of the places that I recommend you is your bedroom because you might want to fantasize for a long time and no one is there to irritate you. After finding your place, you can start creating your own story and adventure, creating the world that you want to live in and the memory you want to have. Also, after daydreaming for a long time, you might fall asleep which is good because it can reduce the amount of your difficult time by being asleep. By doing this I hope that you will feel peaceful and please just like I did. 

Reading

Beside fantasizing, you can also do something else like reading a book. Perusing a book can benefit you in a lot of different ways such as gain more knowledge, improve your reading skill, not only distract you from your day without technology. However, you need to choose the right book to focus on because if you can’t concentrate on that book, you might feel boring. Which is not what you want? Plus, you can imagine yourself as the character in the book. Isn’t it sound exciting? 

Hobbies

Everyone has their own hobbies. For example, I like dancing, learning and solving cubic puzzles, learning and playing musical instruments and more. Doing all these kinds of stuff, make me happy. Therefore, if you don’t want to read or daydream, you can do other things that you like. The author of “How Hobbies Make You Happier and Healthier” in the Life & Health Network has stated that one study showed that people who engage in hobbies enjoy better moods, feel more interested, and have less stress and lower heart rates. This means enjoying our hobby can make us feel pleasurable. Who knows if your hobby is playing guitar and you use that hard time to play guitar, you might also improve your skill in that category. 

Reflection

After doing these kinds of things, having a reflection on those activities would help a lot whether you find those action delightful. These are some questions to guide you to do this reflection. Did you find those activities satisfying? Were you thinking of a phone, a computer or even other technology devices while doing these activities? If yes, why? Which activities do you like the most and why? Finally, I hope that you will find at least one of these activities gratifying. Remember if you can’t use technology devices, you can either daydreaming, reading or engaging in pastimes. 

Sources:

 

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Summer Watermelon

Photoshop CC has many different features that allow us to explore and express our creative ideas. During my independent learning hours in Technology & Multimedia class, I’ve searched in google about different photoshop project ideas and I saw many cool pieces of work. However,  I was attracted to this amazing type of effect that inspired me to do this project which is face slice. I then looked up on Youtube for a tutorial about this effect and run into this cool video from Photoshop Tutorials l Photo effects. After watching the video, I tried practicing this skill with one of my friend’s pictures. 

And this is the result that I got from my first try. I then wanted to push myself harder by thinking of a more creative idea. I search up on google about different objects that can be sliced like vegetables. The pumpkin caught my attention. I tried using this skill with a picture of a pumpkin from the internet but then I failed. The idea wasn’t as good as I think. I changed my idea to a new object and this time it was a watermelon. I attempt to create an innovative image of a watermelon that was inspired by this picture.

And now this is the result that I get, a summer watermelon that worth my hard work and time. 

This wonderful project that I’ve done has taught me many different things like cutting images using shapes, grouping them together and importantly patience. Finally, I hope to apply this effect to my future works and learn more types of skills. 

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Secret Messages

Trinket is one of the websites that my teacher uses to give code projects to students. One of the projects that I’ve done this round in Technology & Multimedia class is Secret Messages in Trinket. This is the project where you write code that will let the program converts the messages into secret messages that can be translated back later using key number. For example, “olssv” is the secret message of “hello” that was encrypted using key number 7. This is the link to the Secret Messages project lesson. Below are some screenshots of my work.

These links are the works that I’ve done. Friendship Score project is one of the challenges that they give from the Secret Messages project. 

Encrypting Message: https://trinket.io/python3/75943f9c78

Decrypting Message: https://trinket.io/python3/0551a9f773

Friendship Score: https://trinket.io/python3/41f55b73e6

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Khmer Land That Was Lost to Vietnam

Before Cambodia was a very big country but from time to time, some of the country’s lands were lost to neighboring countries which make it become smaller and smaller. This is a topic that every Cambodian should know. Therefore, we’re having a lesson about Cambodian land in Khmer class. Below is the link to the pdf that I and my group have made about Khmer land that was lost to Vietnam. If you want to see the pdf please copy the link and paste it in your search bar. 

file:///C:/Users/Jr_Viriya/Downloads/%E1%9E%91%E1%9E%B9%E1%9E%80%E1%9E%8A%E1%9E%B8%20%E1%9E%9A%E1%9E%94%E1%9E%9F%E1%9F%8B%E1%9E%80%E1%9E%98%E1%9F%92%E1%9E%96%E1%9E%BB%E1%9E%87%E1%9E%B6%E1%9E%94%E1%9E%B6%E1%9E%93%E1%9E%94%E1%9E%B6%E1%9E%8F%E1%9E%94%E1%9E%84%E1%9F%8B%E1%9E%91%E1%9F%85%E1%9E%80%E1%9E%B6%E1%9E%93%E1%9F%8B%E1%9E%9C%E1%9F%80%E1%9E%8F%E1%9E%8E%E1%9E%B6%E1%9E%98.pdf

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Binary Coded Decimal

We can learn a lot of different things in Math class and this round, one of our lessons is about binary coded decimal. The binary number is a number system where it uses only two symbols which are 0 and 1 to express something. A binary coded decimal is a binary system where it converts numbers into binary. For example, number 18 can be written as 00010010 in the binary number. You can use the picture above to learn how binary coded decimal work. Each column of a binary row has its own value. The first column equals to 1, the second column equals to 2, the third column equals to 4 and it continues on and on. If you put number 1 in any column, you will have the value of that column. For example, if I put number 1 in the third column and I put 0 in the leftover columns, my number is 4. You can try this on your own with a different number. 

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Rock Candy Experiment

Instructions:

  1. Get a half-full jar of hot water
  2. Add as much sugar to the water
  3. Mix them well together
  4. Add food coloring and then stir them (Optional)
  5. Put a stick into the jar or tight a string to a stick and put it into the jar
  6. Wait until it forms crystals

To make rock candy, we need to add more sugar than the water can dissolve at room temperature. Because temperature affects the dissolving process. The higher the temperature is, the more solute can dissolve in the solvent. In this case, we need a greater salute so that the solvent can’t dissolve more solute, to create a saturated solution. As the saturated solution started to cool down, it becomes a supersaturated solution which the solution contains more solute than what the solvent can dissolve. A supersaturated solution is unstable and the sugar will come out of the solution to form a crystal in which a process called precipitation. The other process is called evaporation in which the water evaporates that will make the solution more saturated. When the solution becomes more and more saturated, the sugar will come out of the solution to form a crystal. We put the string or the stick to provide a surface for the crystal to form.

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Conjunction

Grammar is important in every language. Therefore, we’re having Khmer grammar lessons in this class. In this lesson, a grammar topic is assigned to a student. The students needed to research their topic and present it to the class. I was researching and presenting about conjunction. In general, I think that this project is really fun and it includes a lot of communication. But it needs a lot of efforts and participation. Below is my slide presentation.

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Memorable Exploration (Outdoor Leadership)

Every person’s life always changes even though a piece of beautiful memories came into them, a memory that will remain in their heart for the rest of their life. All of those memories will affect how they think and live in the future but also their decisions. Outdoor Leadership exploration is one of the most memorable moments that changed me from who I was to who I am now and allowed me to do things that I’ve never had a chance to do before.

From when I was born until now, I live in a world where I spend most of the day studying complicated things and rarely have a chance to relax and to enjoy a normal life in nature. I live in a world where animals seem really scary because I’ve rarely had a chance to know how it feels to live with them or to understand them; I always avoid animals whenever I see them even though they are small insects.

However, in this exploration, I’ve touched a grasshopper and let it stay on my hand for the first time in my life. At first, I was really afraid but then all my nerves went away because I realized that it won’t hurt me.

Not only touching the grasshopper, but I’ve also touched an elephant for the first time too. Right now, I feel like I am getting closer with animals and understand them better than before. But the thing that I know for sure about myself is that even if I’m afraid of animals, I still don’t want to hurt or kill them because they also have a life they want to live too.

Additionally, this is my first time learning about first aid which is the thing that I always wanted to learn but never had a chance to. I learned lots of different things from this lesson, like CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation), vital signs, how to treat a patient and more. While learning about first aid, I realized that it is not for fun or to fulfill what you wanted to do but to know how to save a person’s life when they need your help or when you are in an emergency situation.

Besides all of the things above, I got to build a bivouac, got to get dirty, got to roast marshmallows, got to write a journal about nature, got to build a fire and many more. Before and during these activities, I thought that they were easy, we can just do it without preparing anything. However, I noticed that I actually learned how to do all of these things without realizing that I was learning them. If I compared who I am now to who I was, I wouldn’t know how to roast marshmallows if I didn’t see my teachers and friends do it, I wouldn’t want to get dirty if I wouldn’t try to, I would just write something in the book not a journal about nature if my teacher didn’t explain to me. Therefore, I now know that sometimes things can be learned easily without realizing because it is an activity that is related to life, not lessons that we learn in school and also because it is a more beautiful memory than a lecture.

At the beginning of this exploration, my teacher asked what does outdoor leadership mean to me? My answer was how to survive in nature or in forests and how to live on your own. However, if I was to answer it again after this exploration, I would say that to me, outdoor leadership is more than just surviving in nature. It is about understanding and caring about everything around you, environments, people and animals, about how you interact with nature, which is what the world gives you as a gift and you need to take care and protect it and enjoy living with it. It’s not only about living on your own, but also about helping other people as a team and as a family.

To help keep and protect the natural spaces in Cambodia, it needs to start from us, Cambodians who live in this country. There are a lot of ways you can help protect the natural places, such as stop throwing trash everywhere, plant more trees than you cut down, spread information about beautiful natural places so that more people will know and help protect the area and more. To share and spread information about protecting natural places, we should hold a workshop about the topic in school. Also, we should pass the information to our family or relatives. Additionally, we should start taking action by cleaning up the area, so that other people would see and follow our actions.

 

 

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Where I’m From

Literacy class is always fascinating to learn because there are lots of different interesting things. This round we’re learning about identity and one of the projects that we’ve done is a poem. In this project, we’re creating our own poem by using the “Where I’m From” poem structure. Then, we created a video or audio about the poem and post it in the Flipgrid. Below, is the video that I’ve made and the poem that I’ve written.

I am from pillow from blanket and wall lamp. I am from the uncrowded home but warmth and sweet.

I am from the dry patch. 

The red gooseberry tree whose long gone limbs shade the place.

I’m from curly hair dad but straight hair mom, from Panha and Chetra, my little brothers. I’m from night owl and time-poor family but from merrymaking. 

I’m from the stop play with and the chatter when teachers away but rules stickler. 

I’m from discrete eating family. 

I’m from Siem Reap but Kandal mom and Battambang dad and from ideal eggs. 

From restless dad, discharge for the family. All of the memories that I have with my family within my heart, will remain there for the rest of my life. 

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Guess a Number Game – Python

Python, Java, and JavaScript are different types of programming languages. For this round of technology and multimedia class, I’ve learned about python which is really fun and astonishing. To be honest, I didn’t like coding before because I’ve never tried using programming languages. However, after studying about python, my feeling change and I really enjoy doing different activities with this programming language. Booleans, comparisons, indentation, if statement, for loop and wild loop are some of the python’s lessons that I’ve learned so far. One of the activities that I’ve done is creating a game where users have three tries to guess a number between 1 to 10 that the computer created. If they guess correctly within three tries, they win. However, if the answers are wrong, they will lose. Below is the code that I used to write the game.