During
this year of ups and downs i have learned a lot about people, places, and
myself. Some projects showed my strengths and showed what happens if i put
myself in a different environment and what happens when you research about a
place which you needed to learn and understand then you needed to write about.
I
learned how to put myself in the places of other people. I learned that from
reading about different experiences you can go off of what you learned and
create a complete understanding story and or make up your own person from that
time or place. A good example of this is the Monologue
Project. Our monologue project was on world problems. For
mines i chose westernization. When i started this project i was pretty sure and
convinced that westernization was a good thing, then when i started i noticed
it was a half thing. Somewhat of westernization is really bad then other things
are good. So when i started this project i wrote about both sides, some people
believed it was a good thing and then other believe that it was a bad thing.
During this project i went through ups and downs. I went through those times
which i did not have a clue of what i was going to write, then i had those
times when i knew exactly what to write and when i knew exactly what i had to
express and what i had to do. Some times i had those moments when i had to go
back and do a little more research. Every now and then i had to go back and ask
myself the question, This is good but how can i make it better? But in the end
the project turned out great. I also learned a lot about Ladakh.
During the poetry unit, i learned a lot about
different types of poetry. I was already writing poetry but it wasn’t like the
ones we wrote in class. In class we used certain genres of poetry. We started
of with the Poetry Project. In this project we were allowed to start off by
doing certain poetry. Then we researched a poet when I learned that every
poet has a different type of writing style. Once in a while each poet had tried
or attempted to do one of the traditional poetry writing styles. Personally I believe
now that writing styles in poetry are guidelines for people to start off from.
The
next thing and yet to be my favorite thing we worked on was the Scene/
Descriptive Writing. This was my favorite because I did not know how
many things you could do with one little place or one little thing to turn it
into a story or a paper. At first I had difficulties doing this, like I had difficulties
learning what exactly I should do and also difficulties turning pieces into
something more then they were. After three papers I learned how to make my
descriptive writing as strong as I could. Now that I know how to do these
things i can write about a item, and I can also make it into something
different.
During
this year I also learned more things about thesis statements. I learned more
about giving more inside of the thesis information. I also learned that the
more you use familiar sources people understand the paper more. In quarter one I
believe it was we wrote Lord
Of The Flies Thesis statements. Once I got use to the thesis
exercises we did, I aced this paper.
Through
this year I learned a lot in history and in English that will help me write
papers and understand myself more.
Throughout Lord of the Flies the kids become more savage. The boys start out as somewhat civilized, but as they realize that they might not get saved, they get more savage. In several instances in our world, there have been people or groups who are against technology. The example about groups not having or wanting technology relates to the boys because they go back to their animal instincts.. The real life example hurt people for a not very good reason, and they either didn’t have or want technology. The diminishing amount of technology affects people in ways so that they revert back to their instinct of savagery.
During the book
Piggy’s glasses go from good condition to being broken. While the glasses are
diminishing, the savage instinct of the boys becomes more prevalent. A quote
from the book from where the glasses are half broken is “You didn't ought to have let that fire out... one side's broken."
page 71. During this section the kids are in the middle of being animals
humans. This quote shows that they are starting to abandon one form of
technology that they have, fire. They left the technology to go hunting; and
because of this the ship that passes by didn’t see them. If they had kept their
technology, then they would not be fighting about not getting rescued from the
ship. The fire would have also kept them from killing the pig, so that they
would be less savage. Only savages would leave something as important as the
fire, to go kill a pig for food that they wouldn’t need if they were rescued.
Many of the older boys were hunters, or wanted to be with jack to kill a
pig. Luddites were people in the early 1800’s who were against some new
technology. The new technology would do their job faster, but they claimed that
it wasn’t as authentic, or good. The luddites destroyed many of the machines,
and killed some people in the riots. The luddites are similar to the boys in Lord of the Flies, because they ignore
or demolish technology, and in the process they hurt things. This new
technology made them destroy technology, which showed how they went back to
their animal instincts, and didn’t think about anything else. The luddites were
against new technology, while the hunters were against watching the fire. Both
of them had their priorities wrong, the luddites could have found new jobs, or
solved the problem without violence. The boys had their priorities wrong
because they chose hunting, and fun over being saved.
There is a lot of symbolism in Lord
of the Flies. One big part is Piggy’s glasses. They symbolize technology,
which also shows civilization and how put together they boys are. In the
beginning of the book, when the boys are civilized the glasses are fine. When
the glasses are half broken the boys are splitting apart, and most of them are
going back to their animal like instincts. Close to the end of the book the
glasses become fully broken because of the Savagery. A quote close to when the
glasses are broken is “”How can we make a fire?” Jack squatted back and frowned
at the pig. “We’ll raid them and take fire.”” Page 136. This shows that Jack
has turned savage; he wants to steal from other kids on the island without
asking first. His animal instincts have taken over, where he thinks that
violence is necessary and doesn’t even consider talking to them. Another type
of technology that they have on the island is fire. At the beginning they use
the fire because they realize that it is an important part of them getting
saved. The first time that they let the fire go out was when they first started
to become savage. They decided to kill a pig instead of get saved by a ship.
The technology was not present, so the boys reverted back to their animal
instincts. After the boys split into two groups the fire is almost not present,
which shows that they are barley separated from animals. At the end of the book
there are two significant fires. The first one is the cooking fire, which would
not serve their purposes, this shows that they are using a different type of
technology and have disregarded the signal fire. The other fire is when they
light the forest on fire to try to kill Ralph, this fire shows how much of
savages they are; that they would destroy the jungle in order to find and hurt
one person that wouldn’t join them.
There is much symbolism around the technology in Lord of the Flies, along with much emphasis on how anyone can become savage.. Technology is one thing that separates us from animals, so when it goes away we go back to our animal instincts. The boys lost almost all of their technology throughout the book, which made their savage instincts easier to see. This happens in our world, where people loose their technology, or the technology changes and they revert back to being animal like.
The shootings at Columbine high school
were blamed on many things. Among drugs, alcohol and mental disorders was the
first person shooter video game called Doom. Many people blamed the video game
because there was not a lot of drugs or alcohol that showed up on the tests.
Bill Manville on NY daily news said “"Doesn’t that sound like they were trying to rack up a record score in
some video arcade?" This isn’t a very realistic idea, there is no way that
a violent video game can make you think that on your own.
Many studies
say that when testing violent video games on kids, they test whether the games made
kids more violent. Almost all of the studies concluded that the kids who played
violent video games became more aggressive after playing them. Many people who
play violent video games become more aggressive, but they don’t make you act on
these emotions.
The reality
is that millions of people play violent video games, and there are not millions
of school shootings or violent crimes every year, so it cannot be affecting
people so much that they want to act on their emotions. Recently, video games
have become more popular. As an
article on PBS says, “According
to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United
States is at a 30-year low." This combined with the fact that many of the
other studies only said that the people playing violent video games only became
more aggressive supports the idea that it makes people more aggressive, but
they don’t act.
Violent video games do make people more aggressive, but they don’t act
on these emotions. If the violent video games were having such an impact so
that they made the kids to things like the columbine shootings, then there
would be a lot more juvenile violent crimes. The study was only for the United
States, but these statistics could be different for other parts of the world. A
lot of these studies are not 100% accurate because they don’t account for
everything in the game players life. This is almost impossible to do, so the
data will never be completely correct for these kinds of studies.
The shootings at Columbine or any other school shootings are not
majorly caused by the kids playing video games. Many people try to blame video
games because they are something that many people can easily put the blame on,
even though according to PBS 83% of video games that kids shouldn’t be playing
are bought by their parents. Less of the blame should be put on video games,
and more on other factors like illegal substances, or mental problems.
Overall many people find that violent video games are something easy
to blame problems on. In fact the video games do make the players more
aggressive, but not as violent. Although violent video games do hold some blame
in violence today, there are many other factors such as drugs, alcohol, or
mental problems that contribute to this violence more than violent video games.
For my sculpture I found approximately five different how to on wallets. I created three different types of wallets, varying from easy to hard. From the 200 photos I choice one found of clouds, one photo of lockers, and one photo of the disney castle that I took the week of spring break. I used photoshop to add and change several things on each of the photos. My choice for the copied piece of art work was White Flower on Red Earth by Georgia O'keeffe. I didn't not color the flower but I added some shading to make it look like it was in black and white. For m final pieces of art work this year I drew a bike three times. One with negative space, one with just lines, and one with just shading. Unfortunately I was unable to complete the outside drawing. See below for the completed pieces.
What is religion?
“… the believing in something greater than oneself.” 9.23.10
This year I began with religion and realized more than I ever have with eight years of catholic school. With an unbiased opinion, my eyes were widened to what religion really meant and how an atheists , or undecided, person like myself fits into that category and study. Reflecting on this course I acknowledge that my views have changed since then and there is still I have yet to explore with religion in different cultures and what spirituality really means. An interesting project for this topic was my Keynote on the different views religions had on sex, in this case Pagans vs. Catholics. Through out my research I not only convinced others there has been too many speculations about Paganism but also learned this myself.
"...Shakespeare knows not about the loving lies and for arguments sake neither do I." 3.6.11
Hands down my favorite and creative project has to be the poetry portfolio I became more than indulged in this assignment. When I was younger I wrote a lot of poetry and I'm the type of person to dabble in different types of activities rather than excel in just one. When I lost interest I moved to something else. The course made me see poetry so much more broad and open, very similar to the religion project. I found a calling in poetry and I enjoyed it so much more than I did when I dabbled when I was younger. I not developed a new found respect for poetry but also an admiration for it. Because of this assignment I discovered my talent for the art form and still continue to write frequently on a personal level if only for the fun of it.
Sophia Henninger
English - History
Copper
June 10, 2011
Over the course of the year in english and history we’ve analyzed, discussed, and read about many themes. We learned many truths about the government, economy, and even people in general. One theme that repeated itself in many of our units is revolutions are never painless. This was shown in many units but also within many assignments. Personally, it was shown in my monologue project, poetry wiki, both trials (Cortes and sweatshop trials), and the revolution written response. All of these assignments demonstrate this concept whether is it very concretely or more abstract.
The monologue project was one of the longest, yet most interesting projects we completed this year. We could truly turn it into anything we wanted. In my monologue project, a college student goes to Pakistan to research Nike’s labor conditions for his final project. In the end he locates a factory and convinces the workers the revolt against management, resulting in his death. This is a very concrete example of the concept that revolutions are never painless. In the end of the project, the boy causes an uprising in an attempt to restore basic human rights in the situation. Even though he and several others lost their lives, they brought light to the issue, allowing it to be address in court. He lost his life so the revolution could be successful.
The following example is much less concrete but still illustrates the main concept. The poetry unit allowed us to be creative and truly express ourselves in anyway we wanted. Some of my poems had some subtle themes of revolution though they were more centered on personal revolutions within one’s self. The poems centered on how I, or the reader, would like to change themselves. The one particular poem, When Did I Become a Ghost? speaks of how drugs trap people’s minds. Though it does not actually speak of overcoming the trap, it speaks of the difficulty that would involve and how that would actually make it impossible to overcome it. Even though no concrete revolution takes place within the poems, the difficulty it would take to change the situations in them would be a personal revolution.
This year in our history class we had several trials, both demonstrating, quite blatantly, how painful and destructive revolutions can be but even though they’re not bloodless, they can still be successful. We had two trials, one was debating who had the most guilt in the slaughter of the Aztec people and this was called the Cortes trial. We had another trial called the sweatshop trial. This trial debated who held the most blame for the mistreatment of workers in the third world. Evidence of both of these wrong-doings involved blood. In both cases many people were murdered needlessly. This is a good example of how just because a revolution does have pain, does not mean it will be successful and this is shown by the Aztecs. The sweatshop workers are still in the midst of the this revolution. This shows that though revolutions are never painless, sadly, they are not always effective.
In the revolution written response, we had to answer the question, “What separates revolutions from social change?” I argued that they’re not separate but social change is only the effect of revolution. Within it I used the examples of the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the recent Egyptian conflict. All of these examples were bloody but all of them were successful. Millions of people died in these wars and, though this is sad, without those deaths they may not have achieved what each of them wanted. All of these revolutions whether concrete or abstract, personal or social, ineffective or triumphant, all had pain and for some of them, that fact is what allowed them to be victorious.
This year has been life changing for me. In History and English we
have learned about lots. Like, Change, freedom, religion, fight, struggle,
hope, and victory. I’m going to tell you about something’s I’ve discovered in
these yearlong courses. The first thing we learned about on History was
religion. Me personally thought this was something that was boring and
uninteresting, but later on I found it quite fun. We first got to look at our
own religions and how they affect us. I am not a religious person, but my
parents are Muslim and strong Muslims at that. Throughout the Religion unit, I
found out that Religion isn’t one set thing that is controlled by a group of
people. Religion is something that one person and his mindset can control.
Jumping through a couple months ahead. Another topic we discussed was the
revolution of industry around the world and how it has affected us. We watched
Movies, had trials, and read about all the hardships that this has put on
people and the world. A trial we did were, there were the multi national
corporations, the factories, the workers, the elite, and the countrymen. We had
a trial to see who is at fault. And, the general understanding I got from this
until and that trial is that: The rise of industries ultimately helped the world,
but with it’s help brought the rise of Super-Powers, like the US and Russia,
that ultimately brought upon a lot of Modern Times problems. Another Topic that
we came across was freedom. A project we did for that unit was our Monologue
projects. We had to choose a specific point in History and do Monologues about
them. The event I chose were the events of tieneman square Protests of 1989. A
specific event that happened was the historic events of Tank Man. A lone
Chinese man stood in front of 4 tanks that were heading for the square.
Pedestrians ultimately took him away, but from his actions brought a global up
roar and helped the Chinese take freedom. A more recent event that took place
was the events that happened in a small country of Tunisia. A fruit vender lit
himself on fire because he couldn’t get a job when he wants to school. This
opened the eyes of the world the small country. And, the horrible conditions
that the people had to live in. This small act by on person triggered a huge
uproar from countries like, Egypt, Syria and Libya. The one thing I learned is:
Any actions big or small can lead to huge changes in the world. Another small
thing we covered in the larger, Freedom unit is the Psion System is the United
States. After going to The Eastern State pennetantry, and researching about
prisons. I realized that: The current Prison System does that work and is
flawed. A system we should incorporate is that of a rehabilitation so past
offenders do not come back.
