Category Archives: Social studies

Capstone Reflection Experience

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My Capstone essay was about tsunamis. I did my project on a WeVideo instead of a TEDtalk. Start of my essay was very long I needed to cut it down a lot. It also took a while to get my essay done. I also spent a lot of time on research. My scripted was made out of parts from my essay. This is because the final video had to be shorter than 6 minutes so I needed to cut out a lot. My final product was good everything was timed well and I was speaking at a good level. The final product took me a while because the final product needs to be as perfect as you can make it. So I needed to spend a lot of time on it to make it the best I was able to make the final product. At the end it turned out well. So now I will tell you about my research.

Before I was going to research I thought it would be easy. It was. But not all of it. The things that went well were things like finding my articles I would use. But it was a little bit hard sometimes it would take me a while to find the right ones. Another thing that was challenging was taking the notes. This was challenging because you needed to pick out the ones you want when there are a lot of other sentences that you don’t want. I found something I have never heard about. It is called a meteotsunami. I have only heard about a tsunami never a meteotsunami. So I found it very interesting.

My essay was big. I used sub questions to sort the information. My main inquiry question was. How have tsunamis changed and what danger can they cause? The essay was enjoyable. Tsunamis are interesting because there are different types and forms of tsunamis, dangerous and not that easy to evacuate everyone. A lot of decisions go into tsunami research and safety. I also never knew that tsunamis don’t only cause damage to places, it also can result in people contracting diseases and living with trauma. I also found out that global warming is affecting tsunamis. This made me think, what can we, humans, do to prevent global warming from getting so bad that tsunamis could be unstoppable.

I choose a WeVideo instead of a TEDtalk. This is because I am not good at remembering things like a script. And so I can read of of the scripted while I am doing the recording. When I was doing the script it was a big process. This is because I needed to get all the timing right get my images and get the information from the essay. While being under 6 minutes. The most enjoyable part was getting closer to the WeVideo. The challenge was that I got my timing wrong so I needed to redo my timing. But at the end I got it done.

So I started images and did my audio. So then I did my images. I found it surprising that there really was not a lot about tsunamis. So I had to improvise by creating my own images on google drawings. So when I finished I was happy. There were a couple challenges but in the end I got through those challenges.my video by doing my images first but then I realized that I should do my audio first. So I stopped my

If you want to see my original essay, click this link. My original script is here. And if you want to see all the sites I used to get all the information click this. My Capstone video you can see by clicking here. So, Capstone was a big project. I thought there were fun and hard parts. So Capstone was interesting, fun, and hard for me.

Immigration interview 2

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The immigration project was done on We video. We were given an assignment to interview an immigrant about their experience about coming to America. I interviewed my grandmother, Helene. Once I interviewed her I worked on my narrative. Then you needed to work on your scripted. It took me a while. You need to get the timing right. Then I needed to go in We video and work on my mini movie. After I got the pictures and on the We video I recorded me saying my narrative. After that I added music and I was done.

When I was creating the video, I was behind a lot. So I needed to work a lot. But I left my Chromebook at school so I could not record my interview. So I did it on my dads phone. So now I could only do it at home. That is what made me behind. So I rushed to finish it. Then I did my We video. I was on the edge. Then I could not get my grandmothers pictures I needed to use other pictures to replace them. Then I had my timing all off so I re-did that. So I went to do my narrative and I could not get the perfect one. I kept messing up or stuttering on the words. So it took me a while to get the recording. I ended up settling with a good one with some mistakes. Even though I was on the edge it was a little fun. Was making a video. But there were some challenging parts, like making my video and recording it. At the end I got it done right before it was due.

 

I learned a lot from this project. One of them was to stay on time and not do it when it is very close to the due date. I also learned a lot about my grandmother. Like how she immigrated. Most of the stuff she told me I had never known about. I also learned that it was pretty easy to get to America. Another thing I found out about is that she had one job her hole life. Another thing that I found interesting was that she would never want to go back to Ukraine. She was afraid that she would never be aloud back to America. So I learned so much more about my grandmother as a child.

 

In conclusion, I need to be more aware of the time it is due. It was also a fun experience learning about my grandmothers history. I also thought that she would want to visit Ukraine. But I was wrong she would not want to go back. In the end it was fun and I am looking forward to something just like this one.

Immigration Interview

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Have you ever heard about Carpathian mountain in western Ukraine? Probably not. But do you know what it was like, back then? Well to start of, Helene Benzel was born in Ukraine. You will find out why she moved and how she immigrate.

 When Helene was in Ukraine, you weren’t give the freedom to be Jewish. So many Jews went to other places. Helene’s parents wanted a better more stable envirment to live in. In America there was better everything and most important, the freedom of religion. Helene was 20 when she moved. In her opinion it was easier to be younger to immigrate, like in your 20s than in your 40s or 50s because it was easier to learn the language. It was difficult to leave Ukraine because, they left everything behind all they brought was one suitcase that had clothes and other essentials. It was not hard to leave Ukraine because they did not have family in Ukraine. When she left, Helene did not feel sad about leaving family behind because all her family were in America. They had no problems coming to america, they bought tickets and then went to america without any problems. The hardest thing about coming to america, it was not about getting. The hardest thing was to learn English. She was surprised that in america you are free and you can be anything you want to be. Because in Ukraine you could not practice your own religion. When she came to New York City she thought that it was a very big place because she was from a very small town in Ukraine. Helene also was able to practice her own religion in freedom. That people are more free in America. In a way that you can buy what every you want. When Helene first came to america the statue of liberty and the empire state building. Was a big one that stood out. It did not take Helene long to adapt to america because she learned the language quickly but for her parents it took a long time. Helene’s uncle already lived here and he helped them out. She worked at a nursing home as a nurse.  She was not legally allowed to do the job because she did not have her license yet, but they gave her the job anyway.She worked at a nursing home as a nurse. She was not legally allowed to do the job because she did not have her license yet, but they gave her the job anyway. After that she learned English and had a happy life.

Feature Article Reflection

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My feature article was a big process to make. I had to go through many steps. But the feature article was also really fun. I came up with my feature article topic by thinking about what my main identity is. So then I did the feature article about Jewish culture. My message was for people to see how special and cool Jewish culture is. The creation of my feature article was fun, hard and easy. It was fun to rearrange the text and put it in my own style. But it was also hard to write everything. Like all the text and to add interesting details to the text.

It was pretty easy to find the pictures because I know all about what pictures I should add and should not add. The techniques I used were techniques to make my reader feel like it is in my story. For example, in my intro was a technique called an antidote. An antidote is a type of intro that you include Imagine as the start of the intro.

I am most proud of how everything turned out well, there were no big mistakes. I also feel accomplished about my intro and how my sections and words I used. I feel good about my creativity, it made my feature article so much better. I am surprised by my pictures. I was pretty happy when I found really good pictures. I did not expect to have such good pictures. I am happy with how well my feature article turned out. I think my feature article compares to a personal narrative because I was reflecting on something that I knew the most about. I know the most about Jewish culture, but in the end the feature article was a great success and a really fun.

May The Course Be With You

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Imagine you’re hanging for dear life on a tight thin wire. Your hands have blisters. You try holding on but then you fall. At the Bedfords Ropes Course, I experienced just that.  It was painful but also so fun that sometimes I didn’t even feel it. We got to go on five really fun challenges. Well one of them was not that fun in my opinion.

Out of all the 5 courses the rope swing was my favorite. The rope swing is when a rope is in the middle, and someone, which was me, had to jump and get the rope. Honestly, when I was going to jump I thought to myself I am probably not going to make it but I will try anyway. But I actually got it. I swung back and one after another our group went. We got really close to getting everyone but we ran out of time. You would swing back then you would try to get everyone on the platform, which was around six, seven feet. My second favorite challenge was the “Indiana Jones” challenge. It is when you go on a balance beam and when you get through that you go on a tree. Off that tree you go on a wire and crawl or walk across. I remember when I was on the wires I fell and I was hanging upside down and holding on for dear life. I thought to myself I know I’m not getting out of it. When I was hanging upside down I heard someone say “holy look at him”. After that I fell. Well after I got past that I went to the swings, which is harder than it looks. When you are on the last swing you jump off the swing and land on a balance beam. My third favorite is “Lava Island”. It is when you use a wooden plank to get from platform to platform. You need to use weight so someone can get across. It was a lot of fun and we actually got everyone to the last platform. We got there because everyone would come up with ideas and we would group together. Someone said “We need more weight”. I have to admit we did need more weight. But we ended up getting to the end by trial and error. Over all these challenges were fun and challenging.

I learned a lot about myself, my teammates and also teamwork. From this field trip. I found out I was someone who would make the ideas and my teammates would make it better and easier for us to do. One time I said “how about we make a human chain so we can get the rope”. Well that was an okay idea. So Andrew said “how about you jump to get the rope. I thought that It is probably not going to work but I will try anyway. I was surprised when It worked so we got the rope and we swung one by one we swung to the other side. I would make the ideas because I would come up with a base idea which is good. But my teammates would make it even better.

I learned that my classmates were better than I was expecting and everyone was actually trying in my group. Everyone was trying because our group was really in to accomplishing the goal. Also we were really determined to make it to the end. 

Our group did so well because we figured out the key. We found out that “there is no I in team”. We also came up with ideas and were open to others. We grouped them together to get a really good idea. I learned that you can’t do everything by yourself.

I learned from this experience that sometimes you can do stuff by yourself but only sometimes you mostly get help. When I was there I noticed I could do it all. But we needed the whole team there too. So we had to come up with a strategy to get everyone to the end. Have you ever done something that you needed help 

on, or have you ever helped somebody that needed help?

Home of the Brave Reflection

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In the story, Home of the Brave by Kathrine Applegate. Kek was sent to America and he has been getting used to the Technology and the way stuff work, from learning a new language and meeting new friends. There are some windows for me. If you don’t know what windows are there are traits that are different from yours. A window for me is that Kek’s family died and he flew to America all alone.

Kek has been a huge window for me. He has been a window for me because before kek went to America he was living in a refugee camp. I heard it can be very difficult. One reason is, school can be very difficult in a refugee camp. Kek would be lucky just to get a book. Normally they would just have chalk to draw with; they did not even get their own desk! Another reason is that he would have to wait in lines for hours just to get a piece of bread. He only had one meal a day and it was a piece of bread. This window made me realize that living in a refugee camp is a lot harder than living a normal life in America.

Feeling lonely and missing his family is really hard, I can’t even imagine not having my parents. Kek is feeling lonely because he has no family and very little friends. One example is, Kek is unsure if his mom is alive. She is currently not with him and missing. And Kek only has his extended family. Also there are not as many cattle as where he used to live. Another example is, when he finally reunites with his extended family, he realizes just how much he missed his true family. People would always say “don’t get your hopes up Kek” and nobody said that there was a chance of his mom coming back. This window makes me realize that it is really hard and sad to lose your parents. I can’t even imagine losing my parents.

In conclusion, I have learned that it is a lot harder than I expected for a refugee to go to a new country. I realized that no matter how much Kek has been through he still has a kind heart and makes up for his mistakes. Also do you relate to any of Kek’s experiences?

Identity Map Project

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You might be interested to hear about my favorite activities. I will be sharing three important parts of my identity. You will also learn one thing about three people at my table. I will be sharing about football, Judaism, and basketball. They are really important to my identity.

I have a lot of important features about me but these three are the most valuable. One of them is basketball.

Basketball is important to me because I like to play in games, and practice. It is also fun to play games like knockout, poison and pressure. Another reason is that basketball is fun to watch because you get to see dunks, three’s and also “and one’s”. Also when games go to overtime, it really gets exciting. Another thing that’s important to my identity is playing football. I really like to throw the football with my dad and friends. It is a fun sport to watch. It is fun to watch because it’s exciting to watch your team make the playoffs, or even the Superbowl. I also like to collect football cards. I like to because I feel amazing getting an undoubtedly good card. I am also Jewish. It is undoubtedly important to me. I keep kosher and I go to Hebrew school two times a week. I am actually interested in Jewish history. Honestly I like the holidays too. For example, Hanukkah is great. We open presents and it lasts for eight days. Not only that, we also get to eat gelt. If you don’t know what it is, it’s just chocolate coins.

I also learned a lot about my classmates. Daphne loves to play basketball. She likes to practice and play games. Just like me! She also likes to play at school too. I also really like to play basketball too. Mary travels all the time. She’s been traveling her whole life. She loves traveling so much that she traveled 20 hours once without stopping. To be honest I could not even last four hours on a plane. Dowlat loves eating burgers and I love eating burgers too. He likes a burger with lettuce, tomato, and pickles. Same with me, I just like onions instead of pickles.

In conclusion, I learned about my table mates that I never knew about. Even if I am different from my classmates we still have stuff in common. What is one thing about your identity?