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. 

My Service Project.

Five Faces is a course that teaches my classmates and I about the different variations of Five Faces of Genesis. The course explores the beauty and challenges of life through the examination of personal creativity and how it can impact my life and communities. In the last unit called Bring it all Together, we learned about how community service can be so important and can make a huge impacted in our lives and many others. We had to use all the skills and tools that we have developed throughout this course to apply to a real world situation. Not only did we use all the skills, we also came up with really unique community service ideas. What I had trouble with during this AP was finding time to actually do my community service. Since I work over the weekends it was really hard because that was the only time that I could have completed it. What I enjoyed the most was actually doing my part in servicing, I love helping other people, I felt very proud of myself serving.



  My community service idea was to help out my local Austin-Irving Branch Public Library. I have been going there since I was little and I loved going so now that I have went back and did community service there, I felt very proud of my self. I also felt very comfortable and I love what I did. I had thoughts on what I was going to do, like organizing and labeling books. But when I come in Andrew, who was my supervisor said I would be doing more than that. That would be my Seer part of my project because I pictured what I could be doing. My service hours were 9:00-1:00pm which is a total of 5 hours. I used my observer skills when I entered the building, it smelled and looked the exact same since the last time I had been there. The library was completely empty and Andrew walked me over to a cleaning closet with all the supplies that I would need. He explained to me that I would be cleaning children’s toys, which would benefit over 100 children. I think that was so amazing because I would stop the prevention of sickness spreading throughout the library, and many children would avoid getting sick. I think that it was cool that I clean the toys because many people don’t think a child can get sick off a toy item, and that can be one main reason why many children become sick. The three things that I combined throughout my service was to be productive, staying on task, planning, I think planning was the main part of my whole project, and enjoying what I was doing. To me I think I did such a good job because I helped out my whole community. I also kept a positive energy throughout the whole experience. All the staff members said I looked like I was enjoying what I was doing, they said I had such a big smile on my face and that I made everyone’s day I was being an Alchemist/Fool. I think that is so important because people that you worked with will remember what good volunteer you were. Overall I had an amazing experience, and I would definitely keep completing my service hours at the Austin-Irving Branch Library!

I used my Seer techniques to vision how my community service project will have turned out. 
Here is a picture of what I thought I would be doing at the library. 

Created by JV 2015*

Service Project Idea.

Five Faces is a course that teaches my classmates and I about the different variations of Five Faces. The course explores the beauty and challenges of life through the examination of personal creativity and how it can impact my life and communities. In this unit which is called Understanding of Five Faces, we learned about the strengths and challenges with each face. There are 16 parts to this unit which was really interesting because I never had a course that had so many units in one. I think with many units it was helpful because this prepared us for our service project planning, that comes along with this course. The purpose of this action project is to reflect on all of the five faces, myself, and my service project. I am most proud of all the work that I did throughout this unit because there was so much information that went along with this unit, I loved learning about all faces it was very interesting.

Created by JV, 2014*

Here is the five definitions to each face.

A Seer is a person who visualizes what is on their minds eye to identify or create an entirely new idea. An Observer is can collect things into a mental basket and create an idea by transforming what they noticed. An Alchemist brings an apparently disparate ideas into a new one. A Fool demonstrates the power to celebrate weakness. A Sage is a person who can simplify complex situations.

The Five Faces survey results said that I was a Seer 23%, an Alchemist 23%, Sage 23%, Fool 19% and Observer 12%. In a way I do agree that I’m an Alchemist because I like to bring different ideas together like when I’m working out, I love combining different cardio moves to make the workout harder. I’m also a Seer because I visualize things a lot, like putting an outfit together. But I do not agree that I’m a Sage because I don’t make complex things easier for myself. The survey also said that I was a Fool to celebrate weakness, I like to make bad situations funny and more happy because I hate when people are sad or upset. I think its interesting that I'm equal in all three faces.

I interviewed my friend RD to see what face she fit in and she is an Observer because she like observing situations rather than talking in them. Here is a quote from our interview , “I think I am a Observer, I’m quiet so I can focus on many things, I can notice things that other people wouldn't pay attention too." The two faces that I think RD is would be an Observer, and a Seer. She belongs in these two faces because in observer she likes to sit back and pay attention to what is around her, and a seer because she comes up with great ideas that she envisioned in her head.

One person that we studied my class that inspired me was Georgia O’Keeffe, because she is an artist and I love art. She is an Observer. Seer by being these two faces she created beautiful art. She is a Seer because she would have really bad migraines and would visualize images in her mind, that is how she created art. She is also an observer because she would pay attention to her surroundings of nature and would also create that into art. Here is a quote that inspires me. “I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.” (O’Keeffe.)

Another famous person that inspires me is Beyonce, she is such an incredible person and does so much like giving back to homeless people. Helping children around the world that is suffer from lack of education. She helps out a lot and made her own foundation, which is called the Survivor Foundation. This foundation helps with social, economic and catastrophic hardships by providing assistance, education and support."I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. I only have to follow my heart and concentrate on what I want to say to the world. I run the world." (Beyonce.) This quote is so strong and is so close to me because I feel like Beyonce is so true to herself and doesn't let anything get in her way of life. I love that so much because I think that is so important to have in life, just to be yourself and stay true to what you believe in and want. I think the face that Beyonce is would be a Seer, and Alchemist I say these two because she comes up with such good ideas, she is an incredible artist she combines different music styles to make it her own that would be a Alchemist technique, and she envisions how she wants her music videos to be or how she wants her concerts set up that would be a Seer technique. Beyonce does so much work and is such a role model to me. 

The issue that I'm addressing for my service project is poverty and education, I want to do these two problems because they concern me very much. I would love to work with Oxfam which is an organization that workers with these two topics. I think by doing this service project will help me and others because we are helping the people that actually need it, we aren't just sitting back and watch all the problems happen. The strengths and techniques I will use for my service project is my seer face to map out what the success would look like. I will use the Observer to see how people react to the problem that I’m addressing. I will use Fool to make bad situations more happy and not sad because of the situations that are happening in the world. After I find what the similarities are for both problems I will use Alchemist try to place them together to come up with a new situation. After I found out about all the problems I will try to simplify them by using the Sage face so it becomes easier to work with. Lastly I will use my Seer face to envision the world being a better place, because I did something that is important and helped.

Citations:

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.okeeffemuseum.org. Robert A. Kret. Web. 2011. Dec 13, 2014. 

Beyonce. beyonce.com. Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter. Web. 2013. Dec 13, 2014.

When You're Sad, Eat Cake!

Marie Antoinette: A Film Critique

For my elective this term I am taking a class called Ollywood, which teaches me about the production elements of camera angles, and how to critique movies. The first action project for this term was to pick a movie and critique it based upon some of its pre-production elements. I chose to review Marie Antoinette who is played by Kirsten Dunst, one of my favorite actresses. What I found most challenging about this project was critiquing the movie because I had to pay attention to specific certain things, and that was so hard because I just wanted to watch the movie. What I enjoyed most was finding a new movie that I love.

"Let them eat cake" by onscreenfashion.com.

Sofia Coppola is the screenplay writer and director of Marie Antoinette (2006), the movie is,  very creative, flashy, fashionable, and adorable production design throughout. The movie starts off with a 14 year old royal Austrian girl, named Marie who is leaving her own country to live with her new fiance, French Prince Louis XVl. She’s scared because she is leaving her family behind to go to a country that she knows nothing about! Plus she is marrying a prince whom she has never met, after only having seen a picture of him. She ends up marrying Prince Louis, and is getting used to her new royal life-style. The man responsible for her marriage is Louis XV, the current king of France, who is Louis XIV's grandfather. The king has a mistress named Madame du Barry, who has a very wild personality, with her dark lipstick, which is why the film’s costume designers dress du Barry in wild colored dresses, and high stilettos. No female royalty like her because they see her as trash and a favorite of the King. In her bold, seductive clothing, du Barry asks “Why do they look at me that way?” After the old King of France died, Louis XVl became king making Marie Antoinette the new queen. At this time, Marie was still trying to conceive a child with her husband, but he didn't seem attracted to her in that way. This increasingly frustrated the queen who would say to her friends, “Letting everyone down would be my greatest unhappiness.” From this quote, it is clear that Marie cared about what her people wanted, and wanted to make everyone around her happy. France wanted their king and queen to create an empire to be ruled by future royalty, so finally, after seven years of marriage, Marie and Louis had their first child--a girl named, Marie Therese.

Marie and Louis wasted so much money throughout their lives as royals, instead of helping the masses of people in their own country, who were literally starving. Instead of improving the lives of her people, Marie would hire famous designers to make her dresses, heels, and she would also have a makeup artist do her hair and makeup. Her dresses are pastel colors like baby pink, duck egg and mint green, which matched the interiors of her house and the variety of cakes, and macaroons. She always had the most fabulous and expensive dresses in the movie, and would also buy dresses for her friends. Marie and her crew would have so many different kinds of treats and desserts; they would throw huge parties and just have fun. Louis would also spend money on games and going out with his friends. My favorite scene in the movie is when Marie is purchasing all of the luxury items she can, trying on hundreds of dresses, shoes, and even costume wings and eating tons of cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and chocolates. I love how music is playing in the background of the scene, without it having a lot of dialogue (throughout the whole movie), just showing a lot of facial expressions and activity in this scene. I think this lack of constant talking between the characters made the movie interesting because you don’t need the characters to speak a lot to understand and see what's going on. I love how you just get to watch Marie indulge her own lavish life, not worrying about anything but herself. I love how she is so innocent and just wants happiness for ” everyone” in her circle of rich friends.

The set design for the movie was perfect because it was actually filmed in France, at the Palace of Versailles where Marie and Louis actually lived. I think that Coppola’s use of the real French palace made the movie really come together. The costume design was amazing as well. When I think of the 1700-1800's, I think of big, fancy dresses, fun accessories like wings, and the women looking beautiful, and that is exactly what Marie Antoinette showed. Marie room was so big, with floral wall paper, a queen-sized bed, and a huge chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. The room had a door that led to another room, where Marie and her friends would have tea parties. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie! It was amazing getting to watch and just see Coppola’s vision of what Marie Antoinette’s life was really like!

What Can Be Genius?

My winter class that I am taking is called Five Faces Genius, which is about the beauty and challenges of life, through personal creativity and genius. In the first unit called Life of Genius I learned about how people are geniuses no matter what background, country they're from, or race. Every person has their own unique way to be creative and be a genius. For our first action project we had to pick four people that we think are creative, research their backgrounds and see what made them genius not including what they do for a living. I picked four famous people because I felt like it would be much easier because I can do a lot of research to find out more about their personal lives. What I found most challenging about this action project was doing the research because I had to find things I think made them geniuses. What I enjoyed most about this project is how it all came together because I worked very hard on it!

Created by JV, 2014*

My class created a Genius Gallery, showcasing who we think are geniuses. From our gallery I had to pick four people I think are geniuses. The four that I picked are Kanye West, Jay-Z, Michael Jackson, and Dr Seuss. I picked these artists because as a child I grew up on all three of them so it made this project go more smoothly. What I have noticed that all geniuses have in common is several things one being all dropped out of school at a very young age. Kanye West went to Chicago’s American Academy of Art in 1997 and began taking painting classes. But later transferred to Chicago’s State University to major in English. At the age of twenty Kanye dropped out of college to pursue his musical dreams. Jay-Z went to high school but did not graduate. At the age of fifteen he was a drug dealer, but started getting interested in music industry. Michael Jackson did not finish elementary school, he joined his older brothers group at the age of five, they later became the Jackson Five. By them dropping out of school gave them time to focus on what they were really chasing for, and gave them more courage to become what they all wanted be. I think by them not having a father figure made them all creative because they had to grow up really fast, and be their own man figure in their lives. That taught them to be independent at a very young age because, they didn't have both parents to look after them, so they had to look after themselves.

Another thing that I noticed that all three artists have in common is they all grew up with no father figure. Kanye West is an only child and his parents divorced when he was only three years old. He moved to Chicago with his mother, Kanye's father wasn't really in Kanye's life. Jay-Z grew up with three siblings were raised by their mother, after their father abandoned the family. He never had a father figure in his life. Michael Jackson did have his father in his life, but had a troubled relationship with him. He would physically and emotionally abuse his kids. Even though Michael had his father in his life he never saw him as a father. 

All artists were really young when they first got interested in music Kanye starting rapping when he was in third grade, Jay-Z started making beats when he was only three years old by banging on pots and pans, and Michael Jackson grew up on music because of his father but started singing when he was five years old. They all knew what they loved and wanted to pursue their dreams. No matter what issue they were in they still loved and enjoyed making and listening to music. I consider all these musical artists genius because of their path that they took. They sacrificed a lot throughout their life to be as successful and they are today!

The other genius that I selected from our genius gallery is Dr Seuss, because he is an amazing person! He went through so much throughout his long life and he showed gratitude, success, and passion and to me those are his 3 strengths that got him to what he is known for today (First). He lived through many historical events including the Great Depression, World War 1, and World War 2 (second). During these events he would write many of his children books that are well known today so he can get his mind off all the terrible things that were going on. He would also draw, and collaborate with other authors and during this time he also met his first wife.

Three of my own key strengths that I have is working very hard, caring about people, and appreciating what I have in my life. I find these strengths creative because many people can't have all at once, and I feel very special that I do. These strengths help me so much, and can continue helping me throughout my career that I choose and my future. One challenge that I have faced is believing in myself, and not working hard enough. I would always doubt myself in elementary school and not really care about work, but as I got older and attended GCE my whole life changed because I realized I am a great worker! I feel like many students experience this throughout the world but can't find their spark. I found mine by going to my high school, I think if many other states and countries had high schools like GCE many students would succeed. I got inspiration from my older cousin who went to school and became a Optometrist, she is an amazing worker! I interviewed her because in my eyes she is also a genius. Here is a quote I got from her, “Helping people every day, makes me feel amazing!” My outcome that I would like to see is people finding and realizing that they are genius and the people around are as well. I think many of us don’t realize how smart and creative we are, so it would be nice if the world can all come together and see how awesome each of us are!

Citations:

"All About Dr. Seuss".catinthehat.org. N.P. Web. 2002. Nov 16, 2014. (1) and (2).

"Jay-Z". rollingstone.com N.P. Web. 2014. Nov 14, 2014.

"Kanye West Biography". biography.com. N.P. Web. 2014. Nov 14, 2014.

Vargas, Arielle personal interview Optometrists. 10 November, 2014.

Pictures:

Dr. Seuss. wikipics.com

Jay-z putdollard.com

Kanye West flavorwine.com

Michael Jackson huffingtonpost.com