Through out this year our class has explored plentiful amount of topic and themes that come up in our society today. Openly we expressed our understandings to these ideas through numerous ways as a class. We often took parts in role-playing, trials, competitions, advertising, poetry and much more. Since the year is winding down, I’ve come to some generalizations on our amazing year in Mr. Block’s class. Firstly, we are coming into our own, and I realized that expressing one’s self can lead you in the path of finding out whom you are. Second we have done a ton of collaboration and I can see that collaborating can help me tell my story. Overall Mr. block’s class has shown us to think openly to the world around us, and help us to find a deeper meaning in things we know and don’t yet understand.

            Over our 10^th grade year in History and English, expression of our selves was quite prominent in our assignments. One of the assignments created for our expressions was the evolvement in Art in the Open piece. The piece took place in a personally selected area, where our minds could be open to using everyday structures and objects to create movements that could show a new way of looking at the space. The process for creating this was difficult for my group and I, so I came to the general understanding about how express our selves

            “…What helped me the most was letting my self go and not being afraid to make mistakes, but instead learn from them.” (moodle post on the art in the open experience)

            The experience Leah Stein Dance Company gave my class and I was really generous. I’m grateful to have worked with such well-polished dancers and will not hesitate to join an opportunity like this again. Expression in the form of poetry was a big influences our year in 10^th grade English and History. For example the somebodies poem that we had to write we got to express how we felt about people in power, and what stereotypes we have of people that our in power. As a class we came up with our own version of the poem.

“Who don’t speak dialects, but speak languages

Who don’t have superstitions, but have religions

Who don’t create handicrafts, but create art

Who don’t have folklore, but have culture

We all want to be somebodies

Are the somebodies really anything without you?”

(Moodle post of poem the “Sombodies”)

             Through out our 10^th grade year we explored other poetry techniques and found way to express our selves as we wrote them. Focusing on objects for the piece, I choose to write of the mirror. In the poem I didn’t just write what I saw, but I found a deeper meaning and then expressed it through out the poem. In one stanza I wrote,

“We find

something

dear to you,

you haven't

clearly viewed,

the structure of the cheek,

the roundness of the nose,

the brownness of the eye,

and yes

they do

blink back”

(Mirror Poem poetry wiki)

            It is very common to find pieces like this in our Poetry wiki, where we all collaborated in reading and editing each other’s work. So, while thinking back on the whole year the many ways we have decide to collaborate, decide things, and give deeper insight, gave us a way to express ourselves this year.

            While 10^th grade year had a bunch of individual projects, we did most of the work assigned to us by Mr. Block by collaborating. Not only did we collaboration help us it also gave us ways to express our story. As we moved along in the year we came across an assignment in our language unit of English. This assignment was to list and write out all our “Roles Rules and Responsibilities” that we either hear every day from someone in our lives.

“…this is how you introduce yourself to someone in power, with a firm handshake.”

(Roles Rules and Responsibilities moodle post)

In life, there are many ups and downs, twists and turns and just unfathomable challenges . We all go through these, there is no “easy way out”, we just have to push through it all. But it should not be said that with overcoming these obstacles in life, there is nothing earned. For me, or to be more accurate, for all of the students who have worked hard this past year, what we gained was more valuable than we had ever thought. The work we put forth, the hours of sleep lost, every word we had to type, all seemed so miniscule compared to what we were working towards. We gained knowledge, the skeleton key of life. Knowledge is the most important factor opening doors for yourself. Any door. Now, let you show my knowledge.

I have gone through so many hardships throughout this year. It made me realize that for a victory that counts, you must first put forth more effort than you thought possible. Victory that people obtain by living easy or using pawns is a false victory. For example we once did a role play about the French Revolution. I played the role of a noble so everything was handed to me and life was easier. I felt victorious in life while others suffered. You can read more about my and others roles here. The people at the bottom were put through so much and given so little power. The fact that they decided to rebel was a victory itself. The fact that they were successful was even more glorious. Sure it was short lived, but it was a victory they deserved and they fought for it. They won the moment they started to fight for what was right. A victory isn’t something that has to last long, you know. It is something much deeper that we may never fully understand. Actually, maybe it would be good if it stayed like that.

A victory of the same magnitude can be won through methods other than violence. I am sure that you have heard the expression, “the pen is mightier than the sword”. In some cases, this is true. Even the smallest piece of writing can win battles, violent or not. During our class Mr. Block pushed us to not only think that writing conquers all, but he helped us mold a mindset so that we knew that literature was power, power that we all needed. Desperately.

To show us the power in literature, no, to show the power in our own words, Mr.Block had us write poems. I unexpectedly enjoyed this project. It was probably my favorite out of all the projects given to me. At first I thought that it would be a waste of time, but instead it let me express myself in ways I had longed for. The poems made me feel as though my words had life, had meaning. That was a feeling that was so surreal to me. Something that I had long awaited. It felt great. At that one moment I felt the freedom that we have been denied time and time again. And at that moment, I too, felt victorious.

Here is another piece of writing I did throughout most of the year that I am proud of.

Playwright project 

            Throughout the year our studies have reached far beyond my prior general understandings of human life. Not in a sense of survival requirements but how a person lives. What stood out to me this year was an acute awareness of how humans are separated. There is a general division between people. It is not a set of social classes but almost an understood segregation among human beings. This separation, to me, is symbolized as the Somebodies and the Nobodies.

            I didn’t know how society worked, much less how society works in other countries at the beginning of this year. It was different watching these movies and reading these books, but I saw that they all played around the topic of the Somebodies and the Nobodies, the oppressors and the oppressed. What could this mean? My class read the poem “The Nobodies,” by Edwardo Galeano. Our history teacher, Mr. Block, told us to analyze the poem in groups. I understood what this poem was about; there are poor people and rich people. I thought how rich people would be happier, they would be able to do more with their money, while the poor people could not, naturally. The nobodies “don’t have culture but folklore, who don’t create cart buy folklore, who don’t have religions but superstitions,” is what I learned from Galeano’s poem. The idea that there is a type of person that is understood by the world as lesser is both appalling and interesting, although, maybe there was another side.

            In the same history class everyone made a poem opposing Edwardo Galeano’s “The Nobodies,” we created “The Somebodies.” In my poem I tried to present the same idea as the original poem but with a different view. “Nobodies hope for resolve and justice, when Somebodies steal their happiness for a quick charge, Nobodies see a chance for happiness but can’t win the race to it on foot when the Somebodies hold them both in their palms. The Somebodies don’t work but overseer.” The point is we have two sides in this world, people with power, money, and lives. Than there are the lessers, actually the majority of this world, that are push aside everyday. This law affiliates with two other general understandings having to do with collaboration and leadership. I will explain how both played an important role in this year of Mr. Block’s class.

           I said before how the lesser people are pushed aside and abide to the rules forced upon them by the rich. This isn’t always true. Collaborating means working together and creating a highly skilled body of not as skilled souls. It’s easier to accomplish what you want when you work together. I learned that when we studied the French Revolution. At this time the royal family had oppressed thousands of poverty stricken peasants for generations. They began to group together after a hefty bread tax was added to the legion of unfair laws and penalties of the land. I understood that these people needed a little bit more help to achieve equality. The peasant protests grew larger, there was more violence and they started to accomplish a little more with each person added.

           Collaboration works the same in the classroom on a small scale too. There are the students (peasants) and the awful tyrant ruler (teacher.) Not to say any teacher is an awful tyrant ruler, but the ruler of the classroom designs the assignments, and gives out homework to be completed under penalty, like the taxes of the peasants. It seems students can slave over their homework or split the work between other students to make the job easier.

           This is exactly what the peasants did. To make the job at hand easier they combined their skills, slowly took control of the king’s resources including a large prison/gun deposit, and stormed the castle. If the teacher really was a crazy evil titan this action might have to be carried out, but most of the time they provide and teach. Through the course of this year if there was anything I’ve learned it would be: Collaboration does not change the quality of the learning but creates an easier way to solve problems.

           I really enjoyed Mr. Block’s class. The year has been filled with a plethora of ideas that my class and I have absorbed and can now use. One thing for sure is nothing we learn is one sided in Mr. Block’s class. There is always a larger of second meaning. By realizing these new meanings, we understand better and can pass the knowledge down.

            One idea in particular stood out to me. I understood that there are followers. They are people who understand, listen, and learn. Than there are the leaders. These are the people who create dangerously and live by the rules of one of my class’s most familiar writers, Edwidge Danticat.

            One way that leaders inspire is to “Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. ... Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.” (Danticat, Create Dangerously page #10) That is a leader’s role. They inspire, and intern people follow. In English class this year I learned how to lead.

            My favorite example of leading is within the Leah Stein Dance Company project. A group of highly skilled modern dancers attempted to teach my class these eccentric movements that nobody wanted to be a part of. We were assigned 4 group mates to practice our very own piece. This piece would incorporate some basic knowledge of these dance moves like leaning, bouncing, natural sounds, and fast/slow movement. This was the most ridiculous project I’ve ever done. I still wanted a good grade however, so I convinced my group mates to give it a try, much to their chagrin.

            We found a fantastic spot to practice and perform. I urged them to keep trying even if they wanted to stop. I wanted my group to realize that it’s not about how strange this project was or how important the grade is but to create something that goes against the norms that makes you proud to have been a part of. That is exactly what my group and I did. We created dangerously. I felt as if I had lead many of the smaller actions of my group members, but in actuality they had led themselves. With the help of the Leah Stein Dance Company we created something powerful that hopefully inspires others to do the same. If there anything I have learned from this class it would be: Leaders inspire, create, and set an example. After this year I felt I have been bred to lead and will use this knowledge over and over again.

 Somebodies Poem

 Poetry Wiki Space

Leah Stein Dance Company

French Revolution Reflection

english history 10^th grade block

Over the course of this year, I have learned many different things. This class help me understand that you have to go through a struggle before you can make it anywhere in life. Also it helped me see from over point of views when I was a tunnel vision type of person. Now I see the world differently. My actions are different and everything I do is important to me. Imagine is everything in life and if I don't make mine look good then I won’t even get a chance to be discover as a person of importance and if I don’t open my eyes to other people points of views then I will never understand where do other people come from with there ideas or why they see things the way they do. Assignments as in the Galileo work where we had to research and learn about how he went through his struggle to get out his theory of the sun being the center of the universe. Galileo had to go through the catholic church tell him that he was wrong, give up his views, and that if he didn’t give up his view or if he told someone he would be killed. Here is a quote I write during the assignment "If I knew my family wasn’t going to be harmed, I may have done many things different. I would have made sure everyone had my book and I would have gave speeches about it."I wrote this because I had a chance to tell how I felt about the way Galileo approached the problem and that I would have made a larger problem just to get my discovery noticed, even if they was to kill me because as you can see I said that if my family wasn’t going to be Harm, Then why not risk my life. That assignment meant allot to me. At first I didn’t know why but I have come to realize that I am the type of person that when I'm right about something or I know something is wrong I stand up for what I believe in completely if it means allot to me! 

Also the French revolutions role play assignment reflect everything I'm speaking about. "In response's to the declaration of the rights of man." This is one of my Quotes that I wrote because I had to act as if I was the king and talk to everyone in his role. This force me to see from his point of view and make decisions that wasn’t real but felt pretty much real. “system are you the ones that make everything okay for people to have child labor? Then why do you make people believe that they have to make the most money?”  This was my sweatshop trial assignment, where we had to take a role in the world and approach the problem with sweatshops and all this was done a class trial. Like as if we was in court. I decided to show you this quote for many different reasons. One was because of the way of learning in S.L.A. is totally different then any other school. Other schools may look at this event, have the teacher talk about it but then a test and then goodbye assignment. S.L.A. has us looking at the event, work on some assignments but then have us take in roles of the world that part take in this conflict. Then go to trial with it and argue it our self. Learning this way helps out in so many different ways. Simply because of the fact that you can walk away from a assignment and forget about it, you can’t walk away from a trial and forget that you was just defending or arguing about sweatshops. It sticks in your head. 

Overall in English and History class they help me change my views about the world together as one, As if the class was combined as one. Now I believe that you have to see from other points of view before you can argue anything or defend for your self and you will always have to go through a struggle to reach your goals. 

​            Walking in the classroom of 307 in the beginning of my sophomore year was no mistake. Well, of course not, it was on my roster. But, the experiences that happened inside those walls will forever change my writing and perspective. 

 The only perceptions of Mr. Block's class I could acquire were those of his past students. But, that wouldn't compare to actually participating in his class. 

            With expectations held high the first day, I knew this was going to be a rigorous course with many action packed activities. 

            Since my last portfolio, my major turning points were taking in better consideration of outside opinions and analyzing literature and situations more deeply. While I had acquired those skills, I had a lot to bring to my new History and English classes. 

            The first assignment was to write a page, just a page, about anything that came to mind. One had a whole night to express whatever they felt. Go home and write A page tonight. And let that page come out of you--- Then, it will be true. I’m asked to write a page tonight. (From L. Hughes.) This was the task. I particularly favored this as a  beginning assignment because this was the first impression the teacher would have of me. Looking back, I realized my favorite part of this assignment: Originality is just a word until you embrace it. When I had reminisced about this activity, I beamed in excitement knowing I had done a lot of exemplary work throughout the year and it'd be great mission to convey my best works.

            Besides the other mini projects, I'd like to shine some light on my benchmarks that were assigned throughout the year. Specifically the podcast and play projects. The purpose of the podcast project was to interview someone outside of the school and convey, through audio, how this person had crossed boundaries in their life. The depiction of "boundaries" could be defined in any way one thought necessary. The boundaries could be social, domestic, academically related etc. At first, I wasn't accustom to the process of this project. I had experience on interviewing people from my participation in the school's newspaper, SLAMedia, and written articles, but to make an influential podcast was very challenging. I had to be strategic in the way I portrayed my subject and still have the podcast orally pleasing. Here, the podcast is linked and for everyone to enjoy. In addition to my podcast, I'd like to acknowledge the play I wrote. The purpose of this project was to explore the questions, What are universal right? and In what different ways do people struggle for dignity, hope, and happiness in their lives? In the beginning of this project, I didn't know what to write. I had trouble thinking of a central idea my play would revolve around. But, in the end, I spent months writing, revising, and getting feedback to make my play exceptional. I decided to focus on materialism in today's youth. I have a snippet of the play, Just Do It, available to those interested. My intentions were to use realistic dialogue and convey a topic of conformity among modern youth. I believe my efforts, in the project, have bore fruit that will one day affect teens across the world. 

            Overall, throughout the year, personally I've gained more confidence, expertise, and creativity. Concerning confidence, I realized, confidence in your work doesn't come easy. While be challenged this whole year, it was difficult feeling concrete in my writings in the beginning of the year. An example project was my Lord of the Flies vs. Micheal Jackson. I decided to compare the boys' lives in Lord of the Flies to the life of Micheal Jackson. An initial hardship was having support among my classmates to do the topic because it was too profound. But, I had a determination to find a way to convey my point. Another would be the Art in the Open project. Students had to find a location close to the school and create a dance piece. (The description of the project has more detail in the provided link.) In this task, I definitely had to step outside of my comfort zone to create an exceptional performance. My group mates and I had wonderful times choosing the location and collectively creating a dance. The difficulties comprised of choosing a fit location, initially finding motivation to pursue and create a performance, and allowing the environment and accidents while practicing create production to shape our dance. On presentation day, the achievement was substantial and an audience pleaser.

            I've also learned to express one's self wisely and discreetly can move massive audiences. I think accomplished acquiring idea through these examples: As mentioned above, the "Write a page a night" assignment was the beginning of showing strategic placement of concepts and ideas. Although the class wasn't told to write with a strategic mindset, I think it's value in introducing a class of rigor and creativity was priceless and began a classroom setting of prudence. In addition to that, I'd like to recognize my letter to author Edwidge Danticat. In this letter, I tried to avoid being generic, but realistic. I had read her book Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work prior to me writing her a letter and I was flabbergasted and impressed at her work. I not only wanted to convey the idea of her brilliant work, but how her foot print on society has affected me as a person. It was great to read her response to the class.

            Lastly, I became empowered in the concept that if a change of thought in norms, in one person, can move others to pursue a great cause. In the process of writing my play, Just Do It, I wanted to be brave and show my views on this pressing topic. I have problems with societal norms that could be changed if only people were educated about what they could/can control in their communities. That's what I wanted to convey through this piece. In addition to my play, I wanted to show my Somebodies poem. This stood out to me because it had a key connection to my play. I wanted to convey that those who are stuck into society's norms are controlled by those who refuse to be. And those who refuse to be, make society what they want and mold people into thinking they can't change society, but just live in it. My intentions for this is to educate those of my community and show people if they want change, it's possible, as long as we work together as an organized group.

           All in all, in this past year I have been pushed to many limits and my mind has been stretched, but only to benefit me as a writer and thinker. 

Other works of mine: 

The first time I stepped into my sophomore English, was like nothing before. From the Beginning to the end; all that we had worked on wasn’t as simple as ninth grade English class, but it also wasn’t that perplex because everyone understood the class/homework that our teacher gave us.

What I would say is that thou it may seem hard and difficult that in reality it’s not hard or difficult, but fun and easy. Like the time we had to write a poem response (“The white man’s Burden”.) I had to rewrite the whole poem in my own way. I also had to rename it; the name that I had given it was Take up a woman's burden.

"The White Man's Burden" response:

Take up a woman's burden by Maria Latorre

Take up the White Man’s burden.

With there self seen world

That no a woman can take away

Show no woman love

and spit on there face

because they an't smart

so better then a white man's burden

Take up a woman's burden.

(go to the link to read the whole version)

It took me a long time and it seemed really hard at first, but when I had started it; it was a whole different story. It was really fun to rewrite something in my own way that I view the world. Then there was the time that I written other Poems. Mr. Block (My English teacher) Named it Poetry Unit. I had two- four weeks to write poems that come from me and not from someone else. My favorite part of this project was when I got to write my utmost favorite poem called Shadows. This poem shows the real me; the way I am the shadow that still live.

There it stand's watching
the shadow
that fallows with out knowing
it watches as they are run around
with pain in it
poor
little shadow
that can never be as happy
but they feel something too
we step over them
and we spit on their faces
the poor little shadow.

(go to the link to read the whole version)

I got to express my feelings to all who reads it, but the fun does not end there. We got to work with a group of people for four weeks. Art in the Open (AIO) was what we had worked on for four weeks. It was The Leah Stein Dance Company that helped us create fun and intriguing art piece that many people liked. This three projects were well very fun to do and very easy. At first it seem very hard and difficult but that was because at first I didn’t know what we had to do, but as soon as I was told it became the most simplest thing that I could do.

Then there were those long moments of time that one had gotten so stressed out  that they stop caring, but what did make people happy and lose their stress was when they had finished a big project and it came out to your type of perfection. Just like the play I had to write this year. I finished it the day it was due. Everything was perfect for me something that might only happen once. My play was about a girl that last her mother and father at a young ago and she then had to take care of her siblings. The time period made it worst on her because this play take place in Italy in the late 1960’s. The name I gave it was Sono la rosa nella mia storia It means I am the rose in my story.

This has been a very interesting year with Mr.Block. I have learned a lot from him. Mr. Block’s class was set up in a different structure then most classes. His ideal of best learning is to watch videos, do paper essays, read, and do hands on activities. Strangely his idea is right and works. Through this year with him being our English and history teacher Mr. Block has taught us some important things. Which makes me grateful to have had him as a teacher.

One thing I learned is “The way to show you have power is to speak.” That is important because most people have the most life changing things to say, but they never be heard because they do not say what they have to say. Our poetry unit was the best one. Mr. Block had us writing something different that I found to be great. The Ode poem was really good because writing about an object is hard. That was one of my challenging poems that I had accomplished. My favorite lines from that poem is “having their necks bob to the ridiculous sound they consider a compliment But Incompetent To realize Originality is Self confidence" Another challenging poem was I was raised by poem. It was hard writing about my mom because she is so great and I wanted to put that all in one poem. Cutting it down was hard but I eventually got it.  One of my best lines I would have to say would be "God do not make life to waste it." When we had to perform our poem a few people told me that this line had them thinking more about themselves and their lives. I was surprised because I never really paid any attention to that line. It was not my favorite until I read it and some bought it to my attention. That is when I realized how powerful that line is. Also in my English Journal entry 31 when we had to write a rant about something we feel strongly about. When I wrote this entry part of my rant came from seeing people blame other people for their mistakes or their miserable lives. A line from my rant was “The black people are so ignorant they keep blaming the system, shut up get educated and be the system.” I understand that is harder on the black race due to the inequality and messed up justice system, but come on you have to take care yourself before you can blame someone else. I feel like if I read this to some of the people in my neighborhood they would get up and do something or at least think about it, sometimes it’s the thought that counts. Poetry is one of the most powerful ways to get a point across. Poetry is like rap and people like listening to cleaver word play. Once you put words together that makes a person always remember is great.

Another thing I have learned from Mr. Block is  “When you convince yourself you’re not creative then you block out all your creativity. Once you try and attempt to be creative you discover something new about yourself.” When we did our playwright unit I did not think I could do it. I never thought of myself being good with stories. Once I tried I must say I did succeed. A line from my play that I really loved was “I've been waltzing with the devil too long.” When we read it as a group people really loved this first line. A classmate of mine came up to me a few times saying this line teasing me. Also when we had to see who would be picked to do perform a scene from their play for the school. I was shocked that my scene seven of my play was picked. I knew I had a chance but I did not have confidence in myself that my play was that great. Once I seen that it was I discovered that writing this play was fun and I would love to write another one. There was so much creativity in getting us up to this. When we did the workshop at the armory was the best one. We were jumping off trucks and steps. Using the environment to create different scenes was so amazing. For this I learned that I like dancing the way Ms. Lea taught us.

Another thing we did was the Art in the Open unit. This is a weird unit that I cannot really say what it is because I do not know what it is. I know it was some sort of interpret dance mixed with feelings and a bunch of other weird things. This is was one of my favorite units. At first I was not thrilled because I cannot dance. Then when I saw what it was we were doing I was excited. My group we did our dance based on hide and seek. I think we had the best performance. Something I learned about myself during our performance is that I am a good stepper. I never knew that I was good at making a musical beat with my body. Once I applied myself this is when I discovered that.

            Overall Mr. Block is a great teacher. He has taught me so much through this year. He was an amazing teacher and I am glad that I had the chance to learn so much through the year.

Here are the links to my poetry and play. Also A picture of me during my performance at the art in open show.

Poetry Portfolio 

 Play

     Now that the year is over, Mr. Block gave us the task of summarizing our year with our general understandings from the year. It can connect to how we learned or what we learned. I wanted to talk about expression and struggle. The things we did in class involved a lot of both, which made us better people and made our work better in the end. We did a lot of things in class that would help anybody open up and become more comfortable with themselves. Our classroom became more comfortable everyday and as the year went on people participated in the actives more. The quality of our work was able to evolve with the knowledge that we gained in class. The assignments 'weren't do this at home and then we are done', it was more like 'do a couple of more drafts, read and peer edit them'. We would have to read our drafts to classmates and start to listen to other perspectives. We always lingered, in a good way, on an assignment to make sure that we were proud of our final product. We made sure that our final product was something that we would be proud to have published on the internet. We learned to express ourselves better.

     Nothing is weirder than doing an art show outside for strangers to see. People develop this idea of school that it is just this certain way to do everything. That everybody learns the exact same way, which causes kids to hate school. Kids need to express themselves because expressions helps a person become more comfortable with themselves and the world around them. This year, in my classes, English and History, that is what we did. We were taught how to express ourselves through different creative things. In class, we were all allowed to write a play for Philly Young Playwrights. The play was allowed to be able anything and everything. We were able to write in whatever we wanted to, about anything we wanted, and for whoever we wanted to. The plays allowed people to express the things that we thought about it. The things in our life that nobody else knew it about, but we were having trouble with. We could write about things that troubled us in the world, but we didn't know what to do about it. My play, 'So Ghey!' was about two girls that are best friends and they are trying to keep their friendships together while one if the friends's parents hate the other family. They go through a lot of ups and downs to get to a good point of the friendship. There is a climax and a wrap up, but sometimes things don't alway wrap up well. The process of writing this play was tedious and strenuous. At first, I thought it was going to be very easy but, then they told us that we were going to need to do a whole bunch of different drafts and edits. I thought this was a one time thing. As we went along, the one or two scenes we had were being molded into plays. Plays that we then acted out with people in our class. Some people didn't want to do it because they were shy, I know I was. I didn't want people to get a part wrong and then I would have to correct them. After a while of doing this, people were excited to have their play acted out. People became more comfortable with picking people for the scenes. Everybody was able to see their play for what it really was and they could tell what they needed to work on. 

     Near the end of year, we started to invest our time in an event called Art in the Open and we worked with the Leah Stein Dance Company on the project. Dancers from the company and Leah Stein came a had workshops with us on how to open our eyes to our different environments. We had workshops on how to get comfortable with our environment enough that we knew how to make movements that were creative and intriguing. My group 'Hidden Indulgence' wasn't a group of people that would usually hang out together, we had our own different social groups. But, together we were able to express ourselves successfully. As the process went on, we became more comfortable with each other and in our site (our performance place). We had movements that we planned out but, the more we worked together and with the site, it was obvious that we were comfortable and confident about our piece. We learned how to use daily objects like poles or rocks to make noise together that were creative. The day before performance, Sasha (the videographer) interviewed our group together and asked us how was it working together. I said that "It was hard at first because we didn't know what to do with anything around us, but as the process went on, it got better. We were all able to express ourselves and we became closer because of it. We were comfortable around each other, we talked, and laughed about everything." 

     We didn't only did this with subjects in English, but we did this in History class. It was different though because we did Role play. We would research a major event in history and then, we were assigned roles that we had to act out for the class. Or we would have a discussion as the people from history that we are. Even though, we weren't actually being ourselves and we had to hold back some our creative juices. It was still a good way to express ourselves. We would take a night to look over our person and write an introduction about them. Then, the next day at class we would come and sit in a circle and act our roles. Mr. Block would ask us questions about the events that we had to answer as the person. it was great because we had to think hard and fully understand our person's view on things to make we made sense. But, we got to show our emotion and put our own spin on things. During the year, we did two of theses. It was funny because the first time we did, some people were unsure of themselves and didn't really talk. But when the next one came, everybody was excited because we knew what was going on and what we had to do. We knew the basics that we build off of. It was a way of expressing ourselves, but not really ourselves. In the spiritual role play (a role play where we acted as a person that we thought was very spiritual and inspirational to us), I learned about different religions and how people get connected to the higher power: "People meditate and pray and I think that makes them spiritual. Because you have to open your eyes and realize what is going on in the world around you. Then, for you to become one with the world and yourself." I found out how other people express themselves in spiritual ways and that made me more comfortable with the world around me. In the end, expression helps a person become more comfortable with themselves and the world around them. The ways of expressing themselves can be totally different for each person, like artwork, dance, or singing. 

     As we went on in the year, I learned another thing: When a person struggles for something they want, the outcomes will be greater and better than expected. We read a lot of stories about people that struggled through their lifetime to get where they wanted to be. Most of the time, the outcome was better than expected. In some cases, it didn't always work out because they are just unlucky. Together, as a class, we struggled through a lot of things. We struggled through projects, days where we just didn't want to anything, days where the work was just overwhelming, but look at us now! We are very versatile 10th graders. We struggled to get our ideas out on paper, but we also read about struggles with people in history or short stories.

     Finding Freedom was a topic that we did recently. We learned about how freedom doesn't always mean that you are able to do what you want to, but that you are in a mindset where you feel free. Jarvis Jay Masters is a man that is in prison and is on death row. He was given a life sentence, but he wasn't just drowning himself in his sadness. He let himself be free in his mind. He started to meditate and become one with himself. He was able to deal with his situation, with his past, and with his future. Even though, he was going to die in jail, he could die free. Masters struggled to find himself and couldn't do it. He struggled the wrong way and landed himself in jail. But, after all that struggle he was able to become free in jail. Sometimes, people don't become rehabilitated in jail, but Masters did. We read about his struggle in different portions of his book called Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row. Then, we took our favorite stories and wrote about them. They were called Jarvis Jay Masters Response. I learned about his struggles to be a person that was respected in the jail but, still a person that was watching out for people. I learned about how on death row, everything is put out in the open. He had to confront his problems and be able to deal with them. Masters had to be able to answer questions that he would never answer before. Within itself that was just a struggle. 

     The Holocaust was an event that we did a lot of work with. We learned about the struggle of everybody in that was involved in the Holocaust. We learned about Jewish people in the concentration that struggled to stay alive. The sons that abandoned their fathers because they wanted to stay alive. The Germans that became evil in a blink of an eye to keep their lives. The book Night by Elie Wiesel was a very powerful book that we read during that unit. It was very straight forward, but it was different. It was already known that the main character survived the Holocaust because he wrote this book about it, but it was just crazy to read about his experience. It was crazy to read about the struggles he went through with his father, but he lived through it. It was crazy to find out that if he just made a different decision that he wouldn't had to stay in the concentration camps. The journey was amazing. He struggled to stay alive but, he also struggled to keep his father alive. He kept his father alive as he could. Elie did anything he could for his father, Elie even let his sick father have his rations. While, other sons just left their fathers for death and didn't even look back. The struggles that he went through made me feel like that he lived the worst things in life. He went through hell and back. In the end, the outcome was amazing. He was able to live and see the world now. He was able to write a book and become famous. He didn't just write one book either, he wrote a collection of books. Books that are very well-known. He let the world know about what was going on in the concentration camps, he was able to share his struggles. 

     Sweatshops was also a unit that we spent some time on. We learned about modern day sweatshops, who worked in sweatshops, the condition of sweatshops, and their history. We watched a movie called Made in L.A. The movie was about a factory that made clothes for Forever 21. The workers were mostly immigrants that we treated unfairly. The conditions were horrific and so was the pay. The pay was barely even enough to live off of. The ladies in the factories struggles with everyday life, they struggled to keep food on the table for their children. They made a organization that was for the immigrants. They organized protests, spoke around the world, educated children, and told everybody or anybody that would listen to them. The strike lasted them three years to get the Forever 21 Company to even listen to them. In three years, the women changed the world. The struggle was very long and strenuous, but they won in the end. The outcome was great because not only did they get what they came for but, each women got a little bit more out of it. One women was able to get the job that she had always wanted. Another women was able to try and get her children to America, her children who she hadn't seen in 18 years. The organization that they had prospered even more than they thought it would. The organization gained more members before, learnt from their mistakes, and gained even more stability than before. In the end, through out history it is clear that when a person struggles for something they want, the outcomes will be greater and better than expected.      

     I feel like the year has been an success. I learned about people and myself. I learned that struggle and expression go hand in hand. People struggle to get through life and as they get through they learn about expression. People learn that expression is the key to a better life and that doesn't come without struggling. 

In the poetry wiki, we were told to create our own poems, and the only guidelines were about the type of poems we had to write like an ode, or an imagist poem.  The line, “Walking through rose bushes/The sharp thorns grabbing at the pants/Like an army of sharp fairy hands,” really shows the level of creativity we were expected to show.  Where else would you get to use such an abstract metaphor?

            You would think that with all of this creative writing going on, we would learn a flimsy amount of history or proper writing skills, but somehow we managed it.  Our history lessons encompassed everything from  Apartheid to the Holocaust, from the problems in Haiti to the French revolution, all which taught how our society came to be today.  The history of how Haiti struggled through its own civil war so recently really enlightened me.  It opened a window into the world of a poor worker and how they are oppressed and segregated constantly.

            We were also given time to look over what we had done over the year and to draw some conclusions from it.  I noticed that the multinational corporations and poor countries ruling elites were generally selfish people who were doing their best to destroy the environment and their people completely. “The Elites would have to grow a spine and stick up for their people, and be more insistent on things like child labor laws and fair treatment of workers.”  This line comes from a mock trial analysis(Click Here) where  the poor country ruling elites were prosecuted by the rest of the world.  The trial revealed that the poor country ruling elite could easily change labor laws to be morally acceptable, with only a small cost to the corporations in charge.  This selfishness is what is holding the world back from advancement in technology and quality of life.  Even more so than that, I realized that poor leadership leads to most of the worlds problems, and if every leader did what was truly in their countries best interest, the world would be an amazing place to live in.

            Throughout history class, I realized that whenever change occurs, struggle shortly follows, and the struggle may lead to more chaos, or it could end with serenity and peace. Throughout history, groups within society have tried to change the structure of that very society, and a group of people would always strongly oppose them, but that is not always a bad thing.  In WWII, the Nazi’s tried to completely exterminate the Jews, but the rest of the world rebelled against them and eventually won the war, but not before it had affected many people.  6 million Jews died, and I realized the survivors had their souls "Scorched with the fire of oppression.”(Click Here) These brave survivors had to fight to regain their place in the world, while getting over the frightening things they experienced.           

I believe that we were able to cope with the amount of work we were assigned because of the highly structured but flexible style of teaching Mr. Block employs.  He makes sure that even when we have multiple projects going at one time, we keep everything organized and together, while meeting all of the time requirements for our assignments.  The skills that have been reinforced in this class, such as perseverance, hard work, organization, and dedication, have large impacts in other areas in every day life, and that is what I truly learned this year in History and English.

Traumatic events come in many forms, but whether in the form of the holocaust or the wars overseas, these events always leave a wake of people affected by them in different ways and to different extents. However, everyone deals with this animalistic reaction to trauma in various forms.  People who survive traumatic events are people who can overcome personal discomfort.  Survivors are people who steel themselves against the horrors they face, but sometimes those horrors cling to these survivors like a wet article of clothing.  The survivors who end up living better lives are the ones who can look into themselves and except their fate, or can simply shut the suffering in a little box inside of them, in order to get over the emotional pain.

Holocaust survivors had to deal with the posttraumatic stress disorder brought on by their horrible experiences, and the PTSD is sometimes as bad as the actual experience itself.  Holocaust survivors also had to adjust to how they were treated.  These survivors went from being treated like rats to being treated like human beings, which is not an easy transition for anyone.  Modern day warriors also have this problem.  Many surviving members of our military come home to experience PTSD and survivor’s guilt, which is to think that they somehow could have saved their fallen comrades.  Warfare and struggle change a person, and the new person is usually a shocked shell of their former self, ready to be shattered by the casual cruelty of the obscene world.

The people who usually deal with extreme levels of stress are the ones with a strong support system.  The people with strong cohesive family units, or a group of friends or coworkers that support you are the ones who have the support necessary to get over these sensations of despair.  In modern day warfare the warriors that lead normal lives after their wartime horrors are over are the ones who have something to distract them, like a team of some sort, or the people who are able to shove all of those feelings into a box and push it away from their conscious, so they do not think about it on a daily basis.
         In Maus, by Art Speigleman, the characters are all portrayed as different animals.  The Jews are mice, Polish people are pigs, and the Nazis are cats.  This further shows how, at that time, Nazis literally preyed on Jews, like a cat preys on mice.  The Nazis purposely lowered a class of people below them, therefore justifying genocide to their larger public, as being nothing more than taking care of a rat infestation.  This social degeneration being used against a society is despicable in every way.  The Nazis took all of the Jews’ rights away and left them, as a race, depleted and thoroughly flabbergasted by the treatment they endured.
         After the Jews were so completely mentally demolished, the survivors had to survive after that with all of that terrible information in their head.  The mental images of hanging Jews, burning Jews, starving Jews, always haunted them.  The Jews were treated as rats, except rats got more food and nourishment.  Everything that people took for granted was a shock to them.  Showering in hot water, eating until our stomachs are about to burst, exercising by choice, all of these things were foreign to the shell shocked Jews after the holocaust.
         In Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, Marji left Iran fleeing from the war.  She grew up in a country that didn’t care about the war, and who had never known true hardship.  They had never been bombed and forced to bunker down in a basement with their entire family.  They didn’t have to wear a veil so that they wouldn’t be shot.  They didn’t have war at their doorsteps.  This meant that Marji was a great deal more mature than her peers.  She needed to grow up fast, or she would be lost in the chaos of a country going through civil unrest.  
         Since Marji was forced to grow up so fast, it made finding new friends difficult because she already had an idea of what was truly important, and what she shouldn’t worry about at all.  She tried to find people who understood her predicament, but no one could to relate to her.  She eventually had to compromise and make friends with people who didn’t really understand her, but they couldn’t really hold a decent conversation with her.  This lack of companionship is a big problem for most people after a traumatic event.  When something takes up your entire life, you live it, breath it, and then you have to flee from it, it leaves a hole that needs to be filled with something, whether it is a sport, or a good friend, but that takes time to accomplish.  

         When people go through traumatic events, their very souls are scorched with the fire of oppression.  These people need time and effort to heal that burn, and while some people have the willpower to completely shut themselves away from the pain, most people need to talk about their experiences in order to recover.  There is no “better” way to deal with stress; the whole goal is to just alleviate the pressure being put on you.

Bibliography:

Satarapi, Marjane. Persepolis.

Spiegleman, Art.  Maus.

Luttrell, Marcus.  Service: A Navy SEAL at War.

Kyle, Chris.  American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US History.