My Dream Career

My Career Essay
By Charlie Gilbert

My chosen career is a farm manager. This is because I love farming and feel that is what I would like to do when I leave school.

A farm manager's job is to produce milk/wool/meat and grain products from livestock and your machinery. You care for your livestock and raise good crops that are put into foods. You plan your day to day jobs and you must be punctual. Farming offers freedom of your own little country to do what you want on it.                        
To work on a farm you need a basic knowledge of animals, machinery and agriculture.  Having your driving licence is essential, driving trucks/trailers/motorbikes and tractors is important to run a farm and help with day to day jobs.
After finishing school, you can study agriculture at Lincoln University near Christchurch.  Your course covers things like looking after animals, studying weather patterns, crops, machinery, agricultural spraying and drilling, fencing and other practical aspects of farm work.
Getting on the job experience is important and you can work in a variety of different farm operations, dairying, sheep, crop, forestry, pig and chicken farms etc.
A good basic maths knowledge is important for measuring and working out spraying amounts and drilling quantities.  You need to keep good records of what is happening in your business and work well with others like contractors who come in to do special jobs for you on the farm. You need to be physically fit and strong and be calm when things go wrong. Having common sense is really great when you are working with animals that don't always do what you want them to do.
I enjoy working outdoors, am physically fit and like the freedom to choose what we are doing each day. I am safety conscious around the farm and driving my motorbike.  I am prepared to work in all conditions.  This year I have been helping Dad with lambing, it has been very cold and tough on the animals but it's great to see them doing well and being happy.


       

Timaru 2nd August swim meet

At the beginning of August was the Timaru Winter Swim Meet held over two days.  For the first time, instead of  just entering everything I decided to enter the events I thought I could make better times in.
I entered the 200 IM, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyles, 200m and 50m breaststroke.
I knew the best Canterbury swimmers would be there and the competition would be tough.
I had a great day Saturday and swam great personal bests, on Sunday I had the 400m free which is 16 lengths of the pool.  I often forget to count and so I keep my eye on the best swimmer and when they're finished then I know I'm nearly finished.
I was totally focused on getting a good time, I started off strong and after three lengths i could hear Narcis, my coach, whistling at me to hurry up.  Every time I put my head to the side to breathe I heard his whistle, he knows how to time it just right.  With about five lengths to go I could also see Narcis walking up and down whistling, waving his arms to go harder.  It really hurt and I breathed on the other side so I couldn't see him egging me on.
When I had finished I felt dead.  My body ached and i was exhausted.  I took nearly a whole minute off my best time!  I went back to the team, Narcis said...."listen very carefully Charlie, very, very good...but i get half the credit for that!"  Turns out I qualified for the Junior Nationals with that time, but, unfortunately I turn 13 eight days before the Nationals so I cannot go.
We celebrated on the way home with Burger King!    

Swimming Results

Hello everyone. I have just finished my swimming at the Neptune swim meet in Dunedin and will tell you the results....

[ IM is all the strokes in one race]
[ Relay is a group that swim a part each]

200m Breaststroke I got 6th place
100m IM I got 16th
50m Breaststroke I got 10th
100m Freestyle I got 15th
200m IM Relay we got 4th
50m Freestyle I got 19th
100m Fly I got 9th
200 Freestyle relay we got 3rd
200 Freestyle I got 8th
200 IM I got 12th

There were nearly 500 swimmers from all over the South Island.

Thank you for reading. I will keep you posted....

Hey everyone and welcome back to term two. I hope you all have had a wonderful holidays and hopefully enjoying the new term. I am very excited because on the Queens birthday weekend I'm going to dunedin to do some more competitive swimming against the south of New Zealand. I am really looking forward to it and I will post my results

What i know about St Peter

St. Peter was one of Jesus's disciples. Jesus told him that he is going to deny knowing Jesus three times. Peter said he would always stand by Jesus and so didn't believe him.  When the time came and Peter was asked if he was a follower of Jesus, Peter denied it for fear of his own life. Peter continued to deny knowing Jesus a further two times just as Jesus had said he would. After Jesus's death Peter was filled with the holy spirit and continued to spread the word of Jesus's life.

at the moment i am watching the cricket world cup india vs pakistan i hope new zealand wins and everyone has a good celebration

Grandma

My Grandma died from cancer in november 25th 2014 She died at  only 66!

She loved to play the piano with my brother Danny He has a blog on the yr 6 2015 site.

My grandma didn't cook very often but did amazing dinners. My Grandma used to buy  really hot mustard and my Mum fainted it was so hot.

Grandma lived with my uncle Evan and my Grandad in a small house on a farm that my Grandad runs. My Grandad owns lots of sheep and irrigation but not big machinery. Grandma had lots of brothers and sisters and her  brother is a Minister.

She used to call all of her grandchildren once a week to see what everyone was up to. She loved doing patch work and made us all a quilt each. She was always helping in the community and at church.

When she found out she was dying she had two wishes. One of those wishes was to see our school swim sports. She loved watching our races and told everyone it was one of the happiest days of her life.

At her funeral i was asked to do a reading, I was pretty nervous but everyone said what a great job I did and how proud my Grandmother would have been.

I wish I could see her again and some day be with her in heaven.

By Charlie

About me project

              About me

My Achievements in my Life                                            

I have made it to the intermediate squad and have become a successful swimmer. I also have joined the swim club and started doing competitive swimming and trying to get times for the nationals.  These are the best swimmers in the country go to Wellington to compete against the best swimmers.

I got into the cricket rep team and played 50 over games with teams all over the south island and made good friends with people in my team. I love playing senior cricket sometimes in my dads team too.

I was chosen to be Deputy Head Boy at school for 2015 which i am real proud of.                              

I have been an ECB leader and went to preschool to look after kids, this prepares them for coming to St Josephs.

        My Strengths

My strengths are farming and riding motorbikes. I like to swim 8 times a week 5 nights and 3 mornings. On saturdays i play cricket which is my favourite sport apart from swimming. I am also very good at video games and using the internet. I like to hang out with my friends and have them over from time to time. I like P.E and learning new sports and games.

I communicate easily with others and don't mind speaking in front of a crowd.

       My weaknesses

My weaknesses are literacy because i don't like to practise at home. I can get off task quite easy and talk to my friends. I can find it quite hard to do a challenging task and most of the time i dont ask the teacher for help.

       My goals for this year

My goals for this year are to contribute more ideas to the teacher and to ask the teacher for help when i need it. Also to help out my license group and try to get them to become fully licensed students and helping them to make the right decisions in everything they do. Also to get them to learn how to use their google docs. I would like to read more books to help improve my literacy and writing skills.

       What helps me to work best

I like to use google documents to publish all my writing and show my mum and dad when i get home. I like to do research and search up interesting and new things to me. I also like to present things on google docs, make a poster or powerpoint to make the work interesting and fun to read. I like to have quiet time to get my work done.

Looking forward to this year

What i'm looking forward to this year is going on camp at the mountains for a week later in the year.  Swimming will Be an important part of my life  because i have good enough times and qualified to go to a swim event called the Town and Countries. The town and countries is below the nationals so basically everyone that hasn't qualified for the nationals can attend the town and counties.

I am looking forward to visiting St Kevin's for technology again and preparing myself for next year at high school.

  

 What is my future career

I would love to take over my dads farm and continue what my dad farms today. His farm is Lucerne which is like grass but animals love it. My dad hires a contractor that mows the Lucerne and then collects it. He then sells it to the dairy farmers who pay a high price for the Lucerne. My dad has 10 paddocks of Lucerne and gets great money each cut, but then my dad has to pay 33% of the money to the government. My dad also has cows and fattens them up ready to go to the works and lambs too.

I would love to work at the aquatic centre and help teach others to swim, maybe become a lifeguard.

My hobbies

What i like to do in my spare time is in the weekend/Holidays go around the farm with my dad on my motorbike and check the sheep and cattle with our farm dog paige.

On monday wednesday and friday morning i like to get up at 5.30 and start swimming at 6-7.30 in the morning with my squad friends. I like to go to motorbike trails with my friend and race on the off road tracks. I like to catch up with my friends at school and have them over sometimes in the weekend.

 Things my hub need to know about me

I am friendly and dependable and enjoy their company.

By Charlie

Glenn Maxwell

Lucky Break

By Patrick Loughlin

My love of cricket first made me want to read this book, it has a cartoon cricketer on the front cover which I thought looked interesting.

Glenn Maxwell is a famous Australian cricketer, who helps the writer with cricket bits throughout the story.

Will Albright is a twelve year old boy and captain of the cricket team.  He attends a cricket camp for T20 training, that's a short game when you only play 20 overs each.

There are same amazing cricket players at camp and he soon finds one is pretty mean and unfriendly, Darren 'Killer' McKinnon.

A funny part of the story is when they have a big food fight .

Wil has a night game of cricket when the ball lands on his toe and breaks it so Will has to continue with a sore foot.  At an important game he accidentally runs his best friend Shavil out when he wants to impress the selector.

In the end Will and Darren become friends and Will learns that to be successful they have to work as a team.  

The training sessions are very important because there are positions in the academy up for grabs.

I loved that at the end of this story there is a glossary of all the cricket terms and names used and also there are cricket tips,especially batting from Glenn Maxwell himself.

This book was easy to read and had short chapters so you could read it even when you don't have much time.

I would recommend this book to all fellow cricketers and anyone who enjoys watching the cricket and playing

I now have book two and plan to read that one next and next time we have a book review I will do that book - because already I’m halfway through it.

By Charlie

A strong piece of writing, Charlie - I can tell that you really enjoyed this book based on the good feedback and detail you have given about it.

You have a descriptive writing style and it is superb - but lets make consistent punctuation and re-reading of all sentences a focus. Re-read and look for natural pauses - capital letters and commas are important to help your writing flow.  This will look good on your blog - well done. 

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. At the momment I am doing projects that I'm gonna post soon

Swim the Fly

 By Don Calame

A Book Review by Charlie Gilbert

This story is a fictional novel which made me laugh right up to the end. It is a story about a teenage boy named Matt Gratton and his friends Coop and Sean. What happens is every year they set themselves a goal and this year’s goal is to see a live naked girl.

In their swim squad is a new girl named Kelly who Matt is keen to impress, so when the swim coach asks for volunteers to swim 4 lengths Butterfly Matt decides to put up his hand.

Matt lives with his family which includes a crazy Grandad with a goatee who is trying to pick up the widow lady down the road!  His plan includes getting Matt to help him.

Matt and his friends try all sorts of schemes to achieve their goal of seeing a girl while Matt tries to train in private ready for the big race.  He even takes some protein powder from his Mum which turn out to be laxatives.

 They heard that a girl they want to see naked is going to a community centre so they dress up like girls. In the changing room he sees Matt sees Kelly and quickly runs into a toilet stall and this is when the laxatives decide to come out!!  His named underpants end up blocking the girl’s toilets and cause a major flood!

Kelly’s best friend Valerie is kind and Matt enjoys her company and likes to ask her lots of questions about Kelly.

There are many funny moments in this story including a party and Matt nearly having his appendix removed.

The ending is a real happy one for Matt, his friends and the girls.

I think the author was saying to never be afraid to step up to challenges in your life and that sometimes the best things have been right in front of you the whole time.

This novel was easy to read with small chapters and hard to put down.  It made me laugh out loud as I read it.  I enjoyed reading about the challenges of swimming and hard work.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to laugh, people who enjoy stories about teenage life and to those who enjoy swimming.  It contains some rude words but I think it seems appropriate for this story.

Our soccor game was defaulted today so I'm watching 2 Fast 2 Furious on tv and also the commonwealth games.  I love watching the swimming, they are so fast.
Ben came to stay for the last two nights but we didn't get to do much around swimming and school.  We have a new pet lamb, a wee boy which Dad says we can't keep but Mum wants to, he is real cute, his Mum died.  We might go to Dunedin later today after Danny's soccor it is Danny's birthday on Monday and he's pretty excited about it, I know what he's getting but won't tell him.

Well, it is nearly the end of the holidays they went too quick!
We went out for dinner last night to Fat Sally's which was yummy.  This last week I have been swimming and playing with Dad on the Xbox.  We got a new game called Don Bradman Cricket.  Don was the best batsman in the world and played for Australia.  We have had a lot of laughs playing each other I am usually Australia and Dad is New Zealand. Don Bradman is the only player who doesn't wear any helmet because he played 80 years ago when they didn't wear them.  I won most of the games because Australia are good all-rounders.
I bowled Dad's best batsman on the very first ball which was especially good because Dad had been skiting before he came out.
On the way to swimming last night it was all quiet and I was putting on my shoes at he back door, I heard a noise like horses running, next minute around the corner came Mr Grinch chased by Benson it looked hilarious.

We have just arrived back from a night away in Omarama.  We visited Lake Tekapo for the day and went to the hot pools and ice skating.  Danny and Dad went on the snow park slides but the wait for a turn in line was very long!  I asked Dad if I was old enough for the adult pool he said NO! I did a huge fart at the Tekapo café and everyone turned around.
When we went through Twizel my Dad said there was a beautiful camping ground and we should stay there, when we saw it we couldn't believe our eyes, the cabins were old with missing windows and there was just enough room to lie down, this was Dads idea of a joke which no one thought was funny.  We had dinner at the pub.  I had a great pie at the bakery in Fairlie.  On the way home we stopped to look at the Waitaki Dam.  When we got home Mum opened the door and Mr Grinch our cat ran out - he had been locked inside all this time!  We searched the house for any poos but he had managed to hold on, good boy!!!!

Today we had a relaxing day at home, Danny and I played Minecraft on the Xbox.  This afternoon we went out on our motorbikes down the road, Dad's four wheeler is slow compared to my Yamaha 80PWC , Mum was cross because I fed Benson again and now he is obese.

I had a real hard swim tonight. We were real lucky our coach gave us some Hero Cards which are cards that you get when you shop at countdown. Every $20 you spend you get a Hero Card. But on Sunday they stopped selling them which disappointed the people who didn't finish the Hero Cards series. Apparently Dunedin schools couldn't swap any more cards because everyone fights over them and it doesn't end that flash. 

This is my 3rd week of swimming mornings.  I am really enjoying it and its getting easier to get up at 530am.  My favourite is Friday morning because Dad takes me out for breakfast after swimming, we usually go to MacDonalds but this last time we went to Subway.  I tried a bacon egg and cheese sub which I thought would be disgusting with the egg bit but to my surprise it tasted delicious!!  I wanted it again for tea that night.  Today we had soccor and had to go to Waimate, half the team got lost so we played quite late, on the way home Nicholas and I ate all the chocolates when his Dad wasn't looking and Nicholas hid the wrappers in the car door handles.  I think he saw them but didn't say anything.  We won the game.
I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, Dad says we are not allowed to get up until 830 but I bet Danny wakes everyone up early as usual!!!!!!!!!

I think it is very important that everyone knows how to swim so I will tell you how to the strokes.

                                     History

Competitive swimming started in Europe in the 1800s mostly using breaststroke. Swimming was part of the modern Olympic Games in 1896. Drawings from the Stone Age were found in the cave of swimmers near wadi Sara in the southwest part of Egypt. The Greeks did not include swimming in the ancient Olympics but practiced the sport very often. Usually they would build swimming pools as their baths. The Germanic folkore describes swimming as a successful way of using in wars against the Romans. Swimming competitors are also known in that time.

                                  Freestyle

Now I will teach you about Freestyle. First you need to be able to float and put your head under the water. Then you need to be able to kick with a board and also pop up breath. Then you have to bring one arm over at a time over your head. You also need to do long stretch arms. Again you also need good rotation in your shoulders.

                               Backstroke

Now you need to know how to do Backstroke you need good rotation in your shoulders and bring one arm over your head and behind. Also keep your eyes looking at the roof of the swimming pool> Again when you stretch your arms you go faster. Your pinkie enters the water first. You also need to have a good kick to get you going faster.

                                  Breaststroke

Finally I will tell you about my best stroke Breaststroke. It takes a long time to get the hang of it. First you turn your feet out and keep your knees together. Then you turn your legs out. If you want to go faster and you don’t get tired as quick.

                                   Tumble turns

In Squad you can’t stop at the wall and do a tumble turn. Which is a forward roll at the wall and then push off.

                                          Diving

We also have to in Squad Dive into the water in Squad. You put your left foot at the back of the block and your other at the other side of the block. Then you put your hands by your feet then push off

Charlie Gilbert            

                            

Its very wet today at our place I am home sick at home with a cold. Our interschool has been cancelled today So I think my class mates won't be happy

Last night we went to Dunedin to see the All Blacks, we had awesome seats two rows back from the front.  we were very close when the All Blacks were warming up.  The funniest thing we saw was a man in the nude running out onto the field he was a streaker.  One of the stadium people sprinted after the nude man and made the best tackle of the night.  The crowd cheered and cheered and the police took him away.  The people behind us were drunk and swearing a lot.
We went to Filadelfios for dinner before the game and saw some of the England players having tea there.  I got a new All Black top, we also went to the museum and I got a nail art board that you press your face into to make shapes.  Danny and I made butt cheek prints in it, it was so funny.