Gay Pride was not born of a need to celebrate being gay, but their right to exist without persecution. There have been many symbols that represent the oppression the gay communities have felt, the celebration of who thy are, and the fight they had to fight. One of the originals, the pink triangle was first used by Hitler to identify gay males in Nazi concentration camps, and another, the black triangle, was similarly used to identify lesbians and others deemed “asocial”. The pink and black triangle symbols were reclaimed by the LGBTQ communities in the early 1980s to signify their strength of spirit and willingness to survive oppression. As they gained acceptance of their rights, the symbols of oppression were gradually being replaced by the symbols of celebration. By far the most colourful of the symbols is the Rainbow flag. The many couples represent the diversity of the community. The first rainbow flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco artist, in response to calls by activists for a symbol for the community. Baker used the five-striped “Flag of the Race” as his inspiration, and designed a flag with eight stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. In November 1978, the people of San Francisco were stunned when the city’s first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, was assassinated. Wanting to show their strength, the community decided to use Bakers flag as a symbol of strength. They had to eliminate the indigo colour in order to divide the colours evenly among the parade, creating the six stripe flag that we know today. Soon after, in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, AIDS activists designed a “Victory over AIDS” flag consisting of the standard six-stripe rainbow flag with a black stripe across the bottom. Leonard Matlovich, himself dying of AIDS-related illness, suggested that upon a cure for AIDS being discovered, the black stripes be removed from the flags and burned.
Many variations of the flag have been created over the years, adding stripes for certain movements, removing some for other. I believe this symbol has ensured strength within the LGBTQ community, without it, many movements might not have been as effective. A symbol helps create a unity within a movement, and the colourful flag that the LGBTQ community used has helped them immensely to overcome the oppression, fight deadly battles, and celebrate who they are, as well as be proud of it.
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Facilitation Friday
Over the course of the last few weeks, we have been learning about the major events that occurred over the decades in the 20th century. Starting with the 60’s, we learned about the hippie movement, impact of drugs, and the new form of rock and roll. All of those were extremely interesting and were enjoyable to learn more about. The following Friday, a few students were tasked with the job of diving deeper into one of the topics and giving a brief presentation on it. This was followed with some discussion questions where the rest of the class contributed their thoughts, opinions, other questions, and connections.
When it was my turn to present, the general topic was the 70’s. One of the important events we learned about was cults and crime. This topic was thrilling for me, which may be why I chose to study criminology next year at SFU. Unfortunately, someone else had already taken the topic, but I managed to get them to split the topic with me, since it was a pretty large one. This left me with researching more about the significance and rise of cults in the 1970’s. Also, the impact they had, by being vocalized through media, on the world we know today. 
Cults have been around many years, although, they were not brought to the attention of the overall public and media until the 1970’s. A rise of crime had begun after the deterioration of the hippie movement in the 60’s. Many young people were lost and unable to find a place in society after rebelling for so long. This allowed for many criminal minded people to arise and lure people in to a new, “better”, society.
Below I have linked my keynote presentation and script I used where I better explained what it means to be a cult, and a dangerous cult, the effect these had on the people at the time, and na example of one of the most well known cults, Peoples Temple.
What is a cult?
The definition of a cult is a group that devoutly follows a person, place, or thing. Usually they are seen as unorthodox by society. It’s leaders generally use unethical and manipulative methods of persuasion and control to further the goals of the group. 
Not all cults can be dangerous, however we portray the name cult as deadly to society. The three primary characteristics of a destructive cult are a charismatic, living leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship, a process of brainwashing and persuasion, and economic, sexual, and other exploration of group members by the leader.
Why did the 70’s have so many cults?
A cult must appeal to some certain sense of euphoria. Someone must have the desire to “transcend” their day-to-day lives to something more meaningful. These kinds of people will invariably be people who are having trouble “making it” under normal circumstances. People who are lonely, people who feel alienated spiritually or socially, people who are less financially well-off. These were the people who were apart of the hippie movement in the 60’s.
The social upheavals in the 60s had a lot to do with people subsequently searching for some kind of Utopian belief system. It was the demise of the hippy subcultures of the 60s. People getting older and having different priorities, needs, etc… made some more susceptible to these kinds of “alternative” faiths or what have you.
We also see other areas over the decade that point to a rejection of traditional institutions, like open marriages/swinging. The flower children were growing up and bringing their desire to try new things with them.
Example:
The Peoples Temple origins were tied to Haight-Ashbury and the Summer of Love — the Peoples Temple attracted many idealists who were looking for alternatives to the constraints and shortcomings of contemporary American society.
In 1955, a 24-year-old reverend rented a small building in a racially-mixed section of Indianapolis. With a group of 20 followers, he founded a religious group called Wings of Deliverance, after leaving his position as reverend of the Laurel Street Tabernacle because of the congregation’s resistance to a racially-mixed church. A year after its founding, Wings of Deliverance was renamed Peoples Temple. The Temple was known in Indianapolis for its social activism and for the services it provided for society’s disadvantaged. Rev. Jim Jones himself served as a model for the Temple’s commitment to societal equality. They eventually relocated to Guyana to separate themselves from the rest of society. 
The events at the agricultural project Jonestown on November 18, 1978 have been described in two different terms: as the “Jonestown suicides” and as the “Jonestown massacre.” Nonetheless, the mass suicides were decidedly a mass murder, enacted through the use of psychological exploitation instead of physical force. As the leader of the religious group Peoples Temple, Reverend Jim Jones was responsible for the psychological massacre of his followers because of the manipulative means he used to demoralize and control them.
During my presentation I asked three discussion questions. The first being, “Do you think the rise of cults would have been as vocalized without the hippie movement from the 60s?”
Most people when asked this agreed and said that cults wouldn’t have been as vocalized. It was a fairly simple question as I had previously given a point earlier in the presentation stating that a lot of the cult members were those who were lost, outcasted from society after being apart of the hippie movement.
Once my next question was asked, “Do you think cults should be banned/made illegal?”, many hands shot up in the air. They debated that yes they think they should be illegal, as long as they are a threat to society. In the past, some religions have started off as cults, and in fact, some religions today can be categorized as cult like. Especially if you devoutly follow them. For the most part, people agreed they should be illegal, although it would almost impossible to do so as many can and would continue underground.
My final question was “Are cults any worse than the brainwashing that happens from our parents and society?” Unfortunately, we were cut short on time with this one so not everyone got to share their opinion. However, many people had very different opinions on this. Most agreed that of course cults are much worse, although I don’t necessarily think that. Yes I agree that cults can be very dangerous, but the brainwashing is not much different then what we are told. We only know what we do is right because we are told so. This is the same for those in the cults. They are told something is one way, so they believe that to be true. The only difference is the majority of our parents are not teaching us potentially harmful or dangerous things.
Overall, I believe my presentation went very well. People seemed interested in the topic and were willing and ready to share their thoughts. I am also proud of myself for responding back to some people’s points with my own thoughts.
A Revolutionary Book
Our class decided to venture to Cuba, a new country with rich history. Unfortunately, I was one of the 10 students who decided to stay home. It was a missed opportunity, but at least I didn’t miss two weeks of school. While half of our class was gone, learning all about Cuban history, we were takes with furthering our knowledge on the Iranian revolution. 
We had to do a lot of our learning ourselves, diving deeper into the topic and using the information we found to create a book. Our remaining class was divided into five groups of two in which we had to create a chapter of a book explaining everything we knew about a specific topic, using one of the six historical lenses we had previously learned about. My group was given the lens of ethical judgement to explain the shift in supreme leaders during the revolution.
Research was fairly easy, as was piecing together our knowledge into writing for the book. The challenge was finding someone willing to be interviewed about the topic. It seems to my finding, as well as the other groups, that the Iranians who experienced the revolution were too scared to talk about it. The people we found that were open to talking were not allowing us to disclose any personal information about them, including their identity. I found a man, who knows my mom, that was willing to give us his story about the revolution as he lived their as a child. We only have written information form him as he did not want even his voice to be used since we knew this book would be publicly published. 
The stories this man told me were unbelievable. His family went through many terrors because they did not agree with the new rules of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. I explained a few of them in our chapter of the book linked at the bottom.
When we first created the book, every group had very different looking chapters. We had to all work together as a larger group to create a common theme. Overall, I think the look, design, ad layout of the book as a whole look amazing and flow nicely. However, having to complete revamp my chapter was a little time consuming, but I got it done. Below I have linked my chapter of the book.
Working in partners is not always the best idea. Especially when your partner does no work. If you’ve noticed I keep saying “I did” and “Me”. This is because I have had to compete this entire chapter myself as my partner did not contribute enough. This was a major struggle for me and caused a lot of unnecessary anger from both parties as he believed he was contributing a good amount of work, and at a great quality. Below are photos of the two pages I made him contribute before I was forced to fix them as time for the project had run out.
As you can see they are unfinished and look nothing like the rest of the chapter. And surprisingly, this was his second draft of the pages after I had to explain to him what needed to be fixed. The photo on the second image is one that came with the original template, and the titles of both pages as well. It was extremely frustrating to deal, manage, and eventually have to complete the entire chapter myself due to a slacking partner. If I hadn’t have had the flu the day we picked partners, I’m sure the outcome of the project would have been a lot better, and most importantly, less frustrating.
Besides having to complete this project by myself, I actually really enjoyed creating this project. Diving deeper into a revolution and culture I had no idea about beforehand was a great experience. Also the format of this project, a book containing audio, video, and visuals was something new for our class, and for me, very fun to make. Overall, I am pretty proud of the outcome I created and hope that maybe one day I am able to use this format for a future project, (although probably not since I’ll be going to university).
British Beatlemania
At the start of 1964, the Beatles were at the top of the charts in the UK, but had just started to attract audiences overseas with songs from their first two albums Please Please Me and With the Beatles. Buzz about the new and exciting boy band began to make its way to America. People couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the fun sound the boys were producing.
John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were breaking the hearts of people all over the world. Their music was spreading like wildfire and people just couldn’t get enough of it. The fan base those boys had were crazy. In fact, Beatles fans were so excited and determined to see the band that police sometimes resorted to using fire hoses to hold them back. Beatlemania had shocked the world.
Even back in 1963, before their big break in America, the fans were absolutely starstruck by even the thought of the boys. Below is a story from Lothian, a guard at the time of the show, about the Beatles’ concert in Glasgow Odeon on 5 October.
‘The night almost unravelled when nervous local police insisted Lothian bring the Beatles on early to satisfy rowdily impatient fans, even though his bouncers were still in the pub. “The girls were beginning to overwhelm us,” remembers Lothian, now 73 and a business consultant. “I saw one of them almost getting to Ringo’s drumkit and then I saw 40 drunk bouncers tearing down the aisles. It was like the Relief of Mafeking! It was absolute pandemonium. Girls fainting, screaming, wet seats. The whole hall went into some kind of state, almost like collective hypnotism. I’d never seen anything like it.”’
“Don’t worry… it’s only Beatlemania,” (Lothian).
A trend of boy bands had begun. The Beatles were the beginning of a new kind of music. To the fans, it wasn’t just about the music or the sound, it was the presence the boys brought to the stage, audiences and the cameras. Not only that, but they had personality, they were open to people and showed them who they were. It gave people something more to love about them. They gave all the screaming girls around the world someone to dream about, to idolize. Niall Horan, previous One Direction member stated “They are nuts. Mostly all I see is a sea of screaming faces.” This could have been said by any boy band member over the past 50 years.
People felt that the Beatles were the birth of Pop music. They were innovative with their music style, ranging from pop ballads, to rock and roll, and even some psychedelics. The sound was melodious and harmonious to the ear and everyone just couldn’t get enough of it. This might be why this group of Liverpool boys conquered the world of popular music for decades. These idols laid down the foundations for most of nowadays rock music, and the culture brought with it.
(A collage of the Beatles, and their fans I made)
Each song the Beatles released could function as a cultural driving force for social change. The youth they captured were so dedicated, whatever the Beatles said they would do, and with pride. These boys created a movement that continued on to shape the music industry and culture we know today.
Bibliography:
https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/showbiz/beatles-ed-sullivan-beatlemania-5-things/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/29/beatlemania-screamers-fandom-teenagers-hysteria
Hacksaw Ridge; A Response
I was drawn to the movie, Hacksaw Ridge, because it focused on the strength and integrity of one man who was determined to stick to his beliefs at the same time as supporting his country. Hacksaw Ridge also intrigued me because it left nothing to the imagination. War was not glorified in this depiction of the bloody battle. The movie portrayed the reality and horrors of war quite graphically. Although the first hour of the movie was slow and drawn out, I realized how necessary the story build up was in order to truly appreciate the incredible act of bravery that Desmond Doss showed. He not only saved 75 wounded soldiers that night, he modelled and taught the men to follow what true dedication to ones own convictions can accomplish.
Often World War Two movies glorify the act of war where as this movie glorified the act of individuals who volunteered to give their life to their country. It showed that most men who volunteered were although wanting to fight for their country, were terrified and unprepared for what the battlefield could bring. Desmond Doss believed that he was destined to save lives rather than take lives. This was an unusual and unique situation for someone going to war at this time. The movie Hacksaw Ridge opens the viewers eyes to a different perspective of a soldiers journey on the battlefield.
Throughout this unit we have been working on baseline assignmsnts to better our learning and understanding off the topic. Below are the assignments I have completed.
This is an assignment called 321. On the left side of the column we wrote 3 thoughts we had about World War Two before we learned about it in depth. Then 2 questions we had. And finally, a metaphor about World War Two. On the right side of the collum we didn’t the same thing, although it was after we learned about the topic. At the bottom is a connection, or a bridge, between our two thoughts from before and after learning about the topic in depth.
Ome of our tasks was to take notes for 5 different lectures. We had to transform these notes
The Pieces of My Life
Recently we just finished up learning about the six different lenses to analyze and look at historical events. We used this information to dive deeper into any historical event of our choice and combine all our information in a blog post. Now we are tasked to use these lenses on events from our own life. I never really considered my life events to be historical, but they all did have a very important impact on me and who I am today.
This photo essay below that I created explains four events from my life that I believe are some of the most significant. All the information I used to explain the events is a mix of memories and stories and conversations I have had with people who were there. For the most part I tried to use solely my memories. However, that was quite a challenge considering one of the events I described was my birth, and I really don’t remember anything at all from that.
Each event I chose to describe were all historically significant in creating the person I am today. They were major events that helped to grow my interests, greatest qualities, and outlook on life and experiences. A good section of the descriptions of the memories are my interpretation on what I remember happening as they were all so long ago and parts are hard to remember. The photos are the evidence that helped to piece together the stories that came along with them. Of course my life has changed since I was born. The person I am today has been shaped by the many events. Although many things have changed, the events have only helped to grow who I am as they have all be helpful life experiences. My perspective on all of these may not contain the full amount of information, but they have made me believe that without these events happening, I would not be who I am today.
I decided to sit down with my mom to discuss… (podcast to come)
I used pages as the app to put together the photo essay
I used the app super impose, for the first time ever, to create the puzzle piece images. It was a struggle and took some playing around with the app to figure out how to use it.
Overall, choosing only four events from my life was a little difficult as I believe everything that happens is important in shaping a person. These four events were some that stuck out to me most though. Without these who knows if things would have changed or if I would have been the same person I am today.
A Historic View
History is a broad topic that we have begun to tackle in our PLP class. To start off we created our own definitions of what history means rather than basing our knowledge on some Wikipedia or dictionary definition. The definitions our class created in groups are listed below.
1. History is a biography of humanity and our past chronicles made up of what we remember, not what we thought. = memory
2. History is often the worst parts of the past that we are able to recognize in the present. = repetition
3. History is a study of the past looked at by a new perspective, often written by the victors. = perspective
4. History is a collection of interpreted, undefined events that gives purpose to our lives and our future. = purpose
5. The study of history tells a story of past events based on knowledgeable investigation. = knowledgeable investigation
6. History is a study of the past told through a narration of events that allows for a dialogue between the past and present, further establishing our knowledge of people and major events. = narration and dialogue
Each of those six groups were tasked with creating an informative presentation to the class discussing and explaining one of the six lenses we use to look at history. These were history significance, evidence and interpretation, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspective, and ethical judgement. My group presented on evidence and interpretation. We discussed how you are supposed to properly interpret historical events using primary sources as evidence. As a group we decided to talk about the atomic bombs dropping on Japan in WWII to support our points, show, and explain how evidence is used.
These six lenses I have chose to interpret and show through an image I have created. Starting with history significance, I chose to explain it using two hands shaking as a symbol. In order to understand history significance you must ask these questions, what and who should be remembered in history? How notable was the event at the time? Were there consequences? Was it symbolic of key historic issues? For evidence and interpretation I chose to symbolize it through old letters as they are primary sources and some of the best type of evidence to look at when interpreting a historic event. However, you should remember to ask these three questions while looking through evidence, can we trust the source of information? Do the sources provide relevant evidence to the questions that we hope to answer? Does the evidence support the interpretation offered? Continuity and change discuses how things have stayed the same or changed. We ask were the continuities and changes positive or negative, in order to asses the situation better. Also, did any of these changes make turning points in the course of history? For this I chose to represent it with an image of a plant growing up. Assessing the cause and consequence means you have to think about what the range of factors that contributed to the event were. You must ask, would this event still have happened if these factors hadn’t occurred? What were the intended and unintended consequences of the event? However, our opinions of an event can change over time. I chose to use glasses as a symbol for this historical lens. Historical perspective means to understand the social, cultural, intellectual and emotional lenses of the time. Think of these things when analyzing the historical perspective. Consider what you know from a present perspective. Identify the values and beliefs from when the event took place. Determine whether your views of the past were influenced by the present evidence. I chose to symbolize it using a pair of glasses. Ethical judgment is used by asking is what I’m doing okay? Are ethical judgments included in the historical accounts you are studying? Are the ethical judgements reasonable or justifiable? I symbolized this with an image of a balancer. It shows that the good and the bad can sometimes way each other out.
Pearl Harbour:
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor led to the United States’ entry into World War II.
History significance:
The significance of Peal Harbor was not that the American people were attacked, but that they came together and grew stronger. The significance of this event was that it made the American people into one United States. On Dec. 7, 1941, the American people’s perception of themselves was changed forever. The average citizen suddenly became an immensely important part of a huge, intricately woven country full of a people who wanted not only to help each other, but to help the world against a great evil. The attacks on Pearl Harbor still invoke feelings of patriotism and sadness. It is an event considered a turning point in American history, and it is an event that every child learns of and respects. A memorial is placed at the sight of the attack located in Oahu, Hawaii. Visitors are constantly flowing through, and from my experience the tickets to see the memorial always sell out early in the morning. People from all over the world come to this site to remember, respect, and learn about the tragedies that went down on Dec 7, 1941.
Evidence and interpretation:
Ever since the Japanese attack there has been debate as to how and why the United States had been caught off guard, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans for an attack. A newspaper article states that Japan might attack. As to why America did not take this as a warning and prepare to defend, we don’t know. This was a public newspaper that was publishes, it is a very trusted source. Some conspirers believe that the U.S government wanted Japan to attack so the Americans would have a motivation to join the war in order to help the British win the war. The news paper article states that Japan may attack however, it does not state where they might attack. This would prevent the citizens from becoming scared and panicking, which I believe is why the government chose to leave that information out of the newspaper.
Continuity and change:
Before the attack on Pearl Harbour the Americans had no thought at joining WWII. Once the attack occurred, America had no choice but to join the British side of the war and fight with them against Japan. They could no longer sit back and watch the rest of the world fight. This attack led to the begging of America’s great help with the war. Without America joining the war, the results may have been different as America was the key to ending the war with the atomic bomb droppings. The attack on Pearl Harbour was key in making a turning point in the course of history. Due to the attack Japan’s resources of oil were cut off as America sided with China. These are still in effect today.
Cause and consequence:
The Japanese felt that America’s involvement in the war was inevitable. America had already cut off resources with Japan and had been stern about its expansion in the Pacific. Japan wanted to preemptively strike America in hopes of crippling their resources. The long-term effect of this was the Americans joining the war to avenge Pearl Harbour and those who were lost in the attack. The Japanese were wanting to increase their oil for the war and America was their biggest threat. If these factors weren’t in effect then I believes Japan may not have attacked Pearl Harbour. Japan intended to take down one of America’s most powerful fleets however, they did not intended on America being the biggest part in ending the war and ending part of Japan itself.
Historical perspective:
US historians generally state that Japan only joined the war in hopes of an embargo on oil. As well, their attack on Pearl Harbour was only to take oil in order to support their own fleets and country. Knowing what I know today, I believe Japan would not have attacked America without a good reason as America has and had extremely large and powerful fleets and armies who could take down Japan very easily. Japan’s intentions were only ever to take oil and prevent America from joint the war because they knew how powerful they were.
Ethical judgement:
“When I flew over Kahuka Point at the head of the first formation, I was confident that we would succeed in our mission,” said Capitals Mitsuo Fuschida of the Japanese navy, who led the attack. “Pearl Harbour is still asleep in the morning mist,” he wrote in his log. To the Japanese, they believed what they were doing was a reasonable and strategic attack in order to better their chances at winning the war. In a time of war most ethics are lost within people. The only thought on their brain is survival and defeat of the enemy. When Japan decided to bomb Pearl Harbour their only thoughts were that it was a necessary part of the war. No one thought about who they might be killing as the Americans slept, they didn’t think about if what they’re doing was okay. They were given a command and followed it with every part of them so they could be proud fighters for their country.
Pearl Harbour, although devastating and horrific to many, was a crucial and key point in World War 2. Without it the results of the war may have been different. Whether the government knew about the attack prior to or not it was a key turning point for the great battle. America might not have fought and defeated Japan if they didn’t have the motivation to avenge those fallen in Pearl Harbour.
Memorial site of Pearl Harbour
A Fiery Character
1984 is a dystopian novel based in the year 1984. The world is in a state of perpetual war and Big Brother sees and controls all. The main character is Winston Churchill, a member of the outer party and propaganda-writer at the ministry of truth. He falls in love with a character named Julia, a strong willed, rebellious woman. 
In class we were tasked with choosing a character and creating an outline figure of them filled with images that symbolize who they are. Our group chose the only woman in the story, Julia. She is a powerful woman with many strong characteristics. We wrote a poem in class listing her characteristics and who she is as person, the way she lives.
Julia
Pragmatic, sexual, survivor, accepting
Daughter of the party
Lover of Winston, living simply, men
Who feels rebellious, the party can not be beaten, a secret hatred towards the party
Who needs to live in the moment, to have someone to love, to be free from the party
Who fears being caught by the party, the thought police, room 101
Who gives Winston something to live for, the party fake devotion, someone to trust
Who would like to see the removal of tele-screens, the over throw of big brother, herself in a dress
Resident of Oceania
Mrs should be Smith
I will explain why we chose each symbol to represent Julia. At the bottom of her feet are the symbols for men. We chose these as her character is known to sleep around with many men, “Hundreds of times – well, scores of times”(108), and leave them the next day. Though she is apart of the “Junior Anti-Sex league.” She plays with the men’s emotions and walks all over them, hence why they are at her feet. We drew a red sash across her waste to distinguish that she is a part of this league, and it also represents how she uses the ribbon to disguise that she secretly has a lot of sex. woman that work as apart of “Big Brother” are supposed to be “pure.” Julia’s first intimate interaction took place when “…she was sixteen, with a Party member”(113), and she continued to secretly go behind the party’s back in order to make herself happy and enjoy life.
There is a road map with destination points travelling up her leg. This symbolizes how she changed throughout the novel. At the beginning she was one thing and near the end she had developed into a new person.
Attached to her belt is a open lock. Julia is a very disloyal character as she is constantly looking out for herself alone. The lock symbolizes this as it shows that her trust and loyalty are not locked down, they are open and free to her choosing.
The glasses hanging out of her pocket belong to Winston. Despite her being known to walk over men she did love Winston deep down. The glasses are located in her pocket because she tries to hide her love since she is a very independent woman. Her heart we chose to do as our animation. It was a necessary part of the project. Julia is a very strong hearted woman who craves someone to love. The flames symbolize her pure strength and her powerful heart. She is a fiery woman full of passion.
A fox face sits to the side of her heart. She is a very sly person which is why the fox is the perfect symbol to represent that characteristic of hers. A fox is the definition of a sly animal. Hanging off of her hand is a mask. Since Julia is openly with Big Brother and supports them, yet she is a major part of the rebellion a mask symbolizes her two sides. The clever thing was to break the rules and stay alive all the same,”(113).
Finally, at the top of her head where her brain would be are birds. Birds are a symbol of freedom and Julia craves to be free. She wants to be free from the party, free from her life, free from the world she lives in. She staged in the book, “You wanted a good time…”(113) and that “the Party, wanted to stop you having it”(113).
Overall, this project was very helpful to help us create a deeper understanding of one character from the book. Analyzing Julia’s character helped to enhance the story and ideas that she brought with her.
A Note For PE
MIn today’s society mental illness is becoming much more common in the younger generations. It is a growing epidemic and the adults of this world are not doing much to help these people, let alone accept the fact that mental illness is a serious issue.
Recently in my English class we learned a little about satirical content. We were assigned a task to create a visual representation of a problem that we were passionate about in a satirical format. Right away the issue of dealing with a mental illness in high school came to my mind as I have seen conflict with this happen in my own school.
I chose to create a video highlighting the point that just because you can’t physically see something wrong with a person doesn’t mean they’re not hurt. In a PE class you are allowed to sit out if you claim you are hurting, regardless of the fact that you have a note with you or not. If a student with a mental illness, such as anxiety came up to the teacher and explained to them why they could not participate they would still be forced to as there is physically nothing wrong with them and they look capable of participating in PE. This can lead to further problems and create a possible fear of coming to that class if you know that you are going to be forced into participating.
As mental illnesses, for example anxiety, become more and more common, people are starting to accept and reach out to help those who are affected by it. However there are still some people out there who just do not understand and are not willing to understand that the brain has the most power of you and your body, therefor mental illnesses can greatly effect your day to day life, stopping you from participating in some things.
Really gets you thinking…
TPoL, The New SLC
Here’s the big question, why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level? I don’t even want to think about grade 12… 
Here we go. Another SLC, I mean TPoL. I know this time of year you’re normally seeing an SLC blog post, but our teachers decided to change it up on us this year. Instead we are doing something similar, what they like to call, a TPoL. Better known as a Transitional Presentation of Learning. Basically we reflect on our learning, our growth, our strengths, work we’re proud of, work habits and responsibility. Although this time we are adding another aspect, why we feel we are ready to advance to the next grade level.
This question stumped me at first. I thought to myself, I don’t know why I’m ready, and honestly my first thought was, “well because I passed my courses”. But then after thinking about it some more it became pretty clear with me. All of the time, effort, skills I’ve developed have prepared me for the next year, my final year in high school.
Since PLP this year consisted of English and socials, as it does every year, I thought I would share how I’ve grown as a leaner in humanities. Over the past few months of third term I feel I have improved in every way, maybe not the quality of my work, but every other way. I’ve been more confident with my work and by that I mean I’m not afraid to ask for critique anymore. Before I was always nervous about asking my teachers or peers for critique for fear of being judged, now I grew some more confidence and have started accepting more critique and I realized how helpful it is. Also I feel I’ve been diving deeper into my critical thinking by spending my time researching more. As well as I’ve been paying more attention in class. Normally I kind of half listen and don’t really absorb much of the information, but recently I’ve been focusing more and trying my hardest to listen carefully to all the information being delivered.
As I say every time we have one of these, I plan to improve on my time management skills and handing everything in on time. This time around I actually made some progress. Throughout third term I have been handing in all of my work, seriously I don’t think my showbie has ever looked better. Normally I procrastinate everything until the last minute and sometimes I don’t even do it. Recently I have been planning out my time more efficiently due to the huge work load I have had near the end of the year. I don’t know why I didn’t start doing this earlier because it had helped me feel so much better and less stressed out. Although I have been handing everything in, it may not be my best work. That is something I hope and plan to improve on. I’ve got the timing down, now I just need to work on my quality of work. This last term has been one of my best for work ethic and work habits. Although there is always room for improvement on both of those. Maybe I can work on handing things in early next year! (Or maybe not, but one can always dream).
Teamwork. Probably one of my favourite and least favourite words associated with school. When I think of teamwork I think of all the difficult times we had while working on our Macbeth project, but I also think about the amazing teamwork we had while doing our winter Exhibition. This term we had a few chances to work in teams. For example we were put into teams based around lord of the flies. We were awarded and denoted points for work handed in, being on time, participation in class, all the basics of the classroom. This forced us to try extremely hard to be our best. I had to take on a responsibility for my team to make sure I was holding my own so I wouldn’t bring them down. This competition actually made me hand in all of my work on time, which almost never happens, however it wasn’t my best work. We worked hard in our teams for our debates. That was probably one of the best teams work wise this year. We collaborated well together and fought hard in our debates.
I’d say some of the work I’m most proud of this year would have to be the debate, althoughI I didn’t get the chance to talk during it, it was one of the projects I worked the hardest on. We spent so much time preparing our concepts and practicing rebuts. We were prepared and worked very well together.
Another project I’d say I’m most proud of is the concept blog post we recently completed. I spent a lot of time focusing on this one. Previously we had written concept paragraphs in class. Our task was to choose one of these and elaborate more on it in a blog post. I turned my paragraph into a somewhat essay and related two more topics to the concept. Then I created s visual to help the reader better understand the concept. Overall I feel I worked hard on this task and the product came out well.
Grade 12 is only in 2 months. Seems like a lot closer when you put it like that. Just thinking about it makes me nervous. Although I may not have thought I was prepared for this, I know I am. After all the hard work I’ve put in this year, not just in PLP, my growth in learning, my responsibility over my work, and most importantly I think, my procrastination. Next year is gonna be my last year of high school and I feel I have never been more ready for it to come.