Blog

1.  In your opinion, what was the purpose of this blogging activity? (Why did I choose to do blogging instead of more traditional writing activities?)

For me I have found more than one reason or purpose for the blogging activity. One reason would be to improve our writing, sentence structure and word choice/vocabulary. Personally the sentence structure activities that we did in class helped me a lot! I always knew that there were different types of sentences but I never knew what they were or how to use them. But, after we did blogging and we learned the types of sentences I have improved in my sentence structure. The first time when we did sentence structure on our blogs the type of sentence that I had highlighted was just simple sentences. But the second time that we worked on sentence structure on our blogs, I had more types of sentences highlighted on my paper. I think that the sentence structure helped our class in general and I think that having to include the different types of sentences in our blog is what helped the class. The second reason would be Ms. Rumford wanting to see how we write freely. For example, when we had the wikis, we were reading a book at the same time and each week we would have either one or two questions to answer that were based on our reading. But when we did blogs, we didn’t have a specific question to answer, we did have a topic that we were supposed to follow which was what our blog was about but that topic is general and for each blog that we wrote it was a specific topic coming off the general topic. The third reason would be developing and interest for writing. I think that this would be one of the reasons because on our wikis we had a topic already chosen for us so we were kind of obligated to write about the topic which was the answer to the question that we were asked. On our blogs, we get to free write about anything that we want to write about and I think this develops an interest for writing because even thought we have to write a blog we are writing about something that we love.

2.  What have you accomplished during your blogging?

Personally I never like blogging. Last year in reading enrichment, in the beginning we were doing blogs and I wasn’t very into it. It might have been the fact that our teacher wasn’t into it as much as Ms. Rumford was. As the year progressed and Ms. Rumford was telling us about our blogging unit and what we were going to do I wasn’t very excited. But when we got into our blogging and we started to write blogs weekly, I started to get into it. One thing that I accomplished during my blogging was my word choice and vocabulary. I used to use simple words before but as we wrote new blogs my word choice began to improve. Sometimes when it felt as if I was repeating words and I didn’t know another word for it I would use the thesaurus and that’s how I would learn new words. Another thing that I accomplished during blogging was my sentences. Like I wrote in number 1, I always used to only write simple sentences but after we had about three lessons about sentence structure I began to write different sentences like compound, complex and compound-complex sentences. One thing that I was worried about before we started blogging was what I was going to make my blog about. I was worried because I didn’t really have a sport that I played and could write about or I didn’t have a hobby that I did and could write about but after a thinking for a while, I found a topic that I was interested and that was animals.

3.  What key concepts have you learned while blogging? (This can be about writing, research or technology etc.

Some key concepts that I learned while blogging was research. I already knew how to analyze research and what parts of the research would be helpful and what parts wouldn’t. But during blogging I learned it better. This was because we had a minimum of words that we had and this helped me learn how to choose the information that was useful. Another key concept that I learned while blogging was technology, except this was on the website edublogs.org. I learned about the website itself and how to add photos, links and videos that would help support what I am talking about. This is helpful because in the future when I want to write a blog I will know how to add photos, videos and links. I have learned a lot that I thought I would never have llearned from blogging.

4. Based on the skills you learned while blogging, how will this benefit you in the future? This maybe inside or outside of school.

The skills that I have learned from the blogging unit will benefit me in the future when I want to write another blog I would know how add anything that I would want to. Like I said earlier in the question above when I want to write a blog in the future and I want to add a photo, video or link I would know how to and people who were viewing my blog could get a better view of what I was talking about. Also, another way that the skills would benefit me outside of school would be if someone else is blogging and they need help with blogs or blogging I would be able to help them with the information that I know from blogging.

Once again, I have decided to write about an endangered animal. This time I decided to write about tigers. Tigers are very beautiful creatures that shouldn’t be hunted or poached. In fact, no animal should be hunted or poached. In my opinion I think that animals deserve to live just like us humans and I also think that animals have rights and those rights should be protected by law. The tiger is on the edge of being extinct. Over the past few years, the tiger has been hunted greatly by humans. In the Indian sub-continent, the population of tigers has decreased greatly therefore in Nepal there are only two hundred tigers and in India there are only four thousand. This is a big decrease from the past fifty years. China and Korea are the tiger’s biggest enemies when it comes to poaching. Today, the tiger population throughout the whole world is less then ten thousand. We humans are enemies of the tiger but we aren’t the only ones. Elephants, bears and large buffalos are other enemies of the tiger. The only protection that the tiger has against its enemies is its sharp claws and teeth, and sometimes the total weight of a tiger can kill a human but other than that the tiger is helpless. Tigers are very good swimmers and climbers and this comes handy in times when there are floods and disasters the tiger can save itself. But, this cannot come in handy when the tiger is being attacked by one of there enemies which would be the human. Tigers have been hunted by humans since they were alive. Sometimes in the past the tiger was taken when it was a kitten and tamed so it could become a pet for the royalty. In many Asian countries there are superstitions that consider tigers so people wear the talisman that is made out of the tiger’s claws. People will kill the tiger just so they can make money out of it. Tigers are also hunted for their furs and also other parts like their claws, their teeth, and their fur and sometimes even their eyes. These tiger parts have been sold for high prices. There is a rumor that is saying the organs of the tiger have a cure for many human sicknesses. This rumor has lead to people poaching tigers for another reason which would be their organs. Poaching and hunting isn’t the only thing bad that we did to the tiger; we also ruined the tiger’s environment. We have ruined their homes by cutting down trees which leads to deforestation and polluting their environment. But worse, we also hunt their preys and that leads to the tiger starving and then dying. The tiger doesn’t hunt any animal that is bigger than it.

For this blog I decided to write about an endangered species. I usually write about things like animal poaching, whale hunting and the fur industry but I decided to change it this time. Also, we are doing a project in science about endangered animals and I thought that the information could help me. The animal that I am going to write about is the great white shark. The great white shark is one of the largest mammals on earth. One reason that great white sharks are endangered is because their food gets extinct or endangered and it is hard to find so the sharks don’t eat, they starve and that leads to the sharks dying. Also, if the shark eats too much of a certain species that specie will go extinct and then again that will guide to the sharks dying. For example, great white sharks eat sea turtles, small-toothed whales, seals and many more. The seal is usually the number one option for the great white, and because this is the first option for sharks, that is what they will eat. Seals are also hunted and poached. Another reason for the great white being endangered is because sharks are poached and finned. Many people go out to the sea and fish sharks just so they can get their fins and sell them for thousands and sometimes millions of dollars on the black market. The person that fins the shark brings it on to the boat, takes away its fins and throws the shark back in the water when they are finished; the shark is usually devoured by other fish or left to bleed to death. About 95% of the shark is put to waste from the high demand for their fins. Approximately 3 million sharks are killed each year just from people taking their fins and leaving them to die. A different way that sharks are endangered is us humans polluting and ruining their homes and habitat. Humans pollute the oceans and that is where the sharks usually live and because their homes are so polluted they must leave and find a new home but by the time that they adapt to their new homes most of them would have already died. Sharks are helpful towards humans; sharks provide medicine for our sicknesses. People can put an end to sharks being endangered animals. One way is that the government can ban shark poaching and even without this law people shouldn’t be poaching sharks for their own amusement and use. People can stop taking the sharks fins off the sharks for shark fin soup and just to get the people money.

Whale poaching was a way to get food back in the Stone Age times. Whale poaching hasn’t stopped ever since and the whales provide food for animals, industrial oils, fertilizer, perfume, soap. shampoo, margarine and gelatin. They hunted species of whales like the bowhead, gray whale and the right whale and whale hunting is still being done by the Inuit people because the whale plays an important part of their lives. Starting in the 17th century and onwards whaling industries wanted whales for their bones and oil. Because some whales were hunted too much they started to be endangered. When the harpoon-gun came out along with faster ships, whale hunting became much easier. In 1905 Southern Georgia became the centre of whale hunting. Then they moved into the Antarctic and when they moved they had ships that prepared and killed the whales. During 1930-1931 around 30,000 blue whales were killed and 20 years later in 1950 the blue whale disappeared. After this happened the hunters didn’t stop hunting, they started hunting the smaller species. The whale hunters kill the whales in a very cruel and suffering way. A 90 kilogram harpoon is shot from a 90mm canon. When this harpoon hits the whale, it blows the insides of whale apart a couple of seconds after the whale gets hit. This does not kill the whale immediately; the whale usually dies an hour or so after they get hit. In 1946 The International Whaling Commission settled the decreasing of whales. Each year the International Whaling Commission put a maximum number of whales from each species that could be whaled, but these numbers were usually ignored and whales kept decreasing. During the 1970’s the conservation organization noticed that they needed an action that would prevent whaling and extinction of some whales. Five years later the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species protected several species of whales. Species like the grey whale, the blue whale, the humpback whale and the right whale. In 1986 the International whaling commission put an end on whaling because they kept getting pressured. Even though there was a ban on whaling, some countries still decided to do it. The countries that did it are Norway, Japan and Iceland. Those countries continued to kill whales because in their countries the whale meat is very popular like Japan for example. The three endangered whales are the blue whale, right whale and the humpback whale. The three whales that are open to attack are the grey whale, sperm whale and the fin whale. The three not threatened whales are the minke whale, the narwhal and the beluga whale and the two not known very well whales are the orca whale and the pilot whale.

For this blog I am going to write about the fur industry. The definition of industry is any general business activity; commercial enterprise. (Dictionary.com) 85% of the fur that comes from the industries is from the animals that are trapped and put in cages in farms that are located in the factories. These farms can hold more than a thousand animals. The farms are located over the world but not too spread out. 73% of the factories are in Europe, 12% of the factories are in North America and the rest are located in throughout the rest of the world. Locations like Russia, Argentina, and China. The most popular animal that people like to skin is minks, and then comes the fox. Mink farmers mate the female mink and from her litter only 3-5 minks survive. The farmers keep these mink and when they are 6 months old they kill them and use them. Animals are slaughtered for their meat and their fur. Plenty of rabbits are slaughtered for their meat, especially in places like China, Spain, or Italy. Rabbits aren’t only killed for their meat but also for their fur. In France, around 70 million rabbits are killed for their fur. The rabbit fur is used for clothing, attracting fish while fishing and on craft items. Farmers only care about the quality of the fur so they really care about what slaughter method they use, as long as they get the fur they are happy. One way that people torture animals are by having clamps attached to them. Those clamps are attached to rods. Rods are forced into their butts and they are electrocuted. The animals that aren’t tortured in this way are usually poisoned. The poison suffocates the animal and disables the muscles that have painful cramps. Making fur coats takes a lot of energy then making faux fur coats. It takes 15 more times the energy to make a fur coat then to make a faux fur coat. About 2.56 million minks are killed per year. While the demands for fur coats go down, the demand for sheep skin with attached wool goes up. Lamb skin is also popular. When the mother lamb is pregnant, they people kill her just before she gives birth and they take out the baby lamb. The unborn lambs are very popular in the fashion world. They are popular for their silk. The United Kingdom had banned fur industries.

Poaching animals is wrong in every way. Even though it is illegal nothing will stop poachers from killing the animals just so they can sell them. Poachers kill animals for many reasons. Reasons for using the animals for their personal use like clothing, food jewelry or trophies. Some animals like falcons are captured alive and used for animal trading. Or reasons like using the animal to make things and sell them. People poach for a variety of reasons. Reasons like believing that poaching is part of their beliefs and some people poach for the fun of it. Poachers are interested in any animals that are valuable and worth profit. For example, people may kill a whole bear just to use a small part from it like the gall bladder and sell it in Asia where it is worth $18,000. I think that animal poaching is wrong and I am against it. I think it is wrong because people should not be going around killing animals to use them personally or selling them to other people to make profit. Some people use a small part of the animal and when they get the part or parts they want from the animal, they leave it to die. For example, shark poachers go out and catch any shark that they can find. They bring the shark onto the boat cut off the fins, pull out the teeth and skin it. When they finish they throw the shark back in the water and let it bleed to death or let it be eaten by other fish. The poachers sell the shark fins for thousands of dollars. They use the teeth for making jewelry or using it to make medicine as well as the skin. Because so many people are greedy in this world for money, they kill the animals and sell their parts on the black market for a lot of money and this result’s to the animal species becoming endangered.

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