The King is Dead!

The last week in M1 has definitely been hard. Under the oppressive reign of tyranny by Mr. Coyle we suffered quite a bit. For instance, shy little Lucas was pointed out as a conspirator of treason simple for singing his ABC's with his soft voice. This is like the colonists of AmericaThat must show at least some of the tyranny that King Coyle was layin' down. There was also much injustice in the classroom as we were denied of our basic rights. Poor little children with short term memory relied on agendas to remember their assignments. When they forgot to do an assignment King Coyle promptly whipped them and accused them of treason and what not. This resembles the stamp act that the British enforced with the colonists. If someone wasn't able to pay the tax on their paper they might not be able to make something like a newspaper that many people needed. They could even be punished for this! There was even some self-determination in M1 as some people refused to pay the taxes that King Coyle gave, just as it happened with the colonists of America. The autopsy regarding the king's death is speculated to relate to stress and an unusual amount of meat eaten as the king sat in a chair by the ocean. I simply felt that he died because of how wonderfully funny he was. He was very funny. He was so funny he made funny people look...not funny.

Feedback to the 43rd War

1. I think that the 43^rd war takes place in the country of El Salvador. One reason for this is that I know there is a volcano in the story called Atlacatl, and one specially trained battalion of Salvadoran soldiers called the Atlacatl unit, and they are named after a great Salvadoran ruler from history. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlacatl_Batallion). Also, in El Salvador there is much volcanic activity, and in the book Uno talks about one volcano in particular that he thinks will erupt on him. One other reason that I think the story takes place here is because the main language of El Salvador is Spanish, and that is the language spoken in the 43^rd War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Salvador). Finally, there is a history of civil war in El Salvador between the government and rebels (New York Times). This relates to the book closely. After examining everything it is evident that the 43^rd War may very well have taken place in El Salvador.

2. The reason that Moeri does not specify the location of the story is because she did not want readers to be under the impression that child soldiers are only used in one country. In reality child soldiers are used all over the world on many different continents.

Works Cited

"Atlacatl Battalion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Main Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 29 Jan. 2008 .

"El Salvador - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Main Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 29 Jan. 2008 .

" SALVADORAN ARMY MOVES INSIDE ZONE - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 29 Jan. 2008 .

Response to Cartoon (Colony Snake)

The main visual elements in this cartoon are both the divided snake and the writing at the bottom of the cartoon. This cartoon addresses the issue of the British trying to control the colonies. It says that the colonies need to join together in order to defeat the British, otherwise they will be defeated themselves. The cartoonist supports the alliance of the colonies. He feels that they will be much stronger against the British if they are together. This is shown by how each separate part of the snake represents a colony. It is shown in the form of a snake forming from the colonies joining each other, and that with all of these colonies together this snake could win a war. The cartoonist could have used color as a way to emphasize the writing and the snake. He also could have made the snake more detailed to emphasize how deadly the colonies could be together.

TBAS Feedback

In today's world it is important to realize that not everything that is said is true. People can and will lie and no one can stop that. The important thing is that you go deeper into issues. The book To Be a Slave is quite believable. The main reason is that Julius Lester did not write this book solely with his own opinions. The majority of the book is made up of real accounts of ex-slaves. Actual books and collections from sources such as the library of congress are used in To Be a Slave. Another reason that this book is realistic is from the vivid details of the written contributions from slaves. For instance in chapter two in the account from Nancy Williams she seems to recall exactly what was said during one moment when she was younger (Lester 42). However, this also raises the question of how someone might remember so many small things, and how it would be possible to simply create these writings and say they are actual accounts.

Lester, Julius. To Be A Slave. New York City: Scholastic, 1968.

Great Powers Game Debrief

In the great powers game I was the USA. It was very fun to expand my empire through conflict, colonization and more. The countries who started with 4 economic points had a slight advantage over other countries because they could have more of what they wanted with economic points. In the end my empire was in the lower half of the class as far as economic points. In the end buying navy proved to be very unhelpful, as one navy was only half the strength of one army. The main things an empire needed were industry and army. This way you could keep gaining economic points while establishing protection. Our empire did well in establishing relations with other empires, but if I could do the game again I would have started by buying many industries. Then, when I would have a large amount of economic points I would buy army. From my experience alliances were oftentimes worthless. Countries would betray us yet some would stay as allies. For the most part they were unpredictable. I also learned that in conflict treaties are often ignored, many allied countries can often defeat a more powerful country, and also that the help of other empires is vital to having a successful empire.

Goal Feedback Q2/ New Goals Q3

I achieved my goals for the most part. I studied well for my tests and because of that I managed to score well on my tests. Also, I was able to do my homework at better paces and therefore I was able to do the things I wanted to do after that. Although I did well with AR I would still like to start my book earlier because I still had to read a lot when I started late.
For quarter 3 I would once again like to start my AR book early so I don't have much reading to do at the end of the quarter. I also want to start my population project earlier so I can go at an easier pace and hopefully have time to spare before it is due. Finally, I want to be able to have better notes to help me to study with.