Ali’s Page

In eighth Grade English we read a couple of books, which were all amazing, each one taught us lessons and how cruel or great our world is. I improved so much in my writing in many ways such as our reflective journals, poetry and even our drama scripts, which we performed. We learnt and discussed different themes the one that mostly stood out to me were mercy vs. revenges.
We had an intense class discussion about the theme it was interesting to see how most of my friends agreed with revenge and only one of my friends agreed with mercy. One of the books we read was The Diary Of Anne Frank. It was an outstanding book and changed my point a view on life. Anne Frank and the Jews to me represented mercy for so many reasons. Such as the Jews didn’t hurt Hitler in any way but they killed millions of Jews because of his beliefs. The Jews lost their families, suffered so much but what did they do to deserve this? Hitler represents revenge to me people might disagree and say he was just doing what was best for his people. To me killing is never revenge, I find revenge is the easiest way to get back at people, make them smaller than you are but I would never go as far as death. We have just finished reading a play by tempest called The Tempest. I didn’t enjoy that much, because it was truly only fiction and I couldn’t really relate to anything. I think prospero him self stands for both because he could kill them all especially his brother who betrayed him. Instead Prospero is a very intelligent man and he tests people with his magic and without. He can discover lots about the people just by testing. A character he really tests is Ferdinand to see if he is good enough for his daughter. The Tempest as we discuss can represent lots of things such as Caliban and the natives, but it is the most difficult for me to write about. In the beginning of the year we read a book called Lord of the flies. I was pretty interested because I could never imagine me in that type of situation, I don’t think I could live if I was stranded on a island with only others of my age. Simon dies in this book he is one of the only characters to me that represents mercy. He was always the one who loved nature and was peaceful. While the other lost their minds and got extreme they started to represent revenge when they killed him. They represent revenge to me especially Jack because he was always the evil guy who completely agreed with revenge. In that book if everyone would have tried to forget about revenge and just think about mercy the book wouldn’t be as interesting and teach any lessons but everything would have been better for the.
The next thing I will tell you is my growth as a writer. I have improved a lot since the beginning of the year; I have proof trough all the things I have done. Our reflective journals are probably what I most worked on. My first reflective journal had terrible word choice and not very organized. I would always edit my work instead of revising which isn’t the best thing to do. Towards the end of the year I fell my word choice improved so much and my journals were pretty organized. Next is poetry, this unit for me as a writer was amazing. I had never written poetry this deep and any style I wanted to before. I showed my dark side trough the whole thing because I showed how I feel about everything. I found out a lot about myself in this unit. Practically every poem I wrote taught me something. It was amazing to write all different types of poems and my vocabulary really improved because I always had to find the perfect word to write. Poetry was very easy for me when I need to write something I just got into my poetry mood and everything just went great wand flowed. Next we had a separate class, which was drama it was a challenge for me because we had to write scripts and act them out with a partner.
I read a lot of fiction books so I new what this skit really required. I actually learned a lot about writing especially because we had to make so many drafts. I learnt that when you are writing a play one of the most important things to have is a secret, without it it’s boring.
Finally I will talk about our close friends the ESLRs. An ESLR I really met this year was effective communicator. The first characteristic about effective communicator I met was demonstrating their creative talent to convey ideas. Which in my own words would be to show my creative side and to express my ideas. I feel that I showed that characteristic best in the poetry unit. We had to take incredible photography, which is a skill I am pretty good at. We had to take a picture in the beginning to match our poem; it was very amazing how you could make a picture look poetic. I also met that characteristic when making my poetry book, which I am very proud of. It was a lot of hard work making that poetry book and I am very proud of it. I made it all my self I glued everything step by step neatly and it turned out too look amazing.
Next characteristic I met in that ESLR is understand and convey written, oral and visual information using appropriate media. In my own words I feel that means to understand and use writing, talking and visual information with the correct media. I feel I met that characteristic best when doing our blogs. We used the blogs pretty much for everything we learnt. In the blogs we showed our work in the correct media because anyone around the world would be able to understand and use it. We even posted some pictures on in which shows visual things to people around the world who are interested.
Last characteristic of effective communicator I met was incorporate/utilize technology as a tool for communication. In my own words would mean to use technology as a way to communicate around the world. I definitely met that characteristic in the teen life project. We had to communicate with people our age around the world to make a movie about things that are affecting our world. My topic was eating disorders, we had to keep in contact with everyone in our group and make sure we don’t leave all the work for one group of people. It was the first time I ever did this sort of project and it was incredible. I would do this again because to me it was a challenge even tough imp pretty good with computers. This whole project would be impossible without technology and I am so glad to we got to explore and learn about it,
8th grade has been probably the craziest most dramatic year of my life, English is probably the class I will remember and have learnt most things from. Anne frank as I said before completely changed the way I looked at things and people. The Tempest showed me so much about old English and how language and life changes. Lord of the flies showed me how people can act when they are not in their natural enviorment. All those books taught me so much about writing, such as how well things can be described an how things can have millions of different meanings. The blogs have showed me show much about the Internet and what we can do. Poetry unit was probably the best thing I learnt, I can express myself and not be judged, I can show how I look at things but most important I actually enjoy doing it. The drama script has taught me how to do something I’ve never done before. 8th grade English has been amazing and I will remember everything I have learned for a while.

 This quarter in English eight we read and wrote a variety of different poems. We also had the teen life project and in the end we had to make a poetry book which we shared with everyone on the poetry night. It was pretty difficult to do both at the same time but still a great new experience. Throughout the unit we met all the ESLR’s in different areas.

We started our poetry unit by making simple poems about ourselves. We each had to take a picture that matched our poem. We recorded ourselves reading our poems and put it with the pictures. We put the picture all together to make a movie for others to see, the movie turned out to be amazing.  Just for that introduction I already met an ESLR which was academic achiever .I was an academic achiever because I demonstrated the ability to work independently and with others. Which in my own words means I can work alone and with others well. I worked with others when doing another different movie for our class, which involved taking pictures and setting up a class movie. After our introduction we had to create over twenty poems to put into our book, each on in different categories. I went trough the process of explaining who, what , where etc. for all poems in different ways. I was a self directed learner when writing my poems for many reasons. First of all I took risks because I had never really written poems in my life, so I had to try new ways to improve. I would try different styles but most of my poems were dark and mysterious. I also had to apply appropriate learning strategies which in my own words mean using learning strategies that would be productive. One of my strategies was listening to music when writing my poems because in would get me a perfect poetry mood. Another strategy was to picture my poem  in my head because it would always lead into a next picture which made the poem seem like a story not a list in other words show not tell. Another self directed learner point is  being organized which I was because I kept all my poems saved in a poetry file to make sure I had all for my final book. The next step after writing every single poem was to edit or revise them. When doing this we went trough the process of extending and differentiating the poems to make them better. I was an also academic achiever when doing this because I had to make changes to make it ever better. Such as I would add more lines to make more descriptions or making a line completely different to give it suspense or interest. Another example of me being a academic achiever was when we had to read it to the class to see what we could improve and it got us use to speaking in front of an audience.

After making all our poems and editing or revising them it was time to make our poetry book. I went trough the process of analysis which included analyzing, classifying and arranging all the poems in the book. It was the longest and most exhausting process of all. I was an effective communicator when making the book itself, because I  had to demonstrate creative talents to convey ides which in other words would bet to be creative to show the style of the poem. Such as every page in the book looked different because they were matching the poem. We had to find and take pictures for the book. Most of the pictures that were in my poetry book I took from the internet but some were edited and taken myself. We also had to be creative in the way we made our book, everyone’s was very different and creative it was amazing. When all the books were ready it was time for the poetry night, a night where all our work would be shown for people to see. I was an involved citizen in that part of the unit because we had to show our work and interact with people. Such as we were in booths were we had to teach parents how to write different types of poems. I also explained to a few people about the things displayed on walls and videos going on. After the poetry night everything was all done which was then the evaluate process. Where we got our grades and concluded everything.

While all of the poetry was going on we were all involved in a teen life project.

The teen life project was a project in which we worked with students from two other countries to make a final project. The project was about teen life and the bad things that are going on. My topic was eating disorders which is a big problem in teen life. I think I was a self directed learner and an involved citizen in this project for many different reasons. I was a self directed learner because I had to set goals and manage my time well to gets things finished to send to my group in the different countries. I had to stay organized to keep up with this project, especially because we were doing the whole poetry unit at the same time. Another self directed learner point that you met was taking new risks in trying new ides. I did that by sharing some new poems that had messages, which I had never done before with my group. In the teen life project I think I was also an involved citizen. I was an involved citizen because I demonstrated responsibility which in my words is that I was responsible. I was responsible because I had to put everything on the wiki on time for my group to see. If it weren’t for the time change I would have been a lot easier for all of us to keep in touch but we figured out different ways. Such as I got the e-mails of most of my group members and sent some e-mails. We also had to take a pictures for the teen life project that had to do with our topic. That was simple but is also where we used a lot of technology. In the teen life project we also worked as a class to make a movie showing poetic pictures of our school for the others to see which showed is another example of me being involved citizen because I worked with different people. It turned out to be amazing and all the other schools liked it. That is another part in which I was and involved citizen because we all worked together to make it work.

            In conclusion, we had to make a poetry book, have a poetry night, the teen life project and make two smaller videos. I hit all the bloom taxonomy steps and met all of the ESLR’s at different stages. At most times it was exciting to have such new and different experiences but at other times it was so stressful. In the end it was all worth it especially the poetry book everyone’s looked amazing.

Little red riding hood is a classic fairy tale about a poor little girl that takes food trough the forest for her sick grandmother. When I look at it trough my lens the subtext see that a poor family makes the female daughter walk trough a dangerous  forest alone. I can see she is poor because she lives alone with her mother and no father. She has to walk around everywhere, she lives in the woods. The wolf in this story is “bad”  and he is a male which is usual because usually in stories villains are male.

Now I will look at the fairy tale trough a gender lens, it changes some things in many ways. First of all the mom and daughter live alone with no husband or father, which says that the father is always gone or the mom is the one who takes care of the children always, or if they are divorced that the mom can take better care. Another thing is that the hero is male. A male who lives in the woods hears the grandmother and red riding hood and saves them. Its saying that men are stronger and always saving women. The males always have to be the heroes.

After looking trough a gender lens I will look trough a opinion lens. For someone who really likes animals this story could be offensive. Trough this lens its saying that wolfs are bad and they kill people, not only wolfs but in many stories animals are the bad ones. Trough out the whole story the wolf is following red riding hood trying to eat her and then tricks the grandma and ends up eating them both. Its also saying that animals are savage and have no clue or point in life other then eating people.

The last lens that I will look trough is class which is probably the hardest lens. In this story little red riding hood is poor, she walks everywhere lives in the woods etc. Her and her mom seem to be very close but have some problems. This could be saying that poor people have a much harder life and that wealthier people live so much better. It could also say that poor people get no respect because the wolf might not have eaten her is she was rich, because in the first place she wouldn’t be walking trough the woods, she would probably be driving.  Also if she were rich she wouldn’t be living in the woods in a tiny wooden house. Which again says that poor people lives are worst and they aren’t good or important.

In conclusion every lens is completely different and have many different ways of seeing it. Sometimes its good to look trough other lenses to see how other people see this and how it could be offensive or mean. When I look trough my lens I see some of the other things but I also see things completely differently.

Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19th , 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents died before he even turned three. He was then raised by John and Frances Allan as a foster kid. His foster father John had a lot of money which he used to send Edgar to the best boarding schools and later to the University of Virginia. After less than a year at the university he had to leave due to money problems. After having to leave his university his relationship with is foster parents was terrible so he left to be in the US army in 1827. That same year his first poems were published but did not get much attention from people. After the army he went to a military academy were he was forced to leave again to due money problems. He then went to live went to live with his Aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia in Baltimore, Maryland. He started selling stories to magazines and then got recognized by the public. He married Virginia in 1836 and in the next couple of year he was a professional poet, story writer, and editor. His wife Virginia then died of Tuberculoses in 1847 which completely changed Edgar’s life.
Edgar became depressed and an alcoholic, after a couple of hard working year he died of acute congestion of the brain.

 In the first week of February there was a lot of heavy rain in
Indonesia. trough out the week. In the middle of the week the capital city
Jakarta was absolutely flooded in some places water was up to three meters high. Schools were cancelled, about 670,000 people were left without electricity, the power would were down and the power would go off frequently for about two weeks. About  In total about twenty people have died, seven of them were killed in the strong currents, nine were electrocuted and the rest died of sickness that was spread. The flood has also left about 340,000 people homeless.
Indonesia hasn’t had any floods like this for about five years. Most of the homeless people were living in mosques but some refused to leave their partly flooded homes. People were going around in hand made boats trying to get to safety. About 200 hand made boats were used in the flood. Rescue crews were going around in boats also helping people get out of their house from their second floor windows. This flood has definitely made things in
Indonesia worse.

 If you want to see the original website click here.
 

Hey I’m Ali. I’m thirteen years old and am from Brazil but I live in Malaysia. I was born in Mexico but lived there for very little time and never went back. My birthday is August 3rd 1993. I have one younger sister and a dog. I move around the world a lot and I don’t really like it but I am getting use to it. I love the snow and the cold weather but since I live in Malaysia I don’t get to see it that often. I am a very out going person and have lots of friends. I guess you could say I am a pretty athletic person, I like many sports but my favorite is soccer. I love music I don’t think I could live without it, my favorite bands would have to be My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Taking back Sunday and so much more. I love using the computer its one of the only ways I keep in touch with all my friends around the world. My favorite places in the world would have to be Brazil because my best friend lives there and I only get to see her once per year and we have so much fun together. I also love the U.S.A because that’s where my dads family lives and they have the best malls in the world! When I go to visit every year one of the cities I go is New York which I absolutely love because you can never be bored there.

Now ill tell you a bit about my school which I have now only been at for one and a half years. Its really small so we all pretty much know each other. We have to wear uniforms which is not a good thing but every month we get a chance to wear our own clothes. Our school has lots of sports going on after school which is really cool. We have a lot of dances one every moth which is great because I love dancing. We do not have a lot a field trips but in the beginning of the year we have a field rip call Malaysian studies. In the Malaysian studies trip we get to go to city in Malaysia for two nights, three days. Its really fun we get to do the coolest things and stay in cabins with our friends.

I’m not too sure if this is really counted as an issue but smoking is not making anyone’s life better. I do not understand why people smoke they know that they are increasing their chances of having lung cancer and any other lung diesis. They are not only increasing their own chances but others around them (second hand smoking). I think the problem is peer pressure if your friends doing it you will probably do it just to fit in and the terrible thing is then you get addicted and cant stop. Another terrible thing it does to you is always making your breathe smell bad and probably make your teeth black.

Well I guess that’s all I have to say and I am looking forward to do more on this teen life project. Bye! <3

Step 1: Where did the Aztecs originally live? What prompted them to relocate? Where did they end up and why? Chose an artifact, which you feel best, represents this event. Support your choice.

The Aztecs originally live in Atzlan, which is in northwest Mexico, They relocated because Tenoch had a vision of a new place to go.

Step 2:
The Aztecs ended up in the middle of a lake and built their new capital Tenochtitlan. What were the pros and cons of settling in the middle of a lake? Describe the lay of the land and chose an image for your exhibit.

Pros= There was resources of food, also they used mud from the lake to make chinampas which were little islands made by resources around.
Cons= It was a marsh and they didn’t have stones to build there temples.

Step 3:
Which gods were worshiped? The pyramids were built for what purpose?

They worshiped the god Tezacatlipoca who was the god of constellation and night sky.
Quetzalcoatl was the god of morning and evening star.
Tlaloc was the god of rain, which was really important.
There is also on goddess who is the goddess of water. Huitzilopochtli was the main god and he was the god of the sun who they fed with human sacrifice.
Xipe – Totec was one of the gods of farming.  To worship the gods and used for human sacrifices.

Step 4:
Who are the different members of Aztec society? What are their roles? Choose an artifact that represents the social order of Aztec society.

The Aztec society was divided into 3 different classes- slaves, commoners and nobles. The slave’s role was very hard because their children should be sold for a time period. If a slave escaped and went to a royal place they would get freedom immediately. The commoners role was pretty good because they got to own an area in a land. The noble’s role was the best because they were be noble depending on if their parents were or not such as priests, they were the most respected people of all.

Step 5:
The Aztecs have a spoken language. What was it called? Did they use any other forms of communication? Include an example of either written or visual language of the Aztecs.

The language the Aztecs spoke was Nahuatl, which came from Indian languages. Another from they communicated was with pictographs which is a way of writing with pictures kind of like hieroglyphics.

Step 6:
How did the Aztecs grow food and what was their main crop? Did they trade and with whom? Did they have a currency (money)? Find an image for your exhibit about making a living Aztec style.

The Aztecs used the same method as the Mayas, slash and burn. Their main crops were corn, grew chili peppers, squash, tomatoes, beans, and other kinds of food. Their currency was cocoa beans. The Aztecs did trade with people called Pochteca.

Step 7:
Discuss the Impact of Spanish Contact 1519 from both the Aztec point of view and the Spanish point of view. Find an image depicting this event.

The Aztecs thought Cortes was one of the decedents of the god Quetzalcoat so they let him in. They all worshiped Cortes in the beginning but them when take over they started to suspect something and it turned to a skirmish.

Step 8:
Discuss La Malinche or Dona Marina. Debate her positive/negative impact on Mexico past and present. What does the term Mestizo refer to? What influences remain today from Aztec culture of the past?

Dona marina was the daughter of a noble Aztec family. Then her mother mother didn’t want her so she her to some trader and pro-claimed her death. So she wound up as a slave. A Mestizo refers to a person who is racially mixed European and Latin American.

I think opinions are extremely important because everyone has a different opinion on something and all of them count. If everyone kept there opinion to themselves I think the world would be a much more peaceful place because a lot of problems start up by opinions, but everything has a bad quality so that doesn’t really matter .Back to my opinion of why opinion’s are important, we should all share our opinions because a lot of times opinions can be very helpful. When your in doubt of what you should do you should ask your friends their opinion. One of those friends probably has a very good opinion that will help you. In fact that happened today, one of my friends was really confused of what she would do and all her friends gave her their onion and in the end everything was fine. If your doing something wrong in a class the teacher will always tell you his/her opinion of how you could do better and what you are doing wrong. There are sometimes where you should keep your opinion to yourself because opinions can turn out to be very hurtful.

If my parents told me that I had to pack a couple of things in a small bag because we were going into hiding what would I pack? My favorite clothes or my memories? I would think really hard about what I would take because what ever I leave behind I will probably never see again. I cant imagine how difficult it must be for Anne to leave her whole life behind and just go into a room with a family she dislikes.The first thing I would take would be music on my ipod because I don’t think I can live without it. Music means so much to me, it cheers me up when I am sad and will keep me entertained when I have nothing to do.

The second thing I would bring would be my stuffed animal pig which I named bubby. One of my closest friends in the world who is Alex gave him to me which makes me feel happy and he brings back a lot of memories.

The third thing I would bring would be my favorite pictures that would remind me of my old life when there were no problems. It would bring back the best memories and cheer me up.

The fourth thing I would bring would be my camera because I take picture of things to entertain me and keep me happy. I would also take pictures of things I would want to remember if I ever get out of hiding to look back at.

The last thing I would bring would probably be a lot of paper and pens because I can write and express myself. It will help me get things out of my mind when am scared and sad. It will also be something I can look back at if I ever got out of hiding and see what I was going trough back then.

All these things that I have chosen mean the world to me because they all make me feel happy and safe. I still cant believe what Anne had to go trough I wonder if the same happened to me if I could be as calm as her?

In a dictionary the meaning for courage is “The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery”. My definition of courage is facing your fears and doing what you are most afraid of, going trough something so hard and staying strong. My definition is very similar to the dictionary but in my own words. I am pretty sure in the book we will read soon called Anne Frank is about a girl who was very courageous. I think there are a lot of courageous people such as people who are soldiers who fight for their country. It can also be some one who is strong enough to face difficulty, danger and pain. I think to be courageous or not to be is all in a persons mind and if you try hard enough anyone can be courageous. The opposite or courageous would be to never do anything risky or face any of your fears. I think I am a pretty courageous person because I like to take risks and I am a very adventures person. An example of me being courageous is that I am terrified of needles and every year I have to have enough courage to get two or three shots.