skateboarding…..

All through this year in English we learned a lot about reading, writing, and most importantly of all, thinking. The Three major categories I think really summarized the year were: Themes from books (Revenge vs. Mercy, and the affect of fear on certain individuals), ESLR’s, and Standards (Grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions. In this essay I will be explaining what I felt that I learned, liked, and what I felt I had the most fun with.
This year one of the major themes that I felt that was most emphasized on was the idea of the affect of fear on certain individuals. I feel this can be properly defined as; the process that happens to a person’s thinking ability when tested with fear and how the person reacts in certain situations. In Lord of the Flies, Jack uses that idea to control the minds of the other children. He mind washes them with ideas of monsters and goons living in the jungle behind them. Out of fear and thinking that Jack is their only hope they all turn to him and soon their judgment is clouded from fear and hate and they end up killing two people. I think that they felt that during this time on the island they were not only afraid but also homesick. I think that over all not only were they scared of dying but they also felt that being in a group of friends who looked out for each other was safer as well. I imagine that in a situation like theirs I would have done the same thing.
In Anne Frank I came to the conclusion that the same kind of dominance and power coming from Hitler was coming from the same types of ideas. He would use fear as a weapon of control and power. He not only used the same weapon as Jack but he used it in the same way. He inflicted fear upon individuals and soon everyone had fear of him and his soldiers, fear of having Jewish family or friends for fear of death, and other countries were now afraid of Hitler and the fear just kept on spreading. This fear helped Hitler win many wars and many countries and kill many people because this fear that he had created was like a wall constricting the ordinary thoughts of justice and wrongness from many people’s minds. Because there was this mind barrier, there many people who joined him. After the war many captured Nazi’s confessed to only joining Hitler for the fear of not joining him. I came to the conclusion that many people probably came to; either do the wrong thing and live, or do the right thing and die. This for me is a very hard decision because as a father for example with a family that works hard every day I would definitely convert into a Nazi and save my family from doom. On the other hand I think that as a hard working individual with no family I would fight against the Nazi’s whether I live or die.
Now lets talk about ESLR’s! ESLR’S being the most repulsive and boring thing that I have learned all year I do think though that I have excelled in them and that they have made me better academically and as a person. The one ESLR that I think that I improved the most on this year was The Critical Thinker ESLR. In English in particular, I feel I did the most things to improve this ESLR. One of the things that I felt that we did that improved my Critical Thinking skills the most were the in-class discussions that we had. During these in-class discussions I tried to stay active and always listen to what the other person was saying. Mr. Raisdana always had an opposing point or idea to throw in the discussions.  For example, he would give us one point make us discuss the point and thoroughly “dissect” it and then he would throw something in there completely opposing the idea we had come to and this lead to me being a much more open-minded person, and to always look at many sides of the stories before coming to any conclusion.  Another thing that I felt that we did that helped me understand my capacities of a critical thinker were the 1,000 word essays.  These essays really helped me expand my region of thoughts from what I did this year to using blooms taxonomy to fully understand everything that I learned this year.
In conclusion, English this year was the class that I enjoyed the most and that I felt helped develop an open-minded thinking process. To end the topic of the affect of fear on certain individuals I have come to the conclusion that fear is the one thing that can never be changed in an individual. It will always remain there. The fact that the fear remains does not mean that we can not overcome it at certain times when necessary, I feel that fear will always remain but there will forever be an individual with the determination to oppose it.

Social Studies Current Events

Daniel Noguera

March 6, 2007

This current event is about a new software that is used to tap wires. The Bush administration insists it holds “inherent authority” to gather intelligence from
U.S. citizens suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda and other overseas terrorists. In early congressional testimony, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalez, talked about concern “about the public disclosure that may endanger the national security of our country.” Critics are not happy by the White House’s latest concession because it constitutes only a temporary reprieve: That is, the Bush administration reserves the right to restart the program at any time. It’s “a bit like a bank robber coming into court and arguing that, although he has been sticking up banks for the past half-decade, he has agreed to a temporary halt and therefore he shouldn’t be prosecuted,” writes Professor James Bamford of the University of California-Berkeley in the New York Times. I believe that this is an important event because for one thing it could cause great economical imbalances because of people not comfortable with having there phone lines tapped. On the other hand it could alos help us catch members of suspeted terrorist groups.

link to essay here

By Nick C.

Hannah B.

And Daniel N.

We created a “commercial” using certain symbols, images and sounds to create something that would tell people about the true horrors of the Holocaust. Here we’ve described them:

Symbols:

Barbwire: symbolizes that the Jews had no freedom in the concentration camps as this barbwire surrounded the entire camp. Barbwire also symbolizes the concentration camps themselves in which many Jews suffered and died.

The dove:  the universal sign for peace and harmony but we felt that it should also symbolize hope, as we did not have a symbol for hope.

The Star of David: symbolizes the Jewish religion and also the persecution of all Jews in Europe at the time of the Nazi occupation. This symbol is both good and bad as it represents the Jews being persecuted but it also represents a religion that some people were very proud to belong to.

Images:

The Jewish persecution is symbolized with the Star of David the Jews had to wear. This image is portrayed in not a very graphic way but it still has a meaning that will show us how wrong we were to treat these people like that.

Death is symbolized by the concentration camps in which most Jews were killed. It is also symbolized by the mass graves that the Germans had the Jews dig before they were killed and buried with hundreds of others.

The Final Solution is symbolized the death in the concentration camps. Hitler called this the final solution because his dream of a final solution was to have no more Jews left in
Europe.

Anne Frank is a symbol of hope to all. She gave hope that they were going pull through. She symbolizes this because of her bright, optimistic character and her belief in the good inside of her.

Sounds:

We used two pieces of music. One had singing, but it was wordless. This was better because it was more of a universal song. It was also very depressive and sad, and at the same time reflective. The second song we used was a song by Enya that had a lot of meaningful words and that went with the last few bits of the “commercial” well. Both were composed by Enya and conducted by Howard Shore of the LOTR the Return of the King album.

Most powerful:

After comparing all of our symbols, images and sounds together, we’ve come up with some of the most powerful. We believe that the most powerful symbol we used was the dove. It was powerful because it was something white and pure amidst the black background. It’s also so powerful because it known world-wide and needs no explanation. The most powerful images we think we used were the concentration camp pictures. These images were filled with death and the horror that was the Holocaust. Those pictures were the real eye-poppers of the “commercial”. And finally we believe that the first song we used was the most powerful because it was universal and it all flowed smoothly together. Because it was wordless, people could really use their own imagination and put the words in themselves, or just listen to its beauty and its sorrow.

ESLR’s:

While doing this project, I believe we improved on some of the ESLR’s. The first ESLR we improved on was the Self-Directed Learner ESLR. We identified our needs and applied appropriate learning skills, or in other words, we took the time to figure out what we needed for the project and we did it. We also took creative risks in developing untried ideas by communicating our ideas correctly and creatively. However, we didn’t demonstrate competency in organizational skills because we all didn’t exactly know what we were doing until Saturday, and even then we were still debating and bickering. We would give ourselves a B+ for this part of the project because of our lack of organization. During the making of this “commercial” we were also definitely hitting the Critical Thinker ESLR. We built meaning and understanding using prior and new information. We achieved this skill by using new signs and old images and sounds to make a project that communicated meaning and understanding. We would give ourselves an A- on this ESLR. Unfortunately however, we didn’t demonstrate very good Concerned Citizen skills. We didn’t show responsibility in active decision making because we couldn’t really ever agree on anything. We switched from commercial to memorial to commercial again. On the other hand, we did exhibit awareness for the religion of others, which was quite a big part on this project. We did this because we didn’t reveal any images, sounds or symbols that in any could offend someone because of their religion or race. For this, we would give ourselves an A. The next ESLR we achieved was the Effective Communicator ESLR. Of course, we did have our occasional fights, which meant that we weren’t demonstrating the skill of effective collaborators, but despite all this bickering, we also incorporated technology as a tool for communication. We used the internet and our thumb drives to get our information to each other and we even used PowerPoint to convey our ideas better. We also wrote this reflection, which shows that we were able effectively communicate how well we thought we did. Anyway, we would give ourselves a B for this ESLR.

Individual work:

Working as a group was not a difficult task for us. We just did not find the right way to organize ourselves. Every one contributed fairly to the project. Nick did the entire PowerPoint presentation while Daniel and Hannah split the write up in two. Four bullet points for each person on the checklist.  Then later on Nick checked the write up to see if it was ok.

Summary:

We created a short “commercial” in order to commemorate the victims of the holocaust or remember Anne Frank. We incorporated specific images, sounds and symbols that would give the audience a deeper understanding and get them thinking. We went through the process of planning, arguing, switching, arguing some more, then switching back again, and then doing the actual project and write up. Group wise, we think we did ok, even though we had our little occasional argument. But project wise (write up included), we think we delivered a great project that incorporated relevant symbols and images and good music to go with it. It was meaningful and it makes you reflect a while before going back to your daily life. Because of this, we think we deserve an A-.

Step 1:
Where did the Aztecs originally live?
-Around 700 years ago the Aztec peoples left their homes in Atzlan, somewhere in North West Mexico. They came to the Valley of Mexico named Anahuac, led by their chieftain Tenoch.

What prompted them to relocate? –

They were a poor, ragged people who ate rats, snakes, and stole food. They were just too wild and nasty. So they were driven from one place to another. But Legend does say that Tenoch had a vision where they were to leave and arrive in a land where there would be an eagle perched on a cactus holding a snake in its mouth. It turns out that they arrived in the snake infested land and there was the eagle!

Where did they end up and why?
The Aztecs ended up in the middle of a lake and built their new capital Tenochtitlan.
Step 2:
What were the pros and cons of settling in the middle of a lake?
Pros: Easy Transportation, easy to sell food and other merchandise.
Cons: Marshy and Snake infested.

Describe the lay of the land and chose an image for your exhibit.

These were islands, made by piling up plants and black sticky mud from the lake. The edges of the chinampa were held in place by wooden posts. Trees were planted to help hold the soil together. People moved about between their chinampas and the causeway to the city in canoes that they hollowed out from trees. Eventually most of the lake surrounding Tenochtitlan was filled with chinampas.
Step 3:
Which gods were worshiped?
Tezcatlipoca-God of the Great Bear Constellation and of the Night Sky. Tezcatlipoca’s animal disguise was the jaguar, the spotted skin of which was compared to the starry sky.
Quetzalcoatl- (from quetzalli, “precious feather,” and coatl, “snake”), the Feathered Serpent was one of the major gods of the Aztecs. Quetzalcoatl was the god of morning and the evening star.

Tlaloc- Tlaloc was the Aztec rain god. His name means He Who Makes Things Sprout. Tlaloc was the eighth ruler of the days and the ninth lord of the nights. Tlaloc was pictured as a man wearing a net of clouds, a crown of heron feathers, foam sandals and carrying rattles to make thunder.

Chalchuitlicu- Before the Sun that now shines brightly over Mexico came into being, there had been other suns; four in all. Each sun died away in turn before our present Sun appeared. The fourth Sun, Chalchuitlicu, had been a water goddess, copper-coloured and dressed in emerald green. For hundreds of years she provided light and warmth; and in that time the first men and women appeared on Earth.
Huitzilopochtli- The Aztec’s main god was Huitzilopochtli. It was he who told the Aztecs where to build their city. He was the Sun god who they fed with human sacrifice. He was the god of war an important god!
-Xipe - Totec - one of the ‘farming’ gods.  He was quite a gentle god compared with some of the others.

Step 4:
Who are the different members of Aztec society?

The Aztec society was divided into 3 classes- slaves, commoners, and nobility.

What are their roles?

Slaves: The children of poor parents could be sold, usually for only a certain time period. Slaves could buy back their freedom.

The slaves that escaped and reached the royal palace without being caught were given their freedom instantly.

Commoners:

The most numerous social group was known as the macehualtin; these people were engaged in agriculture and the common trades. Although they worked the land in family units and were allowed to kept their produce, the land itself was collectively owned by the inhabitants of the neighborhood or calpulli. Commoners were given lifetime ownership of an area of land. The lowest group of commoners were not allowed to own property. They were tenant farmers, they just got to use the land and never be owners. The lower social orders were made up by peasants, who like the European serfs, were attached to the lands owned by the nobility and were obliged to cultivate them in exchange for part of the harvest.

Nobility:

The nobilities were the people who were nobles by birth, priests, and those who earned their rank. The very highest social sphere was occupied by a minority of families known as the pipiltin. These people were members of the hereditary nobility and occupied the top positions in the government, the army and the priesthood. The nobles chose a supreme leader known as the tlatoani from within their own group; in Nahuatl this name means he that speaks. This leader was greatly revered and ruled until his death. In Aztec society, warriors, priests, and the nobility were considered to be among the most respected in the Aztecan social hierarchy Because of the Aztecs’ emphasis on warfare, the warrior class was highly valued, and often warriors would volunteer for the most important Aztec sacrificial rituals.

Step 5:
The Aztecs have a spoken language. What was it called?

The Aztec spoke a language called Nahuatl (pronounced NAH waht l). It belongs to a large group of Indian languages, which also include the languages spoken by the Comanche, Pima, Shoshone and other tribes of western North America.

Did they use any other forms of communication?
The Aztecs also used pictographs to communicate through writing. Some of the pictures symbolized ideas and other represented the sounds of the syllables.

Step 6:
How did the Aztecs grow food and what was their main crop?

The principal food of the Aztec was a thin cornmeal pancake called a tlaxcalli. (In Spanish, it is called a tortilla.) They used the tlaxcallis to scoop up foods while they ate or they wrapped the foods in the tlaxcalli to form tacos. They hunted for most of the meat in their diet and the chief game animals were deer, rabbits, ducks and geese. The only animals they raised for meat were turkeys and dogs.

Did they trade and with whom?

Organized trade was another important economic activity among the Mexican’s. Traders, known as pochteca, were generally held in high regard and their social status was fairly elevated, although they were not exempt from paying tribute. The pochteca covered different trade routes to go to different zones — even going as far abroad as the Maya zone or even as far as what is today Panama

Did they have a currency (money)?
They used cacao as a basic currency while trading in tianguises (trade markets).

Step 7:
Discuss the Impact of Spanish Contact 1519 from both the Aztec point of view and the Spanish point of view.
For the Spanish it was a great victory. They thought they had defeated the greatest empire of mad ragging men, but in truth they had defeated on of the most amazing civilizations. They were astounded at their arrival once they say the great city of Tenochtitlán, and after they won they probably thought that they were the greatest warriors in the world. On the other hand the Aztecs probably felt extremely stupid after losing. This is because when Cortes first arrived they thought he was the reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl and let him have the King’s Thrown. Unfortunately for the Aztecs, he was not. He was sent there to kill  them.
Discuss La Malinche or Dona Marina. Debate her positive/negative impact on Mexico past and present.

Step 8:

Many Mexicans continue to insult the woman called Doña Marina by the Spaniards and La Malinche by the Aztecs, labeling her a traitor and harlot for her role as the alter-ego of Cortes as he conquered Mexico. They ignore the fact that she saved thousands of Indian lives by enabling Cortes to negotiate rather than slaughter. Her ability to communicate also enabled the Spaniards to introduce Christianity and attempt to end human sacrifice and cannibalism. Herself a convert, baptized Marina, she was a powerful believer for her new faith.
What does the term Mestizo refer to?
Mestizo is a term of Spanish origin used to designate the people of mixed European and indigenous non-European ancestry.