World History Final Portfolio 2014 - Bella Beato

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 10.47.41 AM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 10.47.41 AM
In order to understand yourself and others you need to understand the past. In history this year we’ve learned many things relating to my main topic. Our identity today depends on the past of ancestors and many others. Throughout the year we’ve learned about religion, revolutions, Galileo, and colonization. In my portfolio I will show you examples of work that relates back to my main topic, “In order to understand yourself and others you need to understand the past.” 
We learned about religion in all different parts of the world. To end the religion unit we compared two different religions. I compared Islamic and Hinduism religions. Here is my Wiki Space. I demonstrated the difference between animal consumption in these religions. This helped me realize how people around me that practice these religions feel about animal consumption. It helped me become more sympathetic and understanding. 
Next we learned about many the French and Haitian revolutions. In my journal entry number 33 I talked about different things that could start a revolution. I said that to start a revolution you need to “Establish a goal, Promote your cause, have a vision of a better future, have education, good leadership, and everyone has to agree.” Here is a link to the journal entry. We also did background information about the french revolution to get a better understanding. Here is a link to my background information. To finish the unit we made a movie about revolutions. We focused on a main question and used evidence to support our answer. Here is my project. This unit really helped me understand that without these strong people rebelling against the French rule our world would not be the same today. Who knows what the world would be like without these people. 
We did a smaller unit about Galileo and his inventions and beliefs. Galileo was a brilliant man who challenged the church that they were wrong. In this renaissance time period it was unheard of to challenge the church because the church was the government. He was convicted for his ideas and sent to jail. As an assignment I created a letter from the perspective of Galileo to the church. Here is the letter. This was a great way for me to get into the perspective of another person and see how they think. 
The last unit of the year was about colonization. We learned about how the British attempted to colonize the whole world so that they could control everything. In journal entry 51 we explained two quotes. For the first quote I said “How you make the result happen is just as important as the result.” Here is a link to the entry. At the end of the unit we made our own history exhibit about colonization and presented it to the class. Here is a link to my exhibit. By creating this exhibit I got to see the different struggles that people went through when the British tried to take over their homes. It also showed me that the British shaped the world to make it the way it is today. 
Throughout the year we have learned many interesting things in history class. I’ve learned overall that all these things helps us understand the people around us and ourselves. We need to understand the struggles and battles other people went through and are still going through. By understanding this information it makes us, as humans, more sympathetic. It is important to care for other because we need others to care for us. We treat others the way we want to be treated. 

Final Portfolio

In all honestly I had the feeling that this year’s history class was going to be a bore like any other typical history class. I was proved wrong. On the first day, Mr. Block handed us m&m’s that represented each country’s supply worth. That caught my attention right away. It just wasn’t about what I was learning, but how I was being taught the new information. The most interesting thing that I learned in World History this year was exploring the different changes, cultures, religions, and revolutions in many countries and how it impacted them positively or negatively.

The first topic that really caught my attention was revolutions and their role is developing countries. In Journal #32, we were asked the question what is a revolution in our opinion. The definition that really stuck in my mind was “change against something that involves a large amount of people that all have the same biased decision.” Change was a big part about how revolutions came about, and superior countries taking over third world countries waw an issue. Many revolutions such as the French and Haitian Revolutions were concepts of change that the Haitians definitely didn’t agree with because it wasn’t benefiting them. On the other hand, good change happened in some countries especially involving the government system and how more structure was obtained.

Another topic that really sparked my attention to keep on learning was poverty in third world countries. Comparing education systems and development really made me focus on the weight that these countries had to constantly carry. On the worksheet, Pathologies of Power, we read excerpts of the book that discussed three different approaches (charity, development, social justice) that addressed these suffering countries. The quote that really stood out was “poverty today is a result of a contradictory development; the rich become richer and the poor become poorer." Development really only benefited the rich because they received more money out of it. It’s not like these poor people in these poor countries could afford to live in these developments. There was no point. Today, there are still many third world countries that are still undergoing hardships from these problems.

Diverse religions was another intriguing concept that really taught me how even religion was sometimes an issue. In Journal #18, we discussed the different ways that religion can be a positive or negative force in people’s lives. I stated that many people seek religion to find a new way of viewing life or or forgiveness. Although many religions may give off and interpretations on people. For example, Muslim people who wear turbans or hijabs may be looked upon as terrorist because of people like them have made a bad reputation for them. But is just all stereotypes. Also, limitations have been known to affect the people that believe in the religion because they are forced to believe in something that they honestly know is unjust. This is another example that ties into how revolutions were caused.

Nonviolence and colonization wrapped up the end of our year. In the worksheet, My Faith in Nonviolence,  we were became familiar with the strategic steps in which a lot of people must follow in order to attain a mental state of nonviolence.  In addition, we read “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, and studied quotes from his interview. He expressed the struggle of colonization and how it really separates cultures from one another.

This year has been a very productive year in my World History class. Everything I learned was very mind capturing and wasn’t in anyway boring. I had an amazing year, and hope that I can use the knowledge that I learned in my future!


Final Portfolio

No Opinion is a bad one, they are only great if they are thought through. My portfolio is full of my thoughtful opinions that can raise questions, and arise debates.

“I think that it's only acceptable to criticize a culture when the culture is really cruel to the people, and everyone knows. But other then that, it's just judging people for how they want to live.” Journal #3. Though my writing skills were much poorer in the beginning of the year then now. I was explaining how it isn’t right to judge the way one lives, unless it is negatively affecting you, or is clearly is wrong. Something that I feel is not acceptable is judging muslim women because they wear the hijab and cover. Thats not effecting anyone. It’s their choice of living. Something that I consider an appropriate time to judge is the holocaust. What Hitler was doing was immoral, and it didn’t affect people negatively.

Religion is a practice of belief in a higher power. Learning, and worshiping or something even accepting that there is a higher power.” Journal #10. Not in the sense of saying that no religion is bad, but in my belief, if you don’t believe in a higher power, you don’t practice a religion. Not even saying that you have to “practice” your religion, but the simple act of believing is “practicing”.

“A revolution is a significant change in a place that the change has never been done. Not a random change, usually a system change.” Journal #29. I picked this definition because I think there are many things a revolution can be. There is not only revolutions in fighting against different countries like  the U.S. revolution against Britain. There could be technology revolutions such as the first computer, the cell phone.

Good research makes a good story. But also a good story can’t be made without explanations to facts. Our last benchmark was to make an exhibit on colonialism. This was my 1st artifact,”This is a painting of the taino indians. As you can see, they don’t wear many clothes. This is their native style of clothes. To other countries , such as spain this might make them look undeveloped. Making “helping” them seem like an okay thing. Though the way they dressed, their style of life was important to them.” Colonization in Puerto Rico. I thought this was a significant artifact because it shows how the Taino indians could easily be used by the spanish, they were taken off guard but people with god like clothing, while they only wore small skirts, just like in Africa. It makes it easier for the spanish to take over Puerto Rico too, they seemed to have such little judging them by their appearance. It was obvious to “help” them.

This is my 6th artifact,”This artifact shows how puerto rico is a “territory” of the U.S.

Though they celebrate puerto rican holidays, they also have to celebrate U.S. Holidays. The visitors can pick which holidays they think are american or puerto rican. And descriptions of each holiday. The people of puerto rico have to act as if they are american, though they aren't considered americans.” Colonization in Puerto Rico. I would say this was my most important artifact in my whole exhibit. This really shows how puerto rico is still colonized. They have to have our holidays , that are irrelevant to them, on their calendar. But they aren't americans. Having a territory is colonization.

All these things I am putting in this portfolio are the things that I am truly most proud of, though, what I think  I am most proud of is all the work I have done this year In world history. Though I had spinal surgery, I was successful in turning in my work and getting what I need to get done. I am truly proud of myself.





Word Art 2
Word Art 2

World History Final Portfolio 2013-2014

Word Art 3
Word Art 3
It was a cold January day. 29 people sitting in a circle, arguing with each other about parts of the French Revolution. Then one particular man, Robespierre, jumped up, had a complete meltdown, yelled some expletives our way, and stormed out of the class. Just a normal day in World History class.

Truly, this year has been... Interesting, to say the least.


Throughout the educational mixture of facts and emotions and a variety of activities, us students have been brought directly into the emotions and situations of the events we have looked at. We have fought intense trials and argued over petty details just to win. We have taken up the mantles of revolutionaries. We have written our own fictional “look into history” in the form of a play. We have truly thrown ourselves into history.


Throughout the year, we have looked upon many different perspectives of the world. One interesting implementation of this was our pipeline monologue project. Click here to see it. "Right now we have a golden opportunity. The door out of this place is standing right there, but you keep trying to barricade it.... Things aren’t always black and white like they are for you and so many others. There are so many other colors and shades. And this one isn’t all bad." (Pipeline Monologues)


We look at the past, we look at those that have had important roles to play, we know where they fit in. But who are we as people? Where do we fit in? A resounding theme this year has been social justice for the oppressed, but what about justice for the ones who don’t know who they are, who have been hurt beyond belief, who still carry their own scars with them for so many years. When we focus on the big picture, we can accomplish great things, but what about the individual behind the statistic? What about one man?...


As part of our Play project, I wrote about what it was like for one man and his friends during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, against Nazi occupation. Click here to see my play project. I looked at more than just the suffering of a people, I looked at the suffering of one man, and how that suffering is connected to the fight for the city, and for the nation.


“Klaus Adler: You’re a fool. If you die, your cause dies...

Jan: And so do you." (Play Project)

“Jan:

You monster. Hell hath no fury like that of a Pole.


(*Starts kicking Klaus*)


This is for my wife! This is for my friends! This is for Warsaw!


And this is for Poland!!! Give Lucifer my regards!


(*Shoots Klaus in head, blows smoke off barrel*)


Well, that’s over. “ (Play Project)


"Stop. What have we seen here? Utter desperation. But this isn’t the end of the story, though you may think it is." (Play Project)


We have focused on such diverse issues from the Keystone XL pipeline, to the role of religion in society. Several more links and quotes from my work are included below: I personally analyzed the relation between religion and war. Click here to see my wiki page about it.

"War is people fighting each other for some sort of cause. It can be for freedom, it can be for land, it can be for honor. Whatever the motivation, it is either our cause, or the cause of our masters." (Religion Wiki)

        Click here to look at 2 handpicked history journal entries.


World History Portfolio


As I write this I think back to my own past experiences. I think back to those days when me and my father sat on our couch and talked about those out of the box topics. Those discussions where we would talk about the first man being discovered in Africa, the Pyramids of the great Egyptians, and the thought of life elsewhere in the galaxy. I think to how these conversations affect how I think articulately.


General Idea:

I have found that process is a key factor in presence and appearance. These are subjects that are extremely important when expressing goals. How you achieve the goal is most important, especially when dealing with the things that follow that goal.


During various class discussions that led into my own explorations the key factors of reaching a goal became apparent. The way that Gandhi led his people from freedom. The wars of today going on in places like yemen. Reading the list of 198 ways of nonviolent action. The best way to fight a war is not through death or harm or hate. The best way to win a war is through logic and setting an example for what is right. To set empathy in the hearts of your enemies.


The best way to win an argument is through logic, while the best way to ace a test is through studying. This is because the way you achieve these things, the presence and appearance, don’t create further conflict. Rather they leave you with the knowledge and experience to be able to perform those tasks again expertly. While a method such as acing a test through cheating will not allow you to pass the test again without cheating. People will think you were good at those subjects and ask you to help them, but you would not  know how.


Quotes:


“Somebody had to work for that discount you got. Another message is that so many other people had to work for you to get you your clothes that you thought were so cheap and worth buying. There are so many ties with these big corporations that oil could affect the cost of clothing.”

Journal 1. Question 1.

“Process and preparation is most important when achieving the means. The knowledge you attain from getting there the first time may be the knowledge needed to get there again. The ripples you have imbedded while achieving that action will come back around. The bonds you have made will remain. The damage you dealt will still be damage. However, you can always try, try again.”

Journal 52. Question 1.

"Layout and appearance. What is on the outside is really important when swaying one's thoughts and looking for approval"

Scientific Revolution. Commentary.

"This section of the reading digs deep into the experience of experience. It says that Myth helps not only theoretically explain experiences, but to give them a deeper meaning. This deeper meaning makes experiences more worth while and last longer."

Power of Myth. Analysis/ Closer Reading.

"What you do and what you would prefer to do affect your livelihood. If what you do is different than what you would prefer to do, than your livelihood shall decrease.

Sacred Text Analysis. Commentary.

“People used the message of hippity-hop to get their message across. The message of inequality trying to tear down the Ukraine people was presented. It became powerful when put onto youtube.”

Revolutional Digital Story Benchmark. Fun In Revolutions.

“It still all boils down to a good organized plan and luck for everything to happen in it’s favor. So the best strategy to have is to not disclose your weaknesses, or identity to your oppressor and to construct a plan involving a community.”

Class General Discussion. In your opinion, what are the best strategies for revolutionary change?

Multis: “Only pleasing the consumers”;”Maximizing opportunities” System: “The only system without government intervention” Consumers: “Not responsible for what they buy” Workers: “Forced into labor”

Sweatshop Trials. Trial notes.

King:‘Was doing his job’-”Does doing your job consist of ignoring a mans attack on slaughtering some 240,000 people?”;’He didn’t know’-”How could you not know what was going on when you sent a letter carrier to cortez in a failed attempt to cancer YOUR previous orders?”

Cortez Trials. Trial notes.

“Between the Phoenician Colonies and the greek colonies, the main difference was the reason for colonization. Phoenicians mainly colonised to increase their access to trade, and to build trade routes. While the Greeks partly colonised just for power that came with spreading the control of their empire.”

Colonial Exhibit Proposal. Fun Fact.


Analysis:


These quotes explain the course of events that lead to this thesis. If you read the quotes carefully and in order, the sequential data would show the growth in my processes. It would show how I’ve grown as a writer, as an intellectual, as an individual. It would show that process is a key factor to presence and appearance.


Other work:


Colonial Exhibit Proposal


Revolutional Digital Story  Proposal


Narrative Document


Journal 25 and Journal 37 Document


Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 2.13.23 PM
Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 2.13.23 PM

Caitlin's Final Portfolio

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 9.40.53 AM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 9.40.53 AM

Understanding world history involves having knowledge on many other subjects and being able to utilize other tools. I realized this throughout our world history course this year. We used a lot of unique sources and creative projects to learn and we focused on many different time periods, including things happening in the present day.

Something I realized throughout the year is that change does not come easily and it takes hard work. Most communities are divided by social classes and once your class is decided it is extremely hard to change. If your class depends on your income, it’s possible to change your social status but it takes a lot of work. The easiest solution is to get a new job or to get a promotion if you already have a job. When you get more money you can possibly move away from the poverty. But it takes a long time to save up enough and so much more goes into the process of making a change. In a journal entry of mine I wrote, “I don't think my hands are clean and I don't think anyone else's are either. It is practically impossible to find "clean" and responsibly made clothing these days." It’s hard to know what stores sell responsibly made clothing and those clothes are always more expensive. A lot of people try to have a smaller environmental footprint but a lot of times it’s difficult because price and location matter so clothing made with sweat shops is still bought more often than not. Another instance where change is hard to make is in schools. In class we had a discussion on women’s roles in science. A quote of mine is, "Women's roles in science have changed. It is more common to see a woman involved in science, whether she is a scientist or a science teacher. But woman scientists in the past are still not taught in schools nearly as much as men. Women who have made big discoveries or invented something important are not recognized. Women now have more rights but the fact that women were not recognized back then is still not recognized now." The majority of scientists taught in history are men and very few women are recognized for their discoveries. It’s always possible to make changes to anything but it is very difficult and that remains true now as it did thousands of years ago.

Social media aids in the understanding of historical and current events. In one of my past journals our question was “How would you do about deciding what topics/units to include in a world history class?” I replied with, “I think you should see what’s going on in the world because if it’s coming up in social media more people will be able to make connections to it.” At the beginning of this course I figured we would focus fully on events in the past. But multiple times during the year we discussed current events individually or we connected them to the history lesson we were learning. One of the benchmark projects we did during the year was a digital story that asked a question or explained a certain aspect surrounding revolutions. I made my video explain how a successful revolution is made and one of the most important tools to use while doing that is social media. “Social media allows people who are interested in the cause to make a difference even if they live halfway around the world and can’t physically participate.” Ideas and events spread so much faster or the internet and it’s so easy for anyone in the world to support a cause. The same thing goes for religion. A unit it our history class was on religion and a quote of mine from a discussion we had it, "I think religion is a worldwide similarity. Even if you don't follow any certain religion you still have your own beliefs, which is what religions is basically made up of." No matter the beliefs you have, someone living somewhere in the world probably shares the same idea as you. So many stereotypes and facts about religion are shared around on the internet and it’s hard to believe that religions created so long ago became so successful without the internet. Our lives revolve around the internet and social media is how most people find out what’s going on in the world and also what has happened in history.


Links:

Quote #1: "I don't think my hands are clean and I don't think anyone else's are either. It is practically impossible to find "clean" and responsibly made clothing these days."

Quote #2: "Women's roles in science have changed. It is more common to see a woman involved in science, whether she is a scientist or a science teacher. But woman scientists in the past are still not taught in schools nearly as much as men. Women who have made big discoveries or invented something important are not recognized. Women now have more rights but the fact that women were not recognized back then is still not recognized now."

Quote #3: “I think you should see what’s going on in the world because if it’s coming up in social media more people will be able to make connections to it.”

Quote #4: Social media allows people who are interested in the cause to make a difference even if they live halfway around the world and can’t physically participate.” 

Quote #5: "I think religion is a worldwide similarity. Even if you don't follow any certain religion you still have your own beliefs, which is what religions is basically made up of."

World History Final Portfolio 2014

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 11.08.48 AM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 11.08.48 AM

Belief systems should not influence basic human rights. In world history this year I learned that people care more about what they believe in or want more than they care about others lives. In the past they killed others for land and the ones they didn't kill they enslaved for free labor. They will hire workers and make them work for long ours for only a few cents a day. They will make children travel miles on foot to go work at a factory.


One example of this is when we did the Cortes Trial. We were trying to find out who was the most guilty for the slaughter of the Aztecs. It was between The King, Cortes, The Aztecs, Cortes's men, or the System of Empire. There were many charges against them all and here are a few. The King: He sent Cortes to Mexico to colonize it. Cortes: He was the commander of the troops that killed the Aztecs. The Aztecs: They allowed Cortes in their City and did nothing about his conquest. Cortes's Men: They were the ones who carried out the orders from Cortes. The System of Empire: This caused the King to send Cortes because the system requires people to have money to survive. Click here for other charges.


Another example would be when we did the Sweatshop Trial. This trial was about who is to blame for businesses having sweatshops in other countries. This is because many people work in sweatshops for long hours minimal pay to produce many things. These things are then shipped to other countries to be sold at high prices to people so that these businesses can make a lot of money. Also the factories that the people work at are falling apart and the owners aren't even trying to repair them or even care about the workers. The accused are The System of Profit, U.S. Consumers, Poor Country Workers, Poor Country Ruling Elite, and Multinational Corporations.


Also we went over colonization of different countries and did a project on it. During the Unit we read a book called Things Fall Apart. It was about a tribe in Nigeria that lived by their gods. Then the people came and started to spread their religion and as time passed more and more of the people converted to it. For the project we had to show artifacts from colonialism and explain how they were involved. It also had to be like an actual exhibit so there was something that happened when they walked in and left. 


Later on we did a Journal by comparing two maps and saying what we noticed. The two maps were of Africa in different time periods. One was from 1876 where the majority of Africa was still indigenous. Then there is the one from 1914 where the countries are colonized and trying to gain independence. 

Final Portfolio

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 11.12.22 AM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 11.12.22 AM

This year has been the most challenging year I have had in my ten years of schooling. It was taxing, stressful, and most nights I started drinking coffee at 2 am to stay awake. However, it was also incredibly rewarding. I have learned so much in history; through discussions and worksheets, and creative projects. Through our extensive and detailed units, I have gathered an overarching thesis: In order to understand the world and it’s issues, one must put their mind into another’s environment. In addition to that thesis I gained a general understanding about the future of humans. 

Human evolution and the way we think was greatly challenged in this class. I gained the understanding that, as humans evolve there becomes a great disconnect between humanity and progress. Basically, this just means that as we continue to grow as humans our progress is not measured in morals or humanity, but economically. Whether this is good or bad is mostly based on the type of society we want to live in. From Immanuel Kant’s, What is Enlightenment, I discerned, “As we (humans) have evolved, we have tried to create more things that can do tasks for us and even make decisions for us.” We lose our humanity with each technological advancement. Immanuel Kant wrote this in 1784. His thesis was correct as we have been steadily moving toward this future he imagined. We are dependent on our technology. Through all of the units in history I have questioned my morals and the decreasing morality of people. 

One of the first units we did was about the Keystone XL Pipeline. This is a pipeline that is proposed to run from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. There are numerous environmental consequences should the pipeline be built. In order for us to understand multiple perspectives, we were assigned to create three original monologues, each from a new perspective. My favorite of the three I wrote was from the perspective of a tree that was going to be uprooted. The beginning went as follows, “I’ve sat through many a fire and brimstone. For every ring around my trunk I have seen another man turn to hell this Eden we have tried to provide. My limbs kiss ground so heavy with weariness. I’m so tired. I find myself weeping with willows whipped from their roots by teeth of dead machine.” Writing this monologue was a new creative challenge. In class we had been discussing whether or not the economic benefits of the pipeline outweighed the environmental hazards. I felt that in order to understand and to help others understand nature’s perspective, I had to write in first person as something from nature. Overall, I think it was a success. I created a neat twist to a current event and that made the unit all the more interesting. I also became more sensitive to environmental issues and starting researching them deeper because of the monologue. 

My favorite unit was the religion unit. I entered the unit with a lot of assumptions. Religion has never been apart of my daily home life. I was raised in a household where religion was up to me to decide in my own time. Religion had never been something I was interested in because I didn’t think it had merit beyond tradition. Through exploring different cultures and religions I gained an insight that allowed me to broaden my opinions and understandings. At the end of the unit we reflected in our journals, “In the beginning of this unit I felt like religion was just another way to separate people and the world would be a better place without it…Though I myself am not religious, I do respect the religions of others.” As humans we fill in a lot of our knowledge with assumptions we make. That’s how our brains interpret the world. By slowing down and taking the time to analyze other cultures I gained a great appreciation for them. I even started researching the Wicca religion after the unit was over because I was interested in it on a personal level. The brilliant thing about putting yourself in others’ shoes is that more often than not you learn about yourself. From the religion unit I shaped my identity as an Agnostic Unitarian Universalist. I’m grateful for the opportunity. 

World history is especially important because you can understand cultures that you would perhaps never gain an insight to. One of the cultures we got an inside look to was the Igbo culture from Africa. I had never heard of it and would probably never have learned about it if not for our unit on the book, Things fall Apart. This book kicked off our unit on colonialism. There are so many places that have been greatly affected by European colonialism. In response to a poem about the hardships of colonizers, we had to write a poem from the opposite point of view. The first part of my poem read, 

“Bring forth a savage sorrow-

Abandon lands of centuries’ grown

Salvage gods to waste they’ve thrown

Lay to rest the peace of yester

Into your wounds let hatred fester.”

I attempted to put myself in the minds of the people being colonized through the research I had done. I find that I really learn better when I am creatively thinking about the historical event that took place. The poem helped me to understand colonialism on a personal level, instead of just seeing it as, “something that happened to some people.” 

Understanding the world around you is one of the most important skills you can learn. If given the choice, one should choose to dispel their ignorance and expand their horizons. The truest form of understanding would be to live through the things you are learning about. However, this is not always possible, and sometimes may be dangerous. So I feel that the next best thing would be to put yourself in their shoes. By doing this  stretched my empathy muscles. I have developed the skill to see events from more angles than just one. This helps with problem solving. No longer are things just black and white. World History provided many opportunities for me to learn in this creative experimental way. 


Portfolio

tree.png


Change is a necessary part of life but is also very difficult to obtain.


"The people have unexpected powers. We never know how much we can do as a whole." (Journal #35)

Global Inequality. Humans and the Environment. Religion. Exploration. The Renaissance. Human Rights. Revolutions. Colonialism. When thinking about a world history class in any normal school, I wouldn’t think of most these topics. As a student at Science Leadership Academy, I guess I was wrong thinking this school would be like every other one. To be honest, I’m glad these were our topics of study. If I continued to learn the same historically popular facts about wars and countries and Columbus, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the class.

A large handful of what we learned this year is how world history, in all of its forms, has impacted education. "The lack of education is like an infection that can spread and it has a cure, but many people can't afford it," (Global Education). We began the school year by looking at some local and worldwide education faults. Being a world history class, this was very unexpected. I wanted to and thought we'd learn about ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans or the Mayans and Incas the first week of school. We watched a film called Time for School (watch part one here, and part two here). This documentary followed around seven children from all around the world. These children were struggling to achieve their basic education rights. I was really interested in this documentary and watched as much as I could of it. It was interesting following around different children from different cultures to see how similar or different we are. "It's hard to obtain education rights in some places, making the lack of education a constant issue. Government and groups halt the rising of education by saying that certain people/groups aren't allowed," (Global Education). An interesting website that we used in the first quarter is The Places We Live. This is an interesting, interactive website that takes you on a journey to different places of the world to see how the living conditions are. This was another aspect of the class that I loved.

Skipping ahead in the year, we worked on studying revolutions. "Anything beneficial and positive are the most important things to revolutions. You want to do positive acts, so there's nothing people can use against you. The 'least' important things are not necessarily not important, just not beneficial," (Journal #36). In this unit, we were challenged to study a revolution and ask questions about it. We looked into the French Revolution and discussed the current revolution in Ukraine. We also learned about the Arab Springs revolutions. We watch the documentary, The Square, which is about the Egyptian protests in Tahrir Square. I chose to go in depth with the Ukrainian Revolution, known as EuroMaiden. I found a primary source, a girl who lives in Ukraine and participated in the revolution, and having first-hand accounts of what’s happening in a foreign country is really exciting. I based my revolution guidebook around the relationship that social media and revolutions have. Since I found my primary source through social media, I thought it was fitting to do my project about social media. You can see my project from this unit here.

Overall, this year, I enjoyed what we worked on and I enjoyed the class.


Social change



My History Portfolio:

I remember vividly the first day of the trail, anxiety coursing through my veins. I knew this project was going to be something else the day we learned about it. It was going to magical. This whole class has taught me to march to the beat of my own drum, and take control of my own education. I have experimented with many different projects, each of which had descriptions pliable enough to craft something unique. Every single project was more original and innovative than the last and made me think of ideas in history in expanses of new ways.

Social change is the result of creative minds putting their best work together, rallying the people and just giving it your all. A job worth doing is one worth doing right so you might as well give your 100% every time. The ideas of social change I learned in this class have rocked me to my core, shedding new light on historical instances I had prior knowledge on. The vast amount of freedom allowed in each project really let me run wild with my creativity. Each worksheet and assignment on a topic wove masterfully constructed questions together with insightful commentary on the source material allowing me to really get imaginative with each response. We could always count on Mr. Block to provide the necessary information during pause breaks in movies. They were useful and unobtrusive and really helped me understand some of the trickier topics.

In order to understand myself I had to do some deep soul searching. At first, I was unsure about this class, the assignments were vexing on a deep moral level and the near laissez faire setup of the class intimidated me. But by the time we were setting up our play outlines I was raring to go and giddy as ever. The plays really opened my eyes to how social inequality ticks and what the driving forces are. Mr. Block let us go wild with this project and I think it really affected how the plays turned out. The limitations were unobtrusive helping each play find its own footing and really become something else. “I don’t know why I was so excited by this. It didn’t mean anything for sure yet. What was I thinking” This is a quote from play.

I wish had spent less time on drawing in my notebook, I wasted all that paper doodling instead of letting my ideas on the state of the world flow out onto the pages. It is my biggest regret. And, now, at the close of this long spectacular year, I can see what a huge mistake I’ve made. My drawings were mere distractions, roadblocks on my journey to becoming a socially-conscious adult. I should have soaked in every bit of sacred information that was provided for me in this class instead of letting it slip away, dripping through my open hands. This class makes me love history and I walk away a better man because of it.  


Links to my work:

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/presentation/d/1PC_eav8ZiLmgQcanaklmUbEqcWa3i4A5_eQS6QREdjA/edit?usp=drive_web


https://drive.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/#folders/0BzLvODXVI4hdQlJYSEZiVmdMR2s


https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1-knNkuZalOd0eiH0mkmxUVSwtNdBmnNXUmouklLckS0/edit?usp=drive_web


https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1uzW-Z3QBQD_Xh0PJWROBf3pyhqViaPPBc3KOA0g3_kI/edit?usp=drive_web




Final Blog Post

Creativity is Necessary in order to gain a Unique Perspective on History




In world history this year, I thought we would learn about about a new topic every quarter, turns out we would learn about a new topic almost every week. From Religion to Revolution to Colonization we were always reading articles, watching videos, or doing worksheets. We gained a unique perspective on past events and current events through research and inquiry. I found myself in a difficult position during trials and roleplays, I had to abandon my personal opinion and become an entirely different person during the French/ Haitian Revolution Roleplay.

“Slaves cannot be free. Slaves are.... slaves. They’ve been slaves since before I was born. They think that they can... what? Live in society like the rest of us? They’d never be accepted, the only job they would get would be working as a servant. Which is what they are already! What would they do if they didn’t have us? We give them a purpose to be here! We give them jobs and food and a place to sleep. If they fight, they’ll no longer have the things they need to survive in life.” For the rest of my responses click here

It was very hard for me to write this, in the beginning. I didn’t like being that person, but after I started writing I thought to myself ‘what would a privileged, naive women during the French Revolution sound like?’ and the ideas just started flowing. This is one example of being put out of my comfort zone, and instead of seeing things from my own perspective, I was seeing things from multiple peoples perspective. Which ultimately provided the unique perspective I mentioned before.  

I think that the creativity required for this class was something that was not essentially talked about, but was something that was required in order to gain an understanding for the class. Almost every day we wrote a response to a quote or how we felt about a certain topic, and with every journal our minds grew. Another example is during the Cortes trial, we had to put aside our personal opinions and work hard to defend our given group. For my reflection on the trial click here.

Sometimes we were given the opportunity to really explore our creative sides and write plays, poetry, letters, we went on our own and created these things. We usually wrote the poetry as an opposite to something we had already read, for my poem The Somebodies, a response to The Nobodies click here. For my poem Modern Day USA, a response to The White Mans Burden click here


Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 11.37.28 AM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 11.37.28 AM

Final Portfolio Project

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 10.50.25 AM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 10.50.25 AM

“Life moves fast. As much as you can learn from your history, you have to move forward.”-Eddie Vedder. Eddie has a point we do learn from our past and we learn from our mistakes but it’s always good to move forward and learn more about yourself. In Mr.Block’s history class we learned more and more about the worlds past and even ourselves. You learn more about yourself when you learn more about your past. We had many units where we got to discover more about ourselves.


I learned that I have a knack for writing. I would express myself in our journal prompts and really go into detail how I felt about the topic of the day. One of our journal prompts  was about fighting for what you believe in and whether you would sacrifice yourself my answer “I mean I don’t really believe in anything enough to die for it... I guess I can say I would die to save my family or loved ones, because they mean the world to me.. But if a random person asked me to take a bullet for believing in the chupacabra I’d be like, you got the wrong one.”After writing that I development a new idea. As we went deeper into our units and learned more about history my opinion on a lot of things change. I felt one way on something but after doing more research and understanding more I would the complete opposite of what I did. Like the Keystone XL Pipeline at first I was up for the pipeline because it would make more jobs, but after our pipeline unit I learned that this pipeline would not only be relocating a lot of people whose homes are in the path, but it it leaks it could a lot of animals and ruin the environment. I wrote three monologues about the Pipeline teaching people about the dangers of the pipeline, here’s a sample of one of the monologues

“Dear Mr.President,

If you do read this, I want you to know that it’s time to make a decision. This pipeline that’s supposed to “help” America is actually tearing us apart. My dad was one of the many protestors who was thrown in jail the other day. He is facing a lot of time for standing up for what he believes in. This pipeline, if made will force a lot of people out their homes My dad was standing up for those people who don’t have a voice. Their voices wouldn’t be heard if it wasn’t for him. I’m just asking for your help, can you just let my dad go please? You knew what it’s like not having a dad around. All I want is mine. I hope you actually read this and help me.

    

Margaret Brownwood”

To read the full monologue and the other two click here

To read more writing by me click here

 





One of my favorite units that I really related to was our unit on female scientist and the empowerment of females all over the world. Where we discovered that women all over the world don’t have the same rights as men, and that we don’t have enough females in the science field who make a difference in people's lives. I wrote on one of our worksheet’s from The Cyberschoolbus site that “If women are empowered they’ll start going to school, and we can have more empowered females in the world” and if we have more empowered women maybe we can be seen more than just sex symbols.  I wrote more on that in my journal entry number 46 “Girls were born to be pretty and sometimes used as sex symbols while guys were born to be masculine and be the breadwinner for the family.... When really it doesn’t matter who does what..... well society doesn’t think that”


An important get to know yourself unit was Revolutions and Colonialism. In class we talked about the French and Haitian revolution, the Colonialism of the Aztecs in 1520’s, the Egyptian revolution of 201, The Industrial Revolution. During these units we would have mock trials were you get to play a certain character to defend yourself against the people who did you greasy. During the trials you do background information on the certain person you got and you put yourself in their shoes and it’s was interesting learning about past lives that affect you know.


“The vast universe is a wheel circle of life, birth, death and rebirth”  -quote from sacred text reading, and that’s how our history is people went through what they did so I could be on the path that I’m on now,which is going to school and getting my education to better myself. “Things can happen all at once and little changes can make a huge difference” my response to Science Revolution Worksheet. And I feel as those putting myself in their shoes, I grew a better appreciation for the people who did what they did, but at the same time I learned from their mistakes and how not to repeat history again good or bad.


Overall Mr.Block’s class was interesting.... His teaching was hands on wich made a real impression on me. It was a comfortable learning environment where we could debate anything for hours and still not get out point across, (which has happened many times). We got to express ourselves through journaling and iMovies and songs and at the end of the day we still learned about our past. It wasn’t your average history class with any average history teacher.  


Woodstock

It’s July and my mother and father and I just finished traveling all the way from our home in Georgia to my grandparents lake house in Vermont. Every summer we come and stay up here for a week or two. It’s usually the most torturous week of the entire summer. All I think about is all the shit my friends are getting into back home. It sucks here. Nothing but trees, trees, a lake, and more trees. Where are the people? It’s a deadmans land up here for sure. I miss my friends and I’ve only been here for not even an hour. I was dreading unpacking my suitcase. I don’t wanna be here, if I unpack my stuff that’s just ensuring that I’m gonna be here for a while.

Stressed, and depressed I was out in the back of the house having a smoke when my grandfather comes out. “Mariella?” I threw the cigarette on the ground.

“Are you out there? Come here I have someone I want you to meet.”

Who the hell could my grandfather possibly want me to meet? The only people out here are in their 70’s and on the verge of dying. While walking up the steps I see a shaggy haired boy sitting on the front patio. Who the hell could my grandfather possibly want me to meet.

“Mariella!” Said my grandfather.

“This is Sid! I’m so excited for you two to meet. You guys are going to get along so well.”

“His grandfather lives in the big yellow house down the road a ways. He’s up visiting his grandparents for the week as well!”

The shaggy haired boy put his hand out to introduce himself.

“It’s nice to meet you Mariella.”

“Nice to meet you too Sid.”

Once the whole introduction was over I decided it was time to go finish that smoke that my grandfather rudely interrupted. I was sitting on a tree stump thinking about this “Sid” kid. He actually seemed pretty chill. He was pretty cute too. Shaggy brown hair and green eyes are my favorite. Maybe this summer week won’t be so bad after all. Out of nowhere the kid slops down on the stump next to me. “Hey.” He said.

“Jesus Christ you almost scared me to death.”

I hate when that happens. I feel like everytime I’m thinking about someone or something they pop up at that exact time. Almost as if he knew I was thinking about him. He pulled out a smoke as well. “Okay maybe this kids gonna be alright.” I thought to myself.

“So where are you from?” He asked.

“Georgia. You?”

“I’m living in Denver right now. Originally from Vermont though.”

We sat on that stump for nearly 2 hours talking about the weirdest things. Trading stories about our lives at home and all the crazy things we’ve done, and the crazy things we want to do.

The next morning I woke up to a knocking on my window. It was Sid. What the hell could he possibly want from me at this early in the morning. The sun was barely up and I’m used to waking up around noon back at home. I crept out of my bed and opened up the window which made the loudest most painful screech. “Top of the morning.” Said Sid. “Uh top of the morning to you too.” top of the morning? I thought to myself. Who says that. “I was just wondering if you happened to be busy today? I’m going on a little adventure and would love for you to join me.” He had such a evil, yet welcoming grin on his face. “Uhhhh I don’t have any plans at the moment.” I said. “Okay well we leave in 10. Meet me down the trail by the dogwood tree. I will be waiting.” Without giving me time to respond he quickly walked away. A little confused, I quickly put on clothes and hurried to the trail.

When I got to the trail Sid was carrying a giant backpack of who the hell knows what. “Hey.” I said.

“Are you ready to have the best time of your life?” In a almost cocky tone of voice.

“I mean I don’t know if it’ll be the best day of my life, but I’m ready to have a good time, for sure.”

We walked for about 30 minutes before we got close to our destination. Our destination being a tree house built on top of a giant oak tree. I’ve never seen something like this before. It was actually beautiful. We climbed up the trunk on a wooden rope ladder all the way to the top where we sat for hours with a pair of binoculars watching all of the animals roam around the land. We got on the topic of partying and how both of us were probably missing the best parties of the summer while we were in the middle of nowhere with our families.

“Man, why didn’t either of us bring a bottle of whiskey or something.” I said. Sid looked at me with an uncertain, anxious glare.

“What.. why are you looking at me like that?” I said to Sid to break his glare.

“Uh. I don’t know. I uh. I can trust you right, Mariella?”

“Is that a serious question? Tell me!” I yelled.

“Okay well, the other day a few of my buddies and I were hanging out around this lake that the kids at my school always throw parties at.”

“Andddd??”

“And there was this guy there selling this stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“I’m not exactly sure. He said it was some new kind of drug. Everyone was buying it so figured why not. He gave me this piece of paper along with the little vial.” Sid handed me the little draw string bag and rolled up piece of paper.

I’ve never done an actual drug before. I didn’t know if I should have been nervous, excited, or scared. Inside the drawstring bag was a tiny little vial of a blue liquid, and what looked like a tiny little turkey baster. On the piece of paper was a list of instructions on how to do it and what to expect after taking it.

“So what do ya say?” Sid said in a devious tone.

A million thoughts were running through my head. Should I do it? What is I die? What if it’s the greatest night of my life. What if my grandparents find out? What if my parents find out?

“Come on it’ll be fun I promise?”

“Idunno Sid. I mean have you even tried this stuff before? What exactly does it do?”

“I haven’t tried it yet, but everyone I know that has said it was amazing. Apparently it gives you the power to travel back in time until the drug wears off in about 24 hours.”

“Wait so you’re telling me that if we take this blue stuff we’ll be able to travel back in time?”

“Yeah, I think that’s what I’m saying..”

“And you’re sure that I wont die?

“I’m not trying to murder you Mariella. I just think it would be fun, and I think you would enjoy it as well.”

He was so convincing. Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe there really wasn’t a reason for me to not do it. I mean I have nothing better to do, right? Finally after 30 seconds of me blankly staring at a tree I came to a decision.

“Whatever let’s do it. But where are we gonna go?’

“What’s one thing that you weren’t alive for but you wish you were?”

One thing that I wasn’t around for. I thought to myself. My god, there’s a million places and things I wish I was around for. How am I supposed to pick one.

“Let’s go back to George Washington’s time.” I said jokingly because that would be awfully boring.

“I was thinking somewhere cool. Somewhere we can do whatever it is that we please.” Sid said with a devilish smirk across his face.

“And where is that?”

“Woodstock.”

‘Woodstock? What is that? Or where is that I should say?” Is Woodstock something I should know about? I thought to myself.

“It’s the greatest music festival to ever happen. It was in the late 60’s. My grandparents went when they were teenagers. They’ve told me stories about it ever since I was a little boy. I used to dream about being there.”

“A little boy dreaming about a music festival. Those stories must have been pretty crazy.”

“So what do you say, wanna go?”

“I’m game.”

What happened next was a bit confusing. In order for this all to work the instructions said we had to follow them very precisely. Step one was to use the tiny strips of paper that came with the little drawstring bag and write down the place, date, and time of where we wanted to go. Sid scribbled in little letters.

“Woodstock, August 16, 1969.”

“Okay so what do we do now?”

“You have to do the same. Write down what I wrote on another tiny piece of paper. Make sure you don’t misspell anything, ‘cause then we may not end up in the same place.”

I was a bit confused as to how this was going to make us travel back into time. Anyway, I copied down exactly what Sid wrote on his piece of paper. The next step was where it got weird.

“So for the record, once we travel back into time we will be gone for what is an hour in reality, but will have an entire days worth of time to spend at woodstock.”

“So our grandparents won’t even know that we were gone, you think?”

“Definitely not. We’re golden trust me.”

“Okay so what do we do now?”

“It says to drip 3 drops of the blue liquid onto the pieces of paper. Says they should dry instantly.”

Sid proceeded to drop 3 droplets onto each piece of paper. They really did dry instantly. It was almost as if the liquid wasn’t really a liquid.

“Now put it in your mouth and hold my hand.”

“Pu-p-put it in my mouth?”

“Yes Mariella hurry.”

We both threw the pieces tiny pieces of paper into our mouths and joined hands. The taste in my mouth was crazy. It tasted like a mixture of rusty nails, dirt, bleach, and I don’t even know what. My mouth started to tingle. and then my throat started to tingle. After a few seconds the tingling sensation took over my entire upper body. Especially my head. A few more seconds later the tingling sensation completely took over my body. The suddenly everything went black. I could still hear and feel, but I couldn’t see. 30 seconds later my vision came back. But it sure as hell wasn’t a vision of what I was seeing before everything went black.

“We made it! We actually made it” Sid shouted.

“Oh my gosh where are we!”

“We’re at the greatest place on earth, that’s where we are. Come on, lets go have some fun.”

Sid put his hand out and grabbed mine and started running through the mass amounts of people.

There was people everywhere. In tents, laying in the grass, dancing, singing. It was

“Where do you wanna go? There’s a list of groups and what time they’re playing over there. Lets go check it out.”

“Joe Cocker!” I shouted.

“Oh you like Joe Cocker? Let’s go!”

We went to the main stage and were swarmed by good vibes and love. Being here felt different than any other place in the world. At times I felt as though I wasn’t in the real world. Well I guess I wasn’t? I dunno. All I know if where ever I was I loved it. We spent the entire day dancing and singing and talking to the most interesting people. I wish that I never had to leave that place. But I knew it was going to come to an end soon. I can’t believe that in order to get here we only had to take a few drops of this blue liquid that seemed to have no negative or drug like effect on our bodies or minds. It was amazing. And then suddenly once the sun went down, my eyes started to do that thing again. My mouth started to tingle, then my throat, and then my upper body, and then my entire body. But Sid was nowhere to be found. What if he doesn’t make it back I started to panic. And then suddenly I was back where I started. And Sid was with me.

“Sid! I thought you weren’t gonna make it back!!”

“Haha. Nope I made it. Would you believe how fun that was?”

“I kinda feel like it was just a dream. But then again I kinda feel like we were actually there.”

“That’s because we were actually there Mariella. And we can go back any time you want.”

We made our way back to the house and everything was perfectly normal. Out grandparents weren’t concerned and I don’t think they even noticed we were gone to be honest. Sid and I left on a note that every summer when we’re visiting our grandparents, were going to take a trip back to woodstock. It will be our version of  summer vacation.


Final Portfolio World History 2014_Kevin Courtney

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 1.19.52 PM
Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 1.19.52 PM

             Throughout the course of World History I’ve learned that people should not judge one another. Yea, we have a lot of problems throughout the world, but we solve them. Some people don’t even have the same amount of freedom and rights while some other  people do in the world. I remember in the beginning of the year as a class we made these monologues about the Keystone Pipeline XL. People were protesting because this was not going to save the environment. So with a partner in crime, We have dived into the research and collaboration of the Keystone Xl Pipeline and all the intuitively that is carried with it. Most people applied beginning questions such as “What even is the KeyStone pipeline?” and “How does this affect me?”. Over the course of the lesson we began to learn that the pipeline was a proposed idea for an independent refined oil source that would run through the United States from Canada. Everyone was tasked to understand the viewpoints of people who were pro pipeline and people who were against it. It gave us a chance to step into someone else’s shoes and think differently. This change of thought better supported growth in our minds and helped our ability to see multiple theorems and possibilities. To view my Keystone Pipeline XL Monologue Project click here -> https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1-Ak9i7CwJnogtu0w12PvBqTo3ruD7asItijEuxXctm8 ].In the second quarter of World History this year we studied religion. People would always ask “What is exactly religion?” Or maybe people would “Why is religion a big part in the world?” To have thoughts as a class, we wrote our brainstorming thoughts into a World History journal. Religion is something I think of all the time. Well clearly I don’t know the true definition of religion. But what I think religion is a belief or culture that a key part of someone’s life or life style. To view my journals about religion click here https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1DLMw-Pz8MoQ3NWnknBHv1wGrynyj7sWz-8pcAtXGnAw. In my journal I was trying point out key points of what religion truly is. During the time while studying religion, I remember we would mostly focus on Hinduism, and Buddhism. When it was coming towards the end of the religion era we had this benchmark (project) that we had to describe a specific topic in religion. I chosen food because I know what always be a big part in someones culture/religion. While the class was working on their projects we made these wiki spaces page to put all of our information on it. To view my wiki page about food in religion click here http://ironreligion2013.wikispaces.com/Kevin+Courtney. Towards the end of sophomore year of World History, this is defiantly a topic I will not forget. That was revolution. Revolution is basically an instance for resolving. In todays world mostly revolution is a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. Check out my thoughts about revolution which is here https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1YT4ftlTMlD6PNqPK-TcCg-hEDKxdymjvPYyHqv0l4AY. As you can see I wrote a good amount about revolution. But wait theres more. For one of our benchmark projects  we had to make a digital story video, that shows pictures while hearing audio. Click here http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Revolution_Guidebook_Project-15 to view the digital story. For World History I felt that I learned a lot about people everywhere around the world. I finally felt the true meaning of religion and revolution. Thank you to Mr. Block.


These are just some quotes from the History Journal..
“I think the acceptable time to criticize another culture is NEVER, unless you’ve experienced it” (Journal Entry #3)

“The time I witness a powerful piece of work was the Lupe Fiasco music video ‘B**ch Bad’. It was powerful because of the true meaning of how the whites and the blacks never got along” (Journal Entry #9)

“What is Religion? Well I don’t know a true meaning of religion. It can possibly be a belief/way of life, greater power, text/guidelines/commandments/shared language/myths, Morals, self-controlled, control of others, or worship.” (Journal Entry #10) 

“Usually when I get challenges I try not to put everything on myself, but I always try my best.” (Journal Entry #16)

Final Portfolio

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 8.36.46 PM
Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 8.36.46 PM
Finding your identity in this world can be a hard task to overcome. For some people, it takes their whole lives to get to know themselves. It sounds silly to say that we don’t know who we really are, but it’s true that sometimes we get lost when it comes to letting our true personalities shine. Over the course of the year, world history has taught me that the only way to truly understand yourself, is to go out of your comfort zone. 

I first started to come to this realization of finding myself when working on my first quarter benchmark. For the project, we had to create monologues from different perspectives having to do with the Keystone Pipeline. This project was especially difficult for me because I am very strongly against the pipeline being built, but I had to write a monologue through the eyes of someone who was for it. While doing this, I almost started convincing myself that the pipeline was actually beneficial. I caught myself writing passionately about the pros of the pipeline... A little too passionately. I thought to myself, “how could I possibly be convincing myself that this is okay?” I realized that once I took myself out of that comfort zone of just saying no, I started to see the other side more clearly. I was disappointed in myself for going against what I believed in, and gave up on seeing the benefits.

Looking back on my old writing pieces from the year, I realized how much I actually have thought about people having to come out of their comfort zone. For example, when learning about Galileo, I was answering why society got mad at him for his findings. I said, “I think religion was more important to them because it was all they knew, so since science was so new, they went against it.” The people in Galileo’s society didn’t want to go out of their comfort zone by believing in new information, so they punished him for sharing. 

In the second quarter, we started our unit on religion. This is the time when I truly believed in the fact that you will only truly know yourself when you go out of your comfort zone. As a class, we went into the unit with our guards up, knowing that this would be a battle no one would really win. When we came out of the unit, I think we still had our guards up... but not as much. One of the major topics we were stuck on for a while was the meaning of the hijab in the Islamic religion. I can’t speak for everyone, but I never knew what the purpose of wearing the hijab really was, and I have definitely heard the argument that it is degrading to women. When it was explained that the purpose was to preserve a woman’s modesty, I realized how quick our society is to judge, without taking the time to find the true meaning of things. 

One of my responses to the book the Power of Myth from the religion unit really stuck out to me. I said, “some people, especially Americans, tend to frown upon cultures that are strict on marriage, but maybe they just have better values than us.” I am not apart of a culture that is strict when it comes to marriage, and my family isn’t either. When I was hearing about religions and cultures that look at marriage differently from me, I started realizing how much their views actually made sense. While I look at marriage as an extremely sacred thing, I don’t necessarily think it should be something completely controlled by family members, or be looked at as a strict occasion with many rules following it. But, learning about how others look at marriage made me question how seriously I take something like that that is so important. 

As the year progressed, the more evidence I had to back up my thesis. Entering the revolutions unit in quarter 3 only made my thesis stronger. In my journal, I wrote, “I think I’d die for someone I love, but not for something I believe in.” I remember looking down at my paper, disappointed in what I had just written. Do I have no morals or values? No, I do have morals and values, but only because I broke the barrier I had made for myself to say that I would stand up for what I believe in. If someone caught me off guard, I probably would have said, “yes, I would die for something I believe in,” but once I was able to break that wall of confidence, I learned a lot about myself. Whether it be because I don’t have something that I believe in that strongly at the moment, or because I just never will care enough about my beliefs, I realized that I am not the type of person that would be able to lead a movement. This was a sad realization at first, but it only educated me on my true personality more and more. 

Still in the revolutions unit, I wrote another journal entry that showed my true personality. “If everyone was nonviolent, than that would be a greater force for change. But since that will probably never happen, violence is a better force. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is the truth.” We had just learned about how terrible violence in revolutions is, and why it should never be used, but I still wasn’t buying into it. Yes, morally, I would say that violence should never be used, no matter what, but if you want to get something done fast, then violence might just be the best option. This was another one of those cases that made me question my morality and what I actually believed in, but it just let my true feelings show. 

In the final quarter of our history class, we were talking about what makes people the way they are. It’s always safe to say that when a person does something bad, or acts out, it can be dismissed because it is just a result of their past. I think as a class, we dropped the act of saying whatever sounded best on paper, and came to the conclusion that, “people’s pasts can be an explanation for their bad behavior, but not an excuse.” Even though it is definitely more comforting to forgive someone because you know they’ve had it rough, it’s not actually right. 

In the end, I finished the year feeling strongly about my true identity. Through all of the worksheets, note taking, documentary watching, and discussing, I built a stronger name for myself. 

Final Portfolio

What I learned and was most interested in this year in World History was: people of all races, culture, gender, religion, age, etc should be treated equally. I also learned that there are many ways to create change and that ideas can turn into big things. An example of this would be when we started working on our revolution unit. We learned about how revolutions work, how they are formed, and what causes revolutions. I did a lot of research in my own project in my Digital Revolution Guidebook. Through this project I learned the effectiveness of violent vs. nonviolent revolutions. I compared the Libyan and Tulip Revolution to portray this and explained what occurred to teach people the effectiveness of these revolutions. Revolutions don’t happen overnight, they require time, dedication, commitment, and sacrifice to see or create a change.

Another example of what I learned would be in our Religion unit. In this unit I learned about different world religions to gain a better understanding of each. I explored Christianity and Judaism in my benchmark. I use prayer as my overall theme. I learned and taught how prayers are in both religions and their meanings. I also tried to show how they are similar in a sense even though they are two different religions, they are closely related. This taught me more about the people around me and different belief systems.

This connects to a journal entry I had written when we started exploring the religion unit. We discussed how certain things influence our thinking and our lives. There are societal standards that is already placed for us to follow. We had a small discussion on how women are portrayed and how they too see themselves the same society has set these standards. For example in journal #27 I discuss the concept of women being sexualized and that they too are brought learning that they must be sexualized beings. This important issue of how the things around us like media influence our daily lives.

This leads into journal #49 where this idea is delved into deeper where gender the difference if gender is discussed. We live in a world where  our gender separates us from our abilities, dressing, and even the way we talk. Gender is a label that separates from female or male. It doesn’t represent who we are as a person or our abilities to do certain things. It’s only the genetic and physical interpretation of what we came out as into this world. I learned that there isn’t a difference between genders, the difference only exists because we make it exist.

Further into the school year we get to a more general idea of society. We discussed the issue of the rich vs. poor, in the response to Pathologies of Power. In the world today the rich see are enjoying the benefits of life while the poor think that they have no reason to exist.There is such a huge gap between these two social classes in the way they live. I have learned that the lack of money makes a huge difference. While the rich are feeding off the luxuries the poor are the ones watching or creating those luxuries through labor. We need both of these social classes in our world to work. Without the poor the rich cannot keep benefitting and without the rich the poor cannot support themselves without their money. It’s a twisted system that requires for there to be a balance of the bad and good.

In conclusion, I have gained a better knowledge of the world and how it operates. I understand the conflicts and struggles that we all face whether its with race, gender, religion, culture, etc. There are so many issues in the world that we can learn about or find ways to help. Concluding this year I feel like I have a deeper understanding of different people, societies, and countries.


Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 8.58.05 AM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 8.58.05 AM

Final Portfolio

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 12.07.37 PM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 12.07.37 PM

In the beginning of the year when I entered world history class, I expected to learn about history dealing with world issues such as poverty. Not only did we learn that but we also learned a lot about culture, religion and beliefs of different people. During this time, I realized that belief systems should not influence basic human rights. While doing my religion benchmark during the second quarter, a really interesting quote I wrote down was this bible verseLeviticus 20:13 - If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.” This quote was showing how the bible viewed homosexuality. This showed that the bible states that most people disagree with the concept of homosexuality. I compared this quote from the bible to how Wiccans and Atheist viewed the subject. While looking at both the Wicca and Atheist religions I came to the conclusion that both their views aren’t too far from each other about homosexuality. A meaningful quote I gathered from searching a number of sites involving Atheist was this “Homosexuals and Atheist support each other because they are both looked down upon”. I found this interesting because I never came to the conclusion that Atheist are looked down upon. Another quote that I found intriguing was “based on information provided by the jordanian department of health, it states that there is an epidemic of homosexuality and the minister of health warning the population to “protect their children” from this disease.” Even though they found this quote, they still accept homosexuals so they don’t let this quote influence their beliefs. Atheist are mainly accepting people because both communities are looked down upon. The atheist community are believed to be devil worshippers and hate god, while the homosexual community are looked down upon because of them liking the same sex which is a sin. According to the Wiccan religion “Sexuality is valued. Wiccans generally accept the findings of human sexuality researchers that there are three normal, natural, and unchosen human sexual orientations: heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality.” The wiccans don’t believe in discriminating against anyone and likes to acknowledge that everyone should be viewed as equal and not outcasts. The wiccans belief systems don’t affect how they view basic human rights. Wiccans appreciate diversity in any way especially sexuality. They believe that everyone should be treated with respect at all times. Some wiccans believe that homosexuals lack spirituality now according to this quote “It is foolish for those who consider homosexuality lacking spirituality. In ancient times we were the priest, the sacred ones who blurred the lines of gender and sexuality.” Even though a major number of homosexuals today aren’t priest, ministers, etc because of the fear of being judged, we still are very spiritual and go to church a lot and are very active with church events.  This quote shows that people’s belief systems does not affect how homosexuals are spiritual because they were priest at one time.


Links:

Religion Benchmark

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1wccHx9VjNy-qQhGDMcnIiAgzk2Yqv87rnM6fpKWIGLk/edit


Battle for god

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1jEzPeFjK_jCN9t7VjHoQszSw-xLURMOBuNOjjQTVI20/edit





Final Portfolio 2014

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 1.18.31 PM
Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 1.18.31 PM

Presently, the systems that make up every government are based solely off of corruption, greed, and social gluttony. Racism no longer exists because of hatred for one another. Instead, it is brewed out of the struggle for a superior social class. People oppress the different groups of the world to gain an advantage in life. Evidence of this stems from the theory that the education  system is purposely weak to send more lower class minorities into the grasp of the judicial system. It turns into a cycle where each new generation has no degree of acceptable education and must turn to a life of crime if they are to survive. Higher levels of education are granted only to those who are born into the superior social class. Our world segregates because of the need for power, not because of the need to hate.

During the second quarter of my World History class I was assigned to write a play that emphasized the meaning of social struggle and change. I decided to base my play off of the idea that our society works in a pyramid structure of class that depends solely on somebody’s race. The play was about the different ethnicities of the world banning together to defeat a greater evil. At one point in the play, a character declares, "The oppression of a race has nothing to do with racism or hatred, it has to do with the struggle for superior social class" (Play, Brek Carlier). Brek hit an understanding here that people have to be taught to hate and are never born with hatred. What they are born with is a struggle to survive in a world where there is no social equality. This is what could drive people to oppress another race even when they know doing this is wrong. Of course, there are people born into ignorance and begin to oppress merely because that is what they know to be true.

At first I found it hard to believe that the entire world could operate in this way. After completing a worksheet called “Scientific Revolution” I realized that an idea, no matter how good or bad, can spread globally because of the amount of success it has. I wrote, “An idea works like a virus. It starts out in the deepest reaches of your mind and spreads like a framework until every last inch is infected by it. When corrupt views move like a ripple through socialism it is not very unlike an epidemic. When these views are accepted globally that is when it turns into a pandemic" (Scientific Revolution Worksheet). By this I mean that ideas are infinite and can control the minds of many if they fit people’s needs. When the world is separated by class it must have seemed appealing to be able to fight for your betterment even if it is out of corruption.

I researched further on how people segregate different social classes without seeming too openly racist. I even took it out of the World History class and into the English 10 class. I found out that our education and judicial systems co-align so that more people fill jails while less people with schools. On a worksheet I stated, "A country's crime rate is solely dictated by that country's education system. It works in a cycle where you can only invest in one. Investment in education leads to a more peaceful country while an investment in the amount of jails drastically drops the quality of education the citizens of such country receive” (Global Education Worksheet). Members of superior social classes want to keep the minorities at the bottom of the food chain so there is no sharing or equality. They do this by providing a poor education system which leads to high crime rates which then eventually leads into the incarceration of many.

As unfortunate as it is, our society works in oppression. In my opinion, the only way to fix this problem is to spread empathy and awareness amongst the public. Then and only then will we have the encouragement to try and make a difference. I wanted to focus solely on the idea above but below is some other quotes that lead me to different general understandings. I will not go into depth on them for the sake of keeping your attention. Instead, I’ll let you make what you want of them.


Additional Thoughts:


"Without the attention of the world the people of revolutions would be left unsupported. Social media can be the most effective and yet the least helpful way of communicating change globally." (History Digital Story Script)


"Religion is not a road to happiness for people. The sole purposes of religion are to lend structure and reassurance to lives." (Journal #10)


"There is never a right time to judge someone, no matter the past, the present, or the will be’s" (Journal #44)

Final Portfolio: Brandon Yam

Throughout my year, I’ve learned many things and have increased my knowledge on various topics. One class especially would be World History. I’ve learned things about the past as well as the present. We focused quite a lot on change as well as equality. When I say change I’m talking about revolutions today and years ago. When I say equality I’m talking about how women aren’t paid as much as men, human rights, and sweatshops. There is so much that I’ve taken into consideration after stepping into the classroom. I looked at my daily life through a new lens. I looked at the clothes I wear today and wonder why I’m wearing it. I wonder why I’m wearing the clothes that someone in another country made that is underpaid and living in harsh conditions. I wondered about how technology has changed the way other changes take place, such as the Arab Spring. There is so much to touch on yet, so little time.


The first thing I want to talk about is the Arab Spring. This topic was introduced near the beginning of the year and was one of the first to introduce the topic of change in the classroom. I learned how technology helped spread the awareness and support for the revolution. The people in Egypt did not accept the way they were treated, therefore, they fought for independence and are still fighting at this very moment. There is violence and many have died. In one of my journal entries, I address the idea of nonviolence and violence.  A specific quote that stood out to me and summarizes the whole idea is “Nonviolence shouldn’t have to be trained, but just present all the time.”

Click here to view the full version of this journal.



The second thing I want to talk about is just revolutions in general. Later on in the year, we were assigned a digital story benchmark. For this benchmark we had to focus on multiple revolutions and revolve them around a certain point. I studied the French Revolution, Arab Spring, and much more. The certain point that I decided to focus on was “What is the importance of spreading awareness with the use of social media in a revolution?” I constructed an iMovie with my partner Javier on the subject. A quote that stood out to me in the video was “Outside help can and will be the difference between a gallant victory or a dreadful defeat.”

Click here to watch the full video.



Now, I would like to touch on the subject of equality. Equality plays a major role in our lives today. Just being a woman is a major factor of equality. Women are paid less than men and aren’t treated as equally in the justice system as well. The same can be said for particular charges against men and women, but that’s another topic. When I was writing a journal entry one day I had to think of a woman scientist off the top of my head. The sad thing was I couldn’t. A quote from that journal is “I could imagine a woman’s idea in science being rejected based on their gender.”

Click here to view the full journal entry.



During the year, we’ve had many trials where we can debate with our other peers on matters that are important in the world today. Towards the middle of the year, we began a trial about sweatshops and the class was divided into about 5 sections. Each section being a different part of the chain to the making of sweatshops such as U.S. consumers, Corporations, etc. After the trial was over we had to post a reflection on how we can change the global economic system. One part of the reflection that I’d like to highlight is “Companies began to be questioned and pressured to make a change in the factories they produce their products in. Some have made a change, but not enough. There is still a fair amount of factories and companies out there that are under the radar and continue to abuse their workers. Suicidal nets are set up outside of some factories to prevent people from jumping out the building to their eventual death.”

Click here to view the full reflection.



The final piece I’m going to talk about that will wrap this up nicely is the Human Rights Benchmark. For this benchmark, we got the chance to work exclusively with Kate McGrath who works for the Philly Young Playwrights. She came down to help us make our plays and give us tips as amateur playwrights. I focused on the unfair conditions in china’s factories and took readers on a journey through the eyes of a man named Minho who escapes the factory and seeks help in America. There are many twists and turns in this play, but a quote that sticks out to me is

Click here to view the full play.


I enjoyed my year in world history due to the fact that I've learned so much in such little time. I've taken many things from this class such as morales, values, and life lessons. I've learned through the perspectives of those thousands of miles away from me. Those who got to experience this class is to be envied for.

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 7.48.14 AM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 7.48.14 AM

Final Portfolio

Throughout this year, we have learned many different, interesting things in World History. We were taught to have our own opinions during different units and stand by it. During the third marking period, each student had to make a revolution guidebook digital story benchmark and the goal was to choose a key issue, investigate that issue, then using examples and quotes from different revolutions, explain your point of view about that specific idea and support it. My project evolved around the question, “which method makes a revolution more effective or successful, violence or non violence?”Here is my project.. Coming into this year, I used to think that violence is always more successful than non violence because the message doesn’t really get across and people don’t really take it seriously unless they are forced to. However, I decided that my point of view during this project is that the non violence method is the most effective one. Now I believe that non violence is the answer to every situation that is presented, violence is never a good idea no matter it is. Why? Let’s explore.


The second quarter highlighted some of the exciting things that we did. One of them was a mock trial that we did as a class. We were divided into groups and each group had to take turns prosecuting other groups and defending their own groups. The goal was for each group to convince everyone else that they are the most innocent one. This trial was for the Cortes invasion of the Aztec empire. During this trial, we saw that Cortes and his men to take control of the land and be forceful rulers. One would argue that this was a successful invasion except for the side issues since he accomplished his goal but I would argue otherwise. For the trial, we had used different characters of the invasion and my groups was the king. One of the statements that we used was, “Cortes’s group wiped out a country nearly completely. Cortes’ group set their own ship on fire so they could continue the violence when his group wanted to stop, but he wanted his men to continue the carnage making him a guilty person.This document can be found by clicking this. If you click here, you can see my group's document for another mock trial that we did as a class. We used this statement in an attempt to prove that the invasion was not out fault but indeed theirs. It is clear that there was massive murder while Cortes and his men were there and that led to nothing. They were not pleased with the way that the Aztecs were living their life while they were there but they did not realize that killing them was not the answer. This killing was unnecessary and they ended up turning on each other as time went by. This brought to my attention that maybe my conception of violence was wrong and that maybe I should find another way to perceive it.


Another unit that we did meant that we had to make a wiki document informing the public about a specific issue relating to religion. We were expected to use multiple religions for the one issue in order to go more in depth.This is the link to mine. During my project, which I used Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism as the religions that'll help me prove my point. I learned that homosexuals were being tortured, and even killed in certain religions because of their sexuality. They thought that that would help but instead that only created more protests and more violence. Violence only leads to more violence and that is never a helpful thing.


During my digital story, I used quotes from the famous Ghandi and Martin Luther King to emphasize my point. Non violence may take more time but it is worth it because of the lack of death and injuries. Human life should be more valued than an idea, no matter how brilliant it may sound. I used the Egyptian revolution and the French revolution to emphasize my point. During the Egyptian, there were peaceful protests while during the French revolution consisted of one too may deaths. While both revolutions seem to be successful since they both achieved their goal, a revolution should be judged by how little human lives were lost while the point was getting across. If this calculator is being used, the Egyptian revolution was many times better. This year’s learning helped me understand this important, key fact about violence and I am grateful for that. I never thought that violence was like an okay, normal thing but I always thought of it as an option. Now I know that I was wrong.

Journal Entries were another part of our learning in World History, below some of mine can be found:

1) Journal #40

2) Journal #50

Another piece of work that I created for this class is here.

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 2.39.19 PM
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 2.39.19 PM

History Portfolio

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 11.29.42 PM
Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 11.29.42 PM

When I first heard of the subject of World History I was curious since in most of my other history classes they had gone over one central area in the world. At the time I had believed the world was too big to do a simple study all over all the world at once. I was proven wrong when our teacher Mr.Block showed us the connections between the different parts of the world and the unity of the areas. Eventually the leason moved beyond just telling us simple relations to understanding mindset and psychology of the people of the time. This had left a large impression on me to know that these mindsets at the time were normal.

Over the course of the year we looked over many real world issues from both the past and the present. One of these moment I found as a crucial example of psychology be a main factor in our progression was the French Revolution. During this time France was going through a very heavy debt and the people living there at the time had different views about who was to blame and what was happening. To the Rich and high class the money problems did not seem like an issue, so they simply taxed the poor. Through the eyes of the poor the rich were just trying to sustain their wealth and they should use their own money to pay. This leads to a revolution and causes much bloodshed among the people of the town. THough is is immediate that in today’s world we look at the richer leaders as the bad people, perhaps it is not their complete fault. Perhaps those who were richer we not aware of the problems going on in the poorer areas since the two sides were so separate.

Another moment of mindset is in one of my journals I had written about what gender was to me. I believed that gender is just chemicals and that their are no other differences. Though in todays world this is normal I now understand that it was widely accepted to believe that there were serious disadvantages to being a woman. This is just a matter of what you know the people of the past only loose sources and generalisation to learn from, now we have science to understand what we could not before.

Another example of the time’s mindset is the idea of religion superseding science, today many people believe in religion and science coexisting. Once people believed in the idea that religion was the head of everything and certain sciences were only secondary compared to the faith they had in their Gods. The Aztecs were told a prophecy of their Gods coming to them and coincidentally Cortes and his men came and killed them. This also happened when Galileo came tried to teach the people of his religiously trusting community of his scientific discoveries. Today we do not hold the same reliance as many of the people did in the past, we do not worry or need to pray as much as our ancestors once did. This is an impact of circumstance and the progression of our society, it is a sign that we have moved forward into new ideas.

People are much more than the character they can be seen in books they are people who have reasons for everything that they do or did. We learned this in my history class and I understand now that people that were once portrayed as good or bad were all had a psych, what they did with it was human choice.

Final History Portfolio

Joseff Filamor

Copper

June 9th, 2014


History Portfolio


As the year comes to an end, I have come realize my strengths and weaknesses that I still need to work on for next year. I have always been bad under even the smallest bit of pressure. As we were introduced to Sophomore year’s history class, it forced me to do things I wasnt entirely comfortable with. First off; working with groups. During the Cortez trial, we were given groups and put in a courtroom to be prosecuted. My group, the Cortezs, were obviously the most guilty which made it all the more difficult. I volunteered to be a prosecutor and I went up with my knees shaking. Presenting in front of a group is one thing, but prosecuting against a group is another thing. Knowing that I am not the smartest person in the class, I was feeling the pressure. It all ended smoothly, although I wish I was a bit more organized when I went up. From doing the trial, I have come to understand that collaboration requires patience and organization. With a little more organization, I would have been able to execute the prosecution more properly. My main weakness is speaking in class. I am not exactly sure why I have the biggest fear or expressing my own opinions, I guess I am just afraid of embarrassing myself or being proved incorrect. Although, I feel confident when it comes to making video projects. In the beginning of the year, we were assigned a project to make a monolog about a pipeline. (VIDEO HERE) I am not under pressure when making a video, it is a lot more relaxing and stress free. I felt I did well on that video. Also, in the middle of the year we were assigned to research different revolutions along with an essential question to elaborate off of. We also had to make a video for that project (VIDEO HERE.) I feel like I did a solid job with those videos, I was organized and well prepared with my research. Lastly, for my journal entries. I have always loved creating journal entries because I am able to express my own opinions and not have anyone see them except the teachers. I am able to get constructive feedback and not have to worry about others seeing it. On journal 55, we were given a small sheet entitled “Does Process Matter?” A small part of my journal entry reads; Process matters in the sense of organization. Depending on what you are trying to achieve, the process can determine how ready you are and how organized you need to be. Another journal we had to write was about why religion causes conflicts. I wrote; Religion would not cause conflicts if we understood each religion. It’s because we are uninformed or not educated in every religion. We are brought up knowing if not one religion, no religion at all. If we a brought up knowing only one religion, the only we will truly understand is our own. If we understood other’s beliefs, maybe we can understand each other.

Final Portfolio

Throughout my 10th grade World History class, I have learned a number of things. I learned about things that I didn’t even know was a thing or things I didn’t know I was capable of doing. For example, during the second quarter we started writing plays. My play was titled Fight to the End. It’s not finished but I would say that I’m very proud of this particular assignment. At first, I was like I don’t want to do this because I’m not a great writer. Luckily Mr. Block was prepared for those who didn’t feel too confident. He partnered up with Philadelphia Young Playwrights, that’s when Kate came in and helped every student with the revising process. She also gave us great ideas when we were stuck.

This class isn’t not just a class where the teacher talks and the student listens. We were given journal entries a lot and we would write what we thought. I remember writing a Journal Entry on the topic, Criticizing Another Culture. I had never really thought about this topic. I just thought criticism was wrong but in some cases it is needed. I also remember the religion unit very well. This is also something I hadn’t really thought about. Our question that day was, What is religion? As you might be able to see, I was not too fond of religions but after this unit, i discovered why I believe in a higher power.

The Revolution unit was also one of my favorites. That unit, I researched and learned about several different revolutions in addition to the one we learned as a class which I believe was the French Revolution. We made guidelines based off of opinions we made and what we think would be a great revolution.

I have so many favorites from this class I can’t choose one over the other. But if I did have to, now I would probably say the first Mock Trial we did about Cortes. I was put into the shoes of a prosecutor. Luckily I had time to prepare. From that link are all the notes I took to prepare myself for what was to come. I really did my research on Cortes because I found him the most guilty. Well because of my great prosecuting skills, the system came in second place as in second less guilty. It was very hard to beat the Aztecs who didn’t do anything but greet Cortes with happiness and riches. It was Cortes who took advantage of them.

I also like the Renaissance Art unit. We learned a lot about how paints were made and what inspired certains painting. We had to focus on specific people. The artist I chose had a lot of painting about the seven deadly sins. From this, I assumed that not only him but a lot of the people during his time were very religious, specifically focused on Christianity. I like this unit because I love Renaissance art. It not only improved the art that was before it but it shaped the way art is being made today.
Wordle: Block Class

Final Portfolio

World History, although most commonly believed is only about things that happened in the past, is more than just stories of deceased people. I believe that world history is the study of things that affect the world and the future. In this school year, we have learned so much. As a class we explored many different topics, one that most interested me was the when we learned about social change. Through many different topics, we have studied how social change happens when people make a difference, or when they’re sick of what’s happening.

In the beginning of the school year we learned about the Age of Exploration. We began the unit by studying the Age of Exploration. As we were focusing on the Spaniards and how they were conquering different parts of the world. However controversial it may be, the Spaniards wanted a social change. Cortez and his men wanted to eradicate the “wrong ways” of the Aztecs, so they stood and decided to make a change. Although it was immoral and very fast paced, they made a social change. In class, we did a trial where the class was divided into different groups. We discussed as a whole and then the deliberations started. It was a very interesting jury, and one of the most engaging ones we had all year.

The religion unit is also something that supports the social change. In this unit, we explored many different religions and saw how they changed people who followed them. We did a benchmark in which we had to compare two or more religions. The religions I focused on were Judaism and Hinduism. I also studied how these two view the apocalypse and the hereafter. By doing research on these two religions, I was able to get a better understanding of them.

Another example of how social change makes a difference is during the revolution unit. Everyone in the class was expected to make a Digital Revolution Guidebook that compared two different revolutions. For my project, I did extensive research on both the revolution in Egypt and Cuba. Although the outcomes for these two revolutions are different, they both started with a similar cause. The people of Egypt were tired of having to follow a government that only seemed to bring them harm. The Cuban people were first against the ruling of Fidel Castro, however they received much more benefits than past leaders.

This leads to the final thing we learned about this year, colonialism. We explored the ideas of how colonialism can affect a group of people. For this benchmark I decided to focus on South Africa and how colonialism had affected their culture. This can be tied in with social change because of how the country was affected. Most people believe that with colonialism comes the change of an entire nation, however, the people of South Africa did not let that happen. They accepted bits and pieces of the change, but not the entirety of it.


Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 11.06.26 PM
Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 11.06.26 PM

World History Final Portfolio 2014 Schwingel-Sauer

FINAL WORDART
FINAL WORDART

When looking back through all of the journal entries I wrote, I reflected on all of the units we learned. Throughout the year I have gained perspective and insight on many topics that delved into our world’s history. Every page of my journal had my thoughts and opinions and it was awesome to rediscover them. One journal in particular had us write down what we thought should be taught in a world history class, or what was worth learning. I came to a conclusion. History does not matter, unless we learn from it. The past shapes people, societies, countries into what they are. If you do not learn from the past however, you will not progress or advance. World History has shown patterns in religion, systems, countries, violence, and culture. 


Across the world religion serves as a structure, identity, and tool of manipulation. People use religion to structure their lives. People also rely on their religion to give them morals, values, and a purpose to their lives. Many people use religion as their identity. People find meaning in their life through religion. When comparing quotes about religion I said, “Religion takes control of people. People act through their veil of religion. You live through your religion. You are your religion. Religion is a tool of power and manipulation.” (Journal #11) Religion is corrupted by people who manipulate it and use it as a tool of power. Individuals put blind faith into their religions and are a pawn in controlling politics and society. Religion in the past has been thought of for more underdeveloped societies, but it is still very prominent in everyone's day to day life. Responding to the idea of less religion equals more advancement I said,“I agree with the statement that theoretically more "advanced" people wouldn't need religion as a source of guidance or faith. When I say advanced I don't necessarily mean intelligence wise. I mean more in almost a sense of mental health. That you can come up with your own morals and values because you have a sense of what the "right" thing to do is instinctually; not because someone/something in your religion is telling you so. That those without religious beliefs can have faith in themselves rather than a god or holy force/power. For example they can believe in themselves that they will get a big promotion and it will be because of their hard work rather than God has answered their prayers and given them the job. Almost like that not having a religion means you're more self assured and confident in your everyday life.” (Battle for God Assignment) Through this world history classes’ teachings the main issue when it comes to religion, is that multiple religions cannot live in harmony. There is never various religious people together without violence. We need to learn how to cope with others’ views as long as they are not hurting others. We need to learn to accept opinions that are not ours. 


Everyone is a part of multiple systems. In every system there are leaders and people in positions of power. In this world history course we studied revolutions and how they impact communities. We looked at how violence changed the outcome of an uprising and studied its effects. We looked at the process of a revolution; how they started, plans of actions, how/and if they ended. One fatal flaw commonly seen across many revolutions was the goal of change. Many sought to   kill or overthrow the leaders of these systems. While the leaders were certainly not contributing positively, the fault lies within the system. The system is corrupt, and you can change the leader however many times you want, but you will only truly succeed when you change the system with the injustices. When studying the French and Haitian revolutions I concluded the unit by saying,“The goal needs to be to change the system, not the leader.” (French & Haitian Written Response)


It is no secret that most of today’s modern societies are money centric. Success and and power are defined by money. Therefore when a country is without money, countries succeeding in our money centric society feel the need to intervene. Transnational companies dominate poor countries and take over their resources and people. When in fact, these ‘poor’ countries were doing just fine. By inserting corrupt values and businesses into these countries we kill their economies and essentially their people. What needs to be learned is that a country that is struggling does not benefit from outside help. In order for a country to succeed it needs to be self sufficient. By depending on other countries for money, it will never be fully independent. In response to learning about countries that are struggling, I said, “One could argue that poor countries need money to survive, but that is only what our money fueled society has spewed at countries who are economically doing terribly. When poor countries allow transnational companies to give them investments, they are sabotaging themselves. Progression in a country has to come from within, and by using outside help, countries become dependent on this outside help and end up creating awful circumstances for their people.” (Auction Follow Up)


Violence is a theme that continually is shown throughout world history. Very few people have fully embraced the nonviolent approach to wrongs. Violence only kills and harms. Normally violence is used in an uprising in a form of protest against the upper hand. The people with the power will not hesitate to use resources against the people who act out in violence in a heartbeat. While looking at colonialism, there were various methods of how to resist being colonized and the nonviolent way proved very helpful in India with Gandhi. Now since some of the world has learned how to peacefully succeed, everyone must continue to learn from this example. When each student had to make a digital revolution, I said, “It is easy to resort to injuring and killing. The fact of the matter is that the people starting the revolution are upset because something is unjust or unequal. The higher power of the revolution, the “bad” guys, will most likely have more resources, so using violence will only raise the number of deaths, and will not change anything.” (Digital Revolution BM)


The entire essence of our beings is ultimately our culture. Our identity is found through our culture; our upbringing. When Europeans colonized many countries they forced their beliefs and government on others, stripping them of who they were. The people being colonized were required to stop praying to their gods, to stop wearing their own clothes, to stop mining their resources. When reflecting I said, “Dead culture = dead people.” (Journal #49)

There were many invaluable lessons that I have learned during the course of this year. I have learned to keep an open mind and to embrace others’ ideas. I learned about the past of our world so that now, and in the future, I can learn from the past and progress.