Reflection on Leadership

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

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

“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

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

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!

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

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.