Inside The Mind Of Gabi

Wake Up And See The World

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Faces Of Fame At The March On Washington

Hi again, I’m back with my last blog post about the Civil Rights Movement, or I guess the last of three posts that our teachers made us write. As a class, we are heading down to “the Deep South” to study the movement in more depth, so I might be doing some posting from there. Anyways, for this post, I decided to base my reflection on the March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom, and how publicity was an important factor for the event.

1963 was noted for racial unrest and civil rights demonstrations. Media footage and coverage from Birmingham, Alabama ignited nationwide outrage and disbelief, where Bull Conner was setting attack dogs and fire hoses on civil rights protestors, young and old. Many protests and demonstrations took place across the country, which all lead up to the March on Washington. The March on Washington was a political rally, organized by A. Phillip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, that took place in August of 1963 and was planned in demand for civil and economic rights for African Americans. There was an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people in Washington D.C. that day, who travelled from all around America to witness powerful speakers, celebrities, and artists, come together and speak out for the movement.

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There was a large lineup of influential artists of the time, such as Joan Baez, blues singer Odetta, folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, Bob Dylan, and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who sang and performed in front of the riled up crowds of people. Many other influential celebrities made appearances at the march, like Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player in the MLB. After seeing all these different names, I thought about how these famous faces helped the social cause for justice, and if their presence helped or distracted.

Singers Joan Baez and Bob Dylan perform together during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in this August 28, 1963 file photo shot by U.S. Information Agency photographer Rowland Scherman and provided to Reuters by the U.S. National Archives in Washington on August 21, 2013. In the coming week, Washington will play host to an array of events marking the 50th anniversary of the march and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. REUTERS/Rowland Scherman/U.S. Information Agency/U.S. National Archives (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY ENTERTAINMENT) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.THIS PICTURE IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan

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Mahalia Jackson

Most of the artists who performed in the march were publicly affiliated with the movement, and therefore brought a sense of support and acknowledgement to the crowds of people. I think it was a relief for civil rights activists to know and see with their own eyes, that powerful and influential people, many of whom were not African-American, were working with them, wanting to make a change in America. I believe that these faces of fame were an essential piece of the march, as they reminded people that they were for a change for equality in America. People like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were also an asset to the march, as these leaders were the figureheads of the whole movement, spending every waking moment fighting for a cause they knew America needed.

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For this post, I ended up drawing a picture that is from a speaker, or performer’s point of view in the march. I drew it as I was thinking about all the celebrities who attended the event, and what they might have felt during their time at the microphone. Whether they were making a powerful speech, performing a spiritual song, or leading a movement powerful enough to change the course of a country.

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Music of the March On Washington

Info on The March on Washington

More info

Famous Faces who attended the march

Lyndon Johnson & The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Hi again. It seems that I have been basing my posts on more serious matters from our world, and this post won’t be breaking that pattern. Today, I am going to be writing and focussing this post on a man who made the push to ultimately change America as a nation. He altered the course of every American’s life, for better or worse, in a time of chaos and need for change. This man was Lyndon B. Johnson, and I am looking into why and how he managed to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

 

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I dug out lots of information about the background of Lyndon B. Johnson and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and how they impacted one another. To answer my main question of “What evidence is there that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was important to Johnson?”, I decided to make a short iMovie that explained my response in a deeper and more interesting manner.

 

Enjoy:

 

 

So, the movie that I made might not have fully explained how the Civil Rights Act was important to L.B.J. I believe that working alongside John F. Kennedy and his belief of equality, sparked something inside of President Johnson, that gave him the drive and the passion to continue Kennedy’s Civil Rights work. To me, this displayed the importance of the bill to Lyndon B. Johnson, and that he wasn’t just carrying on Kennedy’s legacy. Simultaneously, he was creating his own. He worked extremely hard to find the right people and resources to get the Act put into motion. And I also feel as though his previous experience in politics and power of manipulation and persuasion, gave him a better chance at getting the bill approved. I am unsure of how effective President Kennedy would have been in Johnson’s place…Would he have gotten the bill signed and approved as quickly and efficiently as L.B.J? Just something to think about for next time I guess…

 

Sources:

The Johnson Treatment

L.B.J

L.B.J & Civil Rights

Freedom Riders

More L.B.J

L.B.J & the Civil rights Act of 1964

The Little Rock Nine And The Beginning Of A New Era

Hello to all the people who are reading this post. Thanks again for tuning in, to hear about what I’m currently learning about in school (I am still amazed about why you keep coming back, but, oh well).

In this post, I am going to be exploring a topic that is from a very important time in American history and a building block that helped to shape a nation. Currently in class, we have been deeply investigating the Civil Rights Movement that began roughly in the 1950’s. This post is based upon an event that happened in 1957, that branched off from the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court order. It was the introduction of nine African-American high school students, to the all-white Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas. These nine young adults were brave, hardworking, and willing to risk their dignity, and even lives, for an equal education. I seriously cannot put myself in their shoes, and have no idea what they must have felt putting everything on the line. These nine were one of the sparks that ignited an integrated education for all Americans. In this post I am setting the scene of a time and place, where equality was misunderstood, and integration was a terrible idea…

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Imagine yourself as a fifteen year old from the outcasted and discriminated against population of African-Americans of America. Imagine being part of a large project, in order to test the Brown v. Board of Education court order, of which you and eight other students were to attempt to attend an all-white high school, in the segregated community of Little Rock, Arkansas. And imagine being the only one of the nine students to not have been alerted of the plans to enter the school on the first day; to have been all by yourself amongst a large mob of angry, white supremacists, screaming words of violence and racism in your face. This is what, then, fifteen year old Elizabeth Eckford went through on her first arrival to Central High School, on September 4th, 1957.

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I wrote a rather lengthy poem, to tell the story of her arrival at the school. It’s kind of in between an epic poem (Epics are long and narrative poems that normally tell a story about a hero or an adventure.), and an AABB Rhyme Scheme poem (a poem following a rhyme scheme). Enjoy:
Arrival

Elizabeth was fifteen years old and fearless,

On her way to school by bus service.

She walked steadily towards the growing crowd,

Her head held high and the voices getting loud.

White faces sneer and impatiently wait,

To pounce upon their new “Negro” bait.

For the arrival of the lone school girl,

Made the town of Little Rock’s traditions swirl.

Racist name calling and unmistakable threats,

Unnerved Elizabeth and made her sweat.

The guards surrounding the grounds,

Seemed kind and would maybe let her around.

But they were merely protecting the school from her,

And Elizabeth was stuck and around her was a blur.

A kind face was so difficult to find,

No one could see her truly as one of their kind.

Not just their visions were clouded,

But their values and lives were thoroughly guarded.

To protect themselves from what they thought were demons,

But were really only true and passionate humans.

Elizabeth did discover a warm heart in the crowd,

Only after seeking cover in a spot not so loud.

She was eventually returned to the other eight in one piece,

But the crowd ceased to decrease.

Awaiting the nine would be a year of abuse,

But their resilience and strength would be put to good use.

 

As I was looking at different articles and pictures of the day that Elizabeth Eckford arrived at Central High School, one picture caught my eye. It was one of Elizabeth walking towards the school (I’m pretty sure), surrounded by annoyed and angry-looking white people. What surprised me was that it wasn’t just silly teenagers that were calling her racist things and stepping on her heels, but there were adults there as well. And it seemed as though none of them were going to help her out of the situation, they were giving her disapproving looks, and joining in with the agitated teens.

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But the more that I thought about this scene, the more I wanted to know what all these protesters and annoyed people wanted to accomplish. What did they think they could change by shouting in Elizabeth’s face? I think that it had a lot to do with the fact that almost all of the white civilians of the era were brought up with the influence of their parent’s opinions and beliefs that African-Americans were very different, and should be outcasted. It was almost like a tradition, a normal way of living. They didn’t know any other way to feel or act around African-Americans, without protest or violence. They didn’t understand that these people who had “coloured” skin, were only differentiated from the white culture, by just the colour of their skin. So, by acting out against this new court order, this introduction of different people into their lives was a threat to that mob who stood around Elizabeth. They just couldn’t cope with the fact that their lives could be altered so easily, and that is what prompted their aggressive discriminatory behaviour.

The story of the Little Rock Nine was such an emotional excerpt from the whole Civil Rights Movement, and it’s opened my mind to learning so much more and relating to it situations happening in the world today.

Elizabeth Eckford Info

Poem Examples

 

SLC: The Starting Line-up

Holy moly… The school year had moved so quickly! It seems like yesterday that we stepped into class for the first time in grade ten, and we were greeted with a “get ready, we are writing essays today” from Ms Willemse. Oh the good memories…

Anyways, it’s time for another Student Led Conference! I’m going to be leading you through some work that I am most proud of, the work that showed the most growth, and the work where I displayed a growth mindset.

The first post is based on my work that I’m proud of…

I’m The Proudest Of My Poetry…!

The second is the work that shows my growth as a learner…

New & Improved Writing Skills: SLC Special

And last but not least, this next post reflects on how I have demonstrated my growth mindset as a PLP learner.

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Thank you so, so much for stopping by my SLC, I’ll probably see you when I present my next one!

Adios Amigos

New & Improved Writing Skills: SLC Special

Hey y’all! I’m back at it again with a new post for my recent SLC (Student Led Conference)! In this one, I am looking at some work that shows my growth as a learner; something that I have improved or worked really hard on. I have decided that my writing skills have gotten extremely better since the beginning of the year. Writing is something that I feel I have always had a natural ability for. But even though it comes easily, doesn’t mean I didn’t have room to improve.

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When we first started writing essays this year, we began with an expository essay. When I handed it in, I thought it was a decent piece of writing, and when I got my mark back, an 85, I knew in my mind that I could improve.

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As we wrote essay after essay, I could literally feel my writing skills expanding and getting better. The practice and feedback that I was receiving for pieces such as my synthesis and literary analysis essays, as well as our novel study writing prompts, were giving me room and confidence to take risks and step out of my comfort zone with my writing.

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When it was announced that we would be writing one of our last essays before the English Exam, The narrative essay, I was prepared to try my hardest and do my best. For me, this essay was the easiest to write out of the billion essays that we wrote this year. Telling my story just came so naturally and I worked very hard to build up emotion and feeling into my words.

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Even if there isn’t much left to work or improve on, I strive to work on and improve on it, and not only in my writing, but in all aspects of my learning. PLP has taught me this; that even when you can’t do any better, attempt it, work at it, and succeed at it.

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I’m The Proudest Of My Poetry…!

Poetry.
What some might consider a boring unit in English class, I believed the same, until I actually dove deep into it. A while ago, in class, when we were told we would be performing a “reader’s theatre” in front of the whole class, I was so excited. Within my group we came up with the main theme of death, and found multiple poems that we would recite.

My two were “If I Should Die” by Emily Dickinson , and “Death Is Nothing At All” by Henry Scott-Holland. While preparing for the presentation, I really worked on memorization, so that I could also focus on portraying characters who were grieving or buried with sorrow.

As a group we came together to create a Keynote to go along with our performance. Here are my two slides:

 

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On the day, my group and I did an awesome job, from setting up the scene, to getting all the words right. I was very happy with my performance and I managed to stay in character, which was one of my main goals.

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Overall, I really had fun with this project, and I loved how even though it had boundaries, we could choose a theme that gave a message and emotion across to our listeners.

And so, in the end, most might think of poetry, and categorize it among rainy days, and throwing up. But now, when I hear the word, I think of it to be a misunderstood, and enticing topic

A Little Bit About The Camo Flock

“What time is it? SPRING BREAK TIME…” Nah, it doesn’t really flow. That’s cause there’s still a week until the break… One week, that’s all! But before I throw all of my papers into the air and shimmy out of the school building breaking into song, I wanna talk about a thing called “Destination Imagination”. If I were to explain it all, it would take up ten posts, so you can click here to learn more about it. I’m going to talk about my experience with DI, and, yeah… Enjoy.

Near the beginning of the school year, my class and I were introduced to Destination Imagination, and were told we would be participating whether we liked it or not. We were split into four teams of about 6 people, and assigned to different team focuses. I was put into the scientific category, where, in short, we had to camouflage one person in our group and create a skit to revolve and display different camouflage methods. We decided to name our group “The Camo Flock”.

It was a very long and hard working process, from planning the different elements of our costumes and skit, going out and buying supplies within our budget, and painting…lots of painting.

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During this whole process, my group and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to attend the presentation day, as I was leaving for a two week vacation a few days before the big day. We did a great job at planning around this, so I could still contribute to the project, even though I wouldn’t be there to perform with my friends.

We even won a few ribbons, and won first place for the instant challenge and our team challenge. Even though the group may be thinking I abandoned them and that I wanted to get out of it, I was so happy for their success, and they did so well without me.

And that’s all I really have to say about DI. I know I was brief and short, but as I said before, it would take ten or more posts to describe the stress, laughter, and craziness of the Camo Flock. But I do have a few videos of our performance, there might be a few cut out parts, but otherwise, here it is:

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The Right (Or Wrong…) To Vote

Hello, blog that I sometimes post on, it’s me. Wow… I sound like Adele, well, sort of. Anyways, class has been super busy lately, with our English exam out of the way, we started “Canadian History” in Social Studies. We were told that as we work through the unit, there will be a few large performance projects.

So in this post I will be sharing with you a performance task, diving deep into a the right to vote in Canada and how it transitioned from a privilege to a right. I worked with Anatolia, to create an Explain Everything, that was informative and interesting. We had a pretty small time frame to finish our project, mostly because we should know the drill. We should know how long it takes and all the elements that make a good Explain Everything. But Anatolia and I had a few difficulties in finishing it.

The first being that I don’t think we are the greatest partners for these kind of projects. We are best friends and we do a lot of talking. Mostly not related to the work. So that’s why we agreed to not work together on small important projects anymore, it makes more sense and we will probably work harder and more efficiently.

The second difficulty was the fact that I went on a two week vacation halfway through the project, which meant we had to work on it long distance style. Honestly, I just didn’t want to do it, and I began calling it “The Right To Vote Explain Everything That Never Went Away”.

***insert cringe faces***

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I was putting it off so I could relax like I should have been, instead of worrying about it. But I did end up pulling my weight and working with Anatolia to complete it.

Here it is:

For this Explain Everything, Anatolia and I decided to split the work in two ways, because we knew that I was leaving. But before I left, we managed to make an outlining storyboard to aid us in the creating of the “EE”. So, afterwards, I was in charge of writing the script, and she was the creator of the actual “EE”. This wasn’t a terrible idea, as long as I finished the script quickly so she could make the Explain Everything, which didn’t happen as planned, as I said above.

But eventually it did, and we finally finished our dreaded performance task and answered how the right to vote went from a privilege to a right.

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Well hello there people-who-probably-accidentally-found-my-random-blog-where-I-put-school-work, it’s been a while. So I’m writing today about my stressful experience with “Star Wars”. And if you don’t know what that is, I suggest you go and do your research right away before you find a mob of angry Stormtroopers at your house, ready to take you down with their blasters.

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Anyways, I belong to a class with twenty-two smarty pants students, and two “obsessive-over-anything-Star-Wars” teachers. So obviously we were told that we would be having “Feel The Force” Friday’s, and a large Star Wars exhibition, all leading up to the release of “Episode 7: The Force Awakens”. Sounds exciting right? I mean, yeah I wasn’t over the moon joyful, like my life would be finally complete after this Star Wars unit, but I was mildly looking forward to this new topic. But after many days of dreadful procrastination, all-nighters, and dressing like a space queen and having everyone call you “Princess Leia”, I decided that this unit was all the Star Wars I needed to last a lifetime.

The “Star Wars Mini Maker Faire” was an exhibition similar to the annual “Blue Sky” projects that we create at the end of each year. If you want to see what I did last year, check my post way, way back. So for this “Star Wars themed Blue Sky”, we were put into “planet groups”, which were categorized by similarities within our projects.
I chose to make an iMovie diving deeper into the personalities and emotions of R2-D2, the small, adorable droid that contributed humour and innocence to the Star Wars series. But, I used clips from the movie to prove my theory, and so it was rejected from YouTube and was too large to post directly onto this site, so you are just going to have to see it in your imagination. Sorry.

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This project caused me a lot of stress, tears, and whining, turning me into a rebellious toddler refusing to eat her vegetables. Usually, I am a person who uses her time wisely to complete work, but for some reason, this project was an exception. I procrastinated until the last THREE DAYS of time to work on our projects. Like… Who does that? I guess I just wasn’t getting the right Star Wars vibes, and I felt a tremor in the Force, telling me to waste my time and not work on my movie. But eventually, I came out with an interesting, and COMPLETE iMovie, that I was very proud of.

I definitely learned how to procrastinate, and how much of a bad idea it is. I don’t recommend it, even when you are so uninterested in the unit or project, it comes back and bites you in the butt. I also learned that R2-D2 is a much more complex character than we all see him as. He has human emotions and personalities, even though he doesn’t speak our languages or look like us. This Star Wars project was quite a learning experience, it was the first time I had watched all of the movies in sequence, and also the first time I was driven to dress as the queen of Naboo for extra marks. (Here’s a picture of my best friend and I at the exhibition. I am the one that looks like a pale doll with space buns, trying to be Queen Amidala):

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Star Wars is a whole other world that many people are obsessed with and drawn to. I’ve had a taste of the fascinating fandom, but I think I’ll sit on the sidelines from now on. Too many lightsabers and brown robes for me to take in

Let’s Just Say, I Limbo Better Than I Synthesize…

Wow, so I’m back for the first time since June. And guess what we started the new school year with? Essay writing…Yay? Since the beginning of the year, we have been practicing writing many different styles of essays, for our upcoming English Provincial Exam. And I’ve decided that the most difficult and complicated type by far was evidently the Synthesis essay. There are a lot of stages of preparation that go towards actually writing the essay. In our case, we read the material we would be comparing, then made a venn diagram, pulled together an essay outline, and finally wrote the actual piece.

We began our process earlier in the year when we read Escape To Gold Mountain, by David Wong. Then we read “Jook-Liang: Only Sister” from The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy. But, at the time, we were unaware that we would be comparing the two in a very interestingly formed essay.

In class, Ms Willemse introduced the idea of “the synthesis essay” to us, and I’m not sure about everyone else, but I know that I began to freak out. I didn’t even know what synthesizing meant, let alone how I was going to write an essay about it! But as we got familiarized with the meaning and idea of a synthesis piece, I was less panicked. The topic was “how style reveals the meaning of the two books”, and I would soon find out what this strange sentence entailed. The first step I took, was creating a venn diagram that compared the styles of The Jade Peony and Escape To Gold Mountain. After I had completed it, the similarities and differences were clear and organized. The concept of style in a piece of writing also became clear to me, and it made my essay ideas begin to flow.

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The second part of the preparation for my essay, was my outline. At first, I had a clear path of what I was going to include in my essay, and what ideas I would touch on in the piece. I had to plan and come up with a hook, thesis, my body paragraphs, and a strong conclusion. I started off great, with my thesis and topics being very strong and informative. Then as I progressed with adding quotes and explanations of my paragraphs, things became a little rocky and I was confused about how to pick my quotes wisely and use them as evidence to support my ideas. I worked through my troubles and got it finished, but I knew that there needed to be changes made in my final draft.

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Now for the most important part, the actual writing. It can’t be that hard, right?… Wrong! I found this stage to be the most challenging, as I had to mush all of my ideas and quotes into a well structured and flowing essay. One would’ve thought that this would be the simplest step, as I had an outline to look back and refer to. But mine needed lots of reviewing and revising, which takes time, which I just didn’t have! So instead, I took my ideas from my outline, put them in sequence, and added, changed, edited, and deleted. Later on I began to see the paragraphs and my ideas form and flow.

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In the end, after many struggles, confusions, and brain farts, I finally had a product that somewhat resembled a synthesis essay. Don’t get me wrong, I am very proud of what I came out with, I think my essay was well structured, and my ideas were solid. But there are always things to work on and improve. In this case, I think I could have put in more transitions, and maybe done a better job at linking my topics and main ideas together. I also learned so many useful writing skills during our process that I will carry with me into my future. One very important thing that I learned from writing this essay was inserting quotations… Shout out to Ms. Willemse for repeatedly and painfully explaining multiple times. I also realized how style is able to reveal meaning, but I think you have to write your own synthesis essay to find it out for yourself. (Or you could just read mine).

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