Humanities Portfolio 2011

            This school year in History and English has been very unique. From transferring from a charter school to a public magnet wasn’t hard for me, but it was very much new. I wasn’t use to hands on experiments and engaging topics that didn’t lose my interest. I was able to express how I felt about certain lessons that the class was learning at the time. I liked how in class we didn’t have to agree on each other’s thoughts. While Mr. Block wanted us to be polite to each other we where still able to debate on what we thought was right. This was different from any class I have ever taken. Usually a teacher wouldn’t tell your opinion, let alone care!

During our poetry unit I could say that I expressed a lot of things that I don’t like to talk about with my friends and family. It wasn’t very known because I never told the meaning behind them of why I wrote them. I have token poetry units before in pervious English classes. It was either you passed or failed, and good or bad. Here your poetry was posted on a site that they class could see, and anyone that had the link to search our class poems. I remember our poetry stand–up we had in class. If you ask I think it took a lot of courage for me and my classmates to go up and read one of their poems. I also gained more confidence on reading my own artwork. I have no problem public speaking even though I have a sweet low voice.

One of my favorite projects was the monologue. I have been writing short stories since the 8^th grade so that really help me a lot on this project. I have never written a play before. The play that I have created was based on things that I noticed that would happen in average teenage life. I also got ideas from books I have read before. During this time, we was able to get outside resources from people besides our teacher. Some other classmates and I was able to get the chance to go on a retreat that was strictly on just helping students with their plays. When I was at this retreat I was shocked to find out that our school project was a lot more unique then the rest. I was able to take all of the good advice and create a piece of art that was able to get submitted to the Philadelphia Young Play Writes.

Lastly, the audio project was so surprising to me. This was a benchmark that had to be done in a group. The project was based on subjects that affect our national and people around us. My part of the project was to ask people how society stereotype and judge people. My interviews went better then I thought it would. I learned a lot about the world and how different people see it. It gave me the chance to learn through their eyes of their opinion. 

http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Don-t_Judge_Me_-_Loren_Jenkins​- Monologue Project 
http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Descriptive_Essay:3- Descriptive Essay 
http://ironpoetry2011.wikispaces.com/Loren+Jenkins- Wikispaces 
http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Favorite_Quotes_From_My_Journal- My Favorite Journal Quotes