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Why?

January 31st, 2007 by alexh

Why can’t you see me?

This tortured being behind the mask

Where lights fades to black

You find me pouring crimson betrayal

Why don’t they understand?

These pitiful pretenders

Underestimating the power

Disbelief leading to my end

Why won’t they listen?

Arrogance blinding

Opinions lashing

Never fully understanding

Why should they stop?

Suffocating me in their lies

Cutting me into pieces

I cry for them all

Why wont somebody tell me I’m fine?

I open my eyes to find emptiness

Repulsed by my blood

They dissolve into the shadows of my mind

Why should I care?

They watch as I lay dying

Saving the last breath for final word

A whisper of a song once forgotten

Why?

Posted in Poetry | | | 2 Comments

Anne Frank Project

January 23rd, 2007 by alexh

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Writing Part of English Final Assessment Project

1. How are symbols, images, and sounds and other conventions used in visual media?
2. What are the ways in which image-makers carefully construct meaning?
3. How are techniques used in visual media to influence or appeal to a particular audience?

1. Symbols are everywhere. Our world, infused with media, advertisements, electronics, and shops, is practically bursting with symbols. In visual media, practically everything could be assigned a symbolic meaning—whether intended or not. For example, in the film ‘Stormbreaker’, inside the facility, there were large signs with a black number on them, and a red and white background. Almost imperceptibly, it reminds us of the Nazis, and the swastika.
2. Image makers carefully construct meaning using the physiology of man. Being very reflexive and intuitive, humans are easily influenced. For example, if you see a small wooden hut, with a smoking chimney, and a warm fire inside, you will immediately start feeling warmer and better inside. This has been proved by scientific experiments. So, all the advertisers have to do is add a person drinking hot chocolate, and there you go: a perfect enticement.
3. Appealing a particular audience, using certain techniques, can have even better results. For example, an advert for Barbie’s is probably going to be with little writing, next to toy shops were children are sure to see it, and probably 90% pink. Many small children would easily fall for this advertisement, whether their parents are disgusted by it or not

1. Knowledge-Describe the symbols, images, and sounds you used to complete your project
2. Comprehension- Discuss how these symbols, images, and sounds carefully construct meaning
3. Application- Explain how these symbols, images, and sounds will influence or appeal to your audience. Illustrate the symbols, images, and sounds (This will be done when you actually do the project)
4. Analysis- compare the symbols, images, and sounds you chose. Which are the most powerful? Why?
5. Synthesis- Create or design a memorial to Anne Frank and the victims of the Holocaust, or Design and create a commercial or short film spreading Anne’s hopeful message of peace. (Doing the project will accomplish this aspect of Bloom’s Taxonomy)
6. Evaluation- summarize and grade the final product and the process to accomplish this task

1. The symbols we used were: the barbed wire fence, the rails, Anne frank’s diary, the star of David, the grass and its progression, a caged hawk on a golden plaque, the colors used to paint all of the above, and the music
2. The barbed wire on either side represents oppression, and captivity. In the center of the memorial, there is a small area that is open. This symbolizes that even under oppression, with but greed, hate and anger all round, good qualities can and do develop, and that even during such times, there is a way out. Anne Frank’s diary hint at the fact that Anne was one of these people, and it also attempts to show that human nature is, contrary to Golding’s gloomy thoughts, good rather than evil. As a person walks from one side of the memorial, the barbed wire gradually opens, and the grass that was at the beginning brown and dead becomes more lively. This represents the progression, and how near the end of the war, for not all but many people, things were getting. The rail tracks under one’s feet are a hidden allusion to those that carried millions of Jews to their deaths. The fact that they are unbroken, even at the end, could be taken for granted but when examined deeply can also be considered as a hint to the stunning fact that even near the end of the war, Allied powers did not make an effort to stop the genocide, though the bombing of train tracks would have done much to achieve it. The caged bird represents the freedom and the spirit of Anne, but it is caged and cannot fly free. The song we chose to accompany our monument is Conquest of Paradise by Vangelis. The beginning of the music with the deep drumming represents the oppression, and how Germany began to conquer other countries, methodically exterminating innocent Jews. The sad murmuring that follows with the instrumental accompanying symbolizes the lamentations for the dead, and as it accelerates and reaches its climax, it symbolizes the pain of those that survived to live without their families, friends or relatives. After that, some more instruments join to form the chorus, representing hope, effort and spirit in spite of the events that occurred. Once again, the drumming and the murmurs return, symbolizing the eternal struggle between the hopeful, the spirit, and the oppressing, the blinded. What follows is an alternation between the two, and it does not end in the victory of either side but rather the fact that this struggle will continue until eternity.
3. The symbols will influence people by making them re-think their own perspectives on human behavior during wars, some might come to find that these new perspectives suit them better while others will find that their own thoughts more correct in their opinion. They will appeal to my audience because we made our symbols interesting and colorfully coordinated. The sounds will influence them because there is no singing, only instruments, and the atmosphere is largely calming and restful. It offers a place where people can go to think through their own problems and find their strength in Anne.
4. The most powerful symbols that I think we used were the barbed wire and the grass and flowers. The barbed wire is a very obvious symbol for oppression, hate, and captivity. And as it opens up in the centre, it powerfully gets across that even under oppression, hate, fear and captivity, great qualities can develop. Also, the way it takes you on a journey, as it widens near the end, and as the first blackish, brown-red grass progresses towards a green, creates this really amazing effect. For though war is not always like that, and people were still being killed even at the end, gradually, camps were being liberated, people were freed, and families were re-united.
5. Our memorial can be seen. Right over there. Yeah, that’s the one.
6. In conclusion, I believe that we have completed this task to the best of our abilities as they are in such a short time frame. Though we essentially mismanaged our time, the final product appears to be excellent, and with every glance it yields another allusion to the war, to those that have died and those that are still alive. We all worked together in an effort to first design and then create a memorial that will strike emotion into every heart, be it that of an eight year old child or a 70 year old soldier. We also went through a very varied process: designing the monument, choosing the music, discussing some of the symbols, and then actually creating a scale model out of clay and wire. Unfortunately, out first monument fell apart just hours (about twenty four, actually) before the date it was due. We were then forced to change our plans, and Daniel Bae having been the only one with the required materials, we left it to him to recreate the monument, and only did some of the painting. In return, I (Aron) did much of the writing, and Alex also contributed to it. However, if required to complete another project, I believe that we should be better organized to avoid such problems, especially with a meager time budget. As our final self-evaluation, we believe that the grade we have earned is: 96%. Though we spent a lot of time, both in and out of school, working on it, and the final project we believe is pretty good, that is the highest grade the we can give ourselves.

ESLRS
During our project, we used many ESLRS effectively, but we still require work on other ones. The most important ESLR in this project we believe is Effective Communicator, because of our group roles, so here are some of them/
# Understand and convey written, oral and visual information using appropriate media
We made our model out of clay, and painted it. The model is of a good size, and is easily understandable. Upon asking some other students as to the clarity, they were able to name nearly all of the main features. We used a mobile phone to play the song ‘Conquest of Paradise’ by Vangelis, and typed up our writing on computer. I believe that we effectively achieved this ESLR.
# Demonstrate the skills of effective collaboration
This is one of the ESLRS that we really need to work on. Though in the end, we managed to do pretty well together, we had numerous arguments that hindered our ability to complete the project. I myself didn’t compromise too much, and was set on doing what I wanted. This is definitely an ESLR that we really need to work on for next time.
# Demonstrate their creative talents to convey ideas
Instead of simply making a 2D presentation on the computer, we actually made our model out of clay for all to see. In real life, it would be far larger, and this is not perfectly on scale, but it represents what we attempted to convey well. We also spent a lot of time after school working on our first model that broke apart. This is another ESLR that I believe we achieved
# Collaborate with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals
Finally, this is an ESLR that depends entirely on the group members. Luckily, our group was pretty concentrated and we all wanted a good grade, so we spent a lot of time at home and after school working on our project and perfecting it. We think that we somewhat achieved this, because we were uncomfortable in letting other group members do work and so need to work on this ESLR, though we somewhat achieved it

Posted in Reflective Journal, Anne Frank | | | 0 Comments

Hello!

January 23rd, 2007 by alexh

Hey there! My name is Alex and I am from Houston, Texas. Which, just in case you didn’t know, is in the US. I am thirteen years old. I live in an international community and I absolutely love it. I love to dance, sing, and animals. My favorite color is blue, then black, then white. I really like to talk, but only when I am in a friendly mood. I often get hyper, so my best friend and I can get a little bit crazy. Most of the time I am ok though. Just don’t get on my bad side. I am not nice to people who aren’t nice to me. My favorite bands are Evanescence, The All-American Rejects and My Chemical Romance. My favorite animal is a wolf. I love to write poetry and I also love to read.

Right now I am really worried about global warming and the using of much of Earth’s resources. This is because I love nature. I find it beautiful. The way a flower unfurls it petals slowly as if it was making sure it was safe first. How you can find any color that you wish to. The trees reaching towards the heavens and the twisting vines climbing steadily upwards despite humans trying to destroy them. I feel that if everyone pitched in and helped that the world would be a much better place. Even the smallest things count. It can start as simple as recycling a piece of paper or a can. As for global warming the solution will also help people to stay healthy. Instead of driving a car you could walk, or take a bicycle. As for longer distances you can carpool or take a bus or a train. All the pollution from cars and trucks is causing our atmosphere to disintegrate, which in turn causes our polar regions to warm. This heat then slowly melts the polar ice caps, which raises water levels all over the world.

Another less global issue is teen health. It has shown in recent studies that health levels have been steadily decreasing as more ideas are invented to do things for us. For example elevators and escalators. It also does not help that many people don’t eat healthy food. Fast foods are packed with unnecessary oils and fats. Eating only junk will increase your weight, which adds stress to your heart. The leading causes of deaths these days are weight and stress related heart diseases. So watch what you eat and make sure you exercise regularly. I play sports, that is the way that I keep in shape.

Coming into another subject I would like to ask you, how do you feel about uniforms? We have to wear them here in my school. I find that sometimes they can be helpful, such as people aren’t judged by how they dress and I don’t have to pick out my clothes every night. In other ways they are also restricting, for example it is harder to show your individuality.

If there is anything in my intro that you have any opinions on, feel free to comment and I would love to hear what you have to say.

Posted in Teen Life | | | 1 Comments

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