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What If History Benchmark!

Posted by Mohamed Marzouk in American History - Laufenberg on
In my project, my point of divergence  is that Germany did not have to pay for all of them war crimes after World War I. The article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles had never been written and an alternative article: article 239 had been passed in its place.  After my DOV, Hitler never took over Germany because Germany didn't go into the Economic turmoil they went through. The Communist Nation of Germany had taken over, and Joseph Stalin from Russia had become that ruthless dictator of Europe. World War II had never began and the Cold War was amplified. Since World War II never happened and Germany didn't split, a lot of Germany's scientists didn't come to the US. This lead to the USSR winning the Cold War and the United States handling the Cuban Missile Crisis wrong; which ultimately lead the nuclear destruction! Ultimately, I enjoyed this project because of the broad topics we could pick from. The one thing I especially enjoyed about the project is the freedom of what I wanted to happen after my DOV. I really enjoyed researching about Joseph Stalin and how ruthless, and an overal bad leader he was. I feel like Hitler extremely impacted the future and how it changed. I could improve this project by making the transitions a lot more fluent and crisp, maybe with a little bit more time I could of done that.

English Journal 46

Posted by Ryan Shaw in English 2 - Block on

What did it feel like to be stuck in the corner, simulating what the Jews in night felt?

 

It felt extremely crowded. Not only this, but we would also have to sleep in conditions like that. It would be inhumane, and we would have spent the entire day like that.

 

In the book, they spent days there. In the 30 seconds that we did it, everyone was already uncomfortable. Not only this, but we felt violated. It’s inhuman to do that to someone.

 

History Journal 11

Posted by Ryan Shaw in World History - Block on

“If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstances.” ~Theodore Dreiser, 1941

 

“Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soul-less conditions. It is the opium of the people.” ~Karl Marx, 1884

 

1.     The first quote is very interesting, it talks about the fact that religion forgives and it lets you do so much more than what is necessary.

2.     The quote by Karl Marx used the word Opium, which was also mentioned in Animal Farm, by George Orwell. 

What If? US History Benchmark

Posted by William Johnson in American History - Laufenberg on
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BycGX2yA2jghcDFzaFJ6ZVNwZjQ
Newspaper on Legalization
Newspaper on Legalization
My project is about the decriminlization of cannabis. My point of divergence occurs when Jimmy Carter decides to make an appeal to Congress to decriminalize cannabia. This occurred near the end of his presidential term. Due to this, the Drug Enforcement Agency refocused to attack the drug cartels shipping other narcotics. This not only led to the taking down of several cartels, but also to a reduced incarceration rate from his term onward. His bold move and promise made on the campaign trail was followed through and states have now began to tax marijuana. This has led to much more beneficial development in urban areas as well as reduced budget deficits.

History Journal 42

Posted by Ryan Shaw in World History - Block on

Is colonization good?

 

Short term- extremely bad, can wipe out entire populations (Native Americans) but at the same time, can be good by bringing new technology. This could be bad through, because the populous could not know how to handle the new technology.

 

Long term- can be good or bad.

 

The nations that arise from Colonization, such as America, can be extremely influential and become a great nation.

            It’s important that the country that starts the colonization encourage a new country, and that it lets it be independent if it wants to. 

What If? US History Q4 - Tenzin Ngawang

Posted by Tenzin Ngawang in American History - Laufenberg on
My point of divergence was governor Alfred E. Smith from New York winning the 1928 presidential election instead of Pres. Herbert Hoover. President Franklin D. Roosevelt blamed Pres. Herbert Hoover for starting the great depression and therefore, I chose this as my point of divergence. I liked this project because you could actually choose any topic you want and you get to change something small that twisted everything. I chose this topic because I wanted to know more about the Great Depression because I don't recall myself learning about that time period in any of my classes. I just heard it was a really mournful time period in US History. I researched and learned that Herbert Hoover was the protagonist, he was the president during great depression and he was blamed for it. So I asked the question, what if the presidential candidate who was running against him during the previous election, would America had to suffer the great depression time period. The other candidate was either Alfred Smith or Calvin Coolidge and I realized that Calvin Coolidge withdrew himself from running as a president after his son's death. I debated whether to chose Calvin Coolidge rather than Alfred E Smith multiple times as my point of Divergence because Calvin Coolidge was an interesting character. Therefore, if I were to do this project again, I'd choose Calvin Coolidge as the president during the great depression era. The most challenging part of the project was the final product, I didn't know what to put and how 2012 would look like because of my point of divergence. The most interesting that I came across through my research was the great depression occurred a decade after the roaring 1920s. Roaring twenties was a time period when America was on the top of the world, America was known as the richest country in the world. However, a decade after, Americans were loosing job, they couldn't afford anything. The unemployment rates increased up to 25 percent, which is a lot, millions of citizens were losing their job. 

​Primary Sources:


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What If? - Tenzin Ngawang
View more presentations from tenzy94.

What If? Benchmark

Posted by Michelle Torelli in American History - Laufenberg on
My awesome website that I created with yola!


I really enjoyed this project. The topic of my project revolved around the Space Race; previous history states that USA had captured German rocket personnel, giving them the advantage to win the Space Race (Landing on the Moon first) against Russia. My point of divergence for this project was "What if USA captured decoy German rocket personnel." 


Through my point of divergence you will see complete chaos and total change for what the USA and Russia has become for 2012. I briefly explained and tied in primary sources, both prior and post, to my point of divergence. The future that I envisioned of my POD was for the Russians to land on the moon first. Nevertheless, the USSR to remain together and would become the most wealthiest economy in the world due to their findings on the moon. Also, the USSR would gain partnerships of other countries (China and Japan) to support them in creating advanced technologies for the market.


I liked everything about this project, specifically the creativity and openness we were given to choose what we wanted to do and how we could create the final product. The most difficult aspect of this projects was successfully tying everything together in an appealing matter. Also, creating primary source documents were difficult because of the detail required to connect with my POD.



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What if? US History Benchmark

Posted by Sam Lovett-Perkins in American History - Laufenberg on
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This is a picture of one of the primary sources I made for our "What If?" project. The "What If?" project is mostly a creativity project where we can create an alternate future that occurred due to one specific change in American history. We then would need to create three primary sources to validate a future where this event had happened. Finally we then tie all three sources together along with three other real sources prior to the point of divergence into one final product. For my final product I made a website for a museum that featured American History for the alternate future. One can access this website by clicking here. 

For my project the main idea was, what if Napoleon Bonaparte never sold the Louisiana Purchase exclusively to the United States? My point of divergence was when Napoleon was considering to sell the Louisiana Purchase he asked his council for advice. In real history the council disagreed with him and he sold the territory in spite of them. However in this alternate future his council agreeded with him and so he considered the full possibilities of selling it to the other neighbor of New France, Spain. He ended up selling it to both to get more money, in this way it created much tension between the US and Spain, which turned into a war for many years after.

The alternative future would then be very different. The main difference is because of the increased contact with Spanish culture a much larger percent of American society speaks Spanish. In addition the united states is in a constant state of alarm in preparations of any kind of violence from Spanish troops. The two countries in the current day are at a cease fire much like North and South Korea. IN addition to this there is also a heavy Native American influence on American culture. Because Native Americans were never moved out west they were forced to interact with colonists and the mix of culture was more evident in society.

I had mixed opinions about this project. I like the creativity aspect and the ability to explore a change in history. It shows that the smallest of moments can change the future greatly, and it really helped with noticing how important small changes have been. The process for this project was simple I stayed on top of my work and did everything in a timely manor. It was challenging to make primary sources look old.

4th Quarter Project: The war between two neighborhoods

Posted by Sade Skelton in Globalization - Laufenberg on
​
https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/file/d/0BziwRn91x0y9SmloOEVDakF3ajQ/edit?pli=1

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/PHI-17-Year-Old-Killed-in-Northern-Liberties.html

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Mom-Son-Shot-in-Northern-Libs-Cops--150367245.html

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8657500


Reflection:


The most challenging thing I found about this project is trying to tie it in with Globalization. I chose to write my journal story about something I knew about first hand and has actually been around too see and hear on my own. I also had a hard time with trying to make the paper sound more of a blog/journal thing instead of sounding like a thesis paper.

I always knew about this story because I am from one neighborhood and has friends in the other neighborhood. I have seen these things first hand, the 17 year old boy that died was friend of mines I knew since kindergarten and the mother and son caught in the cross fire was my friend mother and brother. These things have a great effect on me, I didn't physically get shot but these things messes up people minds mentally.

I think this story doesn't receive enough attention because its always something about African Americans doing something violent in the news. Everyday you'll see inner city violence on the news so this would be just another story. But the shootings doesn't always happen in the same place in my story there's a shooting almost everyday if not everyday. The violence is senseless and  is getting out of hand. I feel like the city of Philadelphia should put more police patrol out on the streets of Philadelphia. I don't think this story will get more attention over the next few months unless another innocent person is shot dead. I learned that inner city violence is somewhat of a disease it spreads through out the youth.

Dominican Republic Election: Jareese, Sade Zillah

Posted by Jareese Long in Globalization - Laufenberg on
The country we were assigned was the Dominican Republic and the election was held on May 20th 2012. First, we got help from Uyen Nguyen who suggested that we get in contact with a man she met named David in the DR. 
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And from there, I went onto Facebook and contacted David.
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However, I did not receive a response from David which led us to find a new ways to get information that we needed. One of the group members, Zillah, suggested that we talk to one of the underclassmen, Franklin Mercado, because he's from the DR and has family who lives there and could help.  One Thursday afternoon, we all got together with Franklin and he phoned his cousin on Google Talk. His cousin, Carlos Mariano Mendez who is apart of the Military answered the following questions for us.

How old do you have to be to vote in the DR?

What is the voting process like in the DR?

Are you familiar with the voting process in the US?

What are some political parties in the DR?

Bahama's Election Country

Posted by Delesha Jackson in Globalization - Laufenberg on
​For this project our group, Tyrone, Qyidir, and De'Lesha, were told to look at a country and research how their election process went. This project was harder than expected because it was a challenge to get in contact with the people from the different countries. It may seem as though it might be easy because of the technology that we have but it wasn't for that. 
After talking with our teacher we started to get moving along with the process because she gave us some ways to contact different people in the Bahamas. After sending out emails and days of waiting a response we finally got one from a teacher. She then forwarded this email to someone in the class who was willing to talk to us about the election process. We exchanged emails but we didn't really get information we were suppose to skype and interview him but things got hectic with other work. So this project wasn't really successful although we did get in contact with him we didn't really get the information. 
This was a fun project but because it wasn't stressed as much as the others it wasn't really focused on. So if we could have redid this project we would've taken more time out to really get in contact with and get the information from him. 
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3 little birds sat on my window... (Briana)

Posted by Briana Hicks in English 2 - Block on

English Journal Entry Part 3: #25

 

I wear a mask, but I’m no superhero

Because this mask is a lesson of being a zero

I work everyday and I work every night

But people depend on me to hold their might

I’m not considered as stupid, nor as average

But I try my hardest from not becoming a savage

I’m barely recognized for all that I’ve done

Because people’s reed blocks their minds from thinking they’ve won

But you see, I’m tired, I’m tired of being rung

I’m not a bell that you ring just for fun

 

 

English Journal Entry: #33

 

“I love anime”.

 

So, I don’t really know what to talk about…. Um:

 

In you and I, there’s a new land

(angels in flight)

My sanctuary, my sanctuary yeaa

Where fears and lies melt awayyyyyyyyyy

(Music will die)

What’s left of me, what’s left of me now

 

I watch you, fast asleep

All I fear means nothing

 

In you and I there’s a new land

(Angels in flight)

My sanctuary, My sanctuary yea

Where fears and lies melt away

(Music will die)

What’s left of me, what’s left of me now

…That’s all I can really remember right about now.

 

B is for Brain ‘cause I got brain damage, I’m deranged, insane got cerebrum like a cabbage.

 

 

English Journal Entry: #35

 

I wish I could freeze time. I just got over the stress with my math benchmark and now it’s back, and with more benchmarks in the third quarter. I need more time, it’s not even a choice right now. I wish I could get everything done so I can finally have free time. So I can draw in my spear time. It’s really sad when you can’t do something you love to do because every teacher is freaking punching and smacking you with benchmarks with no breaks in between. I thought I’d be able to get a better grade on this stupid stank benchmark but I don’t think I will. I always have more work than anyone else and I always have to be the leader. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t because people never really listen to me, or leave it to me. When I get stressed and people try to help after the fact I deny them. I need the help, but I don’t trust they’ll do it. It sucks, it really sucks. 

NEGATIVE SPACE!

Posted by Gabrielle Arnold in Art - 9 - Hull on
Negative Space Reflection:

1. Photograph your negative space cut outs

2. Photograph your negative space drawings

3. Upload them to your blog

4. Answer the following questions in full sentences.

A. What is negative space (explain this concept to a fourth grader that has never heard of it)

Negative space is the space around an object.

B. Explain how you found negative space in 1. your cut out?, 2. in your stool drawing?

I found the negative space by tracing out side the actual objects.

C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?

It helps an artist observe the objects in an easier  way and it is easier to see the shapes.

D. Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why not


Negative space enhances drawings because the shape is more defined and clear.


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Photo04271106

Egypt Election - Bach | Gina | Fangda

Posted by Bach Tong in Globalization - Laufenberg on
​About Egypt:

Egypt is located in northern part of Africa known as the Middle East. The country is known for its vast desserts, and its rich ancient history of Kings and Queens with pyramids that still exist. Today, the country is the worlds 6th largest supplier of liquified natural gas and oil is the main export. Although the country's oil and tourism industries are still very prosperous, the recent revolution and overthrowing of former president Hosni Mubarek has left the country's current political state in disarray. 

About Egypt's Election:

Election in Egypt is universal and compulsory to all Egyptian citizen over 18 years of age. Egypt has a two-round system for its presidential election. Previous to the revolution, Egypt's election process included a popular vote by the citizens for the head of state or president of Egypt. The president would be elected for a six year term after being nominated by the People's Assembly and then later confirmed by the popular vote. The People's Assembly is composed of 508 members, 498 of them are elected for a five year term and 10 members are added by the newly elected president each new term. The elections for the People's Assembly are carried out in three phases, in which there are 12 election days held throughout the country. Now that the revolution has occurred, the Egyptian people are currently writing a new legislature to carry out presidential elections.

Candidate Qualification:

- Be born in Egypt to Egyptian parents
- Not holding dual nationality
- Not marriage to a non-Egyptian
- Support of 30000 voters

Now in Egypt the top two candidates have decided to enter the runoff election next month (06/16-06/17). They are Mohamed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmed Shafik who served under Hosni Mubarak as the prime minister.


Mohamed Morsi has been Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party(FJP) after the revolution happened in 2011. During 2000 and 2005, he was a Member of Parliament. Before the Freedom and Justice Party was founded, Mohamed Morsi had been a member of the Guidance Office of the Muslim Brotherhood. After that, he was elected by the Muslim Brotherhood's Guidance Office to be the first president of the new party. Mohamed Morsi was at first being nominated as a backup candidate, but later on he took the place of Khairat El-Shater as a formal candidate when the latter was disqualified.

Ahmed Mohamed Shafik was a senior commander in the Egyptian Air Force and later served as Prime Minister of Egypt for a period of 33 days, when Hosni Mubarak was in charge. Ahmed Shafik served in the army as an young officer and had attended the War of Attrition and 1973 October War. Later in 1983, he was appointed a military attaché in the Egyptian Embassy in Rome. In 1991, he had become the Air Force's Chief of Staff, and lasted for 5 years, when he became the Commander of the Egyptian Air Force. Seen as "one of Mubarak's old guard", Shafik became a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in February 11, 2011. Ahmed announced his candidacy in the Egyptian Presidential Election in November 2011.

We interviewed Mohamed Zayed, who works for the Ministry of Education and was also one of the visitors to SLA during the two weeks of May.
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We also reached out to Sharif Kouddous, who came to our class and spoke as part of the Pulitzer Center. He is now a senior correspondence in the Middle East for Democracy Now.

Here is an interview he did with Democracy Now on the topic of Egypt Presidential Election:

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Reflection:

The process of corresponding with an Egyptian person to interview them about their presidential elections was very long and required patience, however we are glad that we were able to learn something. Our group gained a new insight into this foreign land and was surprised to learn that presidents are elected in Egypt for a longer term than those in the United States and also the People's Assembly of Egypt has almost the same number of members as our American Congress and it functions similarly. We think that this was a good experience. If we were to do this again, we would definitely not procrastinate and spend more time talking to each other about the project. Our advice to others would be to pick a country that you're interested in so that you'll be able to fully appreciate the knowledge given to you in the interview.

4Q Advanced Art Final Blog

Posted by Natalee Schiavoni in Advanced Art - Hull on
​4Q Advanced Art Blog


During the 4Q I advanced my art skills extremely, I used variations of different of artistic methods to improve the way I look at my art and how the previous quarters have let me explore my individually as an artist. This quater I mainly focus on abstract pencil drawings as well as abstract water color paintings. Compare to my other artistic work throughout this year, abstract water color was a new adventure and I enjoy working with it as one of my final products to submit for the 4Q marking period.

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You and The World Blog #3- Jeremiah Cunningham

Posted by Jeremiah Cunningham in English 1 - Dunn on
In my previous blogs I talked a lot about STDs and what goes on in the world. This blog post is a little different. This is a “Post for change”. I will be encouraging the youth and adults to stand up against STDs and the billion of cases in the world today. This topic is strongly considered in medical facilities and a little outside in the streets. Us as people who sit bak and watch cases like this get larger by the day, can stand up and make a stand. Whether it’s going to schools and talking to kids, or just donating to Medical Facilities in order to support studies on finding a cure. WE MUST DO SOMETHING!

There is a lot being done as far as STD awareness goes. There is an annual celebration in April called “STD awareness month” which is dedicated to find a cure for the diseases and educating the youth and raising money for awareness. It also calls attention to the impact of STDs and promote testing. Adolescents and Teenagers are mainly vulnerable to STDs. That is why its important get out the message that Safe sex is much recommended and widely expressed by doctors and healthcare providers. Ages 15-24 are responsible for nearly half of the world cases of STDs.



    Family doctors are supposed to keep up with children’s health. When teens go to the doctor’s, the doctor asks the child are they participating in any type of sexual activity. It is not a guarentee that the child is telling the truth or not when they say no. That’s why the doctor goes on and tells them about the dangers of unprotected sex, and STDs. Although doctors give the child a little 3-5 minute pep talk, it doesn’t work. That is why my Post for change is to try and find a way to get that message out there either by video, Public Service announcement, or even making a pamphlet on the dangers of STDs.

My post for change is that I’m going to make a PSA (Public Service Announcement). This will cover mine and others’ views on STDs and how they affect our world. I will tell what STDs do to you and how we can make a stand. What I’m trying to do is get out and make people care about a subject that I feel strongly about. I was always scared to have intercourse when I heard of these diseases. Now that I have, I am terrified. That was the biggest mistake of my life. I just want to get out to the public the danger of such diseases and if you can PLEASE keep it in your pants. I would like to thank Ms.Dunn, Tyanna Pleasant, Keyaira doughty, and Chaveliz  for helping me with their views on STDs. I also would like to thank my father for telling me the dangers of STDs and how they affect.





Election Project Work

Posted by Tariq Smith in Globalization - Laufenberg on
(Tariq, Sam K., & Sam S)


My Group's election country was Russia. Our Election was in early March and we tried several different ways of coming in contact with someone over there to conduct interviews. We emailed an english speaking school over there, as well as we tried to get in contact with luke van meter's brother who actually taught over there. We tried following up with these actions but they were to no avail.

If we were to do this project over again, we would have tried to physically speak to luke's brother, and go deeper with pursuing someone through Serge's family. We felt that there was hardly any physical connection therefore making it extremely difficult to establish a relationship with a stranger as well as getting them to do a task for us.

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History Journal #33: Industrial Revolution routine vs. your morning routine.

Posted by Karly Bornstein in English 2 - Block on

-Woke up

-Pushed the snooze bar

-Dragged myself out of bed

-Hopped in the shower

-Put lotion on

-Got dressed

-Ate cereal

-Packed lunch

-Put product in hair

-Packed bag

-Got papers signed

-Drove into school with traffic

 

Industrial Revolution~ No cars! No rice krispies! No hair product!

 

These 2 routines are different because we have a lot more technology then they have back then. I was woken up with the alarm clock, probably had cleaner water in my shower, got in a car, watched some TV. If I lived back then, I probably wouldn’t have as much to do in the morning getting ready wise.

What’s different?

-location of bathroom

-would go to work not school

-lack of transportation

-no quick food

-no electricity

Eng. Journal #36:I wish I could...

Posted by Karly Bornstein in English 2 - Block on
I wish I could be tall. I wish I could stop coughing and having a stuffy nose. I wish I could get all this work done more easily. I wish I could be home asleep. I wish I could have another chocolate bar. I wish I could write forever without my hand hurting. I wish I could change the weather to warm. I wish I could eat without getting fat. I wish I could have a puppy. I wish I could play drums. I wish I could be a marine biologist. I wish I could paint my nails neatly. I wish I could have a second chance. I wish I could everything, but most of this stuff won’t come true anyway. I wish I could write neater…

 

Eng. Journal #50: Art Questions

Posted by Karly Bornstein in English 2 - Block on
5/7/12

1.     Why do people create art?

I think people create art to express themselves. (Feelings, thoughts, etc.) Depending on what art means to people there are many ways people use art. Someone could be trying to tell a story, or they could also show and explain something instead of writing or talking about it.

2.     What makes art powerful?

I think art is powerful when it’s very well known when (if dance) it’s big and dramatic. It can be powerful to certain people if they can relate to it, like for music. A lot of art can be powerful if it’s done well. If the artist is confident in their work and it’s really good, it can leave a long lasting impression.

Blog Post 3: You and the World

Posted by RubyJane Anderson in English 1 - Dunn on

In my first and second blog posts, I have summarized the education crisis in the US. The issue is such an important and complex one that I could write several books about. Because this issue goes so far over my head and most other peoples heads, the best way to incite change is through awareness. So, to bring more awareness to this issue, I will be inviting a few friends over to my house for a screening of the film Waiting For Superman. Because I can't have everyone at my house, I encourage you to watch the film on your own time (you can watch it here)

This film does a very good job of explaining the issue and gives some interesting statistics (through really great graphics!). One thing to keep in mind is that this film portrays charter schools as the "miracle" that will fix US Schools, when in reality most charter schools perform the same or worse then neighborhood schools (check out this chart)

For my piece of original content, I have produced a fact sheet.

Sources

Education Statistics