English 2 - Block — Slate (skeleton-v3 PHP 8 prototype)

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013 Cunningham

Posted by Jeremiah Cunningham in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:32 pm

This year in history I learned a lot , Whether or not it was about crossing boundaries, or freedom and the meaning of being free, this years history class has taught me a lot. There were some ups and there were definitely some downs but at the end I learned. And I got to learn from and meet some new people along the way. Throughout the course of the year we did a lot of things that helped me learn that particular unit. We had mock trials, plays, or interpretive dances, Mr Block sure had his way of getting his point across to teach us. This is just a quick taste of what this school year of 10th english and history was like at SLA.

1. One of our very first big assignments of the school year was a descriptive essay. The assignment was to write an essay and to make sure that it unfolds, had lots of detail and description, had dialogue, and focused on one or more particular moments in time. I wrote mine about the time that my brother and I got into a fight and were jumped by a group of adults while at a park. Here you will find a link in which you can read this essay in further detail.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1pOoVN2pTZBcgcS95kTLVkZDhxdHHK6-V62oPONmKWQI/edit

2. The second assignment that i am going to put on my blog is my language essay. This of course was apart of the language unit. This Unit taught me all about language and the different types of languages where it be a native speaking language, or your everyday slang, or a speech impediment. I touch based on all of those aspects in my language autobiography. Here is two links. One of the exact essay, and another of my video on languages.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1eyc0wclTY7bpD-zQ-6Xt2TT7EqKo_UzZGvmL6JHVAYI/edit

https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/I-m_Different

3. My third piece of work that i will be showing is actually from history. This is from the renaissance unit. We had to pick a artist who was around from the renaissance times and research them. You had to get six paintings, and talk about why you think the artist drew or painted it, and talk about how the colors or nature of the artwork reflected on the mood or the harlem renaissance. Here is the link to my Work in Vincent Van Gogh.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1CR1qmXliU4_k9FQ97E-rOED4U9eOpSFPr-SHge-z2oA/edit

4. My fourth memory of this magnificent year is when we were in our freedom unit. We were learning on how different tribes and groups of people gained freedom with using non violent and violent tactics. “In my opinion, Violence and nonviolence are both powerful in their own sense. For Instance, Non violence can be powerful over violence if you want to get something done. In a good sense if you want to accomplish an objective non violence would be the way to go. Violence affects all people and can possibly end lives. Non violence can win you lots of sympathy, and sends a stronger message.”

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Naihema Powell in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:32 pm

For the majority of Sophomore year I found myself sitting in room 308 in Mr. Blocks Humanities class. With having Mr. Block about 8 times a week i've learned a lot about life lessons, and how to interpret certain situations. I've taken the things we've learned about in class and learned to twist it into things I can take with my for the rest of my life.

**I understand that, religion is the basis for just about major decisions throughout history and throughout every civilization.

Despite your religious background whether you be christian, muslim, hindu, jehovahs witness, jewish, or catholic, every single decision a person makes is influenced by some type of religion. Throughout the entirety of the School year we’ve covered tons of different topics from Colonization to Religion to Revolution, and within each and every one of those topics there has been a recurring theme, Religion. For example, lets take the Cortez trial for instance. During this unit we learned about the Aztec’s and how Cortez colonized and tried to take over. During his invasion he tried to force religion on the Aztec’s then when they refused many were slaughtered. Ontop of that they were already looked at differently because in their religion and apart of their beliefs was sacrifice, something Cortez and his men were foreign too. The lesson soon progressed into an old fashion trial. My group was defending the Aztec people. Everything they did was for religious purposes, they didn’t believe in violence, it was against their religion. They did animal sacrifices, because it was apart of their religion, they built structures and welcomed the strangers with open arms, because it was apart of their religion. No matter what the situation was somehow it still spun back into religion and beliefs.

If you click on the link below, you’ll get a up close and behind the scenes peek at the notes and statements prepared by my group members and I during and before the trial. You’ll see evidence of the religion and beliefs of the Aztec people & how every move they made was to honor those beliefs.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1asYbnbphHsTQHxQY4CSDnEG5TGB58LhYhvXiOT0tJYk/edit

The religion theme didn't stop with my school work, it was actually something that was reoccurring through my life as well. Every decision and choice made throughout life is based on religious views or beliefs. During our Prisons unit Mr Block gave a journal where we had to write about a time where we forgave someone for something they have done in the bath.
I took the short time we were given in class to write about the time my family gathered at my house for a celebratory dinner and the news about my recent conversion from Christianity to Atheism. My family are strong believers in Christ. They are hardcore Christians, I told my mom about my conversion in confidence, asking her not to tell any of the family. I'd tell them when I thought the time was right, going against my wishes she told them anyway. Below is a link to the exact Journal entry I wrote and turned into Mr. Block for a grade.

http://scienceleadership.org./blog/Forgive-Never_Forget-journal-42

Another general understanding of the school year, being in Blocks class has taught my that No matter what social class you're in you can always fight the government. During the Industrial Revolution and the Colonization of several civilization people no matter what their social status is they still found a way to fight the system. Lets take the French Revolution for example. Marie Antoinette was at the top of the social class she had gold, jewelry, riches and power, yet people who were at the very bottom of the social pyramid were able to fight back against the people who were in complete power.
When we learned about the Arab Springs I was able to really apply this principle. The Arab Springs was a series of wars and fights that broke out all throughout the middle eastern regions. These wars were about power and wealth between the social classes. During the unit we had to write a piece detailing our final thoughts, on our the quotes I used is wriitten below,

“By placing confidence in violent means, one has chosen the very type of struggle with which the oppressors nearly always have superiority.” by Gene Sharp"

Below this is the final thought piece on the Arab Spings.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1ga9Wb07_AIVXJ8J9Fsl1R5jUnuV9qeGjRXNU3ASb8gM/edit

The understanding No mater what social class you are in you can still fight the government didn't just go as far as Arab Springs, it went further than that. Mr. Block gave us a history journal on March 7th 2013 at the beginning of our Sweatshop industrial unit. We had to read an article on Foxcon, a famous sweatshop located in Asia that is responsible for making all of the products for Apple.
There are people in high power who are working and fighting the government to obtain freedom for people who are lower in power.
Below are the Notes I took about the sweatshops in Foxcon and the steps people are taking to fight against them.

Humanities Final Portfolio

Posted by Sadie Sprague-Lott in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:29 pm

“Creativity seems to emerge from multiple experiences, coupled with a well-supported development of personal resources, including a sense of freedom to venture beyond the known. In all creative processes we are pushing the boundaries of what we know now, to explore new possibilities; we are drawing on the skills we have now, often stretching and evolving them as the work demands.”

At SLA we focus on what it means to push boundaries and think outside of the box. We do not only look at the definitions and the history of what happened but we are given the ability to analyze and look at cause and effect through discussions and projects and journals and other learning tools that aren’t used in the typical classroom. The thing that I took out of this year during our english and history classes is that as things develop through the world we have to make sure that our actions don’t make things worse and that we do not try to better ourselves while worsening the life of others and how this leads to many inequalities. Through the many hardships that we learned about this year the common theme for me was who made this happen and how did this happen.

Through our discussion about language I have found that language is power and that without that the person who is mostly in control when it comes to language is the one with a better understanding of language. Through our classes about language one thing that really stuck with me was that, “baldwin says that without black english there would be no standard english. That the white’s developed their dialect from the blacks, while the blacks are still frowned upon as uneducated and inarticulate. White’s didn’t want to educate blacks unless it was to their benefit in doing so.” When we had to write our language autobiography I wrote a lot about what it meant for me to be able to speak a second language and how through this unit it has made me realize that in life that will be a very powerful thing that I can utilize.

An amazing thing about this year was looking at race, and racism in a whole new light. While we were working on a journal something that stood out to me was that “race is a modern idea, race helped be a divider in the act of freedom.” This summarized a lot of what I learned through grade school. Through this quote I realized that this is why race is such an important things for different cultures because in our society race is power. Race gave me the idea of my oped topic which talked about racial profiling in America.

The idea of inequality in race was something I was very interested in, this lead to

my interest in the topic of sweatshops. We learned a lot about modern day

sweatshops and what it meant. We looked into why we continue to buy from these

types of manufacturers even though we know about some of these conditions one

quote was, “advertising teaches consumers that happiness can be bought.” We had

an activity where we tried to find the best way to pay employees and give them fair

wages in these sweatshops. We learned about the “race to the bottom” which

became one of the most interesting things I have learned. I wrote a response to

modern day sweatshops. Here is an example of my response to our activity and

sweat shops in general.

Through my learning this year I have been given a new outlook on what power

means in our society and others. Power is made up through money, race, language,

and many other things as you can see through the things like sweatshops, racism, and

others. It has been a year where I have realized even if we don’t try and play a part in

all of the inequalities we do, whether it be what we buy, how we speak, or a joke

we say with our friends. Each one of us has the power to improve our society.

Here are some other examples of my work this year:
https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/I_Wish_I_Could
https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Journal-1:3

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Alexa Eddy in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:29 pm

English Journal

History Journal

Language is Key

Response to modern day sweat shops

Picture of my group at an interpritive dance class

Poems

Reflection is something that teaches me that I am not perfect. Something that I’ve really been trying to do is find myself and know who I am. In Mr.Blocks class, I realize that the whole course is just one big reflection, learning yet simultaneously focusing on our individuality. I have not really done anything to discover myself, yet being in Block’s class has shown me things about mysef that I haven’t noticed before. In the beginning of the year I was very quite and shy about my opinions. Just writing down whatever, not thinking much of it but then as we started getting into deeper topics I was forced to look deep inside of myself for answers. The first two examples I have are my journal entries. One is a mini letter reflection that I had o write to myself to reflect on my work. The other journal entry is my view on violence and non-violence. My third link is a piece I did on Language and my views on it. I wrote about my first language. And whether it was truely english or spanish. In my fourth link is my response to modern day sweatshops. It really made me look at myself and really taught me appriciation. Because I’m wearing a 15-20 dollar shirt that took a sweat shopworker 30 cents to make. They can’t even afford the clothes they wear. My fifth link will just be linking to my groups interperative dances. For this one, it really made me get far away from my comfort zone. I was taught something that I never tried out before. Interperative dance was very weird and very foriegn to me because I thought that it was really weird dancing random moves but after doing it I realized that it was much more than just swaying your body around an object. It was about telling a deep story, and bringing attention to something that really needed it. On friday 6/7/13 my group and I did an interperative piece on Van Pelt street. We noticed that the area was very patriotic and we came up with the idea of bringing the past to the future. Being robot soilders. What I got from this experience was to be more relaxed and creative. And to also enjoy and notice the little things in life. With each assignment in Block’s class I try to take home a new lesson. From the beggining of the course to now I have been more open and vocal with the class and in my journals. Especially when we got to the poem section of our course. Here is where we had to write all of our poems and I found a new way to express myself. Especially my “Ode to my cookbooks” poem. I never liked to tell people that my dream was to be a chef. But in Block’s class we learn to be ourselves, so I figured I should write about something that was truely near and dear to me. Over this whole course, it has taken me on a road to self discovery.

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Estefan Carrillo in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:29 pm

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Jennifer Perez in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:29 pm

“Honor is regarded with great respect in a person who can carry great responsibilities”. - LOTF (Quote from Assignment)

The learning process during sophomore year of taking english and history class, were challenging and quit different from comparing to other english and history classes from the previous years. Learning throughout the year of both classes was challenging because several writing assignments was included to use with different writing techniques that I couldn’t understand and struggle to create polish writing to make sense.

Personally as myself, enjoy writing and honestly do not have a problem with it but trying to complete assignments with different techniques and reaching to the word limit has been difficult but then I guess thats how writing goes and it comes naturally because once you changed and pass into a different grade, you will notice your writing changes a lot and gathers new knowledge to your learning on your own piece but it also becomes harder to write a paper. Its never easy to write a paper, but once you get use to it and get to the habit on writing essays and projects, it becomes a piece of cake.

As the units go by during the courses of english and history, I notice that my writing had changed as I normal do when I begin to type a essay. Learning in both classes, my writing had to be upgrade and my knowledge into writing which had been difficult to make my writing better than it should be.

Every unit of english and history, the class is given to focus on a different topic that is assigned. Topics that were included in the units were about Boundaries, Religion, Colonialism, and Poetry.

In unit 3 for history, the students were to focus on religion. The students were assign to pick two religions of there choice and create a brochure on a wiki. Based on the religions, the students were to research an issue about the religion. This brochure is based on religion and the environment focus on Judaism and Christianity as a issue.The questions we focus to improve our brochure and to grab the attention to the readers is that, Why should the reader care about this issue? What types of things can be learned from the brochure? A different style of writing can be a theme.

“Religion is something beautiful to have in your life to guide you in the right direction, when it comes to ups and downs.”

Religion was definitely included to the theme for the brochure and the main topic to focus on. I never worked with focusing much on religion and never actually got the chance to learn much out of it, but the way it works to focus on the theme is that you would want to create a discussion. As the assignment requires research to be done to gather background to support the answer, I got to learn what religion actually means and become more interest and curious about religion.

For english in unit 4, the students was to focus on there own language autobiography. The language autobiography was to be an autobiographical paper to investigate some of the themes from the language unit and relate them to each student life. My personal language autobiography explains the first experience of growing up, raised into a hispanic neighborhood, noticing the different spanish accents around different latinos."Spanish here, spanish there, and spanish everywhere". The piece of writing and video that was created to support my evidence is something that I worked hard, I focused more on myself and the habit of people around in the neighborhood that uses different spanish accents. It is truly something I can call an accomplishment that I am proud of. The way I gathered my evidence and ideas to create a video is something that I used different than I normally do in different assignments.

Six Links:

1.) Relationship Boundaries

In unit 5 for english, each student was require to focus on a crossing boundary of there choice and interview people that has experience of the boundary to create a podcast. This podcast is about crossing boundaries on relationships. Relationships can be very difficult to manage, especially when you have a issue with your family. Every person has different ways of seeing relationships with others, once you begin to build one. Its either giving it a try or letting it go.

http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Relationship_Boundaries

2.) Latino Community

In unit 4 for english, the students was to focus on there own language autobiography. The assignment was to create a paper that should be between 750-1000 words long. In this Language Autobiography in the link below, explains how language can be different from one and another of being hispanic.

http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Latino_Community

3.) Religion and The Environment

In unit 3 for history, the students were to focus on religion. The students were assign to pick two religions of there choice and create a brochure on a wiki. Based on the religions, the students were to research an issue about the religion. This brochure is based on religion and the environment focus on Judaism and Christianity as a issue. The questions we focus to improve our brochure and to grab the attention to the readers is that, Why should the reader care about this issue? What types of things can be learned from the brochure?.

http://copperhistory2012.wikispaces.com/Jennifer+Perez

4.) Colonialism Museum Project

In unit 9 for history, the students were to focus on colonialism. The assignment was to create an colonialism museum project based on the choice the students decide to write about different colonialisms. To address the proposal of the colonialism museum project students were to think and discover the story behind.The exhibit needed a name, goal, introduction, eight artifacts accompanied by text and final thoughts to complete the presentation. This proposal of the colonialism museum project is based on The Spanish Colonization of Mexico.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1BQqrDyObbHonVKFz4JXzjC6MKO3MDi-9THRNpHEWvV8/edit?usp=sharing

5.) English Journal Entree

The students are required to keep a journal to write daily entrees that is given at the beginning of the class. The question that is given for this english journal entree was, Why do humans so often treat each other badly? and What different things change this cycle of negative behavior towards others. As a respond to the question to, Why do humans so often treat each other badly, Is basically about people just don't understand what it actually means to be a human and don’t realize that we are made way better than being disrespectful to each other.

http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/English_Journal:2

6.) History Journal Entree

For both classes, English and History, The students are required to keep a journal to write daily entrees that is given at the beginning of the class. In this History journal entree, gives the question “Does the U.S/do WL have responsibilities toward Haiti? How? Why?”, As a respond towards the question was to give my own opinion on how the U.S does have responsibilities towards Haiti. The history journal entree does give evidence to support the answer and gives clear thoughts.

http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/History_Journal_Entree

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Traevon Gray in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:29 pm

(Doom, tick, Doom, tick) this year in English I learned many different and interesting things from this years English and history class. In this years english and history in 307 I learned thing out of the ordinary and uncommon to the people in my family, neighborhood, my culture. this year we learned that there's numbers ways to learn the same subject. One word that came up numbers times this year and that will not only stick in my head attached with a new meaning is Language.

Journal #15

Some of the Compromise I will fight for is involving money and other objects of that kind non-nessites or thing I don't hold to my own. Dream or beliefs I will never give up are

Freedom
Trust
privacy
Honesty
Dreams
love

Language within a person can show many different ways and be expressed in many different ways. In my first example you can see it's expressed in a very common way such as the normal format of writing your response and how you feel on the specific question at hand.

In the "Art in the Open" performance project where I got a chance to show language in a different format where you don't have to actually use words to show your own language without the expression of word and it show'd me that I don't have to use words to express my language. During this project we used interpretive dance to display our language.

This project allowed me to see myself from a different angle and allowed to see deeper into myself as well as my knowledge on the different ways language can be applied.

Language within a person can show many different ways and be expressed in many different ways. Another example of this is the poetry unit that I did.

http://copperpoetry2013.wikispaces.com/

I was raised by spongebob

He tought me how to tie my shoes

with that loopty loop and pull and your shoes are looking cool

I based my clothes on him

like the best time to wear a stripped sweater

you couldn't tell me it wasn't the best time

and everyday was the best day eveeeeer

I was raised by spongebob

when it was school time i was always ready

I learned your tough if you eat a bowl of nail for breakfast without any milk

I learned not to steal a ballon even if its free

I wanted to be strong

with muscle on my muscles and muscles on those

even muscles on my eye balls

anything was possible

squirrels under water

starfish living under a rock

squids with shirts

krabs with wales for children

I left with a message

life can be fun

I was raised by spongebob

During this Project we was able to put a spin on a classic format and express our self by using poetry.

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Amani Bey in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:28 pm

“People are naive and so self righteous, they don’t realize people think differently than them”- Excerpt from my Choice Reading Worksheet.

Throughout the 2012-2013 school year students in Joshua Block’s English and History classes have studied many eras, events, and styles of writing. Normally history is either glorified on one side and made out to look like monsters, or the story may be told with the tunnel vision of facts, not allowing either side much justification.Throughout many projects and activities Mr. Block’s courses have given face and reason to many historical events, current and ancient. We were taught to see the world through many perspectives.

As a warm up Journal, Mr. Block had us interpret a picture. The picture represents the world’s view on justice based on where they stand, based on their perspective. After our Revolution unit, while reading Night by Elie Wiesel, the class read an article about a boy who was punished for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance. This article stood out because we were studying how countries were overthrowing the tyranny that reigned. This brings up perspective once more because it is easy to tell your neighbor he needs a fence, not noticing that yours is falling apart. It is important to realize, as the article pointed out, that this was an American boy who refused to say the Pledge. He did not hail from another land, America was the only life he’d ever known. It is easy to become unconcious of things we take for granted. We must never exhaust the option of analyzing everything, no matter how familiar it may seem.

In December, while reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God , the class was also studying lenses. Lenses are a type of perspective that a reader may take on, based on what’s important or relevant to them. this project yielded an artistic representation of a quote from the book. It was studied through the perspective of a Marxist and a feminist. I found it amazing the justice and injustice that can be found in words or ideas based on the person’s focus that reads them.

The first piece was an artistic rendition of the quote in which Nanny states “Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out...So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule ud de world so fur as Ah can see.”The mule is Janie and in this piece she has a pyramid disproportionately large on her back as a symbol of the hierarchy one would see when looking through the Fem-Marxist Lens.

The trials during history class were by far one of the most rewarding and effective activities in perspective. Groups were chosen to defend their group with research and wit. My group was the fleet of conquistadors that came over with Hernando Cortez. These men were charged with and undeniably guilty of the the murder of thousands of native peoples in South and Central America. Here is the closing statement that I wrote below in defense of their actions. It is easy to paint people as malicious when given their actions in black and white, especially when there is undeniable guilt. However, the job of defense attorneys is to change the perspective of the jury into one which is beneficial for the defendant.We accept and regret our sins, but are we truly at fault?

Throughout January, we focused on Neila Larsen’s Passing. This was a story that followed the life of two women in the late 1920s. One passed for white in her everyday life, and one only did it when it suited her. We were presented with two entirely different characters, with different morals and goals, and as readers we found ourselves more akin to one of the characters rather than the other. The book ends has an ambiguous ending. How you saw the end truly depended on the how you saw the characters throughout the book. The link below shows an assignment the class was given upon finishing the book. In groups, students were asked to perform scenes from the book adding their own flair. My team had the ambiguous ending, so we devised 3 scenes, each of which could’ve happened, because the writer made the ending so vague. Many areas in history and stories in everyday life are vague and we are left to our own devices to understand why or how.

In the very beginning of the year, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, led to a project in which we were charged with making ads for the best leader for the island. The class was allowed to lobby and campaign for who we believed would rule the best. It was very interesting to see the different ways the class approached this project. While there were only 3 candidates, there was an array of tactics students used. Here is my video Campaign ad.

Towards the beginning of the year, we were asked to write a letter to someone that is/has been in our lives. This project was using the hindsight perspective. One had to reflect on an experience that happened in the past, with the new perspective of stories we’d read in class. It showed how reading something or learning something new could change your feelings toward a certain experience and experiences to come. We should accept our faults for what we see them, not for what someone decides to lacquer onto our personalities. This letter helped me realize that while seeing all sides of the story is necessary, it is also necessary to follow yourself.

An excerpt from my graphic novel "Why Don't People See Things More Clearly?"

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Adam Feliciano in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:28 pm

Reflection teaches you that things in life aren't perfect...

"How do you define freedom?" my teacher asked our class. "Provide an explanation for your definition."
I believe "freedom" is the ability to live by your own words and the ability to make your own decisions without being controlled physically and/or mentally by one's decisions. I also believe it is being able to express yourself freely.
This was one of my first discussions we had in our mid world history class. I thought that every word had one meaning and one interpretation, but I was wrong. I always thought that I had the perfect definition and only, the right definition.

"Yes, anyone else would like to add?" he said.
I was confused. How could one add to this definition? Doesn't every word has its own definition? Twenty minutes went by and there we had it, a chart full of definitions for the word "freedom." From that moment, I began to realize that not everything meant one thing, it's what you make of it.

In my Short Story Letter Assignment that we had to do for English class one time, I quoted, "Your mom is really looking out for you, and you should appreciate it because there are moms who don't even care about their kids." I use to always think that I had the perfect childhood but when we were told to write a letter to someone we truly loved about making the right the decisions. I began to realize that I didn't have a sister who was perfectly fine. She was going through an emotional time and wasn't making the right decisions. Once I created this letter, I learned that perfection doesn't exist, part of living is to understand and deal with the environment you was brought into.

One time for English class, we were given an assignment called the Detailed Study. For this assignment, we had to pick an author and analyze their writing styles. I chose to focus on Marge Piercy because she’s an observer. She sits back and observes an object or something at its natural state. Here's a stanza she writes:

The bonsai tree

in the attractive pot

could have grown eighty feet tall

on the side of a mountain

till split by lightning.

This stanza teaches us that things don't always turn out as plan and that things aren't perfect even if we had envisioned them to be such. Marge Piercy help me to understand that even objects like the bonsai tree can't be perfect but the idea that it is living is the most important part.

Although things may not be perfect, I realized that I'm not perfect even in the way that I speak after completing my Language Auto-Biography assignment. In this essay, I wrote, I am from the roots of slang where we speak with emphasis and where you can only find the best cheesesteaks. This assignment made me realize that I wasn't perfect in the way that I speak. It made me understand that everyone has their own way of speaking whether its a different cultural language, an accent, or just a form of slang. After I analyzed myself, I knew that I wasn't perfect, but this wasn't something to make me feel less of myself. In fact, I felt better that I understood who I truly am. This assignment taught me that you don't have to be perfect nor does anything has to be perfect in order to unique.

Throughout my World History and English class I've learned many things that helped me realize that things in life aren't perfect. Here are a few more links to different assignments I've completed over the course of the year.

Manal Ali Sharit in comparison, was the ideal “Rosa Parks of Saudi Arabia.” She is a women's rights activist from Saudi Arabia who helped start a women's right to drive campaign in 2011. (Arab Spring Video Project)

It is unfair to be hypocritical to our allies and promise partnership but then slowly overrun its government. (OpEdAd)

My first sentence of my scene grabs the reader’s attention with no formal introduction.
(Descriptive Writing)

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Kennedy Coverdale in English 2 - Block on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 1:28 pm

I remember when the class and I were sitting in a circle of chairs, around January. Block had written some roles and names up on the board. They all had to do with the French Revolution. He then explained that we were engaging in a roleplay, and we had to pick roles. People started to perk up and get excited; it was something we’d never done before. We assumed that we’d be acting the strange and foreign roles of French people. Block then explained each role to us before we started to pick. There weren’t that many roles, so some of us and to partner up and become the role together. Me and my friend decided to become Marie Antoinette, the insane queen of France. Everybody had picked their roles and started to type of introductions and reactions to different situations. We would then proceed to act out what we just typed. My friend and I made paper crowns for ourselves, just to make things more fun and interesting. We got to see the Revolution through the Queen’s eyes, making us see the Revolution in a different light.

This has continued throughout the year, with projects and assignments geared towards looking at things from a different ‘lense’ or perspective to gain a better insight on the world as a whole. This really struck out to me when we were at the beginning of our Sweatshop Unit in history. We had to complete a journal entry based off of a cartoon of three fish; each a different size. It made me look at things differently because since each fish had a different view of the world, it made the image of the world come together and reveal it’s true nature.

The way I learned this so efficiently was by hands-on work. During the year, we as a class have done two trials: one about the exploration to America and another one about the creation and management of sweatshops. The one that stood out most to me was the Cortes Trial. There was five different views on the colonization of the Americas, each one completely different. Especially between the System of Empire and Cortes. “Cortes interpreted the definition of the System differently than System wanted him to.” (Cortez Trial Notes). That quote sums it up. Cortes saw the System differently than what the System saw themselves as. It made me look at the conquest of America completely different.

We recently finished the book Night by Elie Wiesel. During one of the readings, Mr. Block wanted us to try and re-enact part of a scene from the book. It’s where Elie and a lot of other people were crammed into a train car. In the journal entry after that describing our experiences, I wrote: “This certainly doesn't compare to the real thing in Night : we were just in a classroom. We had places to go to the bathroom and food in our stomachs. They didn't. But it does give some insight.” Even though the reenactment was rough, it made us see through a different lense, in this case the lense of Elie, who was stuck in this traincar. It really made us think about the feelings and emotions the characters had and how bad the conditions were.

The action of being in other people’s shoes really gave me a better look at the world. Learning these things have opened my eyes up much larger and revealing things I've never would of seen without the help of these classes. Without them, I would be ignorant towards the rest of the world.

Here's other work I'm proud of:
OpEd

English 2 - Block Public Feed

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013 Cunningham

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Humanities Final Portfolio

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

ENG2-012

Blog Tags

Teacher