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  Sophomore year with Mr. Block was one of the most eventful years, with both classes! From the egg on the floor to Art in the Open, nothing was ever the same each day. There were struggles, and achievements, but overall I learned a lot this year with so many different experiences. Finishing up the year, there were many things I’ve realized looking back at my work. I feel like I’ve accomplished and gained so much knowledge. For a lot for the topics we discussed, it broadened my views on things. The two main ideas I am going to discuss are about struggle and creativity. “Without struggle there will be no learning,” and “Creativity broadens our views on life.”

At one point in the year we had our playwriting unit, I remember first starting it and having no clue what to write. I had a few in my mind, but then thought too much into it, and I felt like it wasn’t going to be good. I then started looking through Mr. Block’s magazines and saw a man working in a mine, and immediately I came up with the idea for my play. My play was about a small family living in a poor part of Brazil. The younger sister eventually had to care for her baby sister because her Mom died in childbirth. Her older brother worked most of the day with the mines. The whole play unit was really great. Although I struggled with writing it and then finally submitting it, we had an amazing teacher come in and help us. Her name was Kate and she was apart of the Philly Young Playwrights. She was great because when she looked at our work, she would really take her time into helping you improve it. “You say the brother has replaced him, which is something I’ll bet happens a lot in mining families.  Keep working, don’t be afraid to use monologue, like Andressa talking out loud to the baby perhaps?  How will they feed themselves now? -K”(One of Kate’s feedbacks for a scene) This project leads to one of my general statements about struggle. I’ve always been told you need to struggle through something to be able to learn. If you just did an assignment and had no trouble with it, you most likely didn’t learn anything. Creating and putting together this play was much harder for me then I thought. I faced many struggles during the process, but in the end when I submitted it. I learned many different strategies in working on assignments productively, but also efficiently.

Creativity played a big role in both of Mr. Block’s classes this year. Almost all the projects had to have a little piece of your own in it. There were small projects that we were able to use our creativity in them, but there were also projects that helped us open up and express our creativity. There was a time in the year where we read the book Passing. At the end we were assigned to do some sort of art piece on a main point in the book. I choose to draw a picture showing different aspects of the main character's personality. This is the drawing I drew with the two faces of Clare. Art in the Open was one of the main events of the year that I saw everyone come out of their comfort zone. It was a great experience, and really fun for everyone to participate in. Here is a picture of my group’s site and our wiki. Another project towards the end of the year was creating a poetry wiki. This was very creative in ways where, although we all were on the same wiki and had the same format on each of our pages, everyone’s work had their own tweak to it. We were able to express ourselves through the writing of poetry by using our own experiences. My wiki page is here with all the assigned poems.

Robbie McCormac

It has been an honor to be able to experience this amazing education I have been given the chance to have Mr. Block is an amazing teacher and he has taught all of us to try to learn in different ways and to go and try new thing’s. This year we have done a wide arrange of different thing’s in English and history. I have learned so much valuable thing’s and skills that I can use in my every day life from now on.

One of the most important thing’s I learned this year is never procrastinate just don’t do it. When I first came into Mr. Blocks class I worked really hard and handed all my work in on time but slowly I started to procrastinate and my work started to not look as good as it could and it would be late and I would do it last minute. As soon as I saw my grades go down I stopped procrastinating and got my butt to work. I’m happy this happen to me because it made me a more determined student and a better learner I think it’s really going to help me out next year. Here is a piece of my work that I procrastinated on and that I felt like I could of done better on.

Culture and change were a big part of this year we dissected the world and looked at all different cultures through out the world. Culture is very important to start change or to help cause a change. We learned in are revolution unit about Egypt’s culture and how they are trying to stop violent protest and have a more peaceful fair culture and government. We researched social change and how it can affect a culture. For a good portion of the year we were learning about Haiti and what was happening in there government and how the U.S when they tried to help them just cause more problems and weakened Haiti economy experientially. We also learned about there troubles.

Sophomore year in Mr. Block’s class has taught me how important my community is and my peer’s are. When I say my community I mean a bunch of different thing’s from my friends at school to the teachers to the surrounding area of where my school is located we have done many great thing’s around are community like putting up murals right out side are school which was meet with very positive responses and praise. We worked with the Leah Stein dance company for 2 weeks and we created are own dance with there and we chose a spot downtown and made are own dance routine it was such a new experience but I loved doing it and trying something new.

This year has been amazing I’m so grateful to have gotten the chance to be in Mr. Blocks class this year I have acquired much needed skill’s to go on and learn further and continue my education all thanks to one of the best teachers Mr. Block.

 This story is actually about trials of Native Americans. This book is very interesting to read. It's about an indian boy (Junior)  who is born with a number of physical disabilities like water in brain. His parents are poor and always busy in their lives especially his father who is always drunk. He talks about his life and his parents lives that like him they also had a lot of dreams but there was no one to fulfill their dreams. Junior has his best friend who cares about him and protects him from other people who fights with Junior. Junior is a smart kid and always afraid of people but sometimes forget that he is afraid of those people and show a strong reaction to them. 

( i have not finished this book yet ) 

I highly recommend the Millenium Series by Steig Larsson. It's a well written novel with great character development. The storyline is very intriguing as well.

Over this year, I have gained so many new experiences that its truly incredible. I came into this class expecting just an everyday English/ History class with the average, Read this book, discuss, take a test, and move on to the next unit but in this class it was a completely different agenda and curriculum that started off our year was our short story unit. In our short story unit it focused on expression of your self and to show some type of growth. Growth opens you up to new environments for example with our language autobiography project. For the Autobiography project we had to write about a personal experience in your life where you had an issue with language, whether it be coming from a different country, having your parents speak a different language, or even you speaking a different language yourself. In my autobiography (Link is found at the end of the page.) I wrote about how when I was younger and I was very shy in school. I never wanted to speak and hated having the attention focused on me. “My voice didn’t need to be heard I just needed to take the characteristics of a chameleon and blend in.” this is how I came into class the beginning of the year, I didn’t want anyone to pay to much attention to me. With that being said, at this point in time I feel like I’m more outspoken than I was 8 months ago I don’t mind voicing my opinion or presenting my work in front of others because I have become more comfortable with myself.

One thing that has grown while being in Mr. Block’s class is my literature. Not just meaning my vocabulary but the description able to be given in my writing has exceeded an expectation I never thought possible. Expression in literature opens you up to broader new ideas, and a unit I feel that really describes this is the Poetry Wiki (Link is found at the end of the page). For this project my classmates and I took in a deeper analysis on poets and tried to define their work. We also created our own poems and then spoke one out loud in front of the classroom. I already had planned out what poem I was reading aloud until a classmate (Danielle Little) came over to me and read a poem she had written. It was called “the little black boy” I liked it so much I said you have to do one about “the little black girl” and she said if I did it with her she would. I never would have imagined doing collaboration on a poem but anything is possible in Mr. Block’s room. The day we had to present our Poem we went up and preformed it and many people enjoyed it. One of my classmates liked it so much she asked us to perform it at this talent show her church was hosting. This also ties into Growth opens you up to new environments. If this took place in the beginning of the year I would have never given thought of speaking a poem outside of class but in the end of it all I did.

I am actually reading The City of Bones for the second time and have recommended it to many of my friends! It's a part of a series called, "The Mortal Instruments" which is still on-going (the 5th book came out late last month!). There is also a pre-series (the 3rd book comes out in September!) and another series is also springing from this author based in the same world. I recommend this to everyone, basically because it drops you into this world, but you are seeing it with different eyes. Cassandra Clare has created a whole new world within our own and has developed it so well, that it is believable, though the series is clearly fantasy. I love these books and just about all of them!

Here's a short excerpt:

"A low laugh sounded behind him, and now there were hands on him, hauling him upright, throwing him against one of the concrete pillars. He could feel the damp stone under his back. His hands were pulled behind him, his wrists bound with wire. As he struggled, someone walked around the side of the pillar into his view: a boy, as young as Isabelle and just as pretty. His tawny eyes glittered like chips of amber. "So," the boy said. "Are there any more with you?"

The blue-haired boy could feel blood welling up under the too-tight metal, making his wrists slippery. "Any other what?"

"Come on now." The tawny-eyed boy held up his hands, and his dark sleeves slipped down, showing the runes inked all over his wrists, the back of his hands, his palms. "You know what I am."

Far back inside his skull, the shackled boy's second set of teeth began to grind.

"Shadowhunter," he hissed.

The other boy grinned all over his face. "Got you," he said."

Well that is not the actual text, but it is my own variation of the wonderfully dark tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Set in London during the late 1800’s, this a tale of the beautiful yet vain Dorian Gray. He meets Basil Hallward, who becomes infatuated with his beauty, and paints him. Gray meets his friend, Lord Henry Wotton, and is influenced heavily by his ideas of hedonism and self-pleasure. Gray foolishly wishes that the painting of him will age instead of him, and begins participating in things moral and immoral alike. This is an excellent classic focused on themes of morality and one’s self, and it is also a challenging enough text to help broaden someone’s vocabulary. I highly recommend this book for it is a reflection of something that most want- youth. Yet it teaches a lesson of life and is sure to leave a great influence upon its reader. You will find yourself lost in the hedonistic world of Gray who lives only for the pleasures that he demands. You will feel sympathy for the poor Hallward who tries to impose a better influence upon Gray. Most importantly, your heart will be pulled at its strings in this completely human tale that we could all relate to in some way.

Walking through room 307, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I didn’t expect the World History and English classes to be quite what they were; the curriculum was filled with new cultures, places, and experiences that shaped me as a student. My perspective has changed, along with my opinions. I was exposed to a whole different way of teaching. This consisted of interactive trials and scenarios, dancing, and freedom within the classroom. Over this school year, we’ve covered numerous topics. I hope to pull together my entire year and what I’ve learned into two general statements: the ability to express one’s self allows for freedom and culture molds humans into unique beings.

When writing my general statements, I thought about the different projects I created. I began to think of my favorite ones and noticed that each of them allowed me to express myself. To sum up how these projects affected me I came up with the general statement: the ability to express one’s self allows for freedom. We took part in a poetry unit, which allowed students to express themselves. I wrote many pieces, but noticed a pattern within my writing. Every one of my poems stayed true to my life and was very raw. By this I mean, I write with feelings not with thoughts. In my ode poem, Ode to the Worn Out Sneakers in the Corner, I compare my sneakers to myself: “we're bent up, and used up. / days have made us weak./ all we have left is to,/ sit in the corner.” (My Poems) This poem allowed me to become free of my past experiences and share them with the reader. I wanted them to be able to feel the words I was saying by comparing them to an everyday object.

The Art in the Open Festival was an amazing and quite interesting experience. After splitting up into groups we were able to come up with our own performances. This self-created performance allowed us to express whatever feeling we wanted to convey. One of my group members, Helen said in her reflection forum, “ I was expressing my opinions on my piece through movement and it came naturally.” My group chose to design a dance showing a prison break and one of the prisoners breaking free. As the freed prisoner, the routine made me really feel free. The site-specific performance was freeing in itself; it was a chance for everyone to let go of their self-conscious mindsets and move around in new and weird ways. We became free of the boundaries that kept us all separate from each other. (Art in the Open Wiki)

A creative project we worked on all year was our plays, which we submitted to Philadelphia Young Playwrights. This was not an easy task. It took months to complete and we had to reach a deadline. I struggled with my topic because I branched off into a whole new world, literally. Every other student wrote about realistic problems that spread across the entire world; however, I wanted to take my play to a whole new level. I wrote about a human-like alien, Vara, who is sent to Earth to help humans in need. Writing The Stranger allowed for me to express my love for Science Fiction and for writing stories. I became free of the worry of what others might think. I wrote The Stranger for someone like me to read. (The Stranger)

Our classes were very geared to experiencing new cultures; especially in World History. We explored England, Germany, Poland, Haiti, Asia, Nigeria, and many more locations through our units and assignments. After taking this class, I can say that I’ve learned that culture molds humans into beings. To elaborate, culture is an important thing to know and take pride in. We did many activities concerning culture; however two stuck out to me the most: the language autobiography and the body biography of Edwidge Danticat.

            The language autobiography was one of the most difficult assignments I’ve ever written. It challenged me to look at what my culture is and the language that I speak. Yes, along with everyone I speak English; however, I thought about my culture and everyday vocabulary that reflects who I am today. In my language autobiography I mentioned the power of words on human beings, I said, “It’s language like this that puts guns to heads, ties ropes around necks, pops pills in throats, and slices a pure wrist.” This was my favorite line because I believed so strongly in the power that negative words have on people. The reason this paper was so difficult is because I never really thought about my ancestry, traditions, or culture. It gave me a chance for self-reflection. It was important that I wrote this paper to better understand myself, and the person I’ve molded into over the years.

            The second culture project we created was a body biography of Edwidge Danticat. Danticat is a famous Haitian author. We created a body and included words that remind us of her and quotes from her stories. Drawing the body biography helped me to look deeper into Danticat’s culture. It helped me to understand her life and words better by reflecting what meant the most to her. My body biography can be found here.

            My year with Mr. Block in World History and English was unforgettable. We were pushed into a corner of the room to understand what it felt like to be a holocaust victim, put into groups to see the lack of justice within the French Revolution, and became one of Hernando Cortes’ men to understand their point of view. It was a year full of understanding myself and understanding lives of people I could never know. Being in touch with my culture has made me comfortable with who I am. Expressing myself has helped me to gain freedom in sharing things about myself. 

Written by german author Frank Schätzing, translated by Sally Ann Spencer. The Swarm is a science fiction book with some of the most accurate representation of marine biology, geology and geophysics to display the apocalyptic effects that marine life could pose if their natural behaviors turned awry.

This year we have worked on papers, telling stories, and working in rolls. Through this my headphones have become great tools to create work. For almost every paper or piece of artwork they have helped. And in this class there is always a project going on. The idea of perspective is something that we worked with all year. Perspective is something that we all have. We all see things differently and come at things from different points of view. 

In English one of the first things that we had to do to show our perspective was to write a poem called Theme for English 2. We where told to go home and write a page tonight and let that page form out of you- Then it will be true. When we started that I didn’t know what to do. What did a poem have to do with anything? But now looking back I see that that’s all we where looking for, the truth in the worlds that we see and use everyday. 

As we moved through the year we where made to look at other people points of view and then work through them. Like when we read How To Date A Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie by Junot Diaz. A lot of people where upset but what was written but like I wrote in my reply I thought it was funny. I mean this is the way he thinks and sees the world of girl. But you have to keep your mind open to it.

Another thing we had to do that was about perspective was our Passing art work. We had to make something that showed how a character saw things.  I picked Claire. A light skinned black woman that was posing as a white girl. So was in-between black and white but she saw how both worlds where and wanted to be able to express both. That something that everyone goes through.  Seeing two different things and wanted to have a little bit of both. It was a lot like me being a native of West Philly going to school in Center City. Being thought to be better then others just because of the school I want to was and is a hard thing to go through. Wanting to fit in with this year proving that I was born to stand out. 

But along with the way we seeing this we also had to look at how we change as these things happen around us. Like in my Chapter 26 for Things Fall Apart. In the story of Things Fall Apart Okonkwo, who is a father and a strong leader in this village, kills his self after this village is taken over by white missionaries. He saw these changes are more then he could take. In my chapter 26 his beloved daughter Ezinma lets the death of her father make her stronger. When she is at the market with her mother she stands up to a cowed of me “Who among you know anything of this man?” Ezinma mocked back at the man. “Who know his name? His motherland? Who?” She ran through the crowed. Pushing man and woman out of the way. Her mother watched unknowingly knowing what her miracle child was about to do. The translated looked on at Ezinma in shock. The side of this face was hot with the red mark of Ezinma’s hand.” Even in a place where a woman is worth less then a man she changes her perceptive to see that these man are not any better then her. And that she has every right to fight back.

            I can also see change in the way I write. From the language autobiography where I was just looking at the way I write. In this paper my first paragraph “In the world we live in there are only a few ways of expressing yourself. You can talk, sing, dance, or be a writer. I can’t sing, or dance. And even though I like writing, expressing myself verbally is the best thing for me to do. The English language is like a damn to me. It blocks off all the beautiful and elegant words I want to say and twist them into a word search,” was now as a look back at it simple compared to what I am writing how.   To the poetry unit where I was made to take steps to change the way the poem sounded and flowed.

 This change carried all the way to the end of the year when I was writing my final thesis paper, my favorite paper of the year. Where I am writing more complex papers that really make me thing and want to write. For example my firs paragraph of that “As human beings we are made to look for other human interaction. Humans are made to look for touch, sound, emotions, and feeling that only others can provide. Thus even when we are places somewhere where these things are hard to find we will find ways to make these connections. Every day people are making new technology to get to know other people. People will always look for humanity even if the most inhuman places.”

This means a lot to me. And I think that that that’s something that you can find in writing too. You find a person who is just truing to reach out and find a way to become a part of someone else. They just want there writing to resonate with others. and that’s what the goal of all of this work really is a way to make our work in this class resonate with other in and out of the class. This class has made me a better writer, person, and listener.  

M Saunders English/History Portfolio 2012

            There has been a lot done this year.  Everyday my mind has been expanding in different ways and learning new things.  There are some interesting ideas that I have for the end of the year.  These are the general statements I have learned throughout the year.

            We have look at a lot of different books and points in time.  Something stands out to me is that when someone is in power they tend to lose the power or lose their minds.  Most times power leads to insanity.  One of the books we have read is Lord Of the Flies.  This is about a group of kids that get into a plane crash and end up on an island.  Some of the kids start to lose their minds while going through being on the island. “In Lord of the Flies it shows that insanity is like gravity all you need is a little push” This is a statement I used to describe the book.  It was the right place and the right situations to easily make a person go crazy.  One of the boys ended up being a leader of the group. At first he mad all the right decisions on how to get of the island but soon after he started to lose his mind.  This shows how easily you can lose your mind.

            Also another thing we looked at was the French Revolution.  What we did was we chose people to research and we had to act like that person.  The person that I chose was Maximilien Robespierre.  He was one of the main people in the revolution.  Through out the revolution he started to get worse and worse in what he does.  At first he really helped the people. Right after the king died he took control.  It wasn’t that bad then but latter on is when it started going down hill.  A major part of the revolution was when Robespierre passed a law that said if he thought that some one was against him then he could just kill them with no trial.  From Robespierre paranoia he ended up killing a lot of people.  Soon after Robespierre was overthrown and killed.

            Another role playing activity we did was the Cortez trial.  This was about when Cortez and his men when to see the Aztecs but ended up taking over there land.  There were different roles that we had to act as.  It was Cortez, Cortez men, System, King, and Aztec people.  What we had to do in this activity was prove that a certain group was guiltier in the takeover of the Aztecs.  It was run like an actual courtroom with opening statements and cross-examinations.  At the end of the trial each group would give there closing statements and we had to assign points of guilt to the most guilty person we thought was.  Something that I thought was interesting was that in the research done Cortez didn’t listen to orders and did what he wanted.  He was the leader of the men who were just supposed to explore this land but instead he took it over.  The king sent notes and people to go after Cortez. Cortez just ended up killing them.  Having the power to just control a group of people to do what you want is too much for people.  Cortez got greedy and tried to take all of the Aztecs gold and land. Maybe if another person were in charge then the Aztec wouldn’t have been taken over.

            Throughout the year we have done a lot of interesting and creative things.  For most of these you really had to think about how to use your skills in different ways to make your project that much better.  Creative thinking can make a project better.

            One of the things that we did was called Art In the Open.  The main thing we did was we had to find a space around our school and create a piece that used different movements and used the space in different ways.  At first I wasn’t used to just moving around the way that we did in this project.  There were people that came to the school that showed us some techniques to help us create these pieces.  This was really getting out of most peoples comfort zones.  If you wanted this to go well you had to really come out of your comfort zone and be really creative with the way your body would move in this new way.  If no ideas were coming out or people weren’t really trying then it would just be a bland piece but with each groups creativity added to the project. That is what made these pieces interesting and enjoyable to watch.  With out the creativity this wouldn’t have worked.