Because of Romek: Final Post

1. Every single thing that happened in the concentration camps were horrible, but the event that I found the most disturbing was when he was striping the bodies of all or any of their valuables and he found the baby who had stayed alive in the gas chamber. They made him throw the baby into fire and he listened to the screeching of the baby as it died. I found hat the most disturbing because hehimself actually had to kill a baby who had a whole life ahead of it. If I ever had to do that, I would probably die myself.

2. One job that pretty much kept him alive in the Krawinkle camp was making the coffee. If he didn't get that job, I don't think he would have lived. If all of these little things didn't happen in the very hard times at the concentration camps, he wouldn't be alive. This job probably felt like paradise for him because of all of the hard times he went through. If he didn't know people like Paul, he wouldn't have survived.

3. At Bergen-Belsen, the conditions were horrible. I think that the Germans knew that the war was coming to an end, so they treated them even worse, trying to kill them all. They even had to eat as much as they could of each other. The lice blankets, people giving up on living anymore, and just the very horrible things that were done to them made them, these were only a fraction of the things that they went through. I think that the Bergen-Belsen camp was the worst because they were all dying and they still got treated horribly.

4. I think his happiness was that he stuck to his promise that he made to his mom. Another triumph was getting to see his "family" or the man who his sister was supposed to marry. Both of these and the triumph of not living in pain anymore added up to a very happy ending. His biggest triumph was probably getting to say to his mom that he stuck to his promise.

5. David Faber's book, Because of Romek, should be required reading in all middle schools, high schools, and universities because all students need to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust. If middle school students don't learn this, then history might repeat itself, and nothing this horrible should ever happen again, even if it "isn't as bad". David Faber said in his speach that hatred should not ever get that bad and that it should all end and we should live in peace. If middle school students don't learn about this, then the world will never be in peace. This book writes in detail about how bad it really truly was, and if no one learns about the suffering that went on and about history, then the fuiture will represent the past. This wouldn't be learning from our mistakes, it would be even worse because we know it shouldn't happen, but we wouldn't know how bad it would get until it was horrible.

Renaissance Ball Project Reflection

The purpose of this project was to learn about the Renaissance time period and its importance. Another purpose to this project was to learn about the culture of the Renaissance, and how things changed in subjects such as literature, the arts, science, mathematics, cartography, and engineering, In order to learn about this, we had to write an autobiography/biography about a famous Renaissance figure. We had a choice of writing the autobiography/biography in first person, third person, or as a diary entry.

I learned that the Renaissance was considered a “rebirth” and that there were great changes made from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In the Middle Ages, the society was mainly based on agriculture, and your status was set by birthright. In the Renaissance however, society was based on commerce, and your social status was based off of ability and wealth. From 1346-1352 a deadly plague called The Black Death spread throughout Europe. Due to this devastating event, 25 million people died, which resulted as about 1/3 of Europe’s population. A few other things that I learned were that there was a new type of scholar called a humanist, which was someone who was well educated in Latin, Greek, history, science, and mathematics. The scholars thought that being better educated would solve problems. The crusades were the main reason as to why the Europeans were so eager to be educated. In this project, I learned how to perform a Renaissance dance called the Pavan.

I enjoyed this project because it was interesting to learn about this “rebirth” in time and about how things changed drastically. I also enjoyed this project because it was interesting to learn about some of the famous rulers, artists and other figures. I feel like I could have done better on this project because I didn’t take as much time at editing my biography as I should have. I took a long time on my notes, and then I rushed at the end to get it done instead of using my time wisely and spending more time on the actual writing of the biography. Next time, I would spend less time on my notes and more time on my biography.

I will link my biography to my DP.

Because of Romek: Post #3

Name: Alexandra Title: Because of Romek

1. Overall, it was really sad but interesting hering him talk. I think that he did have some opinionated information he was giving to us, but it was really interesting. In the book, at times, you start thinking that it was fiction. But then when he is actually talking it is so much more sad and deep because you know that he can't be lying and that everything that he says actually happened.

2. It must have been hard for him to go up there as a girl and always be in possible danger. I think that they were asking a lot of him, and maybe they should have gone up there and done that. I think that Romek was proud of David because he is finally becoming a man and starting to help in the war in a way.

3. I think that the Gestapo spared David because they realized that he actually didn't know and that they wouldn't let him die because that would be good for him. It would have been good because I think that the Gestapo thought that he would get tortured later and more severely. Maybe they would kill him later or something that would please them even more.

Beacause of Romek: Post #2

Name: Alexandra Title: Because of Romek

1. I think the significance of the pigeon is that they were supposed to be saved and not killed. The pigeon becomes one of the most importtant things tha Divd could have used in his whole life. It was the reason that David is still alive today. In that time and that place, something as little and pointless as a pigeon could save your life just as it did for David. If he wasn't persistent in convincing his mother to let him keep it, he would not be living today.

2. I think that the living conditions were really bad in the Pustkow "vacation" camp. I was a form of physical labor and they all went hungry most of the time. I think that the labor camp was called a "vacation" camp because if the Russians or anyone else from out of the country saw it, they wouldn't be suspicious (or at least that's what I think they were hoping for).

3. Question #1: How do you remember every detail on what happened?
Question #2: Out of everyone who survived the Holocoust, only a few actually wrote a book about it. What made you chose to write a book about it?

Because of Romek Book Response Post #1

Name: Alexandra Title: Because of Romek Author: David Faber

1. An important fact/detail that I learned so far was that the Germans left the women and children at their homes. I find that interesting because they were going to kill them all anyways (at least according to their plans) so why didn't they just take the women and children too? You'd think that they wouldn't care if you were women and children and that they would just kill you anyways but I guess they decided not to.

2. From what We've read so far, I think that David's family is really close together and they love each other a lot. I think that they do a lot of things together, and that they will probably have a hard time being split up in the war. I think that they will have a hard time in the war and not being able to see each other a lot. I think that this event in their lives has really scared them for ever and thats why i think that David remembers everything. This whole thing that has happened in his life has probably made a big impact on him and his family.

3. I think that the rescue of his father shoows how loving David is and how much he loves his family. Some of his qualities are being very lovingly and being loyal. He shows loyalty because he went back and saved his father even though it could have cost him his life. He shows being lovingly because he really cares about his family. "In the late morning, Mother asked, "Can we stop? I think the girls should ride for a while. And David too." "I'm not tired, Mama," I objected. That wasn't true but I didn't want her to walk along like a peasant." Overall, David is very a loving and caring person.

Aztec Mural Project Reflection

Name: Alexandra H.
Project Title: Aztec Mural Project
Class: Humanities
Dates: 5-05-08

Reflection:

The purpose of this project was to learn about the Aztecs. We were supposed to learn about their culture, their ways of living, what they ate, what they believed in, etc. In order to learn about the Aztecs, we made murals to learn about what they did in their daily life. We could chose from a number of topics such as sacrifice, the Aztec gods, etc. to focus our mural on. Another purpose of this project was to learn about the Aztec social classes, the food they ate, the Aztec markets, and overall, the Aztec culture.

In this project, I learned that the Aztecs believed that there were many gods. One of the most important gods in the Aztec culture was the sun god. They believed that if a sacrifice wasn't performed, the sun wouldn't rise in the morning. So if they didn't perform a sacrifice to the sun god, they would die. If they made sacrifices they thought that the gods would be pleased. I also learned that in Aztec culture they have social classes. At the bottom are the slaves and at the top are the Emporors/Epress' and their relatives. Also, I learned that warriors are very important to the Aztecs because they are the ones who keep the whole empire from being attacked.

I enjoyed this project because it was really fun painting the murals. I also enjoyed this project because it had a lot of art in it and I enjoyed drawing the symbols and learning about different cultures. I feel like I could have done better on this project because we spent too much time on our draft and not enough time tracing on our actual mural. Next time I would have spent less time on our draft and more time tracing. I think we should have started tracing on our mural sooner because we ended up hurrying to get our mural done and we had a lot of gaps on the mural where we were supposed to put images, but did not have enough time to.

Artifact/Document:
Artist Statement doc.

Weekly Reading Response to I ave Lived a Thousand Years

Name: Alexandra H Title: I Have Lived a Thousand Years Author: Livia Bitton-Jackson
Total pages this week: 83 Date: April 22nd, 2008 Pages: 140-223

Response:

Throughout the book, I was wondering why it was called "I Have Lived a Thousand Years". I thought it had something to do with her finally surviving the Holocaust and it might have felt like a thousand years to her or something. But then it finally says why it is called I Have Lived a Thousand Years and it all makes sense. What I thought was right and I think that it is kind of smart that Livia Bitton-Jackson put that as the title because it is kind of random, but it really goes with the book.

I think that Ellie should have gone back for her poems. If it was so hard for her to leave them behind and if they kept all of her poems that she has worked on for so long, why didn't she go back for them? She could have convinced her mom to go with her just for a short time to go back for her poems since they were one of the only posessions she owned after the war. And if she put so much time into them, why would she just leave them and go off to America?

Why do you think Ellis didn't go back for her poems?

I Have Lived a Thousand Years Weekly Reading Response

Name: Alexandra Title: I Have Lived a Thousand Years Author: Livia Bitton-Jackson
Total Pages This Week: 100 Date: April 11th, 2008 Pages: 40-140

Response:

One of the thing sthat surprises me the most about reading this book is how badly they treated these people just because of their beliefs. It's one thing to seperate them from the rest of the world but then to torture them like that and to just not care about how many people die is kind of scary. I knew before reading this book that a lot of people were treated harshly and that a lot of poeple died but no that I've read about half of this book I kind of know what hapened and how bad it actually was. In this war, I think that people on the outside of all of this for example the people who didnt have relatives or anything in this war were kind of not aware that it was this bad. If they were aware I think that things could have been different and the war might not have lasted as long.

In this book, besides Ellie, I think that the mother plays a major part in it. I think that Ellies mother plays a big part because the mom kind of shows the moral in a way. The mmoral is not giving up and thats what Elli does because she is trying to get out of those concentration camps while getting her mother out as well. I don't think it would be as good of a book or a real life experienc ef the mother wasnt in it.

Question: Do you think that Elli's mother gets better and they both pass the whole inspection with out getting cought?

Weekly Readiing Response to I Have Lived a Thousand Years

Name: Alexandra Title: I Have Lived a Thousand Years Author: Livia Bitton-Jackson
Total Pages This Week: 40 pages Date: Friday, April 4th Pages: 1-40

Response:

Ellie, the main character in the book, reminds me of Anne Frank. She reminds me of her because they both were worrying about small things and now they are both hiding from the police/soldiers and they are both around the same age. I think that they both keep to themselves throughout the beginning and they both think that this is really sad that just because they're jewish they get punished.

I think that the sentence "But I cannot put the vision out of my mind. Bloody heads rolling around on the local soccer field become a recurring nightmare." is kind of interesting in a way. I think that it is terrible that Hitler or anyone would ever say something like that, but I think that it is interesting how her dad says that it is just a figure of speech. I think that her dad wants her to stop worrying about it even though he also worries about it. I think that he worries about it just as much as she does but tries to hide it because if he admits that he's scared then the whole family would be scared so they might even want to give up or not try because they would have very little hope.

Why do you think that Ellie seems more angry and says more than her family does about the war?

Moral Courage Web Site Project Reflection

Name: Alexandra H.

Project Title: Moral Courage Website Project
Class: Humanities Dates: December-March 14th

PURPOSE: In this section, explain what you were supposed to learn and what you were supposed to do.

Sentence Starters
The purpose of this project was to learn about…
In order to learn about _________________, we had to create/perform/ write/etc.

The purpose of this project was to learn about different subjects that showed moral courage. In order to learn about, we got split into goups, and each grou p came up with a topic to make their web site about. We also had to practice our paraphrasing skills and learn how to make a web site on Dreamweaver. Each person in the groups made 5 pages of Notes about ubjects within our subject for our web site. Each person also learned how to site sources.
WHAT I LEARNED
In this section, tell what information or skills you learned or improved.
Sentence Starters
I learned about…
I explored the concepts/topics of …
In this project, I learned how to…. (skills)

In this project, I learned about how AIDS was caused, and what the cures/treatments of it are. I also learned that if a web site has a copy righted picutre and you use it for your own web site, some one could sue you since you didn't get permission to use it or even put the source. Plus, we also learned how to paraphrase so that we wouldn't be discualified out of the contest for plaigarism. We learned some skills that tought us how to paraphrase so that we weren't just re-aranging the order of the words. We also learned some skills on dreamweaver that will help us later on with our DP's, and other things.

REFLECTION
In this section, reflect on your experience. Did you like the project? Why or why not? How did you do? What would you do differently next time?

Sentence Starters
I enjoyed this project because…
I feel like I could have done better on this project because…
Next time, I would…

I enjoyed this project because we really learned about each of our topics that we got to chose. I also liked how we got to amake a really cool web site and write about a topic that we chose. I feel like I could have done better on this project by prioritising on certain things that were more inmportant and by starting to creat our actual web site a little bit sooner. Next time, I would probably have chosen a different topic, one that I was more interested in and start putting the informations on our web site a lot sooner so that we didn't have to rush and put it on at the last second. I also liked this project because we learned a lot of valuable skills and we didn't just do it for a good grade, we did it for a contest where we have a chance at winning.

ARTIFACTS
You should have at least one artifact from each project on your DP. What document, picture, or link will you have for this project?

I could link the whole entire website that our group created.

An Ocean Apart, a World Away and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Weekly Reading Response

Name: ALexandra Date: March 9th, 2008
Title: "An Ocean Apart, a World Away" & "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"
Time: 2 hours Total Pages this week: 75 pages
Pages: 182-193 & 1-65

Response:

In the end of An ocean Apart, a World Away, Boushu had come to visit Yanyan in America, and tried to convince her to come with him back to China. But, she refused because she found that she liked L.C. even better than Boushuy. Plus, she didn't agree with what Boushui's dream was: to restore the Manchu dynasty. Then she realized that she didn't want to go back to China ever, and that she would become a doctor.

I think that she wanted to stay with L.C. because then she could become a doctor and because she didn't want to fight for something she didn't believe in. Plus, I think that L.C. was a lot more peacefull and didn't like danger just because it was danger, but because it was an adventure, vrs. Boushu who liked danger just for the sake of danger. Plus, she could live her dream.

After I finished An Osean Apart, a World Away, I decided I would continue to Chronicles of Narnia series that I started last year. I started the second book: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It starts out when a group of sibblings go off to a house and the youngest one, Lucy, discovers a land in the back of the wardrobe by accident. Then, no one believes her and then finally they believe her because they go there themselves. Then, they look for a friend of Lucys, but can't find him.

I think it's good to read the book and see the movie too if there is one because it makes it a lot more interesting. It makes it a lot more interesting because you can point out the differences and come up with your own images in your head when you read the book, but when you watch the movie, the pictures are already there. But, I wish that I had read the book before the movie just because now it's kind of bvoring when I know what's going to happen in the end of the book.

An Ocean Apart, a World Away Weekly Reading Response #2

Name: Alexandra H. Date: March 2nd, 2008
Title: An Ocean Apart, a World Away Time: 3 hours
Author: Lensey Namioka Pages: 50-182
Total Pages This Week: 132

Response:

So far in this book, a girl named Yanyan has set off to America to study at a college to become a doctor. But, before she left her hometown of China, she met someone she was about to marry. He asked her to go off with him, avioding police, and restore the Manchu dynasty because that wasa his big dream in life. He thought that she would go with him and forget about her medical studies, but she decided to go to America and become a doctor anyways. Then, when she was in the United States, she felt lonely even though she had met a few frinds. During their winter break, she decided to visit her old friend Ailin. They cought up on a few things and Yanyan found out that she liked to cook too. Then when she got back, she had to take a final exam in her school to see if she could becom a regular student as a freshman, and she later found out that she passed all of her classes.

From what I've read so far, I think that Yanyan is a lot like Ailin. They are both very determined to be independent and to have a good future. That's why I think that they arfe such great friends. Also, they both like to cook, and both of the jobs that they wanted to be (Ailin a teacher and Yanyan a doctor) rquired a lot of school work. I also keep thinking that this book was like the first one because I keep thinking that Yanyan is Ailin but then I remember that this is from Yanyan's point of view. Yanyan is also like Ailin because they both have two older brothers. Their brothers are also alike because they want their little sister to have a good future. They're also kind of over pretective in a way because they think that girls are just supposed to be married off to a good husband and family.

An Ocean Apart, a World Away Reading Response #1

Name: Alexandra H. Title: An Ocean Apart, a World Away Author: Lensey Namioka Total Pages This Week: 50 Date: 2-24-08 Time: Approximately 1 hour Pages: 1-50
Response:
So far in this book, Yanyan (the best friend of Ailin, the main character in the first book) has convinced her parents to go to Shanghai and see Ailin off on a boat trip to America. One of her older brothers, his friend and her have set of on their journey to Shanghai. They encounter some difficulties, fights, and a much older Ailin. They learn about the many culture differences between America and China. Then, Yanyan starts to become Baoushu (her brother's friend) friend. Her parents want her to get married off to a good family, however, with unbound feet, that is very difficult. Her parents see how she is with Baoushu and they think that she should get married to him. She is not complaining though becuase it's much better than getting paired up with a person she doesn't know by a match maker. Yanyan also tries to figure out what her future will be like, and really wants to become a doctor.


My favorite character in this book is Yanyan because she is very nice and very interested in cultures and things around her. She notices a lot of details and go through some hard things, like having her oldest brother not "accept" her. She is not the best student in her class either, but she is still very pleased by her life. She finds something that she likes about most things and has a very positive attitude. I also like her middle brother because he takes on a roll to keep his sister safe. He is also one of the only people who "accept" her for who she is. He is also one of the only people in their family that doesn't judge her and appreciates her for wanting to be independent when she get older.

I think one of the reasons to why I like this book is that it is a lot like the previous book. It shows a lot about differences in cultures. It is also a good book because it shows how a normal girl does things that she thinks is right and not just what her parents want her to do. If you do read this book though, it would be better to read the first one before this one because this is a sequel.

Ties That Bind, Ties That Break Response

1. I think that I would try to get out of that room on that ship and try to find Bill, Grace and the Gilbertson's. I would tell them what I was experiencing probably because it would feel good to talk to someone about it. Then maybe they would change my room or something like that to make it better.

p.s.: I did enjoy the book a lot. Now for the sequel!!!!

Ties That Bind, Ties That Break: My Answer

1. I think that Ailin's uncle is mean to her because he cares about her in a way. I think that he wants to be the boss of the family and since Ailin doesn't want to listen to him, he gets mad and doesn't know how to deal with it. Maybe he just wants their family name to have a good reputation and since Ailin refused to have her feet bound, the family including her uncle doesn't know what to do with her.

Ties That Bind, Ties That Break Post #1

Why do you think that her mom, grandma, and the servants are so strong about getting her feet binded and her father is not?

My answer: I think that her father is more accepting of his daughter and I think that her father thinks that she should be able to make some of her own decisions. I think that maybe all of the women in their house think that it's more crucial that she has her feet bound so that she could get married, and maybe they think that there is no possible way for her to get married if she doesn't have her feet bound. I also think that maybe all of the women are more traditional, and maybe her fathers job has something to do with him being more acceptant to change even if there's conciquences.

ps: Comments/answer are due on the 19th.