Humanities Portfolio 2012

“Language is more than just words that someone says. It’s as much of a person’s identity as is their name is.” This is my favorite quote I’ve written over the course of the year because it taught me so much about myself and it gave me so many opportunities. It is from my Language Autobiography. In that we had to write about what language meant to us. I wrote about my experience in speech therapy.

I’ve learned that hard work can make you stay up the entire night perfecting something, but when you get results you realize that it was all worth it. I worked so hard on the autobiography and my results weren’t just in a grade, but also I had a result from myself. I used to be afraid to put so much about myself out for someone to judge, but maybe it’s a good thing to put all my emotions out in my writing. From doing that in the paper I got the amazing opportunity to present it at University of Penn, where the adults had nothing but great things to say about mine and my peer’s work. I also got my quote put onto the mural my school did, so now in my work I don’t hold back anything.

We did a podcast project where we interviewed someone in our life and tried to get a story out of them. That was the most stressful project of the whole year because since I interviewed my little brother (10 years old), it was very hard to get a story so I had to edit it to make it into a story. I felt like it was not good enough but then when I got feedback it was all good so I realized that sometimes I am too hard on myself. From that I learned that in my work to take a step back and try to look at my work as if I wasn’t the one that created it.

At Science Leadership Academy we publish a lot of work so we have to take things more seriously because then there becomes no room for mistake. With the help of Leah Stein and her dancers we participated in the Art in the Open Festival.  We were split into six groups and told to find a location four blocks away from the school to prepare a dance. If we were not going to be performing for an audience, I feel like the performances would not of been as strong because then there would to a place for people to be able to make mistakes and play around a little more.

From the year we also wrote journal entries, ending the year with more than 100 combined in our English and History class. From these, they were not as stressful and we didn’t feel like they had to be perfect, until we were told to publish 3 of our favorites. It taught us that even if we don’t want to do something or take it seriously, there is always a reason that we still sound. My entries that are my favorite can be seen here, here, and here. They talk about art, life, and leadership, one of my quotes from them are,“​I learned that groups make decisions by leadership and strength.” (Journal 11).

Overall, this year has taught me a lot academically but also about myself.  I’ve done some great pieces of work that I never thought I could accomplish things and be so proud of my work. I learned about how my writing style is, which is that I like to do fact based papers compared to creative writing. Finally, like I stated above, I learned that going all out on my papers is not a bad thing. I feel like before now I didn’t like writing all that much because I was always holding back things that I wanted to add because I didn’t know if I wanted to take a risk and make things personal. 

 

Some other pieces of work from my year…

Pipeline Monologue

Descriptive Essay

Lord of the Flies Thesis Paper

Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 9.23.59 AM
Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 9.23.59 AM

10% Project!

Click to see my Project (: 
-For my ten percent project i made a twitter instead of a Facebook for a famous scientist. The scientist of my choice was Alexander Graham Bell. He was the inventor of the telephone. On the twitter i was tweeting about his accomplishments, and famous quotes. There is only a few tweets but when i talk about it there is more of an understanding. In the bio it tells you about who Alexander Graham is and his background of his life is. Also i tweeted a few pictures of him and also of his inventions he made other then the telephone. Alexander Graham bell was always taken to just invent the telephone but little do many know that behind all the research of the telephone he came about to create and invent other things such as a hydrofoil, a hydrofoil is a boat that is lifted slightly up fromt he water and acts somewhat like a plane would. While tweeting i didn't just make it like i was the speaker. Alexander Graham bell was actually the one who was posting, i made it so you would think that he was the one posting and all the tweets came from him perspective. I hope you enjoy (: 

FIRE STREAM LEGGO!

Hey Fire Stream, 
Field day is just around the corner and we need to kick some butt! 
Here is the place to post your ideas!
Maybe we can have T-shirts with a design on them?
Maybe we will do face painting? 
We need to talk about it because this is our last year and we wanna kick butt and look good doing it!

GO FIRE STREAM!

Humanities Portfolio 2012

This year has seen me grow considerably. My ideas have matured a lot from September to June. Over the course of the year, I feel as though I’ve come across three general understandings that I feel are significant. They show that I’ve grown significantly this year.

            My first general understanding is something I’ve learned a lot about in history. I’ve come across many examples of how conflict is required for social change. Though I’ve realized that this conflict is most successful when violence is not involved. "The French revolution was a revolution in the way that it was carried out, and because of the results of the uprising. It was not however, much of a change for the better. The government in France changed but the difficulties did not end." (French Revolution Reflection) I wrote this after completing the French revolution unit in history. It seemed that the French ultimately didn’t gain anything meaningful after the uprising. My next example comes from my project How to Start a Revolution. I found many examples of successful social change in history that was mostly nonviolent. "There are many different methods of nonviolent protest. An effective one would to have women and children at the front of a demonstration, this would discourage any military force brought up by the dictator from attacking. Another is to humanize the military force by talking and interacting with them. This shows both sides that they are all part of the same country." (How to Start a Revolution) My last example comes from a journal entry I made pretending to be Galileo during his in-house arrest brought on by the church. I feel that he ultimately succeeded by complying and not getting himself killed. "I've resigned to comply with the Church. I’m tired of fighting this fight; it is better for me to reject my work then to die. At the very least I’ve contributed to the scientific community. Even if I’ve not enlightened the public, at least I can say that some benefit from my work."(Galileo Journal Entry)

            My next general understanding comes from a mixture of my classes of English and History. After out many discussions about the issues we covered I feel that the discussion helps me see the full issue. Discussion helps me see all sides of the argument. My first example comes from my Servant Point of View piece. My role was to see the issues that came along with the French revolution through the eyes of one of the lowest members of society. But as we discussed the issues at hand, I learned about all of the higher rungs on the ladder. "I'm just a servant, no one important cares about the likes of me. I just go about my day making sure the palace stays completely perfect. Everything around me costs more then I will ever make in my entire life. The royal family is a group of pigs! They make all the decisions so that they'll always come out on top." (Servant POV) My next example comes from my reflection on the Sweatshop trial we had in History. I realized after the trial was over that I’d begun with a very biased opinion on the matter. It was only until after it was over did I realize that I’d been ignoring half of the points that were made because they were made against my group. "I think that each group that participated in the trial did a good job of representing their organizations. It is especially difficult to do a trial like this when there are no clear victims or groups at fault. All groups defended their positions with relative success, even when they were more clearly at fault in the situation." (Reflection on Sweatshop Trial) My last example comes from my roles as Pope Urban the second during the religious role-play. I feel like the lesson from the French revolution role-play where driven home during this unit. "Hello, I'm Pope Urban the second. I became pope in March of the year 1088" (Religion Role-play)

            My last general understanding comes from the beginning of the year in English 10. I realized that writing out the stories of my life and describing my experiences gives me a fresh view. My first quote comes form my very first assignment. It gave me a vague idea of what I would be doing for the first part of the year. All I had to do was describe myself in a journal entry. "I'm 15 years old, born in Philadelphia/ Spanish is my second language, after 10 years, I'm fluent/ I play soccer, defense, and I work hard. In sports, and everything else/ I have a brother and a sister, I'm the oldest one." (Theme for English 2) Our next assignment that year was to write a descriptive piece about a painting in our house. I was given a new look at the painting after having to describe it in detail. Every time I walk past it in the hall I think of the assignment. "In the foreground, waves rock the two boats as they approach their prey. The men are experts, standing in the their positions, ready for action" (Description of a painting) To finish up the unit, I had to write a whole descriptive essay. In this essay I had to describe several different memories in detail. I think that describing them has helped me remember them more clearly. "As I sat inside, I heard my brother talking animatedly to my sister, to him this is a fun family-bonding treat. He smiles as he runs back and forth, helping the rest of us in the small ways he can" (Descriptive Essay)

            My growth this year has been gradual. But I can see it clearly just by looking at my work in the beginning of the year. My initial reaction is to laugh at myself from a year ago, or to feel embarrassed. But in the end I’m proud, because it shows how far I've come.

 Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 2.33.14 PM

 

Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 2.33.14 PM
Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 2.33.14 PM

History Journal 13#

1. how and why did religion change?

Religion changed from bieng something that people believed in, to what people identified with, to a world wide thing that everyone was told to follow. Nowadays, culture and religion are all together as one, and people have more freedom to believe in what they want. 

International Cookbook

For my senior capstone I decided to create an International Cookbook because I was very interested in going outside my comfort zone. I love languages and I figured that if I could create something in which it helps me travel the world then why not? My partner, Amaris Romero, and I created and modified different recipes from various countries and I made tutorial videos on how to cook them. These videos can be found on my cooking channel on youtube. ENJOY! The recipes were AWESOME and tasty!


Blog Post #2

What did you learn from them? That insults and them playing with you is very similar to the english version

What did you learn about yourself? That it will be easy to insult people in spanish
What were you surprised about? that its so similar to our version of insults

What are you proud of? I won't be horrible at it.

What will you improve on for next time? Learn to insult better.

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Screen Shot 2012-05-23 at 8.39.20 AM

Blog Posts #1

What did you learn from them? That its best to start with a joke about politics.
What did you learn about yourself? That I would be horrible at telling jokes in spanish.
What were you surprised about? That you would jokes about politics first and not the person's friends.
What are you proud of? That I would be horrible at telling jokes in spanish.
What will you improve on for next time? I will study about jokes more before asking the question so I'm not surprised about what their answer is.
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Screen Shot 2012-05-23 at 8.40.10 AM

English B

Sara Nesbitt

English

Poem

9-6-11

 Who am I?

Since I’m in a new class, a new environment, I’d like you to get to know me.

I’m Sara Nesbitt

My favorite things are my friends and softball.

I work hard in school always trying my best.

I have amazing friends to spend my time with, and a great family to come home to.

I love winter; it’s my favorite season.

I used to be a competitive gymnast.

I’m an only child.

I care way to much about everything.

I don’t like pictures.

I’m only 14.

And, my biggest fear is spiders.

 

But don’t worry my life is much deeper than that.

I love my life, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Friends? Couldn’t ask for better ones

School? Best in the world

Life? It changes everyday.

I have many memories I will keep with me forever.

 

One memory I have is when my parents took me to gymnastics competition and I ended up winning first place. It was such an accomplishment; an amazing experience and it only pushed my determination more to work harder.

 

Also, one of my favorite memories is meeting one of my closest friends. It was first day of freshman year, I was a tiny little freshman that people mistaken for a shadow, I didn’t know anyone. But when I go into the bathroom I meet this tall blonde girl that hated Justin Bieber. Now, I can’t go a single day without talking to her and she’s the best friend you could ever have. We understand each other, relate to each other and I couldn’t ask for anyone better.

 

All of those things make up me,

the loves, hates, memories, and fears.

I’m Sara Nesbitt, and that’s who I’ll always be.

 

English B

Sara Nesbitt

English

Poem

9-6-11

 Who am I?

Since I’m in a new class, a new environment, I’d like you to get to know me.

I’m Sara Nesbitt

My favorite things are my friends and softball.

I work hard in school always trying my best.

I have amazing friends to spend my time with, and a great family to come home to.

I love winter; it’s my favorite season.

I used to be a competitive gymnast.

I’m an only child.

I care way to much about everything.

I don’t like pictures.

I’m only 14.

And, my biggest fear is spiders.

 

But don’t worry my life is much deeper than that.

I love my life, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Friends? Couldn’t ask for better ones

School? Best in the world

Life? It changes everyday.

I have many memories I will keep with me forever.

 

One memory I have is when my parents took me to gymnastics competition and I ended up winning first place. It was such an accomplishment; an amazing experience and it only pushed my determination more to work harder.

 

Also, one of my favorite memories is meeting one of my closest friends. It was first day of freshman year, I was a tiny little freshman that people mistaken for a shadow, I didn’t know anyone. But when I go into the bathroom I meet this tall blonde girl that hated Justin Bieber. Now, I can’t go a single day without talking to her and she’s the best friend you could ever have. We understand each other, relate to each other and I couldn’t ask for anyone better.

 

All of those things make up me,

the loves, hates, memories, and fears.

I’m Sara Nesbitt, and that’s who I’ll always be.

 

Emma Hersh Q4 BM - Government and Collapse

For my fourth quarter benchmark, I decided to research the government in some of the places Jared Diamond analyzes in Collapse. He looks at them through the lens of his five point framework which includes environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners, and societies response to environmental problems. Nowhere does he mention the involvement of government in these places. This bothered me, so I researched the history of the government, as well as the current government in China, Rwanda, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. 
Some challenges that I faced while doing the research for this project were finding credible sources and understanding the interworking of each government. Because the way government works is very controversial, finding sources that had no bias was more difficult than I initially thought. I learned about how different each country is, but that still they are tied together by similar governments. The countries that I researched were all different and in different parts of the world, but were still united by poor government decision making and that also added to the collapse of their societies. 
Here is the link to my fourth quarter benchmark website. 

Sarah-Charlotte's Journal Entries.

English Journal #49:

Respond to the quote: 

“If memory helps us to survive, forgetting helps us to go on living.” - Elie Wiesel 



This quote really makes you think. I think that forgetting bad things can help us move on and not dwell on the past. However, remembering may help us survive because you will not want those things to happen to you. If you forget, you will be happy but may not survive long. If you remember you may survive but not live. 


History Journal #10: 

~What is religion? 


Religion is where someone believes something that has to do with something spiritual. 


~Has religion helped the world more than it has hurt it, or hurt the world more than it has helped it? 


I think that religion has helped the world just as much as it has hurt it. Yes, religion can make people not like each other and even start wars, but it has also helped many people personally. For example, the wars in Iraq have been caused by religion as well as other things. 



English Journal #6: 

Write a paragraph starting with this phrase:

“I am always seeing…”


I am always seeing the wind blowing things all around me. My hair, the leaves, the branches, and the birds soaring in the wind. I am always seeing the clouds moving. I am always seeing the people walking. I am always seeing the world around me… but what do other people see? Do they see the world the same way I do? I am always seeing. 

Take up a woman's burden by Maria Latorre

"The White Man's Burden" response:

Take up a woman's burden by Maria Latorre

 

Take up the White Man’s burden.

With there self seen world

That no a woman can take away

Show no woman love

and spit on there face

because they an't smart

so better then a white man's burden

Take up a woman's burden.

 

Take up a woman's burden

who are strong but weak

how slaves over a stove to cook for her family

who works and go to school

while taking care of a kid

not like a white man who only can start a war

 

Take up a woman's burden

no of a white man

cuz weman don't care about skin

but about heart

cuz weman know how to love

and show kindness

even if they don't want to.

 

Take up a woman's burden

one that cleans all do

one that baleaves in freedom

one that know that all types of man

are dangerouse.

Who will never try to burden other

Or be Judgment of their peers.

Humanities Portfolio 2012

Throughout the year mr. Block has constantly introduced me into themes I would never have looked into. He has made me realize that the world’s problems aren’t so easy to solve and that everybody is a little responsible. For example I would always ask why do things like sweatshops still exist. Mr. Block brought it to our attention that there is a system built around these horrible acts and that the honest answer is because you cant give it up. So I looked towards the workers and came to my own conclusion that ”The only way was to stop the process is if the whole country committed to not working at these places. But the reality is that these horrible, long hours, and low paying jobs are all they have.”- Sweatshop trial. 


I have also learned to look at people more equally and understand that freedom is a state of mind. In Finding Freedom by Jarvis Jay Masters it is easily arguable that he was more free incarcerated then ever before in his life. He found himself a new man and a buddhist while in prison. Upon meeting a lama of his religion he said to himself “Here’s a guy who can take me out of prison even as I remain here.” He also began to separate himself from his environment by meditation, as he attempted in “Seeking Silence” a chapter in the book. A negative example of this is the story “Wildwood”. Before she ran away, the girl lived with a mother who she couldn’t stand. In reality, she was free to do whatever she wanted but living with her mother she felt imprisoned and not free todo anything. 


I also learned about leaders and responsibility needed to maintain such a role. I found out that a title means nothing if respect isn’t held in that title. When studying the “Lord of the Flies” unit I theorized that “Authority doesn’t always depend on who is labeled as a leader, but more who is respected the most.” based on the leadership problems in the text. That theory is constantly proved with protests around the world. Those protestors(the people) are being lead by those who they respect and agree with as opposed to who is labeled as their leaders(their government). I was able to reflect on how responsibilities in my childhood can change my character in the future. “Certain responsibilities as a young teen can further Impact your life once you understand the values incorporated.”. 


This course has also taught me the importance on being able to view a situation through multiple vantage points, or “lenses”. We did a project on the book “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” where we took a scene out of the book and portrayed it through either another character’s point of view or a general lens(feminist, marxist, etc.). This skill that I acquired has not only helped me with other assignments in school, but also helps me to understand other people’s feelings and ideas. I found multiple units interesting, and a few of them topics that I would research myself. I feel as though I learned a lot this year and acquired a few skills that will continue to help me throughout life. 

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Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 9.16.34 AM

History Journal #7 – Describe the dominant paradigm of how humans relate to the natural world

​I feel like people are selfish towards society. The reason people are so selfish is because through their whole life, their minds were played with through the means of propaganda and advertisements. Through their lives, advertisement and propaganda said, "If you don't buy/have a certain thing, you are not as good as others." But when the new becomes old, they get the new again. But as you throw out the old, you don't know what that has been through to be made, making you selfish.

  • Ignore Natural Needs
  • No Caring About Pollution
  • Unlimited Resources
  • Respect Everything
  • Manipulate Environment
  • Not Talking About/Shoving Down Throats

Humanities Portfolio 2012

           Throughout the year, with both Copper Stream and Mr. Block, I have created many things that I thought I wasn’t capable of. When I look at both the History Class and English class, I can say that the things we did in here reminded me of kindergarten because the projects showed who we were and what level of creativity we are at. It also showed that we had no limits when it came to writing and Mr. Block just sat back helped us along the way. This whole year he guided through our projects but Mr. Block used a new sense of guiding….he never really told us the answer that we were so used to getting. I think that led me to all of my ideas because there was never really a limit. But I wasn’t always like that, I was always shy with my work, I think its really when I finished my descriptive piece, I saw that Mr. Block’s way of teaching. I was always scared to talk to him because he would change up my ideas but now I see that he has helped me finalize everything and anything from my papers to my podcasts to my ideas. Also, Copper Stream did a lot of collaboration work inside and outside of school so we were never cooped up into a room. We had freedom and learning mixed in together. There are three main things that I have learned about how I can tell my story, the different perspectives that are out there, and how the world isn’t always fair. All of these general understandings helped me become a better writer and helped me have a whole new point of view on how the world will see my work in the future.

With in the first week of school, we had to write our descriptive piece. We had no limit to what we could write about. The next day after writing our pieces, we gathered up into a circle and shared our story. That was when I realized that everyone has a story, it is who we are and the way we chose to tell it is always different. But in the end, it always defines us as people. I saw a whole new point of view on my class and the different individuals learning a long side me. The first project we did was the descriptive essay and we had many mini lessons leading up to the final piece. In this piece we had to write descriptively, using our senses and we had to make sure that the reader not only read our piece but also felt it. When it came time to writing, I felt that "all moments in life are important, but not all are special" (Revised Descriptive Essay Post). I felt as if I could describe at least one thing from each of the years that I was living, in detail but I didn’t know what to focus it on so I chose to write about my camera because it caught all of the emotions, actions, and moments from my past years. After that project, the language unit came next and I felt that I had a strong connection to this unit because my family speaks multiple languages and I act as if a translator. Until I wrote everything down, I didn’t realize how much I could help my family and what I am capable. Language has changed my life so much. When we were asked to talk about what language meant to us, I said: "I think that the language and the way you use it depends on how you grew up and self choices. Your speech is a part of your identity and your identity is what people will know once you have the power to speak. That's how I see it" (Worksheet Scene: Your Language Identity).

While growing up my parents would use words that weren’t real but I would say those words like they were real. "I’ve grown into those words thinking they were real and usable but they weren’t. They were only to the “fresh off the boat” people because that’s the slang they spoke" (Q2 Family Dictionary). In the end, "I struggled with my reflection because I had so much to say but there are so few words to describe it with. This is a feeling hat I can never describe. That's how amazing it is. I've learned that what I do is not necessarily a common thing and that putting it on paper makes me feel proud and happy of what I can do. Writing this autobiography was a blast" (Language Autobiography Reflection Sheet).

Language isn’t the only thing I learned in this class, I’ve learned that I can speak my mind in this class and discuss my ideas with others. Throughout the whole year, I had problems with sticking to one main idea. I would get a bazillion ideas and become sad when I couldn’t use them. During the Art in the Open unit, my group and I concluded that "We had so many ideas but we couldn’t portray it out correctly so we just had to drop them. It came to a point where the deadline was coming up and we had nothing" (Art in the Open Reflection). But when I finally got my ideas together, I had a work of art! An example of this is the podcast about my father’s journey and the boundaries he had to over come while making his way to America. "I tried my hardest trying to pull listeners into my dad's journey and life. I made sure he described everything" (Podcast Reflection Sheet).

During the whole year, my personal ideas have allowed me to impersonate, create, and be the person I probably would never be. We started off the year with the Spirituality Role Play unit. In this unit, we were given a role to research, answer questions too, and impersonate as we sat in a circle. I was given the role Karen Armstrong. It was the first time I got to act like some one I wasn’t. I always thought that role plays needed scripts, a stage, and actors…like Broadway but we didn’t. All we needed was our research and a big circle. For our next role play, I chose the role of King Louis the sixteenth. In this role, I had to act like a spoiled king. I often said during the role play: “All men are born equal to their estate. Nothing more, and a lot less. That's how it was when I was King and everything was fine. Also, if a man needs to be killed, then so be it…what does it have to do with me? I am living. I do not need to worry about any of the peasants. They barely do enough as it is” or I would be carefree and say: “I am royalty so don't worry…you can worship me as you please. People called me the wishy washy king because I satisfied neither the royalists nor the reformers.”

But my personal ideas didn’t stop there, the class and Mr. Block soon explored the Keystone Pipeline and how it affected everyone. We had to look in the point of view from a tiny fish to the big CEO man overseeing the blueprints. I chose to do three monologues…one was a girl that was saying good bye to her tree, the other person was an actor that was protesting a long the White House, and the last one was a conflicted worker building the pipeline in Canada. For this project, I had to keep an open mind to all of the point of views, Personally, I hated the idea of the pipeline so I wanted to focus on that but there are so many different point of views on hate like sadness, confliction, confusion, or anger. All of those things could apply. My first monologue had a girl named Janie talking to her tree, Bruce. Bruce was a tree that she grew up with and now that her family has chosen to move away from the pipeline, it meant Janie had to move away from Bruce. Janie starts to tell Bruce his expected future: "Everything will be gone but we’ll soon be gone before it" and "I tried to argue back saying we’re leaving you, our view of everything, and our memories" (Janie, Monologue #4). The next monologue was based off of the protesting in front of the White House about the Keystone Pipeline. I involved an actor into this scene because I wanted to shed a light that regular working class people aren’t the only ones with a say in what goes on. Many celebrities protest and stand up for their rights. Daryl Hannah, an actor, did that and that is why I placed her as a main character in my monologue. With that one cry for change, the U.S Park Police zip-tied a nylon cuff restraint onto my writs and threw me into the back of the car and I was brought to the slammer“ (Daryl Hannah, Monologue #1). As I said above, I can be someone that I am in when I write. When writing “The Missing Chapter 26” to the book, Things Fall Apart, it was no different. I could say things like: “I am a man, a man of my tribe and family. But the man inside of me is now gone.”

                   Throughout most of the year, we had the honor to work with Kate McGrath. She helped us create a play with her creative ideas and different techniques of writing. At first, I didn’t know what I was going to write about…what struck out to me…I didn’t want to write about family problems, or friendship and their dramas...I just wanted to write something that no one would know about so I explored the websites that Mr. Block gave to us and crossed a video…”Heaven’s Border”. This video struck me at the heart because my family came from a different country with nothing, legally and it was already hard enough for them. I wanted to show people what others will do to pursue their dreams and I wanted people to try to understand the hardships people go through for freedom. In my play, I had three main characters, strangers that would come together to make a make-shift family. Together, they flee North Korea by entering China, Laos, Thailand, and then they must finally seek asylum in South Korea. The journey is not easy because of the abusive smugglers and heartless border officials. At the end of the journey, only two of the main characters make it out of the three that started the journey. During the whole play, I was the minds of all of the characters from the cruel smugglers to seven year old girl trying to change her life. I was everyone and anyone in my play. I would either say: “Nuna, nuna, wake up! We’re all going to die!” (Dong Dong) to a receptionist in North Korea: “Thank you. Respect the general! Long Live the Sun of the 21st CENTURY! - Kim Jong Il. FIGHTING FIGHTING!” One of the reasons I was so interested in the play is because I got to create everything and bring in all of the work and my creativity together. I worked day and night on the play, finding info and watching more videos…and when I finally understood how the officials could treat the defectors so badly, I wrote the last part of the play. I had the main character who was caught, shot, and beaten say: “There are guards watching me until I can walk again and when I can walk, I will have to wear this weird monitor thing around my leg so they can find me. I have to keep it hidden too. But when I am done this torture, I will get out and find you guys. My mom has money for an airplane ticket so I don’t have to revisit any of those places” (Ji Yong, Breaking Borders).

In conclusion, I felt that this year was a very strong year for me because my work brought me to different places like: UPenn for my Language Autobiography and Temple to watch and get ideas for our plays! In all, I would not take anything back from this year. I feel as if everything has happened for a reason and I have a new view on writing and how I should incorporate my creativity into all of my work and not pass down any opportunities that come my way. 

Screen Shot 2012-06-06 at 11.35.28 PM
Screen Shot 2012-06-06 at 11.35.28 PM

Humanities Portfolio 2012

            Throughout the year, with both Copper Stream and Mr. Block, I have created many things that I thought I wasn’t capable of. When I look at both the History Class and English class, I can say that the things we did in here reminded me of kindergarten because the projects showed who we were and what level of creativity we are at. It also showed that we had no limits when it came to writing and Mr. Block just sat back helped us along the way. This whole year he guided through our projects but Mr. Block used a new sense of guiding….he never really told us the answer that we were so used to getting. I think that led me to all of my ideas because there was never really a limi. But I wasn’t always like that> I was always shy with my work, I think its really when I finished my descriptive piece, I saw that Mr. Block’s way of teaching. I was always scared to talk to him because he would change up my ides but now I see that he helped me finalize everything. Also, Copper Stream did a lot of collaboration work inside and outside of school so we were never cooped up into a room. We had freedom and learning mixed in together.

·       Everyone has a story, it is who we are and the way we chose to tell it is always different. But in the end, it always defines us as people.

o   Art In the Open:

§  "We had so many ideas but we couldn’t portray it out correctly so we just had to drop them. It came to a point where the deadline was coming up and we had nothing" (Art in the Open Reflection).

o   Descriptive Essay

§  "All moments in life are important, but not all are special" (Revised Blog Post).

o   Language Auto Bio

§  "I’ve grown into these words thinking they were real and usable but they weren’t. They were only to the “fresh off the boat” people because that’s the slang they spoke." (Q2 Family Dictionary)

§  "I struggled with my reflection because I had so much to say but there are so few words to describe it with. This is a feeling hat I can never describe. That's how amazing it is. I've learned that what I do is not necessarily a common thing and that putting it on paper makes me feel proud and happy of what I can do. Writing this autobiography was a blast"

o   Discussion

§  "I think that the language and the way you use it depends on how you grew up and self choices. Your speech is a part of your identity and your identity is what people will know once you have the power to speak. That's how I see it" (Scene: Your Language Identity: http://moodle.scienceleadership.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1583 )

o   Podcasts

§  "I tried my hardest trying to pull listeners into my dad's journey and life. I made sure he described everything." (Podcast Reflection)

o   The Some bodies:

§  “Goals passed around like secrets, and the dreams of for filling the idea of becoming some bodies. Stories being passed down from generation to generation, spreading like the obligation of following the latest trends on the stands. But none of those things are ever forgotten. Just placed somewhere else other then the top of the mind.”

·       My personal ideas have allowed me to impersonate, create, and the people I want to be.

o   Role Plays:

§   

o   Monologues

§  "Everything will be gone but we’ll soon be gone before it." or "I tried to argue back saying we’re leaving you, our view of everything, and our memories" - Janie, Monologue #4

§  With that one cry for change, the U.S Park Police zip-tied a nylon cuff restraint onto my writs and threw me into the back of the car and I was brought to the slammer.  (Daryl Hannah, Monologue #1)

§  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1suPBJiZMJCzFjTaoWDRhkIQo4CSAmnTiyM_2adX8RcY/edit

 

o   Discussions

§  Things Fall Apart https://docs.google.com/document/d/19uKxAJYz6bWwvgDwqN2Af00iQAG8ZHLAzBhCnjmFy6A/edit

·        

o   Plays:

§  https://docs.google.com/document/d/16AMTojiVy9nAJB_LAvESmHDAb0YT1_0Fh_yWRNoZ1ec/edit

§  Nuna, nuna, wake up! We’re all going to die!” (Dong Dong, Monologues)

§  “Thank you. Respect the general! Long Live the Sun of the 21st CENTURY! - Kim Jong Il. FIGHTING FIGHTING!” (Telephone lady, Breking Borders)

§  There are guards watching me until I can walk again and when I can walk, I will have to wear this weird monitor thing around my leg so they can find me. I have to keep it hidden too. But when I am done this torture, I will get out and find you guys. My mom has money for an airplane ticket so I don’t have to revisit any of those places.” (Ji Yong, Breaking Borders)

·       Inequality is something seen all around the world. However, we have the power to change that. 

o   Play

o   “Rich and Poor. Rich get richer and poor gets poorer.”

§  In response to question two, it asks for my opinion of the statement: “Poor countries need investment, so it’s a good thing when transnational companies invest there.” I do not agree with the statement because poor countries don’t need transnational companies to invest into them because if it was like the way our class portrayed it, then that would mean the transitional companies are abusing the country’s people and harming their environment. To make the situation better, the poor countries should work with the respectful companies instead of trying to make a quick buck that isn’t even worth that much. The poor countries should know that they don’t have to be abused for their land in order to make money. There are other ways when it comes to making money while keeping the people of the country and the environment healthy and clean.

§   

o   The communist manifesto