Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

“Everything you can imagine is real.” ― Pablo Picasso. This sophomore year English and History has been a total rush. Like something out of a scene of Fast and Furious, it was a constant motion forward of learning and growth in myself. English was my chance to break my shyness and really give me the opportunity to express myself. History was my chance to learn more about current events in the world, along with old events that I could connect one to the other.

In English class, we did many things that gave me the opportunity to express myself. The best example for this would have to be when the class did the Iron Stream Poetry Wikis. It was exciting because I love music, and music is a form of poetry. Being able to express my feelings without being judged was such an amazing feeling. A great opportunity that rose from this was being able to hear other people’s poems and having other’s hear my own and criticize and help me make them better. That was a good way for me to enhance my poetry.

I’ve always been interested in the Army. I’m not sure why, but I find it as a touching subject, and somehow the stories always find their way to my heart. When I hear about troops dying in combat or being seriously injured, I always put forth my respect to them, because they are the truth behind my safety. When we had the opportunity in English to do a podcast about “Crossing Boundaries” I figured I should do mine on the U.S. The U.S. always finds itself in the middle of a conflict simply because we are nosey and try to hard to fix things. This is how our wars outbreak, by not minding to ourselves. I interviewed my brother on this subject in my podcast. It was intriguing what he had to say, and very interesting as well.

My favorite unit in History, which was a pretty recent one, was where we learned about Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi is more than just a man of peace to me. He was an inspiration to me, an idle. He is the reason I began to see the world in a different perspective. I use to be agressive and I constantly had a temper. My temper is caused by my anger issue that unfortunately is passed to me from my father. What this means for me, is little things will enhance my frustration and temper that usually don’t bother someone else. I began to learn and read about Gandhi and how his methods of nonviolence worked. This was where I began to change and take control of my anger and suppress it when I have too. Our History Journal, #39, asked “Which is a better method? Non Violence or violence?” My response was aimed towards the method of Nonviolence because I strongly agree with it, depending on the situation. “I personally push nonviolence to be more powerful, because no matter how provoked you get, the ability to control your anger and the physical want to hurt someone is strongest.”

Another unit in History when we learned about the Arab Springs and made videos about them. We got into a group and picked a country and did research on it. My group was given the country Bahrain. In the video we discussed the violence in Bahrain and how the people are trying to protest against the President of Bahrain for change.

One of my favorite English Journals was #41 when we were asked “When was the last time someone forgave you or you forgave someone? Is it possible to always forgive someone?” This was during the unit about the Holocaust. My response was personal and had meaning to myself. A part I said for the second question, if it’s possible to always forgive someone, I wrote: “Yes, it is always possible to forgive others...Just like those people who had a choice, you as well have a choice. It’s your own personal decision on if you should or shouldn’t forgive that person. Forgiveness is the step in moving forward, it helps put conflicts in the past to stay.” I believe forgiving someone is the step to peace.

Lastly, relating to my world peace can be made through us topic, I would like to discuss about the beginning of the year in English class when we read Lord of the Flies. The book was based on a group of british schoolboys who get trapped on an island after a plane crash. There is tension in the group, while they begin to create a colony. Even at one point, there is judgement, violence, and war for leadership. The boys learned to coop with one another, and peace was created at the end. Although there was peace, the path to peace was rocky and rough. I wrote my paper on this, the concept of leadership, for English.

In Mr.Block’s English and History class, I grew mentally in many ways. I learned a lot about the world and how there are lies thrown at the people of countries in the greed for power, or how sweatshops in China have nets at the top of the factories to reduce suicide, or even how poems can be as simple as 2 lines. I was able to expand my mind in these two classes. The expansion of my mind enhanced my sight and vision on the world. Personally I am more disappointed in the U.S. government even more now. I hope I can use what I learned in Mr. Block’s History and English class even further in my high school experience. It was an honor being able to learn all of the things I did.