Science Leadership Academy @ Center City

Recipe Analysis Final Project

Posted by Arianna Haven on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 3:02 pm

My Family’s Vegetarian Chili Recipe:

1 can of black beans (120 calories)

1 can of chickpeas (120 calories)

1 can of black eyed peas (120 calories)

1 can corn (60 calories)

1 large can of diced tomatoes (25 calories)

2 onions (88 calories)

1 clove of garlic (4 calories)

2 zucchinis (66 calories)

Sautee the onions, garlic, and zucchini in a little bit of olive oil until caramelized.

Add the rest of the ingredients in and stir. Leave on a medium low temperature until finished cooking (about an hour).

Analysis

Processed vs. Whole Foods:

In this recipe, more than half of the ingredients are processed in some way. The whole foods include the onions, zucchini, and garlic because they are fresh produce. The rest of the ingredients, however, are canned and therefore highly processed. Canned foods are usually packed full of preservatives in order to keep the vegetables inside edible months later.

Health/Nutrition:

After looking at the nutrition facts on each can of vegetables, here are the estimations I have found:

The total calorie count for the recipe is around 603 calories. This breaks down to 120 calories per can of beans, 60 calories for the can of corn, 25 calories for the can of tomatoes, 44 calories per onion, 4 calories per clove of garlic, and 33 calories per zucchini.

The total sugar content of the recipe is about 25 grams of sugar. Much to my surprise, the canned vegetables actually have less sugar than the fresh vegetables. The vegetable with the greatest amount of sugar is the onions. Each onion has about 5 grams of sugar while each can of beans is only 1 gram of sugar.

Political/Economic:

Overall, this dish is a pretty inexpensive meal to make. It serves about 5 or 6 people, and only costs about $7.50 for the total recipe. Canned vegetables and fresh vegetables are generally inexpensive, which makes this meal very affordable and healthy. Part of the profits from the ingredients of this recipe benefit large corporations who produces canned foods, and part of the profits go to fresh farms or corporate farms.

Food I guess

Posted by Michael Thayres in Science and Society · Best · A Band on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 2:51 pm

Baked Ham

Ingredients:

Brown Sugar

Ginger Ale

Pineapple

Maraschino Cherries

Cloves

So my family doesn't really keep specific recipes. I guess that's just how we function, recipes have never really been written down and then shared. You just kinda make food or order it. But even though they're not written down, we still make food by some basic guideline. The only thing I can remember at the moment (since cooking is kind of a spur of the moment thing for my family, on both sides, which feels odd) is ham. When we bake a ham we generally have some mix of brown sugar and ginger ale that get's poured over the ham, and then in the pan the ham bakes in. The ham is placed on a rack over it, and every now and then you put more on it from the bottom of the pan. The pineapple and cherries get placed directly on the ham by pinning them with cloves. Maybe this is common, maybe it's not, who knows. Either way, the ham comes out slightly sweet from all of the sweet things around, and the skin/rind/whatever is normally almost glazed. It's pretty good I guess

So most of it is processed. We get the pineapples from a can and the maraschino cherries are pretty much just junk food. The ham itself obviously had to come from a pig, cloves are just a plant, and ginger ale is soda. Brown sugar is also processed. Cloves are just dried, so it's probably the least processed thing, while the cherries are the most. It's not hard to make, it's pretty easy to be honest. A lot of steps was taken to get the ham where it is at the end where it's eaten, and it's probably not efficient, but it tastes pretty good.

The Normal I Know

Posted by Ian Fay in Reading, Writing and Rising Up · Block · D Band on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 2:25 pm

I originally was going to do a research project on the different studies of Autism and what the scientific studies have shown us. I knew that there was a lot of ignorance and misinformation about Autism and I wanted my project to be something that dispelled that. After talking with Ms. Jeanette however, I changed the idea from an information piece to a more personal one. She recommended that I write a personal essay because it would make for a more engaging story if I were to have a more personal take on the topic. Now, my project became a personal essay on what it means to live with Asperger Syndrome. My question began to transform into what is the life experience of someone who lives with Autism. It was an interesting experience for me because I began to see more and more how it influenced my behavior as I was doing the project. I feel like my project does a good job of sharing my experience and dispelling misconceptions about it:

Link to Auido below:

https://drive.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/file/d/0BzHY93kk6SLDR1c3cjRGRGVveTg/view?usp=sharing

My normal was not everyone else’s normal. Even worse, it became evident that people that though my normal was something that needed to be fixed. This life that I had been living all this time was deemed completely wrong in other people’s lives and I was really confused as to why people would be afraid of me. Autism is not at all harmful to myself or others in anyway. The only thing it did was made my upbringing vastly different from the average person. I understand that many people may not have an idea of how so I hope I can shed some light on this issue and enlighten people on what living with Autism is really like.

So, what exactly is Autism, you might be asking. Autism, which has been recently dubbed as Autistic Spectrum disorder, is a term that represents an array of behavioral disorders. The one I was born with is known as Asperger’s Syndrome which is on the end of the spectrum where people with Autism have the most cognitve function and awareness. The symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome include social awkwardness, inability to empathize, failure to make friendships, trouble making eye contact. sticking to routines, poor motor skills, literal interpretation, narrowed interests, and even selective mutism. In other words, I was born as an extremely socially awkward person in a very social world; a round peg sounded by a thousand square holes I was meant to fit into but, never could.

Trying to adjust to the world, being the way I am, was a challenge for both me and my parents. They tell me of one time where they had someone over our house named Ms. Cohen who sat with me for seven hours straight. She was basically observing me and recording my habits and inform my parents on what she found about me. Not to mention the amount of additional aid that I needed to get through grade school and middle school. My father tells me of all of the times he had to argue with my teachers, principal and even school district officials to get me all of the help he could. When they wanted to do all of these half-measures with me, he stood his ground and told them to give me everything they have.

Another way that my Asperger’s was shown in my life was my eating habits. Because I am more susceptible to fall into routines, I would only eat and drink specific things, sometimes only in specific places. One example of this is when we would get pizza only from Santucci’s but, I would only eat it in the car so my mom would have to drive slowly so I would finish a slice. This lead to me and my parents taking me to a clinic in Hershey, Pennsylvania where we would sit for hours at a time and eat so many different things. This would be the first time I would have many different fruits, vegetables, meats, juices, and many other things.

My most memorable example of this was during the fifth grade all the way up to my high school years. Every Thursday, along with two or three other boys with Autism, I would go to social skills workshops facilitated by a therapist. I remember my first few times going there when we would be working on certain skills like starting conversations, making new friends, and even greetings. I especially remember the difficulty. I struggled a lot with trying to learn these skills and it was jarring to know that this was easy to nearly everyone else outside of that room. This was normal to them but, it was completely new to me. This was the first time where I was trying to fully learn how to socialize with people and, to be honest, I am still learning even now.

Another thing that I’ve struggled with as I have lived with autism is the stigmatisms that go along with it. It’s not just from people that I see in my life but, also from bigger organizations that claim to be on my side. A major example of this is a commercial titled “I am Autism” by Autism Speaks, an Autistic Advocacy Organization. I remember the feeling of watching it for the first time on YouTube. This is a quote from that ad: “I am autism. I have no interest in right or wrong. I derive great pleasure out of your loneliness. I will fight to take away your hope. I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams. I will make sure that every day you wake up you will cry, wondering who will take care of my child after I die? And the truth is, I am still winning, and you are scared. And you should be. I am autism. You ignored me. That was a mistake.”

As someone who has grown up with Asperger’s Syndrome for their entire life, I felt like the video was about me. It was almost as though I was the one who was robbing people of their children, I was breaking families apart, and I thirst off loneliness like water. It described me like I was a disease or a monster, one that people should get rid of but, what came after was the worst part. In response to the brooding voice that was representing Autism, fathers, mothers, siblings, and even friends of the people with Autism in that video rallied to combat Autism as though it were Cancer or heart disease. They were talking to it like it was a pandemic, one that needed to be cured. After the video ended, the shock and fear that I had felt in the beginning turned into utter frustration with the makers of this video. I was angry not only in what was said but, I also felt like they never expected me to find it. It was almost as though they were probably talking to my parents, trying to convince them to “fix” me. The ad almost seemed to imply that I cannot be loved fully by my parents because I have Asperger’s Syndrome. It felt awful knowing that this is how I am perceived.

Now, all of this may seem very difficult for me to have pushed past all of these obstacles but, it is not all that bad living with Asperger’s Syndrome. In fact, in terms of the spectrum of Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome is on the end of the spectrum which shows higher cognitive function and awareness. If I was born with a more severe form of Autism, I could have struggled a lot more with this disorder. Because of this, I do not really feel like Asperger’s Syndrome is too much of a problem to me at this point in my life.

Some parts of living with Asperger’s Syndrome are actually quite enjoyable. Because my interests are often narrow, I would have these phases where I would dip into any number of fandoms and hobbies. These would include various TV shows, movie franchises, video games, literally anything that would contribute to one of my eventual symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome: nerdiness. I still remember all of the phases I had and am still going through, whether it was my fascination with model trains when I was toddler to my love for Avatar: The Last Airbender (I’m never getting out of that phase). It was like riding various waves of joy as I dipped in and out of each phase. Once again, this is something I still experience and really enjoy about this.

There is a large shortage of voices like mine that are representing what having Autism means. The research, case studies, diagnoses, and all the other scientific study is good but, I really think there needs to be people like me who actually have Autism to speak up about what it is like living with it. And this does not just apply for Asperger’s Syndrome but, for all disabilities in general. This large amount of presumptions and preconceptions about disabilities leads to harmful consequences such as the school shooter stereotype being linked to Autism. No one should ever have a stereotype like that over their head, especially over something that they did not choose to have.

Another thing is that people need to understand that there is a difference between awareness and acceptance. Advocacy organizations bring awareness to Autism but, they never really push for more acceptance of it. Instead organizations like Autism Speaks, who made the ad at beginning of this piece, seem to push this agenda that people like me need to be fixed or cured. This eliminationist agenda never feels good or reassuring to anybody with this disorder and really just gaslights these people about their whole existence. We should not be trying to fight to fit in this square hole that society is presenting us. Instead, society should be learning to accept and fit better around us.

Dont judge a book by its cover

Posted by Fatoumata Camara in Creative Writing · Giknis · x2 Band on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 1:35 pm

http://editor.wix.com/html/editor/web/renderer/external_preview/document/1e6b1b80-f965-45ee-bf8a-0898f9f87f30?metaSiteId=86b46bb5-939a-4c3e-8ad2-1832894888db&isExternalPreview=true#!Ghetto-or-Proper/dzt94/588b7e3fd0df4804f5f2ec8b.

My link to my short story. Hope you enjoy!

Recipe for Chi Chi

Posted by Husain Kegler on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 1:33 pm

Chi Chi

Origin: Prison Food

Recipe:

1 bag of Hot Cheetos (Crunchy also $1.50 from local poppi store)

3 Beef Sticks ($1 from local poppi store)

1 Bag of Ramen Noodles (35cent from local poppi store)

Shredded Sharp Chedder Cheese (Optional)

Steps:

Grab your bag of noodles, crush them up inside of your package then pour them into a bowl. Take the flavoring out of the bag, open it up and sprinkle half of the flavoring on your noodles. Take your bowl and run water in it from the sink. Use water until your noodles are a few centimeters under the water.

Put the bowl in the microwave for 2 minutes.

While you are waiting crush the hot cheetos up in there bag, until its a bag filled with hot cheeto dust. Then grab your 3 beef sticks and cut them up into 1 inch pieces.

The microwave should have went off by now, take your bowl out and stir up the noodles. Now dump the hot cheetos inside the bowl, mix this up consistently. Once, the hot cheetos have been mixed into the noodles well, pour the pieces of beef sticks inside the bowl and mix this well also.

Place your bowl in the microwave for 1min and 30 sec.

After you take the bowl out of the microwave for the second time grab a handful of your shredded cheese of your choice. Remember this part is optional. Sprinkle your cheese over the top of your food making sure that its extra cheesy.

Place your bowl in the microwave for 45 seconds.

Now your Chi Chi is ready to go. ENJOY!

Ba nana na na na na na (minions) Bread

Posted by Chhievling Seng in Science and Society · Best · E Band on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 12:52 pm

Prep Time: 10 mins

Bake Time: 1 hour 10 min (adjust accordingly)

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour (do not try to sub. with whole wheat flour)
1 cup Sugar (regular white sugar)
1 Stick of unsalted butter (please leave it out til room temp)
4 really ripe bananas (mashed your anger out)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 eggs
2 Tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix the soften butter, sugar, and eggs together.

Then add the rest of the wet ingredients (mashed bananas, vanilla extract, and milk) into the mixed butter, sugar, and egg mixture.

In separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon powder, baking soda & powder, salt).

Now, add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, and mix ONLY till all the dry mixture are incorporated in. (So stop mixing when you don't see no more dry mixture)

Butter the loaf pan, and place it in the over for 1 hour and 10 mins. Check back around 40-50 min mark, by inserting toothpick, depending how clean the toothpick comes out, bake to adjusted time (clean=bake for 1 hour only, if not clean=bake for the full 1 hour 10 mins.)

Take it out when done and EAT! But wait for it to cool off first.

This banana bread is a simple recipe to twist things up with bananas every once in awhile, and can be the healthier alternative to cupcakes or brownies (sometimes). The ingredients are simple and can be found in all supermarket across the U.S.

Most of the ingredients actually came from the U.S, such as sugar, since the U.S is one of the main countries in producing sugar cane, where sugar is then extracted. The banana is really the only ingredient that had to travel quite distance, coming to the U.S all the way from Honduras. I believe there is not that much difference between organic bananas and non-organic, compared to other fresh produce. For this recipe, non-organic bananas can be used, but I had also made one with organic bananas, but might call for an extra banana, due to the slight size difference between the organic and non-organic. Because the non-organic is slightly larger, but for this banana bread, all of that does not matter. Although, there might be more affect on the environment that the non-organic banana contribute too, since there might be a lot of fertilizer/pesticides used.

I would say that this bread, does not cost more than $7 total. The only main ingredients was flour, banana, and sugar. The full price paid for these ingredients was fairly inexpensive, for example, the flour (Pillsbury brand) was only $2.99 for 80 oz. So it only cost $0.037375 per ounce. The only cost this bread have is only really the time it takes to bake (little over an hour). There of course are business involved when looking at the ingredients individual, since it all comes from different companies.

In the U.S many people are obese or have health problem that ties back to their weight and what they consume. Banana bread is one of the many alternative to processed food, such as pop tarts, twinkies, etc. The stuff needed are not hard to find at all, I almost always buy these ingredients at Shoprite, and never once was it not available. And things such as flour, and sugar, can be used for so many other things. Whereas if someone just went out to buy already processed food or fast food, more money is spent most of the time, and that is it. Even if one were to buy banana bread that was already baked from a store, or a pumpkin pie, it is not the same as if the person made it themselves, because no additives or preservatives or anything of that sort will be added. Ones that are store bought will almost always be more processed than if it were to be made at home, even if it's labeled organic (organic bread, etc).

Recipe and Analysis:

Posted by Yasmeen Collins in Science and Society · Best · E Band on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 12:26 pm

Recipe:

1 (16 ounce) box golden pound cake mix
4 egg whites
2/3 cup of water
1/8 cup of brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of softened butter

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Mix egg whites in a bowl until they are firm.
Put contents into bowl and mix them together. (Cake mix, egg whites, and water)
Put the batter onto a greased baking pan.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes and then insert a toothpick; if it comes out clean then you know they are done.
Let them sit and cool
Add the brown sugar as the "frosting" by sprinkling it over the cake in place of the "frosting".
Optional: Melt the (Smart Balance Heart Right Light) butter onto the krimpet after for a nice glaze.
Makes about 20 krimpets.
Enjoy!

Analysis:

My snack is not particularly a "healthy snack", but I did change some of the ingredients up to make it better. I made sure to use a certain brand of butter (Smart Balance Heart Right Light) because it is known to be better for you. I also, didn't make the frosting that is usually on top of the krimpet to make it butterscotch. Instead I chose to sprinkle brown sugar on the top of the cake.

This snack is simple and easy to buy at a local supermarket. Compared to fast food this is a good snack because it's lower in calories and is only a small consumption while if you buy food from a fast food place it is a whole meal and contains way more processed foods and fats.

This snack is acceptable to eat sometimes, but it's not suitable for an everyday meal. It doesn't contain the necessary nutrients for the body and has a lot of calories. The history behind my recipe began in Pittsburgh and then moved to Philadelphia. Lot's of processed food is packaged and this includes my dish. With that being said I changed some of the ingredients around so that the snack was more healthy and doesn't affect people's health as much as a regular butterscotch krimpet.

Marianne's Favorite Cornbread

Posted by Zoe Andersson on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 11:43 am

Marianne’s Favorite Cornbread

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup of sour cream
½ cup of salad oil
1 cup of creamed corn
1 cup of regular yellow cornmeal
3 tbs of baking powder
1½ tsp of salt
1 small can of green chilies (optional)
1 small jar of pimentos (optional)

Instructions:

Beat eggs in a mixing bowl. Stir in the next three ingredients.
Mix the dry ingredients, add into the egg mixture.
Add green chilies and pimentos, if desired.
Bake at 350° for 45-55 minutes in a rectangular, 1½ quart casserole.

My grandmother's cornbread recipe was one of my favorites when I was young. She is southern, and used to make us homemade mac and cheese with cornbread when we went to her home in North Carolina. The majority of ingredients in this recipe are whole foods. A whole food is defined as, “a food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances”. Eggs, baking powder, and salt are all whole ingredients that have been eaten and used by civilizations for thousands of years. Salt and baking powder are chemical compounds derived from natural mineral compounds. Green chilies and pimento peppers are both whole foods that grow in nature as well. Sour cream, when from cows not treated with rBGH, is also a whole food. Whole dairy is directly from a naturally occurring source and is typically unaltered before consuming. Whole grain cornmeal (cornmeal that has not been degermed) is the kind of cornmeal that my grandmother would have used for this recipe, and one that is also a whole food. Salad oil is a term that can apply to many different oils, such as vegetable oil, canola oil, and peanut oil. This is the only ingredient in the recipe that is not a whole food. Many processed foods have a long list of ingredients that include some type of vegetable oil. In addition to the oils being processed, trans fats, a product of this process is also a type of processed food.

Tostadas

Posted by Fatu Castillo in Science and Society · Best · E Band on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 9:53 am

Ingredients

Two Cans Goya Black Beans
Two Tablespoons of Salt
One Cup of Vegetable Oil
One Package of Goya Queso Blanco Cheese
One package of Tostadas

Bean Paste

Place large skillet on over top and preheat with medium flame.
Place cup of vegetable oil on skillet.
Sprinkle two tablespoons of salt evenly across oil.
Empty two cans of Goya Black Beans onto skillet
Wait about two minute until fully warmed.
Use masher to ground the beans into a paste.
Continuously mash beans for about five minutes.
Turn off flame.

Tostasdos

Spread small amount of bean paste of smoothly across tostados.
Cut off small piece of Queso Blanco Cheese and crumble it across tostados.
Enjoy!

Analysis

About ⅘ of my recipe can be considered processed, only the beans can be considered a whole food. I’m not sure what other outcome you expect when a recipe is supposed to be tied to family and culture yet somehow avoid processed foods when they’ve been used for decades.

Mostly all of my ingredients are made by Goya Foods located in America, the only exceptions being the Salt and Vegetable Oil which were made by separately. None of the ingredients were organically grown but all are domestic products. Every ingredient was processed from raw materials in a factory setting.

The entire meal costs less than $15 if all ingredients were purchased new, it costs even less since most items on the ingredient list are aleady in most households. It’s not that great of a price when compared to $5 meals I could purchase at fast food restaurants, say McDonald’s. But since all of the ingredients were manufactured domestically, the money would be going to the private companies that made them.

Overall this meal, or snack, takes less than half an hour to make and it’s very convenient to make since most of the ingredients were already in the house. As someone who comes from a low-income family that’s always strapped for time, this a very affordable dish. I prefered making this to a more expensive meal that would cost nearly triple to make if all the ingredients were bought organically.

Edwins blog repost

Posted by Edwin Ortiz in Technology - Freshman · Hull · c1 Band on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 9:18 am

Research is very important in the beginning of the project because it could mean the difference of having a really good slide or a really bad slide. Especially since we had to present and use words that we learned from our research. If I did no research then I wouldn't know what to put in my slide or what to say. When I presented to my group my comments were overall that my slide was very nice and easy to look at. That there wasn't anything big that I should change, a lot of my group said that I should add color and when I tried the slide did not have the same flow that I wanted it to have. It was too much color. another comment was that I should center my name so what I did was center my name over the flag so that people could see it more clearly.

Free Expression and How We Keep It In Shape

Posted by Ali Driggers in Reading, Writing and Rising Up · Block · D Band on Friday, January 27, 2017 at 1:11 am

Free expression is one of the things that keep our society functioning. It is an item that we use on a daily basis to express ourselves. Without free speech, we have nothing. Our society has nothing to function with, and we have no way of letting people know how we feel about things. When it is threatened, or when people have their free speech taken, that is something very bad. We have employees being fired for their opinions, we have speakers being kicked off of campus, and many more bad situations happening.

There are situations in society are screwed up because people need the freedom to express themselves. People should not be fired for expressing different opinions. Different opinions should not be censored or slandered. There are situations where this has happened. I had to get some interviews to see if others saw what I saw. People have different experiences when it comes to this very important topic, so it was important that I went and got their opinions.

I interviewed Jared, and he told me this. “There’s a lot of controversial topics in our society today, and even if you believe something, your not accepted for believing it”. He finds this to be “very hypocritical”, and so do I. This is a prominent issue on the college campuses, like when Milo Yiannopoulos and Ben Shapiro get kicked off of college campuses. I also spoke to Liam, and he has a different view about this. Liam, however, sees that people can reasonably disagree without being unaccepted and unreasonable. “Yes, most people can have reasonable conversations about topics they disagree on”, says Liam. When I asked Liam about whether he can give express himself freely. His answer was, “Yes, although I'm worried by the chilling effects of the Trump administration arresting reporters and putting forward "alternative facts." He feels that some of Trump’s actions are not helping the matter. When Jared bought up faith, it reminded me of the employees who have been fried for their beliefs, as well as the 7 year old who was forced by the law to stop saying bible verses in school. When I spoke to Harry, he acknowledged that the bosses had a right to fire people over their opinions if they don’t represent the company. But he also said that, “You don't fire someone over basically just a political opinion”, but did acknowledge that if they said something vile, their job is in danger. That was just a fraction of what they, as well as Jamira, had to say. You can read and hear the rest of what they said in the bottom of the essay

The interviews I did really expanded my horizon on the issue of free speech. It gave me a lot to think about, which was very important. I still think there is a threat, but it may not be as widespread as I thought. Jamira, Liam, and Harry all said that they feel as if they can freely express themselves. But Jared said that’s not the case for him, and the stories that we here suggest that this is not the same for everyone. Reasonable discussion and disagreement are needed in today’s society. We can’t censor and try to shut people down when we disagree with them, nor can we destroy their lives. We must discuss our disagreements like adults if we ever want to find solutions to very serious issues.

Links & Transcripts

Jared

file:///home/chronos/u-fc3d926395967a19bec5dc249ad7db47e9b8001a/Downloads/Ali%20Record%20Of%20Jared.mp3

Liam

Questions he answered

Do you feel that you can freely express yourself

A. Is it anything different at school?

B. Is it any different at home?

Do you feel that there is a threat on free speech?
Do you feel that most people can have a reasonable conversation about a topic they disagree on?
What types of views get their free speech attacked the most?
Are there certain things that you feel you're not allowed to say?
Do you feel that you can express yourself on social media without getting fired from a job, or facing similar consequences?

His answers:

Yes, although I'm worried by the chilling effects of the Trump administration arresting reporters and putting forward "alternative facts."

2. No.

3. Yes, most people can have reasonable conversations about topics they disagree on - case in point our group chat.

4. Fascists, and they deserve it. In my opinion, you shouldn't be allowed to say that you want to kill millions of people.

5. There isn't anything I feel that I'm not allowed to say. There are many things that I choose not to say, because words can hurt people and I understand what it's like to be on the receiving end of hatred.

6. Unless you're a federal employee or say something that is so monumentally stupid that you become internet infamous for it, there's very little chance of getting fired for saying things on the internet.

Jamira

Questions Answered:

Interview Questions

Do you feel that you can freely express yourself

A. Is it anything different at school?

B. Is it any different at home?

Do you feel that there is a threat on free speech?
Do you feel that most people can have a reasonable conversation about a topic they disagree on?
What types of views get their free speech attacked the most?
Are there certain things that you feel you're not allowed to say?
Do you feel that you can express yourself on social media without getting fired from a job, or facing similar consequences?

Her answers

1. Yes, I feel like I freely express myself.

A. Especially in school. I feel like i can do this by expressing my personality through my choice in clothing, hair color, etc. Being as though SLA has such a diverse community, I think it is easy for me to make friends and befriend others since we are such an open and accepting school. This makes me feel like I am able to be true to myself and not fear others opinions. I also feel like the school likes to receive feedback on my opinions as well as others. I feel like I have a voice in the school.

B. I feel the same way at home. My parents and siblings accept me for who I am and within our household we treat each other equally. This allows us all to listen to each and freely express our emotions and concerns with each other.

2. I feel like there is a threat to free speech in a sense that some people may fear playing devil's advocate and holding the unpopular opinion. Personally, I am not afraid to state my opinion on anything and I would like to think that I provide a comfortable space for people to feel the same.

3. Depending on the topic, I think most people have a reasonable conversation. Granted, one party may feel stronger about the topic than the other which may cause a heated discussion, but this is where maturity comes in and both parties should understand that it is okay to disagree.

4. I don't really understand this question..

5. Absolutely not. I feel like there are many things that I may hold an unpopular opinion on, but I am not afraid to voice my opinion and my reasoning behind it.

6. This is kind of a touchy subject. Although I am an advocate of freedom of speech and freely expressing oneself, I do feel like social media is where this issue becomes controversial. Personally, I would not put anything on social media that I wouldn't want anyone to see, but unfortunately this is an issue that sometimes occurs with others. I think that if a person would not be okay with their parents seeing it then they should probably agree that their employer would not want to see it either. Especially for professional jobs, one may not want to post anything provocative or obscene on media account. Also, they may not want to say anything negative about their job or company that they work for. I feel like if a person is that into social media to where they post and tweet about their entire life, I think that they should at least make their accounts private, especially if they are posting things that could possible get them fired from their job.

Harry

file:///home/chronos/u-fc3d926395967a19bec5dc249ad7db47e9b8001a/Downloads/Audio_01_25_2017_08_50_24.m4a%20(1).mp4

Articles that inspired the project

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/update-curt-schilling-fired-for-opinion-on-transgender-bathroom-law/#ixzz4Smfl8ou9

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434297/eric-walsh-georgia-public-health-doctor-fired-christian-beliefs

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/update-curt-schilling-fired-for-opinion-on-transgender-bathroom-law/#ixzz4Smfl8ou9

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/08/03/student-facing-50-day-suspension-for-saying-all-lives-matter.html

http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/12/02/iowa-anti-facist-group-confirms-iowa-university-raised-security-fees-censor-milo/

http://www.dailywire.com/news/7864/breaking-depaul-university-bans-shapiro-john-minster

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/1130/Bannon-invited-to-Harvard-conference-campus-free-speech-debate-ensues

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/the-glaring-evidence-that-free-speech-is-threatened-on-campus/471825/

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/06/03/college-campus-free-speech-thought-police-463536.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/21/your-money/speaking-about-politics-can-cost-you-your-job.html

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/06/03/school-sends-sheriff-to-order-child-to-stop-sharing-bible-verses.html

http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2016/09/high_school_student_reportedly_suspended_for_anti-.html

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/22/texas-school-punishes-boy-for-opposing-homosexuality.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/04/do-students-still-have-free-speech-in-school/360266/

http://www.infowars.com/news-reporter-fired-for-supporting-trump/

http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/12/31/booklash-celebrities-mad-milos-book-deal/

Gallo Pinto

Posted by Aaron Watson-Sharer in Science and Society · Best · E Band on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 8:02 pm

Recipe for Gallo Pinto-

White Rice
Central American Red Frijoles
Onions
Salt/Pepper
Garlic Powder
Vegetable oil
Coconut Milk

Steps

Prepare rice and soak beans
They should soak for half an hour
Boil the beans on high until soft. Add garlic and salt.
Prepare and stir Coocnut milk.
Boil rice too until tender
Cook onions in vegetable oil on a skillet
When everything is ready, mix it together and don’t crush the beans.

I mean any meal is sort of processed, if it has more than a single component. Each individual food except the spices is a food that is whole and individual. Beans, rice and beans grow from the ground. The processing component comes from the use of vegetable oil, which is extracted from things like soybean and corn.

We'll the beans I intend to cook with originate from Nicaragua. Rice and beans each grow in warmer climates, rice grows in water. These sources of food adapted and yes evolved based on region because they can be found around the globe growing anywhere consistently warm. Onions are genetically vague, they leave minimal trace of origin but also grow in warmer climates. Researchers suggest they may have been first grown in the middle east.

If the researchers who have insufficient proof are right, that would mean onions traveled furthest to our table. Specifically researchers who suggest Iran as the source of onions. That’s about 6,000 miles away. Nicaragua is half that.

I personally am not sure if my ingredients are organically grown. Specifically the beans. They were sold at a market like setting in a developing country. The rice came in a bag from a United States grocery store and it wasn’t Whole Foods so I assume it probably isn’t. But I have no clue what kind of genes are put into a grain of rice. Onions were more than likely genetically modified to give an appearance to be able to pass into an American grocery store.

This meal is extremely cheap. Not even kidding. A 25 pound bag of rice sells for about 300 cordobas, or ten dollars. The 10 pound bag of beans goes for about 8 dollars. And the onions sell for about 20 cordobas each. About 70 cents. This is far cheaper and more wholesome than fast food. It’s extremely cheap. That amount can feed you for over a month for like 20 bucks. It’s economical and nutritious as you get grains, carbs, protein and some vegetables in a meal so cheap. The fast food sells for like seven bucks a meal that’s like 2,000 calories. Each food has a USDA standard to meet, except one is juiced up with preservatives, butter, oils and coloring. We'll the fast food corporation is involved. And they’re huge. For my gallo pinto no corporation is involved because it’s some farmers business that’s small. Overall, it’s a very solid food to afford and eat.

DYOL

Posted by Jason Greene in Reading, Writing and Rising Up · Block · D Band on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 5:36 pm

For our project, Aaron and I covered the issue of undocumented immigrants. Philadelphia is a sanctuary city meaning that Philadelphia will not prosecute someone for violating federal immigrations law in the country they are currently living in. What Aaron and I wanted to do was get the spotlight of undocumented immigrants and those who are very close to the issue and hear what they have to say. We interviewed two people: Ricardo Calderon, Director of the Philadelphia Youth Commission and Mrs. Guadet, an undocumented immigrant.

Our goal for our project was to remind people of Philadelphia and the country that undocumented immigrants are humans too. These are people who are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. We wanted to let people know and show that we advocate for undocumented immigrants should not have to live in fear.

http://slasanctuaries.weebly.com/ (Links to an external site.)

DYOL: Life in prison

Posted by Leon Finney in Reading, Writing and Rising Up · Block · Y Band on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 5:36 pm

The Prison system is created to hold people who have been convicted of a crime. They house, feed, create jobs and even train inmates while they are incarcerated, however there the program for reintegration is non-existent. When prisoners are released from prison they often times lack the skill needed to fully integrate with family, friend and the work force and this leads them to commit the same crimes. Prisoners need a program that will give them the necessary skills needed to be successful after prison.

Elizabeth W. Mckune is a Psychologist whose ultimate goal is to help convicts re-establish themselves after prison. She has successfully incorporated integration skill into her mental health program, in an attempt to equip parolees with the tools needed to be successful. This program helps inmates find housing, employment, and health services. It also helps inmates to re-establish positive relationships with family and friends. This is important because if we had more programs similar to Dr. McKune, the level of recidivism would decrease significantly because parolees would have more to live for instead of repeating the same mistakes again that caused their incarceration in the first place. Dr. McKune says “We are already starting to have an impact, parole and probation officers are becoming less punitive and more about, ‘How can I help this person?”

According to Sentencing Law and Policy (2016) “more than 600,000 citizens return to neighborhoods across America after serving time in federal and state prisons,” 67% of those offenders get re-incarcerated within eight to twelve months after being released. A good friend of mine was locked up for burglary and armed robbery, he was incarcerated for about four years and when he was released he said that it took him a couple months to get back on his feet and adjust to being back in society. “Being in jail can change your whole perspective of life itself” he said, he wouldn’t recommend any one visit a place like that. He said “the only places that would employ him were fast food restaurants, because they were the only ones who would accept someone with a record. Until now, he currently works as a truck driver.

Outside source correction officer - One of the reasons people go back to prison is because of pressure. While in jail all the inmates every day needs are taken care of. They have a place to sleep, they are fed, bathed and clothed but when they are released they fail to fend for themselves. After prison is even harder because it is very difficult for them to get a job. Many feel as if they're not just going to be broke and sitting around, so more times than not they're going back to the things that landed them in prison the first place. In prison there are many different rules and guidelines that you wouldn’t follow on the outside. For instance: sexual activities, if you’re the one receiving and not getting than there’s nothing wrong that. The food the prison system is absolutely nasty to the point that people will kill over it. Inmates will use that to their advantage, they sell things such as snacks just to get people set up to be killed. When inmates get money put on their books other inmates watch who gets the most money or a significant amount and plot on them. For example: there was an inmate that had his grandma put money on his books and people noticed to they threatened to beat him up critically if she didn’t put money on their books too and sure enough when she didn’t they severely beat him and they had to send him to a different block. That is just one of the many horrific stories that occur in prison.

Interview questions

1. explain the crime you committed

2. Knowing that the things you were doing could potentially land you in jail why did you

keep doing those things

3. How is the everyday life in prison explain the good times and bad times.

4. Does jail change your perspective on the outside world after being released

5.how did you adjust back to society

6. What are some restrictions that you have.

7. What do you think should be done to help out people who have been released from

prison

People typically don’t care about how others end up in jail so when it occurs they don’t think twice about it so by detailing this story people can get a better understanding as to why inmates end up back in jail and maybe then we can try and fix the problem.

Interview employers

Research the different styles of imprisonment in different countries
In norway citizens rarely go to jail and when they do the chances of being reincarnated are slim what keeps this country like this is a system they use. In Chinese Prinsion it is said that “inner cell was the same size but held 30 prisoners, all sleeping on the concrete floor. There were no blankets or pillows and the room was so crowded that most prisoners slept on their sides with arms draped over each other like embracing couples (Prison Legal news, 2014), and in Russia “For every 160 people there were maybe three or four working toilets, four or five taps in the washing facilities, no showers - and that's the very least of it, (Made for Minds, 2016).

Reference:

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/05/prison.aspx

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/reentry_and_community_supervision/page/2/

https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2014/jun/22/inside-chinese-prison-americans-perspective/

DYOL: The Importance of Following Your Passion

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Reading, Writing and Rising Up · Block · Y Band on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 12:42 pm

Audio Piece: https://www.soundtrap.com/play/cuzSQK2ATGu1_5n6mT2i3Q/dyol-jun-jie/

You open up your laptop and go on Google to search the salaries of the highest paid jobs. You then scan the list to see which job is desirable for you. Later in life, you realized that you are not happy with the occupation you settled with.

A lot of the adults are going through this process in the present, and as teens, we all need to realize how important it is to continue following our passions. Teens need to know what it means to live a passionate lifestyle. Many teens see the need for money as a extremely important thing. As necessary money is, it should not be something that is determining your life. The idea that a human being is only able to live once don’t conclude in a life where you can financially stabilize yourself, but instead, it means that you are enhancing your experiences everyday and that you are doing something for the community also.

“Like the universe, your dreams have no limits. You are the creator of your dreams, big or small ones. When you understand this you are able to favor your plans and accomplish your end goal,” quoted by Sebastian Canaves.

So what is passion? How do you know that you have a passion? Passion is the eager feeling that you get when you are doing that something you love. You have the urge to want to learn more or do more.

With all of the struggles that young students are going through, one of them is finance. As a high schooler, you learn how expensive a good future is. More importantly, you learn how much you are hungry to be financially stable because you want to be able to satisfy all of those things. With the budget cuts that are occurring in the Philadelphia School District, there is no sign of motivation for students to continue in following their dreams.

What will following my dreams get me? Ben Pasternak is a regular 16 year old teenage boy from Sydney, Australia. He created a retail app for consumers that love sneakers and clothes. He took the risk of traveling to America to launch this app and it went extremely success. Now, he is a high school dropout and the CEO of a multi-millionaire application at the age of 16. This is just one example of what pursuing a passionate life look like.

According to Sebastian Canaves, “By following your dreams you will come to know that failure is apart of success.” Sebastian Canaves is an author and has presented his ideas on TED. He was kicked out of school as a teenager. “Living is giving. When following your dreams you definitely have a story to tell.” This concept is something that is very important. A huge part in the growth of human beings are when they listen to other people’s stories to gain inspiration. Mr. Canaves talked a lot about how much you can actually do in a lifetime. “I died in 2008 and was reborn again. After a tragic car accident in Sydney where my drink was spiked, I got robbed and hit by a car I realized that life can end any time. It must not even be your fault. Some idiot who doesn’t look out, is drunk or too tired could hit you with his car and everything your worked for is over… Ask yourself; What have you achieved so far? What have you done until today? Have you already lived?”

This piece is not published to tell you what you need to pursue in life; it is to remind you of the beauty of your unique mindset and the potential that you have to maximize it throughout your lifetime. I am from the city of Philadelphia; the majority of the students in this educational system are not able to support themselves financially in college and that’s why they choose to worry about a career path that will help them financial stabilize life instead of pursuing in something they have a true passion for.

Bibliography:

ABCNews. "16-Year-Old Dropout Is CEO of Company Potentially Worth Millions." YouTube. YouTube, 11 May 2016. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAMZXv7TpUc>.

Allan, Patrick. "The Reasons People Don't Follow Their Passions, and What You Can Do." Lifehacker. Lifehacker.com, 23 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <http://lifehacker.com/the-reasons-people-don-t-follow-their-passions-and-wha-1637716016>.

Http://www.facebook.com/offthepathcom. "The Importance Of Following Your Dreams - Personal Reflection!" Off-The-Path. N.p., 04 Nov. 2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <https://www.off-the-path.com/en/the-importance-of-following-your-dreams/>.

Geller, Lois. "The Power Of Passion." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/loisgeller/2013/09/27/the-power-of-passion/#3890841e3d08>.

Hope

Posted by Niah Lombo on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 12:40 pm

Today America is facing the greatest test of them all, while a happy ending looks like a lifetime away. Some are able to look past the storm and see the sunshine on our lands. Some can still see there kids playing on the swings or learning to ride their bike. They believed in something that didn’t yet exist but they were able to imagine a happy ending. How can some believe in happy endings during hard times, what gives people hope? I interviewed a variety of different people but one answer that stuck with me the most is about hope vs faith.

Religions have been around since human existence, it's the idea of living for something of higher power. Having faith in something that may or may not exists. In today's society, people have a choice on if they would like to practice any religion they want. Giving them the choice to pick and choose their faith. If faith is believing in a higher being to give you a good outcome and hope is believing in that outcome. What separates them? The thing with faith is that without religious faith is nonexistent. To have faith you must believe in a high being of some sort, but if you don’t believe in such then you have no faith. While hope doesn’t need followers, it just needs oneself. It's possible to have no faith but still have hope.

While religion is the same, hope varies for different people. Which is why hope is easier for people to connect to.

Everyone is fighting a battle that you can not see, it can be mental or physical. One doesn't overpower the other, they are both equally destructive. But fighting a mental battle is more complex because in society we don’t know much about it. So it is rough for people that are fighting metal battles, some make it out and some don’t. Even at their lowest, they were able to push themselves to something that wasn’t there. How could they think of happiness when they are in a lot of pain? Hope doesn’t necessary mean a happy ending, for other people it could mean just to make it until the next day. We all have different hopes and goals, and that stems back to our personal and emotional life. A little girl could wish for the rain to go away so she could play at the park, while another little girl could wish her step dad to stop abusing her mother. Hope can let people see the light in their darkest hour.

Social media plays a huge role in today's society, as it is everywhere. Technology has advanced drastically for the past couple years. People resort to social media to express feelings, opinions, photos, and moments. The biggest trend right now is Donald Trump and his family. Most people took Donalds Trump champagne as a joke due to lack of political experiences, bankruptcy, his theory of building a wall, and much more. So it was a shock to us all when he won the elections. Some were even making jokes on media saying that we had two months to assassinate Trump before the inauguration. Trump becoming president was like breaking our last beacon of hope for the next generations. Compared to previous years we’ve made amazing changes but there is still stuff we need to work on. It feels like once we get 3 steps closer, our aspirations move 8 steps ahead. While we could give up and just accept our “faith” but why give up now. We as a nation grew in so many ways, that compared to other places it seems crazy. Our problem is that we don’t accept the past nor do we recognize it because it shows a time where we weren't as good of a nation as we are now. You can not grow or have hope for a better future if you can’t acknowledge the past, that is how we grow.

Yes Trump is our President, yes we value prisons over schools, yes we have corrupt people in law enforcement, yes we contribute to climate change, yes we do all these bad things. But that doesn't mean we should accept that, especially when we don’t want to. It may seem like your voice is not heard but there is always someone listening and being inspired or given hope. Hope is to believe in something that has yet not existed, believing that we can get through trials and error. Fight for what you believe in and others will join as well.

Below is a Photo gallery of what hope means to these individuals:

How My Sister's Illness Changed My Life

Posted by Ibrahim Aldakhil in Reading, Writing and Rising Up · Block · Y Band on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 12:12 pm

DYOL-How My Sister's Illness Changed My Life from Ibrahim Aldakhil on Vimeo.

Introduction:

Whenever I speak to people in English, they hardly ever guess I was from Saudi Arabia. This Design Your Own Learning piece reveals the full story behind how I managed to self-educate myself into becoming a fluent English speaker. As a new transfer at SLA, no one is familiar with my past and my peers don't know enough about me to get a general idea of my personality. The purpose of this project is to open myself up to others and have them acquainted with who I am and the tragic events in my childhood that influenced me to make life-changing decisions. Aside from revealing my past, the goal of this project is to also inform people that even when they go through tragic events where they reach the point of giving up, they can turn things around by taking advantage of their bad experience and using it as motivation to become stronger. In my case, I took advantage of the horrendous experiences that started with my sister's illness to become an avid English speaker with full responsibility for my family in the United States.

This was an exciting project for me to make because it reveals things about me that not even my own family knew about. With feedback assistance from Mr. Block and Ms. Jeanette, each draft I made for the script was more thoughtful and concise than the previous one, until I reached the final draft presented above.

Transcript:

Being from Saudi Arabia, learning English and speaking it fluently without an accent was an enormous challenge. I went through the most difficult time of my life to become an avid English speaker succeeding in an American high school. It all started in the summer of 2006 when my sister was diagnosed with a form of cancer called Lymphoma. At the time, I never saw myself coming all the way to the United States, but due to my sister’s illness, my father decided to admit her to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Because of the extensive duration of the therapy, we stayed in Philadelphia for several months and I was enrolled in an American school for the first time.

My first day at McCall school was a nightmare I will never forget. I was scared and nervous like I had never been before, to the point where I couldn’t even take my jacket off in a hot classroom, because I was unable to speak or understand English well. Due to my weakness in English, I couldn’t make any friends and always sat alone staring at the American classmates lively conversing with each other, sometimes glancing at me and following with a giggle. Not knowing what was being said and constantly wondering if I was made fun of tormented me. This resulted in a severe academic and social struggle that left me devastated.

In January of 2007, my sister was in complete remission and we returned to Saudi Arabia. I couldn’t be any happier knowing I would go back to my friends at my old school and not spend another day at McCall. I put the horrendous experience behind me and moved on. A year and a half later, we were shocked to hear that my sister’s cancer had relapsed and come back even stronger. Immediately, we were set to go back to Philadelphia, and as luck may have it, I was back at McCall once again. Even though almost two years had passed, nothing had changed. I was horrified, depressed, and often came up with excuses to miss school.

There was, however, one day I was eager to go to school: the day before christmas. The class planned a big celebration, but I never got the chance to attend and finally socialize with my classmates. When I woke up that morning, I saw my mother in the kitchen, which was unusual because she was staying with my sister in the hospital. Intuitively, I assumed my sister was finally back home. Each time I asked my mother where my sister was, she stared at me with suspenseful silence. When I raised my voice, she said with a tear falling on her cheek that my sister passed away.

The next day, I was aboard the most torturous flight of my life back to Saudi Arabia. Words cannot describe the anguish of being on the same plane with your only sister, whom you’d seen less than 48 hours ago, but is now beneath you in a coffin. At this point, I was willing to throw everything away and never come back to the United States. However, I kept thinking of how my sister loved to teach me English. I looked back on my time spent at McCall, and being a person who hates failure, I never wanted to experience that hell again. These thoughts drove me to make a decision that would change my life. I set a goal for myself to learn English so that when I spoke it, no one would guess I was from Saudi Arabia. By achieving that, I would become the youngest and first person in the family to fluently speak English and never again struggle in an American school.

My school taught all subjects in Arabic, so I had to come up with my own methods to learn English. I implemented the language in all of my daily activities, like reading books or online articles and watching TV or listening to music. Moreover, I had to give up a native part of me in the process. We each have an inner voice or a voice of consciousness that always communicates and resonates within us in our native language. I took a big step and changed that voice into English, a decision that would result in a permanent effect. Ever since then, I always “communicated” with myself in English and hardly ever in Arabic. I was able to lose the accent faster than I could remember and after years of daily practice, I finally understood English just as much as I understood Arabic.

When I was in middle school, my school opened an international program where all subjects were taught in English, and I immediately enrolled. I demonstrated significant academic performance and continued to improve even more now that the school was also teaching me English. Eventually, I became the most avid English speaker in the family and this gave me a lot of responsibilities. My father put me in charge of fully orchestrating all our trips to the United States, but most importantly, he made me in charge of communicating with hospitals, health centers, and insurance companies for my little brother who has Down Syndrome and Autism. Managing to turn tragic experiences into motivation, discover my own ways to solve problems, and experience the responsibility of a father without even turning 18 as a result of my childhood dilemma shows that even if you think you’ve experienced the worst, you have the ability to utilize that experience for your own advantage. You can grow up into a person you never envisioned yourself to be.

Oil Industry Article

Posted by Rifah Islam in Reading, Writing and Rising Up · Block · Y Band on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 9:54 am

Advanced Essay #3 - Education Has Failed Us

Posted by Tia Roberts in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · C Band on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 2:52 pm

Introduction:

In this essay, I will be exploring the concepts and situations of how education does not fit all types of children from different backgrounds. Also, it explores how once a child is considered a ¨problem¨ we no longer help and/or try to make a difference in their education. It allows kids who are apart of these situations to realize there is a way out and you are not confined to a failed education.

¨You should know this already¨

I hear it everyday, we hear it everyday. We are not here to be successful; the world of education is not made for us. By us I mean, kids in situations that not everybody faces. Kids who haven't had the advantages most kids are enabled to have. The kids who are deprived a rightful education from this current education system. We are enrolled in these classes but not much learning happens in these classrooms. D’s dramatically placed down upon a paper every marking period. Teachers passing along the river of trouble to the next available teacher. No knowledge, no chance to succeed;but it continues until it's too late. You hit high school and realize, high school is made for children who already know the material. There is only a slight chance of achievement for those who lack that subject of knowledge.

Growing up in a charter school, many people believed I had a wonderful educational experience. The big classrooms filled with white walls and a gorgeous interior. The big staff and crowds of smiles as you would tour through the halls. Everything about the school would make you think it offered students the very best education.. But as you dig deeper into each classroom you realize, “To be educated… mostly meant always packing an extra number 2 pencil and working quietly.” As long as you complied with adults and acted remotely focused, you will pass. Kids who knew the information but remained silent throughout the school day averaged A’s; the quiet students with no knowledge of the material averaged B’s; the ones who never listened or learned passed with C’s. The likelihood of passing was always in your favor. It was more difficult to fail than to pass. A school built on the foundation that, “no child gets left behind” became a reality. Teachers become more interested in getting the problem out of their hands than solving the problem. Lack of control became, lack of knowledge which leads to a lack of success. In the end you always leave wondering, ¨Who is successful here?¨

Meeting others with unique backgrounds in education, you tend to learn which kids had a valid education and which ones were deprived of that privilege. All the kids who more privileged in education were more involved in class as a whole, while many who weren’t too familiar stayed back in silence. But once you hit high school, being quiet was no longer a passing grade. You needed to know the material, every last attribution was essential. Once you allow people to know your disadvantages you are now labeled as lower than the rest. “I have a ‘zero tolerance approach’ to grammar mistakes that make people look stupid.” Yet you can not get to a higher level with no help. You are stuck and the society of education allows it. They batter you down and restrain you from succeeding yet preach and teach you about how they want you to succeed. Kids are expected to know things as a first nature kind of thing but are never introduced to these topics. Our brains do not form and confine information it is never introduced to. Yet education standard judge you as if they do.

As life goes on you begin to wonder, “are there anyways for these type of kids to succeed?” With a lot of studying and preparing for these subjects, kids may be able to succeed. But in the reality of it, not all kids have these advantages or tools to prepare correctly. They all may not be able to absorb and maintain the information in a short period of time needed to succeed. Kids who succeed have encountered these subjects for a long time through their life, so it may be familiar and easier to keep knowledge of. Whereas through, kids who are not familiar don’t have these simple understandings and are not given the effort and/or attention to learn these basics. Most often, kids who lack certain abilities are thrown into these smallers classes, which is supposed to be an efficient way to keeping them up to date with the rest of the class. When in reality they are just, “a place for those who are just not making it, a

dumping ground for the disaffected.” There is no time given to actually teach these kids. Our education becomes lazy and we are no longer effective to be affected by the information we are supposed to endure. There is only way around this. Schools need to add classes which teach the bases of every subject and it is a place that allows kids to keep a hold on their education. A chance that was once taken from them is now given back.

Yes, I should already know this, but being stuck in an education system where educators only seem interested in when their next paycheck will come, instead of the learning of their students motivates me to reach my full potential. I refuse to be a victim of a failed education, I will strive and get the education I rightfully deserve. Not giving up like education has done to me, their is always a way around it. I must continue on and so should the education of our world; we as students of this education system deserve a chance at a life of fulfillment and success. Although a fair chance might not be granted to everyone, we have to fight and change this system that only aids the privileged, and give the less fortunate a chance for prospering.

Cited Work:

Sarikas, Christine. "The Complete List of High School Classes." The Complete List of High School Classes. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.
"I Just Want to Be Average Mike Rose." Google Docs. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.
"I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here's Why." Harvard Business Review. 23 July 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.
Duckworth, Angela Lee. "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance." Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance | TED Talk | TED.com. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015. Print.

#5 - Reflection on Media Fluency

Posted by Amayah Woodard in Technology - Freshman · Hull · c1 Band on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 1:48 pm

what you learned I learned about constrast and don't leave a lot of space open
why you made the changes you did to your second slide.
I made the changes because for me to improve on my slide
how important research is when beginning a project

It's important because you needed to know what your doing.

Reflection on Media Fluency

Posted by Amayah Woodard on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 1:33 pm

what you learned

I learned about contrast and don't leave a lot of space out on your slide

why you made the changes you did to your second slide

I made the changes because to improve on my slide

how important research is when beginning a project research is very important because you needed to know what your doing for you to research for our slide.

Adil Shamsuddin Reflection

Posted by Adil Shamsud-Din in Technology - Freshman · Hull · d2 Band on Monday, January 23, 2017 at 12:00 pm

My image includes a lot of different things that allows you to tell you who i am, what i like to do. I was told to make all of my pictures transparent or, make everything colorful. I learned to pictures look better when they bleed, that's because, it allows your corners to pop out. I changed the background color, the format, and made my words bolder. My slide is way much better than the beginning. Thank you for teaching me this information.

Advanced Essay #3: Nothing We Know is Real

Posted by Lyle Seitz in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · C Band on Friday, January 20, 2017 at 8:14 pm

Introduction:

It took me a while to find a topic relating to identity that I was really passionate about until I came across an article online that talked about how people were using ‘fake news’ to confuse and manipulate people. I thought this was interesting because it talked a lot about how our society is changing since the time when the internet was not as much of an asset to our everyday lives.

No one is real, an almost infinite number of fake people climbing through a tangled web. They give a feeling of worth to some insignificant person that lives on another side of the planet. This lets us hide from ourselves, the people that we want to become can now be who we really are, just by hiding behind a screen. Now we can be defined by what a number of pixels and some piece of hardware says about us.

Now that the internet has become a piece of everyday life, people are allowed to live through the persona they create for themselves. It has become a part of life, that we must look at a person we meet through the internet and have to wonder whether they are real or not. Though some have different reasons for lying about who they are, some just want to create the person they wish they were in real life, others use it to manipulate. There is still one thing all of these people have in common--they can hide from the rest of the world without having to get out of bed. You can do anything, be anyone.

Along with the fact that you can no longer trust people you meet on the internet, your activity is also constantly being tracked. Advertising companies can learn anything about you, take your search history and create a completely personalized viewing experience for each person based on what information they are able to dig up about you. It is almost something out of George Orwell’s 1984, which illustrates a dystopian world in which none of your actions are private.

Journalist Curtis Wallen from The Atlantic writes a fascinating article dating back to July in 2014 about his experience creating a fake identity online, in which he talks about the way anyone can access information about you. In his writing he says “It’s not an exaggeration to say everything you do online is being followed. And the more precisely a company can tailor your online experience, the more money it can make from advertisers.” This tells us how almost everything that you see on the internet everyday is an effort for an advertising company somewhere to make money off you.

The depressing truth about what happens today is that identities are created or stolen, and it is becoming harder and harder to weed your way through and find real people. There are websites that are used for dating all over the internet that help match people up, hopefully leading to a relationship. A big fear between people that use these dating sites is that someone is lying about who they actually are in order to attract people to them. They might do this by using a picture of a model instead of themselves, or by speaking in a way that might attract a certain type of person, instead of speaking as you might in real life. This has been a dangerous game for people to play for a long time, though it is becoming easier and easier to get away with. Anyone can sit and hide behind a screen and pretend to be anyone they want, and usually without any repercussions.

Another recent issue that connects to false identity is fake news. People who claim to be high power officials spread news that has been completely made up in order to make a point of their own. Through social media sites like Facebook we are handed a lot of information about what is happening in the world, and it turns out that most of it is not true, but because we see it there and hear it from something we trust, we automatically believe that it is the truth. Pui-Wing Tam a journalist for The New York Times writes in a recent article from early January 2017, “The phenomenon of fake news is reinforced by powerful figures who cite the false information and help spread it. That includes Mr. Trump himself, who has invoked fake news when it has suited his needs.” Now we are faced with the issue of not knowing what is real or not online, are the people real, is what we see and hear actually accurate?

This leaves us as a population with the question: How has the use of the internet and the ability to have access to the largest portion of the world we have ever had, changed the way we think of our own identity, and the way we perceive others? This is a question that should be explored deeper throughout the next coming years because it has led to issues like cyberbullying, which has allowed people the right to act like monsters towards one another online because they have the protection of the screen between them. The little monitoring that goes on is also staggering, there are little to no consequences for people who commit these types of crimes over the internet.

Throughout the coming years I hope that we are able to find a way of solving this problem, this issue that leading us into the world that George Orwell foretold, where we can trust no one. Identity means nothing anymore because through the internet we are able to be whomever we want to be.

Wallen, Curtis. "How to Invent a Person Online." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 23 July 2014. Web. 20 Jan. 2017. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/how-to-invent-a-person-online/374837/

Tam, Pui-Wing. "The Continued Creation and Dissemination of Fake News." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Jan. 2017. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/technology/daily-report-the-continued-creation-and-dissemination-of-fake-news.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

A Bond That Can't Be Broken

Posted by Kara Lazorko in English 3 · Pahomov · B Band on Friday, January 20, 2017 at 8:30 am

With the sun gleaming over our us as we make our way towards starbucks. I’m slowly getting excited, because he’s always busy, so him making time for us to hangout together was a really big deal at the time. It was the middle of the afternoon, he holds the door, and we walk in. It was him and the shy quiet shadow following him, me. Starbucks is usually crowded with people with suits and all that fancy stuff.

Minutes go by,

“can I help you?” He turns around ask me what I want, as I whisper “I’ll have a green tea frappe,” barely allowing him to hear me.

Suddenly it felt as if I became prey to everyone in the place, and the slightest bit of noise out of me, would make them all attack me. He repeats it to the cashier, and orders himself a pumpkin spice latte. I reach for my wallet, since I already assumed I was paying for my own order. Once again, he turns around, looks at me, and hands the lady the money. Then left me standing there awkwardly with my wallet in my hand almost as surprised as I am.

Trust me, I had no intentions of letting him pay for my drink, and he went ahead and did it. I look around before releasing the arriving smile to myself. Now I’m super shy, everything that I am not I became. Then we wait, we wait for the emotion, the day to fall into our hands, and for the drinks of course.

A friend walks up, he’s liked by many, and they talk, exchange hugs and we wait again. It was hard standing in the back knowing my voice was locked somewhere deep inside me, and the hug I was holding in refused to come out of me. Instead, I still stand there, waiting for the drinks, and being everything that I am not.

Suddenly, his name is called, our orders are finished and are slid onto the counter, as we both go over there and retrieve them. Felt good for some reason, the feeling that they don’t make these type of boys anymore. Something so small, became something so big to me and something that I have never been used to. We walk out, and he goes towards his bike waiting for him.

“ I have to go get my bike fixed,” as I stand there beside him watching him struggle with the bike lock. Using the voice that didn’t come out earlier, I offer to hold his drink to make the job easier. That did the trick! He got it! And I handed it back proud to at least help him in the way I could.

We make our way towards Breakaway bike shop, and he holds the door, and I walk in. Never being in the place, where all types of bike gear is hanging from the walls and sitting tempting on the shelves took me by surprise. He knows what he came for, and he knows what he wanted, he had a goal. We walk into the back of the shop, the guy inspects the bike and tells him that the rear wheel just needed to be adjusted. The two of us take seat next to each other, and no words are coming out of my mouth as I snapchat my best friend where I am.

The guy comes back up saying,

“It’s going to take a while,” and he responds “I’ll just take a walk around the city, and I’ll come back.” The guy agrees, and we make our way out of the shop. Just him and the quiet girl he made me.

With no certain way to go, we just walk where our way takes us, and jokes are exchanged back and forth. He was that important to me, that walking around with him, with the time that he made for me, was meant to be used to its fullest. We approach the painting shop that catches my attention, and I rush inside to see if they had any art created of Michael Jackson. He waits outside, and I constantly check to see if he's still there. It was satisfying to have him all to myself with no feeling of his attention being directed towards anyone else. He knew how I acted and how I was, so it took me by surprise that he wasn’t trying to break the wall I had put up.

The swinging thought of whether this person had any feelings towards me is what kept me really from being myself. Then again, we were best friends for two years at the time, and I wasn’t trying to jump to conclusions. After time ran past us, we returned to the bike shop, conversation is swapped, and purchase is made. Fifteen minutes really went by, and what seemed such a long time was so short. It was like telling yourself that you are only going to watch two episodes of a season of your favorite show on Netflix, and you end up watching the whole season. In the end, you are so satisfied, but at the same time so shocked at the fact that time was walking right by you. That’s how it felt with him, the time we were spending made me ignore time only making me crave more of it. We both had more time to waste, and we both figured why not go Forever 21. The two of us make our way there, and I want to make a purchase. Keep in mind, the two of us started joking with each other more, and opening up more. Similar to the conversation, we are escalated to the second floor. So many options, so much variety, and whatever caught my eye I picked up. As we progressed through the clothing pieces, his arm became a hanger.

He was gentleman to hold the clothing items that I was more than capable of holding. Something about the fact that he was following me and helping me, made him stand out. There are not a lot of guys who are willing to even step foot in a clothing store with a girl. First, time is actually made for me, he treated me to Starbucks, and now he is helping pick out clothing items. I pick out about eight pieces of clothing that I like that stuck to my style. Quick question and answers are traded with one of the nice ladies who worked there. She guides us to the dressing room, and I rush to try on each piece of clothing, stepping out into the giant mirror on the wall, letting the floor become my own runway. I rush back in, enjoying modeling some of the shirts, but I put on this one green dress, and it made my shape look super weird. I wasn’t feeling the way it had me looking or feeling. I turn to him, and ask him to go pick out something cute for me to wear. A few minutes go by, and I’m thinking to myself he wouldn’t even do it, and he comes back with a short black dress with no sleeves that was tight fitted on my petite figure. As soon as I tried it on, I loved it, I was the girl in the little black dress, and he seemed to like it too. I valued his opinion, after all he is someone who I trusted with a lot of things, my secrets, daily thoughts, and things you can’t tell a regular friend. We just had a bond that was so strong, that I didn’t have to filter anything I said to him.

I pack up my stuff, and I leave the other options on the hanger, including that dress I didn’t like. The black dress though, I knew I was going to get it, I had to. It was his word I believed, because he has never lied to me about anything at all. It could be the dumbest question or even a test, and he would flat out tell me the truth. I never had the idea that him and I could ever be so close to the fact that I put an outfit choice in his hands. An admiration for him and his characteristics I had no idea about developed for me. There was hardly ever tension between us, which is probably why the relationship was questioned by so many people. Him nor I owed any explanations, because we really didn’t have any ourselves. We are still super close to this day, and not much has changed except for that we have gotten even closer. I wouldn’t ask for a better guy to have as a best friend, because I know the one I have now has so many amazing characteristics to him that simply can’t be replaced. That day, the little black dress wasn’t the only thing I left with. I left with the feeling of knowing that my bond with him could not be broken.

Advanced Essay #3: The Leaders and the Followers

Posted by Jessica Guarino in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · C Band on Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 1:26 pm

Intro:

For my essay, I wrote about how people's actions can affect others' individuality. My goals for this essay were to show how people can grow up and not getting a chance to express and explore their individuality for themselves. I also showed this through my personal experiences that I have dealt with. When I first started to write this, I was unsure how to get my larger idea across without making the essay sound bland. I decided to write some ideas down that popped into my head that had some relation to my larger idea. Once I started to type them up, everything flowed smoothly. I think that people will be able to relate to my essay because of some experiences that they have also had.

Essay:

In every group, there are people who have roles, the leaders and followers. There are people who are the followers, that do whatever the leader tells them and rely on the leader to make all of their decisions for them. This affects the followers negatively because they just rely on the leader which affects their individuality, and essentially making the decision about who they are. It doesn’t affect the leaders because they are the ones affecting the followers and telling them who to be, what to do and how to become what the leader wants them to be.

When I was younger, this happened to me a few times. In each of these situations, I was the same person. Even though I experienced this several times, I still didn’t know when to recognize the signs. “When an individual plays a part he implicitly requests his observers to take seriously the impression that is fostered before them. They are asked to believe that the character they see actually possesses the attributes he appears to possess, that the task he performs will have the consequences that are implicitly claimed for it, and that, in general, matters are what they appear to be.”

In elementary school, I had a best friend and her name was Anya. I had known her since we were babies and we had been best friends ever since then, at the time. We loved to do everything together and we were both young and impressionable. Whenever our class took trips or we went out for water ice on a hot day, I always got what she ordered because I couldn’t decide on what to get. This started to happen more often and with other things besides these, and it became harder for me to make decisions for myself. I guess she noticed this happening to me, and started to use this against me for her own benefit. We continued our elementary years like this, she would tell me what to do and I would do it for her. The only time I noticed what she was doing was when my mom told me, because I was so oblivious to it.

It was my first day back to school and I was finally in middle school. I noticed the new students that were going to be in my class and one of the new kids I recognized, it was a girl from my old elementary school. She recognized me too and as the weeks and months went by, we did almost everything together. One day she came up to me, pointed out that I always had my hair up, and told me to take it out. I told her that I really didn’t want to because it made me slightly uncomfortable, but she ignored that and forcefully grabbed my hair tie and pulled it out. She said she wouldn’t give it back unless I wore my hair down for the rest of the day, and I kept my hair down for the rest of the day. Every since that day, she saw how I reacted to her actions and kept doing things like that, but it started to become too much to the point where I would do something she didn’t like and she would tell me that she wasn’t my friend any more. After I would react to her statement, she would always claim that she was “just kidding” and that I should always take things so literally. From Flowers for Algernon, Charlie was in a similar situation. “I think it’s a good thing about finding out how everybody laughs at me. I thought about it a lot. It’s because I’m so dumb and I don’t even know when I’m doing something dumb. People think it’s funny when a dumb person can’t do things the same way they can.”

Freshman year of high school I wanted to be my own person and do things for myself, but it didn’t end up being like that. At first, I only knew a few people, but over time, they became friends and we stuck together. We would always hang out and go to the same place after school. After a while, I would just hang out with them because they would always ask if I could somewhere with them. But when I said no, they would just comment that I was no fun, as if they were almost stating those things on purpose so that I would change my mind. Of course because I wanted them to stop, I went with them, even though I really didn’t want to. We used to share things about ourselves and they would always make me go first, even though they knew I didn’t like to. After I said something, they would completely change the subject and not say anything. “Professional sports offer a big tent. It has room for racists, homophobes and misogynists as well as the people they hate. And hate or judgment would seem to represent a wall that the self-identified don’t want to hit. In the case of, say, a job application or a census report, reluctance can become principled refusal: My sexuality is none of my boss’s business.”

Morris, Wesley. "Why 'Self-Identifying' Is Different Than Coming Out." NY Times. N.p., 29 Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Jan. 2017. <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/magazine/why-self-identifying-is-different-from-coming-out.html>.

Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966. 293. Print.