Grade 9

Self-Esteem and Identity in Teens

alexr2015

Nowadays, I’ve seen more and morI look down on myselfe kids with self-esteem issues. Kids don’t like themselves, some hate themselves. They hate every bit of their body, their face, their height, their weight, everything. It gets to the point where they can’t even think properly about anything else, all they do is think about themselves, making sure they’re appealing enough so that they fit in, or that they won’t get singled out. When all they do is think about themselves, they can’t compete anything. Their brain is too busy with thinking about themselves that they can’t complete basic things like homework. It’s not just themselves, it’s also peer pressure. A person’s friends or peers can pressure them into doing things they normally wouldn’t do on their own, like drinking or smoking. And if they stand against that peer pressure, the person becomes different in other people’s eyes. There’s only so much pressure someone’s brain can take, eventually the person will cave in and start drinking or smoking in an attempt to self-medicate, or to make themselves feel better. Except it doesn’t, it just ends up making them feel worse. The person just ends up coming back again and again to–

No, no, that’s not it.

People turn to drugs, or drinking, or smoking because they believe it will make them feel better. But it doesn’t. It may help them calm their mind o

Building Understanding Hubris

alexr2015

After watching a movie or listening to a TEDtalk or reading a piece of literature, a poem, or any other piece of writing, fill in the chart below. When complete, file into your “Inquiry” folder OR print and keep for future reference. Your teacher may ask to keep your work as an example to expand understanding in the class

Title: The Sea Devil and A Mountain Journey    Your name: Alex R Block B

Which Essential Question(s) is addressed in this piece of literature? Content:

a)    What happens in the text/movie/Talk?

b)    What is the main message/theme?

 Understanding:

How does the text answer the EQ?

Answer in full sentences. Record relevant quotes and page numbers/lines if needed.

 

What motivates us in the face of dispair and oppression?

 

In times of trouble, what gives us hope?

 

 The story is about a man who goes up a mountain, trapping animals to obtain fur, and sell them on the market for profit. The story starts with the man traveling down the mountain, trying to reach civilization with his newfound furs. On his way down, he runs into multiple problems, such as falling into an airhole, his planned resting place burned down, and getting frostbite, so he could no longer use his fingers.

 

The main theme is about how we believe that we can control nature, but in reality, our fate is in nature’s hand. We are all at nature’s mercy. We’ve been blinded, we believed that we’re stronger, and we’re better than nature that’s nowhere near the case, as the two stories illustrate to us.

 What motivates us in the face of dispair and oppression?

There is a good portion of dispair in the two stories, except only The Sea Devil’s character uses the dispair to his advantage. In A Mountain Journey, the character, Dave, simply accepts his fate without realizing it, and dies of hypothermia. In The Sea Devil, the character already believes he is going to die, and he accepts the fact that he could die right then and there. But when he accepts that fact, he is able to think properly, and come up with a plan that could give him a chance to escape the manta ray and live another day.

 

In times of trouble, what gives us hope?

I think it is the things that we love that give us hope. In The Sea Devil’s case, the man accepts the possibility of imminent death, which clears his mind of fear, and in turn, helps him make up a plan. He realizes he gets once chance to return to his wife, and plans to use this chance

In Dave’s “time of trouble”, he has no hope, because he doesn’t even realize he’s dying, and if he does, he doesn’t acknoledge it in the story. He’s in denial, never admits his mistakes and trys to learn from them. He blindly worked towards his downfall, and he didn’t even realize it.

 

Building Understanding for The Friday Everything Changed

alexr2015

After watching a movie or listening to a TEDtalk or reading a piece of literature, a poem, or any other piece of writing, fill in the chart below. When complete, file into your “Inquiry” folder OR print and keep for future reference. Your teacher may ask to keep your work as an example to expand understanding in the class

Title: The Friday Everything Changed by Anne Hart Your name: Alex R

Which Essential Question(s) is addressed in this piece of literature? Content:

a)    What happens in the text/movie/Talk?

b)    What is the main message/theme?

 Understanding:

How does the text answer the EQ?

Answer in full sentences. Record relevant quotes and page numbers/lines if needed.

When is it acceptable to challenge the values of society?

 

Why do people feel the need to conform to society and it’s expectations?

 

Why are we afraid of change

 In the story The Friday Everything Changed, there is a question that goes against the norms of society. A girl named Alma asks the teacher, “Why can’t girls go for the water too?” The water bucket was shown as a job that only big, strong boys could do. The story takes place in the 50s, where gender roles were strongly enforced. Alma asked the question, believing that girls could be just as, or more stronger than boys. When is it acceptable to challenge the values of society?

I think it’s acceptable to challenge the values of society when these values go against a large portion of the population. In the Friday Everything Changed, one value, or norm, in that society was “boys always carry the water bucket”, but that value excluded the girls. It went against them.

 

Why do people feel the need to conform to society and it’s expectations?

Going against the norms of society is change, and for some reason, we’re practically afraid of it. Conforming to society’s expectations is the norm. Sometimes, going outside society’s expectations, creating change, is met with resistance. In the story, after Alma askes the special question, the boys are worried because the water bucket is theirs. It’s always been theirs, and they don’t want to share it. So after they all leave the classroom, the boys try to jump Alma, in an attempt to deter them from wanting to carry the water bucket (pg. 6).

 

Why are we afraid of change?

We’re scared of things that we don’t know, and that’s change. It’s something that we sometimes don’t understand. Society has had this whole understanding of “boys will always be stronger than girls” for a long time, and some people are perfectly content with how society is. But when people try to change society, some people will retaliate because they don’t want to change.

 

 

Mushrooms

alexr2015

Mushrooms              Sylvia Plath

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot’s in the door.

 

I think this poem describes the minority; the oppressed. Mushrooms will slowly, but surely, grow. They don’t grow overnight, but over time, they WILL grow, and you couldn’t stop it. There was a very small population of people in the 1950s who believed in equality between men and women. It was a small community, so no one noticed it, and wives seemed more like humane slaves in the 50s. But this community grew, and grew. The line, “We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek, We are edible,” seems to describe women, how they were simply used to keep the house clean, or to bring food to the table. Men were portrayed as the ones who kept the world standing, while women were treated like idk. This is relevant to the Friday Everything Changed because that both the story and this poem revolve around gender roles.

 

IT10: Scratch One Week Challenge

alexr2015

In IT10, the first assignment we were given was to create some sort of game on a program called Scratch. We were given the timeframe of one week, or four days. I wanted to create some sort of platformer, but I also wanted the sprites to have some sort of animation to them too. Making a character walk left and right was easy, but I already ran into some small problems there. I then tried to make my character jump, and my game creation went to a complete halt. Nothing was working after that. The code on the left is the moving left and right, while on the right side, I was playing with X and Y velocity. Nothing worked when that stuff was put in.

One thing I learned during this week in Scratch is how animations work. I never bothered to play with animations when I used this program in grade six and seven.

I wanted to create a sort of platformer with multiple levels, but obviously I was way out of my depth. I didn’t know how to create a sort of scroller, and I didn’t know how to create gravity. My character would just be floating up in the air. Certainly a failure, but hopefully I will learn.

You can see the code here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/96882655/#editor

Intro Game

Bangladesh Child Labour

alexr2015

Above is the presentation using Google Slides

Above is the presentation using Powerpoint Online

Below is a direct link to the presentation at Powerpoint Online

https://sd43-my.sharepoint.com/personal/132-aredwood_office43_ca/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?guestaccesstoken=UrBw2yK%2fYV5RoGTH9pBtNNV6wThHFIvBeVOJcZQO8pw%3d&docid=026e2b464f16642dbba3d36b3cf82f025

Mutation Story

alexr2015
  • What questions did you need to research in order to create your mutation story?

I asked what Kniest Syndrome was, first of all. I knew absolutely nothing about the disease, so asking what it was seemed like a good start. After that, I asked what symptoms can appear if you have Kniest Syndrome, and “cures for Kniest Syndrome”.

  • What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

Google is possibly the most familiar “tool” at my disposal, so of course I would use it. Google was used to find things like videos, articles, and webpages on Kniest Syndrome.

  • What was the process you used to investigate the topic?

I read up on Kniest Syndrome as much as I could. I didn’t want to write the short story as I studied up on the disease. Writing a story on something that you’re learning about at the same time is like trying to eat your cheeseburger and drink some pop at the same time. It never ends well and you’ll probably be unsatisfied at what happens in the end. I speak from experience, as disappointing as that is.

  • How did you verify and cite the information you found?

I cited all of my websites below this post. I checked multiple websites to see if they were all the same. If multiple websites were talking bout the same thing, and things like “abnormal skleletal growth” and “problems with hearing” were on those websites, I would know that they’re correct.

  • How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

I feel like that I rushed the end. I could have started working on it earlier, like when it was assigned on Monday, but I didn’t start working on it until Wednesday. But that’s me with all my work. I end up procrastination and I don’t start the assignment until there’s only a couple days left between me and the due date.

Citations:

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/kniest-dysplasia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoliosis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoliosis

Now this is my story…

—————————————————————————

 

Kniest Syndrome.

That’s what I was called. I never had a name. I was simply a section in a very, very long code of DNA in chromosome 12. A part of me was different from all the other genes of my host, Oscar. That’s what he’s called. A small part, a very small part of me was different from the other genes. I’ve asked around with the other genes in chromosome 12, they say they’ve seen this problem before. Other genes have had the same problem as me. But absolutely no one knows how it happens. It’s happened for as long as any gene can remember.

Braus_1921_84

[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Braus_1921_84.png#filelinks] Licence here

If you want the science of it, Kniest Syndrome doesn’t actually make my host shorter. It messes with my host’s growth of bones. His limbs can grow abnormally large or small, his spine can even grow in an interesting direction. People’s spines grow straight up, kinda like a tree trunk. Oscar’s spine grows up, deviates to his right side, and comes back to the center in the end. His spine looks sort of like a reverse C. With this, his rib cage is also offset a bit. I drew something that kinda looks like his spine on the right

I don’t affect just his bones. Well, actually I do, but when my genes mess with his bones, other things go wrong too. He needs glasses, because his sight is poor, and it’s all because of me and my Kniest Syndrome. I also caused his hearing problems, and it’s not because he listens to music with the headphones at max volume, or that he plays drums without ear protection, It’s because of me.

The whole thing doesn’t affect me, all that much. It’s my host Oscar, who suffers because of me. Because of me, he’s short. Not just 5’5” short, more like 4’9” short. He’s in his early 30s, and his wife Jamie got a job opportunity in Seattle. His family had to move from Toronto to Seattle. So he’s been looking for a new one for a couple of months now.

Whenever he meets someone for the first time, he always hears a short joke. He’s so abnormally short, that it’s somehow impossibly tempting to say something like “You look taller in your pictures” or whatever. He hears it every time (Or he doesn’t, I wouldn’t know).

At least, there’s been some good things that have come out of his shortness. Everyone thinks he’s adorable. Even his kids. He has two sons, and they both love LEGO to literal pieces. With his shortness, he seems like one of them, which the kids seem to like. He always plays LEGO with them because he’s secretly a child on the inside. His oldest son is nine, and his other son is going into kindergarten next year.lolol

I feel like I could have destroyed his life. I’m sure I could have. He would be abnormally short, he would probably be the butt of everyone’s jokes, he could fall into some depression and commit suicide because he was bullied at school for being so short. All of that, for simply being shorter. It’s happened before.

But the cool thing is, he wasn’t.

Oscar lives a happy life because he has people to look towards if he ever needs support. When he was a kid, people thought his short height was super cool. His friends were always so protective of him. Every day, he came home to a loving family, his wife and two kids. He would play LEGO with his kids, he would always talk with his friends over Skype as they played League of Legends, and he would always tell his wife, before they went to bed, that he loved her. Every night. He never forgot. Not even once.

I think he was pretty lucky to have such an awesome life.