Humanities 8 Sabei

What is Power?

2008-05-20T00:53:00.000-07:00

Power is the strength of something. Some one or something that has power is having the ability and the strength to do something that other people cannot accomplish. By dictionary definition, power is the ability to do or act by political or national strength. All through out the year, we have experienced power. In animal farm, there was power. In animal farm Napoleon has power. He controlled everyone else that was apart of animal farm, he changed the way they thought, and he changed all the rules about animal farm. Napoleon was the only one that had the power to do that. He had other pigs that he would order, and they would put napoleon’s decisions to actions. Secondly, there was power also seen in Julius Caesar. The power was in the hands of Julius Caesar so every wanted to destroy him. There were many people that were on the side of Julius, but also there were people on the opposing too. Julius had some strength that others did not. There was also power in Industrial Revolution. However at one point, the stages of power changes. At first England had the power and they were the ones that could do everything. People wanted to come into England to work, because England first created factories. They started industries, and then competition began and brought in America. Power then changed to America that took the ideas of England and went beyond with England’s ideas. There is also Power in American industrial revolution. Also in the American Revolution, England had the power because the king of England was forcing unfair laws upon the communist, and getting everything to himself. He has the strength to keep the taxes because he said so.

Thinking about Globalization

2008-05-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

This cartoon's main visual elements is the girl, and her dad saying "No, you may not outsource your homework to india." The girl seems to disagree with her dad, and you can tell from her facial expression and the scratch above her head, a way a cartoonist shows a character is mad. This cartoon is about one of the ten flatteners and definatly about globalization. The cartoonist's oppinion on this topic is negative. This is becuase globalization has gone very far and is getting better. In the cartoon, the father says to his daughter that her homework should not be outsource. In school, we get homework everyday, and everyday a piece of homework is due. It is apart of our everday schedule to do homework to be turned in the next day. The cartoonist's point in the topic is all said in the most important part of the cartoon, the speech bubble. The artists could have made this cartoon better by He could have added more items in the girls enviornment, as the topic is showing the rise in globalization, maybe adding more gadgets in the enviornment will highlight and strenghten the point more to make it more clear.

Population project importance

2008-05-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

The three most valuable things that I learnt from the population project process were MLA citation, time management, and the ability to organize. To cite after visiting each website to get information came more into practice. Time management, because we were only given a few due dates and at the end, turning in the portfolio is what counted. And Organization, because if you couldn’t organize all the materials that we were given, we would not be able to put every material into a portfolio to turn in. You would need to organize all the facts from our research, into index cards, and putting them into a 5 paragraph research paper.

It will help us more in the future, because every time we get something from another site, we need to cite our sources. Otherwise it is known as plagiarism, which is being academically dishonest, which can lead to getting expelled from school. The skill to cite would be used a countless number of times in our future. Time management is also a skill that would help us in the future because as we grow into the future we are not going to be given due dates for every piece, or be told when we should have something done. We would only be given a date to turn in our work, and in the end turning it in is the only thing that counts.

Sameness and Equality

2008-04-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

There are many differences in the two words, sameness and equality. Sameness is being the same, like everyone is exactly the same, in looks, what they wear, everything. Where as equality is more regarding equal rights. Having the right and to be able to do what everyone else does. A problem in equality is when one person has more rights than the other. But sameness can be similarity or likeness. Equality is an equal opportunity to everything. Lois Lowry uses the word sameness in her books alot becuase the book mainly heads towards appeareance, what they all do the same, they all have the same emotions and the same feelings. In Animal Farm, the author uses the word equality alot becuase it is more about race. The difference between the pigs and the dogs, and ducks and horses. It is about the pigs being more equal than the rest.
In conclusion equality and sameness are the different that may seem like they have the same meaning but they regard different issues.

Giver feedback

2008-04-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

Being an adult has many start off points. One becomes an adult when you can support yourself, and take care of everything you do, by yourself. It means, the problems that happen to you, you fix them. Responsibility in ones actions, and the ability to own up to what you did.

The meaning of being an adult means to leave your childhood behind, and become apart of many things. That includes a family, and a job. Also it means responsibility, and the burden of many things. It means importance to take care of your family.

At one point in ones years, they become useless. As people grow in their ages, they are unable to help anyone else in the world anymore. They are not working, and their no help to the family. This is around the age of 70, when one is no more help to the rest of the people.

Priorities

2008-04-13T20:17:00.000-07:00

M- Put data together for data analysis

T-follow up on data analysis

W-finish first draft

TH- get peer edited, and finish the final

F- Finish interview for independent investigation.

Blog cartoon

2008-03-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

The main visual element in this cartoon is that there is the kid at the dinner table telling his parents about his Blogger from school and his parents saying “Well, yes, we could read your Blog…or you could just TELL us about your school day. This cartoon is an issue about all the kids that come home from school and not wanting to talk to their parents about the school day, so they just tell the parents to pop up the Blogger and read it. The cartoonist’s opinion is that a lot of the kids nowadays don’t want to chat about their school day at the dinner table. Simply, the quote is the evidence that tells me about what the cartoonist feels. Also the parents’ emotion seems pretty disappointed with the kid, probably because he never talks about school. But if the parents would like to know what we are learning at school, it is better that they go to Blogger and read what we wrote that we spent work time in class working on. This is ironic because this cartoon is showing how sites like Blogger and other newly created sites are decreasing talk about family, and we are writing on a Blog and all the readers are reading from Blogs. The cartoonist could have made this cartoon more persuasive by having the kid using technology, maybe texting on his phone.

Technology

2008-03-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

I agree with what Kurt Vonnegut has said about Technology. He says that technology does everything for us. This is true because now all of us rely on spell check, and online dictionaries instead of turning the pages by ourselves. Now we rely on calculators to do our math homework instead of manually calculating the work. The other day in humanities, we had to read the story “Euphio Question”, and in this story most of the characters used a lot of technology, and they are using technology to get themselves happiness. The moral “money doesn’t always buy happiness” is true because you need more than just money that will buy you new machines that make life much easier. Ever since we grew up, we have been living on technology. We are so used to communicating through phones, traveling on cars, and finding information on the computer. If we were asked to let all of these technologies go, we would not succeed. Even though technology spoils us and lets the machines do the hard work, technology helps are in many ways than one. Technology by definition is a new creation. And at one point, walking sticks, wheel chairs, and hearing aids were technologies. Some of us need these today and without it, we would fail more than not being able to use our cell phones.

Technology

2008-03-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

In my own words, technology is an invention of something new that is useful to everyone in one way or another. It is the development of new ideas that make life easier for many of us. Something created that was once new to everyone.

I think that day by day technology is being included in many of the schools. Every international school has many computers and laptops that help the teachers educate the students to do research and use Microsoft word document to write stories. AES alone uses more than 100 computers and laptops. Even though we use a lot of technology, it serves the purpose to learn. Many of the technology we use at school are used for a reason, and it is for education. It saves a lot of paper, even though you need to print. It is a good use for presentations also.

The 5 most important are…
Laptop/Computer
iPod
Air conditioning
Television
Cell phone

5 least important are…
· Led
· Weapons
· Roomba
· Line paper
· Manuel print cameras

End of 3rd quater feedback

2008-03-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

Some of the goals from quarter two that I have found most challenging are my discussion skills, participation in class discussions, and my writing skills. I believe that I have improved a great amount in my writing pieces compared to the beginning of the year. Now as we move into the year, there have been more reading involved and I have gotten many great ideas of writing from all these books. My discussion skills have improved because I am much more into the talks in the Socratic seminar; however I don’t talk that much about the discussions that happen during class.

Something that I would like to improve on for next quarter is…
To get better marks on my tests and quizzes by looking over my notes. Another one of my goals is to depend on myself more in the class and try to work alone more other than asking someone else for help. My last goal is my class discussion skill that I would like to keep working on till the end of the grade.

Holy War

2008-03-10T02:01:00.001-07:00

The phrase “Holy war” is an oxymoron because Holy is a religious word, and religion is completely against war. They believe that violence won’t solve many things. And Holy war is saying religious violence, another two words that don’t go with each other. The reason the phrase “Holy War” is now used is because many of the religions want everyone to follow their, and to get everyone to follow their religion, they kill. One religion will want another religion to follow them, and if they don’t, it means war. Also religions are very holy to their own god and other religions that are against it will say something bad about their god. The followers of that religion get angry and are willing to sacrifice the ones that are going against their god.

cold war debrief

2008-03-06T05:29:00.000-08:00

For the Cold War simulation, I was in a team with Lucas, and Nafeesa. We played the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. We being one of the weaker parts of this game had one most important goal to gain as much points as possible. We had gone to the USA and the USSR, presenting them some of the very strong countries we had at a very high price. China for example we sold for 35 points. Other groups that had Africa sold 3 countries for 35 points, when we sold just one. Both the USSR and the USA wanted China and they both bid for it and USA with the biggest bid, won. The winners we knew from the start were going to be either the USA or the USSR considering that fact that they started with around 75 points when the rest of us started at 0. And because of that we did not have many strategies to win, but we competed with other continents that also started with 0 points, like Africa.

The winners of this simulation were the USA and the USSR. The fact that both of the countries started with many points were a huge advantage that allowed them to buy land from the rest of us that sold everything just for some money. There were many risks in this because both the USA and the USSR wanted only to attack each other so whenever they sent nuclear weapons the other needed to be ready to wipe that out. The two countries both lost a few points trying to attack each other. I did not think that the winners were very clear because USA and USSR ended up with many land but ended up with the least number of points. The non-aligned countries ended up with MORE than what they started with. If we would have gone on with the game, USA and USSR will have no points left and us non-aligned countries would be able to attack them. However we ran out of time and at the point which we ended, the winners were USA and USSR.

Visual Communicator

2008-03-03T05:22:00.000-08:00

We used something called a Visual Communicator to video tape our research conflict, the “holocaust.” After you have a conflict, you research that. You have to research some of the affects, and causes, some interesting facts, and maybe even of a famous person that was related in that conflict. The main point of using the Visual Communicator is to make it seem like a news cast, and telling everyone out there a lot about it. So once you get all the information you have, you put in into a script and make it seem like your casting news on that conflict. You need your name, background, and pictures from the conflict on the screen so you need to find all the backgrounds if you chose to, and pictures to add more to the cast. After you have the script for word to word of what you’re going to say, you copy paste that into the visual communicator, and they will scroll down with the speed you want it to go so you don’t have to be reading of from the paper and constantly looking down instead of the camera. After, you rehearse it once or twice and when you feel more comfortable you record it and then save it. All your team mates will do this and after that, you put all your mini clips together to make one big news cast.

Using this visual communicator helps in many ways and it’s actually a pretty cool software because its like you’re a news caster! But you need a while to get used to it and know a little on how to use it. Some tips are to make sure you save everyone once in a while. It can be really frustrating to have to record it all over again, and especially if your previous recording was perfect. Another is to practice. Practice over and over again before you record so that you don’t mess up your words, and get tongue tied. The last tip is to speak into the mike, and make sure when you’re doing that you don’t have loud people in the room. You might think the room is not that loud but when you review the recording, you might be hearing your classmates more than yourself. Over all, this is really cool software, just watch out and follow the tips.

Script

2008-02-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks Asim, this is Sabei Aung reporting from Germany about some of the causes and effects of the holocaust. Adolf Hitler strongly believed that Germans were superior in many ways to every other race. Hitler’s principle, he believed all Germans should control the Europeans. Many say that Hitler had a disease of paranoia that possibly led to his actions. Anti-Semitism, one of the causes, is a prejudice to Jews religiously, racially, and ethnically. This led to six million deaths of European Jews; The German Nazi’s killed the Jews. This conflict, which lasted from 1939 -1945, also killed Romans, Soviets, Prisoners of war, priests, and Gays. Many of the Jews were also taken to into Extermination camps, also known as slaughter camps. Concentration camps, and forced labor camps were also created. CNN news, back to you Asim.

Thanks Lucas, Now let’s relate the holocaust to some of the conflicts we have learnt in M1. Clearly, Racism is one of the main topics of conflicts. The German Nazi’s were racist to everyone that was not superior to them. Another one is Nationalism, for believing that the Germans were more superior to the Germans. Religion is also another important topic because they wanted to wipe out all the Jews because they believed that they were useless. Thank you, and take it away Lucas.

CLOVER

2008-02-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

The character i am most like from the Animal Farm, is Clover. One reason I think i am most like Clover because there is in the book, she seems like someone caring to her friends. In the book, when Mollie goes to the other farm to get her nose stroked, sugar, and ribbons by the farmer, she constantly denies the fact. I like to know the truth from the start. Clover goes to Mollie's farm to find a bit of sugar and ribbons hidden under a pile of hay(pg.30). Another reason was when boxer got sick, and split his hoof, Clover was the one that gave medicines to Boxer. I'm usually the one that take cares of my family members when their sick, like clover is to Boxer. One more reason i think i am like Clover is because when clover found out about Mollie hiding lumps of sugar under the hay, she did not mention that to anyone else. I don't tell other people things that they don't need to know, or facts that could just cause more problems, than there are.

Burma military service

2008-02-03T23:11:00.000-08:00

My country is Burma, and it allows voluntary military service, and i think thats good for the country because it gives choice to the country. Everyone is equal and everyone should be given a choice of whether they want to be part of the military or not. It is true that military service helps the country but if some one doesn't want to --- they shouldn't have to. Its good of Burma to make military service, voluntary.

The King is dead!!

2008-01-31T04:36:00.000-08:00

The past week in M.1 has defiantly been harder than usual. So now everyone cheers, because the king is dead. There were many similarities between the way King Coyle handled things in M1 and the way the 13 colonies were ruled. The first similarity was that both were ruled…and they were both ruled by kings that did not care about what everyone else wanted, but more on what he wanted. The 13 colonies were taxed for practically everything that they needed or wanted. Ex; tea, stamp act. Similarly, we were taxed for denim, braces, and even using our agenda! We were taxed for things that we should not have been taxed on and that is called injustice. King Coyle acted like a tyrant because he had power over us, and simply because he handled out grades and because he was able to hand out detention slips. King Coyle ran a tyranny. He treated us unfairly, and he took away our rights, like King George III. They were both also very capable of threatening us. Clearly, we did not like this, and we wanted to be treated much fairly, and that is self-determination. No more worries! The king is dead!!

43rd war feedback

2008-01-29T04:09:00.000-08:00

The absolute location that the 43rd war takes place in is the El Salvador. One piece of evidence is that that Atlacatl was the last ruler of El Salvador (wikipedia), and I figured that this could be a fact because in the book, it was mentioned that there is a volcano called the Atlacatl volcano. Also, the country had very bad civil war difficulties in the nineties (wikipedia). Another reason I think that the 43rd war was based in Salvador is because the main language spoken there is Spanish, which is also the main language spoken in the 43rd war. Also, the main religion in El Salvador is Roman Catholic and in the book, they used two twigs to form a cross for the dead. It appears to be that there was a lot of guerilla conflict in the country, and in the book they mentioned that a lot. Moeri probably did not mention the name of the country because she probably wanted to add some kind of friction to the book, and also because the government might not be happy about it because it is not all accurate.

Declaration of Independence.

2008-01-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

It is a necessity that you explain when you are going to break away. It is obvious that all men were born equal and right full rights that should be our rights. That includes life, liberty, and happiness. Governments get their powers from the people. When any part of the government start to take over in ways that aren’t approved by the people, the people have a say in changing a few things, or creating a new government. When people have the rights to alter things about the government, it is because the people feel the government is not doing what they are supposed to be doing. All our colonies have suffered because of what the government is doing and now we are going to make sure that it does not go on any longer. King George the third has damaged our colonies in many ways.

King George has damaged the colonies by keeping trade from all the rest of the world. He has taken away our seas, destroyed our coasts, burnt our towns, and shattered the lives of our people. He sent us beyond seas so we were tricked for things they made up about us. He also deprived us, in many ways, of the benefits of trial by jury. And last he has kept us away from each other, in times of peace, standing armies without our permission of our legislatures.

Each time he acted on one of those horrible things, we asked for him to stop. We ask him only when what he does hurts us. He should not be the king. He is not fit for it. The king is an oppressor. We also talked about this to the British legislature and we told them why we came in the first place. Whatever we say does not matter. No changes were made. Everyone here is saying that freedom is upon us. We, whom represent our United States of America, will make this work by working together.

J O I N, or D I E

2008-01-21T19:07:00.000-08:00

This political cartoon by Benjamin Franklin is showing that if all the colonies don’t join as one, they will die.

Note; the ‘JOIN, or DIE.’

Each of the pieces of the snake are the eight colonies that should put together to make one. If these colonies just want to stay single, and decide not to join to each other, there might be wars against one another and other colonies from other continents. Then, these colonies would have to fight back alone unless they made allies. But if they all stay as one, America, it is much harder for any of the other colonies to attack and if they were to fight back, they would be able to fight back as a one, whole, strong army. The cartoonist, Benjamin Franklin, made this to show everyone that if they want to win whatever happens to them, they need to stay as one. Benjamin Franklin was one of the founding fathers of America, so he is the one who put all of America together, and he wanted to show the people with this cartoon. His opinion in this cartoon is that they should be strong and all join as one. The evidence for this is the slogan. It says in the slogan ‘JOIN, or DIE’ which shows that he thinks that they should all just…JOIN. Benjamin could have made this better by turning the face of the snake towards the audience so they can see the snakes’ facial expression more and show more visual effects. Having the snakes face sideways doesn’t show much about how the snake is feeling or how vicious the snake may look, if it does.

Can we trust the "truthfulness"

2008-01-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

We can trust the truthfulness of this book because everything in the book is directly taking quoted sayings from those who were once slaves. Also, most of the quotes were taken from sources like the library of congress, which is a huge library in the states that is much known. They have a reputation about history facts plus the library of congress would not have fake quotes from the slave trade years. Also, Julius Lester is a professor of black studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. A professor that experts in black studies, would not lie about what he learned…the truth. Another reason is that, the American Embassy School of Delhi is not going to spend money on a bunch of books that say anything but the truth. Also, many of us knew general facts about the slave trade before we read the book “to be a slave” and the book just restates the facts that we were already aware of from common sense. Everything that we read just tells us what it is like to be a slave, how they felt about it, and how badly their masters treated them. Lastly, the dedication clearly stated that this was to the memory of his great grandparents that were slaves too. Though he never knew them, there is absolutely no reason to why he would spend his time to publish a book that is not trustworthy.

citation;

Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. New York: Scholastic, 1968.

GP

2008-01-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

My partner, Asim and I played Germany in the GP. There were many tough decisions that were to be made at the start and to the end of the game. First choosing allies, was a hard decision to make because you had to make sure you aren't being allies with one of your other allies enemies. USA and France were the countries with the most advantage at the start of the game, probably becuase of the economic units they recieved to start with. They were strong countries but during the game, other colonies, like russia were able to catch up by planning, and choosing what to buy with their economic units. France's idea of waiting the first year and not making any allies was very smart because they then had the advantage to see which empire they want to join. Germany started out with a good number of economic points but during the middle of the game,we made many wrong decisions like helping out during a war and loosing more than getting back though we won the war.
At the start of the game, we bought alot of armies. That helped other empires defend and fight wars. But towards the end we wished we bought more industries and colonies becuase they add on extra econimic points. Industries dont seem important becuase they dont help you fight wars when it comes to seeing who has more becuase the amount of navy and army that an empire has is whats counted. But the reason an empire will have thier armies or navies at all is depended upon the amount of colonies and the amount of industries that you have. Navies are completely useless. You can fight with them in a war but they are only worth half of armies. Germany kept a very strong army in the begginning and many empires came to us to become allies. Even in wars, we saved them from loosing to other very strong empires like USA and France. If we were to play this game again, buying colonies and industries in the start of the game would help us a great amount for the long run.
Germany had many allies, all except for USA. We were allies with Japan but we broke off the treaties because they had joined the USA too. However, we were allies with France , who too were allies with USA but it needed to be made sure the France would not attack us. Japan did not have a very strong army and it did not matter if they were to attack us becuase Russia or great britan would help us, and Russia espeically had a strong army, and us put toghether is even stronger. During the game, i learnt you can't trust any of your allies becuase they might have made allies with your enemy too and they can always back out on helping you in a war. Also its a right that they help the other empire because they made allies with both sides.
During this game, i learnt that before getting straight to building an army, you should start with colonies and industries that will help you on the longer run. Another fact that i learnt is that you have to make sure you don't double cross your allies becuase they are all greedy just like your own empire. They want to take whenever they have that chance to take, and so they will just join these wars that started out small which became a "great war". I also learnt that conflicts dont always profit your empire becuase even when you win, you don't always get more than what you provided for the war.

Hotel Rwanda

2007-12-10T05:50:00.000-08:00

According to the sources and the film, how did individuals, groups of people and the world community fail the people of Rwanda?

The people failed Rwanda in many different ways, because even the groups that were supposed to help them did not succeed. These U.N soldiers were mostly what the Rwandans were counting on and they did not help. They had failed because they did not believe that things could be fixed in Rwanda. Then they backed out on Paul just because they didn’t think he would succeed which was because he was a black African. These U.N groups thought he was ‘dirt’. When the soldiers came, all the Rwandans were so happy to see themselves on the verge of being rescued but even after that, these soldiers walked away, leaving them helpless. Also, their own kind failed themselves. Just because the people of Rwanda were separated into two groups, the whole country was in war with one another. Even the Rwandans that were supposed to help each other did not want to help. The staff of the Hotel Rwanda did not want to listen to Paul because their Boss was no longer there. This was a way of failing the people of Rwanda. Also, just the world community failed to help because there were many clips on news that showed how bad things were in the country and how people were getting shot and killed. Even though these clips were on news, no one had really helped. All people spared for them were pity and that would not help them in anyway unless something was done about it. Ladies with little puppies in their hand just walked out of the hotel leaving pity for the people and climbed on to the buses which would save them. When they go back, they will still be at their rich places when these Rwandans stay here getting no help. Also countries from the outside sending these weapons with everyone being allowed to just come in to take these weapons. Just sending these in the first place was a failure. This helped the ways for Hutu to control over the Tutsi.

African political cartoon evaluation

2007-12-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

Some of the main visual elements of this political cartoon are that Africa is being stepped on. There is big foot step dug into the country and mostly in the center. This political cartoon is about the issue that Africa is having with the Europeans. They had absolutely no control over the Europeans because the Europeans took whatever they wanted. Also another visual effect is the land of the country is black and the foot step is white, which shows a lot of racism. There are many different way for the cartoonist's position because he/she could either feel good about how the Europeans had control over the Africans and took control of their land, OR the cartoonist wants to show how hurt Africa got. Either way, the cartoonist is trying to show how badly taken over Africa was. Other techniques the cartoonist had used was that when he drew the foot steps, you can see that the foot step dug deep into the land of the Africans and i think that shows how the Europeans dug deep, taking away its many precious resources. The way the cartoonist made the foot step really big and deep made the most effect on it. Also how his idea, of showing that Africa got taken over by drawing a foot step was a good and persuasive way to show it. The artist could have made the cartoon a little more effective by maybe having more contrast.

The Scramble for Africa

2007-11-27T05:02:00.000-08:00

To claim land, we used the strategy of starting from the coast line and building into the more land surface area so that we can have easy transportation and so that we can build into Africa and onto the places with natural resources toghether. Some of the factors we considered for claiming land was that the land should start from the coast line where there will be good natural resources and then go deep into the Congo area and into the Congo basin becuase the basin has alot of good resources. France won becuase from looking at the land that they claimed, you can tell that they are sticking to the coast and one side of Africa. I think staying toghether is the best strategy becuase transportation of import/export items can be sent easier when they are next to each other and also that most of their land branches out from the coast and builds into surface areas so ships can be a useful source of transportation as well. Spain lost becuase they did not have many places with good natural resources becuase some of their land went onto the Sahara which is a really dry dessert and there arn't any really good resources there. Also none of the land that they own start out from the coast and the land is extremely scattered which makes it very hard to travel. Also the fact that all of their land is surrounded by other countries makes it very hard becuase they have no access to the water to use ships as transportation.

five themes of geography

2007-11-19T00:54:00.000-08:00

Movement
Region
Human Environmental
Location
Place
Mr Help is a mnemonic used to help us remember things like the five themes of geography easier.

Movement is anything that travels trough out the world, whether it'd be ideas, products, or people.

Region is a group of things that have things in common. A township is an example of a region.

Human Environmental are things like the weather and environment related things that lead people to what they are. If the weather was cold, you would see people from the region wearing sweaters. Also mosquito nets are an example of human environmental.

Location is where a place is located whether it is decided by describing the places or shops around the place and the exact area by latitude and longitude or addresses.

Place is what makes the place unique and special and different from other places.

There are the five themes of geography in the books we are reading now.
the book my group is reading; waiting for the rain.
Examples;

Movement; Tengo moving to Johannesburg is an example of movement. (pg88-89)
Region; The township that keeps the blacks and the whites separate. (pg 62-63)
Human Environmental; When Tengo was sitting outside with Emma on the steps and drinking lemonade which showed that it was hot outside. (pg 169)
Location; Outside of Emma's house when they sat on the footsteps. (pg 169)
Place; The house of the millers winchester drive number 77 (pg 90)

Analyzing cartoon

2007-11-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

Some of the main visual elements are that it's an octopus grabbing on to all the other countries. This political cartoon is about how the man in the middle by the name of England is taking over all the other countries around the world with his octopus tentacles and taking over. The cartoonist's opinion is he thinks that England is extremely strong and they are trying to take over all the countries so they would be the richest country in the world. It shows that england is very rich because the man in the middle is wearing one of those hats and only people like bachelors wear those types of hats. For making this cartoon more persuasive, he could have made the hands like they were grabbing onto the countries instead of just laying a finger on it. Also to make it better, he could've made the countries names so that we could read them. In terms of CRAP, this cartoonist did a pretty good job. The cartoonist maybe could've made the colors contrast more, so that the picture grabs you. For repetition, it repeats a lot. The colors repeated in the countries and in the tentacles. How the tentacles all branch out from england is repetition also. The cartoonist did a very good job with alignment because there was an equal amount on the left to the right, and on the bottom and top. For proximity, everything related to one another because this cartoon is very straight to the point.

"Violence leads to more violence"

2007-11-05T00:54:00.000-08:00

"Violence leads to more violence" is true because the only way you can get violent is because someone else is. So if someone is violent, the others will want to challenge them and revenge them back which will lead to more violence and more violence. Violence can be taken away with an agreement which is being able to work with others which leads to one word - peace. When both sides are peaceful about it, they can agree to one answer. In Caesar, the conspirators and Brutus decided to kill Caesar, that was violence. They might have thought that it was the right thing to do and that it brought them peace, thats not what others will think. This lead to Antony wanting revenge on them and winning the hearts of the other people. Violence ( killing Caesar) led to violence ( Antony saying the speech about the conspirators). In the outside world, wars for example. One country starts a war with the other. The other country will want to take revenge and fight back. This can only be stopped when both the countries decided to make an agreement. In Caesar, if the conspirators were to make an agreement with Caesar and Antony, Caesar might not have died.

So in conclusion,
Yes, i agree to the quote "Violence leads to more violence".

good leaders

2007-10-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

The quality of a good leader is a person who can work well with everyone. It’s also someone that everyone else can accept to work with. Qualities include simply being able to lead, take over, and make decisions. They have to set the rules and make sure everyone else can follow them. I think that the most important quality is apart of your personality. It’s how you are to the rest of the group and how well you can lead and make the right choices. I think that the student leaders of grade 8 would probably be Lucas, Asim, Joel, or Jake. They demonstrate the qualities of a leader because they speak up in most of our class discussions and in Socratic seminars, they’re usually who gets the point across. I think participation is a lot about being student leaders.

Parent Teacher Confrence.

2007-10-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

Something from first quarter that I’m proud of was probably my Industrial Revolution Museum. I got a good grade and lost only two points. The only thing that kept our grade from 50/50 was because we hadn’t put the citations in alphabetical order. We didn’t loose any points for the visual because we had put everything so that it followed the rubric. We had all the points that the rubric stated. Our overall grade was a 96% which was a good A.

Something that I found challenging in my first quarter was some of the writing pieces for the Industrial Revolution Project. For example my news article piece. That piece of writing is the one I got worst on compared to all my other writing pieces. I’ve learnt that there are many ways writing. News articles, I found challenging. I hadn’t written a lot of pieces like that but for my next news article like pieces, I’ve learnt some points on how to write them better.

Feedback WOW 2007

2007-10-15T00:41:00.000-07:00

Week without Walls is definitely something we want to take time to enjoy from our normal education. If we weren’t to have a week away from school and visit out, it would give us as students nothing to look forward to in school. We wouldn’t have something that we want to remember about the grade. Also we wouldn’t have things to write about when we get back. We wouldn’t have anything school related and special to write for humanities memoirs. Wow helped me get closer to some of my friends, and get to know some of their talents. And soon you find to appreciate people you once didn’t. This helps your normal days at school because you’ll know these kids better and you learn to work with them. You know their talents and you can learn to accept them into your groups. Another one of my points that was useful about wow was just education itself. We want a highlight about 8^th grade, and for a lot of us, normal classes like science math and humanities are not it. Wow is usually the highlight for many people. Most people want to get out of 8^th grade wanting to have a memory from it and river rafting with their friends is probably it. In humanities or other classes you have something that’s a memory and that you want to write about. Another point is that you find out more about yourself. And this effects school a lot because you know what type of person you are. Adventurous or maybe not so adventurous. I’ve found to like hiking and river rafting a lot because of these five days. So taking just five days out of a year is really worth it when you make new friends, find out your own and others qualities and leave school with having a highlight that you want to remember forever.

Feed back, Oct 3rd.

2007-10-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

My goals for were to improve my discussion skills and descriptive writing. If not all the way, i have definalty improved in making my writing much better. My skill, becuase of all the writing pieces we had to do for the IR, my writing skills improved. Especially my editing skills. I took the time to read over what my friends had to say and most it their feedback was very helpful. My first draft and my final draft usually showed alot of change. I need all my writings to be gone over or be editied by, becuase after that, it's so much easier for me to edit it myself.

Another one of my skills was DISCUSSION. Recently, we didnt have any more socratic seminars but we did have class disscussion. I didn't think i participated that much, but i did share my ideas. When we were told to talk with out neighbors and discuss about a topic, it was much easier for me to do that.

Some goals that i want to set is to keep on improving my disccussion skills. There is always room for improvement. And for both the discussion and writing skills -- i can do that.

IR Museaum Expoisitory piece

2007-10-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

Steel Mills.

Steel mills in general are industrial mills where pig iron is converted into high quality steel. Pig iron is raw iron. Pig iron has very high carbon content. Pig iron was converted in to high quality steel by blowing out the impurities. Steel mills were made for that process. A very well known man by the name of Henry Bessemer had gone public with this idea, after William Kelly. William Kelly actually introduced the idea. However, due to his financial problems, he was bankrupt. Therefore, he was forced into selling his patent. This is the part when Henry Bessemer comes in, to continue with what William Kelly left behind. Every steel product we use today is produced using what the British inventor, Henry Bessemer, had left us. The converter called the Bessemer converter is used for blowing air into molten rock. This process itself is naturally called, the Bessemer’s process.

Child labor was used a lot in the days of industrial revolution. Many of the steel mills had used child labor. Child labor is when children of six or above are forced to work for owners who pay them little and feed them little. There are many people who grew up crippled because of these dangerous machines.

In conclusion, Steel mills are very useful because they turn molten steel into ingots through hot rolling. An ingot is a piece of metal heated into a bar or block. Later on, they would be melted into other forms in industries. Steel mills help us today, and will help the future. Again, thanks to Sir Henry Bessemer and William Kelly.

IR museum Discriptive Journal

2007-09-20T08:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Diary,

As my first journal entry, I’ll have to start with the beginning of my life. It wasn’t pleasant, but then again, it still isn’t…
Starting at the age of four, my child hood was tough and ruined. My father had passed away leaving me, my younger sister Sarah, and a sick mother behind to go on with our lives. My mother’s sickness only got worse and she was sent to the London hospital soon after my father’s death. The worst thing my sister and I needed was another family member passing away. We prayed, wishing God to let us have her back healthy. We didn’t pray hard enough. She only got worse, and her sickness was soon incurable. The hospital could only keep her in for a few more days! Or we would have to pay for more hospitality. I had no experience of making money just yet. The following week; she passed away, leaving me, a five year old, to take care of my younger sister, a two year old. We couldn’t afford to live the way we had used to live, and so I was forced to work, to be able to pay my bills. I would be taken to the country, fed well, paid well, and eat well. The government even said that my sister would be in a care home, and she would be treated just as well as I was. I was more than lucky, to work and get a reward for it, so I accepted the generous offer. Days later, a group of boys my age, and myself were taken out of the country and sent to an immense steel factory. The owner studied us with a close eye and soon enough, they scurried us away to work with machines we knew nothing about. We were not instructed on how to handle machines, but forced to, even then. When we made a wrong move, we were spat at. The rooms were hot, and dark. The work was exhausting and the nights were damp and cold. Working in steel mills was anything but generous. The owners were greedy and everything was for them. Pay days never seemed to arrive. New batches of young boys were brought into the country to suffer the same way like we did, and they were enlightened to have a perfect life planned ahead for them. Dinner was cucumber soup and nothing better. Around 20 boys were forced to sleep in a tiny room made out of stones and a small door which was locked to prevent escapes. I had flashbacks of my life with my family and sister. To only think that now, I am stuck in a stone room with boys I just met. I wished factories didn’t start, and us kids were not forced to work. Everyday, a child seemed to injure themselves terribly and wouldn’t be taken care of. Death was no issue. Everyday a new batch of boys was delivered thus, plenty of new workers ready to work themselves to bits. Sometimes molten rock burned poured on to us, and burnt us badly on our hands. Sometimes machines had poisonous explosions. And sometimes, they crashed on to us. If we didn’t get injured that way, we would get killed slowly. The coal dust hanging in the lungs, cause a lifelong disease. Years past by; and I managed to survive, even though, I had injured myself quite a few times, I took care of myself, with the help of my friends here and then. I never got to see my sister again, and I didn’t even know if she was out there, living. If what the government said was true, I doubted it. I was told to have a life of care and respect, and what I got was the opposite. Soon I made my way out. Children were they’re only productive workers because they fit well to crawl under the machines to fix them. Till now, and forever on, I’ll have terrible memories to look back to. And a future with a life disease.
-Patrick J.

IR museum News Article

2007-09-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

BESSEMER RECIEVES CREDIT FOR KELLY’S WORK.

An American Citizen William Kelly introduced to the community, an idea on how to create steel. Kelly unfortunately resulted in Bankruptcy due to financial problems, and is now forced to sell his patent. His patent “blowing air through molten rock to reduce impurities” seeks its buyer. Not so long ago, Henry Bessemer, our British inventor, purchased this patent and is currently building onto the idea. He is making minor changes to increase the level of creating successful steel. Bessemer, for building on with what Kelly left, naturally became known. His name later on was used for this process.

William Kelly was born in Pennsylvania. In 1846, he purchased an iron manufacturing company, and changed its original name, Eddyville iron-work, to Kelly & Company. He started his experiments by air-boiling, which is the process of blowing air through molten iron to reduce the carbon content.

William Kelly was educated in metallurgy, during his college. At the same time, Henry Bessemer received little education on metallurgy from his father. Henry Bessemer was known for other useful inventions, such as railway operation, and sugar refining. He had very limited education on metallurgy then, but he was able to build a working converter on creating steel. It was called the Bessemer’s converter.

Soon after Bessemer’s converter went Public, the people took it that Bessemer had come up with the idea and manufactured this converter all on his own, with no outside help. The story is now uncovered. Bessemers’ help and kick off, William Kelly, is well as much part of the process. Bessemer’s name was used for the process and naturally, so was its converter. Kelly, unknown, spent the rest of his life manufacturing axes, and working in banking.

-SA
(Sabei Aung)

1870 stock market feedback

2007-09-17T01:52:00.000-07:00

I didn't think that i was the best entrepreneur but i made more money than what i had in the start which is $80. It was really easy to sell things, but buying things that was in high demand was really hard. Mr.Coyle's phrase "you have to spend money to make money" is absolutely one of those phrases that i have to totally agree with. You MUST buy stock, to sell it. A lot of it has to do with luck too. Educated guesses are extremely useful too, because for the great northern railroad, it started off really low, and each stock was very cheap. So i bought about six Northern Railroad's and did not sell until i got the price i wanted. I bought it for really low, but when the stock prices changed, i sold it for really high. This is when another one of Mr.Coyle's phrase "buy low, and sell high" comes in. When stocks are being sold for really low, you might as well buy it because even at the end when the stock prices are low, you can just sell them, and still make SOME sort of profit. The Comstock silver had very low stock prices, so i just bought more, and at the end, it raised quite an amount.
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" That metaphor could me a lot of things, but one of them is PROBABLY don't buy the same things. It's okay to buy about 6 of the same thing, but don't don't buy just all the same thing. Don't spend ALL your money on the same stock because if that doesn't make good money, then you will not gain profit.

Feed back Sept 10th.

2007-09-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

I think after getting the Socratic seminars done, I've accomplished one of my goals. It was to 'participate' in the class
discussions a lot more, and now i feel much more comfortable. I think i wasn't as comfortable in the first because we were
all new to class, and we were getting the feel of the class room more, so we must've been less comfortable.Another one of
my goals were to improve my writing skills. And i have in many ways. Just recently, our homework for writing in interviews,
was a tough writing piece, and unless we were very detailed and descriptive, it wouldn't have gotten a good peer edit score.
Time HAD to be taken, to write these pieces, and i did. It took me time, to think and i had to revise over and over again.
Now, i even have some pointers of how to make writing much more effective and interesting for the reader. Over all, yes, I've
met my goals i little more, but there's always room for improvement.

Pros and cons for the industrial revolution.

Pros:
1. Countries became much more productive.
2. The common people had access to much more products, and not only the rich had to be able to afford buying these products.
3. Much more people were educated.
4. Gave a lot of work opportunities.

Cons:
1. There was a lot of pollution.
2. Good quality products were rare.
3. The use of natural recourses increased.
4. It endangered the lives of many younger children.

Sir Henry Bessemer Interview

2007-09-08T02:42:00.000-07:00

Ready to roll, Sir Henry Bessemer leaned back into the sofa, settling in for a short interview about his life’s great achievements and inventions!

An English man, Henry Bessemer was born in England January 19th, 1813. “I chose to take the same paths my farther took.” He admitted. Bessemer’s farther, Anthony Bessemer was an inventor of a machine that led him to his fortunes.
Henry Bessemer first went public and titled the idea “Manufacture of iron without fuel.”

A skilled engineer and inventor, Henry Bessemer had introduced to us the first economical industrial process for the mass-production of steel. His invention then, helps us now and will help the future generations. I even had a strong feeling that he had grown up from a young boy into an enthusiastic engineer. “After leaving school, I begged my father to let me remain at home, and learn something of practical engineering.”

His name Bessemer was chiefly known in association with the “Bessemer’s process”. The famous process for manufacturing steel had help Britain, for before this process, they had no practical method of reducing the carbon content of pig iron. He admitted, “It is true I had been successful on a small scale in overcoming one of the main difficulties in the new process, but there was still much to invent, and much that at that period I necessarily knew nothing about.”

The Bessemer’s process was to manufacture steel by blowing compressed air through molten iron, to burn out excess iron and impurities. Bessemer had manufactured steel from molten pig iron. The heat of the oxidation increases the temperature of the mass and keeps the molten iron, molten during the operation. Bessemer’s process included its own machine, naturally called the Bessemer converter (a machine that holds about 8 to 30 tons of molten iron). The wide end of the converter is through where air is forced upward the converter during the process. The way Bessemer manufactured steel had topped the other techniques before. Ever since Bessemer had introduced this to England, it had been used through out the nation. For one to come up with a brilliant idea like this, time must have been involved. “My life at this time was pretty much one of hard work and steady attention to business, from which I could only snatch short intervals.”

The Net Effect of The Industrial Revolution

2007-09-04T01:58:00.000-07:00

Negative.

The lives of the factory workers were not very good, because it was dirty and also dangerous.
There were death and serious injuries involved.
The working hours for all the workers were a very long time, and there were not much income for them.
Children were forced to work because they were small and could go to fix things under working machines.

Positive.

· Families got money, and houses to live in.

· For the supplies, the other people got more to buy and use for their daily household jobs.

· Products have been produced in mass production and in a commodity.

· Instead of the child going to work alone to work for the family, all the family got to do their work together.

· Lives would run by clocks, so people could get to work on time.

Factory game 2.

2007-08-28T04:50:00.000-07:00

The factory game part two and part one is quite different from one another, even though in both cases, we are creating these toys. Factory game part one, was self-sufficient, and our goal was an invention that attracts customers. We had worked completely alone for a production. Today, from the inventions, we picked out the best one for our factory to produce and found our MASS production. We had a limited amount of time, to produce as much of the mass production as possible. This time, it was NOT self-sufficient. We all had worked together. There was management and labor involved. Some of the laborers excelled in cutting, some in coloring, and some in assembling, so we parted and did what we do best and put it all together to produce as much as we could. Therefore, yesterday’s factory game, and today’s factory were not quite similar. Because, yesterday was more self-sufficient, and today we worked as a group, and like a cottage industry.

The Factory.

2007-08-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

I thought that building the toy was a good experience. It also gave us an idea of what it might be like, for the inventors out there. For the creation to be liked, it had to be…CREATIVE, artistic, and well made for the people to buy these products. Also, some resources are scarce and you can’t find them around everywhere. So there is a limit to what you can use in your invention. This is sort of giving us an idea of what scarce resources may be like. We were only able to use, what was there, and nothing more. I liked this activity, because it puts us on the spot. And gives us a better idea, since this time, WE’RE the inventors. It put an image in our head of what it is like.

ROLLAR COASTER.

2007-08-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

The ascending railings of the roller coaster, made my heart beat faster just by looking at it. The height of the thin railings, and the delicate shape looked as though the seats were going come soaring out. I laid my feet on to the tiny step of the roller coaster. And saw the sickness coming my way just by looking at the previous riders step out of their seats, sours looks spread across their faces. I buckled up myself tightly, shifting around on the smooth leather, getting comfortable. The noise of the metal crashing filled my ears, and the vibration from the base stormed up the soles of my feet. I gripped tightly on to the metal bar in front of me, my hands already sweating from the pressure of my grip. The seats started to move slowly under the roof, then sunlight stroke my eyes. I felt myself bending lower and lower. Then the cold air punched my right in the face. The soothing and fresh air made my ears stretch back, and my cheeks felt as though they were going to burst apart. My heart sank cold. I saw millions of people, the size of ants from my view, moving around the campus. I saw the panoramic view from the top of the roller coaster. Other riders of the roller coaster screamed on the top of their lungs, and screams plugged my ears. The sides of the view blurred my eyes, and made them water because of the dust. It was as though the world around me was spinning. Loud blows of air made my ears chill. And I felt my spine tickle its way up. When I screamed, the sickening taste struck my taste buds. It felt as though small particles of dust were swimming back strokes on my tongue. My throat became rough, and felt as though I had choked on rapid air. The roller coaster stopped, and darkness filled my eyes, once again.

FRUIT ROLL-UP

2007-08-22T21:04:00.001-07:00

The fruit roll up wrapper, has rainbow colors, all over the place. There were color splatters. The wrapper gave information that the fruit roll up inside was going to have tattoo's on it for the eaters to stamp on to tongues. When i had torn the wrapper starting from the top, it had made crinkly plastic noise. When i tore it all apart, and took out the fruit roll up it self, the fruit roll up was covered with plastic so it doesn't stick to the inside of the wrapper. I wanted to get to the actually EATING the fruit roll up, so i ripped the plastic peel of the fruit roll up. The smell of the artificial tropical fruity raspberry filled the air. The fruit roll up felt very sticky. On some parts, it was slightly oily too. The surface of the fruit roll up was crinkly, and not smooth. I tore the fruit roll up in to a smaller piece to eat it. When i was tearing the fruit roll up, it made no such noise. It tasted very tangy, and fruity. Sweet at times, and sour too. A mix taste.

What I think about 'necessity is the mother of invention'

2007-08-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

I think, that when people say "necessity is the mother of inventions" it means, that without the mothers, we wouldn't be where we are now.Most of the times, the mothers help their children study, and support them, and push them to study harder. Even though, she may NOT be the one who had invented these things that help us in many ways today, it was BECAUSE of her. Mother necessity, probably means we NEED the mothers, because without the mothers, we would not have all these things we have access to nowadays. Invention
means, to create something new. And the mother had help their children, with support. Therefore, the mother is a necessity because without the mother, there would not have been inventions. Any of us, wouldn't be where we are today, and have access to all the latest inventions and technology if it was not for mother necessity.

Image Credit::http://thecorporateentrepreneur.typepad.com

How do i learn best?

2007-08-22T02:31:00.000-07:00

I am a kinesthetic and an auditory learner, because, I enjoy building things, or doing an activity and be learning at the same time. Also, listening to things maximizes my learning. When I am listening to a teacher or a classmate talk, I take the information in better. When I am in an activity, or building something, I take the information in as I am doing the activity as well. When I am taking notes, while the teacher is explaining, and study them later on, I also understand the things much better. If i need to memorize something, i do it better when I'm at home. I can concentrate much better. So note taking helps. Note taking has alot to do with visual too. AND listening also has a lot to do with this. Overall, i am 3 types of learner, becuase learning visually, auditory, and listening maximizes my way of learning.

My Gang

2007-08-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

The most important people apart of my gang are Cathy, Khujista, Allegra, Beka, and Cerys.
Cathy is one of the most important people that matters most to me. She is always there to make me feel better, and be by my side on everything. We have been thorough an uncountable number of things, whether it’s good, or bad. She always sticks up for me, and I can pretty much always count on it. She is one of those people, I say everything I want to, and do whatever I want, and be totally comfortable about it.
Khujista and Cerys are the hyper ones. They are the perfect ones, who never mess up on anything. They can make just about make EVERYONE feel welcomed in just about ANYTHING. They’re always nice, and always seems to make me be happy all over again, when ever I was in a down mood.
Allegra is always the one; I can always go to with problems. She always seems to know how to solve them. She always understands and whenever I come with a ton of problems, she tells me what SHE thinks, and then makes everything go away.
Beka is defiantly the one I can be whoever I want around. We can be super crazy together and show up in pajamas at a proper dress party. I never feel like I HAVE to be doing something. When I’m with her, all there is to care about is dogs, getting crazy hyper, and pajamas.
Over all, all of them mean a lot to me, because they are all different in their own way, and makes me feel like on top of the world.

feed back August 8-10

2007-08-13T00:29:00.000-07:00

Two of my highlights from the first week of school, would be that I have very nice teachers and friends for my classes this year. Also, i got the electives that i chose in 7th grade. So i am looking forward for this year. I am quite pleased with how my schedule turned out this year.
Another one of my highlights would be, everything in general. For example, how us as 8th graders are the oldest of middle school. And, how we have to be very responsible of a lot of things. My first impression of Humanities, was i am going to enjoy it. I look forward into improving a lot of skills in this class. Like, self awareness skills and communication skills.
My two goals for humanities this year, is to improve my writing skills, and class discussion skills.
I would like to be more descriptive in my writing pieces.