Model UN

          On Wednesday, May 4, 2011 our 8th period class arrived at school early in the morning. You may ask be wondering why and so we'll tell you. It is because we were going to the State Department to participate in Model UN. Just in case you don't know what UN stands for it's United Nations. we, Evelyn, Grace, and Angela, were delegates for Zimbabwe on the Human Rights of Refugees and Immigrants committee. Only Angela had ever participated in Model UN before.
          We all learned how to write a position paper, motion for a moderated or unmoderated caucus, motion for a point of personal privilege, and more. We enjoyed the experience of working with other students to come up with solutions to solve the world's problems. One thing none of liked  was that it was FREEZING in the room and that made it hard to concentrate. In the future the temperatures of the rooms should be regulated better. One question we all still have is: why didn't they serve a dessert with lunch?

America I Am Exhibit

On Tuesday, April 12,2011, my class and I went to a National Geographic exhibit called "America I Am." It was an exhibit about African Americans in the US in history. I do not really know why the exhibit was named that, however I do have a couple ideas. My main idea is that African Americans have always been humans, they lived in the United States, but they were not Americans, at least not American citizens, and sure weren't treated like citizens either. The Founding Fathers may have written about how all men are created equal and should have certain things like a good shelter, happiness, and what they need, in important documents like the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, but African Americans certainly weren't given those things. They were slaves, in fact, many of the Founding Fathers had slaves, themselves! Cough cough hypocrites cough cough. They were later counted as 3/5 of a man when it came to voting and such, but still, they were not free, not citizens, and not Americans. It wasn't until after the civil war (which started 151 years before the day we were at the exhibit, coincidence? Nah) in which African Americans were freed by the war and the new 13th Amendment, no slavery. However they still weren't citizens and were not treated as fairly as they should have been. After a lot of fighting, African Americans finally got citizenship, from the 14th Amendment. Although at first they were still treated unfairly, that problem is pretty much gone, today. African Americans are now free, US citizens, and American, there are many famous actors, singers, other celebrities, great leaders, inventors and more, not to mention our current president. Finally, African Americans are treated the way they should have been all along, equal to everyone else. They are American. I really liked the exhibit, it was very fascinating and I learned a lot. I loved how there were chains attached to the floors and ceilings, and light effects to make the floors look covered in chains, it really made me think about how African Americans were treated like rats and dirt, locked up and not worth anything. The random noises in the background were kind of creepy, especially the sinister witch laughs. I did like the background noise of one part where the beginning of the Declaration of Independence was said. That was cool. It was very dark in the exhibit which made it even creepier, especially when you got to the Klu Klux Klan part where there was this creepy masked outfit, not to mention the red lighting. But all in all, it was a wonderful exhibit and I hope other people enjoy it as much as I did.

America We Are

Today (April 12, 2011) marked the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.  Now that we've gotten that random fact out of the way we can get to what we were trying to say.  Today we went to an exhibit at National Geographic called "America I Am".  It was about the imprint African Americans in US history and society.  The big question is... why the heck is it called "America I Am?" Now of course the two of us don't know the real answer, but we have an idea.  After the founding of the United States of America black people weren't considered citizens, a slave or African American only counted as 3/5 of a citizen.  Even though our Founding Fathers (who seemed to have their fair share of hypocrisy embedded within them) wrote about equality for all and how all men are created equal in documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution they didn't strive (or really try) for this to be the case.  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both owned slaves!  African Americans were still treated horribly for almost a century when the Civil War started (150 years before today).  African Americans fought alongside white people when fighting for their freedom, but still weren't given citizenship!  After the Civil War slaves were granted freedom in the 13th Amendment.  And finally in the 14th they were given citizenship!  This isn't to say that life was easy though.  Throughout the next century black people were still treated poorly.  The civil rights movement, led by heroes like Martin Luther King Junior and Rosa Parks, helped African Americans get the stature that they hold in society today.  After years if struggle they finally were Americans, but the exhibit isn't entitled Americans We are now is it?  African Americans have given our society leaders, and celebrities, and even a president, so they really are America.  I found the exhibit fascinating and really enjoyed it.

We The People....

In History class we are taking part in a mock congressional hearing.  The class divided into groups.  The group that I was in consisted of me, Mariah F., Montell A. (aka Telmon), Grace M., and Jordan C.  Now where is Taylor you may ask?  Well she had to transfer schools :( so we divided this way instead.  First the group had to create an essay for a certain question.  Ours was What Shaped The Founding Father's Thoughts About Government?  If you want my opinion our essay was superb!  Even if a little long.  Evidently that showed since (drum roll please) WE WON!!!! Now the group gets to move on to the city wide round!  There we will do as we did in the school wide round where we first read our essay and then answered some questions.  Our judge's name was Mr. Justin who gave us 94/100!  We will of course cut down the time, but it is pretty exciting!

We the People!

On Monday we had our mock hearings for our We the People essays. Our team wrote an awesome essay on what had shaped the founding fathers' ideas on government. To prepare for the hearings, our teacher told us to dress to impress. (I personally think our team looked really classy.) We were judged by a nice guy, Mr. Justin. We introduced ourselves, read our essay, and were asked some questions. The teams that would go on to citywide would be decided the next day. Our team waited with baited breath and much anticipation for the winners to be announced. When they made the announcements, we were all so excited! We are the people and we are going to citywide!

Where The H*** Is Matt Now?

         The past few days of class have been fun, but Monday was especially fun because we watched a few videos called Where The BEEP Is Matt? When he (Matt) was in college he traveled the world, each place he went, he did his own dance. Ever since then he has been sponsored by Stride Gum to go around and video tape himself doing that dance. We believe that the places he danced were gorgeous, and deserved to be shared on our blog, he had been to places such as Bolivia, Germany, Yemen, Japan, Argentina, different places in the US, The UK, Taiwan, Egypt, Madagascar, India, France, and would even dance on the frozen Tundra. As "many" places we have mentioned he has been to so many more. We believe that his videos may be comical, and "different", but that something can be learned, such as that there are so many beautiful places out there, that need to be shared and experienced. If you don't believe us click on the link below to see more of Matt.
www.wherethehellismatt.com

More about Alice Paul

       Our class being truly awesome, has gotten yet another visitor!  Okay it's no one like Sandra Day O'Connor, but it was still a really cool experience.  On October 20th, 2010 the four of us as well as the rest of the Alice Paul class was visited by Ms. Crum, an expert on all things suffragist, especially Alice Paul.  She came to our class to tell us about just how cool of a person Alice Paul was and then she took us on a little field trip.  While yes, we had already known some about Alice Paul (thank you Ms. T and google), but she told us so much more! After the presentation in which she gave us about a million facts we took a little trip to the Sewall - Belmont house, which is a suffragist house and Alice Paul's headquarters that is only about five blocks away!
      With this visit we learned so much about Alice Paul!  One thing that we learned about Alice Paul is that she had near a million degrees!  Well maybe that's a bit of a hyperbole, but she definitely had more than the average person, some of the degrees that she received were: a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ba in biology, a law degree, a masters degree while living in London, and many more. She also was great friends with the famous suffragist Lucy Burns, who she met while in London.  We also found it interesting that Alice Paul had begun going to suffragist meetings at a very early age, since her mother had attended them.
      Thank god we were born when we were, because if we had been born in the time period in which women hadn't been able to vote, our lives wouldn't of been so great.  Rich or well off women had to take care of their children and homes, while poor women often had to work in factories under awful conditions. The women in the social work field helped poor people, by providing food and clothing for them.  Alice Paul furthered women's lives in many ways.  She proved that women could speak there minds as openly as men and that they were not weak and quiet.  One way that she proved this was by partaking in the first picketing at the white house!  Obviously one of her largest accomplishments was that she had helped create the nineteenth amendment which was ratified on August 26th, 1920.
       Alice Paul is a great fit for our class name, because she never gave up.  Her legacy encourages us, as well as all people to strive and work for what you believe in, no matter what the cost.  We found that the Sewall - Belmont house was a gorgeous piece of architecture with a fascinating history.  We found that having the steps from the prison in which the night of terror took place was an amazing idea that made the house even more fascinating.  It was also interesting how close it was to all of the Washington, D.C landmarks in which laws are created, we are reasonably sure that they chose this location for a reason.