I REALIZE THERE'S A HUGE TYPO ON THE FIRST PAGE, PLEASE IGNORE!
Thank you. :)

My last quarter was tough. With classes coming to an end and all my work having to be done, it was a stressful time. Nonetheless I went to my art class and did what I enjoyed the most. Thanks to all my friends and teachers for making my senior year. Without you guys it would have been even tougher. 

I focused on things I liked with my art projects, took what knew knowledge learned and created something different with it. It's how I like to translate information, through visuals. I collaborated with my friend Emily Jenson on small projects and a large piece that we decided to allow everyone to join in on. It was a lax time but I completed what I wanted and had fun doing so. I hope you enjoy my collection and maybe it will inspire you some. 

Our last podcast by Jaaz, Sophie and Jenny

Greetings,

I'm Jenny Cruz a senior at Science Leadership Academy. As the year comes to an end we're challenged to present our findings on a protect we were asked to come up with. The topic was open to personal choice, the requirements  were we'd research a subject throughout this school year and present our new found knowledge in our final senior project. This is a website in which I will document my findings. A site I would hope brings insight and entertainment through some peculiar medical facts of early medicine.

​

Being a fan of art, creation, acute knowledge and overall dark things I found myself indulging in the oddities of life. And so with my interests fueling my motivation I choose to embark on a journey to the grim and gory side of the world's early medical endeavors. Here I've arranged information depicting gruesome tactics and a lack of, what any modern thinker would consider, common sense of treatment performed on humans. What mishaps took place early in our history may be overlooked as insane and unconventional but has helped shaped what modern medicine we use today.

Like I was once told in a history class, it's best to know the past so that the mistakes made will not repeated.

Inquiry

Research

Collaboration

Presentation

Reflection

The structure to any project based learning I assign myself and the way my school structures our non-conventional learning has the above 5 core values. In SLA's senior project a.k.a. our Capstone required us to implement what we've learned to our own investigations.

I began by thinking of a subject I had an interested in. I'm an amateur artist with a liking for many things and subjects. And so to keep my interests in this project, I decided to showcase various topics within one project. History, Science and Art. I figured a project showing my love for the strange and unusual historic facts about medicine would not only intrigue my brain but enable me to present what some might find dull and boring in an artistic light. On this site you'll find facts i've personally researched and photos I've gathered from the internet alongside some of my drawings of certain topics embedded in this site.

My research took me from oddity shops and museums to old translated German and Greek books/texts. Speaking with others about my ideas and interacting with persons involved in oddity collecting helped steer my research in productive directions. Without outside resources and personnel I don't believe I would have gathered as much as I have.

As for my presentation this website isn't my only way of sharing this knowledge. It is only a media where I keep my gathered data for a later in person presentation where my hand drawn art and findings will be presented to my class and teachers for a final grade.

In my last moments working on this project i've come to appreciate the time and effort I put into something I'm excited to share with others. And hope that my future research will continue with a similar state of mind. Passion and interest help drive and so I would that is an important takeaway for myself and for anyone else looking to take on a research driven project.

Thank you for reading and please enjoy my site.  
Hyperlink to Bibliography: LINK ME 

Group members:

Throughout this year I wanted to focus on widening my art style. Drawing not only what I thought up, or the art that was assigned to me but your average ordinary things that one may not think to draw. 
I also told myself my capstone and senior project will focus on displaying my artistic style. 
This portfolio is an arrangement of some of the work I may have done on my own time or the concepts that were given to us during my art class this year. 
I used mediums I was unfamiliar with and tried to wrap my brain around colors. My traditional style focuses on black and white pencil drawing. There are a number of display in this presentation that use color well and I hope you enjoy them as I did while creating them. 

I would also like to note the art isn't just what we make within a class room. In cities like Philadelphia there are group of people that partake in street art. Whether that's putting stickers, wheat pastes or spray down a building artists are able to make art, their city being their canvas. I am fortunate enough to know many people within this small artist enclave. You may see some street art within this portfolio and all I ask is you keep an open mind about what you see and why these people do what they do. 

The Knife of Never Letting Go 

“But a knife ain’t just a thing, is it? It’s a choice, it’s something you do. A knife say yes or no, cut or not, die or don’t. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again.” -Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

The story starts in a town named Prentisstown, though it isn’t like other towns. The settlers of New World were infected with the noise germ. Their world became full of noise. Overwhelming noise of thoughts. Todd, our antagonist and his dog Manchee, whose thoughts Todd can also hear. It is a month before Todd’s birthday when he finds out that the town is hiding something, a secret. Because of this awful secret Todd and Manchee must run but that is nearly impossible with everyones thoughts and secrets floating around in the noise. How could you escape your pursuers when they can hear your thoughts? With Todd’s pursuers not far behind he runs into silence-- a girl. A girl who is silent, where was the girl from and why wasn’t she killed off by the germ like all the other women in the town Todd didn’t know. Todd must then run from the men from his town and Mr. Prentiss the leader of the town. Accompanied by his dog and a oddly silent girl, Todd has to unlearn everything he was lead to believe in order to find out who he truly is.

The reason I enjoyed this book was because of Patrick Ness. The book is beautifully written.  The Knife of Never Letting Go started off as a gift from a friend. After reading the first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy I couldn’t wait to move on to the next and read other writing by Ness. The Knife of Never Letting go is creative and powerful. Though I would say the writing is a bit funny, the writing at first seems quite dragged out and rambly but once you get past a few chapters the storyline draws you in. The book is filled with grammatical errors, Patrick Ness uses these errors as a way to convey the story in the protagonists point of view. The writing style gives the read flare.This book is not for those who won’t give the book some time to rope you in. I suggest the reader invest a little time in it and Ness is sure to draw you in. He hits you right in the gut with those feelings. Ness’s world where our protagonist residences is unique and intriguing. The book contains strong characters that keep you engaged. They give the plot a life, providing flavor and diversity. There is continuous dramatic and emotional twists and turns. There is minor vulgar language and gory violence, the other all theme is a bit complex for younger readers as well. In order to enjoy the books and all it’s aspects I’d recommend the reader be a teen or older. Otherwise a great read. The ending will have you running to the door to buy the second book of the Chaos Walking trilogy, The Ask and the Answer.

And so Patrick Ness’s Knife of Never Letting go is only one of the first installments to Ness’s incredible series. It’s also won some awards like the Booktrust Teenage Prize, Guardian Award and James Tiptree Award. The book is for those looking for a dynamic protagonist and evil, sinister antagonists. I’d also recommend reading Ness’s novel, A Monster Calls, after reading the Chaos trilogy of course! I believe that Patrick Ness needs more attention from book companies so i’d highly recommend the book for those mature enough. There are always good books sitting on bookshelves that have yet to be discovered Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go is just that type of book. 

Book Info:

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go

Author: Patrick Ness

Publisher: Walker Books

Date of Publication: 5 May 2008

Number of Pages: 479

Genre: Teen, Fiction Novel

Writing is like a box. A small cozy box that allows you freedom of expression without criticism. This box is a place to decorate as you please. To paint the walls of scenes from your imagination or memories. Or an isolated room to let out you demons and command that they conquer you no more. It's an escape, a friend when all you need is a caring ear.

​

 

Q4 Othello BM Journals

 

Journal #1:

 

Iago:    “Now will I question Cassio of Bianca (Othello exits leaving Iago alone to. Iago begins to start speaking toward the audience.) A huswide that by selling her desires (His tone of voice twist into that od disgust.) buys herself bread and clothes. It is a creature That dotes on Cassio, as ‘tis the strumpets plague To beguile many and beguiled by one. (A smile creeps up on his face.) He, when hears of her, cannot retrain from the excess of laughter. (Collects himself before Cassio walks in) there he come. (Looks away from the audience and toward the direction in which Cassio appears.)

 

 

 

Journal #2:

 

Character from play: Bianca

Bianca doesn’t really observe anything too drastic in the play. She appears in Act 3 Scenes 4. The only thing that she was a witness to during her appearance was Cassio in possession of Desdemona’s handkerchief. I don’t think Bianca is told anything by another character though seeing Cassio with a handkerchief does bring up a suspicion in Bianca. She believes that Cassio is cheating on her, which is why the handkerchief was placed in his home. It was placed in his home to make others believe he is messing with another women, Desdemona. Bianca isn’t happy about this of course because she has feelings for Cassio and doesn’t want him bedding other women, seeing the handkerchief and her suspecting that Cassio is cheating was the other thing she could think with what evidence she had. Futher more she wasn’t in contact with another other character to be aware of what was really going on.

 

 

 

 

 

Journal #3:

 

 

Barbantio was a normal boy for his age and high status. He educated himself and did what he had to honor is family. Through out his teenage years he had a serious crush on a woman he later asked to be his bride. Shortly after the wedding his wife became pregnant with a child that made her ill. The women gave birth to a sickly little girl she named Desdemona. Barbantio was a proud father. Shortly after Desdemona’s birth her mother died. Barbantio grieved for his wife. He was a happy father who grew very protective of his daughter as she grew older. He became afraid some rueful man would try to steal his daughter away.  So you see Barbantio was a protective father because he was a single parent trying to raise a beautiful women. It’s his job to be over protective and untrustworthy with men because he’s a worried parent.

 

 

Journal #4:

 

 

I played the role of Barbantio, Desdemona’s father. Since he’s an older man I will be using more of a crackled voice because of his age and to express some emotion while he’s speaks. The voice gives a feel of how Barbantio is taking Desdemona’s actions. Some hand waving is to be expected and perhaps, pacing to show Barbantio’s uneasiness. Barbandito questions why he’s daughter chose to marry Othello and if it’s all a trick. He also question if Othello’s intentions are pure.  There isn’t much I will use for props just a broken umbrella to sort of use as a cane. My group’s presentation will stand out because of our dedication in trying to act these characters out well. We want to be dramatic. We’ve also talked over playing our characters to the fullest so one can better understand them through the way we act.

 

 

 

Benchmark Post Performance:

 

Barbantio: “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: he has deceived her father and may thee.”

 

This quote is important to the play because clearly when Barbantio didn’t exactly get what he had hoped for he reacts badly to others. He straight out says to Othello that his daughter has “deceived” him and for Othello to watch out because she might do the same to him. This adds up to the list in Othello’s head, his list which contains the evidence to have him believing that Desdemona could definitely be unfaithful. Just look, her father cannot trust her.

 

For the group performance in class it wasn’t quite expected. We were missing a group member and having to have Isabella play the missing person was a little hard to do because we had practiced it a certain way already and having to change made it a bit difficult. I do even though we were missing someone we did a good group getting it done. Something I would have done differently for my part was move around more, I wasn’t able too much because I was sharing a script but then again I could have still moved around more in general. Performing the play changed my understanding of it because you really have to get to know your character to play your part correctly in my opinion. You have to understand why they feel a certain way about things so that you can understand what is the right way to act at a certain time in the play. So with performing I really had to learn about my character more nd just really get to know them so I could play them properly.

​Reflection Questions:-I believe that this project can be use in a real life setting. There are many occasions where we want bigger and better things, for instance remodeling our homes. What if we wanted some new windows or just paint those ugly window shutters. In these cases it would be similar to get an estimate of your building in order to buy the proper amount of materials so you’re not spending over the amount you would normally have to spend. Also, there might be a time where you have a budget and want to know if you’d have enough money to buy all of your materials once you’ve gotten the perimeter of your home and then found out how much the materials would be in all according to that. So you see those are only two example of how this project could come in handy in the real world. 





-What I learned about this project was that calculating height is hard! Not really, it is a long process but it’s fairly simple once the formula is familiar to you. It is also a very useful tool to use if you ever needed to calculate the height of something. Also learned that you should have serval verifications because it’s fairly easy to mess up when trying to calculate numbers and what not. Have a good measuring tape or tools in general would be very useful and help you complete the calculations more accurately. 

Language Is All Around Us

Jennysha Cruz

 

It’s funny how a simple “hello” can sound so differently depending on where you are or whom you’re around. The variety in accents could be different from country to country even town to town. Through geographic location and public exposure people take on accents to better adapt to their environment. You learn and change the tongue you use to fit in with others, to feel comfortable, and most of all welcome in the community that you’re in.

 

“W-AH-T-ER, that’s how I’d pronounce it.”

“Really? People from Philly usually don’t say it like that, more like W-O-T-ER with an “O” sound ya know?” That right, I lived in Philadelphia all my life and commonly hear people pronounce water like that. It’s a normal thing to hear that though. On the other hand, he’s a Jersey person if anyone spoke with an odd accent it was him, or at least that’s what I thought.

“Or what about the way people say orange” I asked.

“Like AR-ANGE”

“There’s an “O” in that ya know. It’s OR-ANGE, no “R”.”

“Well you know people usually pronounce things differently depending where they were raised or how their parents expect them to speak.”

 

This was the first time I was actually confronted about the way I spoke, it was in 7^th grade my math teacher over heard a conversation I was having with another on of my peers and he explained to me that people don’t only say things different because of where they lived but the way they were raised. He went on to tell me the way he pounces creek isn’t like I would say it but more like “crick,“ instead. It’s an odd thing language is but it’s what got me thinking, do I speak right to others or do I sound as goofy as my math teacher when he tried to say creek. A difference in language was always something I could recognize easily. Though the thought of sounding a certain way depending on where you were from never really occurred to me. I use to think people from different countries had some big fancy accents like the Austrians who greeted one and another with a cheery, “Good ‘ay mate!” or “Top of the mornin’ to ya” as the British would say. Through out middle school I was quite the observer. I didn’t speak much but sure as hell listened a lot. Though once I went to an international camp I was flooded with all different types of accents from so many people. “Hello,” “Hi-ya,” “Ello,” and “Howdy,” were the new greetings instead of my ordinary “hey,” or “what’s up”.  I pretty much had this image of everyone sounding completely the same because; well we were all from the U.S. If anything people from different countries were the ones that sounded differently. I didn’t recognize that there was such a great variety in accents.

 

I went to a camp in 2009, this was my first ever time staying at an actual sleep away camp. People my age had a similar way of communicating yet different at the same time. I made lots of friends that could fit into the stereotypical New Yorker accent or Jersey accent. The Jersey girl had an odd way of saying; “talk” hers would sound more like “twalk” instead. Living in Philadelphia one would think since Jersey isn’t so far away but really she did sound a bit funny to me when she spoke but I’m sure she got the same feeling toward me as well.

 

I took these observations home with me I suppose I can honestly say I started noticing things differently. After camp I thought of the way people spoke and that is how I became interested in making my speech better. Becoming quite the grammar Nazi when I spotted someone saying something incorrectly. I was often judged by my brother’s friends or other family members because I didn’t have the Latin tongue that they had. They’d call me white or the smart one in the family because of the way I spoke to them. I didn’t change from English to Spanish like others in my family did. I spoke English with them, mostly because it was my comfort language. I do have to say the names they’d give me were pretty strange, “blanca” or “cana” which were both words to describe a white girl. My family had this idea that because I spoke properly and didn’t mix my Spanish and English tongues together that I was considered white. They were stating that race had a direct connection with the way someone spoke. Also, they’d frequently told me I was expected to do well in school because I spoke properly. They were always judging me because of that one thing, my speech.

 

Even though my family often judged me I wasn’t always the victim especially in my immediate family, when household members would pronounce or say a word wrong I’d often correct them. For example, one that was commonly used in my house had to be the word of possession “mine” when my parents or brothers tried to say something belonged to them they’d say “mines”. It was really annoying for a long time. Even today they still use the wrong words. I’d still correct them on their mistake though I realized with my brothers especially he couldn’t break the habit. Unlike myself I go to a magnet high school while my brother goes to my community high school. So you see I’ve learned that accents can be found not only in an international environment, such as my camp but also in different communities and where people tend to spend their time the most such as their school. 

 

Querido Jorge, 

¡Hola! ¿Cómo estas? Me llamo Jennysha Cruz pero puedes llamar me Jenny. Yo tengo catorce años. ¿Y tu? Mi cupleaños es el uno de enereo. ¿Y tú? Soy de Puerto Rico pero vivo in filadelfia. ¿Qué tiempo hace en Venezuela. 

Me gusta la comida india. También, me gusta la pizza. ¿Qué comida te gusta? Me gusta la música rock. ¿Y tú? ¿Qué música te gusta escuchar? Me gusta el futbol. No me gusta el futbol americano. ¿Qué deporte te gusta? Me gusta pasar un rato con amigos. Cuando tengo tiempo me gusta trabajar, y hablar por teléfoneo con mi amigos. Tambien me gusta leer.

Yo soy boja, morena y linda. Yo tengo ojos café Yo soy latina. También yo soy inteligente, boba, loca, y habladora. ¿Y tú? ¿Cómo eres tú? ¡Chao!

Con cariño, 

Jennysha Cruz        

Jennysha Cruz

Reflection: