Ingredients

Most of the ingredients we used were mostly whole, fresh foods. The biggest difference was the 100% whole wheat pasta, it contained nothing in the ingredients box other than whole wheat. We changed canned tomatoes to fresh tomatoes and used fresh garlic as well. We also used other natural ingredients such as olive oil and water. Although we used mostly healthy ingredients, I wouldn’t recommend it to eat every day. This is because it still leaves out many food groups. For example, there isn’t any kind of meat or a lot of protein. This means that if you ate it every day, you wouldn’t get all the nutrition that you need. As for calories, the thing that would probably add the most to that count would be the pasta. 

The tomatoes we used most likely came from California because they are the top tomato producing state. This leaves them a fairly far distance to travel. Other ingredients we used probably didn’t come as far. 

Our meal didn’t cost too much to make. We spent less than $20.16 overall not including some items from our homes. The people who probably earned money from our meal would be the farmers that grew the tomatoes, the garlic, the people who made the seasoning, and also Shop Rite, since that is where we bought the food. Most of the food did not come from small companies considering we went to a chain supermarket.

These food items came from all over, the tomatoes were shipped from Jersey to here, The garlic was grown in PA, the Pasta was made in New York, and the Olive oil was manufactured in NY but it says it's Italian. If we grew the tomatoes at home we would have less pesticides (even though they say they don't have any) and they wouldn't have to come from Jersey. If we made the 100% whole wheat pasta at home we would probably mess up, homemade pasta is difficult to make let alone making it with just whole wheat.  

Reflections:

Sarah Charlotte- 

Many things that I learned this unit had to do with some things I already knew, however, I learned about them more in depth during this unit. I found this really interesting. There are a few things (such as some of the things we saw in videos) that cannot be unseen, and that might make some of the food I eat seem slightly less appetizing. For example, the meat industry needs to be changed and I might not look at corn the same way ever again. 

I think that we each have big roles in the food system. I think the main role we have is choosing what we eat, where we get the food from, and who we pay for our food. The companies that make the most money are going to be the ones that stay out there. Like McDonalds. If they don't treat their chickens or cows right and we still buy from them, that won't be stopping anything because we are still giving them our money so they don't see the need to change anything. I think that one of the first things we need to change (besides where we give our money to) is to stop using corn in everything. An easy change to step towards that would be to stop feeding cows and other animals that we raise for meat corn and give them what they are supposed to eat (like grass for cows). 

There are a few things that I can change in my food choices. One of these things would be to change out my regular pasta for whole wheat pasta, buy organic foods, and to overall eat healthier. I don't know if I can actually easily do this, but I am willing to try. 

Helen-

I have honestly learned so much in this unit, obviously I knew that not organic food was worse for you because of the pesticides and growth hormones they inject it with, but I had no idea how bad. In this unit we watched a documentary of this women who worked in a chicken farm, she showed us illegal footage of how the undocumented workers treat the animals. Another thing that ties into not treating animals right is how ecoli spreads in large factories, and could also lead to consumer death. Another thing we did in class was learning about the western diet. The western diet is super bad, not only because of weight gain but because of all of the chemicals to "preserve" or "enhance" flavor. Overall I've realized you should make your own food from scratch.

Basically this unit has widened my eyes to the terrible truth, before this all I knew was organic is better... now I know why. From now on I am going to try to only by organic fruit, meat, and dairy. Although it is going to be super tough, seeing what those animals went through and what I am putting in my own body, I would rather sacrifice a couple of bucks than my health. 

Food Slides:

Helen- cake

Sarah Charlotte- plate

For my part of the project, I designed the posters. The posters were a idea we came up with as a way to let people know about the campaign and spread the word. I knew that the posters would need to catch, as well as hold, people’s attention. For the posters, my goal was not to give people information, but to direct them to it. I only wanted to make people interested enough to bring them to the website via the QR code that I would put on the posters. For these reasons, I decided to make the posters rather simple and plain, along with very little text. I wanted to make three to four posters using photoshop. I ended up making three simple posters that were very different from each other. 

I spent a lot of time planning out exactly which photos to use, the colors in each, the placement of the words, and the font. I ended up using the same font for each poster, connecting them in some way. I made each one very simple, using only one photo, and very little text. The hardest part was probably putting on the text. This is because I had to decide how big I wanted it to be, and where to put/fit it on the poster. The other challenge was getting the coloring how I wanted it on the robot poster. I wanted the posters to each be minimalistic, so I looked up a photoshop minimal poster tutorial. I followed this for the poster, but it was still challenging. 

Overall, I am happy with how the posters turned out to be.  To make them effective and to put them in action, I hung them up in different places around the school. Because each one had a QR code leading to our website, I wanted to hang them up in places where people go the most often. That way more people will see the poster, and are more likely to scan it. I put them in the stairwell, as well as on some of the most popular walls, and most used doors. I tried to put about one of each poster design on each floor. While hanging them up, I had a few teachers comment on them and tell me that it catches their eye, and some even asked me more about the project and campaign. Mr. Lehman also retweeted one of the posters on twitter, which helped to get the word out. These were some of the ways that I knew the posters were effective. 

2. Explain how you came up with the design for your mask/skull.- When we first got this project, I looked up sugar skulls on google images to see what they usually looked like. From this I got the idea for my design. I tried to make it similar to the traditional looking ones, but also how I wanted it. 

3. Explain the process from beginning to the end, the process that you went from having   no mask to having a finished and painted mask.- First I designed my skull. Then I helped someone else plaster their face. When doing this I realized that the plaster made my skin break out. Because of that, I did not plaster my own face, but used someone else’s. After I had my skull, I waited a day for it to dry and then painted it with my design. 

One big challenge was the language autobiography. That was probably the most challenging thing for me to do this year. The quote that started off my paper explains it all. “When I learned that I was going to have to write a language autobiography, I thought I was never going to be able to do it. I thought that I was doomed because I was taught to speak properly and correctly my whole life. When we were reading about people who had large opinions on language identity and what language was, I couldn’t relate to any of them.” This project challenged me a lot. However, while I was completing the autobiography, I discovered many things about myself that I had never thought about. This was the last bit of my autobiography: “Before this assignment, I never thought about any kind of language identity. I’m still not positive what mine is quite yet, or if I even have one. But I know that I am in the process of figuring it out. I might even have multiple ones. I do know one thing for sure though, I once thought I didn’t have a story to tell with language but now I know I have a huge story. It’s just still in the process.” As you can see, this shows how much I learned about myself while doing this project. I learned tons more about my background and even about my own opinions. 

Another challenge for me was the art in the open dance. When I first heard that we would have to dance, I hated the thought of doing it so much that I wished I could be absent those days. In my art in the open reflection, I explain my first and last thoughts about the whole process. “I was confident I could do something really good by the end of the weeks. Before going to the armory, I really did not want to do what we were doing and felt super nervous. After the armory, I felt confident enough to know that I could do it. I also was a bit more excited. The whole process happened in a way that was easy yet challenging at the same time.” The art in the open experience taught me a lot of things about myself. I learned that there are some things that, even though they seem impossible, I can accomplish. 

The other big challenge was the religion benchmark. We had to research two religions. I looked at the after-life in Buddhism and Christianity. When I reflected on the whole religion unit, I realized I had learned a lot about myself during it. Here is a part of the reflection I did: “I learned a lot in this unit. I basically did not know anything about religion before when we first started the unit. This unit taught me a lot about the differences between religions. I had no idea that many religions believed in reincarnation. I really enjoyed learning about different kinds of religions.” I have never really had a religion that I followed. I always hated being told what to believe. In a way, I have always had my own religion. Even then, before the religion unit, I wasn’t sure exactly what I believed. After the unit, I started to sort out my own beliefs. That let me discover much more of my identity. 

During my tenth grade year in Mr. Block’s class, everything was a challenge. Some were bigger than others but nothing was easy. I realize now, that to learn you have to overcome challenges and connect things to yourself. In doing that, you learn not only about the world but about your identity. You have to keep an open mind. Most importantly, you can not be afraid of challenges. You need to challenge yourself to learn about yourself. If you do that, your learning will expand in many ways. That is what I learned to do this year and I think that it will help me through out the rest of my education.

English Journal #49:

Respond to the quote: 

“If memory helps us to survive, forgetting helps us to go on living.” - Elie Wiesel 

This quote really makes you think. I think that forgetting bad things can help us move on and not dwell on the past. However, remembering may help us survive because you will not want those things to happen to you. If you forget, you will be happy but may not survive long. If you remember you may survive but not live. 

History Journal #10: 

~What is religion? 

Religion is where someone believes something that has to do with something spiritual. 

~Has religion helped the world more than it has hurt it, or hurt the world more than it has helped it? 

I think that religion has helped the world just as much as it has hurt it. Yes, religion can make people not like each other and even start wars, but it has also helped many people personally. For example, the wars in Iraq have been caused by religion as well as other things. 

English Journal #6: 

Write a paragraph starting with this phrase:

“I am always seeing…”

I am always seeing the wind blowing things all around me. My hair, the leaves, the branches, and the birds soaring in the wind. I am always seeing the clouds moving. I am always seeing the people walking. I am always seeing the world around me… but what do other people see? Do they see the world the same way I do? I am always seeing. 

I. Intro and Reflection:

During this project, I had many struggles. I describe some of them in the essay itself. Other than the ones in the essay, I had a hard time finding out what I wanted to write about, or what I could even write about. After I figured out what I wanted to write about, the hard part was narrowing it down to fit in 750-1000 words. I learned a lot of different things about my own language identity. I talked about things like how my mom grew up in the south, how I had speech therapy when I was little, and how code switching has effected my life.

II. Final Essay

When I learned that I was going to have to write a language autobiography, I thought I was never going to be able to do it. I thought that I was doomed because I was taught to speak proper and correctly my whole life. When we were reading about people who had large opinions on language identity and what language was, I couldn’t relate to any of them. I never thought about language and I never really needed to. My family didn’t come from a foreign-speaking place, I didn’t have to translate for anyone, and I didn’t have any family members who spoke with a heavy accent or bad grammar, dialect etc. I was so worried that I had nothing to write about. Then something hit me. I had tons to write about! So, that being said, let me start to tell you about it. 

When I was growing up, my mom always told me to speak correctly. As I got older, she would correct me if I didn’t pronounce a letter or syllable or anything else in a word correctly. Sometimes I will keep saying the word wrong and she will yell at me. I always get really mad at her because I feel like home is someplace that I should be able to talk in an informal way. Instead, I have to talk like I do in class. I never thought about it too much until we started talking about language in English class. 

When I was getting ready for school one morning after talking about language in class, I started talking to my mom. I told her that we had been talking about proper English and stuff like that. When I said that there was not really such a thing as “proper English”, she flipped out on me. She said that there was defiantly such a thing as that. She told me that she doesn’t like bad grammar or other things like that coming from out of my mouth. When she flipped out, I got really angry. We probably both over reacted because it was so early in the morning but I can remember how I felt. I balled my hands into fists and I felt like throwing the hairbrush I was holding at something.

“Why are you flipping out? I just really hate when you yell at me just because I said something wrong!” I yelled at her.

“I want you to make sure you never slip a slang word or something similar to that out during something really important like a job interview” She shouted back.

We both argued about the same thing until I stormed out of the room, my head filled with rage.

When I was in the car going to school, I remembered that we had been learning about the fact that “standard English” existed. We never said anything about “proper English.” I felt really bad. Throughout the day, I realized that I did have lots to write about in my essay. I could just write about what it was like to have to speak proper. 

Even though I speak pretty well now, I don’t have the greatest history with language. My mom grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and she mostly lost her southern accent when she came to Philadelphia for college. My grandmother (her mother) lived in Kentucky her whole life up until this summer. When my mom would go to visit her, she would always have a strong accent again for about 3-4 days. Sometimes you will hear me say certain words they will have a slight accent on them. 

A very large issue I had with language in my life was when I was little. I had very bad speech. I don’t remember it much because it stopped after I was five, which was after I had speech therapy. I could not pronounce a lot of words. For instance, I would pronounce “no” as “go”. As you can imagine, because those words are complete opposites, it never ended up well. If I wanted to say no to something it would come out so that it seemed like I meant yes. It was hard for people, including my parents, to understand me. 

Even though I might talk really proper at home, I still use slang and a bit of bad grammar when I am talking to my friends. Mostly, we have words or phrases that only we say. Words often start out as something that only one of us said. Then the rest of us would catch on. I have noticed that this happens a lot with everyone. We get it from our friends, family, and even the internet. 

I think that it is really important for all of us to know how to code switch. Code switching is when we talk differently in different places. For most people, they speak more formally in school, in a job environment, and presentations. The talk however they are most comfortable when they are with their friends and family. With me, its changed a bit. As my mom said, she wants me to be able to code switch easily and that’s why she wants me to talk properly around her. In the essay Mother Tongue by Amy Tran, the author says that the limited English limited possibilities in her life as well as in her mother’s. That’s what my mom doesn’t want to happen to me in life. 

Before this assignment, I never thought about any kind of language identity. I’m still not positive what mine is quite yet, or if I even have one. But I know that I am in the process of figuring it out. I might even have multiple ones. I do know one thing for sure though, I once thought I didn’t have a story to tell with language but now I know I have a huge story. It’s just still in the process. 

Bibliography

Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue, By Amy Tan I Am Not A." Scribd. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2012. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/13297165/Mother-Tongue-By-Amy-Tan-I-Am-Not-A>.

III. Video 

A Protestor’s Speech

You are talking quietly to yourself as you are standing on the stage about to a crowd of protesters at the protest in front of the White House. 

Thinking to yourself:

My name is Amelia and I am one of the protesters against the Keystone XL Pipeline. I’m standing here in a crowd of people who are trying to get Obama to stop this pipeline.  I am on a stage, about to tell people what I have to say. 

Your hands shaking with excitement and fear. You start speaking in the microphone.

“I’m Amelia. I live in Oklahoma and this pipeline will be going right through my backyard. I have a message for the government from the people of The United States. Yes, it would create jobs, but is it really worth worth what it would cost to clean up the amount of oil leaks and spills per a year? The first Keystone pipeline caused twelve spills in the first year. Remember the BP oil spill of 2010? Well there could be a lot more of that. Wild life would be in danger. Fish would die and there could be a short supply of food. It would be a catastrophe if a spill happened. Tar Sands oil is among the dirtiest carbon-intensive fuels on earth. As you probably know, there was a tar sands oil spill in July in the Kalamazoo River. You can’t build this. Its not worth it. There are other ways to create jobs. And even more ways if you keep the money you would need to clean up spills. I just hope you are listening.”

You step down from the stage, giving the mic to the next person as the sound of roaring cheers for your speech fill your ears.

Video Diary of a Pipeline Worker

Your sitting in a bulldozer holding your camera in front of your face. You are recording a video so you can show people how awful it is to work at the pipeline. You start recording the video and speak in a nervous, whispery voice because you are scared you will be caught not working. 

“Hi everyone. I am sitting here in a bulldozer, working on the Keystone XL Pipeline. I have no idea why I’m working here because I’m fully against the pipeline. Let me tell you a bit about me. I grew up in the US, got married happily, and had three beautiful children. We were living in peace and happiness but then I lost my job and we went broke. The only job I could get was in Canada working on the pipeline. My family had to move to Canada. Now, I’m sitting here thinking about how its such a horrible place. Ugh! Theres the feeling is again. It comes about five minutes after I get here and never leaves. Its the feeling of pure dirt like you need a shower right away. You work here with the messiest kind of oil there is. Its made of clay, sand, water, and bitumen. Bitumen is this horrible heavy black viscous oil. This is one of the worst jobs you could ever imagine. When I’m working, I never stop wanting another job, preferably back in the United States. I have to hide the fact that I don’t agree with who I am working for. I don’t want to be fired, at least not before I can find another job. I hate the fact that I’m destroying the earth. I just want to be back in California where I grew up. I gotta go, the boss is coming”

You quickly turn the camera off.

Police Officer at the Protest

Puts handcuffs on a young man.

Why are these stupid protestors bothering everyone? I should be having a relaxing day at work, but instead I’m putting handcuffs on, oh I don’t know, maybe the tenth person I’ve arrested today? Why couldn’t I just be relaxing by the edge of the highway, waiting for some speeding car or something like that? These people are smiling as they get arrested. Who do they think they are? I don’t get it.

Starts shouting at a guy who is trying to take your picture.

“Now theres a camera in my face? Are you trying to take my picture, or the picture of the person I’m arresting? Stop pointing that camera at me!” 

Tries to cover face and put another set of handcuffs on someone at the same time. 

I have no idea why they are protesting this pipeline. I think it is a great idea. The U.S. needs more oil, and more jobs. My cousin is unemployed and is close to homelessness. This pipeline would give him a chance at work. If these people are really going to protest this, why can’t they do it somewhere thats actually legal? Why do it in front of the White House? 

Your friend comes over and takes the guy you about to put in the cop car. You start handcuffing someone else. All of a sudden the guy your arresting says your name. You realize its your old friend Sam. 

Oh great, my old friend Sam is being arrested now, by me. And now he’s talking about the pipeline. Now he's asking what I think about it? I remember why I stopped being this guy’s friend in the first place. 

English 2

Friends and Family are some of the most important people in someones life because they will always be there for you. There are so many different memories that I have and there is one special item that reminds me of them all. Its a photo in my kitchen and its right by the kitchen table.

The photo is of something very unusual. Its of a bagel garden. In the right top corner of the picture there is a bit of light gray side walk right along a black wrought iron fence. The fence covers the top of the artwork as well. The whole way along the inside of the fence, there square shaped shrubs, which are about half the height of the fence. Beside the row of shrubs on the right side, there is a small path made of the kind of gravel you would put in a fish tank. The gravel has a tiny bit of a purple color. The path turns left at the bottom of the picture and continues along the bottom. On the path there are two rows of bagels on the ground. The bagels are plain. In all there are about twenty-four bagels that are visible in the picture.

In the section that would be the middle of the garden, but what takes up about half of the left side of the picture is more shrubs. These shrubs are made to form the outline of a square flower bed. The inside of the square formed with shrubs is filled with dirt. Planted in the dirt are little pink flower plants. They look like mini circle bushes with little pink flowers at the top. There are twenty-two flowers visible. The pink is a light pink.

It was this photo that, when I looked at it, gave me all the memories of family and friends back. I don’t spend way to much time in my kitchen, but seeing this photo reminded me of a time that I had a lot of fun.

The room smelled like nail polish, spa supplies, and lotion. I was having a spa sleepover birthday party type of thing. We were in my kitchen doing manicures. I had my feet in a foot bath. The bubbles swarming around. My friends were doing a 1 minute manicure scrub in the sink. It smelled like passion fruit. While my feet were soaking, one of my other friends was doing my fingernails. The sound of running water, laughing, along with a mixture of crickets from outside filled the room. Soon I had hands under the running water. I was using the manicure scrub. It was bright orange. It was a mixture of gooey and gritty. As I scrubbed my hands I laughed with my friends and realized how much fun I was having. It was the best birthday party I had ever had.

When I remembered this story, it helped me realize that my friends are some of the most important people in my life. I also realized that I had some of the best friends in the world. They are always there for me. I think that during that night, I laughed more than ever before. 

My mom was just finishing up dinner. I was excited. I started jumping up and down, almost bouncing, like a rubber band ball. 

“Settle down, its almost done.” my mom said.

I was a little kid, and my mom was making my favorite dish for dinner. I could smell it baking in the oven. It was tuna casserole and it smelled like tuna, but not in a bad way. My mom started to serve it. I could hear the dishes clanking together as she took them over to the kitchen table.

“Yum, tuna casserole.” My dad said as he sat down.

I sat down in my spot next to my dad. As I was eating and savoring the taste in my mouth, I looked around. I realized that the reflection of the fork on the wall was a tiny bit of light. I thought of a fairy. 

“Mommy, daddy, look. It looks like a fairy!” I said to my parents in a high-pitched mouse-like voice. 

I started playing with the reflection on the wall. That became a normal dinner thing when I was little.

I hadn’t thought about those times at dinner when I was little for a long time. By remembering it, I realized how important family was. I always knew they were important but I never really noticed how much. They mean so much to me. They are the people who will always be on your side no matter what happens. I will never forget that fairy, or any of the other memories of my family because they are so important to me. 

Friends and family have their similarities and differences. But they both have one similarity that outweighs all the differences put together. They will always be there for you. Its always nice to feel like you belong and to feel accepted and if there is ever a time when you don’t feel these things, you know theres a place to go. That photo of the bagel garden was only a photo to me in the past, but now I know it has a lot more meaning to it. I never think I will look at the quite same way again.

My element is Nitrogen.

- What are some things your element are used for?

Some things my element is used for is producing ammonia and fertilizers, and its used to manufacture nitric acid.

- How did you come up with the idea for your print?

I came up with the idea of my project by the fact that nitrogen is in all living things. That is were I got the idea for the earth part of my print. I also found out that the the word nitrogen means "burnt air". That is where I got the idea for the fire on half of the earth.

- What steps did you take from your idea for the print to the final print?

The first step of this project was to research a meaning behind the common idea of your element. It was very important for us not to pick the first idea that came into our mind. We picked three of our ideas and sketched then in our sketchbooks. Then we picked one and traced the good one onto a block. Then we cut out either the negative or positive space of our drawing. We then printed four prints with the carved block. 

- What are your thoughts on the project?

I liked this project, except for the carving part. The carving was really hard to do. My favorite part was making the prints. This project taught me how to turn simple negative space drawings and make them into something bigger, like these prints. Before this quarter I didn't know much about negative space drawings. Now I have learned a lot and am very happy with my print.

- What would you do differently if you did this project again?

If I was going to do this project again, I would most likely of researched more and gone a bit farther behind the element to get my idea. 

A. What is negative space (explain this concept to a fourth grader that has never heard of it)

Think about a normal drawing of an object. Lets use a chair. You would draw a chair, then when you are done you would have the outline of the chair (and maybe some shading too.). Look at the space outside of the object. This is what we call a negative space. In a negative space drawing, you shade all the negative space to make the chair appear. You do not draw the chair first, however.

B. Explain how you found negative space in 1. your cut out?, 2. in your stool drawing?

In my cutout, I used the templates given to us by Mrs. Hull. The templets were of a shaded part. I had to pieces of construction paper. One was black and one was pink. The pink would be the only paper I would cut. The black paper would stay in one piece the whole time. I cut the correct areas out then traced the cut outs in the onto the pink paper in a way that made the picture half negative, half positive.

In my stool drawing I found the negative space by looking at different shapes in the stools. I pictured the outline in my head then shaded the areas around it. The part of the paper that was not shaded made the shape of the stool.

C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?

It helps an artist to see negative space because then you get to see both sides of the picture. Positive is one side. The side you see normally. Negative is the other side. The side you see less. With negative space you see it more.

D. Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why not

It really depends on how you want the drawing to look. Negative space is good for when you want a darker background. It also makes the drawings more accurate because they will have more points of view. 

Academic:

1. Go to math lab more. I really have been doing bad on math standards but yet have not been retaking them. I retook one of them but got the same grade as the first time. If I need help or anything I am going to really go. 

2. Try to do my best more. I often do this but I have not been doing it as much 1st quarter.

3. Be better about writing down my homework. I never have used my planners. I realized in high school that I really need to use it.