World History Final Portfolio 2013-2014

Truly, this year has been... Interesting, to say the least.

Throughout the educational mixture of facts and emotions and a variety of activities, us students have been brought directly into the emotions and situations of the events we have looked at. We have fought intense trials and argued over petty details just to win. We have taken up the mantles of revolutionaries. We have written our own fictional “look into history” in the form of a play. We have truly thrown ourselves into history.

Throughout the year, we have looked upon many different perspectives of the world. One interesting implementation of this was our pipeline monologue project. Click here to see it. "Right now we have a golden opportunity. The door out of this place is standing right there, but you keep trying to barricade it.... Things aren’t always black and white like they are for you and so many others. There are so many other colors and shades. And this one isn’t all bad." (Pipeline Monologues)

We look at the past, we look at those that have had important roles to play, we know where they fit in. But who are we as people? Where do we fit in? A resounding theme this year has been social justice for the oppressed, but what about justice for the ones who don’t know who they are, who have been hurt beyond belief, who still carry their own scars with them for so many years. When we focus on the big picture, we can accomplish great things, but what about the individual behind the statistic? What about one man?...

As part of our Play project, I wrote about what it was like for one man and his friends during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, against Nazi occupation. Click here to see my play project. I looked at more than just the suffering of a people, I looked at the suffering of one man, and how that suffering is connected to the fight for the city, and for the nation.

“Klaus Adler: You’re a fool. If you die, your cause dies...

Jan: And so do you." (Play Project)

“Jan:

You monster. Hell hath no fury like that of a Pole.

(*Starts kicking Klaus*)

This is for my wife! This is for my friends! This is for Warsaw!

And this is for Poland!!! Give Lucifer my regards!

(*Shoots Klaus in head, blows smoke off barrel*)

Well, that’s over. “ (Play Project)

"Stop. What have we seen here? Utter desperation. But this isn’t the end of the story, though you may think it is." (Play Project)

We have focused on such diverse issues from the Keystone XL pipeline, to the role of religion in society. Several more links and quotes from my work are included below: I personally analyzed the relation between religion and war. Click here to see my wiki page about it.