Journal 27 2/6/13
age
space
learning war-peace
racial
family
political
freedom
health
perental
coming of age
gender
emotion
religion
friendship
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.
Final Portfolio
Jules James
Looking back throughout the year in history and in english the theme this year in history, to me was seeing things in different lens helps create a better understanding of the world. We learned about what happened in the past and also what is happening now. We didn’t just stick to one subject. We learned about about a lot of things that happened in different places. One thing I remember learning about in history was the Colonialism Project. In this project we had to search any place in the world that was colonized in the past and we as individuals prepared a proposal to make an exhibit. This project really showed me that there is a way of learning without just sitting in a classroom and listening to a teacher talking our brains out and telling us to take notes. And some people, like me, consider this way to be the easiest and the fun way to learn. In some cases it’s nice to learn and find out new information on your own other than just getting a ton of facts thrown in your ear.
It wasn’t just the projects that helped me learn new things in different ways but it was also the daily journals we did. For example, one of the journals I thought was helping was History Journal #19. In this journal, the question was “What is your universe obligation?” I answered this question by stating the four people, things, or places that I that felt as though was extremely important in my life. I liked doing this journal because the answer for this question didn’t have a right or wrong answer. It was opinionated. At this time we were learning about the universal declaration of human rights. We learned about the different rights for humans such as being born free, no slavery, equality to law, privacy, and many other rights. We also learned about The Modern Day Sweatshops. It was interesting the way we gathered up all our information and used it on each other by having a trial. We performed the trial by playing in different groups such as U.S. consumers, the system of profit, the poor country workers, the poor country ruling elite, and the multinational corporation and we basically chose one group to put all the blame on for the sweatshops, that is all around the world, and we had evidence of how each other was involved in the sweatshops. “We don’t care about the employees. We just want a profit.” This is one quote that was said during the trial by the system of profit and I felt as though this was a good quote because they was really playing the role of the system.
In english there was a lot of feelings and description going on. This year was filled with emotion and I thought this was important to state because in english not everybody have the chance to learn about these things because they are either focused to read books or they are learning about grammar. We had the opportunity to read books and work on our grammar also. So the theme in english was language has hidden meanings and influence. There’s multiple reasons why I feel like this was the theme. For example, language played a huge role in my english 2 classes. We learned about descriptive language and poetry throughout the year that really brought out people’s emotion and thoughts. “Love don't exist in the pool of me. But the pain from is its number one visitor. As the smiles that I call bodyguards of happiness try to keep the pain out, its too strong for the bodyguards who don't use weapons except the lies of a smile.” When you read these quotes you can see that they are not just a regular sentences that you say when talk to someone. Well these sentences and more sentences like this was written in my Descriptive Writing. During our process of writing this, we was told to write different description paragraphs about things we saw or a moment we remembered from before to help us write with a lot of description. I thought this was very helpful because not only did this help me write with more description but it also helped me with looking at every little details of things and using figurative language such simile and metaphors. After writing the descriptive writing we switched to the poetry lesson.
When I heard this I thought we was going to just read a lot of poems from popular poets, but we didn’t do that. We made our own Poems and we used different styles that I never heard of like riff, ode, and found poems. Writing these poems taught me that not all poems have to rhyme just for it to make sense or have significant meaning. “But throughout life these languages will never connect. They are strangers living in the same house.” (Language vs. Language) This quote to me was separating language and poetry. The theme of language also came into place in my English Journal #10 where I had to fill in the blank, I wish ___________, multiple times. “ I wish I had tattoos. I wish I could fall in love. I wish I cared.” These quotes show that the phrase “I wish...” can go as far as to want to take it. And this is the same with language and poetry. You determine how much of you you want people to hear in your language.
In conclusion, this year was filled with different lesson that in a way all connected. And as I look back at all my works that I did for this year I realize that when challenging yourself, you are bettering yourself.
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)
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.