Junior Boys Basketball

The Junior Boys basketball team at ODSS this year is nothing like before. In the last five years, the team won two games out of 70 games. This year we started off winning the two preseason games by 70 points combined. Once the regular season started, we won our first two games and then lost the next two games 65-63 both times against Ross and Centennial. After that, we just took turns winning and losing until we reached our current record of 5-4. We have five games left in the regular season and the record that we`re looking to end up with is 10-4.








The reason that our team is so much more successful this year is because of our off court chemistry. Everybody on the team just likes to hang out with each other so this makes the on court chemistry rise. Talent is obviously needed if a team wants to be successful, but being cohesive is so much more important. One player can`t score all the points for a team, get rebounds or play defense by themselves either. All five players on the court have to do this and this is the focus we have this season. What makes the Junior basketball team so successful this year rather than other years, is that everybody is willing to sacrifice their stats for the good of the team.




The worst loss of our season was against St. James by 14, but in the other three losses, we only had a deficit of eight points combined. Since we can stay in the game with every teams and potentially win against every team in District 10, this season, the Junior Bears are looking to win the District 10 championship. The last time the Junior bears won it was a very long time ago and I think we have all the pieces to get the 2014 trophy and then continue on to CWOSSA.

The Toronto Raptors

The Raptors have had a reputation of being a very uncoordinated team for as long as any one can remember. Even though many franchise and hall of fame players like Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Damon Stoudemire have played for Toronto, they never seem to do well. All of that could change in 2014. The players, the fans and the coaches might have found a way to be successful in the future.



The Raptors have and had a very multicultural roster which represents the population of Canada as a whole. This is the biggest reason that this franchise has one of the largest fan bases in the world. Players from all over Europe, South America and the United States have all contributed to the Raptors organization and continue do to so today. The Raptors currently have one player from Europe and one player from South America. The others played in various parts of the United States. In the 2011-2012 basketball season, half of the roster was from countries other than the U.S.

This season, Toronto is playing the best basketball it has since 2009. They're on a five game win streak and have won the last 10 of their 12 games. They've beaten the most threatening clubs in the league this year including Oklahoma City, Chicago, Indiana, New York and Los Angeles. In the last five games their point guard is averaging 19.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 10.2 assists and 1.4 steals. Also, before trading Rudy Gay, this team was averaging about 15 assists per game. After the trade, Kyle Lowry himself is averaging 10 assists and the team is averaging over 23 per game.



Fans can't get too excited because this team still has a little bit of rebuilding to do and the biggest competition of all is Sunday night in Miami. If Toronto beats the Heat, then the league really has to consider Toronto as a contender and the Raptors fans will finally get what they wanted for a very long time: a winning team.

Mystery Skype

The Mystery Skype was an interesting activity. Something new that I learned from the Skype was that the education provided for the Native students in their opinion is excellent. I wasn't sure about the quality of their education because the stereotypes about Natives suggest that they do not have great education and most of them are drop outs. Also, when they were asked about how they felt about the 8th Fire documentary, they said that it made them feel sad. I learned that the stereotypes of Natives are not all true from the students on the reserves.

The thing which I really enjoyed was trying to figure out where the other class was from. I liked this because it was fun narrowing down a specific part of the world and try to guess what school they went to and what reserve they lived on. Another thing that I liked form the Mystery Skype was the fact that we won because we guessed their school before they were able to find out the name of ours.

I felt like everything went fairly well during the class. It is a good experience to talk to people who are actually experiencing the stereotypes that we learned about in class. It's one thing to see stereotypes happening in movies and it's another thing to see it in real life. This is a great exercise and I think it should be continued.

Amir's Quest for a Guilt Free Mind

Even though Amir didn't tell anybody that he witnessed the rape, Rahim Khan still knew. This is shown when he calls Amir in California and asks him to "come. There is a way to be good again" (202). Following this phone call, Amir goes to Rahim's house and while he's there, Rahim tells him everything about Hassan and his family. He informs Amir that Hassan and his wife have died and thier only son Sohrab, is living in an orphanage. Rahim wants Amir to get Sohrab and deliver him to an orphanage in Islamabad. In addition to finding out where Hassan was, Amir finds out the biggest secret of his life; Hassan and himself are half brothers. Baba had kept this secret his entire life which was ironic because Baba himself, had told Amir that theft is the unforgivable sin. After giving it thought, Amir decides to find Sohrab and bring him to the safer orphanage because he believes that it will help him cope with his guilty mind. After he finds Sohrab, he takes him back to America, and introduces him to kite running. He wants to become guilt free, so he gives a lot of his time to Sohrab. I think Amir is on the right track to be forgiven. It will take more time to get to know Sohrab, but I am sure that Amir will have a guilt free mind very soon.

The Two Sides of Afghanistan

Amir and Hassan's relationship is a very interesting one. On one hand we have Amir, a smart Pashtun boy who come from a very rich and reputable family. On the other hand is Hassan, a poor Hazara who cooks and cleans up for Amir. Despite having these differences, they play with each other everyday after school. Hassan will do anything for Amir's safety and acceptance. This is evidenced multiple times in this novel so far. The scene where Hassan runs Amir's kite for him and is trapped by the bullies shows this. Hassan has the blue kite with him, but the bullies want it for themselves. To Hassan, his friendship with Amir is so powerful that he will give up anything to the bullies except for Amir's kite. He knows how important it is for Amir to be accepted by his father and the only way to do that is to show the kite to him. Hassan gives up his self respect and dignity to the bullies for Amir's happiness. Even though Hassan would literally give everything he has to keep a friendship with Amir, he doesn't have this this mutual respect for Hassan. Amir saw everything that happened in the alley with Hassan and the bullies, but refuses to do anything about it. He stands there and watches this 12 year old boy give up his dignity for a mere kite. Amir doesn't value their relationship enough to step in and even try to stop what the bullies were about to do. Instead, he runs home, pretending as if nothing had happened and waits for Hassan to give him his kite. Hosseini really exercises the Pashtun and Hazara relationship in Afghanistan. He uses Hassan to represent the Hazaras and Amir to represent the Pashtuns and the discrimination that occurred in the 1970's.