Marina's Summer Reading Recommendation

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Screen Shot 2012-06-08 at 6.05.23 AM


This phenomenal book is written by the incredible Earl Sewell. It's the story of a young teenaged girl whose life is seriously about to have major changes. This book is filled with drama, passion, and a great message. If I were you I would definitely grab this book and read this book over the summer!

Here is a brief summary:

Maya's summer is shaping up to be unforgettable—in both good and bad ways. First she's sent to stay with her grandmother for a month. Living in the city, Maya is too far from her friend Keysha and her boyfriend, Misalo—and too near her rebellious cousin Viviana. When Maya finally comes home, her parents drop a bombshell—Viviana is moving in with them.Her cousin has barely unpacked before she's creating chaos. Truth is, Maya kind of likes the way life is a whole lot less predictable with Viviana around. But her motives are up for debate—especially when it comes to Misalo. And as Maya's little sister, Anna, grows more fascinated with her cool older cousin, Maya begins to see that following where Viviana leads has its price. And it could cost Maya her reputation, her relationship…and maybe even her future….

Close up 2

Since we couldn't go outside to draw the landscape we drew what we seen. I seen a book bang on the table so I drew it. This book bag was simple nothing to much. I first sketched the bag and made sure it looked like the bag. So then I grabbed some paint, since the bag was blue, black, and yellow writing. I started to paint my outline and things. I did gentle strokes so the painting can look neat and inside of the sketch lines. When I was done I was satisfied.
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IMAG0065

Close Up

Well, I love nature, and how trees look. So I decided to draw a leaf, but be creative. So I drew a leaf that was dead on one side and a live on the other side. I used pastels to draw this picture. I made sure I was extra creative and original. The greens show how live and vibrant the plant is and the brown show death or close to death. This was one of the best picture/ projects i did because it was so original and fun.
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IMAG0067

Abstract emotion

Getting this assignment abstract emotion was challenging, I didn't know how to come at this project. But I started to think of my favorite colors, which is blue. Blue usually symbolize sadness and some type of depressing emotion. So I thought of what you do when you sad or depressed and that's cry. So a eye is where tears come from and Is tarted to paint. I used white, blue, and black. To lighten up the blue or darken the blue. I had fun creating this project, and how I did it.
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IMAG0058

Conjoined Twins :D

I just wanted to do this video because this has always interested me for a long time. I always wanted to know how these kinds of twins where conjoined together. I also thought they where just like that just because . When I seen pictures of this I really didn't believe that this was even real. I noticed that it was real when I first saw it on the news. After, hearing about it and getting an opportunity to do a project on it i took the offer.


I also want to become a neonatal nurse and this good help to get me used to seeing things like this. You don't never know what you will see and have to work on. An neonatal nurse is to help take care of the new born infants and those who are in critical condition. I have a hard time looking at stories like this and this could be something or something similar that I have to work with. 

Alysha

Casi una mujer is a story of a young girl forced to leave her home in pr to live in ny. As she try to "fit in" her culture say she was betraying her. The stories you hear on tv comes to life. Must read for yourself!

Bmx

​I talked about the techniques  that allow riders to perform bunny hops and manuals.  The techniques that went into lifting and maintain maximum height, and how momentum, and energy change affects height as well.  Being able to perform bunny hops is important to more than just bmx, because using it mountain biking can serve a more practical purpose.  I showed how a change in one of the several factors that go into performing one of the hops successfully.
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Screen Shot 2012-06-07 at 5.44.13 AM

Reading

Enjoy this book, you really love it. If you live in West and North Philly you could really relate to the book. It had drama, it was realistic, and told a love story

By:Teri Woods
Title: True To The Game 
Summary:


Gena is a nineteen year old girl living in the projects of Philly. Streetwise and beautiful, Gena has learned at a young age to use her natural born talents to acquire the things she needs in life. Gena has learned that money and power are hot commodities in the rough and tumble streets of Philly. Although Gena doesn't work she is able to wear the finest clothes, spend money like its water and party all the time 
through the men that she dates. 

When Gena meets Quadir, a charismatic drug lord, she is immediately attracted to his status and wealth. Gena loves the fact that Quadir owns the streets of Philly. As Gena and Quadir begin to fall in love, Quadir shares his deepest desires with Gena. Someday, he tells her, he wants to be a dentist and live a legit life. He explains that he got into the drug business in order to support his desitute family. Quadir proposes to Gena (who happily accepts) and tells her that due to all the money he has stashed he is already a millionaire many times over. He has decided to go legit and leave the drug business. As Gena and Quadir prepare to make a life together tragedy strikes, forcing Gena to reevaluate her life and her future. 
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Screen shot 2012-06-07 at 1.52.47 PM

Humanities Portfolio 2012 (Ananda Knight)

This year when I walked into my English class I didn’t know what to expect. I thought that I would be reading lots of books, taking quizzes and writing essays. As the year went by my expectation were proven wrong who would of thought that part of my English/history grade would have anything to do with dancing, or visiting a prison. Throughout the year we have been through quite a journey. Not only did my English teacher Mr. Block teach us grammar and had us read books, but he got us physically and emotionally involved with our lessons. We had many projects to do in which we were allowed to put a lot of creativity into. For example our final "Passing" Project This project was based on the book “Passing” we were given many choices on how we could complete this project. My group and I decided to draw a picture that told a story. There were no real restrictions on what we could or could not do for our project and that really pushed creativity. “Creativity helps you to accomplish something from your heart and that you have strong feelings about.” (Ananda Knight) This project helped me to look into a story pass the words but look for deeper meanings that not everyone will catch. Another project that I really liked was when we got into our poetry unit we wrote many different poems. One of my favorite poems was my “I was raised by poem.” I felt like I could use that poetry topic to express myself in many different ways. “I was taught by
other peoples mistakes, I was taught by my own mistakes.” That is on of the quotes in my I was raised by poem. My poem reflected of lessons, and things I was brought up on. When Mr. Block told us to write poems I didn’t really think I could do it. I guess I just had to believe in myself. Mr. Block helped me to realize that I was a good writer and that if I put my mind and heart into it I could complete a polished poetry Wiki.

About a week ago we were all surprised as a class when our teacher introduced us to Leah Stein from the Leah Stein Dance Company. We were shown some of her work and were told that we were going to be going out into the streets and perform dance pieces in front of a bunch of people. When I first heard about this I thought What does this have to do with English or History. I am already a dancer so I thought this would be really easy. As the days went by I realized that this was not the kind of dance that I was used to. What I didn’t know is that I was actually learning a lesson through movement I even became closer to my peers you can see more about my experience through my Art in the open reflection. As I write this portfolio I think of many different assignments that I could include. We did so much work that has helped us all to grow. The final two projects I wanted to talk about were for one my play. The play put my through my biggest struggle, but “Challenges push you to try harder.” This was very hard for me because never before had I tried to write a play. I started over three times until I finally came up with a great idea. Our play had to have an connection to the world and it was a really cool experience. Finally my language autobiography this was my first time writing something like this. It was not that hard of an assignment because it was basically about yourself. When writing we always went through the same process of having friends and our teachers read over our work and give us lots of feedback. Mr. Block encouraged us to do so as well. When I finally finished my Language autobiography It was really amazing when I read it out loud I was really proud of my work and that is what matters the most.

Overall this year has affected me in many way. From confusion, understanding, and shed tears I feel like I have learned a lot from my time being in class with Mr. Block and my classmates. Everyday I walked into class Mr. Block always had a new way to challenge our minds and help us accomplish something new. I will never forget my experience and how it has helped me to become a great writer and thinker.

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Screen Shot 2012-06-04 at 10.20.22 AM

i,Robot by Issac Asimov

I reccommend Asimov's i,Robot becuase it is an engaging and thought provoking book that you will be difinitely be hooked. You probrably have seen the movie but now it is time to read the book becuase they are nothing a like. I won't get into too much detail so I will let you read i,Robot and will find out for yourself.
Summer Reading Reccomendation; iRobotbyIsaacAsimov
Summer Reading Reccomendation; iRobotbyIsaacAsimov

Humanities Portfolio 2012

Jessica Maiorano

Final Portfolio

  Before I came into his class I wasn’t sure what we were going to do. When I first walked into Mr. Block’s class I wasn’t a good writer and I didn’t like history class but Mr. Block made his projects different and creative. Every project was unique in its on way and that’s what I liked about it. We had the freedom to write our thoughts in our papers.


I wrote a poem the first day of Mr. Blocks English class. He told us to go home and write a page tonight and let the page come out of you then it will be true.

“I am me and that’s who I want to be

 I am fifteen cool, fun and free

 I see and hear just like you

 But very different I am to you”

About a month ago Mr. Block told us to make poetry wiki of all different poems we are going to write in class during our poetry unit. One of poems I was most proud of was my riff poem.

“The feeling you get when you realized you can run all those miles
Every step we take were getting closer
Is that want we want?”  

That quote was only part of my poem but you do not even need to see the rest of it to know that my writing has changed. I have grown as a writer and as a student in Mr. Blocks English and history class.

  There were projects that I found hard and there was projects that I thought were easy but I made sure I turned in my best work. Hard work leads to a lifetime accomplishments. My language autobiography was a writing that I worked hard on. In my Language autobiography I wrote, “Yes, it may take a lot of work and you may struggle and at times it might not make sense but language helps you accomplish greater things.” That is true with language but also with everything else if you work hard enough.


 In history we were learning about sweatshops and revolutions and something I heard a lot when were talking about these topics is “ Once something negative happens then more negative things happen.” When I think about this subject I just think that hope will get you through your challenges. People are making our clothes for lower then minimum wage. They will punish you if you do not do your work correct and all you want is the end. Struggles help you work harder to achieve your goals.

Overall Mr. Block’s class is a class that will help you think outside the box. Create things and write about things you never thought you could do. His collaboration with companies outside of school makes you want you explore new things.
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Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 1.55.19 PM