Development comes over time. Change never shows right away it is a process. “When trying to achieve change the process sometimes does matter and does not. When it comes to change I don’t think the process matters. However, when you are trying to become a doctor and you cheat the whole way through the process does matter because you can’t pursue in a career which you know nothing about” - Journal 52. Over the course of my sophomore year in history I have learned a lot, mostly about change and how it affects people.  We have gone through many units through the four quarters. We have talked about revolution, development, power, society, technology, religion and how all of that affects the people.

Dealing with the revolution I have learned a lot and it has opened my eyes about many things. During my working with revolutions the main thing that stuck out to me was the struggle for power. When revolutions take place there is a unbalance of power. The people who are suffering from the revolution are the native people of that land. A question that most people ask is “Are revolutions ever really over?”We watched some clips during class of the movie “The Square” during the Egyptian Revolution. Some people said “People are true power.” I made a video about revolutions and the power struggle here. You can see some quotes from the film that stood out to me and the quotes broken down here. Dealing with revolutions you will never see a positive outcome immediately. The changes expected from the revolution comes late. The first thing that comes after revolution is development. The people have shown that after revolutions you have to try to develop and make things structured around you so you can become structured.

Talking about religion and culture this year also helped me open my eyes. In culture you see the development the most over time. You can see what cultures actually stuck to what they believed in or if they wandered off or became “modernized.” Over the course of the year I wrote a journal about criticism dealing with cultures: “I don’t think it’s ever acceptable to judge someone else and how they live” - Journal #3. You can read the full journal here. Sometimes when revolutions took place there was a change in culture. When other countries would come over they would leave different effects on the people as in slang, beliefs, religion, dress, how you live and more.

Other than historical events, another thing that has changed and is still changing over time is development. Technology has developed in many different ways, positive and negative. Technology has affected historical events significantly. “Having some people be exposed to revolutions online are more difficult because instead of making a change people will just act like they care instead of really doing something”- Journal 32. In saying that there is more of a negative change because not a lot is being done. In Egypt an entire revolution started because of one post online so having technology also increased development.

In conclusion I really appreciated and learned a lot from working with Mr. Block in World History this year. I’ve learned a lot but what I will never forget is that development comes over time and change never shows right away it is a process. I can apply this to my everyday life.

Throughout the course of the year studying in World History, I’ve learned overall how important it is to stay together as a whole community, and not as separate countries. If we fail to contribute to a safe, respectful, cooperate community, then how will we ever have the power to stand up for ourselves? We’ve learned this broad statement over the course of the year by learning about sweatshops, bill of rights, revolution eras, and even colonialism. All of these small topics reflect on the idea that although the world is going through a rough stage of poverty, discrimination, segregation and more, we still need to represent our community by acting as a whole.

When we started the class in the first quarter, we learned that a method (not the best) to stand up for what you believe in is to simply protest in to stop something from happening. It also begins because there are many people out there who want to protest for the own rights, sometimes discrimination rights. In this monologue, I took the role of a boy trying to stop a construction worker from helping out with the recent Keystone XL Pipeline. It showed that people protest because they do not think that some things will turn out to be beneficial for the community.

In the second quarter, We were starting to learn about different cultures, if they are different or not, and what we could do to stop the discrimination. In a journal entry prompt given to us in the beginning of the year, we were asked if it is ever okay to criticize another culture. This relates back to the idea of teamwork and communities because it explains why it is never okay to make fun of somebody else just because of where they come from and what they believe in.

We’re halfway done the year now? Good lord! When we reached the third quarter, we had a big unit focusing on revolutions. We learned that people mostly protested in front of their own government because they heard of recent laws that did not satisfy them. However, instead of finding a way to safely inform the law that they have rights that should be heard, they led to violent protesting. In this digital story, I compared two very important revolutions on how they started and what effects they both made: The French Revolution and the Arab Spring Revolution.

In the final quarter, we worked on a playwriting unit. Basically, we spent several months writing our own plays and have been making stronger every day. Then we got into small groups and rehearsed our plays to perform in front of classmates. The pictures show our performances. What I took from this was that It is very important to listen to instruction so that when you perform the play, you can do your absolute best. I also personally learned that if you feel a little uncomfortable with what your lines say, you can just keep telling yourself that they’re just words on a piece of paper and nothing more. Here is my finalized play.

No Opinion is a bad one, they are only great if they are thought through. My portfolio is full of my thoughtful opinions that can raise questions, and arise debates.

“I think that it's only acceptable to criticize a culture when the culture is really cruel to the people, and everyone knows. But other then that, it's just judging people for how they want to live.” Journal #3. Though my writing skills were much poorer in the beginning of the year then now. I was explaining how it isn’t right to judge the way one lives, unless it is negatively affecting you, or is clearly is wrong. Something that I feel is not acceptable is judging muslim women because they wear the hijab and cover. Thats not effecting anyone. It’s their choice of living. Something that I consider an appropriate time to judge is the holocaust. What Hitler was doing was immoral, and it didn’t affect people negatively.

“Religion is a practice of belief in a higher power. Learning, and worshiping or something even accepting that there is a higher power.” Journal #10. Not in the sense of saying that no religion is bad, but in my belief, if you don’t believe in a higher power, you don’t practice a religion. Not even saying that you have to “practice” your religion, but the simple act of believing is “practicing”.

“A revolution is a significant change in a place that the change has never been done. Not a random change, usually a system change.” Journal #29. I picked this definition because I think there are many things a revolution can be. There is not only revolutions in fighting against different countries like  the U.S. revolution against Britain. There could be technology revolutions such as the first computer, the cell phone.

Good research makes a good story. But also a good story can’t be made without explanations to facts. Our last benchmark was to make an exhibit on colonialism. This was my 1st artifact,”This is a painting of the taino indians. As you can see, they don’t wear many clothes. This is their native style of clothes. To other countries , such as spain this might make them look undeveloped. Making “helping” them seem like an okay thing. Though the way they dressed, their style of life was important to them.” Colonization in Puerto Rico. I thought this was a significant artifact because it shows how the Taino indians could easily be used by the spanish, they were taken off guard but people with god like clothing, while they only wore small skirts, just like in Africa. It makes it easier for the spanish to take over Puerto Rico too, they seemed to have such little judging them by their appearance. It was obvious to “help” them.

This is my 6th artifact,”This artifact shows how puerto rico is a “territory” of the U.S.

Though they celebrate puerto rican holidays, they also have to celebrate U.S. Holidays. The visitors can pick which holidays they think are american or puerto rican. And descriptions of each holiday. The people of puerto rico have to act as if they are american, though they aren't considered americans.” Colonization in Puerto Rico. I would say this was my most important artifact in my whole exhibit. This really shows how puerto rico is still colonized. They have to have our holidays , that are irrelevant to them, on their calendar. But they aren't americans. Having a territory is colonization.

All these things I am putting in this portfolio are the things that I am truly most proud of, though, what I think  I am most proud of is all the work I have done this year In world history. Though I had spinal surgery, I was successful in turning in my work and getting what I need to get done. I am truly proud of myself.

Truly, this year has been... Interesting, to say the least.

Throughout the educational mixture of facts and emotions and a variety of activities, us students have been brought directly into the emotions and situations of the events we have looked at. We have fought intense trials and argued over petty details just to win. We have taken up the mantles of revolutionaries. We have written our own fictional “look into history” in the form of a play. We have truly thrown ourselves into history.

Throughout the year, we have looked upon many different perspectives of the world. One interesting implementation of this was our pipeline monologue project. Click here to see it. "Right now we have a golden opportunity. The door out of this place is standing right there, but you keep trying to barricade it.... Things aren’t always black and white like they are for you and so many others. There are so many other colors and shades. And this one isn’t all bad." (Pipeline Monologues)

We look at the past, we look at those that have had important roles to play, we know where they fit in. But who are we as people? Where do we fit in? A resounding theme this year has been social justice for the oppressed, but what about justice for the ones who don’t know who they are, who have been hurt beyond belief, who still carry their own scars with them for so many years. When we focus on the big picture, we can accomplish great things, but what about the individual behind the statistic? What about one man?...

As part of our Play project, I wrote about what it was like for one man and his friends during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, against Nazi occupation. Click here to see my play project. I looked at more than just the suffering of a people, I looked at the suffering of one man, and how that suffering is connected to the fight for the city, and for the nation.

“Klaus Adler: You’re a fool. If you die, your cause dies...

Jan: And so do you." (Play Project)

“Jan:

You monster. Hell hath no fury like that of a Pole.

(*Starts kicking Klaus*)

This is for my wife! This is for my friends! This is for Warsaw!

And this is for Poland!!! Give Lucifer my regards!

(*Shoots Klaus in head, blows smoke off barrel*)

Well, that’s over. “ (Play Project)

"Stop. What have we seen here? Utter desperation. But this isn’t the end of the story, though you may think it is." (Play Project)

We have focused on such diverse issues from the Keystone XL pipeline, to the role of religion in society. Several more links and quotes from my work are included below: I personally analyzed the relation between religion and war. Click here to see my wiki page about it.

As I write this I think back to my own past experiences. I think back to those days when me and my father sat on our couch and talked about those out of the box topics. Those discussions where we would talk about the first man being discovered in Africa, the Pyramids of the great Egyptians, and the thought of life elsewhere in the galaxy. I think to how these conversations affect how I think articulately.

General Idea:

I have found that process is a key factor in presence and appearance. These are subjects that are extremely important when expressing goals. How you achieve the goal is most important, especially when dealing with the things that follow that goal.

During various class discussions that led into my own explorations the key factors of reaching a goal became apparent. The way that Gandhi led his people from freedom. The wars of today going on in places like yemen. Reading the list of 198 ways of nonviolent action. The best way to fight a war is not through death or harm or hate. The best way to win a war is through logic and setting an example for what is right. To set empathy in the hearts of your enemies.

The best way to win an argument is through logic, while the best way to ace a test is through studying. This is because the way you achieve these things, the presence and appearance, don’t create further conflict. Rather they leave you with the knowledge and experience to be able to perform those tasks again expertly. While a method such as acing a test through cheating will not allow you to pass the test again without cheating. People will think you were good at those subjects and ask you to help them, but you would not  know how.

Quotes:

“Somebody had to work for that discount you got. Another message is that so many other people had to work for you to get you your clothes that you thought were so cheap and worth buying. There are so many ties with these big corporations that oil could affect the cost of clothing.”

Journal 1. Question 1.

“Process and preparation is most important when achieving the means. The knowledge you attain from getting there the first time may be the knowledge needed to get there again. The ripples you have imbedded while achieving that action will come back around. The bonds you have made will remain. The damage you dealt will still be damage. However, you can always try, try again.”

Journal 52. Question 1.

"Layout and appearance. What is on the outside is really important when swaying one's thoughts and looking for approval"

Scientific Revolution. Commentary.

"This section of the reading digs deep into the experience of experience. It says that Myth helps not only theoretically explain experiences, but to give them a deeper meaning. This deeper meaning makes experiences more worth while and last longer."

Power of Myth. Analysis/ Closer Reading.

"What you do and what you would prefer to do affect your livelihood. If what you do is different than what you would prefer to do, than your livelihood shall decrease.

Sacred Text Analysis. Commentary.

“People used the message of hippity-hop to get their message across. The message of inequality trying to tear down the Ukraine people was presented. It became powerful when put onto youtube.”

Revolutional Digital Story Benchmark. Fun In Revolutions.

“It still all boils down to a good organized plan and luck for everything to happen in it’s favor. So the best strategy to have is to not disclose your weaknesses, or identity to your oppressor and to construct a plan involving a community.”

Class General Discussion. In your opinion, what are the best strategies for revolutionary change?

Multis: “Only pleasing the consumers”;”Maximizing opportunities” System: “The only system without government intervention” Consumers: “Not responsible for what they buy” Workers: “Forced into labor”

Sweatshop Trials. Trial notes.

King:‘Was doing his job’-”Does doing your job consist of ignoring a mans attack on slaughtering some 240,000 people?”;’He didn’t know’-”How could you not know what was going on when you sent a letter carrier to cortez in a failed attempt to cancer YOUR previous orders?”

Cortez Trials. Trial notes.

“Between the Phoenician Colonies and the greek colonies, the main difference was the reason for colonization. Phoenicians mainly colonised to increase their access to trade, and to build trade routes. While the Greeks partly colonised just for power that came with spreading the control of their empire.”

Colonial Exhibit Proposal. Fun Fact.

Analysis:

These quotes explain the course of events that lead to this thesis. If you read the quotes carefully and in order, the sequential data would show the growth in my processes. It would show how I’ve grown as a writer, as an intellectual, as an individual. It would show that process is a key factor to presence and appearance.

Other work:

Colonial Exhibit Proposal

Revolutional Digital Story  Proposal

Narrative Document

Journal 25 and Journal 37 Document

“Life moves fast. As much as you can learn from your history, you have to move forward.”-Eddie Vedder. Eddie has a point we do learn from our past and we learn from our mistakes but it’s always good to move forward and learn more about yourself. In Mr.Block’s history class we learned more and more about the worlds past and even ourselves. You learn more about yourself when you learn more about your past. We had many units where we got to discover more about ourselves.

I learned that I have a knack for writing. I would express myself in our journal prompts and really go into detail how I felt about the topic of the day. One of our journal prompts  was about fighting for what you believe in and whether you would sacrifice yourself my answer “I mean I don’t really believe in anything enough to die for it... I guess I can say I would die to save my family or loved ones, because they mean the world to me.. But if a random person asked me to take a bullet for believing in the chupacabra I’d be like, you got the wrong one.”After writing that I development a new idea. As we went deeper into our units and learned more about history my opinion on a lot of things change. I felt one way on something but after doing more research and understanding more I would the complete opposite of what I did. Like the Keystone XL Pipeline at first I was up for the pipeline because it would make more jobs, but after our pipeline unit I learned that this pipeline would not only be relocating a lot of people whose homes are in the path, but it it leaks it could a lot of animals and ruin the environment. I wrote three monologues about the Pipeline teaching people about the dangers of the pipeline, here’s a sample of one of the monologues

“Dear Mr.President,

If you do read this, I want you to know that it’s time to make a decision. This pipeline that’s supposed to “help” America is actually tearing us apart. My dad was one of the many protestors who was thrown in jail the other day. He is facing a lot of time for standing up for what he believes in. This pipeline, if made will force a lot of people out their homes My dad was standing up for those people who don’t have a voice. Their voices wouldn’t be heard if it wasn’t for him. I’m just asking for your help, can you just let my dad go please? You knew what it’s like not having a dad around. All I want is mine. I hope you actually read this and help me.

Margaret Brownwood”

To read the full monologue and the other two click here

To read more writing by me click here

One of my favorite units that I really related to was our unit on female scientist and the empowerment of females all over the world. Where we discovered that women all over the world don’t have the same rights as men, and that we don’t have enough females in the science field who make a difference in people's lives. I wrote on one of our worksheet’s from The Cyberschoolbus site that “If women are empowered they’ll start going to school, and we can have more empowered females in the world” and if we have more empowered women maybe we can be seen more than just sex symbols.  I wrote more on that in my journal entry number 46 “Girls were born to be pretty and sometimes used as sex symbols while guys were born to be masculine and be the breadwinner for the family.... When really it doesn’t matter who does what..... well society doesn’t think that”

An important get to know yourself unit was Revolutions and Colonialism. In class we talked about the French and Haitian revolution, the Colonialism of the Aztecs in 1520’s, the Egyptian revolution of 201, The Industrial Revolution. During these units we would have mock trials were you get to play a certain character to defend yourself against the people who did you greasy. During the trials you do background information on the certain person you got and you put yourself in their shoes and it’s was interesting learning about past lives that affect you know.

“The vast universe is a wheel circle of life, birth, death and rebirth”  -quote from sacred text reading, and that’s how our history is people went through what they did so I could be on the path that I’m on now,which is going to school and getting my education to better myself. “Things can happen all at once and little changes can make a huge difference” my response to Science Revolution Worksheet. And I feel as those putting myself in their shoes, I grew a better appreciation for the people who did what they did, but at the same time I learned from their mistakes and how not to repeat history again good or bad.

Overall Mr.Block’s class was interesting.... His teaching was hands on wich made a real impression on me. It was a comfortable learning environment where we could debate anything for hours and still not get out point across, (which has happened many times). We got to express ourselves through journaling and iMovies and songs and at the end of the day we still learned about our past. It wasn’t your average history class with any average history teacher.