During this unit I learned how most of the labels on food products don't mean anything, like "access" to the outdoors. This could mean that the doors to their barn or holding cell, whatever, is open for a few minute maybe an hour a day. In most cases the animals are to fat because of all the antibiotics that is given to them. Also how organic doesn't really mean that it is a 100% organic. 

I think that whatever I buy at a supermarket affects the larger food system. So what I buy can cause the item's price to be raised if many people but it. It would made in mass qualities due to demand. I do eat healthier than I did before but after this unit I question whether the food I eat is actually healthily. Like I ate an apple yesterday that said it was organic but that only means that only a small portion of the process to make that apple was organic. Just about all the apples that are sold have a wax coating on it. It is said to not be harmful but some people argue that. This makes the apple look appealing and deceivingly good. If people knew what the labels really meant, they may stop buying the products. 

If people were more aware of what they were eating and what the companies are hiding, there's a chance that better food can be produced. But not everyone seems to care. The chance that the prices may go up worries people. Especially in this bad economy. 

Recipes

White Rice

Ingredients:

- 3 cups of long grain Rice

- 5 cups of Water

- Salt

Directions: White Rice

1) Wash the rice to out any impurities that could be left in it

2) Bring the 5 cups of water to a boil with a pinch of salt in a large saucepan with a lid that fits.

3) Add rice and stir

4) Put lid on and turn down to low. There should be a little steam coming out. If too mush is coming out, the heat was not lowered down enough. 

5) Cook for about 20-30 minutes but DO NOT UNCOVER. The steam aids in he cooking.

6) Remove from heat then fluff the rice with a fork. 

7) Serve.

Green Plantains

Ingredients: 

- Green Plantains

- water 

Direction: Green Plantains

1) Bring a large pot filled with enough water so that there is two inches left from the the surface of the water to the rim. 

2) Wash the plantains and cut in half. Maybe quarters if it is too large.

3) Grab a knife and cut along one of the ridges so that there is a slit in the peel.

4) Carefully place the plantains into the water. 

5) Boil for about 15 minutes then using tongs, carefully remove the peels. 

5) Cook for another 10 minutes. 

6) Remove from heat. 

7) Serve.

Analysis:

There aren't many ingredients so it is fairly simple to find "organic" or "natural" items that are healthier. The only salt is in the rice but that could be optional if the person doesn't want flavor. Just about everything is a whole food. The rice is the only processed food. The meal is rather cheap. The rice cost about $10 and the green plantains were about 6 for a $1.50. When compared to how much fast food would need to be brought when compared to the amount that you have with these ingredients, this meal is cheaper. I don't know where any of the ingredients came from but I know that the rice is not made in the U.S. Farmers made money off of the selling of the plantains because they are "natural", so there is minimal factory involvement. I wouldn't be able to grow rice myself but I have grown plantains myself and they don't taste much different then the ones I brought. 

Food Graphic

My creative piece is a painting that is suppose to represent a woman being shunned by society for having a child. It's showing that no matter who may be standing beside you, the only important thing to the woman is whether or not she has the child. The two men standing beside the woman in red represent the male protagonist from the movie Juno and the book The Scarlet Letter. The sort of long hallway is to show the journey that needs to be taken by either woman. Juno didn't keep the baby but she still had to go through a lot to deliver the baby. Obviously the woman is red represents both Juno and Hester.  

The colors give more meaning to the painting because there are so little characters to tell a story. The color red played a major role in both the book and the movie (if you look hard enough) and in my piece it is used to represent sin in a way. The red lines in the black are all the people who have ever shunned Juno or Hester because of what they did. They are painted in red to show that they aren't as guilt free as they pretend to be. 

The pacifier. 

The colors that the two men are painted in a suppose to give a hint into who the are. The man on the left has brownish-black shaggy hair and blackish-red colored clothing. This is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The man on the right has brownish curly hair and is wearing gold and red. This is Paulie Bleeker. 

One problem I encountered was that the color red can only be used so many times and I didn't want there to be so much. So I mixed colors with the red paint to get different shades. I think this worked well because it sort of shows different levels of innocence I guess. I feel like the way I just drew squiggly lines to show the high school kids and the villagers was childish. I definitely would find another way to represent the if I could do this project again.  But I do think I did well in portraying the message I wanted to well portray, even if it isn't drawn well. 

If I could do this project again, I would want to find a more metaphoric way to represent alienation from society. The way white and black worked off of each other is okay but it’s been done before. Which is why I found it to be an appropriate way to represent alienation. Doing the project again would give another chance into finding a different way to represent this. 

First of all let me say that I really thought that this project would be simple to do considering that I had the topic for 2^nd quarter benchmark. Turns out I was wrong. I found it hard to put all the research that was previously collected into a website that would be shared with a great part of the community. It’s not that I have presented my work to a larger audience outside of SLA. It’s that this had to be professional because professionals would be viewing this.

Our goal with writing about Neighborhood High Schools was to inform people how they can help to encourage students to stay in school. How it is an important thing to have when it comes to getting a jobs and making more money a year than you would if you didn’t have a high school education.

The only other challenge for this project was making sure that out website could/would be viewed by people outside of SLA. The link to the website was posted on Twitter to Education Philly.  One the other hand a success we had was being able to come together to create a website and posters that would be distributed to those affected by neighborhood schools.

Overall, I think our attempt is going to be successful. We're knowledgeable and being high school student who fully want to graduate, we understand that having a high school education can open more opportunities than not having one. Like going to college.

First of all let me say that I really thought that this project would be simple to do considering that I had the topic for 2^nd quarter benchmark. Turns out I was wrong. I found it hard to put all the research that was previously collected into a website that would be shared with a great part of the community. It’s not that I have presented my work to a larger audience outside of SLA. It’s that this had to be professional because professionals would be viewing this.

Our goal with writing about Neighborhood High Schools was to inform people how they can help to encourage students to stay in school. How it is an important thing to have when it comes to getting a jobs and making more money a year than you would if you didn’t have a high school education.

The only other challenge for this project was making sure that out website could/would be viewed by people outside of SLA. The link to the website was posted on Twitter to Education Philly.  One the other hand a success we had was being able to come together to create a website and posters that would be distributed to those affected by neighborhood schools.

Overall, I think our attempt is going to be successful. We're knowledgeable and being high school student who fully want to graduate, we understand that having a high school education can open more opportunities than not having one. Like going to college.

Psychology: the study of the human mind and its workings.  I choose this topic because I could personally connect to it. Growing up, my father was ill, so I wanted to know why and how. It was helpful because it helped me understand why he was ill and the chances that it can be passed down to me. Not only is it important to me and helped me, but it can help others as well. Understanding Psychology is the first step to understanding the mind.

While doing research for this, I found the site Marxist.com to be useful in finding written lectures by Sigmund Freud. Also since I already had some background knowledge on the topic, I knew who the “father of psychology” was so I started with him. From there I went to psychoanalysis, to the NYC Bomber and criminal profiling.  Another website I found helpful was trutv.com It helped me with the research for the NYC bomber and Dr. James Brussel. 

I mostly relied on books though. Not ones written the by people I was researching, but ones written about them. Since it was so long ago, I couldn’t find interviews or autobiographies that they had written themselves.

A problem I encountered during my research was finding articles written on an article about a book written about the person that I researching and not being able to use them because they were credible. It took a lot of digging to find a source that directed related to the topic of psychology. These articles did lead me books that I was able to use but even though these articles were great in number, the sources they provided were few in number.

            I choose to relate my topic to all three words in the theme. For each word, I picked a specific date that showed how psychology has cause a revolution, who reacted and how it reformed our thinking on psychology. For revolution I choose the year 1883 because it was the year the Wilhelm Wundt began to voice his ideas to the scientific community. At first they were rejected because it was an unknown concept but soon some people were able to see it’s usefulness. Which leads us into reaction. Sigmund Freud gave his final lecture on psychoanalysis and psychology in the year 1932. It may seem strange to not use all of his lectures but I found that the last talked more about him as a human diagnosing people and not as a doctor diagnosing a patient. I also wanted to stay away from mentioning super ego, ego and id in my exhibit because I wanted to focus on him and the new concept he introduced, psychoanalysis. Lastly we have reform. Dr. James Brussel was able to enhance the concept even when he introduced criminal profiling to the FBI. In order to get the FBI’s attention, he first took it for a test run. He was able to profile the NYC Bomber in 1940 by analyzing his behavior.

Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources

Freud, Sigmund. "Lecture XXXV A Philosophy of Life." New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-analysis . Hogarth Press, 1933. Web. 1 Jan 2012. <http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/at/freud.htm>.

This source is of a lecture given by Sigmund Freud, written down. He talks greatly about religion and how it could influence behavior. There are a few times when he mentions Marxism but I do not understand if he relates that to Psycho-analysis. This source is reliable because it is form another man who has had a great influence in the world of psychology and he did change many things. I used the parts where he talked about how he got into psychology.

The layman's guide to psychiatry and psych-analysis. 3. California: Tantor eBooks of Tantor Media, 2011. eBook. <http://www.amazon.com/Laymans-Guide-Psychiatry-Psychoanalysis-ebook/dp/B005DNSSCQ.

This book is written for people who don’t have a profession in the field of psychology. It gives a general over view of the know how’s of the field. It talks about why people act the way they do and why others judge them the way that they do. It touches on a range of topics from emotions to dreams and from insanity to practical and impractical methods, all relating to the field of psychology and psychoanalysis. I used this to help created my loose definition of psychoanalysis.

Secondary Source

"The History of Psychology." Discovering Psychology.WGBH Educational Foundation,2001. Web.1 Jan 2012.<http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/history/history_nonflash.html>.  This source is like a basic overview of how psychology has evolved from 1879 to 2000. It is a great place to start because it’s main focus is psychology but it also gives brief points on people and buildings that have influenced the advancement of psychology. The time line doesn’t stick to one person who has had an influence in this field but it expands to many people, which is why I think this source is reliable. I used this to help me find the people I would research on.

"Wilhelm Wundt and Introspection: the cultural contribution of the father of psychology." WilhelmWundt.com. N.p., Jan 3. Web. 1 Jan 2012. <http://www.wilhelmwundt.com/index.htm>.

This source is an essay written by someone on Wilhelm Wundt, a man otherwise known as the father of psychology. It talks about Wundt life in psychology and how he used introspection to evaluate the behaviors of the human mind. Essentially this text is a general overview of Wundt’s work through out his lifetime although it focuses mainly on introspection. It gives a clearer meaning on his work and it also included other sources that I can go to that may help me with my project. I used this source to help identify what part of Wundt’s work I was following.

M. Lothstein, Leslie. "The Transformation of Psychology: Influences of 19th-Century Philosophy, Technology, and Natural Science." The American Journal of Psychiatry. Psychiatry Online, 01, Mar 2003. Web. 1 Jan 2012. <http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=176134>.

This source is about a textbook that gave an interesting viewpoint of both psychology and science as a whole. It mostly talks about chapter 11. Also about how politics play a role in psychology. I found this interesting since you wouldn’t think that something like that could influence a person behavior and memory so much. To the point where people felt the need to study it and see just how far the influence was rooted. I used this source to help create my loose definition of psychology.

Madden, Melissa Ann. "GEORGE METESKY: NEW YORK's MAD BOMBER-The Profiler." TruTV. TruTV, n.d. Web. 4 Jan 2012. < http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/metesky/8.html>.

This article talks about George Metesky, the first big case that Dr. Brussel profiled that lead him to want to continue and create a new section to the FBI. It talks mainly of the process of what the police went through in trying to apprehend the bomber on their own for close to 10 years until they called Dr. Brussel. Though the police were skeptical, they went along with it and they did catch their guy. I used this source to get a better understanding of the Bomber’s work.

Plucker, Dr. Jonathan. "Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) German Philosopher & Psychologist." Human Intelegence. Indiana University, 25 July 2007. Web. <http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/wundt.shtml>.

This page talks about Wilhelm Wundt’s start in opening an Experiment Psychology Laboratory. It catered more toward German, philosophers and psychologist but American and British philosophers and psychologist were also welcomed. Everything he did was considered experimental because he was the first to do it. He set the limits that could be reached for research because there were know for him. I used this source because of the experimental laboratory.

Madden, Melissa Ann. "The Profiler." TruTV. TruTV, n.d. Web. 4 Jan 2012. <http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/metesky/3.html>.

Las cuatros películas establecido en España, tocan sobre la tema de familia y como una mujer juega un papel útil en como funcionan.

En la película Yo soy La Juani, la protagonista Juani venia de una familia pobre. Por el día ella trabajaba como una cajero y por la noche ella iba a los clubs a ballar con su novio Jonah. Ella no le gustaba su vida y pues se fue para Madrid. Cuando se fue, la vida que ella dejo se puso mas mala para su mama. El padre de ella se enfermo y fue hospitalizado.  Juani vino regreso para ver lo y en ese momento ella quería quedarse porque ella ere quien le diría al papa que no beba mucho. Ella se estaba diciendo que fue su culpa que su padre estaba en el hospital.

La segunda película, Todo Sobre Mi Madre, enseña caracteres masculinos y cuando hay hombres, es para unos pocos minutos y después se mueren o están vestidos de mujer. Mujeres son el género centrar de la película.

1) En el tiempo de las Mariposas por Julia Alvarez
La historia es fictional pero tiene eventos factual.

2) Elige este libro porque el año pasado en Español 4 vimos la película pero como falte escuela no pude ver la película completa. Pienso que la mejor  manera de saber de la vida de las hermanas Mariposas es por el libro.

3) Me gusta como Dedé tiempo comenta en todo lo que hace. Es como si alguien le esta leyendo el libro y ella comento en ciertas cosas.

4) Primero fue difícil leer el libro pero aprende que necesito leer lo de voz alta para comprender lo que estoy leyendo.

​1) Rigoberta Menchú es un mujer que luchó para los derechos de los indios. Ella se escapo de Guatemala porque la violencia del gobierno fue muy fuerte. Se fue a París y ahí escribió su historia con la ayuda de Elizabeth Burgos. En tres anos ella aprecio español para escribir el libros. Ella lucho para la libertad.
2) Martin Luther King es un hombre que lucho para el equalismo y el fin del racismo. El es African Americano y fue asesinado en los estados unidos. También fue a la cárcel.
3) Tienen en común que fueron religioso. Lucharon por la libertad y también ganaron un premio nobel de la paz.
4) MLK es un hombre y Menchú es una mujer. El fue asesinado y ella esta viva. Ella se escapo de Guatemala y el se quedo en los estados unidos.
5)  Creo que es porque ella no es de los estados unidos. También puede ser que ella no le gusta el gobierno de los estado unidos.

Iraida Serrano

Español 4

            ¿Que piensas cuando ves un chaval caminando por la calle con moratones y cicatrices? Cree que el estaba jugando con sus amigos o que se callo corriendo.  Que hicieras si te dijera que el es una victima de el abuso infantil.  Muchos de los niños que son abusados no le dicen a otros adultos. Estoy es porque tu necesita reconocer los índicos de el abuso.  Ellos pueden tener heridas inexplicables.  Otros son…

-       El niño no vay al la casa temprano.

-       Crueldad a sus “amigos”

-       Pierden la capacidad de hablar con otros que no son sus padres

-       Su forma de ser se ve sucio y descuidado

-       El comportamiento  del chaval es cambiado drásticamente

o   Problemas de memoria

o   Miedo de la escuridad

o   Obedece sus padres pero de miedo

-       Tienen malas  notas en el colegio

o   Pierde mucha escuela

¿Porque tantas personas hacen  la vista gorda cuando ven evidencia de abuso? No es raro cuando esto pasa. Muchas veces no denuncian porque no tienen prueba suficiente.

Iraida Serrano

El proyecto de obras

Soy Machuca. Vivo en el clase baja y soy de poco recursos. En mi tiempo que es 1973, los soldados irrumpieron mi casa. Los soldados trabajaban para Pinochet, el nuevo general de Chile. Ellos mataron a muchas personas y secuestrado a muchas de las mujeres y niños. De una edad temprana aprendí a cuidarme a yo mismo. Silvana fue unas de mis amigas que me ayudo. Fue triste cuando la depararon porque ella quería ayudar su papá. Eso es porque valoro mi familia muchísimo. Nunca voy a dejar que alguien los maten.  A su vez lo apoyo en todo lo que puedo.

Los colores de arriba son unos azules y blancos brillante. Los colores de abajo son unos verdes y negros oscuros. Hay un río entre las montañas de grama. La grama que esta en el fondo de la obra se ve como pelo verde.  Hay un castillo en la derecha de la obra. Sige para bajo y a la izquierda hay una casa pequeñito. Las nubles en el cielo son oscura (derecha) y brillante (izquierda). Hay un puente en la obra también. Es color café y mucho del puente esta escondido en la grama.  Creo que el tono de esta obra es una mezcla de oscuro y brillante como los colores. No puedo escoger uno en sima del otro. Los dos son perfecto para describir la obra. Esta obra es como el general nuevo ve a Chile.  Los ricos en sima con el castillo grande y los pobres abajo en una casa pequeñito.

Para mi los diferente tonos de colores se significa la vida de la clase baja y de la clase alta y la tensión entre los dos. Los colores oscuro es la tristeza y odio que siento por la muerte de Silvana y la amistad que perdí de Gonzalo. Gonzalo y su familia viven en el castillo y yo vivo en la casa pequeñita. Hace es la vida y yo digo que nunca va a cambiar. Lo de la clase obrera necesitan subir la montaña y después bajar para su casa en la parte inferior de la montanilla. Yo creo que ellos nunca iban a rendirse  porque ellos tenían trabajo. No me gusta el castillo porque se que nunca me dejaran entrar. Que bueno que el río esta cerca de los pobres porque por lo menos ellos pueden tener agua para beber y para bañarse.  Creo que los dos colores de las nubles se significan el conflicto entre la clase alta y baja. El color brillante es de todo la felicidad y la ignorancia que tienen los ricos de lo que realmente esta pasando en Chile con el General nuevo. El empezó un golpe de estado.  Esta obra estaba pintada para mostrar le al mundo que el General Pinochet nos trata como basura. La parte de la obra que es completamente negra, que esta encima de el castillo grande, es General Pinochet. Es la sobra del que no deja que los ricos sepan lo que el realmente le esta haciendo a nosotros. Pero no es como los ricos quieren saber. Si no lo afecta a ellos y si dinero, pues que es el punto de enterarte de algo que no te corresponde.

Estoy de acuerdo con El  Greco porque el sabe la verdad. Me gusta como el uso los colores para mostrar la diferencias de la clase baja y la clase alta. También como pudo capturar la vida de alguien pobre. Como la grama que esta alrededor de la casa pequeñito esta muerte. No es un verde brillante como la grama que esta alrededor del castillo.

Escoji esta obra porque es mi favorita de El Greco. Es uno de sus obras que son simple. Los detalles son muy bien echo y las pinceladas son intrincada. No se mucho de la vida de El Greco pero se que la mayoría de sus pinturas son religiosas. El recrea los eventos que pasaron con jesucristo. Me gusta como los diferentes niveles son pintado con diferente pinceladas. También comp los colores de mas arriba son oscuro y los debajo son brillante.

¿Quien eres?

Soy Machuca.

Iraida Serrano

Gold Stream

Language Essay

The Truth

“¿Que Pasa?”

“What did you say to me?”

“All I asked was what’s up I don’t see why you have to get mad.”

“Please, for all I know you said something else in that made up language of yours.”

As he, one of my classmates from the 8^th grade walked away from me to join the swarm of kids that were outside playing at recess. As I turned to my friends and all I received was laughter. At the when that this happened I hadn’t been able to understand what he meant. As a way to avoid having this happen again I refused to talk to my friends in Spanish. To me what I had said was simple and easy to understand. For some time after that I felt stupid that I hadn’t switched back to talking in English as soon as I saw him walking towards me.

As I went through the routine of going to class for the rest of the day, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that what I had said to him was wrong. When I spoke to my mom at home that day, I had accidently spoken in English. Knowing that she barely understood me, I just decided to not talk at home. A few days later back at school, at another recess, the same kid came up to me and made fun of me.  He was saying sounds to act as if he was speaking Spanish. At his parting words he once again repeated what he had said just a few days ago, that my language was made up. This time I decided to gain the courage to ask him what he meant.

“Oh look, she don’t know about her dumb language.”

With that he left with his newfound friends, my friends. Ironically my next class was Spanish. I walked into the classroom only to see that the only seat left was the ‘danger seat’. It was called that because sitting there was a guarantee that you would be speaking in class. The boy was sitting two seats behind me and was laughing loudly with my old friends. The teacher went up to the front of the class to start her lesson.

            “O.k., I need someone to come to the front of the class to write and recite a sentence about what you do in the summer. Who would like to come up?”

Everyone had turned his or her head to the side and away from the teacher. I knew that if she picked on me I would have to speak Spanish in front of him again. If the language wasn’t real then what was the point of speaking it, but just my luck, the teacher had picked me. In a desperate attempt to get out of speaking I complained of a sore throat so I could only write the sentence. I did and went back to my seat when I finished.               As I sat there looking at the desk in front of me I heard some people saying that I thought I was better than them because I could write a sentence in Spanish. In the following month I started speaking in Spanish again at home. It was comforting knowing that somewhere, someone accepted the fact that I was bilingual. I now knew that I would have to change how I talked at home from how I talked in school to how I talked with my friends.

            In the words of James Baldwin, “To open you mouth…you have confessed you parents, your youth…and, alas, your future.” He believes that speaking a certain way can led people to figure out your parents, youth, and future and in a way he is correct.             If I hadn’t changed the way I spoke with my classmates, they would have thought that I was acting like a ‘know-it-all’ without even bothering to see if it was true or not. In their eyes, I was a kid with Spanish speaking parents and in the future at the school I would past every test in Spanish just because I spoke it. From then on I only spoke English in school and when in Spanish class I tried to make excuses or just try to not get called on.   I was starting to fit in again.  I was able to talk to my friends and gain new ones. I thought that not being myself had given me a new perspective on the things happening around me. Yet still, in the back of my mind a small voice wouldn’t stop nagging me, telling me that I should be myself and every time that happened I would just push the voice further and further into the back of my mind.

After almost three months of this, I found out the answer to the question that I had asked a few months back. I was helping my mom on researching different languages.       I don’t remember why but I do remember what I found out. Through the research I found out that Spanish originated from Latin. That was not the only one; there are other languages, such as Italian, French, Portuguese, Romanian, and Catalan. I was surprised to say the least. I had spoke Spanish for so long thinking that it was its own language and to my amazement, I was okay with this not being true. I think it was due to the fact that I was apart of something bigger, something unique. It wasn’t just a few words that originated from Latin like in the English language; it was the entire language.

            After that I started to speak in Spanish more freely in other places that weren’t my home.  I finally realized that it was stupid of me to think that talking a certain way in front of people made me fit in. What made me fit in was the fact that I was being who I really am. Sure I lost some of my newly made friends but I gain new ones as well. From then on, I spoke how I wanted and even tried to teach other people how to speak the language, my language.