Link to our project: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16324814/MusicandPolitics.zip


Reflection:

To choose a topic for this benchmark project, Tim and I decided to somewhat join our two topics together in order to be able to use each previous set of research and information that we each used in the paper that was written for our quarter two benchmark. We figured that the best way to effectively combine our information would be in a website format because we would be able to include media as well as a wealth of words to get our point across. 

The project went pretty smoothly throughout the time that we worked on it, however it was a hard task to merge the two topics because they were similar, but required some re-working to get them to fit properly together on one website that talked about the affects of music on politics and vise versa. 

My topic was on two Albanian heroes and what they did for the better Albania. I chose this topic because I have heard of Albania and always wondered how life is for other people and how they got to where they are today.
We had a lot of really good videos that show the two heroes and it went well with the information so we recorded us reading the information and put it as the audio of the video. The problem was that we had too much information to portray in such little time span. Our audio ended up being too long for the requirements. 
One of my strenghts would be making the video portraying the info with the audio. I had a lot of fun editing the video and making the final project. If I had to do it over I would probably create a website to be able to add even more information about the two people.
I learned that Albania has been through so much and was able to come up from all of it, how they did it and the outcome of the actions and the people had on Albania.

Click Here for the link to our video! 

​I chose this topic because there are a lot of people in the world that have never heard of the country Albania and I wanted to make a project that everyone could learn something from while enjoying it our product.

Click Here for our video =)

Johniera McClain
USH History 


https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/NHD.m4v?w=d7dd1fe8

Quarter Three Benchmark Reflection

The topic came across by my history teacher bringing up the Native American boarding schools when we suggested that we wanted to do an odd/unique topic that not many people speak upon. Slavery within races is talked about in many ways and under many lights but it is rare for it to be on the slavery of a Native American. That is one of the main reasons that this topic was chosen.

The group documentary as the type of presentation that was selected for the format of presenting this project was decided based upon the fact that it would be convenient for us to transform our papers into something visual for the audience to view. It was something that we knew that the main primary sources would be easier shown than explained. The abuse and Americanization of the Native Americans are shown through photos, and interviews.

The trouble that was caused by trying to do this project was the time management. The mishap of procrastinating tripped me up when it came around for the project to be almost due. I believe if I could have a good week to just still work on the project, it would be so much better than what it is now. Although I cannot sit here and say that I am not proud of the work that I handed in, because I’m definitely content to what the project blossomed to be.  As of now, I think that if I had to the whole project all over I would probably instead of turning in a group documentary I would do an individual paper or a group performance.

Throughout doing this project, I learned that Native Americans really are settlers and that a government has stripped their morals and values that really are not at all the people whom have founded this place. The Native Americans have been conquered by a government and been placed on special places that are considered to be theirs, when really all of it is theirs. It’s a shame, that the United States government has degraded a people that have done nothing but be good to them and manipulate them to a place where they were considered to be as low as a savage.

The government can civilize and Americanize a group of people that were here on this soil first and brain wash them to become a group of  people that is of what now to be American like. 

Process:

The three of us stumbled upon our topic when the assignment was first given by our eleventh grade American History teacher, Ms. Diana Laufenberg. Our topic, Segregation In Schools, deals with the negatives, and also the positives of how schools came to be segregated and why they were useful and also racist and unfair. The three of us have always been interested in the ways segregated schools worked and how the white schools differed from the black schools. Since the three of us had this common interest, we chose to base our National History Day project around this topic.

Before creating our website to display school segregation, we each wrote an essay about a topic that had to do with another topic we found interesting. Aaron wrote his essay about segregation in schools so we were able to use some of his sources when it came time to create our website. We used numerous links from outside sources, along with the sources Aaron used for his essay.

When it came time to put all of the details and pictures into the website, we had to take a minute to decide what type of website we were going to use. In the end, the three of us agreed to make a tumblr blog because it was the best and most accessible way to display our information and pictures. The tumblr blog has numerous pictures with citations and also several excerpts that give details about school segregation. 

In the end, we enjoyed working together on this project. We were able to work together and come to a consensus and complete the task at hand. The link to our blog is schoolsegregation.tumblr.com