Blog Feed

Hands down my favorite and creative project has to be the poetry portfolio I became more than indulged in this assignment. When I was younger I wrote a lot of poetry and I'm the type of person to dabble in different types of activities rather than excel in just one. When I lost interest I moved to something else. The course made me see poetry so much more broad and open, very similar to the religion project. I found a calling in poetry and I enjoyed it so much more than I did when I dabbled when I was younger. I not developed a new found respect for poetry but also an admiration for it. Because of this assignment I discovered my talent for the art form and still continue to write frequently on a personal level if only for the fun of it. 

​

Sophia Henninger

English - History

Copper

June 10, 2011

Over the course of the year in english and history we’ve analyzed, discussed, and read about many themes. We learned many truths about the government, economy,   and even people in general. One theme that repeated itself in many of our units is revolutions are never painless. This was shown in many units but also within many assignments. Personally, it was shown in my monologue project, poetry wiki, both trials (Cortes and sweatshop trials), and the revolution written response. All of these assignments demonstrate this concept whether is it very concretely or more abstract. 

The monologue project was one of the longest, yet most interesting projects we completed this year. We could truly turn it into anything we wanted. In my monologue project, a college student goes to Pakistan to research Nike’s labor conditions for his final project. In the end he locates a factory and convinces the workers the revolt against management, resulting in his death. This is a very concrete example of the concept that revolutions are never painless. In the end of the project, the boy causes an uprising in an attempt to restore basic human rights in the situation. Even though he and several others lost their lives, they brought light to the issue, allowing it to be address in court. He lost his life so the revolution could be successful. 

The following example is much less concrete but still illustrates the main concept.   The poetry unit allowed us to be creative and truly express ourselves in anyway we wanted. Some of my poems had some subtle themes of revolution though they were more centered on personal revolutions within one’s self. The poems centered on how I, or the reader, would like to change themselves. The one particular poem, When Did I Become a Ghost? speaks of how drugs trap people’s minds. Though it does not actually speak of overcoming the trap, it speaks of the difficulty that would involve and how that would actually make it impossible to overcome it. Even though no concrete revolution takes place within the poems, the difficulty it would take to change the situations in them would be a personal revolution. 

This year in our history class we had several trials, both demonstrating, quite blatantly, how painful and destructive revolutions can be but even though they’re not bloodless, they can still be successful. We had two trials, one was debating who had the most guilt in the slaughter of the Aztec people and this was called the Cortes trial. We had another trial called the sweatshop trial. This trial debated who held the most blame for the mistreatment of workers in the third world. Evidence of both of these wrong-doings involved blood. In both cases many people were murdered needlessly. This is a good example of how just because a revolution does have pain, does not mean it will be successful and this is shown by the Aztecs. The sweatshop workers are still in the midst of the this revolution. This shows that though revolutions are never painless, sadly, they are not always effective. 

In the revolution written response, we had to answer the question, “What separates revolutions from social change?” I argued that they’re not separate but social change is only the effect of revolution. Within it I used the examples of the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the recent Egyptian conflict. All of these examples were bloody but all of them were successful. Millions of people died in these wars and, though this is sad, without those deaths they may not have achieved what each of them wanted. All of these revolutions whether concrete or abstract, personal or social, ineffective or triumphant, all had pain and for some of them, that fact is what allowed them to be victorious. 

This year has been life changing for me. In History and English we have learned about lots. Like, Change, freedom, religion, fight, struggle, hope, and victory. I’m going to tell you about something’s I’ve discovered in these yearlong courses. The first thing we learned about on History was religion. Me personally thought this was something that was boring and uninteresting, but later on I found it quite fun. We first got to look at our own religions and how they affect us. I am not a religious person, but my parents are Muslim and strong Muslims at that. Throughout the Religion unit, I found out that Religion isn’t one set thing that is controlled by a group of people. Religion is something that one person and his mindset can control. Jumping through a couple months ahead. Another topic we discussed was the revolution of industry around the world and how it has affected us. We watched Movies, had trials, and read about all the hardships that this has put on people and the world. A trial we did were, there were the multi national corporations, the factories, the workers, the elite, and the countrymen. We had a trial to see who is at fault. And, the general understanding I got from this until and that trial is that: The rise of industries ultimately helped the world, but with it’s help brought the rise of Super-Powers, like the US and Russia, that ultimately brought upon a lot of Modern Times problems. Another Topic that we came across was freedom. A project we did for that unit was our Monologue projects. We had to choose a specific point in History and do Monologues about them. The event I chose were the events of tieneman square Protests of 1989. A specific event that happened was the historic events of Tank Man. A lone Chinese man stood in front of 4 tanks that were heading for the square. Pedestrians ultimately took him away, but from his actions brought a global up roar and helped the Chinese take freedom. A more recent event that took place was the events that happened in a small country of Tunisia. A fruit vender lit himself on fire because he couldn’t get a job when he wants to school. This opened the eyes of the world the small country. And, the horrible conditions that the people had to live in. This small act by on person triggered a huge uproar from countries like, Egypt, Syria and Libya. The one thing I learned is: Any actions big or small can lead to huge changes in the world. Another small thing we covered in the larger, Freedom unit is the Psion System is the United States. After going to The Eastern State pennetantry, and researching about prisons. I realized that: The current Prison System does that work and is flawed. A system we should incorporate is that of a rehabilitation so past offenders do not come back.

• used for electrical wiring, pipe water supplies,
• vacuum tubes use copper
• some structures such as the statue of liberty, are made with copper
• many musical instruments are made out of copper. 
• cookware

• My element for this project was Bromine 35.
• It is used in industrial applications and it is also a strong oxidizing agent
• It can be used to purify water.
  
• First i had to make several draft drawings after doing research, then sketch it on special paper, the draw it backwards on the template, after that I scraped out the positive space so I could paint the template and make the stamp.
• I think it was fun, especially because we got to make several different stamps.
•  I would make the stamps clearer to understand
  

Element: Cesium

Uses: It is in used in atomic clocks, and thermometers

I came up with the idea for my print by researching the history behind Cesium, which was it being named after the sky blue color it has in the spectrum.

I had first draw an idea, and then I traced that onto a linoleum block (Backwards), which I then carved out. After that, I swabbed some paint on it and printed a few pictures.

I think this project was a good learning experience. I was taught something I never knew and I had fun with the painting part.

If I was to do this project again, I would use a different element and experiment with all the things the element is used in. So I could have more than just one print.

Element: Cesium

Uses: It is in used in atomic clocks, and thermometers

I came up with the idea for my print by researching the history behind Cesium, which was it being named after the sky blue color it has in the spectrum.

I had first draw an idea, and then I traced that onto a linoleum block (Backwards), which I then carved out. After that, I swabbed some paint on it and printed a few pictures.

I think this project was a good learning experience. I was taught something I never knew and I had fun with the painting part.

If I was to do this project again, I would use a different element and experiment with all the things the element is used in. So I could have more than just one print.

Sculpture

Edit Photos

Copy a piece of art work by a famous artist

Draw the Bike three times (Sorry for bad quality pics)

1. all line

2. just shading

3. just negative space

Draw from observation OUTSIDE