Posted on February 26, 2017
Art Weekly Drawing Blog Post 1
This is one of my favorite weekly drawings because it is very colorful. Another reason is that it show a basketball (which is my favorite sport) and basketball jerseys of my favorite players: Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Carmelo Anthony and Damian Lillard.
Posted on February 16, 2017
Arms and Armor Chess Blog Post
In our guild Arms and Armor we went to a chess store that had tables in the back used for chess matches. I played two matches I lost the first one and won the other. One thing I did well as a strategist is I play a lot of offense meaning I try to take the other player’s pieces and not protect my king enough. Something I could work on as a strategist is I can over think my moves too much. Also I should protect my king a little more.
Posted on February 7, 2017
Medieval Chess
Chess is similar to Medieval warfare because in chess the most important piece is the king and the most important thing in a Medieval battle is the general because if your general or king dies or is in checkmate you will most likely lose the war. The knights in chess are related to the cavalry unit because they both are used to run over enemies and a knight in chess is the only piece allowed to jump over other pieces. The Archers are like the rooks or bishops because they are both used for long distance fighting. The melee fighters are similar to the the pawns because they’re both used for short distance combat.
Posted on January 24, 2017
Arms and Armor Battle Training
We did a Medieval battle simulation and I got Heroic victory which is the best score you can get but there also one or two things I could improve on. The first is to not do any friendly fire which is when your archers shoot your own swordsmen by accident and the other is to have a specific order for each one of your battle units and not have them scattered everywhere. There are three main types of warriors. Archers who shoot bow and arrows at enemy soldiers and are mostly used for long distance fighting. The next is the melee fighters who used a sword and shield. They were useful for hand to hand combat, not long distance fighting. The final unit is the cavalry which is a knight on horseback who has a lance and is mostly used at the end of a battle when your enemy is fleeing. Through this simulation I learned that in medieval warfare you needed to have a good strategy trying to storm the castle and that there were many different types of war implements.
Posted on January 18, 2017
HONY Creative riting Piece and Revisions
Revision is different from editing because when you revise you are adding big parts like sentences to your writing but when you edit you mostly fix small spelling and grammar mistakes. I think I did a very good job revising because I added a lot to my writing when I revised .
My name is Anita. I’m originally from Syria but I moved to America to find safety and shelter. One day when I was living in Syria a terrorist group called ISIS came to our city called Aleppo. They took everything our family owned. They took our furniture, our silverware, our money, and they even threatened to kill me. That was the worst day of my life not only because ISIS took our belongings but mostly because when they stole our stuff my dad wanted to fight back. He grabbed a metal pan from the of the few remaining cabinets ISIS didn’t scrummage through yet. I hid in my room and got a little leather bag and put all of my possessions in. I took my, wallet, my phone, and squished in anything else I could find. When I came back out I saw my dad trying to hit the ISIS soldiers with the pan. One of the soldiers grabbed me by my shirt and pulled out a gun.
“Surrender,” shouted one of the soldiers. “Surrender yourself and your belongings. If you don’t we’ll kill your daughter!”
Tears trickled down my face and I started to squirm around in the soldiers tight grasp. I could see my dad screaming at the soldiers but I wasn’t paying any attention. All I could think about was the gun towering over me like a skyscraper. Then the arguing got louder and louder to the point wear my ears started to hurt really bad. Then the arguing turned into an old fashioned fist fight. Then things started to escalate and the one of soldier took out gun and opened fire in my home!!! By now I feel like I’m about to faint! I saw my mom run to go and hide in one of the already destroyed closets. The soldiers kept shooting and each time they did it made me feel so helpless. My hands and feet started to feel numb. The soldiers shot again but this time it my dad right smack of the face. He was murdered before my eyes. I froze for a second thinking about what had just happened. A few seconds past and then the soldier finally let go of me. I watched in horror as the soldiers took all our belongings. Then I immediately started crying. Once they left I asked my mom “What are we going to do?”
“I’m sorry sweetie but I have absolutely no idea,” she said, trying to be as calm as she could. I could tell she was devastated. She was twitching her hands and looked like she was about to start bawling. Neither of us said anything for the next few minutes but it felt like a hour.
“Ok,” I said softly. “I think we should move somewhere else that is safer.”
“That’s a good idea but where do you want to move?” she asked.
“We should move to the U.S!” I said cheerfully.
She thought for a minute and then said yes. I had heard so many great things about the U.S. like that you had the freedom of speech. She said let’s move to New York City. Sadly we could not go to the for another 2 years and we had to go on a waiting list just to become a refugee! It was such a long process.
my mom bought plane tickets to the U.S. Since ISIS stole practically all of our money we barely had enough money for the tickets. The last time we left Syria was three years ago when I was going to see my grandparents who live in Russia. On the flight I watched movies on my phone and talked to my mom about how excited I was to move from Syria. We also talked about how tragic it was that my dad died. When we got to NYC my mom called a few people to find a place to move. We decided to settle in midtown. 57 street to be exact. I’ve lived there for the past 15 years. I got to go to college at columbia university and I got a bachelor’s degree in teaching. Now I’ve finished school and I work as a full time humanities teacher at P.S. 132. Moving to NY was a great experience. I went to bed knowing that my dad was looking down at me from heaven and thinking about what he would’ve said if he knew that we moved NY.
Posted on January 13, 2017
News Article
This article is about how George W. Bush’s daughters wrote a letter to the Obama daughters about the highs and lows of living in the White House. They also wrote in their letter about how cool it was to go all around the world with their parents but also get the experience to go to school and make friends. They wished them good look in college and encouraged the Obama sisters to follow their dreams. Throughout the letter, the Bush daughters said various complements to the Obama daughters. This relates to us because we’ve talked a lot about the presidential election and this article is just the cherry on top of the cake.
Posted on January 4, 2017
Science Lab Report
Posted on December 4, 2016
Charlie’s News Article
This Thanksgiving break I went Miami and saw a photography exhibit called Bold Beauty. There are 25 photographers and 25 disabled women. This exhibit is showing that beauty comes from the inside not the outside and it doesn’t matter if it you are pretty or not. These women have all done extremely great things. One of favorites is about a girl is def and learns English, Spanish, and German! My grandma was one of the photographers. This is important to me because you shouldn’t ever be judged by your looks but by your personalities.
Posted on November 14, 2016
Artist Statement For My Self Portraits
I would like to name this piece of art Self Portrait Collage. I created this by first making a grid and drawing myself on it. Then out of the four self portraits, we chose one drawing we wanted to keep as just a drawing and we used different artist tools to make the other three. I chose colored pencil, brush and ink, and foam plate printing. Some things I learned when making this are that you can’t take too long when drawing the self portrait and it’s extremely hard to make them look excactly like you! My favorite part of this project was making the foam plate print (far right). If I could change something about it would be to spend less time on the drawing itself and focus more on the different techniques we were using. While making it I was surprised that it was very hard to have your grid drawing correspond with the picture. Something else about this is that before we made these we did little mini assignments leading up to this project.
Posted on November 8, 2016
Charlie’s Internal Monologue
The king is standing before me. I am thinking about what will happen when I become a knight. Will I die in battle or will I be the king’s hero? It’s the first time I’m holding a real sword that was blessed by a priest. It’s as heavy as an elephant. I feel so clunky in my armour. But I’m honored. I am honored that I followed in my father’s footsteps and became a knight. My father was one of the most famous knights in Italy. During the battle against France my dad was killed by France’s head knight. I will continue our family’s legacy. I want to thank the king, but I am so proud of myself that I lose my voice. The king then says “you have now became knight, arise sir knight.”
That night I was thinking about what would happen on my first or last journey as a knight. I was also thinking about my training to becoming a knight. It was a long and hard process. When I was 7 years old I left my family to be a page for one of the king’s lords. I trained with him until I was 14. He taught me how to ride a horse, how to use a lance when jousting, and he also taught me how fight with sword and shield. Then I confessed my sins, fasted for 24 hours, I got blessed by a priest, and finally I was knighted by the king. I wish it was a shorter process but I know it will be worth it when I’m famous.