This have been an interesting year, odd, but interesting. During this year I have experienced many things that I otherwise would not be able to understand anywhere else. One of which I say is the most interesting to me would be "Human Behavior." Near the beginning of this year the whole class was given a book that goes by the name "The Lord of The Flies." The name may sound odd; in fact, the name really isn't all that big of a deal in the book. The story itself is about a group of kids that crash-landed on an island with on adults. They were all smart little things so they started to work together in order to survive. They started was a simple system with everyone working together. The older kids hunt while the younger ones build huts and such. However, everything is bound to change after being there for so long. Not long after the older kids dyed their hands crimson with the blood of their first kill, they started to act, well, wild in a way or at lest that’s how we would describe it. In the end, the group split apart into two groups. One side just want to live the way they are on the island, the other wants to go back. But in the end the ones who wish to stay won the battle. But a battle is not won without blood spill and in this case, 2-3 died. This book simply explains basic human behavior. We humans are not born to live the way we do now. We are born to kill others in order to survive.
(A more detailed paper can be found HERE)
Now with the basic human instincts out of the way, time to rant about how the society has affected our simple minds. Here is something that happened not long ago. Sometime during 2012, there was a pipeline being built from Alaska to the US. What is it used for? Once the monster is complete it will haul tons and tons of Tar Sand into the US. The tar sand can be extracted for crude oil. This type of oil is extremely unclean and will cause many problems in peoples' heath conditions. However it doesn’t end there. Even during the building of said pipeline, there were many sad stories about how the next topic, Greed, turned everyday cubical workers and politicians into creatures unworthy of the word "human." The oil price in the US is rising day by day. People want cheaper oil. I mean who wouldn't? But in order to obtain one thing, another is lost. In this case for our greed, our humanity is lost. The workers desperate for work in order to earn money did everything they could in order to start building the pipe. Why do they want money? Simple, because they just WANT money. In our current society, money is the beginning and the end of everything. With enough of that green paper, you could even build a casino on the moon. So in order to obtain some of that paper, the workers abandoned their humanity and did many things that should not be done. One of the stories floating about the news web is how they forced an old lady off her own land. She have been living there for ages, everything she have and had was there on that land. From her house to her ranch to her dear memories. The workers however didn't even bat their eyelashes and just forced her out of her home where she spent nearly all her life. One could ask, "Aren’t they being ordered to do so?" To which I reply, "elementary dear Watson!" The answer is simple; it is the politicians and the corporations that issued the orders. However this does not excuse their behaviors. But the politicians and the corporations are just as guilty. They did this all to gain wealth, money, dough, lettuce. However you wish to call it, my favorite way is to call them paper since that is what they are. The politician’s gains favor with people and thus reelection, meaning more cash. The corporations want more cash to build more stuff to earn more cash. So in the end we are all caught in the endless cycle of greed, unable to escape. Greed is something everything alive have, however in our case, we are the only creatures on this planet that would stab someone in the back just to get paper colored in green.
(Some poems about this subject is HERE)
Now after all that the image of humans to me is the equivalent to that of a piece of trash. But not all hope is lost. There was once a man named Ghadi who was rather short. He was skinny as a twig and weak as a breeze. But this man defeated one of the mightiest empires in existence during that era using words and starving himself half to death. Now he is a shining star of hope in this dark, toxic cloud of humanity. He used his words to defeat the British and it worked out rather well! A wise man once said, "The pen is mightier then the sword..." in this case the guns and bullets. What it means is that using knowledge, nothing is unachievable. During the years that he fought the British power, he never once encouraged violence, but nothing ever goes smoothly. During one of these nonviolence protests, there was a fight. No one was killed for as far as I can remember, but because of this, it totally destroyed everything Ghadi have worked for. Because of this, he decided to fast until all violent actions have been stopped. With nothing but water, this man starved himself for a whole month. Seeing his determination, everyone stopped what he or she was doing. Once again Ghadi surprised the world with his actions. Not long after he has finally done the unthinkable, he have defeated the British Empire. Not once, not twice but three times he broke the way the world goes round and made it spin his way. He was and still should be a roll model for everyone. But sadly this great man's life end with a bang, as in a bullet flying through his body. Though he's body have perished, he's thoughts won't. Those who have listened to he's teaching will forever remember his words. These words of wisdom will be passed day one after another, until the whole world knows them by heart. (Link HERE)
Now onto a different subject, how about English journal entrees? Out of the many that we did, this one is my favorite. The question was something along the lines of beliefs. To believe something is good, however when one believes something too much, it would no longer help. Instead, it will cause harm to the believer.
(More Details HERE at EJ 41)
However one entree that intrigued me was English journal 41. It was for us to write a poem starting with the phrase, "Never shall I forget..." Using this, I wrote my poem based on repeating this line at the beginning of every line. It turned out rather well.
(Read HERE)
Last but not least the project that interested me the most this year would be the play. It was something where I can let my imagination go loose. Since it is not limited by most requirements, I had a lot of fun writing my play. But sadly at the time of writing this, it is not complete. But since it is already 40+ pages long I say is still a good read. I will finish this something during the summer.
(Read HERE)
This year in history I learned a lot , Whether or not it was about crossing boundaries, or freedom and the meaning of being free, this years history class has taught me a lot. There were some ups and there were definitely some downs but at the end I learned. And I got to learn from and meet some new people along the way. Throughout the course of the year we did a lot of things that helped me learn that particular unit. We had mock trials, plays, or interpretive dances, Mr Block sure had his way of getting his point across to teach us. This is just a quick taste of what this school year of 10th english and history was like at SLA.
1. One of our very first big assignments of the school year was a descriptive essay. The assignment was to write an essay and to make sure that it unfolds, had lots of detail and description, had dialogue, and focused on one or more particular moments in time. I wrote mine about the time that my brother and I got into a fight and were jumped by a group of adults while at a park. Here you will find a link in which you can read this essay in further detail.
2. The second assignment that i am going to put on my blog is my language essay. This of course was apart of the language unit. This Unit taught me all about language and the different types of languages where it be a native speaking language, or your everyday slang, or a speech impediment. I touch based on all of those aspects in my language autobiography. Here is two links. One of the exact essay, and another of my video on languages.
https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/I-m_Different
3. My third piece of work that i will be showing is actually from history. This is from the renaissance unit. We had to pick a artist who was around from the renaissance times and research them. You had to get six paintings, and talk about why you think the artist drew or painted it, and talk about how the colors or nature of the artwork reflected on the mood or the harlem renaissance. Here is the link to my Work in Vincent Van Gogh.
4. My fourth memory of this magnificent year is when we were in our freedom unit. We were learning on how different tribes and groups of people gained freedom with using non violent and violent tactics. “In my opinion, Violence and nonviolence are both powerful in their own sense. For Instance, Non violence can be powerful over violence if you want to get something done. In a good sense if you want to accomplish an objective non violence would be the way to go. Violence affects all people and can possibly end lives. Non violence can win you lots of sympathy, and sends a stronger message.”
5.
Despite
your religious background whether you be christian, muslim, hindu,
jehovahs witness, jewish, or catholic, every single decision a person
makes is influenced by some type of religion. Throughout the entirety of
the School year we’ve covered tons of different topics from
Colonization to Religion to Revolution, and within each and every one of
those topics there has been a recurring theme, Religion. For example,
lets take the Cortez trial for instance. During this unit we learned
about the Aztec’s and how Cortez colonized and tried to take over.
During his invasion he tried to force religion on the Aztec’s then when
they refused many were slaughtered. Ontop of that they were already
looked at differently because in their religion and apart of their
beliefs was sacrifice, something Cortez and his men were foreign too.
The lesson soon progressed into an old fashion trial. My group was
defending the Aztec people. Everything they did was for religious
purposes, they didn’t believe in violence, it was against their
religion. They did animal sacrifices, because it was apart of their
religion, they built structures and welcomed the strangers with open
arms, because it was apart of their religion. No matter what the
situation was somehow it still spun back into religion and beliefs.
If
you click on the link below, you’ll get a up close and behind the
scenes peek at the notes and statements prepared by my group members and
I during and before the trial. You’ll see evidence of the religion and
beliefs of the Aztec people & how every move they made was to honor
those beliefs.
“Creativity seems to emerge from multiple experiences, coupled with a well-supported development of personal resources, including a sense of freedom to venture beyond the known. In all creative processes we are pushing the boundaries of what we know now, to explore new possibilities; we are drawing on the skills we have now, often stretching and evolving them as the work demands.” At SLA we focus on what it means to push boundaries and think outside of the box. We do not only look at the definitions and the history of what happened but we are given the ability to analyze and look at cause and effect through discussions and projects and journals and other learning tools that aren’t used in the typical classroom. The thing that I took out of this year during our english and history classes is that as things develop through the world we have to make sure that our actions don’t make things worse and that we do not try to better ourselves while worsening the life of others and how this leads to many inequalities. Through the many hardships that we learned about this year the common theme for me was who made this happen and how did this happen. Through our discussion about language I have found that language is power and that without that the person who is mostly in control when it comes to language is the one with a better understanding of language. Through our classes about language one thing that really stuck with me was that, “baldwin says that without black english there would be no standard english. That the white’s developed their dialect from the blacks, while the blacks are still frowned upon as uneducated and inarticulate. White’s didn’t want to educate blacks unless it was to their benefit in doing so.” When we had to write our language autobiography I wrote a lot about what it meant for me to be able to speak a second language and how through this unit it has made me realize that in life that will be a very powerful thing that I can utilize. An amazing thing about this year was looking at race, and racism in a whole new light. While we were working on a journal something that stood out to me was that “race is a modern idea, race helped be a divider in the act of freedom.” This summarized a lot of what I learned through grade school. Through this quote I realized that this is why race is such an important things for different cultures because in our society race is power. Race gave me the idea of my oped topic which talked about racial profiling in America.
The idea of inequality in race was something I was very interested in, this lead to
Here are some other examples of my work this year:
https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/I_Wish_I_Could
https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Journal-1:3
English Journal
History Journal
Language is Key
Response to modern day sweat shops
Picture of my group at an interpritive dance class
“Honor is regarded with great respect in a person who can carry great responsibilities”. - LOTF (Quote from Assignment)
The learning process during sophomore year of taking english and history class, were challenging and quit different from comparing to other english and history classes from the previous years. Learning throughout the year of both classes was challenging because several writing assignments was included to use with different writing techniques that I couldn’t understand and struggle to create polish writing to make sense.
As the units go by during the courses of english and history, I notice that my writing had changed as I normal do when I begin to type a essay. Learning in both classes, my writing had to be upgrade and my knowledge into writing which had been difficult to make my writing better than it should be.
Every unit of english and history, the class is given to focus on a different topic that is assigned. Topics that were included in the units were about Boundaries, Religion, Colonialism, and Poetry.
In unit 3 for history, the students were to focus on religion. The students were assign to pick two religions of there choice and create a brochure on a wiki. Based on the religions, the students were to research an issue about the religion. This brochure is based on religion and the environment focus on Judaism and Christianity as a issue.The questions we focus to improve our brochure and to grab the attention to the readers is that, Why should the reader care about this issue? What types of things can be learned from the brochure? A different style of writing can be a theme.
“Religion is something beautiful to have in your life to guide you in the right direction, when it comes to ups and downs.”
Religion was definitely included to the theme for the brochure and the main topic to focus on. I never worked with focusing much on religion and never actually got the chance to learn much out of it, but the way it works to focus on the theme is that you would want to create a discussion. As the assignment requires research to be done to gather background to support the answer, I got to learn what religion actually means and become more interest and curious about religion.
For english in unit 4, the students was to focus on there own language autobiography. The language autobiography was to be an autobiographical paper to investigate some of the themes from the language unit and relate them to each student life. My personal language autobiography explains the first experience of growing up, raised into a hispanic neighborhood, noticing the different spanish accents around different latinos."Spanish here, spanish there, and spanish everywhere". The piece of writing and video that was created to support my evidence is something that I worked hard, I focused more on myself and the habit of people around in the neighborhood that uses different spanish accents. It is truly something I can call an accomplishment that I am proud of. The way I gathered my evidence and ideas to create a video is something that I used different than I normally do in different assignments.
In unit 5 for english, each student was require to focus on a crossing boundary of there choice and interview people that has experience of the boundary to create a podcast. This podcast is about crossing boundaries on relationships. Relationships can be very difficult to manage, especially when you have a issue with your family. Every person has different ways of seeing relationships with others, once you begin to build one. Its either giving it a try or letting it go.
http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Relationship_Boundaries
2.) Latino Community
In unit 4 for english, the students was to focus on there own language autobiography. The assignment was to create a paper that should be between 750-1000 words long. In this Language Autobiography in the link below, explains how language can be different from one and another of being hispanic.
http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Latino_Community
3.) Religion and The Environment
In unit 3 for history, the students were to focus on religion. The students were assign to pick two religions of there choice and create a brochure on a wiki. Based on the religions, the students were to research an issue about the religion. This brochure is based on religion and the environment focus on Judaism and Christianity as a issue. The questions we focus to improve our brochure and to grab the attention to the readers is that, Why should the reader care about this issue? What types of things can be learned from the brochure?.
http://copperhistory2012.wikispaces.com/Jennifer+Perez
4.) Colonialism Museum Project
In unit 9 for history, the students were to focus on colonialism. The assignment was to create an colonialism museum project based on the choice the students decide to write about different colonialisms. To address the proposal of the colonialism museum project students were to think and discover the story behind.The exhibit needed a name, goal, introduction, eight artifacts accompanied by text and final thoughts to complete the presentation. This proposal of the colonialism museum project is based on The Spanish Colonization of Mexico.
5.) English Journal Entree
The students are required to keep a journal to write daily entrees that is given at the beginning of the class. The question that is given for this english journal entree was, Why do humans so often treat each other badly? and What different things change this cycle of negative behavior towards others. As a respond to the question to, Why do humans so often treat each other badly, Is basically about people just don't understand what it actually means to be a human and don’t realize that we are made way better than being disrespectful to each other.
http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/English_Journal:2
6.) History Journal Entree
For both classes, English and History, The students are required to keep a journal to write daily entrees that is given at the beginning of the class. In this History journal entree, gives the question “Does the U.S/do WL have responsibilities toward Haiti? How? Why?”, As a respond towards the question was to give my own opinion on how the U.S does have responsibilities towards Haiti. The history journal entree does give evidence to support the answer and gives clear thoughts.
http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/History_Journal_Entree
(Doom, tick, Doom, tick) this year in English I learned many different and interesting things from this years English and history class. In this years english and history in 307 I learned thing out of the ordinary and uncommon to the people in my family, neighborhood, my culture. this year we learned that there's numbers ways to learn the same subject. One word that came up numbers times this year and that will not only stick in my head attached with a new meaning is Language.
Journal #15
Some of the Compromise I will fight for is involving money and other objects of that kind non-nessites or thing I don't hold to my own. Dream or beliefs I will never give up are
Language within a person can show many different ways and be expressed in many different ways. In my first example you can see it's expressed in a very common way such as the normal format of writing your response and how you feel on the specific question at hand.
In the "Art in the Open" performance project where I got a chance to show language in a different format where you don't have to actually use words to show your own language without the expression of word and it show'd me that I don't have to use words to express my language. During this project we used interpretive dance to display our language.
This project allowed me to see myself from a different angle and allowed to see deeper into myself as well as my knowledge on the different ways language can be applied.
Language within a person can show many different ways and be expressed in many different ways. Another example of this is the poetry unit that I did.
http://copperpoetry2013.wikispaces.com/
I was raised by spongebob
He tought me how to tie my shoes
with that loopty loop and pull and your shoes are looking cool
I based my clothes on him
like the best time to wear a stripped sweater
you couldn't tell me it wasn't the best time
and everyday was the best day eveeeeer
I was raised by spongebob
when it was school time i was always ready
I learned your tough if you eat a bowl of nail for breakfast without any milk
I learned not to steal a ballon even if its free
I wanted to be strong
with muscle on my muscles and muscles on those
even muscles on my eye balls
anything was possible
squirrels under water
starfish living under a rock
squids with shirts
krabs with wales for children
I left with a message
life can be fun
I was raised by spongebob
During this Project we was able to put a spin on a classic format and express our self by using poetry.
“People are naive and so self righteous, they don’t realize people think differently than them”- Excerpt from my Choice Reading Worksheet.
Throughout the 2012-2013 school year students in Joshua Block’s English and History classes have studied many eras, events, and styles of writing. Normally history is either glorified on one side and made out to look like monsters, or the story may be told with the tunnel vision of facts, not allowing either side much justification.Throughout many projects and activities Mr. Block’s courses have given face and reason to many historical events, current and ancient. We were taught to see the world through many perspectives.
As a warm up Journal, Mr. Block had us interpret a picture. The picture represents the world’s view on justice based on where they stand, based on their perspective. After our Revolution unit, while reading Night by Elie Wiesel, the class read an article about a boy who was punished for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance. This article stood out because we were studying how countries were overthrowing the tyranny that reigned. This brings up perspective once more because it is easy to tell your neighbor he needs a fence, not noticing that yours is falling apart. It is important to realize, as the article pointed out, that this was an American boy who refused to say the Pledge. He did not hail from another land, America was the only life he’d ever known. It is easy to become unconcious of things we take for granted. We must never exhaust the option of analyzing everything, no matter how familiar it may seem.
In December, while reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God , the class was also studying lenses. Lenses are a type of perspective that a reader may take on, based on what’s important or relevant to them. this project yielded an artistic representation of a quote from the book. It was studied through the perspective of a Marxist and a feminist. I found it amazing the justice and injustice that can be found in words or ideas based on the person’s focus that reads them.
The first piece was an artistic rendition of the quote in which Nanny states “Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out...So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule ud de world so fur as Ah can see.”The mule is Janie and in this piece she has a pyramid disproportionately large on her back as a symbol of the hierarchy one would see when looking through the Fem-Marxist Lens.
The trials during history class were by far one of the most rewarding and effective activities in perspective. Groups were chosen to defend their group with research and wit. My group was the fleet of conquistadors that came over with Hernando Cortez. These men were charged with and undeniably guilty of the the murder of thousands of native peoples in South and Central America. Here is the closing statement that I wrote below in defense of their actions. It is easy to paint people as malicious when given their actions in black and white, especially when there is undeniable guilt. However, the job of defense attorneys is to change the perspective of the jury into one which is beneficial for the defendant.We accept and regret our sins, but are we truly at fault?
Throughout January, we focused on Neila Larsen’s Passing. This was a story that followed the life of two women in the late 1920s. One passed for white in her everyday life, and one only did it when it suited her. We were presented with two entirely different characters, with different morals and goals, and as readers we found ourselves more akin to one of the characters rather than the other. The book ends has an ambiguous ending. How you saw the end truly depended on the how you saw the characters throughout the book. The link below shows an assignment the class was given upon finishing the book. In groups, students were asked to perform scenes from the book adding their own flair. My team had the ambiguous ending, so we devised 3 scenes, each of which could’ve happened, because the writer made the ending so vague. Many areas in history and stories in everyday life are vague and we are left to our own devices to understand why or how.
In the very beginning of the year, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, led to a project in which we were charged with making ads for the best leader for the island. The class was allowed to lobby and campaign for who we believed would rule the best. It was very interesting to see the different ways the class approached this project. While there were only 3 candidates, there was an array of tactics students used. Here is my video Campaign ad.
Towards the beginning of the year, we were asked to write a letter to someone that is/has been in our lives. This project was using the hindsight perspective. One had to reflect on an experience that happened in the past, with the new perspective of stories we’d read in class. It showed how reading something or learning something new could change your feelings toward a certain experience and experiences to come. We should accept our faults for what we see them, not for what someone decides to lacquer onto our personalities. This letter helped me realize that while seeing all sides of the story is necessary, it is also necessary to follow yourself.
The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning.
I remember when the class and I were sitting in a circle of chairs, around January. Block had written some roles and names up on the board. They all had to do with the French Revolution. He then explained that we were engaging in a roleplay, and we had to pick roles. People started to perk up and get excited; it was something we’d never done before. We assumed that we’d be acting the strange and foreign roles of French people. Block then explained each role to us before we started to pick. There weren’t that many roles, so some of us and to partner up and become the role together. Me and my friend decided to become Marie Antoinette, the insane queen of France. Everybody had picked their roles and started to type of introductions and reactions to different situations. We would then proceed to act out what we just typed. My friend and I made paper crowns for ourselves, just to make things more fun and interesting. We got to see the Revolution through the Queen’s eyes, making us see the Revolution in a different light.
This has continued throughout the year, with projects and assignments geared towards looking at things from a different ‘lense’ or perspective to gain a better insight on the world as a whole. This really struck out to me when we were at the beginning of our Sweatshop Unit in history. We had to complete a journal entry based off of a cartoon of three fish; each a different size. It made me look at things differently because since each fish had a different view of the world, it made the image of the world come together and reveal it’s true nature.
The way I learned this so efficiently was by hands-on work. During the year, we as a class have done two trials: one about the exploration to America and another one about the creation and management of sweatshops. The one that stood out most to me was the Cortes Trial. There was five different views on the colonization of the Americas, each one completely different. Especially between the System of Empire and Cortes. “Cortes interpreted the definition of the System differently than System wanted him to.” (Cortez Trial Notes). That quote sums it up. Cortes saw the System differently than what the System saw themselves as. It made me look at the conquest of America completely different.
We recently finished the book Night by Elie Wiesel. During one of the readings, Mr. Block wanted us to try and re-enact part of a scene from the book. It’s where Elie and a lot of other people were crammed into a train car. In the journal entry after that describing our experiences, I wrote: “This certainly doesn't compare to the real thing in Night : we were just in a classroom. We had places to go to the bathroom and food in our stomachs. They didn't. But it does give some insight.” Even though the reenactment was rough, it made us see through a different lense, in this case the lense of Elie, who was stuck in this traincar. It really made us think about the feelings and emotions the characters had and how bad the conditions were.
Every person in the world sees everything, every particle every atom, differently. These differences may be small, smaller in fact than the atom itself but, they are there. The reason this happens is because each and every person lives an entirely different life. They experience different things in different combinations and they hear and see different stories. In 10th grade English and History class this topic was an underlying theme that varied in importance depending on the assignment.
As a class we spoke about Language, and what it means to each individual. There were many different beliefs and ideas flying around the room. However, when we were to told to write a Language Autobiography each child in the classroom successfully came up with their own idea, and used their own stories to back it up. I personally wrote about the language I grew up with. Although it was English, it wasn’t the same English that so others use. I grew up originally because my family taught me with words.
This teaching through language led to so many other things in my life. I grew up loving words and the father I get in my life the more I love them and the more I want to share them with others. When we were assigned to write an Op-Ed, a persuasive news piece, I knew immediately I wanted to write about Creative Writing. I’ve always believe that creative writing is something that all people need, something that schools should be teaching. During my Op-Ed I stated, “The ability to express yourself creatively in an environment like school is the kind of opportunity that not enough people get but everyone should.” This statement was one of my chances throughout the year to expose people to my way of thinking, my lense.
We did get a chance to explore creative writing in my class. In the beginning of the year we learned about a project known as the Keystone Pipeline. This was a proposed pipeline that would be built from Canada all the way to Texas. We explored a lot about the effect this pipeline would have on many different people. To explore this more thoroughly we had to write 3 or 5 monologues, depending on if you had a partner, from different perspectives. My monologues, written with a partner, gave me a chance to go through all of the different experiences that this pipeline was causing. I got to see through the different lenses of many different people, and even objects. The first monologue I wrote was from the position of one of the natives being kicked out of her home, I wrote, “ I’m not worth it, and this is my only chance. I may never be allowed to leave again but, (pause) well I’m taking advantage of a bad situation. It’s not a good thing. At least, that’s what they told me.” This young girl was in a hard position. She wasn’t sure what was right or wrong and she wanted to run away but was faced with the question, ‘Is now the right time?’ Because we had to write more than one monologue I got to explore another lense. I decided to follow a different path. One of an adult male who had gotten a job working on the pipeline, I wrote, “Oh but let daddy tell you about this new job. (stop rocking both kids, hold out) Daddy’s building a pipeline, that’s right. For all the oil way up here in Canada to get all the way down to Texas. Probably the longest pipeline in history.” This man was in a completely different situation than my previous character. Just writing this I felt a different lense snapping on, for a moment.
The fact that each person has a different lense is something that I feel like I have always known. However I have never explored it quite the way I did this year. As a class we each delved deep into our own personal experiences and then shared them with each other. This sharing was what really led to my own understanding of other people’s lenses. Because I began to hear some of the stories that people told, because I began to recognize the way they told them. I began to see through their lense. I understand that because of my lense it is unlikely that I will ever get a perfectly clear picture of how they see the world but I know that it is not the same as me. No one sees the world just the way that I do. I, like everyone else that has ever existed, am an original, I see things the way I see things because I am me.
Other pieces of my work:
Journal about the Pledge of Allegiance
Journal about defining freedom
Literary Lens ExplanationWrite two sentences for each core value and how the element project is reflected in the words.
Inquiry- I had many questions as to what my element was. Also, this was new to me, as I have never even heard of this element.
Research - To print this element I had to do research as to how it is used in day to day lives. I read many articles and looked up many websites and saw how it affects us.When you open to the doors, what do you see? In that case, it seems like everyone thinks differently because the uniqueness sparks their light bulb in their mind. I personally admire this quote; “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning” Albert Einstein. The key is to think deeper on your explanations. This year had been a roller coaster when we all started on the first day of school, when I stepped into English class. I saw bright new faces around me and I knew the level I am standing is different. The bigger picture is when we analyzed art and talked about modern day history. At first, I didn't know why we were studying art, but as of now art has a powerful message and I thought World History is about famous people. There are couple meaningful to address; languages is a common barrier to relationships, things that make you different also makes you unique, and different things represent power in different cultures/civilizations. These aspects will show how they are related in both subjects.
One of the journal entries #15 from English is a powerful piece that shows my accomplishments. It shows my ambitious of who I am. The journal entry also relates to a book we’ve read in the beginning of the year. People have their own dreams and hope and they will find a way to achieve it. The journal entry shows how I am my own person and in the book, Janie fight her ways of becoming a stronger woman. I learned that in journal entries, I have to use my critical thinking and my imagination.
History journal #8, talks about religion in past that spreads around the world. “Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the sould of soul- less conditions. It is the opium of the people”- Karl Max . I believe there are many things to learn about religion because everyone was born with different cultures and religions. Sometimes when people worship different religions, people can’t have a relationship with them because they aren’t the same. Religion affects the history because they segregated the people to not socialize, but to hate each other. The unit religion, I have been studying many countries and learn about religion. I am open minded to all religion because they have a special meaning that does different things. The journals help me learned about other people who talked in the group discussions. Sometimes, I would talk because there aren’t any wrong answers.
In English class, we have to write an essay about how languages influence the people around the whole world and me. I wrote about my family who spoke Cantonese when I was born and how English had impacted my life at school. I had trouble writing and talking in English, but as of today, I expanded my knowledge of writing and speaking. Learning different languages makes everyone a lot easier because I can understand three different languages; Cantonese, English, and Spanish. It shows that I want to have conversations with speaking different dialect. On top of it, I created a video about my family who struggles speaking in English. I get to talk to my parents about their lives and I think about how I impacted to the community. This unit is powerful when everyone should respect how they speak
One of my benchmark in English class is a podcast about my cousin. The topic was crossing boundaries to learn about the struggles in their lifetime. I learned that my cousin’s childhood was a lot different than mine because she would have to fit in when she moved to Philadelphia. Even though we were born and raised in California and moved to Philadelphia in our childhood, the environment is different. As of today, she loves Philadelphia more than California because she thought about the living expenses and how the city is more historical. I can also relate to my cousin because we are the oldest kids in the family and we would have to do everything when the parents always depend on us. I learned that growing up is hard, but it can be a life lesson in the future.
A project I have been studying is about religion. I created a blog on wiki spaces and researched about the history of religion. Even though people believe in different God, and I learned that there are different symbols that brings people together because they need something to praise for. This project shows the relationship between the societies on how it is important to them. Religion is very powerful to everyone because the cultures and traditions are different; therefore religion is a unique topic to learn about. I am aware of how people think about other people as of today. People should accept who they are and I think religion just bring people together to have sets of beliefs.
Lastly, my first benchmark in history class, I wrote monologues
about Pipelines
that the United States planned to build it in the south. I wrote about how it
will affect everyone in the society when families will have to leave. The tar
can also impact the environment a lot worst. This was one of my favorite projects
because I learned about the current history that may affect my future. I also
watched videos about the Pipelines and read several articles.
Everything I learned from both classes isn’t about just reading,
there are opportunities to engage the learning spaces such as writing,
activities, watching videos and going on field trips. I want to show how much I
have learned. I learned by having group discussions, working together as a team
for projects and sometimes working independent. Having Mr. Block as a teacher
for two subjects of challenging my own actions. As a new stage, walking to 11th
grade, I will always remember the critical thinking and how people should back
up with their opinions.
The United States’ pledge of allegiance claims that America is “undivisable with liberty and justice for all”. However, as a born American citizen, it takes an effortless argument to oppose against such a statement. After just ten months of participation in Joshua Block’s English and History classes, one could determine the simple fact that the USA has not only been living, but thriving by the system of profit over people, including their own people. It is no doubt that this system has been around ever since the colonization of America. And America’s continuation of such surely holds guarantee.
First and foremost, it is easy to say that America’s wealth began from the profits of slavery, considering the slaves were forced to work their lives for extremely little or no money, there was far more profit to be made. However, despite slavery itself, it seems as if matters and measures of profit have gotten worse in today’s America.
for example, over the year I’ve become aware of the “made in...” labels on my clothing tags. Nearly every shoe, every piece of clothing in my closet was made in what is called, a sweatshop, where poor workers (usually foreign) work long, underpaid hours to create materials (which are sold for exaggerated prices) for the USA. I became aware of my role as a consumer, which made me question whether I was to blame.
During this History course, students had a Modern Day Sweatshop Trial and took on roles as either usa consumers, poor country ruling elites, workers, system of profit and the USA multinational corporations, which was my group role.
The point of the trial was to decide the most guilty group by proving yourself most innocent of them all. what helped my team succeed was the hardened questioning we put on the ruling elites and system of profit. The system, however, argued that it was a system created not only for the people, but by the people. The people meaning, the usa multinationals.
After the trial, there was a required Modern Day Sweatshop Response. In that response I stated that the real question becomes “How can we change the conditions of the sweatshops, or end the sweatshops, and still have financial equality?”. But after the overall consideration that sweatshops are what uphold finance for both workers and multinationals, (seemings though it’s apart of the profit cycle and without it, everyone within it, including the workers would fall) I concluded that there is no simple answer to the question if one exists at all. The fact that the USA would resort to exploitation of poor foreigners just for extra profit just goes to show how little a human’s life is valued compared to money.
Taking the heat from America for a second, another History course that centered p.o.p was the Understanding the French Revolution course. The first activity we did for this topic was understand the social classes, called estates, within Europe at the time. The first estate was the Clergy, the second estate being the nobility, followed by the third estate which was everyone else: the peasents.
The whole problem with the French revolution was the Clergy’s persistant price risings upon the third estate which eventually caused the uproar. As if the Clergy hadn’t been fortunate enough, they’d continued to rise taxes upon the poor for their own beneficial profits, making living for the third estate nearly impossible.
During my research of the French revolution, I read a quote from the topic of rural poverty that stated, “Those who have the most intelligence or are accustomed to the work, hire others and make a profit from their labor”. “Those” meaning both the clergy and nobility. This example alone shows that p.o.p is not just a United States predicament, but a worldwide predicament.
Returning to America’s modern day profitting, my History class explored the world of advertising. While watching a video called, The Ad and the Ego on how advertisements are a secret means of mind control and manipulation, we journaled the important points that stood out to us.
It was stated that the average American is exposed to over 1500 ads a day. At first, it seemed a bit far-fetched, that is, until I realized the hidden ads and just how surrounded by ads we are, that is is indeed like air, i hadn’t noticed it at all. One of the most important quotes that stood out to me was, “Advertising is a system of education. With it, comes truth and consequences”. I thought, just what can ads educate me on? Ads, overall “teach” people that they are not good enough and will never be good enough until they buy the product being advertised in front of their face. They “Teach us to be consumers, happiness can be bought they are instant solutions and products can fullfil our daily needs”.
Just the thought that the United States would allow such mind control to spur upon their people is shocking. What is the point of this? Well, money of course. For us, the people, who don’t notice the manipulation it isn’t about “manipulation or false unconsciousness, it's about getting into their dream life”. Which is why advertising has overtime been modified to fit lifestyle and emotions which makes it easy to convince one to buy the (most likely) unneccesary product.
Just earlier this weekend I was watching a movie, that I’d seen a million times before, on television. It was an hour and a half movie on from 2pm-4pm. Meaning advertisements would be running in between the movie for a total of 30 minutes. However, me knowing the movie by heart noticed that there were scenes being cut out of the movie, not for the sake of the channel’s viewing contents, but just scenes being cut out. Whenever the movie went to commercial, the commercials were playing for far longer than usual. I’d then concluded that they’d unneccesarily shortened the movie just to elongate commericals.
It’s because of advertisements and their sneaky skills of persuasion that American citizens easily become consumers and contribute to the existance of sweatshops. This does not justify the United State’s desperate and drastic measures for profit, but it does add cause and reason to it.
Earlier this year, we learned about the at the time current Keystone Pipeline desicion. The Keystone Pipeline was suppose to be a 1700 mile long pipe going from Canada to the United States to carry “abundant, reliable and cheape”r oil. This manner was another U.S. scheme for profits, despite the effects on the American and Canadian people. The pipeline risked toxics, destruction of nature and farms, and those 180k promised construction jobs would end within the first few years. Despite those risks and more, for the sake of saving money and profitting of oil companies, the USA was determined to get the keystone approved.
Also, Many times in English we journaled about our learnings and understandings about prisons. Just last month we journaled about things about prisons that had stood out to us. In our journal on May 13th, I noted that the USA government were not only funding more prisons than schools, but that the current budget cut situation is so that money taken from public schools can be invested in new prisons. This shows that the government finds it easier to invest in our failure than success. However, taking away a child’s chance or opprotunities of success only leaves extra room for failure, so it seems as if this investment was purposely made.
In 1994, Ponaldo Maledo wrote that “History shows us convincingly and factually that the United States has systematically violated the Pledge of Allegiance”. I have only seen more and more evidence this year. The United States continuously contradicts the Pledge of Allegiance. Our government would rather grow the green in their pockets than the green they walk on, talk about the hurtful truth. Thanks to Mr. Block’s English and History classes, I now have an open mind and open eyes to the fact that Profit over People is a system that indefinitely makes the world go ‘round.
This year in History and English has been a
very fun and challenging learning experience for me. In the beginning of this
school year, I was very solid in writing. I walked in to Mr. Block’s class with
the mindset of I will not succeed in this class, in fact I will slack and not
even really try. Even though I didn't really mean what I was saying, but I was
just finding a way to stay comfortable in my own skin. “Originality is pushing
yourself beyond personal boundaries.”
English is where I grew the most as a
writer. I improved by verifying the words that I use for description. I also
learned that being descriptive precise does a lot to how writing sounds. In the
beginning of this year my descriptive writing level was okay, but now I’m able
to write in a different perspective. From Multiple projects in this class has
helped me learn how to use dialogue and write in my own voice, and express my
own opinions through proof or by supporting my statements. This is a paragraph
from that Project “Wait let me try myself, Heart beating faster the sound
of family laughter and conversations. I can barely pedal, trying my hardest not
to make a fool out of myself, but in my mind that was the only thing I knew was
going to happen. Teenagers disparaging me. Sounds of whispers, bubble gum, and
the feeling of humiliation. I always knew that I could do whatever I put my
mind to so I kept trying. Every Time I fell off I pretend I was doing it all of
on purpose.” Check
out the actual Project by clinking here for this assignment we had to
write a descriptive essay about a moment in our childhood.
“Language is a common barrier to
relationships”. Over the course of English we ran across a project and we had
to write a language biography, It was very challenging. You got to write about
our experiences with language. That’s also what makes learning fun and
challenging in Mr. block’s class, because we took the challenge to write about
something that was important to us and had fun doing it. “ Language can make
your identity glow or make it look trashy” This is a quote from my Language
biography. here is my language bio.
The poetry unit was my favorite unit. I took the descriptive
writing and all the other awesome writing style I learned this year to come up
with incredible poems. We wrote our own creative pieces. This is my
poetry Wikispaces. The best part was studying
a famous poet. I studied Amiri Baraka. I got to learn so much about his writing
style and his life in general. He was almost a politic, and he stood up for his
voice. Click here to learn more about this famous poet.
In history we learned a lot about Humans/
environmental, Religion, Age of Exploration, Renaissance, Playwright,
Revolution, and Industrial Revolution/ Modern day capitalism. I had an amazing
time doing every single one of these assignments. One of my favorite projects was
when we had to write three monologues about the Keystone Pipeline and the
effects it was going to have on people. I wrote as the soil in Camden, A girl
and a wooden pipeline. This is a quote from one of my monologues “ I knew that
I would be developing, because The Governors think that everything has to be
developed.” here is the assignment here is
also a video to this assignment. It was so fun doing this project, some might
say “well what are you learning by just writing monologues?” and I’ll say they
weren't only monologues; we actually had to research facts about the keystone
Pipeline. We read articles, and a lot more other interesting stories. We made
sure we had our facts right.
“Religion does not equal culture.” In our
religion unit, we were able to explore different types of religion and their
sacred books. It was very different to understand other people’s religion,
because learning just your own isn’t being knowledgeable but being flexible
enough to learn others is being wise. In some religions for example
Christianity, is often mixed up with culture. That was always my curiosity; I
just always wanted to know why this often happened. As we got farther in the
unit, we received an assignment where we had to pick a religion that we weren’t
familiar to make a brochure, and since I was so concern about the whole
“Religion does not equal culture.” I decided to approach some of that issue in
my brochure. Here is that Assignment.
This assignment was a journal entry from over the year. I would
just like to share this with you, Here and
also one of my favorite quotes from the journals we wrote over the years. is
“Trying to relocate you from every angle that you was never there to form.”
This is not all of the work we did, this is just some. I don’t think anyone would have the time and patient to write and list all of the assignment we have learned and did this year, I never knew it would be possible for me to learn so much in a small amount of time. I am convinced that anything is possible. All thanks to Joshua Block for making me such open minded and a wise writer. I feel like my brain has expanded ten times larger. I am grateful to have you as my 10th grade English and History teacher.
There’s different sides to ourselves that we don’t really see at a first glance. Those parts of us can be brought out when we create poetry and view things about the world in different lenses. We not only learn about ourselves but we learn sides to people surrounding us and people who are thousands of miles away. Throughout the year, I’ve been able to see parts of myself that I haven’t seen before. Some parts surprised me and some parts led me to believe that there is something inside of me worth searching for and worth continuing beyond Mr.Block’s classroom.
In the duration of our English and History classes, I’ve found a particular interest in poetry. Poetry is a form of self expression and illustrates how identity can be found in anything. I enjoyed reading and analyzing poems but I especially loved creating my own poems. I was able to put myself into my work. I always put myself into my work whether it’s my opinion or beliefs in response to assignment questions, but in the poetry unit I was able to better talk about myself and let my audience know more about me. In my poem uniquely titled “Symone,” I let people see a side of me that they probably didn’t know. When you think of poetry, you think of fun rhymes such as “the green cat swung the blue bat” or something similar, but I learned that poetry is powerful with or without catchy phrases. One line to my poem was “I secretly have an unusual fascination with popsicles in the summertime, fireworks on the fourth of july and sand castles/ I assume it’s because I often find myself dedicating time to things that will only last a few moments.” Cool right? I was able to express myself in a creative way comparing moments that don’t last forever in contrast to what I dedicate my time on whether it’s relationships, friendships, etc. All in all, the poetry unit was the part I loved most about the year. I’ve been writing poetry on and off again but I found a particular spark this year. Poetry is, to me, the best form of self expression. You’re feeling sad? Write a poem. Spilled your milk on the table? Write a poem!
Seeing things in a different lens help create a better understanding of the world. Our lessons about colonization, has led me to learn that we often find ourselves trying to make other places like us because we, as a country, believe that we’re above third world countries. For example, when we learning about Haiti, I learned that we made them kill all of their pigs so none would get infected by the few that were sick. I also learned that we made them change their exchange routines in order for us to cheat them out of their money and live off of their profits, which isn’t fair at all.
I learned that although countries are different from the U.S., their way of doing things aren’t necessarily wrong. They have adapted their ways of doing things and it isn’t our place to try to come in and change it no matter the reason. Sometimes we come into other countries genuinely trying to help, but they don’t need help all the time.
Throughout the school year, by doing the work I’ve noticed that I have changed. I found parts of me within my work, within the problems we inquiry, and within our classroom discussions that ultimately shaped me into a different person. I’m not inferring that I changed as a whole, but I now have a new insight on the world and developed new ways of thinking about them. I’m very grateful for the chance to learn more about the world and identify myself within it. I’ve enjoyed the lessons throughout the year as a whole.
“No matter what hath done guilt is hidden in all. For all things truly wicked started from an innocent.” Imagine a court case with the jury, lawyers, defendants, prosecutors, the security, the audience, and most importantly the judge. Each and every people, in that room whether they have or have no important relation to the case has a role and is designated to play it right and accept it.
In my history class we have researched and role played numerous trials as if we were really the character given to us and through those experience I’ve come to a closing understanding that no one is really innocent. Everyone is guilty of something and for that being we must all share the blame. One ordinary person can change everything with one act. Therefore, one turning their back on the situation as if it didn’t matter and it is not their problem automatically lays a splash of guilt across their face.
For example, in my trial notes for sweatshops going on nowadays the us consumers were second innocent in my opinion (I don’t have notes on the poor workers because that was the role my group played) mostly because they are just the consumers. They buy what they like and the money goes where it goes but during the cross examinations in my notes they stated “They are under a veil in which the multinational corps keep them under a small box of not knowing how and where their clothes are actually made.” and “need to focus on their own problems first than to help others on the spot” Even with that being said in analyzing these statements there is still guilt held securely under all the sympathy in it.
Though they may be accusing the multinational corporations for trying to keep their sweatshops in secret but they could have open their minds more to where does their clothes comes from and though they have problems of their own that is what makes you a better and greater person, to pause for a second, get yourself stable, and hold out a hand for someone in need of a lift. But they didn’t do it. They just went about their lives as if the situation didn’t exist. That is partial to what makes them guilty in the trial. But even before this happened we researched a bit to introduce us to what we’d be getting ourselves into and in my journal entry #31 I jot down some notes on.
“I think religion helps us to deal with what we don't understand, with what overwhelms us, with what makes life hard. It helps us gain an anchor” A quote that I was able to grab and collect in my journal entry #13 along with other very insightful quotes and my reactions to them. In the religion unit that was taught in history class I realized that religion can either unite us or separate us. Journal entry #13 sort of shows the positive side of religion but in journal entry #9 it shows a bit of the opposite. It talks about orientalism and how much ignorance it brings. Religion seems to be the backbone or foundation that some people tend to fall back on when they have nothing else. In that there can and will come unity and acceptance with oneself and others. But then there are some other people who tend to go bit extreme to the point where other people’s lives can be in danger. Journal entry #9 is an example for orientalism is still out there today. But that doesn't mean we can't change it. I have come to analyze at many different angles that religion can be both good and bad but it is mostly up to the people and how they choose to take it to decide.
