Humanities Final Portfolio

I don’t know where to start. First off, I would like to thank my English and History teacher, Mr. Block, for opening my eyes and, introducing me to, an entirely new perspective of learning. Before this year, I hated History with all of my heart. I wished it had happened, at all- not to mention, he taught two of the most boring subjects known to “teen-kind”… English and History. But, when Mr. Block began teaching me that History wasn’t just about memorizing presidents and historical dates, I began to truly see just how valuable and interesting our history is. In the next couple paragraphs, I hope to express the magnitude of knowledge I was exposed to in both English and History this year, and how my learning never stopped growing.

The first major assignment I did that I consider to have altered my perspective on his class was the political ad assignment. Of course, in English class you will read a variety of novels and pieces of literature, Lord of the Flies not being an exception. Never in a million years would I have thought to turn a fiction book about stranded lunatics into a political expression, one in which you could design a campaign to support your favorite character. To me, this wasn’t just an opportunity to show your creative side, but it showed me that books don’t have to be pages with a lot of words, but you can expand it to be something more. That project taught me to appreciate application of knowledge compared to being tested on chapter, after chapter, after chapter. If not for this project, reading books would have been preceded a quiz, but now, I can apply my perspective of the literature to real life situations.

By far, the most enlightening activity we did in History was the Spiritual Role Play. When I first heard that we were going to be taking on the role of a whole bunch of spiritual old people, I thought, “Hey, this is new… and has the potential to be the most boring thing I would ever have to do,” and indeed, it was very new. In my case, I played the peace activist Mohandas Gandhi, who had already been dead for over 60 years, while other students had taken on the role of people who had lived in the 18^th century, or who was still currently living. The best part about this project was the fact that, never, would this specific group of very special people meet again. The variety of cultural immersion I had experienced, from Amma the hugging saint, to the genocidal Pope Urban. To me, it wasn’t about the fact that these people were intelligent, wise, different or any of those particularly keen characteristics, but it was about experiencing the diversification of the people’s responses to one another. To me, only with a combination of historical accuracy, character perspective and SLA students will you experience what it would be like to look at one another in a different person’s perspective other than your own. It wouldn’t have been as great of an experience if one or two people had altered their reference in efforts to get to know another individual, but the significance holds potential in the consistency of the student’s standpoints for each of the other spiritual, and historical figures. As I look back on this experience, no matter how many pages worth of notes or response I will ever write, I don’t think I will ever be able to express how much I learned from that project. In my personal response I did after the assignment to reflect on the experience, I can remember spending about an hour or two trying to put my adventure with this project into words, but never successfully meeting my expectations.

The last two critical experiences I have had in both English and History with Mr. Block were the trials. In class, we had realistic, fact-based trials to determine the guiltiest and most innocent parties in a particular situation. The first trial, which I unfortunately lost, was the most intense, probably because that was my first trial I ever had- in or out of school. The following trial that we did took place later on in the year, but this time, I wasn’t going to lose- I refused. In fact, by us having two trials throughout the course of a school year, you can use the results of both trials to reflect on your performance, whether it changed for the better or the worse, in my case it was for the better. In the trials that took place later in the year, we discussed who was responsible for the child labor and sweatshops that are a crucial part of the multinational corporations that we buy from everyday. Being that I didn’t come in last place as I did with the Cortes trial, I was certain that I was improving as a student and learning more than I ever had in the past. As I explained in my trial response, I honestly believed that this was as close to a trial as you will ever get, without actually being in the presence of a true judge, instead of a teacher ruling with an iron thermos (Mr. Block forgot his wooden “block” LOL, so he used his water thermos bottle thing.) Honestly, I think being in a class-driven trial, we experienced as much of a real trial as we could. See, since I wanted to be a lawyer since I was about 4, I never really understood what it truly meant to prosecute a defense. Not only did this trial expose me to a real world occupation, but opened me up to an entirely more realistic interpretation of what a trial would be like- no more using the 12 year-old representation of a=being a lawyer to refer to what I hoped to spend a career on. And, if you don’t know what my 12 year-old representation of a lawyer was, I thought I was going to win every case, but thanks to the real world immersion in the class, I can finally experience what it would be like in a real court room, with a real judge and a real verdict.

Finally, probably my most prized project I ever created in my entire life, applied the classroom curriculum to the real world with more succession that any of the other activities I mentioned previously. This project was a museum exhibit proposal that we designed in efforts to be built in a new museum by the board of museum management. This exhibit significance was supposed to teach the causes, effects, and everything in between, of colonialism. The first key to me realizing that I have substantially been improving in these classes was my overall grade on the project, I received a 99/100… 1 POINT FROM PERFECTION. The second key was that my fellow colleagues voted for me to be a finalist in the election of the best museum. I am particularly proud with my production of this project because this was my highest grade Benchmark I ever received, and I know received many compliments and acknowledgements from my peers for my work, but never was I elected to be a finalist among my entire class. This project reflects my growth in English and History the most because it is most realistic. Sure, campaigning happens, but only annually, trials happen, but those happen everyday and don’t really hold much significance. But, a museum is not even close to the realm of impossibility. If I were to design a museum in the future, I would dedicate it to English, History and my teacher for both of those classes, for showing me how much you can truly learn in only a few months, and how much you will grow.

Hopefully, you enjoyed my representation of the key highlights of my year educational growth, and at your own leisure, please take a look at my “Top 12 Most Memorable Quotes,” and my Poetry Wiki.