In English, I noticed throughout my work that I have become a more fluent writer in writing my papers. My aspects of me to have became a more fluent writer includes, being able to pull several significant quotes from books I have read and outside sources from research. Also, analyzing throughout my paper, the quotes, my feelings and beliefs into thesis papers. Stating the facts with being stated in opinion form at first was very hard for me, but through practice of constantly writing and peer editing helped me a lot, it bettered me because of the helped I received by my teachers and friends. Click here to view my latest thesis paper about religion and the world

Within this paper I, as I stated before, express several beliefs and stating that they are true. In my 9^th grade year and beginning of this 10^th grade year, I had a harder time formatting and making my thesis papers clear by using well thought-out quotes.

            Something that I grasped over this year was that there are many certain aspects that aren't talked about everyday. Click here to view my work of both my op-ed ;and now my monologue project ;

Throughout my op-ed I express different corruptions throughout the world such as the religious people and leaders abusing humanity laws, here is a quotes I stated of my own words “A priest of a catholic church has been accused of sexually abusing a young little boy. To point that we are talking about a Catholic church who provide us with a Catholic religion in which the bible says “homosexuality is against God.”

            On the other hand, my monologue project was a long projects and included several aspects of thinking rather than the op-ed yet they are both similar and I learned a lot from both of them. Though, to begin, my monologue project brought several ideas of both imagination and research. I learned a lot form my monologue project because over the several months that we were given to work on it, I developed a well thought-out story about children and sex trafficking throughout Europe in an interesting, unique way.

            A major benchmark, one of my most recent one is of my Colonial Benchmark which can be seen here ;

I express many different aspects of colonialism. Through my research I learned a lot and in making this museum, which was the goal of making this benchmark, using different artifacts and stating facts and also giving opinion with supporting evidence that “overall colonialism is better for a country because it is influenced by more cultures and as the country grows older there is a more variety.”

            Furthermore, I’d like to save this for the last, my wiki of my poetry, because it was my most favorite project to do. I believe I can express myself more with writing poems and giving information rather than papers because it flows more easier to me and I believe a lot of other people may believe the same way. Click here to view my poetry wiki.

“I feel uncomfortable. Everyone is staring at me. Do I have something on my face? Where are my best friends? I can’t do this without them.” High school is hard, this is a known fact. Teenagers are awkward, confused, scared, and not comfortable in their own skin. This years sophomore, English and History class with Mr. Block helped me and I am sure more students in my class break out of the comfort zone they created, to make amazing projects and hand in fantastic class work.

In English class we had Journals. Journals were a way to write about school and such. We also used our Journals for more personal things. One of my friends, Samantha Zeisloft, went up to read a personal piece aloud. A few sentences through she began to cry. It was powerful she was so close to me and yet I had not known something so personal about her and the fact that she was able to go up and read it to our class showed how comfortable she had become with us all. Mine was not as deep as hers was but here it is; Journal.

In history class we did a project on comparing religions. While this project didn’t get us closer as a class it helped us explore different religions and learn more. I did mine on Scientology and Greek Mythology. As far as I know no one in my class believes in either of those religions but doing a project on them still helped me learn more about those religions. So once again the projects we did this year helped us

We had a poetry unit in class. While most projects are very strict, and have to be a certain way according to the rubric this project was not. With poetry everything is artistic and full of feeling. You have to dig deep to find the soul of your poetry. The whole class had to write five poems each was given to us by our teacher but everyone took their poem a different way. One poem about your childhood could be games you played as a kid or things you believed in. With the poetry unit not only did we get to show off our skills but we also got to learn more about the other kids in class. One of my favorite poets was Justin Pullins his stuff was amazing and I had never even known.

At the end of the year we worked on the Schuykill River with the Leah Stein Dance Company. We worked in groups with people we did not normally work with. Working with new people in our class helped us become closer as a stream. Dancing on the river in public where anyone could see us helped us break out of our shell. My group had to work together to create a dance from al our different personalities and styles. It is hard, and the fact that we all felt like fools didn’t help at first but as time went on we became more relaxed in our dance and more confidant with our production. We suffered through the heat to perform and it was awesome to see performances from other students in our class.

This year was hard and this year was long but because we were able to become closer as a class it made the year just that much easier to handle. 

Throughout the year, I felt that I learned and changed a lot from this class. From the day I set foot into the room I wanted to know what there was to learn in History, and not so much of English. In all honesty, I felt as though the first half the semesters in the class was rather slow and I wasn't very captivated. But however things took a turn towards the end of the year right now. And now I admire both of these subjects to the same extent. 

A first project that I liked was the Religions benchmark. Despite of the outcome, the grade and how much time I put on it to get that, I'm still proud of it. Because in the beginning I thought that I knew a lot about it but I learned that I didn't know too much and instead learned more than I thought. More astonishing was that it ties in with another project that I would later do towards the end of the year. 

Another thing that I did in the year and stood out among others was the Cortés Trial. It was the class's first ever trial, to determine who was at fault during the rulings of Conquistadors in present day Mexico. We were separated into groups and would later verbally battle it out to make a decision on who's the culprit. The trial was something that I've never done in the middle of a classroom, in easier terms I'd say it was a heated discussion that challenged our public speaking skills and the questioning + answering skills. I was nervous at times but when the time for my prosecuting parter (Vinny) and I to go up against the opponents, while all eyes were on us, there was nothing to do but to question what needs to be questioned and find the answer to what needs to be answered in order to prove a point and determine the one at fault. 

This next memorable work that I liked is also a trial. Instead this one was on Sweatshops, and it may sound weird, but this was a controversial topic that I never expected would've turned out the way it did. I was prosecutor yet again, this time to determine who is at fault for putting sweatshop workers in danger. This trial had the class realize how much others around the world have to go through in order to create the daily things we use. From the past trial about Cortés, being a prosecutor wasn't so hard for me anymore, I just went up and do what needed to be done "get a satisfying answer". This trial was more intense than the Cortés one, rather that it was a heated discussion, it was more like a discussion packing heat. At some point it got quite a bit personal between two groups that later turned into a flame war. At the end of the day, people might "ehh, who cares it's just a fake trial", but to us (at least I do) it matters because at some point of the trial we all got caught up in a moment. 

Mr. Block had write an Op-Ed one day, and this took place during the 3rd-4th quarter. Everyone in the class was pretty puzzled that day because almost none of us had a clue what Op-Ed was. Except that it sounded like two abbreviated words turned into 5 characters. Block later explained that we were to write a report like paper based on a controversial topic along with our own opinions using facts. I'd call it a Factual & Opinionated piece. I don't know about others, but to me, it couldn't get any better. It wasn't my first time writing these so I felt at ease.There was one problem, during that moment in time many things were happening around the world, from natural disasters to made made destructions. Over the course of two days I decided to pick the Libya Vs. NATO topic. So for a period of time I caught up even more with the current event through both the internet and television news. I however felt that it was too controversial so I had doubts at first, however I didn't really care and kept on writing it. When the deadline arrived, I finished it a day head, and Block said that we were to send emails to newspapers and see if some of ours to qualified to be published on them. I wanted mines to be published to a local Philadelphia Newspaper, I got one reply back that they received it but never got one back on whether or not it was published, but I don't really care because after all I'm satisfied with it. 

One of the last projects of the year was a History benchmark, that we were all to do on colonization. All of us were to pick a country, and make a proposal for a museum and have eight artifacts to be displayed. I picked Israel yet again, and somehow it turned in to Israel & Palestine (*note that the images are indeed not displayed on the document, but if you google the names they will show up as expected*). I had much difficulties with this benchmark in the beginning because it was so confusing how it tied in to Palestine the neighboring country and eventually mind-boggling when I found out how much it tied in with many of the works I did in class before it. Such as the Op-Ed because it was controversial, the Religions benchmark I mentioned earlier, and the Cortés trial because I was determined to find out who was at fault to put Israel & Palestine to the position they are in present day. Now it may seem irrelevant to colonization but it started out as colonization, then to religious crisis and to an ongoing conflict that hasn't been to put to a halt. After the eight artifacts proposal was done I thought that it was officially over, but I was wrong. After this we were all appointed to make a presentation out of either powerpoint of keynote to display the topic and country itself. Unlike others who went specifically to the point of how their museum was to be laid out, I took a stab at a different angle. I did my presentation to the conflict from the beginning of colonization to a bigger conflict and eventually today. Within it were insights on some of the artifacts to be displayed, without the audience even knowing. 

An extra memorable work that I liked a lot was the second to last project I done recently. The Art in the Open Festival. I really don't know how to call it, but The Art in the Open was where separate performances the whole class contributed in. Mr.Block appointed us to create an art dance that took place in the street and with the assistance from a professional group of Street Artist/Dancers, the class performed it along the river banks on the day of the festival. To put it in easier terms again, this type of art and dance involved the interaction with the environment around us. It's definitely my favorite because we went from knowing nothing of what street art is to performing it to live audiences. Block allowed us two weeks to practice the performance at a certain site along the river banks, and in honest words I was very satisfied with the product that the group made on performance day despite the fact of 100+ degree heat. Only thing that was kind of disappointing was my fail on a jump during the first performance, but there was a second performance so it meant that there's always space to improve. The failed jump, resulted in some scrapes but those scrapes are actually the reflection on the effort put in to create that act. 

The last piece of work that I like a whole lot, is the one that I'm currently working on. The one,that whoever you are, is reading. It displays all the work that I'm proud of and that the public gets to see them. And it's the Final Portfolio.

We started with descriptive essays for English, which were rather difficult for me. Due to my lack of the ability to use words to really describe my environment, my grade didn’t really shine as well as I wanted it to. I think it was really because of my lack to want to try something that I didn’t really want to do. It was outside of my comfort zone and I didn’t really want to attempt it because of that. I guess in a way you can say I was more, close-minded then. I wasn’t open to new things.

Later on in the year for history we had to do a trial. This trial was very exciting for me considering I find the whole law system to be a very interesting and amazing thing to be a part of. We studied Cortés and his expedition. The trial was to see who was the guiltiest. This assignment made us find research and then apply what we learned to make the other groups guilty. I, as the prosecutor really enjoyed my job. I got to target the other groups and make them sound guilty. I was able to apply my knowledge from watching law and order in to my classroom assignment!

Later in the year for English, we had to create poetry. This was another English assignment that I wasn’t exactly too comfortable with. I just find it hard to express my feelings or things that have happened in my life through words. I got through it and I was a little bit more enthusiastic about the whole thing where as before I when I had to do something outside my comfort zone I would have not been enthusiastic at all.

For history at the end of the year, we had to create an exhibit. The exhibit project required us to create an exhibit that demonstrated the effects of colonization. It was a really fun project because we were able to be creative with it. It allowed us to make our own creation. It required us to be more time conservative of ourselves since we had to find the research and then create the whole project.

In the beginning of the year, I specifically remember saying, “oh I don’t want to do that stupid dance!” Now this dance was the art in the open dance that we were required to do at the end of the year. I can tell that my opinion changed because I loved doing it. I went from, “ew, I don’t want to do this,” to, “that was fun!” It was a great experience and I will always remember it. 

In the end of the year I think I can take away the ability to say, “I can be more enthusiastic about things I don’t like.” Also, I think I have gained the ability to manage my time. It really has made me more independent. This is why when I say I have gone through a lot with Mr. Block, I really have. His classes have made me into a better and more of my own individual.  

            When it came to history we learned a lot of different view points and where different people stand through out the world. It was interesting to see what other people think and why they think that because of how they were brought up in life.This was one thing we really focused on during the religion unit. "Is religion real?" This was a question we looked at during this unit as well. We studied what other believed in and what made them believe it. We did a benchmark, and I have to say it was one of my favorite benchmarks. We had to compare three or more religions in some way. So for my project, I compared the idea of God and what it is and why God is so important. Other people looked at issues of gay rights or heaven. This project forced you to learn about religions that you don’t practice and compare them and really study them in-depth. It helped open my views and it was a great learning experience.

            To start off the year on the first day and the first page of our brand new crispy journals we wrote about a song we listened to. The song was sung by a woman and was about the travel process of clothing. The song kept bringing up the question of weather or not a person’s hands were clean and asked each listener if they thought their hands were clean. This was the start of the year and Mr. Block already had us thinking deeper into such common everyday things, our hands and the new back to school clothes everyone had on. It broadened my perspective and got me ready to understand how basic things were not really all that basic.

            Towards the mid-end of the year we started a poetry unit and was able to write and create a wiki-space that was filled with our own poetry and writing pieces about how we understand poetry by different famous writers. From one of my pieces I said "I start for you, the flash of your hair, pushes me back, makes my heart whirl, fall to ground, your power is so overwhelming." It was really cool to see everyone write and perform their written pieces and to read over everyone’s personal wiki-spaces.

One of the biggest projects I have ever done in my whole life I can say I did this year. During this year we had to write monologues that turned into a story. These stories were about something about change and hope in other parts of the world and it involved them overcoming something. We started the project lost and confused but through the exercises and activities we did with Kate, a lady from the young play writers company, everyone was able to complete this project. There is no way I would have been able to do this without the help of my peers. They helped give great feedback and ideas to add to make the plot more interesting. It really gave peer editing a whole new meaning. This project included two Google documents, one with all the facts and information about our topic and country and the other was just strictly the monologues and the feedback to help us improve.

            In English we read a book called Passing. This book was all about how to make you look or act one way to fit in with certain people, this was called passing. This book was based in the past and focused a lot on blacks trying to pass as whites because of shame or for their safety. With groups we were assigned parts of the book to reread and analyze closer. My group wrote a found poem, meaning we took quotes from the book and put it together to help explain and tell the story and themes of the book in a different way and then we presented it to the class. To do this project we all both it on a Google document and edited and wrote in together. 

            First of all, I want to start off with my favorite unit from history class, which was the religion project. Well, not my favorite but the project that I worked the hardest on. It required a lot, A LOT of research. In the end, I felt pretty good about my final piece because I went with the topic, which was “Interfaith Marriages and Religions” with a focus point on Hinduism and Islam. I learned heaps of things that I never thought I’d learn. I got bits of a taste of how it’d feel being a victim in an interfaith marriage with a Hindu other or an Islamic other. When I was researching about Islam, I passed by this quote “Girls far below the age of puberty are forcibly married to older persons (sometimes in their 50s and later)...” This was how a Muslim girl lived, working for their husband. For this project, I had to create a pamphlet and I told why interfaith marriages should be allowed in these kinds of religions.

            In addition, I wrote poems that related to me this year! In my poetry project, I wrote about my memories, the memories that I long to repeat itself, and about myself with different styles of poetry. Take an example of the poem “I was raised by…” I wrote about how I was raised, where I was raised, what I was raised for etc. In the ending of my poem, I wrote, “I was raised by the world filled with love.” Because I know there are unfortunate kids out there, and I am fortunate enough to have everything that I have now. Poetry made me realize how fortunate I am.

            Next thing would definitely be the monologue project; I’d say it was the longest period of time we’ve ever worked on on a unit. It was worth it though because I got to work with something, I’ve never worked on before. First of all, I’d never heard the term ‘monologue’. I was confused with the whole idea. Then working with Mr. Block, I started writing them and then started talking with my colleagues; they really helped me understand the whole process. In addition, we had to choose a historic event and I chose Chinese invasion in Tibet. I got to learn new things and got more involved with my own culture.

            In the beginning of the year, we read the book called “Lord of the Flies” and we had to write a thesis paper. I chose my theme as Judgment. I’m specifically proud of my thesis of the paper because it proves a very important matter where it states; “By looking at Lord of the Flies and modern political leader, we can see that public usually judge the leader by their voice and looks, which most people do not see; this is important because you are letting someone lead you not knowing how well he/she can handle the crowd in situations.” I used sources from both the book and I researched. Researching is the tip when it comes to writing paper.

            Last thing I want to reflect on is my colonialism project, where I researched about post-colonial and pre-colonial effects on India.  Our project was to pick a country and create an exhibit based on colonial times. I focused my presentation on colonial beneficiaries in India. I brought different artifacts and went in detail about how it related to the topic and how it will look like in the exhibit.  I am very proud of this work because I worked a whole week researching about colonialism in India. I got to learn the history of India before colonialism.

Through out this school year, I have learned many things to do and not to do. Toward the beginning of the year, I had no idea what I was in for and I did not have the writing skills that I do now. When I look at what I wrote and how I wrote at the beginning of the year, I cringe a little, because I know what I would write now. Another thing at the beginning of the year is that I had the stupid idea of not paying attention or completing homework just because I didn’t feel like it. As the year progressed, I realized that I was flushing my college opportunities down the drain. I had to change, and I started to give my full attention and not goof around nearly as much. When I compare my writing from the beginning of the year to now, I see how much better it has gotten due to simply paying attention and taking the extra time to revise what I wrote.

My first example is from the beginning of the year, the Language Auto-Biography. This is an example of when I did not go back and look at my what I had written. In this Language Auto-Biography, I did not revise. Another thing about this Auto-Biography is that I did not have the writing skills that I do now. When I look over it I read things that are grammatically correct, but could be worded much more maturely and more descriptive. This particular Auto Biography could have had fewer but much longer, more in depth paragraphs.

The next example of my work growing through out the school year is my Poems wiki Assignment. This assignment was in the middle of the year and my writing skills were not at where they are now, but they were much better than the beginning of the year. I had never been that great at making poetry, and I was extremely nervous about writing these poems. I feel the best poem of the ones I created is the Memory Poem. It encompasses deep though, heavy emotion, imagery, and descriptive language. “About to collapse under my impatience, about to explode from building up with anxiety.” This line, I believe, is the best line from the memory poem. I never thought that I could make a poem like this. But with paying attention and asking many questions, I have gotten much better at writing poetry. Another thing I learned about poetry is, it is like writing anything else, you have to go back and revise. When I look at a poem from where I first wrote it based off the top of my head, to what it has become after many revisions, it is so gratifying to see how much better it reads.

One of the later writing assignments, writing chapter 26 of Things Fall Apart, shows how my writing skills have grown. This new chapter is based off the previous chapters and ties into what was going through his head. The chapter is one of the better pieces of writing that I wrote throughout the year. It is very descriptive and well thought out to deal with the plot line already started.

Through out this long year, I have realized that I really need to keep up with my school work and always pay attention and ask questions, even though those may be obvious things, sometimes the obvious is over looked. To develop any skills in writing, like anything else, you must first learn what the teacher has to say by listening to him/her and asking many questions. Toward the beginning I had many things to learn and many habits to pick up. I have successfully learned and picked up most of them. I just need to improve the skills that I have learned and put them into use.