Blog Feed

Hi, it's Orlando again! Today I am here to talk about Cyberbullying and how it impacts this generation as well. I am also going to talk about my other two blogs which explains how my friend Sara was affected by Cyberbullying and bullying in general, and how cyberbullying is a big issue for teens in high school. My recent blogs mostly explained cyber bullying and why it's important for it to be prevented at all costs. It's also a big part of my grade in English, “The You & The World project”, where you can choose a big issue in the world that you think is important. Cyberbullying is a big issue, because over the year it has increased in schools. Cyberbullying has ranged from bullying about race to sexuality to body type to so many other things, and could lead to self-harm. It's an issue in the world because it isn't getting enough attention. If cyberbullying received the attention that it needs, it could be decreased by 80%.  It's also very important to me because in an article about facts on cyberbullying, it says “95% of people think it's easy to get away with cyber bullying because it's on the internet.” I strongly disagree with this quote because things that are posted on the internet never get deleted so it they will evantually get caught.

In an article by Kaplan University, Cyberbullying and bullying aren’t anything new as long as there is internet, school yards, malls, etc. But y’know, let me tell you something. I think Cyberbullying did get worse, in this generation with the internet and places we love to go you can't get away from it. Bullies will find any way to bully, and the internet isn’t new anymore. People know how to use it against others.  Cyberbullying is always towards young children and teens. If adults are involved in online harassment or intimidation, it is referred to as cyber harassment or cyberstalking. While not all cyberbullying results in suicide, it often can lead to self-destructive behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse due to the stress, and can cause depression, according to Kaplan University. This is also a great reason why social media tends to have an age restriction, because kids can be immature and harass others.Since teens start to drugs and alcohol because they can't handle the pain so they havea replacement to numb them from it, I think schools can prevent that. I think schools can get involved by providing information to students about legal ramifications of cyberbullying and how it affects their classmates. They can also add it to the policy and code of conduct, because this nonsense needs to stop. We can't have kids keep committing suicide, they’ve barely begun their lives. I think it's a great idea for the school counselor to see each kid who isn't performing their best in school, or becoming nonverbal in schools, so they can feel like they have support.

As for my final part of this project, which is my agent of change, I made a basket of happiness. It contained hard candies, a mason jar with notes, tea packets, a small bottle of nail polish, and some hair ties. I chose to give Sara this “basket of happiness”, because as we text she mentions she doesn't feel happy or loved and this basket contains all that. It's an amazing gift because the notes are categorized by color. Yellow sticky notes are from orange stream, blue ones are from teachers, pinks are from me, and the green notes are from people in other streams. My experience creating this gift for her was very joyful because I got the students and teachers to write positive notes so she can feel as important as she is. I think my project was a success because she was overjoyed with the notes and some of her favorite things.

Overall, my project was very an amazing experience because Sara was very happy. I showed her that she is important to others, not only to me. It was an amazing journey for this quarter, because it's really from the heart and I love when people pitch in and help out for a special somebody in our stream! During this project, I noticed that orange stream can be very judgemental, but they can also be very caring. Therefore, I agree with Ms.Giknis, that we should never underestimate orange stream. If I could do my Agent of change again I would have started my gift a week before grades close because I could have gotten all of my gifts and made my gift even more precious than it already is.

Picture of me holding a basketball waiting for my WNBA career.

Hello readers! This is Diamond Wallace and I am back with another blog post! In my first blog post, The Forgetfullness of the WNBA, I talk about the under recognition that the WNBA recieves. Women in the WNBA work really hard and they do not get equal payment. The $25 million that the WNBA is getting from ESPN is a small fraction of the N.B.A.’s average $930 million payment from ESPN and TNT. There is an issue with equal payment in the NBA and the WNBA.

In my second blog post, Responses and Feelings of Basketball Fans, I interviewed two men who love basketball. One of the men were Maleek Griffen, a basketball youth coach, who told me that he loved the WNBA because they follow fundamentals. Douglas Wallace, a former basketball player, had a different opinion towards the WNBA. He explained how the WNBA is not interesting or fun to watch. Even though they both disagreed, they said something very similar. “This world is sexist!” Both men explained how men think females can’t do anything as well as men. Women are expected to be nurses or teachers. When men hear things such as women's basketball, they automatically assume that the game is going to be less aggressive and interesting than an NBA game. That is what I want to stop!

I raised awareness by making an instagram hashtag. With that instagram hashtag, I sent it to all my friends and told them to post and share the hashtag, So far, a guy named Charles Ethan has 40 likes on my WNBA post. If he keeps the most likes, he will win $20 from the WNBASuppotIt page which is ran by me. I decided to make an instagram page and hashtag because words can be spread around quicker.I believe raising awareness on social media is the best way for people to know whats going on. Most teenagers don’t watch the news or read newspapers. They gather information through apps like instagram and snap chat.

Many people are reposting the WNBASupportIt page and I gain followers every day. There are also a few hashtag reposts. My experience was pretty challenging. At first I was skeptical about the instagram because I didn think it would get around. If I would have started earlier, I would have had more followers and hashtag reposts.

This project was very eye opening for me. It helped me see different perspectives on womens basketball from other people. I really hope that people start to follow the WNBA and  i hope that they recieve the equal payment that they deserve. I learned that some people watch basketball for fundamentals because they have a love for the game while other people watch it for amusement. For my annotated bibliography, click here.

This is a screenshot of my instagram page.

Hello once again, my name is Adil Shamsuddin, and I will be taking you on another journey. This is my final blog post, I will give you more information, and try to persuade you to come together and stop Bad Policing. If you wanted to see what I did on my last post, click here. In my first blog post, I talked about why this incident happens to appear all over the world. Police brutality “is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. Blog post 2 was maybe one of the most informational blogs yet, I was explaining why body cameras are important. One sample of information regarding that is, police forces are trying to get more and more districts to stop wearing body cameras. Some police officers are were trying file reports on people who were recording them during a time of police brutality. Police officers are trying to not allow people to see what's really going on. Info from blog post 1- Not only people faced it around new york and etc, the highest rate of homicide are Hialeah. This bar rate is on an average on how many homicides were faced on African Americans, by themselves. This is also rated by per million, so these statistics are pretty full of an amount. The passings of Garner, Brown, and others on account of police are not by any means the only purpose starting mass dissents. The day after the Garner shows began, low-wage specialists strolled off their employments in more than 190 urban communities, requesting a living compensation and the privilege to sort out. They, as well, droned, "I can't relax." Workers from fast-food eateries, for example, McDonald's were joined by those from low-wage retail and accommodation stores and carrier benefit occupations. “Police killed at least 303 black people in the U.S. in 2016”. Through the Board of justice, the supreme court has no approval of this. Info Blog post 2- Despite the numerous deaths of unarmed citizens, massive public outcry, and the outgrowth of the Black Lives Matter movement, constabulary brutality against Brown and black people continues. One of the reasons why this still happens is that as a smart set, we have focused on being reactive rather than proactive. Reviewing video from trunk cameras, having grand juries, subsiding civil rights typesetter's case and the like will not ultimately prevent these deaths or restore what families and communities have lost. The retired Cook County Judge, Andrew Berman was deeply disturbed by this television, so he handed it over to the media. This video footage shows police officer Marco Proano shooting at the moving elevator car full-of-the-moon of six youngsters. None of these teens had a weapon on them nor did they acted aggressively toward the officers. Before the accident, two other Chicago police officers had stopped the fomite full of black teenagers. My interview did not go as planned, the police officer that interviewed told me that police brutality is not a big deal. Once he told me that, I was heartbroken. I constantly ask him why he thinks it's not a problem, his response was what threw me off the most. He stated that only 2 out of 10 police officers are doing it, so it's not really a problem. He said because only 2 out of 10 are doing it, it's not bad at all. He said “yes” police brutality is a bad matter, but the majority of police officers are doing good, and saving lives. I asked him several questions, his responses were all over the place, he was telling me that some questions he can't answer because of the district safety. I asked him about how he felt about police officers wearing body cameras, he said that he think it's the ok idea, but his district does not allow them to wear them. The police officer that I interviewed was African American, he felt that his own Brothers and Sisters of race are being killed for no reason. One reason why recording is better than stepping in is that, if you step in, that's breaking the law. For example, if I would step into a brawl against several police officers and one man, I would get hurt and maybe lose my life. "The cameras help defuse some of the tensions that might come up during encounters with the public," Chitwood said. "I think that 98% of the time, cameras help improve relationships with the community. This source was explaining to me why body cameras would work, but why most districts don't want it to work. I think that Police Brutality MUST BE STOPPED!! Our own Brothers and Sisters are being beaten for no reason and harmed because Police have some sort of power. My Agent of Change was very helpful for me and my participants, we discussed the death of Eric Garner. We Also talked about why recording is more reliable than stepping in. the reason why I chose to do a meeting is that we all can learn from each other thoughts. I think that this was a really good project, we all were able to do our own topic. I think that I learn a lot by doing research and watching documentaries. I think that I could have put more information in my own words, and Also do more than one interview. I originally wanted to interview two police officers, I was going to compare and contrast their thoughts. I think the best thing that anyone to be included in this Agent of Change is by, realizing the most powerful thing, which is your voice.

Hi again, my name is Adil Shamsuddin, and today i'm here to inform you again about the problem of bad policing. Police savagery is not just about people dice during interactions with natural law enforcement. Brutality goes beyond the use of unjustified physical force that might cause Death . It includes emotional and verbal assault and intimidation that ultimately dehumanize the victim. Brutality can occur regardless of the conscious intent of the officer. Enquiry shows that police barbarism has wellness consequences for individuals who are victimized, and that those who live in disproportionately policed communities have poor health as a direct result, regardless of whether they themselves are dupe of police brutality. But let’s human face it, when people who are unarmed dice directly from police interposition and when the videos go viral, we wage more attention. Despite the numerous deaths of unarmed citizens, massive public outcry, and the outgrowth of the Black Lives Matter movement, constabulary brutality against Brown and black people continues. One of the reasons why this still happens is that as a smart set , we have focused on being reactive rather than proactive. Reviewing video from trunk cameras, having grand juries, subsiding civil rights typesetter's case and the like will not ultimately prevent these deaths or restore what families and communities have lost . Instead, addressing the antecedent cause of law brutality is a preventive strategy that will be more impactful and have positive degree ripple impression across various sectors of the American society. Boodle law office holder shooting towards unarmed inkinesss teenager was released few mean solar day ago. This incident occurred in 2013, but the picture wasn’t released until the civil ailment was filed against the city of Chicago and several ship's officer . The retired Cook County Judge, Andrew Berman was deeply disturbed by this television , so he handed it over to the media. This video footage shows police officer Marco Proano shooting at the moving elevator car full-of-the-moon of six youngster . None of these teen had a weapon on them nor did they acted aggressively toward the officers. Before the accident, two other Chicago police officers had stopped the fomite full of black teenagers. This happened near 95th and Sieur de LaSalle Street in Chicago. One of the teenagers went out of the car and run away. The eternal rest of them stayed in the car, at the time Proano approached. Friday  around sextet :35 p.m. at Los Feliz Boulevard and Tica Drive south of Griffith Common , police shot an unarmed piece in the back of the fountainhead , because he had a towel in his hand.The adult male had a towel wrap around his hand. The incident occurred when he raised arm so police thought the serviceman had a gun for hire . The moment a man extended an arm wrapped in the towel, ship's officer exited the vehicle and said: “Drop the gun, drop the gun!” The next matter , the man was shot in the back of the head. Most constabulary officers are committed and ethical. “They work a difficult, life-threatening job, and their days are extraordinarily stressful. However, police officers also exercise a great lot of control over the lives of the hoi polloi they interact with, and an ill-usage of this power is particularly egregious. The personal harm attorney at The Cochran Firm have experience helping the innocent victims of police brutality pursue Department of Justice and compensation”. My questions towards my interview was answered really confusing, something that had made me think twice was, the police officer said that only 2 out of 10 police officers are doing it, so that's not really a problem. The interview went ok, we talked for almost 1 hour, i learned somethings that i never would thought a police officer would say. My questions were answered also confusing, he was trying to go around the bushes. He was telling me that he is not allowed to answer all of them because of his department safety. I was still wondering about how he said that police brutality is not bad. I personally think that police brutality is really bad.  If you want to see my bibliography, click here The pictures below shows you images of how people were being arrested and beaten up.

Catcalling is a form of street harassment that women have been disgusted with since the 20th century. Catcalling is when someone calls out at you randomly and comment on your looks and appearance. It is usually something sexual such as “HEY MA, NICE ASS!”. Women find this vile and annoying while a few women like the attention given to them. When someone catcalls you, they are saying that they want something sexual from them. They are usually looking for someone was has issues or low self esteem they thinks it gives them a better chance of getting laid. Men think they enjoy the compliments and should not make a big deal about it. They don’t realize how scary it is for women, they are so scared that some women are afraid to go out at night or anywhere alone. This happens all over the world and the way they dress isn't a big factor. Women who are fully dressed uo have the same chance of being catcalled as a women wearing less clothing.

Catcalling just doesn’t happen to women but also teens and kids even younger, it happens to kids as young as 11 years old. This is very disgusting because men call out sexual thing sto little kids which is very vile. The things that makes this vile besides that it’s catcalling is that men are inferring that they want something from then now or when they get legal (18 and older). Catcalling has been around since 200 B.C but it had different means. It was first called the “Wolf Whistle” which was a way to show male lust. Then came the term “Catcaller” in the 1700s, it was used to show anger and disapproval at the actors during a play. They would show this by whistling and sneer. The way it is used now came along in the 20th century. It is used in a sexual manner to try to get a woman's attention.

For my agent of change I made a instagram account and posted pictures and stories of catcalling. I did this because I wanted to spread awareness and I thought a good way to do this was with social media. I was affected greatly while doing this because I learned that I have friends who have been catcalled and my mom has also been catcalled. It disgusts me that this has happened to people who are close to me. That is one of the reasons I chose to do my project on catcalling. I also did it because I wanted to get a better understanding of it and I feel like I need to spread awareness about it and educate people. While doing this I learned a lot more things about catcalling, how it affects people, and why people feel like it is okay to do it. I’m disgusted in how men feel like it is okay and that they think that all women like it. For my agent of change I made a instagram account and posted pictures and stories of catcalling. I did this because I wanted to spread awareness and I thought a good way to do this was with social media.

I really liked doing this project and I feel like I became a better writer because of it and I learned a lot of new things. Doing this project I learned why men do this and why think it it is okay. I also learned that some women actually like and some women are afraid to walk alone for the fear of a random man coming up to them. I learned that I really care about this topic because before this project I never thought about catcalling and it never worried me; now it does a lot. I feel like I could've tried to do an interview with someone who catcalled someone and interview more than just one person.

Bibliography

Hello again. In my first post I discussed how my topic changed from the dc girls crisis into minors running away.  In my second post I discussed my original research. I conducted my original research by putting out a survey about what people knew about running away. In this post I will be sharing my third part of my project and my agent of change.   

Continuing my research about minors running away I found some organizations that try to help. Basically what they do is, they run a 24 hour service where teenages can reach them via text , call or email to express their thoughts. This is a good way  to help the problem because it's not a lot of other options someone could do to prevent minors from running away and putting themselves in danger. Youthline is a great organization for not only minors that are running away but other things issues too. Adults and teenagers will answer on the Youthline. I think that is great because sometimes teenagers want to talk to other teenagers because they don't fully trust adults.

For my agent of change I decided to make posters with the numbers to contact runaways hotlines. Before I came up with that idea I didn't know how I was going to reach teens without overwhelming them with facts. By talking to my peers I came up with the idea to make posters. The first obstacle of making posters was that they could not be boring they would have to draw somebodys attention. Secondly I had to decide what information I was going to put on the posters to help. Lastly where I was going to put them up. On the posters I put two numbers on the posters, National Runaway Safeline and Youthline. I was effective in making a change because by me posting the posters teenagers that might be considering running away will see them and call the number.

When my teacher introduced this project I was excited because I got to choose something that was important to me. Also I really liked the fact that we would be doing the project on or own without having to meet a lot of deadlines. I've not only learned a lot about my topic but myself over the course of this project. Something I've learned about myself is that I enjoy helping others. My whole project was to prevent people from putting themselves in danger. Discovering this about myself could be the first step to figuring out what job I want to be when I get older. Doing this project I've listened to my peers and what was important to them. Seeing the topics my peers chose showed me that everyone was different and has been through different experiences. Overall I feel as though it brought my whole english class together. And  was a great miniature version of the 12th grade capstone that I will have to do in the future.

For more information check out my annotated bibliography

In my last two posts, I talked about animal poaching and its effects on people and communities. Slate Post #1, I talked about an interview I did with my dad “The Hunter” and how he thought it effects people and communities, I also talked about my opinion on this topic. In Slate Post #2, I talked about an interview I found on the internet, and a survey I did for others opinions on animal poaching. I wanted to see what people knew about animal poaching. In this post, I will be talking about other research and my Agent Of Change for my You & the World project.

For my AOG, I did a animal poaching scavenger hunt for kids. However, I could not do my Agent Of Change because the park I was supposed to do it at, didn’t let me do it. I was going to donate to a fund called  “World Wildlife Fund”. This fund looked like a good place to raise money for, since I couldn’t volunteer at their organization. I was going to let 20 people come and search for a picture of an animal. Then they would come and get the prizes. They consisted of a mask, a little notebook, a stamp and a sticker.

I decided to do this scavenger hunt because it related to animal poaching very well. I think this was a good way to get the word of animal poaching out because everything was related to animals and they were hunting. They took the picture out of their place and got a prize for it.

This You & the World project made me feel proud for what I tried to accomplish. I almost hosted my very first event. I contacted an organization about everything I could do to help. Even though they said that I couldn’t volunteer, I did try to donate. In my project since I tried to host an event, I had to get in touch with the park I wanted to host the event at. They didn’t get back to me until Thursday afternoon telling me they couldn’t get the park set up in time. Although I did consider changing my AOC, I realized it was too late. If I were to do it again, I wish that I would’ve been able to actually do the scavenger hunt.

I feel like I could’ve done the AOC better because I didn’t give myself enough time to actually do the AOC because of other things. I had to do multiple others things and got sidetracked. I wish I was more focused with projects. I feel like I did learn a lot while I did this whole project, I learned about animal poaching, I learned about my family, I learned about other people in my community.  I also learned about how poachers do their “job” and even about how one came to be. I learned everything there is to know about animal poaching. I also learned how hard it is to host an event, and how much it takes to actually do it. Even though I didn’t get to do my AOC, I did make a change. When I sent my survey out, I made people think without them knowing it. The one question everyone had trouble with was the one I was most interested in. “DO you believe animals should be kept in zoo’s” (that’s not the exact question)

I hope that my project did impact a lot of people and got people thinking on animal poaching. If you would like more information about my topic please look at my Annotated Bibliography.

With my first blog post I talked about how the world will look like Earth from the Disney movie, WALL-E. The reason I related the future of Earth to WALL-E’s world is because in WALL-E the world is a trash planet covered in trash. There is buildings made of trash, now our Earth right now doesn’t have buildings of trash, but we do have large heaps and streets filled with trash. So how will it be in the future? Look at my old Blog Post here. In my second blog post I talked about my own research and my results. Such as my graphs histograms, and pie charts. Also how I don’t want people to just pick up litter and make the world beautiful, also I want people who don’t know the full extent of littering and it's effects, to learn that. If you want to see my second blog post go here.

My element is platinum,the chemical symbol is Pt, and the atomic number is 78. Platinum is one of the most expensive metals, it is used in car exhaust to make the exhaust less toxic, and is used in the jewelry, like rings, and necklaces. Platinum is also used in advertisements, to sell certain jewelry because it very valuable, it helps sell art.

I got the idea for my imagery from the internet, I was researching stuff about my element, and I found some picture that I thought that I could use, then I mixed it all together and it formed my imagery. I decided to pick an image where the ocean waves were pushing away a huge rock. To make it relevant to my element I had the outside of the rock carved out with the chemical symbol,Pt. I kept the waves the same, and added on little money bags on the swerves of the waves because platinum is one the most valuable metals known.

When designing my print/matt I had to first figure out what my element would be. Then I had find a picture and research the history about my element. After that was completed, I had to draw my image, and trace it onto a thin sheet a paper. Next class I had to carve our image out from the paper I had traced it onto the day before onto a foamy type piece of material. When all the tracing was completed the printing began. I was instructed to print out six prints of my drawing. Last class, was creating my write up for the print and posting it on slate.

If I had the chance to do my print over again, I would probably change my design to something between, and not so simple. I enjoyed every part of this project, specifically the drawing and printing part of it. Art is a number one's passion of mine, so drawing is really fun to do. Printing was interesting because I got to see my drawing in different colors and doing this taught me how to print in another style.

In my first blog post, I talked about body image and how It is an issue connected to me, that I wanted to focus on for my project. I did research on body image, how models are portrayed and how that along with social media affects people. In my second blog post I talked about a survey that I created to see how people in the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) community feel about body image. I wrote about the responses I got and explained what they meant.

After doing my survey I wanted to see what organizations were making any effort to change the stereotype of the perfect body image, or how people feel about their body. I found out that dove has a project called the “Dove Self-Esteem Project”. The project is trying to boost girls confidence and raise self esteem. I think that this is a great organization trying to make a change, because they are a very big and well know company that is making awareness. When they have commercials they also mention their project trying to make people aware of the issue.

Now at this point I needed to do my agent of change. My plan for my agent of change was to create a presentation for my advisory that explained my you and the world project overall. I wanted to make people in the SLA community aware of how other people in the community feel about body image. I wanted to overall tell them what I learned from this project. In my presentation I shared how body Image was connected to me, the information I found online from research, and the most important information I received from my survey. During the presentation I began to kind or feel emotional because the issue was personal and I was sharing both my experience and what I learned.

Overall this project taught me a lot, Both about the community and body image. I learned a lot of information about how body image effects people as a whole and the ones we see everyday. This project was easy to complete, due to it being something that I am passionate about. The project was never boring. This project opened up a part of myself that I didn't know about. I didn't know that body image was an issue in our community. But after looking deep into myself I learned that it was something that was affecting me when I was younger and is now affecting people in my community. I feel like this project should be expanded. If i was to continue this I would want the whole school to be aware of the issue and I would want to make a better agent of change that helps people dealing with body image issues. I probably should have stayed on top of my work and always use my time productively. I probably would have got more done. But overall I loved this project and i would do it again whenever. I am so glad that this project was assigned, I would have never learned so much about body image.