Humanities 8 Joel

What is Power?

2008-05-20T00:51:00.000-07:00

Power needs to be divided equally among people. Power is the ability for a person to make decisions for themselves and/or for others whether those decisions are right or wrong. When people have power, they are not contested when they make choices because they are viewed as people who know more about that choice than anyone else. This can cause problems if someone in a position of power makes decisions for their benefit, but that are negative for the people that are affected by this person's power. In our world, power should be more divided between people all throughout the world.
Power can cause negative things also. In the words of Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely". A good example of corruption would be in animal farm as the pigs rule over the other animals fairly at first, but because of the power soon begin to torment the animals. Power can cause many relationships to break. For instance, Stalin and Trotsky worked together in peace, but Stalin wanted to have all of the power and so he banished Trotsky. This is perfectly described in a quote by Henry Brooks Adams that states, "A friend in power is a friend lost". One again this subject of power has appeared in Mr. Coyle's class when we read Julius Caesar. As Julius Caesar had power, many people who he had been friends with turned into his enemies.
In conclusion, the amount of pain and suffering that has come from one person having power shows that power must be distributed equally. Power should not be given to only one person, because history has proved that when this occurs, that person tends not to rule fairly. This absolute power is what is known as tyranny.

Gobalization Cartoon

2008-05-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

The main visual elements in this cartoon are a dad talking to his daughter and the daughter appears to be angry. This cartoon is about the issue of companies taking advantage of developing countries by using the cheaper labor in those countries. The cartoonists believes that outsourcing takes advantage of the workers in the developing countries. The cartoonist shows this by using homework to represent things that could be easily done without outsourcing and taking advantage of underpaid laborers. Also, it shows that people are becoming used to outsourcing. Outsourcing is a large part of globalization. It connects countries that work together for business purposes. It is only one of many elements of globalization that we have studied in class. The cartoonist could have also shown the very low price of outsourcing to make the cartoon more persuasive.

Population Project Feedback

2008-05-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

The three most valuable things I learned from population project were essay writing, citing sources, and making graphs. I know that in the future I may have data that I will want to display for a project or anything else. By knowing how to use a graph I am able to efficiently display this data. By learning to write proper essays I have learned about transition words to make my writing more fluent, and also how to write proper individual paragraphs which I can use whenever I write. Finally, I learned how to cite sources. I know that this will be very important for me in the future because I need to show that my writing does not have plagiarism, and citing sources shows how I received all of my information, and also how I paraphrase that information.

Equality VS. Sameness

2008-04-28T02:22:00.001-07:00

The word “equality” often is used in context with how people are treated as compared to other people. For instance, in today’s world the theory is that everyone should be treated equally. This means that people of all sexes, races, religions, and more should be given the same treatment. The word “sameness” has a very different meaning to me. Sameness would mean that there were no races, religions, or anything else to be equal. There would be nothing to be treated the same considering they are all the same. In The Giver, there are many examples of sameness. Each family has the exact same structure, all boys must take pills for the stirrings, everyone rides bicycles, and everyone must share their dreams within families in the morning.

Work Plan (Humanities)

2008-04-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

Monday – Finish Research

Tuesday – Begin Data Analysis

Wednesday – Work on Data Analysis

Thursday – Work on/ Finish Data Analysis

Friday – FINISH DATA ANALYSIS!

Blog-Boy Cartoon Feedback

2008-03-31T00:12:00.000-07:00

The main visual elements of this cartoon are a family sitting at a table for dinner, and the father talking to the son. This cartoon is addressing the issue of blogs and other ways of electronic communication, and how these items are reducing the amount of verbal communication that we have. The cartoonist feels that there needs to be more actual face-to-face talking for people to develop socially. He feels that electronic communication is not a good way to be social. The caption on this cartoon describes how the father would simply like to ask his son a question considering they are together, but the son relies on the internet too much to express what he needs to say. This shows that the cartoonist feels that sometimes people should just talk to each other when they are together. What is ironic about this situation is that we are responding to this cartoon by posting a blog. The cartoonist could have had the son working on a laptop/talking on the phone, or using some other form of electronic communication.

Kurt Vonnegut Response

2008-03-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

I think that there are two sides to Vonnegut’s argument. On one hand I agree that man should always be higher than the machine. Technology should never be better than man, and it is the responsibility of those who make technology to realize that. Today many people think of computers as smarter than themselves, but it is important to realize that technology was made by man in the first place. In The Euphio Question the characters let their own invention take over them.

On the other hand, I think that technology is very useful. Today there is so much technology used in so many different ways. It can be used for helping someone who would otherwise not be able to function properly such as in the form of wheelchairs, hearing aids, Braille, glasses, casts, medication, and more. Today many people use technology to have fun by using television, video games, Mp3 players, and airplanes to travel.

Technology Reflection

2008-03-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Technology is anything that is man made and used to help society in some way. There are two sides of technology being used in school. The first side is that it is good in the sense that we can use it to check grades, write, save information and much more. The downside is that you can not trust technology to keep this information safe all the time.

5 Most Important Technological Items

iPod
Computer
Internet
PSP
Xbox 360

5 Least Important Technological Items

PS3
Nintendo Wii
Roomba
Asimo
Pocket Protectors

Q4 Goals

2008-03-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

Due to my planning for population project that I have already done I have succeeded in one of my goals. I have not succeeded in taking better notes to study with because my test scores have not been excellent this past quarter. I did, however, start my AR book earlier like I had planned, and therefore I had less to read at the last minute.
One goal I have is that I would like to get a new agenda for quarter four. An agenda helps so much with planning and mine just broke. I would also like to type faster during quarter four. In high school I will be doing a lot of typing, and so it would help me to be able to type well. Finally, I want to plan out my photo essay and my interview for population project early this quarter.

Holy War

2008-03-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

Holy War is an oxymoron because Holy tends to have peaceful connotations while War is thought of as quite the opposite of that. I think that those who fight "Holy Wars" are simply using their religion as an excuse for a hidden agenda. They might be simply hateful of certain people, and if they decided to attack those people they could just blame it on their religion. I don't think that a religion should have to have a bad name only because certain people who also practice their religion do bad things.

D.O.I. Response

2008-03-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

When a group of people need to separate from another group of people for their own good, they should give their reasons. We think it is obvious that all men are created equal and they have the basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If anyone takes away these rights, people should be able to make their own government. The current king has not rightfully taken the throne, and has become a tyrant over us. These are our reasons why he is a tyrant. He has not cared for our laws. He makes people do what he says. He has taken away our representation. He has made judges dependent on him. He is always deploying troops even during times of peace, and they annoy us. He also started many acts that we are opposed to. He made us share our homes with soldiers. He taken away our trade with the world, and given us unfair taxes. For falsely accusing us and trying us without a jury present. He has waged war upon us and destroyed our lives. We simply would like to have our own government. We would treat England like every other country. We are telling you that we are now our own country.

Cold War Simulation

2008-03-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

In the Cold War simulation I was USA. One tactic we used was to be prepared for any weapons that the USSR might send our way. This meant using quite a lot of points on buying missile defense systems. We also tried to buy many economic, food, and military aid points to be able to persuade countries to ally with us. If we could get countries to ally with us then we would have their strength points to use to get even more methods of persuasion.
I think that in our simulation the USSR and USA both won, and that all of the allies would technically lose. I thought this because by allying with either side they were in risk of being attacked by nuclear weapons. Then again, the regions of Europe and Africa obviously profited from these alliances, so I don't know if there are any clear winners. I think that the USA won the Cold War, but paid many prices to do so. They had heavy casualties in Vietnam and Cambodia, and suffered embarassment during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. I think they won because in the end the USSR had crumbled and many people opposed their ideas like the Berlin Wall.

Visual Communicator

2008-03-03T01:01:00.000-08:00

The process of making a video on visual communicator consists of filming parts of the whole video, and in the end putting them all together. We filmed and edited Shuk's part, Sameet's part, and my part and put them together to make a final video. The editing consists of adding images, titles, and transition scenes to make the video pretty.
I would definitely say that although it seems obvious, it helps a lot to not waste any time and finish as much as possible in a short time. This way you are less stressed on the last day and maybe even have time to start other work. Also, you don't want to wear a green shirt when filming because you will appear invisible on the V-Screen. Finally, Make sure that you adjust your video settings to get rid of as much fuzziness as possible.
The worst parts of the VC process were when one member of our team was unsatisfied with his video, and kept complaining because there was no time to change it. Another bad part was that the video adjustments were difficult to set so there were no fuzzy spots. The best parts of the VC process were definitely being able to make it look like I was a reporter, and also making the editing look very professional.

VC Speech - Cambodian Genocide

2008-02-27T20:09:00.001-08:00

Hello, This is Joel Witt live from Cambodia, continuing our discussion regarding the Cambodian Genocide. Within days of overthrowing the government, Pol Pot and his army known as the Khmer Rouge began a ruthless campaign to reconstruct Cambodia. This mission is known in Khmer as “Kampuchea”, and the goal of Khmer Rouge was to create a model of Maoist China, and to force the whole population to become laborers working on a series of farms throughout the country. All basic rights of the Cambodian people were stripped from them, and everyone living in the cities were forced from their homes and taken away to labor camps or even prisons like the one I am currently standing in. Those who refused to leave or did not leave fast enough were murdered. Schools, universities, and even hospitals were closed. Scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and virtually all educated Cambodians were killed along with their families. Religious practice was forbidden, and many leading Buddhist monks in Cambodia were executed. The Khmer Rouge banned all music and radio, and they were known to shoot people for simply wearing glasses, laughing, or crying. Minority groups also became victims of the Khmer Rouge’s racism and hate. Those who had Chinese, Thai, or Vietnamese ancestry were killed as well as Christians and Muslims. Those who were able to avoid death were forced to work on farms for no pay, very little food, and for extremely long hours. Within a short amount of time the laborers fell ill from starvation and overwork, and eventually died due to lack of treatment. Despite all of these killings, the Khmer Rouge leaders such as Pol Pot were paranoid that they might lose their power, and therefore began to question, imprison, and execute their own Khmer Rouge members on the smallest suspicions of treason. The death toll of this period in Cambodian history is well over 2 million people. This has been Joel Witt reporting live from Cambodia. Back to you Sameet.

AF Movie Response

2008-02-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

To be honest I liked the book Animal Farm much more than the movie. I think that the movie ruined some key points of the book and there were some unnecessary differences between the book and movie. Also, in the movie it seems like they are trying to make it seem like a happier story then it is supposed to be. The movie has a very happy and warm ending when it is not supposed to be like that. The point of the book was to show how grim the situation was.

There were many differences between the AF book and movie. One of the noticeable differences was that the dog had a much more important part in the movie than in the book. Also, the book states that a storm destroyed the windmill, while in the movie a desperate Mr. Jones blows up the windmill with explosives. Another difference is that in the movie they took the television from the farmhouse and brought it to the barn. This never happened in the book. One final difference between the book and movie is that the cat which appears in the book is not at all in the movie.

Overall I feel that the Animal Farm book is much better than the movie especially because of the differentiating plot at the end of the movie, and because of some of the skewed facts in the movie that change the point of the story.

2008-02-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

Out of all the characters in Animal Farm I associate most with the character Snowball. The reason I say this is because I am usually quite good at coming up with plans, and so is Snowball (Orwell p. 26-27). Snowball plans the defense of Animal Farm very well, and that is why the animals were successful against the humans in the Battle of the Cowshed. They fought with very good strategy and Snowball himself had divided the animals into their own posts (Orwell p. 27). I also think that I can take leadership of things when people don’t know what to do, and Snowball also exhibits this quality throughout the book when he convinces the animals to work (Orwell p. 16)

Sources Cited

Orwell, George. Animal Farm: Centennial Edition. New York: Plume, 2003.

2008-02-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

I am a citizen of the USA and my country does not have rules for mandatory military service. However, a draft can be put into place if needs be where the government will select people to serve in the military. I'm glad that I am not forced to join the military. I think that as long as there are enough volunteer soldiers the government shouldn't need to make unnecessary forced service to those who don't want to join. On the other hand, I would join the military if I knew that we were in danger and didn't have enough volunteer soldiers to fight.

The King is Dead!

2008-01-29T21:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-27T23:45:00.000-08:00

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)

2008-01-22T10:44:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-06T21:18:00.000-08:00

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.

Hotel Rwanda Response (Topic #2)

2007-12-11T18:58:00.000-08:00

There are many ways that the world failed the people of Rwanda during the genocide. First, the French sponsored and supplied weapons to the Hutus. The French gained profit from the bloodshed of the Tutsi people. Similar to this, there were extremely large amounts of machetes being imported from China. It is clear that these machetes were not meant for agricultural use. Many of the events contributing to the Rwandan genocide were caused by Belgian imperialism that occurred earlier in Rwanda. Therefore, it is not right that when about 2,000 Tutsi refugees came to a UN troops compound for shelter, the Belgian soldiers guarding the compound abandoned the Tutsis and left them to die. Lastly, it would have been possible for some kind of intervention force to help the Tutsi people, although the world simply watched this happen, knowing everything that was happening in Rwanda. Due to these facts it is evident that the world failed the people of Rwanda.

The Scramble for Africa

2007-11-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

The strategy that my group and I used was to first claim the resource rich areas of West Africa, which was our objective area. After we completed this we continued to claim more parts of Africa aside from the west that had valuable resources. We also tried to determine the objective areas of other countries, and we tried to claim that and instead of them. One factor we considered was to claim areas where there was enough of a population to provide labor. It is a very close finish between GB and France, but I think that France won due to our claiming of areas that were very rich in raw materials, and we covered almost all of our objective area. Spain lost this game. The area that Spain claimed is very scattered, and the main area that Spain claimed has essentially no natural resources.

5 Themes

2007-11-19T00:55:00.000-08:00

Movement - The movement of people or ideas. (p. 138) In this part of the story the people of Umuofia see a white man and a bicycle for the first time. The white man and the bicycle both moved to Africa from other places.

Region - A group of countries sharing things in common. (p. 105) This part of the story is about a group of villages that are all along a pathway that Okonkwo's village is on. These villages are a region.

Human-Environment Interaction - The way humans come into contact with the environment. (p. 69) There is a passage on this page explaining that the men of Umuofia get their palm wine from tapping the palm trees.

Location - Where something is. Can be relative or absolute. (p. 209) A missionary living with Okonkwo's people writes a book telling us that the village of Umuofia is most likely located in Nigeria.

Place - What it is like at a given location. (p. 36) Yams are very important in the village of Umuofia. The new year is even centered around the harvesting of yams.

Political Cartoon

2007-11-11T19:10:00.000-08:00

The main visual element of this is definitely the octopus arms. Other elements include the fat face of a man and his top hat. The issue is about England's imperialism over much of the world, and how they are in these countries unrighteously. The author is against imperialism, because he shows the man symbolizing england as a monster of some sort. He may also believe that England is getting rich from what they are taking from these countries. This is shown by the top hat of the man and how he is fat, again symbolizing that he is rich. I think that the cartoonist could have used more interesting color to emphasize some of his main points. In terms of C.R.A.P. the author created good alignment horizontally and vertically, used repetition in the octopus arms, and it is hard to tell about the proximity but the octopus arms are all coming from the face.

Violence

2007-11-05T01:05:00.000-08:00

From examples in Julius Caesar and events in the world today it is easy to see that violence does lead to more violence. In Julius Caesar a group of traitors assassinate Caesar. This in turn leads to the murder of innocent Romans and a war between Antony and conspirators. In the end Cassius and Brutus die. One violent act led to all this. In the real world there are also acts of violence that lead to more violence. One example is the terrorist attacks on the world trade center in New York City. This led to an invasion of Afghanistan and a conflict with the Taliban.

Reflection on Leadership

2007-10-21T20:09:00.001-07:00

There are a few qualities that leader must have, and I think one is authority and command. A leader must be assertive when making judgment. A leader must also show respect and tolerance for the people that they lead. They must realize that people will make mistakes, and they must be able to deal with that. Lastly, I think that leaders should be intelligent and just. They should be able to have strategies planned to protect the people they lead and they should be fair and unbiased when judging social matters between people.
I think that a good example of a student leader in 8th grade is Avi Singh. He is always friendly to everyone and I think that anyone could talk to him if they needed to. He is in SLAMS and makes many decisions for our grade.

PT Conference Blog

2007-10-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

MY BEST WORK

I think that my best work in humanities was on my Industrial Revolution project descriptive piece. It was written from the point of view of an employee of Henry Ford. I worked hard on this piece and I had to know many facts before I could write it convincingly. My final grade for the descriptive piece was a 96%, only one point away from a 100%.

DESCRIPTIVE PIECE

Dear Diary,

He’s a saint! Am I dreaming? Today this heaven-sent manager announced his bold new idea. Most likely the best words I have ever heard from a man in all my life! Henry Ford announced today that he has increased our daily salary from the minimum wage of $2.39, to $5.00! I could not have asked for anything better. We barely had enough money to eat at night with the terribly low salary of $2.39. He even added that we will only be working 40 hours per week now! The thought of it makes even this cold January day seem warm as a summer afternoon. This kind of income is the kind that makes it possible for me to support my wife, my six kids, and myself, with enough money for comfort. Oh, I know, I shouldn’t be all that excited yet, but I just know this is the start of something great!

CHALLENGE

One thing I will work on for quarter two is my socratic seminars. I will prepare better and speak more, while also bringing people into the conversation. Our next socratic seminar is for Industrial Revolution and I think I will be able to speak well in this session.

WoW Flashback

2007-10-15T00:39:00.000-07:00

“Week Without Walls” was a beneficial experience for all of us. We were able to try new things that we may not have been comfortable with at first. Many of us had never rafted, jumped off a cliff, or swam in a river before WOW. WOW should continue to be an 8^th grade experience for years to come. Here are some reasons why I think that.

I was totally relieved of all stress on WOW. There wasn’t a single moment where I was concerned with homework or school. We just got to do what we wanted and relax sometimes. This made it easy to be friendly and respectful to our peers also. It was hard to have a negative attitude on a trip that was so great. I am coming back to school feeling very refreshed now.

I learned a lot about India and Hinduism on this trip also. We were taught yoga on the beach which was a way to see how many Indian people live. We also visited Rishikesh, a holy city of Hinduism. People go there to seek peace and to bathe in the holy river Ganga, or Ganges as we know it. It is believed in Hinduism that when you bathe in the Ganges all your sins are washed away, and you become pure. It was interesting to learn about the culture and religion of people.

My last and most important reason is that WOW is FUN! It simply can not be beat by any other school trips. I have never heard of people that get to visit a river and go rafting for a week. This was one of the best trips I have ever taken, and the fact that I was with my friends made it even better. I never felt sad or down at all during the trip, even when we did journals!

I hope for the sake of all 8^th graders in future years that WOW continues to happen.

Goal Feedback/ Fresh Goals

2007-10-03T00:18:00.000-07:00

Although I think my goals were reasonable, I don't think that they were the best goals that I could have set. For instance, we have stopped socratic seminars before I could improve on them, which made this goal hard to meet. I have turned in almost everything in on time, but I could improve on this even more.
For quarter two I have new goals in mind, although I will still work on my quarter one goals. My main goal is to put homework before everything else when I am at home. By this, I don't mean that I want homework to control my life, but instead, I think by doing my homework before recreational things, I will have a lot more time to do the things I want to do. Instead of putting off homework until late, I can finish it with a better pace earlier, and I will use the things I want to do after that as my motivation. Another goal I have is to make sure I understand everything that we learn in class. Many times I feel that the things on tests are exactly the things that I didn't study for. I will try to understand even the little things that we are taught in class. Tests are obviously a huge part of my grade and mastering the skills on them would help my grade a lot for sure. My last goal is to start my AR book earlier than I did in quarter one. This way I won't have to read as much each night and stay up late, and this can build on my first goal. I know this will decrease my stress.

Expository - Robber Barons

2007-09-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

The robber barons were a group of people who lived during the time of the American industrial revolution. They were also sometimes called captains of industry. The robber barons were business owners, and the businesses they ran ranged from oil companies to steel companies, and even banking. They often owned large businesses which were made up of many smaller businesses. These are called trusts, and many of these trusts had total control over their field of industry. These trusts are called monopolies. Robber barons often made large amounts of money because they are given part of the income of all of these companies in their monopoly.
Many of the people that worked for robber barons felt that they were being treated unfairly. They thought that money that should have been going towards their wages was ending up in the pockets of the robber barons. Many small companies that could not compete with the trusts were run into bankruptcy, and lost all their money. This eventually led to a government process called “trust busting”. Through this process the government was able to make sure that one business was not in control of a whole industry, and it limited the amount of companies that trusts could have. Today, trust busting laws are still in order, and they ensure that small companies are not taken advantage of or run out of business.
Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie are all examples of robber barons from the industrial revolution. The robber barons certainly played a significant role in the American industrial revolution. Many of them even started their own businesses. While some may have hated them, they lead the industrial revolution with many great strategies.

News Story - Land Speed Record Shattered by Ford!

2007-09-23T04:05:00.000-07:00

Henry Ford has broken the land speed record, and he has done it by driving a mile in an incredible 39 seconds! This newly invented machine that moves at speeds close to 100 miles per hour has been dubbed the Ford model “999”. The rocket of a car is presumed by many to be the next racing phenomenon. The demonstration of the 999 given by Ford took place yesterday, January 17, 1902, on the frozen surface of St. Clair Lake in Michigan. The small crowd watching the event seemed to forget about the extremely low temperatures for a moment as they watched the extraordinary feat in awe.
The mechanical wonder has sent shockwaves through the sport car world, and racing greats such as Barney Oldfield, who in fact gave the car its name, seems to be very convinced by its success. Oldfield has said that he plans to take the car on a tour of the USA to compete in competitions with it. Ford also wants him to test drive these cars prior to any races.
Many other drivers have begun bidding on the car, and many of them have announced plans to set many more records in the future using the 999. Some have criticized Ford as they claim he is jeopardizing the success of the machine, because inexperienced racers might ruin its reputation. Ford, however, has claimed that he is confident in his actions, and he is excited to put the finishing touches on the 999.
The 999 is expected to be mastered within the next year, and it remains to be seen how the vehicle will stand up against cars from companies such as Dodge and Benz. The 999 is expected to be sold to sport racers for a starting price of around $800.

Stock Market Game

2007-09-17T01:54:00.000-07:00

Like a shrill horn, Mr. Coyle's voice announced the opening of the stock market. The 1870 stock market had begun. Everyone's eyes fell upon their information sheets. We quickly read the stock predictions for each company, and then rushed to the front of the room where our stockbrokers waited to give us shares. I gazed at the advice Mr. Coyle had written on the board. I took it all into consideration. Impatient and tired of waiting, the stock buyers in line grew restless. Shouts filled the air and conversations became hostile. At one point a vicious fist fight broke out between me and a lying stock broker named Avi Singh. We finally drew near to the end of our buying time, and as we finished, the stockbrokers took their time to buy. Cries of alleged cheating were thrown at the stockbrokers, and Avi withdrew to his seat in tears. Finally, it happened. Mr. Coyle had the results. He began to list companies along with their performance and share prices. I must say that in the end, the advice that helped me most was to buy low and sell high. I wish I would have used this method more often, because I was not very successful with this game. I even bought some companies at high prices when they just descended the next year. This made me very sad, and I think that if I ever want to become a millionaire I better get my act together.

Diary of a Ford Employee

2007-09-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Diary,

He’s a saint! Am I dreaming? Today this heaven-sent manager announced his bold new idea. Most likely the best words I have ever heard from a man in all my life! Henry Ford announced today that he has increased our daily salary from the minimum wage of $2.39, to $5.00! I could not have asked for anything better. We barely had enough money to eat at night with the terribly low salary of $2.39. He even added that we will only be working 40 hours per week now! The thought of it makes even this cold January day seem warm as a summer afternoon. This kind of income is the kind that makes it possible for me to support my wife, my six kids, and myself, with enough money for comfort. Oh, I know, I shouldn’t be all that excited yet, but I just know this is the start of something great!
However, I guess I do deserve this at least somewhat. After all, Mr. Ford has strict rules for his employees, and he has used his security to crush a heck of a lot of union strikes. I mean, he’s even got a former Navy boxer working as his head of service! It’s like the US Marines down at the factory. I can not begin to tell you about the testing we had to pass to be working for Ford. I mean, it’s only men, you have to be over the age of 22, there’re psychologists, you can’t drink, you can’t gamble, and over a hundred inspectors are keeping you in line when you’re working! Everyone’s calling his labor tactics extreme, and Wall Street is already getting worked up about these new wages, but the word I’m thinking of is something along the lines of genius. After all, this man isn’t out to please us.
I’ve worked for Mr. Ford long enough to know his strategies. In fact, the only employees allowed at the factory are all of us who have been working there for at least six months. By increasing the salary he knows he’s getting a benefit. With this salary we’ll all be able to afford the cars that we ourselves make every day. He’s selling, and we’re buying. It’s all going the way he wants it to.
There are those who call Henry Ford a “robber baron”. Can you believe it? A robber baron!? How can they claim that he is stealing money from the poor when he is increasing our salaries? I for one will not remember him as a corrupt person. With the trust and the leadership that he shows towards us, there is an unspoken need for respect. I know that I won’t be doing anything to have this privilege taken away from me.

With Joy,
A Ford Employee

Goals Update

2007-09-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

I really think that my goals have been met quite well throughout the year. I have worked hard to make sure that all my work is turned in on time, and I hope to improve even more so in the second half of the first quarter. Another goal was to improve in socratic seminars. I do think that I stepped up and began to add insight to the conversations, but once again I hope to improve even more on this when we begin our next novel.

An Interview with John D. Rockefeller

2007-09-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

Simply from the grip he possessed as this man shook my hand, I knew he meant business. In many ways he is the definition of business. His name is John D. Rockefeller, and he is the richest man on earth.

Rockefeller informs me early on that much of his career was built on the values of his childhood. “Growing up as a small boy in New York, I always believed my purpose in life was to make as much money as I could, and then use it for the good of mankind”, recalls Rockefeller. This theory seems to have been adopted for use by many people following Rockefeller.

It is noticeable that everything about this man reflects his personality. “You will never catch me in the middle of a publicity stunt. I have avoided the spotlight all my life,” claims the millionaire, “It seems pointless to be caught up in time wasting affairs when I could be running a business to make money.”

As the facts arose that he was the first millionaire in America, and that his company, Standard Oil, had control of almost all of the oil in America, his modest words punched it all right back at me. He simply shrugged at the idea as though he had just been told the time on the clock. “My company, Standard Oil, is based out of Cleveland, Ohio. Using trains we are able to transport our oil and other products from Cleveland to cities on the east coast.” Once again, as if it didn’t matter, Rockefeller failed to mention that his company was leading the oil industry by far as the largest shippers of oil and kerosene in the country. We have worked hard to gain dominance of the railroads, and they are a large part of my success.”

The topic of Standard Oil soon brought our conversation to focus on the rest of the oil industry, basically, all of Standard Oils competitors. The fact of the matter is, however, that Standard Oil now has virtually no other companies to compete with, a seemingly impossible monopoly of the oil business in this resource-rich land. As he explained his business methods I came to understand this man more. “For many of the competing oil companies I simply showed them my financial records so they could see what they were up against. I then offered to make a fair deal of partnership, or I would run them into bankruptcy.” Indeed, most of these oil companies agreed to his deals.

Knowing about his business life seemed to lessen the seriousness of the interview somewhat, “Ever since I was young, my two greatest ambitions have been to make $100,000, and to live to be one hundred years old. For the first time during our interview, a soft smile dawned on his face. “One ambition down,” said Rockefeller of far exceeding his goal of $100,000, and as to living to see the ripe old age of one hundred, “one ambition to go.”

It seems that after all of the “impossible” that this man has accomplished, living to be one hundred should be an easy task.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the IR (without the ugly)

2007-09-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

The Good

Products were produced very quickly and efficiently.

Many people were given jobs at factories.

Many new items were invented.

Items were less limited, as they were mass produced.

Many business owners made a lot of money.

Many inventions occurred during the IR and they made work easier for many people.

Gave people opportunities to support families.

The Bad

Many people lost their homes and farms.

At factories, life was extremely harsh.

Children as young as four were forced to do dangerous jobs in factories.

Families made very little money from factory work.

Many accidents took place at factories and mills.

Due to the rise of cities and a tremendous overcrowding issue, there was a rise in disease.

The rise of cities also resulted in poverty among the poor people.

http://www.celsias.com/blog/images/factory_cartoon.gif

Factory Game - AGAIN!

2007-08-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

"WHAT!?" I thought aloud as Mr. Coyle explained that we would be mass producing Conor's toy, otherwise known as "The Hersh". I was in extreme shock, and I nearly fell into a devastating depression. Thankfully, Conor and Sabei came in to action to put us to work. We quickly began to devise a plan. That plan quickly fell to pieces like a shattering mirror. However, we were able to get our act together, and block out Mr. Coyle's annoying statements to form an effective assembly line. Even Mr. Pitale, who tried to get inside our minds with his evil words, was no match for our willpower. One by one, many replicas of the hersh were making their way to the whiteboard. The sounds of paper cutting, pencil scribbling, and harsh yells, echoed across the room. Our motto seemed to be loud and clear: "Shut up, and WORK!". As I proudly rushed to the board to tape a finished Hersh to the white board a sharp pain cut into my ankle. I fell on the couch, and Mr. Coyle immediately singled me out for being a slacker. Thinking about what a cruel owner this company had, I retreated with guilt to my station. As the end of our allowed time neared, our hearts raced, and we scrambled to make as many Hersh's as we could. Suddenly, Mr. Coyle notified us with a booming voice that out time was up. Taping a few last Hersh's to the board, we began to clean up and collect everything we needed. Leaving the room that day, we felt great, and very confident. Because as we all observed the whiteboard at the end of that stressful class, we were greeted by rows upon rows of four-toothed creatures.

The Factory Game

2007-08-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, this was a task indeed. Since when is it our job to produce toys suitable for those of a young age? This is what I wondered as Mr. Coyle passed us these blindingly white papers. As the shapes made their way from his hands to mine I started thinking about the toy i would make. I established that it would consist of small bear ears, and akwardly large head, and a lot of circular shapes as a body. I decided to use tape to put this all together. As i happily skipped to the front of the classroom to collect artistic supplies, a bout of terror struck me. I felt as if I was trapped in a glass case of emotion. I did a double take, and again it was to no avail. Indeed, there was NO TAPE! Not willing to give up, I grabbed a stick of glue. I proceeded to create my toy, and then color it. After a hard day's work, sweat glistened upon my forehead, and I taped my toy to the whiteboard. With a smile of satisfaction, I cleaned up my spot, collected my belongings, and walked out of the classroom with my chin high.

NOTICE: THIS DESCRIPTION CONTAINS DRAMATIZATION.

Roller Coaster

2007-08-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

My feet ached as I shuffled slowly along the concrete pathway. I waited patiently along with two of my best friends as the line seemed to move slower and slower with every passing second. The sounds of cheesy western music entered my thoughts and made my desire to get to the ride even greater. The Maverick was the newest ride in the theme park. With a 95 degree drop and newly mastered rolls, it was completely state of the art. Of course, in return for the joy of the ride was the extremely long line.
We passed the time with meaningless chit-chat until at last we arrived on the wooden platform where we would enter the cars. We fixed our eyes anxiously on the cars that kept coming and going like dreams, until reality finally struck. We were at the front of the line, and with a loud screech our roller coaster car pulled up in front of us. We exchanged high fives, plopped down in our seats, got strapped in, and awaited takeoff. It seemed like a lifetime before we finally started moving.
Slowly but surely, we made our way up the first hill. I was a huge melting pot of nervousness, joy, and even a bit of fear. I looked ahead and realized we had reached the top. I counted in my head, 1…2…3..., and all of a sudden the feeling of my stomach going into my feet interrupted my counting. We were going down. With amazing speed we went lower and lower as our screams got embarrassingly higher and higher. The drop finally ended, although ended would definitely be the wrong way to describe this.
My eyes watered and my hair flew back as we went on to complete a series of insane rolls, dives, loops, and drops. Suddenly, we found ourselves at a stop. We were in a tunnel surrounded by complete darkness. Confused thoughts filled my mind as I wondered what was happening. Once again, speed took over, and my thoughts fell apart. The roller coaster was back at it. We continued with our ride terrifyingly low to the water beneath us. Finally, we came to a halt, but this time it was for good. The look on my face most likely made others laugh, but it was very real. With legs shaking, we made our way out of the roller coaster and each sang our praises about how awesome the ride was.
As we left the park that night, we felt like kings. We had just tamed the Maverick.

2007-08-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh, a fruit rollup. This is something that makes the whole world joyful. I observed this delicious item using every sense. The first thing i noticed was the feel of it. The wrapper was smooth, and when i opened it, the fruit rollup was sticky and felt thin and easy to rip. Then the smell kicked in. It made me crazy. I had to use all my control to not eat it right then. It smelled of a basket of berries and made my mouth water. The sound was very crinkly and sharp as I unwrapped the treat. It looked to me like it had tatoos within the blue and green swirls of the rollup, and the wrapper had many colors of splats. As I placed the fruit rollup in my mouth, I was a very happy person. The flavor exploded in mouth with all the berry sensation. It was extremely delicious. However, it was gone MUCH too fast.

2007-08-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

"Necessity is the mother of invention" means that inventions happen when there is a need for that invention. For instance, Samuel Morse created a code which made it easier to contact people, and he did this because his mother had him run messages to his neighbors on a horse. Morse code made this much easier. The cotton gin was invented to pick cotton from fields, as it was very hard labor. The cotton gin did the work of a hundred men, which made much less work for everyone. The telephone was also invented out of a need for communication. Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone and it made it very easy for people to contact one another, without actually having to meet them in person. These are some reasons why necessity is the mother of invention.

Image taken from (http://members.aol.com/SHRLIST/mother.jpg)

My Gang

2007-08-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

My newest friends are Asim Lal, Conor Golden, Avi Singh, Rahul Sekhri, Cooper Ehrendreich, Jake Greenberg and Jake Kobza. These guys are awesome, and they've been really accepting towards me. Although i've only known them for less than a month, I can tell that I'll be able to depend on them for many things. A lot of them share many things in common with me also. I definitely think that I am going to need my friends' help in a lot of situations.

Feedback August 13-17

2007-08-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

I think I learn best in auditory learning. The reason I say this is because the Socratic Seminars that we have really open my eyes to different aspects of our reading, and they definitely help me to learn. We can keep on holding Socratic seminars, and I think that will help me learn a lot.

Feedback - Aug. 7-10

2007-08-13T00:29:00.000-07:00

Two highlights from this first week of school was the Socratic seminar, and meeting a lot of new people. Everyone seems really nice and friendly here, which made it a great start. My first impression of my Humanities class was that I was going to like it. This was because I saw that I had a lot of friends in this class. I also figured it would be fun after seeing the room covered in Simpsons collectibles and things related to sports. Two goals I have for this year are that I hope to turn in my schoolwork on time, and to improve my performance in the Socratic seminars.