What I Learned This Semester

One thing that I learned a lot about was the Rwandan genocide. Before this class I had never even heard of it, but after researching it I realized so much more. There were so many groups involved with this and none of them really made an effort to stop it. Groups like the MRND and the Interahamwe are responsible for these killings, but which ones do we really blame. I learned how different countries and different people could have many different opinions based on how the genocide had an effect on them and their country. During the debate that we did on this it helped me to really get out there and speak up on a topic. Listening to everyone’s opinion and how many people had different thoughts really made you want to fight for your opinion and make a point. The Rwandan Genocide taught me a lot about how a difference in something like ethnicity or just a label on a name tag can start a horrible event.
Doing the weekly articles for current events helped me learn a lot. In my other English classes before we never took a look or even cared about what was going on in the news. Since, I decided to join global ed this has all been so different. Every day we hear the most current events and read articles about some really important ones. I learned a lot about places like Iraq, Iran, and places with nuclear power plants too! Before reading these articles I really had no clue. Although, writing about these was a challenge, I have become a much better writer. I have also learned to stay on topic and get to my point even if that means your response would only be one paragraph.
I also learned a lot about paragraph responses. When Mr. Fielder started to introduce things such as Ethos and Pathos to us, I had no idea what he was talking about. After looking at some writing examples I understood what these were. Ethos is like playing with the readers emotions. You could say something like children are being hacked to death with machetes; it would make them sad, and really grab their attention. Pathos is when you compare something that has happened to another idea that might happen in the reader’s daily life. Without both of these it is hard to make the reader interested and want to read more. Also, I learned how to give a good support that actually helps prove your thesis statement, and to stay on topic with your support and not fade off into something else.
Margin noting is definitely one thing that helped me out a lot. Just looking at a piece of paper with words that you may not even understand is very hard to read. Sometimes I would just give up and not read it at all, but once I was told about margin noting it became easier. We read some pretty challenging articles throughout the semester and doing margin notes and QCVIS made a big difference. I would write down questions, important things, or even interesting facts that I would come across. Then, later on when you had to go back and look at the paper to write an essay on. You would have those key parts to go back and look at. This made the article a whole lot easier to write as well.
The first day of school essay was our first assignment of the year. Reading that paper and one of our previous papers now have showed me really how much I have learned. I remember the day I got that paper back and it had a circled D on it. I reread the paper and realized how many mistakes I actually made. Commas, and other punctuation marks as well as spelling. I learned a lot from that paper. Mostly to reread my papers before I turn them in and how to actually write a paper that makes sense. It also taught me how to write creatively and use myself in the story. I also learned how to use dialogue and create emotions just by things I say and other around me. Overall, this semester was great and I learned a lot of new things that I know I will continue to get better and better at!

Natives from early colonization

If i had top be a native from any country in early colonization i would be from Australia. In australia the natives were not used as slaves. Although, their was segregation. I would rather live with ebing segregated than have to work for a nother man and be treated like dirt wich is how people were treated in places llike America and south Africa. They were forced to work fro many hours of the day out in the hot sun, witch no person should have to do.
I would also come to Australia because there was no klling going on, or harmful threats to you and your family. In places like Rwanda their was a horrible genocide and the conflict between the hutus and the tutsis remained unresolved. Also, in South africa the natives were kept from learning. They had their right to education taken from them and although it was risky in Australia some natives were still being educated. Althoguh conditions in ball of these countries were very bad, i believe Australia was not in such a horrible condition.

Basketball!

This year I made the freshmen basketball team. We played our first two games and we won them both! It felt good to start of the season being 2-0. I was a little nervous before those games as to how we would do but we have a pretty good team. I loved all the people on my team and it was a lot of fun. Than I got asked to move up to j.v. I had always wanted this opportunity so even thinking about not having maybe as much playing time I still took the chance. I had my first few practices and it was pretty crazy. Having to learn so many new plays and having so much information thrown at you in one day is pretty tough to remember. I was extremely nervous for the game; it was very close throughout the entire time. We ended up winning 30-27. But there were a lot of close times during the game.
Before that game we had our first team dinner. It was at Brenna Gabrielsons house and it was very fun and crazy! We had a big pasta dinner that was delicious(: After winning our game we went into this week of practice very confident and excited for our next game. on Wednesday night the night before our game on Thursday we had another team dinner. Although this one was at kerbys koney island. I knew going into the restaurant that it was going to be very fun, but I didn’t no what the workers at the restaurant were going to think when they saw 11 girls walking in. We sat 6 and 6 at two booths and all ordered on separate bills so, it think the waitress got a little annoyed of us. After we all ate my teammate Brenna decided to order a brownie Sunday for the whole table. One brownie for 6 people. You can imagine how that went! I think we downed the whole thing within 30 seconds. After a little while longer, everyone got picked up and we went home. After a good week of practice everyone is excited for our game. Hopefully we come out with a win.

Uganda and the genocide

The MRND had a huge role in the genocide. Their radio stations did nothing but promote violence and convince the Hutus that they should be killing the Tutsis. Even thought they may have started the violence the U.S. and the U.N. did nothing to stop it. The United States and Juvenal Habyarimana has said that Uganda has been harboring terrorists, but I don’t think the United States should even consider pointing a finger at us when they clearly did nothing productive during this whole time of the genocide. The U.N is also to blame for not stepping in and helping out. Uganda was the base of the RPF, witch was the people who actually went in and helped the Tutsis. So, how does this have to do with us harboring terrorists when the U.S. and the U.N. witch are way bigger powers than us did nothing at all.
I understand their situation with Samalia but we all know that they have more than enough troops that could have helped. Belgium on the other hand was also a big part in the starting of the genocide. They first favored the Tutsis and than when they had realized they “made a mistake”, they switched the power to the Hutus and just left the country. This caused chaos in Rwanda but Belgium doing that was another huge mistake they had made. Than, after realizing what they had done they still did not go back to help. All these innocent people got killed because of the switching of power and this so called “brain washing”.
After this debate, I had a really good understanding about the Rwandan genocide. This debate was also very fun! Everyone got to participate and share their own thoughts. After hearing about what people had to say about the genocide I understood more and more about every group. I can see a lot of different points of view, but we could also argue with each other witch was very exciting to everyone. I would definitely always want to learn like this because it was fun and I learned a ton! This was a great debate! (:

The American Scholar!

Emerson’s argument in “The American Scholar” about American society still holds true today. Emerson believed that we did not do enough as individuals. Now when you get into college you study one field of work that you want to progress in, and you don’t think about being anything else. For example, if you became a farmer, you would only know how to be a farmer because you wouldn’t have enough knowledge to be anything else.
Emerson’s big idea was for people to be able to be more than just one thing. For example a farmer could also be a doctor. it would give you sometihng else to be proud of and not just have a status of a farmer. Emerson also wanted people to do more idividualy. Instead of just deppending on the help of others you must also be able to achieve goals on your own.

Halloween (:

I love Halloween and trick or treating! This year i decided to dress up as a fairy. I wore a pink tutu, lime green and black striped tights, and a lime green shirt. I also had wings and a tiara. On Halloween this year, i went to my friend logan vines house and trick or treated. A lot of my family members said aren’t you to old to go trick or treating, and of course I said no. I deffinelty don’t think i am too old, and honestly i will probably go for the next three years of high school too! So, when I got to logans house we waited around for the rest of the people to get their. We had a lot of our friends coming. Mrs. Vines had made a taco dinner so until our friends had gotten there we just sat and ate tacos.
Everyone was here, so we got our pillow cases for candy and went out. It was actually a pretty cold night too! We had gone to a few houses and so far i was getting some pretty good candy. Me and a few of my other friends kept on walking until when we turned around we realized the rest of our group wasn’t their. We had no idea where we were because no one of us new how to get around logans neighborhood. It started to get even more cold and we just kept walking around hoping to find our way back to logans house.
After about a half an hour we finally made it back to logans. We were all freezing to death! I seriously couldn’t feel my hands. We went into the basement and everyone else was already sitting down there. We started playing music and were just sitting around talking and eating our delicious candy! I also had gotten my braces off the day before so I could finally have candy with out them. It was getting pretty late so I left Logans and went home. I dumped out all my candy and was very happy with the amount. I had a lot of Snickers bars, which are my favorite candy(: Overall, I had a great Halloween! I am cannot wait till next year till I can finally dress up and go again!

Volleyball

This year I am playing on the freshmen volleyball team. All summer I was looking forward to playing on a team I was hoping I would make it. So far, we have had a really good season. We have been winning most of our games and we have always made it to the play offs in every tournament. Last Saturday we had a tournament at Ladywood Highschool. We stared of the day with a record of one and one. As the tournament went on we were doing really good and kept on winning.
When pool play was over we had a record of seven and one. We were in second place over all. The whole team was excited for out next few games. My team made it to the semi finals only realizing that we would have to play Ladywood again. To make it on we would have to beat them two times instead of just one. Everyone was really nervous for the game but we knew we could do it. We started the first game off very strong! We all were pumped and knew we had to play good again to keep going. The second game was a little bit closer, but we kept strong and ended up winning it.
Now we were on to the finals! We were out sitting in the the hallway when our coach came and told us we would be playing Northville. We have played Northville 2 times and each time we have taken them to a third game. So we have always been good competition for each other. I was so nervous I could barely even talk. We got out on the court and the game started. We started off playing really bad and we were down by ten points. Our coach called a time out, we all talked and we knew we had to go out and do better. We got the ball back and started to play really good. We were getting hits, kills, and everything was much better. The game was really close. Amazing volleys went back and forth for both teams. Although we ended up loosing our second line went out and also played a great game! Northville is a great team and we will always play great games against them. I’m glad we played good and everyone was really happy afterwards. I mean common we made I to the finals! Over all, we had a great tournament