4
June
2007
#1 Think about the presentations and reflect on the projects your classmates presented and the information you listened to. Explain with details and specific information what you learned, what you found interesting, surprising, or shocking about the presentations you heard in class.
Everyone in class had to make a presentation in a group about the United Nations, World Issues. I thought that Devyani’s group did a really good job because they had details in their movie and while they were presenting the movie, they explained the pictures and a bit of the text. Also, when I watched this movie, I was shocked and surprised because we saw pictures of people who were bleeding and suffering. I thought that was horrible because there could be a lot of people in the world like that and not all of the people would get help.
#2 What would you change to improve your project/presentation if you were to do the assignment again?
If I were to do the assignment again, I think that I would try to get some more information on my topic. Also, when my group would be presenting, I think that we should explain the different pictures and information to the class so that they understand the presentation better. Last, if I had to do the assignment again, I think that I would try to do something different than an iMovie because a lot of the groups in our class did an iMovie and also it wasn’t easy to make because we couldn’t edit the movie at home because it wasn’t on a blog or anything, so we had to do almost everything at home.
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3
May
2007
Today in class every group had to read a packet about the United Nations. After everyone had read the packet, each group had to choose a question to answer. My group chose this question:
Should the five permanent members of the security council continue to retain their veto power? Why or why not?
The five permanent members of the security council are China, UK, France, US, and USSR.
No, I don’t think that the five permanent members or the security council should continue to retain their veto power because for example, if a lot of people had to vote for something and everyone voted yes but one of the five countries said no, then the answer or the final decision would be no because that one country said no. That’s not fair to everyone since they all voted yes and that one person voted no so the final decision would be no.
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1
May
2007
Citation : Somalis returning to the capital
Link to news article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6607463.stm
Date I looked at the site: May 1, 2007
Date article was published: April 30, 2007
Author: BBC News
What is the issue?
The issue is that hundreds of Somalis have been returning to the capital, Mogadishu, since the fighting that happened was finally over. Many people are distressed and have no shelter and a shortage of food. One mother had only enough food for herself and her four children for two days!
Who is involved?
The hundreds of people that are coming back with their children to the capital are involved.
Who is affected and how?
All of the people are affected because they are coming back to the capital and everything is destroyed. They have no homes, no food, and no medicine. 1,300 people have already died.
What would you do if you were directly involved?
If I were directly involved then I would try to help the people by getting them food, water, medicine, and building materials. I would also try to encourage other people to help the people in Africa.
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26
April
2007
In social studies everyone was assigned to a person of god/goddess from Ancient Egypt. We all had to write a speech and present it to the class. Â Today in class we listenend to everyone’s speech and we learned lots of information about the gods or the person. I listened to all of the presentations and I learned that for example, Hathor was also the ancient sky goddess and that she lives in Duat (the underworld). I also think that Ankita (who was Imhotep) did a good job by catching everyone’s attention with her strong voice at the beginning of her presentation. I learned that Imhotep built the step pyramid and that he was a high priest. I think that everyone did a really good job because everyone had a different person so maybe they had to present their presentaion differently.
If had to do the whole presentation over then I would do a bit more research, rehearse my speech more, and try getting a better costume for my presentaion.
I really liked listening to other people’s presention and I liked presenting my speech to the class!
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24
April
2007
This is my speech that I wrote about my goddess. (Ma’at) :
Ma’at
       Hello, my name is Ma’at. I am the goddess of law, order, and truth. I am the daughter of Ra, the sun god. I am married to Thoth and I have eight children. (One of the children was called Ogdoad). I think that ancient Egypt would be different if I didn’t exist because then all of the creations would be different, nobody would be controlling the movements of the stars and the seasonal flooding of the Nile River. Also, if somebody dies, nobody would be able to weigh the heart.
       I have to do a lot of things to keep Egypt in good order. Everyday, I have to make sure that the sun rises at the appointed time in the appointed place. I have to control the movements of the stars and I have to control the seasonal flooding of the Nile River so that it doesn’t flood too much. I am depicted as a woman wearing an ostrich feather on my head. The feather is a symbol of principles that I represent. The feather also symbolizes equality and balance. Obviously, it isn’t easy to keep everything organized but it helps a lot.
       While I am goddess of law, order, and truth, I have some responsibilities like keeping the Egyptian religion. I am the ethical principle of ancient Egyptian religion and justice. I make sure that there is religion and that people followed it. During the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, Egyptian judges wear amulets of me, Ma’at, around their necks as emblems of justice and truth. All in all, Egyptians believe that without me there would be only chaos, ending the world.
         I am always the one to weigh people’s hearts to see if they are worthy to go to Duat (the underworld). When someone dies, all of the body organs are taken out of the body except the heart. I have to weigh the heart against my feather to see if the dead person is worthy to go to see Osiris in Duat. Also, without me, creation wouldn’t be the same and it would be different. Even some of the other Egyptian gods live by me. If a person dies, and I wasn’t there, then the person wouldn’t be judged because nobody would have the same feather as me.
       Everything in Egypt would be different without me because then there might not be any religion, creations, and someone who controlled a lot of things. My name is also spelled Maat, Mayet, Maa, Maet, Maht, Maut, and Ma’at. My name means truth and straight. To sum everything up, if I didn’t exist, everything would be different. Maybe even ending the world.
      Â
Here is a picture of my goddess:
  http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/egypt/maat.gifhttp://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/egypt/maat.gif
Â
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16
April
2007
Title of Article: Pole trek highlights globe damage
Date published: Sunday, 15 April 2007
Date you looked at the site: Monday, 16 April 2007
Link to Haniff’s blog: http://haniff.learnerblogs.org/
URL: Â http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/6557623.stm
1. What new information has emerged?
An explorer went to the North Pole to show other people what global warming is doing to the world. He saw that the planet’s polar ice caps were melting and he said that the rate ice is melting could mean that this could be one of the last expeditions to reach the North Pole on foot.
 2. What did you find interesting about this topic?
I found this topic interesting because global warming is affecting the whole world and it’s becoming worse every day. If global warming continues to get worse, parts of the Earth will get destroyed or affected.
3. What did you like about the initial blog posting?
What I liked about the intial blog posting was that on Haniff’s blog, he explained what was going to happen to different countries in the world like in Europe there would be floods. He then put a picture as an example of a flood in Spain and you can see how bad everything is going to get.
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22
February
2007
Citation: Indonesian ferry fire kills seven
Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6384859.stmÂ
Date I looked at the site: Thursday, 22 February 2007
Date the site was updated: Thursday, 22 February 2007
Author: BBC
Picture URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6384859.stm
What is the issue?
A fire broke out while a ferry was leaving from Jakarta and more than 200 people were on board. 211 people were already saved but seven people including two children had died.
Who is involved?
The people that are involved are all of the passengers on the ferry, the seven people that died, and the people who were related to the people that died.
Who is affected and how?
The people that are affected are the people who were on the ferry, the people who survived because now they might be in pain and they could be really shocked after being on the ferry. Also the people that were related to the people that died because now a family member or a close friend would be dead.
What would you do if you were directly involved?
If I were directly involved then I would try to cheer the people up who had lost a friend or family member. I would also try to make sure that there would be more fire hoses on the ferries.
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12
February
2007
What would you change about the final product (the wiki you created) if you were to do the assignment again?
If I were to do the assignment again I would have changed the way I researched by not only looking on the internet but by also looking in different books. I would also try to make it one wikispace per kingdom so that we don’t have to put our extra pages on the main page but in the navagation bar.
Look at some of the other wikis from any class and find a few that you think are done exceptionally well. Tell me the name of the empire and the block, and then explain what you like about their wiki.
One kingdom, that I thought was exceptionally well was the Zimbabwe kingdom in block E because most of the information was detailed and you could understand what it was about. The Zimbabwe Kingdom also had some good pictures.
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9
February
2007
What did you learn from this task?
I learned a couple of things. First, I learned more about the Ancient Songhai kingdom. About the empire, where Songhai was located, and how Songhai came to an end. I also learned more about the Wikispaces and I became better in inserting pictures, typing in different fonts, linking words, and I learned how to make new pages. Lastly I looked at some of the other ancient kingdoms where I learned some more about the kingdoms.
Did you find this difficult or easy? Why?
I found researching the most difficult because sometimes I couldn’t find a page or a picture about the kingdom that I was studying. I found writing all of the information on the wikispace easy because I already had all of the information. I liked working on the Wikispace because it was alot of fun!
What would you change about the process you went through to complete the wiki if you were to do the assignment again?
If I were to do the assignment again, I would leave the wikispace as it is now because it will look good when it is finished but I would do more research at home and I would work on the wiki more at home.
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6
February
2007
Author: BBC
Title of Article: Republicans block Iraq war debate
Date published: Tuesday, 6 February 2007
Date you looked at the site: Tuesday, 6 February 2007
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6333707.stm
What new information had emerged?
President George W Bush’s request to send in extra troops has failed because they had to get 60 votes before that they could send in more troops to Iraq but only 47 people said that they could and 47 people were voting against this.
What did you find interesting about this topic?
I thought that this topic was interesting because some people want more troops to go to Iraq and fight but other people don’t want that because so many other people have already been killed. Now president George W. Bush needs 60 votes to send in more troops but he only had 47 votes.
What did you like about the initial blog posting?
One thing that I liked about the intial blog posting was that we could write our current events and response questions on the internet and that we didn’t have to write everything out on a piece of paper. I like typing everything on the computer because it’s faster, easier, and it’s more fun!
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