Humanities 8 Yusuke

Final Exam: What is Power?

2009-05-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

What is Power? Power, could be defined in many ways, and there are three different types. These powers are: Physical power, social power, and energy. I think these powers are something that is necessary for our life, and some of it, must be used very carefully for our own safety.

First of all, there is something called physical power, in other word, force. Physical power is a power that pushes or pulls. Muscle is our main body part that produces this power. As an example, push up, is an exercise that needs physical power to work. Industrial Revolution was all about this kind of power as well. As technologies developed, a lot of labors were needed in factory. These labors used their physical powers to do their jobs, such as coal mining.

Secondly, there is social power. This is a power that only certain people have to take a control over another person or people. Usually, dictator, rulers, president, has these powers, and sometime, middle school students have this as well. Social power, changes our way of thinking or how we behave. For example, our parents changes how we behave in a five star hotel, and how we behave in our home. In the book Animal Farm, Napoleon, the leader of the animal farm had a social power over all of the animals who lived there. As a result he changed all the rules that they used to follow, and changed the way how animals behaved and think.

Lastly, energy is another type of power. In this case, I mean energy by power that humans produce by using technology. For example, nuclear power is an energy produced by technology called power plant. This power is used for human’s benefit to make the life easier. Also, a lot of this power was seen throughout the year. In World War II, so many weapons that harm people by using this power were used. Nuclear bomb is a good example of this. It killed so many people in Hiroshima, Japan, by the nuclear energy and radiation. Therefore, this power, which is also same as energy, could be very useful because it makes our life very easier. However, it is dangerous enough to kill all the species in the Earth including humans, so people have to be careful with the use of this.

Population Project

2009-05-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

3 things that I learned from Population Projects are....
1.) Way to write an Analysis
2.) Way to get data
3.) Way to write a good Thesis Statement
I think, all of these things I learned in Population Project was valuable,and it would be useful techniques that helps in future from now.

Fist of all, writing an analysis would help me in so many parts from now on. I think, this technique is required in high school, collage, and when I get a job, something related to businesses.The analysis that I wrote, might be the important source for one company to prevent from corrupting, and it my help my final grade to improve, if I know the how to write an analysis from early age. Therefore, I thought knowing the way to write an analysis is good skill to know.

Secondly, I knew how to collect data by using specific source-India stat- By using these sources, I was able to find a good, reasonable data, that was trust worthy as well. Also by looking at articles published by famous news paper publisher, I was able to find data for specific years, such as "The number of CNG vehicles in Delhi reached to 10,000 in 2006. (Random Example.) I think this was a good skill to learn, in order to write an analysis.

Finally, and most importantly, I learned how to write "Good" thesis. Although I learned this when I was writing African Research Paper, I didn't really know how to write a good thesis statement. But, through this experiment I learned what good to write good Thesis. In a good Thesis, it has to have a blue print of what you are going to state, and it also has to state your position, whether its good or not.
This skill techniques is good to have, because in any time from now on, "writing" is required....Therefore I think it is very important.

The Net Effect of "Globalization."

2009-05-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Globalization is an action to extend to other or all parts of the globe; make worldwide: efforts to globalize the auto industry, according to dictionary.com. Basically, it’s all about a country taking action, doing businesses around the world. People say this is a good thing to do for several reasons. However, people say that there are negative effects as well.

People say that globalization is good for 3 reasons. First of all, a person who lives in developing country like china earns more jobs. As you may know, so many companies from developed country like U.S build their factories in China, to do the job with cheaper labor. Therefore, even poor people doesn’t suffer from poverty that much, because they can get some jobs very easily. Secondly, the wages go up for middle class people. People in middle class, who have skills than the lower class, would be able to do harder and expensive jobs. That is because the lower class will do the easier jobs, that middle class was used to do. And this will lead to higher wages for middle class. Also, like my father does, when he comes to foreign developing/poor country like India, he would gain higher wages. Finally, people would be able to get the product of the specific company in cheaper price, if that company is going abroad. For example, I can buy Oreos and Doritos in cheap price here. However, I can’t buy Cheese it! because it is like 7times expensive than Oreos, since Cheese it! is imported from U.S or other country's factory making this product. In conclusion, Globalization will give positive effects to people who are in middle class, and people who live in foreign country where they can get basically U.S' product in cheap price.

There are 3 negative effects as well. Those three are: destruction of culture, family corruption, unemployment. When jobs from developed country come in, it changes their life style, more than people don’t notice. Because of the job that they do, they couldn’t celebrate their holiday, and it ends up not celebrating. For example, in India, people who work in call center, works during night, because it is day time in U.S. When that happens, people who work in call center can not celebrate their holidays like diwali at night, where people dance and drink. The second reason relates to this as well. When the time you do the job changes, sometime causes some corruption in the family. Referring to the example, if the husband/father works during night, and wife/mother works during the day, they wouldn’t get to know all the stuffs they have to, because there would be less time for conversation. Also, they wouldn’t be able to help each other as much, because when one is resting, one is working. Thirdly, the rate of unemployment increases, when world started to get globalized. It is true that there would be more people who will get a job, but people who doesn’t have a lot of skill, would be cut off, and get unemployed.

By looking at the overall pros, and cons, of globalization, I concluded that globalization is good. That is because, I think globalizing the world; by trading with so many countries will make a lot of people happier, than the number of people who suffer from poverty. I understand that there are more people whose poor and doesn’t even have a right cloth to wear, but, that is there way to living. Also, it is impossible to rescue all of the impoverished children and people by not globalizing the world. Therefore, I think people should continue to globalize the world, and continue to develop the developing countries.

Technology Cartoon

2009-04-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

The main visuals in this cartoon are 3people; Mother, Father and they're small son eating supper together. Also there is a text saying "Well Yes We Could See Your Blog...Or You Could Just TELL Us About Your School Day." This cartoon issues about the dehumanization of technology to small children, who doesn't use computers these days-which is a problem. It is a problem because use of technology takes the time of talking and socializing, like it shows in this cartoon. Since this small kid had written about his school day on a blog, he doesn't need/want to talk about it to his parents. Therefore, I could say that technology had influenced a small child in negative way, taking the time of talking together from him. This cartoon is ironic because these days this kind of small children doesn't use technology in this way. And this cartoon is being ironic by saying soon, technology will influence a small children like this, in a way it they do to adults. This cartoon relates to our study of technology, because we are learning how technology had influenced us in a positive/negative way. In order to make this cartoon to tell the author's opinion easier, author could add computer or laptop on the table at the back of this children. Or author could put a laptop on the dining table instead of meal, which signifies the influence of technology

PoP Project Work Week

2009-04-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

Monday: RP; 1.) Finish all the note cards
2.) Do the MLA citations for all the sites you used for research paper.

DA; 1.) Finish the summary.

Tuesday: RP; 1.)Finish the outline. Make sure to clarify what "alternative" is.

DA; 1.) Finish half of the future prediction/calculation
2.) Get the sites that you used to do the work cited page.

Wednesday: RP; 1.) Start to write your introduction paragraph.

DA; 1.) Finish the first draft.

EO; 1.) Final revision of the poster. Go ask ms.stephens for help/idea

Thursday: RP; 1.) Start writing your body paragraph 1, and 2

DA; 1.) Revise your graph and analysis. (spend time on RP/EO today)

EO; 1.) Attend to art club to start the poster.

Friday: RP; 1.) Finish the 3rd paragraph and conclusion.

DA; 1.) Add anything to your paper to make it better.

EO; 1.) Stay after school to write a poster. At least finish half of it.

Saturday: Do what ever you missed this week. You must have...
1st draft of RP
1st draft + revised DA
Half done EO poster. At the end of this week

Good Luck!

Technology

2009-03-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

Technology is something that works with electricity, that makes your life/work easier. For example, computer is a type of technology, that makes your work easier when you type, compared to type writer. Another type of technology, is electronic used for entertainment, such as iPod. The 5 most technologies mostly used today are computer, transportation vehicles, (car, airplane, train.) electricity, refrigerator, and iPod.
All of them, (except for the last one) is necessary for our life. However, I chose iPod for the important technology, because without it, I think I couldn't live in India right now. Its a stress reducer! That's why I chose these 5, that are necessary for life. Conversely, I think there are technologies that aren't useful enough. Those are; TV, CD player, Radio, Vacuums, and Batteries. These five are the five that I never use, and the ones that I think it's useless.

In AES, we use a lot of technologies. Laptop for education, microwaves in cafeteria, hot shower, in PE change room, digital camera, for certain project, microscope for....etc. It sounds like we use too much, but I think it is a right amount to educate middle school student. Without these things, we wouldn't learn as well as we do now. So I think we should continue using this much, or more technologies, in order ot educate well.

Karl Vonnegut's Quote -Vonnegut and Technology

2009-03-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

“Do you know what a Luddite is? That’s a person who doesn’t like newfangled contraptions. Contraptions like nuclear submarines armed with Poseidon missiles that have H-bombs in their warheads, and like computers that cheat you out of becoming. Bill Gates says, “Wait till you can see what your computer can become.” But it’s you who should be doing the becoming. What you can become is the miracle you were born to work—not the damn fool computer.”

This is a famous quote from Karl Vonnegut, a famous writer for the book Welcome to the Monkey House. He is a typical Luddite, and he writes about technology sarcastically on his book. For example, in his short story “Euphio Question,” he showed how technology leads to disaster, and cause many problem.

I actually agree with his word. Each person should grow and not depend on technology “too much.” However, I think some technology is needed to grow, and become. But not as much as Bill Gates says, “Wait till computer can become.” Nowadays, we couldn’t live without technology, because we are depending on it too much. If we don’t use excess amount of technology, I think it is OK, for becoming…

What you can become is the miracle you were born to work. That’s exactly correct.

End of Quarter 3 Feedback

2009-03-16T00:20:00.000-07:00

Third quarter has finally ended. In the begging of 3rd quarter, I've made 3 goals that I want to achieve. Those goals were....
# Try speaking up during the CLASS
# Remember 100 vocabs in 3rd quarter
# Read 3 books for AR.

First of all, I didn't improve my speaking that much. My Socratic Seminar Grade was terrible, because I only spoke once. Also I don't think I participated a lot in class conversation, such as discussing about issue. In addition, there wasn't a lot of group work, like I had in 2nd quartet, (PowerPoint etc) so there was less chance to speak. However, I think I had more time speaking outside the class, compared to 1st Semester. Since Population project started, I needed help from others, and maybe the others did as well. So the conversation rate increased as the project began to become serious.

For the vocabulary, I didn't work as hard to memorize vocabularies, but I think I have more vocabularies compared to the past, because I learned a lot in "War" unit. For example, at the beginning of this quarter, I didn't even know what conflict means. But I do now. I changed a bit.

For Reading. I think I had the most improvement on this one. I read 3 books!! Also, I got 100% on 2 of those book, and 90% in one of them. Last Quarter, I only read one easy book, and I only got 90%. So I only got "C" for the final grade for reading, but this quarter, I got "A+." Therefore I think I had a great improvement.

Next Quarters Goal Will be....
+ Keep on Reading,even though there isn't AR this quarter.
+ To make your writing fluent, Read over!
+ Speak up more. Began from 2 minute tune up.

Oxymorons

2009-03-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

An oxymoron is two words that don’t belong being used together.For example, "Holy War" is an oxymoron. Holy means state of being sacred, and War is a weapon used struggle between 2 or more groups. The word Holy and War means exactly different, because sacred thing/place is peaceful, and war is something that is bloody. Therefore "holy war is an oxymoron." By the way why is it that so many conflicts in the world today are based upon religious differences yet all major world religions condemn killing? I think that is because most of those religious people thinks, "God thinks they should be killed, so we have to punish them," or "I hear the God talking...He says we should kill them." And the war starts. The main causes of these kind of conflict, is a people who strongly believes in certain religoin, such as the muslims who bobmed Taj Hotel in Mumbai.

Would World War lll Happen??

2009-02-22T21:09:00.000-08:00

I think, World War 3 will happen in my life time soon. The two nations that's going to fight is South Korea and North Korea. I think North Korean spy who can speak Japanese, will enter South Korea to get some information about something. Like, something related to assassination....
Here's my story; The North Korean Spy enters the Prime Minister's house to get some information about assassination of someone.Unfortunately, the South Korean worker in the prime minister's house founds the North Korean spy entering their secret laboratory. When the South Korean worker talked to him to see if he's a stranger or not,the North Korean spy took out the gun and shoots him. Then he runs away. When he got out of the laboratory, he saw the prime minister and five body guards waiting for him with guns. The spy knew it was end of his life, so he shot the prime minister's head and suicide.....

Later, South Korea declared the War to North Korea. But the South Koreans gets killed by the secret atomic bomb that North Korea had. The North Korea dropped the biggest atomic bomb to the middle of the Sea of Japan, and half west of Japan, and almost every part of South Korea is burned. Soon Japan declares a war to North Korea, allying US, (Democrat Nation) trying to stop the war. For the North Korean side, Russia, and China Allies together. But soon the huge influence of the atomic bomb, destroys the most of the north hemisphere, and every countries in the North hemisphere joins the War. In order to end this atomic bomb-war,America dropped the biggest atomic bomb and destroyed whole North Hemisphere....and finally the war ends.
THE END

*Connecting two causes and ideas of World War 1,and 2

Anne Frank Reflection

2009-02-17T02:00:00.000-08:00

In The New York Times the writer Anna Quindlen asked, “Would our understanding of the Holocaust be quite the same if Anne Frank had not taken a small plaid diary into hiding with her?” Today, I will answer to this question.
First of all, I don't think Anne Fraank's diary affected our understanding of Holocaust so much. I have read through the Anne Frank's diary, but she didn't actually wrote about the Nazi and Hitler, or about the concentration camps. She mainly wrote about her feelings, like her friend and relationship stuff. Also its's a information from a 14 years child. She doesn't have ssuch a information that adults have, like about wars and fightingd. Therefore, I didn't think Anne Frank's diary related to my understanding.

A Letter from the Battle Front

2009-02-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

Camp Upton, New York
New York, USA

Dec, 17, 1944

Dear Anne

Hey Anne. How are you guys doing there? I'm doing pretty well, but not that good either. Yesterday, I experienced the first war fighting, at the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium. As you can see, I survived! And we won this battle too! At the Ardennes, it was snowing so hard that I couldn't even feel my body temperature. Because we were in a forest, there were thousands of trees all over with snow covered, which made me easier to hide. By the way, I enclosed one photo of that battle field. Can't you see how it's snowing there and, our soldiers hiding behind the heap of snow? The snows were beautiful, but soon the white snow was colored with bright red all over. In this battle, I used the weapon called Karabiner 98k, a German Rifle that could kill a person from 800 meters away. I felt a little guilty, but yes, I did kill some people.
You might be wondering, "Why did this fighting happened?" so I will tell you. This fighting started with Three German Armies, totaling 25 divisions (11 armored), entering the American divisions at Ardennes and overrunning their lines. It was morning of yesterday, (Dec, 16, 1942) when it suddenly happened. We formed our army immediately, but we lost about 89,500 armies, which is pretty shocking.
In our camp, we are treated carefully, with courtesy, so don't worry that much. We have our own bed, hygiene items, (toothbrush etc.) showers, and food. For today's supper, we had sausages, potatoes, beets, cold slaw, bread and butter, cake and coffee. It's not bad for food during war isn't it? But you know what? Your food is 100 times better!
I'm okay, so don't worry. Take care of my child and don't get involved in wars if it happens. I will come back soon, and give me some letters back.
With Love,
Joe.

Sources: http://www.aboutjonesfamily.com/PAGES/WAR2.HTM
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/letter_generator/
http://www.aboutjonesfamily.com/PAGES/WAR7.HTM
http://www.world-war-2.info/weapons/wp_1.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge

Recipe for World War ll

2009-02-12T01:01:00.000-08:00

Get 1 piece of a European bread
and spread the sauce of Facism all over
Add 4 slices of "Failure of league of nation."
then sprinkle the meaningless Treaty of Versallies
After you put some colonies, armies, and navys on it
Put in a hot, warm oven as hot as German, and Japanese agrression.
When the agression in an oven explodes
the war begens.

Whichi Animal Are YOU!??

2009-02-02T01:25:00.000-08:00

I think, the character that mostly identify me in the book Animal Farm is Benjamin. To begin with, I don't talk a lot like everyone does. Benjamin, is a very quiet character, and he became angry and shout rarely. Secondly, I don't choose any side that I think it's wrong. Benjamin, did not choose side for Snowball or Napoleon, when animals were deciding for a new leader. Finally, I am smart enough that challenging myself for impossible, which might going to kill myself is wrong thing to do. Benjamin also didn't go against Napoleon and his dogs, because he was smart enough to think that it's going to kill himself by doing that. Because of these 3 reasons I think Benjamin's characteristic best identifies to me.

Tyranny, Injustice, Self-Determination

2009-01-26T21:19:00.000-08:00

Tyranny, Injustice, Self-Determination. These words are closely related to the story of the book Animal Farm. By the way, what are these words mean? Tyranny is a unfair, cruel use of power. Injustice is the quality or fact being unjust, and Self Determination is a way of government or life style, where people determine themselves, without outside influence.
First of all, tyranny is related to the overthrow of Farmer Jones, because he and his workers, was treating the animals cruelly, by not giving that much food. They only gave a minimum amount of food in order to survive, and they took all of the benefits by themselves.
Secondly, injustice. This is also related, because the injustice, unfair treatment directly related to the overthrow of Farmer Jones.
Lastly, Self-Determination is related to this, because every animal in the farm wanted freedom by self- determination, (except for Mollie) and that made them to overthrow Farmer Jones from the farm.
That is why I think tyranny, injustice, and Self-Determination is closely related to the overthrow of Farmer Jones.

Weapons

2009-01-19T04:12:00.000-08:00

Machine guns.
Killed hundreds of people every minute.
A “S” like structure, and muzzle like a eye.
When you see a small round eye seeking from trenches,
You’re dead.

Tanks.
Comes to our side very slowly like a turtle.
Their metallic body is a shell of a turtle.
When you know that you couldn’t destroy the shell of the tank,
You’re dead

Poison Gas.
The weapon that were used mostly during World War 1 .
Tear gas, Mustard gas, Chlorine…
When you smell of that invisible gas,
You’re dead

Artillery guns.
Fire, Explode, then Kills.
Targeted people resting inside the trenches .
When you see a round object falling towards you,
You’re dead.

Aircrafts
An eagle eye that you have to watch for it.
Shoots cannons, and bombs to the crowd of people.
When you hear a bomb exploding,
You’re dead

This is World War 1

Can you survive?

Sources: Information
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/machine_guns.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/poison_gas_and_world_war_one.htm
http://www.worldwar1.com/arm006.htm
Images http://www.theaerodrome.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/218/size/big/cat/
http://www.liquidmatrix.org/
And some from above

Is the military in yout future?

2009-01-18T19:15:00.000-08:00

In my homecountry, Japan, they do not require military services. The military in Japan, is composed of people who wants to be in soilder, or a child of the solider. So its not required for a normal citizens. Although, the time during World War 2, all of the men were required to be a solider. (even a small kids like 12) From this, I guess when a war happens again, such as World War 3, I think I am required to be a soldier. If that happens, I think I will run away somewhere safe, because I dont like fightings, and mostly, I dont want to die. The time when I WILL join military, is only when I'm so angry that my surroundings were killed. (Such as family) Thats the only condition when I would go to military, because I don't really think I could save Japan from other big countries like America.

Alliances Cartoon

2009-01-11T23:55:00.000-08:00

This is the famous cartoon from World War 1. The main visual elements in this cartoon are, Fat man with yellow pants, (UK) a bear, (Russia), a guy with a gun in the front, (Italy) guy with a red jacket, (Austral Hungary) black jacket in center, (Germany), guy smoking a hookah.(Turkey) This cartoon issues about how the European countries were making relationships with others. I think the author of this cartoon wanted to say that many countries were very strict of making relation with others, (being friend with others) because war were going to start. As you can see, the yellow paper that every one is holding or passing around, is money, and they are making relationships with money, in order not to lose in war. To make this cartoon better, I think this author should write the letters more bigger, because I didn't know what these people represents until my teacher said it. (And I still don't get the girl crying on the bottom left.) Lastly, this cartoon is related to the Great Powers Game that we did last week, because we went into relationships with other countries by giving armies, colonies, etc.

Great Powers Game Debrief

2009-01-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

My country in the great powers game was Japan. In the start of the game, USA, Great Britain, Germany had advantages, because the started with power of "4", while we started from "2." Building the empire felt like being the leader of the country, and it was little wierd. In the long run, it was more important to buy armys, because in any time there were a posibilities of being attacked. In this game I think I did well not making enemies. From the beggining of this game, I knew that I shouldn't trust anybody, and being friends with others is nonsence. If you be friends with one country, then you will just make enemies. And your allies wouldnt help you every time. So we didnt be friends with others so much. Just the biggest country,UK. But I think I should've bought Industries more, because we didn't grow that much. In this simulation, I think I learned 3 things. You cannot trust people. It is more important not to make enemies, instead of making allies. People will choose money rather than relationships. (The last one depends on the person though....)

End of Quarter 2 Feedback

2009-01-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

Second quarter has finally ended. In the begging of 2nd quarter, I've made 3 goals that I want to achieve. Those goals were....

Speak up
READ (fluently)
Memorize more vocabularies.

For speaking, I think I improved a "little." This quarter's grade for oration wasn't really bad, and I think I had more chance to speak. (Presentation...etc) I had to speak with my groups when making Africa Powerpoint, and time when preparing for trial. In both of those assignments, I had to talk with my partner(s) in order to get a good grade, so I tried hard. And overall speaking grades changed from C to B.
For reading I think I grew much from the begging of this year. In the begging, I had very hard time reading The Outsiders. (Took about 30 minutes reading 1 chapter) But now, I could read harder nobles, such as Eragon.
For vocabs, I didnt tried really hard, so I will continue remembering.

My new goals for quarter 3 is...

Try speaking up during the CLASS
Remember 100 vocabs in 3rd quarter
Read 3 books for AR.

Hope I will accomplish...

1/6/2009

Pros and Cons about Imperialism

2008-12-01T00:51:00.000-08:00

Imperialism is a act of invading another country without permission, to get a land or natural resources. I think there were both positive effects and negative effects.

Pros:
+More technologies invented.
+Civilization
+More jobs, which might lead to earnings
+Country getting developed
+New language/religion

Cons:
-More fighting between countries
-Discrimination
-Slavery
-longer working time
-less food.

SQ3R Summary –The west Africa Today-

2008-11-19T07:44:00.000-08:00

In most of the countries in West Africa, they don’t have good and reliable government. But Nigeria, the second largest city in Africa, has a democrat government, and also Cape Verde, group of volcanic island in Atlantic has a reliable democrat government. Except for that two countries, other struggles from poverty, because of the government. But each country in West Africa has some type of problem that bothers the growth. Nigeria suffers from high increasing population rate. This is the problem in Nigeria, because they don’t have enough food to feed all the people in the country.
As everyone knows, West African countries have some types of natural resources. Such as oil, coffee bean, and diamond. If they had natural resources, they could get some money, and become rich. But why isn’t the African Countries growing and developing? The civil wars that happened, (or maybe still happening) a few years ago, is the main cause why they are still struggling from poverty. Because of the civil wars that happened over many countries, government, and natural resources were destroyed or taken away. So many of the countries are trying to rebuild the government and also to get the natural resources again. In some countries, famine is the problem, and in some country, distributing food to all the people is the problem. But all and all the main problem is POVERTY

Africa News Story 3

2008-11-18T21:41:00.000-08:00

This is the news story that happened between 2 African Nation, Chad and Sudan. The thing that happened between these two countries are... rebellion.(again) Nov.9.2008, about 2 weeks ago, and the two countries fell out over mutual accusations of support for rebels. The rebellion was caused by 2 ambassadors of 2 countries. They ended the campaigns that they were doing with each other, and both of the countries are refusing to reunite again.

I chose this news story as a recent News, because of the timeliness. It happened about 2 weeks ago, and it is very "recent."Also, I was surprised with this situation, because I didn't think that still there is a countries that arel fighting with each other. And not by negotiating. By "Violence." So I was shocked, but also surprised.

Feedback Nov, 10-14 - Imperialism Cartoon

2008-11-17T01:55:00.000-08:00

In this cartoon, there are 2 stuff that stands out on our mind. Africa and footstep. I think this cartoon wants to issue about the colonization of Africa, which were done by many European countries. Since this footstep is big, and lies on middle, I think the author of this comic wants to say that colonizing was evil decision, and author hates it. And maybe, this author IS African, and feels sorry to the ancestors, and wants to tell the Europeans did something bad. To make this cartoon more persuasive, I think this author should write some words that symbolize Europe on the footstep.

West Africa History and Culture

2008-11-17T01:34:00.001-08:00

Timbuktu was a cultural center, and it was significant for the Songhai City, because this city had the power, so they succeed in weakening the invasion from the other country.
The slave trade affect West Africa, because so much of people, (about million) were enslaved by 1800. These people were kidnapped first, get separated from family, and sail to America. But during this voyage to America, many people died from the diseases.
Animism, is a belief that honors bodies of water, animals, trees, and other natural objects have spirits. Animists also honor ancestors memories.
In West Africa, many people belonged to one of the ethnic group. Ethnic Groups mix with each other along the cities and countries. But, because of the way the European Countries drew political boundaries, country borders sometime separated the sam ethnic group.
I think West Africa disliked European Colonizer the most. Since West Africa was the closest country to North Africa, many people were enslaved and shipped to America. People who were left in West Africa might have been sad and depressed. So I think they disliked the Colonizer the most.

The Scramble for Africa

2008-11-14T01:48:00.000-08:00

We were the SPAIN, and we started this game terrible. We rolled 3 dice but we dropped 2 and we only got 1 for the land. Well.... Strategy that I used to claim land; I negotiate other countries by giving our 3 lands for 1 square, which had so much of natural resources. If they said "no" we gave 4 lands for their 1 land. Factors that consider in claiming; since every country wanted different natural resources, we had some resources that we DON'T want but others wanted. In this situation, it was easy to convince the other people. So, we considered the natural resources that land had, the most. I think the winner of this game is France, because France took over the most of the land that has so much of natural resources, (which is the region around South Africa) and also the coastal areas, where trading goes on. The loser... I think this game's loser is Spain, which was us, because we didn't get the area that has natural resources, or coastal area. Also we didn't win the "attack," and the area that we got is the inner area of Africa. Because of this, when Spain, and the colony of Spain in Africa wanted to trade something, it will cost so much of money, because there is a need of trasportation fee, through the inner region to coastal region.

Africa News 2

2008-11-13T06:10:00.000-08:00

This story happened in Ghana ,the western part of Africa, about a 10days ago. (Oct, 30, 2008) Israeli man call Dror Weinstein was kidnapped by Ghanaian groups. They, the kiddnappers had demanded 500,000 US dollars for release of the Israeli man. Newsreporter says that kidnapping in Ghana is very rare, but it is unclear who the kidnappers are and why they chose a Israeli man to kidnapp.
I think this news is newsworthy because of timeliness, and oddity. It is very timely, because this news happened 10 days ago, and oddity, because the kidnapp is a very unusual situation.

West Africa Physical Geography

2008-11-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

There are so many interesting characteristics in West Africa. Main physical features of West Africa are composed of plains and rivers. The main river in West Africa is the river called Niger river. The inland delta on the Niger river are divided into a network of channels, swamps, and lakes. Many cities are located on coastal plain, because there are so much of natural resources, such as cacao, in Ghana.
Geographers say that West Africa's climates are zonal, which means organized land. The geographers says that, because climate regions stretch from east to west in bands. In West Africa, there are 2 regions called Sahel, and Savanna. There are similarities in these areas, the rain has an important role in helping the farmers, because the land are dried. But it is also different, because Sahel is a strip of land, and savanna has tall grasses and tree. There are 1 big problem that West Africa faces. It is desertification, which means "spread of desert." Because of this, I think people wouldn't have enough water, and diseases will spread.
The most valuable resources in West Africa is agricultural products, oil, and minerals. And most of the crops grow in Ghana and Nigeria.

Can we trust the book To Be A Slave?

2008-11-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

I think we can trust the book To Be A Slave, written by Julius Lester. First of all, he is a famous author from 50 years ago, and he received many honors, such as Newbery Honor. I think people who does receive this kind of big honor won't write something that isn't true. And mostly, this book DID recieve a Newbery Honor. Secondly, he was a writer, and he must had a good resources to write this book. And I assume that those resources that Lester used is a true information, and trustworthy. Finally, he was a Jewish person, and have known a real event or something big about a slave trade, because there was Hebrew slavery trade in Egypt during the time he was alive. He might have seen a slave trade, when he was small. Plus, facts about the slave trade is also written in Hebrew Bible. From these reasons, I think Julius Lester's information is real and trustworthy.

Africa News

2008-11-09T21:23:00.000-08:00

This news story that I've found, is a story about Chad rebellion, written by BBC's Stephan Hancock, 4, February, 2008. This rebellion happened in N'Djamena, the capital city of Chad in Africa. The rebellion were caused by the largest group in Africa call UFDD, (United Force for Democracy, and Development.) which was led by Mahamat Nouri. This man was working in government, was Chad's ambassador Saudi Arabia when he defected to the rebellion two years ago. They were rebelling to control the large parts of the city. They wanted to take over the city and take control, because the president of Chad, Deby's rules have been violent. After the rebellion, every one had know that 2 other groups (RFC, and UFDD-Fondamentale.) were in this rebellion and also, the country next to Chad, Sudan was backing up the Chadian rebels.

I thought this news story is newsworthy, because of timeliness, and Oddity. This rebellion happened in this year (2008), so it is pretty much "now," and also surprises the readers. I also thought that this is a unique, and unusual situation, because I never heard this kind of news in Japan. I didn't even think that there is some fighting going on around the world, and people are dieing. So for me, it was surprising, because it was unusual situation for me, and also it is the news that happened recently.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7225023.stm

5 themes of geography.

2008-11-07T00:09:00.002-08:00

This image contains all of the 5 themes of geography. First of all, movement. It contains movement, because people are moving from India to some other country, (since it's a airport) and worker in the airport are working. This image also contains region, a cultural region, because the name of an airport is written in Hindi, and English. From this, you might tell that this airport is in India, because it is written in Hindi. But, there is a evidence that tells us that this airport is in India. If you looked at this picture carefully, at the center, you know that airline company's names are Jet Airways, Indian Airline, and many other Indian airline company. So you know that location of this airport is in India. And of course, this building was built by a human. (Human environmental Interaction.) Lastly, the place. In this picture, it has a special characteristics that makes this picture unique, and special. The name of this airport. Airport that has the name Indira Gandhi is only in India.

violence leads to more violence!?

2008-11-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

I think violence will lead to more violence. For example, in the book Julius Caesar, in Act3 scene 1, and 3, conspirators were killing Caesar, (which is violence) which led to more violence, such as Antony and Octavius’ revenge against Brutus, and Cassius. Also Cinna, the poet was torn into pieces by the citizens, even though he was innocent. From these reasons and evidences, I think violence will lead to much more violence.

Which should I protect? Rome or Caesar?

2008-10-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

If I were Brutus, and had to decide peace of Rome or Caesar, I would kill Caesar and protect the peace of Rome. Because the people like Cassius, and Casca aren't satisfied with Caesar's way of governing Rome, Rome wouldn't be peaceful anyway, because they might going to start a war. As it says in FYI Act One "Lean and Hungry Cassius," Cassius hates Caesar, and soon they might start a war in Rome, which wouldn't make Rome a peaceful place. So as a best friend of Caesar, Brutus have to kill him to make Rome a peaceful.
Also in FYI Act One, Caesar have a sickness. He isn't healthy, so somebody should become a new leader of Rome, because if Caesar kept leading Rome, he might not able to give best decision when some emergency happens.
From these reasons, I think Brutus should kill Caesar, and make Rome a peaceful place.

WHO is the leader????

2008-10-13T02:21:00.000-07:00

To be a good leader, I think he/she needs 2 things. One is leadership (of course) . Leadership is important because leader have to lead people. Leaders have to be responsible for all the people who follows you, because if they cause some problems, leaders have to solve them. Second is trust/kindness. If leader were kind to all the people who follows you, and trust them, they will automatically follows you, and also admire you. So if the leaders were trusted, they will trust you too!!
In middle school, I think there isn't such a student who are really a leader. There isn't a big group that does something, and everyone treats every other people equally and nice.
But in humanities class during socratic seminar, some people in class, takes leaderships to make the conversation continue. They gives us new questions, or feedbacks to make the conversation more fun, and continueous. Those people are Aysha, Nikaya, Michaela, Scott, and Garrett. They always start with their opinion, or thoughts in socratic seminar, which helps us very much...

Imperialism Divides Africa

2008-10-13T02:00:00.000-07:00

During the time when imperialism was happening, many countries took over another countries for motivations. Motivations represents 3G, and it stands for Gold, Glory, and Gods. One of the invasion that was happening were European countries' domination of Africa. In Africa, there was so much of natural resources and raw materials that every other countries wanted. For example, there was a plenty of gold, which every other European countries wanted. There were racism going on when European people took over African land, because Europeans thought they were smarter, wealthier, and cleaner than Africans. Also Christian missionaries in European Countries supported imperialism, and spent money for that. But mostly, European countries, especially Britain had a lot of technology that was developed during Industrial Revolution, which caused advantage to them.
These were the reasons why Europeans got the interest to Africa, and how they started to take over African lands. As a result of this, many people started to live in Africa. (Thats why French are used in Africa

End of Quarter 1 Feddback

2008-10-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

Quarter 1, I set some few goals. One is "speak up." This quarter I think I didn't accomplish this goal. Actually my socratic seminar grades went down compared to the first socratic seminar grade, and end of the quarter grade. When I look at the total grade for speaking, it says "C" which is the worst of all. And I think speaking is the weakest part of my English, and I need to work on for the next quarter. But it is impossible to start speaking up like everyone on the class. So I will try to speak up more from my ESL class, and start speaking in humanities slowly. It might take to the end of the 3rd quarter to accomplish this goal. But at least I will try.
Second goal was to read. I think I did pretty well on this. I read about 10 minutes every night, and I think i improved a little. To improve more, I will try to read 20 minutes every night, and continue remembering vocabulary.

Political Cartoon Analysis of Capitalism

2008-09-21T22:52:00.000-07:00

This big man in the middle, he has a tag that says "Capitalism." The small thin man, who is grabbed by the big man, has a tag that says "labor." From him, some moneys are falling to the bag that says "Profits from Child Labor." I think this cartoon is talking about how capitalism made the labors work so hard that made them very thin, and small. They have very small amount of money to live, eat, and maybe nourishing their child/children. But the big man, which I think it's manager, is making the labors work so hard, and taking their small amount of money. And I think this author wanted to tell that workers worked very hard during this period, even though, management gave just a small amount of money. Also how capitalism worked, because you need to work, to get money. From the words under the cartoon, made me feel this way. I think author could use bigger letter, because the letter in this cartoon are hard to read, and some people may not understand this wonderful cartoon, if it wasn't readable.

Image from http://mrcoyle.edublogs.org/

Going Back To My Goal ~Am I doing OK?~

2008-09-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

In the begging of the year, I set some goals about humanities. One was “Speak up in Socratic Seminar,” and another one was “Be able to read the book faster.” I think I accomplished ¼ of this. First of all, I don’t think I am not still speaking up so much. When I need to answer, I do, but I don’t speak up from myself. So I will try to speak up more, next half quarter. To the second goal, I think I accomplished half of them. Every night, I am reading about 20 minutes of book, so I think, I’m definitely getting faster at reading. So I’m happy with that, but I still have some place that I don’t understand. To understand I think I need to learn more vocabulary. So next half quarter, I will participate in remembering more vocabulary. So…from today, I will study, and remember 5 new vocabulary words every day. I think that will help me improve..

Stock Market Game ~Fearful Gamble, 50％ chance~

2008-09-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

Tip that worked, that made me success, in the stock market game, was “Buy Low…Sell High.” In this game I actually missed at getting money first, but I succeeded at last part of the game. But what did I do to success? Well, Mr. Coyle’s tip helped me. In the first year, I didn’t know that 10 dollars for 1 stock is expensive or cheap. So in the first year, (1871) I didn’t buy anything. Then in the next year, some got to 20 dollars and some got to 7 dollars. I thought “Oooh. 10dollars to 20 dollars is a big jump. This company is growing…” so I bought 4of 20 dollars stocks with my whole money. But in the next year, suddenly 20 went down to 17, and 7 got up to 10. Then I noticed. Expensive stocks doesn’t mean it is growing (it might do…) and it will success for ever. I should’ve bought a 7 dollar stock, rather than 20 dollars stock. So I just listen to Mr. Coyle’s tip, and do as it said. I bought some low price stocks that look like it’s going to success in business. (By looking at the news.) Then what do you think it happened to my total money at the last year. It had changed from －80 dollars to ＋200 dollars. Mr. Coyle’s tip made me success, but I think I was very lucky too. I learned how buying stocks can make people happy, but also very sad. I will never buy stocks when I grow up. It is scary!!!

Feed Back August 25-29

2008-09-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

Image that shows my feeling and
thinking to Industrial Revolution.Pros and Cons of Industrial Revolution:

Pros: 1. Many things were invented (mule, steam engine …)

2. Many works got easier to do from inventions. (textile production, trades…)

3. Economic systems were built. (Free Market, Invisible hand…)

4. Countries got wealthier from trading the products.

5. Labors had fewer jobs in some factories.

Cons: 1. Some people (Luddites) refused these new technology, and caused some problems.

2. People began to use the machines, which is good, but also dangerous.

3. More pollution.

4. Labors got more works to do in some factories.

By looking at this, I think Industrial Revolution was good, because many things were invented, and without these invention, I think we can’t live now days. But I wish we can reduce the pollutions.

Factory game2 -reflection-

2008-08-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

In today’s activity, we did some mass production of paper toy. Making a 100s of paper toy, -which was Nikaya’s pig-, in the class. The rule of this game was to make as many pigs as you can in 45 minute. We had to make the pig as similar as the original pig, to get some points.
The hard place of this game was to teamwork in group. Because there were about 20 people in the class, it was hard to work as a group. Some people didn’t cooperate to class, and some people screamed out something and confused us to what to do. So it was very hard to work, using the time efficiently. That’s 1 difference I think of, when I compared to yesterday’s game. Because when I do the production by my self, I didn’t had a fight, or confused, or annoyed to something (someone). Similarities of these 2 activities were that we had to use our hand for these both activities. We had to glue, cut, and color, in these both activities.

Factory Game Reflection 1 ~paper craft!!~

2008-08-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

Today, I created a toy, which was a doll, (maybe an alien) with a paper, which was cut in many different shapes. First, I made some eyes with a black crayon, and put 2 small circled pieces on each eye. Then I put the eyes on the top of the biggest circle, (top left and top right). This made the face funny looking. After that, I made the mouth with 3 ovals, -middle one’s the biggest- and put a nose between, the mouths and eyes. Secondly, I made the body with the second biggest circle. Then I put hands and legs around the body, using circles and ovals, and ribbon. Ribbon? What do you think I used ribbon for? I used the ribbon for the leg, to make it funny. It’s like captain hook, not having a leg, and putting something else as a leg.
I enjoyed very much doing this activity. And as I said in the entry before, I love activities. So I enjoyed it very much on this activity, especially making the toy funny looking.

Descriptive Writing -The Roller Coaster Holler-

2008-08-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

“Weeen, Doom. Weeen, Doom.” It began ascending. This roller coaster moves up, with sound of “Weeen,” and falls down a little, in sound of “Doom.” It takes so much time to go up to the top, which scared me a lot.
“Weeen, Doom. Weeen, Doom.” I hear a creaking sound of engine. Oh no…What should I do??? I’m so scared that I wanna die. I felt my head is falling down, but the cushion is holding my head. Oh my… I drank my spit and put my feet close to together to reduce scariness. My spit tasted like water in a pool, and my feet was quivering very hard. It didn’t help me at all.
“Weeen, Doom. Weeen, Doom.” This coaster smelled like a gas. Is this coaster OK? I began worrying. Please don’t kill me… I was very afraid that I might gonna lose my consciousness. I looked down. People in the amusement park, slowly got smaller and smaller. I looked forward. We were in a very high place that we can see the cities like 100km away.
“Weeen, Doom. Weeeeeeeen… Doooooom…..” then engine made a terrible creak. And I noticed that first cart is already falling. Then 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th…
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....!!!!!”
I fall. In a very high speed. I can feel my head is falling toward, and noisy wind, playing with my hair. The wind tasted salty. But I was panicked, so I just grabbed the safety bar very tightly. How long is this taking? I wonder. It was just 5 second, but I felt like 1 hour had passed. It was the longest time I’ve ever felt. I grabbed the safety bar tighter. Please don’t kill me….
When I realized, I was getting out of the coaster.

Mother Necessity

2008-08-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

What is the phrase “Necessity is the mother of invention” means?
I have 3 ideas what this phrase means.

First of all, I think necessity is the mother of invention because, mother
is the person who gives birth to the inventors. Every inventors are born from their
mother, and if mother didn’t born a baby, the invention haven’t occurred.

Secondly, mother is the person who does the nourish. Mother works very
hard to make the child grew healthy, and well educate. For example, Edison, who invented
light bulbs and electricity, his mother nourished Edison with very deep love. She didn’t let him go to school, because there was bad influence, (Bad words, fightings) so she spent most of the time Edison teaching. She worked hard on Edison’s education and that made Edison a great person.

Finally, mother keeps the house. They cook, wash the cloths, make bed, clean the room…..
they do many things. And at the old time there was many hard time doing does, such as washing.Because there wasn’t washing machines, so they washed it with their hand. But now there is a washing machine so everyone can wash the cloths easily. But who invent the washing machine? Most of the inventors, invented things from watching mother having a hard time. So mother’s hard time caused the many inventions.

How do I learn? -Feed Back Aug,11-15

2008-08-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

I think I learn things by doing something, or making something (Kinesthetic). I think I’m Kinesthetic because, most of the time, I learn by having some experience. For example, last year in science I learned about Newton’s laws. But not just remembering, I got those in my head by doing some labs, and experiencing how that law works. So for me doing= learning

I think Mr. Coyle can help my learning in class, by doing some activities in class. (Because I’m Kinesthetic…) Like the activity that we did in the first week. Guessing the inference from the person’s 5 items that represents him (her). And I think it helps my learning a lot by doing those activities.

Feedback - Quarter 1 Goals

2008-08-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

Two highlights from the first week of school.
Well, one is "Socratic Seminar"and another is the book Outsiders.
First of all, I was surprised to the idea of Socratic Seminar,
because I hadn't done a big discussion like that before.
At the first discussion, and also today's discussion (Aug,13)
I wasn't able to speak like everyone else does.
I was very quiet, shy and had no opinions.
So my first goals for 1st quarter is to "speak up in Socratic Seminar and
be able to join in the conversation."
Secondly, the book Outsiders. I had a very hard time
reading that book, because I hadn't read that kind of book when
I was in ESL last year. I was also surprised to the book, because there was
many idioms and slangs that I didn't know.
So the second goals for the 1st quarter is to improve my reading level.
I want to understand the book easily and mostly
I want to be able to read a book FASTER!!

My first impression to humanities.
My first impression was "nervous"
I was very nervous to study with everyone else
who speaks English fluently.
But now I'm OK.
Actually I'm very happy now.
Because I can learn many things from them.

MY GANG!!!

2008-08-12T00:50:00.000-07:00

My Gang... People who supports me.
I think that kind of people are my parents.
They helps me with many things.
They helps me to concentrate in studies.
They also takes me to place where I can play.
Such as tennis.
And it is very fun to do both learning and sports!!

Also my friend(s) in Japan, who is my "goal"
(In many way. He's smart...)
He supports me from Japan and
I support him from India...

So I think parents and my friend is the "gang" for me.