What I learned and was most interested in this year in World History was: people of all races, culture, gender, religion, age, etc should be treated equally. I also learned that there are many ways to create change and that ideas can turn into big things. An example of this would be when we started working on our revolution unit. We learned about how revolutions work, how they are formed, and what causes revolutions. I did a lot of research in my own project in my Digital Revolution Guidebook. Through this project I learned the effectiveness of violent vs. nonviolent revolutions. I compared the Libyan and Tulip Revolution to portray this and explained what occurred to teach people the effectiveness of these revolutions. Revolutions don’t happen overnight, they require time, dedication, commitment, and sacrifice to see or create a change.

Another example of what I learned would be in our Religion unit. In this unit I learned about different world religions to gain a better understanding of each. I explored Christianity and Judaism in my benchmark. I use prayer as my overall theme. I learned and taught how prayers are in both religions and their meanings. I also tried to show how they are similar in a sense even though they are two different religions, they are closely related. This taught me more about the people around me and different belief systems.

This connects to a journal entry I had written when we started exploring the religion unit. We discussed how certain things influence our thinking and our lives. There are societal standards that is already placed for us to follow. We had a small discussion on how women are portrayed and how they too see themselves the same society has set these standards. For example in journal #27 I discuss the concept of women being sexualized and that they too are brought learning that they must be sexualized beings. This important issue of how the things around us like media influence our daily lives.

This leads into journal #49 where this idea is delved into deeper where gender the difference if gender is discussed. We live in a world where  our gender separates us from our abilities, dressing, and even the way we talk. Gender is a label that separates from female or male. It doesn’t represent who we are as a person or our abilities to do certain things. It’s only the genetic and physical interpretation of what we came out as into this world. I learned that there isn’t a difference between genders, the difference only exists because we make it exist.

Further into the school year we get to a more general idea of society. We discussed the issue of the rich vs. poor, in the response to Pathologies of Power. In the world today the rich see are enjoying the benefits of life while the poor think that they have no reason to exist.There is such a huge gap between these two social classes in the way they live. I have learned that the lack of money makes a huge difference. While the rich are feeding off the luxuries the poor are the ones watching or creating those luxuries through labor. We need both of these social classes in our world to work. Without the poor the rich cannot keep benefitting and without the rich the poor cannot support themselves without their money. It’s a twisted system that requires for there to be a balance of the bad and good.

In conclusion, I have gained a better knowledge of the world and how it operates. I understand the conflicts and struggles that we all face whether its with race, gender, religion, culture, etc. There are so many issues in the world that we can learn about or find ways to help. Concluding this year I feel like I have a deeper understanding of different people, societies, and countries.

In the beginning of the year when I entered world history class, I expected to learn about history dealing with world issues such as poverty. Not only did we learn that but we also learned a lot about culture, religion and beliefs of different people. During this time, I realized that belief systems should not influence basic human rights. While doing my religion benchmark during the second quarter, a really interesting quote I wrote down was this bible verse “Leviticus 20:13 - If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.” This quote was showing how the bible viewed homosexuality. This showed that the bible states that most people disagree with the concept of homosexuality. I compared this quote from the bible to how Wiccans and Atheist viewed the subject. While looking at both the Wicca and Atheist religions I came to the conclusion that both their views aren’t too far from each other about homosexuality. A meaningful quote I gathered from searching a number of sites involving Atheist was this “Homosexuals and Atheist support each other because they are both looked down upon”. I found this interesting because I never came to the conclusion that Atheist are looked down upon. Another quote that I found intriguing was “based on information provided by the jordanian department of health, it states that there is an epidemic of homosexuality and the minister of health warning the population to “protect their children” from this disease.” Even though they found this quote, they still accept homosexuals so they don’t let this quote influence their beliefs. Atheist are mainly accepting people because both communities are looked down upon. The atheist community are believed to be devil worshippers and hate god, while the homosexual community are looked down upon because of them liking the same sex which is a sin. According to the Wiccan religion “Sexuality is valued. Wiccans generally accept the findings of human sexuality researchers that there are three normal, natural, and unchosen human sexual orientations: heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality.” The wiccans don’t believe in discriminating against anyone and likes to acknowledge that everyone should be viewed as equal and not outcasts. The wiccans belief systems don’t affect how they view basic human rights. Wiccans appreciate diversity in any way especially sexuality. They believe that everyone should be treated with respect at all times. Some wiccans believe that homosexuals lack spirituality now according to this quote “It is foolish for those who consider homosexuality lacking spirituality. In ancient times we were the priest, the sacred ones who blurred the lines of gender and sexuality.” Even though a major number of homosexuals today aren’t priest, ministers, etc because of the fear of being judged, we still are very spiritual and go to church a lot and are very active with church events.  This quote shows that people’s belief systems does not affect how homosexuals are spiritual because they were priest at one time.

Links:

Religion Benchmark

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1wccHx9VjNy-qQhGDMcnIiAgzk2Yqv87rnM6fpKWIGLk/edit

Battle for god

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1jEzPeFjK_jCN9t7VjHoQszSw-xLURMOBuNOjjQTVI20/edit

Joseff Filamor

Copper

June 9th, 2014

History Portfolio

As the year comes to an end, I have come realize my strengths and weaknesses that I still need to work on for next year. I have always been bad under even the smallest bit of pressure. As we were introduced to Sophomore year’s history class, it forced me to do things I wasnt entirely comfortable with. First off; working with groups. During the Cortez trial, we were given groups and put in a courtroom to be prosecuted. My group, the Cortezs, were obviously the most guilty which made it all the more difficult. I volunteered to be a prosecutor and I went up with my knees shaking. Presenting in front of a group is one thing, but prosecuting against a group is another thing. Knowing that I am not the smartest person in the class, I was feeling the pressure. It all ended smoothly, although I wish I was a bit more organized when I went up. From doing the trial, I have come to understand that collaboration requires patience and organization. With a little more organization, I would have been able to execute the prosecution more properly. My main weakness is speaking in class. I am not exactly sure why I have the biggest fear or expressing my own opinions, I guess I am just afraid of embarrassing myself or being proved incorrect. Although, I feel confident when it comes to making video projects. In the beginning of the year, we were assigned a project to make a monolog about a pipeline. (VIDEO HERE) I am not under pressure when making a video, it is a lot more relaxing and stress free. I felt I did well on that video. Also, in the middle of the year we were assigned to research different revolutions along with an essential question to elaborate off of. We also had to make a video for that project (VIDEO HERE.) I feel like I did a solid job with those videos, I was organized and well prepared with my research. Lastly, for my journal entries. I have always loved creating journal entries because I am able to express my own opinions and not have anyone see them except the teachers. I am able to get constructive feedback and not have to worry about others seeing it. On journal 55, we were given a small sheet entitled “Does Process Matter?” A small part of my journal entry reads; Process matters in the sense of organization. Depending on what you are trying to achieve, the process can determine how ready you are and how organized you need to be. Another journal we had to write was about why religion causes conflicts. I wrote; Religion would not cause conflicts if we understood each religion. It’s because we are uninformed or not educated in every religion. We are brought up knowing if not one religion, no religion at all. If we a brought up knowing only one religion, the only we will truly understand is our own. If we understood other’s beliefs, maybe we can understand each other.

Throughout my 10th grade World History class, I have learned a number of things. I learned about things that I didn’t even know was a thing or things I didn’t know I was capable of doing. For example, during the second quarter we started writing plays. My play was titled Fight to the End. It’s not finished but I would say that I’m very proud of this particular assignment. At first, I was like I don’t want to do this because I’m not a great writer. Luckily Mr. Block was prepared for those who didn’t feel too confident. He partnered up with Philadelphia Young Playwrights, that’s when Kate came in and helped every student with the revising process. She also gave us great ideas when we were stuck.

This class isn’t not just a class where the teacher talks and the student listens. We were given journal entries a lot and we would write what we thought. I remember writing a Journal Entry on the topic, Criticizing Another Culture. I had never really thought about this topic. I just thought criticism was wrong but in some cases it is needed. I also remember the religion unit very well. This is also something I hadn’t really thought about. Our question that day was, What is religion? As you might be able to see, I was not too fond of religions but after this unit, i discovered why I believe in a higher power.

The Revolution unit was also one of my favorites. That unit, I researched and learned about several different revolutions in addition to the one we learned as a class which I believe was the French Revolution. We made guidelines based off of opinions we made and what we think would be a great revolution.

I have so many favorites from this class I can’t choose one over the other. But if I did have to, now I would probably say the first Mock Trial we did about Cortes. I was put into the shoes of a prosecutor. Luckily I had time to prepare. From that link are all the notes I took to prepare myself for what was to come. I really did my research on Cortes because I found him the most guilty. Well because of my great prosecuting skills, the system came in second place as in second less guilty. It was very hard to beat the Aztecs who didn’t do anything but greet Cortes with happiness and riches. It was Cortes who took advantage of them.

World History, although most commonly believed is only about things that happened in the past, is more than just stories of deceased people. I believe that world history is the study of things that affect the world and the future. In this school year, we have learned so much. As a class we explored many different topics, one that most interested me was the when we learned about social change. Through many different topics, we have studied how social change happens when people make a difference, or when they’re sick of what’s happening.

In the beginning of the school year we learned about the Age of Exploration. We began the unit by studying the Age of Exploration. As we were focusing on the Spaniards and how they were conquering different parts of the world. However controversial it may be, the Spaniards wanted a social change. Cortez and his men wanted to eradicate the “wrong ways” of the Aztecs, so they stood and decided to make a change. Although it was immoral and very fast paced, they made a social change. In class, we did a trial where the class was divided into different groups. We discussed as a whole and then the deliberations started. It was a very interesting jury, and one of the most engaging ones we had all year.

The religion unit is also something that supports the social change. In this unit, we explored many different religions and saw how they changed people who followed them. We did a benchmark in which we had to compare two or more religions. The religions I focused on were Judaism and Hinduism. I also studied how these two view the apocalypse and the hereafter. By doing research on these two religions, I was able to get a better understanding of them.

Another example of how social change makes a difference is during the revolution unit. Everyone in the class was expected to make a Digital Revolution Guidebook that compared two different revolutions. For my project, I did extensive research on both the revolution in Egypt and Cuba. Although the outcomes for these two revolutions are different, they both started with a similar cause. The people of Egypt were tired of having to follow a government that only seemed to bring them harm. The Cuban people were first against the ruling of Fidel Castro, however they received much more benefits than past leaders.

This leads to the final thing we learned about this year, colonialism. We explored the ideas of how colonialism can affect a group of people. For this benchmark I decided to focus on South Africa and how colonialism had affected their culture. This can be tied in with social change because of how the country was affected. Most people believe that with colonialism comes the change of an entire nation, however, the people of South Africa did not let that happen. They accepted bits and pieces of the change, but not the entirety of it.