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Inquiry:  I asked many questions when beginning this project. What is neodymium? How can I reflect the element's identity in a piece of art?

Research: I did quite a lot of research to educate myself on neodymium and it's purpose and importance in our lives. I researched both the science and chemistry of the element and the artistic application of the element.

Collaboration: My peers helped critique my various sketches. I was able to brainstorm better out loud and get good constructive criticism to improve my product.

Presentation: The presentation of the final element print is essential. I had to print neatly and cut and matte it precisely in order for it to look professional, well done, and well presented. 

Reflection: I reflected and looked at the bigger picture several times during my process, considering what my project would look like in a grade wide periodic table. I also reflected on my previous experience in science and engineering class with elements to help enrich my project.

I have learned many interesting and life assisting things throughout this years English class, but one of the things that will stick out to me the most is the language that I have learned coming into this year and leaving this year. My ability to express myself through spoken word and written as well has grown throughout the year. Like I have my language has grown with me, and it has shown through my work and not just in English class, but also in other assignments that require me to write or express myself. With the help of Mr. Block and his English class, my growth has shown in my work. Here are some examples in which my writing has shown growth from now compared to the beginning of the year and my previous years as a student.

         Language evolves within a person. As a class we were just heading into our poetry unit and I wrote a poem about my stuttering. A line from my poem that stuck out to me or really shows how I've grown is like a butterfly I fell as if I'm encased in steel. I feel like that was my language in the beginning of the year, trapped. Now that I have grown, my language has as well and it has broken out of its steel shell that it was encased in becoming this very elegant language that it has become which I am proud of. This is just one of the ways my language has evolve over the years.

         Another example where my language has evolved along with me is in my Language Autobiography. I expressed my difficulty dealing with language itself. Since I am a person that stutters language is not really said to be my friend. In the autobiography I compared my stuttering and everyone else's speech to mine. I said "I’ll try to keep at my own speed by switching lanes and letting everybody go past, but it’s hard. My brain is a sweatshop. All of the work it has to put up with and the only reward is knowing that you’re living to do it all again the next day." This describes how I feel everyday. My confidence has risen since that moment. Which shows the growth and the evolution of my language and myself as one.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

These 2 examples will always be the main part to my evolution with my language. This is what started it all. From me coming out of my shell to actually using the new language that I have achieved. Not overcoming my speech problem, but just knowing how to use it now it one of the abilities that I have acquired in my evolution of language. I am thankful that all of my hard work that I have done this year and all of the assistance that I have received from Mr. Block and Ryan as well. Without them and the projects that we were given, language would not have evolved the way it has inside me.

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)

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.