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Agent Of Change

• The purpose for my Agent of Change is that I want to get other people’s perspective about what’s happening today. With people’s thoughts combined, I can be able to do more that would help and understand and focus on the main concept to prevent violence and brutality.

• I have permission to go around Philadelphia and getting people to understand the concept of what really happening in our society right now, considering the things that has already happened such as the I can’t Breathe Eric Garner case.

• I have emailed my parents about this and they believe that there can be a chance for me to take advantage of it, to do everything you can to change and prevent as much as I can. I have also emailed my neighbors, friends, classmates, as well as my family members.

• I am also working on a website so everyone can see  and hear my opinion about Domestic Violence and brutality with different topics upon what we can do, how can we prevent Domestic Violence and get opinions out there on social media so everyone will be able to see.

Hyperlinks: Blog Post 1, Blog Post 2

Things that have been done is sharing my blog out there, being able for people to see what they believe in and what they have to say about it is really important for the matter at hand. I’ve gotten so many feedback from people who inspired me to do more than this, that they acknowledge me to put my opinion out there, to put everything I know so far on a working piece that people can see and reply on. That is the reason why I created a website.

Link: Nate's Website

My opinion in the way these changes is talking about more and being able to do something, go on strike, talk about it to other people, do as much as you can to get the word out there, this isn’t a fight for ourselves, this is a fight to prevent violence to every black lives out there.

I have recently taken several surveys from different websites, as well as wearing a pin on my bookbag that says I can’t breathe on it representing Eric Garner. I have been apart in a donation for blacks lives matter, me and my mom who donated $20 together.

Doing this project was a dream come true for me, I feel like I have gained experienced a lot from this knowing the right path to take for human rights, as well as knowing my rights as a citizen and not abusing them, but knowing how to respect one another, but if we see others who are not respected or giving a good influence on others Don’t think were just going to stand by and watch, were going to do something about it, Doing this project was stressful but overcoming, I did it for a worthy cause and something I can see myself leading an example. A remembrance for the rest of my life. As i said, I learned how to be a better advocate and a lead of confidence towards others. What I learn from others is to do, then to think, because doing will get you somewhere in life more than thinking. What I think I could have done better is the deadline, I’ve noticed that I am really late and a little slacked off at the very end, but I am able to try my best finishing strong at the end. I think there is nothing left to do but to keep on fighting, we still need creative ideas, victory for us citizens isn’t done, what we need to do is Think before we do, we do take action before we think but if we want to surpass this, we must think of a way.

Annotated Bibliography

Editor, Author, or Compiler Name (last name, first name). “Name of Page (in quotes).” Name of Institution/Organization Affiliated with the Site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation/last update (if available). Medium of publication. You date of access. Website URL.

This year in History has been an eye opener for me. This class has help me to see the world in a totally different light. Before this year I felt like I had vague understanding of the world in some aspects. I knew the surface of some topics, I never took the time or energy to actually dig deeper. I want to thank Mr.Block for aiding my classmates and I on this wonderful adventure. From pollution to colonization, our learning has been broad.  I’m able to teach others what I know and ideas that I have explored. Mr. Block helped us to see both sides of global issues. It’s always easy to see the obvious side of things but it’s harder to play devil’s advocate and try to understand the not too obvious side of the story.  I enjoyed learning how to do this, because if you know both sides your arguments are stronger. The courses I enjoyed the most this year were the Modern Revolution course and the Sweatshops trial.  

As mentioned in the previous paragraph the first course that was meaningful for me was the  Modern Revolution course. With that course we studied many old and modern day revolutions. We explored the Arab Springs Revolution along with the Yemen Revolution and we researched information about the Haitian and French Revolution. After exploring all of the Revolutions we were asked to create a digital story that answered an arguable question about Revolutions. My question was “ What does success mean in a revolution ?”.  I was very proud of my Digital story, because I feel like people define success differently. At the end of Digital story I wanted people to know that  “just because the initial is not reached in a revolution doesn't mean the revolution was unsuccessful.” Researching different revolutions also help to see that the use of non violence is always better than the use of violence. Non violence sets you apart from your opposer when they are using violence against you. It helps you to still have respect for yourself and your people. It tells the opposer that they can take everything away from you except your pride. I think that’s an amazing idea and concept to understand. While exploring the Arab Springs Revolution I came across a quote that really touched me and will always stick with me. Political Professor Gene Sharp said ”Once the regime was no longer able to frighten people and people then act wisely and keep non violent discipline, which is extremely important, then that regime is in big trouble”. This quote said to me that once you no longer fear your opposer, your opposer is in big trouble because basically now you’re unstoppable. It’s very true, because when you’re no longer scared you have nothing to lose and people who have nothing to lose are the scariest. The Modern Revolution course will always be one of my favorites.

The second course I mentioned was the Sweatshops trial. Trials always helped me acquire understanding skills. Knowing all sides to a story always make your individual argument stronger. Although the verdict for the trial charged my group the Elites with the most guilt points I still believe capitalism was the most responsible for the treatment of the workers. After the trial I realize everyone played in a part in the treatment of the workers even the workers themselves. It wasn’t just one person's fault. That helped me to see something with the bigger problems we have in today’s world. We do things but don’t take in consideration the effects it has on other people all around the world. It’s an unending cycle that I don’t think will ever stop.

Throughout the year I found answers to a great deal of questions I had. I feel like I changed as a person. My inquiry and research skills have really improved. History has really changed my thinking so much that I’m actually thinking about looking into teaching history for my major. I want to open the eyes of people and fill minds with knowledge just how Mr. Block did for my classmates and I.  

I wish I had found a way to establish the disconnect between police and the people in a narrative. I wanted to show the human sides of each group that they're not just what the media portrays. I don't think I quite showed that they way that I wanted to. I know a lot already on this topic and I feel like anything I would learn would be on random research, Since I do do a lot outside of school research on things I find interesting.

       It went well. I think I could have taken more initiative and shown these people that I really wanted to interview them that they would’ve been more responsive to my project. I would change my topic as I mentioned, to the stigma of natural hair. To shed a light on how our society seems to value European standards of beauty above any other kind of beauty. How to make a crack in that giant glass system waiting to be shattered. I think one of the main things my final product was missing was the perspective of a police officer. It would’ve helped to show the prospective of the perpetrator and what they when a complaint launching incident happens.  

       I didn’t have as much of an impact as I thought I would. I wanted to show the more privileged parts of Philadelphia what is going on for the rest of us, what can happen when you involve police. I wasn’t able to get my petition to a high enough count that it could be view changing to many people. So they could take it upon themselves to learn more about the issues outside of their communities. No I did not have the exact impact I was hoping for but I did have some impact on how some students see police oversight as it occurs in the city of Philadelphia.

This is my third blog post on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. My first blog introduced OCD. It was very vague and was missing information. It also included my quiz on OCD. My second blog gave a brief explanation of what I had done and was planning. It wasn’t very thought out, but had my basic starting plans. It talked a bit about my results.

There are many organizations with a goal of higher OCD awareness. an OCD Awareness Week was even created! Many people have had fundraisers,I and other sponsored events. If your search the internet you can find many websites that focus or at least mention OCD. I like how these people take time to create and promote an entire event to help others. My own goal was simple, help spread awareness for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. As mentioned in earlier blog posts, I made a video about OCD.(couldn’t put it here) It describes the basics of OCD and the different subcategories. I also show some of my test results. This video is rather simple though.

OCD awareness event

In my first blog post, I talked about how teens are the causes of their own and other’s accidental deaths and how teens are not only distracted by their cellphones, but other people. I also talked about how hazardous teen drivers can be while on their cellphones and that teens need to be more aware about their safety while driving. The one big question that I had ending that blog post was WHY? The why question was for why do people keep on getting distracted and possibly not only putting their lives in danger, but others lives.

In my second blog post, I talked about how crashes are more common among the young drivers than any other age group and in 2009 3,242 teens from the ages of 15-19 lost their lives in crashes where the driver was distracted. I also talked about counting 500 cars, 126 of those drivers were on their phones and 26 of those drivers were actually texting while driving. The one big question that I had ending that blog post was HOW? The how question was for how are we going to stop this and spread awareness. That is the question that I am going to answer in this blog post and how I decided to find out for myself.

This was my pledge(on left) vs. what AllState already had in place(on right)

For my agent of change, I decided to convince a company, like AllState, to make a pledge that new drivers would sign as a friendly reminder not to text and drive. I then decided to ask an expert about their point of view on this topic and how safety is key. I went to an AllState office near me and talked to Ms. Rebecca Clemento about this topic and I had some questions:

What are the biggest dangers of teen driving?

What do you already have in place for managing cell phone use with new drivers? Does AllState have any incentives?

Are there any specific policies in place for teen drivers or new drivers?

Have the laws changed for texting and driving as the technology has changed?

What would be the effectiveness of the idea that I am proposing?

Do you think the laws will need to change for safety in the future? If so, how?

For the most part, I think that my agent of change went pretty well and was inspirational not only to me but to the people that I talked to about this. As I was doing this project, the thing that I enjoyed most was finding out all of this cool information that I never knew existed until I started this project. From this project, I learned that this topic was more widespread than I thought, but not as often talked about.

A recurring question that I had in both of my blog posts was: Why do teens, and even adults, go out in the world of driving and continue to be distracted? This question has still yet to be answered, but with more research this question will be answered someday.

Annotated Bibliography

Sydney Montgomery

Mrs.Giknis

English 1

June 5, 2015

Blog Post Reflection

Blog Post #3:

Blog 2

Blog 1

Hey, nice to see you guys again!

Originally, for my Agent of Change, I was going to do a fundraiser for the organization that I was hoping to work with, but there had been many technical difficulties. I had many ideas like teaching at a school and teach things about immigration. But through many hardships, I have decided to make a website here.

This is the front-page of my website.

I wanted to point this towards Cambodians, as you can see, there is Cambodian dialect under the English phrases. I tried my best translating it from English to Cambodian without using a translator and often going to my parents and other relatives for help, as they are immigrants from Cambodia. I was in a hurry so I to use the website, Weebly, which helped me a lot when it came down to my last resort.

On the website I talk about how in the past being a sponsor was a very dangerous thing. This is during the war when people looking for sponsors would get taken and killed. Today there are people that want to be sponsors in an effort to help others in bad countries. I made the website to show the good side of sponsors because when people hear migration they think of illegal immigrants. But sponsors just help start the process so that the immigrants can come to a country legally. I talk about this in the about section of my website.

I also talk about the history and talk more about sponsors in the front page of my website.

For my You and the World project I did Stereotypes and Discrimination with Work and Education with a Disability.In my blog post #1 I just introduced my project. In my blog post #2 I talked about what I did for my original research.

I wish that I would’ve found a graduate from the special-ed classes from Edison High School. I would’ve been cool to talk to him/her.During this project I learned so much.

I think I would have rather done another project because I finished my project really early and then I had nothing else to do. But with my project I would have spaced out my project a lot better. I don’t really want to know a lot except one thing, I would like to know how people with disabilities live, i want to know how they live life. I wish I would have done another project because my project bored me a little bit. I had fun with it but then I didn’t at the same time.

I did have the impact that I wanted because I wanted my advisory to learn about my project and they did. I think that I should have put poster’s around the school and maybe I would have had  larger impact because then the school would have known about but I had the impact i wanted.

My first blog post was about me introducing my You and the World project which is Stereotyping and Discrimination with Work and Education with a Disability. I felt as though this topic was not cared for as much as it needed to be. For my second blog post  I wrote about the field research I did at Edison High School. I visited one of the special-ed classes and I learned a lot. I learned that they mostly focus on life-skills and have the opportunity to stay in high school till they’re 21.

For my agent of change I decided to do a advisory presentation. In my advisory presentation I added most of the information that I learned and talked about the rest. I wanted to do an advisory presentation because my advisory seemed to know nothing about it. I think that I was pretty successful in presenting to my advisory and I think they learned a lot. I did not necessarily want to do this as my agent of change but I did not know what I even wanted to do as my agent of change.

I think that I changed a lot during this project. It really taught me that  should never judge or discriminate anybody. I know that it is really cliche but it is true because even I was a little biased before this project. I really enjoyed during my project. I taught that it was a lot of fun and it was a great learning experience.I think that I could’ve done better just because I sort of rushed my project. I took no time, I knew what I wanted to do since the beginning and I took no brakes. I did my project really fast. I think the only thing that is left to do is to have everybody do their research and educate themselves about people with disabilities.  

In my 1st Blog Post I introduced my topic for my project which was Performance Enhancing drugs (PEDs).  I talked about the effect that certain PEDs have on your body and my opinion on Performance Enhancing Drugs. In my 2nd Blog Post I included a chart that talks about the usage of drugs by Division 2 Colleges.  

I feel like people don't take the usage of Performance Enhancing Drugs as seriously as they should.  It is a big issue in pro sport, college, and sometimes even in high school.  They're aren't many people out here doing anything to stop it, they just react when it happens.  But, for my agent of change I decided to make wristband that say ¨Natural Athlete¨ on the outside and ¨No Steroids¨ on the inside.  I gave these out to my teammates and coaches.  People from other teams are coming up to me and teammates asking where they can get one.  I feel like the word is getting out about my agent of change, and that was my intention.

This is a very important topic to me.  I am really passionate about this because I want to play baseball in College and hope to eventually play Pro Ball.  So if i make to these level of competition, I don't want to play against or with fair chances.  

There are many people who are doing things about animal abuse that can help them like Events at Community centers (Fundraising), Starting neighborhood watches, organizing a Wildlife Expedition, etc. My opinion on changing these ways are that they should be in to more supporting shelters and organizations than having meetings and races. It is a good idea to get the word out, but not a lot would be done with groups and events. For my agent of change I raised money to build an outdoor protective shelter for abused/abandoned animals on the street. Instead of donating the money to an organization to build one for their animals, I built one for the animals that can't and won't be taken to a shelter or kept in a house.

This is the Outdoor Protective Shelter for Abused and Abandoned Animals that are homeless. The Purpose is to give the animals a place to sleep or a roof to protect them from rain or just even to live and have food and water.

My past work has led up to my Agent of Change, and making a change in the world. In my first blog post (passion and information) I explained and wrote about how anti-semitism was an issue in the world. I explained how scary and dangerous anti-semitism was, especially in places like Europe and the Middle East. Blog post one led to my second blog post. In my blog post two (original research) I met with and interviewed Holocaust survivor Rabbi Charlie Kraus. He talked about his experiences living through the Holocaust and his views about judaism now. My interview with him sparked my interests yet again. He said he was disappointed and sad at how the world is acting to Jews now.

In my recent research I have found new ways to help the issue of anti-semitism in the world. I have given a presentation to my advisory, and I plan to show it more until I have made a difference. Some places you can make a difference at are the Jewish Relief Agency and the Anti-Defamation League. These sites give you an opportunity to help Jews in the Philadelphia community or help make a difference in the world. I think that these two agencies are great for helping out in the issue of anti-semitism. I have volunteered with the Jewish Relief Agency on several occasions. I was making a difference in the Philadelphia Jewish community. I have not volunteered with the Anti-Defamation League, however it gives many options on how to help anti-semitism, especially in the Middle East.  

For my Agent of Change I made and presented a slide show. I showed it to my advisory. My presentation was also shown to the 8th grade class at Greenfield Middle School. I want to show my presentation to more and more people. I will make a bigger difference in the world and I will help solve the issue of anti-semitism.   

I learned a lot throughout this project. I have had change, more people know more about anti-semitism and more about jews after watching my slide show. This project has helped me in many ways. I can now coordinate with others and their schedules (to a certain degree.) This project has helped me grow as a learned and as a member of the Jewish community. I felt good about this project. When everything was finished, I felt proud of the work I had done and after working with others schedules, I feel good about my outcomes. However there some things I could change about the project. If I did this project again I would finish my presentation sooner and talk to more people about presenting to them and others. I would also have done more for the passion and information blog post. I would also take more time to work on my blog posts. I still have to make more of a change in the world. One fact that really struck me was that Temple was the 8th most anti-semitic campus in the country. I would like to change that and educate more people about jews and anti-semitism.

Hey guys I know that it has been a while since I last posted. So if you have forgotten what they talked about you can just click here to see the first one and here to see the second one.

In my first blog post I was basically talking about how much this generation's youth is not educated on what to do and what not to do when approached by a stranger and just the statistics. In my second blog post I talked about how I had an interview with Supervisory Special Agent Kevin McShane which is a man that specializes in child abduction. To raise awareness for child abduction I have created a poster that says “Stranger = Danger”. This small saying is going to be posted on social media. I am going to get friends to post the poster and use the hashtag  #StopAbductingOurYouth, hopefully this hashtag will spread like wildfire and get people to become more aware of child abduction. I also made a script that people would be able to act out and post on whatever social media site that they would like, if anyone wanted to post the video it would be nice if the could put #StopAbducting Youth so that way it will start trending.  

In the beginning  I had a different plan for my Agent Of Change. I wanted to use the script that I  made and act it out. The obstacle that I faced with that plan was trying to film on a day that would fit with the people that I had choose to film, so I basically ran out of time.

I am passionate about this topic but I think that if I could do this project over I would choose a different topic because I never thought this would be such a hard topic to discuss. Even though I am passionate out this topic I feel like I am somewhat giving up on it because it feels like I have bit off more than I can chew. This is a very cool project but it is project that takes time. I think that this was a project that should have been given more than one quarter to do. I think that I definitely managed my time better because I think that would have made it a lot easier to do. If I could start the project over I would change my PIC to helping the homeless. Everyday that I go to school I see someone that is homeless and it makes me ache with guilt that while I have a place to live, food to eat, and a place to bathe  they have nothing put the clothes on their backs.

To see the poster that I created that will be posted on social media click here.

The you and the world project was difficult for me because the topic I picked wasn’t a topic that the great majority felt as strongly about it as I did. My topic was immigration and even though it is a big problem it’s not something that students around my age think about. If I was going to do it differently I would pick a much more popular topic. By having a popular project the project will be easier for me. The research part of the project was easy the part that was hard was the agent of change part. Since people didn’t feel as strongly as I did about the topic people didn’t really care about my agent of change. I feel like if we could work in groups the project would of been easier and fun. I also feel like I could of made my topic more specific by focusing on immigrant children because that is a topic people would be more interested in because of the kids. In conclusion my agent of change project didn’t go as good as I wanted it to because I didn’t pick a good topic. Now that I’ve finished the project if I was going to do it again I would know what to do.