Never Be Like You

This unit was called Rhythm, I learned how music keeps time and how beats are notated, and compared common rhythms. I also learned about analyzing the forms of music, and studying patterns such as the Fibonacci Series and Golden Ratio. I am proud of how fast I learned about music. It is interesting studying music and learning how it is formed. For this Action Project I had to pick a piece of music and analyze it. The piece had to have two different beats or sounds to it. I chose one of my favorite songs right now, and I did a voice over explaining everything more in depth. What I struggled with was picking a song, there are so many songs I could've chosen. How I overcame that struggle was by picking a song that I've been listening to a lot lately. I hope you enjoy. 

                                                      
                 
                          

UNFAIR

The second unit in my Policy class was called Execute, and we learned about the purpose and powers the executive branch has and how those powers have been executed throughout history. The second Action Project asked us to pick a war and take a position on whether the U.S. involvement in that war was justified or not. What I struggled with was timing with this project. I felt like this essay was really rushed, and required a lot of research. I struggled with the research; it was hard finding certain information about World War II, but I pushed myself not to give up. What I am most proud of is my writing and how I’m developing as a writer. Overall, I enjoyed writing this essay because it pushed me a lot. I just wish I had more time to complete it. I found out more information about World War II that was really interesting to learn about. Hope you guys enjoy! 

Rosenthal, Joe. Flag raising on Iwo Jima. 1945. Web. May 2016. 

World War II took place across the globe with most of the combat occurring in Europe, East Asia, islands in the Pacific Ocean, Madagascar, and the Aleutian Islands. Countries such as Poland, China, Russia, and Germany were the main countries that suffered the most during this war. World War II began September 1, 1939 with the rise of Adolf Hitler and his followers in Germany. Adolf Hitler had two main goals, which was the forcible acquisition of Lebensraum, for the German people, the second was the Final Solution . The United States did not join the war, however, until after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The immediate causes of World War II for America were Japan’s attacks and more calls for this country to help end the holocaust. The underlying causes were defeating the dictatorship of Hitler, his growing empire, and the power of Nazism (the U.S. is pro-democracy) The U.S., finally helped intervene in the holocaust. The first concentration camp the U.S. freed was on April 4, 1945 but was slow to act; it took the U.S. years to help Jews and other victims. Hitler had taken over large parts of Europe and was advancing, had even bombed England! The U.S. had to act to protect itself and allies from his onward march and the U.S. joined WWII on December 7, 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt persuaded Congress that the nation needed to fight. President Roosevelt worked hard to prepare Americans for the conflict. In November 1939, he persuaded Congress to repeal the arms and trade provisions of the Neutrality Law so that arms could be sold to France and Britain, U.S. allies After the fall of France to the Nazis in the spring of June 1940, President Roosevelt pushed for a major military buildup and began providing aid in the form of Lend-Lease to Britain. America, he declared, became "the great arsenal of democracy" by helping his allies fight back against Hitler.

One major tactic during World War II was technology and advanced military weapons. America began to produce hundreds of thousands of tanks, airplanes, and ships for itself and its allies to have Allied success. The U.S. was dominating the skies with planes like the P-51 Mustang fighter and the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. At the same time, the Nazis were experimenting with jet aircraft, while the Japanese were working on intercontinental bombers. Many policies were made during this war, President Roosevelt proposed the Good Neighbor Policy, and it went through. The Good Neighbor policy was the foreign policy of the administration of United States towards Latin America. The policy's main principle, was motivated by economics. By 1933, the world was in the depths of the worst economic depression in history, known as the Great Depression. The Good Neighbor Policy allowed the U.S. to revise trade relations with major Latin American nations. The Good Neighbor Policy would not only help the U.S. replace its Axis-Power economic trade with that of the largest and wealthiest Latin American countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, but it would also bring those countries into a military alliance with the United States. This policy did not have consequences during this war but later on in other wars it did. World War II was definitely a unfair war, millions of innocent lives were taken. The U.S. could've acted quicker, but it took years because of equipment issues. I hope America has learned from all War mistakes and realizes that war isn't the answer. 

Citations: 

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Domestic Affairs. millercenter.org. William E. Leuchtenburg. Web. 14 May, 2016. 

WWII Military tactics. www.quora.com. N.P.2014. Web. 12 May, 2016. 

World War II. history.com. N.P. N.D. Web 11 May, 2016. 

Weak Bridge

The first unit is called Load. In this unit I learned about about weight, load, and the forces that act around us. I also learned about Newton's laws, and how his laws relate to everyday life. I also learned about bridges. On our first FE, we went downtown to see good urban planning, and bad urban planning in Chicago. We also looked at some bridges that are downtown as well. For our first Action Project we were paired up in partners, and asked to create our own version of a Truss Bridge out of popsicle sticks that could hold 10 pounds. What I struggled with was building the bridge as it was very frustrating because our planned design didn’t come out the way we expected it to. We also struggled with figuring out our design. What I am most proud of is completing the project.

Growing Up.

A Nation's Argument is a course all about logic skills needed to develop and sustain an argument. The purpose to our first Action Project was to create our own version of the Declaration of Independence. We had to propose an idea for a class that we will like to add to GCE’s courses. What I enjoyed most about this unit was learning information about my country, learning how to make an argument more strong and clear. What I struggled with was coming up with an idea for a course, and submitting my work on time. How I overcame these challenges was by scheduling my time more wisely, and relating my course to my own life. I hope you guys enjoy my idea for a new class at GCE!

I declare that there be an independent study where students are able to learn how to apply for a job, learn about time management, and money management. I think this course will be very helpful because it relates to the real world and also GCEs Philosophy, which is teaching their students how to be financially stable.

GCE is reinventing education by letting students have more freedom to find what they like, and possibly later make what they like into a career. GCE teaches us how to be financially, digitally, and interpersonally literate in order to keep up with the growing world. The five pillars of GCE is Accountability, Purpose, Autonomy, Gratitude, and Achievement. I have learned so much within 3 years at GCE, and I think the way I’m learning now is really important for my future because I'm so open minded and can view thing from all different angles. I think the traditional way of learning isn’t making change for our world. Another thing GCE teaches is dependence, the school teaches how to step out into the world, meet people, and make connections.

American teenaged students have the right to learn about how to apply for a job. This course will teach students on how to manage money, how to form a job resume, how to fill out a job application, and learning about job interviews and learn about time management. This will help students learn about the real world, learn how to handle money, and can prepare them for college. I think this independent study will really benefit students. It will give them the chance to learn about jobs, and the importance around money because it does control our world and our lives. We need money to survive in this world, it might be sad be its true. Since I was a Sophomore in high school I’ve had a steady part-time job at a nursing home. Having as job as a student is really beneficial because it teaches you at a young age the value of money. My desired outcome for this independent study is for students to walk out with a idea of how they can be independent, responsible, and able find what they want to do with their lives.

My course will be called “Growing Up” the reasoning for the title is because in high school students should begin to start taking care of themselves and start learning about responsibility. The three main key concepts students will learn are:

Responsibility- Being a good student takes a lot of responsibility but if students learn how to balance school, activities, and a part time job, students will learn what being responsible is like. As students grow the amount of responsibility will increase even more, so it's better to start learning earlier on so it can help them prepare for the future.

Money Management- When students start to earn their own money, they will gain a better understanding on how to handle it. Working hard for their money will help them appreciate budgeting and saving.

Time Management- Students will learn how to use their time more effectively, like completing reading assignments on the train/bus rides home. Students will also learn how to become more organized, such as creating their own schedule for work days, school, and activities.

Youth Job Center has been working for 32 years to start getting teenagers working when they’re in high school. Youth Job Center believes that education and employment have been identified as steps to break the cycle of poverty. I think their mission to help teenagers is really helpful. I think they will be good partners for this course. I agree with Youth Job Center about education and employment ending poverty because if a teenager gets their first job while in high school they will see that many jobs out there will not be able to fully support them, and to get a good paying job you have to work hard in school in order to achieve the goals that you want. High School is filled with opportunities and I think this course especially should be in GCE’s learning system. We are always meeting new people, and learning about different organizes that we might want to explore more about. School and employment will also inspire students to create their own businesses. Working as a teenager will give you the chance to explore career options before choosing a college major. I think the course should be a third period elective class because it will teach students how to find and apply to jobs, and also teach them how to manage money. As a final project students will be asked to to write a resume, record a good example of a job interview, and create an example of their own schedule. I think Jessica our school counselor, should teach the class because she is currently helping me with my savings, and she gives really good advice and information.

These website links are potential partners/resources for this class.

youthjobcenter.org
cityofchicago.org
chicagoparkdistrict.com
onesummerchicago.org
news.uchicago.edu
thechicagourbanleague.org

My hopes are that students walk away with more independence, learn how to manage their time better and start working.  

Created by JV, 2016*

What is reading worth, and what is worth reading?

Book Bound is a course that I was taking this elective term, which course pushed me to explore my own relationship with reading and how it affects my life, and also others globally. During this course, I learned many things, but the main one was how important literacy is and how literacy can change due to our social and academic lives and the growing world. What is reading worth, and what is worth reading? This was my question throughout the term. I think literacy should become a greater topic all over the world and more humans should be able to read and write. In Book Bound, I also learned about the literary canon and how only the greatest books are picked to be on that list. The Great Gatsby is in the canon and I read that book for this class. I think The Great Gatsby is a good book; it has a good meaning to it, but I don’t like the writing. 

There is only one Action Project for this class, and part of the reasoning for that is because as a school we are currently building and designing our new school building. In Book Bound students were supposed to design and build our dream library as a part of our Action Project. But the moving process is taking longer than expected, so that final piece of our work isn’t fully reflected here. These assignments, however, do show the thinking I’ve done about reading, the canon, and the purpose of a school library. The Action Project for this course is a digital portfolio that shows my learning and experience of the course. The Action Project includes 4 assignments that I chose as my best work, which I think was super easy. I enjoyed it a lot, but I just wish we actually got the chance to help come up with a design and build our library. Overall I enjoyed this class and can’t wait to see what the library will look like.

For this assignment, I was asked to promote literacy, especially among our youngest readers. I picked my favorite children's book, and read it aloud to bring the book to life, and also grab the audience's attention. I picked The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This assignment relates to our course because it’s promoting literacy to a younger age group by sharing a book, which is the main purpose of this class. I picked this project to include on my blog because I enjoyed making the video and I got a good grade on it, so it's only right to publish good work. What I am most proud of about this assignment is that my little brother liked my video.



My second project is a slideshow of a book that I think should be placed in my school library/be placed in the literary canon. I had to present my slideshow to my class and they voted if my book should be placed in the canon or not. I picked the book Tree Girl by Ben Mikaelsen. This assignment relates to the course because I had to pick a book and talk about why I chose the book and also talk about the theme, characters, plot, and why the book overall is considered good enough to be in the canon. I chose to place this assignment on my blog because I think did a good job on the slideshow and the book I chose is really interesting. I think a lot of people will enjoy reading it. The slideshow was easy to make; I didn’t face any challenges but I did make some revisions on some grammatical errors that I had. What I am proud of is how my slideshow came out, and some of my peers in my class were interested in the book that I chose. 



This assignment was to create a literary magazine. We were placed into groups and had to pick a theme and make a literary magazine out based upon it. My group's topic is Thanksgiving because the holiday was coming up when we were assigned this project. This project relates to the class because we had to make a literary magazine ourselves by writing or visualizing anything we wanted about Thanksgiving. I chose to add this project to my blog because I think my group and I did a good job on the magazine. The challenges that we faced as a group were communicating with each other, figuring out how we wanted the magazine to look. The magazine went through some minor revisions. What I am most proud of is how the magazine came out, it looks really clean and simple.

 The literacy poster illustrates the importance of literacy and the pleasure of reading. I had to pick a guiding question and research about it to make a poster that will be displayed in the new library space. This assignment relates to the course because we had to ask a guiding question about literacy. I wanted to know: What is the literacy rate in Chicago? I think this is a good topic to talk about because there are people living in Chicago that are illiterate. This is a real problem because Chicago is a popular city and with all the gun violence and police shootings and the “Chiraq” nickname, I think the literacy rate should start going up so Chicago isn’t seen as a “bad city,” and so that ALL of its residents are able to read and write to have better lives. I chose to publish this project because I think it’s a really important topic. The challenges I faced with this project was the poster; I didn’t know what to draw or how to show my guiding question in my poster, so that people would really get my message. I am proud of how my poster turned out I like the color scheme and how it looks.

53% Created by JV,  2016*

Secrets.

In the 3rd Unit of the Drama course, we studied the term Matriarch. We read A Raisin in the Sun to gain a better understanding of race and class in the 1940s. By reading the play, it made me understand the meaning of matriarch. One character from the play was Mama, the matriarch of the family. She supported her family and did everything she could to make them happy. The purpose of this Action Project was to write a traditional Greek chorus about A Raisin in the Sun. We came up with a guiding question for our Action Project, and interviewed people to see what their response was and used that as the voice of the chorus in response to a character in A Raisin in the Sun . My guiding question was "Is it okay to keep secrets?" I came up with is guiding question because I wanted to talk about Ruth from the play. In the play, Ruth kept a secret from her husband Walter which later caused problems between them. The purpose of my chorus is to teach others not to keep or hide secrets from someone that you care about because later on it's going to come back and hurt you more. Overall I really enjoyed this course. It was so amazing having a class that taught me about women and how we are seen in society and what are “roles” in regards to gender. Each play that we read taught me something new and I really like that.

Red Line Project

The purpose of this action project was to experience organizing and realizing a nonviolent intervention in my own city, practicing Satyagraha with the real world implications. In Global Peace we learned about Satyagraha which is Gandhi's principle for nonviolence. Satya means truth, graha means insistence in favor with the truth. Satyagraha means insistence of the truth. We used Satyagraha to understand how to make a nonviolent action happen.What I learned during this action project was to not be afraid of what you believe in. If you think something should be a different way protest or use any nonviolent way to solve the problem. I used a sheet of 198 methods of nonviolence actions to help me find a action that I want to take, which was number 179- Alternative Social institutions. What was most challenging about this action project was going out in the public to complete my action. What I enjoyed most was taking action in my own city!

  My action project was to document segregation and violence. I pick this action because there is still segregation in Chicago that many people don't know about. I want to change that, I did my action project with one of my class mate RD. We both feel really strong about this topic and wanted to find away to stop it. There should not be any segregation in Chicago all people should be equal no race should be treated any lower. Segregation should have stopped a long time ago but is still going on. People should care because segregation causes violence. I think nobody should treat any one lower because of what skin color, race, or religion. Segregation causes violence by people being separated and thinking they own a certain neighborhood. People thinking one side of the neighborhood is bad because of what race lives there when its just how the public marks the neighborhood as, and people not knowing segregation causes the violence.


We planned to schedule a date to take our action which was Wednesday Dec 11, 2013 on a FE day. We came up with a plan that we got inspired by a organization that is called "The Red Line Project" their form of nonviolence is to show that there is problems and violence on the red line. "Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, and The Red Line Project helps readers better understand and connect with them. The site covers news and urban issues in neighborhoods located near Chicago's Red Line El stops". Our plan was to show that there is still segregation in our city. We went on the red line our first stop was Chicago and the train was so packed. As we started going on down less white people were getting on. By Sox-35th the train was empty. On 47th there was mostly African Americans, we documented the train ride. We wanted to show that people do not go by 47th because of the people and history, which causes segregation.

                                                                                                Created by JV 

I think our action went really smooth the success was getting to actually do our action during school rather than going after. Another success was getting all the footage that we needed I really like how our video came out. When people were looking at us on the train felt so great because we really stood out. When we got to tell them about our action felt good because a lot of people were surprised to hear what we were taking action on. The only thing that I would change would be communicating more to the public. Overall my action went really good and I will definitely do it again!

"The Red Line Project". redlineproject.org. 2013. Web. December 9, 2013.