NHD Project

For my project I looked at the various leaders of Reconstruction and the part they played in the difficult time after the Civil War. The website contains information about the president's and congress's role in shaping the years after the Civil War explaining there successes and failures as leader and how they as seen today. In addition it looks at what was achieved during the Reconstruction period and how it's influence was seen later on.

Website:

http://38030043.nhd.weebly.com/

Ms. Gloria Steinem and Second-Wave Feminism

​http://75401263.nhd.weebly.com/

My project is about how Gloria Steinem, a leader of the Women's Liberation Movement (or Second-Wave feminism) helped change what it's like to be a woman in America today. Through founding the feminist magazine Ms., Steinem opened dialogue about previously taboo issues of sex, sexuality, gender, relationships, abuse, abortion, equal pay, and equal respect. My website tells Gloria's story and also tells the story of feminism, then and now, what has changed, how it changed, and what still needs to happen. 

The Amiga and the Future of Personal Computing

In the 1980s, personal computers were very different than today. Jay Miner led a team of engineers to create the first computer that was anything like what we expect from personal computers today. The time period in which the Amiga was released in allowed for a unique form of creative expression to emerge, leading to today's web where anyone can be a creator.


Eleanor Roosevelt NHD

  This website explains how Eleanor Roosevelt lead the people of her time and left a legacy behind. She was able to lead movements and be a chairman for The United Nations. She did a lot of work during her husband's presidency, but continued to make changes even after her husband past away. You could say that Eleanor Roosevelt made a new name for the first ladies that followed.
http://33949460.nhd.weebly.com

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger was monumental in the birth control movement. Her hard work and dedication made it possible for all women to be able to have and use birth control. From this movement she triggered a Sexual Revolution, which forever changed the way we viewed sex, sexuality and gender roles. 
http://68553779.nhd.weebly.com/

Dwight D Eisenhower — A Legacy of Peace

Dwight D Eisenhower was a World War II hero as one of the planners and leaders of D-Day, and president of the United States during the 50s. This video is about his strive for peace during his presidency: how his legacy, in the war, as president, and in his life, is one of peaceful relations and understanding between countries.

Chicken Caesar Salad

Chicken caesar salad:

 

 

Ingredients: 

- Chicken

- Roman 

- Lettuce 

- Grated cheese 

  • Croutons 
  • Creamy caesar salad dressing 
  • Lemon juice
  • Black pepper 

 

Instructions: 

- Season the chicken and grill it 

- Rinse off the lettuce & put it into a bowl

- When chicken is fully cooked, add it to the bowl with salad

- Add grated cheese onto the chicken and lettuce 

- Add the dressing 

- Add croutons on top 

- Lightly stir everything together

- Serve 

 

Analysis: 

 

Caesar salad is know internationally. People often eat in on the side of their main  course meals and sometimes even on the side of their meals. People can make caesar salad any way they want to. This salad does not really have one specific way it has to be made in order to have that title. Chicken caesar salad is both tasty and healthy. It really only takes a few simple ingredients to create the salad. 

First, the chicken has to be cooked on a stove top and seasoned. After cooked, the chicken has to be sliced or chopped up in order to be proportioned right with everything else that goes into the salad. After the chicken is finished, the lettuce has to be rinsed off and chopped as well. Add the chicken into the salad bowl after the lettuce is chopped. Then add the grated cheese into the bowl along with the fresh squeezed lemon juice. After, stir lightly then start to pour the salad dressing into the bowl while still stirring. Then after that, add the croutons in the bowl and continue to stir lightly. 

 

NHD

I chose my topic by first looking through the suggested topics that were posted to my history classes online webpage. I saw that each category had a topic of interest and I’m interested in sports. This led me to topic of Ben Chapman and the Philadelphia Phillies. I’m from Philadelphia, PA and an avid sports fan so, this topic was high on my list. I saw “42” which is a movie about Jackie Robinson and in that movie Chapman is mentioned in the movie. Chapman is not portrayed as the good guy in the movie but he was a prominent character in the story of Jackie Robinson.    



http://86929423.nhd.weebly.com/

NHD: Brandon Yam

Throughout the first semester, we were tasked to participate in National History Day. To participate, we had to create a project that consisted of two parts, a paper and then a creative piece of either a video or website. The theme of this year's NHD was "Leadership and Legacy." I chose Steve Jobs as my topic. 
Click here to see my website! 


Arroz con Gandules

Screen Shot 2015-01-26 at 9.35.29 AM
Screen Shot 2015-01-26 at 9.35.29 AM
Ingredients

2 cups grain rice (rinsed)

4 to 5 cups of hot water,

3 tablespoons of sofrito

16 ounce can of gandules

1 packet of Sazon with achiote

3 tablespoons of oil

Salt and adobo



Process

1. Add the oil into a big pot and let it heat up.

2. Add the sofrito into the pot and stir it until it starts to bubble up.

3. Add the gandules (beans) into the mixture and add the sazon.

4.Add the salt to give it more taste

5. Add a little bit of adobo to give it more taste.

6. Add water and let it boil

7. Then add the rice and lower the heat to low.

8. DO NOT STIR right away. Wait 10 minutes and stir rice.

9.Sir rice every 10 minutes for 30-40 minutes until the rice is tender.




Analysis: (this part you will be explaining how this meal is healthy, sofrito, guandules sazon and the ingredients basically)


Arroz con gandules is a combination of rice, pigeon peas and pork, cooked in the same pot with Puerto Rican-style sofrito. This is the signature dish of Puerto Rican culture and also has become very popular throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Arroz con gandules is part of Puerto Rico's national dish.


Arroz con gandules is a pretty healthy meal if you look at the ingredients. One of the major components that displays its healthiness is the fact that you have to make it from scratch. Since you are making it entirely from scratch, the excess chemicals that are contained in processed foods isn’t a problem.


Sofrito offers a lot of healthy nutrition for the body because it is a mixture of all natural vegetables blended. These vegetables such as peppers, greens, onions, garlic, etc. contain nutrients that the body need on the daily basis such as Vitamin D, E, and C.


Grained rice is the most nutritious because of its starchy substance. Most of it isn’t entirely natural, but it does in fact contain some nutrition that will benefit the body. Although rice isn’t very high on vitamins, it’s a good source for iron. This is very important because we need iron on the daily basis in order to give us strength. Iron is an essential mineral. The major reason we need it is that it helps to transport oxygen throughout the body. Iron is an important component of hemoglobin, the substance in red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to transport it throughout your body. Hemoglobin represents about two-thirds of the body’s iron. If you don't have enough iron, your body can't make enough healthy oxygen-carrying red blood cells. A lack of red blood cells is called iron deficiency anemia.
Screen Shot 2015-01-26 at 9.37.07 AM
Screen Shot 2015-01-26 at 9.37.07 AM

Quarter #2 Artwork

This quarter I feel that my artwork has improved since the first quarter. For example for one of the projects I had to take a photo and use this app called pixlr. It was tricky to use at first but then the finalization of the picture look wonderful! Like I said in the first quarter, anything you make can be art. Art can be powerful to anyone! For this Second quarter I had to make a collage by using pictures from magazines. Then make a fabric drawing by using pencil and charcoal. After that, I had to take a photo and use pixlr. Last but not least, pick a piece of writing and illustrate a passage. I'm happy how my art turned out to be this quarter, so please don't judge. Enjoy checking out my work.


Collage: For this project, I was allowed to make a collage of anything I wanted. I made my collage spell out the word art because why not? Its art class for crying out loud. So what I used in the collage was pictures from home/design magazines. I used those type of pictures from those magazines because most of them had patterns. Basically how I see art, I see a lot of patterns!


Fabric drawing: Now at first I was suppose to draw fabric on top of a stool, but I really wanted to do something else. So I used my sleeve on one of my SLA hoodies as an advantage to do something else. Now this was my first time using charcoal. I feel I did great using it for the first time. My favorite part of the drawing is the hand leading into the sleeve of the arm because to me it looks realistic.


Photo: On this project, I was aloud to take a photo of anything I wanted in the world. After taking that photo I had to use this app called pixlr. I chose to take a picture of food because food is amazing haha. Especially burgers because its my favorite food in the entire world. After experiencing pixlr and clearly showing one burger while the other was blurry, I seriously wanted to jump into that photo. It basically looks delicious!


Illustration: Finally, for this project, I had to pick any piece of writing and illustrate a passage. I picked "The Cat in the Hat" because that was children's book I grew up with when I was little. The book used to make me laugh a lot. On this day I'm not sure why it made me laugh, but I don't care now because its cool to draw something that was from your childhood. 


Hope you enjoyed my artwork for quarter #2!

Bean Buns


God I hate uniforms. School, sports, work, all of them. No matter what kind they are, they always make you feel like shit. And I’m wearing the worst kind right now; Military. Ugh, I don’t what’s worse, the skin tight under suit riding up your ass or the heaving armor weighing you down, but in the end I always feel so… confined. Anyways right now I’m stuck in vertical line formation between Tomoko and Ares, both half asleep just like me. I think every soldier is right now but I can’t tell because, again, i’m half asleep. We’re all waiting for our commander who thinks making us get up at the crack of dawn and standing in line waiting for him is good for us. And y’know what maybe it is. Maybe it will help us become better soldiers in the long run. Or better people in general. But I don’t care because Getting up in the morning is the worst thing ever.

All the 3 other soldier walk through our line formation and what do ya know it’s Commander Osamu. Or a just some big blobs that decide to walk around. Again i can’t tell because I’M HALF ASLEEP. Commander Osamu walks toward us to check if we’re all in position. Everyone is dead silent, because our Commander is basically godzilla reincarnated. I’m not even kidding he scares the shit out of me.

I see Tomoko falling asleep on my arm, so I nudge her.

“Bean buns… “ She says softly. She’s in the middle of a dream. I’m guessing it’s about bean buns. And food. And eating. Mmm… Bean buns.

Out of no where I feel a hard slap across my head.

“ Private Mizuki, and Tomoko! Wake up!” A male voice says. I open my eyes to find an angry looking Commander Osamu staring at us. Dammit I feel asleep. Both Tomoko and scrambled into position, with our backs straight and our arms behind us locked together. I look around, and see the other soldiers with their red snickering faces. Then I looked at Commander Osamu, who is staring at us with big dead eyes of distrust. When he does this, and he does it a lot, it’s like he’s trying to you figure out. The worst part is I think he does. It’s super creepy.

“Everyone Shut up!” He barks. Everyone then shut up. “How many times do I have to get you people to wake the hell up! I don’t care what excuse you have, I don’t care if it’s hard. Just stay awake and do what you’re told!” He then turns over to use so quickly, we don’t even have time to blink. “I want you two on patrol right now.” He said softly.

“ But, but...Bean Buns sir!” We blurt out. The struggle of hunger is real right now.

“Oh my god, just do it!” He says annoyed.

“Yessir” So Tomoko and I run off to patrol, wearing uncomfortable clothing, half asleep, and dreaming of bean buns.

To be continued...

Q2 Art Portfolio

As an artist, I want to show people my feelings and what matters to me a lot. I want them to reflect on their life as well because when people reflect on their life they think more about what is important to life. For art collage I made a rose out of a lot of newspapers because rose represents my grandparents. After my grandpa passed away I realized that they matter to me a lot, and now I’m making sure my grandma is in my life as much as she can. Drawing a fabric was something harder because I never drew a fabric as an assignment.

Photo editing was an assignment I liked because it was fun to take pictures when I was away for winter break. Illustration assignment was a part when I went back to memories when I lived in Poland and watched cartoons with my grandparents that represented friendship.

Jamal's Creative // English Benchmark

IMG_0747
IMG_0747
Each platform is the scene for each quote I did

​Platform 1- This platform is Act 2 Scene 1 which is the dagger scene.
Platform 2- This platform is Act 2 Scene 3 which is the scene where Duncan's death was discovered.
Platform 3- This platform is Act 3 Scene 4 is the scene that shows Banquo's ghost.
Platform 4- This platform is Act 4 Scene 1 when Macbeth returns to the three witches.
Platform 5- This platform is Act 5 Scene 5 when Macbeth gives a farwell speech.

Levithan's Characterization & Chapter Choice

  In the novel entitled “Everyday” written by David Levithan, the author uses specific strategies to keep the readers attention. The main character is not fully introduced, but the reader meets them in every chapter as they go through the different identities. This setup affects how the reader understands the main character because there is never a proper introduction. In Everyday, the narrator who goes by the name of A is in a different body after 12am. Other than finding out that the narrator goes by the name of A and that they’re 16 years old, we never find out any deeper personal traits. Although we never find out personal traits, the reader does get a chance to experience A’s thoughts. Personally, I believe the reasoning behind the reader never having the ability to get to know the protagonist is because it does not know who it is either. This way of writing keeps the reader engaged throughout the book. It makes you keep an eye open and be on your toes to see if you’ll ever find out A’s identity. Is it a male or female? What’s its ethnicity? Where was it born? Is it even human? While we never get to know these things by the end of the novel, David Levithan’s characterization skills allow us to get to know A more and more each and everyday.


  Along with the author not fully introducing the main character, he also uses another technique that was very appealing, unique, and interesting. The second technique was that David Levithan chose to make every chapter a different day of the protagonist’s life. This writing style put emphasis on the authors decision of A having to start over everyday living a different life.


  The novel starts off with the protagonist introducing his “situation” to the readers. Our main character A early off says “Every day I am someone else. I am myself-- I know I am myself-- but I am also someone else. It has always been like this”. The author is allowing the character  to explain to us how it knows that there will always be its inner self within someone else. A
knows that physically it does not look the same everyday as a normal person would, but it knows who it is deep inside. I believe the author has the protagonist state this in order to make the reader believe that this is A’s way of believing that it knows how it is. It’s covering up the fact that A believes that it’s life is real thing like other people; when really it’s not and A does not know who A is.


  As stated before, the author utilizes the technique of making each chapter be a different day of the protagonist's life. Along with this technique, the author has the main character A state things that allows the reader to get a better understanding and interpretation of how he deals with it. “I wake up thinking of yesterday. The joy is in remembering; the pain is in knowing it was yesterday.”, stated by A. To some people, this quote could represent how they know that everyday is a different day and you could have the memories from it, but you’ll never live that day again. Yet to A, it means that and so much more. Regarding the main character’s situation, this quote means that it can think of yesterday as much as it wants, but it will always be a different yesterday. A different yesterday meaning a different lifestyle to live. A will never have a life where it can go and talk with its friends about what it did yesterday because A will always have to focus on the current day and the persons body who it’s in.



  When researching outside opinions regarding the novel Everyday, there were many things stated about what people personally favored most about the book. There are reviews all over in many different forms where people have shared their thoughts on the book. Everyday is a book for people of all ages, but its content is mainly targeted for teenagers and young adults. To get a different persons interpretation of the book, I took to a place that is appealing to teenagers and young adults; YouTube. YouTube lead the researcher to hear many thoughts on the book. One that stood out was a 6 minute interview by a teenage girl whose name is Kat. Kat highly enjoyed reading the novel and stated that one of her favorite aspects pertaining to the book was its characterization. She stated “A does not have a body. A does not hair, or eyes, or skin that can be described. Even without a body, I could still feel A’s presence and just thought that A was such a well developed character.” From another point of view, Kat also feels as though A is a great character in the novel. She’s saying that the things that we can physically see are not the things make a well developed person, let alone character. It is the things that are invisible to the eye and as cliche as it may seem, it'll allow you to get to know a person for what’s on the inside rather than outside.





David Levithan withdrew so much information when introducing our main character A. Who knew that this could allow the reader to connect with the character more. By the end of the book, the reader realizes that you do not need a gender, ethnicity, or a physical body in order evoke the feelings that A does in Everyday. All we know is that A is a soul whose feelings,
thoughts, and emotions are expressed thoroughly throughout the entire novel. Along with the character “introduction”, we are able to have the book’s structure also be a guide to add prominence with every new day.  Every chapter/day the reader gets a chance to feel how the main character does being in a different body and environment. We are taken along to help live the borrowed life of a borrowed person everyday over the 40 days that the book takes place. These two techniques allow the book to be unique and keep the readers attention chapter after chapter. While reading, you’ll learn lessons without knowing it, yet they all will not come together until the end.

Q2 By Kadija Koita

​My Artist Statement:
During this quarter, I have learned a lot about my artwork. I know that a lot of the times, I stay in my own lane and never try to switch it up and make myself go through challenges. Well that is what I did this quarter. Espeacialy with the fabric drawing. When I first saw the tutorial, I thought, ok, this could be possible, but then I started to do the work and found myself in a lot of puddles. I thought that I could not do it, but with the help of my classmates and Ms. Hull, it was possible. I tried my best and made sure that I did not give up. Doing the collage was probably the most fun piece I did because it was not structured at all. It made me think of myself and once I did that it came all so freely.
If I could describe this quarter with one word, it would have to be challenging, but that is something you have to deal with as a striving student and artist. You must make sure that you are constantly breaking new boundaries. That is what I think can make someone grow. I think that is what made me grow, because my craft is way more sharper that even last quarter. 

The tragedy of MB

This poster I made illustrates the factors that lead to Macbeth's downfall and the things that influenced him to change over the course of the play. He was mainly influenced by the witches' prophecies, his ambition, and Lady Macbeth (which I forgot to include in my poster). All of these influences caused him to harm the people around him and so as the play goes, blood is unstoppable and it just shows up more. That's the reason why I added more blood  below the pictures as it goes down. Also, it goes down because Macbeth is going downhill at each time til he reach his end.
IMG_0783
IMG_0783

Quarter 2 Middle Art

This quarter was fun for me. It was a lot more hands on interactive with nature and I found out that I can actually draw better than I normally do.. This is the part where I say that I’ve grown as an artist or that I see me growing every time I draw when really I actually do. Compared to last quarter where something had to take me at least a certain amount to draw, that takes away from the art of things. When I draw I want to feel free and sometimes the best art doesn’t take the longest. Like the photography since I took the photography class last year and it opened my eyes to something new.. I just came naturally to me so editing was easier it’s whether or not to saturate the picture or take away the saturation and color and make it black and white. I am most proud of the picture for the hanging tree.. The song is deep by itself and it needed a deep picture. Like last quarter I’m proud of my work the more I draw the more I feel like I do grow as an artist, my confidence with my drawings has increased. I’m a looking forward to the last 2 quarters and what they have to hold for me.


Q2 Bm_aeddy_jcruz

5:39pm

Plantain chips (serves 2 but we scaled it up) (I worked with Jenny Cruz.) 

 

Ingredients
  • 1 green plantain
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
 

 

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 450 F with a rack in the centre of the oven.
  2. Mix all the spices together in a mortar and pestle, or in a bowl.
  3. To peel plantain, cut off the ends. Then using the tip of the knife, slice the peel lengthwise from top to bottom, just enough to cut through the peel, but enough to slice into the plantain. Then use your hands to remove the peel from the plantain.
  4. Slice the green plantain into thin slices using a mandolin or a knife. Slices should be about 2mm thick.
  5. Place the plantain slices in a mixing bowl. Pour the coconut oil into the bowl and all but ½ teaspoon of the spice mix. You will use the remaining ½ teaspoon once they are cooked.
  6. Mix the slices together with the oil and spices until they are coated. Use your hands.
  7. Lay the slices out flat onto a baking sheet making sure none of them are stuck together one on top of the other.
  8. Place in the oven and bake for about 7 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and flip the chips over one at a time. Place back in the oven and bake for mother 3-5 minutes being sure not to burn the chips.
  9. Remove from the oven. Transfer to a bowl and add the rest of the spice mix. Mix well and enjoy.
 

 

Notes
If you like a smoky taste use smoked paprika.

Coconut oil- Good for helping to keep your heart healthy. 

Plantains- There are two types of plantains. Green and Yellow. Plantains are fruits and the yellow plantains are sweet, and the green ones are used for savory dishes such as this one. Plantains are bigger and sturdier versions of bananas. They are high in vitamin C and Vitamin D which helps with healthy mucus membranes, visual focuses, and a healthy looking complexion. Not only that, they have higher potassium content than bananas. 

The spices don't have a significant toll on the body. But spicy foods do help raise the metabolism. 


Four plantains were 2.00 dollars and each have 218 calories so it was really cheap. And under a dollar for the spices and about 20 cents per tablespoon of oil. 


Reflection:


What I loved about this project of course was that we got to make food. Not only that, it was fun to get in tune with my culture. I got the idea of plantain chips from my mother actually. She gave me a good piece of advice, because going on certain diets doesn't really work in her opinion. She always told me to never stopped eating what I love, just change what's inside of it. Like, why get salad if I want fries? (Don't get me wrong I LOVE salad) but if I can't have regular fries, I can make baked fries or sweet potato fries which is a healthier alternative. 



LOVE AND CHANGE
LOVE AND CHANGE