Final Reflection

1: What are the three most important things you learned this year?

The three most important things

2: What is something we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?

3: What was the nicest thing someone in our class did for you this year?

The nicest things my classmates did for me in class was give me a apple juice before class began. Yup, that is all. 

4: What is something you taught your teacher or classmates this year?

5: In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements? What is something you accomplished this year that you are proud of?

6: What was the most challenging part of this year for you?

7: What was the best piece of writing that you did this year? Why do you think it is your best?

The best piece of writing I made in ELA this year was my Newscast Blog we did at the beginning of the year. I would say it was the best due to the amount of work I had put into the blog. It was about the season premiere of the Walking Dead. Watching the Walking Dead is one of my favorite things to do so I has happy to be able to write about. I think it was the best because since I had interest in the topic I went crazy when writing. I just wrote and wrote again and again, making it in my opinion my best piece of writing this year by far. 

8: Of the books you read this year, which was your favorite? Why?
I'm favorite book we read this year in class was "The Watsons Go To Birmingham". When I heard the description of the book I thought it would be a sad book, but it really wasn't. Yes, there were some parts that were sad but the book was just a fun book to read. It was basically the shenanigans of the Watson family and it made fun to read the book. I also didn't get tired of reading the book like others I have read in the past, making it my favorite book we have read this year. 

9: What advice would you give students who will be in this class next year?
The only piece of advice I'd have to give to the kids coming into class next year is, don't slack, the more you slack the harder it will be to get a good grade in class. 

This I Believe Speech

“Regrets”
By: Lazar Stevlic

Have you ever done something that you have regretted? Everyone has probably regretted something. But have you have done nothing and regretted it?

Yes, no, whatever the case may be don’t hold back.

In elementary school had was a very shy kid. I never really talked to anyone I didn’t know and barely talked during class. The only people I would talk to is my teachers and friends.

I was in the fourth grade, June 2013, it was the last day of school. Kids were excited, I was excited, everyone was excited.

My best friend at the time asked me to sign his yearbook. I signed it and went on with my day. Then school ended and I went home in joy.

Three months later and I went to check on the list to see what class I was in. I saw what class I was in and then I saw that my friend wasn’t on the list. I looked and looked again and again, and I didn’t see his name. After that day in 4th grade I never saw him again. I never saw, heard, seen him ever again. For all I know he disappeared off the face of Earth.

But on the last day I talked to him, I didn't say bye. I didn’t say anything about next time. We talked but I never said goodbye, or see your later. I left the school and I didn’t say a word. He was my best friend. I talked to him, went to his house, and I didn’t say a word.

I still to this day don’t know why I didn’t say bye.

3rd Quarter Reflection Blog

          3rd Quarter is gone and done with. 3rd Quarter was a very long quarter and tough one as well, but I made some improvements you would say in ELA. In ELA this quarter and for most of the year I had one problem, and in this quarter I overcame this problem. It's not writing, talking in front of people, or annotating. It’s paying attention. I kinda have a problem with paying attention and it messes with me especially in this class. I pay attention when the teacher is talking and such but then I doze off towards the end of the talking and then she asks me a question and I look like I haven’t slept in about a month. To fix this when I start dozing off I usually stand up straight or position myself. So then when the teacher ask me a question I’m right on it, and don’t look like a fool either.
          Now onto something that I really want to talk about. In 3rd Quarter we did something I was really proud of, the butterfly project. In 3rd Quarter we probably did one of the biggest grades in 8th grade, the butterfly project. We had to read a poem from Terezin and annotate it and then we had to make a butterfly that represented our poem. At the beginning of the unit I didn't really want to do it. In my mind I thought that it was a waste of time. But then I saw some of the butterflies students made in the past and I was like “Alright fine I do it.” Then I started making my butterfly and was having fun making it. I felt like I was in kindergarten again and making arts and crafts. I was also listening to Johnny Cash which is always a plus. I made it and thought I had made a masterpiece. Then I went to class on Monday and my confidence was destroyed by how much better other butterflies were from mine, but I felt proud. I put in the time and effort to do the project and I felt good by doing it.

          In 4th Quarter I made lots of improvements. I made lots of in improvements on not just my work but on my behavior.  I made improvements in paying attention, structuring my work, and in my behavior. I paid attention more in class in 3rd quarter. I also had a easier time when writing because I found it easier to structure it than in 1st and 2nd quarter. I also didn't get in trouble much in 3rd compared to 7th and 6th grade. I’d say that I made a lot of improvements not just in ELA but in all my classes this quarter. 

Lit Circle Blog 2

          In the book The Watsons Go To Birmingham there are many essential questions I had about the book. One of those essential questions was “How would Birmingham affect the Watson family”, that essential question ties in with the book. For the entire book the Watson family encountered basically little to no racism. By the way they were in the 1960s and were African Americans which was kinda of a shock to me. Maybe it was because they lived in Flint, Michigan but then later in the book they went to Birmingham, Alabama. Which was a hotspot for racism in the 1960s. But still they hadn’t encountered any racism. Then on a Sunday in the book Joey the youngest child went to church all by herself. Then the church got bombed. The church got bombed due to it being all African American church. Then hearing about the bombing Kenny went to see if his sister was alive, and luckily she was. Then a few days after the left and went back home to Flint. It didn’t really seem like Birmingham had an effect on anyone until Kenny started to isolate himself from the rest of his family. He had gotten depression from the bombing because even though his sister was safe other children had died in the bombing, which is a clear effect from Birmingham on a member of the Watson family. It lead to Kenny breaking down in tears just about thinking about it, until his brother Byron made him stop crying.

          One of the main points of The Watsons Go To Birmingham directly ties into a Smithsonian Magazine article named “Racism Harms Children’s Health, Survey Finds”. The book and the article both have similarities. In the article it talks a lot about stuff that happens in the book. It talks about how racism affects children. While in the book Kenny is affected by racism. The church is bombed and weeks after Kenny is still thinking about it. Kenny’s health is affected by the bombing of the church, which was a act of racism. The main point of the article is exactly what happened to Kenny. The article talks about the health effects that racism has on the lives of children, which we see what happen in Kenny. Kenny gets depression due to racism. 

          Another thing that the article and the book have in common. One of the points in the article directly could affect Kenny’s life as a whole. In the article it talks about how children affected by racism tend to avoid other races of people. Kenny kept thinking about the bombing weeks and weeks after it happened. What if Kenny starts to avoid people of different races in fear of another attack due to racism. What if the bombing makes Kenny paranoid? The effects that racism can have on Kenny’s health is endless.  

 

Work Cited Page

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.

Lit Circle Blog

          The book I have been reading in my Lit Circle is The Watsons Go To Birmingham. So far I have up to page 138, I will know summarize what I have read so far. The Watsons are a very weird family. They have a juvenile delinquent named Byron who got his lips stuck on a frozen car window, killed a bird with a cookie, and conked his hair. Then we have Kenny who is actually very smart for his age. He gets made fun of by his brother By and gets bullied by him. They also have a little sister who is very protective of them. Their father is a very dramatic person in a good way. There mother is very protective and a little bit crazy. They both give out harsh punishments. So far in the book we have just watched their lives fold out. He learned about Byron and Kenny’s school life and how their mother is crazy. Byron was caught playing matches and his mother as a “punishment” also burned his finger. He also learned that Byron is such a bad kid that he being sent to Birmingham, Alabama so he could change.
          While reading the book I still haven't gotten the answers to some of my essential questions. Some of the essential questions I had were “Why are they going to go to Birmingham?” Another one was “How would Birmingham change them?” One of those questions was answered. The question that was answered was why they went to Birmingham. The reasons the Watsons go to Birmingham is because they are going to discipline Byron. Byron’s behavior was so bad that they were going to drive from Flint, Michigan to Birmingham, Alabama to discipline him. That is over 700 miles. They would drive there so Byron could live with Grandma Sands so she could discipline him. But my other essential question isn't answered yet. The are in Birmingham when I was currently reading but nothing has happened yet. So my question should be answered soon.
          There are many characters in The Watson’s Go To Birmingham. But there is only one character in the book that I hate, and his name is Byron. He isn't a bad guy or anything he is just stupid. He those things that gets him in trouble but he is so stupid when doing it. When his parents told him that he was moving to Birmingham he didn't know why he was going. But before then he had conked his head before asking his parents and was playing with matches and when they told him he just stood there in shock, like a idiot. That is why I hate him.

Life is Beautiful Blog

          Life is Beautiful and Night are two very different types of media, but are similar in ways. Night and Life is Beautiful have very similar plot in connections. Both of them deal with the father-son relationships. Life is Beautiful’s plot is the journey of a family, particularly Guido and his son living instead a concentration camp. Guido protects his son from the dangers of the concentration camp by saying it is all a game. Guido tells his son that if they get 1000 points they will win a real military tank. Guido tries to protect his son while trying to survive in the camp. Then we see different viewpoints from Guido’s wife Dora and his uncle Leo. Uncle Leo is killed in the gas chambers and Dora believes that her child is dead. Guido protects his son from the “showers” and keeps him safe. But towards the end of the movie the concentration camp is in chaos. The war is almost over and the Nazi’s are destroying evidence that the concentration camps even there. Guido hides his child in a locker and safe from the Nazi’s but in his attempt to save him, Guido gets killed. The day comes and his son get out of the lockers and a tank shows up, his son thinks they just won the game and they are going home now, but in reality the American’s have liberated the camp and checking it one last time. He doesn’t know what actually happened in the camp and he doesn’t know that his father and grandpa are dead, and the reason that happened is because Guido protected his son from the dangers of the concentration camp so he could keep living a normal life. Then on the other hand we have Night which is a true story based on Elie Wiesel’s life in the concentration camps. Elie’s father didn’t do anything that Guido did to protect his child but Elie more or less protected his father. His father was beat and tormented in the camps and Elie was there to help him deal with it. Elie was there when his father couldn’t help himself. Night and Life is Beautiful are way different when it comes to reality but they both deal with the same thing, father-son relationships. Elie’s story starts with his father and him in the concentration camps and it ends with his father and him in the concentration camps. Guido’s story doesn’t start in the concentration camps with his son but when it does happen it’s like you are watching a completely different movie. Both are sad and deal with father-son relationships during one of the hardest times in history. 

          But if they don’t have a lot in common what do they have him in common? The tone of both Life is Beautiful and Night are different but show similarities and connections when closely examined. Life is Beautiful and Night have two completely different tones. Life is Beautiful is a happy movie filled with tragedy and Night is a dark book and filled tragedy due to the events actually taking place. But both show signs of similarities. In Life is Beautiful Guido meets a man by the name of Bartolomeo a man who has been a the camp for a long enough time to know how to survive. Elie meets people in the concentration camps he goes to that teach him how to survive and live in the camps. They have relatives who meet their demise due to not knowing what is going to happen. Elie’s mother and two sister were all gassed upon arrival at Auschwitz. Guido’s uncle was also gassed upon arrival at the camp. Then tragedy strikes, Guido is killing while protecting his son and trying to find his wife and Elie’s father is killed when struck with a disease. Guido’s son didn’t know his father died and Elie is not sure that his father was even dead when they put him in the crematorium. Then at the beginning of Night and towards the middle of Life is Beautiful we see that Guido and his family are beginning discriminated because they were Jewish. The same with Elie and his family. Guido’s uncle Leo had his horse vandalized and Guido had his book store spray painted. Elie and his family had their possessions taken away and they were put in ghettos. Both of them show similarities even they are both completely different stories.

           In Life is Beautiful and Night there are two very different points of view. Night and Life is Beautiful have very different things to deal with the concentration camps. Night deals with death, torment, sorrow, and tragedy. The story is told through the eyes of Elie. Night is Elie’s story and his life at the time. Since it is real life you see more realistic things. You see Elie’s life and family taken away from in him in about 100 pages. You see what he went through and why you should feel for him. Elie’s mother and two sisters were gassed in Auschwitz, his faith was lost, and his father was killed from sickness and not the camps. Elie’s camp was liberated at the end but it didn’t matter to Elie anymore. He had lost his humanity and he has a shell of his former self. Then we go to Life is Beautiful which has a completely different point of view. The movie begins in Italy in 1939. Guido is basically a comedian trying to start his own business. Guido is a waiter at a very high end restaurant and hsis trying to start his own book store. While doing that he meets a woman by the name of Dora. Guido had never seen a more beautiful women and to in his words “make love with her multiple times”. Then time passes by and Guido and Dora are married and have a son and on their son’s birthday Guido, his son, and Guido’s uncle Leo are sent to an unknown concentration camp in Italy. There Guido would try to shield the horrors of the concentration camp by saying it's all a game and his plan works. But he ends up dying to protect his family and he does that and dies basically as a hero. 

          The movie Life is Beautiful shows well a lot of beauty. Beauty is shown a lot in the movie. Guido is just normal old guy trying to get by in life. He has friends, a house, a bike, and then he sees this woman. He goes to a farm and this woman named Dora falls on top of him. He is shocked that such a beautiful woman fell on top of him. He goes back to the city and he finds the women again. Guido sweet talks her, and then he gets chased by a banker that he threw eggs on by accident. Towards the middle of the movie Guido marries Dora and they have a child and their life is going well. They have a business, family, and then Guido and his son are taken into the concentration camp. Dora volunteers herself to go into the concentration camp so she can see Guido. Guido and his son are in the concentration camp and Guido protects his child from the horrors of the camp. He tells him that it is all a game, and his son believes him. His son doesn't know that people are dying and that people are being tormented, and at the end Guido dies protecting his son. Making life beautiful.

Night Blog

          Night is a memoir about a child named Elie Wiesel during the Holocaust, but it shows how Elie changes as a person and as a human being. As I have stated Night takes place during the Holocaust, and the events that happened in the book are true events that actually happened. Night is a really good book not just from a plot standpoint but from a historically standpoint as well. We have a heard about the Holocaust and how it was a horrible thing but some people haven’t knew how bad the Holocaust was. They don’t know about the working conditions and the mental toll the concentration camps took on you, but Night shows that. Night is about Elie’s story, it shows what the concentration camps were like and how the camps changed people into monsters. Children abandoned their parents for food and shelter in the camps. People lost faith in God and killed themselves. People were beat and people were killed all due to a crazy man’s agenda. You will see how Elie’s life was changed due to the Holocaust.
          Elie’s views about life are changed due to the Holocaust and you could see those changes happen in the book. Elie at the beginning of the book is a normal child, but is obsessed with his religion. Soon, things change as the Holocaust and him being in concentration camps changes his views and perceptions on life. At the beginning of the story Elie is like, “Moshe the Beadle...talked to me for long hours of the revelations and mysteries of the cabbala. We would read together, ten times over the same pages of the Zohar. Not to learn it by heart, but to extract the divine essence from it.” Then when Elie life is changed by the Holocaust his view on religion changes, “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. Wear had I to thank Him for?” Elie at the beginning of the book is very different from the Elie at the end of the book. At the beginning of the book Elie is very interested in his religion. He asks his father to find him a master so he could study the cabbala. Eli instead finds a man named Moshe the Beadle who teaches him about the religion and the meanings of his religion. Soon, everything would change. One day out of the blue the Hungarian police expelled all the foreign Jews out of Sighet, Elie’s hometown. One of the foreign Jews was Moshe the Beadle. They were crammed into cattle trains and sent somewhere but the Jews of Sighet and Elie didn’t know where they were going. Soon they would know that they were killed. Moshe the Beadle had returned to Sighet to give them a message. The was to get out of Sighet so they could be safe, but no one believed him and soon he left Sighet never to be seen again. Soon after the Nazi would storm into Romania were Sighet was located. The Nazi’s would soon be in Sighet. The Nazi’s made to Sighet and the first thing they did was sent the Jews of Sighet into concentration camps. Elie and his family were sent to Auschwitz. Elie’s mother and sisters died there, though Elie didn’t know it at the time. Elie and his father were almost killed on their first day there. Within hours of being in Auschwitz Elie changed. He no longer wanted to study the cabbala, but instead in the art of survival. Elie wanted to live through Auschwitz and beyond to meet his family once again.

          This isn’t the only example of Elie changing as a person, as you see in the memoir Elie changes as a person everyday. Elie not only changes religiously but changes a person and a human being.  “I had to stay at Buchenwald until April eleventh. I have nothing to say of my life during this period. It no longer mattered. After my father’s death, nothing could touch me any more . . . I spent my days in a state of total idleness. And I had but one desire-to eat. I no longer thought of my father or of my mother. From time to time I would dream of a drop of soup, of an extra ration of soup.” At this point of the memoir the book is almost over, but it shows a side of Elie nobody has seen before. Elie doesn’t care about anybody but himself. Before Elie would care about his father. Before the Holocaust he would care about his studies and his family, but once his father dies he has a whole new mindset. Elie only cares about survival. He doesn’t care to think about his mother or his father but only of himself and his ration of bread and soup. Until this point of the story there wasn't really any sure fire way this would happen to Elie. Earlier, when his father was dying the head of his block in Buchenwald told him that his father was going to die and that Elie should help himself to his father’s rations. Still though Elie couldn't do that to his father. Instead of taking his rations he went to fetch some soup for his old father. Now Elie has changed. He doesn’t remember his old self. He doesn’t remember his life before. He doesn’t even remember his family before. He only remembers about his ration of bread and soup, and if he is lucky he could get some extra. Elie has transformed into a nice, young boy who is interested in religion into a emotionless teen who only cares about himself and what he wants.