Overall Course Evaluation

Evaluation:

Hippies to Ho Chi Minh:

This course of History, Film, Food and Fashion has been extremely fun and interesting so far since the Battle Reenactment. After that, the next topic that we picked up on was Hippies to Ho Chi Minh. During this topic we learned about the different protests that took place in the 60s and why people protested. I believe that I learned the most during this topic because I gained more knowledge about important events that happened in my Country that I never knew about. I learned about the shootings in Kent State Ohio where 4 college students were shot by the U.S Army. This is what my Protest music video was on when the time came to produce it. 

Why did you chose the Kent State Shootings for your music video?

I was originally going to produce a music video on Animal Testing as it is a very important type of protest in some parts of the world followed by insane groups (PETA). I was also thinking of producing a protest video on animals of War and what the "purple poppy" is about. However, it was extremely difficult to find any songs related to this type of protest and there also wasn't any research relevant to it. Therefore, I kept researching the top Protest Songs and I came upon a song titled "4 dead in Ohio" and I was really interested about the story behind the song. So, I looked into it and found out that it was an unbelievably important time in history for the United States as it stated why we would kill our own children just after fighting in Vietnam. 

Did you travel to any places?

During the "Hippies to Ho Chi Minh" topic my class and I traveled to a farm in Mui Wo called "Ark Eden" where children like us can go and learn about the lifestyles of people living near the area. We learned about how the houses of natives are slowly being taken down due to the development and construction of new buildings. This act of selfishness, therefore, caused the people living in that area to complain and protest because they want to preserve the nature as much as they can before it's too late. We all got to observe effects leading to infrastructure and the building of modern society, burying the 20th century world. That is why we visited Ark Eden to help preserve the habit around Mui Wo by planting new plants and creating compost for healthy gardening. This truly helped us have a better understanding of why it is worth it to fight for what you want!

Did you Enjoy this topic?

I really did enjoy this part of the course as I learnt so many important points in history that have changed how people see the world as a whole. I also learnt more about my own country and event that were significant in their time. This topic really gave me the chance to research what I am most interested in and I am really proud of what I produced !

Thai Food Cooking Evaluation:

During this next topic our job was to learn about the different cuisines in Hong Kong that might have traveled from long distances to get here a long time ago. We also learnt about the different cultures that immigrated here and made Hong Kong their home 100s of years ago whom also brought their food with them.  We visited the Hong Kong History museum to learn about the history of food here in Hong Kong. We then went to TST in Kowloon to observe the types of food every-day people like to eat and to get ideas for what we were going to cook in our groups. As well as learning about different types of food we also had the chance to try food!

Which Food Cuisine did you chose? 

For our food unit we visited the Hong Kong History Museum which I mentioned previously. When we were there, it had a section and an exhibition about Thais immigrating to Hong Kong. It also had the different types of food that the Thais brought over with them including green, red and yellow curries, fried rice, lettuce wraps, Phat Thai and various types of Spices, fruits and vegetables that are widely used all around Hong Kong.  From that moment onwards my group knew what we were going to cook for our final task. We took some notes for the recipes and decided to cook traditional Green Curry, Lettuce Wraps and tea. On the day when all of the groups presented their cuisines our Green Curry was a big hit as it was everyone's favourite, especially Mr. Rowson!

What was difficult about this topic?

There were many points during this topic that were difficult. A major difficulty that we had was cooking in a matter of 60 mins. We planned to cook the Green Curry and the Lettuce Wraps. However, we only had time to cook the Green Curry and could only get the lettuce with the sauce out on the counter. Next time we will manage our time better and try to work as quick as we can to stay within the time limit. We should also split up more to get more done!

My Protest Song Evaluation

My Protest Song Newscast Evaluation 

Our previous assignment in this History Elements course was to create a protest song in which is related to a topic of protesting. Our job was to write lyrics and perform the song with our acting skills. Wr could wear any type of clothing symbolizing the time of when the event occurred.However, I created a video, involving a newscast that I directed as well as describing a song related to the event that I chose. I chose the song “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I played this song throughout the video, as well as showing a live audio version of them performing in Toronto, Canada. 

The event that I chose was the Kent State, Ohio, University Shootings that took place in 1970. The students were protesting about their feelings of the Vietnam war and were very angry at what president Richard Nixon told them. He had told the American people that the American Army needed to expand. This, therefore, meant that young soldiers from all over America were needed to be drafted. Once the American Army heard about these protests at the school, the Ohio National Guards Men were called in to disperse the students. However, the guards men ended up shooting 4 students as well as leaving 9 other severely injured. I made the video as if it was during the time of when the event of the Kent State Shootings actually took place.

In this unit, I thought I did exceptionally well as I managed my time wisely and ended up finished with the video leaving myself with 3 full class times free. I really enjoyed this topic, but would it particularly challenging as it took me a long time to find an event that interested me. I searched so many different protest songs, from the top protest songs of the century to the top 45 protest songs that changed America. It also took me a long time to find raw footage of the event because there weren’t many people on that day who had their camera ready to take photos if something happened. However, I did have many advantages of picking this topic as there was a Pulitzer Prize winning photo that I used two times in my video because of how engaging and inspiring it is. This special and rare photo shows a girl named “Mary Veechio” as she stood screaming over the dead body of a former student “Jeffery Miller.” 

Before I picked the Kent State, Ohio shootings as my protesting topic, I was thinking on doing my video on Animal Testings or Animals of war. However, I couldn’t find any songs that could help me. I also knew that if I created this video by just making a song of my own I knew that I would fail and wouldn’t be able to create a video the best of my ability. I was going to pick a topic related to animals because that is what I love and I am very interested in it. Therefore, I didn’t want to pick something such as “The March on Washington” because I am not as interested in it compared to animals. However, in the end I found something that was both sad, shocking and interesting. 

Tutor Time Review of Learning Style

Elements Courses:

In this tutor-time lesson, Mr. Sims is going over our elements courses with us to see if we made the right decision and if we are a risk taker or not. I have picked my History Elements Course to review because I feel that it can be boring at time and sometimes I wonder if I should have picked another course. I have learned how to be reflective and risk taking as there are some points in the lesson where I think I enrolled myself in the wrong elements course. However, I don't want to leave because I am going to stick through it and do my best to get the best results that I can.

If I were to go back in a time to repeat one lesson of my Elements Course then I would want to repeat and travel back to the very first lesson. I want to go back to this lesson because we had to participate in an activity called "Just One Minute." And in that game we had to prepare information to speak in front of the class for as long as you can in a matter of 1 minute. I didn't do very well on this game as I was very nervous about the fact of speaking in front of a whole class of students. Therefore, I would like to travel back to this moment to try speaking in front of the class now that I have had more practice in speaking to a large crowd of people. I would also speak to people more about there ideas and to prepare.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott-Rosa Parks

Who Was Rosa Parks?

Rosa Parks is known to all as the woman who stood up for herself and the many blacks around her. She was an African American Civil Rights Activist, who was often called "The First lady of Civil Rights" because of what she did to start the Civil Rights Movement. On December 1st, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks got onto a bus and refused to obey the white bus driver's (James F. Blake) order to give up her seat to a standing white person in the coloured section of the bus after the white section was filled. This situation that happened that day was called bus segregation and Rosa Parks wasn't the only person in history to resist this kind of segregation. However, Parks was the most famous person to have done this because she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest from disobeying the bus driver and violating the Alabama laws.

What Rosa Parks did in 1955 led to many protests an the Montgomery Bus Boycott which was a very important symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks also became a worldwide icon for the resistance of racial Segregation.  Rosa Parks also organized and collaborated with many other Civil Rights Activists including Edgar Nixon and Martin Luther King who was also a very important mark in time for the Civil Rights Movement. 

This is the exact bus that Rosa Parks boarded on December 1st. The number of the bus was 2857. It was an old looking GM Transit Bus. That bus is now in the Henry Ford museum.

The Montgomery Laws

In 1900, Montgomery, Alabama had passed some new laws, that whites could only vote for, to separate the bus seats according to race. Drivers were told to assign seats for the whites and the coloured. This was very unfair and unjust because the whites always got the nicer seats and pretty much everything was nicer for them. On the other hand, the coloured had to sit at the very back and there were only a small amount. Therefore, many african americans had to also stand whenever the bus was crowded or sit on the same seat as someone who got a seat. If the bus was really crowded and there were some whites standing, the African Americans that were sitting had to give up there seats to the whites. 

The first 4 rows of the buses in Montgomery were reserved for the whites only. The seats that were reserved for the blacks were usually at the back of the bus, even though the blacks often compromised more than 75% of the passengers in the bus.  Black people were allowed to sit in the middle rows until the white only seats were filled. African Americans' couldn't sit in any if the aisle seats or in any seats that were in the same row as the whites.

What was the Montgomery Bus Boycott Incident?

The Montgomery Bus Boycott incident was one of the most remarkable events to ever happen in American history. It was also a very important mark in the Civil Rights era from 1955-1968. It was a political and social protest campaign against the racial segregation problems on the public transit systems of Montgomery, Alabama. The Montgomery Bus Boycott incident lasted from December 1st 1955, when Rosa Parks was first arrested to 1956, when Browder V. Gayle, took effect and led the United States Supreme Court to make the Montgomery laws requiring the segregated buses to be unconstitutional.

On Sunday, December 4th, 1955, plans for the Montgomery Bus Boycott protest were raised and announced at black churches in the area. It was also on a front page article in the Montgomery Advertising company to attract people and to get their attention. The very next day Rosa Parks was pressed on charges of disorderly Conduct and violating the Montgomery laws. This trial only lasted 30 minutes because she was found guilty and was fined $10, plus $4 in court costs.

On the same day of Rosa Park's trial, 35,000 leaflets were distributed throughout the whole state of Alabama for everyone to read. This quote briefly describes what the leaflets said:

"We are...asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial ... You can afford to stay out of school for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off the buses Monday."

When the blacks heard of this, from then on, they rode in carpools, while other african americans traveled in black-operated cars that charged the same fare as the bus, which was 10¢. Other blacks, which consisted of 40,000 blacks walked, some walked as far as 20 miles. As more of the blacks walked instead of taking the bus, this therefore threw the bus companies out of business as they weren't getting enough money since the blacks started walking. On Monday night, 50 African American leaders of the community gathered together to discuss the actions of Rosa Parks and her arrest. Edgar Nixon who was the president of the NAACP, said "Oh my God, look what segregation has put  in my hands!"

I got some of my notes here from these links:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks#cite_note-time100-27

My Protest- Women's Rights in India

Women’s Rights-A Problem: In all the countries in the world, not all the women have the same basic rights that many of us own. In some places around the world these rights are supported by law, local customs and behavior, whereas in other places the rights of women are ignored or suppressed. The roles of women in the United States of America during the 20th Century underwent many changes. Over a period of 20 years women went from having no voting or civil rights to being a Presidential Candidate and Secretary of States including Hilary Clinton. However, these rights didn’t come as quickly for other classes of women. Rights came fastest to women in the Middle class and slower in the Lower Class which mostly consisted of various minorities from all over America. These minorities mainly included African American’s, Chinese Americans and the American Indians.

 Throughout my research into this topic of Women’s Rights, I came across a news article about an event that happened in India over the past month. The event that happened was that 4 men were convicted for rape in Delhi. What happened in Delhi shows how little women are respected and how their rights are ignored. A 23 year old woman was brutally assaulted by these 4 men on a bus and then died 2 weeks later. Her death led to huge protests across India with a wave of anger. The women who were apart of these protests were standing up for their rights. Before the poor lady died 2 weeks after the attack she was able to give evidence against her attackers from her hospital bed. "We are happy with the conviction. Now we expect the judge to sentence all of them to death," the victim's father told Indian media after the verdict.

Protests of Hong Kong

There have been many protests in Hong Kong recently. Here are some of the few protests that have caught a lot of attention:

• The Income Gap Protest
• Equality
• Helper's rights act
• Controversial Graffiti Incident in 2010
• National Education Movement (teachers, students and parents)- This kind of protest is mostly about China 
• The British Flag-being Anti- Beijing
• Beijing involvement in Hong Kong Government.
• Resignation (Beijing)
• Dock Workers-P.R Domestic Workers
• Occupy Movement (Professor Benny Tai).

These are just a few of the many protests that have been going on in Hong Kong over the past year or so.

This is a picture of the Dock Workers Protest that happened before the summer holidays this year. 

Women’s Rights-A Problem:

In all the countries in the world, not all the women have the same basic rights that many of us own. In some places around the world these rights are supported by law, local customs and behavior, whereas in other places the rights of women are ignored or suppressed. The roles of women in the United States of America during the 20th Century underwent many changes. Over a period of 20 years women went from having no voting or civil rights to being a Presidential Candidate and Secretary of States including Hilary Clinton. However, these rights didn’t come as quickly for other classes of women. Rights came fastest to women in the Middle class and slower in the Lower Class which mostly consisted of various minorities from all over America. These minorities mainly included African American’s, Chinese Americans and the American Indians.

Throughout my research into this topic of Women’s Rights, I came across a news article about an event that happened in India over the past month. The event that happened was that 4 men were convicted for rape in Delhi. What happened in Delhi shows how little women are respected and how their rights are ignored. A 23 year old woman was brutally assaulted by these 4 men on a bus and then died 2 weeks later. Her death led to huge protests across India with a wave of anger. The women who were apart of these protests were standing up for their rights. Before the poor lady died 2 weeks after the attack she was able to give evidence against her attackers from her hospital bed. 

"We are happy with the conviction. Now we expect the judge to sentence all of them to death,  the victim's father told Indian media after the verdict."

"The rapists injured my friend in the most shocking ways while they beat me with a metal bar and dumped us near a highway."

Here is the link to the article that I was reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24028767

I believe that the women were protesting across India once they heard about the attack because they felt that it isn't fair for the women to always be the ones whom are getting beaten up and that men feel as if they are stronger and bigger than women.

This Course's Evaluation and Review

My History Element’s Course Evaluation

Introduction...

During this previous Element’s Course we achieved many exciting tasks and learned how to successfully reenact a battle between the Romans and the Scottish Barbarians. We learned about different types of weapons, what soldiers wore back then during battles and clever Tactics that led many armies to sweet victory! Not only did we learn about weapons, but we also learnt how to become an independent learner. We all became independent learners from all the group work that we did together and I also got the chance to gain more confidence when speaking in front of a class. Some of us also found the true meaning of teamwork when drawing out our successful plan to invade and destroy the Roman Empire. 

How Was The Experience?

During the few weeks of preparing for the reenactment I experienced something that I never experienced before. I learned how to be a leader that I never thought I would become and learned how to break out of my comfort zone to new ideas in creating useful objects for our battle including the water well and the leaches. Apart from creating those materials I also mastered how to use wood to design rakes, pitch forks and syths. I thought that the D.T lesson that we had was extremely productive and useful as it taught me how to manage my time better and to work faster. 

Throughout the battle I also gained new skills and learned how to lead use my weapons usefully. I also thought that I had a few clever moments to help myself to survive. One of the smartest moments I had was when I blocked flames coming to me with the water from the well that I made. I also thought that it was bright how I prepared leaches if any of our soldiers got diagnosed with ‘Mad cow disease.’  I also learned how to hide and savor our precious items including food and water. 

How Did The Planning Affect Your Outcome?

The planning that we accomplished on paper was well prepared as we were going to use the whole of block 3 and 5 playground for our battle. We also thought of different sections that would be covered by part of our army such as the farmers and the spies. However, on the day of the battle it was pouring rain. Therefore, our plans were changed to fit the area of the sports hall. My whole group was overall very pleased that our teacher allowed us to have some time to prepare for our battle before the actual day. We are very thankful for this because if we didn't have time to prepare of plan we wouldn't know what to do on the day.  Therefore, our planning before hand was very affective! Our research into war tactics and weapons really helped us with our outcome of the battle because the information in which we found gave us ideas of the kind of weapons we could use in our battle. The researching was also very affective because when we went into the D.T room we already knew what to make using the various materials because of the research that we did. 

Did everyone in our group cooperate equally?

The people in our group did cooperate equally because we split all of the jobs that we had so that everyone got a chance to work. A lot of people researched and created objects for the battle with spare material that they had at home including apples (red construction paper), food, swords and war uniforms. Everyone did work because the team managers including Claudia and me made sure that everyone completed their tasks within a week. During the battle we also made sure that everyone was doing something instead of just standing to the side as if they had nothing to do which was what some people actually did.  As well as that we created weapons for everyone so that nobody would be left out with nothing to use to kill people. This also gave them the experience of what it must have felt like to fight in a battle and the kind of strategies that you used. 

During your battle what were some of your strengths?

During our battle we had a number of different strengths. Our team exceeded in the making of the weapons because all of us had a job and this was really helpful because whenever someone finished their task they would find someone to help afterwards. This was therefore very productive and productive and constructive because we had nobody standing around doing nothing. We were also very strong in the making of our plan because we spent a lot of time discussing it with everyone in our group to make sure that everyone would know what to do on the day of the battle. The group managers, including me, told everyone to memorize their places and their actions. This was very strong because we weren't clueless on the day of the battle and we were all very proud of this achievement. Another area in which we were very strong was how to use our weapons accurately. Some of us also thought about our food and water supplies and the types of medicines we found need to cure any diseases picked up from the opposing team. Therefore, I took those thoughts into account and created a well for water supplies and to take out fires from flame throwers, apples, leaches (as medicine) to suck the pathogenic blood out of us. I thought these were really clever ways to succeed our battle. 

During your battle what were some of your Weaknesses?

During our battle and preparation we also had a few weaknesses and areas to improve on.  One of our weaknesses which actually determined the outcome of our performance was where to build our base and how to make a big enough wall to keep the other army out. We also had a lot of trouble keeping in mind that the battle was set in Scotland, so, we therefore had to also think about what we would use to symbolize mountains. Many of us forgot about what the mountains would be, so, the other army came closer to our base than what we planned. This was very substandard because this actually was one of the reasons why we lost the war. Another weakness was the type of material that we used for some of the weapons. During the making of the scythe  we decided to use cardboard paper for the blade-part of the weapon. This was a very bad idea because on the actual day of the battle all of the scythes ended up bending and breaking. This was because the the weapons which the opposers were using to destroy our weapons were stronger. Therefore, next time we would like to use wood to tear the paper uniforms of the opposing team. The new comers of this course next semester should also keep this idea in mind for their battle.

If we were to repeat the battle again, we would think about creating mountains to make it harder for the enemies to get to our base. This would be very affective for our performance because we could spy on the enemies to see when they are coming and then ambush the soldiers. Next time we would also build more rake-like objects as well as stick objects to hit and scare the opposing team. These type of weapons would be a lot more affective than tree bark which was something that we used. If we were to repeat the reenactment a third time then we should attack the enemies in a larger group because this is much more powerful and strategic than going off one by one in separate directions. We would also need to think about our war tactics more creatively. One way to improve our tactics is to hide under our shields for protection with our scythes and rakes sticking out to penetrate the legs of the enemies. For this idea to be able to work we would also need to extend the length of the shields, big enough to cover our head and shields when crouching down.