Final Reflection of the Year

One of the three most important things I learned this year was how to use TIQA format, how to write a formal and proper essay, and to always to do more than what is required.

I will remember the This I Believe speeches that we did in class for the rest of my life as it had a lot of mixed feelings and emotions. It showed me a lot about everyone in the class about their past. Many of us had very personal stories that some cry while others had entertaining ones that lifted up our spirits.

The nicest thing someone in our class did for me was helping me understand the homework and blogs. They would help me if they saw I was struggling with the work and give me strategies to help make the work easier. If they hadn't helped, I don't really think that I would find this ELA class easy.

I taught my classmate how to show emotion and feelings when they write and read out loud this year. They were struggling as some days they were too tired to show emotions in their writing.

I feel that my writing was the biggest improvement compared to other areas. Before, I would try for the minimum requirement to complete a writing piece. However, since writing blogs and essays in this ELA class is common. It made me change the negative hobby of always aiming for minimum to putting more effort into my writing.

The most challenging part of the year for me this year was making my This I Believe speech. It was difficult as my memories were either from my childhood and appeared blurry/ hard to remember the whole scene or the memories didn't connect with my belief. I think I had written five or six drafts of beliefs and when I started to believe in them before I decided to stop and use one of them.

The best writing piece I did this year would be the This I Believe speech. I think it was the best out of all the other writing pieces I did before since I put more effort into the speech more than the writing blogs and essays. Writing the speech made me sacrifice time for myself in order to finish and finalize it.

Out of all the books I read this year, Night was my favorite. It showed me how the author had overcame the experience of being in a concentration camp that was called Auschwitz (the most known and popular camp out of all of them) and the hardships he faced there. The fact that it is a memoir made me feel very terrible for Elie Wiesel as he saw his mother and sister were going to be cremated while his father had been killed by other prisoners.

The advice I would give to the students that are coming into eighth grade and this ELA class is to always do your homework, do more than what is required, and to never lie to Mrs. Larson as she'll know when you are lying.

This I Believe

"Learn From The Past"
By Enrique Delgado 

I believe that we should always learn from our mistakes and failures. If we didn't learn from our mistakes we made in the past, there wouldn't be change. We would be repeating the same actions that lead us towards failure. The worst mistakes that you made before can teach you the most. Just see how it changed me.

When I was younger, I remember the time when I almost flunked the entire third grade. There was sweat dripping from my hair and my neck, the sun was burning everyone on the street with its intense heat. It was the usual summer day. 

It was close to the end of the school year. Everyone in class was daydreaming about what they were doing in the summer. Some had plans to travel out of state, others had plans to even travel out of the country! I was just mainly focusing on going to six flags in the summer. I had never gone there before at the time, however, going to six flags was now a dream.

One of my teachers had given me a letter to give to my parents. He had told me to stay after school as he wanted to talk to me about my grades, that's when my heart stopped. I had forgotten to check on my class work to see if I forgot to turn in anything. I realized I planned my summer vacation just for nothing.

My teacher had said that he noticed I wasn't really paying attention a lot as the end of the school year was getting closer. I couldn't blame him, he had a point. I wasn't paying attention on what we were learning about, didn't turn in my work, etc. 

When I arrived to my house, the faces of my parents went from being positive to one of those faces where you know something terrible is going to happen. After seeing that face, I had to change how I acted. They were disappointed in me but I had managed to improve my grades from Ds to some Bs and a little bit of Cs. This was the most difficult task I had accomplished as it took away a lot of time, it stressed me out so much.

Believing in that we should always learn from our mistakes and failures changed me in alot as I went from a student who payed little to no attention in school to a student who always pays attention in school. It made more focus on my schoolwork and changed the negative hobby of not doing my work into something better. That is why I believe that we should always learn from our mistakes and failures.

Literature Circle/Non-Fiction Article Blog

How does Birmingham change them as whole? In the book "The Watsons Go To Birmingham", The Watson family decided to go to Birmingham, Alabama as a vacation from their hometown and to visit their grandmother. What happens over there tells the reader how the Watsons and other African-Americans were treated. From being looked differently from others to the point where a church was bombed killed four children all because of their color (race). It changed the family's perspective into a whole lot of ways.

The similarities between "The Watsons Go To Birmingham"  and the article Racism Harms Children’s Health, Survey Finds, is that it's making African-American feel unaccepted in society.  According to the article Racism Harms Children’s Health, Survey Finds, it states that "Anderson tracked answers to this question, and compared them to the prevalence of various health issues that children were reported as having, including obesity and ADHD....She also found that children who had been exposed to racism were also more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression (Paragraph 5-6). This shows how children's who feel that society does not appreciate nor accept them, causing them to believe that they don't belong. This can cause themselves to get mental and physical disorders.

Another similarity that the article and book have is how African-American children believe how they should be normally treated. According to "The Watsons Go To Birmingham" it states that, "We'd seen the pictures of a bunch of really mad white people with twisted-up faces screaming and giving dirty finger signs to some little Negro kids who were trying to go to school. I'd seen the pictures but I didn't really know how these white people could hate some kids so much (page 122-23)". This shows how Kenny (the narrator of the book) recalls how white people would treat them and they (the children) would believe that this is how they are supposed to be treated and that it is normal for them.

Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons go to Birmingham: 1963. New York: Yearling Book, 2013. Print.


Panko, Ben. "Racism Harms Children’s Health, Survey Finds." Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, 05 May 2017. Web. 12 May 2017

The Watsons Go To Birmingham

The book takes place in the life of ten-year old Kenny during 1963 when segregation against colored people was still legal. Kenny’s older brother, Byron is considered as a god at their school as he is one of the strongest in the school. Kenny has told the reader that Byron was nearly about to burn from playing with matches, used chemicals to make his hair straight and was forced to cut all of his hair off as punishment for disrespecting his parents’ orders. This resulted him to become unable to be on vacation with the rest of the family in Birmingham, Alabama. This made his parents make Byron stay with Grandma Sands for the entire summer. So far, they didn't really enjoy the trip as the environment and conditions is different from Flint, Michigan (where they live) as they have to get used to the outhouses and discrimination from the people that don't like them being there. 

A lot of the times, the author uses problematic events to try to keep the reader reading the book. One of the events that kept me reading was when Byron used chemicals on his hair to straighten it. This alone created an entire chapter of what his mother and father were going to do with him. His father acted all calm and didn't do anything to Byron until he mumbled something behind their back which prompted his father to do something about him. His father had shaved off all of his hair to the point of where it was really shiny. 

The most important part of the book right now is that the Watsons have reached Birmingham. This part of the book is very important as not only is it just near the end of the book but this is when the climax starts to come. These last chapters of the book are going to be a roller coaster of emotions as major events are going to occur (That is why this book is good at keeping you intrigued to read on).

I commented on Gabe's blog

3rd Quarter Reflections

Out of all the improvements that I accomplished this quarter, my blogs would be the biggest. They helped me write essays more easier as I no longer waste a lot of time thinking about what to write. Before, I would think of writing theses blogs as if it was the most difficult task of my life. Now, they just seem as if they're just a daily task. They also seem to help me know which words I should use to write towards an audience (expands my vocabulary).

I'm proud that I accomplished learning about the Holocaust. Before, I didn't know much about it. At that time, I only thought of it having something to do with Hitler and Jewish people. I now know that there is more to that as it was one of the reasons why the word “Genocide” was created. Sometimes I wonder "If Hitler never came into power, would World War II occur or will it never exist?"

The most challenging task of this quarter would have to be the amount of homework we were given earlier (January–late February). I overcame the difficulty of the homework by switching up my schedules for doing homework with other things that I don't really need to have. However, as the quarter was progressing further towards the fourth quarter, the homework became more easier.

Life is Beautiful

Life is Beautiful was wonderful as it was very good and had a lot of similarities and differences. One of the similarities from the movie and Night was that both protagonists were sent onto the train that was going to a concentration camp. The difference of this however, is that Elie was sent there for almost two years while the main characters in the movie was sent to a camp close to the end of the war. Another similarity between Life is Beautiful and Night is that both Elie and Giosuè lost their father during their time inside the concentration camp, only Giosuè was a child while Elie was only a teenager.

Life is Beautiful and Night also had similarities and differences about the situations that were happening. One of these differences is that Life is Beautiful took place mostly in Italy while Night took place mostly in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Buna. Life is Beautiful also show the effects of Italy taking over Ethiopia and how they celebrated with their victory while Night only talks about the event briefly. Night is a bit similar from Life is Beautiful during the camps as Night describes the conditions and horrors of what he saw. Life is Beautiful is the same as there is a scene where Guido (the father) is carrying Giosuè (his son) during their attempt at escaping the concentration camp, witnesses a massive pile of deceased Jewish prisoners and slowly walks away.

The tone and mood of both Life is Beautiful and Night is different and similar. Life is Beautiful and Night starts off joyful as the main characters are living their peaceful and exciting lives in the beginning but becomes gloomy as they are taken to the camps. Night and Life is Beautiful also have the same point of view (first person). However, Night is told in a more serious tone while Life is Beautiful contains humorous events but still is shown serious.

Life is shown beautiful in the film as it adds elements of romance and humor to show how joyful the characters were. In the film, Guido goes everywhere near Nora and does anything that gets him close to Nora such as impersonating an inspector, being a waiter at a fancy hotel, etc. Also scene from the film that shows how life is beautiful is how Guido and Nora become married and start their life together with their family.

Night blog

Elle’s experiences during the Holocaust changes him as a person by changing his religious faith. In the beginning of the book, Elie was very pious towards his god. Wiesel stated that, “One evening I told him how unhappy I was because I could not find a master in Sighet to instruct me in the Zohar, the cabbalistic books, the secrets of Jewish mysticism”. Wiesel was very pious as he wanted to learn everything of his Jewish religion.

Later on in the book, Elie begins to change. Elie states that he had witnessing prisoners being sent to the crematory to be burned alive. “A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load—little children. Babies! Yes, I saw it—saw it with my own eyes….those children in the flames… For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?” (30). Before Elie and his family were sent to Auschwitz (They were still in Sighet), Elie had always wanted to study the Cabbala, Talmud, and learn Mysticism but as he made his way to the concentration camp, He began losing his religious faith towards his God as if He was dead. “Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust, never shall I forget these things, never if I am condemned to live as God Himself. Never.” (Wiesel 32)

Another change that was caused by his experiences during the Holocaust was his relationship with his father. Once Elie and his father had arrived at Auschwitz, his father had a colic attack which he asked “Excuse me, can you tell me where the lavatories are?” (Wiesel 36). Upon asking this question, he was struck by the gypsy where Elie thought, “What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid. I had looked on and said nothing. Yesterday, I should've sunk my nails into the criminal’s flesh” Wiesel 37). As time passes, Elie’s father was beaten by Idek with an iron bar. What's different is that Elie “was thinking of how to get further away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made of me. This shows how Elie had thought of doing something against the gypsy that struck his father when he arrived at Auschwitz but changes as he thought of moving further away from his father who was being beaten by Idek at this moment in order to not get hit.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. Print.

Butterfly Project

"Man Proposes, God Disposes"
Who was helpless back in Prague. 
And who was rich before, 
He’s a poor soul here in Terezin, 
His body’s bruised and sore. 

Who was toughened up before,
He’ll survive these days.
But who was used to servants,
Will sink into his grave.

Koleba (Miroslav Košek, Hanuš Löwy, Bachner) 
26.II.1944

I commented on Angel's, Ingrid's, Jorge's, Erik's, Gabe's blog

Berlin Memorial

Based on the Berlin Memorial activity we did in class, I learned that throughout 1933-1945, there have been 300 events that occurred when Hitler was Chancellor of Germany. As the years progressed, Hitler established restrictions that had a small impact on Jews leading up to the most impactful ones. One of the laws that had a small impact on Jews was "Jews cannot belong to German Automobile Club". Another restriction that Hitler placed towards Jew and had a high impact was "Jews over six years old of age to wear yellow star with word "Jew". This had a high impact since it made people that were Jewish easier to find and deport to concentration camps.

I think the monument was built to show the world to learn from their mistakes (Holocaust) and to prevent any event close to becoming like the Holocaust. It could also show support to Jewish people and the entire world to overcome the horrific event.

I noticed that the restrictions that were passed between 1933-1945 in Germany had a order from least impactful toward most impactful. The restrictions starts out with Jews losing their jobs such as "Jewish civil servants discharged from their jobs" and "Jewish teachers to be discharged" as if Hitler was trying to make Jewish people become unable to support themselves and their families. As the law progresses, the more impactful the restrictions become such as "Jews no longer allowed to emigrate". 

Out of all the restrictions that Hitler placed, I think that not being allowed to have pets would be the hardest for me for muiltple reasons. One of the reasons is that you become attached to them as if they were family. Another reason is that pets can help you cheer up if you're having a bad day. Without them, you would be lonely and possibly depressed without them.

Quarter 2 Reflections

Out of all of the books I have read this quarter, the best book I've read would have to be The Nazi Hunters for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is that The Nazi Hunters intrigues you (the reader) with really good cliffhangers that leave you questioning, "What's going to happen?"  "Did he/she get caught?".

The area that I most improved on in English Language Arts would be writing blogs. Last quarter, my blogs were more of a quantity then quality, meaning I didn't really put all of my true effort into them, and vise versa.

Something that I accomplished since New Years that I'm proud of would be my newest investigative journalism blog (Syrian Civil War) since I finished writing the blog in less then two hours (the fastest I've gone for completing a blog).

My progress currently for my 40 book challenge is 15 books right now. I would've been at 18 books by now but I had forgotten the names of those books since I never wrote it down.

The most challenging thing about the 2nd quarter would be Article of the Week. The reason why it was challenging was because it took me a long while to fully understand the central idea of each articles. What I did to solve this problem was to study for a lot of time each day (30-40 minutes) on Articles of the Week in order to fully understand it.

My blogs have been progressing a lot since August since blogging became a usual thing in this Language arts class, making it far easier to write blogs. I've also stopped using a lot of words (quantity) and instead replacing it with quality.

I've used strategies such as studying, memorizing with flash cards, researching to help benefit me with my writing, thinking, and reading.

I've learned that the world has a tremendous amount of problems such as war, poverty, homeless, extinction, the list just keeps going on. It's just insane to see how many problems we face everyday and sometimes we don't act/do anything about it.

My research skills have improved since the 1st Quarter now that I find research without depending on someone or something. Other than that, it's still the same

Syrian Civil War

Last summer, while on a trip with the Eisenhower Institute’s Inside the Middle East program. I stood at the Israeli edge of the Golan Heights and heard a bomb explode across the border in Syria. We had spent the day within several miles of the war-ravaged nation with all remaining quiet until that moment, and while none of us wanted to admit it, we had the smallest hope that we might catch a glimpse of the conflict. However, when the sound of the detonation roared across the hills, excitement was replaced by a sense of fear and grief. I had lived a year in Gettysburg, yet I had never felt so close to a battlefield.

— Annika Jensen (age 18)

Currently in the world, Syria has been fighting a civil war for about six years now. Syria currently has a population of 17.8 million (estimated). Syria was once one of the world’s leading tourist destinations in the Middle East with its culture and history such as it's Ancient City of Aleppo, Dead Cities, and its old cities of Damascus and Bosra. Due to the civil war happening right now, tourist numbers fell by a shocking number of 98%. With that amount of tourist decline, it has brought a tremendous amount of decline with money with about $6 billion in losses.

The Syrian Civil War started as a peaceful protest that civilians acted on demanding the Syrian Government to meet their demands such as lack of freedom and economical issues.

After 15 boys were arrested and tortured for writing graffiti supporting the “Arab Spring” (series of anti-government protests, demonstrations, and armed rebellions that occurred across the Middle East). One of the boys was brutally tortured and died from his punishments. After this event occurred, The Syrian Government and President Bashar al-Assad acted on the protests by killing hundreds of demonstrators and arresting and prisoning more. This brought defectors/traitors from the military to form the rebel group “Free Syrian Army” with the goal of overthrowing the  government. From this point, Syria has just began its civil war. The civil war brought many rebel groups to help overthrow the government such as ISIL/ISIS.

 As the war continues to grow, territory is being changed. As of August 2016, The government of Syria only holds 35% of Syria (66% of population) while ISIS controls 35% of Syria as well. 12% is controlled by other rebel groups and 18% is held by the Kurds (Islamic people living in parts of Eastern Turkey, Northern Iraq, Western Iran, and Eastern Syria.

The results of the Civil War has brought 450,000 deaths with 50,000 being children and 4.81 million Syrians fleeing the country and 6.3 million people are displaced internally (someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country’s borders. They are often referred as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee).

At this rate, the war should end with a peace treaty between the Syrian Government and the rebel forces. The amount of casualties and people fleeing has created more problems for other countries as they could or could not have the refugees stay there. Therefore, a diplomatic peace treaty would be the right way to end this civil war as we once did in the United States (The Civil War between the North and South) and rebuild the country.

As of December 22, 2016 - Syria’s state-run media has announced government forces has taken full control of Aleppo, ending more than four years of rebel rule there.

Book Talk

The Nazi Hunters

By Neal Bascomb
Genre: Historical Nonfiction 

The Nazi Hunters is like about experiencing (little) of a case file that leads back in the May 19, 1944 with one of the Nazi's SS (Protection Squadron) Senior Storm Command Leader Adolf Eichmann, a man responsible for the order of killing millions of Jews in the concentration camps. Adolf succeed in avoiding the authorities to name him a war criminal resulting in a severe punishment. Adolf fled to Buenos Aires, Argentina moving place after place with another name being Ricardo Klement. However, his past finally caught up to him.

One of the main characters in the book is of course Adolf Eichmann. Adolf Eichmann was a man in his early thirties before he fled to Argentina. Had 4 sons named Ricardo Francisco Eichmann, Klaus Eichmann, Dieter Helmut Eichmann, and Horst Adolf Eichmann. Another main character is Sylvia Hermann. A girl who was once a girlfriend to one of Adolf's sons. The picture of her is only black and white so you could only tell she had a black hair color.

Adolf Eichmann was facing the struggle of leaving his home to avoid being caught by the authorities and being punished. He had to leave his family behind however he found a way to get them to travel to him.  The mood of this novel is disturbing due to knowing the fact that Adolf Eichmann killed millions of Jews without hesitation. The theme of this novel would be Justice due to the amount of funds and years of effort used to capture this war criminal to make him pay for what he has done.

I would rate this novel a 4/5 since it's intriguing to keep on reading since most chapters finish off at a cliffhanger. Another reason why is that the book makes the story actually feel like a case file with its dates, pictures, and background images.