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Throughout this year in Copper Stream 2010-2011 something that really stuck out to me was the poetry unit. There were many points that I was able to take with me after doing this unit. The general understanding that I got from this was that poetry is a way of expression and can be expressed through more than just writing. When we had to do our wiki spaces most of my poems talked about my dad and what I was going through at the time. The poems allowed me to get some of my bottled up emotions out and let someone hear me without hearing my voice. The poems I wrote can be found on my wiki spaces.

 I learned that poetry is more than just roses are red and violets are blue, poetry can be a song, rap, the outside world, and a drawing. There are no limits when it comes poetry and what it can mean.

Another thing that I will be able to take with me is that writing is a group process and not just an individual project. It takes more than one opinion on someone’s paper to make it right. With every paper I had wrote this year it had been edited at least twice before I finally made my final paper. One paper that I was proud of was I believe the first quarter benchmark. We had to write a letter for Lord of the Flies. On that paper I had it reviewed a few times and kept making many different adjustments to it so it will be perfect. This paper can be seen at the bottom of my blog.

The final thing I will take from this is the crossing boundaries unit and when we read the book Their Eyes Were Watching God. The units went hand in hand with one another and it’s a good thing they were placed right behind each other. We had even written some “rules, roles and responsibilities” that we as teens hear all the time and have to deal with. In mine I wrote how your suppose to go to school and maintain A’s and B’s only, your suppose to act your age not your shoe size, your not suppose to go around acting crazy or like a little boy, also you can’t just be round boys all the time. This unit helped and showed me how society looks at people and how women are treated.

While reading the book Their Eyes Were Watching God I noticed how put down a female is in society. The women are supposed to let the man be in charge and cater to his every whim. As a woman they have no control over their life and not until they get the courage to stand up and leave will anything change. I made a video that showed how many women deal with the abuse of a man but takes a long time for them to do anything about it.

Throughout the year in English and History I’ve just learned that there are a lot of things to learn about in the world. We have to understand how women get paid less than a man.  Another thing that I wont forget is how society has a certain standard of speaking. There is a Standard English that people need to live up to but in reality no one can live that standard. This classes taught me that’s its alright to be our self and live life expressing how we feel.

 

 

 

Lord of the Flies

            From the time Piggy stepped onto the island until his fatal death he was judged about everything. From his appearance to his asthma to the little things he tried to say to the group. He could never say what was on his mind or even try to act as a normal kid because of his awkwardness. Just like the way Piggy was judged so is everyone else in society.

            People judge one another like its nothing. It has become a part of human nature to just turn to someone else and start talking about someone. The judgment can be for the good or the bad. When it was time to vote for a new President people didn’t judge based on what could get done they judged based on color, gender, and age. 

            In 2008 when the presidential election was going on ever I went people were extremely happy to know that we would either have a women president or a black president. The thing I noticed though was it wasn’t about what people wanted to be able to get from these two candidates it was about color and gender. To just for everyone to be able to say they would have a black president or a women president would have been enough for the USA.

            “Assassinate Obama”, school children chanted when Obama was elected president. This was found on the site.  Another incident that happened was a nine year old boy told a little girl on the bus “I hope Obama gets assassinated.”  The same night someone trashed the little girl’s aunt lawn and left two pizza boxes full of feces because they had Obama posters on their lawn. This just shows that because of the color of Obama’s skin and the people that followed him they were judged and had to deal with the actions of other people that didn’t like the idea of having a black man run the country. People still live in the past were whites run everything and other people have to deal with the actions of those people.

            Another thing that I found was something from Karen Armstrong’s speech is when  she said that stereotypes divide us, which is very true. Ralph, Piggy, and the twins were all divided from Jack and the rest of the boys because of the differenced Jack and Ralph had. They had caused everyone else to pick a side and try to live their life as if that was the only way they could live on the island. Karen Armstrong’s statement was proved based on what theses little boys had to go through in this novel.

Reading Lord of the Flies all the boys judged each other on what they can or can’t do and how they looked. The one that experienced the most judgment was Piggy. He was noticed a little when Jack’s boys realized the specs were what gave them fire, but even then it wasn’t the type of attention he wanted or deserved. The only time he got respect was when he died, and the only one that showed him that respect was Ralph. Throughout the whole book Piggy never got a say on anything that happened. Even though Ralph listened to Piggy in some way he really didn’t listen to anything he had to say. Everyone treated Piggy as if he was just someone taking up space.

            As the time came closer to Piggy’s death he had gotten some type of respect. When he went back to get his specs he took the conch shell with him. Every time he would start talking and someone would interrupt him he got control again just by waving the conch shell around. As the bolder hit Piggy and knocking him off the cliff he never died with the respect that he should have died with. As he fell off the cliff and the shell broke everyone was a lot more worried about the shell then him. 

Never Shall I

            Never shall I forget the phone call that we had received

Never shall I forget seeing my family rushing to the hospital

Never shall I forget seeing my uncle all bruised up with broken bones

Never shall I forget sitting on my grandma’s lap while she cried her eyes out

Never shall I forget the details of my uncle’s body flying across the concrete

Never shall I forget the day my uncle was almost killed

Never shall I forget any of these details

 

A look inside the mind of a young black male growing up in Philadelphia where statistically he is supposed to fail. Everything around him tells him to do that of that isn't healthy or progressive to his lifestyle but unlike people's image of what he should be, he is different. These are his thoughts and experiences as he travels to school. This is "Before The Day Starts"

​            Going into my sophomore year I was exciting to see what would be in stored for me academically. I was not so positive and confident about my writing skills freshmen year. So 10th grade was a new chapter to my life and I would make the best of it. The first few months we used our brains in a different way. We opened a new deeper level of analysis. Class discussions were a great asset because our growing inquiry and statements. I believe every student in copper stream had brilliant ideas and views and that was the reason to why our discussions were so successful and interesting.

           The tool I will take from this year is to analyze a situation on a deeper level. Exploring a subject in a broad method is not the same as investigating in a more depth way. Often in high school students tend to read the same books from middle school. It is not a mistake. It is simply an opportunity to reread in a more intense style to make new deeper connections.

  I had very little knowledge about the Cortez trial. I knew the basic information such as Cortez and his army took over the Aztec people. I never questioned why. In the trial we put our differences aside and accepted our role. “A story can be told in a million of different ways. Every story has a unique beginning or ending. Many stories can be hearsay.” That was a quote from my Cortez Trial response; I was referring to the testimonies from each of the groups and what really happen with the Aztec people. “We would have to be there at present moment to verify the honest truth.” History consistently repeats itself.  Also in my response paper talked about how Cortez men let Cortez brainwash them into helping him take over the Aztec people. From then on in class we were exposed to different examples that consist the same criteria. That’s when I came to the assumption that the alpha male can influenced and or alter the way people think or believe. My proof of that statement is of course the Cortez Trial, also Colonization, Prisons, Night, and Persepolis. In my history proposal for the museum exhibit "Till Death do Us Part: Story of the Aboriginal People" I explored the story line of the Aboriginal People and how Britain took over all of Australia. Even though our Prison unit was short but it proved my theory. Most prisoners are in prison because they don’t want to “snitch” on there friends. They rather face the consequences than stand up for themselves.

  I enjoyed reading the graphic novel Persepolis it was something different and new. It showed how one person could turn a group of people against another group by labeling them as degrading.  This also tied into the Holocaust with the book Night. That general understanding really helped me with my Quarter 4 Benchmark. In my thesis paper, Beating to the Breaking Point was to prove that certain people could be a torturer. “To be intimidating, one has to act tough, making sure to set the record straight for anyone who once doubted his or her strength and took it for a weakness. Guilt must be replaced by no remorse.” That quote was from Beating to the Breaking Point and it was referring to the certain qualities a torturer needs to have.

  Over the course of the year my writing skills has improved tremendously. No paper is perfect with out revisions. At first I was not at all thrilled at the fact someone else would peer edit my work. The reason for my actions was because of my low confidence and most importantly I did not want anyone to belittle my writing. I put my differences aside and became more open to feedback. At the very point my writing became to progress because of the helpful tips of peer edit sheets. The proofs of success are my Op-ed "Eating Our Way to the End", Lord of the Flies Thesis paper, Language Autobiography, and Beating to the Breaking Point.

 Everything that was taught this year will be forever remembered. This course really prepares my peers and I for a higher education. From reading more than one back at a time to making connections on a deeper level it is all needed to help us succeed. And I am truly thankful to be exposed to such new and different studies.

 

Sammy. Zeisloft

Education is a funny thing; everyone interprets things differently, so no one set of guidelines can guarantee a class room of students the same values that they may or may not take from that class nor can it ensure that their I.Q levels will all be the same. What it can do though, is provide an opportunity for each individual to take that lesson and learn at least something from it when they step out the door of the classroom.

This year, I learned a lot of new things, not only about religion or monologues or descriptive writing skills, but I learned a lot about myself and the people around me. From the moment I stepped in the doors of SLA freshman year, I had a “leave me alone unless you’re like me” kind of personality going. Granted, I’d be nice to everyone, but I generally only stuck to the people who I could relate to, mostly by music. I always tried to be open-minded but at the same time, I always kept my distance. This year, I had a really diverse stream, which allowed me to be immersed in a lot of different kinds of people.

 At first it was a little scary and disappointing, because I could no longer cling to the familiarity of my freshman year crew. But I got something so much better, something so much more from it. I learned to appreciate people, more so than I ever had. I learned to appreciate them for how we could humanly relate, having the same problems or the same sense of humor or the love for making others smile. I became really good friends with a girl that I probably would’ve stared down last year. And I accepted her, and I love her, and I appreciate her, for everything that she is, does and learns.

With the lesson of diversity strong in mind this year, I think that the most powerful project we did was the one on religion. I liked being able to compare religions and learn about the different beliefs of each one. I started the unit really ignorant to the different kinds of worship and faith that went into every religion, but when the project was over, I had a new sense of appreciation for each one.  When we started the unit I had originally thought of religion in a one tone way. “Religion. There are many different meanings of the word, many different origins and beliefs that go into it. But when stripped down to it’s bare meaning, religion is more like a preference to guide lines of redemptions. But after looking and studying each one, I learned that there’s a lot more that goes into each belief than just some crap that they read from a book.

Another thing that was really interesting, diverse and educational were the trials. I liked how everyone really got into their roles to defend their group even if they didn’t believe they were guilty in the end. I think that the trials were one of the most important projects as well because they teach you lot of different things. For example, you learn a lot of researching techniques, social lessons and historical facts as well. I think in the end you also learned how people’s opinions have changed over time and how we can ponder and reflect and learn from previous mistakes made in the past so we can learn to avoid them in the future, and that’s what history does, it teaches you, not only about the past, but how you can learn to better your future.

 

Past work over the year

Religion wiki site

 

The collaborative Google doc used in the sweatshop trials

 

Monologues Doc

This year in English and History class I learned a lot not only about the world around me but also about myself. Mr. Block has shown me a lot about what has happen and is still happening in the world. The class was always very good at connecting the past to the present and has given me the chance to make my own connections through the projects I have completed. I have grown to love the new ways of expressing myself that I have learned in this class from things like the art in the open or the young playwrights monologue project.

            The play writing experience had to have been the most mentally touching project I have done since I have entered High school. In the months spent doing the project I became extremely emotionally attached to the topic and cared deeply for the characters that I was molding. Doing this project made me think differently in both History and English, I started to feel comfortable experimenting with different voices and characters that I would have never play with before. My characters ranged from an emotionally traumatized young girl to a pride army leader and even a dead character. The ability to work out and change these characters felt great but I also was able to learn a lot about Colombia. I learn about families losing their homes and children going off to fight for the rebel army I also learned about drug trade which is why the rebel army fighting the government.

            The poetry unit was also a big project that meant a lot to me. I have always had an interest in poetry and found the chance to view different kinds of poems to be unique. I liked being able to listen again to what I wrote and feel my own words like I feel other poetry. I took a lot out of this unit including a poem that I love called “I Was Raised By sounds” which I really love. Another project that I learned a lot from was the group Podcast. I know that this project made me closer to my grandma then I have ever been before. I had known of her child hood abuse for years but I did not know all the deep struggles she felt within the interview. I learned the most after the recording stopped but that was the thing that got up talking and made our relationship grow.

            The next thing I come away with is more like multiple things it’s the people in the class. I learned from all the forum posts that we share with each other in both classes. I learned the especially from descriptive scenes. I heard so many stories about peoples past and made me feel more connected to them. This was important to me because I was new to the school and didn’t really know everyone well at all. I can think back to the scene that I wrote about my friend Jackie and how much it meant to me back when it happened compared to what it felt like writing about it years later. English and History were great this year. As much as I complained I really have grown to love this class and even Mr. Block. Even though I say his class is boring I have to say I’m really going to miss it. I owe a lot of what I know now to him. This year was great and I hope next year can be this awesome.

Exhibit proposal:

 

Goal: to make people feel the effect of colonization on the world and cultures. Also, to make people feel against the idea of colonization (audio speaking available for descriptions)

 

Intro:

In the museum I want you to get a look at how colonization effects how a culture is. You will see the changes in the area, the changes in leadership, and the changes of houses. There will be interactive sections of the tours to keep you all involved and I hope you enjoy it. There will be a brief survey at the end asking what you thought of the museum and areas for us to improve, we would appreciate and look into any ideas you suggest.

 

Artifact one:

 

I will set up a treadmill and offer people to walk up them and walk a quarter of a mile. Then I will explain to them that this could be only a small amount of work that some of the children have to do to get some water.

 

“In Niger the people need to walk to get water and most of the time it is the children. Now, back then with the people not be colonized, there were less people, meaning less use of water. However, now with Niger being colonized there are a lot more people and thus more resources are needed. It makes it harder for the country to survive.”

 

 

 

Artifact two:

 Have this house set up next to this house 

 

Artifact three:

Make photos larger and show how things have changed due to colonization. I will have the people walk into a dark room and show them the first map and then show peaceful tribes in a natural wild life setting, and then I will switch to the newer map, showing how people have made everything more “civilized.”

 

“Over the years you can see from the pictures that the areas have drastically changed and become more distinct regions. These are the effects of colonization. Over the years you can see that the regions have become more define and less tribal. Africa is no longer Africa, it is regions and country’s that make up Africa.”

 

Artifact four:

 

Artifact five:

 

I will take 61% or because we will have groups of 10 then I will just take 6 people out and I will give them 1 dollar. I will then explain to them that this is the only money you get in one day.

“This represents the 61 percent of the country that lives in poverty with only 1 dollar a day. The houses are made up of dirt and wood, and they eat cooked cereal and milk. Before colonization, there were no systems like this were people were suffering and living in such bad conditions. Those that live in the slums are forced to build their own houses out of plastic metal and what ever other material they can find.”

 

 

 

Artifact six:

 

This artifact expresses the power that the French had over these people. It shows that the people didn’t get what they may have wanted due to the.  Hamani Diori was he first elected president of Niger and had a lot of French influence.

Artifact seven:

 

In the artifact I will create a video, demonstrating the French coming into Niger and affecting the amount of people there causing there to be less resources.

“In 1946 the French constitution conferred French citizenship on the inhabitants of the territories, provided for decentralization of power and limited participation in political life for local advisory assemblies. On December 4, 1958, after the fifth French republic was established, Niger became an independent state within the French Community. In 1960 the full independence was given and at that point the French were free to come and go, live, participate, and do as they please. “

 

 

Artifact eight:

“The Nok people where people that lived back in the ancient times of Niger. They were not the wealthiest of people however they maintained a normal life style and farmed as normal people, now there are people that are dying from starvation. Connection there? Blame colonization and greed.”

 

 

 

Conclusion:

In conclusion colonization has changed a culture, tribes, and a country. It has “revolutionized” and changed things so that they were not primitive and in result have made a country turn to poverty and starvation. I hope you have seen how colonization has

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

unknown, unknown. "The people of nok ." kids page . N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.kidspast.com/world-history/0097-nok.php>.

 

unknown, unknown. "HISTORY OF NIGERIA."History of nigeria . N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad41>.

 

unknown, unknown. "Niger's military coup is condemned by France and Africa." BBC. N.p., February 19th 2010. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8523573.stm>.

 

 

unknown, unknown. "Niger Information." Niger. N.p., October 15th 1998. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/countries/Niger.html>.

 

unknown, unknown. "Nigeria ." actionaid . N.p., unknown . Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.actionaid.org.uk/683/nigeria.html>.

 

 

Dr. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D., unknown. "French in West Africa." UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER. N.p., unknown . Web. 18 May 2011.

<http://www.africa.upenn.edu/K-12/French_16178.html>.

 

 

unknown, unknown. "NIGER." Discover France . N.p., unknown . Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.discoverfrance.net/Colonies/Niger.shtml>.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​Art work in my house: descriptive detail analysis

So when I was in wildwood a few years ago I bought this spray paint painting and this is what is looks like. I will start off by telling you the major parts in this. There is a circle that is about the diameter of the board. Inside the circle there is the USA flag that appears to be the sky. Also in the circle it the twin towers that show the reflection of the American flag on the two towers. The reflection isn’t precise it is more like a watery reflection where it is kind of distorted. Below there are several other building. There appears to be a straight line of buildings TOWARDS the bottom where underneath there is a body of water. The water fills the bottom portion of the circle and at the bottom of the circle the water becomes a waterfall and flows off the bottom of the circle. The water shows a nice white foam effect when flowing over the circle, which adds some realistic effect to it. Right under the row of buildings there is a foggy mist. Behind the twin towers you will notice a few smaller buildings that show distance effect because they and they are to the left. They also show the reflection of the flag in the background. Around the circle you will notice that there are white spots everywhere outside. The artist I believe was trying to make it appear as though the circle was in fact a planet. There is a dim red outer circle the surrounds the bigger circle/ planet to show the atmospheric effect.

 

 

 

It was the beginning of a hard day. It would be full of work, work, and more work. It started off with me waking up. I woke up with a bit of a headache and not wanting to do anything. My hair looked as if I had just got done a pillow fight. It was everywhere.  I walked into the well-lit room. The sun filling me with warmth and I thought maybe this wont be such a bad day after all. It was nearing the time I needed to leave for work. Hair fixed and ready for work I brought my bike outside and rode off.

The breeze was wonderful; filling my lungs with fresh air was much needed. I arrived to the job that I had both hated and enjoyed at the same time. Angelo my boss greeted me just as he does everyday. The smell was the same. A smell that was full of pizza goodness. My boss is a very generous man and allows me to eat a slice before I get to work. So I take a slice and sit down. I taste the delicious pizza as it enters my mouth. It fills my taste buds with joy. When I got done drooling over the delicious pizza I grabbed the some pizza menus and walked to my destination.

My job requires me to deliver menus to doors, so that hopefully the pizza shop will get more business. It is a very tedious job. Requiring me to go up and down  must go through. With 8$ an hour I get more money then most people in Philadelphia. Kind of pathetic if you ask me, but ill take it.

Money in pocket, pizza box in my one hand, it was a pretty good day at work. I didn’t have any problems. The smell of the pizza was permeating up through my nose. The hills were brutal. Making my legs burn with intensity as I pedaled up the large slopes. Almost home, just 3 more blocks and then I can dig into this awesome pizza. My hair was being a pain so I flipped it out of my face. BAM! Was all I heard and a car was all I saw. I stumbled, hand in pain, leg scratched up. I had lost my balance when I flipped my hair and ran straight into a car. Pain was intense, shooting up my arm. I couldn’t move anything. Hurting, throbbing, pain like I never felt before. “Is it broken?” I asked myself. My bike was twisted and mangled just as my arm was. I fought through the pain to pick up my bike and move it out of the street. The pizza box was demolished but the pizza was still in tact. The pizza was good but my arm wasn’t.

 I called my mom told her I had crashed. Away she went to the spot of my tragic crash. My arm was still in excruciating pain. The cuts and scraps that lay all over my leg have no effect on me because the pain in my arm was so intense. My mom put my bike in the back and we drove those 3 blocks back to my house. I rested my arm on my other arm.

No smell, no sound, nothing but pain. I walked into my house. Suddenly I thought that 16 dollars wasn’t worth this. I never broke a bone so I couldn’t tell if it was actually broken or not. I have a ton of homework to do and with this pain I’m not going to get anything done. A two page paper due in 2 days, a 10 page packet due in 2 days, and even more. I’m in pain and now I’m panicking about all the work that I now have to do with only one arm at my disposal.

I started with math. I was hungry but there is no time for food right now. My stomach is growling; mad at me because I am denying it food. The frustration overwhelmed me and I was not very successful with the math. I didn’t even finish half of the packet. Now, more pressure lays on me. Demanding that I do more work with so much pain. It wasn’t going to be a fun next day. I went to sleep with a brace on my wrist so that my wrist wouldn’t move in my sleep.

I woke to a mother that demanded my presence, however she wasn’t going to get it because my arm was in so much pain. It was un bearable. I couldn’t move at all, not a single part of my body without wanted to scream in pain. Such a pain should not be forced against someone, not anyone. Still I knew I had a ton of homework that I had to do.

I got up and wobbled to the kitchen. I got out the cereal and a bowl to pour it in. I poured the cereal half way just as I usually do. Walked over to the refrigerator and got milk and continued to pour milk in there until the cereal rose. Just the way I like it. I grabbed a spoon and began eating the wonderful cinnamon toast crunch as I walked to the table. I wasn’t very successful with just one arm but I got one spoonful before I reached the table. I set the bowl down and enjoyed each and every bite.

The birds were chirping and the sky was blue. It was set out to be a beautiful day; that I of course could not enjoy. I was forced to suffer indoors and do homework.  The hours past and eventually I come to present. I sit here in pain TV in background. Still have a lot of math to do. Obviously not done this essay.

Every time I even try to use my thumb for any reason a sharp pain travels up my arm. Making it impossible to type with that hand. Now I’m in a predicament, one hand to type, one hand to do everything, and still a lot of homework. Its now 8:26 and I still haven’t eaten dinner and I am not even half done my math.

What a way to end my weekend. My eyes are heavy, my arm still hurts and I have school tomorrow. I am supposed to be getting x-rays tomorrow to make sure that it isn’t broken. Hopefully its not broken but I never broke a bone before. If its not broken I would hate to know what it feels like if it was broken. I probably wouldn’t be able to move my fingers at all. The smell of chicken is starting to fill my house. I sense that dinnertime is coming shortly. I’m starving, my stomach is growling and I think it is about time to eat some food. A good day at work gone wrong. A new experience in which I will learn from. Next time I wont flip my hair. 

By: Mathew Walker

Throughout this school year my thoughts have been changed many times. One thing I remember very vividly is the classes Sweatshop trial. The sweatshop trial was a trial that the class did to figure out who was the most responsible for sweatshops. Every student was put into a group. My group was the U.S consumers. The other groups were sweatshop workers, multi-national co-operations, the system, and the ruling elite. Now of course people were trying to make their group sound the least guilty. When the trial was over we had to do a response to the trial in which we voted on who was the most guilty at the time since I was being a little bias I gave my group very little points. Now after looking back on everything I see that I was wrong and that in that situation you can put blame on any one person. It is like a rotation and everybody fuels everybody. What I started to understand from this is that it is not good to start coming to a conclusion while you are still focused on one group.

Another piece of work that helped me realize that with time everybody can get better at their creativity is my Poetry unit. During the poetry unit we had to write several different types of poems that we were going through in class. The reason why I say it helped me the way it did is because there is a noticeable difference between this and what I did in the beginning of the year for my English B piece. My English B piece was set at the beginning of the year and we had to write a poem based off of Langston Hughes’ English B poem. 

One piece of work that I am most proud of is my English photo essay. The reason why I am most proud of this piece is because it showed that one could produce very good work even if they are talking about themselves. This also helped me learn a lot of things about my Irish side. The assignment was to take a heritage that you were apart of and research that. After you research you have to come up with several pictures and analyses for why you chose each picture. I was able to find out a lot about the Irish heritage through this like the fact that Irish dancers keep their arms by their sides because when the English invaded Ireland the Irish were not allowed to have any fun so the Irish kept their hands at their sides when they danced so the English could not see them. Unfortunately I do not have the photos but I do have my analyses.

            My last piece of work that I would like to share with you is my colonialism museum project. The reason why I would like to share this with you is because I am very proud with my work in this project. In this project we had to make museum based off of colonization in a country of our choosing. My country was Kenya and my exhibit presented only artifacts that made complete sense like money. You can find my explanation for all my artifacts here. This project helped me learn a lot about Kenya and colonization like the fact that sometimes it can be good and sometimes it can be bad.

This is a portion of what I have learned throughout this year. It has been fun for me to share this with you. It has also been fun to take a trip down memory lane. I hoped you enjoyed the journey through my thoughts.

Throughout the courses of both History and English this year had has its ups and downs. History and English, as subjects, have always been easy for me but this year through my projects, papers, wikis, essential questions and more… has changed my views on the topics of each subject.

            In English, I noticed throughout my work that I have become a more fluent writer in writing my papers. My aspects of me to have became a more fluent writer includes, being able to pull several significant quotes from books I have read and outside sources from research. Also, analyzing throughout my paper, the quotes, my feelings and beliefs into thesis papers. Stating the facts with being stated in opinion form at first was very hard for me, but through practice of constantly writing and peer editing helped me a lot, it bettered me because of the helped I received by my teachers and friends. Click here to view my latest thesis paper about religion and the world

Within this paper I, as I stated before, express several beliefs and stating that they are true. In my 9^th grade year and beginning of this 10^th grade year, I had a harder time formatting and making my thesis papers clear by using well thought-out quotes.

            Something that I grasped over this year was that there are many certain aspects that aren't talked about everyday. Click here to view my work of both my op-ed ;and now my monologue project ;

 

Throughout my op-ed I express different corruptions throughout the world such as the religious people and leaders abusing humanity laws, here is a quotes I stated of my own words “A priest of a catholic church has been accused of sexually abusing a young little boy. To point that we are talking about a Catholic church who provide us with a Catholic religion in which the bible says “homosexuality is against God.”

            On the other hand, my monologue project was a long projects and included several aspects of thinking rather than the op-ed yet they are both similar and I learned a lot from both of them. Though, to begin, my monologue project brought several ideas of both imagination and research. I learned a lot form my monologue project because over the several months that we were given to work on it, I developed a well thought-out story about children and sex trafficking throughout Europe in an interesting, unique way.

            A major benchmark, one of my most recent one is of my Colonial Benchmark which can be seen here ;

  

I express many different aspects of colonialism. Through my research I learned a lot and in making this museum, which was the goal of making this benchmark, using different artifacts and stating facts and also giving opinion with supporting evidence that “overall colonialism is better for a country because it is influenced by more cultures and as the country grows older there is a more variety.”

            Furthermore, I’d like to save this for the last, my wiki of my poetry, because it was my most favorite project to do. I believe I can express myself more with writing poems and giving information rather than papers because it flows more easier to me and I believe a lot of other people may believe the same way. Click here to view my poetry wiki.

            

“I feel uncomfortable. Everyone is staring at me. Do I have something on my face? Where are my best friends? I can’t do this without them.” High school is hard, this is a known fact. Teenagers are awkward, confused, scared, and not comfortable in their own skin. This years sophomore, English and History class with Mr. Block helped me and I am sure more students in my class break out of the comfort zone they created, to make amazing projects and hand in fantastic class work.

 

In English class we had Journals. Journals were a way to write about school and such. We also used our Journals for more personal things. One of my friends, Samantha Zeisloft, went up to read a personal piece aloud. A few sentences through she began to cry. It was powerful she was so close to me and yet I had not known something so personal about her and the fact that she was able to go up and read it to our class showed how comfortable she had become with us all. Mine was not as deep as hers was but here it is; Journal.

 

In history class we did a project on comparing religions. While this project didn’t get us closer as a class it helped us explore different religions and learn more. I did mine on Scientology and Greek Mythology. As far as I know no one in my class believes in either of those religions but doing a project on them still helped me learn more about those religions. So once again the projects we did this year helped us

 

We had a poetry unit in class. While most projects are very strict, and have to be a certain way according to the rubric this project was not. With poetry everything is artistic and full of feeling. You have to dig deep to find the soul of your poetry. The whole class had to write five poems each was given to us by our teacher but everyone took their poem a different way. One poem about your childhood could be games you played as a kid or things you believed in. With the poetry unit not only did we get to show off our skills but we also got to learn more about the other kids in class. One of my favorite poets was Justin Pullins his stuff was amazing and I had never even known.

 

 

At the end of the year we worked on the Schuykill River with the Leah Stein Dance Company. We worked in groups with people we did not normally work with. Working with new people in our class helped us become closer as a stream. Dancing on the river in public where anyone could see us helped us break out of our shell. My group had to work together to create a dance from al our different personalities and styles. It is hard, and the fact that we all felt like fools didn’t help at first but as time went on we became more relaxed in our dance and more confidant with our production. We suffered through the heat to perform and it was awesome to see performances from other students in our class.

This year was hard and this year was long but because we were able to become closer as a class it made the year just that much easier to handle. 

 

Never shall I forget the start of all my shit, though it is not fair to blame him
Never shall I forget the scorn 
Never shall I forget the alcohol 
Never shall I forget the yelling, crying, and name calling
Never shall I forget the abandonment 
Never shall I forget those who were there for me 
Never shall I forget the liers
Never shall I forget the weed
Never shall I forget him, her, him, him, her, him, her, or her
Never shall I forget the friends I lost 
Never shall I forget the changes we all went through
Never shall I forget the friends I gained 
Never shall I forget those moments

"Salir de aqui! No quieremos tu ecutilo de musica!" el hombre se dice cuando Francisco fue tirado de el clandestino.

"Es bueno!" se dice Francisco. "Yo puedo obtener un trabajo en cualquier lugar!" Esto no es verdad, Francisco fue un guitarrador muy bueno, puede tocar cada canción en existencia, pero una día, Francisco no quiere tocar las canciones vieja mas, quiere tocar algo nuevo. Entonces, Francisco toca música por siete días, tratando que crear una nuevo tipo de música. En la fin, el encontra una nuevo tipo de música, el tome la guitarra y toca muy rápido y las acordes muy fuerte, que hacer una sonido muy áspero y muy cherva, pero, cherva solo por Francisco, desde que crear esta nueva música, no clandestino, o club, o nada mas quiere el toca la guitarra.

Todos de ellos tienen la queja mismo, "El sonido no es bueno, es muy dolorosa. Puede toca flamenco o, música para acompañar una cuplé." Cuando cada persona se dice esto, Francisco se dice la mismo palabras, "Tu eres una idiota la talla de una elefante, pero, tu no se que un elefante es? Eh? No puede ver algo bien que están cagando a tu cara!" Y, después el dice esto, la propietario hace la mismo también. Se sentabe, y mira a la ventana, después tome una respiración profunda, y dice, "Securidad!" Y los hombres que guardia la club o clandestino venir a la cuarto y tome Francisco afuera, y la propietario venga a la cuneta que los hombres se tiran Francisco, y se dice que la historia comenzó con.

Esto club en particular fue el dicimonoveno club que Francisco fue a tratar para obtener un trabajo, o obtener una grupa de otros músicos para tocar una serie de canciones. Es innecesario que dice, pero Francisco fue abajo en suerte. Entonces, Francisco fue a la calle, para toma una caminar cuando toma todas tiempos cuando abajo en suerte. Pero, desde el guerra, la calle no tiene la música que tiene en la pasado, posible de Franco, posible de el efecto de guerra sobre gente. Esta día la calle fue muy animado, gente fue caminando a no lugar en particular, y durante esta día, Francisco esconda la elemento que completo la tipo de música que el hace en las siete días cuando el hace nada pero tocar. El esconda la voz.

Ella se llama Catarina, y desde ser una chicita, tiene una forma de cantar que no otro chicota tiene. Cuando los otros chicitas fue cantanda la canciones muy preciosa, y cantanda muy suave y con las notas, pero Caterina fue cantanda notas bruto y fuerte, el sonido de música como Francisco, pero, solo en voz. Pero, nadie te gusta la voz de Caterina, todo de la vida de ella gente se dice a tu que, "Parate cantar chica! No puede cantar para cada canción, no tiene una voz suave como nosotros, tiene una voz muy bruto, y nadie te gusta!" Pero, Catarina no tome esto palabras a tu corazón, y todos días ella fue a la mercado cantanda para todos personas escucha. Esto es la día que Francisco y Catarina tienen caminos que cruz.

Francisco mira circo de el, "Que es esta sonido muy bonito?"

Una persona en la calle pregunto a el, "Que sonido, solo que me escuche es la sonida de Catarina gritando."

Francisco negó con la cabeza, "No es una grita, es una sonido perfect, con la tono perfecto para mi guitarra."

La persona tome una reír muy alta, "La voz de Catarina, bonita? HAHAHA! Tu eres una comediante increible."

Francisco ignore que la persona dice, y camina a Catarina. "Hola señorita."

"Quien es tu? Un violador o otro criminal?" Se dice caterina.

"No no no, yo no puedo hacer nada pero disfruta a tu voz magnifico."

"Mi voz magnifico? Señor, tiene una problema con tu oídos? Todo de mi vida personas se dice que mi voz es horrible, mas bruto y fuerte por gente es que se dice."

"No no no, tome ulna momento, y escucha a mi guitarro." Y Francisco toca la musica con el tono muy bruto y fuerte.

En una instantanea la ojos de Catarina comenzo a brillar. "Es la musico que yo estan cantando! La musica de yo!"

"No no no, es la música de nos. Y con tu, puede hacer esta música y hacer muy famoso." Y Catarina fue acuerdo, entonces Francisco usa todo de la dinero que obtiene en todo de la tiempo cuando tener un trabajo, para alquiler un club, y hacer publicidad.

En la día de el rendimiento, el club fue agotado, y todo la personas fue interesando en la nuevo tipo de música que Francisco prometio. Cuando Catarina y Francisco fue a la etapa, todo el club será silencio. Cuando ellos comenzaron tocando, todo el club te gusta el sonido. El noche tiene la rendimiento mas increíble que todo otro rendimiento que pasar en la historia de rendimientos.

Después la rendimiento, Catarina y Francisco fue a la bastidores, y hablar de que pasar, cuando esto están occurando, una hombre vestido en todo negro entre, y detenidos ambos y poner en cárcel, porque Franco no aprobar esto tipo de músico con los sonidos bruto y fuerte. Entonces la música de Francisco y Catarina fue perdido, hasta que la invención de punk en 1974 en la UK. Pero, esto es una historia por un otro tiempo.

(End)

La tema de mi historia es opprecion en general.

To some, English and History are acknowledged as being their "least favorite subjects”. But in my opinion, they are the finest. This is because they both teach you how to become a better person. Personally, I have found every year of English and History to be my favorite as I lived through it, and this year was no exception. I remember walking through the door the first day. My first impression was that the classes were going to be fun and challenging at the same time. As time moved on, this reality continued. I soon found myself looking forward to both of those classes daily.

One memorable experience for me was writing the descriptive essay. To read it, please click here. At first, I thought that it would be quite difficult to do. The reason is because I felt as though the descriptions for my mentioned experiences would not meet expectations. But, as the project rolled along, I learned of my mistakes. I discovered that the key is to simply continue writing everything that you remember about the experience, no matter how big or small. Another thing to remember is to use all five senses in the descriptions, if appropriate. This gives the reader an accurate image of the flashback within their mind.

Another memorable experience for me was doing the Podcast Benchmark. To listen to it, please click here. I remember wondering what was the point of this English project, as it has little to do with reading. I didn’t realize until the end of it’s true meaning. Doing a podcast is just like witnessing the events of a book. As my aunt told me of her experiences, I was able to see the facial expressions as she spoke, and could connect to her in a far more effective way. I had a feeling of understanding that the words on the pages of a book would have never given to me.

One more memorable experience for me was writing the Op Ed. To read it, please click here. At first, I wondered why writing a news article would be required for History class, as it has nothing to do with the world events of the past. However, I eventually learned that although it is about issues of the present, the present is a result of the past. As I was working on it, I found myself writing about the historic events that led to my more modern topic. After finishing it, I learned that the current conditions of the world are effects of the events of the past. I also realized how important our actions of the present must be, as it will affect the future.

My final thoughts about the English and History courses this year are that they were required to help make me a better student and citizen of America. I have learned that the world is far from perfect, and will unfortunately never be. However, compromise will make the conditions of it better for everyone. For example, I remember doing the Language Autobiography. To read it, please click here. Although two populations of humans sound different, a common understanding of English can be had. Anyway, another final thought that I have is that even though an individual’s contribution to the world may seem small, when gathered together, a larger population has the power to change the way we all see the world currently, and beyond.

Throughout the year, I felt that I learned and changed a lot from this class. From the day I set foot into the room I wanted to know what there was to learn in History, and not so much of English. In all honesty, I felt as though the first half the semesters in the class was rather slow and I wasn't very captivated. But however things took a turn towards the end of the year right now. And now I admire both of these subjects to the same extent. 

A first project that I liked was the Religions benchmark. Despite of the outcome, the grade and how much time I put on it to get that, I'm still proud of it. Because in the beginning I thought that I knew a lot about it but I learned that I didn't know too much and instead learned more than I thought. More astonishing was that it ties in with another project that I would later do towards the end of the year. 

Another thing that I did in the year and stood out among others was the Cortés Trial. It was the class's first ever trial, to determine who was at fault during the rulings of Conquistadors in present day Mexico. We were separated into groups and would later verbally battle it out to make a decision on who's the culprit. The trial was something that I've never done in the middle of a classroom, in easier terms I'd say it was a heated discussion that challenged our public speaking skills and the questioning + answering skills. I was nervous at times but when the time for my prosecuting parter (Vinny) and I to go up against the opponents, while all eyes were on us, there was nothing to do but to question what needs to be questioned and find the answer to what needs to be answered in order to prove a point and determine the one at fault. 

This next memorable work that I liked is also a trial. Instead this one was on Sweatshops, and it may sound weird, but this was a controversial topic that I never expected would've turned out the way it did. I was prosecutor yet again, this time to determine who is at fault for putting sweatshop workers in danger. This trial had the class realize how much others around the world have to go through in order to create the daily things we use. From the past trial about Cortés, being a prosecutor wasn't so hard for me anymore, I just went up and do what needed to be done "get a satisfying answer". This trial was more intense than the Cortés one, rather that it was a heated discussion, it was more like a discussion packing heat. At some point it got quite a bit personal between two groups that later turned into a flame war. At the end of the day, people might "ehh, who cares it's just a fake trial", but to us (at least I do) it matters because at some point of the trial we all got caught up in a moment. 

Mr. Block had write an Op-Ed one day, and this took place during the 3rd-4th quarter. Everyone in the class was pretty puzzled that day because almost none of us had a clue what Op-Ed was. Except that it sounded like two abbreviated words turned into 5 characters. Block later explained that we were to write a report like paper based on a controversial topic along with our own opinions using facts. I'd call it a Factual & Opinionated piece. I don't know about others, but to me, it couldn't get any better. It wasn't my first time writing these so I felt at ease.There was one problem, during that moment in time many things were happening around the world, from natural disasters to made made destructions. Over the course of two days I decided to pick the Libya Vs. NATO topic. So for a period of time I caught up even more with the current event through both the internet and television news. I however felt that it was too controversial so I had doubts at first, however I didn't really care and kept on writing it. When the deadline arrived, I finished it a day head, and Block said that we were to send emails to newspapers and see if some of ours to qualified to be published on them. I wanted mines to be published to a local Philadelphia Newspaper, I got one reply back that they received it but never got one back on whether or not it was published, but I don't really care because after all I'm satisfied with it. 

One of the last projects of the year was a History benchmark, that we were all to do on colonization. All of us were to pick a country, and make a proposal for a museum and have eight artifacts to be displayed. I picked Israel yet again, and somehow it turned in to Israel & Palestine (*note that the images are indeed not displayed on the document, but if you google the names they will show up as expected*). I had much difficulties with this benchmark in the beginning because it was so confusing how it tied in to Palestine the neighboring country and eventually mind-boggling when I found out how much it tied in with many of the works I did in class before it. Such as the Op-Ed because it was controversial, the Religions benchmark I mentioned earlier, and the Cortés trial because I was determined to find out who was at fault to put Israel & Palestine to the position they are in present day. Now it may seem irrelevant to colonization but it started out as colonization, then to religious crisis and to an ongoing conflict that hasn't been to put to a halt. After the eight artifacts proposal was done I thought that it was officially over, but I was wrong. After this we were all appointed to make a presentation out of either powerpoint of keynote to display the topic and country itself. Unlike others who went specifically to the point of how their museum was to be laid out, I took a stab at a different angle. I did my presentation to the conflict from the beginning of colonization to a bigger conflict and eventually today. Within it were insights on some of the artifacts to be displayed, without the audience even knowing. 

An extra memorable work that I liked a lot was the second to last project I done recently. The Art in the Open Festival. I really don't know how to call it, but The Art in the Open was where separate performances the whole class contributed in. Mr.Block appointed us to create an art dance that took place in the street and with the assistance from a professional group of Street Artist/Dancers, the class performed it along the river banks on the day of the festival. To put it in easier terms again, this type of art and dance involved the interaction with the environment around us. It's definitely my favorite because we went from knowing nothing of what street art is to performing it to live audiences. Block allowed us two weeks to practice the performance at a certain site along the river banks, and in honest words I was very satisfied with the product that the group made on performance day despite the fact of 100+ degree heat. Only thing that was kind of disappointing was my fail on a jump during the first performance, but there was a second performance so it meant that there's always space to improve. The failed jump, resulted in some scrapes but those scrapes are actually the reflection on the effort put in to create that act. 

The last piece of work that I like a whole lot, is the one that I'm currently working on. The one,that whoever you are, is reading. It displays all the work that I'm proud of and that the public gets to see them. And it's the Final Portfolio.

I have gone through a lot in my time with Mr. Block and his English and history classes. Now typically when people use those words they refer to a bad experience. However, this was not a bad experience. This was an experience that will carry me through the rest of my life, between the experiences.

We started with descriptive essays for English, which were rather difficult for me. Due to my lack of the ability to use words to really describe my environment, my grade didn’t really shine as well as I wanted it to. I think it was really because of my lack to want to try something that I didn’t really want to do. It was outside of my comfort zone and I didn’t really want to attempt it because of that. I guess in a way you can say I was more, close-minded then. I wasn’t open to new things.

Later on in the year for history we had to do a trial. This trial was very exciting for me considering I find the whole law system to be a very interesting and amazing thing to be a part of. We studied Cortés and his expedition. The trial was to see who was the guiltiest. This assignment made us find research and then apply what we learned to make the other groups guilty. I, as the prosecutor really enjoyed my job. I got to target the other groups and make them sound guilty. I was able to apply my knowledge from watching law and order in to my classroom assignment!

Later in the year for English, we had to create poetry. This was another English assignment that I wasn’t exactly too comfortable with. I just find it hard to express my feelings or things that have happened in my life through words. I got through it and I was a little bit more enthusiastic about the whole thing where as before I when I had to do something outside my comfort zone I would have not been enthusiastic at all.

For history at the end of the year, we had to create an exhibit. The exhibit project required us to create an exhibit that demonstrated the effects of colonization. It was a really fun project because we were able to be creative with it. It allowed us to make our own creation. It required us to be more time conservative of ourselves since we had to find the research and then create the whole project.

In the beginning of the year, I specifically remember saying, “oh I don’t want to do that stupid dance!” Now this dance was the art in the open dance that we were required to do at the end of the year. I can tell that my opinion changed because I loved doing it. I went from, “ew, I don’t want to do this,” to, “that was fun!” It was a great experience and I will always remember it. 

In the end of the year I think I can take away the ability to say, “I can be more enthusiastic about things I don’t like.” Also, I think I have gained the ability to manage my time. It really has made me more independent. This is why when I say I have gone through a lot with Mr. Block, I really have. His classes have made me into a better and more of my own individual.  

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.

The last link was a wrong link, sorry. 

http://prezi.com/presentation/Kashifa23@gmail.com/e5414k8/

This is the right link to my prezi. 

​During the year in Mr. Block’s classes, both English and History he has really took a different way of teaching the same material other students my age are learning. Being a student of SLA we already don’t often use textbooks and we use Internet and hands on stuff but to expand on that we did a lot of role taking and becoming the past. This often happened more in history during the different trials we did. In the trials you had to become the roll of the side you were placed on. You didn’t pick this side and you had to learn the side of these people and make then look innocent whether or not you agreed. This was a challenge but told great self-control and really pushed the mind to think different. This was often a group project and everyone did a part, here is a link to the Google doc with all the information leading up to the trials.

 

            When it came to history we learned a lot of different view points and where different people stand through out the world. It was interesting to see what other people think and why they think that because of how they were brought up in life.This was one thing we really focused on during the religion unit. "Is religion real?" This was a question we looked at during this unit as well. We studied what other believed in and what made them believe it. We did a benchmark, and I have to say it was one of my favorite benchmarks. We had to compare three or more religions in some way. So for my project, I compared the idea of God and what it is and why God is so important. Other people looked at issues of gay rights or heaven. This project forced you to learn about religions that you don’t practice and compare them and really study them in-depth. It helped open my views and it was a great learning experience.

 

            To start off the year on the first day and the first page of our brand new crispy journals we wrote about a song we listened to. The song was sung by a woman and was about the travel process of clothing. The song kept bringing up the question of weather or not a person’s hands were clean and asked each listener if they thought their hands were clean. This was the start of the year and Mr. Block already had us thinking deeper into such common everyday things, our hands and the new back to school clothes everyone had on. It broadened my perspective and got me ready to understand how basic things were not really all that basic.

 

            Towards the mid-end of the year we started a poetry unit and was able to write and create a wiki-space that was filled with our own poetry and writing pieces about how we understand poetry by different famous writers. From one of my pieces I said "I start for you, the flash of your hair, pushes me back, makes my heart whirl, fall to ground, your power is so overwhelming." It was really cool to see everyone write and perform their written pieces and to read over everyone’s personal wiki-spaces.

 

One of the biggest projects I have ever done in my whole life I can say I did this year. During this year we had to write monologues that turned into a story. These stories were about something about change and hope in other parts of the world and it involved them overcoming something. We started the project lost and confused but through the exercises and activities we did with Kate, a lady from the young play writers company, everyone was able to complete this project. There is no way I would have been able to do this without the help of my peers. They helped give great feedback and ideas to add to make the plot more interesting. It really gave peer editing a whole new meaning. This project included two Google documents, one with all the facts and information about our topic and country and the other was just strictly the monologues and the feedback to help us improve.

 

            In English we read a book called Passing. This book was all about how to make you look or act one way to fit in with certain people, this was called passing. This book was based in the past and focused a lot on blacks trying to pass as whites because of shame or for their safety. With groups we were assigned parts of the book to reread and analyze closer. My group wrote a found poem, meaning we took quotes from the book and put it together to help explain and tell the story and themes of the book in a different way and then we presented it to the class. To do this project we all both it on a Google document and edited and wrote in together. 

            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

​I lived through you and saw what you seen. 

Every picture was different. 

Even if the pose was the same. " (poetry wiki ode).

 " Change can be slow because there is a process that must start, everything doesn't  just get up and change on it's own" (journal # 10 history).

"The word Nigger/Nigga will never be forgotten during the hard ships of when blacks were treated horribly in the old times"(journal #4 english).

"I know something about being myself"(journal #5 english).

"How does it feel to not existence anymore?"

"oxygen should be free for all." (Globalization) 

"Charity is an illness that people are falling on poverty, and dealing with erosion."(Pathologies of Power).

"Woman are mostly in charge"(Learning From Ladakh).

  

​English and History & Mr. Block… Where do I start? They both were pretty much the same for me since both of them related to each other. It was hard to tell which class was which because we had the same teacher as well. This year was interesting for me because we learned new things everyday and the whole year went by so fast. For English, we read couple of books, wrote poems, essays and bunch of other things. I really got to learn more about myself when writing essays and or writing poetry. For our history class, we went from this side of the world to that, we landed everywhere. We got to learn about the places, their cultures, religions, and how different they are from our nation.

            First of all, I want to start off with my favorite unit from history class, which was the religion project. Well, not my favorite but the project that I worked the hardest on. It required a lot, A LOT of research. In the end, I felt pretty good about my final piece because I went with the topic, which was “Interfaith Marriages and Religions” with a focus point on Hinduism and Islam. I learned heaps of things that I never thought I’d learn. I got bits of a taste of how it’d feel being a victim in an interfaith marriage with a Hindu other or an Islamic other. When I was researching about Islam, I passed by this quote “Girls far below the age of puberty are forcibly married to older persons (sometimes in their 50s and later)...” This was how a Muslim girl lived, working for their husband. For this project, I had to create a pamphlet and I told why interfaith marriages should be allowed in these kinds of religions.

            In addition, I wrote poems that related to me this year! In my poetry project, I wrote about my memories, the memories that I long to repeat itself, and about myself with different styles of poetry. Take an example of the poem “I was raised by…” I wrote about how I was raised, where I was raised, what I was raised for etc. In the ending of my poem, I wrote, “I was raised by the world filled with love.” Because I know there are unfortunate kids out there, and I am fortunate enough to have everything that I have now. Poetry made me realize how fortunate I am.

            Next thing would definitely be the monologue project; I’d say it was the longest period of time we’ve ever worked on on a unit. It was worth it though because I got to work with something, I’ve never worked on before. First of all, I’d never heard the term ‘monologue’. I was confused with the whole idea. Then working with Mr. Block, I started writing them and then started talking with my colleagues; they really helped me understand the whole process. In addition, we had to choose a historic event and I chose Chinese invasion in Tibet. I got to learn new things and got more involved with my own culture.

            In the beginning of the year, we read the book called “Lord of the Flies” and we had to write a thesis paper. I chose my theme as Judgment. I’m specifically proud of my thesis of the paper because it proves a very important matter where it states; “By looking at Lord of the Flies and modern political leader, we can see that public usually judge the leader by their voice and looks, which most people do not see; this is important because you are letting someone lead you not knowing how well he/she can handle the crowd in situations.” I used sources from both the book and I researched. Researching is the tip when it comes to writing paper.

            Last thing I want to reflect on is my colonialism project, where I researched about post-colonial and pre-colonial effects on India.  Our project was to pick a country and create an exhibit based on colonial times. I focused my presentation on colonial beneficiaries in India. I brought different artifacts and went in detail about how it related to the topic and how it will look like in the exhibit.  I am very proud of this work because I worked a whole week researching about colonialism in India. I got to learn the history of India before colonialism.