The Lorax

How does this text make you think about justice in the world?

     After Reading the Lorax by Dr Seuss, I was kind of confused. The Once-ler had come to this land for a small business, and after time he had completely ruined the environment. The once-ler came to a beautiful land were everybody was happy, and when he left, there was not one truffula tree left standing. He had taken them all, and destroyed them for the material. All the animals left that were all once happy. The air was filled with gas.

After Reading that I immediately thought to my self- this is horrible. Everyone was living happy before he came, and killed the land. When everyone was gone, The Once-ler was the only one left, in the miserable land that had been destroyed.

This reminded me of the outside world. How people come to amazing lands like rainforests and destroy the forest just to make buildings/businesses. What about the people who lived in that forest? Or the animals that lived there happily. And the smell of the freshest air for the land was filled with trees.

People destroy millions of homes, and do it greedily for themselves.

Ned Vizzini Beginning of book response

Are there groups you belong to in this text? What do they look like here? If your own groups are missing, what would they say if they were in the book?

            I just started reading the auto biography by Ned Vizzini, and at one point in the story, he writes about all the different groups there are at his school. For example, there are the geeks, the drug addicts, the preppies and all sorts of funny groups. I think then one group that I belong to in his classification would be preppie. Ned Vizzini says that preppies wore okay clothes, didn't smell bad, all recognized each other from the first day of school and always seemed to be doing something. I admit, when I came to this school from Europe, I didn't recognize anyone at all for obvious reasons. But every time I join a club, or go to a camp, there are always a bunch of people I know, and we just hang out. We are always playing basketball or chatting-we always have something to do. But in the book, preppies seem kind of anti-social with people they don’t know. They also seem really posh, not really my style.                                                                                                             

If preppies weren't included in the book, I definitely think it wouldn't really change anything because the characteristics they have are definitely included in other types of groups.  For example, geeks always hang together and never socialize with other people like the preppies.

            

social awareness

Emile Beniflah 811 11/26/12

Social Awareness Writing Project

Part 5- Write an original literature piece responding to social problem

People die, all the time

Work to stay alive-

What a crime.

People get sick, trying to put up with it

They all work and cry, until they die

If they could get the medicine and pills, they need

Then they wouldn’t be left alone, to bleed

Why in the world can people not have it

Healthcare is something everybody needs,

The medicine is what can answer your plea

So why can people not get it for free-

That is my question

Response to Song

                    I started off by thinking- what is a problem in this country that affects thousands of people, and that our government (at the moment) is treating poorly. As I was brainstorming, it came to me immediately: health. Healthcare is incredibly expensive and so many people cannot afford to buy the medicines they need to keep themselves healthy. It is unfair. I did some research and found that (estimated by Harvard) 45,000 people die without health care insurance. That immediately gave me the urge to write that in the first lines of my song, so the reader wants to learn more, because he/she is shocked. And then I tried to come up with words like bloody to make my song seem more dramatic. The end is supposed to make the reader understand that these people want and need healthcare, but they cannot get it, just because they do not have the money.

Social awareness

Emile Beniflah 811 11/26/12

Social Awareness Writing Project

Part 3- Find a true story about someone who changes the world every day

Interview with Ms. Demeo

Do you personally think you change the world by teaching?

            “I think that I do in a small way, but honestly if you have ever lived on this planet, you have changed the world. Everyone changes the world in one way”

Why did you choose to teach? Was it something you wanted to do young?         

            “Ever since I was small, it is something I wanted to do. It started at my High School where one of my teachers changed my life, and ever since I really enjoyed teaching”

Do you ever hate your job, and just want to stay home?

            “I think that hate is a very strong word. If you hate something, you should move on. No one should ever feel stuck. If I hated my job, I wouldn’t still be here. Sure it is very tough to deal with children and teachers sometimes, but I don’t hate my job”

If you got 1 million dollars, would you quit your job?

            “At this point in my career, I probably would, because I’m already thinking about retirement, but if it was when I was younger, I think I would have still worked”

Are things in your life that you saw wrong, and that you tried to fix?                   “I think that foreign language is not treated seriously at all in this country, and I try to get students to be interested in this subject”

Response

Ms. Demeo is an admirable person because she dedicated her whole life to teach students, even through hard times. She took foreign languages, a weakness the United States has, which she felt was important, and spent her career trying to fix that problem.

Social Awareness project 1

Emile Beniflah 811 11/26/12

Social Awareness Writing Project

Part 2- Observe your surroundings

List-

·         Having to wake up early every morning, feeling dull and not always focused or alert in my morning classes. Performance decreases in morning especially when taking tests.

·         Public schools have a tiny budget which results in having barely any decent material! I know we’re in debt, but come on!

·         My cleaning lady pays more taxes than my family.

·         Because healthcare is so expensive, millions of people are left without it, and when they get sick they can’t do anything about it. This should be changed.

·         People are left uneducated therefore not able to get decent jobs leaving them poor. Everyone needs education- a chance.

Having to wake up in the morning might seem like a tiny problem in life, but for us teenagers, it could alter our future in a dramatic way! We are in an extremely important stage in our lives, and sleep could be the reason we go to a good High School or College!

Scientific evidence supports that the average teenager needs 8 ½ -9 ¼ hours of sleep a day, and studies show that teenagers tend to go to bed later, therefore waking up later. They can go to bed as late as they want, but they can’t wake up whenever they want! A survey from CBS News asked children from 12-15 years old how many hours of sleep they got, and the results were stunning! The average student got about 6-7 hours of sleep a night (not really shocking to me though…). That means that we (teenagers) lose about 2 hours of sleep a night!!! This has a huge impact in our daily performance in school, especially the morning classes. As we get less sleep, we “zone out” more in class and fall asleep. 6 or 7 hours of sleep might not seem like a big deal, but we could end up with sleep deficit, and that could harm us.

 So why are most schools starting as early as 7:30 -8:30, forcing us students to wake up at about 6 or 7 am? In order to meet the healthy sleep hours, we should then go to bed at about 9, which cannot happen to most teens because their brain hormone melatonin is produced later at night than adults and kids. Why not start school for example at 9:30? This could help students to concentrate throughout the day, but still leave room for extracurricular activities and family time.

After Reading Mause, a graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman the feeling that anyone should feel, is shock, but also terror. Many people are very uneducated about WW2 and what actually happened, but after reading this novel, you can really feel what a Jew at that time period would. A Nazi giving small Jewish children a bomb to play with, and all the children dying, is one example of the shocking things in this book the writer expresses.

Vladek, the main character, tries to hide himeself with his family, from under a garbage disposal, to behind the walls of an attic. These so called bunkers, where Jews would hide in the war, could be as small as a school bathroom, for as many as three families! At one point in the novel, Vladeks former best friend sells him out and tells the Germans where he hid, just for three loaves of bread and a piece of cake. But as Art Spiegelman says in the novel- "it didn't matter if you were best friends with the wealthiest man in poland- when the Germans caught you, and send you to a concentration camp, you were on your own..."

Jews had to find ways to find these bunkers, because many poles would tell Germans if Jews tried to hide near their houses. People did not think of jews as fellow humans, they thought of Jews as animals or filthy creatures. Hitler quoted- "The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human" .  People would think that Jews would come and haunt them or kill them at night, and people started writing stories about them!!! It was terrifying.

Hurricane Sandy

     Everyone in New York City knows that hurricane sandy was a terrific storm that destroyed thousands of house,(which made thousands of people homeless...) and flooded almost all of lower Manhattan, which lead to lack of power. The city was destroyed, and that cost millions of dollars! Hurricane Sandy is one of the most major storms we have had in a long time. But the question that lots of New Yorkers wrangle about is- could this storm have been more prepared?

     One major problem New York City, Long Island along with New Jersey and many more places faced, is the flooding. The flooding was the major issue that destroyed houses, and made thousands of people homeless. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that the state should consider levee systems (a natural embankment beside water, often use to prevent water from passing the embankment in case of flooding...) and face up to inadequacy of existing protections. He also quotes- "The construction of this city did not anticipate these kind of situations. We are only a few feet above sea level". Because of climate change and global warming, scientists predict that storms like Sandy will come up to 3 times a year, and we need to be prepared. What happened with Sandy can't happen twice. This must be taken extremely seriously.

     But a problem of course in every situation that has ever happened, is the money of course. For Park Slopers and many other neighbourhoods that lay in the high parts of New York City, Sandy was a small problem. But it destroyed many families lives, and to give you an idea of the damage, the rebuilding could cost up to $10 000,000,000!!! This is how much the storm has affected the East Coast! And thus marks the arguement that people dont want to spend EVEN MORE than those 10 billion dollars they already have to pay off!!!


    Never the less, after this harsh experience, at least we have learned that another storm is going to come, and we have to be ready, cause the storm always is.

Edited piece on steve jobs

Reflection on The Man Who Though Different

In Steve Jobs’s Biography, (the man who thought different) Steve Jobs’s co workers seemed to both despise and admire Jobs. Explain.

Steve Jobs (co founder of next, and Apple) was a perfectionist, and that was a key thing for Apple, and their products. Jobs would include such details that really pushed the products to a whole new level! He had such a sense in design that made his products look at the same time futuristic, but also working incredibly too! But Jobs had an unpleasant side too…

Steve Jobs was a man who thought between the lines. He was a man who “thought different”. He could always- a) envision a new idea b) apply it c) then combine his idea into a sort of product (and that product would usually be incredible!)!

For example, Apple was the first company to apply the mouse to a computer! (even though Steve Jobs stole the idea of the mouse from Xerox…)

Jobs and his team would also think of the weirdest and unusual ideas for Mac computers! He really tried and made the Macs as simple as they could get! He made lots of mistakes in his life, but he always tried to get this right! He wanted to make something he would by, so technically he made his products for the people! (except for the ridiculously high price he sold his products!!!)

   Although people might say that Steve Jobs was a pure genius, he was also a mean, selfish, rude man who treated his employees with disrespect. He would yell and often curse at his employees at any idea they had that he was opposed to. Jobs also always had to be the best, he always was right in arguments, and he always had to be the genius. He never shared the credit he got. At the beginning, when apple was first created, every employee was given a number, according to their position, and Jobs was furious when he learned that he had number 2 and Steve Wozniak, co founder of Apple, was number 1. He would then call himself number 0. He would never listen to any advice his co workers gave him. For example, Steve Wozniak told Jobs to put lots of memory on the Macs he created, and Jobs refused to listen to him because he claimed that the computer would "look so dreadful" with more memory on it. This cost a lot to Apple's business, as fewer computers were sold as a result. This shows that Steve Jobs cared mostly about the appearance of his products!

Jobs would also take credit for any great ideas his employees had. All that tension Jobs had with his workers would lead to the reason he got fired from Apple at the age of 30. He would often take advantage of his (so called) friends and sometimes betray them for his own good.

     Jobs spent long periods of time not talking to his friends or worse, his family. For example, his first daughter Lisa, which he did not talk or interact with until she was about 20. Also he would regularly leave his home for weeks or even months without talking to his wife or daughter , and come back one day as if nothing had happened. Jobs had many family issues… 

   Jobs would also inconspicuously take off his car plates and get the closest/best parking spot that was reserved for the handicaps, so when the police came, they couldn't give him a ticket. He was very selfish.

     But with all Jobs's negative traits and social difficulties, people still recognized him as a very smart man who could really change the way we live in. A few years after he got fired from Apple, he was asked to come back and he and his team would then completely revolutionize the world we live in ( e.g creating iphones, ipads, ipods...). He had many issues with his employees, family and co workers, but Jobs really revolutionized phones and ipods. That wouldn't have happened if Jobs hadn't come back.

Theme on "the absolute true diary of a part time indian"

When I first opened this book, it struck me that I could almost relate to everything this book was about. I have always been the new person in a school and have always lived like that. I never had any "friends I've known since I was two" or anything of that. The main character, "Junior", does every stereotypical thing a 14 year old teenager would do. The only thing I thought was slightly boring was how Junior always telling everyone that he actually loves them, but he keeps bragging about it , till the point where at the end of the story, personally, I didn't want Junior and his "ex best friend" to be friends again! Anyways, the conflict of the story was the fact that Junior had a chance to go to a wonderful High School, were the level of education was purely just incredibly higher than in his school at the camp were everyone beat him up for how he looked!

     Junior had a very tough time growing up, not only because he came from a extremely poor family, lived in a reserve with other very poor uneducated families (which 1:100 graduated college), but also because he cried all the time, he had sicknesses which made his brain extremely delicate, and he had a lisp, and everything a teenager would NOT want to have. Fortunately for him, well not very throughout the story, but he had a very tough and strong friend who could protect Junior. Let me break up the unfortunate features of Junior. He came from a poor family, where Junior's dad would spend all the money he had, on alcohol. He would be lucky to have breakfast, and for Christmas (while his dad away getting drunk) would get maybe 5 dollars if lucky. At the reserve, nobody really interacted with other races since they were sort of a community. The "white people" were often recognized as rich educated ones who would succeed in life and live in a giant house, have two kids and live a happy life. Unlike the Indians at the reserve, they would have three good meals every day. This is were Junior faced an incredible decision in his life. He was getting beaten up, and did not learn anything in school (he was very smart), he felt useless! He was given to go to a school in a white village, where no Indian had ever been, probably never even one Indian! This school had good teachers, good students, but he would be the only person who wasn't white.

     The reserve had always kept a tradition, where no one really should leave before the finished school. They should stay at the reserve, go to school there and start a family there. Tat is exactly of what Junior wanted to do, and did. As he entered his High School back in the reserve, he only got beat up by other students (cause everyone hates freshmen) and did not learn anything. He was very smart and worked thoroughly but the level was just too low for him! That's is when Junior had to do the biggest choice in his life. He could stay at the reserve, pretty much ruin his future, but stay close to his family and friends, as well as keep his tradition, or on the other hand leave the reserve and loose all the friends he had including his best friend "Rowdy", it would ruin the tradition and everyone would hate him, and when he would get to school he would be the outsider, but that was what his destiny told him to do. Follow your guts!

     When Junior made his decision, I could completely feel for him. When he chose to leave everything he had except family, that is an enormous challenge that everyone should face at least once in their life time. Everyone hated him at the reserve, they would all beat him up. But I think that Jobi made an excellent decision. He should care about the future no matter what happens! YOU have to trust your guts and do what you love or care the most above all, regardless of what people say.Stand up for your self and make the right choice!

Theme on the drummer boy of Shiloh

     In the beginning of the story, Joby doubted himself and did not believe he had any part in the battle. He felt useless. He watched the soldiers come beck from the war injured, hurt, and exhausted from all the fighting they had done. They were maybe 3 or 4 years older than Joby. They were sick, tired, and even suffering, but none of them gave up. Joby on the other hand, did not feel exhausted or hurt, because (according to him) he had done nothing in this war to help his side of the union. He felt fine, even healthy!


     Joby felt like he was the only person on the field who wouldn't die. He was even persuaded that he was alone, going to live a happy life after this, and sing the hula until he died with all the other people who had survived. He would always be ashamed of his role during the war and could possibly never live with the memory through his life. The soldiers unlike Joby were representing their part of the union (the north) and Joby was just there to watch. He was the "guy in the way" of this battle. For example in the text, the author quoted- "Me. I'm the one of all who won't die." He fells like he is the one playing the "Jumba" while the others are actually getting the job done!

     In the end, after the General gave Joby the long, touching speech, Joby realized that he was as important as anyone else in this battle. He was the only one in this battle who was giving the soldiers a rhythm. He could control their intensity. He would put the beat slow, the soldiers would go slow. He would beat the drum fast, the soldiers would move fast. He was in charge when the General wasn't there. After this intense speech, Joby wiped his eyes, stood up with his chest up and was proud of his position. He was happy to be a drummer boy and was representing the union as much as anyone, who was on the battlefield. He was proud.

theme on "the story of us"

At the beginning of the story of us (written by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler), it is obvious that Josh and Emma have known each other for a really long time perhaps even their whole life, but at the moment, Josh and Emma are feeling extremely awkward and try to ignore each other (though it is hard since they have the same best friends!).

I think that the story actually is some sort of journey based on their friendship/relationship. At the beginning of the story, Josh and Emma are the farthest thing close to friends. They ignore and avoid each other. For example, in the text, the authors quote "Before last November, Josh and I wouldn't have been standing awkwardly in the doorway. My mom would have let him in and he would have jogged up straight to my room."

But after they both discovered the strange website found on the computer, I think their friendship would have been ruined! But together as they find out the future, as much as they start becoming good friends, tensions rise... Emma's future is, well, c<>p compared to Josh's (who marries the hottest/richest girl in his school!)
For example in the text, Emma does everything in her power to try and get her future to be great including finding out who her future husband would be, call him, find out what college he college he went to , and making sure she didn't go to that particular college!

In conclusion, with all the ups and downs of the story, it is obvious that Emma and Josh need each other, for life. Anyone can tell that even before reading the end of the story! They are meant for each other!

Reactions Towards Reading Responses

To start off I really liked Lily Green's blog because it just gave pretty much an overall opinion on the book she read. She wasn't too precise, meaning she didn't include every single detail precisely, but i think she just gave the theme/main idea on this book! I also like how Hale .S wrote questions/comments to divided her paragraphs therefore cutting her text into different pieces. It was a very smart structure! I think that Martin Drobs Response is a very good example on focusing into precise aspects of the story! It changed a lot compared to other students who tried giving the main idea! Good job buddy!

The Man who Thought Different

Reflection on "The Man who thought different"

In Steve Jobs's Biography, ("the man who thought different") Steve Jobs's co workers seemed to both despise Steve Jobs, and at the same time admire him. Explain.

     Steve Jobs was a perfectionist, and that was a key factor towards Apple and their products. He would include such details in his products that really made them the best! He had such a sense of design that made his products look like futuristic alien technology! But Jobs also had an unpleasant side.

     Steve Jobs was a man who thought between the lines. He was a man who "thought different". He could always envision a new idea, apply it, and combine his idea into a sort of product (and the product he would think of would probably be incredible!) .

For example, Apple was the first company to apply the mouse to a computer! (even though Jobs stole the idea of having a mouse from Xerox...) . 

Steve and his team would also think of the strangest designs for his Apple Mac computers. But although Steve made lots of mistakes in his life, he would always try and make his computer as simple as possible, and make it for the people! (except for the incredible high price he made his products worth) ... 

     Although people might say that Steve Jobs was a pure genius, he was also a mean, selfish, rude man who treated his employees with disrespect. He would yell and often curse at his employees at any idea they had that he was opposed to. Jobs also always had to be the best, he always was right in arguments, and he always had to be the genius. At the beginning, when apple was first created, every employee was given a number, according to their position, and Jobs was furious when he learned that he had number 2 and Steve Wozniak, co founder of Apple, was number 1. He would then call himself number 0. He would never listen to any advice his co workers gave him. For example, Steve Wozniak told Jobs to put lots of memory on the Macs he created, and Jobs refused to listen to him because he claimed that the computer would "look so dreadful" with more memory on it. This cost a lot to Apple's business, as fewer computers were sold as a result.

Jobs would also take credit for any great ideas his employees had. All that tension Jobs had with his workers would lead to the reason he got fired from Apple at the age of 30. He would often take advantage of his (so called) friends and sometimes betray them for his own good.

     Jobs spent long periods of time not talking to his friends or worse, his family. For example, his first daughter Lisa, which he did not talk or interact with until she was about 20. Also he would regularly leave his home for weeks or even months without talking to his wife or daughter , and come back one day as if nothing had happened. 

   Jobs would also inconspicuously take off his car plates and get the closest/best parking spot that was reserved for the handicaps, so when the police came, they couldn't give him a ticket.

     But with all Jobs's negative traits and social difficulties, people still recognized him as a very smart man who could really change the way we live in. A few years after he got fired from Apple, he was asked to come back and he and his team would then completely revolutionize the world we live in ( e.g creating iphones, ipads, ipods...). That wouldn't have happened if Jobs hadn't come back.

Hello!
This is my new blog, where I will be posting reading responses, articles about varied subjects and other fun reflections! I hope you will enjoy!