This year for English and history my teacher Mr. block did a good job pusshing us to elxplor the texts and stories more and more analiticaly. That Actually helpped me to make my papers mr meaningful and detailed, It also allowed for me to find hidden facts that help put my story togeather better.

William Potts                                                                                                            5-19-11           

                                         Reflection On Prisons Readings

            The most important point that I had come across in these readings was a comment made about the amount of time the inmates are held on based on the severity of their crimes. It said that in America we treat a ten year sentence like its nothing while anywhere else a decade behind bars is seen as a sever punishment for a serious crime. There was a story written about a marijuana dealer who was caught by the police while he was carrying a gun. According to the article he was sent to prison for 55 years. Although this sentence seems to be outrageously long for man who was only cough carrying contraband and a weapon, I have recently heard a story of a drug dealer who offered drugs to a high school student in Philadelphia, The student replied with "I don’t want any of that S***"The man responded by shooting the teenager and killing him. The 55-year sentence was more than unfair, but it would seem that the police are giving people sentences for crimes that they have not committed but rather that they could commit because of their position.

 

            That is also the reason that kidnapping is now treated like murder case. The police are going hard on offenders, this is understandable, but this may cause an increase in the severity on the nature of the crimes. A clear example of this is a terrible story of about a man who hade a criminal record. The man has a young daughter to take care of and of coarse with a criminal record it was nearly imposable to find a legitimate job. So he had started selling drugs again. One day he was driving with his daughter on the highway. The man hade an incriminating amount of cocaine in the car. A highway patrol car pulled him over for speeding. The officer was a lone young woman who was new to being a police officer. She asked the man for I.D he handed over his information and she started to walk back to her car to run the information through her computer, the man realized it was only a matter of time before she learned of his history and search his car to find the drugs. So in a desperate act the man jumped the women and threw her to the ground, he started to beat her severely beating her and breaking bones and knocking her on the verge of consciousness. As he got up he stated in a voice riddled with guilt, fear and sadness “ I’m sorry, but I just cant go back to jail” he got back in his car and sped away leaving the police women on the side of the highway.

 

            The only good thing about this story is the fact that the women survived her attack. The perpetrator was caught several days later, instead of avoiding prison; he was sentenced to 60 years behind bars. He was atleast 30 years old, so he basically received a life sentence.

Mr. Block’s copper stream was an excellent year, I feel that I have learned a lot throughout 2010-2011 school year. Even though I had my struggles I pulled through and give it my all to reach my highest learning skills for this class. We learned many wonderful things during this year and the one that I feel I had a better understanding for was the poetry unit. This particular unit made me feel better about expressing my thoughts and feelings into paper. Many of my poems let me express many of my feeling and thoughts.

 

 My wiki page shows many of my sampled poetry and how I expanded my understanding into many ways of different poetry such an sonnets and many other ways to express yourself. Here is some of the many poetries on my Wiki Poetry page.

 

The majority of my writings this year, I developed a better understanding of general thoughts and thesis idea. Our first major writing assignment was our Descriptive Writing piece. With this project we learned how to make scenes that are vivid and descriptive; using extensive details and illustrative language; making the scenes easy to “see” in the readers mind.

 

As part of the Monologue Project, I wrote a play about a young girl that lives in India and struggles with the educational problems that are going on in her country because of the economy and their lack of money. This project gave me a better understanding of how it feels to not be given the educational needs that I am given freely. This assignment improved my skills in research and also in my writing skills as a young play writer. This was a very fun project to work on this year.

 

For History my favorite and most honorable project of the year was the Colonialism Exhibit, I created an interactive museum exhibit that illustrated the struggles of Ghana in Africa and how they gained back their freedom from British who colonized them for their riches of gold and other trade uses. Through this exhibit I wanted people to exit with a better understanding of colonialism. I also gained a better understanding myself during this project, I feel that is my best work throughout this year as one of Mr. blocks history student. I’m very proud that I finished this year on a strong note and are looking forward of future work with English and History.

Starting sophomore year I was skeptical on if I would like History and English. I used to not find any interest in English and History. Until this year I had the thought that every history and English class was the same as the year before. I though that we were just going to read books and that is it. Boy was I wrong.

History class was different from the first day. Since we started. I used to just have US history, world history is so much better. Mr. Block opened our minds to the world. Because of this I have done some of the best wok of my life. My paper were more interesting, and had better ideas. My favorite project we have completed is the Monologue Project. I put so many months of work into this project. In my point of view it is the best work I have done.

English class was also very different. We did not just read books we discussed them. We found the deep issues and provided solution for them. Because Mr. Block taught both English and History, we could connect both classes. We could relate the books to history and history to the books. Some of my best creative work has come out of my Poetry Project, where we all created poetry and artwork.


Both combined for History and English we combined our creative skills for the art in the open festival. We had help from the Leah Stein Dance Company.  It was a creative performance at the Schuylkill river.

​Humanities Portfolio

Maximilien Marton

When Mr. Block assigned this project, and announced its full details, I didn’t exactly feel that I had learned anything majorly crucial. As I contemplated this further, I realized that in fact, I had learned multiple lessons and essential nuggets of knowledge, just that they were taught in such a subtle way, that I didn’t fully recognize their importance until I actually took the time to realize them. One aspect of this situation that intrigued me was how the knowledge was not completely hidden in my conscience, but only enough so that I could summon it when needed without the need to decipher its apparent existence in my mind. 

In example, during both of the court trials (here and here) I learned to be more sympathetic and to consider multiple points of views, even if my own expressed a strong adversity to one or more of them. For instance, during the Cortes trial, I prosecuted many of the other groups in defense of Cortes, whom I felt quite strongly against before the trial. During the research period of the trial, I found multiple resources that placed a notion of leniency in my conscience. I found that more and more, as I learned Cortes’ point of view, I felt warmer towards him. Of course, I still disagreed with his methods and his logic, but I still considered his ideas. During the Sweatshop trial, The same effect occurred, where I felt more lenient to the group of people I defended.

Looking back upon the monologue project (here), I found that once again the same phenomenon occurred. Because the editing process was so lengthly, I didn’t realize the full extent of my learning experience. During the first few weeks of the project, I had one idea, and as the project progressed, the idea behind my work evolved as well. I switched from studying prostitution to transgendered individuals. As weeks went on, studying transgendered people shifted to studying their childhood, and then to their life experiences. I didn’t realize at first that I was being taught such an interesting and crucial subject, because I was the one who teaching myself along the perimeters that Mr. Block set.

I found that the majority of the lessons learned in class were taught by the students to themselves, with Mr. Block acting as a sort of mediator. Like our monologue project, many of our essays and papers were for the most part, self taught through research. I suppose that the core values of SLA play a major aspect of this. Our history benchmark for this quarter (here) is a great example of self-taught learning. After our unit on colonialism, which gave us a broad knowledge of the subject, we were instructed to inquire upon a culture inflicted by colonialism, research it, present a proposal for a museum exhibit concerning it, collaborate with peers on the best choice for the museum, and then reflect upon our work.

An example of a more structured assignment, would be our poetry project (here). We were taught to observe poetry with new perspectives, by using poetic forms which we wouldn’t usually utilize in poetry, for those of us who actually write poetry. It is almost ironic that the poetry project would become the most structured assignment in our academic portfolio, when the vast majority of poetry is anything but structured. That aside, I learned many aspects of poetry that I had never learned before. For instance, the poet that I studied, Arthur Rimboud, was a poet that I had never heard of before I decided to research him.

So, in conclusion, I have learned many lessons and bits of knowledge that I had previously not recognized. Now that I have realized this crucial realization, I can better prepare myself for further learning that will also be essential to my academic growth. It still intrigues me that all of these crucial subjects were absorbed by my conscience without my own recollection.

Ashyne Bright Final Portfolio !

 

My first general understanding was that our reactions to things have a lot to do with our environment. I learned in some of the books I read that we react off of the thing that happen around us. Like when the people where in the holocaust they where going crazy because they were put in very crazy situations. I have had some work that I have done. Like one of my things was a iture log that I did talking about this book named passing tht we read and it was very touching but it also made me think of the different changes people go through.

Literature Log

 

my second general understanding was that poetry is more than just words that you put on a piece of paper, it is the emotional connection to life that you express through similes, metaphors, and other different techniques. People that write poetry have some type of spiritual connection to there poetry that no one will ever have with someone else poetry. Mr.block taught me that poetry doesn’t always have to be structured but when it is it also can be your own. I love the wiki we did with our poetry. There is a link to it at the bottom of this paragraph.

Poetry Wki

 

My third general understanding was that citizens have the power but do not always exercise it. Different parts of our unit messed with this topic. Like the trials we had with Cortes and His Voyage. The people of the land had more advantage to them then they thought they had. They knew the land and they have the resources. But they didn’t have the time to think of it to save them selves. I have a link at the bottom of this paragraph of an example of the work that was done for this trial.

Trial Work
Cortes TimeLine

 

Another general understanding was that in order for someone to pass with a good grade and for something that they would be proud of he or she would have to really do their work. How would I know? Well because Ashyne likes to procrastinate on doing her work to the last minute and then bull**** it at the very end. It isn’t something that helps you in the long run because once you get use to it, it will be the thing you do forever and it is a hard habit to get out of believe me. So just do your work. Staying on the checkpoints is the best thing a person can do and actually being into the work instead of just getting by.

 

My last general understanding it that you have to be willing to change and work with other to be successful in this school. There is a lot of teamwork done in this school and there is just no space for loners here. There is something about team work that make things so much more fun and stressful but a good stress. It teaches you to be patient and work with all kinds of people. Those are my general understanding and this was my over view of my 10^th grade year. 

​            This year in History and English was a year of hard work, and difficult learning. This year we learned about things that I have never heard of and things that were old news to me. This year was full of hard work starting at day one. When we got into our English and History class we were quickly told what we would need during the year. Then we got into a circle with our partners, and did some things with some pictures

Our first assignment was our descriptive scenes project. This project was easy because we were doing the scenes based on real life experiences. After we were done with that in History we began to talk about religion, and spirituality. This led up to our first benchmark of the year for History. In English we started to read a book called lord of the flies. To me this book was really boring. We had many class discussions about this book, and in one of them I made the comment that “Piggy is a punk because he is afraid he would get in trouble by the adults even though they are not on the island.”  We wrote an academic paper about the book, and this was our first quarter benchmark for English.

 

            In the second quarter for History we learned about the Renaissance. During this process we went to the Art Museum, and we saw renaissance art. I think the art was cool because they really didn’t have the tools that we have today, and their art was still on point. We also did a trial for Hernan Cortes, and The Aztecs. This was very fun, we learned, and we got to act like lawyers, and all of the other people in court. In English we read Their Eyes Were Watching God. I loved this book. I think this was the best book we read all year. We started to right Poetry this Quarter. I honestly can’t write poetry, because when I think of poetry I think of rhyming words, and I learned that not all poems have to have rhymes. There are different styles of poetry, but to people like me rhyming poetry is the most common poetry to me. This was our second quarter English benchmark. I surprised myself during this process.

 

            In the third we started out Monologue projects. Mrs. Kate came to class, and taught us how to write really good monologues. I started this project with high hopes, then those hopes got crushed, and I eventually gave up on the project. I really wish we could do that over because I would be more into it this time. We had another trial this quarter, but this one was about sweatshops, and who is really to blame for the sweatshops. I was apart of the group called the system. The system really should have been found guilty but it wasn’t. In English this quarter we read a book called passing. Passing was an okay book to be honest I really stop reading it after Clare let her husband call her nig, because she was darker. Our benchmark this quarter was about crossing boundaries, and we did podcast interviews. I interviewed my great-grandmother on her life, and her encounters with racial discrimination.

 

            In our fourth and final quarter in History we read a book call Things Fall Apart, and this led off to us talking about colonialism. For our benchmark we had to pick a place that was affected negatively, or positively by colonialism. I chose Madagascar. We made museum exhibits for the benchmark. In English we the book Night. The Holocaust was our topic of the quarter. I believe that the holocaust was wrong, but the people who were being tortured were hopeful, so I commend them for that. We wrote an academic paper for this quarter’s benchmark. I did pretty well on it. Then we performed in the A.I.O. This was a fun experience also. I feel that my group did well. Now to end everything off I am doing this final portfolio about my year in English/History. #DoubleBlock

  Throughout this year 10-11 in my humanities classes I have learned a lot. My eyes were opened in many different ways. The things we did this year have helped me realize what is going around in the world around me. I realized that people aren’t fortunate enough to have what America has. They have to fight and protest to get what they want. In my History we watched videos of people protesting against their governments because of the oppression. We did a monologue project in our History class about world struggles. Mine was based on the Tiananmen Square protest in China. Another thing we did was a mock trial based on multinational corporations and the people that are involved and affected by them.  

One thing that really stood out to me was the language unit in my English class. Language is a very important in the society. You might not realize it at first, but when you think about it you code switch. Your language changes depending on the environment your in. For example you might you use “slang” when you’re with your friends but you speak “properly” when you’re with your parents. We watched a video about the different ways people talk around the United States. That video makes you think about what exactly is “proper english.” 

If you have and abundance of people talking differently, then who are you to say that the way they’re speaking is improper. Another thing that really stood out to me this year was religion. People are very diverse and religion plays a big part in that. This year we had to research religions and compare them. While I was researching I realized that a lot of religions have the same beliefs. If that’s the case then why are people battling over which religion is “right.” We also came to school dressed as someone else an talked about our religions. The person I studied was the Dalai Llama  Another thing this year that opened my eyes was poetry. I was used to poetry that rhymed in an A/B format. The project that we did on poetry opened my eyes to new styles. It made me think and express myself in new ways. It was a new experience to me but I enjoyed it. 

        In this year’s humanities courses, I feel that my mind and perspectives as a student have been opened beyond my own comprehension. The different activities and assignments that were completed have grown me to a place where I can see and think outside of what is directly in front of me. I have learned that things truly are not always what they seem. Every person has a story and a place in the system that is the world we operate in today. It is my opinion that if I had not been able to experience humanities in the way that I did this year, my thinking and perspectives would be completely different.

In the majority of my writings this year I formed my theses and general ideas around topics that at fist glance I did not agree with, but during the process of writing the papers and research the ideas became true beliefs. For example in my Lord of the Flies thesis paper I state, “ Although savagery is a state of being that is frowned upon in society it is one that is necessary in some cases to promote progress.” Just the thought of humans, the kings of all beasts, having to reduce themselves to the savage state of animals to accomplish a goal is strike to the human ego. This idea is one that I did not agree with until during my research when I found clear examples of this idea in play about sixty-five years ago during WWII.  The United States bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki along with the Japanese Kamikaze flights were acts of savagery that were ultimately needed to end the Second World War.

As part of the Monologue Project, I wrote a play set in an American owned textile factory in Sri Lanka.  I view this project as one my greatest accomplishments and learning times of this year. This project allowed me to step into the shoes of every individual that played a role in the function and corruption of sweatshops.  I was taken out of my comfort zone and dropped into an unfamiliar place, where it was my responsibility to tell the stories of those who could not speak. I felt as though I was their only advocate. This assignment enhanced not only my writing skills but also my skills in research and its interpretation. Hours were spent revising and quoting- trying to make sure that the story told was one that was accurate and displayed the message and story that was to be told. The final product was But I’ve Got My Fingers and These Ashes.  The product was truly something that highlighted many of the skills that I gained and possessed already.

In our study of poetry I found myself to be particularly struggling because I already had a slight displeasure with the topic. Personally, I am not very fond of poetry because its meanings can be so vast and open to interpretation that it is difficult to find just one clear meaning. Because of this I tend to stay as far away from poetry as possible and did not at all consider myself to be the slightest of a poet. My poems created on the Poetry Wiki are my attempt at being a poet. The quote heading the page tells us that at one point we were all poets and can loose our poetry sense. In experiencing this project I found an inner poet that I thought did not exist and never would. This poet was able to grasp the elements of poetry that I was not to fond of and turn them into something that I feel, demonstrate my struggle with poetry and newfound appreciation for its existence.

            I am the type of person who needs explanation for almost all that I come in contact with.  In my mind, the idea of always having a black and white answer is slowly fading. Because of interpretation and idea such as “justice” can have one meaning for one set of people and another meaning for a different set of people. In the final thesis paper of this year I stated, “It is the responsibility of both parties during times of war, to seek justice.” by Art Spieglman’s The Complete Maus , Night by Eilie Wiesel and the Nuremburg Trails were the basis of this paper. I explored the effects of environment and experience on one’s interpretation of the definition of justice. Environment and experience are the true definers of what justice is to a person.

            The above is also true when considering the lasting footprint that colonialism has left on nations that were colonized by the previously dominant European rule. Often possessing a negative connotation,  colonialism in the case the Republic of the Philippines, possessed both negative and positive qualities. As part of the Colonialism Exhibit Project, I created and interactive museum exhibit that illustrated the footprint colonialism left in that nation. I focused experience of that the people had under Spanish rule and under United States rule. The result ultimately was a nation that still struggles today to find itself in the Global Economy and system. This assignment took an idea that I had set in mind and gave it a new definition.

             From this year's humanities courses I can walk away a better learner, thinker, and student. The activities and assignments of this year's courses opened my eyes and broadened my perspectives. I feel as though prior to participating in these year’s courses I have been taken out of the box that I kept myself in freshman year. I can only look forward and hope that the years to come in my educational career can offer what I have gained this year.

Throughout this year in Copper Stream 2010-2011 something that really stuck out to me was the poetry unit. There were many points that I was able to take with me after doing this unit. The general understanding that I got from this was that poetry is a way of expression and can be expressed through more than just writing. When we had to do our wiki spaces most of my poems talked about my dad and what I was going through at the time. The poems allowed me to get some of my bottled up emotions out and let someone hear me without hearing my voice. The poems I wrote can be found on my wiki spaces.

 I learned that poetry is more than just roses are red and violets are blue, poetry can be a song, rap, the outside world, and a drawing. There are no limits when it comes poetry and what it can mean.

Another thing that I will be able to take with me is that writing is a group process and not just an individual project. It takes more than one opinion on someone’s paper to make it right. With every paper I had wrote this year it had been edited at least twice before I finally made my final paper. One paper that I was proud of was I believe the first quarter benchmark. We had to write a letter for Lord of the Flies. On that paper I had it reviewed a few times and kept making many different adjustments to it so it will be perfect. This paper can be seen at the bottom of my blog.

The final thing I will take from this is the crossing boundaries unit and when we read the book Their Eyes Were Watching God. The units went hand in hand with one another and it’s a good thing they were placed right behind each other. We had even written some “rules, roles and responsibilities” that we as teens hear all the time and have to deal with. In mine I wrote how your suppose to go to school and maintain A’s and B’s only, your suppose to act your age not your shoe size, your not suppose to go around acting crazy or like a little boy, also you can’t just be round boys all the time. This unit helped and showed me how society looks at people and how women are treated.

While reading the book Their Eyes Were Watching God I noticed how put down a female is in society. The women are supposed to let the man be in charge and cater to his every whim. As a woman they have no control over their life and not until they get the courage to stand up and leave will anything change. I made a video that showed how many women deal with the abuse of a man but takes a long time for them to do anything about it.

Throughout the year in English and History I’ve just learned that there are a lot of things to learn about in the world. We have to understand how women get paid less than a man.  Another thing that I wont forget is how society has a certain standard of speaking. There is a Standard English that people need to live up to but in reality no one can live that standard. This classes taught me that’s its alright to be our self and live life expressing how we feel.

 

 

 

Lord of the Flies

            From the time Piggy stepped onto the island until his fatal death he was judged about everything. From his appearance to his asthma to the little things he tried to say to the group. He could never say what was on his mind or even try to act as a normal kid because of his awkwardness. Just like the way Piggy was judged so is everyone else in society.

            People judge one another like its nothing. It has become a part of human nature to just turn to someone else and start talking about someone. The judgment can be for the good or the bad. When it was time to vote for a new President people didn’t judge based on what could get done they judged based on color, gender, and age. 

            In 2008 when the presidential election was going on ever I went people were extremely happy to know that we would either have a women president or a black president. The thing I noticed though was it wasn’t about what people wanted to be able to get from these two candidates it was about color and gender. To just for everyone to be able to say they would have a black president or a women president would have been enough for the USA.

            “Assassinate Obama”, school children chanted when Obama was elected president. This was found on the site.  Another incident that happened was a nine year old boy told a little girl on the bus “I hope Obama gets assassinated.”  The same night someone trashed the little girl’s aunt lawn and left two pizza boxes full of feces because they had Obama posters on their lawn. This just shows that because of the color of Obama’s skin and the people that followed him they were judged and had to deal with the actions of other people that didn’t like the idea of having a black man run the country. People still live in the past were whites run everything and other people have to deal with the actions of those people.

            Another thing that I found was something from Karen Armstrong’s speech is when  she said that stereotypes divide us, which is very true. Ralph, Piggy, and the twins were all divided from Jack and the rest of the boys because of the differenced Jack and Ralph had. They had caused everyone else to pick a side and try to live their life as if that was the only way they could live on the island. Karen Armstrong’s statement was proved based on what theses little boys had to go through in this novel.

Reading Lord of the Flies all the boys judged each other on what they can or can’t do and how they looked. The one that experienced the most judgment was Piggy. He was noticed a little when Jack’s boys realized the specs were what gave them fire, but even then it wasn’t the type of attention he wanted or deserved. The only time he got respect was when he died, and the only one that showed him that respect was Ralph. Throughout the whole book Piggy never got a say on anything that happened. Even though Ralph listened to Piggy in some way he really didn’t listen to anything he had to say. Everyone treated Piggy as if he was just someone taking up space.

            As the time came closer to Piggy’s death he had gotten some type of respect. When he went back to get his specs he took the conch shell with him. Every time he would start talking and someone would interrupt him he got control again just by waving the conch shell around. As the bolder hit Piggy and knocking him off the cliff he never died with the respect that he should have died with. As he fell off the cliff and the shell broke everyone was a lot more worried about the shell then him. 

Never Shall I

            Never shall I forget the phone call that we had received

Never shall I forget seeing my family rushing to the hospital

Never shall I forget seeing my uncle all bruised up with broken bones

Never shall I forget sitting on my grandma’s lap while she cried her eyes out

Never shall I forget the details of my uncle’s body flying across the concrete

Never shall I forget the day my uncle was almost killed

Never shall I forget any of these details