Science Leadership Academy @ Center City

You, and The World

Posted by Gabriel Musselman in English 1 - Dunn on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 9:06 am

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This blog is last in a series of three that discussed and explored the ethics and judicial standings of copyright infringement, namely, internet piracy. In my last two blogs, I gained a knowledge of the topic and did some investigations of my own. Piracy and You is mainly about the acts SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA. Internet Piracy and Morality is about how to make the decision yourself and about the lack of information given to the public. Doing this research has exposed me to a wide array of opinions, bills, laws, and movements. But are these different acts making a change? And if so, in which direction? The problem is awareness. People need to know, and we need to be the ones who tell them.

This piece of original content is an example of how a question or statement can invoke thought in a person. The goal of this poster is to make the viewer think about piracy in a new light. It allows them to take a step back and question what they are told. I think that piracy is a decision. It is up to the pirate to decide if they are breaking their own moral standing. With this poster I am getting the word out, spreading the knowledge and asking each viewer to look inside themselves and think about their actions or standpoint.

I conducted my own research which gave me interesting results to work with. Many who were surveyed admitted that they or someone they knew had committed internet piracy and were against censorship laws, while another large portion of these people were severely uninformed and had no clues as to the specifics of the topic. This shows us something. There is always a need for information and learning in our communities. We need to be the ones to teach and inform the peoples of our communities about this diverse topic. The way to go about doing this is to talk to the people we work with, play with, and live with in order to spread the word.

This picture pretty much sums up my opinion on piracy. I believe that it is a crime, but a much lesser one, and deserving of much less punishment. While I'll admit that copyright infringement holds much weight in the way of theft for some, for me it does not. But as always, the decision is up to you. You decide how you will live your life, and don't let anyone take that away from you. This is Gabriel Musselman. I hope you have found my blogs both thoughtful and intriguing, and I hope to bring my opinions to the world at other times and in other ways. Thank you.

English Journal #25

Posted by Byshera Moore-Williams on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 9:03 am

I think that finding your voice comes from living life and see things differently. Everyone has a story and every story gets told. I feel like finding your voice is saying what you feel and saying what you know. And when you find your voice you can do that.

English Journal #14

Posted by Byshera Moore-Williams on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 9:02 am

I want to write about life and how nothing goes as planned. How a tool for learning turns into your worst nightmare. I want to write about me. And how no matter what great feats I get to I give myself no credit. No matter what feats or falls. I want to write about writing and how long it takes. How it cramps my hand and opens my eyes. How it all ways knows the right words. It lets me shed my pain. I wan to write about you. And how I never thought I deserved you and how you are to good for me. I want to write about the ocean and how I have missed it. How being in the vast body of water makes me feel but you never have a pen when you’re in the moment. I want to write moments and how they never last.

English Journal #7

Posted by Byshera Moore-Williams on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 9:01 am

The sun is up. Its warm but the wind is blowing part me the colors of yellow, orange, and brown dancing through my mind as I sit here. It’s as interpretive dance. The colors are dancers and they are chasing the red-hot sun blue ocean and yellow lemonade away bring the color of baked leafs and sawn costumes. I watched as the wind directed around me. One step two step three step four. They all seemed to go along with flow and the wind carried all their troubles. Wondering aimlessly around, looking for a new journey. The song stuck in my mind. It didn’t have lyrics but a melody for ballerinas, peaceful, delicate, and beautiful. The sun inform of haze that surrounded orange, brown and red leaves. Such wonderful colors that comes once a year. It’s so much more beautiful then the crystals of snow, because these colors aren’t just on the floor but every everywhere. Fall is very beautiful and that is what I love.

History Journal #41

Posted by Dalena Bui in World History - Block on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 9:00 am

How do Ibo gender roles compare to gender roles in our society

-Woman has a say in discussions

-Women can work

-Women are considered impatient

-Women are responsible for themselves

-Women are more respected

-Women are not sold off to men

-Women don’t have to take care of men

-Women are independent

English Journal #25

Posted by Dalena Bui in World History - Block on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 8:59 am

Finding your voice is where you don’t care about anyone opinions and just say what you honestly feel or think

-Honestly telling your story/speaking honestly

-Realize who you are

-Finding peace with oneself

-Happy place

-Learning to express

-Not caring about other people thoughts

-Not being taken advantage of

Janie finds her voice when she loses her husband. She doesn’t’ have a man physically abusing her anytime she wants to speak her mind. No one in the world to tell her if she is wrong or right. She finally learns to think and love herself for who she is. But losing her husband was the best and worst time of her life. But she was taught one lesson throughout all losses, She need to love herself before any man loves her.

English Journal #15

Posted by Dalena Bui in World History - Block on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 8:58 am

I want to write about food…

Food. Food is awesome. Food is good. Food helps you live. Food is beneficial to your health and life overall. Food makes you happy. Food is your best friend but also you’re worst. Food is so good and can make you so happy. Food just can lift up your sprits and brings anyone and everyone joy. Food is your best friend when no one else is there. Food will never turn its back on you.

After Simon Death…

-Simon dead

-One less person in the group

-They still think the Beasty is there

-They are murders but they try to justify what they did.

-Jack steals Piggy glasses

-Groups are divided

Beneath the Skin & Skull of Hydrocephalus in Sub-Saharan Africa (Blog #2)

Posted by Nikki Adeli on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 6:29 am

Read Blog #1 before you get started!

20 new cases of Hydrocephalus come into the CURE hospital of Uganda everyday. Doctors measure the heads of the patients to get an idea of how far the infant has developed within the sickness. 5 centimeters. 6 centimeters. 7. 8. 9. How much more must the head grow for the world to realize how much of a major issue this epidemic has become?

After I released Blog 1, I got lots of questions from my classmates asking how Hydrocephalus actually the head of the infant besides the obvious growing of the head. What is going on beneath the skin?

hydrocephalus-normal-non-normal-ct-scans_large

In the photo above, you see 2 CT scans of the brain. The one on the left is a brain affected by Hydrocephalus and the one on the right is a normal brain. In the normal brain, you can see black circles/dots within the brain. That is the regular amount of fluids a normal brain posses of. On the left, with the brain affected my hydrocephalus, you can see that there the cerebrospinal fluid, the now black blobs, within the brain have increased. What does this fluid do to the brain? Well, if you direct your attention to the outline of the brain you can see that there is a white line surrounding the brain. That is the skull. Within the skull there is a more tint gray, not the black, ...that is the brain. As the fluid builds up, the black circles in the CT scan become larger and expands. The effect of this is that there is a massive amount of pressure on the brain towards the skull. If the Hydrocephalus does go without treatment, then the pressure will increase and the baby will slowly die.

Above is the endoscope neurosurgeons use in the Endoscopic treatments.

The fact of the matter is is that Hydrocephalus IS curable...with the right procedure. There are usually two options when it comes to surgery and treatment of the infants in sub-Saharan Africa. Endoscopic is the first option. Endoscopic is when a camera is inserted into an incision at the most swollen part of the head. Then as the endoscope travels deeper and deeper, the doctor will slowly puncture a hole in the chambers that are holding the water to drain the fluid naturally. If the endoscopic procedure fails, then the neurosurgeon moves onto a move traditional treatment of placing in a catheter from the head to the abdomen to drain the "water" in the brain.

Both procedures are very tedious. But multiple studies have shown that the endoscopic treatment, performed in both developed and developing countries, have a lower success rate in developing countries. There are many variables to why this maybe. What is thought to be the leading cause is neonatal infections. This is also the leading cause of Hydrocephalus itself.

In the next blog, action is going to be taken.

Now read Blog #3!
Bibliography if needed.

Immigrant Rights Part 3: Change

Posted by Edgar Pacio in English 1 - Dunn on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 12:11 am

My final blog post is about change. The Post For Change is the last of the trio of blogs for the You And The World Project. In my first blog I talked about the DREAM act and it’s impact on many students and the country. I talked about how helpful it would be to the eager students who want to become part of America and their first step being getting an education. In the second blog post I focused on the youth group Fuerza and it’s several Latino members. I talked about our mission and the things we do in our struggle for equality and immigrant rights.

With the first two blogs being informational posts I was able to introduce my topic to several people. Although bringing awareness is part of the mission of gaining immigrant rights in our country, there is much more that can be done.

One of my first steps was joining Fuerza in order to better educate myself in the controversial topic of immigrant rights. Through this organization I will be doing several things including going into the streets of Philly in order to get signatures for petitions, or maybe even participating in protests such as the one on May 7^th. This group is a great opportunity to become a young activist in the movement towards equality and rights for immigrants. A second step I took was posting a formal petition through Facebook, in order to get enough signatures to urge our representatives and legislators to vote against the anti-immigration laws. I also recently sent the email to the 9^th grade streams. My final phase for change will be to e-mail the Senator of my district of Philadelphia, Sen. Shirley M. Kitchen. She is the representative in the Senate for my district (District 3) of Philadelphia. I met her on a previous occasion in 8^th grade and along with other members of the school government. I was able to remember her, and I made a plan to send her a proper e-mail stating my point of view on my topic and how I would like her to help.

Senator Shirley M. Kitchen, the representative of my district of Philadelphia

I want to remind you that change can’t be done alone; supporters are needed to help fight for a certain cause. The petition or Fuerza alone can’t change the country. We have to branch out to other people, to organizations, schools and city representatives. We must let our voice be heard. Thank you Ms. Dunn for an awesome idea that let me put my mind to something that I really cared about. I would like to thank the people who have helped me with signing the petition, Nomi Martin-Brouillette, Nia Hammond, Julian Makarechi, and Wendy Tepoz. I would also like to thank my cousin Jessie Tepoz for introducing me Fuerza and their community.

The total amount of signatures earned for the petition against the anti-immigration bills, as of May 31st 2012

There is much we can do to help the country advance towards the dream of equality for all, where man is truly free. There are ways we can become better people, by helping others and becoming aware of the world we live in. There are other issues where are interest and support is needed; we have the power and choice to aid the people who strive towards something greater. We must think about how we, each of us as a unique individual, can partake in a route to a better Earth. It all starts with an idea, it starts a choice, but most importantly, it starts with You.

My bibliography can be found here

You and the World Blog Post #3

Posted by Dylan Long in English 1 - Dunn on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 12:01 am

This is my third and final blog post. Throughout my first and second posts, I addressed the issue of gay marriage. The goal was to educate both myself and others about the topic. Now, it is time to take a step forward in terms of change.

Many groups have been formed to help educate their communities about the issue, including one in my school (the Gay-Straight Alliance, or GSA for short).

Community members have written letters to their governors to educate the governors on why they should legalize gay marriage.

Recently, the daughter of Raul Castro (Mariela Castro, a sexologist) helped organize a gay rights march, and Raul Castro openly supported the march.

I have chosen to bring awareness to the topic of homosexuality in general by giving out 5” by 4” stickers with a design titled “I support gay rights.”

This design will be placed onto a 5” by 4” rectangular sticker and given out to students in SLA.

My dad has been working in the printing business for more than twenty years, and has helped me out with school projects in the past.

I made the design for the sticker and sent it to my dad. He printed 100 stickers with that design on it, and I handed them out to students at my school.

Prior to handing them out, I had very high expectations about how the students would run with the idea and the materials.

The students put them on many of their belongings, like their laptop cases, backpacks, even books and binders.

I think the stickers were a great success. So do other people. I talked to some of my friends about the idea of having the “I support gay rights” sticker, and here is one of my friends said about the idea:

“I think the stickers were a great idea. Publicly displaying your support for gay rights could help relieve a gay person of their stress, because they know that someone supports them.” - Ray Albarouki, SLA 9th Grader.

To conclude my blog, I would like to thank my english teacher, Ms. Dunn, for helping me out tons with my blog posts, our student assistant teacher Emma Hersh for giving me lots of great advice to enhance my blogs, and my dad for helping me print out my stickers.

I’d also like to thank you the readers for taking the time to educate yourself with the research that I have uncovered. Thank you so much. To see where I got all of my research, my bibliography is here. All three blog posts are included in the bibliography.

Artist's Statement Q4 - Breeanna Noi

Posted by Breeanna Noi in Advanced Art - Hull on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 11:52 pm

During the last quarter, I worked more on my own interests rather than the landscapes listed in the course. Most of my artwork is all over the place, but my main focus was typography. I don't know much about typography. However, living in the city does allow you to have some appreciation for the street art and graffiti. I, for one, do not encourage vandalism. Although the art that's shown throughout the city is the most unique.

My first piece of art was just a piece when I was dabbling into landscapes (as listed in the course). I felt like it would have been nice to try what was recommended, first. Landscapes were interesting, but I am very particular about how I emphasize certain part of a picture.

My next sketch was just a bunch of aztec patterns in one. I've never drawn a whole sheet of just patterns alone, so it was something new for me to try. I guess this was the part when I was indecisive on what I was going to work on, so a bunch of lines and doodles was a great break rather than trying to be very precise with certain textures and areas.

My third sketch was the beginning of my typography. What better way to try something new than to start with the basics? My first step was sticking around in Google Images and finding different font styles to sketch up. When I finished my alphabet, I went on to look at different sentences and I worked on different styles of words to get a better view on the art of typography.

My fifth sketch led me to incorporate the things I've done in my previous work to sketch my name. I used very simple block letters, but I went back to different patterns in my name like I did in my second artwork.

Last, but no least, I wanted to Google a work of typography where the word related to the picture. I, like everyone else in the world, love bacon. So I tried to make a bacon face while I wrote bacon in a bacon-y looking style.

Human Trafficking- Modern Day Slavery #3 (The Change)

Posted by Emalyn Bartholomew in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 11:27 pm

If you haven't already, be sure to check out my first and second blog posts before reading this one!

So far in my research, I’ve noticed that there are many campaigns working hard to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking. A lot of them are actively working to rescue trafficking victims on a daily basis. It’s incredibly wonderful that there are already so many people working hard to end human trafficking across the globe. However, the problem still remains that they can only help people, if other people know the issue and what’s going on.

This being our final post about our topics, it’s time to help make a difference. I think the first step to ending human trafficking is informing people on what it is, and how big of an issue it is. To do this, there are several steps to take. Two organizations that are actively working to end Human Trafficking have released documentaries on their work. I will be hosting a showing of these documentaries, and informing people on the issue of human trafficking. After showing the documentary, there will be a short panel of discussion about the topics shown in the film. This will take place shortly after the school year ends, and will include people from a variety of age groups, from all around the city.

I did an informal survey, which I mentioned briefly last week in my second post. Here is the data that I collected:

This graph shows that the majority of people between the ages of 14-18 do not know a lot about the topic of Human Trafficking. One person I interviewed, Meghan McClain, said this. "I'm so shocked that this is a world-wide issue. I always thought slavery was in the past."

The first step to change, is AWARENESS.

In order to raise awareness of the issue of Human Trafficking, I decided to make a flyer-type thing that essentially just states the main issue. I will be posting this picture on my facebook page, tumblr, and twitter account. It's really just to get the word out that human trafficking is an issue, and if people have any questions they can ask me about them.

This brings me to the conclusion of my blog post series. Be sure to check out my bibliography here!

English Journal #41: Write a letter to someone that you'd never send

Posted by Alexis Babcock in English 2 - Block on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 11:05 pm

Dear ~~Warren~~ ~~Pop~~ ~~Grandfather~~ Stranger,

It’s a shame when I have to cross out such personal/ informal names, but what am I supposed to write? I don’t know you; you don’t know me. You don’t fit under those crossed out nicknames because those names are based on love, family, memories, and all the things you’re not. Did you really think that you could just step into my life after 15 years of not existing?

-Signed, someone you’ll never know

English Journal #26: Write your own "Mask" poem

Posted by Alexis Babcock in English 2 - Block on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 11:00 pm

Each and everyday I hide behind a lie

in hopes that they can’t judge what’s inside.

There’s no need for them to pity me

or treat me any differently.

We all have a past that we’re entitled to hide,

a little piece of us we wish would just die.

It controls every part of you,

and you have no idea what to do.

Your mask keeps you going;

there’s no use in anybody knowing.

All you can do is try to let someone in

because once you do that, your life can begin.

English Journal #21: Describe your Thanksgiving in detail

Posted by Alexis Babcock in English 2 - Block on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 10:58 pm

As I walked through the front door I was greeted with the thunderous barks of dogs, the loud voices of the two most horrible people, and the shrill scream of out-of-hand children. In that moment, I was worried what might come later in the meal in this house of horrors.

At dinnertime I isolated myself, staying quiet and unnoticed. The food was wonderful and was the only thing keeping me content and pausing me from going absolutely crazy. The colorful food filled the table and created a warm, confronting smell. In the section of time, we came together as peacefully as we ever had. Just as we finished, the loud house full of banter and cruel jokes returned.

Let’s just say that it was a breath of fresh air walking out that door.

Cell Phone Stupidity #3

Posted by Rahed Albarouki in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 10:52 pm

My last couple of blogs were explaining my reason behind creating these three blog posts. Again, my reason is because I feel humans have become stupider and more lazy over time due to the evolution of technology. The blogs I've already made had a lot of opinions, but this blog has facts and my own personal research.

This blog is my Post For Change! I am writing this blog to try and make a difference in society and help people understand that this is not something to just throw to the side. It's a problem that has been overlooked for years but never actually was taken seriously. But I'm taking it seriously and I will make a difference one way or another!

I AM FURIOUS!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have become very curious to see if anything has been done to bring forth the issue I am discussing with you. Nothing has been talked about, or shown, or even thought about! Yes, people have talked about how technology has made people lazier and stupider over time, but it was not a huge issue in the whole world's eyes. But in my eyes it is. I am exhausted of dealing with people who do not how to put down their cell phone or their computer or iPad and just read a book or the newspaper. I realize that you're able to access all of these things from your mobile phone but it's a different feeling when you're reading ink. Your vision becomes better and your reading level goes up.

I kept thinking of all these different questions and their possible answers. So I decided to take a survey. The survey asked very simple questions and it gave me the answers I needed. Click here to take the survey.
I found out a lot about how many people have cell phones and how long they use them for. I sent my survey out to over 400 people but only 49 of them filled out the survey. However, I was not able to retrieve every single answer due to technical difficulties. My findings are shown below:

How old are you?
Years | How Many
12            1
13            0
14           10
15           17
16            3
17            6
18           12
19            0

Do you have a cell phone?
Yes | No
47    2

How many years have you had a cell phone?

Years | How Many
0             0
1             2
2             2
3             6
4             6
5            12
6             7
7             2
9             1
10            2
11            2

How many hours of the day do you use your cell phone?
Hours | How Many

< 1 or 1           6
      2               6
      5               1
   > 5              12

Do your parents have any restrictions on your cell phone?

Yes | No
8 41

What grade are you in?
Grade | How Many

   9            30
10            0
11            0
12           19

What is your grade point average? NO LYING!

GPA | How Many
0-1         1
1-2         0
2-3         1
3-4        17

Do you have a flip-phone or a touch screen?

Flip-phone | Touch Screen
11 38

Do you believe people have become less curious about things due to the evolution of technology?

Yes | No
24 25

After analyzing my results numerous times, it shows me that when your a young teenager (14 or 15) that you tend to have a cell phone. Not only that, but you tend to also have a touch screen phone and a more high powered phone. It was shocking to me when I saw that more people thought humans have stayed the same over time and over the evolution of technology.

CHANGE

Change is not something easy to conquer, that's why I am working my best to find a way to make change. I want that change to be a result of this blog. So far, I have come up with a "No Screen Week." This week is a pledge to not use any type of technology (i.e. cell phones, computers, iPods) for ONE whole week. For many this is a hard task, but for many this is very easy. The date and way to spread the word about this is still undetermined. But it'll be sometime in the summer.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Ms. Dunn
Julia Boyer
Science Leadership Academy Students
Apple
The Internet
Myself

Blog #1-2
Cell Phone Stupidity Bibliography

Blog 3 Post for change

Posted by Stephen Eager-White in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 10:49 pm

Blog 3:

In my first blog I introduced you to the topic of child trafficking and told you why I was interested. In my second blog I showed you some new info I found based off of my new research and I also voiced my opinion on the subject. Now this is my 3rd blog post and it’s my post for change.

In my research I’ve found that things that have been done to raise awareness were written letters to the government so they could step up and try and save these innocent children, donations, some send gifts, clothes, and on the 21st of every month you can join others in fasting for child trafficking. I think these are great ways to raise awareness for child sex trafficking. donating clothes and money could help save a child’s life.

To raise awareness I’ve made a public service announcement. In my P.S.A. I showed where the trafficking is happening, what age group it’s affecting, and how you can help. The most effective way to help children in the trafficking is to donate to UNICEF. My opinion on the subject is for it to stop completely. Trafficking is the second most popular organized crime in the world. and billions of women and children get trafficked each year.

I propose that there should be police stationed in places with high reports of trafficking. Like Thailand and all of Asia. Child trafficking is so popular that I can almost guarantee that you’ll find at least one brothel. And finding one brothel could save up 30 children’s lives. It hasn’t happened yet but I hope that it will happen one day it could be a very effective way to help end this industry.

Here’s the link to my bibliography

Burkina Faso (Africa) Election Project - Blase Biello & Ian McClendon

Posted by Blase Biello in Globalization - Laufenberg on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 10:18 pm

Burkina Faso is a country in Western Africa, that is surrounded by countries on all sides of it. The capital of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou. While doing some research on the country, we've learned that the President of Burkina Faso's name is actually Blaise Compaoré. Although entering the presidency in 1987 through a coup, he was elected by the people in the 1991, 1998, 2005, and most recently 2010. Burkina Faso is actually not having another election until the year 2015. Burkina Faso's presidential terms last 5 years at a time. They will, however, be having a parliamentary election December 2, 2012.

We started our project by trying to find some people living and tweeting from Burkina Faso. (1st picture below - click to enlarge). We searched Burkina Faso in the Twitter search bar to try and find some teenagers - but little was tweeted and English and everything seemed to be a dead end. Access to computers is not as common there - and sometimes limited technology is not being used for Twitter. So, we changed up our approach a little bit and tried looking up some International Schools located in Burkina Faso. The biggest hit we got was for the International School of Ouagadougou. So, we checked out the site at the URL: iso.bf and went to the Contact page - so we can connect with some teachers, who could've potentially connected us with some teachers. So, we both filled out the form seem below (2nd picture) and wrote a detailed message about our project and how we'd like to get some of their teenagers involved. However, we never received a response. So, we then tried to email them directly not-through the site. Blase emailed them through my professional SLA email account at the provided email address on April 26 (3rd picture below) but never received a response. Ian did the same, and also did not receive a response. If we were to do it again we would probably try and find other International Schools and American programs/organizations in the area to try and connect us to some of the youth.

Post for Change

Posted by Julian Makarechi in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 9:51 pm

In my earlier blog posts I talked about the effects of poverty on a student's academic success and the relationship between education, unemployment and homelessness. I also mentioned some information about homeless people infected with HIV/AIDS. If the reader would like to read those two previous blogs please visit these sites: Blog 1, Blog 2.
I am currently holding a fundraiser for homeless children that need a place to stay and an education. To draw attention to this topic, I put posters that asked for donations to Stand up for Kids around my school and a PDF of that poster in the advisory memo so that all the parents, teachers and students could find out about it. Some students at Science Leadership Academy have already contacted me about donations.
I decided help StandUp For Kids this because “more than 94% of the financial donations go directly to assisting homeless and street kids”. This information means that when I ask people to donate they know that their money will be used for putting and end to youth homelessness and that they are not be wasting their money. However, my main goal was not to see how much money I could collect; it was to make people aware of this topic and for them to spread the word. When people can relate to something and learn about it, that is when change starts to happen.
After making my community aware of this issue, the next step to making sure all children get an education and that they have shelter is to have people make a change by volunteering and donating. This will reduce the number of homeless kids in America (1.5 million). One way to make a change without donating money is donating things to the Salvation Army. Once this organization is done collecting all their donated items (t-shirts, shoes, household items) they sell them to gain money for people in need like all the homeless kids in the United States. Also if they are people that feel very strongly about homeless children in America with HIV/AIDS they can volunteer and donate to the Philly Aids Thrift store.

I was able to raise a total of $62.62 to donate to Stand Up for Kids. Even Though that the amount of money that raised was not that great, my campaign was very successful in raising awareness. I would like to thank all the people that donated, but most of all Jeremy Spry, Alexa Dunn, Chris Lehmann, Pejman Makarechi, Carlo Makarechi, Bijan Makarechi, Giovanna Chiti and Ray Albarouki. All those people helped me perfect my original content. I could not have done it without them and if it was not for them people would not be as aware of the poverty in the United States as they are now.
I wonder if in the future I will find better ways to inform people about something that is important to me.
“Go out into the world and do good until there is too much good in the world.”
Larry H. Miller
Here is my Bibliography.

Intimidator Difficulty Part 3 Post for Change

Posted by Aaron Tang in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 9:08 pm

My first two blogs talked about the subject of bullying. If you forget or don’t know my name, I am Aaron Tang. The 1st blog consists of details about my issue, and my 2nd is about opinions. The first blog explained different types of bullying. Also the second blog shows charts on how many people are being affected, and my respond to the crucial bully. Since this is a long journey of my project, there will be some changes. You don’t know why I posted this blog, but I will explain the post change. Another piece of the blog is to raise awareness about my issue. There will be a lot of websites where you can make a big difference! Not but not least, I will create a positive change by creating a video for people to see. Where ever you are, please sit back and enjoy reading the last blog of mine!

After collecting all of my research from the google doc form, many people filled the survey. Not too long ago, I have posted a survey on facebook and twitter for my followers and friends to answer the questions about their opinions and thoughts on bullying. I am satisfied of how many people had submitted their own thoughts. Many people had said bullying is a crucial weapon towards other people because it can hurt people’s feeling. Some people have said that bullying occurs around school. Practically, all of people who filled out the survey were teenagers. Most of them said if they see bullying occurring in the school or any place, they will report to an adult. If you still haven’t completed the survey, feel free to submit one.

There’s always a solution beside hurting each other. Children should be the role model because it shows that they are the better person who stands up for someone, or friend.

It’s time for my post of change. The bottom of this article will be a video about how I can get many views to stop bullying. In the video clip, I had grabbed some volunteers to hold the paper about words that describe the victims and ways to help my community a better society. In the video, it shows how many people are willing to help the problem. I can’t thank so many people who had help me. I have also posted the video on facebook for my friends and they had shared it to other friends to spread the word. Also, I grabbed some quotes from celebrities who had been bullied before and how celebrities may change people’s prospective without commiting suicide, or harming their self or other people.

The website is for somebody who may be in trouble of being the victim.
Click here.

Here is a website for donating money. The money is towards for programs to make an awareness. The website also shows who is the bullied learn about the topic, and how people can help.

If you want to read articles about bullying, there are a lot of resources.

No one can stop you, if you try to help somebody. I want people to not be afraid to step up for somebody because the bullied may be afraid when many people are helping the victim.

What will we do if no nobody cares about bullying? It can impact a lot of the victims. Many families will lose a member when they are not living. We don’t want our future to become a chaos when humans hurt other humans. We can always make a step by helping other people.

Together, we can stop preventing bullying in a matter of time. “We will make a difference!”

I would to like acknowledge to my english teacher Ms. Dunn, my SAT Emma Hersh because they guided me with all three blogs to have a rich blog. Ms. Dunn had been a wonderful helper because she told us what to write for each blog. Emma Hersh had helped me with editing, and upload my video to the blog. I would like to thank all the people who help me with my video, and revise my three blogs. Lastly, I appreciated for everyone who read all the blogs.

Bibliography

The video is created by me and I want to make an awareness for people to help other people who are in need. Hope you enjoy my wonderful video about bullying.

All these ways of bullying need to end right now.

We can all stop bullying!

This shows that people are forcing together to put a stop to bullying.

Post For Change: Reginald Simmons

Posted by Reginald Simmons in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 9:04 pm

Blog Post #3 / Post For Change

In my last two blogs, I’ve discussed cyberbullying. What it is, what it can do, what it already has done, etc. Before this project, I didn’t know much about this subject myself, and I’ve learned a lot about this issue. I plan to keep tabs on the path it takes.

This blog post is my last one, and the last phase of the project. This is the post for change. So far, I’ve made change by posting about cyberbullying, so that people on the SLA blog post site can read it, and get the subject in their heads. To continue to make change with my topic, I will craft a sheet of paper filled with sources to stories, facts and websites for readers to look at. It will be a paper intended to simply raise awareness, so that people don’t stop thinking about cyberbullying as soon as they leave me blog. That’s all that I have left to do.
My piece of original content will be the sheet of paper for awareness that I previously explained. I will make enough copies for all my classmates to have at least one. I’m glad i was assigned this project, because in trying to get the word out about your topic to other people, you learn a lot about it yourself. I would like acknowledge Ms. Dunn for all the help she’s provided for me.
See my bibliography here .

Post For Change

Posted by Aateeyah Sharrieff in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 8:49 pm

To spread awareness about my topic I’m reaching out to my advisory class at my school. I plan on showing them a movie called “Crash” then having a discussion about it and to get their opinions on the movie and what they think about racism overall. I also have discussion questions for my advisory to answer after the film.

This movie is about people of different races who live in Los Angeles with very different lives. Some how they collide in each other’s life and they turn out to need each other. For further information about the film heres a link to the movies main page with a lot of things for your intrest.

(A photo of the cast from the movie)

I’m planning to watch the film with my advisory on Thursday, May 31, 2012 and Monday, June 4, 2012. I’m also considering playing a game with my advisory. My English teacher played this game with my class in the beginning of the year. She put a line of tap in the middle of the room. Then she asked questions about our life and other things. If the question applied to us, we would step u to the line, if not you would stay in place. This game helped everyone learn more about each other and the things we have all been through. I plan on doing this with my advisory to try to get them to open up more and to learn more about them. I want them to express their opinion about my topic because everyone has a voice. I hope that they will give me more ideas on how to make a change even further than just trying to stop it in my community, but maybe the sate and so on.

To spread even more awareness about racism and how we can stop it, I’m creating “stop all racism” posters and hanging them up all over the city. By seeing this on street corners and everywhere people go, maybe it will make people think twice before saying some thing racist or even doing a racist action.

Maybe by doing my part, others can help and contribute to stopping racism. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion also, so racism will carry on as long as people who don’t like a race that’s not theirs are against them.

Privatization of Public Schools - Post for Change

Posted by Nomi Martin-Brouillette in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 8:49 pm

For the last installment of my series of blogs (you can find my first two blogs here and here about the privatization of public school, I will be creating a “Post for Change” or a blog post about what I have done to create change about this issue.

Before I educated myself about this issue, there were many others already involved, planning, getting organized, and making their voices heard. I stumbled across an issue that many people feel very passionately about. I am happy to say that I am one of those people now, too.

There have been community meetings with the Philadelphia School Reform Commission so that the community can voice their concerns about the proposed plan to close schools and possibly privatize several. To elicit change in this topic, I attended one of these meetings at Girls High School on Thursday, May 24. Below is a video clip of me speaking at the hearing.

After I was done speaking, several people approached me asking if they could use my short speech for several different things, which made me feel great. At that moment I knew that I had made an, albeit small, change. On Thursday, May 30^th, the School Reform Commission will vote on what to do. There will be a large gathering outside of the School District Building, In order to keep creating change in my community, I will be part of the gathering outside to voice the concerns of the community. This way, the SCR cannot ignore us.

The following are a few pictures that I took at the meeting on May 24^th, and a few photographs of another small meeting that occurred on Tuesday, May 22^nd which the School Reform Commission did not attend.

Community members writing down what the believe needs to happen in public schools at Tuesday's meeting.

SRC Member Feather Houstoun at Thursday's meeting

SRC Member Lorene Cary at Thursday's meeting.

Community members holding signs at Thursday's meeting.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge Lisa Haver, a writer, retired teacher and education activist who I contacted for further help understanding privatization, and who invited me to come to community meetings. I would also like to acknowledge my mother for taking me to the meetings.

For those who are interested, come to 440 N Broad Street outside of the School District of Philadelphia to make sure that the SRC hears your voice! I you cannot attend; you can live stream it from your computer here. It is my opinion that my education, and the education of my friends is in jeopardy, and it is our duty to make sure that we get the education that is our right!

You can view my bibliography here.

Fourth Quarter Blog post

Posted by Matthew Ferry in Advanced Art - Hull on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    This quarter I did something unorthodox; I stuck with the with the assigned work and did not opt out to work on my own projects. I decided that this quarter I would do that, as I felt the last few I did not produce as powerful pieces as I could have. Been having to stick to a strict plan of having a new thing a week, I had to stay on top of my work or less I would fall behind (which did happen for a bit.)
   I started this quarter off creating an abstract drawing. I was undecided of what to do, as it had to be more than just an abstract image, it had to convey motion within it. I had many different ideas that I thought of doing, but instead of spending a large amount of time brainstorming, I just let my hand and pencil do the work. I started to draw an outline of a large circle, then began to draw smaller ones within. The idea of creating something black and white popped into my head, but that would be too tuxedo like. I instead started drawing lines that extended outwards from the center of the circles, which started to look a bit like needs coming out. I still did not see any motion within this drawing, but saw abstract thoughts were forming. I topped off my sketch by drawing lightening around it. When the lightening touched the points coming out of the center of the circle, they would turn the same color as the lines. If they did not, they would remain blue. Next I took this to black paper and used a white pencil to re-illustrate it. This allowed me work out any faults before moving onto my third design, where I added color to it. In this one, I decided to use four colors; blue; green; red; and yellow. I made the different circles in the drawing a pattern of yellow and green, as I think that is an attractive color combination. Next, I made all of the swirls red, and the lightening that touched it. All of the ones that were not red were blue. I really enjoyed this piece, because it allowed me to learn to use phases to create something, instead of jumping right into it and being disappointed with the outcome.
   The next thing I made was an observation drawing of an unclose object. For this, I chose a hole in the wall. I can not give any particular reason why I chose the hole in the wall, other than it was the first thing I saw when handed the assignment. I did this drawing for two hours; I'm not sure why I did it for so long, but I did. I'm happy with the results, but I could have only put an hour into it and have done another drawing. I learned from this drawing to better manage my time to do more within a limited amount.
   After this, I did some make-up work that I did not get around to. I made my abstract emotion drawings. This concept was difficult for me. I associate abstract with something that is indescribable, and I associate emotions that are visually describable. Combining something indescribable and describable was a difficult concept for me to first approach, but after thinking about it, I was able to muster up two drawings. The one I did has an eye in the center with a tear, being watched by many different eyes. This single eye that has a tear running is what all of the other eyes have their attention affixed on. For what reasons? They are indescribable. The only emotion that is describable is the eye with the tear. My second drawing I split between the center. One side depicts more vibrant and lovely things, while the other has things that are mournful and saddening. The only way to understand emotion in the second drawing is by looking at the lips, but without seeing the rest of the face it is difficult to understand what emotion is trying to be expressed, making this indescribable.
   My next two weeks I had to make some alterations. The weather was too poor during those two weeks to go outside, so my drawings were inside the room. I used this time to try and teach myself how to drawing ceilings and floors during this time; more specifically rows of both. I've always struggled with drawing things that are drawn in the drawing far, then come up close. I was able to get the walls in the drawings down well, but the ceilings posed as an issue during my drawings. I ultimately decided to accept it as how I draw ceilings. When I originally drew my ceilings and floors, I did not particularly like them, but I do now. They are me.
   The final drawing I did this quarter was an abstract of a face and a mask. The one inspired the other. For this I wanted to do something that extremely quirky, but interesting. For the face, which was a rough draft to the mask, I designed it in a way where the mouth took up about a third of the face, and there were several rows of teeth. For the eyes, I designed to have one horizontal and the other vertical. I put two eye brows over the eyes and completed it. As I was looking at the drawing as it was finished, I felt more could be done and removed to it. In the rough draft of the second one, I made it so there were only two rows of teeth, as the multiples in the other one were a bit strange. Next. I turned the base into a mask by drawing the dark spots under the lips to the parallel side. I kept the one eye hole on the right hand sign, as I liked it like that, and kept the other one unsymmetrical, but changed the hole to a circle. Both of these ideas have some sort of design surrounding it. The circle has sharp twirls around it, while the sharp eye has a flower on the cheek and an eyebrow above. I'm particularly proud of this piece, as I really enjoyed making it, and I think it came out pretty well.
   I'm glad this quarter I changed my game. I felt that I accomplished more and pushed myself better as an artist to work with things that I was uncomfortable doing. I learned to accepted faults in things that I create, and realize that imperfects are art; in-fact, if something's perfect, it would be a pretty boring piece of work. the imperfections making a piece compelling and unique. That's what I like to think of my work for this quarter; it was unique.

Animal Cruelty- Blog Post #3

Posted by Jasmine Nieves in English 1 - Dunn on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 8:45 pm

To introduce my blog post #3 is to tell you that there will be a change. A change that means something to a lot of people. Change is neccessary for animal cruelty if you have seen or heard about it. The nuts and bolts that need to be changed is that people are going to have to stop doing cruel things to animals. They don’t have voices, so we have to speak for them to stop cruelting them. They don’t deserve it.

To draw out what has been done to raise awareness to stop animal cruelty, The Humane Society of the United States has been very active in campaigning for animals. They prevent abuses such as dogfighting and cockfighting. Other awareness organizations are PAWS, which is a foster program to adopt animals in Philadelphia and the ASPCA which helps prevent cruelty in Philadelphia that’s happening to them. It ties in to the other organizations that helped stop animal abuse and animal cruelty because it is like a shelter and a foster home for these helpless animals.

My opinions on ways to change is first get the whole school involved. Then the the principal will set out the word on animal cruelty to his family and friends and students will do the same. Everybody will have a chance to help them. Once this happens, the cruelty must stop immediately!!! There’s no ifs ands or buts. Without animals and pets here, what other way can people entertain themselves if they didn’t have anything else to do. Lets not forget, these animals have feelings just like humans.

I will do this by showing a presentation on animal cruelty to my advisory and have a bake sale then when the school has a chance, we will then donate it to one of these organizations and we will all take part in volunteering to help them help these animals.This will someday improve our society and the animals society. Another way I can raise awareness by making videos of pictures of it with text and put it on the SLA site, make a big poster of it to raise the awareness or just make small posters and put it all around the school. Someday, the world will know that there will a change and its going to start with them.

To make these changes happen, we will work together. People will notice these changes and notice that it is wrong. When they see these signs around school and hear the messages that have been said people might think its annoying, but its not. It’s for a good cause. Once these animals have the help that they need, they will be happy and will be able to survive with life. Give these animals a chance. This change hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen and it will occur.

The original content I can make to illustrate how a positive change is occurring is that more people or all people will go to their local vet place or local shelter and everybody will help these animals. People will help these animals no matter what it takes. People will love them, take care of them and treat them with respect as if they had their own child. People will look at how these animals lived and feel sorry for them because they can’t take it any more. Their hearts will be broken just like ours. Continuing on my original content, is that I will make posters in order for people to show their love and how I love animals. Both animal testing and animal cruelty is wrong.

Click Here if you want to see a video of how animal cruelty should be stopped

Click Here if you will like to donate to the ASPCA.

To sum up my last to blogs would be if these animals will be helped and if there will will be any more public awareness to save these animals for my first blog post and for my second blog post was about my opinions and latest research on Animal Cruelty. Now for the third blog post was about how I was going to make a change.

What I did to make change was that I created posters. I created posters to give a good message that cruelty should stop and committing these animals to die. What is still left for me to do is to find out if this awareness works or not. I hope this awareness will work. If it doesn’t, it wouldn’t be good for them or for us. I just can’t stop thinking and I know you can’t either stop thinking that more of these animals are going to die.

To explain my original content of the project, its obviously posters. The posters say people need to make a donation and stop animal cruelty. When you look at them, they almost make you want to cry and help save the day. Even the people reading this post should spread this word out and not only me. Save these animals today!!!

I will like to thank Ms. Dunn, for helping me get through this project. I will also like to thank her again because she helped me get through this whole project myself and always gave me feedback. I will like to thank Emma for also checking my work from the beginning when we first had began the project. I will also like to thank myself from Ms. Dunn’s help and Emma’s, because I finally achieved the projects goals. They are the best teacher and student assistant teachers ever!!! To close out this blog, is if you see animal cruelty happening don’t let it happen again. Make it end or take it to the court to get it handled. REMEMBER, STOP ANIMAL CRUELTY!!!

click here for my bibliography

Click Here to watch this video on animal cruelty.

Here is a picture of my original content!!!