Zoe's Digital Portfolio!
In humanities, we are doing a project about medieval women. My group is learning about Anna Comnena. We decided to do a slide show. We are not working very well as a group because everyone is talking over each other and we aren’t really focusing, but I am working on it and I think that everyone really wants to make the project good.. I REALLY enjoy doing projects in small groups and I think that presenting and getting to hear feed back is really good and makes the project better.
In humanities, we have been annotating Beowulf. That means that we underline important things, circle and define vocabulary words and write a chapter summery. Annotating is important because it helps you understand the text. I am proud of my circling and defining skills because I always remember to define, and not just circle. I want to improve of underlining important parts because sometimes I miss important things.
One project we have had in humanities so far is a Beowulf character depiction project. We each got characters and drew them, found quotes about them, and made a list of internal and external traits. I had Hrothgar, the king of the Danes. I am proud of this because the project is neat and readable. It looks really organized. I achieved my goal. My goal was to work hard on it and have it be easy to read and have it stand out. Someone looking at it could tell that I worked hard on it.
My reading goal is to be able to slow down so I can understand the text more. My writing goal is to write more and more thoughtful pieces.
Heroes are people who demonstrate kindness, positivity, and a solution oriented mind. When someone is in need, a hero is kind. When there is fear, a hero is positive and supportive of others. When someone is in trouble, a hero is solution oriented and gets them through. While the ancient hero Ulysses displayed ego and other un-heroic qualities, Kate Borows-Lai, my classmate, always strives for compassion whenever she can.
While in the book “The Adventures of Ulysses” by Bernard Evslin, Ulysses shows some heroic qualities, overall, he lacks what it takes to be a hero. Ulysses is not a hero because he was cruel to his men and other people. He stabbed Polyphemus and taunted him, stayed with Circe for too long and betrayed his wife, and came crawling back to Aeolus, asking for more help. On page 26, Ulysses said to Polyphemus, “Poor fool! Poor blinded, drunken, gluttonous fool- if anyone else asks you, it is not Nobody, but Ulysses who blinded you!” In this quote, it shows that Ulysses not only taunted Polyphemus, but he also wasn’t helpful to a being in trouble. Ulysses shouldn’t be remembered as a hero, but Kate should.
Kate Borows-Lai displays all of the qualities that a hero should have. She is kind to her friends and even strangers, positive when no one else is, and solution oriented to help people in trouble. One time, when I had an audition for a really important part, I couldn’t figure out a way to remember my lines. Kate decided that she was going to help me learn my lines and she gave up her recess to help me. This shows that she is kind and generous and also solution oriented. I think that one day, Kate will be doing good things for the world.
Heather Brandstetter is a hero in many different ways. She comes in and teaches us everyday and even when we are misbehaving, she is kind and helpful. Whenever we are learning about things that aren’t right in the world, she tells us she wants to help too. When we were learning about Malala, Heather said that she wants to be like Malala. She wants to help girls all over the world who can’t go to school. This shows that she is kind enough to take notice of the things that are going on. She inspired me to do good things in my life.
If there were no heroes, then we wouldn’t have anyone to model ourselves after. We would all try to be good on our own, but then we would end up doing bad things in our lives. We should take after our heroes in the good things they do. We should all be inspired by our heroes. They’re not heroes if we are not inspired by them. But, you shouldn’t just think of someone that is your friend’s hero. You should pick someone who is special to you. Someone who inspires you. Heroes are people who demonstrate kindness, positivity, and a solution oriented.
Over the summer, I went to an indoor water park with my best friends, Ruby and Kate. The water park was called Great Wolf Lodge.
When we got there, I slipped into my bathing suit and went down to the park. There was so much to do. Wave pool, lazy river, giant bucket of water that dumps on you every 20 minutes, and huge, twisty, water slides! Wait a second, I HATE water slides, let alone huge, twisty ones. There was no way I was going on any of them.
We laughed and splashed in the wave pool for a while, then headed over to the lazy river. It was a smooth ride, so I was able to tell them my fear of water slides. They were both surprised when I told them. They pestered me about it for the whole ride. (These are the times when they got annoying.) Eventually, Ruby and Kate left me alone, but I could still hear them plotting behind my back.
The next day, Ella came! We chatted for a while, and soon, Ruby told her my fear of water slides. They all agreed that some how, some way, I was getting on one of those slides.
Ella told me to “man up”. Ruby called me just plain chicken. But Kate was more understanding.
“You’ll be fine,” she said. “I was scared the first time too. All you need to do is close your eyes.” That convinced me but I still had my doubts. In my head, I imagined all the possible things that could happen. It was totally possible that I would get stuck in the raft and break all my limbs. I might crack my head open, fall asleep for 7 weeks, and wake up in a hospital. Or maybe my raft would get stuck in the slide. I mean, what if I fell out of my raft and went down the rest of the way without a raft. What if my raft went down backwards? Ruby was just telling a story about how her sister went down backwards. It was possible, that’s all I’m saying.
The ride was a tube slide but it had parts that were outside. We waited in a line that seemed to go on forever, but suddenly the raft was at my feet. As I climbed onto the raft, I felt sick to my stomach. But soon, we were off, making fast turns and bumps. The slide was yellow plastic so it cast a yellow light over the inside. My eyes were squeezed as shut as I could make them but I could still see the yellowish glow. I was holding onto the raft for my life. All of the various fates of the slide raced through my mind. My eyes were closed but soon I peeked out to see what it was really like. I could see all the places that the plastic connected. The raft was jumping around and it made me feel like a Mexican Jumping Bean. The raft hopped and skipped every time there was the slightest bump. As my grandfather would say, the ride was fast and furious. Slipping and turning, I yelled to Kate,”It’s really not as bad as I thought it would be.” We worked our way down the winding path, and pretty soon, we came halting to a stop. The ride was over. I had made it!
My friends were the best friends ever and I was so proud of myself and them. That just proves my theory that people will be able to do anything if their friends tell them they can do it.
On Friday, in social studies, we were given a pile of index cards. They had events from The History Of The World In 2 hours written on them and we were told to put them in chronologic order. My group knew approximately around what time most of the cards were but we couldn’t figure out which came first specifically. We learned that bony fish came before the Permian Extinction because they would have to if they were gong to evolve into land animals and then die out to make room for us. (Some people were unclear on that subject.) Here is a photo of what we did.