Wednesday, June 2, 2010

This I belive Reflection

Project Description: The assignment was to write a 400 to 500 word essay about something you believe. We are also creating a black and white silhouette images of our side profiles. Once we are finished with both the writing piece and the profile image, they will both be displayed together in a frame.
Process- First we had top write 30 things we believe in, they didn't have to be serious. After this brainstorm we had to start doing the essay. I had my peers review my first personal essay and my second draft Charlotte has to go over it and finally I will be able to write my final essay. We still need to take a picture and put it on the frame along with the personal essay.

Reflection- I learned that not everybody will agree with your beliefs, but it's important to express your beliefs. I also learned other peoples beliefs.

The challenge I have encounter was writing my essay since it had to be 400-500 words. I think that when you are writing a personal experience and expressing what you feel it's hard to have a specific amount of words that you can write in your essay. People tend to write more on personal essays since there is a lot of sensory detail to include in it.

If I could make changes in this project maybe it would be to re-do my 30 things I believe list just because I think I didn't put a lot of time and effort into it.

I think that it could help me spend less time while doing the project if I try my best on brainstorming it so at the end I have more time to work my product and it won't be as hard because everything will be organized.

Artifact:

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

REM DP Reflection

Project Description- The assignment for this project was optional we could choose to do various things. I chose to do the illustrator because I thought that it was cool to just draw something that represents a chapter of "My Ishmael" or about the whole book. We also had to include an artists statement along with the drawing. We had to write a description of the piece of art and what each picture represents.

Process- I had to do two-three drafts for both the drawing and the artist statement to get the final product. I had my work reviewed by Charlotte and my peers.

Reflection- I learned that you could many activities with a book, that you don't just have read it. You could make it fun and do many activities to have a better understanding of the book.

I think the drawing was pretty challenging because I wanted to get the perfect drawing, but at the end I think the final came out good.

I think I would do everything the same because I had different people give me good feedback on my project and I tried my best.

I think it can help me realized that even when they review it three times whoever reviews it again can still find an error and it is important to review your paper before turning in the final.

Artifact:

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Evelyn Glennie: Shows How to Listen

What will you remember about her performance?
I think that I would remember the emotion and passion she has for her music. Even though she was deaf she really knew what she was doing and all the cool sounds she made on the marimba.


Describe what it felt like listening to her play. What factors helped create this moment? You can describe any of the times that she played on either instrument

I really enjoy listening to the her playing because she would have various sounds some were relaxing and some were not. It inspired me because she was deaf but she still focused on what she like and did not give up like other deaf people would. I really like when she used the drums too because she wasn't only playing with the drum sticks but with her hands, jewelry etc..

What elements of her performance influenced what the audience heard?
I think it is how much emotion she put into the performance. I thought it was surprising that she was deaf because she didn't seem like she was. Until she said that she had been like that since she was 12 years old. She basically just had to be able to feel the music she played.

What did she mean by, "Each person experiences music in their own way"?
I think she meant that people can be blind, deaf, or even have nothing and they all have their own way to feel, hear, and play music. Not everybody likes to hear the same music because it really depends on their personality if they are more outgoing like to party then they might like hip-pop or just songs that you can dance to. If people are more calm and like top relax then they might listen to oldies, r&b etc..

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Sustainability Visit

I visited a farmers market on Sunday March 9 and interviewed a worker..

1. What is your name and our role here at the (farmers market, CSA, community garden?
My name is Tera Simpson and I run part of this farmers market.

2. Why do you choose to shop/garden/support this CSA?
Well actually is really good for the environment for us to sell organic products, and also to support the CSA.

3. When did you first start coming here?
I started coming to a farmers market probably like 2 years ago.

4. Do you garden at home? Why or why not?
The only thing that I can do right now is not much since I don't have much space to garden a lot of stuff. So the only things I do plant are herbs and avocados.

5. What would be your advice to get others to do what you do?
As a worker at a farmers market I think the food that we sell here is very healthy food. I think they might want shop here for healthier food.

BLOG ASSIGNMENT :)

1. What struck you about the location you visited? Was it what you expected or very different?
What struck me the most is that there were different shops about very different types of foods. I expect it there to be more shops about organic food but there was only about 4 and the rest had jewelery and snacks of food and flower shops.

2. Which items were cheaper than you expected? Which were more expensive?
Well i saw different types of foods but the little fruits were expensive. Only if you wanted extra things on your fruit they would increase the prize. The vegetables were more expensive especially if you wanted the dozen.

3. Do you think you will start going to a farmers market more often? Or using a community garden? Or supporting a CSA?
Well i can't really say I'll start going because my mom is the one that buys the groceries and see usually bus the food from the supermarkets, but I am going to start encouraging her to shop at a farmers market. I think I will support the CSA its very important because its all about being healthy and eating right.

4. How do these locations fit into our essential questions of "Why Don't People Live More Sustainably?" and "How Can I Convince them to do So?"
Well people might not live more sustainably because maybe they can't afford to buy expensive food. We all know organic food is expensive, but it is important to eat healthy so we can have a healthy life. We can convince them to do so by giving more information on how it can be healthy for their kids and also their whole family. If more and more people buy organic food instead of junk food then companies would start making organic food and might decrease the prize of it to make money.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Seniors Garden :)




1. Will you make a garden now?
If had my own house and the space to do my own garden, then I think I will. I think it's really cool how you can plant your own food.

2. What strucked you about it?
The thing that really strucked me was how they all had different types of vegetables planted in only 7 months. They planted in October and now have a lot of plants and flowers as well.

3. Would you like to continue the seniors work?
I think it will be great to keep planting more plants and vegetables. We could make the garden big and make it the HTHMA garden. :)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Talking This Ideas Out


The thing that struck me the most was in Food inc. when they mentioned how all the meat wasn't natural because they would put different kinds of things on it before putting it on the market. I disagree with the concepts of how our food is being produce now because it isn't natural and it's no healthy. In the real world this makes people become obese because of all the fast food places. This can lead to death if continuing to eat fast food. I shared this story with my mom and she was very surprise to see where all our food comes from and what they put on it. She said she didn't want us to be unhealthy and that she was going to make changes on the food she buys. In order for our family to have a healthier life. :)

Monday, April 19, 2010

School Daze 2




Quote: "When the youngsters of your culture graduate from school, (unless their families continue to take care of them) they must immediately find someone to give them money to buy the things they need in order to survive."

Response: I really like what this quote is trying to tell the reader because I think it's saying how life really works. How everybody should be independent and work hard because if you don't have your parents with you and you're still not independent then your basically screwed in life.
Everyone has to have a job in order to survive and have food and a roof to sleep in. Parents aren't always going to be around and it's important for people to learn how to live on their own. In my opinion parents should teach their children to be independent since their childhood so it wont be as hard when they grow up.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

From Hell To Heaven

link to zine :)

“Pass me the bottle that’s on the table Emma!” Carmen screamed, while she was laying on the kitchen floor completely drunk. My mom had long black straight hair and big black eyes, but my hair was short and I didn’t have big black eyes like her, mine were dark brown just like my dads. She was wearing a black skirt and a pink blouse. Her whole life she has been thin and tall.

“Mommy stop drinking,” I told her with a soft voice. “Leave me alone, and pass me the bottle that’s on the table. You know I hate repeating myself Emma!” I tried convincing her to get up but a bunch of mean words came at me and that’s all I got. I walked to the room, the whole house was always so dark because of those dark green curtains my mom put up in the living room. Green was her favorite color and she said she loved the way the curtains looked. But I hated them. She should have put pink ones so the house would look lighter, like a princess house.

I laid down on the small bed as I hugged my bear really close to my chest. He was brown and really soft and I loved hugging him. His hugs always comforted me. Crissy was the only one who always listened to me without screaming at me or telling me mean things. I named him Crissy because Christopher was my dad's name and he bought me that teddy bear on my sixth birthday. I remember the three of us celebrating my birthday at the house. They bought me a small cake with a lot of strawberries around the edges of it. Strawberries have always been my favorite fruit.

“I am going out, start cleaning the mess that’s on the table!” I heard the door slam as I opened my eyes from my memories. I took a deep breath with water constantly coming out of my eyes. I walked to the kitchen and threw away millions of bottles that were on the table in the trash. Then I started washing the dishes, I stood on a little stool so I could reach. There weren’t a lot of them to wash, but If I didn’t wash them, mommy wouldn’t either. After I was done washing the dishes, I got the trash and took it outside.

The streets looked very dark and lonely. The moon was big and bright, but there was something that caught my eyes, a big bright star. I always thought that the bigger star was my dad taking care of me. After a while, I had finally finished cleaning, and I was really exhausted. I still wanted to play with my Barbies, at least to stop thinking where she could be or when she was going to be back. I sat on the bed playing with the Barbie’s hair. I didn’t have a lot of them, I only had three and a baby barbie. Although I did have a lot of Barbie dresses.

I always dreamed of having different types of dresses and of different colors just like the ones my Barbies had. After a while, I went to sleep wishing that maybe someday this would all be over and that wherever she was, daddy was taking good care of her. “Get up! Move Emma!” I opened my eyes. It was my mommy with some old guy. He was wearing a black shirt with some jeans. His hair was black and he had a mole on top of his lip. He looked as hairy as King Kong. “Didn’t you hear your mother,Move!,” they both laughed and I got up and I ran to the kitchen with Crissy in my hand, confused about who that guy could be. We lived in a one bedroom apartment, so I could hear everything that was happening in the room.

I was sitting on the kitchen floor. The kitchen had a fresh smell because I had clean it earlier. All I kept doing was asking myself questions. Why couldn’t this be over? Why did my dad die? Everything was so good until that day. Everything turned into hell for me after his death. Mommy cried and cried for days. Now all she does is drink to hide her pain. I missed my daddy sooo much. If only daddy and mommy had not gotten into that fight, maybe daddy would have driven more carefully and not had that car accident only because of his anger. As my small body was rocking back and forward on the kitchen floor I was covering my ears with my hands and Crissy was laying next to me. My eyes were squeezed together. I didn’t want to open them because I was frightened.

All of the sudden, I felt a cold hand go down my spine and aggressively pulled my body up and turned it around. I opened my eyes and saw the man who came home with my mommy and who made me and Crissy get out of the room.“Let me go, Let me go!” I said desperately. “Mommy help me!” I screamed while he held my hands so tight that I felt like if my blood had stopped. Everything seemed like a nightmare. He had a vicious look. His eyes were huge, all he was doing was staring at my small body.

I struggled to get out of his arms and I screamed for help but my mom was so drunk she didn’t even hear me. He covered my mouth with one of his big hands while the other was around my waist. He touched my body all over and I felt so weak, I couldn’t even move. I felt a knot in my throat and time passed by so slowly. I didn’t know what I could do to get away from him. My only hope was for Carmen to wake up and help her daughter.

He got distracted because he heard a noise coming from the room as he turned to look to see what it was. I took that chance to run towards the door, I crawled desperately then got up and started running as fast as a could. But I guess it wasn’t fast enough for grownups because he grabbed me with his big hands and told me, “Where the hell do you think your going?!” He pulled my pink with white flowers shirt and hit me in my right eye. I felt it so swollen.

I closed my eyes and wished my mommy would someday realize that drinking wasn’t going to bring daddy back to life and that she should of taken more care of me. I wanted her to defend me and take the man away from me. I wanted to feel that she actually loved me just like before. I wanted to hear three words coming out of her mouth. “I love you.” Those are the only words I was dying to hear. As I was thinking of all those things I suddenly saw the mans hands push my chest so hard that it felt like if a tornado had made my whole body fly.

I fell back and hit my head on the corner of the glass table, which went right through my head. Now I was finally going to be with daddy, but I was still sad because even though mommy didn’t take care of me, I loved her with all my heart but one day daddy and me would see her in heaven. After that whole accident mommy had finally realized that alcohol wasn’t going to help her in anything it actually was hurting her. My daddy and I were watching her and taking good care of her all the way up in heaven.

She finally went to rehab and looked for help. I am so proud of her even though I did wish we had a better life together, but I am really happy she’s progressed and hopefully she takes good care of my little brother. He is not going to have a father, but I am sure mom is going to love him more than anything in this world.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Space and Aviation-On Thin Ice

This small article is basically talking about a satellite designed to take the most sensitive measurements yet of sea ice and glaciers. It falls under the field of Space and Aviation. The big deal about this topic is that it would help scientist make better computer models to predict polar temperatures, ocean circulation and, perhaps most important for those of us on the rest of the planet, rising sea levels. I care about this developments because it's going to help the environment. I think that in 2010 scientist are going to find out more stuff like this that could help out on things. In 2005 the rocket failed to separate and brought the original CryoSat satellite crashing into the Arctic Ocean. That was the obstacle they had, but scientist came up with new ideas for it to be a success.

Entertaintment-TV on the Go

This article was about that in this year there were new inventions like that now we will be able to watch TV not only in TV screens but in to cellphones, net books and other mobile devices. This article falls under the field of Entertainment. The big deal about this topic is that It costs broadcasters less than a penny a minute to provide the service, compared with the $4-per-minute price that cellular carriers pay, and this new service, called Mobile Digital TV, allows any wireless device equipped with a tuner chip to receive signals directly from transmission towers. We should care about it because now we could have access to TV in a lot of different items not just in a TV screen. The things that are going to happen this year is that we are going to be able to watch TV basically anywhere we want. I think that an obstacle is that people might start watching TV while driving and that could cause an accident. Or maybe it could cost a lot of money and not a lot of people are going to buy the product.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Time Travelers Research Paper

What is civilization? Why is it so important? Civilization is an advanced state of human society in which a high level of culture; science industry, and government has been reached. It is important to know about civilizations because it was part of our history. Ancient civilizations arose all over the world. Civilizations began in America long before Europeans thought they did. Government is important to civilizations because if the government is not strong everything can fall. Even though people don’t know much about the Indus Valley, this essay explains why the Indus Valley was a failure because it didn’t have an army or big government.

One of the earliest evidences of human civilization in India is found in ancient Indus valley civilization. The Indus valley cities were one of the first cities that came into existence and formed the basis of civilization. Ancient civilization arose all over the world. Civilizations began in America long before Europeans thought they did. The earliest traces of civilization in the Indian subcontinent are to be found in places close to the Indus River. The Indus Valley people domesticated animals, and harvested various crops such as cotton, peas, and barley. The Indus Valley people 5,000 years ago a nomadic people crossed the Himalayas and made their way into northwest India from Sumeria, now know as Iran. Once there, they settled near modern day Karachi, a rich land, where they found ample water, fodder, and fuel supply as well as clay fro making bricks. engaged in extensive trading. This information helps readers know about the background of the Indus valley.

Ancient Indus civilization had many strengths that made their valley more beneficial. One of the strengths they had was merchants trading. Cotton, lumber, grain, livestock, and other food stuffs were probably the major commodities of internal trade. The Aryans which were nomadic herders who left their homeland in steppes of southern Russia around 1800 B.C. and migrated southwestward. The Aryans began to settle in tribal villages. Their houses were made from bamboo and clay. Gradually, they spread as far as the Ganges Valley and started to plow the land and grow wheat and rice as well as keep animals. In my opinion I think this were great examples of strengths they had because they did good things like farming and not hunting which didn’t hurt anyone.

Although the Indus valley had strengths it also had weaknesses. The Indus valley people were not that big on schooling. Every Hindu village had a schoolmaster that would teach the boy children from the age of 5 through 8 years old. To them, discipline was the essence of schooling. Yet a Guru which is a teacher, would live with his student until the student was twenty, until the student was required to do chores for the Guru. All the subjects were of religious nature. Schooling has to do with government, because in school they learned a lot about religion, and religion was a big part of government. I think they didn’t have a strong government which wasn’t good because other civilizations could’ve attack them or take over their lands.
The civilization I chose to compare with mine is Minoans. They were located in the Greek Bronze Age. They traded with other nations. They had to gender inequality. They treated the man and woman the same. One similarity we had was that we didn’t have an army which made our civilizations a failure because they didn’t have nothing to protect themselves with. I think it was important to compare the Indus valley with another civilization to see different things each civilization does.

The Indus valley people didn’t hurt our society. I know this because in ancient India there were huge granaries where people could get their grain everyday. Their city had a grid pattern that many cities have. People in ancient India also knew what was expected of them for work each day. Farmers knew a lot about how to grow grain, metal workers what people needed. These people farmed, they weren’t hunters. From my point of view I don’t think they hurt our society.
In conclusion, this essay was about the Indus valley history and government. Even though there wasn’t much to say about the government because it is still a mystery, I am sure it was a big thing for the Indus valley people. They had lots of strengths and weaknesses but had similar things with other civilizations. History should be very important to people because it helps us learn of all the things that were going on in the ancient world and learn about our ancestors.

Semester Academic Goals for Humanities


First Goal- Ask questions when I don't understand something.

Step- Participate more in class and ask my peers for help.


Second Goal- Use more of sensory detail in my writing and be more creative.

Step- When we get time to write in our wex add sensory detail to my writing.


Third Goal- To have an A or B at the end of the semester.

Step- Turn in all my work on time and do every assignment.

Semester Academic Goals for Mysics

First Goal- I want to stay with an A or B for this whole semester.
Step-Do my work and turn it in on time.

Second Goal-Participate more in class.
Step- Ask questions when I need help to my peers or teachers.

Third Goal-Review my science and math notes to prepare for test/quizzes.
Step-Read trough my brain book at home.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Time Travelers Pillar

Project Description
A pillar is a thing we had to draw and also do a research about it according to which pillar we chose. My pillar was the Indus Valley's Government.

Process
I had to first look up a picture in the computer that I liked the most and that represented our Pillar. Then had to sketch it out on a paper according to the measurements. Finally I painted my Pillar.

Reflection
What did you learn? I learned about the pictures that represented each civilization and what it symbolized.

What challenges did you encounter? The hardest part was choosing a picture because there was a lot that were really good and that symbolized different things.

What would you do the same or different? I would've put more time on my final product because at the end a lot of people had awesome drawings and I felt like I should of putted more effort on it.

How will this help you later? It could me in the future by being a better drawer and actually finding out what each picture means.

Time Travelers Essay

Project Description
This project was about choosing a civilization and building a boat or trebuchet based on what would help it. Besides doing all that we also needed to write an essay and search information about the pillar we got. There was four of them they were Government, Art & Architecture, religion,..

Process
I had to look up information about the Indus Valleys Government and make that into a 7 paragraph essay. We had to set up our essay in the TEA format.

Reflection
What did you learn? I learned a lot about The Indus Valley and other civilizations because of everything we did and also in the exhibition when we got a chance to go around and ask our peers questions about their civilization.

What challenges did you encounter? The hardest part of this whole project would have to be writing the essay, because it wasn't a five paragraph as i was used to writing. It was a 7 paragraph essay.

What would you do the same or different?
I would try putting more effort into my essay because I wasn't convince that i tried my hardest on it and that's what got me an OK grade.

How will this help you later?
I think this could help me later on a job or in my future.

Research Paper